Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

July 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey there APJ,

Interesting that we had a normal amount of views but very few comments for this competition. It makes me wonder if you love the frag and own it already?

Let’s find out who our winner is,
Portia xx

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY WINNER

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, Brazilian rosewood
Base: Amber, sandalwood, patchouli, opoponax, benzoin, vanilla

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Emeraude EdC vintage decant (about 2ml)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us what you love about Coty or any vintage fragrance

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Vintage Emeraude EdC: Coty GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-46C #Perfume #Giveaway @COTYUKPR

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 26th July 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner will be chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen nodepositforum

Marion Low (via Twitter)

The winner will have till Thursday 30th July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Emeraude EdC: Vintage by Francois Coty for Coty 1921

July 24, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey Hey APJ,

My mate Natalie from the sadly defunct site Another Perfume Blog was cleaning out her unwanted samples and decants and gave me an enormous bag of things that she thought I may be interested in trying. The bag is so huge that I find it completely overwhelming and rarely open it. I do look at it often with love for Natalie and thanks that she thought me worthy of such an amazing gift. I’m not sure why but today I was inspired to go rummaging through and found something I’ve been keen to try.

Emeraude EdC: Vintage by Francois Coty for Coty 1921

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, Brazilian rosewood
Base: Amber, sandalwood, patchouli, opoponax, benzoin, vanilla

I’m not sure what the vintage is of the decant that was in the bag but it is a lovely chartreuse colour, pale yellow green, it looks like dangerous poison. Nothing like the modern day-glo green fragrance in the picture above which I have tried in the plastic crowned bottle and quite liked.

Citrus and what smells like galbanum to me are already warmed through by the creamy ylang, resins and woods. This older version is softer and less strident than my previous tries of the modern Emeraude. A furrier, fuzzier green that is so much more than a green. This is a really complex warm green that both cuddles and cools. I could see this being sold as a high end niche in the 21st century, there’s something decidedly balmy about the whole scent. As if it’s not a perfume but a pomade, a thick lotion in a pot or a solid.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Calming and beautiful this Emeraude wears close but still has the power to change the air around you and make the world seem a little more technicolour, slightly more splendid and imperial. Emeraude vintage is like a glamour cast before your nose that makes the world seem lovelier by far to the rest of your senses. The dry down becomes resinous and the vanilla/amber wafts discretely for a couple of hours after the fireworks have burned off.

Further reading: Muse In Wooden Shoes and Yesterday’s Perfume
FragranceNet have $6/12ml before Coupon

Photo Stolen YouTube

Emeraude EdC GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Emeraude EdC vintage decant (about 2ml)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us what you love about Coty or any vintage fragrance

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Vintage Emeraude EdC: Coty GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-46C #Perfume #Giveaway @COTYUKPR

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 26th July 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 30th July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Surrender To Chance GIVEAWAY WINNER

July 19, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Thank You APJ,

What a wealth of great feedback. You are the best and I have read and read again your comments.

Our winner of the $50 Surrendeer To Chance GIFT VOUCHER is LENA

Please get in touch Lena with your email address to: portia (underscore) turbo (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au and I’ll send your voucher

THANKS,
Portia xx

INSPIRED! + Surrender To Chance

July 17, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Hey there APJers,

Life is happily hectic and the house has most of my attention. There just does not seem to be enough time in the day, though fortunately I am managing to stay afloat. Hopefully you all are coping, if not take a moment to be still and listen to yourself in this moment. You really do know what’s best for you.

INSPIRED!

Not so very long ago though I was reading one of my all time favourite blogs and the piece was so involving and interesting. How your head can work while trying to be involving and engaging. We at APJ are verystructured because I really like that format and it means you can drop in at any time (day or night, ballgown or suit, bus, work, home, in between courses at dinner, just about any time you have 5 minutes) and get a quick fragrant fix from a wealth of voices across the globe.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Here though is a piece that really made me think about what we do. I will need some more percolation time but it has caught my attention.

Jump across to I Smell Therefore I Am and have a read, I’d LOVE to know what you think about the piece and how YOU feel it relates to APJ. We are all good for constructive criticism and I want this to be a place everyone feels welcome and has something here to capture and hold their attention.

Surrender To Chance GIVEAWAY

One lucky commenter will receive a $50 Surrender To Chance GIFT VOUCHER to be drawn on Sunday night 10pm Australia EST and they will be chosen by random.org

Go for it crew,
Portia xx

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Testa Maura GIVEAWAY WINNER + Moving House Photo Essay

July 10, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hey there APJ!

I’m so sorry this is late but I completely forgot, it’s all move, renovate, move here. kinda freaked out. SO MUCH TO DO!!!

Here are some picks of the packing and the new place (still in a mess last Friday!!) and a couple with the newly laid carpet!

Love you all.
Portia xx

Testa Maura GIVEAWAY WINNER

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

LuckyScent gives these featured accords in one line:
Mastic Resin, Galbanum, Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Cedarwood

LuckyScent has $140/50ml

WHAT DID YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
2 x Testa Maura samples Capo di Feno & Aleria. (Both from LuckyScent and have been dabbed twice)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 5th July 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen amberinblunderland

JAYBEE

Congratulations! The winner will have till Monday 13th July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Carticasi by Xavier Torre for Testa Maura 2008 + GIVEAWAY

July 3, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hey there APJ Fragrant Family,

I have been going through a few of my older LuckyScent Sample Packs. What usually happens for me is that I try them all on my fingers, just near my nails, when they arrive and the ones that stand out to me in the initial testing get worn till they’re empty and the others languish. It’s fun to go back and have a re-sniff and it’s been nice to find that a couple I like very much and want to share with you. One of them is…

Carticasi by Xavier Torre for Testa Maura 2008

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

LuckyScent gives these featured accords in one line:
Mastic Resin, Galbanum, Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Cedarwood

My first thought on applying is “oh, this is a natural fragrance”. No fragrance I know with synthetics has this green, dark, ferocious depth. If green is your friend then this is a lightless cave by a riverbank, the moss, lichen, grass, and tree resin all combines here in a fragrance that should be the colour of a crows wing, iridescent, oil slick black. This is the scent of the young fairy Maleficent and her kingdom before it was turned into a place of unhappiness, and then again at the end of the tale.

The rose is gorgeous. Right now I have a deep red rose that someone gave me from their garden, the scent is so strong and dark but with glimmers of light and it is this intoxicating fragrance that has been used by Xavier Torre for Carticasi. The opening 20 minutes are incredibly dense and I could imagine it turning people off if they had never spent time with a natural fragrance. For me though it is totally fabulous, the uber green.

Carticasi lasts a couple of hours and 2/3 of that time it keeps extremely close to the skin. After two hours there is a very faint haze of scent but it has pretty much gone. Perfect work wear so you can enjoy your fragrance on the way to work, respritz and enjoy it for lunch and not worry about skunking your colleagues.

Further reading: Scent For Thought and IrideScents
LuckyScent has $140/50ml

Photo Stolen YouTube

Testa Maura GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
2 x Testa Maura samples Capo di Feno & Aleria. (Both from LuckyScent and have been dabbed twice)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us what fragrances tickle your fancy to sample from LuckyScent<JUMP?

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Testa Maura GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-43m #Perfume #Giveaway @luckyscent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 5th July 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 9th July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Jackal by Goest Giveaway WINNER

June 29, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey APJ Crew,

Thanks for joining in the Goest fun. One lucky commenter is going to get some yummy sniffing, let’s see who.

Photo Stolen Goest Perfumes

Bitter chocolate, vanilla, patchouli, toasted tobacco and sweet smoke. It is a parfum.

Goest Perfumes has an excellent Sample Set 6 samples $22
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/.5ml
Good Luck,
Portia xx

Jackal by Goest Giveaway WINNER

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Jackal by Goest decant (about 1.5ml in a spritz)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us if you have tried Goest Perfumes yet? Do you have a fave Independent? Who are they and why?

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Jackal by Goest GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-42D #Perfume #Giveaway @GoestPerfumes

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 28th June 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen HighestSelf

LENA

The winner will have till Thursday 2nd July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Jackal by Jacqueline Steele for Goest Perfumes 2012

June 26, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hey Independent Perfumery Lovers,

One of the things that makes Indie Perfumery stand out for me is their fabulous ability to ignore the mainstream, mass-tige and niche restraints by ruling bodies. If they want to put an overdose of some regulated ingredient then they damn well will. That opens up a world of fabulous ingredients that the rest of the fragrant world must skimp on or ignore. As you can tell I LOVE Independent perfumery……

Jackal by Goest Perfumes 2012

Jackal by Jacqueline Steele

Photo Stolen Goest Perfumes

From Surrender To Chance: Goest Perfumes is a Los Angeles-based artisan fragrance house. Perfumer-owner Jacqueline Steele creates fully handmade fragrances with an intuitive unisex aesthetic using only pure, essential, raw quality ingredients made especially for the sensual person wanting to enhance, rather than disguise, his or her persona.
Jackal’s effect is that of your own skin, only sexier. It wears very close to the skin and can easily enhance your other fragrances. It features notes of bitter chocolate, vanilla, patchouli, toasted tobacco and sweet smoke. It is a parfum.

I bought my Jackal sample today from Surrender To Chance and I grabbed a nice big spritz decant (pricey but well worth the spend). Resinous chocolate!! The first spritz is dark chocolate with a earthy, breathy, funky patchouli. Quite a big scent to start with and I’m surprised there’s no mention of birch, there is real darkness and depth and the patchouli is old school. The vanilla tempers the darkness of both patchouli and chocolate and round the fragrance out beautifully.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Here we smell a perfumer using essential oils but completely bypassing the often murky and dank natural creations for something luminous and nuanced but with a burning dark heart. I could imagine the Goth crews going apeshit for Jackal and filling their lightless clubland with its compellingly dark lustre. To be fair I could imagine this appealing across genres to a very wide audience; from hippies to hipsters, Dads and daughters, even office appropriate if you give it half an hour to burn off.

Jackal smells amazing up close and is quiet from a few steps away, interesting how they do that, longevity is really good for a natural too.

Further reading: Forties Wardrobe
Goest Perfumes has an excellent Sample Set 6 samples $22
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/.5ml

Portia xx

Photo Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy

Jackal by Goest Giveaway

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Jackal by Goest decant (about 1.5ml in a spritz)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us if you have tried Goest Perfumes yet? Do you have a fave Independent? Who are they and why?

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Jackal by Goest GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-42D #Perfume #Giveaway @GoestPerfumes

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 28th June 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 2nd July 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Maria Amalia GIVEAWAY WINNERS

June 26, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

YAY! Thanks to Azar we’ve had another spectacular GIVEAWAY. APJ, you are the luckiest crew around.

Portia xx

Maria Amalia GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Photo Stolen Perfume Emporium

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 USA winner who will receive:
1 x 5ml decant of Maria Amalia by Morris, Italy
P&H USA ONLY

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to USA ONLY who follow AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us if you have heard of or have tried the Maria Amalia fragrance or give us your take on marketing perfume in the 21st century.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries CloseD Thursday 25th June 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen nodepositforum

FeralJasmine

The winners will have till Monday 29th 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Maria Amalia by Morris, Italy 2006

June 22, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ!

I love to shop the discounters. It is not unusual for me to find a fragrance that I once coveted available online for less than half the original price. There is, of course, the issue of fakes. I rarely encounter one of those but when I do I consider it collectable, not unlike the antique replicas of precious wentletrap shells (Epitonium scalare) that are now worth far more than the real thing. There will be more on my fake fragrance collection in another post.

Maria Amalia by Morris, Italy 2006

Photo Stolen Perfume Emporium

Today I am considering the mass marketing mistakes that result in so many fragrances being relegated to the online and the brick and mortar discount bins. One recent find, Maria Amalia EdP by Morris Italy, has me wondering just what it takes to make a fragrance attractive in today’s mass marketplace.

The packaging and presentation of Maria Amalia EdP are beautifully done. Meticulously pleated cellophane, sealed with the perfume logo, wraps a silk textured box enclosing a heavy urn-shaped pressed glass bottle. Information about the fragrance is presented in a tiny foldout illustrated with the art of Pre-Raphaelite painter John Waterhouse (somewhat anachronous) and with stunning photos of the Maria Amalia product line.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

The EdP itself is a bracing, totally unisex brew opening with a cool fruity/citrus accord lasting a moment or two before morphing into a combination of ginger, cardamom and angelica that creates an arresting impression of dusty gunpowder, spice, citrus and sweet herbs. This odd but exhilarating beginning expands to include scents of wet earth, lemon and may rose peppered with nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon. Maria Amalia dries into rosewood, myrrh, sandalwood and a residual aura of lemon and green herbs, a perfectly refreshing summertime spritz.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

This fragrance was purportedly created from an original recipe of the favorite perfume of Maria Amalia of Austria (1764 – 1804). She was the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I (the Holy Roman Emperor) and sister to Marie Antoinette. Maria Amalia was known for her flamboyant, cross-dressing life style and (unlike her sister) for her genuine generosity to the poor. Her life story reads like a novel.

That is all well and good but why did Maria Amalia – the perfume – end up in the discount bin?

I suspect that the historic references did not resonate with today’s consumer. Maybe the packaging and presentation were too old fashioned. Was 2006 too early for a real unisex fragrance or was Morris, Italy too closely identified with its German parent company, the hair-coloring experts, Schartzkopf/Henkel? Perhaps the demise of Maria Amalia had nothing whatsoever to do with marketing but was simply a result of the EU or IRFA fragrance regulations. Whatever the case may be I feel lucky to have stumbled upon Maria Amalia the fragrance. I have stocked up.

Further reading: Fragrance Bouquet and BaseNotes
Perfume Emporium has $15.29/50ml

Azar xx

Photo Stolen Kesha&Co

Maria Amalia GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 USA winner who will receive:
1 x 5ml decant of Maria Amalia by Morris, Italy
P&H USA ONLY

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us if you have heard of or have tried the Maria Amalia fragrance or give us your take on marketing perfume in the 21st century.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 25th June 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Monday 29th 2015 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

This review of Maria Amalia EdP first appeared last week on Ellen Covey’s blog. You can win there as well!