COMPETITION

Charity, GIVEAWAY, Cher

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hiya all,

Something that really caught my attention recently was the Smell Good, Do Good Campaign on Arielle’s Scents of Self site. Didn’t hear about it? It’s still going and there are some great bargains to be had. Some discontinued gems, lovely albatrosses that just didn’t get worn and even some delicious pieces that perfumers have donated to raise much needed money for Refuge. I went on and got a couple of bargains myself and am MIGHTY pleased. They wouldn’t even let me pay for postage!!

Here’s what they said at Scents of Self

Welcome to the Smell Good, Do Good perfume sale! Every cent of the selling price of these perfumes will go to Refuge, a British domestic violence charity that provides safe houses for women and children escaping domestic violence.

My Photo

I picked up an Aftelier Perfumes Apricot and Lemon Candle in a Tin, Royal Apothic City of Angels and L’Artisan Perfumer L’Eau d’Ambre. Pretty good stuff eh!

You should mosey on down and have a little look see yourself. Maybe the one perfume you’ve wanted for AGES is there, cheap, no postage!!

Last night a dear friend David (Margeaux), my best friend (Kath) and I got together for a special moment. Margeaux has been a long time fan and friend of the amazing singer, Oscar winning actress, clothes horse and general superstar Cher. He followed her farewell tour around the world and saw her do it about a million times. eventually they mat and his home is a shrine to the mega star. Huge autographed photos. the Barbie doll collection, every moment of video, celluloid or vinyl ever to have had Cher grace it is in his possession. Trolling among the fragrance distributors, bargain sites and uber sought after pieces online stores, as I do each day, I happened upon a rare and gorgeous must have that Margeaux did not yet have. A brand new, unopened, vintage coffret of Cher Uninhibited! with a 100ml bottle of body lotion and a 10ml bottle of fragrance EDT. Quell SURPRISE!! it was launched back in November 1987, and it’s a huge aldehydic floral with a dirty vanilla dry down that takes a while to arrive. Kath videoed the opening ceremony and our reactions to this awesome fragrance. WAIT TILL YOU SEE IT! It’s currently in post production and we should have it up over the weekend. CAMPERAMA!! Gay squared!

I have a confession to make, a couple actually. In my celebuscent collection I have 3 favourites that get trotted out quite regularly, there are more but these are the 3 that I reach for often. They are,

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely; when I first tried this I thought it was an absolute pile of shit, couldn’t understand what people saw in it and frankly wanted to give good old SJP a brick in the face hello. Then one day I saw it for a ridiculously knock down price, like they were practically paying people to take it, respritz…. love, Love, LOVE!! weird right? Now I adore the stuff and would be sad to not have it in my fragrance wardrobe.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Queen Latifah Queen; when I saw the name, the celeb and the bottle I didn’t care what it smelled like, I just wanted to have it. I love Queen Latifah, she is hot and cool, smart and sassy and not afraid to be a solid girl and GORGEOUS! If she put out a fragrance I was going to trust that she’d not sucker punch me. and she came through. I love it. Cheap, cheerful, lasts forever, smells great and nobody else has it around here. PERFECT!

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Jessica Simpson Fancy Nights; please let me stay at the party. I like being a perfumista. You all can say and think what you like but this fragrance rocks. On my skin it’s like the dirty bitch, slutty sister of Shalimar, my all time favourite perfume, all dressed up and ready to break hearts. Jessica Simpson has some seriously good people around her.

GIVEAWAY!! In retrospect of this week and in anticipation of our 1000th visitor we have decided to do a giveaway. This will be a regular Thursday thing hopefully, but being our 13th day of daily blogging and already we are set to reach 1000 visitors we will go a little CRAZY!!! Yeah? A little sample pack of some stuff we’ve talked about.

My Photo

The GIVEAWAY includes:

Aftelier Perfumes; 1.5ml manufacturers sample spray Haute Claire + Apricot and Lemon Candle in a Tin (one of my Smell Good Do Good buys that Mandy Aftel kindly gave to the cause)

Gucci; 2ml decanted sample spray Gucci by Gucci pour homme

Estee Lauder; 2ml decanted sample spray Brasil Dreams

Jessica Simpson; 2ml decanted sample spray Fancy Nights

LUSH Cosmetics; 1.5ml decanted sample spray Orange Blossom

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world.

YOU must leave a message about your all time favourite celebrity fragrance, and why, before midnight Sunday 31st March 2012 Sydney, Australia time. Best <50 word answer will be a WINNER. Could it be any easier? NO. Get to it!

Don’t forget our COMPETITION being drawn on Saturday night/Sunday morning either

Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes; Little Stars: GIVEAWAY

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes have this to say about Little Stars

Imagine a hot, steamy night in the jungle. Insects chirping, unseen creatures moving in the leaves and branches, and the heavenly scent of a flower that must be the orchid queen of the night. A rich blend of citrus, neroli, ylang-ylang, clove bud and jasmine on a base of exotic woods, oud, black agar and atlas cedarwood. An unmistakable spicy floral scent that epitomizes white, night-fragrant orchids and the woody branches that they grow on.

Fragrantica goes on to say

The nose behind the fragrance is Ellen Covey. Little Stars is available as a parfum extrait or EdP, and is a rich blend of citrus, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, clove bud and jasmine on a base of exotic woods, balsams, oud, spikenard, black agar and atlas cedarwood. A spicy, woody floral scent reminiscent of white, night-fragrant orchids and the woody branches that they grow on.

OK. Having set the scene, I read about Ellen Covey and her Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes on and around the scentbloggosphere and was intrigued by her story of scientist, orchid grower, life liver and finally perfumer, while still encompassing all previous facets of her life. I love a multi-tasker and am especially impressed when they are able to reach high levels of competence and recognition in more than one field. Inspiring stuff.

If I’m reading correctly, and that is not always a given, Little Stars was the first offering from this perfume house, based on one of Doc Elly’s own night flowering orchids, and it was only through the twisting, turning, persistence and learning curving that it ever came to light for all of us to wonder at.

If you leave me a message in the comments section, one random lucky commenter will win a sample of Little Stars and Osafume (see below), I will draw the winner Sunday March 25 around Midnight Sydney, Australia time. Winner announced in Sunday nights blog, winner will need to get in touch with postal details by Wednesday March 28 or I’ll use the samples myself.

Photo stolen from Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes site

A squeaky opening high and tense opens for about 3 minutes, then a sparkling, glorious, miasma of delicious spicy floral notes all the way to its balmy, balsamic dry down, I don’t get the “hot steamy night in the jungle” at all. This to me reads like the heady getting ready for a party, the arriving, drinking, dancing, a blowsy young romance on a garden seat or in parkland. There is a sexy, animal note beneath the glory of the flowers, spring or autumn, not summer. Actually, thinking about it, as Little Stars warms up it smells like the fragrances of 2 people involved in a tryst melding as they do, along with some of the lighter and pre erotic smells that we give off before the big finish and final act of coupling in the grass. Yes, mind firmly in the gutter with this one, which is funny because it is a beautiful and pretty scent too. Now it’s like the first sniff and bite of a Granny Smith apple, the tangy, tart super-sweetness that makes you pause before chomping away to the core. Over the last 2 hours or so I’ve had it change colours on me a dozen times and I keep coming back to update.

This is for everyone. Men and women can wear this with gay abandon. I think there is something for everyone here. If you’ve not yet met Ellen Covey’s fragrances, please hit one of the links and at least troll through the offerings to acquaint yourself with something new and delicious.

Little Stars Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes for womenPhoto stolen from Fragrantica

Finding myself at the Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes site for the first time I was so overwhelmed by the breadth of choice that I bought the Standard Sample Pack so I could try everything, I know, absolute fragrance whore here. When they arrived but before I’d got to the perfumes I’d ordered there were 2 extras in the pack, Salamanca and Bay Rum. Well, the Bay Rum is the most ENORMOUS fragrance and I was instantly enamoured. The Significant Other (TSO) Jin could follow my vapour trails around the house to find me, even down to the yard. It’s the ultimate BAM BAM BAM fragrance and I loved it so much it was the first Full Bottle I ordered from the collection (even though technically it was not yet part of the collection; though I see it is now. YAY!!), sometimes I’ll put it on and go and have my afternoon nap bathed in it radiance, delicious.

Beauty on the Outside covered Little Stars in Jan 2011 (read the comments after too, they are just as interesting) Hortus Conclusus August 2010 , an undated Indieperfumes offering gives different insights, Doc Elly (Ellen Covey) the perfumes creator talks about Little Stars July 2010 at her blog The Perfume Project

I gave a sample of another Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfume, Osafume, to my next door neighbour to test with her girlfriends over dinner and they each had to give a different word for it. I thought it would be a fun way to give a short sharp description, so…….

the girls said; Candied, luscious, sweetened, bouquet, fragrance, trail, essence, dainty

Here is what the blurb on the Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes site says.

Photo stolen from Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes site

Osafume

A delicate, summery scent inspired by a dainty miniature Japanese orchid, Dendrobium moniliforme. Anise and magnolia combine with heliotrope, vanilla, and white musk to make this light, airy fragrance.

I am in no way affiliated with Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes, Although one day I’d LOVE to meet Ellen Covey and pick her brain.
Thanks for sharing my fragrant thoughts.
Portia xx

Versace; Dreamer + Profumo; Oud Caravan No. 3

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hey gang!

I am so excited that over 150 people have clocked in to have a look over the weekend till now. Awesome. I hope you all felt suitably welcome. You are.

Today my fellow Bloggette Evie and I went to the Picasso exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with Kath (my bestie and sister by non legal but just as binding familial adoption) & Will (Eve’s handsome, dashing husband and friend). It was great, of course Picasso was a genius and changed the way we look at art, very long though, my brain had gone into meltdown so the last 2 rooms are a blur. I wish they had cut the exhibition in half and I could have paid twice to see early and late work, which would have been good because in the end he was homage-ing and deriving from himself anyway.

I was recently reminded of an old favourite perfume of mine by…

Chandler Burr | Five Favorite Scents | August 2004

The Dreamer | Versace

After all those goddamn, tired out, hairy chested, cliché macho, standardized masculine fragrances you find out there, you have to wonder: Who the hell at Versace was the genius who came up with The Dreamer? First, this is so utterly not your father’s aftershave that it smells like it fell to earth from the strange, powdery stellar globulous pictured on its box. Like Angel, The Dreamer startles you. Smell Eau Sauvage, and you think, “Oh, men’s cologne.” (Ho hum.) You smell this thing, and not only do you not think men’s cologne (because you can’t possibly), you think “My God!…” and then “What the hell is it?!” “It” is, first, absolutely mouthwatering. It is walking through a French pastry shop next to a spice market in southern Thailand. Then there’s ice cream, gun powder, fruit candy, hot cocoa, marshmallows, blood orange peel, and probably some DDT. It is the most mesmeric fragrance I know.

I think it’s interesting that Chandler (one of my heroes) Burr was so delighted with something I love, but also that he mentions Angel next to it. When I first met Dreamer and Angel’s brother A*Men, we were hostessing a party at one of Sydney’s still extant hot spots, Home Nightclub (one of Stephen Craddock’s extravaganzas like Home-sexual or Hey Homo). and two fragrances were being released on the same night. Armed with about 1000 5ml give-aways and testers, dressed up to the elevens we mindlessly sashayed through the heaving crowds, doling out freebees. Well A*Men got caught in my nostrils and throat and stayed lodged there for weeks. Even the merest whiff of A*Men would send me flying in the other direction at high speed. So I bacame part of the Versace Dreamer camp and many of our friends and cronies took sides one way or the other, not viciously but definitely. So back then I had a bottle and drained it, not understanding the finer nuances but loving its scent none the less.

The reason I write of this is because I wore it today to see Picasso and hang with my buddies. It was there, but not invasive, all day till I took my bath at 3.30pm to get ready for work. I am so glad that I have a bottle of Versace Dreamer in my Fragrance wardrobe, for its good memories and associations as well as its awesome and delicious smell.

When I got back home today there were 4 parcels at my door awaiting inspection. They were all very, VERY interesting. One box held a rebuy of one of my favourites; Trouble by Boucheron. Next came a small pack of LUSH fragrances (sample pack and 2 stick frags-we’ll talk about them soon). A vintage bottle of JOY by Patou with a smidge left in the bottle via ebay (yes, I have a whole page to write you about it, don’t worry).

Lastly was an exquisitely packed coffret from Dominique Dubrana of La Via del Profumo who does an amazing array of natural, aromatherapy, order your own and even vegan fragrances. Hit the link and have a look, I think the 6 pack coffret is a super good testing deal and looks right out of a Middle Eastern movie done in Hollywood. Just so you know I will be trialing Hindu Kush, Tartar Leather, Sharif, Tabac, Mecca Balsam (just sniffing at bottles this seems to be most me) and African Night.

What came with them though is so astounding to my senses. Oud Caravan No.3. a VEGAN fragrance.

Here is what Dominique Dubrana of La Via del Profumo has to say on the site

It is an authentic Oud, wild and full fledged, hose animalic notes have been at last tamed. Real Oud is not a perfume for all. It is not an easy scent to wear, you must have a lion’s heart. He is somehow like the mythical Dragon, if your inner force is too weak you will not bear it.
In the Oud Caravan N°3 the Dragon has been briddled and saddled, made ready for you to ride him. Oud is the perfume of the Bedouin princes of the desert. I have tempered with exotic fruitty notes the aspect of excessive power that caracterize the head notes of a good Oud.

My aim was to smooth and temper the initial notes and to control their energy in order to make the scent real Oud accessible to a greater number.

I have not been a dedicated perfumista long enough, nor have I read enough to be able to give you the notes and chemical balances. What I can give you is my smell experience

Oud Caravan No. 3 starts on my skin smelling like the tack room of an extremely well kept, run, maintained and busy horse stud. There is animal, hay, leather and leather polish, horse and horse apples (shit, but that special grassy, herbivore, almost cow pat shit), smoke and maybe just outside the door a small garden of fragrant plants that waft in with the breeze, did I say honey? If Andy Tauer’s Lonestar Memories smells like a saddle that a cowboy has just left after a long summer day riding, this is the tack room of an estate after muster, in the afternoon as the heat starts to fade and everybody is ready for a strong cup of tea before dressing for dinner.

The initial rush fades after about half an hour and I am here with a scent that smells like healthy man working in the sun as a gardener or labourer. Sexy, masculine and ready for action. Even on me, the girliest chubby dress up kink ever! And I’d like to welcome the flowers too now please, I am enjoying this immensely and think you should definitely try Oud caravan No. 3.

So a COMPETITION to win this magical triumvirate.

A 1/4ml sample of La Via del Profumo “Oud Caravan No. 3”

A 1.5ml sample of Tommi Sooni “Tarantella”

A 1.5ml sample of Boucheron “Trouble edt” (now sadly discontinued, panned and greatly reviled. I LOVE IT!)

Please leave a note underneath in 55 words or less telling us your first pricey fragrance splurge. I will leave the competition open till March 30th 2012 and will put everyone’s name in a hat and draw randomly. Judges pick is final. I’ll announce winner 31st March 2012  and the winner will need to get in touch with address details so I can send your lovely prize,

Thanks for reading my fragrant thoughts.

Portia xx

 

Versace “Dreamer” photo stolen from Fragrantica click link to see the notes and some history and reviews

My photo of the La Via del Profumo coffret

La Via del Profumo “Oud Caravan No. 3” photo stolen from La Via del Profumo