DIOR

Spring Fling with Clayton Ilolahia 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments
Guest Post by Clayton www.whatmenshouldsmelllike.com

Spring Fling

Hi AustralianPerfumeJunkies. Last month I met with your cherished author and we decided to do a blog swap for a post on spring fragrance. For me it is a season of renewal. I love watching the trees that line the city streets, which were stripped of their deciduous clothing by winter, regain their green foliage and celebrate the spring season with bursts of colourful blooms. With nature providing so much visual imagery and scent, it is easy to see why spring is such an exciting season in the perfume industry.

When Portia and I discussed this idea of hijacking each other’s blogs to give a round up of spring suggestions, I had this in mind; I wanted my list to be more than just flowers, I wanted the list to be about seasonal renewal. Each fragrance I have chosen breathes new life into a familiar theme.

Floral

Tom Ford Jonquille de Nuit

Are jonquils the new tuberose? There is always a market for white flowers and for this 2012 release; Tom Ford explores a waxy white floral with green undertones. Jonquille de Nuit is a refreshing addition to any white floral lover’s collection amongst the jasmines, tuberoses and gardenias.

Oriental

Chanel Coco Noir

Every time Coco is looking a little tired, Chanel dusts her off with a flanker. Chanel is describing their new Coco Noir as a luminous oriental. The twist comes at the start with a fresh burst of bitter citrus. As the floral heart moves on, the original Coco peeks out at you wrapped in powdery tonka bean.

Woods

Guerlain Homme L’Eau Boisée

I was a fan of the original and this latest offering by Guerlain is, in my opinion, the most interesting Guerlain Homme flanker yet. They’ve stripped out some of the sugary mojito juice in favour of an aromatic accord laced with wood. It’s an easy fragrance to wear, a great option for the aussie bloke (does he still exist?)

Chypre

Parfums MDCI Chypre Palatin

Many perfume fans are lamenting the death of the Chypre style since IFRA regulated the use of oakmoss in perfume. Modern chypres lack the mossy base provided by their unregulated predecessors. For Chypre Palatin, perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour cleverly reworks the Chypre concept to overcome the obvious. It’s a paradox of classic and new ideas. While Chypre Palatin feels so familiar at the beginning, Duchaufour takes chypre to a whole new place as the fragrance evolves.

Fougere

Christian Dior Eau Noire

While this is not a new fragrance it still continues to push the definition of a fougere. Described as an oriental fougere, Eau Noire was made for Dior by Francis Kurkdjian before he went off to do his own thing. It’s a kind of curried lavender, owing to the rich use of immortelle. I love to wear this in the warmer months.

Thanks for reading and I wish you all the very best for the spring season ahead. Let Portia and I know by commenting, if you have other suggestions for spring. Also, check out Portia’s list over at What Men Should Smell Like (www.whatmenshouldsmelllike.com)

Best,
Clayton

PS Here is a jump to our APJ Interview with Clayton if you would like to read further about this interesting, urbane, clever and sexy man.
All perfume pics from Fragrantica. Clayton supplied his portrait.

Patchouli Imperial by Francois Demachy for DIOR 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Well Hello There Fumies,

Today we are going to delve again into that magnificent La Collection Couturier Parfumeur by Francois Demachy for DIOR. Having ordered a decant set recently we will be looking at the collection over the next few weeks.

La Collection Couturier Parfumeur Patchouli Imperial Dior for menPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Olfactoria’s Travels gives these featured notes/accords:
Sicilian mandarin, Calabrian bergamot, Russian coriander, Indonesian patchouli, cedarwood and sandalwood essence

My skin gives me the quickest burst of citrus and corriander before a dirty patchouli waltzes through, lasting about an hour and then my skin eats the whole damn thing and I’m left scentless. So ANNOYING! I felt as if I was going for an incredible ride and to have it so truncated was very disappointing, to say the very least.

DIOR Gown Photo Stolen pilarrossiblog

This is still an interesting fragrance because when I couldn’t get a handle on it for myself I decided to spray TSO Jin with it last night and the first thing he said was Old Spice!! I laughed in his face and asked him to be serious but he made me go and get the Old Spice and put it on him. I’ll be damned but it’s a darker, less sweet version of Old Spice on him. HA HA HA HA HA!! This morning there was a lovely warm, woody, suede-like extra zing to his personal body scent that I found very sexy, skin scent but SOOO good. I think I will give my decant to him, as a present to me.

BoisDeJasmin and Perfume Shrine do almost black and white reviews they’re so opposite.

SurrenderToChance does decants starting at $3/ml

Sorry I couldn’t be more help in your search for the one today but there are plenty of loving reviews for Patchouli Imperial, I just can’t be among them.

See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Mitzah by Francois Demachy for DIOR 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Hey Scent Hog Crew,

DIOR is special. I’ve never owned anything from the fashion house except fragrance but when I was studying fashion in the 1980’s and then working in the industry they were already stand out leaders in the field. I did buy my long term partner Varun a Christian Dior suit a few years ago and it was, like him, incredibly gorgeous. Christian Dior the man’s story is a good one too if you like biographies. Whenever I go to try a new to me fragrance from DIOR I have to steel myself because when I am disappointed by their work it makes me sad. Not to worry here though, this one is a hit!

Photo stolen allurabeauty

Mitzah is painted in the Press Releases as an elegant, feminine and mysterious oriental fragrance and I guess that is a pretty fair assessment but it is more than that too. Like the woman the fragrance is named for, Mitzah Bricard, one of Christian Dior’s most important muses throughout his amazing career, Mitzah the fragrance has ZING. It is a spectacular leap into gorgeousness.  It seems to me that Mitzah has in fact taken the very best of all the other great Ambers and collected them into one extraordinary fragrance with great sillage and longevity thrown in for extra good measure. I ask you, “What more could you possibly want?” If your answer is a smaller bottle then I do agree, a 50ml would sell like hot cakes, and I would also like it to be available in more stores.


Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives its notes/accords as:
Coriander, rose, spices, cinnamon, labdanum, vanilla, honey, patchouli and incense.

I love how Mitzah opens all hot smoky spices and incense, I feel that there are unmentioned leather and tobacco notes too but maybe they are some of the rose facets, roses have a million faces so it’s hard for me to pinpoint. A cracker of a perfume, swirling around itself, making me feel all glamorous and giving me the va va voom of a Gabor sister in her prime. This is not an intense journey through the perfume with mountainous peaks and troughs, while there are definite start middle and end notes it’s more of a progression. The kick at the start warms slowly and languidly through mildly sweet towards a honeyed amber dry down. On a good day I get 8+ hours before Mitzah is lost. As the PR says elegant, feminine and mysterious, but I think not so feminine; a man could wear it very comfortably because it is spicy amber.

ISmellThereforeIAm does a super review and with a different viewpoint Olfactoria’s Travels

SurrenderToChance has decants from $3/ml if you’d like to test or don’t want the big bottle, I bought a hugely extravagant 3ml set of the 13 La Collection Couturier Sampler meaning there are more DIOR reviews to come.

I have added a video of the Making of the DIOR Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2012 Set. Suffice to say DIOR does nothing by halves.

Whatever it is you’re doing I hope it brings you joy.
Loads of love, till tomorrow,
Portia xx

Shopping Experience, The SA Counts (Dune by DIOR, Cuir Amethyst by Armani)

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey gang,

It’s been a lazy day here in dappled sunny Sydney, Australia. I had a super smart blog friend around to help me do some stuff and to teach me some basics that I am as yet uninstructed in. We got some done but before Julie, and her partner David, came over for our Sunday Bar B Q I had washed the keyboard, um, BROKEN!!! You spray the cloth not the keyboard. I have a new keyboard now.

Photo stolen from ECorner Secure Ebusiness Solutions

As we had to go out to get a new keyboard TSO Jin and I decided to troll the fragrance counter at our local suburban shopping center while out.

This can be a harrowing experience. Often the 16 year old sales person (absolutely gender non specific) will sneer down their prolapsed rhinoplasty at you and mumble a curt something unintelligible about your desired perfume try, as if you’re ruining their day by being interested in the product. Other times they are so desperate for the sale that you think they might get a bit stabby if you turn them down or dare walk to another counter. Even worse are the ambush marketers who come round behind you and spray you liberally and without warning, often with scents that burn holes in your clothes and singe your skin, if walking too near a cigarette smoking person you are liable to need an extinguisher. And just because you work at a cosmetics counter doesn’t mean you need to wear everything in the line, AT ONCE. What was the Golden Girls line? “Just because you put your make up on with a butter knife, doesn’t make you Tammy Faye Baker.” I wish I was a stronger person so I could cut all three of these people types where they stand with a withering two sentence cut, but no, every time they get me and I obsess about what I would, could or should have said. Sad, I know. First world problems? Definitely! Honestly, I don’t even have a hearty “Fuck you” in me sometimes.

Having said all this then it’s lovely to find an SA that is charming, interested and involved in their job. one that knows about personal space and limits, and boundaries. One who has obviously done most of their homework and can help you understand what you are smelling on the card and your skin, why the price point is where it is and maybe some extra items to help keep the scent on you. I will try just about anything the SA says to keep scent on my HUNGRY skin, I swear it eats everything. Like host, like skin, I suppose.

Today was such a day. We were dressed like Sunday arvo (Australian for afternoon) homeless looking for a berth, unshowered, unshaven and under dressed for a jaunt through the hallowed halls of perfumery. Yet, by happy coincidence, we were welcomed into the Armani counter at David Jones, Chatswood, (where I wanted to sample the Cuir Amethyst from the Prive series. Spectacular BTW I liked the card so much that I let her spritz me. On my skin, to DIE for, the leather has stayed front and center for about 2 hours and the amber and vanilla are singing along in the middle to background) as if we’d just jumped out of a helicopter with Tom Cruise at the helm. But as we made our way around found that she was not in fact the Armani girl particularly but a general dogs body and she was all over the place, helping, hinting, smiling, generally making the few customers in the area feel welcome and giving as much information as she had, even going as far as looking up the book for a new release. I was not shopping, but I will go back and order something from her because she earned it. Not this month though. Fragrantica has this to say about notes and accords, BoisDeJasmin has a far less than loving review, and is pretty indicative of the other reviews I read. I am still enjoying the fragrance though. Maybe my untutored nose is a blessing.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Moving on to the DIOR counter, as Jin was being served sample sizes at CHANEL, there was another lady, also smiling and wanting to help: rather than intimidate or push. Had I tried the new DIOR Homme Sport? So fresh, so manly? No, sorry, not interested today but can I please have a spritz of Dune on a card? Certainly but it’s women’s. Yes, I understood but do you think the perfume minds who wears it? Without even blinking she said, “All perfumes are unisex and it’s only tradition that has taught us otherwise.” She had clearly thought about it too, come to a fair conclusion and was happy to be able to set it out for me. I was so happy that I let her spritz me with a double whammy on my other arm.WhooooooEEEEEEYYY! Nearly blew my damn head off. WOW! What a perfume, what a punch. Fragrantica has it all here, the PerfumePosse has an excellent Dune review, I wish I was so eloquent. This is definitely FBW (full bottle worthy) a good 6 hours later and I can still smell gentle wafty reminders that I’m perfumed on that arm.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Oh my, these two perfumes are AWESOME alone but together they are EPIC!! Maybe you all know a fragrance that is a mash of these two that I am ignorant of? Leave me a message if you do.

Thanks for sharing what’s in my fragrant mind today. Hopefully see you tomorrow too,

Portia xx

I am not in any way affiliated with any of the businesses within this article.