.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
YAY! We had rain in Sydney. LOVE it when it rains. Perfect for getting those last winter fragrance wearings in before SPRING next week. Saw a bunch of mates, spent some much needed QT with Jin and watched a lot of Netflix.
.
Portia
.
Hey Hey Perfume Junkies,
OK I’m adding a THUNKED section here too. It’s becoming an APJ obsession and I love the idea of us using our fragrances and hoiking the vial, decant or bottle. Thunk is the sound of an empty hitting the bin so you must empty it for the thunk to count.
Anything worthy of comment, either good or bad, that’s passed under my nose through the week will get a short write up. If I think something is terrible, shamefully lazy, greedy or stupid and you should know about it, it will be said. As always YMMV.
I’d love it if you get involved: agree, respectfully disagree, have any thought-out opinion and want to share, do so in the comments below. The point is starting a conversation.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER! This week has been a series of highs and lows with no warning of change.
Still, through the peaks and troughs I managed to get some sensational fragrances on, hang with mates and have a lot of fun.
Jin, as always, was one of the highlights and I got some couch cuddle time with the dogs.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
So many wonderful fragrances this week. Celebrating Guerlain Mitsouko’s 100 year anniversary. Being friends, eating wonderful food, even got a little bit of exercising in.
Honestly, the heat has me beat gang. I’m trying to stay positive and focussed but it’s been draining my will to live. It’s not that I dislike the heat per se, it robs me of my ability to think.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
WOW! This week was FULL ON! Non stop fragrance, food, friends and fun. So many catch ups, adventures and thunks.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
All the festivities, fragrances, families, food, fun and fabulousness. Excellent week at and around Chez Turbo.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
This week has been about friends, food and fragrance. I seem to have been spritzing and then eating. Perfect combination of my two favourite things really.
.
Portia
.
Hey there APJ Crew,
Mardi Gras season is in full swing this week. I only attended a couple of events but my FaceBook feed is chock full of exciting moments happening across Sydney. There were also a bunch of fragrant adventures and LOADS of perfume was sniffed, spritzed, sampled and savoured. Friends old and new dropped in, Art happened, Roller Derby and a slew of other fun stuff.
.
Portia
.
Hi there Fumies,
As many of you already know I am a mad keen BATH person. I love the whole experience. Before I draw my bath I fully clean it, then as the water fills I make myself a cuppa to have while in there and make sure I have my Bath Glasses there for the phone games I love to play while soaking. I can happily spend an hour submerged and often do. It’s the best de-stress on earth.
Here is my current set of bath products to create the glamorous bubble baths I love so much.
Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers Shower Gel: Haven’t opened it yet but love the scent. A big pump pack for under $20!
Maurer & Wirtz Tabac Original Cologne: This is a cologne I put in the bath regularly if I have a late night bath. The smell is so lovely and leaves me softly scented for sleeping. It was my father’s scent and one of the things I loved about him most.
Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet Bath Oil: Soft, lightly scented skin that feels smooth as silk on your wish list? Penhaligon’s do it right. Very low on bubble but when you feel and smell this good, who cares. This is a very old bottle that I keep refilling.
Robert Piguet Bandit Shower Cream: Found this recently on some USA site for a very reasonable price so bought a few. Lovely leather bubbles with a spicy wood whiff. YUM
Olympic Orchids Amber & Labdanum Bath Oil: The most lavish bath oil on the planet. Perfect as a base to any fragrance with amber or resins and the scent is almost enough on its own to get you through the day.
Roger & Gallet Cedrat: Zingy fresh citrus that bubbles like crazy, you hardly need any to fill your tub and the fragrance lasts under an hour on your skin afterwards.
Guerlain Shalimar: The one and only. I am pretty sure you guys don’t need to be told how luxurious a Shalimar Bubble Bath is?
L’Artisan La Chasse aux Papillons: The prettiest white flowers lightly sweetened that really does smell like flittering butterflies in spring.
So what do you use to bathe? Do you have a special shower gel, soap, bubble bath? Shares please in the comments.
Portia xx
Hello Happy Huffers,
Sometimes the cheapest fragrances smell amazing, who knows why. I wore Sunflowers for a time when trying to convince myself all I needed in my life was one fragrance that smelled fresh and light and to prove that I didn’t need to spend a fortune. Do you ever go through self denial periods where you want to streamline your existence? Well, Sunflowers was part of my streamlining life till a friend took me aside and had a word. Not just about my tacky choice of fragrance but also about its cheap bottle and what was I thinking wearing such awful dross when there was so much better available. My pathetic, “I like it” fell on deaf ears and in the end I binned my bottle. Peer pressure!
Imagine my surprise then when I am working with a girlfriend of mine not so long ago and when asked what her fabulous fragrance that is all sexy white flowers and spice, that smells like a very expensive niche offering on her turns out to be
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, rosewood, orange blossom, mandarin, bergamot, melon, peach
Heart: Cyclamen, rose, jasmine, osmanthus, iris root
Base: Musk, cedar, amber, moss, sandalwood
I love the fruity fresh opening that already has the waxy cyclamen floating through it. It’s bright and easy and relaxed in a comfortable and desirable way. Even though I know she wouldn’t wear it I think of my buddy and original APJ partner EvieC when I smell it. She is so devastatingly beautiful even after university, modelling, traveling the world, working for big TV conglomerates, marriage, children, happiness, loss, the works, and still gives the impression of beautiful and unruffled calm. That effortless beauty and poise that many ex models have.
Photo Stolen brisbanephotos
On my skin the flowers meld seamlessly through Sunflowers heart, not the spicy white flower extravaganza that my GF pumped, still it is lovely and wearable. I’m not sure what it is but there is a fatness, like butter, that underlies the whole fragrance giving it heft. The iris root keeps everything cool and the bouquet is quite green, only warming slightly towards dry down with the amber and woods, though on me these are not heavy hitters just a pretty wafting softness that stays around until the 8+ hour mark, barely there but noticeable if I really sniff myself.
Photo Stolen scent-sation
Way too perfumed for officewear but in most other endeavours Sunflowers by Elizabeth Arden should be a perfect fit. Not sexy or alluring in an obvious way but the scent is pretty and inviting, more of a Mary-Ann than a Ginger from Gilligan’s Island.
ISimplyLOveMakeUp and LouLouDiaries are the only 2 non sales motivated reviews I could find on Google for further reading.
CheapSmells has 100ml/$19
MyPerfumeSamples starts at $2/ml or I bought 5ml for $6
Just a reminder that it doesn’t have to cost $400 to be a wonderful, fun and memorable fragrance. Sometimes it really does pay to stop and smell the Sunflowers.
Till tomorrow we at APJ wish you only the good stuff you wish yourselves.
Portia xxx
Australian Perfume Junkies 