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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
This week felt quiet until I look at everything that went on. Heaps of fragrances, some friends, shopping, eating, swimming and Trivia. A little bit of Jin time and some quiet down times.
Estee Lauder
Scent Diary: 8.10 – 14.10.2018
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Life is change and mine is in flux. Yes, I have headed back to the gym for the first time in eons. Diabetes eating has arrived. 50 years of treating my body abominably (and loving every minute, mouthful and lazy couch hour) has come home to roost. I’ve got a year to turn it around or it will be a medical regime forever.
In other news perfume, pals, pets, fun and laughter ruled the roost. Wonderful week. So much self created variety in every day.
I would also like to say how much I enjoy all the chatter, banter, lives, stories, fun and fragrance we have on the APJ SOTD thread each week. I can’t answer every comment but I read almost all of them. It gets confusing when the chains of each comment get too long and I give up. Your stories make me smile and think and sometimes shake my head. Just like family. I love it. Thanks.
Scent Diary: 19.2 – 25.2.2018
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Portia
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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.
Scent Diary: 15.1 – 21.1.2018
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Portia
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Hey there APJ,
This week was supposed to be about organising and catching up on life, business and the blog but somewhere along the line it all got turned to fragrance & fun. I do try to focus but some weeks my head is on another planet. Oh well, I smelled freaking fabulous!
Scent Diary: 15.1 – 21.1.2018
Beyond Paradise Blue by Calice Becker for Estée Lauder 2006
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Portia
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APJ,
Do you remember 2006? Yeah, me either. Only snippets really. One thing I do remember though is the beginning of one of my trips to India that year. You may know that my last seriously long term partner is an Indian man, We met and lived here in Sydney for a couple of years and then he went back to India to run his families Continue reading
Saturday Question: Hands Up If You Got Fragrance In 2018
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Portia
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Hello Fellow Fumies,
Every Saturday we have a Question, an idea purloined from Olfactoria’s Travels. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it is a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.
The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.
Cafe Rose by Tom Ford 2012
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Portia
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Hi there Fine Fragrant Friends,
Tom Ford , even the name produces this weird reaction in me. I love that this out, gay, handsome man has taken the world by storm in a field that he never was trained for. On the other hand he seems like a complete head up arse twat totally obsessed with form. His fragrances for Estee Lauder create the same ambivalence within me. Many are lovely, others only for about 15 minutes till they collapse into quagmire or worse banality. It’s a long way Continue reading
Scent Diary: 1.1 – 7.1.2018
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Portia
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Happy New Year APJ,
What a week! It’s been super hot and sweaty here in Oz. Some of our peeps are in Sydney on holidays or have been off work for part of the week. So many fantastic catch ups.
Scent Diary: 1.1 – 7.1.2018
Monday 1:
This is what midnight looked like where we were. My BFF Kath took this photo just after we’d done the countdown. Cool shot huh?
Wishing you all a wonderful 2018. Fill it with loads of good stuff so the shit seems less deep. Continue reading
Summer Scentsations: Heat Busters
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TinaG
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Hi gang!
Last year I struggled to find fragrances which I could wear on a daily basis, which cut through the ridiculous heat of summer. I gravitated towards modern watery aquatics and fruits. My mainstays were Hermès – Un Jardin Apres La Mousson, and L’Artisan Parfumeur – Mandarine, and the occasional blast of Serge Lutens – Borneo 1834 for sultry evenings.
I was discussing summer fragrances with friends recently – Here’s a list of a few that we talked about for our wish lists:
Summer Scentsations: Heat Busters
Heeley – Sel Marin
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, green notes
Heart: Salt, sea water, sea grass, moss
Base: Musk, cedar, leather.
I’ve been craving more of this fragrance – I had a quick sniff last year when I was in the UK. There was something intimately sexy about it – underlying clean funkiness, like a salty sun-kissed person’s chest at the end of a very active day. A far cry from your regular ‘marine’ fragrance.
Estée Lauder – Bronze Goddess
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, ginger, mandarin
Heart: Indian samba jasmine, coconut, jasmine
Base: vanilla, cashmere wood, musk, amber.
I know that this is a general favourite for summer, but both my friend and I weren’t all that familiar with it. We will get together and split a bottle when the next round hits the shelves. I think this would definitely cover off the tropical beach coconut vibe for a summer’s day.
CB I Hate Perfume – At The Beach 1966
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Coppertone, North Atlantic, wet sand, seashell, driftwood, boardwalk.
This transports me back to the days of kicking around the beach as a kid. I remember using Coppertone, usually SPF 2 of 4….. I don’t know how we didn’t get absolutely toasted. This perfume smells like a day at the beach. Totally. It’s brilliant.
BeauFort London – Fathom V
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper berries, tangerine, black currant, green notes, soil tincture
Heart: Thyme, lily, jasmine, ylang ylang, ginger, cumin, black pepper, mimosa
Base: Patchouli, vetiver, oak moss, salt, incense, atlas cedar, amber
My friend Kerri recently purchased the BeauFort London – Come Hell or High Water discovery set, which in itself is magnificent. It is a leather roll with generous 7.5ml travel sprays of each of their fragrances. I had been lusting after this for a while so I was both dead jealous and super excited to have a look at them. The green hit in the opening of Fathom V is a mix of bright freshly cut flowers and deeper greens, which we likened to walking into a cool florist shop. I need to spend more time with all of this range, they are both amazing fragrances and an intriguing aesthetic.
Le Labo – Lys 41
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Jasmine, tuberose, lily, woody notes, vanilla, musk
Lys 41 is a beautiful cool white floral. The lily is subtly sweet and there’s nothing I find overpowering. There’s a time in the morning just before the sun rises where a blue-grey haze lights up the frosted panelling of my bedroom door. I’ve been finding myself spritzing Lys 41 at this time as part of a gentle fragrant wake up, and then re-spritzing throughout the day while the sun moves through its daily arc casting different shadows and colours through the house. I really enjoy it and I will definitely be bringing this routine over into the summer months.
You can get samples of most of the at Surrender To Chance
So how about you, APJ? What have your worn this summer, or are planning to?
Till next time,
Tina G
Scent Diary 7.8 – 13.8.2017
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Portia
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Hey Gang,
This week has been a hodge podge of loads of stuff and very little of anything in particular. It started out calm and cool but has become more frantic each day. I am completely blitzed now.
Portia xx
Scent Diary 7.8 – 13.8.2017
Monday 7:
Monday went by in a daze of organisation.
Jin and I managed to run away to our favourite cafe for lunch but the rest of the day seemed computer bound with breaks for coffee & food. I went and collected the mail from my Post Office Box and my favourite postal GF had popped Home Made Cookies in the box! Seriously, how freaking lucky am I? Thanks Nikki, delicious. They’re Nikki Bickies!
I did order PIZZA dinner because Jin was working night shift and I am too lazy to cook when in Trivia Q&A mode.
It got to 11.57pm and my mind was fried so I decided to go to bed and get up early tomorrow and finish my Q&A. Sometimes I need fresh eyes on the problem. So, quick spritz of Estee Lauder La Rouge Gloss, their answer to Diet Soda scents and off to the land of ZZZzzZZZZZzZZ.
Tuesday 8:
Awoke early, got my Q&A finished and sent out to the girls. They’re seriously tricky this week so I’ve told the girls to give clues. Mine are printed and awaiting organisation.
WOO HOO I received a package this morning. It was a BIG surprise. It was a thoughtful gift from Kate Apted! How freaking generous! Wonderful. LUSH Rose Jam shower gel
CHANEL Boy for work. I bloody love this baby.
Wednesday 9:
Weather is sublime here in Sydney. walked the dogs for over an hour this morning in the warm sunshine. They were pooped by the time we got home.
Wearing Guerlain Tonka Imperiale. It’s sweet nutty warmth was a perfect ramble accompaniment.
Tonight I finished my B&BW Warm Vanilla Sugar in the bath and spritzed Histoires de Parfums Amber 114. Amber 114 is very nice as it goes on, a cool amber buoyed by herbs and woods. It’s the heart and dry down that I really love though, warm amber, nutty, creamy woods and resins. It’s so glamorous. Simple and elegant. Why don’t I wear it more?
Thursday 10:
Went to bed and started feeling achey, woozy and chill. Took two Neurofen and put on a heater, added a jumper and extra socks. Drank a bunch of tea and water and sweated it out.
Awoke this morning feeling slightly fuzzy but infinitely better.
TinaG came over.
We went and started sorting my VISA for India and bought some tropical fish for my aquarium.
Sniff, TinaG and I sniffed perfumes. LOADS of them. Can I remember which ones? NOPE!
Work: Tonight was fun at KPT. We had a great crew of regulars & newbies. They put us into a new room which I think will work perfectly for us. Sound is excellent and the ambience too. Lighting needs a little tweaking but we can work with it. Here’s a few of the gang.
Friday 11:
Jin finished work at 6am. He headed home and grabbed 3 hours sleep then we were off and running for our day.
First stop: We collected the signed poster from Jimmy Barnes for the auction winner at the recent fundraiser I hosted. It is going to make vaughn an extremely happy fan and hopefully he’ll treasure it for a lifetime.
Next we hit the Redfern apartment. The kitchen kick board is falling apart so Jin glued and fixed it into place. We also checked the water connections to the clothes washing machine, the taps and pipes, all clear. While we were in there as Jin was doing his thing I cleaned the grease traps in the exhaust fan above the stove. They are super clean ands lovely now.
Lunch time and we went to a Korean style Chinese restaurant. Every country makes their Chinese food differently so though it’s called Chinese the Korean version is a horse of a different colour.
In the fragrance department it was a red letter day for postal arrivals. OMG! I received today what most regular people would get in a year.
Criminal Elements Sample Set
Not available to buy until September 1 2017 I received the advance press set. UNBELIEVABLE! The boys have created a fully functioning mini brief case to hold their samples. It’s so freaking good and I’m on a design high. BRaVO! Amazing packaging. This will sell like hoy cakes on cool red alone. WAIT till you smell the frags. Ah May Zing.
PANIC SHOPPING ARRIVED:
Elvire at the Palais Royale Serge Lutens store sent some stuff to Val who forwarded a Le Vaporisateur of Fourreau Noir and the new 100ml of La Fille de Berlin. SO EXCITED!
Paris and everywhere else is out of the Le Vaporisateur of de Profundis. I found it at The Perfume Shoppe Canada. They could not have been more helpful, were excellent communicators and got everything sent tout de suite.
We have been home and relaxing this afternoon but tonight we will be cleaning and readying the place for our visitors. Jin’s Niece & nephew arriving in the morning. I’m so nervous. HA! Hopefully they have a wonderful time.
Saturday 12:
Woke up early, spritzed Guerlain Cuir Beluga and went to the airport to collect the kids. They came home, rested, ate breakfast and generally hung out.
Spritzed Etat Libre d’Orange Afternoon of a Faun. Went to Sydney’s best meet-the-native-fauna type zoo, Featherdales. I haven’t been in decades and it has come a long way. We were able to meet and feed wallabies and small kangaroos, pet the quokkas. We also got to see dingoes, Tasmanian Devils and fruit bats being fed and an excellent assortment of birdlife big & small. It’s all set out in a really comfortable area. We met up with the Lee family (Kath’s sister Jane, husband Mark, kids Rachel & Erin) and it was super fun. Excellent day out. I learned so much from the keepers and the shows about our native fauna.
Spritzed Lancome Magie Noire. Then we met Kath & Alice for DUCK DINNER, yep Peking Duck. It was a smashing success.
Now we are all totally worn out. Everyone else is sound asleep and I’m pretty much on my way. A sneaky spritz of Patou 1000 EdT before bed. NIGHT!
Sunday 13:
After reading some of the Saturday Question responses I was inspired to wear vintage CHANEL No 19 EdT today. GREAT CHOICE!
Went and had a wonderful day on the river to Sydney then wandered the markets and stalls. Then had lunch. It was lovely seeing one of my dearest friends Eve and her daughter, Jin and the kids were pleasant AND we were lucky enough to be with Jin’s BFF Matt who we hardly see enough. At the markets we bumped into Eve and my childhood friend Sean Carver at his stall and the kids bought some fab bags and T-Shirts for themselves and friends.
It should have been wonderful but actually I was tense the whole time, felt claustrophobic in the crush of people and snapped at everyone. While I do know I’m not a bad person this was definitely one of my less attractive moments.
Home and bathed. Wore Keiko Mecheri Un Jour d’Ete and it was a beautiful tropical accompaniment to work tonight. I still smell of it.
How was your week? Come on, share something fun or fragrant. Maybe you had a public melt down or did something silly. Purge yourself here and we will all commiserate.
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 