Estee Lauder

What To Wear Friday Night? Estee Lauder? Hermes?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 33 Comments

Hello Perfumed People,

FRIDAY, FRIDAY!!! FRIIIIIDAYYY! That day when the 9-5 crew finish the working week and get ready to let it all hang out. What’s a good Friday drinks fragrance? Do you have something that says; the week is over, hair down, brain in neutral, collar undone? I don’t really have a Friday night fragrance because my week is structured so differently to that but TSO Jin and I try to keep Friday for Date Night. I know, how daggy is that? But if we don’t schedule it then chances are we won’t see each other, and that would be crap because he is a great guy and makes me laugh till there are tears running down my face and I can’t breathe deeply anymore because my tummy hurts. Not perfect, mind you, he is a fecking nightmare in some respects but the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Photo Stolen allposters

So I am going to quickly write about 2 frags that I think are terrific Friday Nighters. 2 never fail gorgeous fragrant hooks to reel them in…

Brasil Dreams by Estee Lauder: I know, you are all laughing at me, but I don’t care. I love this little fireball of a fragrance. Every time I even think of spritzing myself with Brasil Dreams I get a big goofy smile on my face and a little flutter in my tummy like love. Then that first whiff is HEAVEN!! Instantly I’m on holidays, or working somewhere exotic. Citrus, Fruit, White flowers, Patchouli, Wood and Coconut, it’s a lavish, delicious, un-sweet cocktail of wonder. Did I say SEXY? This juice is super-uber-sexy. The boys really like it and want a closer sniff, much closer. This is the kind of scent that has all the girls in the rooms eyes turning to slits and any boy you’re nears eyes popping! Around $20/50ml at eGlobalBeauty it’s cheap as chips so you can spritz with abandon.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Terre d’Hermes by Hermes: This is an amazing fragrance. I have not yet met anyone who doesn’t LOVE it. On every person it smells different enough that you won’t recognise someone else wearing it next to you. It is a regular in the French Top 10 Mens and was designed by Jean-Claude Ellena to be reminiscent of the earth, forest, dirt. What you get with Terre d’Hermes is Citrus, Spice, Flowers, Earthy vetiver and Woods done better than anywhere else. Excellent on women and men it is a beautiful and sensual ride that will turn heads as you waft past, fragrant and intriguing. I have a friend who, outrageously, sprays the sheets with this after making the bed each week. Now that is extravagant!! Excellent for a Friday night and great for picking up sex partners. I found 100ml EdT under $60 at TradeServices

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

What I’d like you to do is tell us all your favourite Friday Night Fragrances in the comments below, doesn’t have to be cool or niche or expensive or anything really, just what you like to spritz on a Friday evening. Come on, join in….

Also, please pop on over to PerfumePosse because I guest there on a Friday and I think there’s a MAD LIVE Video Sniff going on over there. He he he

Below I’ve given you the gift of music. Aussie Kylie Minogue has a new single coming and it’s beautiful, so is the video. Have a squiz at our lovely Kylie, I think you’ll like it.
Till tomorrow we at APJ wish you only the magical good stuff and a great weekend.
Loads of love,
Portia xxx
.
Kylie Minogue – FLOWER

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION X 2

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey everyone,

We’ve had a great week at AustralianPerfumeJunkies so our giveaway will reflect that with some super fun stuff for you to sniff in not one but TWO COMPETITION GIVEAWAYS!!! How to enter?

Please give us a short perfume memory in the comments about you, a friend, colleague or relative’s favourite old school perfume (pre 2000).

The old school perfume we covered this week was Casmir by Chopard, a 1.5ml decant spray.

In honour of Evie C’s first major interview this Monday gone with Liz Cook from Australian Natural Niche Perfume crew, ONE SEED. We are adding most of a generous manufacturers sample of my personal favourite One Seed fragrance so far, COURAGE. This scent is so extraordinary that I went FB and have used maybe 4 spritzes from the sample, there’s still at least 4ml left.

After our Posh Peasant; FIG! Olfactory Journey to Greece special we are putting in 1.5ml Posh Peasant decant sprays of Parfumerie Generale; Jardin de Kerylos and Diptyque; Philosykos

Photo stolen from shopping-premiereavenue.com

To top it all off we are adding in a 1ml Posh Peasant decant of Parfum d”Empire; Ambre Russe (I ordered this sample forgetting I’d ordered a FB that turned up almost next day. I know, right)

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

In March we had a Celebuscent Competition that Maureen won but has not been in touch to receive her winnings. The go was that she had till that next Wednesday to get in touch but did not. While hoping that Maureen is happy and well, her loss is your gain folks. As a second COMPETITION GIVEAWAY this week you must only tell your fave CELEBUSCENT, easy!

My Photo

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.

All measurements are approximate and the winners will be judged around 10pm Australian EST this Saturday 28.4.12 and you will have till Wednesday 2.5.12 to get in touch. GO TO IT Y’ALL.

Much love, and gratitude for your coming and reading.
We feel blessed that so many of you bother.
THANK YOU,

Portia xx

Youth-Dew by Joséphine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1953

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Today was odd because Monday was a public holiday and so things started out with me realising the bins had not been put out (my job) and that we have a very full bin already, how were we going to last the week? Not to mention that it’s already high on the whiffo meter!

On a brighter note Evie C and I got together and discussed strategy, weekends, partners, kids (hers), Trivia Nights (mine), fragrances and best of all all the wonderful interviews we have lined up over the coming Mondays, interspersed with all my palaver on other days. So what was I wearing today?

Youth-Dew by Joséphine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1953

The box. Pale aqua, gold and white, the box is old school of the best and worst kind. 70s-80’s classy. Is it tongue in cheek? Are they messing with me? Should I hate it/love it/loathe it. I can’t tell. I am ambivalent, violently opposed forces within me trying to reconcile this box that would look correct in a thrift store or a penthouse armoire. Who do they think they are selling this juice to? It’s schizophrenic marketing to me.The bottle too, with that dickie little bow. I LOVE IT! Although I know it’s awful. Or is it? Bugger, another 15 minutes wasted as I hold the damn bottle up and try to decide whether I adore or abhor it.

Photo Stolen from BaseNotes

In 1953, Youth Dew was released. That is 60 years ago. It was Estee Lauder’s first attempt at fragrance and came as a bath oil. It is a hot, sexy and spicy Oriental. Unashamed at its stupendous wafts of glamour and alluring mystique. A powerhouse perfume that takes courage, poise and a certain savoir faire to be able to pull it off. At the time it bucked the norm, and anyone who dares to wear it today in the face of a multitude of clean musks and sheer scents says loud and proud that they are a contender. Unafraid of you and your wishy washy nothings, no matter how gorgeously crafted and close to the skin it is (see below). So glamorous, seductive and spirited that it was Joan Crawford’s scent of choice! When I wear Youth Dew I feel as though I can rule the world, and that I am decidedly perfumed.

What is it like, I hear you think?

Well it opens with a big fat aldehydic, fruity, spicy, citrus that runs laps around you and plays the cymbals, drums and trumpet in your nose and brain. This fragrance has balls. Almost obnoxious, it is saved by its own good breeding. as the opening notes soften off we are gifted with a sparkly, spicy, almost spiky, floriental that is both red hot and cool green. An oriental fragrance that smells like no part of Asia that I’ve ever been to or sniffed. The spices and incense we come across here are also nothing like we are offered nowadays, it is viscous and luscious. I can’t get the words on the paper. This is perfume! If you ever wanted to take over a room, banquet, board meeting, or country; if you ever wanted to be remembered for the searing and glorious scent that you, and only you, of your age group wears, then this little Mo Fo is the one for you. Currently the aged are having it all to themselves. Try it, this is living.

Fragrantica gives you the details and NowSmellThis did a review back in 2007 that is still worth a look.

ELLIE Eau De Parfum by ELLIE D

Firstly and amusingly, is this name supposed to remind me of LED Lights? Great drag name.

Ellie D donates a portion of its proceeds to entrepreneurs in developing world through www.kiva.com (100% of every dollar you lend on KIVA goes directly towards funding loans; KIVA does not take a cut. Furthermore, KIVA does not charge interest to our Field Partners, who administer the loans)

Photo Stolen from LuckyScent

Ellie EDP came in my February LuckyScent showbag. If you join the mailing list they send you an invitation to order their new stuff in a sample pack. It’s quite addictive because the give you .7 of a ml of each fragrance (I think they should do a 2ml set for those of us who need a couple of wears to become addicted, I’d be willing to pay the extra for the privilege) to try for a day. It keeps you up to date with the newest trends, is pretty inexpensive and is delivered to your door. Be careful though, you will like a few of them. I’ve been so distracted by other stuff though that I have only just got to the February showbag, sorry folks.

Let’s talk about the product then. It is a sheer floral in the modern style. People who are reviewing it say that it harks back to the old days of perfume, enormous florals, great big burst of….. BULLSHIT!! On me it is a severely cool floral, sheer and fresh. It is a luminous, fairy lit, musky floral with a hint of citrus and twig. It will shimmer around you rather than perfume you, does that make sense? I think this is a perfume for people who either don’t really like perfume, or perhaps young (or young at heart) girls who like to smell fresh and lovely, or even workers who need to not broadcast that they are fragrant. Compared to other sheer scents like SJP Lovely and Royal Apothis, City of Angels this is even quieter, and almost milky, but up close is gorgeous. I have a girlfriend I’ve earmarked this sample for, Alice will smell so pretty in it, I’m sure.

Photo Stolen from LetterShop_NYC

For me this is too refined and soft. I understand that many of you like to be dressed in sheerest of sheer but for me it defeats the purpose of being scented. I think as my nose gets more refined that these scents may become more differentiated but currently they are all much of a muchness and practically interchangeable. As lovely, soft and dewy as Ellie is I can’t see why it needed to be produced at all with such a plethora of similar scent in the marketplace. Sorry. Although they are slightly improved in my eyes through their generous donations to KIVA, there is no percentage given and a one off donation of $25 could facilitate the tag line.

LuckyScent has a great review, notes etc and you can buy from them, PerfumeSmellingThings agrees with me but says it better; AromaScope says something else.

Thanks for sharing what’s in my stinky old mind. Glad to have you along,

Portia xx