Fashion

Paris by Chanel – Inside CHANEL Movie

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Hi there Fashionistas,

Here we have another block in the Gabriel “Coco” Chanel story/myth/legend. She has been so painted, glossed and glammed that she could be a decoupage. The house lives on in splendour and Karl Lagerfeld is the reigning monarch. Still the house CHANEL is a major player and an international billion dollar money making factory.

I hope you enjoy their latest mini movie, a piece about the atelier, store and apartment at 31 Rue Cambon and Coco. Magic.

Portia xx

Chanel WallPaperMinePhoto Stolen WallPaperMine

Paris by Chanel – Inside CHANEL Movie

Perfumes That Never Offend My Coworkers

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Post by FeralJasmine

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I work with a fantastic bunch of ladies. We have all been together for several years now, and couldn’t be happier with the arrangement. We know each other’s thought patterns, can predict each other pretty well, and have no serious trouble making decisions by concensus.

So when does the serpent enter paradise? Usually it has to do with perfume. My good colleagues are (thank The Lord and/or Lady) very outspoken and not given to passive aggression, which means that when I wear a scent that one of them doesn’t like, I am going to hear about it. Sometimes this is pretty damn funny: one of them calls anything that she dislikes “patchouli,” which leads to hilarious remarks like “I don’t like that patchouli perfume you’re wearing today” when I’m drifting around in Chanel #5. Aldehydes are a total no-go. Gagging pantomimes greet anything too sweet.

Perfumes That Never Offend My Coworkers

So what does work? I have a stable of stuff that draws purely positive comment. To my surprise, two of them are patchouli scents (but don’t tell my colleague!) Vanillas are happily tolerated if they aren’t too sweet, confirming my suspicion that for many of us, vanilla is THE primal comfort scent. The players are:

Boyfriend Kate Walsh FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Kate Walsh Boyfriend: this lovely warm patchouli-plum-tobacco scent is miles above the usual celebrity perfume and therefore is discontinued, but is still readily available on eBay. I have stocked up and will not be bidding against you.

Unknown Pleasures Kerosene FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Kerosene Unknown Pleasures: Earl Grey tea followed by a soft slightly sweet bakery vanilla. What’s not to like? This one is a great value, and I have obtained a backup bottle.

Lira Xerjoff FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Xerjoff Lira: An exquisite soft vanilla that wafts in the most delicate and appealing way. Unfortunately, it is also $285 a bottle, which works out to quite a bit per waft. Still, I wear it sometimes because there is nothing quite like it. But Unknown Pleasures, after the somewhat brash lemony opening, ends up in much the same place for less than half the price, so no back-up bottles of Lira for me.

Pink Gardenia DSH Perfumes FragranticaPhoto Stolen DSH Perfumes

DSH Pink Gardenia: my one objection to Ms. Hurwitz’s vanillic gardenia is that it is too civilized and private. Which is why I can wear it to work to universal approval. Nobody is aware of it unless they happen to get very close, and then they like it. Now, if only she made a louder version to put on when I get home…

Coze Parfumerie Generale FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

PG Coze: I can’t get my mind around wearing this one to work. But I did once, by mistake, and people loved it. Even the Patchouli-Slaying Queen commented on the lovely spicy resins. So I wear it once in a while at work, and a lot on weekends.

Here are a couple of sample sites that you can go see to try these.
Surrender To Chance
Posh Peasant
My Perfume Samples

I should add that I have dry perfume-euthanizing skin and these might not be subtle enough on everyone. But unless your workplace forbids perfume, there is something that you can get away with. Solicit honest feedback from a few work-buddies, and pay careful attention to what they say. After all, it’s their airspace too!

FeralJasmine X

En Passant by Olivia Giacobetti for Frederic Malle 2000

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Post by Gabriella

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Hello fragrance friends,

Do you ever get cravings for perfumes that you don’t have in your collection? This very thing happened to my last week. It’s actually very surprising as the scent in question was one of the very first perfumes to blow me away when I first started exploring niche scents and yet, after all these years, I still don’t have a bottle. Today, I’m talking to you about an oldie but a goodie – the fragrance I am going to discuss is the sublime En Passant.

En Passant by Olivia Giacobetti for Frederic Malle 2000

En Passant FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lilac, surrounded by watery and green notes, cucumber and wheat

My reaction to the initial spritz of En Passant is one of feeling overwhelmed, but in a beautiful way. I’m enveloped in the distinctive yet delicate scent of masses of white lilacs. It is morning and their tiny petals are covered in tiny droplets of rain from an overnight shower. The rain has freshened the blooms, providing an ethereal aqueous quality. I don’t get the cucumber note that has bothered quite a few people with this scent. It’s just pure fresh and fresh lilac and quite linear, yet when the sun starts to peek over the blooms in the yard, you can just begin to smell the warmth of baking bread from a nearby kitchen window. Yet the yeasty aspect doesn’t overwhelm, it just provides a welcome temperateness to the green, watery quality of the lilac.

En Passant Frederic Malle lilac WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Even as I write, I’m conscious that my words don’t capture the loveliness of this scent. The perfume is an essence of time and place the story it tells is a very distinctive and emotional one. The best I can do is a series of adjectives: it’s diaphanous, it’s ephemeral, and it’s impressionistic and just plain beautiful. It is a story of lilacs, bread and spring What Giacobetti has done with these elements in perfume is akin to what Monet or Pissaro did with light and texture in painting.

En Passant is not powerful, its beauty is sotto voce and it’s a terribly personal scent as Portia has mentioned in her review. Despite its quietness, I still get a good 4 to 6 hours of wear; over this time, it just seems to waft gently from the skin like a breeze.

En Passant Frederic Malle White_Breeze guitarzar DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Because of its discreetness, En Passant is something you could wear almost anywhere. But I find it’s best when I’m craving beauty and solitude. Oh, and the promise of spring that sadly, just quite hasn’t made it to Melbourne yet. Better satisfy those cravings and just get a bottle of this beauty.

Mecca Cosmetica has 3x10ml/$124 in Australia
Frederic Malle has €110/50ml
Surrender to Chance starts at $6/ml

Have you tried En Passant? What perfumes have left you speechless?

Until next time,
M x

Equistrius by Marc Antoine Corticchiato for Parfum d`Empire 2007

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Hello Fellow Fumies,

One of the sad things that happens in the perfumista world is that we often have only time to try the new and many of the veteran niche fragrances get left behind in the rush to smell the MILLIONS of latest and greatest. So I thought that I would dedicate as many Saturdays as possible to reviewing fragrances that are older than this current decade. Today we look at….

Equistrius by Parfum d`Empire 2007

Equistrius by Marc Antoine Corticchiato

Equistrius Parfum d`Empire FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Iris, violet, green notes
Heart: Iris, chocolate, woody notes, powder, rice
Base: Amber, sandalwood, vetiver, suede, ambrette (musk mallow)

I thought I’d start with a fragrance that I tried once a while ago and always had on the retry list but it got pushed to the back of the cupboard. Last night for some reason I grabbed Equistrius and spritzed before I went to work. WOW! What most attracted me in the opening is a lovely smokiness, weird because its not talked about and then I wonder if my nose is playing silly buggers but I have just drained my sample for my third wearing and it is most decidedly smoky behind the earthy green opening.

Equistrius Parfum d`Empire Great Smoky Mountains WikpediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Then the scent kind of blurs and becomes a soft focus fragrance that never really settles on a note but waltzes through the heart as a sweet bouquet, this is quite long lasting and smells great but no notes jump out and accost me. Sadly the rice note doesn’t appear on my skin or to my nose. One of the yummiest and freakiest smells in our house is the rice cooking in the pressure cooker. It always smells so enticing and I wish someone would capture that exact scent and bottle it.

Dry down is soft and very close, a mere breath of fragrance shimmering softly above my skin. A sweet vegetal nothing that you have to be very close to notice, pretty and a lovely surprise for someone undressing you……..

Equistrius Parfum d`Empire Brumbies_Australia WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

How do I feel about Equistrius? While I enjoy it very much and love the ride I am not fully taken by Equistrius. Something in it doesn’t sing on my skin and after reading some other pieces on it I think the fault is me, not the frag. There are pieces missing from the puzzle and I wonder if its a sign that Equistrius and I are not buddies. There are so many others in the line that I adore so I can’t really complain. It’s a shame because the notes list and others reviews make me want to smell what they all smell, I think it would smell killer on the right person.

Equistrius Parfum d`Empire Icelandic Horse Brian Gatwicke FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and BOTO
Libertine has $150/50ml with FREE Australian P&H
LuckyScent has $145/100ml in the new bottles
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3.50/ml

Did you ever try this line? What about Equistrius? Did it ever spend skin time with you? What did you think?
Portia xx

Acqua Di Giò by Giorgio Armani: Scent of Freedom Movie – Introducing Luca Dotto

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Woo Hoo APJ,

Who better to advertise a fragrance for men than the Italian Silver Medalist swimmer. He is handsome, great body, successful and has a killer smile. This ad is so freaking beautiful I wanted it to go for 15 minutes.

Acqua Di Giò by Giorgio Armani 2014: Luca Dotto

Acqua-Di-Gio_Scent-of-Freedom ftapePhoto Stolen ftape (Problem using image, let me know)

Giorgio Armani has always known how to sell their product but this is taking it to a whole new level.

Enjoy,
Portia xx

Acqua di Giò: Scent of Freedom – Giorgio Armani

 Acqua Di Giò: Scent of Freedom – Introducing Luca Dotto

Scent With Love: CHANEL No.22

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Hi there APJ,

My mate Rose M sent me a package a while ago. It got lost in a drawer during a clean up and since we have been organising the house for Open Houses a bunch of forgotten magic has turned up. What is in the package? Modern & Vintage CHANEL No.22 EdT and some Vintage CHANEL No.22 parfum. OH MY! You may remember I discovered CHANEL No.22 in Paris earlier this year with Michael. Rose M thought I should get some historical juice on my skin and be able to compare, I’ll do my best but this wonky old nose will probably just smell the same thing at different strengths…..

 CHANEL No.22 by Ernest Beaux for CHANEL 1922

Chanel No 22 Chanel FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica 

Fragrantica  gives these featured accords:
Top: Lily-of-the-valley, neroli, aldehydes
Heart: Oriental jasmine, rose, Comoro island ylang-ylang
Base: Haiti vetiver, Bourbon vanilla

OK, so the vintage EdT comes out sweeter and more aldehydic. Current EdT has a fresh, nutty and much cooler vibe than the vintage. Vintage smells animal and sensual while the modern has a metallic edge, a little reminiscent of No. 19. As the top notes blow off the two become more alike and though still different they coulod be the same fragrance family now. Vintage seems smoother and warmer, like the ultimate softness of room temperature ivory against your skin and still the current is cooler, more transparent like cool crystal.

CHANEL No.22 EdT Ivory Carving Cliff FlickrPhoto stolen Flickr

CHANEL No.22 EdT Crystal Bowl Mauricio Gouvea FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Suddenly, at about the 20-30 minute mark it’s like they both come into clear focus and smell nearly exactly the same, there are differences but only the difference that a wear on different days woulds NEVER tell apart. It’s like you are wearing the same fragrance but in different weather or after you’ve used a different body wash in the shower. Vintage lasts for hours longer in the heart section and when modern has almost completely disappeared I can still smell glorious aldehydic bouquet pumping its lavish tune from the vintage. Dry down is warm and subtly earthy but through CHANEL No. 22s life it never loses that aldehydic magic.

They are both incredible and I am going to grab some of the current EdT and Parfum. The die is cast.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Perfume Posse
You can try or buy CHANEL No. 22 at any of the stand alone CHANEL stores or a very few department stores.
Surrender To Chance has CHANEL No. 22 samples starting at $4/ml and Extrait at $8/ml

Thank You Rose M. I have enjoyed this throw down immensely and you have ultimately made me a complete slave to CHANEL No.22 EdT.

Portia xx

 

 

 

 

Louis Vuitton Celebrating Monogram Collaboration Video

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Hey Fashionistas,

Louis Vuitton has been doing some collaborating and I wanted to show you this fun 1 minute Louis Vuitton Celebrating Monogram Collaboration Video. Asking some super great designers, artists and innovators to take their monogram and make something entirely special and new. I think you’ll be suprised with some, desperately want others and be impressed by the sometimes discrete, sometimes overt, pushing of boundaries.

Enjoy,

Portia xx

Twisted Box Frank Gehry Louis VuittonPhoto Stolen Louis Vuitton

From Vuitton: 2014, Six Iconoclasts, One Icon: Christian Louboutin, Cindy Sherman, Frank Gehry, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Newson, and Rei Kawakubo take inspiration from the icononic Louis Vuitton Monogram.

Louis Vuitton Celebrating Monogram

Tom Ford Noir 2012

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Post by ElizaD

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Tom Ford Noir 2012

Laquer, Pepper, roses, spice, iris, and sweet oranges. Tobacco perhaps? Interesting.

These were my thoughts as I stood in the Sephora sniffing my arm after spritzing Tom Ford’s Noir. The ladies in the Sephora always frown when they see me coming. I SNIFF my perfume. I don’t gently waft the tester under my nose, I spray forcefully and inhale. And I ask for samples! They’re limiting me to two these days. No matter, I am quickly making my way through the whole line of Sephora-approved fragrances at my local outlet. I’m almost done.

Noir Tom Ford Portlandbridges WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

But this was a store in Portland, with many more choices, and saleswomen who were not on to me. I was trying to be discreet, but when you are a head taller and twice as old as almost everyone else in the store, it’s challenging.

Anyway, back to the fragrance. This one gave me pause. With a name like Noir I expected something much more intense. Some oud perhaps, or liquor notes: something thick and viscuous. This was beautiful. It opened with a sparkle of pink pepper and herbs, quickly followed by a sweet laquer note, but quickly settled to a lovely floral bouquet. Powdery with a little spice. Soft and graceful. I could even detect a note of baby shampoo. It reminded me of Jean Charles Broussea’s Ombre Rose. Like the lovely Margaux, who reviewed Noir exactly a year ago, I was intrigued.

Noir Tom Ford FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Italian bergamot, verbena, caraway, baie rose (pink pepper), violet flower
Heart: Black pepper, nutmeg, Tuscan Iris resin, Egyptian Geranium, Bulgarian Rose, Clary Sage
Base: Opoponax, amber, Indonesian patchouli, vetiver, civet, vanilla

So imagine my double surprise when I returned home with my sample and pulled up the information on Fragrantica. A men’s fragrance? Because it has violets and vetiver and verbena? Two months ago I suggested that Essence Aromatique might be suited for a man, and now I seem to be swooning over a men’s fragrance. Hmmm, perhaps after a couple of years my tastes are starting to expand.

Noir Tom Ford Sephora MyNamesAxel FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

It was in the women’s section. I swear.

Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Bois de Jasmin
FragranceNet has 50ml/$95 before discount
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

So tell me, APJers, where do you find fragrances to try locally? Are you lucky enough to have sympathetic salespeople at your local stores, or do you have to travel to satisfy your senses? I think I need a roadtrip, STAT!

Black Opium by YSL Mini Movie

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Hey there APJ Crew,

Black Opium is here, masterminded by Nathalie Lorson, Marie Salamagne, Olivier Cresp and Honorine Blanc and centred around the smell of coffee beans. Sounds marvelous, so good that I know I’ll be disappointed. The mini movie is wonderful though and stars British model Edie Campbell, shot by Daniel Wolfe.

Black Opium Yves Saint Laurent FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pear, orange blossom, pink pepper
Heart: Jasmine, coffeeBase: Vanilla, patchouli, cedar

BLACK OPIUM BY YVES SAINT LAURENT

BLACK OPIUM – THE NEW WOMEN FRAGRANCE

Love's Baby Soft by Dana 1974

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Post by Poodle

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Once upon a time in the 80’s there was a girl who loved perfume. She really believed perfumes were magical. She saw the ads in the magazines and thought she had found her secret potion. It said that the nicest things happen when you wear it. The photo suggested if she wore it she’d soon be dancing cheek to cheek with a cute boy. The silly girl was me and I simply had to have Love’s Baby Soft. If I had it my teenage crush would notice me. I just knew it.

Love’s Baby Soft by Dana 1974

Love's Baby Soft Dana FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Geranium, lavender, jasmine, rose, patchouli, vanilla, musk

Like many others I was wafting clouds of Love’s Baby Soft when I was a tween and young teen. I believed that it would transform me from dorky, shy wallflower to the girl the cute guy I liked would ask to dance. Sadly, it never seemed to work but I still kept spritzing and hoping.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

(The ads for Love’s Baby Soft in the 70’s were actually rather creepy and I’m glad the ones in my Seventeen magazine were more about school girl crushes than pedophiles and Lolita. Honestly, I’m not sure what the heck they were thinking with those older ads. Who was the target audience for those? But I digress…back to crushes and magic potions.)

Love’s Baby Soft was that first perfume lots of girls got in their Christmas stocking. If you haven’t guessed from the name, Baby Soft is powdery. It’s a fluffy, flowery, pink cloud of a perfume. It seems almost silly to try to review it and pick apart the notes even though it’s a pretty scent. There’s rosy powder, soft florals, a bit of clean musk, and a slight plasticky note which makes me think there’s some heliotrope in it.

Love's Baby Soft Dana MahPadilha FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

If you like Flower by Kenzo or other powdery florals there’s a chance you were a Baby Soft girl at some point. It’s familiar and comfortable. Compared to the fruity stuff aimed at today’s youth, Love’s Baby Soft smells far more grown up even with that baby powder note. I think it’s got a powdery feel similar to vintage scents but is by no means of the same quality. It’s cheap and fun. I still wear it and especially like to wear it to bed. If it were repackaged and renamed I think it would have a lot of fans. I think a lot of people secretly like it but hate to admit it because they think they’re too old for it. I say, wear what makes you happy.

Further reading: Now Smell This and The Awl
FragranceNet has $3.50/15ml

Love’s Baby Soft made me think perfumes could be magical even though I didn’t get that dance I’d hoped for. Sometimes I think I was just young and silly. Sometimes I think not much has changed. Perhaps there’s part of us that always seems to be searching for that perfume that transforms us and makes us feel stronger, prettier, confident. Did you have a magic potion when you were younger? Do you still wear it?

Poodle X