Milano Caffe by AbdesSalaam Attar for La Via del Profumo 2013

Heya Frag Hags,

Recently there has been a flurry of excitement because La Via del Profumo, the natural perfume house from Italy, run by a French ex-pat who dresses like a fairytale Arabian desert bedouin (plural of badawī بَدَوِي,) is releasing a series of fragrances in honour of his adopted country Italy. The first of these arrived today with samples of two others for me to try. VERY EXCITED!!

Milano Caffe by La Via del Profumo 2013

Milano Caffe FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Coffee, cappuccino, chocolate, iris, woody notes, spicy notes, opoponax, tonka bean, amber

Milano Caffe, the name alone is fabulous. I have a 15.5ml spray bottle and love its aesthetic. Chunky square glass with a smaller version repeated in the lid in plastic, its simplicity is exotic, feels expensive and is so perfectly simple. I have only had Milano Caffe 3 days and have worn it all three mornings, just for myself, completely selfishly and have enjoyed it immensely.

A warning: Give Milano Caffe a minute to soften off before you put nose to wrist, or in my case down your top, it will burn you out very quickly and some of the enjoyable development will be lost for you.

Milano Caffe Bar Brera Özge Okcuer  FlickrPhoto Stolen Özge Okcuer Flickr

OK second go. First spritz gives me a blast of woodsy, resinous amber that could be the creating of coffee at the barista bar, that blast of hot water meeting ground beans, the milk being heated and the street smells of cars, pets and humanity all encompassed in that five minute rush of excitement. It is big and loud and in your face, just like a busy Summer streetside coffee house (though I’ve only done Florence, Rome and Venice, assuming similarities) in the middle of the tourist section.

Milano Caffe Corso Vittorio Emanuele 1890s WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Interestingly here I get the amber and other resins through the heart of the fragrance with some totally gorgeous smoke, still with a coffee teinté over the top. The whole fragrance then softens off and becomes a sweet/woodsy very sensual wash before drying off to cool, earth and woods, then just wood, dry wood alone and then gone. Around 4-6 hours before I lose the scent completely depending on the day, it may still be hovering over my skin but I can’t smell it. That’s pretty good longevity for a natural.

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Now Smell This
La Via del Profumo has €12,40/5.5ml (Splash), €33/15.5ml (Spray), €71,40/33ml (Spray), €98/50ml (Spray)

Giveaway Kesha&CoPhoto Stolen Kesha&Co

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Milano Caffe
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Palermo Don Corleone
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Venezia Giardini Segrett
P&H Anywhere in the world

These are remains after I have sampled them so not exactly 2ml (1.5-2ml)

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

Go to La Via Del Profumo and find me ONE perfume and ONE of its ingredients. NO DOUBLE UPS!! EASY!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie La Via del Profumi ITALIAN SERIES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1QK @LaViaDelProfumo #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday August 4 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Thursday August 8 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Good Luck Everyone!
Go To It.
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton: “Up On High Heels” Mini movie

Hello Hot Steppers,

I don’t know about you but shoes are something I adore. I have a 10 pair of male and 10 pair of female shoes rule because my collection was excessive and I had to downsize it, do you see a theme running through my life? Anyway, now it’s one in and one out, unless I have a breakage or disaster. So this fun mini movie with shoes, design, art and dance was right up my alley.

So I hope this entertains you while we wait and wait and wait for the Louis Vuitton fragrance…………. STILL WAITING…………

louis-vuitton-fall shoes-2013-stylefrizzPhoto Stolen StyleFrizz

LV Spiel: Louis Vuitton invites you to dance and take a leap in time, moving from more recent collections of shoes to past designs that have marked the House’s fashion history. See the story at http://vuitton.lv/Kn9Xiz

Enjoy,
Portia xxx

Louis Vuitton presents Up High On Heels

Powder Flowers by Montale

Hey there FUMIES,

A few months ago I grabbed a bunch of the Montale fragrance samples, I tried a few of them but didn’t get to the rest, here’s one that I should have tried immediately. There are a few of the Montales that don’t seem to have come from the house, Sandflowers is one and this is another….

Powder Flowers by Montale

Powder Flowers Montale fragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Rose, jasmine, osmanthus, cedar, tonka bean

Clear, sheer and fresh are three words I would never have linked in my mind to Montale who usually go for heavy hitters. Powder Flowers is so far from my knowledge of the brand that I had to check I hadn’t mislabeled the spritzer. Even Sandflowers is more Montale-isah than this. Lovely, pretty and dainty are not words I had previously used either but all of these adjectives are absolutely accurate when talking about my skins reaction to Powder Flowers. If you have a celebuscent crazed teen or a fruitchouli addicted friend then this could be the first step in their rehabilitation. While giving the sheer, barely there feel of many of the current offerings there is a story, a level of interest and change, and it is fragrant. The sillage is excellent, changing the air as you walk past and making it interesting, drawing your nose after it, it sits close though and after leaving my office to make coffee and returning there is no appreciable remains of it.

Powder flowers PowderTower WikiCommonsPowder Tower, Prague Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Like many of the Montale fragrances though the parts are so reduced from naturals that they are barely recognisable, there is something in jasmine that reads salty to my nose and I’m wondering if it was in the sunscreen that I grew up with here in Australia and that the memory of the beach is forever locked in stasis with it, I also notice it in other scents featuring this super clean jasmine. Rose passes me by completely in Powder Flowers and though I have often liked osmanthus fragrances it doesn’t seem present because I get no fruity/lactonic emphasis, the cedar and tonka are there all through but it takes a while to notice them.

Powder Flowers Osmanthus Tanaka Juuyoh FlickrPhoto Stolen Tanaka Juuyoh Flickr

It’s called Powder Flowers, it is not a typical powder but an abstract, “If I was the Queen of all powders this is how I’d smell.” I don’t think the notes list tells us much here, could we be missing musk, iris, heliotrope and others? Having now drained my second sample of Powder Flowers I am thinking a large decant to see if I go through it as quickly. The only reason I haven’t bought a bottle already is that I can’t believe that I am so in love with a fragrance so definitively UN-me.

Powder flowers Powder DuboseLawFirmPhoto Stolen DuboseLawFirm

Further reading: Scent For Thought and I could find anything else specific
Parfums Raffy have $105/50ml
Neroli Budapest has €56/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/ml

You may wonder why the Prague Powder Tower pic is above, well, Jin and I were in Prague earlier in the year and we kept walking around and through this gate so when I saw it while looking for Powder Pix I instantly wanted to share this reminiscence.

Have you tried this far from usual Montale?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Enchanted Forest GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Thank you all so much for entering. It was lovely to have you all join in and i hope you all enjoyed the thrill of anticipation.

giveaway TheTruthAboutMummy

EnchantedForest EdP

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week. Each winner will receive:

1.5ml Enchanted Forest Manufacturers Carded Sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

All you needed to do is be a follower, tell us how you follow and leave a hello in the comments! EASY PEASY!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 28th July 2013 11pm Australian EST.
Winners chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin picked a winner.

WINNERS berryreview

MaggieCat, DGambas

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

The winners will have till Wednesday 31st July 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Thanks again team
Portia xx

Photos Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy and berryreview

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

Hello Fragrance Freaks,

I know you only want to know about scent but this is beautiful. Marc Jacobs is doing sensational things at Louis Vuitton. If only they would get their damn perfume on the shelves. GRRRR!

BTW Does anyone know if this is Kiera Knightly? It sure does look like her to this blind old tranny.

Louis Vuitton Summer 2013 Ad ChicsFillesPhoto Stolen ChicsFilles

Do please enjoy.
Portia xxx

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers 2013

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Post by Val the Cookie Queen

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London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers

CQ´s way to Bloom Perfumery

I headed to London a couple of weeks ago for a wedding and to purchase two Vero Profumo fragrances. There are times when ordering online is just perfect, and others where I chose to wait until I can purchase from a shop. I saw that Vero´s perfumes were available in Harrod´s and in Bloom Perfumery in Spitalfields. Concept Scents Store. In the East End of London. No question in my mind where I was heading.

23 Cranley Gardens

I stayed with at 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill with a couple of girlfriends. They were kind enough to take a few days off work, so off we went first thing on Monday morning. I was über-excited. Finally I could stop stretching my samples of Rubj EdP and Mito. We jumped off the bus in Spitalfields, and walked through the beautiful covered market, although newly renovated, it has been there since about 1887.

Bloom London

So we arrived. 4 Hanbury Street, London. Walking into the shop, felt like landing at the bottom of the proverbial rabbit hole. It smelled absolutely divine. I have not been into that many perfume stores, but enough to know that this one was special. It gave me the same feeling I used to get when I would discover small indie/reggae record stores off the beaten track when I was much younger. That feeling of having discovered something totally unique, cool, and not for the masses.

Selling Vero's

Oxana, the delightful owner, came to greet us. Originally from Moscow, she has now lived in London for about seven years. After making sure that my two Vero fragrances were there, we started to talk. I wondered how she had ended up selling Vero Profumo.

Oxana: “Yes, I met Vero a couple of years before I decided to open the boutique. er passion and great craftsmanship at making her perfume creations has influenced me somewhat. I eventually thought that there should be a place (just normal, not elitist like the Harrod´s establishment) where people can buy the very best of modern perfume made with creativity and passion. It´s disappointing how much the generic mass market perfumes get promoted and how little people know about the finest niche brands- Hopefully I am making my small contribution to change that and that independent perfumers get more attention.”

Bloom cartoonFrom Bloom

Oxana also told me that a Russian lady will have about 7 fragrances in her collection. If not full bottles, then at least decants. I found that very interesting actually, because that is about the number I regularly wear over a year. No counting samples I try of course, but how many of them do I go onto purchase?

The shop is elegantly simple. Perfumes I knew of, and those I had never heard of. I intend to work my way through, sniffing all of them. There are hand written labels on the perfumes giving the list of top, middle and base notes. There are small black glass jars next to some of the perfumes, and these contain only the base notes. Brilliant. If you don´t care for the base notes then you know you can move onto something else. (A bit like allowing special customers to smell my vanillas!!)

Val's Fish & Chips

I left the shop elated, and fell exhausted into the iconic Poppie´s Fish and Chips restaurant, situated conveniently right next door. The best fish and chips in the world.

So APJ, this is CQ´s direction now. Scents from the here and now. For blogging at least. Because I do love other scents too!

Serial Killers? The first to recognize why this was a part of my fragrant trip, will receive a nice fat sample of Phaedon`s Rouge Avignon, my new love. Courtesy of Oxana.

If you’d like to shop at Bloom UK Website(<<<<JUMP)

Rock on and lock your doors at night.

CQ

CQ supplied all the photos from her iPhone

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Heya Crew,

thanks for all getting so excited about our fab Costume National So Nude GIVEAWAY! We had a great response and LibertinePerfumerie were trampled in the stampede, they are thrilled and I know Nick hope you’ll come back and have a look at the site at your leisure. Thanks LibertinePerfumerie for your continued support and generosity.

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Do go and take a moment to read about this very pretty and wearable fragrance Portia review: SO NUDE by Costume National<<<JUMP

So Nude EdP Fragrantica

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

There are 3 prizes this week in our So Nude by Costume National GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

2 x So Nude 1.5ml Manufacturers carded samples (one for you and one for a friend)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. You had to leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible.

You had to go to Libertine Perfumes and find me a perfume and its manufacturer. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 21st July 2013 10pm Australian EST.
Winners were chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin (was sound asleep so Portia) picked a winner.

winners propercoursePhoton Stolen propercourse

FATIMA, ANNAMARIA, JANET HOOVER

Winners have till Thursday 25th July 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Special THANKS to LibertinePerfumerie for the So Nude Samples. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

Amoureuse by Michel Roudniska for Parfums Delrae 2002

Hey Hey Crew,

Recently we had a fragrant get together at my house and the lovely Madeleine brought some frags that were not getting any skin time for various reasons, growing taste, changing chemistry, poor choice whatever. It was fun to go through her box of rejects and in it I found a few things I really love or needed a back up bottle of, and Madeleine’s “mark it up and move it on” box is full of the stuff that perfumistas dreams are made of. Here is the second of my purchases.

Amoureuse by Parfums Delrae 2002

Amoureuse FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, cardamom
Heart: Tuberose, jasmine, lily
Base: Oakmoss, honey, sandalwood

First I need to tell you that the bottle looks way more desirable in real life, the photo does not do it justice in any way. Also, the juice in my Amoureuse is peachy, not green, like a tea made out of a tea bag used twice already or a scotch and water, and I think that also adds to the aged, luxe vibe of the fragrance itself.

Amoureuse Tangerine WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Tangerine and cardamom say the notes and I get a lovely sweetness that could be tangerine but it seems a little amorphous, not specific enough to be so named. There is the sweetly herbal swish of cardamom but there’s a dirty, sweaty, animal underneath that feels very cumin-esque. Amoureuse walks a very fine line between gorgeous and disgusting in its first 30 minutes, not falling to either side definitively until the white flowers have almost taken over and then it becomes this fabulous and slightly raunchy attention grabber to people around. Between 45 minutes and two hours people really take notice of Amoureuse and compliments run thick & fast, well maybe that’s an exaggeration but there are spontaneous, heartfelt compliments.

Amoureuse Lilies MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

The white flowers are deep, narcotic and sensual. They are green, lactic, breathy, ripe, sappy, languorous, fecal and sweet, sometimes a combination of these together. The ride is great fun, and lovely. Still in the background there is a dark hint of animal that becomes less and less obvious as the honey and sandalwood working together (beautifully with no urinous facets from the honey) sweeten and soften the fragrance. Maybe I am immune to the oakmoss used here because it doesn’t register at all.

In Amoureuse Michel Roudniska, son of legendary Edmond, has made a wonderful fragrance. I was looking at his father’s works and there are some definite nods to Vintage Femme by Rochas here in Amoureuse, maybe I’m just being fanciful but it did slip through my mind a couple of times through the fragrant journey.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Katie Puckrik Smells
Beauty Habit has $135/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/.5ml

Have you spent any time with Parfums Delrae? Do you think you could wear this naughty vixen?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Arabie by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2000

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Post by Portia

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Hey There Fellow FUMIES,

We recently had a fragrant get togetrher at my place and Madeleine brought some unloved bottles and I bought this…

Arabie by Serge Lutens 2000

Arabie FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Cedar, sandalwood, mandarin, dried fig, date, nutmeg, cumin, caraway, clove, bay-leaf, Tonka, Siamese benzoin, myrrh, labdanum

My first whiff of Arabie is all cooking spices and humanity: cooking, slightly blackened toast, baking too with loads of vanilla, spice and citrus/fruit. I get a heavy tea backnote but I could be mistaking resins/incense for smoky tea. My question is how has anyone found Arabie hard to wear? Potent? Yes, but not scorchingly so like Angel or Giorgio Beverly Hills. Warm, dusty, foody, like eating sweets at a Dhaba in rural India sitting on plastic Coca Cola chairs with only a piece of cloth as roof between you and the desert sun, or in the freezing winter cold of a Korean fishing village where you duck out of the stormy winds to get a Korean version of a donut, searingly hot with sizzling spicy sugar and juices inside, straight from the hot oil, that is guaranteed to warm you up.

Arabie is sweet and dessicated, it could be a million miles from anyone or right by their side cuddled safe and warm under a blanket in front of a fire. Each wear is slightly different for me and I think much of the difference is what I bring in my demeanor, happiness, what I am mindful of. No wonder Arabie is still talked and written about as one of the Serge Lutens must try, must have fragrances.

Arabie Roadside Dhaba Flickr NehaSingh7Photo Stolen Flickr (NehaSingh7)

Arabie, maybe the name has swayed my thinking, feels like wearing adventure. It is busy and interesting, beautiful and welcoming, lavish and sparse, all of these things at different times. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an enormous longevity on my skin as a fragrant event but turns soft and skin warmed by sun scent-ish after only a couple of hours. Then it is a wash of resinous warmth both sensual and exotic but alas only for those very close.

Arabie Cresent Lake Oasis China Environmental graffitiPhoto Stolen EnvironmentalGraffiti

Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and My Perfume Diaries
FragranceNet has $106/50ml
Posh Peasant starts at $6/ml

Did you try Arabie yet? What was your experience? If not, what have you tried that correlates?
Thanks so much for wandering through my fragrant musings today,
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

So Nude EdP by Dominique Ropion for Costume National 2012

Hello Fabulous Fragrance Fiends,

With special thanks to the crew at Libertine Parfumerie who have generously supplied these So Nude samples for me to try and give away.

So Nude EdP by Costume National 2012 + GIVEAWAY!

So Nude EdP FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cumin, cardamom, neroli
Heart: Damascus rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang
Base: Indonesian patchouli, Virginian cedar

Costume National doesn’t seem to get a lot of blog time. I am not sure why, their bottle aesthetic is fun, easy to use and different, clothes are the same as well as beautiful and many are extremely wearable too. They just don’t seem to have captured perfumistas hearts in the way that many of the crossover to fragrance crews have done with loads less interesting works. I have FBs of Scent gloss and 21 in my collection and find 21 especially different and so sexy.

So when Nick from Libertine Parfumerie asked me if I’d like some So Nude to give away I jumped at the chance.

What will you smell? On my skin I get SHEER fresh downy soft white flower with a slight skin-ish bent that could be the cumin but this skin is freshly showered. The tuberose and ylang together are fatty, green, milky and buttery but reading that makes them sound full and luscious but they are neither, no one will be skunked by you wearing So Nude. It is quiet, sillage is very conservative as is the scent bubble, if you leave the room with So Nude sprayed on a card, close the door, make a coffee elsewhere and then come back you will smell a clean/fresh/fragrant vibe but it’s not a room filler.

So Nude DIOR PrinceOfWalesCheck WikimediaCommonsPhoto Stolen WikimediaCommons

The heart is very pretty, and this is where you get a little voluptuous, ripe, sexiness but it is restrained sexy, not an open invitation. So Nude is more like a hint that you are a great raging sex fiend underneath this grey Prince of Wales check suit, linen shirt and Hermes scarf. This is a grown up, luxe version of some of the drugstore white flowers that are so pretty, simple, wearable and popular. I bet you would get loads of compliments wearing So Nude because it is the kind of fragrance that men notice, perfumey and slightly old fashioned elegant. Dry down is all wood and white flower on me, it is soft and quite pretty, just don’t expect it to surprise you. Smells like sensual skin for frolicking, excellent for getting naked.

So Nude Johann_Baptist_Reiter WikimediaCommonsPhoto Stolen WikimediaCommons

I can imagine So Nude as a sensational Wedding Scent, excellent for almost everything and even wearable to a non frag phobic office. I get quite good life out of it, around 4-6 fragrant hours depending…

Further reading Bois De Jasmin
Libertine Parfumerie has $135/50ml and other sizes with FREE Australian shipping and you get 3 samples of your choice with your order
Neroli Budapest has 88€/50ml

giveaway TheTruthAboutMummyPhoto Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy

SO NUDE GIVEAWAY!

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 3 prizes this week in our So Nude by Costume National GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

2 x So Nude 1.5ml Manufacturers carded samples (one for you and one for a friend)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

Go to Libertine Perfumes and find me a perfume and its manufacturer. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie So Nude GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1LA #Giveaway @LibertineParfum @CoSTUMENATIONAL

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 21st July 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post Monday 22nd.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Thursday 25th July 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Special THANKS to LibertinePerfumerie for the So Nude Samples. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx