Fashion

Best Value Shopping Day EVER!

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Hey Everyone,

Firstly, I am back on Perfume Posse! WOW!! That’s 3 pieces in 3 weeks! I am over the moon, please hit the jump to read my interview with NYC Natural Perfumer Eleanor Jane from TALLULAH JANE NATURALS. Life smells good!

Saturday was a busy day around here. TSO Jin and I had a few stops to make.

Our first stop off was at a chain of Perfume stores about to close down, our friendly SA Amanda gave us the heads up last week so we knew there’d be some awesome bargains going on but had no idea they would be this astounding. An almost full 50ml Lou Lou by Cacharel $10, a half full 50ml pre-reformulation Dior Homme $15 and about 30ml left in a large bottle of L’Eau D’Issey Pour Homme $5. It gets better, they were having a 60% off sale which brought everything down to $12! Seriously! They are all testers and fresh, although I think the Issey Miyake is on the turn but maybe my recollection of the fragrance at second hand on my last partner has influenced the way I expect it to smell. No complaints here, I think the Lou Lou is the real bargain because I haven’t been able to find a 50ml of it in Australia for years, there is an unopened 30ml in the back of my perfume cupboard with all the rest of the OhMyGodHowCouldTheyDiscontinueThisFabulousFragrance section.

We then had some Jin stops for stuff and then we went to Perfume Warehouse, that had been promised recently but due to circumstances out of everyones control hadn’t happened. Well, these guys are amazingly well stocked and the shop area would be easily 200sq/m of fragrance. OMG! On some things they were $30 cheaper than I’d seen them anywhere else but on others they were up to double the best online prices I could find. You would have to know your products before going in or write down your list of wants, go home and check then come back. They did have only LED lights though making it cooler for the fragrances but does anyone know if LED still ruins perfumes?

Well, after trolling almost the whole store and chatting to the owner and SA, both handsome gentlemen who were friendly and knowledgable BTW, we finally made it to the Guerlain section. There it was… L’Heure Blue EdT, in its pre 1990s packaging with an old price tag torn off. My heart stopped and I asked if there was any more Guerlain in this old packaging. Yes, there’s a Shalimar out the back. WHAT? I think it’s Shalimar he said. The boy ran out the back and comes back out holding a 100ml Shalimar EdC, he had it out of the package and was going to spritz it to see if it worked. NOOOOO! It worked, one spritz less of this incredible find. ARE YOU CRAZY? A price was reached, less than you’d expect. They were the last 2 pieces of Guerlain from someone they had bought out and they really wanted to get rid of them. I am joyous! Ebullient! The bottles have had their single photo and are now residing happily in the fridge awaiting my pleasure. Soon I will try them and see if they are still working models. I’m too scared to in case they are ruined.

We did a bunch of other stuff on Saturday too. Lunch for a friends birthday at the Bowling Club, Jin kindly bought and installed a new car stereo for me, the Sydney Observatory with a wonderful crew to celebrate Jin’s birthday. Awesome day. I wish you could have been with us. What fragrance did I wear? During the day I had Dark Passage on and in the evening I wore Lonestar Memories, both by Andy Tauer the genius.

Thanks for joining me in my fragrant ramblings. I am so happy that you have bothered to drop by and read all the way to the bottom.

Portia xx

SUNDAY QUICKSNIFF REVIEW #6

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Hey Fellow Fumies,

These are quick looks at a few fragrances I wore this week for my own sniffing pleasure. The Sunday QuickSniff Review page is opened on Monday morning and every time I spritz and am near the computer I’ll give a 3 sentence review with a rating out of 5 each for, well, see the key after the reviews.

GUCCI No3 EdT by GUCCI 1985. There has definitely been some reformulation going on here, while the initial rush is much as I remember it there is absolutely no longevity to the juice in the bottle of Gucci No 3 that I recently purchased. A hollow, thin, reedy shell of the fragrance bomb my partner and I used to wear in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the flowers, leather and resins quieted to a whisper, maybe my bottle has been left in the light. Having said that, it’s still better than much of the aqueous, boring and clone-ish crap we are served up time and again lately. FragranceShop has 30ml for under $45.  S=*** L=** D=***

DIRTY ENGLISH by JUICY COUTURE 2008. On my skin this is a bit of a let down to tell the truth, I love the buttery, cool incense and citrus feel to the opening, if only they could have made the entrancing first 3-5 minutes last longer. Too soon the wondrous opening becomes a safe light wood and herbs that would be a perfect scent for close working conditions. It becomes a skin scent in under an hour but lasts as that for around 8 hours; so if you want the perfume to become you and make you, up very close, smell totally warm, sexy and inviting then you’ve found a winner. FragranceNet has 50ml for under $25   S=**** L=***** D=***

SOIR DE LUNE by SISLEY 2006. A friend sent, THANKS! This Modern Fruit Chypre has a dynamic opening where the pepper, coriander and nutmeg give the citrus top a warm depth and keep it singing in chest voice rather than the current trend to squeal. At around the 30 minute point the next step takes us into a kitchen garden with lush blooming flowers, herbs and spices being picked so I’m getting a hint of the broken stalks and a soft honey is starting to create some sweet interest.  CosmeticsNow have 30ml for around $100 S=**** L=*** D=****

LONESTAR MEMORIES by TAUER 2006. Leather in your face POW! This is an incredibly long lasting, deep, dark, glorious leather. The smell of a saddle ridden all day by a cowboy and recently vacated but still filled with the aroma of man, horse, dust, sun and sheep in a jaw droppingly magic fragrance that is not for the faint hearted. Can still smell Lonestar Memories after 18 hours of busy Saturday shopping, eating, star gazing, celebrating. Tauer Perfumes does 50ml for around $100 S=***** L=***** D=****


Photo Stolen from shirtsays

Scent, Obviously the number 1 priority here is how does it smell. My reviews are completely subjective and will differ widely from your own experience with the scent but it’s a good starting point. As yet I am not a trained perfumer so any and all descriptions are merely that, descriptions. There are plenty of blogs that offer technical details and chemistry, in 3 sentences I’ll pass.
Longevity, This is a biggie for me because like enfleurage where flower petals are left in fats to steal the scent, my fatty body works the same and eats it up, yum. So for a scent to last well on me, it will probably last a whole day on you and need a radioactive decontamination shower to defuse it from your skin.
Desirabilty, Wrapped up in this is scent, price, house, history, longevity, packaging, availability and a billion other things.

Photo Stolen from bittbox

* in any of these being the, “You couldn’t pay enough to spray this God awful stink on me again, it smells like public toilets in India, long time fridge malfunction while on Summer holiday and the vile stench of poverty all rolled into one.” You are putting innocent people in danger if you wear this.
** means it’s a nothing, wearable, boring, maybe the price is prohibitive for what you get or it’s ubiquitous. You should definitely get a sample of this to stop a buying boo boo.
*** is a perfectly good product that smells good and lasts a while at a decent price. You should definitely think about trying a sample or squirt but should you miss out your life will continue. Sample size worthy.
**** is the one you try, want a lot but can wait for a birthday/Christmas. It’s better than most of the stuff you’ve sniffed and may fill a void in your library. This is also an excellent decant product 5ml will get you through the season and maybe buy it next year.
***** meaning, stop reading this, grab your cash, credit card (or partners), roll the elderly or rob a petrol station and purchase this product. NOW! If you don’t have this fragrance you could die.

Hopefully this has given you a little inside track on fragrances to might buy, want, avoid, sample. What delicious bits and pieces did you try this week?

Portia xx

Abercrombie n Fitch VIDEO, Winners Announced

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey gang,

Sorry it’s late been out at the Sydney Observatory with the crew, it was fun.Photo Stolen Sydney Observatory

Photo Stolen Powerhouse Museum

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

All you had to do this week was go and find the code wrds for $5 off Olympic Orchid Artisan Perfumes. EASY PEASY! and you’d be in the running to win one of 2 GIVEAWAY PACKS:

1ml Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes manufacturers samples of Carolina & Olympic Rainforest or A Midsummer Days Dream & Arizona.
2ml manufacturers sample of Fugue or Barocco by new fragrance house Esther produced by the crew at Fragonnard
Plus P&H anywhere in the world


Picture Stolen berryreview

SaffyIsHere and Kymme

Please get in touch via email or Twitter DM by Wednesday 20.6.12 9pm Australian EST or I’ll give your prize to someone else.

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH MODELS

Here’s a little video of the A&F models doing the latest US #1 Billboard hit, Call Me Maybe. CAMP!!!

Oodles of love to you all,

Portia xx

Thursday Giveaway Competition, Gucci by Gucci Videos

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Well Well Smellophiles,

It has been a great week here in Sydney, Australia. Today is TSO Jin’s birthday and he has wanted DIOR Homme for a while. I was lucky enough to find a 50ml pre-reformulation bottle with the silver tube in the middle and only bounced the $50 Birthday/Xmas spend limit by a teensy bit, oh well he’s so worth it. Of course being a sparky it was crack of dawn make a wish and blow out candle, prezzie, vitamin tablet with Up&Go, here’s your lunch (today he got a Birthday special cold corned beef, cheese and pickle sandwich, choc chip muffin, passionfruit fizzy can and a Twix) and he was gone.

Being Thursday we have our

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Photo Stolen immercedemo

I thought because we’ve done such a big Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes week that we could do 2 special giveaways. All you need to do to win is to tell me what the code word you need to put in the coupon box at checkout on Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes for the $5 discount in the comments below. You’ll find the code word here on AustralianPerfumeJunkies in Monday and Tuesday‘s posts (a hint, the days in colour are jumps, hit them and you’ll be transported). It’s drawn on Saturday night around 9pm Australian EST. Jump to it! Here’s what you could win:

1ml Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes manufacturers samples of Carolina & Olympic Rainforest or A Midsummer Days Dream & Arizona.
2ml manufacturers sample of Fugue or Barocco by new fragrance house Esther produced by the crew at Fragonnard
Plus P&H anywhere in the world

Photo Stolen GUCCI

Next up I’ve given you an ad and a short film about Gucci by Gucci. The ad has the incredible Deborah Harry from Blondie singing one of her all time great classics, Heart of Glass. I was lucky enough to meet her in London, she had come to the opening night of DillyBoy in a club under Picadilly Circus, I was asked to produce the shows and there were a crew of us entertaining. The venue was full to overflowing and Ms Harry came out back to see us and after the shows she stayed around and partied with us till we fled to our next engagement. Christmas 2010 she was in Sydney and came down to the Opera House to watch the show that I was compering and performing in “DRAG!” and though she pretended to remember me and the night in Piccadilly Circus I know she was just being nice. It has however been one of the few mega stars that I have admired since childhood that when I’ve met them I have been pleasantly surprised at their friendliness and candor. She is the bomb and had I known she sang the ad I would have bought Gucci by Gucci sooner. I just gave the Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme to a mate for his birthday on the back of this loveliness. Enjoy.
Portia xx

Gucci by Gucci (Deborah Harry- Heart of Glass)

Gucci by Gucci maybe filmschool?

SUNDAY QUICKSNIFF REVIEW #5

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey Perfume Junkies,

Sometimes I like to get a short grab of a fragrance and we have a super awesome powerpack of tries this week. The Sunday QuickSniff Review page is opened on Monday morning and every time I spritz and am near the computer I’ll give a 3 sentence review with a rating out of 5 each for, well, see the key after the reviews.

MADAME ROCHAS INTENSE EdP by ROCHAS 1960. This is a no brainer for me, loads of deliciously spicy florals on LOUD! I love the gold tone cage bottle and it is reminiscent of the original Guy Robert 1960 magic. Parfum1 has the 2.5oz for under $70 S=*** L=*** D=****

LIPSTICK ROSE by FREDERIC MALLE 2000. This is the BOMB what a wonderful fragrance. If you want to smell the roses you remember from your childhood, fresh, citric, spicy, fruity, almost slightly plastic (Please don’t get up me about it, some roses have a definite plastic scent bias and violet too) and a little speck of branch and leaf, then this is the fragrance for you, all rose but beyond rose into art. Posh Peasant has decants starting at only $5.50  S=***** L=*** D=*****

TRUSSARDI for women EdT by TRUSSARDI 1984. From the moment you touch this bottle there is something refined and designed here that makes you covet it. Trussardi is still a classic Leather Chypre; as it opens the citrus, aldehydes and resins are warm, bright and inviting, then we move into a big fat glorious bouquet that has depth and character from the woods, vanilla, patchouli, smoke and leather that seems to already be there and stays around for hours, quietly being gorgeous. FragranceShop has 100ml for around $30 S=**** L=*** D=****

CHAPARRAL by ROXANA ILLUMINATED PERFUMES 2006. Designed to embody the aromatic spirit of the Wild West in the USA. This is a deliciously murky herbal and woodsy concoction, so different from mainstream perfume that people can’t help but ask what it is. You can smell the dust, hay, buffalo, herbs, spices, trees, gunpowder and smoke, AH MAY ZING! Roxana Illuminated Perfumes sells 7g in a flacon for $150 or samples S=***** L=**** D=****


Photo Stolen from shirtsays

Scent, Obviously the number 1 priority here is how does it smell. My reviews are completely subjective and will differ widely from your own experience with the scent but it’s a good starting point. As yet I am not a trained perfumer so any and all descriptions are merely that, descriptions. There are plenty of blogs that offer technical details and chemistry, in 3 sentences I’ll pass.
Longevity, This is a biggie for me because like enfleurage where flower petals are left in fats to steal the scent, my fatty body works the same and eats it up, yum. So for a scent to last well on me, it will probably last a whole day on you and need a radioactive decontamination shower to defuse it from your skin.
Desirabilty, Wrapped up in this is scent, price, house, history, longevity, packaging, availability and a billion other things.

Photo Stolen from bittbox

* in any of these being the, “You couldn’t pay enough to spray this God awful stink on me again, it smells like public toilets in India, long time fridge malfunction while on Summer holiday and the vile stench of poverty all rolled into one.” You are putting innocent people in danger if you wear this.
** means it’s a nothing, wearable, boring, maybe the price is prohibitive for what you get or it’s ubiquitous. You should definitely get a sample of this to stop a buying boo boo.
*** is a perfectly good product that smells good and lasts a while at a decent price. You should definitely think about trying a sample or squirt but should you miss out your life will continue. Sample size worthy.
**** is the one you try, want a lot but can wait for a birthday/Christmas. It’s better than most of the stuff you’ve sniffed and may fill a void in your library. This is also an excellent decant product 5ml will get you through the season and maybe buy it next year.
***** meaning, stop reading this, grab your cash, credit card (or partners), roll the elderly or rob a petrol station and purchase this product. NOW! If you don’t have this fragrance you could die.

Hopefully this has given you a little inside track on fragrances to might buy, want, avoid, sample. What delicious bits and pieces did you try this week?

Portia xx

Midnight In Paris on Perfume Posse, David Gandy DnG Undies Video, Winners Announced

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hi Everyone!
The exciting news is that the Perfume Posse has taken another piece of my writing and put it on their site!! What an awesome feeling to be a guest writer on such an entrenched and valuable learning tool for perfumistas the world over. My smile is broad today. Go have a look at Midnight In Paris please and leave me a message so I know you’ve dropped by. Thrilled, I tell ya!

David Gandy in Dolce & Gabbana underwear 2008 just for a delicious bit of eye candy. Why not?

>

THURSDAY COMPETITION WINNERS

Picture Stolen covenantbuilders

This week the deal was the most Twitter shout outs and we had a few. Only one person retweeted more than once and interestingly nobody onward tweeted from your tweets. So this week the second prize goes to the first retweeter.

Here’s what our 2 lovely winners receive:

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

Picture Stolen berryreview

Amy Orvin had the most.
Tarleisio was first.

Congratulations to you both. Please get in touch with addresses so I can send your prizes by Wednesday 13.6.12 Midnight Australian EST or I’ll give you prizes to the homeless.

I hope the rest of your weekend is AWESOME!!
Portia xx

Reindeer Games and Hippie Holidaze by Smell Bent

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Hey Smell People,

Don’t forget to enter our THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Recently on Smell Bent the lovely Brent Leonesio had a warehouse clearance sale. So never one to let an opportunity for gratuitous fragrance shopping go by I ordered half the shop and a bag of chips. I love Brent’s irreverent style and sense of fun. He seems absolutely unafraid to experiment and aside from the quirky names and funky home made feel to his artwork the fragrances are the BOMB! My first true love from the Smell Bent range was Tibet Ur Bottom $, a super incense laden sparkly juice that would wash over me like waves of religion, it almost had me speaking in tongues. So what did my current haul turn up? And this is only a tiny sneak preview…

HIPPIE HOLIDAZE oil 2009: This was the Smell Bent Christmas offering for 2009. In the past I have always felt a bit, ” Gourmand? Really, smells like food? I don’t get it? I can’t smell that this is foodie.” Hippie Holidaze has changed my tune. On my skin we open with a a crisp tangerine (citrus anyway, but not a screechy bergamot) and then after about 15 minutes straight to pancakes and maple syrup with a cinnamon dusting. OMG! It is so rich and delicious, almost burnt. I am salivating. Ha Ha HAH! I can’t believe what I’m smelling on myself. Genius! Now I get the patchouli, yes here it is. I have nothing in the fragrance world that I’ve sniffed to compare it to except Angel by Mugler, this is cooler but hotter. All the ways that I hate Angel have been shorn away into something that I love. Great work Brent!

REINDEER GAMES oil 2010: Built for the Yuletide season again a year later this is like a grown ups version of Hippie Holidaze, the citrus is brighter, with incense to add a cool churchy feel at the beginning, instead of maple syrup this fragrance gives us hot and spicy, Christmas pudding with custard and freshly polished wood furniture, freshly cut wood for the fire that remains unlit and I know there’s no note listed as floral but I am getting something that I can’t pinpoint but it feels like a flower I should remember. This is Christmas done elegantly, or the dream and vision of it anyway. Not only is this a lovely body perfume but I think it would be gorgeous as a candle or room diffuser oil, especially for showing houses.

LIBERTY FOR ALL 2012: I don’t have this yet but the Smell Bent team have, um, maybe I better let the website explain

In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve kinda got a thing for animals.  so do the folks over at liberty wildlife.  when they asked us to come up with a perfume to help celebrate their annual fundraiser, we were happy to oblige.
One of our favorite memories of our Phoenician adolescence is the smell of orange blossoms in the desert spring.  so that is where our composition begins.  and though it goes without saying, liberty for all was designed to be enjoyed by both men and women.
Notes: desert orange blossom with bergamot, ozone, tonka bean, hay, vetyver and sandalwood.
For each full bottle purchased, $25 will be donated directly to liberty wildlife

Go and have a look at Smell Bent they do some really inexpensive samples and ship worldwide, I have particularly enjoyed his Vocabulary range and Incensed. We do have an interview on its way with Brent Leonesio so look out for that in a couple of Mondays time. As always, thank you for spending your leisure time with us,

Portia xx

Making of DIOR’s Secret Garden, Thursday Giveaway Competition

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Hey Hey Everyone!

I hope your weeks have been lovely. Most of this week has been cool and wet here in Sydney but today is sunny and glorious. I’ve just come in from sitting in the front yard reading in the sun with a cuppa and watching the cockatoos, galahs and lorikeets eating the seed rings I put on the liquidamber. It’s easy to be grateful when life is so lovely.

Last week we nearly made 1000 IVs, 994! We also nearly had a 200 IVs day, 197! AH MAY ZING! We also had our first guest blog on Perfume Posse if you didn’t get a chance to see it. Wrote about the old and the new, Bob Mackie & Kerosene’s John Pegg. Hit lightly on Viktor & Rolf’s Spicebomb and a multitude of other great stuff. With any luck you’ve enjoyed reading all these as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing them to you. Here’s the payoff.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Picture Stolen hemodernhome

It’s my favourite day of the week again. The day where we get to look through all the great stuff we’ve talked about during the week and decide what will go in the draw and how we are going to get a winner.

This week we will have 2 winners, each will receive.

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

How do you win? This is a complete no brainer, copy and paste the below sentence into your Twitter. EASY PEASY! The 2 people who tweet or have retweeted the most number of times with their handle included will win. I will see each tweet and retweet in my interactions so it will be super easy to follow. If anyone reaches 50 retweets (that’s 50 of your friends retweeting) they will get a special prize 2ml of something niche & discontinued.

https://australianperfumejunkies.com/ I smell a GIVEAWAY COMPETITION Retweet to enter Go to it @ozperfumejunkie

These giveaway competitions are our way of saying THANK YOU for your support. Even if you enter and don’t win you will have earned a million thank yous, just for being part of our AustralianPerfumeJunkies family. It is noticed and appreciated. As a special thank you I’ve added the making of DIOR’s Secret Garden mini movie. You’ll get the full movie tomorrow, see you then.

Wishing all of your good dreams come true,

Portia xx

Making of Secret Garden Versailles

Mackie by Bob Mackie

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Hey everyone,

Photo from Unknown Source

Let’s go down memory lane together today. I remember as a kid sitting around with Mum & Dad watching the Sonny and Cher show. It was a hugely popular weekly musical/comedy TV show with some seriously special guests that looked largely thrown together in an afternoon by a bunch of totally un-gifted high school students. At the time, there was nothing to compare it to in suburban Australia, even living in Sydney. We would laugh at Cher’s deadpan, Sonny’s bad Dad jokes and completely over the top delivery, the terrible skits and the fun they all seemed to be having. It was a time of peace and laughter that we could all share. The real stand out star of the show though were the incredible Bob Mackie costumes. Every week there would be something more fabulous, gala, showstopping than last. Of course Cher was the perfect clothes horse then as now and would wear these sometimes ridiculously extravagant creations as if she was in jeans and t-shirt down the local shops.

Photo Stolen vlistings

It wasn’t just Cher that Bob Mackie designed for though. Every star had at least one Bob Mackie gown in her wardrobe, from uber glam to sophisticated and elegant, to Las Vegas showgirl. He was the king of amazing.

Photo Stolen stylenews

Then Bob Mackie decided to go with the designer flow and introduce fragrance.

Photo stolen Fragrantica

According to Fragrantica; An Oriental Floral fragrance for women. Mackie was launched in 1991.
Top notes are pineapple, raspberry and peach
Middle notes are tuberose, orange blossom, narcissus, jasmine, ylang-ylang and rose
Base notes are sandalwood, amber, patchouli, musk and vetiver

My question to you all is, HAS THIS BEEN REFORMULATED?

An aqueous, light, fresh scent. I was expecting to have to spray this and walk through the mist because it was going to be a blockbuster. If this is how it smelled in 1991 was it not a ground breaking fragrance? Cartier Declaration wasn’t released till 1998 and I thought that it was the original aqueous fragrance? Does anyone know because I am baffled. What I’m smelling from a bottle bought from a reputable online store is pretty much the ubiquitous pastel water that we are being given currently instead of perfume. WTF?

Don’t get me wrong this is pretty and very wearable, and I’m over reacting because I was expecting something different. I could see this being a go to daywear scent, weekends, cinema and dinners. It doesn’t scream, it blends and melds. Now that I’ve given myself a decent spritz there is charm and intrigue.  I am surprised though that this is what Bob Mackie chooses as his signature scent for women.

Thanks for coming along on my fragrant carpet ride. Underneath is a super Bob Mackie retrospective video. You’ll LOVE it.

Portia xx

Kerosene by John Pegg

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Hey lovers of fragrance and all stinks,

I have had on the periphery of my vision a man who has taken his amateur love of scent and his reviews of same to the next level. He came from factory work in his home near Detroit, Michigan but was bored and, for a reason that remains unexplained as far as I have read (because in my mind there should be a catalyst for such change), decided to chuck the old life for a new and more creative one. He has become Musician, Artist, YouTube Fragrance Reviewer and now self taught Perfumer and purveyor of fine fragrance. There has been a lot of talk about Kerosene and the man behind the moniker John Pegg on the scentbloggosphere since he made the jump.

Photo Stolen CafeFleurBon

It’s a good story: humble, ultra sexy mechanic/processing plant worker wants more; throws his old crap life for new; becomes obsessed with something ephemeral and impossible to break into; believes in himself and works hard to overcome obstacles of lack of education and contacts in said profession; tears through all barriers like they were tissue paper; lives his dream; becomes a financial and critical success; in doing so helps the world around him understand that hard work and perseverance pays off. It should be a movie, or at least a novel.

Photo Stolen thisblogreallystinksperfume

If there is a movie there would be Jake Gyllenhall, Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gosling all fighting for the right to play John Pegg I bet. If this had happened 20 years ago it would have been William Hurt, Judd Nelson and Tom Cruise fighting. MMMMMMMMM sorry just had a momentary in head movie experience of the 6 actors fighting in a jelly wrestling pool while at their physical peaks and in Speedos.

Anyway, there are a bunch of things to like about the Kerosene brand. Currently, every bottle is hand spray painted by John Pegg, making not only the juice but the bottles works of art, every one different and gorgeous. So if you get in now and keep a spare bottle and this brand takes off like I think it will, you will have something extraordinary and valuable in the future. Also, John Pegg is reputed to be a complete sweetheart; heart throb, talented and nice guy! SCORE! The price point is incredibly reasonable at $140 for 100ml on MinNewYork. And, lastly, but most importantly, the juice is getting rave reviews everywhere.

Photo Stolen edle-essenzen

I wanted to see for myself so I ordered a 3 piece sample set from either Posh Peasant, Perfumed Court or Surrender To Chance but I can’t tell you which because I decanted the samples into spray vials so I could try them like they’d come from an atomiser and didn’t note their heritage. I will give my first impressions of each fragrance over a 30 minute period, then the notes on MinNewYork, and then my review of the story through my nose. Remember that my skin and nose will give different results to yours but this is a good starting point.

KEROSENE: CREATURE Tree Lopping and Wood Chipping, Cutting Floor Tiles, Electricity Sparks, Tin, Green, Fresh.
MinNewYork Notes: Sweet birch, Mint, Lemon, Jasmine, Green tea, Sage, Violet leaves, Cypress, Cedar, Patchouli, and Moss.

Photo Stolen MinNY

HAH! As you can see my nose was somewhere else for the opening of this. I am laughing though because those were the things I smelled. On my skin it is an interesting cacophony of bitter, industrial, and parklands during its lengthy opening sequence which definitely deserves the name Creature, what a blockbuster. It calms down to a softer, more rationalised with the notes, greenish wood scent that is pretty for both men and women while still retaining its sharp freshness. I am going to try this on my partner to see if it smells as good as I think it will on someone else.

KEROSENE: WHIPS AND ROSES Green, Nearly Stale Water, Darkness, Broken Branch, Humus, Rose Petals, Pot Pouri.
MinNewYork Notes: Bergamot, Blood Orange, Rose, Jasmine, Gardenia, Orris, Sandalwood, Musk and Leather.

Photo Stolen MinNY

This has been a bit of a failure on my skin. The story just didn’t blossom for me and turned totally skin scent very quickly, them pretty much gone. Notoriously a scent eater, this one was gobbled up too quickly. I am going to come back and try this another day, it could be me, the day, something I ate. Currently though all Whips and Roses gets is a Meh.
UPDATE: First spritz gets eaten quickly but as I lose it and spritz again the scent becomes a cling on, still pumping soft dusty roses and a spicy, suede-ish leather for hours.

KEROSENE: COPPER SKIES Coffee, Caramel, Biscuits, Tea, Flowers, Sweet & Savoury, Bar B Q.
MinNewYork Notes: Amber, Cedar, Sweet tobacco leaves, Honeycomb, Basil and Cloves

Photo Stolen MinNY

This time my experience is not so different from the notes. I am not a gourmand fan but this is suitably off the beaten track story wise that I am completely enamored. A constantly changing panoply of rich and delicious scents with a slight salty/savoury edge that keeps me coming back to check where it’s going now. One minute it’s sweet baking, the next sharp, smoky and woodsy, then savoury, then mixtures of the 3 in cycles. This is the one for me. I am going to use up my sample very quickly and buy a bottle. Perfect cool spring/autumn wear and definitely winter wear. You should at least sample this baby, WOW!

Hopefully this has given you a little peek into 3 of the 5 Kerosene fragrances. They are worth a look see at the very least. If you want more info there is a wonderful interview on EssensaNobile and another on PerfumeAngels; do have a look.

Happy and fragrant thoughts to you,

Portia xx

PS If you are wondering why the title has changed, John Pegg was in touch and the fragrance brand name is Kerosene. His YouTube name is Kerosene Trewthe and I was mistaken. He was even lovely about giving me the note. I am a fan.