Fragrance

Eau de Sud / Muscs Koublai Khan Reviews

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Hey gang,

Today I’m trying 2 new scents

Eau De Sud by Annick Goutal

eau-du-sud-annick-goutal-fragranticaFragrantica

 

Eau de Sud according to the Annick Goutal site, and I think they’re pretty spot on;

A symphony of citrus accords melts into slightly peppery and woody notes. Mandarin orange, bergamot, verbena, mint and basil. An invigorating trail of scent that recalls the creator’s voyages to Provence and Tuscany.

It is a 1996 unisex fragrance and both the mens and womens bottles contain the same stuff, usually you can find the mens at a much better price online. Citrus is not something I wear very much so I am looking to put one in the fragrance wardrobe. It starts out beautifully tart and crisp and whipish, at about the 15 minute mark it starts to warm for me, maybe the sandalwood and vanilla making an early appearance, it has maintained a pretty linear dry down and at 2.5 hours is barely there, almost just smelling a prettier me.

As always Fragrantica is my go to for the basic notes & accords with real people reviews and Now Smell This gives a more in depth and interesting review.

 

Musc Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens,

Sir Edward John Pointer, The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon photo stolen from AGNSW

Muscs Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens is one of the fragrances often referred to on the scentbloggosphere as a reference fragrance for sexy, dark and dirtiness. There is said to be a great disparity between the bell jar original and the export versions and unfortunately I don’t have 2 for comparison and as I am using a sample from Perfume Niche there is no way of telling which one I have. Honestly though, I don’t smell anything even remotely sexual, dirty or dark. I smell deliciously deep patchouli, amber and musk, I think. It is warm and resinous like wood that’s just been waxed and polished but it does stay that way for hours, gloriously. I like Muscs Koublai Khan a LOT!! I think I will order 10mls and really give it a whirl.

Fragrantica has the important stuff and Confessions Of A Mad Perfumista and BoisDeJasmin offer 2 very different reactions to the whole mystery and mystique of this fragrance

What an awesome and fragrant week I’ve had. Just looking back through the stuff that I’ve sniffed and what you’ve read doesn’t even cover half of it. I think I should have asked Evie C if we could have called the blog ScentWhores or StinkPigs because it’s like having to write a food diary to show you how much you eat. Blogging has woken me to the fact that I am Scent-ual. I hope you are enjoying the ride.

It’s Thursday and that means GIVEAWAY COMPETITION time. you have to tell us the last perfume you tried that was full bottle worthy, why and did you buy it yet. The winner will be judged on Saturday night 7.3.12 around 10pm Sydney EST

We are giving away approximately

1.5ml JINX by Tommi Sooni decanted spray sample

1.5ml L’Eau D’Ambre by L Artisan Parfumeur decanted spray sample

1.5ml City of Angels by Royal Apothic decanted spray sample

1.5ml Fantasia de Fleurs by Creed decanted spray sample

1ml Fig by Aftelier Perfumes remains of manufacturers sample spray

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

ALSO you need to go and read TheCandyPerfumeBoy today he has been chhosing scents for that Nicki Minaj songstress that I LOVE!

Just for fun I’ve added this L’Instant Guerlain ad because…..

After Dinner Sniff

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey Hey,

How are you all? All good here. Really, deliciously good and well and happy. I hope you are too, if not, it gets better.

A few mates were around for dinner the other night and I thought we’d try something fun and different. Usually it’s word games but TSO (the significant other) is ESL (English second language) so not really fun or fair for him. This night it was decided that I’d bring five very different fragrances out and we’d all get to chose four each, because that’s all our wrists and elbows covered, yeah? A special thanks to Alice, Jin and Sam for their help. Mwaaa

I have a confession to make, I was boozy. Not drunk but certainly unable to drive, speaking was OK thinking was fuzzy.

Photo stolen from Omag

Trying to be ever so scientific, and making a complete balls of it, I wrote our initials under the 5 scents and was to put the body placement after the initials, so each of us could put three words with each of our choices. To that point we were good. we all sprayed with gay abandon and gave our arms a minute to settle, then I realised I’d put Alice in my spaces and had to rework the whole thing. By the time we’d sorted me out the fragrances had shed their top notes and begun to live. We are none of us trained in perfume nor are we sophisticated when it comes to perfumes yet but this was a lot of fun and we all had a red hot go, and a laugh.

The perfumes

JINX EDP by Tommi Sooni (a pretty new Australian outfit that looks set for the big time)

Photo Stolen from Tommi Sooni

The group was most impressed with this one. It is the most perfumey to my mind. A lovely big floral opening with the aldehydes singing beautifully. All perfumes that open with aldehydes give me a Chanel No. 5 rush at the beginning that I LOVE. Like being strapped into a ride at a fun park, all the expectation of fun and fear but ready for anything. Jinx has a fig standing right in the middle of its high notes too and is a little more spicy in my nose than No 5, maybe its the ginger? This is an extremely wearable fragrance and pretty. After an hour on my hungry skin it is very close to the body, quiet enough that you could wear it to work even in a cramped office, but without being a clean or laundry scent. It has a vintage and rich feel with modern spice. For someone who wants to smell deliciously and nonchalantly gorgeous.

Some of our words were; Floral, Secretive, Lotion, Serenade, Cleaner, Soap, Fleeting, Soft, Moonlight

Photo Stolen from Tommi Sooni

Fragrantica has notes and no one on the first 3 pages of Google have reviewed other than to repeat manufacturers press releases.

FIG EDP by Aftelier Perfumes (Mandy Aftel is a perfumer and perfumery teacher)

Photo Stolen from Aftelier Perfumes

This is a big fat spicy fig with pastry and some booze. Oh my! This is sexy and powerful. The group though was polarised. It was a definate love/hate scent with one person having to wash it off. Honesty compels me to admit to this being my favourite sample of the night. I could not, and can not, get enough of it. Putting it back on to review now I am absolutely and utterly transported. Oh dear, FBW! A little update, after 6 hours I still have Aftelia Fig powering away, very linear, almost the same as when I spritzed but quieter. MMMMM

The group came up with these; (Dry) Sauna, Spicy, Warm, Dirty, 70’s, Heat

Photo Stolen from Aftelier Perfumes

Fragrantica can give you notes and history Olfactory Obsessed Purple Paper Planes both give almost the same polarised views that we had here after dinner, I love that.

MURE & MUSC EXTREME by L’Artisan Parfumeur

Photo Stolen from L’Artisan Perfumeur

This was really popular at our dinner table. I hadn’t tried it till now because it was the fragrance that everyone else wanted to try.To me it smells like expensive room freshener. Sorry. My skin and nose clearly reacts differently to my friends who raved about Mure & Musc Extreme. Interesting that two people at the table wrote vanilla and lemon but there’s no note of either, just Blackcurrant, Blueberry and Musk.

The table wrote: Young, Vanilla, Light, Beautiful, Lemony, Moody, Challenging

Photo Stolen from http://www.achat-grenoble.com

Fragrantica for the background Now Smell This tells about the whole Mure & Musc series, interesting reading.

UNE ROSE by Frederic Malle

Photo Stolen from Mecca Cosmetics

This is a famous, go to Rose scent. Talk about it includes the incorporation of the whole rose, petal, leaf, stem and root. It is deliciously dark to me and packs an enormous punch, I am LOVING how loud this fragrance is today. I remember the other night that this lasted well on my skin and though it changed over time, maintained its uneasy dark/light ambivalence. This is something you should try for your own pure enjoyment. I’m not sure I would purchase a bottle of Une Rose but I think a 5-10ml decant would get used in 12 months.

Some of the tables words: Strong, Bitter, Dark, Rose, Old, Amazing

Photo Stolen from Frederic Malle

Fragrantica for the details and Perfume Smelling Things does an awesome review including interesting perfumer notes

01 LE MAROC POUR ELLE by Tauer Perfumes (Niche perfumeries nice guy, sidelining in genius)

Photo Stolen from NosyGirl

This was Andy Tauer’s first fragrance and it is amazing that he could make this incredible scent. Le Maroc Pour Elle (Morocco for Girls) is a warm, woody and spicy floral, lasts forever on my skin and wanders through its life quite linearly till eventually I get to the base which is deep, dark and sweet. This fragrance is not for the faint-hearted, it is bold.

A very interesting blend from the table: Intriguing, Leather, Pooh, Calming, Wood, Spicy, Incense,  Rubbish, Fetid, Punchy

Photo Stolen from Tauer Perfumes

Fragrantica has this to say and Legerdenez wrote way back in 2006.

Here is a present for reading this far. I love this commercial. J’Adore DIOR

Scents Of Memory, Big Time Floral Self Love!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey all,

Wasn’t Evie C’s blog awesome yesterday? I am so happy for her. Now that she is enthroned in her new home (read Cape Cod Mansion. Party at Evie C’s!!!) we’ll be seeing an Evie C post every Monday!! YAY!

I have a bunch of fragrances that I wear only for myself, even though I may be wearing them in company. They are either personal memory jogs, scents that are too out there for close contact with other human beings on a number of different levels, fragrances that I feel like certain internally different people when I wear them (a bit like the United Fragrances Of Tara) or maybe just because I don’t want to be interrupted while enjoying the story they tell me in olfactoric terms. I know, I just invented a word, call me William Shakespeare and paint me plum. This is not a complete list but a smattering of ones I’ve put on today and yesterday.

Byzance by Rochas; In 1987 this perfume was released and my parents bought it for my younger sister. It is a dizzying Floral Chypre confection full of spices, woods and flowers. Byzance has such gusto and is quite a force of nature. So 80’s in its size and character that it is almost a parody. When I put it on it fills the room with memories. Mum used to steal it too and when both girls were wearing Byzance the whole house smelled like it had been transported to my idea, at the time, of a night market in India, Saudi Arabia or Persia. With dancing women wearing enormous copper jeweled bracelets and gauzy nothings and the mustachioed men all armed and dangerous. I recently bought a replacement 100ml EDT bottle that is so far inferior to my last Mini EDP that it fair makes me want to weep. I have corrected the error this evening ordering a BIG, FAT 100ml EDP. Budget BLOWN! We are not eating till next Friday, we’ll have to scour the suburbs bins for left overs. Fragrantica and Bonkers About Perfume can give you notes and stories and reviews.

Sung by Alfred Sung; In 1986 the world was first graced with this huge Classic Floral. It is like wearing a jewel bright, shoulder padded jacket with a peplum and gold buttons, spike heels and has a certain breath of air in the hair. Unlike Byzance though, Sung is dreamy and floaty, there is no earth or spice market, just fruit, flowers and sky. Nothing smoky here. It is flowers and the lightest of woods, vanilla and balms. I always feel transported somewhere beautiful when I wear Sung. It has probably been reformulated 100 times but all those past formulations I have no reference for, sorry, this Sung is the one. A bright coruscating trill of warm summer that leaves me dazzled by its effervescent radiance. This is a good Nana nap fragrance for me, I can really lose myself in the scent as I drift off. What’s more, this juice is CHEAP! Fragrantica and Fragrance Bouquet have the nitty gritty and stories, go see them, you’ll learn stuff.

Salvador Dali  by Salvador Dali; We seem to be jumping back in time by a year for each of these scents, and here we are in 1985! Here we have a rerun of a fragrant milestone. Salvador Dali and his perfumista wife Gala had designed this glorious Floral Chypre together before she tragically died in 1983, it was so successful as a limited edition that Dali decided to make it commercially available. I have only heard of the original scent and must content myself with the modern remake until I win the lottery. It is hardly a settle for though. Rose, citrus, musk and jasmine with a breathy vanilla and musk all give a lighter and lovelier tone and is a little more modern than our last 2 offerings, though it does have a slightly grungy undertone if you look for it. There is air between the notes here giving it room to show itself to best advantage. Very linear and it is not a long lasting scent, maximum 2 hours on my skin, which is great because by then I want a change usually. I am sending you to the Fragrantica Dali page, the whole Dali shebang.

Lastly I want to offer you a fragrance that came to me through another love. A few years ago one of the guys I was in ballet school with as a kid made it into the Vienna State Opera Ballet. At the time I was living in the UK so it was the work of a moment to trot over and spend a week with him. Hey David! Of course, he was at rehearsals all day so I was largely left to explore a foreign city alone and without the local language, not even a sprinkling. Fortunately Vienna at that time was a lavish and glorious city with friendly, welcoming people who were used to language dunderheads coming up to them and trying to make themselves understood. It was not a big city then either and mostly you kept within walking distance of the Ringstrasse when doing touristy stuff, so I felt cocooned within a friendly and safe environment. So that is how I met and fell in love with Empress Elisabeth, on my solitary wanders around Vienna. Something she would become famous for as her madness descended into its depths, walking till she dropped of exhaustion. Famed as the most beautiful woman in Europe at the time, the first at the jumps in the hunt (riding side saddle no less), an exercise junkie who had terrible trouble getting to sleep, Creed made a perfume especially for her. It was Fantasia de Fleurs. As soon as I found out the story of this perfume I wanted it in my fragrance wardrobe. It is the most hauntingly beautiful perfume I own, certainly not everyone’s cup of tea. Surprising that the Empress was wearing a bouquet of flowers, rose and iris, rather than a soliflor and it is tooth achingly sweet. As with most Creed perfumes, fleeting, at most I get an hour of scent but the joy of holding this heavy embossed bottle and spritzing with abandon is enormous, so spritz again right. Fragrantica and I Smell Therefore I Am will give you notes, breakdowns and buying ideas, Abigail is also the Posh Peasant where you can get samples and decants of these and a gazillion other things.

I’m thrilled you’ve shared my fragrant thoughts today. Do you have a selfish perfume that you wear only for you but sometimes in company? Please tell us in the comments. We are dying to read your secret loves,

Portia xxx

All photos today are stolen from Fragrantica with these exceptions

Byzance ad stolen from PharmacyAtHand

Sung stolen from stylebugs

Empress Elisabeth stolen from Wikipedia

I am not affiliated with any of the companies I mention in my posts.

Perfume for the musk-averse?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello – I’m the laggardly half of Australianperfumejunkies.  I’m the yin to Portia’s gorgeously positive and vivacious yang.  Where Portia describes herself as a perfume ‘slut’, I’m determined to find ‘the one’.  I’ll fill my cupboards with a million decants before I invest in a full bottle that doesn’t speak to me fully and completely.  I’m not a perfumista.  I’m just a somewhat anally-retentive civilian who wants to find a great scent, is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of possibilities out there and needs a systematic way to reach the holy grail of a signature scent.  And I don’t like musk.

This caveat would seem to narrow the field substantially as musk is apparently found in 90% of fine fragrances (according to perfumes-world.com).  I don’t think I’m alone in this aversion, however.  My hypothesis is that all those people who claim to wretch when they pass a perfume counter are musk-averse.  There’s even a celebrated perfumer (Christopher Brosius) who claims to hate musk and leaves it out of most of his perfumes.  You might say I’m in search of a signature scent for people who claim not to like perfume.  I’m convinced it can be found.   I hope there’ll be more than one but I’ll be happy with one.

Adventure One – The Quiet Perfumes

Lists, lists, lists – perfumistas love lists. What better place to start than with a pre-culled selection from those who know better.  Portia popped my perfume-cherry with Luca and Tania’s Little Book of Perfumes so I’m going to start with one of their lists.   Since musk is typically a bold, animalistic scent, I thought Luca and Tania’s favourite ‘quiet’ perfumes would be the place to start.  Surely ‘quiet’ is something of an antonym to ‘musk’ in the perfume world?

A pre-screening of the candidates for evidence of musk on Fragrantica.com proved this to be not necessarily the case and I have had to reject half of the original ten for offences against the musk-averse.

Here are the remainders – Turin and Sanchez’s favourite ‘quiet’ perfumes sans musk:

  • Bois d’Encens (Armani Prive)
  • Commes des Garcons 3 (Commes des Garcons)
  • Lime, Basil & Mandarin (Jo Malone)
  • Hermessence Osmanthe Yunnan (Hermes)
  • Timbuktu (L’Artisan Parfumeur)

I’m going to wallow in these perfumes for the next two weeks and my favourite amongst them will be the beginning of my next adventure.  If there’s anyone out there who thinks they’re musk averse and has found a favourite I would love to hear from you.  Evie C.

City of Angels by Royal Apothic

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hiya,

Thanks for dropping by.

Photo stolen from LayoutSparks.com

Recently at the Smell Good, Do Good sale (still going with awesome stuff available at knock down prices, NO POSTAGE COSTS) I purchased for a ridiculous price a nearly full bottle of 2010 release; City of Angels by Royal Apothic. It was the gorgeous Arielle from Scents of Self that I bought it from and she does a great review here. There has been so much sniffing, dabbing, spraying, whiffing, wafting and general stinkery going on here that I’ve not had a chance to really wear, let alone write about this little gem. And then in my head I go, “Is it a little gem?” I am ambivalent, utterly, and most unlike me, things around here are usually love/hate. There is little space in my head for gray areas. I am too busy (read lazy) for reevaluating and re-deciding stuff every time it crosses my path. Unfortunately I don’t have that kind of personality.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Having worn this three, maybe four, times now; to work and at home while at the computer I think i have a handle on it. The initial rush of this fragrance is entrancing, like a citrus burst in a fresh juicing shop. Interestingly, there is no citrus in the notes. Fragrantica gives only 3 notes; Sea Water, Eucalyptus, Jasmine. That’s it? I rarely wear a scent so light and floaty, so decidedly feminine, and now that I can read the notes it does make sense, but my nose still believes there’s some citrus there. Perfect for not interfering with restaurant, public transport or cinema patrons. City of Angels will not be remembered for being anything but a good solid go-to fragrance, you know you will smell good, and inoffensive.

Photo stolen from YourCaringAngels.com

After an hour it is all but lost to me but  last night after finishing my gig and saying goodbye to 2 of the girls, they stopped after kissing me because the second had asked what perfume I was wearing and the first chimed in about how lovely I smelled and what was it. One of my favourite bar men had commented earlier but I find an early compliment, though astonishing and delicious in itself, often happens before the sillage has settled to a decent circumference after application. Its the compliments later in the evening that really need to be recorded for posterity.

This is a cheapy, cheap fragrance, just $34 at Royal Apothic. The bottle is so gorgeous with its choice of splash or atomiser in your box. There is quite a fuss about atomisers but because I’m heavy handed with fragrance anyway, and this one is very light and fresh (without feeling like a laundry scent), I can’t imagine the bottle lasting me through Autumn.

Anthropologie says and I think it must have been in the Press Release because Fragrantica is verbatim.

City of Angels: a seaside breeze of eucalyptus and night-blooming jasmine (FRESH)

Photo stolen from LayoutSparks.com

I could totally see this being used by guys and girls as their go to work, dinner or a lazy weekend fragrance. It’s clean and fresh without being the usual bland nothing that that implies. The jasmine is so crisp and eucalyptus so clean that people even in the most stayed and cramped office situations would find little to complain of, yet lovely and lingering enough to keep you feeling that you are fully dressed, including perfume. It does linger, even though I couldn’t smell it at all after 2 hours. Late this morning when we awoke I was told that a trace of some yummy smell, not me, was there but close to the body. So that’s 17 hours. Impressive for something that initially feels so fleeting and wafty.

Thanks for reading what’s in my mind,

What’s in your mind? Do you have a go-to clean scent? Is there a memory or favourite clean scent story you’d like to share? I’d love to read it, so leave me a message.

Portia xx

SEX, FRAGRANCE and quick stuff I smelled this week!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Sex and fragrance. There is a lot written about whether a scent is made with a man or woman in mind, whether it will work on either or both of the sexes. This note for her, this note for him, this combination for them. More and more I’m finding that scents are universal and I’m pretty sure the fragrance doesn’t care who is wearing it.

Photo stolen from canihelpyousir.com

It’s quite deliciously confronting when a woman wears a traditionally masculine fragrance and the boys make you take a second sniff, and look, if they have crossed over into girl germs territory. I like the dichotomy, especially something uber the-other-sex on a great, fun, clever and healthy specimen of personhood. It can give them an edge.

Photo stolen from allwomenstalk.com

Recently at one of my Turbo Trivia gigs I was gifted a cheapy mans fragrance that was sweet, floral and ambery. Way too cloying for my taste but I went to one of the butcher specimens of twenty something tradie manhood in the room and asked him if he would guinea pig it for me. Shock, Horror! He loved it! So much so that he asked if I decided on calm reflection that it wasn’t for me, could he have it. His girlfriend would LOVE him wearing it. It’s nice when people surprise you. And on him it WAS delicious. Everything that on me was shrill, headache inducing, tooth rottingly sweet and budget; on him, smelt like a deliciously gourmand million dollars, thank you very much. If you’re reading Chris, it’s yours buddy.

Photo stolen from

Photo stolen from Hethu’s Techno Babble

Also, making my partner in crime Evie C wear mens fragrances that I like on me, I adore them on her. They are WAY chic-er and it gives these tired and sometimes boring masculine fragrances new nuances and makes them bright and sparkly again to my nose. Which, as we’ve established, is functioning but not nose worthy.

Photo stolen from The Punch

THINGS I SMELLED THIS WEEK, QUICKIES!!

L’Eau d’Ambre by L Artisan Parfumeur; OMG! Launched all the way back in 1978 this is still the most gloriously deep and sweet amber with dark hints of posh nasty. Autumn is here and L’Eau D’Ambre is the perfect companion for it. Dead sexy.  Fragrantica, OlfactoriasTravels both have this to say, check them out too. This was one of my Smell Good, Do Good super cheap, no postage costs, amazingly awesome value, pick ups. I am SO happy with my purchase.

L’Aimant EDT by Coty; I already have the cologne in this and wanted to see if the EDT was different. Both of them are excellently like the Chanel No 5 but a little dirtier, they have impressive sillage and the L’Aimant EDT lasts for a lot longer than the current No 5 EDP that I have but equally to a vintage No 5 EDT. They are RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP!!! This is an awesome switcheroo. Created in 1927 and still good. Fragrantica, muse in wooden shoes both have their say. I’ve not smelled the vintage stuff so have no comparison point but I think these 2 versions of L’Aimant are yummy. And they’re so cheap that if you hate them on you they will always work as room freshener.

Tresor by Lancome; Hello big fat floriental!! This perfume was released in 1990 and you can feel the 1980’s breathing down its neck. That glorious spicy, sizzling, peachy floral extravaganza that is still a favourite at department store Lancome counters everywhere. It’s so wearable, juicy and gorgeous. This is perfume for the masses because, quite simply, it smells good. Here is Fragrantica, and Now Smell This does a wonderful fragrance review with knowledge far exceeding mine. Please check them out.

Hindu Kush by La Via Del Profumo; This is a power pack of memories. For years I had a partner who had moved back to India to run the family business. So for 10 years I was in and out of India quite a lot, and was fortunate enough to travel from Kerala to Kashmir, Macleod Gang to Chennai and much in between. This fragrance is a flood of memories for me, it was quite a shock to wear it and feel things long buried.

As AbdesSalaam Attar, owner of the compagny “La Via del Profumo” says on his website

Close your eyes and breathe in, Hindu Kush is like taking a walk in an Indian market, where clouds of incense smoke escape through the open doors of temples to be mixed with the perfumes of the east, ginger, cumin, nutmeg and pepper. Take a step inside and all is peace, silence and meditation, take a step outside and you find the crowd rushing here and there, noises and confusion.

This perfume is the real deal, a must try on any olfactory journey. Sanchez and Turin give it only four stars in their guide but I give it a 5 star rating. Awesome, majestic, dusty, dry, spicy and sweaty. It’s like gazing at the Taj Mahal or praying with the Dalai Lama or taking tea in the gardens of Deeg Palace or riding in a river boat drinking Kingfisher beer. All of these things and more are contained so let your mind wander as it will.

Thanks for sharing my fragrant thoughts,

I am so happy you dropped by, please leave me a message.

Portia xx

L’Eau D’Ambre, Tresor and L’aimant photos stolen from Fragrantica

Hindu Kush photo stolen from La Via Del Profumo

Charity, GIVEAWAY, Cher

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hiya all,

Something that really caught my attention recently was the Smell Good, Do Good Campaign on Arielle’s Scents of Self site. Didn’t hear about it? It’s still going and there are some great bargains to be had. Some discontinued gems, lovely albatrosses that just didn’t get worn and even some delicious pieces that perfumers have donated to raise much needed money for Refuge. I went on and got a couple of bargains myself and am MIGHTY pleased. They wouldn’t even let me pay for postage!!

Here’s what they said at Scents of Self

Welcome to the Smell Good, Do Good perfume sale! Every cent of the selling price of these perfumes will go to Refuge, a British domestic violence charity that provides safe houses for women and children escaping domestic violence.

My Photo

I picked up an Aftelier Perfumes Apricot and Lemon Candle in a Tin, Royal Apothic City of Angels and L’Artisan Perfumer L’Eau d’Ambre. Pretty good stuff eh!

You should mosey on down and have a little look see yourself. Maybe the one perfume you’ve wanted for AGES is there, cheap, no postage!!

Last night a dear friend David (Margeaux), my best friend (Kath) and I got together for a special moment. Margeaux has been a long time fan and friend of the amazing singer, Oscar winning actress, clothes horse and general superstar Cher. He followed her farewell tour around the world and saw her do it about a million times. eventually they mat and his home is a shrine to the mega star. Huge autographed photos. the Barbie doll collection, every moment of video, celluloid or vinyl ever to have had Cher grace it is in his possession. Trolling among the fragrance distributors, bargain sites and uber sought after pieces online stores, as I do each day, I happened upon a rare and gorgeous must have that Margeaux did not yet have. A brand new, unopened, vintage coffret of Cher Uninhibited! with a 100ml bottle of body lotion and a 10ml bottle of fragrance EDT. Quell SURPRISE!! it was launched back in November 1987, and it’s a huge aldehydic floral with a dirty vanilla dry down that takes a while to arrive. Kath videoed the opening ceremony and our reactions to this awesome fragrance. WAIT TILL YOU SEE IT! It’s currently in post production and we should have it up over the weekend. CAMPERAMA!! Gay squared!

I have a confession to make, a couple actually. In my celebuscent collection I have 3 favourites that get trotted out quite regularly, there are more but these are the 3 that I reach for often. They are,

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely; when I first tried this I thought it was an absolute pile of shit, couldn’t understand what people saw in it and frankly wanted to give good old SJP a brick in the face hello. Then one day I saw it for a ridiculously knock down price, like they were practically paying people to take it, respritz…. love, Love, LOVE!! weird right? Now I adore the stuff and would be sad to not have it in my fragrance wardrobe.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Queen Latifah Queen; when I saw the name, the celeb and the bottle I didn’t care what it smelled like, I just wanted to have it. I love Queen Latifah, she is hot and cool, smart and sassy and not afraid to be a solid girl and GORGEOUS! If she put out a fragrance I was going to trust that she’d not sucker punch me. and she came through. I love it. Cheap, cheerful, lasts forever, smells great and nobody else has it around here. PERFECT!

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Jessica Simpson Fancy Nights; please let me stay at the party. I like being a perfumista. You all can say and think what you like but this fragrance rocks. On my skin it’s like the dirty bitch, slutty sister of Shalimar, my all time favourite perfume, all dressed up and ready to break hearts. Jessica Simpson has some seriously good people around her.

GIVEAWAY!! In retrospect of this week and in anticipation of our 1000th visitor we have decided to do a giveaway. This will be a regular Thursday thing hopefully, but being our 13th day of daily blogging and already we are set to reach 1000 visitors we will go a little CRAZY!!! Yeah? A little sample pack of some stuff we’ve talked about.

My Photo

The GIVEAWAY includes:

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.

YOU must leave a message about your all time favourite celebrity fragrance, and why, before midnight Sunday 31st March 2012 Sydney, Australia time. Best <50 word answer will be a WINNER. Could it be any easier? NO. Get to it!

Don’t forget our COMPETITION being drawn on Saturday night/Sunday morning either

Samples and Decants, Who, How, Where, Why!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hi All,

Lovely crisp day here in Sydney, Australia. Autumn is closing in upon us and while not believing scents should follow the seasons, today I thought to start with something warming and deep. As a perfumista in waiting, I am still trying to get my nose around many scents and fragrances, still don’t quite understand how each note should be working or permeating a fragrance. Then, on top of that, because so much of fragrance is in fact science, as opposed to nature, the same way to reach a natural scent can be taken by millions of different routes, and is. Meaning that though the notes of a fragrance may say patchouli, it is often the idea of patchouli in its many incarnations rather than patchouli per se (Latin meaning; Of, in or by itself) that you are smelling.

Obviously the kind of knowledge that a blogger like 1000 Fragrances (sadly this blog is now closed) has is gained through a lifetime of study and experience. I am clearly not that person but I would like to have my nose across as many fragrances as possible so that my personal value judgment can have more gravitas. Evie C and I have been talking of doing a course in the near future also (more on that down the track) but until that time I want to smell as many scents as possible.

To do that, we perfumistas and perfumistas in waiting, or junkies, fumeheads, fragrance whores, etc etc often buy, instead of spending all our hard earned cash on a full bottle of everything we like, a smaller sample size (1-5ml), or decant (5-30ml), to test the water and see if we love it. Conversely, we may have sampled something and LOVED it, yet there would not be the chance to wear it more that once or twice a year so could not see the need for buying a full bottle (FB). Or maybe the scent is a reference scent, giving you the best (by popular opinion or your own) of a certain style of fragrance, or a note that you are interested in, by which to judge all others. Maybe you DESPERATELY want this fragrance but are just too poor to own it, there are fragrances out there going for thousands of dollars. I KNOW!! RIGHT!

Sometimes a fragrance IS great, you love it and want it but there are more pressing things on your must have list, maybe the bottle is ugly, dumb, grotesque, could be you like getting things in the mail from all over the world, or perhaps you are just plain old addicted. There is also the problem of discontinued or reformulated scents, you can get some of the most important ones if you go to decant sites but would never get the opportunity otherwise. Maybe you just live too far from New York or Paris and want to smell what others are currently talking about on the scentbloggosphere.

That’s just a few of the reasons. Anyway, my first introduction to the art of buying samples and decants was through The Posh Peasant, Abigail who runs it is friendly and helpful. Even if you can’t find what you’re looking for on her site, ASK HER, she has almost everything and will purchase for you if you promise to do a decent ($40-50) shop of her stuff when she gets it in for you. Fair enough! A new set arrived yesterday!! See below.

There are others that I use too now SurrenderToChance,  Lucky Scent, My Perfume Samples and The Perfume Niche and there are more but these are the guys I use regularly. You can even buy pre organised sets, which is awesome because they’ve done all the sniff work for you. Maybe you’d like to understand the way violets or heliotrope meander through a fragrance, on most of these sites you will find a set of perfume samples that are the best or unusual in their category. Simple? Yes. Do me, and you, a favour though. Don’t order a new set until your original set has arrived and you have smelt every one. Otherwise you’ll end up with HUNDREDS!!! Most of them unsmelt. Money is too hard to make for you to be so profligate. This is one place you should be careful, give yourself a perfume budget, then do your UTMOST to stick to it. The perfume wormhole is an addictive and expensive place to get lost. Fragrance is not like houses, there is no resale value.

Most of the smaller or niche Fragrance Houses now do a Sample Set, Sample Program or some such. I love my sample sets (mostly purchased) from Olfactive Studio, Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes, Aftelier Perfumes, SMELLbent, Parfum d’Empire, La Via Del Profumo, LUSH Gorilla Perfumes, Tauer and these are just the ones off the top of my desk currently.

One thing I do find is that perfume does not smell the same dabbed as spritzed. Many times I’ve been totally let down by a fragrance in dab form to be then astounded and dazzled by it when spritzed. I have found a super cheap bottle, plastic bag and mini funnel online store that lets you buy in smaller quantities that 10,000, from about 10 upwards. They do wholesale and retail and accept paypal! AWESOME!! Better still they send to Australia! which so many refuse to do, at very reasonable rates. Proud Style is the crew you’re after. They seem genuinely happy to have my business, a plus. I also use My Perfume Samples because they have a great small order selection of a few sizes for great prices and cheap postage.

Currently I am slowly working my way through the Perfume Posse “Perfume 101” list. It’s a great beginners who’s who of the perfume style, note and some super gorgeous must sniffs.

So here’s what arrived from the Posh Peasant yesterday!

5ml Hermes; Hermessence Ambre Narguille

2.5ml Estee Lauder; Youth Dew Amber Nude , Serge Lutens; Muscs Kublai Khan

1.5ml Serge Lutens; Clair de Musc, Bvlgari; Au The Vert Extreme

Also, 2 x 1ml gift with purchase CB I Hate Perfumes; Russian Caravan Tea, Serge Lutens; Daim Blond

This is a week of mornings for testing. YAY!!!

Today; Hermes; Hermessence Ambre Narguille. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow

Thanks for dropping by and sharing my (OMFG lengthy) fragrant thoughts.

Have a great day,

Portia xx

Gucci by Gucci pour homme, LUSH Fragrance sample pack

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey Hey Hey

Today Evie C (AustralianPerfumeJunkies co-creator) and I had a super productive get together. There will soon be a widget so you can get email updates of our blog into your inbox (or spam perhaps) every day. that way you won’t have to come looking for us, we’ll find you! Evie C has been quiet till now as she is just settling back into Australian life after over 20 years absence globetrotting, first on her own and then with increasingly large family in tow. Evie will now be contributing every Monday and we are THRILLED that she has found a family home in which to put down firm roots.

We were chatting and trying on fragrances today, as we do when we get together, and were going through some of my previous posts and having a go at some stinkies that Eve had not encountered in her own search for fragrance perfection. She was a fragrant cloud by the time she left with Oud Caravan 3 by La Via Del Profumo on one elbow, City of Angels by Royal Apothic on same wrist (this review is coming up on Friday), Eau de Tommi Sooni 1 (EdTS1) by the Australian Tommi Sooni crew (I let Evie C have this sample because she was ENRAPTURED!!! It was like When Harry Met Sally in the diner), in her boobs we spritzed Casual by Paul Sebastian and lastly on her last remaining elbow it was Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme.

Gucci By Gucci Pour Homme with James franco

Above is the link to the advertisement which is worth seeing.

Photo stolen from perfumeseduction.com

I like this scent on me but it has this funny habit of disappearing on my skin for about 20 minutes after the top notes have faded, then it returns, a softly charming fragrance that is not controversial in any way, this is the right choice if you just want to smell good without making a fashion statement. An excellent office choice. It stays old-worldy and very barbershop throughout on my skin. I don’t get much floral, but that could be my lack of experience and knowledge.

On Evie C though we have a completely different story, it was GLORIOUS! So streamlined and grand, it was like a gorgeous art deco chrome and glass skyscraper of a fragrance. Almost mesmeric in its allure and very interesting, we would chat and keep coming back to smell her elbow. This should be a woman’s perfume, if Evie C is anything to go by. Evie is already like a Gucci/Ralph Laurent pin up woman, fresh and clever and beautiful. On me Gucci by Gucci pour Homme is quietly confident but on her it soars.

Here is what Scentrist had to say about Gucci By Gucci pour Homme, it is the only one I could find on a 3 page Google search.

Now, moving on, a few days ago arrived a package from LUSH. I had ordered the Gorilla Perfume Sample Set and 2 of their famous fragrances in Perfume Solid Stick Form!

My photo

My bestie BFF Kath W is a total LUSH convert and has been talking about their bath bombs and personal hygiene products for years. Even giving me LUSH gifts over the years which I took little notice of other than to be thrilled that she’d thought of me and then absently using her gifts, thinking more about the giver than gift. I was unaware that LUSH even did fragrance until one day, looking for something else, in the Sanchez/Turin perfume bible (Perfumes; The A_Z Guide) and I came across the Breath Of God reviewed by Tania Sanchez which got 5 stars and was called a smoked fruit fragrance and goes on to say, “Wearing it, I feel a sense of wonder that so late in the perfume game there still can be such profound invention”

Photo stolen from LUSH

Inspired by Simon’s travels to Tibet.

Simon created a masculine, musky fragrance, inspired by the incense, cedarwood, and sandalwood he smelled in Tibetan temples. He also made a lighter, floral feminine fragrance with lemon, melon and neroli for a ‘breath of fresh air’ – and then mixed them together. The (happy) end result was Breath of God.

Better together.

Breath of God is a divine perfume of two halves, the light, refreshing notes of Inhale and the smoky contemplation of Exhale; these are available exclusively on Gorilla Perfume, where you can get even closer to God.

Fragrantica says here

I have had the Solid perfume as a base after my three S’s today and had my nana nap with that on. Reapplying after my make up was done I also dabbed some of the Liquid on wrists, elbows, sternum and collar bones. When I came home transferring what was left of the sample Liquid into a fresh spray bottle to see if spritzing changed the outcome. It is a lovely scent with dark and light, wood and smoke, gas, incense, fruit and flowers and reminds me of my times in McLeod Gang in India’s Himalayas where the Dalai Lama has his compound (before it became the crazy tourist destination it has become and its streets going far down the hill and full of eco tourists, teachers that the Dalai Lama has brought in from every cultural corner of the earth to teach his second in command team to deal with the greater world and hordes of gap year trustafarians). It is evocative of happy, peaceful, interesting, exciting and adventurous times so I like it, maybe even love it, but I do not find myself enraptured, I will try it again next week, just for myself.

Tuca-Tuca is WAY more lovely to me, approachable, easy and fun. Unlike Breath of God which is an extreme fragrance.

I stole this directly from Fragrantica;

Like any good summer day, Tuca Tuca starts with a blast of fresh summer air, violet top notes accompany a rich floral feel from cassie absolute. As the sun reaches midday the warm vanilla and ylang ylang move the perfume into its middle notes and then, as the sun sets, we’re left with a slightly naughty violet leaf and vetivert bottom, the end to a perfect day!

I hope you’ve enjoyed tonights discourse. Tomorrow we’ll chat about learning of,  finding, and buying decants. Why you would, could and should.

Hopefully see you then,

Much love,

Portia xx

I am not affiliated in any way with any of the businesses in this post. All bolded sentences are stolen from other people’s sites.

Eau D”Epices by Tauer, Turbo Trivia

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Hey gang,

Very late chatting to you all this evening because I spent today organising my Turbo Trivia stuff. There were newspapers to read for current affairs,  some questions to finish, a bunch of weekly prizes for my Wednesday gig at Technology Park Hotel on Wyndham St, Alexandria, Sydney, papers to print, bag to organise, frock, hair and jewels to co ordinate, stockings and tights to have ready. You know? STUFF! None of it earth shattering or ground breaking but all necessary to keep my life and work moving along peacefully.

Tonight was AWESOME!! at Bar100, 100 George St, The Rocks, Sydney. We had 8 teams and a crew of friends and family there to play. I love the new room we’ve been placed in. Comfortable and fun.

Anyway, as I was slobbing around the house today doing all this stuff I spritzed, upon jumping out of bed to feed the boys breakfast, with old favourite Dreamer by Versace, which I’ve already reviewed here , because it’s such a comfortable frasgrance for me. Like an old chambray shirt or a comfy pair of high heels.

Later on, about lunchtime I felt like a freshen up. I went for a clean shirt smell. The boring, fresh, clean, floral/fruity nothing that is Paul Sebastian’s Casual for Women Parfum Spray. I don’t know why but this fragrance calls me quite regularly. When I first smelled it I thought it was nothing but air. It was about to go in the bin but before I bin a fragrance it gets one last chance in a wear for my nana nap in the afternoon. For me it’s the ultimate way to check a fragrance on myself. The drift off to sleep gives you a little zen time with the scent and sometimes (RARELY) I see something that I missed before. Such was my Casual experience. It is light and fresh and clean. It’s great for focusing and while being there it doesn’t take any of my mind, it just is, prettily dancing in and around me like a better smelling me. No mean feat, I’m here to tell you. Here is fragrantica‘s take and I couldn’t find one review done by a perfume blogger, even after reading 3 google pages! It has completely spun under the radar so I felt I should give you a heads up. I found this 4oz bottle on Parfum1.com for about US$17 and a tester (capless like mine) on FragranceX.com for about US$15 and if you use TAKE10 in the coupon box at checkout you get 10% off there.

MineStolen from FragranceX.com

After I’d done the 3 S’s (Shit, Shaved, Showered) this afternoon I was ready to put something that made a statement on. This fragrance would be, and was, worn for the evening as a glorious Trivia Hostess. Nothing bashful for night time, honestly, nothing bashful most of the time. I am a bit of a fragrance bomb, hopefully not to the point of asphyxiation to those near me, or down the street, but I love to be scented.

And the winner is!! My photo

It was a toss up tonight. I had the JPG Le Male in my sights, then flicked to Estee Lauder’s Beyond Paradise Blue, hand on the DSQUARED Wood (In my head I get, um, do I want to smell like a sauna today? Um, maybe tomorrow) and I reach for, of course!!! Eau D’Epices by Andy Tauer, he is my favourite perfumer. I LOVE his scents and I don’t have to respritz while out. His frasgrances linger deliciously on the edge of smelling for hours. Long after I have lost the ability to smell myself people can still drink in his glorious and heavenly aromas. I am Andy Tauer’s bitch. Can’t deny it. Not to say I have less of a place in my heart for the others, they have earned places in my collection for reasons and will be worn soon.

Here is what the site says

HEAD NOTES

An Indian basket of spices with cinnamon, cardamom, clove and corriander with red mandarines.

HEART NOTES

An opulent heart of orange blossom, jasmine, orris root and incense.

BODY NOTES

A woody cistus ladaniferus resin, softened with ambergris, tonka beans and vetiver.

Eau de parfum
50 ml, 1.5 FL. OZ.

A spicy unisex one of a kind.
Natural oils from spices such as cinnamon bark and cardamom orchestrate an opening that is vibrant, and warm. Citrus (red mandarins) soften the spices and prepare for the orange blossoms that bloom in l’eau d’épices together with another white flower: Jasmin. It is the absolute from Egyptian jasmine that softens the orange blossom absolute. Frankincense essential oil leads over to a classical Tauer base chord featuring ambergris, tonka, hints of vetiver and the woody warm perfume of cistus ladaniferus resin, resembling a walk in a pineta.

L’eau d’épices is a unisex scent, perfect for cool winter nights and developing wonderfully under a warm midyear sun.

Bold and this photo stolen from Tauer Perfumes site

The Non Blonde writes a symphonic review in Nov 2010, and PerfumeSmellingThings wrote in 2007 before it was even released! These writers get it, all the way down to the ground. all I smell is magic, they can explain it.

It’s a wonderment to me that you come and read,

Thank you,

Portia xx