Bois Noir by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2012

.

Portia

.

Hey All,

Mildly amusing story. When I was shopping at Surrender To Chance for my decants recently (it was a 5ml Friday Frenzy) and I thought I’d ordered Bois Bleu by Robert Piguet. Anyway, it turns up and I don’t really look at the label because I know what I ordered right? Wrong. So I’m sniffing myself as I walk the dogs this morning and I’m thinking to myself, “This is bloody familiar. I can’t quite place it but Bois Bleu smells EXACTLY like something I already have. Like, EXACTLY!!

Yeah dumbass, because you ordered Bois Noir, that you already have a paid retail for bottle of when Joe Garces was out here in 2012. Ha Ha Ha Ha ha. Sometimes I surprise myself. No sweat.

Then I noticed it never got a post of its own, so…….

Bois Noir by Robert Piguet 2012

Bois Noir by Aurelien Guichard

Bois Noir Robert Piguet FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gaiac wood, Cedarwood
Heart: Patchouli, Sandalwood
Base: Balsam, Labdanum absolute

Can we talk about the Piguet bottle please? It is the super coolest. Clean lined, easy to hold and spritz, nice heft and if you are a one bottle person this would make such a statement. Cunningly retro but wholly modern, it looks and feels like an old school movie stars fragrance.

Bois Noir by Robert Piguet Sparkle woman pexelsjpegPDI

Woodsiness, what Scott and I call Bro Woods. Here it’s tempered with patchouli in a luxurious dose and an earthy sweet labdanum. Bois Noir is a very chill customer, smooth and well worn, a comfortable fit. This is your favourite jeans after a weekend of wear, super comfy and a bit raunchy.

The woods manage to be dry pencils, tea chest and creamy sandalwood all rolled into one, then add some smoky incense. Hyper masculine scent that will smell fabulous on the girls. I’d love to smell it on a couple of my cool sexy girlfriends and some suits.

Longevity and projection are slightly above average, I can totally imagine Bois Noir as the hipsters choice.

Bois Noir by Robert Piguet sunset-summer-hipster-pipe PexelsPDI

Further reading: Non Blonde and Persolaise
Libertine has $299/100ml FREE Australian Delivery
Surrender To Chance has $5/ml

Have you tried any of the modern Robert Piguet perfumes? Did they tickle your fancy?
Portia xx

Charlatan by Rasei Fort for Fort & Manle 2017

.

Portia

.

Hey Hey APJ,

I have a mate who makes perfumes, yeah a quiet creative genius. He is Rasei Fort of Fort & Manle. In Australia it’s hard to get a perfume company started because we have a small population with an even smaller affluent few who can afford luxury perfume as a hobby. Most people have a small fragrance wardrobe under 5 bottles and never even venture near a niche brand, let alone an Indie one. So it has been a wonder of the modern world when their Fatih Sultan Mehmed became a finalist in the Art and Olfaction Awards 2017!

Just so you know, Rasei has taken the reins of Fort & Manle by himself now. Charlatan has been given a reboot this year so it is utterly his composition. He sent me a bottle to try and also to share.

Charlatan by Fort & Manle 2017

Charlatan by Rasei Fort (2018 Reboot)

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pear, dark chocolate
Heart: Damask rose, Moroccan jasmine, vanilla, tuber
Base: Osmanthus, Australian sandalwood, amber, Madagascar vanilla

Colour me IMPRESSED! This could easily be one of the Armani Prive line or an early by Kilian. YET, it is infinitely more interesting. Smooth and balmy, a fragrant highly polished stone, at once earthy and yet utterly manufactured to be just this scent.

Notes? My nose reads very little as notes. It seems the whole has melded so seamlessly that Charlatan is only of itself.

Pear, light frisky on open and into the heart. Vanilla done in sheer and weightless new planes. Woods as creamy and resinous as caramel malted milk. Everything else has melded to a magnificent, magnifiscent.

How did this young man create something so perfect?

Can we also talk about the bottle and presentation? Stellar. Although pedestal opening boxes shit me to the rage, everything else is stunningly perfect. I am in love and gushing like a young thing.

If you love perfume and fragrance then you must try Charlatan. For me, this is what the idea of niche really should mean. Small batch independent work ruled by passion but with an eye to business. Bravo Rasei, excellent work.

Fort & Manle parfum has $230/50ml
Peony Melbourne also has the range
Fort & Manle Discovery Set $60/8 x 2ml

Charlatan GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 10 winners who will receive:
1 x Fort & Manle Charlatan decant (from my bottle)
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. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please go to the Fort & Manle site. Pick a fragrance and tell us its name, plus ONE note it has. (NO DOUBLE UPS)
If you put more than one note you will be disqualified, that’s being greedy.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 17th December 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 21st December 2017 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

 

Respect Your Elders soap by Lush

.

Erica Golding

.

Warmly fragrant greetings to you all, hope you’re having a fabulous week so far!

Question: Do you ever smell a fragrance that is hauntingly familiar and yet you can’t place it? Your brain says, “Oh! This smells just like…….” and leaves you hanging. Isn’t it so frustrating? I think it’s a pretty common experience, but for a perfume enthusiast, the quest to solve the mystery can easily become an obsession! Can you help me out?

I’ve been trying to figure out what this soap reminds me of, and it’s making me nuts:

Respect Your Elders soap by Lush

Respect Your Elders soap by LushLUSH

LUSH gives these featured accords:
Elderflower, Elderberries, Olibanum (frankincense), and Bergamot

About a year ago, I tried this soap for the first time and had an immediate reaction. The aroma is so familiar, I could just scream from not knowing what it reminds me of! I am so in love with the scent. If it was a perfume, I would just buy bottles until I was broke.

The label on my slice of soap heaven classifies the aroma as fruity, but I don’t agree. The scent is delicately floral, incredibly elegant, and really would make just the most breathtaking perfume. Why oh why doesn’t this exist as perfume??? The signature Lush shot of bergamot lends its own specific associations, but truly, my scent memory trigger feels so very distant, definitely from childhood (which, for me, was the 80s).

Is there a story behind the inspiration for this scent? Have you smelled this soap and been reminded of something else (pretty please)? I will just fall over laughing if it was inspired by Chanel No 5 or something that should be obvious to me!

Respect_Your_Elders LUSH female-cardinal-in-bird-bath PDIPDI

LUSH Australia has $6.95/100gm

From LUSH Australia: Black-berried elder. A tree of legend, but also a great way to describe this magical blackcurrant-scented soap. Elderflower infusion, elderberries and olibanum oil create a potent spell for warding off evil (niffs that is!) Respect Your Elders will leave your skin silky soft and beautifully scented. Everything you look at can be turned into a story, so we say cancel storytime and let this become a part of your daily ritual.

Until next time, Love and Light
-Erica

2017 Top 5 by Cookie Queen

.

Val the Cookie Queen

.

Yuletide Greetings APJ

Although there has been a ton of new stuff launched this year I cannot pretend to have been interested in much of it. I try to select a few that spark my passion out of a sea of dross. Call me a bitch, I really don’t care. My selection comes in no particular order. If was to chose one that heads my short list, there would be no prizes for guessing which one it would be.

2017 Top 5 by Cookie Queen

Naja by Vero Kern for Vero Profumo

Please note that Naja is a voile formulation and not an edp. In truth it is parfum strength and needs to be treated as such. I feel a deep connection to Vero Kern and had the privilege of accompanying her on the creative voyage as she brought Naja to life. It was a bloody hard trek. Completion took nearly three years of pleasure and pain. The rich tobacco and deeply fragrant osmanthus is narcotic.

Superstitious by Dominique Robin for Frederic Malle

Freaking fabulous. Jasmin, rose, peach, amber, incense, a vetiver that melts into patchouli.
All wrapped in waxy aldehydes. I was stopped at traffic lights the other day, and took a moment to close my eyes and sniffed my wrist, until I could breathe in no more.
As the car behind me beeped, and I opened my eyes, I saw the bloke in the car next to mine staring at me. I am still laughing. My ten mls has nearly gone.

811 Absolute by Mathilde Bijaoui for Giovanna Antonelli Perfumes

A deeply aromatic spicy oriental. This was the surprise of the year. If it hadn’t been for The Silver Fox telling me to get a hold of the collection, I would have written off the perfumes
Fronted Giovanna Antonelli, a Brazilian actress. I mean, really? The 811 lingers for hours on the skin, and I swear there is a golden tobacco running through it. I took the bottle to my hairdresser a couple of
weeks ago to grab a SOTD shot for Instagram (yep, I am a sad person) and left with every stylist wearing it. Came home and did two decants.

Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noir for Guerlain

Commercial and fairly mainstream – meaning I can buy it in a store not 3 km away from me. Black tea, black cherry, black licorice and an marvelous black bottle. With the almond and a slight smokiness it´s just the bizz in our frosty and foggy winter. I would go so far as to say I wouldn’t wear it in the summer

L’Animal Sauvage for Marlou

This is the first perfume from Marlou. Claire from Take One Thing Off recommended I give it a go.
I wore a musk from the head shop when I was about seventeen. My mother would tell me that I stank like a polecat. And really since this time I have not explored the musk shelf, although I did use up 10mls of MKK from Lutens a couple of years ago.
This is sexiness pure, wrapped in florals that lie to you.

I have also worn a lot of Hiram Green´s Arbolè Arbolè, Malle`s Portrait of a Lady and Dries Van Noten, and Luten`s La Fille de Berlin.

Perfumista highlights 2017 would be meeting Portia and Jin in Milan, and finally making it to Aus Liebe Zum Duft/First in Fragrance up in Germany.

Perfume tips for 2018 would be Dusita`s Fleur de Lalita and Hiram Green´s Slowdive.

That’s it. A fabulously scented year, as always.
Tune back in on the Feast of Stephen. I´ll give away something you might like.

Thanks for tuning in.
Have a Cool Yule.
Misteltoe Bussis.
CQ

 

(ED: Photos by Val)

SOTD 11 – 17 December 2017

.

Portia

.

Hi APJ,

I see these SOTD (Scent Of The Day) threads all the time on Facebook and they are really good conversation generators.

SOTD 11 – 17 December 2017

The idea is you’ll chime in through the week with whatever scent you are wearing. You don’t need to be super knowledgable, have high faluting tastes or be a published author to comment. Just tell us what fragrance you’re wearing, smelling, buying etc.

You probably won’t have time to write every scent, every spritz but whenever you feel the mood take you share your current spritz and a few things about it. Maybe you love/loathe it, want it, are excited by the notes/bottle/SA who sold it: WHATEVER! As always here at APJ, taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.

Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.

Over 100 responses I will draw a Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)

This week:

  1. Neela Vermeire Creations Pichola
  2. Hermès Monsieur Li
  3. Bogue Gardelia
  4. Guerlain Meteorites
  5. Vintage Bal a Versailles EdT

Comment purposefully on yours or anothers comment & you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw on Sunday.

LAST WEEKS WINNER: JackieB

Send your address to portia_turbo AT yahoo DOT com DOT au

 

Go To It Crew.
Portia xxx

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC WINNERS

.

Portia

.

YAY! A wonderful competition, thanks for getting involved crew.
Let’s see who the winners are!
Portia xx

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC WINNERS

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, Lily, Lily-of-the-valley, Neroli, Orange blossom, Tuberose
Heart: Jasmine, Nutmeg, Rose, Ylang-ylang
Base: Iris, Vanilla, Vetiver, Frankincense

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC decant (from my bottle)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 10th December 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

ClaudiaS

Alice

Hamamelis

The winners will have till Thursday 14th December 2017 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

Tarragon and Bitter Orange Finishing Salts by Aftelier Perfumes

.

Portia

.

Hey APJ Peeps,

It’s no secret how much I love baths. I find a 15-20 minute soak in the tub more relaxing that almost anything else you can mention. It’s a short sharp shot of bliss that can be done whenever a window appears. Quite often I will do all my chores at the end of a night because the days are hectic. It may be 2 or 3am after a busy day, working at night, getting the blog stuff done and then doing a few loads of washing or cleaning the kitchen. A great way for me to go from supersonic to sleepy tired is to have a bath with a warm drink, dry, moisturise, scent and bed. My head hits the pillow and lights out till the alarm goes off in the morning for the dogs feeding and walking.

Why have I rambled on yet again about baths? Well, Mandy Aftel has made some incredibly luxurious eating salts that I naughtily used a capful of in my bath and O M G it was a transcendent experience. Talk about sending me into the stratosphere; amazing! You need hardly any to scent the whole bathroom very softly and it is calming and head clearing. Do it as you get in the bath. Beautiful. SHHHH! Don’t tell Mandy I did it though.

Tarragon and Bitter Orange Finishing Salts by Aftelier Perfumes

So, how are we supposed to use Tarragon and Bitter Orange Finishing Salts? Follow this recipe and your family will think you are the best cook in the history of all cooks. I use one fillet each but your crew may like more.

4 large Snapper Fillets
1 x lemon cut into very thin slices
2 TBsp butter
2 x parsley fronds chopped finely
1 x crushed large garlic clove
Pinch white pepper
Tarragon and Bitter Orange Finishing Salts

Baking Tray
Aluminium Foil

Pre heat oven to 180C
Mix butter, parsley, garlic and pepper together to make a paste
Tear 2 sheets of foil big enough to wrap 2 fillets each
Spread 1/4 of butter mix all over each fillet
Place fillets on shiny foil side
Put lemon slices top of fillets and close up the foil.
Pop onto bake tray and into the oven for 15-20 minutes (you know if your oven is a little slow or fast)

Make whatever salad or vegetable sides you like while fish is cooking

When the fillets come out of the oven they will be meltingly soft so be careful as you transfer to the plate
Add a sprinkling of Tarragon and Bitter Orange Finishing Salts
Add your sides

Serve and watch your family go crazy with excitement

I didn’t know this was going to be a post so no pictures were taken. SORRY!

Obviously your mileage may vary but this was a complete winner around here. Hopefully your crew loves it too.

From Aftelier only $15Our sel gris is stone-ground by hand until it reaches a fine consistency; it melts into other flavors seamlessly, imparting a briny mineral richness. Sel gris French gray sea salt is hand-harvested from the clay-lined salt ponds in the Guérande region of France, giving it a soft grey color and mineral-rich moisture. These salts are not to be used during the cooking process, but rather to add a pop of flavor to everything from meat to salads to vegetables just before serving. These salts will lift the other flavors of a dish, making it special and delicious.

What a freaking great Christmas Gift for the friends and family that cook, and so affordable.
Portia xx

 

 

 

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC

.

Portia

.

Hi Vintage Vamps,

There’s something incredibly special about vintage. Sure, I know people bang on about them changing over time and that you’re not smelling the perfumers original intent. BAH Humbug. I’ll enjoy fragrance any which way I like and please don’t try and ruin my fun. Chasing the elusive, finding a near perfect gem, wearing something never to be created ever again that has been kept sometimes for over a century. THAT is fun, exciting and special.

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, Lily, Lily-of-the-valley, Neroli, Orange blossom, Tuberose
Heart: Jasmine, Nutmeg, Rose, Ylang-ylang
Base: Iris, Vanilla, Vetiver, Frankincense

This is the cleanest vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC I’ve smelled. The aldehydes are still fizzy and a little oily as they rise off my skin in combination with the most magnificent bouquet. What can I smell? White flowers and creamy ylang over incense and a bunch of stuff I can’t place or name. What they smell like for me is CHANEL No 22.

I can tell you how it feels to wear it though. Carefree. Like a burst of warm sunshine on a gloomy day. Maybe the thrum of your blood through vines after a hearty belly laugh. Lunching with friends somewhere cheap and cheerful with a water view.

Warm winds, hot sand and a convertible car ride.

Sure, No 22 EdC is a glamour puss, bold and sophisticated. It does seem to me when I wear her that she may be all that but when it’s a 22 day she’s on holidays. It may be nearest beach or it could be the Greek islands, wherever no 22 lands she’ll be welcome.

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdC decant (from my bottle)
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. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us what your favourite CHANEL fragrance is

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 10th December 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 14th December 2017 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

Top Five Hot Weather Fragrances: Gabriella 2017

.

Gabriella

.

Hello perfumed peeps!

We’ve had quite sultry weather in Melbourne lately with temperatures over 30C for days straight. The heat has caught everyone by surprise, including me, as it usually doesn’t get this hot until January or February. The change was sudden too: one day I was in jumpers and coats and luxuriating in my dark rose and woody scents and the next day I’m sweltering in a sundress and wondering what perfume to wear. So, today I want to share my:

Top Five Hot Weather Fragrances

Fragrantica

Amyris Femme by Francis Kurkdjian for Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2012

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon leaf, orange leaf
Heart: Amyris, iris
Base: Vetiver, agarwood (oud)

The Parisian chic choice. Amyris Femme dazzles from the opening with bright and juicy lemon blossom coupled with soft iris and delicately spiced woods. It’s a joyous scent that is still incredibly elegant and poised.

Further reading: The Candy Perfume Boy
Mecca Cosmetica has 70ml/$228

Fragrantica

Carnal Flower by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2005

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, melon, eucalyptus
Heart: Ylang-ylang, jasmine, tuberose, salicylates
Base: Tuberose absolute, orange blossom absolute, coconut, musk

The sexy diva. Carnal Flower is the perfume equivalent of diving head first into a huge florist’s fridge brimming with creamy tuberose flowers. Lush tuberose is front and centre, but the eucalyptus provides a lovely green quality to the fleshy white blooms laced with a touch of coconut.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin
Mecca Cosmetica starts at 10ml/$84

Fragrantica

Lily by Florence Idier for Comme des Garcons: Olfactory Library 2000 (reissued 2017)

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lily of the valley, freesia, syringa, dog rose buds

The lovely green one. I’ve struggled to find a good lily of the valley scent since the original Christian Dior Diorissimo was reformulated beyond recognition, but this may just be it. Here, the lily of the valley is very stemmy and verdant but devastatingly pretty.

Mecca Cosmetica has 50ml/$130

Fragrantica

Original Vetiver by Olivier Creed and Erwin Creed for Creed 2004

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Ginger, mandarin, bergamot
Heart: Vetiver from Haiti, Mysore sandalwood, Florentine Iris
Base: Musk, ambergris

The “It’s too hot for perfume” choice. Many vetivers tend to be on the heavier side but this is the soft caress of a feather on skin. Mandarin and bergamot keeps things bright and fresh with a touch of gentle iris and salty ambergris.

Further reading: Katie Puckrik Smells 
Libertine Parfumerie has $339/75ml

Fragrantica

Rosa Greta by Fabrice Pellegrin for Eau d’Italie 2017

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Litchi, white tea
Heart: Rose bud, Damascus rose infusion
Base: Cedarwood, ambrox

The summer office scent. Made to commemorate Greta Garbo’s disappearance from the paparazzi in the Amalfi Coast in 1938, Rosa Greta is joyful but still very elegant. Lychee and a gorgeous tea note lend a vibrancy to soft rose.

Mecca Cosmetica starts at 100ml/$204

So what are your favourite perfumes for when the mercury starts to rise?

With much love until next time!

G x

Sharing my Perfume Passion

.

Sandra

.

Hiya wonderful smelling APJers! How is everyone doing?

As many know, I have had a love affair with perfume since I was a child. I have other passions as well, such as travel, photography, sketching and music. I am not sure if it is the language or age, but I am obviously more comfortable in my skin now and where I would normally keep mum about my loves, I find myself expressing myself more freely. This is a great opportunity for me because it takes me to new places and I am meeting so many wonderful people.

A friend of mine approached me a few weeks ago to speak at an expat morning meeting at the school. About perfume! I was skeptical at first but decided to go ahead and it was a pleasant revelation for me of how open and curious people were.

Sharing my Perfume Passion

I decided to share my love of Neela Vermeire Creations. Big question was how to go about doing so. I adore Neela’s perfumes as they use some of my favorite notes and spices. The Netherlands is the place to live if you love flowers so my first stop was the florist where I discussed what kinds of flowers are readily available in November and they did a marvelous job. I chose to include fragrant flowers and not all are used in the NVC perfumes. We had lily, tuberose, freesia, ‘Yvette Piagaitte’ rose, ‘Free Spirit’ rose, a third rose which they could not name and finally stock also known as matthiola incana which is clove-like in scent.

I included fresh mango, cinnamon bark, cardamom pods, vanilla bean paste, essential oils of frankincense, sandalwood and jasmine and a leather clutch for its scent.

We kicked off the meeting by starting to sniff the various flowers. Many of the participants were astonished at how different each of the roses smelled.

There was the obvious love/hate reaction with tuberose. Interestingly though those from tropical climates loved the tuberose. We moved through the spices, oils and finally the fresh cut mango. Once that was done I sprayed Bombay Bling onto a tester paper and all were amazed that they could easily identify the mango and also the lychee. A friend of mine loved Trayee not for the incense but for the ganja which she could identify (I cannot). Several participants could identify cardamom or cinnamon.

In attendance was a man who did not know exactly what to expect but enthusiastically sniffed the flowers, spices and oils. When it came to testing the perfumes he was under the impression that a man could not possibly wear any of these perfumes. I convinced him to try Mohur as I find men can really rock its spicy rose with glorious sandalwood. He loved it and went away with the knowledge that perfume can be unisex and that it will smell differently on each and every one of us!

Each of the participants had a clear favorite so at the end of the talk I gave the participants samples of the perfumes they were interested in and a flower of their choosing. It was a lovely morning and I would like to thank the expat group for giving me this opportunity.

Neela Vermeire Creations Discovery Sample Set €55 

Do you have any inhibitions when it comes to talking about your perfume passion? What would you talk about?

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to December.

Oodles of fragrant kisses,
Sandra xo

 

(ED: All photos supplied by Sandra. Thank you. XXX)