Bitching, Blind Buying A Bottle, Three Books

June 27, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 48 Comments

Val the Cookie Queen

Midsummer Greeting APJ

Coming to you from the lake.

Bitching, Blind Buying A Bottle, Three Books

The Bitching

I have come across three similar posts over the last fortnight on various Facebook perfume groups going something like this: “I ordered a sample pack of 20 new frags – and none of them smelled good. What is wrong with my nose?” And yesterday on Twitter: “Something weird is going on. I´ve tested several perfumes in a row that smell like “dryer sheet” scent variations on my skin. I´m worried ….” Dearhearts it is not your nose, nor your skin, nor the weather, there is a lot of really crappy perfumes around. Lazy top notes over ISO – have- no- idea middle notes, on a bed of base note chemicals, cheap vetiver and worst of all straight up frankincense. Eau de Niché and I hate it. And it´s not just niché …… Is it possible that folks try and convince their noses that what they are sniffing is good and that they just don´t understand it? Or are they rubbish? Hmmmmm? Now don´t get huffy, it´s only my opinion – I say it´s them, not you.

A Blind Buy

I can´t say I broke my rule of no blind buys because I never made one. When I saw the Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire bottle, I had to have it. I ordered the small one. Simple as that. I have not tried any of the other nine LPRNs, no interest whatsoever. Monsieur Guerlain wrote very favourably about the Black Perfecto perfume so I hoped I might like the contents of the bottle too. Black tea, black cherry, black liquorice, a touch of almond, slightly smoky, and not the sweet bomb I expected. Dead chuffed, it´s really nice. Reckon it´ll be great in cold weather. And yes, it is worth having for the bottle alone.

Three Books

We are having a heatwave here which means I spend time at the lake and read more.

Book Depository

You might wanna be careful with Donald Ray Pollock´s Knockemstiff though, if you have trouble with dry dark humour, kids raised on abuse, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. Eat your heart out Deliverance. This is Knockemstiff, Ohio. Dr Fox, my ever-loving therapist told me to read it.

Book Depository

I had Donna Tartt´s The Secret History around for about three years and not picked it up. How was I to know it would turn out to be one of the best books I have ever read?

Book Depository

Just started Burnet´s His Bloody Project, set in the Scottish Highlands, 1869. Murder and violence. Recommended by Lady Jane Grey. I´m just off to the pool to read some more.

SOTD is Malle´s Eau de Magnolia.

If you have any bitching to do, blind buys to share, or indeed a book I should read, drop me a comment.

Sweltering Bussis
CQ

Cuir Caraibes by David Jourquin 2015

June 26, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Portia

Hey there APJ,

My mate Mia imports David Jourquin fragrances to Australia through the Perfume Profiling group and she has sent me a 5ml sample to try and give away. Recently Sandra wrote us and introduction to these David Jourquin scents, they all look like they’re going to be really lovely and I adore the bottles. Don’t they look fun with their leather coats?

Cuir Caraibes by David Jourquin 2015

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, citruses, green mango
Heart: White flowers, Jamaican pepper, ginger
Base: Vvetiver, guaiac wood, patchouli, leather, amber

Cuir Caraibes opens aquatic, spicy, foody, and full of fresh cut fruit. It’s an unexpected delight jolting me from the hum drum into a fresh, juicy daiquiri of a fragrance. The fruit is buoyed by the sizzle of pepper and the zing of ginger. The whole has a lovely soft creaminess keeping it from going supersonic and I think that might be a very clean jasmine mixed with the patchouli.

The heart maintains the crisp fruit from the opening as a whisper as we find a more relaxed, lightly smoky elegance. There’s something very unusual about the way these flavours all blend, piquant.

As we head towards dry down Cuir Caribs becomes very smooth and balmy with only quiet hints of the named ingredients. Very wearable and lasts for ages.

Perfume Profiling has AUD$215/100ml EdP

Cuir Caraibes GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 5ml Cuir Caraibes manufacturers sample (minus my testing)
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 which leather scents you love?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 28th June 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 Wednesday 5th July 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

Curious GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 25, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Portia

Hiya APJ,

Thank you Mandy Aftel for your generosity. Seems everyone is really excited to try your new fragrance. WOO HOO!
Let’s see who won.
Portia xx

Curious GIVEAWAY WINNER

Aftelier gives these featured accords:
Tobacco, hay, smoke, orange leaf, Siam wood, dirty orange

Aftelier has samples starting from $7

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Curious by Aftelier Perfumes sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 24th June 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winner was chosen by random.org

Brad Woolslayer

The winners will have till Saturday 1st July 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

Saturday Question: What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

June 24, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 63 Comments

Portia

Hello Fellow Fumies,

I have had an idea. Well, actually I’m copying an idea from Olfactoria’s Travels. Once a week there used to be a Question. Everyone would chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it would be a generally fun events each week. Taking sides never meant taking offence and everyone kept it respectful and light.

I’d like to carry on that tradition, maybe you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them.

If we get over 200 responses I will draw a $20 Surrender To Chance Gift Card. Every comment will get a place in the draw, so if you comment purposefully on your own or another comment you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw the winner on Friday and the winner will be announced in next Saturdays question.

Last Weeks Winner:

Send me an eMail to portia _ turbo at yahoo dawt com dawt au

Saturday Question:

What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

You’re dead and gone. Everyone is grieving, even the people you hate. You’ve been primped and powdered and set up in a casket on full display. The family has dressed you in your favourite going out for dinner or a wedding outfit, except the shoes which someone in the family wanted so you’re wearing an expensive but uncomfortable pair. Doesn’t matter, you can’t feel a thing now.

What do you want your family to spritz you with while you lay in state. It will be their last glimpse of you before your earthly body is disposed of in whatever manner you’ve chosen. Is it a showcase fragrance, a signature, something weird and wonderful? Do you go niche, department store, indie or designer? Is it a fave or something for best? Will they put the bottle in the casket with you? Will they spritz your clothes or your casket lid?

My answer:

So I have two wishes. Both of which will probably be ignored but still let’s get it out there.

The Memorial Service:

Like a wedding I’d like there to be flowers on the end of each row. Green carnations and elephants ears, very simple in a white fabric bow. I would like the bows to be soaked in Guerlain Shalimar, the casket and myself also drenched in it. When mourners walk into the church they should smell Shalimar, not headache levels but fully fragrant. Shalimar has been my on and off constant companion for decades, from my Mum and her mates to me and mine. By the time I die I’m hoping that my blood will run thick with it anyway.

The Interment:

I’m going to be cremated so there won’t be a burial as such. I’ve got a plot but would be just as happy shovelled into my Mum’s plot. If they inter me in a box then I’d like a Guerlain Shalimar parfum bottle in with me and the box linings to be spritzed lavishly with Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur. What better way to go on to the next adventure than smelling like a gazillion dollars?

So, my question to you is:

What Fragrance Do You Want To Be Buried In?

Dama Koupa by Spyros Drosopoulos for Baruti 2016

June 23, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Portia

Hey Independent Perfume Peeps,

I got a bunch of stuff a while back from a split group I’m in. For some reason todays fragrance didn’t get sniffed. I’m not quite sure why. Anyway, in the words of Pretty Woman, Big Mistake.

Baruti

Spyros the Baruti perfumer and (I think) owner writes:

THIS IS WHAT MY DREAMS SMELL LIKE
I MAKE PERSONAL AND IMMEDIATE PERFUMES
DECEPTIVELY PLAYFUL
ROOTED IN THE UNCONSCIOUS
PERPLEXING THE SENSES
LIKE KALEIDOSCOPIC EXPLOSIONS OF BEAUTY
THEY CAN BLOW YOU AWAY

SPYROS (AMSTERDAM 2014)

Dama Koupa by Baruti 2016

Dama Koupa by Spyros Drosopoulos

Fragrantica

Baruti gives these featured accords:
Bitter almonds, Grappa, Tonka bean, Vanilla, Cocoa, Iris, Osmanthus, Musk, Amber, White woods, Beeswax, Fir Balsam Absolute.

Before we even start this review I want to tell you that I have already been in touch with Spyros at Baruti and bought at full retail a bottle of Dama Koupa. The website was playing silly buggers so I wrote to him direct and got a response within hours, he offered to send me a PayPal invoice and get my fragrance out to me ASAP. YAY! On its way.

Dry, nutty, boozy, sprinkled with sugar that seems to accentuate the lack of sweetness rather than lightening Dama Koupa up. Woodsy, like sawdust with this completely unexpected feeling of desiccated florals. You know those almond biscuits? Like the first unsweet bite into one of those….. but not. Actually, through the heart I get something grain-ish, like barley broth.

PDI

I know other people are getting the scent of Macaroons, the original coconut meringue confection, but my nose is getting something much more masculine, outdoorsy and mountainous.

Longevity is excellent and I smell Dama Koupa almost exactly as it went on hours later. Who could wear it? I think anyone with a sense of olfactory adventure because where I am getting manliness others get this bakery style gourmand.

WikiCommons

Further reading: Persefume and Fragrance Daily
Baruti has €92,56/30ml and ships worldwide

Are gourmands in general enticing or repulsive to you? Do you know another gourmand that skews dry and masculine?
Portia xx

Curious by Mandy Aftel for Aftelier Perfumes 2017

June 22, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 42 Comments

Portia

Hey Hey APJ,

Mandy aftel is a mate of mine. She sends me her updates and we chat irregularly over the net. One day with a bit of luck we shall meet and I know I’ll be transported. Her fragrances are bold and daring and she has inspired a whole generation of Indie Perfumers. Yesterday I got news of her newest creation and an offer of a sample. So rather than wait 10 days for it to arrive we thought it might be fun to do an immediate giveaway for one lucky APJer as soon as it’s released! How freaking cool is that? You will be among the first to try this magical new Mandy Aftel creation.

Coins is aligned with another fabulous new thing Mandy has created the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents!

Location: Cottage at end of brick driveway,
1518-1/2 Walnut St. Berkeley, CA 94709
Phone: 510-841-2111 Email: info@aftelier.com

Details:
Open only on Saturdays 11 am – 6 pm.
Limit of 6 visitors per hour.
Tickets are $20 for a 1-hour time slot, starting and ending promptly.

Curious by Aftelier Perfumes 2017

Curious by Mandy Aftel

Aftelier gives these featured accords:
Tobacco, hay, smoke, orange leaf, Siam wood, dirty orange

Here’s the Press Release: Curious, inspired by the atmosphere of my Archive of Curious Scents, is a smoky musk perfume, with notes of dried fruit and precious woods. The rich muskiness of Curious allows it to mix with each person’s body chemistry in an intimate and idiosyncratic fashion. I adore tobacco absolute and think of it as the ultimate botanical musk note, especially when paired with the sweet mossy apricot-like hay absolute.

An airy smokiness laces through the perfume from the opening to the ending, — burnt fruitwood and caramel. Mesmerizing orange leaf absolute, like a green orange, is refreshingly tart, animalic, and indolic. Curious opens with creamy and smooth wood brightened with dirty citrus and punctuated with spice. The texture of the perfume is like soft fur. My Aftel Archive includes an exhibit that deconstructs Curious perfume note by note, and chord by chord, so that visitor can explore the mystery of how each essence locks together to create the perfume.

Aftelier has samples starting from $7

Curious GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Curious by Aftelier Perfumes sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please go to Aftelier Perfumes<<jump and find ONE INGREDIENT and name both ingredient & fragrance. (No DOUBLE UPS)

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 24th June 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 Saturday 1st July 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

Yes I Do v I Don’t Swallow GIVEAWAY WINNERS

June 22, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Portia

Woo Hoo!
Thanks to Bronwyn from Gascoigne & King, the Australian ELdO importers and distributors.

Thanks also to all who entered.
Portia xx

Yes I Do v I Don’t Swallow GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Orange blossom, lily-of-the-valley, patchouli, jasmine, aldehydes, amber, cacao pod, marshmallow, musk

Etat Libre d’Orange has €85/50ml (Shipping to the world only €15)

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant Yes I Do
1 x 10ml decant I Don’t Swallow
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 21st June 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

Anna-Maria

Hage

Kandice

The winners will have till Wednesday 28th June 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

Suffolk Lavender by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue 2013

June 21, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Kate Apted

Hi APJ,

I hear a lot about scents being ‘office friendly’; meaning the scent is likely to receive a warmer reception to a wider range of people than others. I am sure you have a list of scents you consider safe to wear at any given event or location. I have given a substantial deal of thought to what I deem safe to wear to work, and it has taken a great deal of trial and error.

I am a truck mechanic and what I wear has to fit a number of criteria. I will not wear a strongly feminine scent, as a lot of our customers and my co-workers are male and I am not too keen to leave a lingering, smouldering scent in the cabin of a truck. My scent also has to rise above the strong environmental scents competing for my attention, yet it has to be markedly different so to not prevent me from smelling dangerous odours, such as LPG leaks and welding fires.

I found the very scent that has become my work daily: Shay & Blue’s Suffolk Lavender. I am particularly partial to lavender that plays the starring role, but isn’t a soliflor. I find the lavender in Suffolk Lavender isn’t sleep inducing, but helps to ground and calm me, while being inherently interesting.

Suffolk Lavender by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue 2013

Finding my ideal work scent

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lavender
Heart: Incense, melon
Base: Praline, musk, pine tree

This opens with a salty lavender. This very linear, moderate projection stays for a good hour. The lavender is quite dry, but full bodied and slightly creamy. I spray it on my torso, because with body heat, I get an oomph of scent that wafts up in a way I don’t get from wrist sprays alone. I have not tried this during summer, but I am guessing from its response to heat, it will be adaptable to the temperature without losing its character.

After about two hours, Suffolk Lavender slowly becomes a skin scent, but the deeper incense notes make their appearance. Like a song with moderate volume that has deep, booming base notes that make the song seem louder than the volume indicates, this scent does the same with the incense. So, it isn’t until lunch time, about 5-6 hours later, that I need to think of reapplying.

WikiCommons

What makes Suffolk Lavender noteworthy, for me at least, is while it uses quite dark and deep notes, the overall composition has the trademark Shay & Blue light handedness. The scent transitions so gently from salty lavender to a mild incense creamy lavender and then tails off to a faintly woody wheat bag type lavender.

I do not get any of the fruit or sweetness this is purported to have. It tends to sit with more pronounced lavender on my eldest son, and heads straight to the incense notes after ten minutes. I love the fact Suffolk Lavender is completely unisex. I can pack this away on trips and know a single bottle will suffice.

David Jones Australia has a limited Shay & Blue range.
Shay & Blue ships to almost the entire world, not ANZ though

What is your work environment like? And what factors guide your scent choices?

Kate XXXoX

Guilty Pleasures – a Sydney sniffy meet up!

June 20, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

TinaG

Hi APJ!

Perfume people are the best! It’s great to be able to chat online & catch up in real life to swap fragrance stories and smell different things. Group catch ups are fun afternoons, and we tend to go a bit crazy….there’s always some awesome frags on the table.

Simon and Kerri from FaceBook Aussie Fragrance Network lead the charge organising a sniffy on Sunday 11 June, with a general theme of ‘Guilty Pleasures’. Heh. I think that’s an umbrella statement that we all fall under at some point in time. We met at Hotel Sweeny in Sydney, a pub which has missed the renovation revolution having street-rescued sofas and worn sticky carpet, but with some interesting beers on tap – I did try Illawarra Brewing Company: Smashing Rumpkin which had a funky pumpkin note. Odd but tasty.

Guilty Pleasures – a Sydney sniffy meet up!

We met at the rooftop bar & spread out our stashes. We did a LOT of sniffing!! I asked Scott to bring along a range of Rive Gauche by YSL for me to run through, as I’d heard so much but never really sniffed, and I knew Scott was a fan. He brought along (L to R in the photo) vintage EDP, vintage EDT, current EDT 2006 and vintage parfum 1980s. Fab.

Some of the “Guilty Pleasures” people brought along were:

Amouage Gold Man: you spray this and it takes over the room.
Cool Water by Davidoff: the vintage stuff is still incredible. Done to death by uncles, dads and other male relatives but still fantastic.
Giorgio Beverly Hills: an overpowering 80s tuberose bomb that lays claim to 5 metres around itself at all times.
Pure Honey by Kim Kardashian: Undeniably pleasant though, and very affordable.
Dark Ride by Xyrena: a super weirdy that polarises people through its green, medicinal, water-park dankness.
Baraonda by Nasomatto: when you know you shouldn’t spend a silly amount of money on a tiny bottle, but you do it anyway because it smells like the best dark chocolate and roasted nuts and boozey goodness.
Scent by Theo Fennell: a spectacularly lush floral with a skanky underside, like a beautiful, rich, classy lady wrapped in furs who just doesn’t shower often enough.
Glamazon by RuPaul and Diva by Ungaro I suppose because I expected them to be awful – the price point and the tacky bottles – but they are both amazing and rich and tenacious – thus they became guilty pleasures
Gaiac 10, Sacred Wood, MDCI sets – all generous gifts from online friends that he had never actually met.
Pino Silvestre: this is an old favourite of many people, and cheap as chips.

What’s my guilty pleasure when it comes to perfume? Oh, so many…. But I think my top hit would be that I seem to be starting a collection of vintage Guerlain – Vol de Nuit, Mitsouko, and Apres L’Ondee. Oops. I love them though.

What’s your fragrant guilty pleasure?

Till next time
Tina G xx

Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby, Yes I Do by Antoine Maisondieu for Etat Libre d’Orange 2016

June 19, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 25 Comments

Portia

Heya Frag Hags,

Recently I was over at my mate Bronwyn’s house. She has so much going on with new Gascoigne & King candles, a brand new concept I can’t tell you about and the exciting release in Australia of ELdO’s Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby, Yes I Do. There are plenty of rumours flying about but I haven’t heard anything definitive about what’s happened to the original but perusing the Etat Libre d’Orange site it has been taken off the shopping list.

Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby, Yes I Do by Etat Libre d’Orange 2016

Don’t Get Me Wrong Baby, Yes I Do by Antoine Maisondieu

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Orange blossom, lily-of-the-valley, patchouli, jasmine, aldehydes, amber, cacao pod, marshmallow, musk

The note list has not changed between the old and new but I’m wondering if they have tweaked the formula at all. The good news is I have a bottle of both here so I can do a fragrant throwdown. Let’s do it together.

Yes I Do v I Don’t Swallow

Firstly, the new bottle is so bloody pretty. Shimmery, like an old fashioned nail polish. Match that with the gold sticker and it’s all very budget line from a high fashion company, aimed at the young. It feels very Love Moschino, Juicy Couture or Lauren Ralph Lauren. The fun, affordable brands aiming directly at the market I imagine this will also hit.

Both open with a sheer soft focus Lily of the Valley (LotV), sweetness added by the marshmallow and a very youthful, clean jasmine/orange blossom. If you like your LotV Diorissimo style then you’ll be disappointed. Here we have a much less strident rendition, no screech, just pillowed clouds. The two fragrances smell pretty similar to me, not much change. They may have added, tweaked and subtracted some stuff but it hasn’t changed the ultimate ride. I do like spritzing from the new bottle better though because it’s so fun.

Personally, I don’t get a lot of the oft hyped funk that this scent was purporting to display. All I get is a bit of plasticky patchouli, some extra depth and warmth coming through towards the end but I’m still smelling soft wafts of LotV which keeps the whole scent fresh, youthful and prim.

Sephora will have Yes I Do in Australia
Etat Libre d’Orange has €85/50ml (Shipping to the world only €15)

Want to check the difference for yourself? I’d love to hear if you think it has changed.

Yes I Do v I Don’t Swallow GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant Yes I Do
1 x 10ml decant I Don’t Swallow
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us which name sounds best to you?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 21st June 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 Wednesday 28th June 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