APSU by Ulrich Lang GIVEAWAY WINNERS

June 19, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Portia.

YAY APJ!

Thanks for getting involved. Let’s see who our winners are.
Portia xx

APSU by Ulrich Lang GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green leaves, coriander, violet leaf, bergamot
Heart: White tea, jasmine, water lily, pink pepper, iris
Base: White musk, cedar, amber, olibanum

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x APSU by Ulrich Lang sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 18th June 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

Stephen Khoo

Lena

Ellen M

The winners will have till Sunday 25th 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

Saturday Question: What Was The First Niche Fragrance Bottle You Bought?

June 17, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 97 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: We did not hit enough responses. No winner this week

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

Saturday Question

What Was The First Niche Fragrance Bottle You Bought?

This is really interesting to me because I’d been buying Designer and Drug Store scents for years, Followed the new launches and flankers assiduously. Then I discovered the world of the scentbloggosphere! Suddenly, around 2010 I was plunged into a whole new world of personal scent. TBH I can’t remember if I even got my sniff on the Serge Lutens line before then. I’d come across the Armani Prive line and CHANEL Exclusives but no real niche.

My answer:

Now we are talking about full bottles here. Before I finally took the plunge and bought a bottle I had already been sampling a little bit. I wanted to try every scent in The Little Book of Perfumes: The 100 Classics by Luca Turin. The most affordable way to do that was to buy a ml of each.

Abe Books

Anyway, reading every night till all hours of the morning on blogs and sites. Basically engulfing every moment of spare time I had in this amazing new world of scent. I was still wearing my Gucci Envy Man, JPG Le Male, JOOP!, Guerlain Shalimar and Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers mainly but there were already a library of scents to choose from.

One person I kept seeing referenced positively was Andy Tauer. He was handsome and urbane. Unlike so many perfumers, Andy was able to talk to all of us through his blog and it felt like he was one of us. creating masterpieces in his Swiss hideaway and sending scented parcels to the world. How romantic. A fragrant hero arriving on a sea of Tauer-ade.

After careful consideration and testing I was ready to make my first niche full bottle purchase. I really wanted to share the experience so for Christmas I purchased for my BFF a bottle of L`Air du Desert Marocain (she still wears it, though it might be her third bottle buy now).

Fragrantica

For myself at the same time I ordered Eau d’Epices (I still have that original bottle, about 1/2 full). Even now when I spritz, or even smell the nozzle, it brings back the sheer excitement of getting something so unbelievably gorgeous. A scent that was hand crafted, niche, a thing that so few people would ever have and a scent that could take me on a fragrant journey in my mind.

It came with a hand written card, signed by the master himself. I could not have felt more special or more part of the community of fragheads, perfumistas, fumies or whatever label you’d like to attach. It was wonderful.

So my question to you is

What Was The First Niche Fragrance Bottle You Bought?

APSU by Ulrich Lang 2016

June 16, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Portia

Hey All,

I was really excited when today’s fragrance came out but it’s taken me this long to get my bloody sniff on it. I love Ulrich and when I saw APSU in a split recently I went ahead and grabbed a decant.

APSU by Ulrich Lang 2016

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green leaves, coriander, violet leaf, bergamot
Heart: White tea, jasmine, water lily, pink pepper, iris
Base: White musk, cedar, amber, olibanum

You want to wear green fragrance but are bored by the galbanum rich CHANEL No 19, Silences, Niki de Saint Phalle and Vert Boheme? You have had the green grass/peony/cucumber scents beyond your ability to bear?

I think I’ve found the remedy. Here we have green leaves like soft pulpy hydrangea and the bitter snap of camellia leaves, they are glassy smoothed by the cool powdery green of coriander seeds. The heart is a floral bouquet, dewy and satin soft against your cheek given a zing with pepper. The layers unfold slowly and give you time to savour each new facet. To notice the changes though you need to be paying real attention because they happen completely under the radar. If you’re living your day there will be moments where you are reminded you’ve got fragrance on because it has shape shifted.

Ulrich Lang

APSU is never a big scent, once the initial extravagance has blown off you get a beautiful low level crisp green scent that works beautifully here as autumn moves to winter but I think it would be wonderfully cooling in the hot summer months too. Refreshing to the very end and unusual enough to keep even the most dedicated perfumistas nose sniffing.

Further reading: Persolaise and Colognoisseur
First In Fragrance has €95/100ml + Samples
Beauty Habit has $125/100ml

So here’s your chance to try it……

APSU by Ulrich Lang GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 3 winners who will receive:
1 x APSU by Ulrich Lang sample
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 Ulrich Lang<<jump and find ONE INGREDIENT and name both ingredient & fragrance. (No DOUBLE UPS)

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 18th 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 Sunday 25th 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

Vanille Orient by Jean-Claude Astier + Geoffrey Nejman for M. Micallef 2012

June 15, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Portia

Hey there Frag Heads,

You may remember a few weeks ago I bought a bottle of M Micallef Vanille Marine? Well looking through my decants this week I discovered 5ml of another in the line. Because I loved the other so much I’d basically ignored todays and so I thought we could look at it together today.

Vanille Orient by M. Micallef 2012

Vanille Orient by Jean-Claude Astier + Geoffrey Nejman

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Spices, vanilla, sandalwood, amber, musk

Opening is vanilla, quickly tempered by sweet citrus and warm resins. There is some cardamom or something equally green/smooth floating around and a smokiness on a low level. A simple creamy amber, very easy wear, is the heart. Nothing ground breaking or distinctive but it does smell very luxurious.

I keep smelling myself and thinking that Vanille Orient transports me to an expensive European hotel lobby in winter. Resinous, woody, balsams and a clean musk with a faint reminder of long dead cigarettes and coffee. It’s a clean, warm, comfortable scent that would make a terrific candle.

PDI

I don’t know if you ever go to art galleries but there is a certain slim line 40+ woman who wears a black wool polo neck jumper, boot cut jeans or a tailored skirt and comfortable boyishly styled shoes. Often her greying and kept natural hair is cut in a modern super short bob and she accessorises with white gold. I have come a ross these wonderful women and they will chat about the art sometimes. They LOVE this kind of amber. A happy middle ground between the sweet, bakery style and the bitch tar leather ambers.

This wears resinous rather than sweet, is dry and warm with no animalics or darkness. A 100% comfortable amber that smells very good. Excellent for wafting in the cool halls of galleries.

PDI

Further reading: Notable Scents and Muse In Wooden Shoes
Feeling Sexy Australia has $245/100ml with FREE Australian Shipping

What do you wear to go to the gallery?
Portia xx

Homo*Elegans Experience Kit GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 15, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Portia

Hey Crew,

Thanks to the Homo*Elegans guys for their generosity.
Let’s see who won
Portia xx

**Homo*Elegans Experience Kit** GIVEAWAY WINNER

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Homo*Elegans Experience Kit
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 14th June 2017 10pm Australian EsT
Winner was chosen by random.org

Monica Beaton

The winners will have till Wednesday 21st 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

Chanel No. 5 Le Parfum Cheveux

June 14, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Erica Golding

Hello to all of you gorgeously scented readers out there!

Today I am excited to dish about a new limited edition treasure that I didn’t even know existed. Last weekend, after a visit to the museum with family, I just so happened to accidentally pop into the Chanel boutique. Oopsie! 😉 While I was there, sniffing euphorically, I found out about:

Chanel No. 5 Le Parfum Cheveux

CHANEL

This sweet little frosted bottle of hair mist is adorable and affordable! It’s only 40 mL, so it’s a fleeting luxury. But some of the best things in life are ephemeral, don’t you think? This is a flare of joy to savor in the moment! The petal-pink formula does not contain alcohol, which makes it great for scenting your tresses without potential damage. The atomizer produces a full-bodied fine mist, just perfect.

As for how it smells, the opening begins a bit more powdery than how No. 5 perfume presents on my skin. The aldehydes are more muted in the hair mist, so the aroma doesn’t have as much of a high-pitched soapy vibration. The signature Chanel rose and jasmine absolutes preside like royalty, delightfully noble. Overall, the hair mist wears a bit softer and silkier than the perfume. The scent projects a tender sweetness as a glowing halo, and I really do associate this quality with the rosy blush tone of the liquid. It’s an absolutely divine manifestation of synesthesia for me.

PDI

I’ve already gotten several compliments on this charming luxury, and it brings me such pleasure to know that people subconsciously enjoy the sillage because they associate Chanel No. 5 with beloved memories.

Chanel won’t have this hair mist available for very long. It’s an online exclusive, but some of the boutiques begged for a few to put in stock. Snatch one up while you can! And if you’re a fan of Chance or Chance Eau Tendre, those are currently available as well!

Giovanna Antonelli: New Perfume House

June 13, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Val the Cookie Queen

Olá APJ!

Let me give you a brief introduction to a trio of new perfumes. Giovanna Antonelli is a household name in Brazil, a superstar. I think 3.6 million Twitter and more than 5 million Instagram followers probably indicates indicates that. She is an actress and probably best known in South America and in Portugal for her soap operas success. Now at this point in any advertising blurb I would already be turning the page. Had it not been for The Silver Fox suggesting that I try them I would be long gone. And let´s be honest here, Giovanna Antonelli does
sound so much more attractive than our Anglo-Saxon names!

After creating a line of nail polishes, jewellery, and being involved in some cosmetics, Giovanna turned her thoughts to a perfume line. Being into perfume herself she decided against a straightforward celeb brand and had three more specialised perfumes created for her, under her name. Giovanna Antonelli harbour no lofty ideas of revolutionising the perfume industry. Nor are their fragrances full of the typical eau de niche notes, you know – generic base note chemicals, ISO E etc, etc, etc. (These evolve, top notes, heart notes and base notes!) Three years were spent in the preparation and refining of these absolutely lovely perfumes.

Giovanna Antonelli: New Perfume House

I have been wearing the three perfumes over for the last few weeks. Proper full body applications! Many thanks to Lionel from Courtois/Mourot Perfumes for the travel bottles. It makes such a difference to be able to wear perfume as intended.

411 INTENSO A chypre floral.

Top: Bulgarian Rose, bergamot, pepper, cammomile.
Middle: Jasmin sambac, ylang ylang, peony.
Base: Patchouli, Amber, Vetiver, sandalwood

611 EXTREMO A floral oriental.

Top: Rhubarb, pear, bergamot
Middle: Tubereuse, Egyptian jasmine, hawthorn
Base: Liquorice, iris, benzoin, vanilla

811 ABSOLUTO A spicy oriental.

Top: Bergamot, pepper, cloves, lavender
Middle: Green, jasmine, honey, tolu
Base: Patchouli, amber, musk, vanilla

I am sat here at my desk, wearing all three. Each one is rich, full-bodied, rounded, and absolutely lovely. Exuberant, vivacious, heated, and absolutely lovely. In these days of so many things smelling the same, lovely is indeed the highest praise. And I will wear every single drop, not something I say very often.

Around 150 Euros for a 100 mls. Take a look at Giovanna Antonelli. You can practice your French and Portuguese, the English site is up and coming.

Obrigada Giovanna Antonelli.

Beijos
CQ

Homo*Elegans: Experience Kit

June 12, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Portia

Hey There FUMIES!

In Milan at Essence 2017 I was hanging a bit with my mate Margo. As I was so overwhelmed by the event on the first day I asked Margo to point me in the direction of some Must-Smell-Houses. In the end she only directed me to one house, a reasonably new crew called Homo*Elegans. The worst name for a brand in the history of branding. When she told me the name I laughed in her face. Who could carry a line with that name in their store?

Judith, Margo & Val the Cookie Queen at dinner in Milan

Beyond the terrible name she told me to go smell their perfumes. They are the one new thing you’ve not tried in the whole event that you MUST get your nose on. So I did. The boys gave me an Experience Kit.

Homo*Elegans

Fragrantica

Tadzio by Michele Marin for Homoelegans 2015

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lime, orange, ivy, cucumber
Heart: Black currant, sea water, orange blossom
Base: Immortelle, patchouli, opoponax, musk

I love the cool, frosty opening to Tadzio, it’s freaky fun. Even as the salty black currant comes in the mint stays and the cucumber adds its wetness. Even later when the smooth, warm baseline appears there are still small hints of the coolness in the beginning. Tadzio is my favourite of the three by far.

Fragrantica

Quality Of Flesh by Michele Marin for Homoelegans 2015

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper berries, pink pepper, black pepper
Heart: Narcissus, patchouli, styrax, costus
Base: Leather, civet, benzoin, castoreum

My nose is instantly hit with the leather, dank wet rooty earth and animalics. This wetland foxhole smell is only slightly abated by the smooth creaminess of resins and patchouli. Quality of Flesh smells funky. It’s the most Indie smelling of the three.

Fragrantica

Paloma y Raices by Maurizio Cerizza for Homoelegans 2017

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Peppermint, green accord, mamey, grapefruit
Heart: Tuberose, ylang-ylang, coffee, tobacco
Base: Tonka bean, tolu, peru balsam, vanilla

Imagine if they made a chocolate coated biscuit filled with tuberose and ylang cream. A rich, tropical, dreamy scent that is sweet but not in the modern fairy floss way, much more a nuanced resinous sweetness surrounded by dark chocolate. The base is all warm, clean flesh. Paloma y Raices becomes a soft but noticeable skin scent, perfect for close quarters and undressing.

La Via del Profumo GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Homo*Elegans Experience Kit
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us which Homo*Elegans fragrance sounds most you?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 14th 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 21st 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

Saturday Question: Which 3 Perfume Notes Do You Look For?

June 10, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 123 Comments

Portia

Hello Fellow Fumies,

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

PDI

Saturday Question

Which 3 Perfume Notes Do You Look For?

OK, so most of us have a few trigger notes. You know, the ones you see in a fragrance note list that instantly catch your attention. Maybe you love it because it’s a note that you love to have overwhelming you. It could be a back story player that you find easy to notice and its participation always makes you smile. A Base note that you love because it will be the one you smell the longest in your fragrant wear. Perhaps its a top note that gives you shivers. I think we all have a few notes that we recognise with love but lets keep it to three today.

My answer:

Amber: Though not every fragrance that has amber is a favourite I do tend to like my scents warm, resinous and sweet. There’s something so comfortable about ambers, and fragrances that include it in their main ingredients. It’s a little deeper than vanilla but not so darkly animal as labdanum/styrax/benzoin alone. Some of my most loved ambers include L’Artisan L’Eau d’Ambre, Huitiem Art Ambre Cerulean, Jessica simpson Fancy Nights and Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan.

Rose: Roses come in so many different scent families. They can be sweet and jammy, citrus or tea, smoky, boozy, fruity and a whole host of others, or combined. There’s something incredibly precious about how a rose smells. Maybe because Mum loved them so much and grew them in our garden. I could have been influenced by the adoration for roses in prose, advertisement and gardening books but I really do feel a genuine attachment to the fragrances that roses emit. Neela Vermeire Creations Mohur, Soivohle Rosa sur Reuse, Olympic Orchids Ballets Rouges, Parfums DelRae Coup de Foudre and Annick Goutal Ce Soir ou Jamais are just some of my rose loves.

Lavender: Lavender is so soothing yet manages to also be gloriously alive and breathtakingly beautiful. Considering what a fragrant staple it’s been its poor reputation in the 21st century seems unwarranted. Personally I can take it straight up, blended among the crowd, a central or backing role. It scent refreshes my brain and lets me sleep like a log, whenever I change the sheets I spritz the new ones with L’Occitane Lavande de Haute-Provence. Other Lavender loves include CHANEL Boy, Le Galion Cologne Nocturne, Guerlain Jicky, Hermessence Brin de Réglisse and Jean Paul Gaultier Le Mâle.

So my question to you is

Which 3 Perfume Notes Do You Look For?

Samsara by Jean-Paul Guerlain for Guerlain 1989

June 9, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Portia

Hello lovelies,

Samsara has great memories for me of my Mum. I bought her some one year and she wore it often. It’s weird but I rarely hear people speak of this particular Guerlain, it’s still in department stores so must be a good seller for them. Every now & then I get mine out to reminisce. Then I wonder why I don’t wear it more.

Samsara by Guerlain 1989

Samsara by Jean-Paul Guerlain

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, ylang-ylang, peach, green notes
Heart: Jasmine, iris, narcissus, violet, rose
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, amber, musk

Samsara means “Wheel Of Life” in Sanskrit according to Jean-Paul Guerlain the perfumes main creator.

Creamy tropical flowers and fruit, a little sharp in the open. Samsara doesn’t take long to settle on my skin and become a slightly banana-isa yellow floral with BWF aspirations. Mildly flower feral, it wears in parfum close and seductive. When I add the EdT it becomes a larger, more exhibitionist fragrance, a glamorous silk brocade of a scent.

Once the initial extravaganza calms I’m left with a nebulous bouquet backed by a sweet, dry-ish vanilla and creamy resinous sandalwood till fade. Recently I read that even back in 1989 Samsara was mainly faux sandalwood, doesn’t matter to me. Lastly I smell sandalwood and musks, I think the musk might be the real deal but TBH I’ll probably never know

Fragrantica

Some people talk about how outrageous and overbearing Samsara is. That’s definitely not how I experience it. Maybe because of my Mum reference Samsara is a warm, elegant, pre-oud oriental that is both exotic and incredibly comforting. Back in the 1980s Samsara was armchair travel to faraway places, a hint of the multifarious peoples of Asia and the Middle East. Even then I knew world travel was what I wanted to do as a life hobby.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Muse In Wooden Shoes
Most Guerlain counters have Samsara
Surrender To Chance has vintage parfum samples from $20/0.25ml

Have you tried Samsara?
I hope you enjoyed wandering among my fragrant thoughts. Below is an original Samsarta ad, hopefully see you tomorrow,
Portia xx