Frederic Malle

Angeliques Sous La Pluie by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2000

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Hello Happy Huffers,

Not so long ago SurrenderToChance had a DailyChanceSpecial on Angeliques Sous La Pluie (Angelicas In The Rain) so I got 5ml for a very reasonable price. Do check by there every couple of days because sometimes the DailyChanceSpecials are incredible, never to be repeated bargains.

Angéliques Sous La Pluie Frederic Malle for women and menPhoto Stolen Fragrantica


Fragrrantica gives the featured notes/accords all in one line:
Coriander, pink pepper, cedar, angelica, juniper and musk.

I love the crisp medicinal pepper and then warm woody opening that makes me think of jasmine, though there is none. I have been reading that angelicas smell like juniper and musk mainly so that’s a tick for them. I have an expectation that the corriander would smell different to this or maybe I’m missing it all together? There is definitely a wet woods smell, like you have walked out at the start or end of a shower, maybe a sunshower. There is also the feeling of that marvelous extra green almost yellow tinged air that makes everything seem more alive sometimes. They are right not to give notes in order because though the scent list is small it works like a kaliedescope, constant change with lovely segways in between that are all and nothing. I don’t understand why I get powder here? Is that usual? A very powdery woods and now I kind of get the corriander, there is something herbal and spicy here lingering and fluctuating up and through.

Photo Stolen wikipedia

Though this is light a fresh and feels amorphous there is a definite fragrance here that is quite tenacious, sillage is great leaving a lovely effervescent scent trail for people to look after at your back. Though it is soft it is intrusive and I think it may be too big for close office work but comfortable for coffee, dinner, movie and would also be a beautifully crisp and fresh scent for sport or afterwards. Though it leans toward feminine I like it for men too, almost cologne-ish and light enough for most masculine endeavours.

This is a winner for me. It fits totally with our near spring weather in Sydney and will probably work for you Northern Hemisphere lot in the coming months. Crisp, light, fresh and totally wearable in most situations, even work I think.
Have you tried Angeliques Sous La Pluie? What did you think? Is it on your list? Please comment, I love to read your thoughts too.

Don’t forget to pop over to the PerfumePosse to see my Guest post there today too. It’s so exciting and an honour to be on one of the world’s most famous and read frag blogs.

Thanks for reading through my fragrant thoughts today, see you tomorrow too,

Love,
Portia xx

Lipstick Rose by Ralf Schwieger for Frederic Malle 2000

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Guest Post by EmmaKate

LIPSTICK ROSE

Hello hello Australian Perfume Junkies!

EmmaKate here again for my monthly guest blog appearance. This month I am going to be talking to you about one of my favourite fragrances, Lipstick Rose from Frederic Malle.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
As you may know I was lucky enough to meet Frederic Malle himself while I was working at Mecca Cosmetica. While he was in Australia I was able to ask him about his fragrances and learn more about the range. I have always had a soft spot for this perfume and I had NO idea why (except for the fact that it was gorgeous)…Until Frederic enlightened me that it is designed to smell like lipsticks and powder compacts from a bygone era. As a beauty junkie I knew that certain brands continued to make their products with that luxury in mind, so this fragrance was two of my favourite things combined, fragrance and makeup.
The story goes: Ralf Schwieger (the nose behind this, Eau des Marveilles for Hermes and 3 scents for ELdO in 2012) created this fragrance based on a memory from his childhood. When he was young his parents would go to society events and his mother would come to kiss him goodbye before she would leave. The scent that he associates with this memory is the scent of his mothers lipstick and a sense of love and safety. He brought these memories to life in Lipstick Rose.
Lipstick Roses Long 75Photo Stolen globalrose
Fragrantica gives these featured notes/accords all in a line:
Rose, violet, musk, vanilla, vetiver, amber and grapefruit
Lipstick Rose opens with an orchestra of rose and violet followed by a softer powdery style vanilla and musk. It is then rounded out with vetiver and dries down to smell like candied roses and lilacs. It is reminiscent or Turkish delight and children’s lolly bracelets but with a sophisticated edge. It is well worth checking out if you like a sweeter scent, and even if you don’t. Let it sit with you, you might be surprised.
When I smell this I have visions of pink and red roses. For me it evokes romance and a sense of beauty, inner and outer. I wear this fragrance when it is cooler as I find it a bit overwhelming during the warmer months, I love to wear it when I am feeling a bit sassy and a lot girly.
Kiss Clipart Image: Lipstick Kiss

Photo Stolen Valentineclipart

SurrenderToChance starts at $5.99/ml
I also have a DIY blog full of fun, simple things to do, please come by and have a look at TheOriginalEmmaKate
Can’t wait to see you next month here on APJ,
EmmaKate XOX

Frederic Malle LIVE Video Sniffs

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Hello all you Perfumistas,

YAY!! YAY!! YAY!!

You’ve all been hanging out for one of our videos and we are slowly making a stockpile of them to bring out when the urge comes upon us. We are so lucky to have my gorgeous Scent Mother, Emma (who guest blogs here on APJ as EmmaKate) with me for this one. I hope you enjoy our little bit of perfume madness as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

Photo Stolen meccacosmetica

Today we look at 3 of the Frederic Malle series; Vetiver, Carnal Flower and Le Parfum De Therese. Emma talks us through them, their major accords, some history and we sniff one LIVE.

Photo Stolen meccacosmetica

As always I’d like to thank my BFF Kath for the video and editing and TSO Jin for making it embed ready.

Enjoy, Enjoy, ENJOY!!!
Portia xxx

Musc Ravageur by Maurice Roucel from Frederic Malle 2000 Review

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Hiya Fumies,

I have had a sample of Musc Ravageur glaring with its almost Vivienne Westwood red cover at me since my scent Mother Emma took me on a tour of the Frederic Malle range at our Sydney city Mecca corner under Myer. On the day my 3 standouts were Carnal Flower, Geranium Pour Monsieur and Musc Ravageur. I was given samples of CF and Musc Ravageur but have been afraid of how much I will love them and crave FB of the whole damn lot. Well, to hell with waiting…

MUSC RAVAGEUR by MAURICE ROUCEL from FREDERIC MALLE 2000

Photo Stolen Frederic Malle

A lot has been written about this startling fragrance, Katie Puckrik does word and video, PerfumeSmellingThings and GrainDeMusc do words better than I could ever dream. Check them out. Fragrantica gives these notes

Top notes: Lavender and bergamot
Middle notes: Cinnamon and cloves
Base notes: Sandalwood, tonka bean, vanilla, guaiac wood and cedar

What happens when I put Musc Ravageur on? The big lavender and bergamot opening and already there is an undercurrent of the base like a warm hug from a fit young footballer just after practice, then the spices waft in heating things up. Together, at this point the whole fragrance seems to be vying for you attention, all notes together, it’s a busty blonde barmaid gone slightly to seed and working double time. My skin eats these first welcoming moments quickly, within the first half hour Musc Ravageur has settled into a sweet and warm musky vanilla that is way too lovely to be me but after a few hours it could be me if you didn’t know what I smelled of originally. A little bit of exercise, be it dancing or vacuuming, gives it an extra kick of sexy because your own scent blends with it. I think this would be a stunning after gym scent. Your blood is still flowing and you have that yummy sexy scent of just showered hard work, add to that some Musc Ravageur and you will seriously need a BIG stick to get rid of guys like this every morning.

Photo Stolen beautifulmale

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post. What scent sends you crazy when you smell it?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

SUNDAY QUICKSNIFF REVIEW #5

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Hey Perfume Junkies,

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

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

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

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

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


Photo Stolen from shirtsays

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

Photo Stolen from bittbox

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

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

Portia xx

Scent Mum takes us Day Tripping! Winners Announced

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Hiya everyone!

Today was AWESOME!! My BFF Kath and I went into town to meet the amazing Emma who was the MECCA manager for years, involved with setting the store up, bringing Le Labo out to Oz and making that run, grew the Frederic Malle business here and worked with him on Australian launches (and these are just the highlights as I remember them). She has also kindly offered to become my scent mother. I know, right! TOTALLY AH MAY ZING!!! Sorry, I know I’m shouting but I’m so terrifically excited. It’s been quite a day.

First stop was, of course, Mecca in the Myer building Pitt St Mall, Sydney. Amy was our SA and made sure we were well looked after, gossiping with Emma and doing workmates catch up. Brendan was also there but he was busy at the Le Labo bar and we only chatted to him briefly at the end while looking at the wonderful selection of Dyptique, Serge Lutens, Comme des Garcons, Kai, and a horde of others.

Brendan at the Le Labo Bar in Mecca

Emma asked me to pick some of the Frederic Malle that I was interested in sampling on paper so I pulled out;

Musk Ravager which to me was a nice girl version of Muscs Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens which is already in my library. I did take a sample of this though to try, and compare, at my leisure.

Fleur de Cassis gave me a sweeping, playful and deep look into cassis and mimosa and I would like to try this on my skin one day soon.

Portrait of a Lady was a spicy, fruity, floral that took my breath away because it’s so lovely. Powerhouse on the card, still pumping like crazy after 5 hours.

Bigarade Concentree is a little too citrus and wood, the rose doesn’t develop for me and nor does the grass, though I have only had it on a card. This is what Kath bought today and it is a terrific choice on and for her.

I know, crap shot of Emma and BFF Kath

Lipstick Rose is delicious and if I had not already Rosa Sur Reuse by SOIVOHLE and Ce Soir Ou Jamais by Goutal it would be adorning my collection now.

Noir Epices is lovely dark and spicy as the name hints but Eau D’Epices from Tauer fills that niche here.

Geranium Pour Monsieur is amazing, mint, geranium, spices, licorice, woods and cloves wrapped up in a cool incense. This is going on my FB list. What a lovely fragrance. Very mad I didn’t get a sample size of Geranium Pour Monsieur but will return.

Carnal Flower is, of course, divine. Unfortunately I just got Truth or Dare so there is no need for me to splurge so outrageously on even something as jaw droppingly gorgeous as Carnal Flower. I did take a sample size of this one too.

It was great having Emma with us, she knows the product back to front and was able to give us insights and interesting over views that you only get from  working in the industry. I should have had a tape recorder because much of it went straight out of my head. GRRRR! One really good thing was that Emma noticed 2 of the testers were off and so we got brand new ones to try. As you probably already know, lights and temperature changes are killer for fragrances, as is exposure to air. If you are serious about your perfumes a cupboard away from external walls, or even better a fridge, will keep your most precious babies fresh and ready for decades.

SA Amy & BFF Kath at Mecca

Then we went and stood in line at David Jones to have a picture taken with Nicole Richie, who also signed a pre-fab shot of herself. She was doing an in store to sell her new range of bags, sunglasses and jewellery. The bags were fun and well thought out, not ridiculously expensive and had great finishes that looked like you’d get 10 years heavy wear from them. Nicole was all business because I had 3 cards for her to sign but I wished her, “Painless, easy and harmless world domination,” and she immediately looked me straight in the eye and laughed, wishing the same for herself and sharing a tiny little real person connection time with me. It left a really good taste in my mouth. Nicole Richie, you have a fan.

After lunch downstairs in the David Jones Food Hall Emma had to go find herself a frock for an awards night so we parted ways.

Kath and I trotted back to Myer bumping into a dear old friend, Joe, at the CHANEL counter and he loaded us up with samples of cosmetics and a No 5 Eau Premier sample that is going in the Thursday Giveaway Competition next week because I already have 5oz here. It is good news that I have a buddy there because I’ve just learned that my No 5 Parfum spray is an out of date bottle and case necessitating a complete change next time I buy, unless Joe can find me an old one. My bottle and juice are about 15 years old so pre-reformulation and it will be quite a change sadly.

While we were in town I thought I’d go check the Clinique counter to see if they had the Aromatics Elixer 40th Anniversary Perfumers Reserve Edition Prestige Parfum Extrait. The last one!!! I have been asking at every Clinique counter I passed thinking the suburbs would have it but Sydney had it! YAY!! Purchase. Even the box is gorgeous. Opening Ceremony sometime this week! SCORE!! So happy. This may be the last one in Australia.

Photo Stolen idealo

One gripe for today though. Tom Ford doesn’t do samples. So, you want me to pay over $600 for a bottle of your fragrance and you can’t even give me a sample to see if I like it? You can shove your juice darling. Having had my bitch, the SA Joel was great, had no problem giving us the low down on the products we were interested in and happy to spray our cards for us, and us if we weren’t on a sniff mission. But, no samples?

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION WINNERS

This week instead of doing one big giveaway I thought I’d do 2 small ones. Both winning parties will receive

1ml Rasheeqa Concentrated Perfume Oil
1.5ml Vintage by Kate Moss EdT Spray Decant
1.5ml Hermessence Vanille Galante EdT Spray Decant
Plus P&H anywhere in the world

What did you have to do to be in the running to win these lovelies? Tell me a fragrance by a fashion house that you particularly love.

And the

Photo Stolen dryicons

are JESSE and COLLEEN. Congratulations! If you don’t get in touch with your details by midnight Wednesday 30.5.12 I’ll give your prize to someone else.

Well I’ve had a super great day. Now time for some dinner, cuddles and bed. I’ve earned it.

See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Extraordinaries That Arrived By Post #1

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Hello all you lovely Fume Heads,

Photo Stolen from inetgiant.com.au

I love to go to the post box and find something there that’s not a bill, don’t we all? Sometimes though the post box turns up unexpected, interesting, heartening or WOW! Forgot I won/bought/snaggled this. So I want to write about some of the ones that really took my breath away lately, for different reasons..

LE PARFUM DE THERESE.

Photo Stolen from mimifroufrou

Today I went to the box and there was a mail bag from the USA. Tatiana had sent me a surprise sample of Frederic Malle’s Le Parfum De Therese, the fragrance Edmond Roudnitska created in the early 1950s for his wife Thérèse, and it was hers exclusively. In March I had confessed never smelling it on Patty from the Perfume Posse’s review, which was a fun read but definitely not a loving one. I am constantly amazed at the generosity shown in the worm hole de scent (why have I never heard of a fragrance called D Scent, that’s funny) by people who are continents away that I’ve never met. AH MAY ZING! From this fragrance I get roses, broken branch, fresh cut ripe melon and humus in the first rush. It doesn’t really change a lot after the first 15 minutes on my skin, it is mainly fruity floral but not sweet like many of today’s perfumes, ripe and fresh with an underlying strength like feminine women who have made a choice to be so while living, working, loving and generally getting on with the joys and heartaches of modern life.. As apposed to what I had read this smells to me of rise above, fly over, be magic. I know, I’m not making sense but I have been transported. Not for long though, 90 minutes gone. Respritz and begin again.

SEPIA.

Photo Stolen from perfumepharmer

From my reading on other blogs I was expecting this to be an aquatic airy whisper, so spare that my nose was going to miss it completely. What a surprise; Aftelier’s newest scent Sepia is a bit of a blockbuster on my skin. It is warm and dusty, floral and powdery, woody, smoky, dry and sere and smells to me like rural Australia. I can close my eyes and smell the unbroken expanses of sun beaten, dessicated red-earth desert where the properties are 1000’s of square kilometers with sheep, wheat and cattle. Many of the smaller towns have been engulfed in the last 50 years and stand silent, crumbling, with only their stone chimneys left like a mouth full of broken teeth. Sepia is the outback. It is also lovely and surprisingly strong. Thank you Mandy Aftel, something I never would have thought to wear or want in my library. Still powering at 3 hours, now smelling like attics and bookstores. I purchased this sample from Aftelier when buying a FB of Parfum de Maroc, should have ordered FB of this too. On my must have list.

AEDES DE VENUSTAS EdP.

Photo Stolen From edgeboston

I won this from Grain de Musc, blog queen turned author Denyse Beaulieu who wrote The Perfume Lover. What a divisive fragrance Aedes de Venustas has turned out to be. People are loving and hating it all over the scentbloggosphere and there seems to be no Meh factor at all. Dividing them is price point (US$225 per 100ml) and rhubarb accord reality. Mum used to grow rhubarb and cook it with apple in a pie that Dad loved, I can’t remember the taste because it would have to be smothered with ice cream for my sister and I to eat it. So no preconceptions here. What I smell is sharp, tomato leaves/broken ivy/squashed ants but offset by an underlying smell of powdery warmth like tame domestic birds have, mixed with apple and something that could be the vetiver or cold incense, after it’s burnt. I find that I’m divided, it is interesting and I would love a bigger sample which I will now invest in. Good longevity even on my skin, 4 hours and still pumping bitter and sweet softly in equal measure.

WATER CALLIGRAPHY.

Photo Stolen from aedes

I received this generous sample set from by Kilian in the best marketing ploy ever, join his facebook page and he will send you a sample of his new scents as and when they come out. Water Calligraphy by Kilian is like writing with water on a hot stone, like buttery tea, chewed grass, human boob milk and baby in the next room. It is nothing and everything. If you are rich and want the best of a slew of watery scents at about eight times the price, or maybe you just love Kilian, the ridiculously gorgeous bottle, the glamour or want to look like you are living the dream; then I say go for it. He has definitely shown everyone else that he can do the same better and it is more complex than any of the others. But we’re talking levels of air here. I get about 2.5 hours of smelling it before it’s lost to me but TSO Jin can smell a difference still.

There are more but I’ll save them for another day. If you have something you’d like me to sniff, consider me your Aussie nostril. Just ask and I’ll send you my address. Nothing makes me happier than going to the mailbox and finding a packet.

Photo Stolen from free-graphics

Should you want something in your mailbox, don’t forget tomorrow is THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION. There’s some wonderful stuff in the pack tomorrow, so see you then,

LOVE, Love, LOVE,

Portia xxx