Korea 2014: Photo Essay

June 6, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 35 Comments

Hey Crew,

I hope you are all happy and well. So we are back from our Korean adventure and it was hectic! I have had to spend the return week recovering from the amount of stuff we packed into 17 days. There is no way I could show you the whole trip and all that happened because it was just too full on.

So here is a mini view of some of our highlights, obviously I couldn’t include every meal but some of my favourite stand outs were Korean Bar B Q beef (bought for us in a very chi-chi restaurant in Yangsan) and pork (in a tiny street food restaurant in Gangnam near the Zaha Hadid designed arts centre). We also fell in love with the Lotte Burgers and Paris Baguette. The rest of the crew had loads of extra fresh seafood and pronounced it wonderful and I even ate some of the fish we caught on our fishing trip.

As we were with a local, Jin my partner was born and raised in Korea, we had the inside skinny on what was good and crap so we went to a couple of important temples, Jeju Island which is the honeymoon destination of Koreans where newlyweds wear couples outfits (super cute). We were also lucky enough to go to the JSA (Join Security Area) in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North & South Korea which was both incredible and frightening because we went into the border house where talks happen and crossed over into North Korea, we were supposed to be there for 15-20 minutes for photos etc but the armed guards who were escorting us got new information and we were ushered out after only about 2 minutes, the guards and our guide becoming very nervous and agitated. Jin could only catch some of the conversations but there was a drama and we needed to be out PRONTO. It was all quite disturbing but so amazing to have been there. If you are in Seoul; there is a small tourist market for trips there, ask your Concierge.

We also did a bunch of shopping. South Korea has an amazing array of excellent makeup and fragrance chains of their own (Etude House, Skinfood and Japan’s Shu Uemura) and every time I shopped they gave me some testers of their other products, which brings us to

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Korea 2014 GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen Ebay

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will each get:
1 x Etude House Fresh Cherry Lip Tint
1 x mixed bag of 6 Etude House, Skinfood & Shu Uemura samples
1 x pair faux LV socks
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 me a memory that involves a travel fragrance experience or a beauty product someone brought back from overseas for you.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Korea 2014 Beauty Product GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2PW #Beauty #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 8th June 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 12th June 2014 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.

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

All photos donated by Kath, Matt and Portia.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into our trip. Sadly I was so busy seeing and doing that I didn’t capture enough vistas or places of interest. Also you’ll notice that there is often someone at the table using their iPhone, this is ONLY allowed after mains are finished and the time I would remember to take a snap.
Portia xx

Holiday Destinations?

June 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Hey there crew,

We are in South Korea and having a ball. Actually, by now we are flying home

Righto!
So I am running INCREDIBLY late with stuff for this holiday and my mind has turned to mush. Instead of writing a post I thought I could ask you all for your input:

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

What destinations are on your holiday list? Where have you been that you’d like to return to or where would you LOVE to go? What do you prefer, an active, exciting holiday, lazy relaxing holiday? Is it shopping, sniffing, eating, scenery, friends or adventure?

Photo Stolen Flickr

My answer: As you know I love to travel. What seems to happen is I either go to visit friends or go to check a new place and see as much of it as I can. When traveling with Jin that means being up at the crack of dawn and falling into the bed a couple of hours before the next dawn. We see Museums, walk the streets and get lost, find cafes. catch public transport and as Jin so eloquently puts it, “We act so local”.

One of things I like to have is a breakfast buffet, it’s so much better to tromp downstairs and grab food, that’s where I do my Post Card writing and Jin plans the days adventures. I prefer a 4* but will happily sleep No Star if the Breakfast is good.

Where do I like to go? Well, numerically I’ve spent the most visits to India, I think 15 or 16 trips now and every time India makes me want to go back again. When they wrote Incredible India they weren’t joking. Followed closely by the UK, I lived there for a couple of years in thew 1990s and have been back numerous times for all sorts of reasons from work to weddings.

Where have I not been that is on the list, I’ll give you my Top 5 Want To Destinations1. South America: Yes the whole damn continent. Recently Jin and I bought motorbikes to prepare for a trip following The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara.
2. Madagascar: The lovely island off Africa that DreamWorks made into a MUST SEE on my list.
3. Canada: I know, you’d think I would have been there but as yet it hasn’t happened. I had my fingers crossed for this November but the gods saw other things in my lifeline. that’s cool, I’ll get there.
4. Russia: Sadly they are going through some madness there but one day I will get to Russia, with love. Imagine me in full drag tramping through the major cities of Russia. Yes, me too!
5. Israel: The center of so many of the world’s faiths, filled with the icons of my childhood religious upbringing. It would be interesting and informative to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

Tell me about your travels or your “I Wish” list?
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents Travel Books Venice by Jirô Taniguchi

May 25, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey All,

These Louis Vuitton junkets keep me panting for the fragrance. I wonder if and when we’ll see it. I love seeing this video because it reminds me of Jin and my adventures in 2013. Venice will always be special for me because of him.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

I hope you enjoy,
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents Travel Books Venice by Jirô Taniguchi

Sniffa – Eugenie, Oregon 2014

May 21, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Post by ElizaD

Hi Australian Perfume junkies,

What do you get when you combine wine, food, perfume and friends in Eugene, Oregon USA? A Sniffa – Eugenie!!!!

Sniffa – Eugenie, Oregon 2014

Here’s the recipe:

Sniffa – Eugenie! Ingredients

1 tiny coffee table
5 fabulous fumehead friends
lots of small glasses
lots of cotton balls
your favorite perfumes–any size bottle or container will do
food
drink
stories

Photo Stolen Flickr

Sniffa – Eugenie! Instructions

Invite your friends over and ask them to each bring 3 to 5 of their favorite perfumes. If they only have one, tell them not to worry, you have lots! Encourage them to think of a story about their perfume and be ready to share it. Then ask them to bring a little something to nosh on and a complementary beverage.

Prepare your space by gathering as many small glasses as you can muster and a bag of cotton balls (which is what we call them here in the States–I think others call them cotton wool 😉 ). Place the glasses and the cotton on your coffee table, along with a small bowl of lemon slices (coffee beans make everything smell like coffee, lemon dissipates quickly). Spend the rest of the day thinking about what perfumes you will choose to share from your expansive collection of samples and bottles. Will it be your treasured 1978 bottle of Guerlain L’Heure Bleue, which you bought on eBay for a song, or your tiny sample of Chanel No. 5 Eau Premiere? Your equally small sample of Cacharel LouLou or your mini of Prada L’Eau Ambrée? Remember, only three to five!

Vacuum your floors, puff the sofa pillows, prepare the food table, and wait for the magic to happen.

Which it did!

C brought an amazing walnut spread, olives, and a lovely bottle of Blanquette de Limoux, a sparkling wine from Languedoc; K brought home-made brie en croute; and E provided bread and veggies and other bottles of whites and reds.

Since C and E are enthralled with perfume history, they arranged the fragrances by release date, using the book Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume by Barbara Herman as a guide. As each perfume was introduced, the owner carefully sprayed or dabbed a cotton ball and then placed it under an upturned glass. As the scent released, it was caught in the glass from which each took a sniff. Anyone watching this group would surely had thought we were participating in something most illegal!

Photo Donated ElizaD

And the stories!

C had her treasured bottle of Guerlain’s Mitsouko, brought all the way from Paris, and her Andy Tauer minis. She told the stories of how she had been captured by Mitsouko’s incense notes, and how she had discovered Andy Tauer on her trip to the Perfume House in Portland. E shared how she had been sitting in a meeting when she found out that she had won the eBay bid for her bottle of L’Heure Bleue and had immediately launched into a hamster dance. K had everyone in fits of giggles as she related how her perfume, Revlon Intimate, had been a gift during high school and how it still made her feel oh so sexy, even fifty years later. S was so happy that she had found other fumeheads and how perfume was becoming a wonderful connection between her and her daughter. T brought a tiny bottle of Holy Smoke Oil….”one drop lasts all day”…and entertained us with the story of how she found it in a small shop on the lower East Side of Manhattan, far from where she lives now.

Photo Stolen Twitter

And when the wine was drained and there were just crumbs left of the brie, we all agreed that this event had only sharpened our appetite for even more fragrance fun…Perfume House in Portland, here we come!

Have you ever participated in a fragrance get-together? DO TELL!
ElizaD xx

Getting Married In Heaven? A story

April 20, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Hello Fumie Friends,

I have a buddy. Her name is Wendy and she’s a really lovely, fun, smart woman. Every week I swing by her place and we go to Trivia together. Her husband has been unwell with one thing or another for decades and nowadays is wheelchair bound, needs twice weekly dialysis and in many ways is dependent on her. Every few days Wendy sends me a funny, mostly they are bits of silliness and I smile and move on. Sometimes they tickle my funny bone. It was Wendy’s birthday recently and though I am pretty sure she doesn’t read the blog I wanted to commemorate the day by putting up one of the stories she sent me.

I hope you like it too.
Portia xx

Getting Married In Heaven?

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

On their way to the church to get married, a young couple was involved in a fatal car accident.
The couple found themselves sitting outside the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven.

While waiting they began to wonder; could they possibly get married in Heaven?

When St. Peter arrived, they asked him if they could get married in Heaven.

St. Peter said, “I don’t know. This is the first time anyone has asked. Let me go find out,” and he left.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

The couple sat and waited for an answer…. for a couple of hours.
While they waited, they discussed the pros and cons. If they were allowed to get married in Heaven, should they get married?
What with the eternal aspect of it all? “What if it doesn’t work? Are we stuck in Heaven together forever?”

Yet another hour passed before St. Peter finally returned, looking somewhat bedraggled.

“Yes,” he informed the couple, “You can get married in Heaven.”

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

“Great!” said the couple. “But we were just wondering; what if things don’t work out? Could we also get a divorce in Heaven?”

St. Peter, red-faced with anger, slammed his clipboard on the ground.

“What’s wrong?” asked the frightened couple.

“OH, COME ON!” St. Peter shouted. “It took me 3 hours to find a priest up here!
Do you have ANY idea how long it’ll take to find a lawyer?”

Joy by Henri Almeras for Jean Patou 1930

April 14, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Maya

Hey APJ,

Spring seems to have finally arrived and everyone’s dark mood has lifted. Now suddenly, there is growth again and instead of dirty snow we see green. And I got a cold! Or allergies. Unbelievable! I’m not prone to allergies, but you never know. I do know that my sense of smell has weakened. I still get sharp notes and the overall tone of a fragrance but not enough to review it.

So my thoughts went from smell or the lack thereof to perfume and magic and the wonderful memory of how my perfume love came to be…… When I was in my early teens, we had a very beautiful neighbor, Rehle, whose children I would baby sit. Despite our age difference, she and I became good friends. It was a friendship that would last for many years, even when she moved out of state. One day she called me over. She said she had something to show me. Her boyfriend had come back from a trip to France and had brought her a gift. She held the gift gently in long, lovely fingers. It was her treasure.

Joy by Henri Almeras for Jean Patou 1930

Perfume Magic

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tuberose, rose, ylang-ylang, aldehydes, pear, green notes
Heart: Jasmine, iris root, Bulgarian rose, lily of the valley, orchid
Base: Musk, sandalwood, civet

She told me it was the most expensive perfume in the world and she wanted to share it with me. Jean Patou Joy, pure perfum in the classic bottle. I had never heard of it.

She gently pulled the dauber out. I remember the perfume on the dauber was almost molten, golden. Then the most beautiful smell I have ever experienced wafted up at me. It seemed to shimmer like thousands of tiny lights. She dabbed some of this magic on me and on herself.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Joy is my perfume magic. Did it really shimmer? It did for me. The top notes were almost alive. It was and still is beautiful on my skin. Have I ever dabbed or spritzed Joy and followed its development or looked for notes? Never. I know all I need to know.

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and The Non Blonde
Surrender to Chance has Joy Parfum samples starting at $7/.25ml
(You must try your Joy in store because only recently P&G sold Patou Perfumes to a crew that is revitalising the brand)

Rehle is gone now, but every time I wear or smell Joy I think of her. I see her forever young and beautiful and vibrant and I start to smile. I feel happy. Jean Patou named his perfume well – Joy.

Do you have any perfume magic?

Maya
xx

Vienna Take Two. Photo Essay 2014

February 16, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 37 Comments

Righto,

So have taken you on our flight to Vienna through it’s stops and starts, shown you Michael eating a schnitzel bigger than his head and now we are up to the meeting up with mates section We sampled fragrances, ate, drank, laughed and Michael shopped up a whole new wardrobe because he’s 6 foot 4 inches and whippet thin so Austria is the first place he’s been where they cut for his shape.

Birgit, Sandra (both of Olfactoria’s Travels), Michael and Sandra’s sweet and hilarious son Sean made our stay so fun and we saw Vienna the city to live in as well as the tourist city. I was so happy to have dinner with Birgit’s gorgeous husband again, he is sharp, handsome and funny and I am completely smitten.

You may wonder why there’s a dirty great ginger cat but Sandra took us to a Cat Cafe, where people who can’t have pets of their own can spend some time with a bunch of glorious cats. This was my favourite and reminded me a little of Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass cat Rusty, except this one would NOT pose.

Again we stayed in the Hotel Royal on the Stefansplatz, a very comfortable and affordable option in the heart of Vienna that serves an excellent breakfast. These are my three criteria for accommodation: Comfortable, Affordable, Excellent breakfast. Also add to that: Near the station.

Here are a few pics, enjoy a glimpse of Vienna, Austria with us.
Portia xxx

New Years Resolutions 2014 (The Fragrant Version)

January 14, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Post by Gabriella

Happy New Year perfumed peeps!

Today I want to share with you three fragrant wishes for 2014, or more aptly, three good things I started to do last year and want to continue.

New Years Resolutions 2014 (The Fragrant Version)

1. Sharing my perfume hobby more with friends and family.

Case number one: My Mum. Mum’s been faithful to Giorgio for several years now. It smells great on her and she likes it, but can’t really smell it anymore. Several attempts to get her to try other things have usually been met with much protest. So, when I gifted her with some samples on a recent visit to Sydney, I fully expected them to lie unused in her dresser. Not so. When we went to stay with my parents at Christmas, she happily announced that she was wearing Aurora Nomade by The Different Company. She then proceeded to be utterly charmed by Beyond Love By Kilian and Manguier Metisse by Parfumerie Generale and Cocobello by Heeley. She’s loving it and she’s still going….

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Case number two: a family friend, Miss L, who asked me to help her find a new perfume several months ago. After some time sniffing, testing and sample gifting, my brother announces at Christmas that she’s hit the jackpot. The chosen one is “the Guerlain with the Japanese name”. “Ahhh, Mitsouko!” Mr M proclaims (I’ve taught him well people). Miss L wanted a bottle of the EDP but couldn’t find it anywhere and contacted me in desperation. I had a partial bottle that was lying around unloved that I happily gave her. She was thrilled and I haven’t felt better about a perfume experience for a long time.

2. Exploring more scents on the very masculine end of the spectrum.

I’m as girly-girl as they come and so are my perfume tastes, mostly. I realise that it’s a no-no to speak of a gender divide in perfume, but I have not smelt enough (or reviewed enough) scents that lie in what I deem to be the more masculine camp. This was prompted this was Mr M’s request for a fourth scent for Christmas. He has Autoportrait by Olfactive Studio, Pour Homme by Paco Rabanne and Antaeus by Chanel and isn’t going to be wearing Fracas or even something more unisex anytime soon.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

I chose Bois du Portugal by Creed. It smelt great on me, great on the card, and even my Mum loved it. But it was a disaster on him: waaaaay too sweet and too much lavender. The whole exercise made me realise that I haven’t smelt any of the masculine Amouages, Knize Ten, most Chanels for men and lord knows what else. In 2014, I want to rectify that.

3. Cull more of my collection

After many impulse buys and hence a few bottles lying around untouched, I have finally realised that there’s a huge distinction between the perfume I want to wear most of the time and the perfume I want to experience, wear on the odd occasion, or write about. This hobby certainly doesn’t mean I have to have 30 bottles that get worn once a year, it’s about enjoying what you have. And in saying that, sometimes less is more. So, full bottles only for the ones I regularly use and samples or decants for everything else. I really would like to get my collection down to eight or ten bottles and the rest is going to be sold.

Photo Stolen Vogue Tumbler

So, what do you think of my list? Do you have any perfume goals or wishes for this year? What perfumes do you want to buy or experience this year?

With much love until next time!

M x

Quick Quotes for a Better Day!

December 1, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hello APJ,

Here’s the thing. The last few days have been a bit wonky. I have been irritable, grouchy, whiney and generally being a big hairy poo head. I have let myself get overwhelmed by external pressures, people’s failure to do it my right, business, late payers, bills, friends, general life really. I felt like I was sinking and it’s not a feeling I relish. So I went to one of those feel better FB pages and stole some short sayings that resonated. Often it’s easy to forget that there is a big picture, a goal or that moving forward can entail change and NO ONE likes change that doesn’t move at a comfortable pace. So it seems that changes are needed, some of them will be painful and some will be easy, and you don’t get to chose.

The other side though, that’s where the payoff is, pain now, gain later. Really pain? Hopefully not but certainly discomfort.

It was Thanksgiving this week in America. Where they thank the Indians for teaching them how to survive in the new country, sadly many of the Indians did not survive their encounter with white mans germs, it was reverse War of the Worlds, the aliens survived. What do I have to be thankful for? So much, I am lucky and blessed on so many levels. What do I need to change? Well change has already been put in motion, there will be more….

I hope you like this little montage for hope.
Portia xx

Brie’s Christmas Owl

November 4, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by Brie

Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age arrives alone, unaccompanied.
-Woon Tai Ho, Riot Green

Brie’s Christmas Owl

Hello APJ,

Written while drinking Organic India USA<<<JUMP Tulsi Sweet Rose herbal tea.

Photo Stolen Organic India USA

Tulsi Sweet Rose tea is sold as Stress relieving, Soothing & relaxing, Abundant in antioxidants, Powerful adaptogen, Uplifts mood, Caffeine & gluten free, USDA certified organic, 18 tea bags per box, GMO free, Kosher & Halal certified

Christine, my oldest childhood friend of 42 years, lived one flight below me in an apartment building in NYC. Her mother Catherine, a bubbly woman of Greek descent, lived life to the fullest with an infectious laugh and an ability to always see the glass half full instead of half empty. One Christmas Catherine invited all of Christine’s friends over and presented us with gifts that she had chosen quite carefully for each of us. As we tore off the wrapping paper what was revealed underneath were handcrafted ornaments of various animals. I was secretly hoping for the cat (my favorite animal) and was dismayed to see that she had given me an owl. Sensing my disappointment she pulled me aside and quietly whispered, “Do you know what the owl represents? Intuitive wisdom. Never forget that you are an owl, not a cat”. I was four months shy of becoming a teenager and all I cared about at that time was obtaining that which I did not have; popularity and attractiveness. Intuition and wisdom were the very last attributes I was attempting to cultivate. Sadly, a few years later, Christine lost her mother to breast cancer.

Brie’s family took and starred in this shot

Ten years ago I asked my parents to retrieve all of my collectible Christmas ornaments from the common storage room in their apartment building. To my horror, all of my dated Hallmark ornaments were stolen. Left behind were a few worthless stragglers, including the owl. Back it came to my own house and as it hung on my tree I thought of Catherine, her words haunting me. Year after year I placed that owl on my tree and slowly but surely the owl became my animal. Eventually my three children heard the story of how I came to love owls through the wise words of Catherine.

So it should come as no surprise that when I saw Soap and Paper Factory’s Patch NYC “OWL” solid perfume I bought it unsniffed. Lucky for me it smells fantastic! OWL is a bright rosy geranium on top with a grounding dry down of sandalwood, tobacco and vetiver. For a solid natural perfume it lasts an incredibly long time. The tea I love to pair it with is Organic India’s Tulsi Tea Sweet Rose. Tulsi, or holy basil, is an herb renowned in India for healing properties that relieve stress and protect the immune system. That beautiful Sweet Rose tea melds so nicely with the OWL perfume.

From PatchNYC site:

{sandalwood, tobacco, vetiver} elusive and wise like the night owl, delvilishly earthy as a twilight forest

Three years ago I included a letter with my yearly holiday card to my friend Christine. I wrote about the exchange between her mother and I and included a picture of my owl hanging on the Christmas tree. Last year she revealed to me that she keeps my letter in a special place and reads it from time to time. I believe that it serves as a reminder that her mother’s memory lives on in the heart of a woman who endeavors for wisdom to accompany her into middle age.

This story is dedicated to all mothers: past, present and future

Sadly Brie wrote this ahead and can not answer your comments. Don’t let that stop the conversation though, please write if you’d like and Portia will reply. Hopefully Brie is out there somewhere reading. Portia xx

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Friends

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

Korea 2014 GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

Holiday Destinations?

Louis Vuitton Presents Travel Books Venice by Jirô Taniguchi

Louis Vuitton Presents Travel Books Venice by Jirô Taniguchi

Sniffa – Eugenie, Oregon 2014

Sniffa – Eugenie, Oregon 2014

Sniffa – Eugenie! Ingredients

Sniffa – Eugenie! Instructions

Getting Married In Heaven? A story

Getting Married In Heaven?

Joy by Henri Almeras for Jean Patou 1930

Joy by Henri Almeras for Jean Patou 1930

Perfume Magic

Vienna Take Two. Photo Essay 2014

Quick Quotes for a Better Day!

Brie’s Christmas Owl

Brie’s Christmas Owl

This story is dedicated to all mothers: past, present and future