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

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

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?

La Via del Profumo GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 8, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Portia

Hey there APJ,

Thanks to AbdesSalaam for his generosity and you guys for participating.
Let’s see who won,
Portia xxx

La Via del Profumo GIVEAWAY WINNER

La Via del Profumo

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Vetiver, patchouli, olibanum, sea notes, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, spicy notes

La Via del Profumo has samples from €18/5.5ml

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x sample Gringo by La Via del Profumo
1 x sample Cuoio del Dolci by La Via del Profumo
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 7th June 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winner was chosen by random.org

Ingrid

The winners will have till Wednesday 14th 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

Sea Wood (Legno di Nave) by AbdesSalaam Attar for La Via del Profumo

June 5, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Portia

Hey Crew,

La Via del Profumo makes really good fragrances.They are not like what you’ll find at the mall. In fact they are quite the opposite. Deep, dark and moving rather than sweet and safe. They may help unlock the feral you that lurks behind the daily facade you need to wear to deal with the world on terms that will keep you employed, unfettered and engaged with society. Sometimes you need to loosen the restraints without causing damage, I find fragrance is the perfect solution.

AbdesSalaam Attar is the fragrant pen name of Dominique Dubrana who focuses on the use of natural fragrance. What he creates though is so intense and coherent, I love to wear his fragrances because they speak to me in a far different language than the department store and niche scents.

Sea Wood (Legno di Nave) by La Via del Profumo

Sea Wood (Legno di Nave) by AbdesSalaam Attar

La Via del Profumo

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Vetiver, patchouli, olibanum, sea notes, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, spicy notes

Cloves and the feeling of booze, like a very strong rum drink, open Sea Wood. It’s a big, intoxicating opening that then calm quickly and sizzles quietly. So spicy, I can’t pick the notes apart properly but I would have said freshly cracked pepper.

Not long into the fragrance the sweet, not quite urinous smell of resins and patchouli waft through. It’s weird but I smell honey and woods now. The scent smells thick and glutinous like trying to breathe in a vat of honey. I can imagine myself in the hold of a ship full of exotic cargo, maybe even some livestock on board and the inevitable ever-present underscore of salty brine.

PDI

The fireworks sadly don’t last long enough before Sea Wood softens to a slightly feral salty resin. It becomes a skin scent, only smelled if you put your head down into your shirt. The perfect scent level for being undressed by someone, or for office work and close quartered dates.

La Via del Profumo has samples from €18/5.5ml

La Via del Profumo GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x sample Gringo by La Via del Profumo
1 x sample Cuoio del Dolci by La Via del Profumo
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us where you would wear your prize?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 7th 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 14th 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

Kai Rose Oil GIVEAWAY WINNER

June 1, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Portia

Hey there crew,

Thanks to LuckyScent for supplying the prize.
Let’s see who won.
Portia xx

Kai Rose Oil GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Rose absolute, White blossoms, Gardenia

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 0.7ml Kai Rose Oil LuckyScent Sample (1/2 full from testing)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 31st May 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winner was chosen by random.org

Latai

The winner will have till Wednesday 7th 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

Kai Rose Oil by Kai by Gaye Straza 2017 + GIVEAWAY

May 29, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Portia

Hey APJ,

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of bottles from LuckyScent and asked them to send me their newest stuff as samples. I figured they are far better arbiters of the best of new fragrance than I am. It turned out to be a really good idea. I have dabbed them already and come up with a couple I’d like to wear fully and review. YAY! Don’t you love getting the low down on the newest?

Kai Rose Oil by Kai by Gaye Straza 2017

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Rose absolute, White blossoms, Gardenia

Original 1999 Kai? Remember it? The glorious white floral that reminded a new generation of the BWFs existence? Gaye Straza created original Kai to remember the scent of her childhood holidays in Hawaii. At the time she had a boutique in Malibu, California. When she sold the store she kept the fragrance line and expended the original Kai scent product range. This is the first new Scent release from the brand since then.

ROSES! How I love roses. There’s currently one on my window sill that I was given 10 days ago and it’s still blooming happily. Well, maybe heading towards the end now but each morning it supplies glorious scent, soft but sweet and jammy rose scent.

Kai rose is a little bit similar. A clean, sweet, jammy rose, smells lilac or deep pink. You can even smell the soft velvet touch of rose petals as you bury your face in the blooms. A dry rose, not dewy at all, even a bit overblown and ready to drop all its petals.

Slowly the white flowers emerge and I’m reminded of original Kai but tempered all the way through with rose. Lovely.

Sillage is low and projection moderate. Can’t wait for the EdP which will be much more diffuse.

LuckyScent has $48/4ml rollerball & Samples

Kai Rose GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 0.7ml Kai Rose Oil LuckyScent Sample (1/2 full from testing)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us did you wear Kai? Do you still? OR What happy Kai memories do you have?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 31st May 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 7th 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

LuckyScent Oliver & Co Sample GIVEAWAY WINNER

May 25, 2017 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Portia

Thanks for getting involved APJ.

It was nice to run this giveaway. Old from Oliver & Co wrote to say thank you. Isn’t that thoughtful? He’s a honey.
Good luck everyone,
Portia xxx

LuckyScent Oliver & Co Sample GIVEAWAY WINNER

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 0.7ml Oliver & Co Dunard LuckyScent Sample
1 x 0.7ml Oliver & Co Gincense LuckyScent Sample
1 x 0.7ml Oliver & Co La Colonia LuckyScent Sample
1 x 0.7ml Oliver & Co M.O.U.S.S.E. LuckyScent Sample
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

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

GINA

The winners will have till Wednesday 31st May 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