DARK PASSAGE by Andy Tauer

Hi everyone,

Don’t forget to go and enter our THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION, you have till around 10pm Saturday Australian EST

It finally arrived.

Photo Stolen TauerPerfumes

“…DARK PASSAGE, the super limited edition that is only available in March through the Kickstarter campaign for ONLY CHILD. Afterwards , when the financing and support campaign for Brian Pera’s latest film project comes to an end, then the perfume will be gone. ONLY CHILD is the next Evelyn Avenue full feature film project.” Andy Tauer from his blog March 2012.

Really good blog reviews of Dark Passage include I Smell Therefore I Am and Perfume Shrine.

When I first read that Andy Tauer was doing a new short release perfume for a fundraiser I was excited beyond imagining. I love his work, it is definitive and solid and statement making, as well as having extraordinary sillage and staying power. There is often a quirkiness, edge and diversion from the norm and Mr Tauer has a special accord that is oft called the Tauerade because of its incredible tenacity. Awesome if you want to stay smelling amazing for a night out, lovemaking and waking up, it will stay on clothes for months if you don’t wash them so is perfect for scenting hankies when loved ones go away or your purse so it’s always like a magic fragrant cave from which anything may come. Nasty if you have a bad on skin scent reaction, headache, just want to change scent; showering is not enough you need to undergo a post radioactivity radiation wash cycle. Thankfully they are all magic on my skin and I love the dry downs.

I thought I would present Andy Tauer’s Dark Passage (He He He that means 2 things) today in mainly visual storybook fashion. See below the photo’s for story….


Photo Stolen virtual.yosemite

Photo Stolen dancarman

Photo Stolen wallpaper4me


Photo Stolen hideyoshi.deviantart

Photo Stolen topnews

Photo Stolen inspiredfitstrong

Photo Stolen fantom-xp

Photo Stolen shivacreations

Photo Stolen storex

Photo Stolen art.com


Photo Stolen IMDb

Dark Passage opens underneath the city with a weird swampy, burning tyres and fetid air accord BAM!, then it moves into back alleys as the close aromas of human habitation and their feral pets, you come across a cafe, smelling the cigarettes of the al fresco diners and then the coffee itself, the slightly burnt bitter smell of an imperfectly cleaned barista bar, and then past an Indian furniture shop with the bee wax polish and resins they use to colour the wood and give it shine overlaid on freshly finished wood, underneath all this the patchouli has been pumping unnoticed but comes to the fore as we drive outside the confines of the city with the top down smelling the exhaust, we get out and the fresh tree laden air, with humus and earth and maybe there has been a sprinkle of rain that is burning off in the sun. Then it comes in waves, interesting different visions pass before your nose, it is an olfactory movie, Film Noir and the bitch is going to get it in the Dark Passage.

UPDATE: I get this great story for maybe an hour and a half, it softens to a soft, slightly burnt vanilla and leather accord that was still ever so slightly there this morning, skin scent. It has only left the mildest trace on my clothes too, like this is my bodies scent left in the shirt. A new sophistication for Mr Tauer, bravo.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this, writing it was FUN!
Portia xx

Thursday Giveaway Competition, Gucci by Gucci Videos

Well Well Smellophiles,

It has been a great week here in Sydney, Australia. Today is TSO Jin’s birthday and he has wanted DIOR Homme for a while. I was lucky enough to find a 50ml pre-reformulation bottle with the silver tube in the middle and only bounced the $50 Birthday/Xmas spend limit by a teensy bit, oh well he’s so worth it. Of course being a sparky it was crack of dawn make a wish and blow out candle, prezzie, vitamin tablet with Up&Go, here’s your lunch (today he got a Birthday special cold corned beef, cheese and pickle sandwich, choc chip muffin, passionfruit fizzy can and a Twix) and he was gone.

Being Thursday we have our

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Photo Stolen immercedemo

I thought because we’ve done such a big Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes week that we could do 2 special giveaways. All you need to do to win is to tell me what the code word you need to put in the coupon box at checkout on Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes for the $5 discount in the comments below. You’ll find the code word here on AustralianPerfumeJunkies in Monday and Tuesday‘s posts (a hint, the days in colour are jumps, hit them and you’ll be transported). It’s drawn on Saturday night around 9pm Australian EST. Jump to it! Here’s what you could win:

1ml Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes manufacturers samples of Carolina & Olympic Rainforest or A Midsummer Days Dream & Arizona.
2ml manufacturers sample of Fugue or Barocco by new fragrance house Esther produced by the crew at Fragonnard
Plus P&H anywhere in the world

Photo Stolen GUCCI

Next up I’ve given you an ad and a short film about Gucci by Gucci. The ad has the incredible Deborah Harry from Blondie singing one of her all time great classics, Heart of Glass. I was lucky enough to meet her in London, she had come to the opening night of DillyBoy in a club under Picadilly Circus, I was asked to produce the shows and there were a crew of us entertaining. The venue was full to overflowing and Ms Harry came out back to see us and after the shows she stayed around and partied with us till we fled to our next engagement. Christmas 2010 she was in Sydney and came down to the Opera House to watch the show that I was compering and performing in “DRAG!” and though she pretended to remember me and the night in Piccadilly Circus I know she was just being nice. It has however been one of the few mega stars that I have admired since childhood that when I’ve met them I have been pleasantly surprised at their friendliness and candor. She is the bomb and had I known she sang the ad I would have bought Gucci by Gucci sooner. I just gave the Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme to a mate for his birthday on the back of this loveliness. Enjoy.
Portia xx

Gucci by Gucci (Deborah Harry- Heart of Glass)

Gucci by Gucci maybe filmschool?

Midnight In Paris on Perfume Posse, David Gandy DnG Undies Video, Winners Announced

Hi Everyone!
The exciting news is that the Perfume Posse has taken another piece of my writing and put it on their site!! What an awesome feeling to be a guest writer on such an entrenched and valuable learning tool for perfumistas the world over. My smile is broad today. Go have a look at Midnight In Paris please and leave me a message so I know you’ve dropped by. Thrilled, I tell ya!

David Gandy in Dolce & Gabbana underwear 2008 just for a delicious bit of eye candy. Why not?

>

THURSDAY COMPETITION WINNERS

Picture Stolen covenantbuilders

This week the deal was the most Twitter shout outs and we had a few. Only one person retweeted more than once and interestingly nobody onward tweeted from your tweets. So this week the second prize goes to the first retweeter.

Here’s what our 2 lovely winners receive:

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

Picture Stolen berryreview

Amy Orvin had the most.
Tarleisio was first.

Congratulations to you both. Please get in touch with addresses so I can send your prizes by Wednesday 13.6.12 Midnight Australian EST or I’ll give you prizes to the homeless.

I hope the rest of your weekend is AWESOME!!
Portia xx

Making of DIOR’s Secret Garden, Thursday Giveaway Competition

Hey Hey Everyone!

I hope your weeks have been lovely. Most of this week has been cool and wet here in Sydney but today is sunny and glorious. I’ve just come in from sitting in the front yard reading in the sun with a cuppa and watching the cockatoos, galahs and lorikeets eating the seed rings I put on the liquidamber. It’s easy to be grateful when life is so lovely.

Last week we nearly made 1000 IVs, 994! We also nearly had a 200 IVs day, 197! AH MAY ZING! We also had our first guest blog on Perfume Posse if you didn’t get a chance to see it. Wrote about the old and the new, Bob Mackie & Kerosene’s John Pegg. Hit lightly on Viktor & Rolf’s Spicebomb and a multitude of other great stuff. With any luck you’ve enjoyed reading all these as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing them to you. Here’s the payoff.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Picture Stolen hemodernhome

It’s my favourite day of the week again. The day where we get to look through all the great stuff we’ve talked about during the week and decide what will go in the draw and how we are going to get a winner.

This week we will have 2 winners, each will receive.

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

How do you win? This is a complete no brainer, copy and paste the below sentence into your Twitter. EASY PEASY! The 2 people who tweet or have retweeted the most number of times with their handle included will win. I will see each tweet and retweet in my interactions so it will be super easy to follow. If anyone reaches 50 retweets (that’s 50 of your friends retweeting) they will get a special prize 2ml of something niche & discontinued.

https://australianperfumejunkies.com/ I smell a GIVEAWAY COMPETITION Retweet to enter Go to it @ozperfumejunkie

These giveaway competitions are our way of saying THANK YOU for your support. Even if you enter and don’t win you will have earned a million thank yous, just for being part of our AustralianPerfumeJunkies family. It is noticed and appreciated. As a special thank you I’ve added the making of DIOR’s Secret Garden mini movie. You’ll get the full movie tomorrow, see you then.

Wishing all of your good dreams come true,

Portia xx

Making of Secret Garden Versailles

OMFG Paris Hilton!, Momento by Sicily, Winner Announced

Hey everyone,

One thing I had to get out of the way is “According to Women’s Wear Daily, the blonde heiress (Paris Hilton) has sold $1.5 billion worth of perfume since 2004, the New York Daily News reported….There are more than twenty Paris Hilton Handbags and Accessories boutiques in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. She also has four stores in the Philippines. (In the Hindustan Times 2.6.12)” I took this from Nathan Branch’s Luxury Is A Trillion Dollar Industry in NZ. OMG!! Who knew? About to launch her 15th fragrance and all of them are still on sale and selling. So I guess Paris is laughing all the way to the bank.

Photo Stolen fanpop

SICILY (Piazza Duomo Ortigia Siracusa) by MOMENTO Italian Olfactive Landscapes 2008. This was the second fragrance in the Momento range and seems to have been the last. I don’t even see it for sale anymore so maybe it has been discontinued.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Green and freshly floral, it has been surprisingly enjoyable to wear on our cool Autumnal rainy day here in Sydney. The spiel runs that this fragrance is designed around a spring day, 6 March 2008, at the Piazza Duomo on the island of Ortigia, south of Siracusa. Not having been there I cannot verify the veracity of their claim but I do like the imagery it presents and am happy to suspend my disbelief.

ParcoMuseo Jalari Sicily piazza aromi e sapori1 (1)
Photo Stolen Flickr

According to Fragrantica the basic notes are: neroli, freesia, jasmine, immortelle, note of hay, cedar, amber, patchouli, myrrh and agarwood.

I get the fresh blast of neroli, the sweet bright and clear freesia and immortelle, green hay/grass and woods as it opens; not squeaky or screechy but a calm cool customer with nice sillage. The jasmine here is not the sexy deep jasmine you’ll find elsewhere more a clean sparkly highlight playing piccolo in staccato, this while the amber, myrrh and patchouli sing very quietly underneath to add size and shape to the fragrance without coming out as a set of star players. I smell no agarwood at all through the very long, delicious life of the fragrance, getting about 5 hours before it become a skin scent lost to me but discernible to TSO Jin.

THURSDAY COMPETITION GIVEAWAY WINNER

How did you win the swag this week? Just Tweet this Competition Page (http://australianperfumejunkies.com) and put @OzPerfumeJunkie in your Tweet so I know you’ve done it.

2ml Manufacturers Sample Chanel No 5 Eau Premier
1ml Decant L’Heure Convoitee II by Cartier.
1ml Decant Rasheeqa Concentrated Perfume Oil by Swiss Arabian.
.5ml Decant Myrrhe et Delires by Guerlain.
P&H anywhere in the world

Thank you to our contestants and the


Photo Stolen from sistersavealot.com

is Sharryn Stormonth.
You must get in touch by Wednesday June 6th 2012 or I will give your goodie bag away to someone else.

Have a lovely weekend all,
Wishing you the best of everything,
Portia xx

OMG!! Portia on Perfume Posse?

Hello everyone,

This is a seriously BIG DEAL. Recently there was a shout out for, and after a small series of lost in the ethernet emails I was invited to submit, guest blog material on one of the world’s most popular fragrance blogs, Perfume Posse. Today is my first published Guest Spot on there and I am fit to WIDDLE myself with excitement.

I chose to write about a new kid on the block perfumer, his new perfume house and one of his most popular fragrances.
Carlos Huber (below, I know! HUBBA HUBBA) is the perfumer, Arquiste is his company and Aleksander the fragrance. So please scoot on over to PerfumePosse and have a quick squiz, there are more delicious Carlos Huber pics and the fragrance is so damn yummy. I’ll be tickled PINK if you leave he a Hello so I know you dropped in on me there.

Sometimes life just reminds you to be grateful, doesn’t it.

Have a great day, don’t forget to enter our THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION
See you back here tomorrow,
Portia xx

Photo Stolen notablescents

Scent Mum takes us Day Tripping! Winners Announced

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

Vivienne Westwood “Boudoir” Review, Thursday

Hi gang,

I  have had a long running fascination with the incredible Vivienne Westwood. What a creative genius she is. Punk, Bondage, Pirate, Mini Crini, Plaid, Tartan, Safety Pins, Hand Painting Slogans, she has driven fashion forward in her own way, seemingly on her own terms, battling to live and eat for many years and now Dame on her throne. Down the bottom is the latest Vivienne Westwood Red Carpet video released on Tuesday this week. YUMMY!

Diane Kruger in Vivienne Westwood Couture
Cannes Film Festival 20.5.12

BOUDOIR by VIVIENNE WESTWOOD 1998. Boudoir is designated Floral-Chypre in the notes but it is so much more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it is a big fat floral with some of the Chypre inclusions but what really makes Boudoir stand out is the skanky, slut guts of it all. It’s like wearing ELdO Secretions Magnifique with Caron’s Bellodgia so no one will notice. How do I know this? I am wearing said frags for that very reason and it is a dead ringer for Boudoir. I’m coming back to finish this post tomorrow, then we’ll see…

Photo Stolen from lambre

OK. They are not the same. There is a definite correlation though. Boudoir is ripe, overblown flowers, panting in the heat of your body with woods and spices sparkling and popping, this with musk, vanilla, sandalwood and patchouli pumping out a deep, sweet, buttery base over the top of a very slightly rank, unwashed, just been f#@ked senseless and am marinating in my own juices till I can get to a shower feel caused by the coriander, musk and cardamom, I think. All the filth is way down deep here, you have to look for it compared to Secretions Magnifique/Bellodgia. This is more a blowsy housewife than a feral Beryl.

If you can get your hands on some Boudoir it is definitely worth a sniff. As always Vivienne Westwood has put a tiny shockwave through it, just to keep you on your toes. It is a wonderful, sensual ride. Party night perfect.

Photo Stolen from global.rakuten

NB Keep some in your purse for emergencies, if you have to do the walk of shame you can attribute your good girl gone bad scent to Boudoir.

March at the Perfume Posse does a super great 80’s remembrance post about Boudoir. Fragrantica has the low down.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

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 do 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. That can be anything from Dior, YSL, Chanel to Alexander McQueen, Juicy Couture, Stella McCartney, even ADIDAS if that floats your boat. If they do clothes and fragrance they are fair game.
Winner will be drawn Saturday 26.5.12 Australian EST after 9.30pm. If you don’t get in touch with your details by midnight Wednesday 30.5.12 I’ll give your prize to someone else. As St Murphy didn’t get in touch last week anatu13

Wishing you all peace and lovely scents all around,
Portia xx

Vivienne Westwood The Red Carpet Collection by Wonderland May 22 2012

Yves Saint Laurent Revolution Movie, WINNER ANNOUNCED

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a super great weekend. Today a group of us went for Pedicures and Yum Cha. I am currently sporting Lime Green toenails and a HUGE belly, so full it hurts.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!

To be in this weeks Competition Giveaway you had to leave a short comment on your favourite gamekeeper, in life, film, novel or story, or if that was too hard just a Hello in the comments. We had a great bunch of stories, gamekeeper and otherwise.


Photo stolen from WildBunchAdventures.com

Here are the 6 great prizes

1.5ml spray decant of Annick Goutal’s Passion
3ml spray decant of Fracas for Men by Robert Piguet
1.5ml spray decant of Eau Mega by Viktor & Rolf
1.5ml spray decant of Bud Parfums Gamekeeper
by Kilian Water Calligraphy manufacturers sample (remains)
Aedes de Venustas EdP manufacturers sample (remains)

Plus P&H anywhere in the world.

AND THE


Photo Stolen from sistersavealot.com

is StMurphy, who is the gamekeeper: you must get in touch by Wednesday 23.5.12 or I’ll give your prize to someone else.

YVES SAINT LAURENT REVOLUTION

As my nose is still out of action this movie has nothing to do with Perfume or Fragrance. It is the Yves Saint Laurent Revolution lipstick ad. 1000 types of fabulous, like a Burton cartoon, maybe it is. Probably not. So the Making Of comes first and then the movie proper.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did,

Portia xx

Bud Parfums “Gamekeeper” Review; Thursday GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Hello everyone,

Evie C’s super interview with Howard Jarvis on Monday reminded me I haven’t reviewed any of the samples I ordered from Bud Parfums. What a ning-nong I am sometimes, so I thought as a part down-payment on my full Bud Parfums story I’d give you a sneaky peek at one of my favourite scents from the range.

GAMEKEEPER

“Then, one day, a lovely sunny day with tufts of primroses under the hazels, and many violets dotting the paths, she came in the afternoon to the coops and there was one tiny, tiny perky chicken tinily prancing round in front of a coop.
The keeper, squatting beside her, was also watching with an amused face the bold little bird in her hands. Suddenly he saw a tear fall on to her wrist.
And he stood up, and stood away, moving to the other coop. For suddenly he was aware of the old flame shooting and leaping up in his loins, that he had hoped was quiescent for ever. He laid his hand on her shoulder, and softly, gently, it began to travel down the curve of her back, blindly, with a blind stroking motion, to the curve of her crouching loins. “Shall you come to the hut?” he said, in a quiet, neutral voice.”
‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ by D.H.Lawrence


Richard Ansdell’s English Gamekeeper  via goldenagepaintings

This is how Gamekeeper is introduced on the Bud Parfums website and strangely it fits. There is the creak and crack of citrus branch, also the fruit, juice and leaf, humus rich oakmoss, warming resinous labdanum, the musk and clean bright patchouli round the whole lovely, sexy concert out. In truth I don’t know what palmarosa oils smell like so I can’t attest to their inclusion (apparently it smells like Geranium Leaf and is used instead of endangered Rosewood). The fragrances don’t really form a pyramid within Gamekeeper, they are more like tendrils of scent interwoven that spike up occasionally through the life of the scent story, you think they’ve gone but back they come changed, lightened or darkened, in different combinations. This is like a book where firstly you are introduced to all the characters, then throughout they are placed together in different groupings or sometimes nearly alone.

Although this is marketed as a masculine, and there are moments of truly manly cologne-ish glory, this seems to me like a fragrance that would work deliciously and decorously on women, there is a flapper feel to Gamekeeper. It’s very sexy, almost sexual, and has a light skank alert that I find riveting. As if the fragrance has gone inside the cottage with them to partake in the fun but not stayed till the end.

The website and Fragrantica give the same information.

If you go to the Bud Parfums website choose any size refill and it will take you to the fragrance lists. Also, bottle purchase is separate, such a wonderful idea, so you get to choose. AWESOME!

I’ll finish up this review with the first gamekeeper to steal my heart, Rupert Graves played D H Lawrence’s sublimely delicious gay gamekeeper in the movie Maurice. I spent years searching for just such a specimen, and while the search was rewarding in and of itself, the closest I have ever come is now a blogger himself, the one who inspired me to start writing this blog. I hope he’s reading.

Rupert Graves, Maurice 1987 Stolen from IMDb

Another excellent and enjoyable week here for me, I hope for you too, and we’ve looked at a lovely bunch of fragrances. Here’s you chance to win a small selection of them. In fact, this week there are 6 great reasons to enter our….

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!

In honour of our Annick Goutal Review we are putting a 1.5ml spray decant of Annick Goutal’s Passion in
From Sunday Quicksniff Reviews 3ml spray decant of Fracas for Men by Robert Piguet
and 1.5ml spray decant of Eau Mega by Viktor & Rolf
Evie C did a lovely interview with Howard Jarvis from Bud Pafums so a 1.5ml spray decant of Bud Parfums Gamekeeper
and lastly, the remains of my by Kilian Water Calligraphy manufacturers sample
and Aedes de Venustas EdP sample from the Extraordinaries That Arrived By Post

Plus P&H anywhere in the world.

How do you win? Simply leave a short comment on your favourite gamekeeper, in life, film, novel or story, or if that’s too hard just leave a Hello in the comments. I do love to read your contributions though so do try.

If you win you must get in touch by Wednesday 23.5.12 or I’ll give your prize to someone else. As TARA didn’t get in touch last week her prize will go to Penny Cascio.

See you all tomorrow,

Portia xx