Hey Hey Fashion Mavens,
I have been rifling one of my fave Fashion Go-To-Blogs art8amby. Here is the latest from Hermès. As always, YUMMO!!
Diana Moldovan and Yumi Lambert are replacing Iselin Steiro as the new forest nymphs, sorry we mean campaign models, for Hermès. (source)
Hi to you Lovers of Fine Fragrance,
My mate Birgit (Olfactoria’s Travels) sometimes has amazing clearances from her Frag Wardrobe and last year I snaffled this little beauty from her. I think she grabbed the Limited edition bottle and knew two was more than she’d ever use. COOL! I have often nearly bought 24 Faubourg but there seemed to be something more pressing at each near buy and it was deferred, now it’s mine (Cue evil laugh and gratuitous hand wringing Mwa HA haaaaa HAAAAAAAaaaa)
Photo Stolen Hermès
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, peach, bergamot, yalan ylang, hyacinth
Heart: Black elder, iris, jasmine, gardenia, orange blossom
Base: Sandalwood, amber, patchouli, vanilla
What I get in the opening is ylang, peach and sweat, like a beautifully perfumed person has gone a little bit long without a shower and they’ve added more fragrance instead of a bath. Maybe 24 Faubourg even smells like the smell of perfume on a scarf the next morning, beautiful, elegant, memorable and a little tired. It is so good, without being totally in your face, that tiny hint of bed head, that après un rapport sexuel (probably a terrible translation by google).
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
The berries/citrus doesn’t really appear on me till well into the heart and seems woven through the white floral accord so beautifully that it’s hard to separate anything. Currently I am sitting in 31C (88F) inside the house! The fan is doing a lovely job and 24 Faubourg is sublime. I sit in a fragrant cloud of what feels like big money, old money. There’s a dry rustle of patchouli and amber towards the end that I feel is missing some of its buttery goodness from a cool temp wearing.
In this heat I’m lucky to get two hours of fragrant wear before 24 Faubourg becomes a sheer patina of woodsy vanilla that will then stay around another two to three hours and slowly fade away to nothing.
Photo Stolen Wikimedia
By the time you read this I will be in frozen Europe, Paris by now and I have lunch at Guerlain, 68 Champs Elysees booked with Neela, a catch up with Denyse Beaulieu, off to do a private English class at the Osmotheque and stomp around Versailles and hopefully two full mornings in the Louvre. YAY! Sometimes I can’t believe my good fortune.
Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and The Perfume Magazine
You can buy 24 Faubourg online at Hermès Hermès World Site Page<<<JUMP
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml
Is 24 Fauberg in your collection? When do you wear it? What magical fantasies does it give you?
Portia xx
I know this is late but I love it. Hermès shoes! YES PLEASE!!!
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Post by ElizaD
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Holiday Greetings from the Emerald Valley! Here in Eugene, Oregon we have had the most extraordinary weather: it was sunny and bracingly cold, and then it started to snow. Snow in this valley is rare. When the weather gets like this, I always turn to one perfume, which I am wearing today. In fact, it will probably remain my scent of choice through Christmas. And here’s why.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, lemon, elemi
Heart: Amber, pink pepper, violet, pepper
Base: Fir, oakmoss, cedar, vetiver
Eau des Merveilles reminds me of fir trees, rum toddies and those chocolate oranges you can only find around here during the holidays. You know the kind–their yumminess is enjoyed by smacking the foil package against a table and eating the “sections”. The tradition in our family is to receive one in our stocking from “Santa”, and to enjoy it a bit at a time.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Eau des Merveilles opens with that amazing squirt of orange, which never fades throughout the wearing, it just gets warmer and saltier, like the smell of someone who has just come inside after playing outside in the cold. After a half hour or so, the wood notes start to appear, and while I often find wood notes to be screeching, they are again softened, this time by the oakmoss. To me the vetiver and violet are barely detectable, but perhaps they are what also give Eau des Merveilles its saltiness. I am just beginning to learn how different notes play off each other to make another completely different smell. There has been some discussion about whether this fragrance contains ambergris, a waxy substance produced inside of sperm whales as a response to irritants in their digestive tract, and as precious as pearls, but since I have never smelled ambergris, I couldn’t say. With or without it, I love this perfume for its veritable lack of flowers: the salt highlights the sweetness of the other notes the way a few grains sprinkled on an orange bring out its juicy sparkle.
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
The whole package conspires to transport me into the snowy mountains, where I have spent many happy hours cross country skiing through the glistening snow amongst the same evergreens that are used in this perfume.
Eau des Merveilles has decent sillage and longevity and fades away to soft woods and amber after a few hours. I find that this scent is best enjoyed when I wear it on the back of my neck or behind my knees–I am able to wear many fragrances this way, even though I work in a public office where strong fragrances are not always welcomed. And until the weather warms and it starts to rain and the holiday festivities are over, I’ll be sprinkled with drops of marvelous water.
Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and The Non-Blonde
Beauty Encounter has $20/15ml
My Perfume Samples start at $3/ml
Have you tried and did you like Eau des Merveilles or is it something that doesn’t interest you?
ElizaD xx
Hey APJ Crew,
I have a whole bunch of the Hermès fragrances and adore their whole aesthetic, I only own one scarf but I love it and plan to own another soon enough.
Here is the second in a fun series from Hermès. Here’s the link if you would like to see the first Inside Hermès petit h – Episode n°1 & n°2. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have,
Love,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen MadisonMuse
Photo Stolen Maegan Tintari Flickr
Hey APJ Crew,
You all probably know how much I love Hermès, everything about the brand speaks to me and aqlso I have a lovely friend/SA who works in the Sydney store. Jean is the most elegant, friendly and knowledgeable of the SAs in Sydney, always smiling and can’t wait to show us the newest in everything.
Here is the first in a fun series from Hermès that I’ll be showing over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have,
Love,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen MadisonMuse
Photo Stolen Maegan Tintari Flickr
Hello Gorgeous APJ Peoples,
We do a full Voyage d’Hermes review<<<JUMP but I thought you may like to watch the mini movie again, I think it supremely beautiful and love coming across it.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Amalfi lemon, spices, cardamom
Heart: Green notes, floral notes, tea
Base: Woodsy notes, Musk
Heya Hermès fans,
As we have discussed before, I love Hermès! It is a brand that I have always followed since Mum had some Caleche in her fragrant armory at some point in our childhood. Many of her friends had scarves and bags but for some reason Mum wasn’t interested in their other offerings, though both Dad and I were given Hermès ties. My memory tells me she did have an Hermès scarf ring but I could be making that up.
If Mum were alive today I would be banging down the door of Hermès THIS MORNING after seeing this video. I think this is the PERFECT Hermès idea, so versatile, wearable, fun and elegant. This is definitely what the cool kids will be wearing this year.
In Australia a printed silk Hermès Maxi-Twilly, 220x20cm will set you back AU$395.00.
In the UK a printed silk Hermès Maxi-Twilly, 220x20cm is £205.
In the USA a printed silk Hermès Maxi-Twilly, 87” x 8” is $290.
I hope you like this super fun ad/movie. I think Hermès has hit the nqail on the head again,
Loads of love,
Portia xx
Photos Stolen from the Hermès Australia site
Hello Fellow Fumies,
I don’t know what’s going on lately but it looks like vetiver has overtaken my big white flowers as favourite note. This was unintentional, surprising and I hope it doesn’t mean my love for the BWF is dying. Also, I’ve been doing some reading, always a dangerous course for the half educated like myself, and it turns out that vetiver is becoming the plant de jour around the world for a number of things other than perfume. There are 2 types of non invasive, clumping vetiver that are being used world wide for their ability to leech the toxins from soil and water, they are also excellent for stabilising erosion, holding banks/mountains in place and creating sea walls. This is only the tip of the iceberg I feel and will be interested to see it used in the future for self-sufficient-household sanitation and water cleansing.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Vetiver, tonka bean, lily of the valley, tobacco, caramel, praline, sandalwood, hazelnut
The caramel/resinous/LOTV open is joyous all by itself. So full throated and filled with call, like a siren or water bird floating across the brackish water of river and sea land junction. The foody stuff all combines with the tonka to create a wonderful sweet amber or crispy toffee scent that makes me want some salted caramel ice cream and honeycomb. YUMMY stuff indeed.
Photo Stolen vetiver.org
The fragrance then takes a decidedly vetiver turn on my skin, giving me a gorgeous earthy, salty, green smell like sitting on a dock above or the verandah near mudflats at low tide, it must be cooler months because there is a smoky waft carrying across to you from someones fireplace, or maybe it’s a summer Bar B Q and the sweetness still lurking is caramelising onions and sausages.
The feeling I get from Vetiver Tonka is a sense of space and freedom. It’s like a holiday, there is time to smell the unfolding of the story, the sweet warmth and earthy dankness combine to form a welcoming and pretty adventure that is both warm and very, very cool. Though it is not a sillage monster Vetiver Tonka does waft a trail and if you spray a card and leave the room, when you return it has tinted the air with a very slightly foody sweetness underlaid with a wetland breeze.
Heftier than many of the more recent J C E offerings and lasting power is decidedly longer, around 4-5 hours before I lose it, or the ability to notice it. Lately I have been using the Olympic Orchids Patchouli Lovers Soap and it is adding a very green baseline to Vetiver Tonka that darkens it and adds a couple of hours life to the whole also. The tobacco and LOTV seem to completely bypass my skin, with or without the soap, but I probably just miss them in the seamless mix that is a J C Ellena trademark: a scent story that has the most beautifully gradated transitions.
Photo Stolen Hermès
Further reading: What Men Should Smell Like and Bois de Jasmin
Hermès does a great set of 4 x 15ml Hermessence of your choice $180
Surrender To Chance has Vetiver Tonka on sale for $4/.5ml
Are you a J C Ellena fan? Have you tried Hermessence Vetiver Tonka or are there favourite Vetiver or Tonka frags that you’s like to share with us? We’d love to read your thoughts.
See you tomorrow
Portia xx
Hey there APJ!
Last Wednesday we had our first APJ Day Out. There were 13 of us, normally an unlucky number, but it turned out to be super lucky. We were treated extremely well by all the stores we went to, were given two amazing Masterclasses and loads of samples. It was great to meet some of you for the first time and an excellent opportunity for those of us who are already buddies to catch up, talk fragrance, shop, laugh and generally enjoy each others company. FABULOUS!
As we arrived a little early for our masterclass with Joe Garces, the CEO of Robert Piguet, I thought it would be a great time to pop across to Hermes, where the wonderful Jean was our hostess. She happily took us through some of my favourite scents in the Jean Claude Ellena Hermessence range and also some more of the Hermes fragrance catalogue including the Jardin range and then introduced me to one of their scents that I had never spent any time with, Rouge. WOW!! I can definitely see a full bottle in my very near future. Thank you Jean. XXX
Off to Libertine Parfumerie stand in David Jones Sydney City Store basement to meet Nick, the sexy proprietor, Gary and Dan, the regular SAs and a new boy whose name escapes me, sorry. There too was Joe Garces, and Joe took us through quite a lot of the range. It wasn’t much about notes etc, we were taken through the creation stories of each fragrance, the troubles, the inspiration and the triumphs. It was an illuminating class and I came away better informed about the way perfumes are created in a mass market niche company. Joe has effectively turned a dying dinosaur of a business back into a going concern with his and his teams plans. He is justifiably proud of the company’s achievements and really loves the perfumes he produces and sells, enthusiasm shining from and infectious. I tried a slew of the range that I had thought definitely NOT my style and walked away with a couple of new loves, a bottle of Bois Noir and a special gift roll on of VISA. YAY!! Review coming soon. Everyone was allowed to choose a Piguet fragrance to sample and were given very generous spray samples.
Then I took the crew up to the Tom Ford section at DJs. The SA there was so pretty, knowledgeable and helpful showing us some of the range and introducing many of us to Sahara Noir. I had tried it before in LA but it was a completely different experience in the cool of Sydney, I LOVED it here. At the end she finished by offering everyone a sample of their choice!
It was time for a sit and a cuppa, I had a sneaky Banana Bread too. During our time at the cafe Ainslie, who is a perfumer, brought out some of her current mods for us to share, smell, critique and enjoy. It was wonderful talking to someone on the cusp of a business and finding out how her perfumes are created. Fascinating. Soon I will have a story on Ainslie because she is thinking of setting up a trial where you can buy a small set of her mods to try and critique for yourself, providing useful perfumista feedback and giving us a chance to try new stuff very reasonably. HEAVEN.
Then it was onwards and upwards to DIOR’s outrageously gorgeousbnew flagship store in Sydney, the first in Australia. We were greeted warmly by the staff and Clayton the Oceania head of PR was there to whisk us upstairs to the shoe parlour where we were treated to a stroll through the 10 available Couturier/Privee fragrances exclesively available in Australia through that store. There was also a beautiful DIOR lady there whose name has slipped from my mind, she was helpful and informative and I apologise for my bad brain. It was a delightful ending to an amazing day. I was happy to add bottles of Oud Ispahan and Oud Leather to my perfume library. At the end we were all given DIOR swag bags with a couple of the fabulous 7.5ml FB replicas each and some beautifully presented literature. Just walking down the street with a DIOR bag is thrilling enough but when you’ve been feted by some of the best luxe companies in the world we were all walking on air. Thank you Clayton and DIOR.
As you can see we had lost some of our people along the way, the last photo are the DIOR Late Stayers. Thanks to everyone who came and who helped us have such an amazingly wonderful and special day.
I am currently thinking of other great APJ Day Out ideas. There will definitely be another day soon,
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 