Amsterdam Fragrance Adventures: TinaG’s 2016 Europe Tour

June 13, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by TinaG

The Netherlands is home base to a number of fragrance houses – Mona Di Orio, Puredistance, Hiram Green and Nasomatto to name a few. When visiting in May this year I mentioned this to my cousin Kylie, who was very interested in finding out more – so we decided to spend a day in Amsterdam hunting for Dutch perfume. What a great way for me to introduce her to the rabbit hole that is the perfume world!

Amsterdam Fragrance Adventures

TinaG’s 2016 Europe Tour

World Atlas Book

Annindryia Perfume Lounge

Our first stop also became our longest as I was totally enthralled and excited. We had dropped in to Annindryia Perfume Lounge and I had walked in to a small slice of absolute heaven. They stock a fabulous selection of Dutch and international fragrances. We were warmly greeted and shown around the display room. Kylie took to the whole experience and I’m happy to say she was instantly hooked. We sniffed and chatted for a few hours. Have a look at Annindryia Perfume Lounge site for an idea of their range. Yes they ship to Australia and yes the do samples.

Le Bienaimé by Erik Zwaga

This brand utilises the concept of up-cycling to create new fragrances from existing brands. The bottles would be familiar to most perfumistas – I spotted repurposed Chanel and Etro bottles, tied up with multi-house-branded ribbons. The names of the fragrances hint at their primary constituents: CHA-CHA-CHA-CHANEL, R-I-O-D (Dior spelt backwards), HERMEJESY. I picked up a sample of S.T.I.N.K (how could I not?) that contains Classic Opoponax, Èdition Rare – Petrolium, Floriental, Musk Tonkin, Obsessive Oudh and Song for a Queen.

Eau d’Amsterdam

Eau d’Amsterdam is a fragrant ode to the thousands of elm trees which line the city’s streets and canals. I had noted the springtime ‘snow’ without realising they were elm seeds, which behave like petals caught in the wind as they scatter themselves across the city. It is described as: Sunny green woody
It’s definitely all that, it has the dry astringency of a freshly snapped twig – really light and perfect for a warm spring day.

People of the Labyrinths

After leaving Annindryia Perfume Lounge I visited the store of fashion house People of the Labyrinths. Fabulous clothing, exquisite materials… I thoroughly enjoyed looking around & chatting to the sales assistants. They have two fragrances – A.Maze and Luctor Et Emergo. I tried both on skin and they generously gave me a sample of A.Maze.

Skins Cosmetics

Our last stop of the day was a shop & beautician Skins Cosmetics, located in the Het Conservatorium Hotel. They had a wonderful range of fragrances however most of the brands stocked I do have access to in Australia – Hermès, Frederic Malle, Byredo, By Killian, Le Labo. There were a few fragrances that I tried – the Clean range, and some of the Hermès range such as Eau de rhubarb écarlate, and Eau d’orange vert which I hadn’t tried before.

I had a fantastic day introducing Kylie to the fragrance world and checking out some special places & perfumes in Amsterdam.

Do you have a favourite Dutch fragrance house?

Tina G

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris: TinaG In Europe Photo Essay

May 28, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Post by TinaG

Hi APJ!

I was treated to a fabulous day out in London during my travels, hosted by Tara from A Bottled Rose. Tara has written up our adventures in more detail on her blog. One of the exciting discoveries of the day was a visit to the Perfumer H lab & shop in Crawford Street, London.

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris

‘Making Air Visible’

Perfumer H was started by Liz Harris (of Miller Harris) roughly 8 months ago. The shop contains an extensive lab out the back which is both Lyn Harris’s workshop, and a ingredient display. We were greeted by Caroline who kindly ran us through the concepts of the fragrance company.

Perfumer H releases new fragrances seasonally – their first being Winter 2015 and the current range for Summer 2016. Past seasonal fragrances are ‘archived’ but not discontinued, which means they continue to be accessible. Two of the Winter 2015 releases were rolled-over to Summer 2016 – Leather and Cologne, which join Atlas, Musk and Rain Cloud for this season’s suite of five. I wish that I wrote down the archived Winter fragrances – I do know one was Velvet. There were three that had been shelved.

There are a selection of five home fragrances which are available as candles – Orange Blossom, Dandelion, Leaf, Ivy and Smoke. The perfume bottles and candle holders are each hand-made, heavy and lush. You can choose to purchase the fragrances in 100ml functional screw-cap bottles, which I did for ease of travelling.

Perfumer H has a range of ‘laboratory editions’ which are a fun way to purchase some of Liz Harris’s creative work. Names like Ink, Vetiver, Rose & Smoke line the shelves. Each fragrance in the whole range is also given a unique identifier, and if you wish, you can purchase that perfume outright – including choosing it’s name, having it registered in Grasse, and it is then taken out of general circulation – so it is yours and yours alone. You can buy single bottles without claiming rights though – just careful if you fall in love, it may just disappear one day!

I tried four fragrances on skin – Velvet, Musk, Atlas and Leather as I was keen to pick up a bottle, but wow…. What a difficult decision! I would have been happy to walk away with any of them, but I decided on Musk.

Musk – no. g116 3995
Notes: Bergamot (Italy), Mandarin, Petitgrain (Paraguay), Iris absolute (China), Heliotrope, Cedarwood (Virginia), Benjoin (Siam), Vanilla absolute, White Musk.

On opening I get a floral Iris and fluffy musk along with a subtle plant-stem note in the background. After an hour this changes to an iris/cedar combination. It is sexy, gentle and very wearable. Sticky vanilla notes waft in and out. I find the citruses after 8 hours in a sheer veneer of smoke & juice that makes me wish I sprayed more skin. Interestingly the iris has a great staying power and it remains throughout (+12 hours). It is a gorgeous fragrance and I’m extremely glad I picked it up. I’m half tempted to go back & get the Leather as well, time & funds permitting.

Perfumer H is a great concept which has been actualised with wonderful fragrances and beautiful glass bottles. They do ship to Australia but you will be paying a premium for hazardous goods ~£70.

What do you think, APJ? Sound like a fun venture to you?

Tina G xx

TinaG’s Fragrant Adventures: Berlin, Germany: Photo Essay

May 9, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by TinaG

Hi APJ!

I’m travelling in Europe for a few months and thought y’all might like a short snapshot of my fragrance shopping in Berlin.

Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Holy WOW. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is stunning. Duty Free had a fantastic fragrance collection including Miller Harris, By Killian, Memo, Amouage, Dolce & Gabbana Velvet Collection, Guerlain Pera Grantia, Rosa Pop and L’Homme Ideal EDP, amongst others. The staff were super-friendly & very knowledgable.

Étui Noir by Miller Harris 2016

Miller Harris has two Heathrow exclusives – Ètui Noir and Lumière Dorée. I picked up Ètui Noir which is a gentle leather fragrance

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamo, tangerine
Heart: Incens, iris
Base: Vetiver, leather

TinaG’s Fragrant Adventures

Berlin, Germany: Photo Essay

Berlin: I stayed at the Grand Hyatt, Berlin Mitte. All my fragrance shopping was within walking distance of the hotel.

Tourist Tip: check opening times, many places are closed on Sunday.

Frau Tonis Parfum

I had only recently heard of Berlin’s Frau Tonis Parfum so I was excited to visit their one and only store. The display made it easy to try every fragrance so I worked my way around sniffing stoppers & making notes. My poor nose was absolutely tortured from 23 hours of aircraft travel so I was totally surprised to find it still worked! Joy!! Kristiane and Clarice were wonderful & helped me with my many questions, like what does the number mean? It’s simply a catalogue system as it’s easier to remember numbers than names.

Frau Tonis have very sensible bottle sizes – 8ml travel spray, 15ml, 50ml and 100ml. They also take custom blend orders, so you can mix & match and make your own bespoke combination. And yes they ship to Australia.

I chose three 8ml fragrances: 10 Linde Berlin (lime and honey), 14 Grasse à Toi (Jasmine, ylang-ylang, lilly of the valley, iris, peach, red berries, vanilla) and 37 Veilchen (which may also be called 37 Violet) which has violet, liquorice and raspberry.

Tourist tip: the store is near Checkpoint Charlie and Topographie des Terrors, a display & section of the Berlin Wall.

Galleries Lafayette

This department store has an atmosphere of a ‘pop-up’ shop for fashion & makeup. I went to Galleries Lafayete to fine the Berlin-based Schwartzlose.

Yea, interesting. Rausch probably got my attention the most because of the animalistic notes, it was damn dirty & fun. Altruist is their newest which has a cologne freshness with May rose, lemon and pepper. Testing was rushed in a crowded area, I didn’t buy anything.

Tourist tip: save yourself time by asking an SA to take you to this display. The store layout is frustratingly circular with a space in the middle.

Krigler

Krigler currently has stores in Berlin, Beverly Hills & New York. The store in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski has the full range of fragrances and make candles on-site. Their first fragrance was crafted in 1879 – 79 Pleasure Gardenia. The fragrance numbering relates to the year it was made, that one is the only ’18’ prefix. If a second or third is made, a 2 or 3 added to the number. The 2000 series drops the second zero, ie: 214 = 2014, 2142 = the second fragrance made that year.

What do they smell like, I hear you ask?? But I haven’t yet told you about the long history, the famous people who wore Krigler, or the quality of the ingredients. Or the extravagant prices. £16 for a 2ml sample…. Painful. Yes they ship to Australia.

Established Cognac 66 was the stand out for me. A thick caramel with rich cognac cut through by a sharp juicy apple note, taking the edge off the heaviness. Apparently it used to have 80% cognac but the current formulation is 50% – still quite potent. I also picked up samples of Oud for Highness 75, Schöne Linden 05 and Extraordinaire Camelia 209.

Tourist tip: these guys are right near the Brandenburg Gate.

Ritz Carlton – “Fragrances” cocktail bar

OK this Fragrances cocktail bar was the primary reason I wanted to go to Berlin! And it totally blew me away. I’ll dedicate a separate article to my evening here because the Bar Manager, Arnd Heissen totally took me under his wing and showed me around both Fragrances, and its sister bar The Curtain Club. The bar staff were absolute fragrance & mixology experts, I had a fabulous time, so much fun!

The cocktails are created to emulate a fragrance profile. I think there are about 30 on the menu. You walk in to a display which has a bottle of the actual fragrance, the ingredients, and a photo of the cocktail glass. I chose two cocktails, Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles and Bulgari Au Thè Bleu. Both were beautifully done and wonderfully presented. I was curious to see how they managed the incense in Fille en Aiguilles – this was created by using a particular smokey tea. Fab result.

Ok I’m sure I’m over my word count (sorry Portia!) so I’ll leave my fragrant Berlin travels stories for now. It is an amazing city any my short 2 days there wasn’t enough.

Have you visited any of these places? Or do you have more recommendations for my next Berlin adventure?

xx Tina G

Unofficial Esxence 2016 Write Up

April 12, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 45 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

I managed two and a half hours at the Esxence. Virtual high fives are fine thank you very much. I did not try anything in the show because I prefer to do that at home in peace and not surrounded by nuclear clouds of oud.

Preparation for Esxence 2016

Unofficial Esxence 2016 Write Up

Milano Central Station art

Neela Vermeire introducing the new Take Two Packs. 2 x 15ml for travel and sharing!

Perfume Magpie, absolute delight.

I chatted with Pauline Rochas of Coolife NYC and brought home samples of their fragrances. She is the granddaughter of Marcel and Hélène Rochas absolutely charming and what a heritage.

HomoElegans. I mean you just have to. Two fragrance samples in an elegant box labelled as an “experience kit”. Stay tuned.

GriGri Parfums is another new fragrance brand, Anaïs Biguine the nose. She has created some really rather
good perfumes for Jardins D’Écrivains which encouraged me to take look. Seeking inspiration from the history
of tattoos throughout the ages, itself an art form, makes for an artistic combination. The Ukiyo-E with its genmaicha
and green tea notes, representing the Japanese tattooing called Irezumi, sounds particularly aromatic.

Intent on fulfilling the wish of a good friend I stopped by at the Stéphane Humbert Lucas stand to enquire about the new up and coming fragrance. They were rude and bloody arrogant, not to mention unhelpful. I left. I would not buy anything from this brand even if it WAS good……..

Imagine this ten times more crowded

Antonio from Bogue

Val (me) at the Prada Foundation Haunted House exhibition

Jeroen from Mona di Orio

I spent a joyful few hours with Jeroen Oude Sogtoen and his assistant Henrike, together the brilliant Mona di Orio team and did put the new fragrance Bohea Bohème onto my skin twice, each time smelling quite different. More to come.

Lecture

Prada loos with Vero

My first ever selfie

Mark Behnke, We would be best friends if he lived closer.

When I love something I get over excited and cannot stop talking about it. Ellis Fass Make Up! The best red lipstick I have ever used and as my dear stepfather would say “I have been through more of them than you’ve had hot dinners”. The last two days I have used their foundation. Sublime. I am in touch with them and ordering foundation, lipstick, concealer and mascara. Super excited I can tell you. Am I the last one to find out about them?

Vero getting ready to go downtown for dinner

Chatting outside Esxence 2016

Oh. And two days with Vero.

Milan discoveries? Hermès Doblis Parfum and Vintage Vol de Nuit EdP. Did I ever stand a chance?

Bussis.
CQ

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

April 9, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Fragrant Fumies,

This week my mate Alice & I decided to take a moment out of our lives and go down to the island off the bottom of Australia. It’s called Tasmania and it is beautiful.

Tasmania is 68,401 km² and has around 500K people. Let’s compare that to South Korea at 96,920 km² and 49M (July 2015 est.). Yes, it’s a quiet out of the way place full of beautiful mountains and rivers, small towns and larger ones, friendly people and an enormous amount of history, quite a lot of it as brutal and unforgiving as the winds that whip up direct from Antarctica.

What better way to commemorate such a journey than to do a Photo Essay and have you guys along on the trip.

I know you are absolutely agog to know what fragrances I took. EASY! I grabbed my Hermès 15ml travel size of Vanille Galante, a vintage Youth Dew, something I didn’t even look at and what’s left of my Oriental Brulant that I wore for the whole 2 days and LOVED!

Here are the pics of our adventure! All the gorgeous scenery ones were taken by Alice and I took the rest.
Portia xxx

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

Ready for TAKE OFF! One of my besties, Alice, and I off to look at Tasmania. YAY!

Hotel Grand Chancellor in Launceston. Trip Advisor gave it VERY mixed reviews but we found it comfortable & clean and the staff very friendly.

I know, but I love BUFFET BREAKFAST!!!

Serendipitously it was Farmers Market Saturday Morning and we had a wander through. The produce was unbelievably gorgeous and Alice bought some local wines, meringues and fresh picked, unsprayed raspberries! Happy Girl. We also grabbed some spicy sunflower and pumpkin seeds for our BFF Kath.

Home made chocolate whiskey meringues. WINNER!

Spicy Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds.

That will be Pinot Gris for the sexy bitch please.

Launceston has a wonderful olde worlde feel to it, we really liked the atmosphere and the people. It’s a cool town for a funky bunch.

On the road again. We hired a car and drove ourselves. Way more fun.

Santa Maria Novella: Florence 2016: Photo Essay

March 17, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Fragrant Fumies,

Our recent trip was a bit light on the fragrance stops. We really wanted to see what each city is most famous for. While in Florence though Anna-Maria put her dainty foot down. We could look at art & churches all day & night but we had to go to the Santa Maria Novella Basilica which handily combines all three of our interests. It’s a church and cloisters, very old and it has one of the oldest still extant apothecaries/farmaceutica which is now centred around fragrance and tea.

Wikipedia

The church you can see today was begun in 1279 and was finished around the middle of the 14th century.
Inside it resembles Cistercian gothic churches, the nave separated from the aisles by wide bays and covered with gothic vaulting (Edited from museumsinflorence.com). There are some lovely frescoes inside too if you get a chance.

WikiMedia

Santa Maria Novella: Florence 2016

From the moment you enter Santa Maria Novella shop in Florence you are transported back in time. You are also reminded of the extraordinary amount of money the church has at its disposal. The place is exquisite and we were surprised at how busy, and how much money people were spending. It was like a fragrant feeding frenzy.

I have a set of these tablets keeping my wardrobe pest free and fragrant. They were a gift and my very first Santa Maria Novella. I love them and they are still extremely fragrant years on.

The homewares section is fabulous. It took ultimate restraint to keep my wallet in my pocket.

Anna-Maria and Jin being looked after by the extremely beautiful and helpful SA. I was not going to buy anything but then I spied some smaller bottles which turned out to be soliflore extrais. I tried and fell madly in love with the triple distilled jasmine extrait, the sample I tried which lasted 3 days on my skin through showers and general living. Sadly the product they sold me is gone in about 2 hours, it’s really gorgeous while it lasts though I am disappointed.

Anna-Maria was so sweet and bought Jin & I a set of the soaps as a thank you for sharing our holiday! Woo Hoo! Can’t wait to use them.

Here is the Triple Distilled Jasmine Extrait. I am sad now that I didn’t order tea. Next time.

Florence 2016: Photo Essay

The Duomo is the heart of Florence. It’s free to enter and the floor and dome are gorgeous. You can walk to the cupola up the top but Anna-Maria had done the one in Vienna and that was enough.

VisitFlorence

All through Europe we lit candles and asked God to bless our friends and family with bountiful lives, peaceful and funfilled.

On the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge, no wonder Italian is a romance language) ignoring the jewellery shops but watching the people.

View of the Ponte Vecchio from the next bridge, it was a lovely walk along the river.

Anna-Maria was overcome by David. She needed a few moments to stabilize.

We caught the local bus up to the Piazzale Michelangelo. A perfect winter day with dappled sunlight over the city. It was a beautiful afternoon and from the bus we saw some amazing parts of Florence that you would otherwise miss.

Anna-Maria had a pre-mixed alcoholic beverage at the lookout. She was so happy.

Our dinner in the hotel was a complete disaster so we decided to go around the corner to the international restaurant of choice for the hungry and weary traveller; McDonalds. YUMMY!

Next night we had the best steak I’ve ever had in my life. The three of us shared 1.2kg of steak cooked to perfection. It came with salads and baked potatoes. OMG! So freaking delicious. If you are Florence you MUST go here and have the Special Florentine Steak.

I hope you enjoyed a snapshot of our amazing journey through Florence. There is more holiday to come next week.

Have you been to Florence? What is your favourite part?
Portia xx

Venice 2016: Photo Essay

March 10, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Post by Portia

Venice! One of my favourite cities in the world. In 2016 we were sensible enough to have 2 of our girlfriends with us, Anna-Maria and Tara. Jin was under the weather and spent quite a bit of time sick in bed. The girls & I managed to squeeze in SO MUCH of the touristy stuff and also some Venetian secrets. Weirdly I was so busy that I took hardly any scenery shots, sorry. It was super fun and it made me love Venice even more…

Venice 2016: Photo Essay

We are ARRIVED!! Hello Venice

Jin has a fave restaurant. we had to eat there on our first night. It was delicious.

In the VERY squishy lift at our hotel

Hotel bathroom products. POSH!

St Marks Square in the Doge’s palace colonnades

As evening falls we make our way to a cafe.

Next day we go sightseeing

High Tea in a swanky hotel. Thanks Anna Maria

Doge’s Palace Tour

Iconography

St Marks Square

Water Bus

Dinner on the canal in the shadow of the Ponte de Rialto

On Murano Island. St Tara of the tired legs

Buying Murano Glassware

Visiting Peggy Guggenheim. Managed to make all of us look shit in this shot except Jin,
who was sick as a dog and really did look like shit.

Harry’s Bar, where the cool kids go. We sat at the bar and weere entertained by the barman

Tara leaving us.

Venice'16 #28 YAY!

Realising that we missed Tara after 5 minutes and had nothing nice to say to each other

Even Venice was beautifully sad she had gone

On our way to Florence!

Serge Lutens Masterclass: Paris 2016: Photo Essay

February 29, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 24 Comments

Post by Portia

We are home,

It’s been the most fabulous holiday and I have so much to share. A whirlwind to say the very least. One of my top experiences that we had while away was the Serge Lutens Masterclass. It was unbelievably fabulous.

We were whisked upstairs by Elvire into the yellow room, the table was set for sniffing and then she brought us biscuits and tea cakes, very posh. I was invited to sit in Serge Lutens chair (OMG!) and we were happily led through quite a lot of the Exclusive to Palais Royal fragrances. You have no idea how fabulous.

Before you go booking, they prefer you to be in groups of 4-6. Originally we were to be a 4 but sadly two of our crew couldn’t make it. To make up for that, and make it worth Serge’s time, I had some pre-orders from Australia that I needed to get fulfilled as well as my own list.

Serge Lutens Masterclass

Paris 2016: Photo Essay

The gorgeous walls of Serge Lutens yellow room, hidden doors and concealment are the name of the game.

Sitting in Serge’s chair, where he holds court for launches etc.

The gorgeous Elvire who has taken Lea’s masterclass hostess place now that Lea has gone to Shiseido Head Office.

Jin, bless his soul, ran around taking pictures throughout the 2+ hours. He wanted you all to feel part of the experience, notice there is no paper on the table yet.

The very first Serge Lutens fragrance, Feminite du Bois, in its original bottles. No wonder these are so coveted, some had the scent still inside. SWOON!

We start getting our sniff on. Touches are already prepared with fragrance names and tied with black ribbon. The experience was full of these well prepared little glam spots. Elvire was all over the event and full of discerning insights into the fragrances, all done from memory and with such passion it was easy to get swept away.

As you can see the table is filling up with paper, the ones sticking up are my return and skin test ones.

So beautiful, with a smile that lit up the room.

Jin & I being assholes.

Even the toilet gets the Serge Lutens treatment. The toilet seat was marble I think, or maybe it was the whole toilet. Was so tripping on the fumes by this time that I was seeing spots.

As you can see we were so involved chatting and sniffing that I hardly touched the cakes!

Finally we get down to the nitty gritty. Time for shopping! I bought Rose de Nuit and La Myrrhe for Aussies. Jin bought Muscs Koublai Khan and I purchased Miel de Bois and Fumerie Turque. Elvire gave us a choice of 2 samples each too (then popped an extra in Jin’s bag! He was thrilled) and for each bottle a full set of wax samples.

Should you be going to France and wish to book this marvelous FREE Event there is a Serge Lutens Contact Page, attention Elvire.

Which of the Exclusives takes your fancy?
Portia xxx

Anne-Marie Sniffing in Paris 2015

September 13, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Post by Anne-Marie

Hi All

Last month I spent about a week in Paris on a work trip, all expenses paid. This is NOT the sort of thing that normally happens to me, and right up until I boarded the plane I was expecting the dream to evaporate. But no, I got there, and had a fabulous – albeit hurried – trip to the City of Light.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The Pompidou Centre. Sadly, I did not have time to venture inside.

Anne-Marie Sniffing in Paris 2015

I was with a colleague and we were traveling and in meetings nearly all the time. We had very little time for sightseeing and shopping, but, well, it’s amazing what can be achieved with a bit determination!

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

We were staying at Les Halles and working in the Marais. This made it easy for me to get to my most longed-for shopping destination – a Nicolai boutique. Nicolai Parfumeur Createur was one of the first niche brands I fell in love with but never for an instant did I believe that I would step over the threshold of one of its Parisian boutiques. Well, I did, and it was as delightful as I had always dreamed. Purchases? 30 mls each of Fig-Tea, Weekend in Normandy, and some Vetyver soap.

Photo Stolen GoogleMaps

I must admit a grand fail though. I walked right past the Serge Lutens boutique in the Palais Royal and I was too scared to walk in. Okay, time to confess that I’m not a fan of the brand and never have been. I can’t afford one of its darned bell jars even if I wanted one. The shop exterior creeped me out. And I had a meeting at the Australian embassy later in the afternoon and could I turn up there reeking of Moroccan souks and stewed fruit? No. Just no.

But I stopped at the Parfums de Rosine boutique and was nearly – but not quite – charmed into purchasing Une Zeste de Rose. After that I was quite content with a cup of mint tea and a slice of cake in a café opposite Uncle Serge’s little shop. Tea and cake in the Palais Royal and strolling through the gardens were the highlights of the trip.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

As for perfume sniffed on the street, I smelled a lot. Most of it I could not identify but I’m certain I got a whiff of Narciso Rodriguez for Her, and twice I smelled Terre d’Hermès quite distinctly. Once was as I was queuing for coffee at Gard du Nord, and once in the hotel lift at my hotel.

The Sephora store in the Marais was nothing grand, but I had fun exploring Yves Rocher (the brand is not sold in Australia), and picked up a bottle of Oriental Shower Oil – so decadent! Perfume shopping concluded with a Cartier mini set bought duty free on the way home.

How about you? Do you have Parisian sniffing adventures to share?

Until next time, have fragrant fun!
Anne-Marie xx

(Ed: Sadly Anne-Marie’s photos were in a form I was unable to translate to WordPress so I had to add some stock shots)

Saving the Walking Sausage: Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

July 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

Recently Azar sent me this. It’s filled with so many things I love.

When we were kids we went for a holiday to Lord Howe Island with the family. It has long lived in my memory as my favourite family holiday and one on which I caught a stripy tuna which in my memory was bigger than I was at the time at around seven or eight years old. On this holiday we went of a fabulous journey by boat to see Balls Pyramid and it was breathtaking.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The island was the perfect place to take children. We were given bikes and told to come home at sunset each day. It was also the first time we had ever been into a Kids Club, where the parents drop off the kids in the morning and you are doing nature walks, riding bikes to beaches where you can hand feed the fish, painting pictures of your adventures and learning so much about the wonderful place we were in. We had the most wonderful young woman for Kids Club, she was soft, dark haired and smelled so good, she smiled a lot and was lavish in her hugs. I was so smitten that when we left I cried and cried. Mum and Dad spent most of their holiday time swimming and reading, eating and chatting with the very few other guests. Back then we stayed at Pine Trees, the only hotel on the island, and I think there were only about 20 rooms. In my memory it was a wonderful, sunlit, blissful adventure. It was also the place that I first discovered Gerald Durrell, the author, and his books have been a constant source of wonder, laughter and delight ever since.

Anyway, here is an incredible story of a creature brought back from the jaws of extinction. FABULOUS!
Portia xx

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Holiday

Amsterdam Fragrance Adventures: TinaG’s 2016 Europe Tour

Amsterdam Fragrance Adventures

TinaG’s 2016 Europe Tour

Annindryia Perfume Lounge

Le Bienaimé by Erik Zwaga

Eau d’Amsterdam

People of the Labyrinths

Skins Cosmetics

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris: TinaG In Europe Photo Essay

Perfumer H – Lyn Harris

‘Making Air Visible’

TinaG’s Fragrant Adventures: Berlin, Germany: Photo Essay

Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Étui Noir by Miller Harris 2016

TinaG’s Fragrant Adventures

Berlin, Germany: Photo Essay

Frau Tonis Parfum

Galleries Lafayette

Krigler

Ritz Carlton – “Fragrances” cocktail bar

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

Santa Maria Novella: Florence 2016: Photo Essay

Santa Maria Novella: Florence 2016

Florence 2016: Photo Essay

Venice 2016: Photo Essay

Venice 2016: Photo Essay

Serge Lutens Masterclass: Paris 2016: Photo Essay

Serge Lutens Masterclass

Paris 2016: Photo Essay

Anne-Marie Sniffing in Paris 2015

Anne-Marie Sniffing in Paris 2015

Saving the Walking Sausage: Lord Howe Island Stick Insect