Passport à Paris by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2013

January 31, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hi there APJ Crew,

I have been slack, yes a slackard am I, but FINALLY I am getting to a beautiful set that Dawn Spencer Hurwitz sent to me through one of our fabulous APJ writers Willa Zheng. We had coffee and a sniff yesterday afternoon and she reminded me that I had to write up the DSH stuff immediately. So when I first sniffed the package here is the one that took my breath away immediately and I LOVE Paris, match made in heaven

Passport à Paris by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lemon, bergamot, lavender, palisander rosewood, mandarin orange, jasmine, Bulgarian rose, orris root, clover, Australian sandalwood, amber, vanilla, coumarin, ambergris, Indian patchouli, civet

From DSH Perfumes site: My fragrant ode to two perfume greats of Paris, circa 1885: Jicky and Fougere Royale. Inspired by Claude Monet’s “The Beach at Trouville”, this universal perfume could be worn by both men and women on their holiday as well as about town. Passport a` Paris utilizes aroma molecules vanillin and coumarin. considered quite modern at the time.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Lovely, deep, burnished woods and resins lift off with a citrus side order. It must be Paris in spring or summer because while Passport à Paris is all of these beautiful things there is a dark and funky undertone. Through reading the notes I find that lavender is the component that I could smell but not identify, though now I know what it is I am smacking my head. Of course it is, a lightly sugared and vanilla’d lavender that is both charmingly warm and very slightly minty cool, a happy juxtaposition that keeps me on the edge of my nose wondering which way it will fall.

One of the lovely things Jin & I did in Paris in 2013 was have a hot chocolate banana waffle under the big Ferris Wheel, there is something here of that happy memory. The beauty, majesty, cool air and hot waffle: both cake and crispy caramelisation, the squished banana and drizzled chocolate. Jin was in heaven and when I had a little bit I could understand how happy he was in that instant, it was such a pure and unsullied moment that I had to capture it. One of those “God, I love him” snippets of time.

Jin eating hot choc-banana waffle Paris Feb ’13

So while I can make out the correlation between Jicky and Fougere Royal what I smell when I’m wearing Passport à Paris is my own special shared moment.

For those fiercely anti-natural you may find Passport à Paris, though full of courmarin and vanillin, to feel a little like the heft and deeper lay of a natural. This could never be confused with a mass market fragrance offering and I think Dawn never wanted it to. This is a beautiful, tonal, mesmerising fragrance that feels like it is still in touch with the earth and the power of natural perfumery. I love the soft, furry, powdery dry down too. What a beautiful ending, around 5-6 hours till I can smell no more…..

DSH Perffumes have EdP (which I reviewed) and Parfum strengths starting at only $5

Are you a Dawn Spencer Hurwitz fan? Do you have a favourite? Maybe you’ve tried Passport à Paris, what were your impressions?
Portia xxxx

Alpha Musc by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE

January 2, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Heya Perfume Junkies,

It’s no secret that I love the SOIVOHLE (pronounced See-Voh) range. It is an acronym Sending Out Inspired Vibrations Of Healthy Loving Energy and I think Liz Zorn a dashing artist genius. We have chatted about her and SOIVOHLE quite a bit on APJ. Right now Liz is selling off the Mixed Media section of the fraghrance business and is going to concentrate on the naturals. It’s a sad day here for me and I have bought back up bottles of two of my favourite SOIVOHLE fragrances, Rosa sur Reuse and Jasmine Summer. Really I do not want to live without them. Tonight we are going to look at another fragrtance I love from the range that is currently at CLEARANCE prices.

Alpha Musc by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE

Photo Stolen SOIVOHLE

SOIVOHLE gives these featured accords in one line:
Patchouli, Moss, Vanilla, Pepper, Champaca Leaf, Animalic Musks
MUSC-CHYPRE-ANIMALIC

I get a chocolate vanilla with fabulously freaky green tinge on opening with Alpha Musc, a burning, searing scent that skirts the edges of overkill, never quite reaching the too much level but dangerously close. It has a resinous, thick, treacle-ish quality that feels like the air has become too thick to breathe into my nose and lungs, a sensation only Alpha Musc has ever given me. It’s sweet and sweaty, dry, dusty and dank and though it’s a very full fragrance that demands attention still it is quite sheer, sheer AND dense.

Photo Stolen Flickr

As the initial fireworks subside the whole fragrance dries out and the pepper, cracked and ground, gives the choc/vanilla a savoury edge that makes it zing beautifully. A toasted tobacco note, sweetly honeyed but dry and dessicated rolls in and alongside the pepper is so unusual that it really makes my nose stand to attention to see what’s going to happen next. You know the smell of your dogs paws, that yeasty/urinous/furry scent that is like almost nothing else on earth? Alpha Musc smells nothing like it but there is something that feels as if that scent is being referenced obliquely. As if the idea of dogs feet has been put there, an echo, a nod, a whisper of what the real thing smells like. It may even smell a little like a Musk Deer, but I’ll never know. I have smelled some 60+ year old musk tincture of Jean Kerleo’s that he used while at Patou, there are very faint echoes of it here.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

I have a motor bike and I leave my helmet in a plastic airtight box on the back. Sometimes if I have been riding a lot and the weather is warm I get a real animal musk scent from it when I first get it from the box. It’s a bed head and healthy sweaty man combination, sweet and very slightly sour, and the musks and vanilla in Alpha Musc remind me very much of this funky scent but ever so soft on deep dry down after I awake next morning. It is tantalisingly human and quite sexy but very, very muted.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Where would I wear Alpha Musc? It is a wear anywhere, smell good, slightly feral comfort scent. Only in the first hour need you worry about skunking the severely anti fragrance types but everyone else will bask in your beautiful soft, naked, healthy skin sillage. About 3 hours mildly fragrant before heading towards close skin scent.

SOIVOHLE is clearing out Alpha Musc: Sample $2/ 11ml $25/ 50ml $50
You have to get it before it’s gone.
Which of the SOIVOHLEs do you know?
Portia xx

Violet Disguise by Josh Meyer for Imaginary Authors 2012

November 7, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hi Gang,

It’s taken me forever to get to this bottle. I bought it and it has sat at the front of stuff awaiting its time. Of course, as in all things, I had the best intentions. “Wear it, write about it. Josh Meyer seems so freaking lovely, give the poor bastard a break, a little push,” inside my head every time I looked at the bottle. Josh, if you’re reading this I apologise profusely that it’s taken so long. Every so often I would spritz and then leave the house on an errand, get busy on the phone or work and I wouldn’t get my thoughts on paper. Today I have spritzed already and fingers crossed we get results.

Violet Disguise by Josh Meyer for Imaginary Authors 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Plum, Violet, Dried Fruits, Balsam, Amber, Evening Air, The Month of May

SPRITZZZZZZZ! Wet, sweet, fruity melon or at a pinch plum. Imagine a fresh plum, cool from the fridge, you bite through the tart skin and into the soft, sweet flesh. I am naughty and I’m sniffing while eating peanuts so I completely miss Freddie’s salty olive note and dive directly into cool wet fruit. Is it the violets that give the metallic vibe or is there a chemical in Josh’s base that I notice particularly? I call it the cold spoon note and niche lines often give me it. I think it’s one ingredient that shouts above the rest for me. Here in Violet Disguise it is brilliant, a perfect cut crystal glass under light, sparkling and gleaming in the opening. Lustrous.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Suddenly, and I mean suddenly, Violet Disguise changes to a resinous, warmer fragrance that is like putting on a favourite coat over the cool air of an autumn/spring evening. A breathy, intimate moment where everything feels burnished, giving its warm glow in much the same way that the opening was cool shards of light reflected except now those beams are soft focused and furry. MMMMMM. I love the way Violet Disguise morphs so abruptly, not it has definite nods to old school perfumery, purrrrrrrfumery. A couple of hours in and I am absolutely gobsmacked at how lovely Violet Disguise is, hairy balsam.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

A very warm end, well a very warm fade to nothing. A soft resinous amber. Lovely. Even next morning I have a distinct Violet Disguise remnant, no I can’t tell you what I’m smelling other than green twig and cold metal……

Further reading: This Blog Really Stinks and Smelly Thoughts
IndieScents has $85/60ml and samples

We are TOTALLY affiliated with IndieScents and are 100% proud of it.

Portia xx

Photo Stolen hemodernhome

Violet Disguise GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 Winners who will each get:
1 x Violet Disguise decant from my bottle
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

Go to IndieScents and tell me any fragrance they sell online and a note that it contains…….. NO DOUBLE UPS!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie http://wp.me/p3PURw-3jJ Imaginary Authors GIVEAWAY @indiescents #Perfume #Giveaway @IAParfumerie

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 9th November 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 14th November 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Evocative Perfumes

October 17, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Hey there APJ Crew,

My mate Mark Evans from Evocative Perfumes has sent me a package. Honestly, he sent it back in June or July and it has been sitting on the To Do Pile but I never seem to have the time to look at a few fragrances at once so it keeps getting shunted. Yes, I feel like a bad friend. Mark is an independent Australian perfumer who is causing quite a stir with his pretty, interesting and evocative perfumes (yes, I know, see what I did there?). He is exactly the sort of micro niche perfumer that we like to showcase on APJ because he is able to create beautiful scents without the IFRA guidelines, meaning we get to wear real amounts of fabulous ingredients. YAY!! Do go have a look at their Evocative Perfumes site, excellent fragrances for a song….

Evocative Perfumes

Olibanum by Evocative Perfumes

From Evocative Perfumes: When frankincense is used in perfumery, it is referred to with its old name Olibanum. The name Olibanum is derived from the Arabic word “al-luban” which means “that which results from milking”. ‘Olibanum’ starts off with green gassy pine which passes through cypress wood and leaf then to the resin itself at the heart of the fragrance. Later, after the incense is spent, there remains a slightly smoky ash note

Soft, sweet funky resins and woods, clean like walking into the house after it’s been totally scrubbed but warm enough to feel like a soft loving hug. The smoke is a bit like the smoke after you’ve blown a candle out, a slightly waxy smoke crossed with the burning incense. Olibanum is a bit soft for me but I can see it becoming a firm favourite for work because it softly smells gorgeous.

Imogen by Evocative Perfumes

From Evocative Perfumes: Outwardly a refined, feminine, powdery, spicy Oriental perfume that leaves a trail of lemon, bergamot, vanilla, jasmine, rose, orris root, patchouli, balsams and sandalwood. But get in closer to the skin and there lies a rich, provocative Russian leather note that gradually becomes more available as the night wears on.

Imogen opens like a sharp citrus rose from the garden, all bright and green. There is iris through it all, Ainslie brought over some orris this week and now I know its smell, here it plays powder and patchouli plays earth. Together I find them wafting through the other notes creating something bigger and better that themselves. The resins burnish the fragrance and give it a warm sheen. Imogen is lovely, I would be very interested to see how it smells in an EdP. I could imagine wearing Imogen regularly in a spritzable form. MMMMM

Nice work Mark, I’m impressed,

Portia xx

Photo Stolen hemodernhome