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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Another week with the kids. Jin is a saint, the best uncle ever. They don’t know how lucky they are. I’ve pulled my ankle again, it’s fairly ouchie. So many wonderful fragrances this week, I’ve been pulling boxes out from the cupboard. Woo Hoo!
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
This week was hectic. I seem to have been running from pillar to post all week. Every day has been chock full of stuff. So many mates, work drama still and some sensational fragrance. Good week, lucky to be alive in this moment.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
It freaking hot here. Loads of fun and adventure this week with friends and a few fragrances. What I really want to do in this heat is take off my flesh and lie under the fan just in my bones.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
This week turned out to be all about fragrance and friends. We also got the go-ahead to buy a new townhouse so VERY excited about that too. Life has been very generous with us and we are grateful in the extreme.
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Post by Willa Zheng
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Psst, there’s quiet buzz about a new old perfume house on the scene. Two months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting creative director, Nicolas Chabot, whilst he was in town to promote the resurrection of the venerable but now largely forgotten fragrance house of Le Galion.
Photo Stolen Le Galion
Owned by perfumer Paul Vacher (Miss Dior, Diorling) during its heyday (1935-1975), the flagship fragrance in Le Galion’s coffret is Sortilege. Sortilege was Vacher’s first creation for Le Galion when he purchased the house from a French prince. Prior to Le Galion, Vacher worked for Lavin and was one of the perfumers for Arpege. Now as the owner and head perfumer of his own perfume house, Vacher wanted to revisit his early work and create it now the way he would have it. Voilà, Sortilege, the unofficial “director’s cut” of Arpege.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Unfortunately, with the restricted availability and banned use of certain raw materials, Nicolas had to enlist the help of perfumer Thomas Fontaine (Joy Forever) to reformulate Vacher’s 1935 masterpiece for the 2014 market. We know that Arpege is now but a wan spectre of its former glorious self but how does the new version of Sortilege compare to Arpege, as Paul Vacher understood it?
This month’s smackdown is a battle of the old verses the new. And to control for variability in vintage sample qualities, we’re smacking Sortilege (2014) against not one but two vintage versions, parfum 60s & edt 80s, of Arpege. Thanks Portia!
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Le Galion Sortilege (2014)
Sortilege opens like a fruity-floral lemonade. The aldehydic experience is not unlike Chanel No. 5 Eau Premier. It’s peachy, juicy white florals. Complex and beautifully blended, Sortilege smell like spring – late spring to be precise.
The opening notes, curiously, are best described in Fragrancetica’s top notes listing for Arpege – aldehydes, peach, lily of the valley, neroli, bergamot and honeysuckle. I could not detect any lilac nor much ylang ylang at this open.
Lanvin Arpege (vintage)
Arpege parfum opens to what seems to be leather and oakmoss. There is some aldehyde but it’s not the fizzy sparkling quality found in Sortilege or Chanel No. 5. I suspect this is due to age of the sample. Then the parfum starts to develop a green, woody character. Is it patchouli? Or coriander? It’s hard to tell for vintage perfumes, when the notes can just be bruised.
Portia’s vintage EDT also opens to oakmoss, and birch tar. There’s a dark rubbery quality to it, and the aldehyde is soft.
Le Galion Sortilege (2014)
As the aldehydes soften, deeper notes like rose and jasmine come to Sortilege’s fore. It is strong, sweet and assertive.
Lanvin Arpege (vintage)
Within minutes after the parfum opens, clean bright jasmines begin to sing. As the jasmine flowers soar, they lift up and carry along with it other white florals. Lily, rose, geranium, lily of the valley… they’re all there. The experience is like inhaling inside a white wedding bouquet. Sweet, radiant, and beautiful. Arpege parfum is the bride in her wedding dress; she is the centre of attention and will compete with no one.
Arpege EDT changes her posture at a breakneck speed. Before you could even enjoy the deep, heavy opening notes, they vanish and are replaced by a clean, soapy (iris, geranium, lily) jasmine accord. But there’s still a slight rubbery quality to it. A darker, smokier white floral fragrance than the parfum. It’s reminiscent of YSL Opium, if Opium had been spiked with powdery, white floral notes.
Warning: There’s no gentleness about either Arpege samples. The white flowers are LOUD and will wear out your nostrils. It’s like Giorgio Beverly Hills, the 80s, all over again. NSFW.
Le Galion Sortilege (2014)
Half an hour later, the Sortilege experience becomes less juicy and the final base of sweet sandalwood, amber and musk is revealed. This base remains linear to the conclusion.
Lanvin Arpege (vintage)
In the parfum’s final phase, sandalwood and amber emerge to ground the white floral bouquet just before she has worn out her host’s patience. But there’s a medicine box, chypre (green-woody) quality to this base, echoing Clinique Elixir and Estee Lauder Youth Dew. Her last breath is civet.
The EDT is heavier on the sandalwood, and has noticeably more labdanum and civet. The effect is sharper and more tenacious than the parfum.
Although Sortilege (2014) and Arpege (1927) can both be classified as aldehydic white florals with a sweet amber base, they have completely different personalities. Sortilege is prettier and well suited for the modern fruity-floral palette. It’s very wearable and has no ugly bits. Arpege is more challenging – but rooted in the era when chypre was the new big thing.
Sillage wise, Arpege wins Paul Vacher’s bouquet toss. Sortilege wears close to the skin and lasts a moderate 6-8hrs. Arpege parfum and EDT tied at 6-8hrs as well.
Now tell me, is there a vintage fragrance you’d like to ‘make over’?
Willa Zheng
Thanks APJers,
I’m glad to see you get involved for a vintage frag, and such a lovely one too. Let’s see who won.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, aldehydes, peach, orange bloom, honeysuckle, orris
Heart: Rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, coriander, sensitive plant, tuberose, violet, geranium
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, patchoulis, vanilla, musk
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Arpege Parfum (Vintage) sample
P&H Anywhere in the world
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
Tell me an Arpege memory? Do you have one? Any scent your Aunties wore then?
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Arpege Parfum (Vintage) #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-3Fm #Perfume @LANVINofficial @lanvin_news
Entries Closed Sunday 8th March 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen nodepositforum
The winners will have till Thursday 12th March 2015 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.
Heya Scented Sniffers,
I bought this bottle from Odona on Etsy. They are reasonably priced and when one of their frags had leaked about 70% of its contents in transit they gave me a refund on it. They are very nice people and their frags are fabulous.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, aldehydes, peach, orange bloom, honeysuckle, orris
Heart: Rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, coriander, sensitive plant, tuberose, violet, geranium
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, patchoulis, vanilla, musk
Arpege, I know that it was worn by some of the Aunties but it was definitely seen as being for the younger or quieter of them when I was growing up. The louder or more mature were wearing Giorgio, Shalimar, No 5 and Poison. Sometimes, though the memory is faint, I do remember seeing the famously ridged glass atomiser bottle with the black bakelite cap come out of purses for resprays. There is something very soft, and soft focus, about the Eau of Arpege. Today though I would like to chat about the parfum.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
I think my top notes are about to turn, they are a good deal less sparkling and radiant than they should be, but less than a minute in the gorgeous thick and rich scent comes alive, so many aldehydes that it’s almost oily in its intensity. Fruity and thick like the syrup from a can of peaches but more pronounced, more effervescent and way more lavish. A thick sinuous rope of fragrance that is hefty enough to lift you up and carry you away.
Multi-faceted Arpege parfum, so many flowers and fruits, herbs and aldehydes all mixed together in a less sophisticated bouquet than CHANEL No 5 but giving a girlish laugh, nod and wink in its direction. Fascinating in its various hues and gilded like a Klimt painting, imagine the perfumer looking at this one of Adele Bloch Bauer 20 years after it was created and Jeannie Lanvin asking the perfumer to recreate it in scent. And that’s what we have, a big fragrance by today’s standards that is filled to the brim with beautiful notes yet lives as one perfectly cohesive and elegant fragrance.
Photo Stolen Flickr
After the fireworks of the opening subside and we are well into the heart of this vintage Arpege parfum I find myself transported back to my youth and cuddling some of the Aunties who smelled so fabulous.
I only dab so I’m not ridiculously fragrant but I a sweetly perfumed and would be a bit overwhelming in most modern workplaces I think. Though this is so good and lasts so long that I think it would be an excellent day out frag, you’d still be smelling gorgeous even after a huge day of picnics, art galleries or shopping. I have been dabbing myself on Saturdays as we continue the search for our new home and it is a welcome relief from some of the smells we’ve encountered along the way.
Further reading: Now Smell This and Non Blonde
My Perfume Samples has current EdP $6/5ml
Vintage Arpege Extrait is still widely available on Ebay & Etsy
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Kesha&Co
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Arpege Parfum (Vintage) sample
P&H Anywhere in the world
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
Tell me an Arpege memory? Do you have one? Any scent your Aunties wore then?
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Arpege Parfum (Vintage) #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-3Fm #Perfume @LANVINofficial @lanvin_news
Entries Close Sunday 8th March 2015 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 12th March 2015 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.
Hello Fashion Hounds,
I have spent part of the evening watching this season’s Paris Fashion Week. There are only a very few things that I found to be watchable at all this season and here I am giving you my favourite of them. It is the Lanvin show, all 11 minutes of it. There are some extremely interesting looks, some giving a nod to historical costume, some unashamedly modern. Absolutely NOTHING I could wear as an emsemble but certainly details I would be interested in thieving, the opening black marching band hats, the very Givenchy black singlet gown/pinafore with the broad brimmed hat, a sleeve, hem, cuff or some fur.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Please enjoy.
Portia xx
Hey there APJ,
Another fab contest and you all got involved. EXCELLENT!! We are so happy that you come by and check out our stuff and this is just the best Thank You we can think of. Of course this GIVEAWAY was run by the lovely Azar so big snaps to Azar for going to all this trouble too.
Photo Stolen WorthPoint
There will be 2 winners this week, each will receive:
1 x 2ml decant from my stash of Spanish Geranium EDT
P&H Anywhere in the world .
Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies but to be eligible you had to leave a comment about anything related to geraniums or pelargoniums and mention how you follow APJ
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Entries Closed Sunday October 6th 2013 10pm Australian EST.
The winners will be chosen by B-Azar or by Gomez the pionus parrot from same sized folded papers on a tray.
Once again Gomez couldn’t be persuaded to touch his beak to the folded papers. He had a lot to say about my attempts to make him do what he didn’t want to do. This is one ANGRY BIRD! I don’t mess with him when he looks like this. Check out his razor sharp, can opener beak. Once again B-Azar chose the winners from the tray.
Photo Stolen brooklodge
CONRATULATIONS!! Winners have till Wednesday 9th October 2013 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.
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Post by Azar
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Hello APJ,
Spanish Geranium (Geranium d’Espagne) was created for Lanvin in 1925 by the brilliant perfumer Andre Frysse. It sold for a short time, became unavailable for many years, was revived in the 1950’s and finally discontinued around 1970. The 20th century actress Joan Crawford (“Mommy Dearest” to some) was reported to have said of Spanish Geranium that it was one of the three fragrances she “would never want to live without”. The other two were Royall Lyme by Anthony Gaade and Estee Lauder’s Youth Dew. Jungle Gardenia was also one of her favorites. Unfortunately for Joan (and for the rest of us) Spanish Geranium and the original Jungle Gardenia that she loved so much are long gone while more mainstream, crowd-pleasing fragrances, like Royall Lyme and Youth Dew, remain.
In the 1960’s my mother was given a bottle of Spanish Geranium Eau de Lanvin (an EDT). She favored Arpege so gave me free access to the SG, which I used with a heavy hand. The scent of Spanish Geranium, as well as the characteristic Lanvin accord, are burned into my memory. In those days my application of this fragrance was so liberal that one of my music comp professors actually took me aside on a hot Spring day and advised me on the appropriate use of perfumes and colognes. I remember his exact words and often ignore them.
Spanish Geranium is a bracing, in your face, almost masculine rendition of its floral namesake. The top notes are a combination of the familiar scent of the flowers and foliage of the zonal geranium (Pelargonium zonale) and the crushed leaves of the hybrid spicy rose geranium (P. ‘Graveolins’). Citrus, perhaps unripe lemon or bergamot, and what might be pepper add a sparkle to the floral mix. The opening never truly fades, giving Spanish Geranium the illusion of a soliflore, which it definitely is not. After about five minutes oakmoss, palmarosa and a touch of patchouli join the geraniums, eventually drying down to a light amber, a woody resin and something animalic, perhaps civet. The entire SG fragrance mélange floats on the same Lanvin accord that supports Arpege and My Sin. I can’t really describe this accord, but if you have used vintage Lanvin you will know what I’m talking about .The sillage can vary between quite intimate to moderate and the longevity up to 4 hours on my skin and more on clothing.
When I first tried Spanish Geranium I thought it was the strangest fragrance I had ever experienced. Admittedly I was quite young at the time but, even now, I find SG to be hauntingly beautiful and (for lack of a better word) just a little bit “odd”. I LOVE odd! Perhaps you will too! Remember that this is a very vintage EDT. It has faded somewhat but has not turned. What I perceive to be a fascinating, odd smell is the same scent I’ve encountered, bottle after bottle, from my first sniff over 50 years ago up to and including what I’m enjoying today.
Further reading: Cleopatra’s Boudoir
The Perfumed Court has .5ml in with 6 other Lanvin fragrances from $28
I just asked Lucie Joly (the Assistante Chef de Produit, what does that title mean?) if there would be a modern revival. She was very cordial but said that an SP revival was not in the works right now, thanks for asking and she would let me know if they decided to do a reissue. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to put a “bee in their bonnet”. It might be interesting to see what kind of Spanish Geranium would emerge to suit modern tastes and restrictions. When I think of a modern revival of SP I get the the image of a strange mutated butterfly with a vague memory of another life as something else. This image was probably a result of reading Ellen Covey’s most recent post referring to butterfly memory, among other things.
AzarX
Photo Stolen hemodernhome
There will be 2 winners this week, each will receive:
1 x 2ml decant from my stash of Spanish Geranium EDT
P&H Anywhere in the world
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.
To be eligible just leave a comment about anything related to geraniums or pelargoniums and mention how you follow the APJ’s (e-mail, wordpress, whatever).
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Vintage Lanvin Spanish Geranium GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-1Vs @LANVINofficial #Perfume #Giveaway
Entries Close Sunday October 6th 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
The winners will be chosen by B-Azar or by Gomez the pionus parrot from same sized folded papers on a tray.
The winners will have till Wednesday 9th October 2013 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.
DATES FIXED! OOOOPS! Naughty Portia with the cut & paste
Australian Perfume Junkies 