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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
This week my girlfriend Miharu has been in town from Japan. We used to be buddies back in my showgirl days and it’s been nice to see her again. Loads of fun perfume choices and hanging out with Jin. Work was BUSY too.
Le Labo
Saturday Question: What Would Your City’s Le Labo Exclusive Smell Of?
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Portia
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Hello Fellow Fumies,
At APJ we have a Saturday Question. Everyone gets to chime in with an answer, chat with other responders and it’s a fun event each week. Taking sides never means taking offence and everyone keeps it respectful and light, even though we can sometimes trawl the depths.
The idea is you’ll see it on the weekend or chime in through the week. Hopefully you will come back regularly and see if anyone has responded to your comment and you can reply to them. The aim is to generate real conversation and connection even though we are scattered around the globe.
Scent Diary: 15.4 – 21.4.2019
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Busy week of friends and fun. Fragrance wise I’ve been celebrating with Facebook Fragrance Friends Guerlain Week. What a fun idea to wear my favourites and get out a bunch of them that have lain ignored and unloved for a while. What a happy reminder of the charm and depth of history of this house.
Scent Diary: 11.2 – 17.2.2019
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
What a week. Another roller coaster ride. Some of the troughs were especially deep. My life has been altered and edited heavily with the loss of two of the most important women in it. This is going to take some healing time.
In brighter news my fragrance wearing week was a really good one.
New Sniffs + Thunked: 14.2.2019
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Portia
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Hey Hey Perfume Junkies,
OK I’m adding a THUNKED section here too. It’s becoming an APJ obsession and I love the idea of us using our fragrances and hoiking the vial, decant or bottle. Thunk is the sound of an empty hitting the bin so you must empty it for the thunk to count.
Anything worthy of comment, either good or bad, that’s passed under my nose through the week will get a short write up. If I think something is terrible, shamefully lazy, greedy or stupid and you should know about it, it will be said. As always YMMV.
I’d love it if you get involved: agree, respectfully disagree, have any thought-out opinion and want to share, do so in the comments below. The point is starting a conversation.
New Sniffs + Thunked: 14.2.2019
New Sniffs + Thunked: 31.1.2019
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Portia
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Hey Hey Perfume Junkies,
OK I’m adding a THUNKED section here too. It’s becoming an APJ obsession and I love the idea of us using our fragrances and hoiking the vial, decant or bottle. Thunk is the sound of an empty hitting the bin so you must empty it for the thunk to count.
Anything worthy of comment, either good or bad, that’s passed under my nose through the week will get a short write up. If I think something is terrible, shamefully lazy, greedy or stupid and you should know about it, it will be said. As always YMMV.
I’d love it if you get involved: agree, respectfully disagree, have any thought-out opinion and want to share, do so in the comments below. The point is starting a conversation.
New Sniffs + Thunked: 31.1.2019
Scent Diary: 8.1 – 14.1.2018
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Portia
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Heya APJ Crew,
Whirlwind week. Perfume and peeps, art and travel to Adelaide with Jin, Eve and Lola. There’s been loads of great food and adventuring. Life has been very good to us, now I need a bloody rest.
Scent Diary: 8.1 – 14.1.2018
Top 5 2017 Perfumes: Gabriella
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Gabriella
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Hiya Perfume Junkies!
A happy and fragrant New Year to you all.
Today I’m talking about my top five fragrances for 2017. These were not all new releases for the year – just the top perfumes that I discovered over the past twelve months. Last year was a bit of a watershed fragrance-wise: I visited Paris for the first time since falling down the perfumista rabbit hole and I also explored a bit more outside my white floral comfort zone. So what scents made the cut for me?
Top 5 2017 Perfumes: Gabriella
Melodie de L’Amour by Pissara Umavijani for Dusita 2015
The heartstopper. I’d given up on finding another lush gardenia-centered fragrance when Tom Ford’s Velvet Gardenia was discontinued some years ago, but when Melodie de L’Amour hit my skin, it was utter devotion at first sniff. A buttery gardenia at the height of its bloom paired with sultry tuberose, jasmine and a hint of honey. This exquisite white floral was made all the more special due to the fact that I acquired my bottle in the city of lights.
First in Fragrance has €295/50ml
1996 by Ben Gorham for Byredo 2013
The vintage starlet. I didn’t expect to fall in love with 1996’s soft hush of iris and violet that’s powdery, delicate and slightly sweet. Just when you think the floral notes are the only things going on, an ambery leather lends a touch of old school decadence. It’s the scent of vintage luggage, fur stoles and black mesh pillbox hats paired with a slick of red lipstick.
Mecca Cosmetica starts at $187/50ml
Stilettos on Lex by Dorothee Piot for Jules et Mad 2012
The Parisian chic. I found Stilettos thanks to the lovely staff at Jovoy in Paris who included it with an enormous bunch of samples when I purchased my bottle of Melodie de L’Amour. Stilettos is a grown up fruity floral with a touch of 1980’s powerhouse about it. A bright plum transcends into a rich melange of violet, rose and lily of the valley tempered by aldehydes.
Jules et Mad starts at EUR22.50/5ml
Velvet Haze by Ben Gorham for Byredo 2017
The hippie luxe. I usually only like patchouli with rose, but this proved to me that coconut and patchouli is a pretty awesome combination. Here the patchouli is gauze-like, it usual pungent head-shop vibe has been stripped back and white washed, all pale and ethereal. The coconut is slightly salty in tone, giving the scent a tropical but edible quality.
Mecca Cosmetica starts at $160/50ml
Vetiver 46 by Mark Buxton for Le Labo 2006
The unexpected choice. Vetiver is about as far away from a big white floral as you can get, but this still enraptured me from the get go. A strikingly green bergamot gives way to piney incense, cloves and a touch of vetiver. A brooding scent that’s strangely comforting.
Mecca Cosmetica starts at $264/50ml
So, what were your top perfume picks for 2017?
With much love till next time!
G x
Baie Rose 26 by Frank Voelkl for Le Labo 2010
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Portia
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Hi there Niche Nerds,
Todays fragrance was released as the Le Labo Chicago city exclusive. You may remember that I find the Le Labo adventure somewhat wankerish. The whole, we’ll mix it for you in store so it’s fresh shit doesn’t wash for me. Just because the ingredients haven’t been blended yet doesn’t make them any fresher, AND it takes months for the damn fragrances to settle properly after you buy them. It’s all a big fat GRRR for me.
Nevertheless when Le Labo get it right they do make some fairly spectacular frags.
One of my mates was doing a decant cleanout and I was lucky enough to buy this baby from them. There’s only about 2-3ml left in a 15ml so it has been well loved.
Baie Rose 26 by Le Labo 2010
Baie Rose 26 by Frank Voelkl
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Rose absolute, Pink pepper, Musk, Cedar, Aldehydes, Ambrox, Clove, Pepper
Victoria from Bois de Jasmin taught me something in my reading today, “baie rose means pink pepper in French”. AHA! So not only is Le Labo doing its usual name it something and have it smell like something else trick but there is also a pun in action. Clever. Funnily, both the pepper and rose are front & centre for most of the scent.
So here we smell the interesting by-play between rose and pink pepper.
The opening is all rose and metallic sparkling aldehydes shimmering over the pink pepper. It’s a meaty, thick and dense scent that also manages to feel lightweight and airy. Haughty and powerful are the two words that keep coming to my mind while wearing Baie Rose 26, also masculine (which is weird because I try not to subscribe to frag gender unless it punches me in the face wit it).
PDI
Baie Rose 26 is cool, in both the frosty and fun refinement explanations. It has a space age feel about it and a metallic twang, the best way to present roses in my mind.
I get fleeting correlations to other roses CK Contradiction Woman, Amouage Opus X and Oriza L. Legrand Royal Fillet. Not same obviously but there are resemblances.
The musk, ambrox, wood dry down is far less exciting that the first hours of Baie Rose 26 life. It doesn’t implode into banal but it isn’t a showstopper. A comfortable, safe scent that lasts and lasts with a hint of rose.
PDI
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Non Blonde
Did you ever get to try this beauty?
Portia xx
Summer Scentsations: Heat Busters
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TinaG
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Hi gang!
Last year I struggled to find fragrances which I could wear on a daily basis, which cut through the ridiculous heat of summer. I gravitated towards modern watery aquatics and fruits. My mainstays were Hermès – Un Jardin Apres La Mousson, and L’Artisan Parfumeur – Mandarine, and the occasional blast of Serge Lutens – Borneo 1834 for sultry evenings.
I was discussing summer fragrances with friends recently – Here’s a list of a few that we talked about for our wish lists:
Summer Scentsations: Heat Busters
Heeley – Sel Marin
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, green notes
Heart: Salt, sea water, sea grass, moss
Base: Musk, cedar, leather.
I’ve been craving more of this fragrance – I had a quick sniff last year when I was in the UK. There was something intimately sexy about it – underlying clean funkiness, like a salty sun-kissed person’s chest at the end of a very active day. A far cry from your regular ‘marine’ fragrance.
Estée Lauder – Bronze Goddess
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, ginger, mandarin
Heart: Indian samba jasmine, coconut, jasmine
Base: vanilla, cashmere wood, musk, amber.
I know that this is a general favourite for summer, but both my friend and I weren’t all that familiar with it. We will get together and split a bottle when the next round hits the shelves. I think this would definitely cover off the tropical beach coconut vibe for a summer’s day.
CB I Hate Perfume – At The Beach 1966
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Coppertone, North Atlantic, wet sand, seashell, driftwood, boardwalk.
This transports me back to the days of kicking around the beach as a kid. I remember using Coppertone, usually SPF 2 of 4….. I don’t know how we didn’t get absolutely toasted. This perfume smells like a day at the beach. Totally. It’s brilliant.
BeauFort London – Fathom V
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper berries, tangerine, black currant, green notes, soil tincture
Heart: Thyme, lily, jasmine, ylang ylang, ginger, cumin, black pepper, mimosa
Base: Patchouli, vetiver, oak moss, salt, incense, atlas cedar, amber
My friend Kerri recently purchased the BeauFort London – Come Hell or High Water discovery set, which in itself is magnificent. It is a leather roll with generous 7.5ml travel sprays of each of their fragrances. I had been lusting after this for a while so I was both dead jealous and super excited to have a look at them. The green hit in the opening of Fathom V is a mix of bright freshly cut flowers and deeper greens, which we likened to walking into a cool florist shop. I need to spend more time with all of this range, they are both amazing fragrances and an intriguing aesthetic.
Le Labo – Lys 41
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Jasmine, tuberose, lily, woody notes, vanilla, musk
Lys 41 is a beautiful cool white floral. The lily is subtly sweet and there’s nothing I find overpowering. There’s a time in the morning just before the sun rises where a blue-grey haze lights up the frosted panelling of my bedroom door. I’ve been finding myself spritzing Lys 41 at this time as part of a gentle fragrant wake up, and then re-spritzing throughout the day while the sun moves through its daily arc casting different shadows and colours through the house. I really enjoy it and I will definitely be bringing this routine over into the summer months.
You can get samples of most of the at Surrender To Chance
So how about you, APJ? What have your worn this summer, or are planning to?
Till next time,
Tina G
Australian Perfume Junkies 