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Val the Cookie Queen
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Well Helloooooo APJ.
I am going to be working with Hiram Green in April, at the Esxcence 2020. It will be for three days, and the first time that I have actually had the opportunity to work full days. I am so excited. I love his brand and his work and it will be an privilege to do so.
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Val the Cookie Queen.
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Hey APJ
Here she comes, you better watch your step, She´s going to break your heart in two, It’s true, It’s hard not to realize, Just look into her false coloured eyes, she’ll build you up just to put you down, what a clown. Cause everybody knows (she’s a femme fatale) The things she does to please (she’s a femme fatale) She´s just a little tease ……. The Velvet Underground 1967.
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Kate Apted
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Well, hello good APJ people. Got a fun post for you all today. It is all about Kyse perfumes! Ok, just the ones I have been fortunate enough to try.
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Post by Ainslie Walker
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I scream for LEATHER! (Probably part 1)
Call me slow off the mark, but in the past few weeks I have been OBSESSED with scents containing leather. I’ve always “liked” them but suddenly I cannot get enough of them! I am wearing them daily, sometimes 2 per day. It may have all started when I purchased some new leather boots and enjoyed the smell wafting from the box in the car and upon opening. Also it’s winter and leather containing scents seem to warm me and as they warm on my skin I enjoy smelling the deep layers. Maybe it could just be my nose is maturing and like a beagle catching a scent trail, I AM OFFICIALLY OBSESSED.
Here’s two I have recently discovered and been wearing in my travels over the past few weeks.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Orange blossom, marshmallow, rose, mocha, coffee, leather, amber, musk, tobacco
I LOVE orange blossom at the best of times but, as the blurb says, this fragrance is the “Orange Blossom Renegade.” Leather, tobacco, amber, musk, rose, coffee and MARSHMALLOW all dance along to the beat of orange blossom’s drum. Highly addictive is it’s sweet-rose and gooey marshmallow core, innocent, until tobacco and leather punch through like (young) James Dean just rocked up on his bike. Unlit hand rolled cigarette in mouth and leather jacket on, complete with minor coffee spill down his sexy front. The orange blossom glows from amongst these ingredients and gives a touch of soft “baby bottom” smell mothers talk about. It takes me out of this world to a new and whimsical place, which so many from this brand do. It’s a beauty and available at Sephora in Sydney or Peony Melbourne (who will post it out in Oz)
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper berry, Cardamom, Cypress
Heart: Frankincense, Saffron, Cedar leaf
Base: Vetiver, Cypriol oil, Leather
Atelier Des Ors launched earlier in 2015, with five sumptuous fragrances in the sparkling, gold-filled collection. Peony in Melbourne is the exclusive stockest in Australia. Whilst there I sprayed Cuir Sacré and looked closely at my skin. REAL gold flakes have somehow escaped from the bottle! I massage them in with my fingertip and marvel at my skins new luxe luminance! The dominant leathery aura above instantaneously hisses of strong and lustful sophistication as it hits my olfactory receptors. It’s not just good it’s a KNOCKOUT! Every time I’ve worn it since, I feel a million dollars. Compliments are endless and two of my friends now are buying their own. What is this magical potion? Why does it hypnotise us so? I pinpoint the decadence in it’s dry down and liken it to the smell of the most luxurious new leather handbag, mixed with an elegant note of luminous saffron and shivering vetiver grass, lifted with cardamon. Also listed is Juniper berries, cypress, incense, cedarwood leaf and cypriol. I am surprised not to see rose absolute or something deeply earthy yet floral in there, as on me I can smell something so so pretty. Perhaps it’s just everything working synergistically? This leather is gold. Pleasure seeking individuals must try!
Both these lovelies are available at Peony Melbourne and First In Fragrance who also have samples
What leather containing fragrances do you scream for?
(BTW you can follow my scented adventures via my Instagram: ainslie_walker)
Ainslie Walker x
Hey Hey all you Deliciously Fragrant Wafters.
I have reviewed Bottega Veneta in short before but I have come back to it again because it has gone into Department Stores here in Australia and I think it a juice worthy of your particular attention. For a wearable, go anywhere, quietly and self servingly hyper-luxe fragrance that will never skunk but always give you private pleasure, and those intimates who come extremely close, there isn’t a better choice on the market. My opinion and clearly not humble: This is the poo people, take a BIG whiff.
Picture Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Italian bergamot, Brazilian pink pepper
Heart: Indian Sambac jasmine
Base: Oak moss, patchouli and Indian patchouli
I think that Fragrantica has missed some notes, and yes I understand what featured means, but I get leather. Inside a brand new handbag, jacket of suitcase you will find the basic scent of Bottega Veneta EdP by Michel Almairac, who is responsible for some of my perfume library (Casmir, Gucci Rush, Joop Homme: ALL blockbusters). I smell a sweet (not sugar), fruity (but not the crap celebuscent fruit) leather that is quietly luxurious and lasts for the whole day. It gets more interesting and dryer as the day progresses, there is also a fresh salty sea water tang that parades through at intervals. I can’t tell you enough that this is an incredibly wearable scent that is also, to me, an artistic triumph in a world where that is happening less and less in the mainstream.
Perfect for socialising and for all but the most severely fragrance free workplaces. Date night, boozy lunch, picnic, yachting, horse track or at home snuggled up in front of the TV with a big cuppa/scotch/wine/water. Jeans, dress, after gym shower, ballgown, track suit or office suit; Bottega Veneta EdP will take you there and back.
The bottle is hefty and fits beautifully in my hand and I feel like a glamourpuss when I apply in the store. They also do Parfum in Murano glass bottles and though it’s expensive, there are EdT’s that cost more and come in molded glass. They also do a slightly, but not outrageously, expensive body care range which I think is also delectable. I am SORELY tempted to take the houskeeping money for a fortnight and just splurge but will wait. It’s hovering near the top of my list and I am trying to squirrel some money away but I am a notorious fritterer. I have an 8ml ThePerfumedCourt decant that is not finished, afterwards I will think seriously about the Parfum.
Photo Stolen BottegaVeneta
KatiePukrick has a great review as does Olfactoria’sTravels
Bottega Veneta is available at any of their stores and now Department Stores
eGlobalBeauty has 75ml for $142 including shipping!
Thank you all for sauntering through my fragrant thoughts. Below is the Bottega Veneta newest mini movie about their Initial Program. Enjoy!!
Till tomorrow we wish you all good health, enough wealth and at least a moment of joy.
Portia xxx
Bottega Veneta Initials Aug 2012
Hey all,
It’s Easter Sunday and I was LAZY, LAZY, LAZY!! Lolled around in bed this morning, had brunch and basically let the world pass me by till it was time to put my Blogging and Trivia hats on.
While I was having my lovely lazy day I thought I’d try a couple of new to me scents from the leather family. Leather is my favourite note in a fragrance, I love the feeling that it gives me.
Photo Stolen from BridlewoodEquestrian
From my childhood horses and tack, leather driving gloves that my Dad had, leather golfing gloves that my Mum had, her new handbags or shoes, the formative years provided that super delicious scent of new leather couches and car interiors, my first ever, and only, leather jacket (in exquisitely soft and subtle, almost rubbery, sheep hide that was stolen from my car and I have not been able to bring myself to replace because I loved it so much and nothing will ever feel the same),
Photo Stolen from BLUFER
getting my groove on with sexy hairy chested muscle men in leather partywear,
Photo Stolen from TheTickleCompany
nowadays the subtle but delicious fragrance of new boots, belts, bags, the list goes on and on.
KNIZE TEN by KNIZE
Released all the way back in 1924 Knize (you pronounce it kah-neesh-ah) Ten’s 90th birthday is around the corner. This is a “Perfumes the A-Z Guide” by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez 5 star worthy offering. OH YES IT IS! This is exactly how I like to smell from top to bottom. It is a flowery, woody, leather, it has grunt, smells like a very expensive barber shop fragrance and lasts for ages, gradually warming itself on your skin till you wish it was on someone else so you could tell them how frigging delicious they smell and give them a great big snog, before you tear their clothes off and…
Photo Stolen from engrandepompe
Sorry, I had to go and have a cup of tea. Twinings’ Australian Afternoon to calm myself.
I put this on my right arm this morning and have given my neck a crick bending in to whiffle it so often. Cor blimey! I really like this.
Photo Stolen from Fragrantica
Opening with greens, citrus and herbs Knize Ten quickly moves away to the flowers, woods, musk, moss and leather for me, warming up with amber and an almost caramel flavoured vanilla as it progresses over hours and hours. I have reapplied to write to you tonight at 9pm Australian EST but could still have written from my arm because this yummy scent was still extant as a warm and sexy fragrance, not loud but discernibly not me. This could be the bulletproof fragrance for me. The one that helps stiffen your spine on those cowardly lion days.
You want the notes, accords and real people reviews? Fragrantica is your spot. Want to know a lot about how it is? Reviews that I read from YesterdaysPerfume and NowSmellThis filled in what I have left out. If you want to buy it LuckyScent will have it back in mid April.
CUIR PLEINE FLEUR by JAMES HEELEY
When I first sprayed Cuir Pleine Fleur it was musty morning wake up and ooh I smelled a leather and citrus cocktail, spiky and abrasive, yummy. I had enormously high hopes for a scruffy but refined journey through a magical wonderland. But no. I felt that the scent left me in about an hour except for this almost nothing, barely there memory of Muscs Koublai Khan-ishness that I tried the other day. Like scent resonance, as if the ultimate dry down of it had been reached a few days later, to near invisibility in this other fragrance.
Photo Stolen from JamesHeeley
Don’t get me wrong, this scent IS delicious. It is also interesting. Like new expensive leather gloves left overnight in a freshly turned and fertilised garden bed featuring an orange tree and fragrant shrubs in full bloom, maybe down the back near the old incinerator. For an hour. Then it becomes a skin scent. Way too quiet for me and my unresponsive nose.
Photo Stolen from BaseNotes
Something that should be noted though is TSO Jin thought Cuir Pleine Fleur was the winner out of todays 2 scents. Funny isn’t it? Oh well, if he likes it so much, he can buy it.
If he wanted to he could buy it at LuckyScent where there is also a beautiful description of the fragrance, better than I can give you and PerfumeNiche, where I got my samples for today, has a lovely story about first sniffing Cuir Pleine Fleur in James Heeley’s studio and review.
UNINHIBITED by CHER
A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on a very special vintage coffret of Uninhibited by Cher. My friend David/Margeaux (who just happens to be Cher’s greatest ever fan) and I decided to do a video presentation of it, I hope you enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Video shot and edited by my BFF Kath and cyber-tech work done by TSO Jin.
The Cher Uninhibited fragrance was lovely but I think the Body Lotion had turned due to air, or bottle, exposure because it smelled like plastic after 20 min’s and was IMPOSSIBLE to get off my skin.
Thanks for wandering around inside my fragrant thoughts today, see you tomorrow for Evie C’s update!
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 