L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse 2013

November 15, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Hey Hey APJ Crew!!

You may remember recently we did a L’Occitane Divine Cream Review and Challenge, you can watch the progression in L’Occitane Divine Cream Challenge Week 1 and L’Occitane Divine Cream Challenge Week 2 where we challenged you all to grab a sample and see how it left your skin in 2 weeks. At the time L’Occitane also sent me a set of four of their La Collection de Grasse fragrances to try and if I wanted to APJ could review them. Well, I WANT TO! These fragrances are beautiful, wearable, spritz and go winners. Let’s meet them:

L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse

La Collection de Grasse Miniatures Set Photo Stolen L’Occitane

Pictured above is the L’Occitane 7.5ml La Collection de Grasse Miniatures Christmas pack, an excellent choice and currently only $35 on the L’Occitane Australia Site

Jasmine & Bergamote by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Fragrantica gives these featuired accords:
Top: Bergamot, pettigrain, mandarin
Heart: Egyptian Jasmine, jasmine
Base: Sandalwood, cedar

This opens with sheer, watery citrus and the jasmine already floating below, like fresh water from the tap and cut sappy flower stems. Pretty, fresh, light and wearable Jasmine & Bergamote was grabbed by my assistant Katie and getting it back, nearly one third used already, was quite a chore. Jasmine & Bergamote is way too simple for my tastes but Katie can’t stop raving about how much she loves it. It smells wonderful on her and I can see why she likes it, the clean brightness that washes over everything is like a spring sunlit early evening warm but turning cool. Katie has bagsed the bottle, could I give a better recommendation?

Magnolia & Mure by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, blackberry
Heart: Magnolia, rose
Base: Patchouli

Here we have a very interesting blackberry opening that is full on and in your face, a tart reminder of Enchanted Forest but a gentler, less intimidating version that is extremely modern and sheer but with a great sillage a scent bubble. Noticeable without being intrusive Magnolia & Mure is a true perfume of the teen years of the 21st century and if you want to smell in tune with the times I think it an excellent choice, a fruit-chouli that I enjoy!! Very hard to believe. The heart and dry down are surprisingly still filled with the sizzle of blackberry till the uber clean patchouli quietly fades to nothing. I can imagine Magnolia & Mure being a good gateway fragrance too for the young ready to step away from celebuscents and into the world of fine fragrance.

The Vert & Bigarade by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange, green tea
Heart: Mate, thyme
Base: Musk, cedar, hay

The citrus and tea opening is tart, fresh, sparkling and very Eau de Cologne-ish. So delightful and very wearable, I can imagine this becoming a simple, no nonsense go-to fragrance for anyone who wants to smell fresh, vibrant and relaxed. The green continues into the heart and only warms through slightly in the dry down into a soft, clean, woodsy musk. The Vert & Bigarade is not a hugely groundbreaking fragrance but it is a good bet for someone taking their first steps outside the regular department store fare that wants to smell good and not have to worry. Excellent work choice and I think a LOT of gym bags will be sporting The Vert & Bigarade after the gift giving season.

Vanille & Narcisse by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Black current, bergamot
Heart: Gardenia, narcissus
Base: Tonka bean, vanilla

This is the fragrance that sent me looking for the L’Occitane people in the first place. I can’t believe it’s not 10 x the price in a very chi chi niche perfume line. This has all the interest and elegance of a much more expensive fragrance with a very soft black current and citrus open that is sweet but not that modern hyper-sweet, diabetic with one spritz and the black current showing none of its urinous tendencies. I think the open is tamed by the flowers in the heart and cake sweet rather than lolly sweet vanilla base, Vanille & Narcisse could easily be a Guerlain Aqua Allegoria, CHANEL Exclusive or a DIOR Couturier, it could even be a Patricia de Nicolai.

L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 2 winners who will receive one used for review purposes only bottle of L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse (NO you don’t get to chose)

1 winner will receive:
Magnolia & Mure EdT 75ml
P&H Anywhere in the world

1 winner will receive:
The Vert & Bigarade EdT 75ml
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.

To be eligible for the draw just mention how you follow the APJs and tell us any L’Occitane product that you’ve used or like the sound of

Extra Chances?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2cr #Giveaway #Perfume @LOCCITANE

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 17th November 2013 10pm Australian EDST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 21st November 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.

Interview with Karine Dubreuil, Perfumer for L’Occitane En Provence.

Presenting La Collection De Grasse

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week Two of Challenge

November 1, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hello Gorgeous Australian Perfume Junkies,

So it’s the end of my second week of testing out the DIVINE CREAM by L’Occitane (See original post<<JUMP and the One Week Mark<<JUMP). I have been such a facial care Philistine for so many years that I had very low expectations of any results at all. I wonder how many of you have done our 2 week challenge?

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week Two

Photo Stolen L’Occitane

From L’Occitane site :
Divine anti-aging care fights the signs of aging, so you can face up the passing of time with absolute serenity. The divine combination of organic Immortelle and Myrtle Essential Oils offers:
A complete regenerating care: Combined action to stimulate the production of collagens and improve skin microcirculation helps to reduce damage caused by time and restore substance and vitality.
A second youth: Myrtle essential oil stimulates within the skin, the action of the longevity protein- to help increase cellular vitality preserve the skin’s appearance.

The new, advanced formula combines the unique anti-aging properties of everlasting Immortelle flowers with the boosted effectiveness of 7 plant-derived active ingredients, that help fight signs of aging better than ever before.

Awarded the highest rated Anti-Aging Miracle Cream in the 2011 Anti-Aging Beauty Bible. Independently tested by a panel of women across the UK

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

My L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

At the end of week one this is how I felt: How is the rest of my face skin? Already it is glowing. Softer, more supple and satiny. Divine Cream hasn’t given me a facelift but my skin does look and feel a lot more elastic, youthful and plumped. If you’d told me this would be the payoff of taking care of my skin for a week I’d have NEVER believed you.

Week Two has continued more of the same, my skin is glowing, pores seem to have tightened up, I’m not so oily as normal and my skin seems less sensitive. Something else I noticed, Divine Cream is an amazing base to put make up onto, it is easier to apply, goes on much lighter and smoother and stays better. The make up doesn’t clog up my skin so much and has been slightly easier to remove afterwards. That is a HUGE plus in Divine Cream’s favour.

My eyes are where I see real difference though, still not a facelift but the whole areas skin seems fresher and more youthful, plumper and the small lines I have are less deep. I’ve had no more sleep lately, in fact considerably less, am eating and exercising as poorly as ever and have done nothing else to spark this change so I must put it down to Divine Cream.

Others L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

There were going to be three other testers for the two week challenge, sadly we had an early pull out because life got in the way. How did the other two enjoy the L’Occitane Divine Cream experience?

“I have enjoyed using L’Occitane Divibe Cream. Its immediate silky velvet application absorbed quickly and left my skin soft and well moisturised. A little goes a long way. Thanks for asking me to help out in sampling”

“Loving it! …better than what I’ve been using, and cheaper… I am seriously buying it when mine runs out.”

Photo Stolen BeautyStat

I hope you’ve enjoyed my 2 week trial of L’Occitane Divine Cream, did you join in and try it yourself? How did it go for you? Was your experience as good as ours, problems, perfection? Please tell us in the comments section below.

Portia xx

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week One of Challenge

October 25, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Gorgeous Australian Perfume Junkies,

So it’s the end of my first week of testing out the DIVINE CREAM by L’Occitane (See original post<<JUMP). I have been such a facial care Philistine for so many years that I had very low expectations of any results at all. I wonder how many of you have taken the challenge and done the first of our 2 week challenge?

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week One

Photo Stolen L’Occitane

Awarded the highest rated Anti-Aging Miracle Cream in the 2011 Anti-Aging Beauty Bible. Independently tested by a panel of women across the UK

My L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

The first weeks experience starts with the very luxe golden box, shiny and new. Inside is a spatula, Divine Cream and an instruction manual (which I instantly binned because I’ve seen the video, it’s below). The bottle opened easily, fits in my hand well and has a lovely heftiness to it. I wish it were not glass though because it will smash on my tiles if I drop it and I’m barefoot after a bath, must remember to bring thongs into the bathroom just in case. The spatula is a good size but I wish the bottle had somewhere to click it on so I don’t have to keep the box, also mildly annoying.

The creams smell is soft floral clean and is quite thick, silky and rich feeling and way more creamy than my after shave balm, it does go on beautifully though with the face, neck, forehead and temple massage shown in the video. I do it exactly as they show it but I take 2-3 minutes to apply and then cover my ears, take three deep breaths and release them slowly. At the end I feel like I have done something wonderful, pampering and had a little selfish me moment. When your life is hectic it’s hard to find moments I can dedicate solely to myself, I feel a little centered after application of Divine Cream. The soft scent stays with me for about 20 minutes before either it goes or I become anosmic.

Photo Stolen Wikimedia

I have also been using the eye cream which comes in a sensational little pump pack so I know exactly how much to use, it is a little thinner and my skin drinks it up in under a minute. I wish I’d taken a before pic because though I am tired still my crows feet are less than normal, IN ONE WEEK!

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

How is the rest of my face skin? Already it is glowing. Softer, more supple and satiny. Divine Cream hasn’t given me a facelift but my skin does look and feel a lot more elastic, youthful and plumped.

If you’d told me this would be the payoff of taking care of my skin for a week I’d have NEVER believed you.

Next week we will hear from the other test cases and see how my skin finishes up.
Portia xx

L’Occitane: Divine Cream

October 18, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Hello Fabulous Fragrance Fiends,

Last weekend I was at Melbourne airport with Jin and had some time to kill so we dropped into the L’Occitane store there. I haven’t really paid much attention to L’Occitane since 1994 while at the Cannes Film Festival I grabbed some for my Mum and Sister and sent it back to Australia. Sadly, by the time I returned from living in the UK they had finished their bottles and hadn’t kept them so I could repurchase next time I was in Europe. Since then L’Occitane has arrived in Australia and has loads of stand alone stores in large cities, airports and also in department stores. Olivier Baussan founded the company in 1976 because he wanted to create a company that celebrates and preserves the traditions of his home region of France: Provence.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

From the L’Occitane site:
L’OCCITANE is anchored in Provence, where fragrant fields of lavender are a continual reminder of the region’s natural bounty. Each of our ranges is inspired by ingredients harvested from the south of France and the Mediterranean. Our products offer the many benefits of these ingredients, while translating the traditional savoir-faire of the regional artisans.
In the time of the Byzantine Empire, the south of France was a region called “Occitania”. The name “L’OCCITANE” is derived from this, meaning “woman of Occitania.” L’OCCITANE symbolizes this woman, her beauty and her relationship with nature.

L’Occitane: Divine Cream

Photo Stolen L’Occitane

So while we were there I spritzed one of their new La Collection de Grasse fragrances Vanilla and Narcisse and I liked it so much that I decided to get in touch with the L’Occitane crew here in Australia and ask for some review samples.

If a product or company can be judged in any way by the front line of people that you talk to on the phone then L’Occitane is a winner. Everyone I spoke to was thrilled that I would call, was interested, enjoyed their product and that I wanted to write about L’Occitane for the blog. We talked fragrance but the one thing they wanted me to try was Divine Cream, apparently the most talked about new product to hit the stores and gaining huge market share already. Sure they would send me some fragrance but even more they wanted me to try this amazing product that works better than anything else they’d tried. No, I didn’t have to write about it, yes they understand I do fragrance, please just try it and tell us how you like it. OK, guinea pig Portia into action.

Photo Stolen Alain C. Flickr

I don’t know if I’ve told you before but I take extremely poor care of my skin, spending so much time with a full face of TV make up and taking it off with grape seed/olive/baby oil, in the bath I am a soap and water cleaner of my face, shave with Gillette shave products, after shave balm by Nivea and that’s the extent of my beauty routine. I have been blessed with good skin and mostly small pores. What I thought I could do though is spread the product out through some of my friends and see their reactions to it too.

There will be four of us trialling for 2 weeks and I’ll give you weekly updates, sound good?

Katie: is my office helper/life organiser two days a week, has 2 lovely daughters and an Architect husband. I think she may be just under 30.

Kath: My BFF who works as an Executive Assistsant to the CEO and CFO of a business involved in English Language Studies at Macquarie University. Kath will be 40 next year.

Natasha: Another very close friend Natasha was my Tupperware manager and mentor. She coached me to being the No 1 Tupperware Demonstrator in Australia & New Zealand in 2007. Tash is a single Mum of three mostly grown up boys and is just over the 40 mark.

Portia: Me a Drag Queen, Homestay Provider and Perfume Blogger who is now 45.

You should go to L’Occitane and as for some samples so you can do the 2 week challenge too. I’d love to read what YOU all are thinking about L’Occitane Divine Cream too. At the end there will be a VERY SPECIAL PRIZE for a couple of people so get involved.

Awarded the highest rated Anti-Aging Miracle Cream in the 2011 Anti-Aging Beauty Bible. Independently tested by a panel of women across the UK
.

My question is, “Have any of you tried L’Occitane Divine Cream?” If so, how was it, did it give you better feeling and looking skin, would you purchase or repurchase? I do understand that this is a cream not surgery but did you feel that it had benefited you in any way?

Here are the most interesting to me of the Marie Clare video report on the L’Occitane Divine Cream. Enjoy.

Portia xx

I have started at #2 video because the first one was just a bit ad-ish.

#3 was about the jar that Divine Cream comes in and was boring so I have skipped it in favour of the process and studies

#5 is about sourcing and sustainability but was not in depth enough about either, sorry.

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

L’Occitane en Provence

L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse 2013

L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse

Jasmine & Bergamote by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Magnolia & Mure by Karine Dubreuil 2013

The Vert & Bigarade by Karine Dubreuil 2013

Vanille & Narcisse by Karine Dubreuil 2013

L’Occitane La Collection de Grasse GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

Interview with Karine Dubreuil, Perfumer for L’Occitane En Provence.

Presenting La Collection De Grasse

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week Two of Challenge

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week Two

My L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

Others L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week One of Challenge

L’Occitane Divine Cream: Week One

My L’Occitane Divine Cream Experience

L’Occitane: Divine Cream

L’Occitane: Divine Cream

You should go to L’Occitane and as for some samples so you can do the 2 week challenge too. I’d love to read what YOU all are thinking about L’Occitane Divine Cream too. At the end there will be a VERY SPECIAL PRIZE for a couple of people so get involved.