Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014

February 12, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Poodle

The word gardenia strikes terror in the heart of many. For a flower that has no perfume essence of its own and must be replicated by using other flower essences it has many variations and strengths. Most of these are dependent on the perfumers interpretation of what gardenia is. For some it always a bit too much and they shy away from anything called gardenia. Other times, when people smell a gardenia perfume the first comment made is “that’s not gardenia”. In that respect Gardenia will be no different.

Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, lily, ylang ylang
Heart: Madagascar vanilla
Base: Black leather, cashmeran, spice, woods

Gardenia opens with lilies and ylang-ylang. There a certain freshness to the top notes, a watery green-ness that stops it from veering into the big white floral territory of Fracas. It makes me think of a bouquet of flowers cut in the early morning after a spring rain. My nose detects a hint of gardenia every now and then but it’s not the headlining act here. After the top notes settle Gardenia is not as bold as you might think. I wouldn’t call it a big white floral either.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

The freshness gives way to warmth. Cashmeran and leather start to appear. They are soft and seem almost powdery combined with the vanilla. The lily notes linger throughout the development and now have a little spice to them. It’s not a huge hit of spice but just that tiny bit that you sometimes smell in real lilies. Gardenia reminds me most of gardenias early on and later in the dry down. When I was extremely young I’d take the spent blossoms from my grandmothers gardenia and smoosh the petals into my arm hoping to transfer the scent. Even at the age of 4 I had the makings or a perfume nerd. Anyway, that’s what I’m reminded of in the dry down. Salty sweet skin with the barest hint of a fleshy floral petals.

Picture Stolen Pixabay

I wish they had named this something different because I fear the name will deter people from sniffing. Anyone who is gardenia shy will just pass it by. Those who are looking for a true to life gardenia will sniff but perhaps it won’t be enough gardenia for them. I think men who tend to like florals would like this as well because I don’t think it smells too girly. It’s a lovely scent though so please do sniff if you see it.

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Australian Perfume Junkies
Libertine Parfumerie has $239/100ml (with FREE Australian shipping)
Harrods has £150/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml

What is your favourite gardenia scent?

Hugs,
Poodle

Rozy EdP + Voille d'Extrait by Vero Kern for Vero Profumo 2014

February 10, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 31 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

We are coming up to the launch of the Rozy Extrait. I have been smacking my head against a wall for the last year trying to come up with something to say about the Rozys – Edp and the Voile. Verges on the impossible. If we are familiar with a fragrance before we read about it, we can then do something with what has been written. However if we do not know the perfume of which we are reading, it is much more difficult, if not impossible to know how it will smell. Hands up those who have read about something, only to try it and wonder where it all went wrong.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

The Militia Company of District II under the Command of Frans Banninck Cocq (better known albeit incorrectly as Rembrandt´s “The Night Watch”) is a stunning piece of art, and one of the most famous paintings in the world. But until you have seen it you have no idea how awe inspiring it is. It is housed in it´s own room the “Nachtwachtzaal” in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It is 363 cm x 437 cm (142.9 in x 172.0 in). You can try to describe it but the only way to be able to see the fine nuances of the painting’s complex colour palette is to go to the Rijksmuseum. The only way to smell the fine nuances in Vero Kern´s Rozys is to wear them.

Imagine that you need to describe honey to someone who has never tasted sweet.

Rozy EdP + Voille d’Extrait by Vero Kern for Vero Profumo 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Oriental rose, tuberose, currant buds and leaves, honey, spices, sandalwood, labdanum, powdery notes, tarragon, peach, passionfruit, hyacinth

Both Rozys are objects of desire, lust and adoration, stains on the skin.

The Rozy EdP is hazy, peachy, rosy, sweet, divine, innocent and yet full of desire. Warm and erotic. It melts into the skin, thus becoming as one with the wearer. Bewitching. This perfume spills its secrets only over time. My most worn .vero.profumo..

Photo Donated Val CQ

The Rozy Voile d’Extrait?

“Gather your wits and hold on fast,
Your mind must learn to roam.
Just as the Gypsy Queen must do
You´re gonna hit the road” (The Acid Queen. Pete Townsend)

Wearing this is making a pledge or a vow to hold on until the end. A cerise ocean with and honey-capped sandalwood waves. A blushing rosy pink, tangerine colored aura, as near to radio-active as a perfume can get, shockingly surreal, and yet in perfect harmony. Astounding.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

“The rose is the flower of virgins and women, but also of vice and prostitution. Thorns and roses symbolize the ambivalence of love and sorrow – the drama of finite love.” Vero Kern

How beautiful are the Rozys? How long is a piece of string?

Further re4ading: Bonkers About Perfume and Smelly Thoughts
LuckyScent has Rozy EdP $235/50ml
First In Fragrance has Rozy Voile d’Extrait €168/50ml
Surrender To Chance has Rozy EdP samples starting at $6/.5ml

The Rozy Extrait. March in Milan. My lips are sealed.

Kiss my Roses
CQ

Tiare Moana by Crystelle Darchicourt for L`Atelier Boheme 2009

February 8, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Heya Crew,

Right now we are doing a February Sample Challenge on Facebook’s Aussie Fragrance Network. It’s a very simple idea. We are trying to wear some of our never tried samples, we record our usage and give a little insight into what we wore and how it went. You have to do at least one sample a day, more if possible, and you don’t get disqualified if you just can’t help but break out a bottle. More about the fun and the using up of long owned and neglected samples, of which most of us have WAY TOO MANY! I am trying to use up my 1ml samples so I’m also going through a bunch of new mini atomisers because I believe that if it comes in a spritz bottle it should be spritzed for sampling.

I have no idea where this sample came from. It is beautifully carded and a 2ml sample vial. When researching where to buy it I only found Russian blogger reviews on the first 3 pages of Google other than Fragrantica which had only 2 loves and no reviews. Colour me intrigued…..

Tiare Moana by Crystelle Darchicourt for L`Atelier Boheme 2009

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green banana, tangerine
Heart: Tiara, coconut
Base: Patchouli, hibiscus seeds

Wikipedia says: Gardenia taitensis (also called Tahitian Gardenia or Tiaré Flower) is a species of plant in the Rubiaceae family. It is an evergreen tropical shrub…. The flower is creamy white…. and very fragrant. Native to the highland shores of the South Pacific, it has the distinction of being one of the few cultivated plants native to Polynesia. It is the national flower of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Sweet, tart and sizzling, Tiara Moana is a very juicy fruit and the opening is like biting into a mango that is so soft and juicy but you can tell that by tomorrow it will go nasty. Right now though it is heavenly, not a sugary sweetness in the modern fruitchouli experience but a sweetness with some depth and green-ness to it. It may even be green banana-ish.

Tiara, coconut and still a waft of dry greenery, like papyrus or vetiver, or maybe it is a dry, clean patchouli collide beautifully in the heart. Tiara Moana still manages to maintain it’s juiciness too and the heart is luscious and very reminiscent of a tropical island dream. Imagine if Annick Goutal’s Songes was both fruit-juicier and had a dry counterpoint, add this to the creamy texture of white flowers (without the vanilla) and you have a very good approximation of what Tiare Moana smells like.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

This is not a sensual or sexual fragrance on me. I get no fecal, blue cheese, body or breath from Tiara Moana. While being gorgeous and glorious it is pure and clean. Attractive but aloof right through the heart with only a touch of earthiness in the dry down. If this fragrance were song it would be the young sporty tenor lead in a choir, all the divine exuberance of youth unsullied.

Good longevity and having sprayed myself completely with the whole 2ml I’m saying excellent projection. In fact I’m a little scared to leave the house in case I set of fire alarms, in the next suburb. I am completely and utterly engulfed in this glorious scent and enjoying the ride immensely. This would make a splendid Wedding Fragrance for both bride & groom.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

L`Atelier Boheme has €120/50ml

From L’Atelier Boheme: A perfume duet : two cross matters, two universes…mother-of-pearl and perfume.
For its 7th perfume, L’Atelier Bohème has chosen Rivières d’Océanie as a partner, specialized in the Tahiti black Pearl and polynesian jewellery : www.rivieresoceanie.com. Rivières d’Océanie Treasure pretty dressed the flask-jewel concealing in its heart the tiara with 7 petals in mother-of-pearl and perfume

Have you tried Tiara Moana? Any of the L`Atelier Boheme line?
Portia xx

Muguet Fleuri by Oriza L. Legrand 2014

February 6, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hi there Happy Huffers,

Early in 2014 Michael B and I went and visited Hugo and Franck of Oriza L Legrand at their 18 Rue Saint-Augustin, Paris store. We had an excellent time going through their collection with them, having some laughs and I purchased some soaps and a bottle of Jardin d’Armide. The space is gorgeous and chock full of fabulous fragrant delights. Soaps, candles and fine fragrance. Did you know that Oriza L Legrand patented the idea of solid perfume?

Hugo is named as perfumer on Basenotes but I think he is a curator, overseeing the creation process. I may be wrong but that was my impression.

Muguet Fleuri by Hugo Lambert for Oriza L. Legrand 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green leaves, grass, lily-of-the-valley
Heart : Galbanum, angelica, violet leaf, lily-of-the-valley
Base: Lily-of-the-valley, oakmoss, lily

Firstly, what welcome relief, a new niche house that is affordable. Bravo to the boys that they’ve managed to recreate this beautiful old fragrance house and keep their prices down to a very reasonable level. I, and my wallet, thank you boys.

I love the wetness, the cooling and calming feeling of a Lily of the Valley fragrance, dewy and air conditioned. The opening so often feels slightly plastic to me, so perfect as to be unreal if you know what I mean? Cool and slightly mentholated, of grass I get nothing but I get the impression of squeezing the juice our of Aloe Vera plants, that soft, fresh, ultra green oiliness that smells like it could cool the world. Flore by Carolina Herrera has a very similar Lily of the Valley note but in Muguet Fleuri I find it subtle and refreshing, the angelica keeps everything soft focus green and of galbanum my skin throws it as a very background player here, a presence that helps lift and frame the Lily of the Valley.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

It’s excellent to me how they keep the focus so firmly on Lily of the Valley in Muguet Fleuri, one of my favourites in the Lily of the Valley lineup is Muguet de Bois by Coty (yes, I know it’s a shriveled, castrated, bastardised version of itself currently but I still like and wear it), I love the way that Oriza L Legrand makes the scent feel luxurious and refined while creating a thick and luscious fragrance that has a very nice silage for the first hour or so. Fairly linear througfhout its life, there are slight increments of difference and a gradual earthing of the scent towards the end.

Photo Stolen DailyMailUK

If you often, or even sometimes, wish for a fragrance as true to cut Lily of the Valley stems from the florist as possible but still interesting and beautiful then I would send you immediately to try Muguet Fleuri. It does last but only the first two hours are super fragrant, then it hums along quietly as a wash. I find Muguet Fleuri serene, calm, cool and dewy: everything you’d hope for in a fragrance about Lily of the Valley.

Further reading: The Smelly Vagabond and Kafkaesque
First In Fragrance has €90/100ml
Oriza L Legrand has a €20/7 x 2ml Sample Set (delivered worldwide)

Are you a Lily of the Valley fan? Do you have a favourite?
Portia xx

1725 Casanova by Magali Senequier and Gérald Ghislain for Histoires de Parfums 2001

February 2, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Post by TinaG

So, who is Casanova? If you follow the story in this scent, Casanova doesn’t stand out in a crowd. He’s the type of person you’d easily walk past in the street and not notice directly. But he knows himself – he is cool, calm, and confident. Dressed immaculately, the quality material of his suit and shirt shows that he has a refined taste and attention to detail. But it’s more than that. He has a subtle charisma which is alluring – once noticed. And he knows it. Catch his eye, and you’ll find a deep, challenging sparkle which you’ve taken a few steps towards involuntarily, drawn in like a house mouse to candy.

1725 Casanova by Histoires de Parfums 2001

1725 Casanova by Magali Senequier and Gérald Ghislain

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, citruses, grapefruit, licorice
Heart: Lavender, star anise
Base: Vanilla, almond, sandalwood, cedar, amber

1725 Casanova opens with lavender and multi-citrus top notes, primarily smoky bergamot and grapefruit, with a fleeting touch of amber. After 15 minutes a dark green, moist, sticky liquorice joins the lavender. The impression I get from the liquorice is that of a thick glossy black stick which has been snapped in half exposing the softer centre.

The oily fresh lavender mingles with the liquorice and lifts it up, preventing it from being too overpowering. At half an hour an almond comes through – thankfully only lasting to the hour mark before it subsides back to lavender/liquorice, and the bergamot which has lost its smokiness and become much more orange in nature.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The fragrance has an air of alcohol about it, which I can’t quite place until I realise it is just like basic aftershave. The absence of any herbaceous notes in 1725 brings a grey, austere effect to the fragrance. The effect is a smoothness of a well-cut good quality men’s suit. There is an almost transparent cedar in the background, which gives an anthropogenic slant to the scent. The cedar is refined, dead, cut and shaved into a cupboard or a set of draws in a room, almost undetectable but providing a sense of presence to the room.

I originally felt that 1725 had a longevity of around 5 hours, but I realised later that after that time the remaining skin scent sticks around for about 12 hours. This base still contains the lavender but gains vanilla. The combination of vanilla and lavender in the dry down has an oddly gourmand feel to it. So, overall, this feels like a relatively ordinary scent. But who ever said ordinary can’t be interesting? I wore this on a warm summers day, respritzed quite a few times, and the combination of lavender, bit of dust and residual oils from my skin created a clean muskiness that neither my skin nor the fragrance alone would have shown.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Casanova is the man you’ll find standing quietly at a bar, watching a group of young men acting up and playing the fool to try and get the attention of a group of young women. He doesn’t need to do anything – just smiles and watches whilst stirring the ice in his drink. Slowly, one of the women notices him, and starts watching back. And another. Who is this silent stranger? They move over to chat. Eventually, the group of guys have given up, and Casanova is still standing at the end of the bar, which is now lined with ladies all talking quietly, sipping on their own drinks, and waiting for their chance to get closer to him…

Further reading: Chemist in a Bottle and Olfactoria’s Travels
Parfum1 has $36/15ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

Have you tried 1725 Casanova by Histoires de Parfums? Is it on your list?

Tina G xx

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

5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance

January 30, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

So APJ,

It’s Friday!! What does that mean?

5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance<< JUMP

From $2.99 – $32.99 for 5ml. All heavily discounted and on sale today.

Some examples?

At $32.99 for 5ml

By Kilian Light my Fire – In the Addictive State of Mind
By Kilian Smoke for the Soul – In the Addictive State of Mind

At $18.99 for 5ml

Arquiste The Architect’s Club
Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles
Slumberhouse Vikt EDP
Tauer Perfumes L’air du Desert Marocain

At $12.99 for 5ml

Frapin Passion Boisee
Le Labo Jasmin 17
Montale Orient Extreme

At $5.99 for 5ml

i Profumi di Firenze Manto di Rugiada
La Prairie Life Threads – Gold
Maison Berdoues 1902 Eau de Cologne Premium Collection Cardamom
Molinard Vanille Patchouli

At $2.99 for 5ml

Bvlgari Blv Notte Pour Femme
Ciel Perfume FR2 – Red Pomegranate
Comptoir Sud Pacifique L’Homme
Costume National Scent

5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays at Surrender To Chance<< JUMP

So go visit my friends at Surrender To Chance and grab yourself some serious BARGAINS!!!
Portia xx

Tubereuse Criminelle by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 1999

January 28, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Post by Trésor

Have you ever in your life encountered a fragrance which so emphatically mirrors your personality to the point that it seems to capture your very essence within those precious drops of sacred aromatic dew? I feel incredibly lucky to say that I have. From start to finish, this wicked brew embodies my identity in a way which no other fragrance I’ve experienced truly has. From the incipient beryl glow to depths of the exquisite drydown, it seems to manifest “me” and coincidentally enough was the very first bottle of niche fragrance I’ve ever bought for myself (unsniffed, no less!). You already know from the title which fragrance I am speaking of, the inimitable Tubereuse Criminelle from our dear friend, Uncle Serge Lutens.

Tubereuse Criminelle by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 1999

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine, orange blossom, hyacinth, tuberose, nutmeg, clove, styrax, musk, vanilla

The opening sequence of Tubereuse Criminelle is perhaps my favourite in the entirety of perfume and also what’s come to be one of the most polarizing among the fragrance community. On my skin the inaugural fusillade is a breathtakingly intense bravura of jasmine petals which have been profoundly doused in densely mentholated gasoline. I’m often told I am rather strange for this, but I absolutely adore the smell of gasoline so this entire progression is a bit euphoric to me. I relate to this genesis so deeply because I feel her and I are so much the same in this way, just a little off the beaten path.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Upon occasion I sense the slightest hologram of orange blossom but if I am being absolutely honest with you I have never been sure if it’s actually there or if I am imagining it simply because it’s included on the list of notes. Beneath the icy petrol fumes lay a tuberose, one who’s beauty beguiles me and leaves me breathless. You can detect every facet, every single atom of her velvet white petals and the narcotic ambrosia bleeding from within. This is, in my opinion, the most beautiful realization of tuberose I have found within a fragrance and worth every ounce of praise it receives.

Photo Stolen Flickr

As the composition progresses something quite fascinating begins to happen, the tuberose seems to further and further meld with the skin but never loses the depth, splendour and unadulterated hypnotism that drew me in so close before. Around about the fifth hour on my skin I can detect just the most delicate tendrils of softly spiced vanilla rising off of my skin. The note is not confectionary in any way, shape or form but a beautifully Lutens-esque vision of a skinscent that leads the way into Tubereuse Criminelle’s final breath on the skin.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

This isn’t a fragrance that wears a terribly long time on my skin, about 5-6 hours, usually and the sillage is quite moderate. Though not incredibly long, the journey is magnificent and I wouldn’t trade a second of it for the world. From the initial glacial zephyr which greets you to her intimate swan song, Tubereuse Criminelle remains a study in the paradoxical nature that defines the very best of the offerings from the house of Serge Lutens.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Australian Perfume Junkies
MeccaCosmetica has $166/50ml (in Australia)
Serge Lutens had €166/75ml
My Perfume Samples start at $3.50/ml up to $10.50/5ml

Have you fallen under the Tubereuse Criminelle spell?
Trésor x

Sâdanne by Josh Lobb for Slumberhouse 2014

January 27, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

Hi APJ,

Anne Boleyn had a strawberry birthmark on her neck. Seemingly proof that she was a witch. I doubt that this inspired Josh Lobb´s most recent fragrance Sådanne. Seriously, you gotta be on drugs to wanna smell like a strawberry. But who´s to say that´s a bad thing?

Sâdanne by Josh Lobb for Slumberhouse 2014

Electric Kool-Aid, Strawberries and Barbie Dolls

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica Gives these featured accords in one line”
Strawberries, ambergris, resins, rose, white wine, woods

This is a big time strawberry, on a musky, resiny base. Once sprayed there is no turning back. I wonder if The Merry Pranksters drank this? Psychedelic strawberries. Synthetic but who cares? It kicks in lavishly with a hot pink neon flash. Memories of sniffing new Barbie Dolls. It is astonishing and the next 12 hours will be in a cerise haze and you might well be all the better for it.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Josh Lobb gives no notes for this so who knows? The strawberry is a member of the rose family and there is a suggestion of rose in Sådanne. Have you ever eaten an alpine strawberry? They are very tiny, very sweet and taste first of rose and then strawberry – quite different to your normal strawberry. Ambrosial describes both the strawberries and Sådanne. The strawberry notes remain throughout, but further into Sådanne a deeper, dirtier vibe turns up. Musks and ambergris rumour has it. The stroboscopic-strawberry effect calms down and it becomes more relaxed. You have survived.

From IndieScents: The newest fragrance from Slumberhouse’s Josh Lobb, Sådanne is a departure from Slumberhouse’s previous offerings. Sådanne opens as a carmelized, fruity rose. Hints of booze, woods and ambergris emerge as the fragrance develops on the skin. Lobb takes a poetic view of the fragrance, describing it as:
“Stained glass syrup
Serenades in damascone minor
Allegory obscured / pastel wound
A slurry of subtlety”

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

For those times when you want to smell like a sensuous and voluptuous and slightly carnal strawberry – and one day you will – then look no further than Josh Lobb´s heroic Sådanne.

“Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.” Dr. William Butler, 17th Century English writer.

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Scent for Thought
IndieScents has $160/30ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $8/.5ml

Are you a Slumberhouse fan? Will you be trying this one?

Strawberry Bussis Forever

Khôl de Bahreïn by Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 2013

January 25, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey Heyy Niche Nerds,

So you may be familiar with the brand names Nez a Nez or So Oud? Here is the man who created some of those fragrances. The scentbloggosphere has been quite slow to catch onto this house but my mate Sandra from Olfactoria’s Travels put me onto them earlier in the year and I went straight to Ruth at FFF (Facebook Fragrance Friends) and grabbed some of her splits. This was quite a while ago and I’m only now fully getting to the bag she sent, time has been a very scarce commodity around here lately…….

Khôl de Bahreïn by Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Violet, sweet notes, resins
Heart: Iris, sandalwood, ambergris
Base: Peru balsam, musk

Khol has long been used through Asia, Africa and the Middle East on children to strengthen their eyes and ward off the evil eye, it was also thought to help kill bacteria from flies and other insects. The lead in khol has been noted as high as 84% and the authorities are trying to regulate it better to make it safer. Khol can be seen around the eyes of many adult women through all the regions and is particularly spectacular when worn with headgear that leaves only the eyes uncovered, framing glorious eyes with black really makes them pop and gives added nuance to every movement of them.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

MMMMMMMM the opening after I spritz reveals a warm, sweet and engulfing mix of resins, I am surprised that there is no vanilla listed because I get a very bakery themed gush. You know when a fragrance makes you feel safe, loved and hugged from the outset? Here it is. This is the most comfortable comfort scent. Khôl de Bahreïn is what teddy bears should smell like, and fresh washed duvets. Resins, cream, wood that all meld together to smell the way a perfectly polished piece of amber that has warmed in the sun or on your skin feels against your face.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Dense but surprisingly light, and simple but not boring Khôl de Bahreïn reminds me in mood of two of my favourite amber fragrances, Ambre Ceruleen by Huitieme Art and Dries van Noten by Malle. Here we have a scent that hits and triggers every one of my safe, loved and happy buttons. So vanilla it’s almost a hot chocolate, that kind of warming right through feeling and experience. There is a very slight animalic and furry note that creeps in through the heart: it has my eyes rolling in the back of my head as I compulsively sniff myself. Khôl de Bahreïn, where have you been all my life?

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Thank Sandra for this particular lemming, though I think we must have talked of it because I can’t see a review. Now that I’ve tested it Sandra, even in the high heat of Sydney’s summer Khôl de Bahreïn wears a winner for me. Damnit! I thought I’d finished my amber search and had enough……..

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon
LuckyScent has $220/50ml and samples
First In Fragrance has €148/50ml and samples

Have you heard of this brand? Is it on your radar? Will you be trying Khôl de Bahreïn?

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