Niche

Fire Amber Baby by Jocelyn Fullerton for Cult Of Scent

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Post by Portia

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Heya Perfume Peeps,

One of the most gorgeous things about living in Sydney is the frag culture. We are not a huge section but we are all quite friendly and try to get together sometimes to sniff and laugh. Have you noticed that most perfume people are fun & gregarious and also it feels like most of us have known hard times but prefer to rise above them with humour & scent? I also love that we can do our connecting over the internet with the whole world at different times, perfect for anyone with sleep problems, new pets or young children. No one can judge your track suit or lack of clothing when you’re online at midnight in your time zone catching a breather from whatever has you up.

One of the women I really love to spend time with is Jocelyn Fullerton

Fire Amber Baby by Cult Of Scent

Fire Amber Baby by Jocelyn Fullerton

fire-amber-baby-by-cult-of-scent-picCult of Scent

Cult of Scent give these featured accords:
Amber, Labdanum, Incense resins

Thick, toffee, animal, vanilla, warmth like smoky fireside, fatty, deep, smooth, scratchy dry heat, beeswax, tree sap sweet like maple syrup.

Wearing Fire Amber Baby on a warm spring evening and it is blossoming like something from another era, another mindset, another culture. If thick, rich and luscious amber fragrances get your heart pounding then this will send you into fibrillation. A raw and sensual fragrance that is so different from the multitude of ambers I know & love. Crunchy and crackling like honeycomb doped into patchouli toffee and rolled in the vegetal animal grown of labdanum.

If you’ve ever looked through an amber brooch, one of the larger ones with bubbles and imperfections through it, at the sun then you may just know what the smell of Fire Amber Baby smells like.

fire-amber-baby-by-cult-of-scent-jacekabramowiczPDI

At once commanding and comforting the sheer range of nuance that I am noticing tonight in the warmth that I’ve never noticed wearing it in the cool. Yes, it’s still big and intricate in the cool but heat seems to make it jump and sparkle brilliantly.

A statement fragrance if ever there was one. Confidence and comfort radiate, maybe you would need to spritz the air and walk through the mist if wearing to work. Perfect for galleries, outdoors, club life and romance, though I would definitely wait an hour before going to dinner or a movie. It has real red dress, red carpet chutzpah.

fire-amber-baby-by-cult-of-scent-jennifer_lawrence_at_the_83rd_academy_awards-wikimediaWikiMedia

Further reading: Perfumes I Love
Cult of Scent has Fire Amber Baby from $37/8ml
Cult of Scent also have a 6 x Sample Set for only $40

What is your amber fragrance?
Portia xx

Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection Review

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Post by Portia 

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Hey there Niche Nerds,

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the lavish Australian launch of Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection here in Sydney at the Centennial hotel, very Ra Cha Cha! A small group of us were led through the outlandish fictitious stories of this new collection by Michael from Libertine Parfumerie and got to smell the fragrances together and discuss their notes, design and remarkable lids. High tea in a very English from the movies style room, it was a great scene setter organised by Alice and crew at ÉLYSÉE COLLECTIVE.

img_7665Ainslie Walker, Portia, Catherine de Peloux Menage (Yay! The APJ Squad)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis one donated by Ainslie Walker. Thanks doll, love it!

img_7666

img_7669Michael from Libertine Parfumerie

This is an expensive Penhaligon’s offering AUD$369 for 75ml. Puig, who recently bought Penhaligon’s and L’Artisan, seems to be making a statement about their new direction with the brand. Luxury is the new order and these lids made of brass are heavy and interesting, though I would very much like it if they offered a choice of with or without. There are only a few sets being released in Australia and apparently worldwide it is very limited production. Love a bit of exclusivity in my scent. So, about the perfumes….

Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection Review

tragedy-of-lord-george-penhaligons-fragranticaFragrantica

The Tragedy of Lord George by Penhaligon`s

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Brandy, woodsy notes, tonka bean, amber

Very popular among the people yesterday, a softly sweet masculine that reminded me of a Guerlain. I think it’s the boozy tonks mix that was so reminiscent. Smelled great, ultimately unisex.

revenge-of-lady-blanche-penhaligons-fragranticaFragrantica

The Revenge Of Lady Blanche by Penhaligon`s

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Narcissus, iris flower, hyacinth

This is my favourite. Opens with a distinctive 1970s or earlier green floral chypre vibe. Sadly it was all top and heart and had basically disappeared an hour later so that even my BFF Kath couldn’t smell it at lunch an hour later. Totally bummed because I thought it was going to make a wonderful replacement for when I run dry of Niki de Saint Phalle. I really want to wear it again a few times to get to know it.

coveted-duchess-rose-penhaligons-fragranticaFragrantica

The Coveted Duchess Rose by Penhaligon`s

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Mandarin orange, rose, musk, woody notes

Personally I think this will be the best seller of the line. It feels expensive and wearable. Not ground breaking or outrageous but it does feel like a quality fragrance, not following the super sweet crowd and being a cut above most of the department store mass-tige offerings.

much-ado-about-the-duke-penhaligons-fragranticaFragrantica

Much Ado About The Duke by Penhaligon`s

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Rose, leather, gin, pepper, woody notes

Love it when the rose fragrances are made for the men. I think this will find a lot of love from the men who wear Amouage Lyric Man. It’s different enough to be in the same collection. Here rose is made drier and cracklier with the leather and pepper. I like it a lot and if it was $200 I would be buying it for Jin for Christmas.

 

giveaway kbaird

Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Penhaligon’s Portraits Collection Manufacturers Sample Set
(including all 4 fragrances in atomisers)
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.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell us which of the four you’d like to try

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 19th November 2016 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 24th November 2016 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

Sex and the Sea by + for Francesca Bianchi 2016

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Post by Claire Vukcevic

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Hello lovely-smelling APJ people!

I’m supposed to be writing an article on ambergris for Basenotes, but instead of finishing up, I keep ordering more samples of stuff I hear has ambergris in it, and so we are already at 6,000 words and counting….But I can’t help myself – I am simply fascinated with ambergris and how different perfumers choose to work with it (or a synthetic replacement).

Sex and the Sea by + for Francesca Bianchi 2016

sex-and-the-sea-francesca-bianchi-fragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Mimosa, pineapple, coconut, immortelle, rose, iris, sandalwood, myrrh, labdanum, benzoin, ambergris, civet, vanilla

Francesca Bianchi’s Sex and the Sea is a good example of how perfumers can take a material you think you know and find a completely new angle on it. Here, Francesca takes all the usual markers of tropicana (pineapple, coconut, lactones) and twists them into something far less comfortable than the creamy, sweet sun-tan oil smell we expect to smell.

Using a dry, urinous ambergris material (Cetalox, a synthetic replacement for ambergris), the fragrance drags the pineapple through salty sea water until it dries up into a weathered old fruit leather.

Imagine a pile of dried, salted pineapple mixed in with discarded coconut husks and ancient sea tackle, ropes, and flotsam washed up on the shore of an island somewhere. The heap of materials is dry and crusted over with salt, and if you get close enough you will notice a searing smell of old seagull piss, dry and ureic – not honeyed and wet.

sex-and-the-sea-20Francesca Bianchi

Underneath this dry, acid-toned salt-and-fruit-leather tangle, there is a queasily warm mix of milky lactones, fruit, and salt that comes off a little metallic and iodine-like. I’ve never smelled Secretions Magnifiques – not even by accident – but based on what I’ve read, I’d venture a guess to say that they are at least thematically related. Later on, there is a warm, unwashed body funk to this that is appealing.

Early reviews on Fragrantica are rhapsodic, with most pegging it to be a sexy or sensual fragrance. But I think that Sex and the Sea, while a very interesting way to use ambergris and pineapple, is not that easy or pleasant to wear. It contains a similar idea to Slumberhouse’s Sadanne, that is, a schmear of bright fruit over a layer of ambergris marine filth and bilge, but whereas Sadanne is sparkling and sweet, in Sex and the Sea, the result is far too urinous and tinder-dry to be a comfortable wear.

Longevity is everlasting. I would be surprised if cetalox ever truly dies on the skin or just eventually get scrubbed off. The kind of person I see enjoying this would be a fan of challenging perfumes that do animalic/sexy in a metallic, harsh, salty way.

sex-and-the-sea-13Francesca Bianchi

Hats off to Francesca Bianchi, though. She is certainly not playing it safe. Instead, she hands us a pile of salt-encrusted sea tackle and says, here, this is my idea of sex on the beach. It’s as far from the Eau des Merveilles take on ambergris as you can get, but, in my opinion, all takes on this fascinating material are welcome.

Further reading: Pierre de Nishapur
ParfuMaria has €98/30ml

What ambergris perfumes have you guys tried and liked?

Slán libh!

Claire

 

Claire also writes for Take One Thing Off

Sballo Oil by + for Bruno Acampora 2012

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Post by Portia

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Heya Niche Nerds,

Today I’m looking at the largely ignored piece of the Bruno Acampora line. It’s like no one even noticed it after the success of Blu & Musc. So I never bothered to even try it even though I had a sample here the whole time. Sometimes things have to happen in their own time.

Sballo Oil by + for Bruno Acampora 2012

sballo-bruno-acampora-luckyscentLuckyScent

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Rose, geranium, violet, orange blossom, musk, resins, sandalwood, vetiver, hay, sage

You know I like green right? Here is a green both stark and comfortable. Hay, green grass just mown, dank water, willow leaves trailing in a sluggish stream. Cool shade found under a burning summer sun but the shade is full of ominous shadows.

As Sballo wears it becomes less ferociously green and lightens up, still full of dark the sun is creeping in . Funny thing about the light, the brighter it is the more marked the contrast that is shadow. While Sballo does brighten it never looses it dark underpinnings. Vegetal, humus rich soil so full of life smells like this after a light rain if you dig through the mulch to get to it.

sballo-oil-by-for-bruno-acamporawood-nature-sunny-forest-pexelsPDI

I think vetiver takes charge, dry grass, slightly oily vetiver. Useful in so many situations including leaching running water of toxins in you leave the roots dangling exposed across the river and grow it on the banks. It’s being used in poorer countries to clean up waterways that they though beyond repair.

An hour in and Sballo is a cuddly dry green and softly warming resins, is it galbanum and frankincense. This soft focus woody, creamy green in dry down is my favourite part of a lovely scent. I can’t help wondering now what the EdT is like……

Who could wear Sballo? Someone who wants to be, or give the impression of being, connected with Mother Earth. Someone who needs grounding or strength. I think you need to be slightly unconventional in modern day terms and unafraid to be what you are in front of others.

sballo-oil-by-for-bruno-acampora-mother_earth_by_mariana_ayala_bautista_-wikimediaWikiMedia

Further reading: Non Blonde
LuckyScent has $200/10ml + Samples

could this one be for you?
Portia xx

 

Infini EdT by Gerard Lefortis for Caron 1970

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Post by Portia

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Hey Fumies,

Recently I found a bottle of Infini on someone’s Sale Doc in one of the FaceBook perfume forums. It was a good price and because I love the parfum so much I thought it a good time to grab the EdT as well. It arrived the other day. WOO HOO!

Infini EdT by Caron 1970

Infini EdT by Gerard Lefortis

Infini Caron FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine, narcissus, lily of the valley, aldehydes
Heart: Rose, tuberose, lilac, iris
Base: Vetiver, musk, sandalwood, tonka bean, amber

I keep returning to Caron Infini, it’s so easy to wear and though it’s a big sensational powerhouse I never feel like I’m skunking a room in it. The EdT has a bit more throw, a lot more sparkle and feels like a light hearted person of the parfum. Less burnished, less intense but with a more gregarious personality. If Infini Parfum is Helen Lawson from Valley Of The dolls then Infini EdT is Gidget.

infini-edt-by-caron-sally_field_as_gidget-wikipediaWikiMedia

Shrieking narcissus, sparkling and fizzy, tempered by cool lily of the valley. Then infinite becomes a bouquet that is impossible for me to pick out the floral notes. A sweet white floral with noodles of backing ingredients creating a lavish silk sari with beautiful mirror work that sparkles and gives lift.

The heart stays around for ages and its all gorgeous creamy flowers till you realise that underneath the bouquet the amber and sandalwood have been creeping in and unbeknownst to you the are taking over the whole fragrance as we head towards dry down. Much less animal than the Parfum Infini EdT is a friendly and engaging younger sister. I love to wear them together so the deep burnished depths float under the scintillating fun of EdT.

infini-edt-by-caron-summer-still-life-pixabayPDI

Further reading: Yesterday’s Perfume and The Non-Blonde
The Perfumed Court has EdP samples starting at $3.50/ml

Have you tried Infini?
Portia xx

Holiday Perfume Packing Oct 2016

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Post by Portia

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Hello Fumies,

The eternal holiday question; What Perfumes Should I Take? Every year I try and get myself to pick the perfect scents. You know, weather appropriate, walking, shopping, dinner, drinks, casual, dressy, cool, hot. It’s a very fine line we perfumistas walk and to try and have the right frag for the right time is a really fun experiment in scent.

Obviously if you choose wrong it’s not going to negatively impact your holiday but the sweet feeling of scenting success can definitely add a pleasurable lustre to already fantastic adventures.

Holiday Perfume Packing

Japan & South Korea Oct 2016

So our destinations for this very special Jin & Portia 5 year anniversary jaunt are Tokyo 3 nights and South Korea for 5 nights (I think). We got an insanely good deal to fly with Korean Airlines that takes us to Japan via South Korea for less than it costs to go to South Korea directly. We decided to use the money we save on the fare to stay for a few nights in Tokyo where Jin has never been. AWESOME!

skyscrapers_of_shinjuku-mount-fuji-wikipediaWikipedia

Then we are off to South Korea to see Jin’s parents. His Dad has had some heart problems over the years so Jin likes to make sure everything is OK every year. Something that really impresses me about Jin is that he sends some money home to his parents every month, so does his brother from Slovakia where he works in the car manufacturing industry. It has completely changed their parents life from poor working class to comfortable land and home owners.

South Korea 2015 #37

We are also going to steal Mum & Dad away for a night in a fancy hotel somewhere. Last year we took them to a 5 star spa hotel for the first time in their lives and there was a wildflower garden and bonsai place that Mum had long wanted to visit nearby. They would only let us take them for one night but it was really fun to spend that time with them. It got to the point though that we had to take menus and stuff away from them because they were getting upset by how much everything cost. Even though they have almost no English and I zero Korean we manage to communicate and Jin does double time as interpreter as well.

Anyway, on to fragrant choices. Here are my list:

ambre-narguile-hermes-fragranticaFragrantica

Ambre Narguilé by Hermès 15ml Travel: Warm & crunchy amber.

eau-des-merveilles-hermes-fragranticaFragrantica

Eau des Merveilles by Hermès Rollerball Decant: An easy wear, softly salted, resinous wood.

niki-de-saint-phalle-niki-de-saint-phalle-fragranticaFragrantica

Niki de Saint Phalle 10ml Travel: Comfortable floral green chypre.

oe-bogue-parfumoParfumo

O/E by Bogue Profumo Decant: Freaky citrus and skank drilled over woods, resins and tobacco.

salome-papillon-artisan-perfumes-fragranticaFragrantica

Salome by Papillon Artisan Perfumes Decant: Naughty animalic leather chypre.

neela-vermeire-creations TrayeeFragrantica

Trayee by Neela Vermeire Creations 8ml Travel: I feel that this spicy floral incense will fit the bill this holiday

chanel-n22-chanel-fragranticaFragrantica

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdT Decant: ALL the aldehydes and a bunch of creamy white flowers with a tropical lilt.

By the time you read this we are already in South Korea, probably getting ready to come home.

Are you going on holidays this year or next? Where to? What fragrances would you take?
Portia xxx

 

Celadon: A Velvet Green by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2007

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Post by Portia

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Hey Hey APJ,

It’s no secret that my favourite colour is green and for Dawn to have chosen Celadon, a colour I’ve always associated with the inside of our family home through the 1990s, seemed so coincidental that I was immediately drawn to it. Here’s an edited version of the sites take on The Chroma Collection: Created through a synesthetic approach, this series explores distinct “artist colors” (color pigments or paint that an artist would buy for their work) and a rather obscure textile color (that was all the rage with the 17th Century Paris – Versailles crowd). The CHROMA Collection was a top 5 Finalist for the 2015 Sadakichi (Experimental Use of Scent) Award given by the Institute for Art and Olfaction.

Celadon: A Velvet Green by DSH Perfumes 2007

Celadon: A Velvet Green by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

The Chroma Collection

celadon-a-velvet-green-dsh-perfumesDSH Perfumes

DSH Perfumes gives these featured accords:
Balsam Fir, Clover Leaf, Cucumber, Green Grass, Hay Absolute, Liatrix, Lime Peel, Narcissus Absolute, Orris, Orris Root, Tonka Bean, Violet Leaf Absolute

A soft focus green fragrance that is refreshing, smooth as the pale green pottery it’s named for, delicious as freshly laundered sheets and as comfortable as your favourite hoodie/jumper. A barely there whisper of spring that sings around you as ethereal as air, yet you are quite fragrant. I also smell some very low level ripe humanity down the back end of Celadon and I’m not sure where it comes from, maybe the Liatrix whose scent profile is said to run like tobacco, hay, coumarin and the narcissus absolute?

Dawn has a way with green fragrances, she works from Celadon which feels like the smoothest, lightest touch of green, like cutting hydrangea heads for the house to Giverny In Bloom which basically blasts the back of your head off with florists air-conditioned fridges.

Celadon is prim, elegant and refined. Imagine arriving at CHANEL No 19 after the top notes have burned off but before the oakmoss dry down appears.

celadon-a-velvet-green-by-dsh-perfumes-gres_chinois_guimet-wikipediaWikiMedia

 

From Wikipedia: Celadon is a term for ceramics denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware (the term specialists tend to use) and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains.

Further reading: Colognoisseur and Fragrant Journey
DSH Perfumes starts at $6

Could you imagine yourself in the softest Eau de Nil green fragrance?
Portia xxx

Maria Candida Gentile: Flight of the Bumblebee Series 2014

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Post by Portia

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Hello Niche Nerds,

One of the names that is revered yet rarely spoken of on blogs or FaceBook is Maria Candida Gentile. Whenever I post her soft focus incense and woods creation Exultat as my SOTD it gets a round of applause and people always note how much they love her work and then it’s back to radio silence. Sideris is the crowd pleaser that is most often referred to and though I’ve had these decants here for a while they had become lost in the crowd. During a week of Shop My Samples recently, where I tried to use up or rediscover unloved samples & decants, they popped into my hand and I card spritzed the three of them. They seem like they need a closer look, you can have a first on skin experience with me today, come on….

Maria Candida Gentile

Flight of the Bumblebee Series 2014

Kitrea Maria Candida Gentile FragranticaFragrantica

Kitrea by Maria Candida Gentile

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Honey, lemon and bergamot
Heart: Fruity notes
Base: Amber, beeswax

Cool citrus, sparkling and bittersweet. Like home made lemonade. Kitrea even has that sticky feeling you get on a hot afternoon when you’ve drunk too much fizzy. Imagine if a Guerlain Aqua Allegoria had a backbone and thorns, that’s how Kitrea wears for me. It smells grapefruit-esque and a tiny little but pissy but with a warm, calming, grounding base of animalic amber. This is by far the most Idie smelling of the three.

Leucò Maria Candida Gentile FragranticaFragrantica

Leccò by Maria Candida Gentile

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Honey, labdanum
Heart: Lily, tuberose
Base: Siam benzoin, pepper, beeswax

Leccò opens a little hair spray and greenery, it’s weird, awkward, like the notes are attacking each other and don’t quite want to be in the same fragrance. I think it’s the lily against the pepper . Interestingly after about 2 minutes it segues into a dreamy, smooth, plush fragrance, quite retro feeling but done with sharp modernity. The feeling is like walking through a large, well manicured garden in the drizzling rain but you are rugged up cozy and warm. Funnily I am reminded of tomato leaves and compost with this creamy underlay. Intriguing but weird.

Syconium Maria Candida Gentile fragranticaFragrantica

Syconium by Maria Candida Gentile

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Honey, milk
Heart: Fig
Base: Sandalwood, beeswax

Honey and milk open as resinous woods, if you told me this was frankincense or labdanum I’d agree. Not the sweet or feral honey that niche often presents Syconium is sweet warm honey milk before bed. Restful, comforting and calming, the fruit comes across as a little sugared porridge. Totally wearable, unchallenging and it smells great.  After a while Syconium becomes a sheer skin scent, like a layer of gossamer glamour over my own scent. Very nice.

From Maria Candida Gentile site: In the music piece “Flight of the bumblebee” by Nikolaj Andreevic Rimskij-Korsakov the main character is magically transformed into an insect in order to reach, unseen, his father the king and declare that the news of his death were not true. It is a flight that expresses the desire to live and opens the door to hope for a brighter future. This collection of three new perfumes takes its name from that flight and shows the bumblebee as a bearer of a message.

Further reading: Colognoisseur
Maria Candida Gentile has €32/15ml or €14/7ml

Do any of these read tempting to you? Do you like any of Maria Candida Gentile’s work?
Portia xx

 

Fêtes Persanes by Cecile Zarokian for MDCI Parfums 2016

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Post by Sandra

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Hey there fellow perfume lovers! Hope ya’ll are doing well.

The pea soup has arrived in Vienna, as it does every year, end of October. The mornings are dark and lately have become murky. My son’s bedroom window overlooks the cathedral steeple and every morning we open up the blinds to see if the steeple is shrouded in thick undulating fog. It is either the pea soup or David Copperfield has managed to sneak into Vienna over night and make the St. Stephen’s cathedral disappear as a Halloween magic trick!

sandra-fetes-persanes-by-mdci-parfums-xmas-vienna-2016-1

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sandra-fetes-persanes-by-mdci-parfums-xmas-vienna-2016-5

 

But with all of this looming grey comes the start of my favourite season in Vienna. Namely Christmas! The city goes whole hog and decorates the streets, shop windows, grocery stores with dazzling lights and brightly coloured ornaments. It takes them several weeks to set up which is great for building up the anticipation.

This year I have found a wonderful perfume to accompany me during this transitional phase in the city.

Fêtes Persanes by MDCI Parfums 2016

Fêtes Persanes by Cecile Zarokian

fetes-persanes-mdci-parfums-fragranticaFragrantica

Fragranticagives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, black pepper
Heart: Rose, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves
Base: Guaiac wood, vanilla, cedar, patchouli

This is a beautiful spicy oriental fragrance that smolders quietly for hours shifting ever so slightly so that the embers can finally die down leaving me warm and cozy.

The perfume starts out quite spicy with a large dose of black pepper and a hint of the spices that are to come. The pepper is thankfully not abrasive or sharp nor sneeze inducing. After spending the summer with family members who are pepper aficionados (seriously – they import pepper corns from all corners of the world – and yes, they do all taste different), I really appreciate the way that Cecile Zarokian has incorporated pepper throughout the entire development of the perfume.

There is a sprinkling of cardamom and cinnamon – but not too much. It never veers into the gourmand territory of a sweet fragrance. The spices bring to mind a celebration where family members gather around together to feast and catch up.

sandra-fetes-persanes-by-mdci-parfums-xmas-vienna-2016-4

Several hours in the rose is making a debut with just a few tendrils reaching my nose. But with it comes the guaiac wood, cedar and patchouli. Truthfully I do not detect much vanilla but perhaps my skin is just amplifying the woods. The drydown is my favourite part of Fêtes Persanes with the woody notes really whispering and teasing all of my senses. I would love to sit down in a room full of lit candles, surrounded by my family and friends basking in the glow of a big celebration.
sandra-fetes-persanes-by-mdci-parfums-xmas-vienna-2016-3

Further reading: Now Smell This and Colognoisseur
LuckyScent has $250/75ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $6/0.5ml

Please give this a try – MDCI Parfums have a marvelous selection of perfumes offering something for all tastes.

Do you have a favourite pre-holiday season perfume?

Let me leave you with some images of fog and grey and holiday décor set up.

Sandra xoxo

(Ed: Photos donated by Sandra unless specified. thank you princess, they’re lovely)

Pure eVe by Celine Ellena for The Different Company 2011

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Post by Robert Herrmann

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Hi there Fragrant Friends.

This week I’ve been wearing the hell out of a light-as-air almond powdery beauty that is what I imagine angels must smell like….

Pure eVe by The Different Company 2011

Pure eVe by Celine Ellena

pure-eve-the-different-company-fragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes
Middle: Flax, mimosa, white rose
Base: Cedar, musk, candied almond, sweet notes, dried fruits: TDC gives: Calisson (A French cookie made of candied almond, sweet notes and dried fruits)

When I was a kid growing up, one thing that always enchanted and mystified me were my Mom’s four silk scarves from Hermés. Often redolent with leftover traces of Joy or Maja edp, these not-to-be-touched-by-small-hands towel sized (to tiny me) pieces of fabric heaven were as light as a cloud, yet felt like pure magic, smooth and silky, softer than anything else in my child-sized world. When my mom would let me handle them, it was always a wondrous and very special moment. When she passed away twenty years ago, these silk scarves were the very first thing I put in my suitcase to take home. They are with me still.

Originally released as Pure Virgin and subsequently renamed as Pure EvE, wearing it is soft and sheer, a skin scent meant for you alone. The perfect wear-it-to-bed scent (especially when married to a perfume allergic sneeze-fest, as I am). Ironically mimosa, which is so prevalent in the dry-down is also know as “shabkhosb” in contemporary Persian which translates to “night sleeper” alluding to the flowers that close up at night.

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And given that the nose behind it is Celine Ellena, that makes it pretty much a slam-dunk for me, as I love her father’s (Jean-Claude) work. Sheer and breezy olfactory watercolors clearly run in the family….

Opening with the champagne-like sparkle of the aldehydes, this gorgeous unisex edt brings to mind soft freshly laundered sheets drying in the sun and gently waving in a soft summer’s breeze. The flax bring an earthy base to the scent all the while supporting the gorgeous floralp notes. The scent of the Calisson provides the cookie-like almond and sweet notes, and the musk wraps it all up in a pure white dare I say virginal, cashmere blanket.

This is a perfect scent to wear all year long for work or play. In the cooler months, you will be a walking tray of cloud-like soft Chantilly Creme and when the warmer months roll around you’ll smell positively as fresh as a laundered crisp white shirt.

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Further reading: Now Smell This and Daly Beauty
The Different Company has €95/50ml
LuckyScent has $135/50ml + Samples

Have you tried Pure eVe? Are there other “fresh” powdery scents that you absolutely love??
RHX