Heya APJ!

By now we are all in the USA! Hopefully we will get to see some of you at these great events.

I have some amazingly fabulous news. Jin, Kath and I will be coming to the grand old USA in November. I had such an incredible time at the LA ScentSation Bus Tour last year that I wanted to bring the two most important people in the world to me, to meet YOU! Yes, you read right, we will be doing a MeetUp in THREE USA cities.

Jin & I at Kings Canyon in Australia, photo taken & donated by Kath

A word of warning. There will be no drag this year. You will be meeting Dude Portia. Not as brightly dressed but just as loud, naughty, proud and sensational.

MeetUp USA November 2014

There will be loads of great stuff to sniff, we’ll get to mingle in the rarefied ambience of like minded people and indulge our often secret passion. It’s nice to be able to talk about your fragrant wardrobe without people rolling their eyes, smirking and looking at you oddly. It is also nice when people don’t gasp when they hear the price of your scent of the day. Yes, we fumies need moments of togetherness to remind ourselves that we are frag hags, not freaks.

I know you can’t WAIT to find out where we’ll be and when so here is a little breakdown of out journeys fragrant MeetUp events!

SCENT BAR L.A.

Wednesday NOVEMBER 19 2014

Killian Hennessy

MeetUp 5-7pm

I have just had a email from my LA husband Steven Gontarski (soon to be Turbo) and another few from co-owner of Scent Bar Franco Wright. We don’t have a firm date yet but it will be Monday 17, Tuesday 18 or Wednesday 19 November. As soon as I know I’ll make another post. You’ll see below that there is someone VERY special coming and we are hoping to do both on the same day!!!

The Scent Bar crew will be putting on some champagne and snacks and of course their usual good humour for our MeetUp. If I know the guys, and I do, there will be plenty of amazing and informative discourse too. Tom Pease from Perfume Posse will be in the crew on the day, he is such good fun and has an excellent nose so it will be grand to hang with him too. So if you love fragrance but don’t really know anything (like me) it’s a great way to expand your knowledge, or if you know HEAPS drop in and help educate us.

Steven, Tom and I will be picking two of our favourite winter scents and all of us will get to smell, critique and live our personal stories of these frags. Then hopefully you will tell us what you think of them too. (Unless the special guest BELOW is there, then it will be all about him)

More than anything though this is a fun get together where we can get to see you all in real life, have a laugh and smell some beautiful scents together.

There will also be an incredibly special guest at the Scent Bar during the same week: Killian Hennessy the founder of the by Killian line of fragrances and grandson of the founder of Hennessy Cognac. We will be treated to a meet and greet and he will gladly autograph your by Killian purchases too.

BARNEYS + NEIMAN MARCUS CHICAGO

Monday NOVEMBER 24 2014

MeetUp 1.30pm Barneys (Beauty Downstairs)

Woo Hoo! Here we meet up with Musette on her BIRTHDAY! Yes, it’s a Posse MeetUp for Musette’s Birthday. We will be doing mainstream niche at Barneys (1.30pm meet), onwards for some designer fragrance at Neiman Marcus (3.30pm-ish) and then all going for a lazy ole Birthday cocktail and some nibbles nearby (5.30pm-ish).

Musette and I will pick some winter fragrances for us all to try and discuss together. Chicago will not be as structured as the other cities but we will be able to do some fragrance testing, chat with like minded perfumistas, have some laughs and generally get out of the daily grind and into some fabulous fumes.

Did I mention it was MUSETTE’s BIRTHDAY!!!

OSSWALD N.Y.C

Saturday NOVEMBER 29 2014

MeetUp 2-4pm

Josie Plumey and I have been ping ponging emails. I have a crush on her, so freaking beautiful and I think she may have a very sharp sense of humour, dry and sharp.

Josie, Clement Pinard and I will pick a couple of our favourite Winter Fragrances and we can all chat about feelings they inspire, progression, their relative merits or otherwise. I think it will be a fun time with frag heads chatting scent. Nothing grandiose or pushy, just a fun afternoon talking and sniffing. Maybe expending or sharing your knowledge. I’d love to hear your thoughts on a few of my faves, even if you HATE them.

A little extra surprise: Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels will be coming along to Osswald for the event too.

TWISTED LILY BROOKLYN NYC

Sunday NOVEMBER 30 2014

MeetUp 11am-1pm

Thanks to Carlos J Powell who is NYCs leading Goodsmella we are also going to drop in at Twisted Lily, which is affiliated with Parfum1. Carlos and I will be picking a couple of winter favourites and doing LIVE Video Sniffs. It should be a complete HOOT!

There’s a reason I wanted to go to this store and Carlos greased the wheels.

Last year for our Anniversary the only thing that Jin had shown any interest in at all during our shopping forays was Mona di Orio’s Oud. Yes, he has good taste. So I went shopping. I received an email from Stamatis Birsimijoglou apologising that they were out of stock but that I would get the Oud as soon as it came in. OMFG! DRAMA! So I wrote explaining that I needed it in time for the anniversary and that I would look elsewhere.

 

Could I find it? HELL NOOOOOO. Stamatis wrote me back though informing me that he had run a bottle to ground and that it would be shipping soon if I still wanted it. He even gave me a loyalty discount and it arrived in time. So, I really wanted to meet the crew and say thank you in person.

COME MeetUp WITH US PLEASE

SO! Where will we see you? Please come and hang out with us if you’re in or near a city we are visiting.
Portia xxx

Easy Itinerary

SCENT BAR LA Wednesday NOVEMBER 19 2014 with Killian Hennessy MeetUp 5-7pm

BARNEYS + NEIMAN MARCUS CHICAGO Monday NOVEMBER 24 2014 MeetUp Barneys (Beauty Downstairs) 1.30pm

OSSWALD N.Y.C Saturday NOVEMBER 29 2014 MeetUp 2-4pm

TWISTED LILY BROOKLYN NYC Sunday November 30 2014 MeetUp 11am-1pm