PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Parfumerie Generale

July 4, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Hey all you lovely Perfumistas,

Recently my mate Sandra in Vienna was having a clear out and she sent me the list. There were some frags not currently available in Oz and a couple that were on my list to own or back up. Over the next little while I’ll be bringing out some to show you, today’s offering is the first. I don’t know if you ever troll the For Sale Docs on the Facebook frag pages but here are a couple that you might like to try: Facebook Fragrance Friends and PLP Splits & Sales.

PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Parfumerie Generale

PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Pierre Guillaume

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured notes in one line:
Orange, green notes, jasmine, ylang-ylang, sugar cane, indian tuberose, benzoin, papyrus

This week seems to be all about the languid, tropical scents that are both alive with the sensual promise of white flowers and sweetened in some way to almost make them edible delights. Today we look at the unhumble tuberose in its sweet and green facets. Loud, pushy, thick, glutinous and a hugely theatrical showstopper Tubereuse Couture is like a neon light burning through the evenings cool. Vivid and stark we are not with the bubblegum sweeties here, this is tuberose for grown ups. A mildly petroleum aurora that is both beautiful and toxic. The green notes resinous, dry, sharp and unsettling. How can something be so desirable, alluring and creamy while maintaining such an unhealthy, fetid glow? Caught on the very fine line between gorgeous and repugnant I think Tubereuse Couture is my new favourite tuberose.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The first hour is HUGE! Well, maybe not that big but you are heavily fragrant and it is incredible. After that opening hour Tubereuse Couture calms to a lovely sweet white flower bouquet and still maintains excellent sillage and projection for about another hour before going to a softer, wear anywhere, warm yet slightly green amber. Still interesting but not the wild creature it was at all, now Tubereuse Couture is a cuddly, smoochy kitten. I find something delightfully old fashioned about Tubereuse Couture, though it is all of the above there is also something languid and in repose about it that seems poised on the edge of action. It’s like wearing a drowsing tiger or greyhound, the power is there at bay awaiting at a moments notice to spring into swiftly killing action. Tubereuse Couture is thrilling.

Tubereuse Couture is a real heart starter. If you are tuberose or green averse then you’ll probably want to test this on paper or a friend before you put it on your own skin. Having said that I just spritzed it on my BFF Kath and she smells creamy, smooth and deliciously sweet in the next room. A very different ride, or maybe it smells different from afar. Anyway, your mileagae will probably vary from my experience so give Tubereuse Couture a go.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Non Blonde
First In Fragrance has €95/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

How do you like your tuberose?
Portia xx

Please Help Scent Alexis

April 19, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hi there APJ,

I think most of you were around, but some of you were children or not even born in 1981. I was in school and we had been brought up to eat at the dinner table every night. It wasn’t over the top but we did always have a tablecloth & napkins, Mum & Dad would have some boozy beverage and there were usually two courses but sometimes three. We would chat about our days, bicker, laugh and sometimes have stand up screaming fights. It was routine and I liked it.

Though colour TV had come to Australia in the mid 1970s it wasn’t our B&W TV died that my parents bought the newfangled colour one, we really didn’t watch a lot of TV anyway. Dad was watching the news and I think Mum watched some daytime soaps. Then came 1981/2 and a change came over our family. One day my Mum came home with something outrageously outlandish. TV tray tables. Why? Because she wanted to watch Dynasty once a week and it clashed with dinner time.So, how to accomodate dinner time and Dynasty? Eat in front of the TV…….

Well, it was such a change. All of a sudden I was confronted by fashion, which had played a very background space in my brain, and shoulder pads and makeup and wigs and OMG! EVERYTHING!

I was a turning point. My favourite of them all was Alexis. So why don’t you watch this hilarious video and at the end I’d love to know what modern fragrance you’d scent Alexis with.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Indian hemp, pepper
Heart: Coffee, pimento, Mexican chocolate, tobacco
Base: Patchouli, sandalwood, ebony wood, Virginian cedar, Bourbon vanilla

I’m thinking Coze by Parfumerie Generale. No, I can’t tell you why but it just feels right.
What do you think?
Portia xx

Shit Alexis Says

Gabriella's Top 5 Forgotten White Florals 2015

April 9, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by Gabriella

Hello perfumed peeps!

I’ve been in a bit of a fragrance funk lately. Not much of my collection has inspired me and rummaging round the sample box and sniffing new releases have failed to set my world on fire. To get me out of this sad little rut, I decided to explore some white floral scents that have been overlooked, ignored or forgotten by the blogging community or the fragrance world at large. Happily, I have discovered some lost gems that have given me my perfume mojo back. Today, I’d like to share a selection of those with you, so I present:

Gabriella’s Top 5 Forgotten White Florals 2015

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

1. Gardenia Grand Soir by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2010

Fragrantica lists these notes in one line: w
White gardenia and sandalwood

The graceful gardenia. The reaction of the blogosphere was decidedly ho hum about this and I think the words “Grand Soir” were to blame. People were expecting opulence from Mr Guillaume and while the scent is not a huge overblown gardenia, I still think it’s absolutely wonderful. Here, the flower is stripped of all of its voluptuous elements: it’s a portrait of the flower’s bud at dawn, all green innocent and pure before the sun breaks and the blooms unfurl into all their heady glory. The gauzy flowers are tempered by a soft, milky sandalwood that amplifies the creamy elements and gives almost a beachy feel. The magic of this is that it is a quiet, contemplative and elegant rendition of a flower that is usually all vava-voom and femme fatale.

Further reading: Grain de Musc and CaFleureBon

First in Fragrance has EUR 95/50ml

Surrender to Chance starts at $9.99/ml

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

2. Hanae by Yann Vasnier for Keiko Mecheri 2000

Fragrantica lists these notes in one line:
Citruses, white flowers, wild berries, yuzu and crystalline musk.

The unexpected delight. Hanae been around for years, but I just happened to discover it for the first time the other day wandering round a local department store. The scent is meant to evoke spring in a Kyoto garden and it does just that brilliantly. A melange of crystalline white petals is accentuated by the delicate citrus tones of yuzu and a hint of white musk. A fragile, delicate scent that it just pure happiness in a bottle.

Further reading: Makeupalley and Scent of Abricots

Peony Melbourne has $219/75ml

Luckyscent has samples at $3/.7ml

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

3. Lily by Florence Idier for Comme des Garcons (Series 1, Leaves) 2000

Fragrantica lists these notes in one line:
Freesia, lily-of-the-valley, rose and syringa.

The uncomplicated beauty. Comme des Garcons are recognised for their quirkier creations and it’s usually the Series 2 Incense range that gets all the love. Lily is fact that the house can do simple and pretty and still come up trumps. It is a startlingly beautiful rendition of lily of the valley, something I had given up trying to find once Diorissimo was reformulated. The lily of the valley here has a verdant and very fresh quality, evoking tiny white buds after a rainshower. Rose, green notes complete the scent that has an invigorating quality akin to having a cool shower on a hot summer day.

Cadjmere by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2007

January 10, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hello Frag Family,

It was very early in 2014 and Michael & I were traveling through Europe, first stop Vienna in Austria where we met up with Birgit and Sandra of Olfactoria’s Travels and Val the Cookie Queen who writes both for OT and APJ. Vienna is its most beautiful in winter but sadly 2014 was not so cold as previous years and there was almost no snow, to make up for that loss we did get loads of rain which meant the city was greener than I’d ever seen it while maintaining its bare branches on the trees. Basically, though we were there in winter it felt like we had arrived in spring, a very pleasant way to see Vienna especially for Michael’s first glimpse of Europe.

Of course, what is it that perfumistas do when they are in a new city? We shopped fragrances! I did a fair spend at the CHANEL store there and a couple of vintage finds in the smaller, niche hole in the wall stores that Vienna seems to have an abundance of yet also these places seem to have stock from 60 years ago too.

Cadjmere by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2007

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Myrtle, cypress, Brazilian rosewood, blood mandarin, vanilla, sandalwood, coconut milk, amber

Amber, vanilla and something green burst off my skin as soon as I spritz Cadjmere. They turn almost immediately to this weird, funky almost nasty curdled green leafy milk. It’s interesting, intriguing and awkward: LOVING IT! The notes really aren’t correlating to what I am smelling, what I get here in my head is a bakery in a plant nursery and lumberyard that’s in turn right next to a tip. There’s something of that compost sweetness, rotting vegetation and plastic. Ha ha ha ha! I have just read back what I wrote. OMG! I make it sound dreadful but it’s not.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Pierre Guillaume has a way with fragrance and often combines beautiful sweet notes, comfortable and comforting notes with something dark, less desirable. What then happens for me is that I will happily smell the sweetness and every so often I will be surprised by an off kilter piece of the puzzle that will draw me in again, searching for it.

Into the heart of Cadjmere I find most of the sharp edges rounded nicely and we are in sweet woods territory, I don’t know if Pierre Guillaume was using Australian sandalwood or a chemical sandalwood but it has some of the lovely eucalyptus menthol hints that the Australian one displays (or it could be some of the greenery). I don’t know and am often getting stuff wrong note wise, it doesn’t matter.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

What does matter is that Cadjmere is ridiculously gorgeous, a totally beautiful fragrance that will warm the cockles of your heart and give you comfort if you are low. Later on I get a fabulously animal fur and resins mingling with the woods, glorious.

Longevity is above average and for the first couple of hours sillage is moderate, you are fragrant without skunking, after that Cadjmere hums along quietly for hours and hours. If you spray your clothes they will still smell fabulous next day MMMM MMMMMM!

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and The Non Blonde
I was given my sample at Le Parfum in Vienna, Austria
First In Fragrance have €95/50ml
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $5/ml

Have you tried or bought Cadjmere? Are you a Pierre Guillaume fan? Do you have a favourite?
Portia xx

New perfumes for a new life

May 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Post by Gabriella

Hello fragrance friends! For those of you that read my last post, you’ll know I’ve been busy with my relocation to Melbourne.
The good news is that we’re here now and besides being really cold and missing my fragrance collection that’s still in transit, there are plenty of things to look forward to. One of these is that perfume shopping is way better in Melbourne than Sydney (I’ll be sure to post some of my shopping adventures soon!). The second is that I’m really excited about introducing some new perfumes into my life.

I find that relocating gives a new outlook: not only do you feel different, but it is often a great time to try new things, like a different fashion style, a new lipstick and of course, new or different perfumes. When I moved to London, my tastes in perfume changed quite a bit and gems like Chanel No 19 EDP, Lipstick Rose, Musc Ravageur and Habanita became new loves. So, what beauties will Melbourne bring perfume-wise? Here’s five scents that I’m looking forward to adding to my permanent rotation:

New perfumes for a new life

Dans Tes Bras by Maurice Roucel for Frederic Malle 2008

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Heliotrope, jasmine, woodsy notes, patchouli, pine tree, cashmeran, sandalwood, musk, incense, violet

This beautiful but quirky violet scent has always intrigued me, but I have never really found the perfect time or place to wear it. It’s woody sombreness never quite fit with Sydney’s warmer clime, but it strikes me as the perfect accompaniment to Melbourne’s chill. A good choice for the weekends when I’m swathed in a big black jumper, jeans and boots and mulling over life, sipping an espresso.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and The Non Blonde
Mecca Cosmetica starts at $142/30ml
Surrender to Chance has $7/.5ml

Louanges Profanes by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2008

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lily, benzoin, hawthorn, incense, neroli, woody notes

I’m including this one because I’m dying to wear it after experiencing a massive olfactory memory the other week. While packing boxes, I smelt it there and then, even though I last time I sniffed it was more than three years ago and only from a small sample vial. Does anyone else ever experience this? I’m thinking this opulent oriental with its smoky lily accord and smattering of hawthorn will be lovely in the cold weather when I want to feel glam: it’s all plush red velvet, cashmere and patent heels.

Love by Calice Becker for By Kilian 2007

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, bergamot, pink pepper, coriander
Heart: Iris, jasmine, rose, honeysuckle, orange blossom
Base: Musk, vanilla, civet, caramel, sugar, labdanum

I’m by no means a gourmand lover but I’m finding that the cold, dry air has me hankering after something sweet. Love is a good fit for me, given the neroli and jasmine give me the much-needed white floral hit within the sweetness of caramelised sugar and vanilla. This is cotton candy and marshmallows, pink and pretty. A somewhat frivolous and light-hearted scent when the grey skies will make me want to take my girly-ness to the max.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Smellythoughts

Luckyscent has $145/4 x .25oz
Surrender to Chance has $4/.5ml

Moor Street Gardenia Eau De Parfum by Klein’s Perfumery 2014

Photo Stolen Klein’s Perfumery

Anyone who’s read my posts will know of my love of gardenia. Like many, I’d given up on finding a really good one given Tom Ford’s Velvet Gardenia is discontinued. Klein’s Perfumery Moor Street Gardenia is part of the boutique’s new line up that I discovered on a hasty reconnaissance visit here a few weeks ago. It’s as perfect a gardenia as I’ve ever encountered. A heady, slightly green composition that evokes the creamy petals in full bloom. A good choice for when I’m longing for the Sydney mugginess and just that little bit homesick.

Klein’s Perfumery has $110/50ml

Ta’if by Geza Schoen and Linda Pilkington for Ormonde Jayne 2004

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these notes:
Top: Saffron, date, pink pepper
Heart: Orange blossom, white peach, rose, freesia, lily of the valley, jasmine
Base: Amber, tonka, musk, vanilla absolute

It’s now clear to me that I’m craving orange blossom, since Ta’if is the third scent that I’ve mentioned, along with Love and Louanges Profanes that includes a hefty dose of the note. However, Ta’if is first and foremost an opulent rose scent. I’m pretty picky with roses, preferring them dark, and Ta’if satisfies this want with a spicy opening of saffron and pink pepper. The rose is full and lush, tempered by a breath of jasmine, lily of the valley and freesia before the voluptuous orange blossom comes to life in the dry down. This is the scent to wear when I want to feel powerful and confident whilst job and flat hunting: regal, rich and very sophisticated.

Further reading: Now Smell This and EauMG

Peony Melbourne has $195/50ml
Surrender to Chance has $4/.5ml

So, do you like any of my picks?
What new perfumes have you discovered when moving to a new place or traveling?

With much love till new time!
M x

PG04 Musc Maori by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2005

December 25, 2012 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Gabriella

Hello APJ friends! I do hope you’re all having a great festive season and for those that celebrate Christmas, I hope Santa brought many scented goodies your way.
I respect the Parfumerie Generale line enormously. I might not own many full bottles of Pierre Guillame’s concoctions but I love how he makes the conventional extraordinary and makes the unconventional tremendously beautiful.
Take his version of tuberose, the sumptuous Tubéreuse Couture, where the ‘conventional’ tuberose is taken to new heights by the addition of sugar cane and papyrus. Or Bois Naufragé where the inspiration was a photo of a nude on driftwood. The unconventional idea of skin and washed up flotsam and jetsam is transformed into a transparent milky fig and woody scent that is much more than a day at the beach.

PG04 Musc Maori by Parfumerie Generale 2005

Musc Maori is his take on the conventional note of chocolate. Now, I am not sure about you, but I am not really a fan of gourmand scents. I’m also one of those weird women that missed out of the chocolate-loving gene when I was born. The taste of chocolate, let alone the thought of a perfume centred around it, doesn’t exactly set my world on fire.
Musc Maori, however, is much more than just a chocolate perfume. It is an exploration of all chocolate’s elements: its taste, its smell, how it makes you feel and the memories it brings.

PG04 Musc Maori Fragrantica Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these notes:

Cacao pod, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, white musk, woody notes, coffee, floral notes and green notes.

Musc Maori’s opening is much more intriguing and complex than the whiff of a freshly opened chocolate bar.
Languid floral notes (which I suspect here is orange blossom and a little jasmine) combine with the cacao and tonka bean to create a vivid impression of entering a really good chocolate shop. The refrigerated air is perfumed with the sweetness of rows upon rows of prettily decorated and delicately flavoured chocolate nubs. It is at once rich, yet transparent, like an aerated veil of all varieties of the sweet: from plain dark to milky white; from raspberry fondant to orange crème.

The woody notes then underscore the floral sweetness but lend a tart, slightly astringent vibe that is almost crunchy in nature. It reminds me of my younger years when I did in fact enjoy the occasional tube of Smarties or two: biting into the brittle candied shell to devour the silky milk chocolate inside. It also evokes a flood of memories of birthday parties. There’s the sweet, powdery acidic smell of packets of balloons. There’s the scented melange of jelly sweets, chocolates and plastic trinkets in the take-home lolly bags mixed with the remnants of the perfume the mother wore when she carefully packed them the night before.

maoricarving 3news.co.nz Photo Stolen 3news

Musc Maori then develops a strong lactonic character, but it’s not hot milk or even hot chocolate I smell. The milk note here is tepid with the gentle aroma of white flowers. Masses of jasmine and gardenia blooms steeped in white liquid. The drydown is the soft chocolate mixed with gentle musk and woody notes: the scent of a young child’s skin after a Friday night chocolate treat and a bath: warm, tender and sweet.

I find Musc Maori to be a compelling perfume to smell and experience. It’s one that really surprised me because it is just that much different from anything else I have tried. But while it has taken me on a lovely olfactory journey and evoked strong memories, it’s still not something I would actually want to smell like. I’ll keep a vial handy for the memories, but full bottles are for true chocolate connoisseurs only.

cacao healthpost Photo Stolen HealthPost

Further reading TheCandyPerfumeBoy and Olfactoria’sTravels
Perfumerie Generale’s site starts at 30ml/€59
SurrenderToChance starts at 1ml/$5
.
Have you tried Musc Maori? What are your favourite gourmand scents or ones with chocolate notes? Have you tried any perfumes recently that have inspired strong memories of childhood?
With much love till next time,
M x

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION X 2

April 26, 2012 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey everyone,

We’ve had a great week at AustralianPerfumeJunkies so our giveaway will reflect that with some super fun stuff for you to sniff in not one but TWO COMPETITION GIVEAWAYS!!! How to enter?

Please give us a short perfume memory in the comments about you, a friend, colleague or relative’s favourite old school perfume (pre 2000).

The old school perfume we covered this week was Casmir by Chopard, a 1.5ml decant spray.

In honour of Evie C’s first major interview this Monday gone with Liz Cook from Australian Natural Niche Perfume crew, ONE SEED. We are adding most of a generous manufacturers sample of my personal favourite One Seed fragrance so far, COURAGE. This scent is so extraordinary that I went FB and have used maybe 4 spritzes from the sample, there’s still at least 4ml left.

After our Posh Peasant; FIG! Olfactory Journey to Greece special we are putting in 1.5ml Posh Peasant decant sprays of Parfumerie Generale; Jardin de Kerylos and Diptyque; Philosykos

Photo stolen from shopping-premiereavenue.com

To top it all off we are adding in a 1ml Posh Peasant decant of Parfum d”Empire; Ambre Russe (I ordered this sample forgetting I’d ordered a FB that turned up almost next day. I know, right)

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

In March we had a Celebuscent Competition that Maureen won but has not been in touch to receive her winnings. The go was that she had till that next Wednesday to get in touch but did not. While hoping that Maureen is happy and well, her loss is your gain folks. As a second COMPETITION GIVEAWAY this week you must only tell your fave CELEBUSCENT, easy!

My Photo

Aftelier Perfumes; 1.5ml manufacturers sample spray Haute Claire + Apricot and Lemon Candle in a Tin (one of my Smell Good Do Good buys that Mandy Aftel kindly gave to the cause)

Gucci; 2ml decanted sample spray Gucci by Gucci pour homme

Estee Lauder; 2ml decanted sample spray Brasil Dreams

Jessica Simpson; 2ml decanted sample spray Fancy Nights

LUSH Cosmetics; 1.5ml decanted sample spray Orange Blossom

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world.

All measurements are approximate and the winners will be judged around 10pm Australian EST this Saturday 28.4.12 and you will have till Wednesday 2.5.12 to get in touch. GO TO IT Y’ALL.

Much love, and gratitude for your coming and reading.
We feel blessed that so many of you bother.
THANK YOU,

Portia xx

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Parfumerie Generale

PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Parfumerie Generale

PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Parfumerie Generale

PG17 Tubereuse Couture by Pierre Guillaume

Please Help Scent Alexis

Shit Alexis Says

Gabriella's Top 5 Forgotten White Florals 2015

Gabriella’s Top 5 Forgotten White Florals 2015

Cadjmere by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2007

Cadjmere by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2007

New perfumes for a new life

New perfumes for a new life

Dans Tes Bras by Maurice Roucel for Frederic Malle 2008

Louanges Profanes by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2008

Love by Calice Becker for By Kilian 2007

Moor Street Gardenia Eau De Parfum by Klein’s Perfumery 2014

Ta’if by Geza Schoen and Linda Pilkington for Ormonde Jayne 2004

PG04 Musc Maori by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2005

PG04 Musc Maori by Parfumerie Generale 2005

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION X 2