Rima XI by Sara Carner and Sonia Constant for Carner Barcelona 2013

March 15, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 30 Comments

Hey there Fellow Fumies,

Recently I went shopping at Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels sell out. Sadly Birgit has developed asthma brought on by her great love, fragrance, and there are only a few that she can still wear without them causing her distress. So, obviously, it was time to clear out some of her beauties and I bought a few. The moment I held this bottle in my hand it was love. So heavy and blocky, a gorgeously minimalist black and clear box that fits my hand like it was my measurements that they’d used. I can see these bottles being the choice of the modern, sleek and wealthy suit set who like things to be substantial yet quietly luxe.

Rima XI by Carner Barcelona 2013

Rima XI by Sara Carner and Sonia Constant

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Guatemalan cardamom, Madagascan black pepper, Moroccan mint, saffron
Heart: Ceylon cinnamon, Indonesian nutmeg, coriander, Indian jasmine sambac
Base: Virginia cedar wood, Australian sandalwood, Vanilla absolute, Laotian benzoin, amber, musk

Rima XI is created after the last verse of this Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer poem Rhyme 11 (I am ardent…). I have put the whole poem here in its English translation because I really love how the tone changes and the poem teasingly calls, like a very immature or mixed up person playing mind games with their intended.

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer – Rima 11 (Yo soy ardiente…)

I am ardent, I am brown,
I am the sign of passion,
of anxiety for pleasures is my soul full.
Are you looking for me?
It’s not for you: no.

My forehead is pale, my braids of gold,
I can give you endless happiness.
I keep a treasure of tenderness.
Are you calling me?
No: it’s not you.

I am a dream, an impossible,
vain ghost of mist and light;
I am bodiless, I am untouchable:
I cannot love you.
Oh, come, you come!

But how does it wear? The opening is fun and herbal and full of the dry sizzle of pepper. Rima XI’s opening doesn’t last long before the spices and vanilla/amber take over and while it is lovely and sweet, and smooth, the spices keep it also dry and a little dusty. Does the fragrance match the poem for me? No, not even a little bit. Rima XI is all about the soft cuddly warmth of surrender in your lovers arms, the deliciously beautiful moment when you feel safe, respected and loved. This is the sweet warm spring or autumn Sunday mornings where you lie between sleep and awake knowing that someone you choose to be partnered with is beside you and that you have beautiful bed linen too.

Photo Stolen EuroNews

Perfect for those crisp spring and autumn mornings and evenings Rima XI is warm, comforting and playful. Quite fragrant for its first hour but after that I get a soft hum that stays around for ages getting quieter and more diffuse till at some point that I can’t even tell it disappears. If you get it on your clothes though you’ll still smell it 3 or 4 days later when you get them out to wash. Seriously good longevity.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Bonkers About Perfume
Parfum1 has $135/50ml
First In Fragrance has €89/50ml

Have you tried any of the Carner Barcelona range? Is amber your thing?
Portia xx

Nirvana Black by Pierre Negrin for Elizabeth and James 2013

March 14, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hi there APJ,

I know many of you have already tried and RAVED about this little designer/celebuscent. The Olsen twins launched the fashion label named after their siblings and the fragrances are meant to fit this aesthetic, they do.I also want to say how impressed I am by these two girls who got a lucky break as babies but somehow have managed to transcend their past and create this incredible empire. They are really cool girls and I have really enjoyed following their story which could so easily have ended in train wrecks.

Photo Stolen Sephora

Let’s talk about the bottle, it’s got to be the coolest, Glomesh styled, retro glam offering I’ve seen in EVER. Feels good and heavy in your hand, excellent grip because the bottle portion is rounded dots and the lid is pointy dots for ease of opening, snazzy gold tone side stripes and join band. I freaking love it. The bottle also survived Ainslie Walker dropping it from shoulder height to the tiles in Sydney’s new Sephora, noisy but unbroken. I bought my bottle in America in November and only now am I getting around to writing about it for you…

Nirvana Black by Elizabeth and James 2013

Nirvana Black by Pierre Negrin

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Violet, sandalwood, vanilla

I have to tell you that the hype had me really worried, you know what it’s like when everyone has been raving about something to the point of nausea? So I kept my expectations as low as I could. Yes, I was pretending. This was one very excited perfumista.

Nirvana Black opens with a full on camphorous blast of what smells like the eucalyptal* top of Australian sandalwood, sharp and biting over the top of this lovely creamy vanilla. It’s an excellent, eye popping dichotomy that makes me smile from the get go. My skin gives me little violet, only the merest hint of it because Nirvana Black is ALL about a creamy, sweet, sensual & boozy vanilla/sandalwood/amber with the merest hint of spice and herb to keep it interesting.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

It stays pretty linear to for the 5+ hours I can smell it but by morning there is not even a hint that I’d been wearing fragrance. Nirvana Black is quite fragrant, densely packed and gives good sillage for the first three hours, that’s really good for my skin. After that it softens out and boy is it a smooth musky vanilla, like rubbing the most exquisite chocolate velvet across your cheek.

I like too that the Olsen girls have kept Nirvana Black’s price reasonable. It’s affordable to most, smells great and looks like it cost a LOT more. Now I’m sure most of the die hard perfumistas will poo poo but even though Nirvana Black is simple and wearable it is not boring. This is fun and yummy.

Photo Stolen Pinterest

Further reading: Now Smell This and Perfume Posse
Sephora has US$55/30ml
Surrender To Chance has the manufacturers roll on mini $19/7ml

What are your thoughts on Nirvana Black, or indeed the Olsen twins?
Portia x

eucalyptal: I made it up but you know what I mean

Moon Dance by Juliette Has A Gun 2014

March 13, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Hey there Frag Family,

We got to spend the afternoon with the gorgeous Romano Ricci today. He was handsome, rumpled, friendly and flirty. Who are we? Ainslie Walker and Catherine de Peloux Menage from APJ, Clayton Ilolahia from What Men Should Smell Like and Yelena from BeautyDirectory. Nick was there from Libertine Parfumerie because he imports JHaG to Australia and the great girls of ÉLYSÉE COLLECTIVE promotions.

We were the last group of the afternoon and it was champagne all round, a fun and friendly vibe and Romano was very happy to have a group who knew fragrance and could talk intelligently with him on his subject. Our half hour stretched into one and a half hours and we had a wonderful time. Romano Ricci is charming, so freaking charming.

Moon Dance by Juliette Has A Gun 2014

Moon Dance by Romano Ricci

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot
Heart: Tuberose, rose, violet
Base: Patchouli

Released in 2014 and created by Romano Ricci with a little help from his friends Moon Dance, and its 2013 sister Oil Fiction, is so far sideways to the Juliette Has A Gun aesthetic that I’m surprised he didn’t start a new brand line rather than calling it the Luxury Collection. I’ve always felt that the Juliette Has A Gun label was heavily marketed to working Goths, a dark edged house with well put together and presented fragrances. I have slightly missed Romano’s point though. He tells us that he wanted Juliette to stand for the ill fated Shakespearean heroine and the gun to be her polar opposite but when working together create a new, powerful woman for which such tragedy could be avoided. My limited experience though tells me that a world without guns would be a better place.

When I spritz the bergamot fizzes off in an instant and I have a lush, slightly metallic bouquet with a waxy overtone that I would normally associate with saffron or orange blossom. My skin plays silly buggers with fragrance as you may know and even Romano was surprised how his fragrances live on my skin. What Moon Dance does smell is expensive and elegant, a nocturnal wander through the dream of an island paradise. The tuberose is fatty and yet the rose makes it crisp, the violets play a very lovely background, all is underpinned by animal and I am in paradise. The modern patchouli is sheer and I get very little of the murky depths that I often associate with it, here it is bathed in moonlight and twined through with night blooming flowers that call their seductive siren song. Moon Dance is the call of the temptress: a fairy queen that beguiles and calls to you through her glamour to come die in her embrace as she feeds off your spirit. Irresisistable, you will gladly succumb.

Photo Stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Colognoisseur
LuckyScent has $285/75ml
Libertine Parfumerie has $350/75ml with FREE Australian Shipping!

Are you ready to be tempted by the newest of the luxury Collection for Juliette Has A Gnu? The incredible Nick at Libertine Parfumerie gave me a bottle that had been dropped and the spritzer broken, it was the work of a moment to wrestle the top off and decant for you all to have a chance at winning some below.
Portia xx

Photo Stolen YouTube

Moon Dance GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 3 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Moon Dance by Juliette Has A Gun (from my broken Press bottle)
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

Tell me a Juliette Has A Gun story or a new fragrance that speaks to you of the past glory of perfumery.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Moon Dance: Juliette Has A Gun #GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-3H9 #Perfume @signoricci @JulietteHasaGun

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 15th March 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 19th March 2015 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.

Secretions Magnifique by Antoine Lie for Etat Libre d'Orange 2006

March 12, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Post by Poodle

Secretions Magnifique by Etat Libre d’Orange 2006

Secretions Magnifique by Antoine Lie

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Fucus, azurone (iodized accord), adrenaline accord, blood accord, milk accord, iris, coconut, sandalwood, Opoponax

Etat Libre d’Orange describes this as the “ode to the pinnacle of sexual pleasure.”

Umm…no.

There so much hype out there about this perfume I had to share my thoughts on it. In my opinion, Secretions Magnifique does not smell like sex. It’s not even sexy for that matter. Sex has a primal, animal quality to it even if you’re not in the mood and decide to lay back and think of England. Maybe on some level the notes call to mind certain body fluids but they are all contained in test tubes and Petrie dishes here, more like a lab or a crime scene instead of what remains clinging to warm sheets and skin after a sexual interlude. There’s no warmth here.

I’m not one of the people who wants to vomit when they smell this fragrance. That seems to be a common response to it. On my skin it’s VERY synthetic with flowers. Fake flowers. I can wear it but I find it to be depressing. It smells clinical. If I close my eyes and really think about the odor I am reminded of the years I worked as an Emergency Medical Technician. A friend said it reminded her of an emergency room too. It does, and to dissect it by the notes is difficult.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Secretions Magnifique is a scent of cold linoleum floors and fluorescent lights. It’s the air in the emergency room which seems a little chilly and the beads of sweat from the anxiety felt when you’re sitting there. It’s the look on the faces in the waiting room as they try not to cry when their Saturday night ends in a twist of metal on the road and someone close to them being looked at by a team of doctors behind a curtain. There’s that churning in the stomach from wondering is this going to turn out okay or will it be far worse than you imagined. It’s the metal of the stretchers and the hospital equipment shining in that cold, harsh light. It’s the bleach and disinfectants used to clean up what remains of someone, or of someone’s bad decision that will haunt them for a while. If you make it to the end there’s an almost plastic flowery sandalwood finish. I guess that’s the part where the patient gets out of the ER and into a room. Slightly warmer but still a far cry from sexy.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

No one is wearing Secretions Magnifique as a cuddle up scent. I don’t think it’s awful on me, just very, very cold. I’ve heard people say that some Chanel’s are cold due to the use of aldehydes. Those folks have never sniffed this I imagine.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Bois de Jasmin
LuckyScent has $85/50ml
Surrender To Chance has $4.75/ml

Have you dared to sniff this one? Is it sexy to you?

Hugs
Poodle

Youth-Dew by Josephine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1955

March 11, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Trésor

I usually like to begin my reviews with an abstract impression of the fragrance I going to be speaking of, but for a couple of weeks now I have sat in front of my computer and found myself completely unable to articulate my feelings for this fragrance in any way that made a lick of sense. So now, as I sit here at the eleventh hour, I am going to give this another go and see if I can somehow put into words the inimitable mesmerism contained within the omnipotent fumes captured in this murky amber fluid. Youth Dew, the fragrance I consider to be the matriarch of American perfume royalty, here you are again leaving me breathless and without the words to express how I feel about you once more.

Youth-Dew by Josephine Catapano for Estée Lauder 1955

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, orange, spices, peach, bergamot, narcissus, lavender
Heart: Cinnamon, cassia, orchid, jasmine, cloves, ylang-ylang, rose, lily-of-the-valley, spicy notes
Base: Tolu balsam, peru balsam, amber, patchouli, musk, vanilla, oakmoss, vetiver, incense

The way Youth Dew opens detonates on the skin is simply extraordinary, I can guarantee it is one of the most forcefully dense clouds of fragrance you may ever encounter in your perfume-smelling career. Once the utter onslaught (and I truly mean this in the most complimentary way) of aroma begins to disperse you are greeted with a visceral symphony of resins which seem to swallow the light like some phantasmic quasar. The resins have this incredible sequence of olfactory motion that to my nose resembles the collapse of a star in a continuous loop, imploding and exploding in brilliant succession. As the composition progresses rich and sensuous spices begin to unfold like a blanket of scintillating stars splashed across a mahogany sky, meteor showers of cinnamon and clove raining down from above and setting the atmosphere alight with their luminous eruptions. Though not listed in notes I detect the obvious presence of leather, perhaps it’s just my imagination running wild but I swear I can smell it. The fragrance lives in this state for quite some time until it begins to morph once more into a luxuriant accord of liquid amber infused with vanilla that’s been drizzled atop the smouldering remains of the resins which preceded. It is in this stage where Youth Dew finally begins its lengthy (and I so mean lengthy) decent into a redolent hum of amorphous warmth hovering just above the skin.

Photo Donated Trésor

Now, onto longevity and sillage. Oh, boy. The sillage on Youth Dew is….enormous, incredibly so. You will be noticed and people will be able to smell you a continent over if you are the slightest bit overzealous with application. A wonderful tip for calming the monster that is Youth Dew’s gargantuan aura is to take a tiny bit, mix it with a fragrance free oil (I find a bit of fractionated coconut does the trick nicely) and apply as you would any other body oil.

Photo stolen Fragrantica

As for longevity, I am almost certain that this fragrance just fuses with your DNA and will never truly disappear. In my attempts to review I have worn Youth Dew a number of times over the past couple of weeks and it’s lasted upwards of 18 hours on my skin and strangely enough even though a shower when I chose to be a bit heavy handed. If you are a density junkie like me or simply want to experience what I consider to be one of the very best compositions in American perfumery I urge you to give Youth Dew a try. Even if you don’t like it you will up your fumehead street cred just by having tried it.

Further reading: The Non Blonde and Yesterday’s Perfume
Youth Dew is available in department stores and vintage on Ebay
My Perfume Samples start at $2/ml

What do you feel when you wear Youth Dew? Do you have memories of it on others?
Trésor xxox

Une Voix Noire by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2012

March 7, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey there APJ,

This is what I wrote about Une Voix Noire in a mini review. With more wear my views have changed, not hugely but a bit.

Une Voix Noire by Serge Lutens: Gardenia done with a berry intro and a dark breathy dry down. A boozy gardenia that sits quietly on my skin, extremely beautiful, sensual, exotic and alluring but a close set beauty that has good sillage but not too strong projection. Excellent movie or theatre choice.

Une Voix Noire by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

The stars rise in chorus. The night sky is filled with the light of the moon.

Une voix noire : jazz, drinks and the night, and, beyond all that, a troubling line of white, gardenia-scented smoke.

GOSH! This is an extremely polarising fragrance. Made in honour of Billie Holiday, the sultry voiced chanteuse whose life was grim, grim and tortured. She was abused, a drug addict who came from very little and ended up with tragedy. Yes, her voice was velvet and she sang so heartbreakingly because her life was what it was and so she could sell her pain and angst in song. How does Une Voix Noire bring this life and voice alive?

Hairspray, booze and white flowers to open, that fabulous old fashioned hairspray that they called Lacquer. It is still used by Drag Queens to hold our wigs firm for months. The white flower is not at all Gardenia to me but a mix & match of all the white flowers and there’s a plastic/make up feel like the swipe of an expensive lipstick over a heavily powdered greasepaint and pan-stick. These smells are a Drag Queens stock in trade, so beautifully woven together in Une Voix Noire. I can imagine this being a part of how Billie Holiday would smell after a performance, there is something very lived in about Une Voix Noire.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The heart feels sweaty and floral, white flowers and some wet-ish lily of the valley or peony perhaps. I’m getting a herbal back beat but no idea what it or they are, it’s sweet green and a little spicy and I think some buttery ylang goodness floating through too. Sweet white flowers, not sugared but like marzipan is both sweet and not sweet, actually there is a mintiness and the whole heart has a very interesting smell that reminds me of those fake teeth you used to get, remember? They were so fun to pretend you had these glamorous buck teeth in ultra white.

Sadly I miss out on most of the smokiness and Une Voix Noire stays pretty linear after the heart merely warming through with some sweet resinous vanilla/amber but still over the top is this white flower, not living Gardenia but kind of a drug store fragrance simile to it, and hairspray.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

From my description it reads like I don’t care for Une Voix Noire, you couldn’t be more wrong. I freaking LOVE it. The lasting power is not so great for me though so I rarely reach for it to leave the house for work or play. Maybe I’ve used four or five of my 10ml decant that I bought in a split from AndreaW ages ago. When I do wear it I love it sick though.

Further reading: Now Smell This and
Une Voix Noire is available in the Exclusives line from Paris, Barney’s New York (I think) and online at Serge Lutens
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

How do you feel about Une Voix Noire? Is it one of your Serge Lutens favourites?
Portia xx

Arpege Parfum (Vintage) by Andre Fraysse for Lanvin 1927

March 6, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Heya Scented Sniffers,

I bought this bottle from Odona on Etsy. They are reasonably priced and when one of their frags had leaked about 70% of its contents in transit they gave me a refund on it. They are very nice people and their frags are fabulous.

Arpege Parfum (Vintage) by Andre Fraysse for Lanvin 1927

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, aldehydes, peach, orange bloom, honeysuckle, orris
Heart: Rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, coriander, sensitive plant, tuberose, violet, geranium
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, patchoulis, vanilla, musk

Arpege, I know that it was worn by some of the Aunties but it was definitely seen as being for the younger or quieter of them when I was growing up. The louder or more mature were wearing Giorgio, Shalimar, No 5 and Poison. Sometimes, though the memory is faint, I do remember seeing the famously ridged glass atomiser bottle with the black bakelite cap come out of purses for resprays. There is something very soft, and soft focus, about the Eau of Arpege. Today though I would like to chat about the parfum.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

I think my top notes are about to turn, they are a good deal less sparkling and radiant than they should be, but less than a minute in the gorgeous thick and rich scent comes alive, so many aldehydes that it’s almost oily in its intensity. Fruity and thick like the syrup from a can of peaches but more pronounced, more effervescent and way more lavish. A thick sinuous rope of fragrance that is hefty enough to lift you up and carry you away.

Multi-faceted Arpege parfum, so many flowers and fruits, herbs and aldehydes all mixed together in a less sophisticated bouquet than CHANEL No 5 but giving a girlish laugh, nod and wink in its direction. Fascinating in its various hues and gilded like a Klimt painting, imagine the perfumer looking at this one of Adele Bloch Bauer 20 years after it was created and Jeannie Lanvin asking the perfumer to recreate it in scent. And that’s what we have, a big fragrance by today’s standards that is filled to the brim with beautiful notes yet lives as one perfectly cohesive and elegant fragrance.

Photo Stolen Flickr

After the fireworks of the opening subside and we are well into the heart of this vintage Arpege parfum I find myself transported back to my youth and cuddling some of the Aunties who smelled so fabulous.

I only dab so I’m not ridiculously fragrant but I a sweetly perfumed and would be a bit overwhelming in most modern workplaces I think. Though this is so good and lasts so long that I think it would be an excellent day out frag, you’d still be smelling gorgeous even after a huge day of picnics, art galleries or shopping. I have been dabbing myself on Saturdays as we continue the search for our new home and it is a welcome relief from some of the smells we’ve encountered along the way.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Non Blonde
My Perfume Samples has current EdP $6/5ml
Vintage Arpege Extrait is still widely available on Ebay & Etsy

Portia xx

Photo Stolen Kesha&Co