Review

Amouage Library Collection: Opus IV by Jacques Flori for Amouage 2010

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Post by Sister Mary Magdalen, Patron Saint of Perfumers

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Peace APJ,

Tis the season: for the upward curl of incense, for journeys and visitors from afar, for the exchange of gifts, peak season no vacancies and the occasional unplanned pregnancy. Whatever is going on at your place I hope it’s fragrant. It certainly is here with the sisters. Both a busy and reflective time of year, the cloisters are shrouded from matins to vespers with billowing frankincense. What better to focus my meditations in this holy time than Amouage Library Collection Opus IV.

Amouage Library Collection: Opus IV by Jacques Flori for Amouage 2010

Opus IV Amouage FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, grapefruit, amalfi lemon, mandarin orange
Heart: Cardamom, caraway, elemi, rose, rosehip, violet
Base: Incense, French labdanum, musk

This was unknown to me until a generous benefactor aware of my love of resinous fragrances bestowed a small sample upon me.

Immediately I understood I was no longer in the mystical cool veil of an ecclesiastical resin, this fragrance is an immediate jumble of sweetness, citrus oils and spices, as though the scent of someone’s pre-dinner lime cordial has lingered through until the arrival of pudding. And what a pudding! Laden with cinnamon and clove brandied fruits, boozy sweet and rich. The feasting is most certainly wrapped around by the scent of a piney Tannenbaum.

Opus IV Amouage Pine Trees John Vetterli FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Then, like a miracle, incense rises. It is a smoky, earthy olibanum as though from the burning of darker, lower grade tears that can give almost a urinous aroma. Wonderful stuff, it gathers strength and becomes the soul of the scent.

The other elements remain and mellow joined by rose and labdanum in becoming the harmonious choir to this soloist, a warm and sonorous tenor.

I am a humble woman of modest good works, and I confess I feel somewhat of an imposter wearing this as it smells like the sweat of a hardworking angel on my skin.

Opus IV Amouage Leloir Jacob_Wrestling_with_the_Angel WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Now I read that the aim of the Library Collection is to “defy categorisation, transcend gender, and allow the wearer to create their own unique narrative”. Oh, that’s just what happened, isn’t it?

Opus IV pulsed off my skin for half the day and received several favourable comments, so the sillage is admirable. Some may find it too intimate or distracting for professional settings, but I found it easy and comfortable to wear.

Opus IV Amouage anime-angel-boy GTArcadePhoto Stolen GTArcade (Problem using image please get in touch)

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and The Non Blonde
LuckyScent has $355/100ml
Surrender To chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Pray tell, ye faithful, what books have you taken from the Amouage Library? Is there more I should know?

My fond prayer is that you have all rested well and can greet this new year refreshed and reinspired.

Sister Mary Magdalen, Patron Saint of Perfumers

Cadjmere by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2007

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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

Cadjmere Parfumerie Generale FragranticaPhoto 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.

SONY DSCPhoto 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.

Cadjmere Parfumerie Generale Red Sandlewood WikiCommonsPhoto 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

Versace Blonde by Nathalie Feisthauer for Versace 1995

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Hi there Sniffa Crew,

Today we are going back to 1995. It was a particularly good year for me, I was finishing up my time in London (which was totally incredible in itself) and coming home to Sydney in time for Christmas with the family. I cannot tell you how excited I was. HOME!

Anyway, we got this fragrance in Australia in time for Christmas but I think we might have had it for Christmas 1996 because I was working as a drag hostess at one of our clubs and we had to give out samples of Versace Dreamer and A’Men by Mugler on the same night. The whole club smelt incredible with everyone dousing themselves in fragrance and the night was a huge success, one of my favourite nights ever. Though it took me years to stop retching whenever someone was wearing A’Men because right at the end of the night someone Guerrilla spritzed me and it went in my mouth, not nice and the scent seemed to stick in my nostrils for about 3 days.

This is a vintage frag but you can still get your hands on a bottle of extrait/parfum for very reasonable prices

Versace Blonde by Nathalie Feisthauer for Versace 1995

Blonde Versace fragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, Pitosporum flowers, violet, orange blossom, bergamot
Heart: Tuberose, daffodil, ylang-ylang, carnation
Base: Benzoin, musk, civet, sandalwood

Perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer has worked on a few frags that you’ve definitely heard of: Hermes Eau des Merveilles, VC&A Collection Extraordinaire Gardenia Petale, ELdO Putain des Palaces and Delicious Closet Queen as well as Must de Cartier Pour Homme. This is just a very small portion of her output.

How does Blonde wear on me? Well it opens green and sappy with a photorealistic (but clean) gardenia that’s sweet, green like bulb flower stems, creamy and the whole experience in the first 5-10 minutes is one of enormous presence. It’s not mentioned but I get a mild galbanum feeling through the opening too. HUGE! Outrageously gorgeous white flowers lightly framed by the citrus.

The opening of the extrait is sweeter and fruitier, very canned peachy.

Marilyn Monroe WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

No need to fear, Blonde doesn’t stay at these nuclear sizes for long. 15 minutes in and though you are still quite fragrant the power has been turned down considerably and my head can think of other things. Here is where Blonde is really beautiful and wearable. The heady mix of white and yellow flowers are kept crisp by the carnation and already some of the resins make their way in to give depth and breadth. Then Blonde stays pretty much the same for a few hours getting more lived in and raunchy, up to 5 on a really good day, and slowly the whole fragrance goes from that very sensual animalic base as it fades leaving a very soft wash of nothing pickable to nothing at all.

 Blonde Versace Marlene-dietrich blonde-venus WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies
FragranceNet has $40/15ml extrait (I prefer to decant and spritz)
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml extrait

In 2013 I did a LIVE Video Sniff with Blonde, it kinda captures the feeling of the fragrance better than mere words on screen can. Please be ready to hear the word bombastic about 300 times though.

Thanks for wandering through my thoughts on one of my all time favourite fragrances.
Do you have a discontinued fave that you’ve hoarded a few bottles of?
Portia xx

Message in a Bottle by Mark Buxton 2015 + Floriography

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Post by Ainslie Walker

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Picture yourself walking along a beach and discovering a bottle of (undamaged) perfume. What would you do? What might be inside? Where could it have come from? And who might have sent or lost it? Mark Buxton’s soon to be released “Message in a Bottle” conjures up many a romantic scene and barrage of questions for me, both from the name, as well as from the fragrance itself.

Message in a Bottle by Mark Buxton 2015

Message in a Bottle New release for 2015!!

It is beautiful, uplifting, fresh and easy to wear. I had no information or clues about its contents and thus in an attempt to decode its message I turned to researching Floriography. The “language of flowers” was most commonly used in Victorian times and allowed people to send messages through giving and wearing of flowers or a scented handkerchief. Each flower had significance and provided a symbolic message. Sometimes a handkerchief was scented instead.

Message_in_a_bottle Mark Buxton WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Message in a Bottle Floriography

Here’s what I discovered about what Buxton’s “Message in a Bottle” may be all about:
Magnolia – freedom, grand splendour, nobility, perseverance, old-fashioned romance and enduring true love – love that lasts throughout time and space.
Neroli – spiritual cleansing and is thought to aid a return to innocence, thus often used at weddings. It symbolises new love blossoming into eternal love and fulfilment.
Ylang-ylang – is strongly aphrodisiac in its properties. A man with one of these in his lapel would certainly mean business!
Petitgrain (Orange leaf) is sweet, slightly sour and citrus in fragrance and is immediately uplifting, promoting a sense of wellbeing and cleanliness. Its freshness would have stood out during Victorian times, where it was uncommon to bathe regularly.
Jasmine – symbolises demure beauty, elegance and comfort for the soul. Indian jasmine references attachment, whilst other jasmines can represent sensuality, modesty and grace.
Rose – multiple layers of scented petals represent everlasting beauty and love. Every colour rose has its own meaning. Usually in perfumery we use damask, which denotes love or pink Bulgarian roses, which mean happiness. Red roses scream of love and passion and are traditionally the most popular way, even today, to say “I love you”, white are for purity, yellow for infidelity, tea rose for never forgetting and receiving a bunch of thornless roses means love at first sight.
Ambergris – aphrodisiac and a fixative from way back, its marine notes further enhance the mystery surrounding a bottle washing ashore. Traditionally ambergris is found just like a Message in a Bottle, washed up on the seashore. It’s marine, faecal and musky odour screams of “sex.”
Cistus – belongs to the rockrose family and it’s the resin from the leaves (labdanum) that is generally used in perfumery. In the past goats and sheep were herded through the bushes and the hair on their underbellies collected the sticky resin, which was then combed or cut out. Balsamic and resinous in aromatherapy it is thought of as a calming aphrodisiac, which also enhances intuition, elevates emotions and keeps one grounded.
Civet – to stabilise a fragrance and the civets of the world use their secretions to attract a mate during mating season. In this bottle it’s more than likely synthetic, however, the message of attraction is clear.
Sandalwood – invokes deep states of relaxation, meditation and to cleanse negativity.

Message Bottle Mark Buxton Victorian Fashion 1866 Charmaine Zoes Marvelous Melange FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Strength and longevity is great. It’s a beautiful bouquet of creamy wood, floral and amber that feels fresh yet beautiful, both for day and evening wear.
Soon available at Libertine

Have you tried Mark Buxton’s fragrances yet?
Ainslie Walker x

L’Incendiaire by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2014

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Post by Tina G

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Lying in the palm of my hand; a small vial of dark-golden intriguing mystery. There are few reviews, and fewer notes lists for me to get a pre-conceived impression of what I may experience on opening, so the next step is obvious – there is a little bubble of liquid here that simply needs to be on some skin.

L’Incendiaire by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2014

L`incendiaire Serge Lutens FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

A moderate swipe of L’Incendiaire releases a resinous incense with dry wooden undertones. It is loud, silage has a massive kick initially but there is also something elusive about the scent that soon makes me want a few more swipes, so I do. This brings the woods to the foreground, and the incense/resin/wood combination is not dissimilar to those I’ve come across in other fragrances. This changes in the first half hour though…

L`incendiaire Serge Lutens Mednyanszky, Laszlo Autumn Field at Twilight Quick Fix FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

From this initial dry opening, things start to get darker. I’ve stepped out of an autumnal field onto a path which heads into the dark forest. There is a damp sweetness. I can smell thick heavy treacle and the over-ripeness of slightly decayed wind-fallen plumbs. The oudh note gives a hint of animals out of sight in the undergrowth. The wood notes are wet, like fallen logs covered in leaves. The fragrance has a physical coolness through a menthol note which gets stronger during the first hour, which becomes a cold sensitive spot on my arm like the heat is being extracted from my skin.

L`incendiaire Serge Lutens Gumpy_Forest DieAndBeholdMyWrath DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

After the first hour, the mentholated sensation spreads into an overall greenness. There is also a smoky note like clean fresh cigarette ash. Strangely, the damp wood smell feels like it has dried out – the decaying wood from the forest floor has found the sun once more and the rotting has been abated temporarily.

Longevity for this parfum is good, 8+ hours, although it does become stale after that time on my skin. The silage is interesting – I mentioned above that my first swipe was followed up with a few more as I found L’Incendiaire elusive, but it is more than that – it is fragmented. It sits neatly on the skin, but it doesn’t project so much as ‘waft’, dancing around, influenced by movement and breezes. Testing L’Incendiaire I found it consistently has three stages but the amount of application can race them through. Larger applications brings the oudh into play in the first 10 minutes. I quite enjoyed a slower story though, so even if the silage twists and turns in its playfulness, I’d recommend the less is more approach.

L`incendiaire Serge Lutens Russell Patterson Where there's smoke there's fire 1925 TrialsAndErrors FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Perfume Posse and Colognoisseur
Barney’s New York has $600/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $8/.25ml

Will you be trying L`Incendiaire by Serge Lutens?

Tina G

Eau de Cologne Du Coq by Aime Guerlain 1894

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Hello Lovelies,

Just recently I was trolling one of the fragrance discounters we have here in Australia, the good thing about living here is that there are so few perfumistas and quite often stuff gets left in shops for years. I was lucky enough to grab Eau de Cologne Du Coq in the gold foil and black packaging you see below. I’m not sure when Guerlain stopped production of this packaging for Eau de Cologne Du Coq but when I was a squirt bitch in the late 1980s and early 1990s this was the packaging we sold Guerlain in, so quite excited really.

Eau de Cologne Du Coq by Aime Guerlain 1894

Eau de Cologne du Coq Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, citruses, neroli, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Patchouli, lavender, jasmine
Base: Sandalwood, oakmoss

I looked up the Batch Code and my bottle was produced November 2003. Woo Hoo! I am pleased.

Eau de Cologne du Coq Guerlain Boat Geograph.orgPhoto Stolen Geograph.org

The opening zzzzZING is all about the citrus whooshing away, the happiest and most refreshing burst of sugary sweet citrus that is tart, cool, candy-ish and fizzy. If this doesn’t lift your spirits I don’t know what will. I find myself smiling soon after I spritz and wishing Jin were nearby to spritz him too. Not because he is sad but because this is fun, and so over the top it’s almost a citrus caricature; simple and exaggerated. Lavender slowly makes its way in as the BIG citrus burns off, it is calm and the patchouli is just slightly earthy and already the creamy, buttery, sandalwood goodness is rounding out all the corners and making the whole a delightful and soft scent that feels languid and lazy, but I could also imagine Eau de Cologne Du Coq on a very busy or stressed person who needed to feel some imagined space around them to be able to think and breathe. That’s the kind of thing Eau de Cologne Du Coq would be perfect for, the proverbial breath of fresh air could be really talking about Eau de Cologne Du Coq.

Eau de Cologne du Coq Guerlain Citrus Shaun Dunphy FlickrPhoto Stolen Shaun Dunphy  Flickr

I should never have read The Non-Blonde‘s review today before spritzing because I get the honey accent she talks about where never before had I even an inkling, and I can’t decide if I am smelling it or if auto suggestion has tampered with my head. Never mind, it’s here now and I find it beguiling, both sweet and animal. It’s not a huge part of the fragrance but once you go looking for honey you’ll smell it and your Eau de Cologne Du Coq experience will be forever changed. the citrus holds on remarkably well and even in the end there is a very faint sparkle overlaying the woodsy nothing.

I’m lucky to get 3 hours, really 2 hours of fragrance and an hour of soft, amorphous something that doesn’t really smell like anything particularly but also is not me, great choice for a short burst of lovely and then back to whatever it is you needed respite from. Totally unisex, and only too strong for work in the first 5 minutes, then it settles beautifully. Wonderful for after a lunchtime gym session to take you through till the evening scent takes over.

Eau de Cologne du Coq Guerlain Koeln wikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: The Non-Blonde and Guerlain Perfumes Blogspot
FragranceNet has $92/100ml before coupon
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

Till tomorrow please be nice to yourself,It’s hard to be happy when someone is always mean to you.

Portia x

Narcotic Venus by Alessandro Gualtieri for Nasomatto 2007

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Hey Frag Family,

Today you can come look at a fragrance from a line that I keep hearing great things about. They are often talked about on Fragrance Blogs, the FaceBook Frag pages and among perfumistas and are held in high esteem. Last year in Vienna with Birgit I bought a bottle of Nuda, I haven’t opened it yet, because one 10 minute wear and I was head over heels already. Today’s fragrance is from Nasomatto’s first offerings back in 2007, well that is the first mention I can find and it’s on Perfume Shrine who writes this: The masterminds are both Italian, Allesandro and Arturetto, who had been students in Germany at the H&R company for courses in “medieval” perfumery. We’re told that Allesandro was taught by Arturetto and then went on to create fragrances for designers such as Romeo Gigli, Versace, Valentino, Helmut Lang and Fendi, finally locating in Amsterdam and re-uniting with Arturetto to launch his private vision: a line of his own niche perfumes, called Nasomatto. 

Narcotic Venus by Alessandro Gualtieri for Nasomatto 2007

Narcotic Venus Nasomatto FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, jasmine, lily, spice

Nasomatto does not release note lists so we can wear the fragrance and enjoy it for what it is meant to be, a culmination of science and artistry that makes a fragrance that is more than the sum of its parts, it is an experience. My nose is so dodgy that I often need to check the notes because I smell things that are quite different, I think my nose and set of memory reference points can be slightly awry.

Anyway, how does Narcotic Venus smell on and to me?

Michael and I saw this lovely painting (Birth of Venus by Cabanel) while at the Musee d’Orsay in Feb 2014, purchased by Napoleon III at the 1863 Paris Salon which was the same year Manet showed ‘Luncheon on the Grass’ which we also saw. I think it a perfect representation of the cool, perfect, unsexy sensuality that Narcotic Venus displays. To be completely honest I like my narcotics more rough and in your face, this little baby is prim and pretty, and seems to be beautifully executed with expensive feeling ingredients but no raging sex kitten. Expectations have let me, and the frag, down I think. Such a shame because with a name like Nartcotic Venus I was hoping to be overwhelmed by a wall of white flowers with very dirty and sexy “come hither me hearty” attitude, sadly I am not. The end.

Narcotic Venus Nasomatto Alexandre_Cabanel Birth_of_Venus WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Scent For Thought and Perfume Shrine
LuckyScent has $185/30ml and samples
First In Fragrance has €118/30ml

What are your thoughts about the Nasomatto line? Which have you tried? Do you like the aesthetic of the brand?
Portia xx

Alpha Musc by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE

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Heya Perfume Junkies,

It’s no secret that I love the SOIVOHLE (pronounced See-Voh) range. It is an acronym Sending Out Inspired Vibrations Of Healthy Loving Energy and I think Liz Zorn a dashing artist genius. We have chatted about her and SOIVOHLE quite a bit on APJ. Right now Liz is selling off the Mixed Media section of the fraghrance business and is going to concentrate on the naturals. It’s a sad day here for me and I have bought back up bottles of two of my favourite SOIVOHLE fragrances, Rosa sur Reuse and Jasmine Summer. Really I do not want to live without them. Tonight we are going to look at another fragrtance I love from the range that is currently at CLEARANCE prices.

Alpha Musc by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE

Alpha Musc SOIVOHLEPhoto Stolen SOIVOHLE

SOIVOHLE gives these featured accords in one line:
Patchouli, Moss, Vanilla, Pepper, Champaca Leaf, Animalic Musks
MUSC-CHYPRE-ANIMALIC

I get a chocolate vanilla with fabulously freaky green tinge on opening with Alpha Musc, a burning, searing scent that skirts the edges of overkill, never quite reaching the too much level but dangerously close. It has  a resinous, thick, treacle-ish quality that feels like the air has become too thick to breathe into my nose and lungs, a sensation only Alpha Musc has ever given me. It’s sweet and sweaty, dry, dusty and dank and though it’s a very full fragrance that demands attention still it is quite sheer, sheer AND dense.

Alpha Musc SOIVOHLE Treacle Graeme Maclean FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

As the initial fireworks subside the whole fragrance dries out and the pepper, cracked and ground, gives the choc/vanilla a savoury edge that makes it zing beautifully. A toasted tobacco note, sweetly honeyed but dry and dessicated rolls in and alongside the pepper is so unusual that it really makes my nose stand to attention to see what’s going to happen next. You know the smell of your dogs paws, that yeasty/urinous/furry scent that is like almost nothing else on earth? Alpha Musc smells nothing like it but there is something that feels as if that scent is being referenced obliquely. As if the idea of dogs feet has been put there, an echo, a nod, a whisper of what the real thing smells like. It may even smell a little like a Musk Deer, but I’ll never know. I have smelled some 60+ year old musk tincture of Jean Kerleo’s that he used while at Patou, there are very faint echoes of it here.

Alpha Musc SOIVOHLE Musk Deer WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

I have a motor bike and I leave my helmet in a plastic airtight box on the back. Sometimes if I have been riding a lot and the weather is warm I get a real animal musk scent from it when I first get it from the box. It’s a bed head and healthy sweaty man combination, sweet and very slightly sour, and the musks and vanilla in Alpha Musc remind me very much of this funky scent but ever so soft on deep dry down after I awake next morning. It is tantalisingly human and quite sexy but very, very muted.

Alpha Musc SOIVOHLE Nude_man WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Where would I wear Alpha Musc? It is a wear anywhere, smell good, slightly feral comfort scent. Only in the first hour need you worry about skunking the severely anti fragrance types but everyone else will bask in your beautiful soft, naked, healthy skin sillage. About 3 hours mildly fragrant before heading towards close skin scent.

SOIVOHLE is clearing out Alpha Musc: Sample $2/ 11ml $25/ 50ml $50
You have to get it before it’s gone.
Which of the SOIVOHLEs do you know?
Portia xx

Poivre Piquant by Bertrand Duchaufour for L`Artisan Parfumeur 2002

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Heya Frag Fiends,

I have a little love affair going with one of my bottles bought very early on in my admitted and embraced perfumistahood. It’s a gourmand, which I take to mean it’s foody, not your average bakery scent though, not all sugary vanilla sweetness. Today’s fragrance is the most sophisticated and grown up of the gourmands that I know. Interesting, delicious and surprising while being totally wearable. A rare combination of freaky, cool and easy.

Poivre Piquant by L`Artisan Parfumeur 2002

By Bertrand Duchaufour

Poivre Piquant L`Artisan Parfumeur FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Honey, white pepper, milk, licorice, sugar, woody notes

UK L’Artisan site says: Poivre Piquant is inspired by a wedding story in the Kama Sutra. Sugar and pepper were sprinkled on the bride’s wedding veil. Sugar for the sweetness of life, pepper for the sparkling joy (and sensuality!) to come. This blend of white hot pepper tempered with milky woody notes is sharp, soft and burning all at once. A hint of liquorice and honey round off this elegant essay in aphrodisiac desire.

Poivre Piquant L`Artisan Scents of SelfPhoto Stolen Scents Of Self

Wet pepper, bell pepper freshly cut, zingy, fresh and ready to eat in a delicious and healthy salad. In a few minutes though a very asian stir fried honey dish bursts through, sweet and sticky and spicy. The pepper has become dry cracked pepper and fizzy fun pink pepper with a milkiness that could come from adding a small lick of coconut milk to what may easily be the dish of the day. Though I am exaggerating the meal-ish aspects of Poivre Piquant, that is what comes to my mind on wearing. Suddenly I’m in a fabulous Australian/Asian fusion restaurant, it’s hip and clean, filled with laughter, chatter and the subtle sounds of wooden chopsticks hitting porcelain. Mouth watering dishes sizzle and steam as they are brought to hungry diners. You can even smell the hot fires burning in the background.

Poivre Piquant L`Artisan pepper Ginger chicken WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Poivre Piquant lasts around 3-4 hours but only the first hour do I have any major sillage and it is an extremely selfish wear because projection needs about 7 spritzes for anyone to even notice it. On the other hand, I get fabulous huffs coming up my shirt for 3 of those four hours, sometimes wet, sometimes spicy and sometimes sweet and hot. It’s like a circular fragrance where we get a spiral of fragrance that keeps letting different notes and combinations jump out at you through the whole life rather than a regular note pyramid. It’s cool, classy and fun. Excellent cool weather wear and a totally different ride in the heat, more refreshing than warming.

Poivre Piquant L`Artisan pepper weinstock PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Further reading: Scents of Self and Bois de Jasmin
Libertine Parfumerie have $186/100ml with FREE Australian Delivery
L’Artisan France has €100/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Have you spent any time with this L’Artisan lovely?
Portia xx

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau by L`Occitane en Provence 2015

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Hiya APJ crew,

We are coming to the end of 2014 and my friend Lesley at L’Occitane Australia has sent me a pack of their newest 2015 Limited Edition fragrance. Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau basically translates as Cherry Blossom Water. I love that we are able to bring you the pre release of this

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau by L`Occitane en Provence 2015

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau L`Occitane en Provence FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, black currant, water melon
Heart: Cherry blossom, rose, orchid, white flowers
Base: Woodsy notes, musk

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau’s opening is sweet and tart, the lemon and black current combo is a very sassy, lip puckering, fruity, fizzzy fun experience, like a Sour Gum and all wrapped up in quite easily definable watermelon. I like it a lot. If the opening of Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince was a little too screechy and urinous for you (I did not have this problem but there was plenty of cyber-chatter about it) then this could be your antidote, in Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau the blackcurrant is tamed by its surrounds into a less ferocious beast, yet still it has some claws.

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau L`Occitane tokyo-cherry-blossom TokyoTimesPhoto Stolen TokyoTimes

The flowers in the heart are really a beautifully blended bouquet for me, they are pretty and fresh but no match for the fruits that linger well into the dry down, there is a very nice time in the heart of the fragrance when I am seriously reminded of eating cherries with my Mum when she would bring home a box from the market in January. We’d all sit in the kitchen and gorge ourselves on them. That bitter sweet bite through the skin into the soft magenta purple flesh that was so incredibly delicious and we’d keep eating till the box was empty, I don’t even remember if we saved some for Dad. About 3 hours later we’d all be hit with tummy cramps and the worst bout of diarrhoea but it was worth it. Ha Ha Ha! I’m laughing at the memory, the same thing would happen with plums in March and apricots in November. A general clean out.

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau L`Occitane Blackcurrant GeographUKPhoto stolen GeographUK

Anyway, the blackcurrant lasts all the way to dry down when the softly pretty wash of almost fragrance underneath it warms it slightly. I have to give L’Occitane points right now, they have made a super fresh, wearable blackcurrant scent without adding in the currently ubiquitous bakery notes, no vanilla, almond or pastry to be sniffed at all, COOLIO. Great longevity for something marketed as a L’Eau at between 4-5 hours, though only the first 3 hours are very fragrant, then the still fresh and slightly tart base hums along fading, fading…….

giveaway kbairdPhoto Stolen kbaird

Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 Winners:
AUSSIE WINNER: 50ml Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau EdT (Sprayed for Testing)+ 250ml Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau Shower Milk
INTERNATIONAL WINNER: 30ml Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau Hand Cream
P&H

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 whether you are AUSSIE or INTERNATIONAL

and

Tell us about a cherry or blackcurrant fragrance you love, or a L’Occitane product that you love.

Extra Chance?
Tweet:   L`Occitane Fleurs de Cerisier L`Eau GIVEAWAY   

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 1st January 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 Sunday 4th January 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.