Aqua Allegoria Winter Delice by Guerlain 2001

September 15, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Post by Tina G

Winter Delice is the secret door at the back of the cupboard from the The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. A few squirts and I’ve been instantly transported into a frosty European December day, walking through a high mountain forest with a crystal blue sky above and dry crisp snow crunching under my boots.

Aqua Allegoria Winter Delice by Guerlain

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Fir
Heart: Pine, resin
Base: Opoponax, vanille, sugar

The whole opening of Winter Delice is as I’ve just brushed up against a forest pine tree, cupped a bunch of needles to my nose for a sniff, and got a bit of sticky sap on my fingers from my efforts. The pine and fir notes are fresh, bright, and uplifting. The presence of a touch of lemon may or may not be an aspect of the pine. A clear rich resin comes through after about 15 minutes when the fragrance has warmed on my skin. I’m enjoying it sooooo much I find myself respritzing during the first hour to reinvigorate & revive the experience.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Given a bit more time, the sticky piney-ness settles into an aura of dry amber and resin. There is a hint of an odd metallic note which I quite like, but quickly passes. The amber/resin combination lasts for about 2 hours, at which time I give a small disappointed sigh, as I think that’s the end of it. Just a standard amber dry down – what a shame when I was enjoying it so much.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

But wait! A little later I’m curled up doing some reading, and there is a wonderful aroma of sweet sugared almonds with a hint of vanilla, waiting shyly and oh-so-patiently to be noticed. You cheeky little fragrance! Withholding this intoxicatingly comforting skin scent for a last surprise. I’m so glad I didn’t write it off at the amber stage and miss this altogether. The vanilla sweetness is very yummy and cuddly and I find myself now snuggled down again, smiling while reading with my nose pressed firmly against my wrist.

So for the first time in a while, I’ve worn a fragrance three days in a row. Winter Delice is wonderful, but I feel like I’m running out of time to wear it as the days become progressively warmer coming into spring, perfect for Northern Hemisphere wear right now though. I do think it is a cool weather experience, but I’ll give it a run in summer to see how it fares – the pine may just be refreshing instead of cloying, who knows.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Further reading: The Non Blonde and Olfactory Obsessed
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/ml

I will be trying out more of the Aqua Allegoria series, but I’d be interested in some honest opinions – have you tried any of this range? What did you like? What didn’t work for you?

Tina G

Love's Baby Soft by Dana 1974

September 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Poodle

Once upon a time in the 80’s there was a girl who loved perfume. She really believed perfumes were magical. She saw the ads in the magazines and thought she had found her secret potion. It said that the nicest things happen when you wear it. The photo suggested if she wore it she’d soon be dancing cheek to cheek with a cute boy. The silly girl was me and I simply had to have Love’s Baby Soft. If I had it my teenage crush would notice me. I just knew it.

Love’s Baby Soft by Dana 1974

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Geranium, lavender, jasmine, rose, patchouli, vanilla, musk

Like many others I was wafting clouds of Love’s Baby Soft when I was a tween and young teen. I believed that it would transform me from dorky, shy wallflower to the girl the cute guy I liked would ask to dance. Sadly, it never seemed to work but I still kept spritzing and hoping.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

(The ads for Love’s Baby Soft in the 70’s were actually rather creepy and I’m glad the ones in my Seventeen magazine were more about school girl crushes than pedophiles and Lolita. Honestly, I’m not sure what the heck they were thinking with those older ads. Who was the target audience for those? But I digress…back to crushes and magic potions.)

Love’s Baby Soft was that first perfume lots of girls got in their Christmas stocking. If you haven’t guessed from the name, Baby Soft is powdery. It’s a fluffy, flowery, pink cloud of a perfume. It seems almost silly to try to review it and pick apart the notes even though it’s a pretty scent. There’s rosy powder, soft florals, a bit of clean musk, and a slight plasticky note which makes me think there’s some heliotrope in it.

Photo Stolen Flickr

If you like Flower by Kenzo or other powdery florals there’s a chance you were a Baby Soft girl at some point. It’s familiar and comfortable. Compared to the fruity stuff aimed at today’s youth, Love’s Baby Soft smells far more grown up even with that baby powder note. I think it’s got a powdery feel similar to vintage scents but is by no means of the same quality. It’s cheap and fun. I still wear it and especially like to wear it to bed. If it were repackaged and renamed I think it would have a lot of fans. I think a lot of people secretly like it but hate to admit it because they think they’re too old for it. I say, wear what makes you happy.

Further reading: Now Smell This and The Awl
FragranceNet has $3.50/15ml

Love’s Baby Soft made me think perfumes could be magical even though I didn’t get that dance I’d hoped for. Sometimes I think I was just young and silly. Sometimes I think not much has changed. Perhaps there’s part of us that always seems to be searching for that perfume that transforms us and makes us feel stronger, prettier, confident. Did you have a magic potion when you were younger? Do you still wear it?

Poodle X

Coven by Andrea Maack 2013

September 10, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Post by Sister Mary Magdelene, Patron Saint of Perfumers

Bright blessings of another scented day fellow fragrance worshippers. I wonder if I will surprise you with the focus of my adoration today. It is a truly ecumenical day when a nun sings praises to a witch’s brew!

Of course nothing wicked this way comes. This is a perfume, a consumer product like any other niche-ish fragrance release, with the toil and trouble being that of Icelandic visual artist Andrea Maack and an uncredited perfumer. Ineffable is fine by me, I’m a woman used to mystery. But how does it smell?

Let us spray!

Coven by Andrea Maack 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Woody notes, green grass, soil tincture, oakmoss, whiskey, spicy notes

I’m happy to report that the delicate instrument the good Lord placed in the centre of my face registers no essence of newt or tincture of bat, however this fragrance could well be the smell of their habitat. Such an onrush of sappy and bitter green. There is grassiness and a light but distinct touch of galbunum, but the strongest and most lasting impression is of dank earth notes to rival Demeter Zombie. Yet where Zombie achieves a suitably claustrophobic and menacing accord, all the green in Coven conjures a convincing outdoorsy and airy loaminess of an evergreen forest with oakmoss growing thickly. Is that a waft of brimstone through the trees? Or just the sulphurous breath of Maack’s volcanic homeland?

Photo Stolen Flickr

Now there be spirits! Notably whisky, which in keeping with the scent story is peaty like my favoured Islay single malts. This boozy heart warms the composition and beats strongly for hours along with a vanillic Peru balsam and the tickle of cassia and a peppery capsicum. The initial green and earthy character recedes only slightly, the duet of fecund earth and peaty aqua vitae has a balanced progression. Over the hours what at first seems to be a trick of my nose gathers strength and becomes an undeniable sweet and floral tone. It is a lovely and unusual drydown.

The longevity of Coven is exceptional, lasting on skin overnight and on clothing for days. Whereas this tenacity could be unwanted in many perfumes, I was happy still to carry the scent of this enchanted forest clearing.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Unless excessively applied, I can’t think Coven would be out of place in any situation. It’s possible many people will not recognise this as personal fragrance, perhaps mistaking it for lingering air from outdoors. But if he does ask, don’t tell the Bishop its name. Men of his ilk can sometimes not see the forest for the trees.

Naturally I am heartily in favour of a scent that is unique, dark, earthy and green. I pray that Coven shows respect in its name to communities of women engaged in ritual and devotion, leading healing and caring lives connected to the rhythms of days, seasons and natural cycles. There is much to admire in that.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

The equinoxes approach us (vernal in the Southern, autumnal in the Northern hemisphere), what an ideal time to try such a fragrance as we celebrate the warming fertile earth or give thanks for its fruits as it cools.

Further reading: Persolaise and Colognoisseur
Libertine Parfumerie has $185/50ml including FREE delivery in Australia
LuckyScent has $135/50ml + samples

Do you have a scent for rituals?

Bless, and blessed be!
Sister Mary Magdelene, Patron Saint of Perfumers.

La Haie Fleurie du Hameau by L`Artisan Parfumeur 1982

September 7, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hey All you Fragrance Lovers,

GOSH! 1982, this frag came out while I was still in school. 1982 was the last year I was in the Top 10 of my year and just before I went seriously “Off The Rails” as they called it back then. I think by then my Mum had bought me an Aramis and a mini of VC&A Pour Homme, maybe by then I had even had Polo. That doesn’t count wearing all my Mum & sister’s fragrances though.

La Haie Fleurie du Hameau by L`Artisan Parfumeur 1982

La Haie Fleurie du Hameau by Jean Claude Ellena

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine, orange blossom, narcissus, ylang-ylang, honeysuckle, vanilla, oakmoss

It’s been super busy around here lately. The house has a For Sale sign out the front and we have been working like House Elves to have it super schmick for the auction. I feel as though I’ve neglected you all a little this weekend, sorry, my head is full to overflowing with stuff and I can’t find a damn thing in the house because so much is packed away in storage. So while I am wearing as much fragrance as ever I am wearing it to forget thought, as a mini mental holiday rather than to run through notes and journey while wearing it. There has been a LOT of gardening going on and every time I work in the front I am completely engulfed in the glorious scents of Erlicher jonquils and King Alfred daffodils.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia Photo Stolen AusGardener

Here is another of my lucky gifts from Michael Edwards, and when I spritzed it tonight it was exactly that gorgeous heady, narcotic and indolic magic that I smell while working in the garden. Mesmerisingly beautiful, as I was driving to work and the few first minutes before I was swept up in Trivia I was absolutely gobsmacked by how lovely. An older bottle with the round cap I think the flowers are totally gorgeous and opulent.

What an excellent rendition of narcissus, I can easily smell how this young man could have fallen so deeply in love with his own beautiful perfection and wanted to smell only that until he wasted away, engulfed or perhaps became merely a breath of indolic air.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

While it is not terrible long lasting, at about 2 hours fragrant and maybe another 2 of very quiet floral vanilla wisps, I found it a wonderful fragrant ride. Extremely pretty and I felt lovely, sometimes a fragrance can make me think I am quite gorgeous. Transportive. Suddenly I am a girlish waif, happy and carefree on a sunlit hill covered in daffodils. It’s like the scene in Death Becomes Her when Meryl Streep takes the potion, except I spritz it.

Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and Perfume Shrine
Surrender To Chance has samples that start at $4/ml

Did you ever get to smell this lovely white and yellow floral?
Portia xx

Vintage Dioressence by Guy Robert for DIOR 1979

September 4, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 35 Comments

How’s it going APJ?

Hopefully all is well in your world. If not, please don’t stress because as the Medieval Sufi poets so accurately wrote, “this too shall pass.” As, perhaps, has today’s fragrance. I can’t find the modern iteration on the DIOR site and only two of the discounters have it. I haven’t checked department stores but ,maybe some of you all have seen it around? My vintage Dioressence was given to me by Michael Edwards, what a gentleman he is.

Vintage Dioressence by Guy Robert for DIOR 1979

Problem using this photo? Tell me I’ll pull it down

Fragrantica give these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, orange, fruity notes, patchouli, green notes, bergamot
Heart: Carnation, tuberose, cinnamon, violet, orris root, jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose, geranium
Base: Musk, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, oakmoss, vetiver, styrax

So I read what I had written and then when reading for the Further Reading list below I found this from Angela at Now Smell This which made my words look like dreck. This is exactly how I experience Dioressence: …kicked off with an intriguing mix of soap and rot. The rot was not musky like body odor, but decomposed, like the vague dead squirrel smell I catch here and there in Guerlain Jicky and Shalimar. The rot smell faded to the background, and a gorgeous floral bouquet, languorous and spicy, nudged in, supremely blended and supremely French in feel. For all its richness, Dioressence wasn’t heavy, and even though the sample was only of the Eau de Toilette, it lasted for hours….

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Now Smell This
AllBeauty in the UK has £68/100ml
Beauty Encounter has $25/7.5ml
Surrender To Chance has a range of samples starting at $4/ml

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Vintage Dioressence by DIOR: GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Winner who receive:

1 x spray decant of my Vintage Dioressence, courtesy Michael Edwards
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 us about a vintage in your closet with a story? Or even a vintage you remember smelling once upon a time.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Vintage Dioressence by DIOR GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-33y @Dior #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 7th September 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 11th September 2014 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.

Have you seen Dioressence in the stores recently? Smelled it?
Portia xx

Vol de Nuit by Jacques Guerlain 1933

September 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Post by Tina G

“Too well we know a man’s failings, his cowardice and lapses, and our writers of today are all too proficient in exposing these… but we stood in need of one to tell us how a man may be lifted far above himself by his sheer force of will.” Preface – Vol de Nuit. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1931.

Vol de Nuit by Jacques Guerlain for Guerlain 1933

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, galbanum, petit grain
Heart: Jasmine, daffodil, spices
Base: Earthy woods, iris, vanilla, amber, woodsy notes.

What powers you on, to reach beyond what you thought was possible?

The heartbreakingly beautiful night-scape slides silently below. The endless shades of silver and midnight blue, white mountain peaks and low clouds reflecting the half-moonlight, the never-changing stars lost to the deep horizon. Flying feels like a time outside time, meditative, reflective, but never quite lonely as there is always that presence of the person who is so often in your thoughts, close enough to be at your shoulder but in reality so very far away.

Who brings your thoughts home?

Back in an age where air travel was in its infancy, the activity of night flight (vol de nuit) was much more immediate. Surrounded by dinky light globes, basic electrics and feeling every bump & jolt of the aircraft, night navigation was a treacherous task at best of times and drew on the absolute strength of spirit of the pilot. The 1931 novel Vol de Nuit, on which Guerlain based its fragrance by the same name, finds our heroic-hearted pilot flying through heavy clouds and raging winds of an unpredicted cyclonic storm – all distances skewed, fuel is ebbing, location is unknown and any minute all could be so easily lost.

Photo Donated Amarah Tabbah

Where does the heart’s comfort lie when the end is looming?

Spring. The rich earth of the garden bed outside the small country cottage has been recently turned, but the rebellious daffodils and irises are sprouting directly from the edges of the lawn. On the warm air is the intoxicating scent of sweet jasmine. Wandering inside, the kitchen hearth is still smouldering, bringing a warm amber glow the room. On the rustic wooden table sits an old resinous wooden bowl, holding a few oranges and bumpy skinned lemons.

But…there is a feeling that someone has just been here, the swish of an apron, a laugh, the trail of gentle vanilla – moving through the cottage, the rooms get slightly darker and mustier until the boudoir is reached. A side dresser has evidence of feminine presence. A well-worn pink powder puff lies temporarily discarded, picking it up, breathing in, that musky-powderiness is like every act of comfort and kindness in your life all rolled into one, deep, breath.

Home is where the heart is.

Our fated night pilot, surrounded by biting gale-force winds and lost to the world of men, fighting with every sinew to survive, sees the clouds break for an instant and the cold stars shine up above. This is his one impossible chance at freedom, at reaching home and the person who holds his heart. He turns the plane, up and up, and with all his might and sheer force of will aims straight for those stars….

Surrender To Chance has Vol de Nuit samples starting at $3/ml

TinaG x

Pink Gardenia by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes review

August 28, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by FeralJasmine

Some of my earliest memories of growing up in Louisiana involve gardenias. My mother had a big bush in the front yard, and I can recall at about age 4 moving nearer to an open flower, then away, then closer again, testing the scent at different distances. Sheer bliss. True gardenia scents are still my favorite, and I want them realistic. Accordingly, I am a sucker for any gardenia scent that comes along. At least, for sampling. I have finally learned that over 90% of them are major disappointments, and I no longer EVER blind-buy bottles of new gardenia perfumes. I think I have gotten most of my gardenia errors to new homes, but there may still be a few in the back of the closet, silently mocking my gullibility.

Pink Gardenia by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes

My Gardenia Fetish part III: DSH Pink Gardenia

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot
Heart: Gardenia, tuberose
Base: Ambergris and musk

No doubt I will continue to sample new gardenia scents as they emerge, but there are a few favorites that I regularly wear and count on to scratch my gardenia itch. The tragically discontinued Tom Ford Velvet Gardenia is my favorite nighttime scent, and in the daytime I love to float around in Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’s Pink Gardenia. She has a few gardenias, but the Pink is the closest to the real thing. The eau de parfum is a lovely soft sweet gardenia that soon settles down fairly close to the skin. Real gardenias in their homeland have a definite fungal undertone that smells a bit like moist Southern loam. When a gardenia scent seems “not real,” often it’s because the scent is too clean. Pink Gardenia has a bit of the fungal note, but it’s faint. This one will evoke the flower but won’t cause your coworkers to wrinkle their noses.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The Pink Gardenia parfum is rich, intense, and comes across as slightly less clean. It is a fully opened flower, lovingly placed on your skin by your lover’s hand. It wears close and soft and dries down to a glorious skin scent. I want this one badly, but what I want to do with it is put it all over myself, and at over $100 for 5ml I can’t afford that. Unless I were to use the whole bottle in one gorgeous binge, and oh, how I enjoy fantasizing about that. But it is lovely and hypnotic and covetable, and you can bet that it’s on my “to buy” list.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Further reading: Now Smell This and
DSH Perfumes starts at a $5 sample vial, for $80/30ml EdP

I have already written to Ms. Hurwitz expressing my hope that she will never discontinue this scent. The EdP is my own bottle (likely the first of many) and a small sample of the parfum was kindly provided by the perfumer. My opinions remain firmly my own, especially when it comes to gardenias.

FeralJasmine xx

Oud Caravan No 2 by La Via Del Profumo 2011 review

August 24, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Heya Indie Frag Fiends,

I love Independent Perfume Houses. They are less restricted in their ingredients, much more creative in their styles and are unafraid of taking enormous chances. Many Indie perfumers make sensational fragrance for a fraction of the mainstream prices; filled with love and a little bit of magic. Today’s fragrance from La Via del Profumo is part of a BaseNotes creation thread where AbdesSaalam Attar asked everyone their thoughts on Oud Caravan No 1 and how he could make it more wearable to a greater audience. Here then is the outcome…

Oud Caravan No 2 by La Via Del Profumo 2011

Oud Caravan No 2 by AbdesSalaam Attar

Photo Stolen La Via Del Profumo

I love the dirty leather and poo opening, it doesn’t last long so you have to be quick before Oud Caravan No 2 goes slightly Band-Aid and medicine. A prettier (if that term can be applied to a scent still quite outrageous) and smoother version than number one with a creamier feeling, a suede leather, an earthy, vegetal dankness both beautiful and alarming. When I wear Oud Caravan No 2 I get a big, dumb, happy grin on my face. When I smell this treatment of oudh that has a sweetness and warm humus rich, fecal waft teamed with whatever it is. The blurb says tuberose but my nose reads fatty cream, birch tar and amber. A resinous and woody poo. He He He. Not making it sound very appealing am I? It is appealing, enticing and sensational.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

While the initial 40 minutes of Oud Caravan No 2 are big and alarming the whole fragrance softens and calms considerably after that. It melts into my skin and becomes very lovely. An expensive leather item, vanilla and resins. Still with a soft fecal overlay, an earthy, rich and peaty smell that becomes softer and sweeter, and softer and smoother till all I can smell is a very slightly sweater and sweatier me somewhere around the 6-8 hour mark depending on the day and my application rate.

PS. This morning I woke up with quite decided fragrance residue, mmmmmmm. It’s really good.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

From the La Via Del Profumo site: I have added Laotian Oud to the Bengali and also a subliminal flowery note of Tuberose, more woods to give substance to the heart and I diminished the spices.
A somehow nobler and deeper Oud perfume that may also appeal to more and may also entice many women.
A perfect Rubi can be exhibited and admired for itself, but when you set it into a golden ring with small diamonds, the rubi’s perfection is underlined and even enhanced by the other gems. This is my idea, an Oud better than Oud, “the ultimate Oud fragrance”.
This is a very ambitious aim and I have asked help to Basenotes Oud fans and perfumistas to realize it.(Oud project)

Photo Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Perfume Pharmer and Ca Fleure Bon has a very interesting interview with the perfumer
La Via Del Profumo starts at €49,59/10ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $11/.5m

Yes, this is a spendy fragrance but something so fabulous and far away from anything else you’ll get to smell of the genre. I think AbdesSalaam Attar is so connected with his creations and really cares that he is pushing boundaries and creating fragrant masterpieces. I am happy that we live in a world where it’s possible for La Via Del Profumo to be a viable and available concept.

Try it.
Portia xx

Kashan Rose by Emilie Coppermann for The Different Company 2013

August 23, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hi there Frag Fiends,

One of the companies in the fragrance world that I really love is The Different Company. I bought some of their 10ml travelers from Zsolt at Le Parfum in Budapest in 2013, and then dropped my Oriental Lounge in the Thai First Class Lounge Shower Room in Bangkok early 2014 (I know, what an asshole I am) but the lounge never smelled better. I still wear Sel & Vetiver regularly and will one day own a FB of Tokyo Bloom. There never seems to be a lot of reviews for The Different Company, they fall through the cracks. Well, I just grabbed Kashan Rose from Surrender To Chance and I think you should know about it, a very reasonable price for 100ml of top quality niche fragrance.

Kashan Rose by The Different Company 2013

Kâshân Rose by Emilie (Bevierre) Coppermann

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Sage, litchi, pink pepper, cardamom
Hearet: Persian rose, hawthorn, peony
Base: Ambrette, sandalwood, musk

Pink pepper done beautifully. A sweet, wet fruity opening that is made interesting and unusual with what I think is a nod to sage & cardamom but really just reads as a herbaceous green-ness to me. It offsets a very realistic fresh litchi, just peeled from its cocoon. Transparent fragrance, like a shimmering fine silk sari, wraps me delicately but I am still obviously fragrant.

Photo Stolen IranReview

Luminous, that is the word that comes to my mind while wearing Kashan Rose. The colour of the juice is almost exactly the colour you would expect it to be. A fresh pink, light, bright, bubbly and effervescent. The rose when it arrives is a soft garden rose, light and cool and softly green like a fresh cut, not too fragrant garden rose. Very pretty, though a bit sheer for my taste. I can imagine Kashan Rose becoming a favourite work scent, or a first scent for a young woman. The mother of two next door would swoon for Kashan Rose, I will give her my decant and she will drain it in a week. Like the picture above, the rose petals are floating on air. A whispered swish of fragrance that is subtle but noticeable, especially up close.

Tonight I wore Kashan Rose to work and though no one commented I did get soft wafts through the night and now that I’m home I can still smell what I think must be hawthorn and some lovely musks, there may be sandalwood but I don’t get it prominently. Yes, even at the 6 hour mark there is still some fresh rose.

The nitty gritty, will I buy a bottle? Though I really like Kashan Rose very much the answer is “probably” not for me. Why? Well, I have a LOT of rose fragrances from Red Roses to Mohur, Diabolo Rose to Sa Majeste la Rose and on to Midnight Oud. That’s just off the top of my head. This sheer, transparent rose seems too prim for my flamboyant tastes. I will be buying Kashan Rose for friends though. It’s a great price, wonderful scent and the packaging is super luxe. They will be thrilled to have something so unavailable here in Oz.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

First In Fragrance has €90/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

I am leaving you with a 35 second video of the Kashan Rose & Rosewater Festival 15-31 May each year. This is something I would DEARLY love to do.
Portia xx

Rose & Rosewater Festival, Kashan

AROMANTIK: Australian Natural Perfume reviews

August 22, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 46 Comments

Hi there APJ,

Recently we talked on APJ about a sampler from an Australian Natural Perfumery: AROMANTIK. So I am still loving AROMANTIK oils. They are earthy, deep, interesting and beautiful and I am incredibly impressed wit their smooth rounded fullness. After 5 minutes on your skin they could be from the very best niche house, here is an Australian small batch independent perfumer to be proud of.

AROMANTIK: Australian Natural Perfume

The site doesn’t have a lot of EdP choice as Sally seems to prefer to work in oils. I am trying today two of the EdP versions. From the AROMANTIK site: Natural eau de parfum in a base of water, alcohol & glycerine. A gentler alternative to a straight alcohol base.

Photo Stolen Flickr

AROMANTIK: Dark Side Of The Spoon EdP

Key notes:
Vanilla bean, roasted coffee beans, maple syrup, caramelised butter, immortelle absolute, spice.

On my skin maple syrup is the opening, hot butter and spices. Imagine that you’ve put maple syrup on raisin toast and you are drinking a mocha. The taste in your mouth as they combine would most closely resemble what I get from Dark Side Of The Spoon. As this lovely open subsides I get toffee, caramels and sweets. A gourmand that is still dry enough to be wearable as a fragrance, not a joke. Later the resins really smooth the whole fragrance out and Dark Side Of The Spoon has excellent staying power.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

AROMANTIK: Strangers In Blood EdP

Key Notes:
Italian blood orange, coriander seed, Madagascan vanilla orchid, roasted brazilian coffee beans, certified organic Haitian vetiver, campfire smoke

BarBQ orange, Jaffa cake, dry and sweet, dark and light. Strangers In Blood is a story of contrasts, a very natural smelling story that is the least like a store bought fragrance that I have smelled from the AROMANTIK range. Obviously a natural product that is so dark and nuanced and feral while still managing to remain light as a feather. Interestingly it takes nearly 20 minutes for the orange to really shine through the rest, once it does you will fall madly in love with this dark gem. Then the earthy, woodsy vetiver takes blood orange for a waltz. (Whoever wins this I have used about 2ml from the bottle, LOVE IT)

From the AROMANTIK site: AROMANTIK is a natural perfume studio started in 2010 by independent natural perfumer & designer Sally Woodward-Hawes. All of our products are hand-blended in small batches using only the finest natural essential oils, resins & absolutes sourced from all over the world. Sally is a professional perfumer with the Natural Perfumers Guild – the world’s largest trade association dedicated to natural fragrance.

AROMANTIK has natural perfume oils $50/5ml roller ball
AROMANTIK also has a Sample Pack $49/7 x 1ml samples
There are 7 fragrances in the sampler and previously I wrote about The Blossom Thief and Love & Strife on APJ.

Please go and have a look at the AROMANTIK site, they are a very small business trying to make it in a tough world and would certainly appreciate your business.
Portia xx

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