Review

Forbidden Games by Kilian 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 23 Comments

Hello Fumies and Friends,

There was a lot of kerfuffle when by Kilian brought out his newest set of fragrances “In The Garden Of Good And Evil”, we were all expecting way too much because of by Kilian’s history and price point. To be fair on the poor guy he did open with beyond amazing fragrances: Back to Black and Sweet Redemption being my two faves so far. Then came the Asian Tales, which for me were a complete and utter flop. So as a comeback series “In The Garden Of Good And Evil” needed to be so far above the bar, include new directions and exquisitely crafted fragrances. I have read Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil by John Berendt a couple of times and seen the John Cusack, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law film many times because I love The Lady Chablis. In my mind I hoped for something outrageous and dark, brooding dankness that was glossed over with beauty.

Forbidden Games by Kilian 2012

Forbidden Games By Kilian FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Apple, peach, plum, cinnamon
Heart: Bulgarian rose, bourbon geranium,  jasmine
Base: Vanilla, honey, opoponax

I am glum. With Forbidden Games I had hoped that the jasmine, honey and to an extent vanilla/opoponax were going to undercut the fruit with a dirty, fleshy, breathy, urinous backbeat that would naughtily and subversively poke fun at the many fruity fragrances already in the market. Something gorgeous and devilish, a finger raised fearlessly at the quagmire of fizzy fruit cup crap. Sadly this was not to be. Forbidden Games leads us and our expectations astray, we get a very pretty, sweet, fruity and only the merest hint of anything not being ultra nice. I was hoping for Serial Mom but I got Mrs Brady.

Forbidden Games is not a bad scent, actually it is flawless in its genre, and will be perfect for those uber rich Dads to gift daughters and wives (They are giving their mistresses the Arabian Nights and L’oeuvre Noire collections). Especially good for a gateway fragrance that will take a girl to a perfumista woman. The packaging and copy are fabulous, of course, and they didn’t just release this for fun so there must be a clientele out there buying Forbidden Games, let’s hope so for the company’s sake.

Forbidden Games by Kilian Forbidden Fruit Michelangelo, Ceiling Sistine Chapel WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

My skin eats most of Forbidden Games in the first half hour of application and after that I need to take a really up close focused whiff of myself to get anything much. If you like the idea of spritzing yourself with perfume and the initial rush of sweet, fruity girlishness but can’t or don’t want to wear fragrance at work then this could be for you. Fireworks and then the merest whiffle of something that is soft enough to pass off as body lotion because offices are so drying, don’t you know.

Forbidden Games by Kilian Forbidden City Tormod Sandtorv FlickrPhoto Stolen Tormod Sandtorv  Flickr

Further reading: The Non-Blonde and Patty really made me think about my review at Perfume Posse
Lucky Scent has $245/50ml or $145 for refill
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/.5ml

I am yet to try the rest of the “In The Garden Of Good And Evil” set but my buddies on FFF tell me there are a couple of perfect gems hiding in the range, my next “To Try” will be In The City Of Sin. How did they fare on you?
Portia xx

Forbidden Games by Kilian Midnight Garden Good evil MoviePilotPhoto Stolen MoviePilot

Pheromones! AbdesSalaam Attar for La Via del Profumo

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Post by FeralJasmine

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APJ, I Believe in Pheromones!
In my remote youth there was a perfume called Pheromone. It was sold through little ads near the back of the Sunday paper magazine section, and it promised to make the wearer irresistible. It played heavily on the fact that most people had vaguely heard of pheromones but knew nothing about how they worked or even what they actually were. Some of the ad copy, as nearly as I can remember, indicated that the opposite sex would swarm around you without knowing why, and you would not be able to smell this elixir on yourself but you would know it was working because of the reactions of those around you. At first this sounded terribly appealing to a 13-year-old prone to a bit of puppy fat, but fortunately I had no checking account at the time, and when I eventually got one I had long since forgotten about Pheromone, which was probably distilled water and a little alcohol anyway.

Feromone pour Femme by La Via Del Profumo

Feromone pour Femme La Via del Profumo FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica Gives these featured accords in one line:
Amber(gris), tuberose, civet, jasmine, vanilla

All those memories came back when I was browsing the website of La Via Del Profumo and came across Dubrana’s creation Feromone pour Femme. The website copy suggests that pheromones from animals may ” have been used by man since dawn of time for pharmaceutical purposes and to enhance one’s appeal and sexual energy.” Well, I don’t know about you, but my appeal can generally use a little enhancement these days, so I ordered a sample from Surrender to Chance.

The stated notes are genuine ambergris and civet, “perfected with a sensual accord of the perfumes of jasmine, tuberose, and vanilla.” I doubt that I have ever worn anything with authentic ambergris in it, so I put it on with happy anticipation.

Feromone pour Femme by La Via Del Profumo Lorando Labbe FlickrjpgPhoto Stolen Lorando Labbe Flickr

At first it seemed like a charming white floral, rounded out with some vanilla. The ingredients were clearly top-notch. I could detect the civet but it was subtle. I wasn’t able to detect ambergris as an individual note. I just noted that the florals seemed a little rounder and plusher than I had expected. After half an hour it was fading, which is short-lived even for an all-natural perfume, and I thought my curiosity about it had been satisfied. Nice, no big deal.

Then for the next ninety minutes or so, the scent played with me. It would reappear unexpectedly, then seem to be gone again. It would waft past my nose on a light breeze but seem absent from the wrist where I applied it. It would seem lean, then lush and even a little fatty. It was a will-o-the-wisp, leading me out into the unknown where I would drift around gradually losing my reason until I plunked down 212 American dollars for a 50ml bottle. If you think I would do that in my right mind, you don’t know how cheap I really am.

Feromone pour Femme by La Via Del Profumo Dove DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Cautiously, I bought a tiny decant and sprayed it about a bit. Same experience. Now you smell it, now you don’t, and each time you catch a whiff it seems a tiny bit different. I’m fascinated. I don’t know if this is the effect of true ambergris. If I ever had a chance to talk to Dominique Dubrana, the perfumer/magician who made it, the only questions I would want answered are “Did I imagine all that? And if not, how the hell did you do it?”

I still don’t know if I will spring for a full bottle, but a larger decant is in my immediate future. This perfume perplexes me. I can’t figure it out. I want to keep trying. And please, somebody, tell me how sniffing solidified whale vomit (Ed: sorry FeralJasmine it comes from the other end) can pull me toward financial lunacy. It seems as blind and unreasoning as…well…love, I guess.

Feromone pour Femme by La Via Del Profumo Ambergris FragranticaPhoto & Following Info Fragrantica

WHITE/GREY Ambergris  
- Product which has a white or partly white coating and a light interior color. Normally pieces of this type are smaller in size (they have been in the ocean longer). The fragrance will have at least some sweetness
STANDARD Ambergris 
- This product is normally brown/grey or ash in color. It will have a good fragrance but still a little strong. Pieces can be larger. You can often notice some layers in the material.
LOW QUALITY Black Ambergris – This type can be very hard, firm or soft.
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I couldn’t find any other reviews sadly
La Via Del Profumo has €59/16ml and €161/50ml
I’ve ordered a tiny precious vial of pure ambergris tincture to investigate the ingredient on its own. I will keep thinking about it. Monsieur Dubrana, this thing isn’t over between us.

FeralJasmine x

One Direction: Our Moment: Perfume Ad + Making Of…

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Hey Hey APJ Friends & Family,

Here is something that usually I’d steer well clear of. Something about it has had me sneaking peeks every time a bit comes up on FB or YouTube. So I gave in, why not?

One Direction: Our Moment

One_Direction Our Moment Perfume FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink grapefruit, forest fruits and red currant
Heart: Freesia, jasmine and frangipani
Base: Woodsy notes, patchouli and musk

Though Our Moment is no ground breaker it is not a bad scent. It could have been WAY WORSE. Though I will probably not own a bottle myself I can see that many, many people will and that this fragrance will be a memory scent for them. It will remind them of great times, fab/fun music, carefree days and their crush on one of the One Direction boys. the bottle is a fun and frivolous nod to one of the other greats of the UK, Vivienne Westwood’s Boudoir, and they present it as if a piece of them went into creating it. Better than expected all round really.

One thing that I will say is that I spritzed a card on Saturday last week, it’s now Friday morning and I can still smell the woods/patchouli and I swear synth. vanilla on the card. If this was what the first spritz smelled like I would buy a bottle because it smells wonderful.

Portia xxx

One_Direction Our Moment Perfume WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

 

One Direction: Our Moment: Making Of..

One Direction: Our Moment: Perfume Ad

Helmut Lang EDP

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

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Post by Chairman Meow

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There is often a lot of discordance between the image projected by a fashion house, and the perfumes they produce (Yairs, looking at you, Gucci. Balmain, I wasn’t looking at you until Christophe Decarnin came. And then went.) Not so the case with Helmut Lang, where the aesthetic of the fragrance and the clothes marry beautifully. Too bad for us, then, that a) Helmut Lang is now sculpting for a quid and b) his fragrances are no longer in production.

Helmut Lang EDP

Eau de Parfum Helmut Lang FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives the following accords:
Top: rosemary, lavender, cotton candy
Heart: jasmine, heliotrope, lily-of-the-valley, rose
Base: sandalwood, patchouli, vanilla, cedar

Rosemary makes a cameo appearance at the outset, but confusingly has a tannic quality, giving the impression of suede or some form of cured animal skin. Whatever it is, it is short lived, and soon evanesces to leave a Turkish delight and musk concoction that hums along in a linear fashion but is utterly delicious to behold. I can pick out rose, lavender and heliotrope, but to my nose, the other floral elements are pretty amorphous. The overall effect is one of buttering yourself up with an almond croissant and taking a good ol’ grind around a musk stick pole. But don’t get me wrong – a scent with thigh high slits held together with novelty sized safety pins this ain’t. We’re doing it Helmut Lang styl-ee, which means we wear matter-of-fact expressions on our faces and our hands in our pockets. We start off low key and sotto voce throughout.

In an excellent interview on Cafleurbon, Maurice Roucel revealed that his brief for the cologne, which I am told is almost identical to the EDP, was to create “the jus to smell of his boyfriend’s secretions on clean sheets”. And he certainly succeeded in creating a scent that re-creates that slightly seedy morning-after smugness, when you’re walking doing that bed-headed, bear-footed walk of shame, and things are Your Little Secret for now. By the way, who on earth is this man-friend of Herr Lang, who would inspire such a scent? I really haven’t the foggiest, although I’d imagine he might look something like this:

Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum eli.mamaPhoto Stolen eli.mama

or

Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum Florin Gorgan FlickrPhoto Stolen Florin Gorgan Flickr

or

SONY DSCPhoto stolen Charles Roffey Flickr

If you’ve never tried the gastronomic wonder that is the musk stick, they are a chewy-chalky fluoro pink candy which I’m guessing is meant to approximate the taste of the idea of perfume. Fortunately for us, now having just licked my bottle of Helmut Lang, they don’t taste like actual perfume. But who would have thought that the secretions from the nether regions of a deer could make most excellent confectionary? In any case, should you ever encounter a pink extruded candy man in a suit, please tell him Meow says hi, and give him a nibble for me.

Is it fair of me to wax lyrical about an obsolete perfume? Probably not. But for those of us who own and love Helmut Lang, let us take a moment to draw closer to our bottles and croon appreciatively into the spot where its ear would be. “I less than three you, little Helmie!”

Helmut Lang Eau de Parfum TelegraphUKPhoto Stolen TelegraphUK

eBay has some Helmut Lang Eau De Parfum that starts at around $150/50ml
I could not find any samples in the sample/decant stores.

If you had to choose the next fashion designer to create a fragrance, who would it be? For me, it would have to be Rick Owens. I want a perfume inspired by his missus and in-house necromancer Michelle Lamy, the anti-Mitzah with her inky fingies and pointy teeth.

Until we next meet,
Chairman Meow

Noir for Men by Tom Ford 2012

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Post by Margeaux

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Hullo again stinkers!

6 months after falling nose first into the world of fragrances, I have inhaled more perfumes than I ever imagined. Some have been good, a few have been exceptional, and a lot have been nice, which is just my way of saying they were boring or uninspired.

Today’s scent is one that I had been dying to whiff, and finally thanks to Portia’s ingenuity with scheduling, I was able to do just that recently when we had our big day out in the city to partake in the incredible Piguet Masterclass. Post class we sashayed straight up to the Tom Ford counter in David Jones (department store) and I made a beeline to the gorgeously modern sleek and striking bottle of Noir for Men.

I spritzed the tester a couple of times onto the back of my hand and waited to learn exactly what this newish fragrance was all about.

Tom Ford Noir for Men 2012

Noir Tom Ford FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, verbena, caraway, pink pepper and violet
Heart: Black pepper, nutmeg, Tuscan iris, geranium, Bulgarian rose and clary sage
Base: Opoponax, amber, Indonesian patchouli leaf, vetiver, civet, vanilla, styrax, leather and benzoin.

To be completely honest, I am still feeling my way through the individual notes, so I am kind of no help to you there. But what I do know, is that Noir is quickly becoming one of my favourite scents. The opening is good, solidly manly without a hint of lumberjack anywhere to be found thanks to (and I’m guessing here) the bergamot and violet. Once it settles down, the beautiful flowers play delicately with the spices in a deliciously sensuous embrace that is both comforting and comfortable. Tom Ford isn’t out on a limb here people, this is totally accessible.

For me however, the ending is where the magic happens, and although having a good look again at the myriad of notes, it could’ve possible gone terribly awry but Noir somehow builds to a crescendo of sophistication and elegance that I cannot get enough of. In particular, I’m loving the patchouli, amber and leather combo for some serious stench, with a tiny hint of vanilla to keep everything in check. Nothing here is too much.

As this is an EDP, it seems willing to hang around for many hours and even on my thirsty skin I can get a full 10-12 hours of gorgeous smell, with it lingering for many hours afterwards if I manage to avoid the shower. I’ve already gone through a 2ml sample and quickly nearing the end of a 5ml sample so I fully expect that this will become my newest full bottle purchase or perhaps someone will gift it to me for my birthday??? 🙂

Tonya Pittman with Tom FordPhoto Stolen noision1 Flickr

Either way, Tom Ford has scored another winner for the man who desires class and elegance without fuss. Noir is beautiful and nuanced and wholly recommended.

Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Black Narcissus
FragranceNet has $124/100ml
Surrender To Chance offers samples from $4/ml

If you’ve smelled it, what did you think?

Mx

(Ed: I still think he looks like TVs M.A.S.H. Major Frank Burns)

GUCCI Envy Me by Karine Dubreuil for GUCCI 2004

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Howdy APJ Fumies,

The other day Jin and I went to brunch with the lovely Cassandra F and her daughter. We had some serious perfume business to attend to and what better way to do that than with a meal and some frag sniffing? So Cassandra and I happily chatted about frags as I was buying a couple of Cassandra’s unloved bottles (which you’ll get to meet here in the near future) while the other two ate and chattered about other stuff. I have often wondered about today’s fragrance, the bottle has always intrigued me with its fun pink repeat GUCCI linked logo pattern, so reminiscent of the linings, bags, ties and shoes of the label but most reviewers are so outraged that they changed GUCCI Envy that they miss this ones merits completely.

GUCCI Envy Me by GUCCI 2004

GUCCI Envy Me Gucci FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Peony, peach, cassia, pineapple, mango, pink pepper, jasmine
Heart: Peony, litchi, rose, pomegranite, white tea, jasmine, musk
Base: Tobacco, musk, tonka, sandalwood, teak wood

GUCCI Envy Me is no incredible, earth shaking fragrance that will change your life and send your mind spinning in heretofore undreamt directions, nor will it need you to sit down and follow a lengthy story progression. GUCCI Envy Me will though be an excellent, wearable fragrance that I could imagine becoming a signature fragrance for a non perfumista. This is spritz and wear perfume for people who want to smell pleasantly fragrant, who enjoy wearing perfume and feel undressed without it.

GUCCI Envy Me Gucci Hartwig HKD FlickrPhoto Stolen Hartwig HKD  Flickr

Opening with a green and fruit fizz the synthetic pink pepper reminds me of so much else available now but done nicer, it feels more expensive than a lot of the zingy fruit openings currently but is also eerily similar to some of the celebuscents we’ve seen in the last few years, it also feels cooler. Remember that GUCCI Envy Me was released in 2004, Tom Ford’s last year as Creative Director. I can’t remember but if he had anything to do with it it must have been a bit cutting edge then.

“靈光一觸 Ethereal Lights” / 夜之寧 Serenity at Night / SML.20130314.EOSM.03288Photo Stolen See-ming Lee Flickr

The heart gives me a musky blur of fruity flowers, it’s a bit like one of those fruity roses in the garden but sweeter than any I’ve smelled. If the tea were a little heftier or blacker it may have been more rose-ish and more interesting. The dry down doesn’t happen on my skin, one minute I’m a musky fruit tingle and then musky and then scentless. Around 3-4 hours on my scent hungry skin but the good thing is you will never overspray or skunk anyone.

As it is GUCCI Envy Me suffers on my skin from a lack of base, it’s a pretty, amorphous and ethereal sweet wash that has quite good sillage but not too much projection, maybe elbow length away in the first 2 hours thewn it’s come in to hug me and get a waft.

GUCCI Envy Me Gucci Chilled DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: Scent Addicts and Ellen’s Blog
Fragrance Shop has 50ml starting at under $50 ($41 with coupon)
My Perfume Samples starts at $2.50/ml

Did you try GUCCI Envy Me? Thoughts?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

 

Ocre Doré by Shyamala Maisondieu for Scent on Canvas 2013

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Post by Michael

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So I’m sitting here somewhat annoyed. I don’t know if my nose is broken but the fragrance I’m wearing just isn’t doing it for me. I was sooo very excited to try this line and perhaps the expectation was too high but I cannot escape my impressions of this scent and how it runs on my skin.

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Ocre Doré by Scent on Canvas 2013

Ocre Doré Scent on Canvas FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Iran galbanum, tea, mate
Heart: White truffle, oakmoss, dry undergrowth
Base: Guaiac wood, Paraguayan wood, Virginia cedar, Indonesian patchouli leaf, labdanum
Ocre Dore (translates as Golden Ochre) opens dense, somewhat resinous and vanillic. The most interesting aspect of the fragrance then becomes apparent – a lovely lactonic green tea accord that I very much enjoy. This part of the development lasts around 30 wonderful minutes on my skin. From here an earthy, mossy, truffle-ish accord appears.

Ocre Doré Scent on Canvas black-summer-truffles ShockinglyDeliciousPhoto Stolen ShockinglyDelicious

There’s also an accord that I can’t quite place that’s reminiscent of makeup, or a womens fragrance of the 80s, but it’s oh so subtle. No, actually, it might even be the scent I’ve experienced in a cold cream..but not quite as nice…

Essentially I find this to be a soft, lactonic, tea-ish scent with subtle green resinous notes weaving their way throughout. The “woodiness” (and intermittent olfactory fatigue) seems to be courtesy of a boatload of aroma chemicals. Personally that’s not how I prefer my “woody” notes and at this stage of the fragrance I’m heartily sick of the aroma chemical overdosing that seems to have been employed.

Ocre Doré Scent on Canvas Nanzenji_green_tea WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

After only a couple of hours the fragrance collapses leaving a vague wood/amber scent on my skin. This is parfum strength!? I’m confused…..

So after a full days wear I understand the parfum strength is there in the aroma chems and, after many hours, a good helping of cleanish musks.

A brief office survey did not garner compliments, with one of the girls commenting on the weird chemical smell about five hours into the wear.

Thankfully samples of the Scent on Canvas range are quite cheap so please test them yourself and tell me what you think. Perhaps it will perform differently on your skin. Mind you, those with an aversion to the usual synthy suspects best steer clear.

Further reading: Perfume Shrine
Scent on Canvas Site has a 5 x 2ml Sample Set for 10€ and sell bottles for a very reasonable 130€/100ml

What a bummer! I so love the concept of this line. Fingers crossed that Noir de Mars is more up my alley because Portia gave me both of them from her sample set to try.

Have you tried Ocre Dore? I’d love to know what you think of this fragrance and how behaves on your skin.

Mx

Trefle Pur by Jerome Epinette for Atelier Cologne 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

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Post by Maya

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Hello APJ,

When my daughter Tamara found out that I was working on a review for APJ, she asked me to pick one of her favorite perfumes and do a review on it. I agreed to work with HER on a review. She has a great nose and her perfume impressions are as she puts it “abstract” and I should add, usually, but not always, single words which I make into sentences. That’s become my job in this collaboration.

We decided to pick one of 4 fragrances. We sniffed the first one and I asked, “What do you get?” She said with a big smile, “It smells good!” After I stopped laughing, I asked, “And what else?” She replied, “It smells good!” This happened with 2 more fragrances. We chose the one that when I asked the question, she answered, “Leprechauns”. So leprechauns it is!

Trefle Pur Atelier Cologne 2010

Trefle Pur Atelier Cologne FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange, cardamom, sweet basil
Heart: Clover, violet leaves, Tunisian neroli
Base: Moss, patchouli, musk

Trefle Pur opens bright, crisp, citrusy, and slightly green. After about 5 minutes, a little sweetness comes in and the crispness lightens a little. It stays sweet, but it’s not a floral type of sweetness. It keeps an underlying citrus note and a subtle spice appears. It’s during this opening that “I think of leprechauns, lush green fields, four leaf clovers, and streams.”

Trefle Pur Atelier 4-leaf Clover wikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Later on the “notes combine so I can’t really pick out anything specific. It becomes a little, bright, sweet, and spicy (not like pepper or cinnamon, a subtle spice) scent. It smells good!” Now is when it’s spring – a combination of sunlight, budding flowers and moss.

It wears close to the skin and lasts a few hours.

I asked her, “When would you wear it?” And she answered, “When I felt like it.”

Trefle Pur Atelier Cologne pxleyesPhoto Stolen pxleyes

Then I asked her if she minded me writing about her and how this review came to be.
“As long as you don’t tell my personal secrets, we’re all good.”
“What personal secrets?”
“The ones I don’t tell you about, so we’re all good.”

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and EauMG
LuckyScent start at $70/30ml to $175/200ml and have samples
Surrender To Chance have $3/ml or $19/7.5ml manufacturers mini

Now that I’ve stopped laughing, I have to ask: Have you tried Trefle Pur and what are your feelings about it if you have? I’m afraid to ask what you think of this review.

Maya

Ashoka by Bertrand Duchaufour for Neela Vermeire Creations 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hello Perfume Junkies,

One of the most written and talked about perfume curators is my mate Neela Vermeire. I know that she is a complete perfume idealist, putting in more money to her perfumes ingredients than most other niche houses and always insisting on the absolute best available. Neela works in fragrant guidelines rather than budgets and has a much smaller profit margin than you would expect. Yes her perfumes are pricey but that is not a value inflated by advertising, brand name or ego, it is a very real reflection of the money spent creating her masterpieces. When you pay for a Neela Vermeire Creation scent, you are paying for the highest quality personal fragrance available. I am extremely proud to be friends with Neela because she is good people and a great fragrance curator.

Ashoka by Neela Vermeire Creations 2013

Ashoke Neela Vermeire Creations FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Fig leaf, leather, white lotus, pink lotus, mimose, fig tree, osmanthus, rose, water hyacinth, vetiver, styrax, incense, sandalwood, myrrh, tonka bean and balsam fir
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Neela Vermeire Creations gives these featured accords:
Top: Lotus, rose, water hyacinth, fig leaf, parsley leaf
Heart: Osmanthus absolute, cassie absolute (acacia farnesiana), iris, incence absolute, jasmine sambac, fig milk, geranium, ylang ylang
Base: Fir balsam absolute, myrrh, cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla accord, abregris, birch, Haitian vetiver, leather, styrax, heliotrope
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While Jin and I were in Paris earlier in the year we were used by Neela as guinea pigs for three of her very last mods before making decisions. They were all different but built around the same warm, woody theme and their longevity was amazing. Jin and I both got an armful of the two samples we liked and Neela acted as if it were an imposition and she was sorry to put us through it. UM, OMfreakingG. testers for one of the most beautiful and prestigious brands of fragrance in the world? What a terrible imposition! Outrageous! All of them were exquisite and all Neela really had to do was pick one at random depending on how her vision matched because any one could have gone straight to market in my opinion. I don’t know which one Neela went with and I don’t have a sample so instead I will tell you about the name Ashoka. I have taken most of my story from Wikipedia on Ashoka and the Mauryan Dynasty.
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Ashoka Mauryan

Ashoka Neela Vermeire Creations Asoka MoviePhoto Stolen Movie Poster

Ashoka Mauryan was an Indian ruler long before there was such a thought as unified India and came from the Mauryan Dynasty (322 to 185 BCE) which ruled on the eastern side of India where the modern Bihar is. Following Chandragupta Mauryan (who was a Jainist) into power, who had taken advantage of the disturbance left in the wake of leaving Alexander the Great armies and annexed large swathes of India to his rule. The Mauryan Dynasty was the largest India had seen and one of the biggest empires of its time.
AshokStambhaThailandPhoto Stolen WikiMedia
So Ashoka was a warrior from a warlike race who desired power and more lands above all. He continued his forebears conquering ways until after the Kalinga War, which his army won though none of his ancestors had been able to. The mass deaths of his own and his enemies people, which had caused more than 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, stirred something new in Ashoka and he slowly came to embrace Buddhism as his religion, “Ashoka regarded Buddhism as a doctrine that could serve as a cultural foundation for political unity.“ Ashoka is now remembered as a philanthropic administrator, a man who led his people to 50 years of peaceful prosperity. A man who brought Buddhism to the world and changed the way his people lived for the better.
Ashoka Neela Vermeire Creations Guatama Buddha WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia
H G Wells wrote in The Outline Of History, “Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star.”
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Ashoka is released Friday September 13 2013 and can be purchased direct from Neela Vermeire Creations.
There’ll be more once I get a sample,
Portia xx
Ashoka Neela Vermeire Creations Ashoka Mandala WikipediaPhoto Stolen GoogleCommons

James Franco: Made To Measure by GUCCI Mini Movie

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hello lovers of fabulous frag ads,

GUCCI has made a stunning choice in James Franco, looking debonair and dangerous he owns the screen and makes me want to retry Made To Measure. As I was profoundly disappointed with my original testing I think I need to go back and give Made To Measure by GUCCI another chance, James Franco has turned my head, and how…..

Made To Measure by GUCCI 2013

Made to Measure Gucci FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Calabrian bergamot, Tunisian orange blossom, French lavender and aniseed
Heart: Sri Lanka nutmeg, water lily, juniper berries, plum and cinnamon
Base: Labdanum, patchouli, leather and amberLabdanum, patchouli, leather and amber

James Franco: Made To Measure by GUCCI Mini Movie

James franco Made To Measure GUCCI AdPhoto Stolen GUCCI

Do please enjoy these.
Portia xx

The Making Of…


The Made To Measure Mini Movie