Iris Nazarena by Ralf Schwieger for Aedes de Venustas 2013

July 29, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hello Niche Nerds,

Last week I met up with Clayton Ilolahia from What Men Should Smell Like, he happened to have recently been to NYC and spent some time at Aedes de Venustas. There he was given samples of their newest baby: a sleek greyhound of a fragrance that feels like 3000 years of selective breeding have culminated with

Iris Nazarena by Aedes de Venustas 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Iris, anise, musk mallow, juniper berries
Heart: Leather, cloves, rose, oudh
Base: Vetiver, amber, woods, incense

Straight out of the gate I get a sweet iris/leather mix that is very much like brand new shoes. After initial burn off my skin smells wet and earthy prettiness that feels so elegant and refined, green and sappy like the smell after cutting hydrangeas for the house. Iris Nazarena is all crustless finger sandwiches, cream silk blouses, yellow gold + pearl jewellery and Cape Cod in blue and white. In fact it reminds me of how I imagine the women to smell in the upper crusts of John Irving books. Glamorous, pretty, fresh and just a little spicy,

Post Stolen TempletonRye

Parsing Iris Nazarena is easy because even I can smell most of the given notes, or nods to them, but even more enjoyable is spaying myself quite lavishly and just breathing in the beauty of a fragrance that seems particularly well constructed and seamless. One of the things that I particularly like is that the opening greenness stays well into the heart, riding over the leather, oudh and amber effortlessly, though I imagine to make something smell this pure and easy must have taken an enormous amount of persistence. There are some faint crossovers here between Bottega Veneta and Chanel 19 but Iris Nazarena feels newer and easier. Like the other two are trying a bit hard, Iris Nazarena is so comfortable in itself that it doesn’t have to try.

My advice is to give yourself an extra spritz of Iris Nazarena, it’s light and sheer enough not to skunk but the extra spritz gives a fuller and deeper story, and sillage. Longevity is good, though it softens off dramatically after 2 hours to a very sexy whisper, and scent bubble quite close but noticeable.

I can see why people are raving about Iris Nazarena, it is a grand beauty but without the pomp and ceremony.

Photo Stolen Aedes de Venustas

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Perfume Shrine
Aedes de Venustas has $245/100ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $7/ml

Did you try the Aedes de Venustas eponymous fragrance or have you smelled Iris Nazarena yet?

Till tomorrow be nice to yourself and those in your orbit,
Portia x

Make Perfume NOT War – The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc

July 27, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Hey there Perfume Junkies,

Following on from FeralJasmine’s story this week about Afghanistan Orange Blossom my friend and APJ contributor Jordan River, from The Fragrant Man, has put together a story about The Noble Rose: another of The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc fragrances aimed at giving farmers in Afghanistan something else as a cash crop than poppies. This is world changing economics in action and all through fragrance. AH MAY ZING!!
Portia xx

Guest Post by Jordan River

Pashtun People, Afghanistan 2007, Oil on canvas.
Artist: Durar Bacri, Palestine.

Make Perfume NOT War

The Story of The Noble Rose

Fields of rose bushes have replaced some opium growing areas in Afghanistan. The petals are handpicked and distilled into rose oils and absolutes for the world markets.

Jalalabad, Nangarhar, Aghanistan. Photo: Sandra Calligaro

There is one fragrance company that has placed the Afghan Rose on the new ingredient shelf – The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc – and so far, only one perfume has been released from this rose source.

Noble Rose of Afghanistan was signed by Canadian perfumer Susanne Langmuir in 2010. This company is owned by Barb Stegemann, the same person who dreamt up the concept of an export path for the harvest conversion. Stegemann was considering the consequences of war and peace, and her considerations became reality after investment through the TV program Dragons’ Den where she found her investor and business partner, W. Brett Wilson.

Stegemann sources her rose oil from Abdullah Arsala who owns Gulestan Essential Oils based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Abdullah also grows orange blossoms and distills them into essential oils for The 7 Virtues Afghanistan Orange Blossom Eau de Parfum.

Abdullah Arsala, Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

These essential oils travel to market on what Stegemann says is the most dangerous highway in the world.

Barb Stegemann

The 7 Virtues pays $10,000 USD per litre of rose oil to the Afghan supplier, Abdullah Arsala and the farmers.

There are 178 hand picked rose petals in every bottle of The 7 Virtues Noble Rose of Afghanistan. Viewers of Name This – a show on History TV – chose the name of the fragrance, naming it Noble Rose to honour soldiers, and to reference the rose farmers who no longer grow poppies.

Photos: Abdullah Arsala

Notes
Afghan Rose, Carnation, Clove, Peppercorn

This spicy rose, Noble Rose of Afghanistan is available from The 7 Virtues.
International shipping rates are available via email.

Samples from The Perfumed Court start at $US4.95 / 1 ml to $US36.95 / 8ml.

Pushtan People, Afghanistan
via The Pushtan Forum

Tribal people, Pakistan / Afghanistan

Further Reading & Viewing
Afghanistan Orange Blossom – APJ review by FeralJasmine
Gathering the Ingredients for a Love Story
Elements New York
Barb Stegemann on Dragons’ Den
Naming the Fragrance
The 7 Virtues Review at Cafleurebon
Oil on Canvas $3,600 – Alhoush, House of Arab Art and Design

London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers 2013

July 24, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers

CQ´s way to Bloom Perfumery

I headed to London a couple of weeks ago for a wedding and to purchase two Vero Profumo fragrances. There are times when ordering online is just perfect, and others where I chose to wait until I can purchase from a shop. I saw that Vero´s perfumes were available in Harrod´s and in Bloom Perfumery in Spitalfields. Concept Scents Store. In the East End of London. No question in my mind where I was heading.

I stayed with at 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill with a couple of girlfriends. They were kind enough to take a few days off work, so off we went first thing on Monday morning. I was über-excited. Finally I could stop stretching my samples of Rubj EdP and Mito. We jumped off the bus in Spitalfields, and walked through the beautiful covered market, although newly renovated, it has been there since about 1887.

So we arrived. 4 Hanbury Street, London. Walking into the shop, felt like landing at the bottom of the proverbial rabbit hole. It smelled absolutely divine. I have not been into that many perfume stores, but enough to know that this one was special. It gave me the same feeling I used to get when I would discover small indie/reggae record stores off the beaten track when I was much younger. That feeling of having discovered something totally unique, cool, and not for the masses.

Oxana, the delightful owner, came to greet us. Originally from Moscow, she has now lived in London for about seven years. After making sure that my two Vero fragrances were there, we started to talk. I wondered how she had ended up selling Vero Profumo.

Oxana: “Yes, I met Vero a couple of years before I decided to open the boutique. er passion and great craftsmanship at making her perfume creations has influenced me somewhat. I eventually thought that there should be a place (just normal, not elitist like the Harrod´s establishment) where people can buy the very best of modern perfume made with creativity and passion. It´s disappointing how much the generic mass market perfumes get promoted and how little people know about the finest niche brands- Hopefully I am making my small contribution to change that and that independent perfumers get more attention.”

From Bloom

Oxana also told me that a Russian lady will have about 7 fragrances in her collection. If not full bottles, then at least decants. I found that very interesting actually, because that is about the number I regularly wear over a year. No counting samples I try of course, but how many of them do I go onto purchase?

The shop is elegantly simple. Perfumes I knew of, and those I had never heard of. I intend to work my way through, sniffing all of them. There are hand written labels on the perfumes giving the list of top, middle and base notes. There are small black glass jars next to some of the perfumes, and these contain only the base notes. Brilliant. If you don´t care for the base notes then you know you can move onto something else. (A bit like allowing special customers to smell my vanillas!!)

I left the shop elated, and fell exhausted into the iconic Poppie´s Fish and Chips restaurant, situated conveniently right next door. The best fish and chips in the world.

So APJ, this is CQ´s direction now. Scents from the here and now. For blogging at least. Because I do love other scents too!

Serial Killers? The first to recognize why this was a part of my fragrant trip, will receive a nice fat sample of Phaedon`s Rouge Avignon, my new love. Courtesy of Oxana.

If you’d like to shop at Bloom UK Website(<<<<JUMP)

Rock on and lock your doors at night.

CQ supplied all the photos from her iPhone

Purr 2010 + Meow! 2011 by Katy Perry

July 22, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by Katrina

Excitement is building with pop singer Katy Perry about to launch her third perfume, Killer Queen created by Laurent Le Guernec who was also responsible for Lovely by SJP, twelve of the Bond No 9 releases and Viva by Fergie for Avon. In anticipation of the latest Katy Perry perfume I thought I would review her first two fragrances…..

Purr 2010 and Meow! 2011 by Katy Perry

Photo Stolen SynergyByDesign Flickr

Purr and Meow! (with an exclamation mark) are fun and playful just like Katy Perry and the cat figurine bottles in purple and pink are ‘to die for’.

Katy Perry Purr

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Peach, forbidden apple, gardenia, green bamboo
Heart: Jasmine, pink freesia, Bulgarian rose
Base: Vanilla orchid, creamy sandalwood, white amber, coconut, musk

Purr in the purple bottle was the first Katy Perry perfume and is a fruity floral perfume that starts out sweet with apple and peach. The fruit smells fresh, juicy and bright. There are pretty floral notes and a creamy vanilla that sits nicely in the background. The gardenia and jasmine are distinct but not too strong for Katy Perry’s teen fans. I really love the Purr bottle and the perfume is a good choice for everyday use but the perfume is not as impressive as the gorgeous bottle. It doesn’t push boundaries or include any surprises. The perfume is good but very safe. I’m not as crazy about the perfume as I am about the purple cat.

Katy Perry Meow!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica givees these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, pear, jasmine, gardenia
Heart: Honeysuckle, lily of the valley, orange blossom
Base: Amber, vanilla, sandalwood, musk.

Meow! is cloudy lilac/pink with an M dangling from its collar and is very girly and smells delicious from beginning to end. Meow! is super sweet and fruity at the start. The fruit notes are candy-like and smell more like cherry and banana to me, rather than the tangerine and pear listed in the fragrance notes. When the fruity sugar hit passes the vanilla and musk take over and the perfume smells a lot like a soft gooey marshmallow, which ever so slowly dissolves and disappears.

Meow! with its pale pink bottle smells softer than the deep purple Purr. The floral notes in Purr smell quite intense compared with Meow!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Although the perfumes smell good, the most impressive thing about Katy Perry’s Purr and Meow! is probably the bottles, so lets hope that Killer Queen lives up to its name and delivers something kick-arse.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin
FragranceNet has both Purr & Meow! from $23
My Perfume Samples start at $2/ml for both Purr & Meow!

For celebrity perfume news and reviews including more details on Killer Queen, please check out my website: Celebrity Perfume News

Katrina xx

Amoureuse by Michel Roudniska for Parfums Delrae 2002

July 21, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hey Hey Crew,

Recently we had a fragrant get together at my house and the lovely Madeleine brought some frags that were not getting any skin time for various reasons, growing taste, changing chemistry, poor choice whatever. It was fun to go through her box of rejects and in it I found a few things I really love or needed a back up bottle of, and Madeleine’s “mark it up and move it on” box is full of the stuff that perfumistas dreams are made of. Here is the second of my purchases.

Amoureuse by Parfums Delrae 2002

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, cardamom
Heart: Tuberose, jasmine, lily
Base: Oakmoss, honey, sandalwood

First I need to tell you that the bottle looks way more desirable in real life, the photo does not do it justice in any way. Also, the juice in my Amoureuse is peachy, not green, like a tea made out of a tea bag used twice already or a scotch and water, and I think that also adds to the aged, luxe vibe of the fragrance itself.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Tangerine and cardamom say the notes and I get a lovely sweetness that could be tangerine but it seems a little amorphous, not specific enough to be so named. There is the sweetly herbal swish of cardamom but there’s a dirty, sweaty, animal underneath that feels very cumin-esque. Amoureuse walks a very fine line between gorgeous and disgusting in its first 30 minutes, not falling to either side definitively until the white flowers have almost taken over and then it becomes this fabulous and slightly raunchy attention grabber to people around. Between 45 minutes and two hours people really take notice of Amoureuse and compliments run thick & fast, well maybe that’s an exaggeration but there are spontaneous, heartfelt compliments.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

The white flowers are deep, narcotic and sensual. They are green, lactic, breathy, ripe, sappy, languorous, fecal and sweet, sometimes a combination of these together. The ride is great fun, and lovely. Still in the background there is a dark hint of animal that becomes less and less obvious as the honey and sandalwood working together (beautifully with no urinous facets from the honey) sweeten and soften the fragrance. Maybe I am immune to the oakmoss used here because it doesn’t register at all.

In Amoureuse Michel Roudniska, son of legendary Edmond, has made a wonderful fragrance. I was looking at his father’s works and there are some definite nods to Vintage Femme by Rochas here in Amoureuse, maybe I’m just being fanciful but it did slip through my mind a couple of times through the fragrant journey.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Katie Puckrik Smells
Beauty Habit has $135/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/.5ml

Have you spent any time with Parfums Delrae? Do you think you could wear this naughty vixen?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Arabie by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2000

July 20, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey There Fellow FUMIES,

We recently had a fragrant get togetrher at my place and Madeleine brought some unloved bottles and I bought this…

Arabie by Serge Lutens 2000

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Cedar, sandalwood, mandarin, dried fig, date, nutmeg, cumin, caraway, clove, bay-leaf, Tonka, Siamese benzoin, myrrh, labdanum

My first whiff of Arabie is all cooking spices and humanity: cooking, slightly blackened toast, baking too with loads of vanilla, spice and citrus/fruit. I get a heavy tea backnote but I could be mistaking resins/incense for smoky tea. My question is how has anyone found Arabie hard to wear? Potent? Yes, but not scorchingly so like Angel or Giorgio Beverly Hills. Warm, dusty, foody, like eating sweets at a Dhaba in rural India sitting on plastic Coca Cola chairs with only a piece of cloth as roof between you and the desert sun, or in the freezing winter cold of a Korean fishing village where you duck out of the stormy winds to get a Korean version of a donut, searingly hot with sizzling spicy sugar and juices inside, straight from the hot oil, that is guaranteed to warm you up.

Arabie is sweet and dessicated, it could be a million miles from anyone or right by their side cuddled safe and warm under a blanket in front of a fire. Each wear is slightly different for me and I think much of the difference is what I bring in my demeanor, happiness, what I am mindful of. No wonder Arabie is still talked and written about as one of the Serge Lutens must try, must have fragrances.

Photo Stolen Flickr (NehaSingh7)

Arabie, maybe the name has swayed my thinking, feels like wearing adventure. It is busy and interesting, beautiful and welcoming, lavish and sparse, all of these things at different times. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an enormous longevity on my skin as a fragrant event but turns soft and skin warmed by sun scent-ish after only a couple of hours. Then it is a wash of resinous warmth both sensual and exotic but alas only for those very close.

Photo Stolen EnvironmentalGraffiti

Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and My Perfume Diaries
FragranceNet has $106/50ml
Posh Peasant starts at $6/ml

Did you try Arabie yet? What was your experience? If not, what have you tried that correlates?
Thanks so much for wandering through my fragrant musings today,
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Jungle L’Elephant by Dominique Ropion for Kenzo 1996

July 18, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Post by Chairman Meow

Jungle L’Elephant by Kenzo 1996

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin, Cardamom, Cumin, Clove
Middle: Ylang-Ylang, Licorice, Mango, Heliotrope
Base: Patchouli, Vanilla, Amber, Cashmeran

You’ll notice that plum is not listed as a note, which is intriguing, because to me it is the overarching theme in this scent. And what a shape shifter of a plum it is, taking on various guises, some more pleasant than others.
Pernicious Plum

L’Elephant opens off as a melange of dried fruit peel and spices, of which clove is quite prominent. I often have difficulty with this little nail of a flower bud, and its fondness of hijacking whatever perfume it takes a ride in, though thankfully here it is more dulcet compared with the rugged variety you might encounter in, say, Noir Epices. I can detect cinnamon, the everyman, the spice equivalent of Bruce Willis, who offends no one. It took some convincing that I could smell any cardamom, so for sport’s sake I spent some time snuffling away on some bashed up cardamom seeds that I balanced on the scented part of my arm. It’s there! It works! A random but recommended activity. Sitting in the background of the peel and the spices, like some shady trench-coated nogoodnik, is a sinister almond-y waft redolent of cyanide from the pit of the plum, which I’m taking to be the heliotrope.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

A recurring theme that you’ll encounter in reading reviews about L’Elephant is that it is a “strong” perfume, ambiguous word such as it is. People could be referring to the sillage, which is certainly impressive for the first hour or so before settling to a much more sociable pitch. They may be speaking of the longevity, for indeed it does have the endurance of several oxen. Alternatively, they may be talking about the paint blistering gust of nail varnish remover that sears the nostrils on first spray. I call it The Curse of Sally Hansen, and it persists for quite some time. Sally does eventually pack up her nail file and shuffle off, albeit reluctantly and with furtive backwards glances, and that’s when L’Elephant is at its most enjoyable. Yum Plum

The sinophiles (lovers of Chinese culture) amongst us may be familiar with the salty-sweet dried plums that go by variety of different names. I know them by their Cantonese name of Wah Mui. Imagine something that Shrek might excavate from his nose and you get a pretty good idea of what they look like.

Picture Stolen WantChinaTimes

Wah Mui are coated with a liquorice infused powdered sugar which, as a 7 year old, I found to be the best bit, actually the only edible bit, which would be licked off before abandoning the actual plum. I am transported to this memory in the late dry down of L’Elephant, hours after application, when you can finally approach the thing without a hazmat suit, and can detect the soft purr of the vanilla and amber. Later still, as L’Elephant is in its death throes, I think I can smell something indefinably wood-like, and then it expires.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Another Perfume Blog and Bois de Jasmin
Beauty Encounter have $45/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

I haven’t found L’Elephant an easy love, but it does have legions of admirers. I suspect that had it been produced by a niche house, was double the price, had a slick ad copy and had listed as one of its notes an “accord of oriental desiccated plum snack”, it would have had the cogniscenti misty- eyed and lisping “JEEY-nius!”, and been awarded a swathe of Fifi’s.

See you next month,
Chairman Meow xxx

Oud Yaqoub by Ensar Oud

July 16, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Guest Post by Jordan River

There are very few wild Agarwood trees left in the world due to over-harvesting. This has created another issue; the early-harvesting of cultivated trees. Harvesting these trees early has resulted in a less potent Oud oil, because the resin has not been aged long enough while the tree is alive.

Many of you will be familiar with the smell of synthetic Oud in modern perfumes. This is not what we are talking about. We are talking about Oud from nature, from a tree.

Oud is a journey through scent with all sorts of interesting ‘breezes’ making appearances over time; like a treasure trove of nature referencing smells from the barnyard to spring blossoms.

I like to think of ‘barnyard’ as the smell of Mother Nature regenerating. There are also other words used to describe this aspect of some Oud oils, especially the Hindi oils. Cambodi Ouds (agarwood trees grown in the Cambodia/Thailand area) are less barnyardy while the Papuan Oud is more floral. The medicinal note is a fleeting feature of many true Oud oils. These are very broad descriptions; a universe of scent swirls around in each Oud oil. We interviewed Ensar from Ensar Oud last month about The End of Oud and the beginning of sustainable cultivation.

Oud Yaqoub was distilled from the resin of this 60-year-old cultivated agarwood tree.

Ensar has been keeping his eye on a 60-year-old cultivated tree in Thailand that just recently began to show signs of readiness for harvest. An ethical choice to harvest, this tree at 60 years old instead of earlier means that a rare oil has just been produced. There is a video; you can follow the making of this oil from harvest, through distillation to its manifestation as Oud Yaqoub.

This is an Oud oil to keep and age as the scent profile will change with time. Keep away from sunlight and smell or swipe every year or as suits your yearning.

Oud Yaqoub
Single Tree Harvested
Cultivated
Organic
Rare

A perfumer-to-be would think this a rare ingredient. I would consider this release to be a collector’s item. The yield from the tree was 23 tolas ~ 268 grams.
Oud Yaqoub
Scent profile

Narcotic à la the finest jasmine, Oud Yaqoub is already the finest Cambodi you’ll ever lay nostrils on. Age it a year or two, and you’ll be in possession of one of the Greats of all time.
-Ensar Oud

The most interesting aspects of this oil are the intoxicating flowers: jasmine sambac, ylang ylang, sweet violet and rose that permeate the whole journey.
-Andrej, Croatia

Oud Yaqoub Experiment
3 grams is $US 299.99 from Ensar Oud
You can choose a decorative or sturdy glass bottle.
For Arabic readers you can visit Ensar Oud in Arabic.

Nomenclature: Lest you be confused by the word ‘experiment’ in the name Oud Yaqoub Experiment I have asked for clarification from Thomas at Ensar Oud. Here is his explanation.

When we started our journey with organic oud, our focus was not only on ethical and sustainable harvesting practices. We also wanted to imbue these new distillations with the techniques and standards that you find in our vintage ouds. The ‘Experiment’ not only refers to this oud being a custom distillation, but also that it’s a departure from the norm. Oud Yaqoub’s fragrance attests to how the distillation tweaks we put in place were able to produce an oil that’s against the grain when it comes to the typical Cambodi/Thai scent profile.
Thomas Kruger
Ensar Oud

See you next month,
Jordan River

Lea by Calypso St. Barth

July 14, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hello Lovelies,

Quite often I check out the Weekly Chance Specials on Surrender To Chance and last month they had a couple of things I’ve been longing to try and this little number that I’d never heard of. On looking through the WWW I found very little information about it but a short and interesting reading note list, so I pulled the trigger on

Lea by Calypso St. Barth

Photo Stolen Lucky Scent

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Almonds, vanilla, musks

Do you ever want to smell delicious and pretty? Are the freaky niche frags getting you down? Sometimes all I want is to smell good. To smell rich, elegant, calm and sweet. Here is that scent. I can completely understand why Lea has become a cult hit, this is how I dream my skin should smell. I smell clean, fresh and healthy without resorting to “clean” scent of laundry or air. I am fragrant, smell gorgeously snuggly and I am smiling because my body smells so good and young. I know! What a dumb thing to write but this is the sort of fresh scent that really makes me feel so young and, dare I say it, coltish! And if you knew me I am anything but coltish, in fact I am the original old grey mare.

The notes tell the story almost exactly and this is no bombastic fragrance, it is a warm and cuddly, just above skin scent, aroma that is foody: as in smells like almonds and vanilla but only sort of foody, though very early in its development it does have an almond cookie smell. Lea feels sweet in a natural way but without the feeling of a natural perfume. The muscs keep everything skinnish and are very slightly lived in, the sweet smell of healthy flesh in the morning that has bathed before bed, MMMMMMMM. Other reviewers have smelt chocolate but I don’t get it, there is a ylang tint to me a buttery, milky, sensual wash that arrives about 2 hours in and stays till dry down.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Edited from Lucky Scent: Indescribably luscious Léa… Liliane, the owner of the ultra-chic boutique, Calypso, in St. Barth… visits Manhattan, Paris, London and Milan and selects the cream of the crop of fresh new designers and standout designs from established lines and creates a cohesive and trend-setting fashion vision. As it happens, she also loves fragrance, and created Léa for herself, with her daughter as inspiration. Other people fell in love with it, it became a cult favorite….

Excellent longevity upwards of 7 hours on my perfume thirsty skin and I think wearable for any occasion: sloppy, formal, studying, dating, eating and even the closest of workplaces.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Now Smell This and For The Love Of Perfume
Lucky Scent has $100/100ml and samples
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/ml

Have you succumbed to the beauty of this little gem? Are you a follower of the Lea by Calypso St Barth? Is it something you’d like or not? Too simple for you or maybe you are annoyed by vanilla scents?

See you tomorrow,
Remember to be nice to yourself, it’s hard to be happy when someone is constantly mean to you.
Portia xx

Cuirs by Sonia Constant for Carner, Barcelona 2011

July 13, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hello my lovelies,

Today we have a fragrance that has seen little scentbloggosphere chatter but what there has been seems completely ambivalent, people either are loving or hating it with no in betweens. More than anything that’s what drew me to try this Spanish offering from a very new house Carner, named for its creator Sara Carner.

Cuirs by Carner, Barcelona 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Saffron, caraway
Heart: Australian sandalwood, patchouli, guaiac wood, Virginia cedar, violet
Base: Musk, French labdanum, tonka bean, agarwood (oud), cypriol oil or nagarmotha, amber, leather, amyris

I am just starting to get to know saffron in a fragrance, here I am getting the amber base right from the first moment I spritz with what I think is saffron over the top(?) and some soft patchouli. For some reason I was expecting Cuirs to be more in your face, more leather tannery than soft kidskin gloves from the outside of a shop. It is very conservative in projection and sillage, this is self indulgent, introverted scent that is soft enough to be worn all day every day and becomes your own scent but better. Even workmates in very close quarters would think you had a lovely lotion, rather than perfume. The story of leather tanneries that is in the ad copies is a fiction, those places smelled like hell. Cuirs is dainty and soft, expensive and anything but in your face.

Photo Stolen FlickrCommons

Considering how quiet Cuirs is the tenacity is extremely good, well over the 6 hour mark and holding on. Cuirs is interesting and extremely pretty (going from saffron/amber through pretty, sweet woods and then to a well worn leather and smoky amber, the ride is muted but gorgeous) and perfect for anyone who likes the idea of leather fragrance but dislikes the harshness and heft of many leather-centric fragrances on the market today. I think it an excellent gateway scent for newbies or young people keen to experience fragrance, a wonderful office scent and I bet it sells well in some Asian cultures where scent is meant to work with your own body chemistry to create something lovely and different for every user, a wash of fragrance over and weaving through you. To be 100% honest, I want my fragrance to have a certain strength and projection so I will pass on Cuirs by Carner but I am giving the rest of my sample to Jin who I know will absolutely adore it.

Thinking about Cuirs, the price is not outrageous for a well produced and lovely niche fragrance, this could very easily become a go-to for many people. Spritz and forget luxuriousness that will give you mini wafts all day. Even if you are a huge over spritzer like me it’s nearly impossible to skunk with such a subtle scent and you get the joy of lavish spraying. On clothes the tenacity is awesome and a scarf could go for weeks and you would continue to smell Cuirs.

Maybe Cuirs is not for you, for a lot of the perfumista community I can see that Cuirs is a strength let down, for you I offer Cuir Ottoman by Parfum d’Empire, Cuir de Russie by CHANEL, Lonestar Memories by Tauer, Bottega Veneta, Leather Oud by DIOR, Cuir by Mona di Orio, Oud Cuir d’Arabie by Montale, Cuir Amethyst by Armani, Black Rosette by Strange Invisible Perfumes, Cuir Mauresque by Serge Lutens, Tuscan Leather by Tom Ford, Knize Ten and you may even like the plush leather in my favourite Shalimar. This is only the tip of an enormous leather iceberg and you could spend your lifetime enjoying the note and not be done.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Ca Fleur Bon and The Scentualist
Min New York has $130/50ml with FREE USA Shipping
Bloom UK has £81/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $6/.5ml

Have any of you held the bottle in your hand? I love the look of them, I wish I had searched this out actively on my travels. Next year.
See you all tomorrow,
Portia xx

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