Review

Les Deserts D’Orient by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2012 LIVE Video Sniff

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YIPEE! Welcome back,

EmmaKate and I are back in front of the camera proving to one and all that we love perfume but know only the outer edges of anything important relating to it. This time we put the Guerlain Les Deserts D’Orient under our microscope.

Photo Stolen aromamore

Yes, we know that bois means wood, now! Ha Ha Ha what a pair of dunderheads. Doesn’t matter. Enjoy this for what it is. Two mates having a sniff after work and a couple of bevvies, you are supposed to feel like you’re sitting at the table with us having a crisp, dry white/scotch/coffee/sparkling mineral water and we are all having a first go together. If it was perfect it wouldn’t be so much fun.

As always special thanks need to go out to Kath for filming and editing, EmmaKate for being a good sport and Jin for making it blog ready. Thanks gang!!

Gerome, The Harem Bath Stolen melbourneblogger

Here is a short featured accords list for each from 1000Flowers:
Rose Nacrée du Désert: Ispahan rose, saffron, patchouli, oudh, benzoin.
Songe d’un Bois d’été: cedar, jasmine, saffron, cardamom, leather, laurel leaf, oudh, myrrh, patchouli, leather.
Encens Mythique d’Orient: frankincense, musk, neroli, moss, saffron, Ispahan rose, amber

For further reading see 1000Flowers and OlfactoriasTravels

SurrenderToChance has a pack of all 3 at $13/.5ml of each

Whatever you do between now and tomorrow when you come back, make sure you take the time to do something YOU love. Even though you may be shit at it, like we are at doing perfume videos sometimes.
Portia xx

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes (EVP) Adelaide, Australia 2012

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Hello all you Niche Nerds!

Today’s post goes especially to the people who love to find something new and exciting, are all about helping budding perfumers get started and also the people who want the so hot it’s sizzling but no one else has it, hard to find, niche-est, “OMG! Haven’t you heard?” snob value fragrances that also are FA>BU>LOUS! I have found a new crew hiding in the Adelaide Hills. They have sensibly begun their journey with only 3 fragrances and I would like to introduce you to my first.

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes

Edited from their site:
Brendan Carter and Samuel Eads met at University in 2010, studying a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology (Winemaking) courseat the University of Adelaide. Sitting in a classroom, receiving a lecture entitled ‘Sensory Studies of Wine’, it suddenly occurred to them that there may be another use for their growing knowledge. Learning more about the mechanisms of smell, how and why it works, they developed an idea. To release a line of fragrances, inspired by their experiences with wine and their true passion, the Adelaide Hills.
EVP hope to challenge an import dominated market by combating a severe lack of Australian brands. They want to tell their story, an Australian story. By espousing the belief of Emerald Vintners Parfums: ‘Crafted by Passion, Liquid Luxury’.

Photo Stolen EVP

Described by EVP as: A brisk morning stroll through the Adelaide Hills cherry farms as the low mist diffuses between the bare trunks. The sweet scent of honeysuckle in the air, an all-encompassing incense of innocence.

OMG! The opening 2 second blast is toilet spray.  Be warned! Give it 20 seconds before you huff. HaHaHa

What I notice here after the initial blast is a crisp honeysuckle, very green and fresh, there are some white flowers behind it giving an oomph but no skank at first. Without being a clean scent I am getting a lovely freshness, not as sharp as Chanel 19 but giving a nod to that restrained green femininity. This is a wilder, more extrovert fragrance and once the white flowers move into the spotlight they are vegetatively sensual, so green yet extremely alluring. You can tell these boys have been working with wines, there is a brisk sweetness that hints at a lovely dry white wine as it starts to warm in the glass at a BarBQ. I also detect a spicy rose note and a boronia hint coming through at the one hour mark over the top of the still very accessible honeysuckle? I don’t think I get any cherry but I will need to go eat some to remind myself of their fragrance.

Photo from the EVP Crew

Baumé by Emerald Vintners Perfumes is interesting and complex. It has a wonderful story, excellent sillage and for the first 3 hours projects very nicely before it softens down to a slightly warmer, soapy green fragrance that only your nearest and dearest will really smell. A little too fragrant for work but in all other situations Baumé would be acceptable. I think congratulations are in order for these 2 fearless and talented young men who are helping put Australia on the world perfume map.

Photo Stolen bridalguide

LaDonnaDelVino looks at the whole range if you’d like to read further

Baumé is available at the EmeraldVintnersPerfumes site $85 for 45ml
They also have an excellent Sample Program $20 for 2ml of all 3 EVP fragrances
From the boys: Currently we have a really good special already! If you purchase the samples set (19.99 + postage), you receive a code to reclaim the 19.99 back (excluding postage) off the price of a full bottle! If one decides to purchase a full bottle, the sample set comes free!

For those living outside Australia EVP has not yet properly organised their international export section yet. Hopefully it will be running before Christmas with enough time to order and receive.

I love finding new and interesting perfumers to bring to you. What is your favourite green fragrance?

These 2 lovely young guys are proving that you can do almost anything you set your mind to, that makes me happy.
Till tomorrow, loads of love,
Portia xx

Jeanne by Anna Flipo for Lanvin 2008

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Hey Smelly Addicted,

The House of Lanvin has been in and out and there and back again more than once. We all remember, or still use, Arpege in one of its many forms or flankers, Marry Me or Rumeur. The boys may use Lanvin Homme, Lanvin Homme Sport, Oxygene or maybe even the new one Avante Guard. I think Lanvin is a victim of poor representation and brand management. Their fragrances are often excellent, bottles are interesting and usually have good heft, lovely sillage and scent bubble and stay for a good amount of time on my skin but the only place I seem to see them are in the discounters online where they can be bought for a song.

Jeanne by Lanvin 2008

Sometimes I like to order samples of things I see on the discount sites, just to see what I’ve missed. A great place to get really cheap mainstream samples is MyPerfumeSamples where I picked up this sample of Jeanne By Lanvin.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Blackberry, lemon, pear
Heart: Peony, freesia, raspberry, rose
Base: Sandalwood, amber and musk

A super sweet fruity floral is rarely my choice of scent unless it’s knock you down gorgeous with something unusual or freaky going on somewhere along the line. Jeanne by Lanvin is no great boundary pusher in my book and opens very sugar sweet modern youth fragrance, not much different to a thousand others. Slightly fruit tingle-esque with a sizzling pear but then something extraordinary happens, in comes a lovely warm hit of amber and completely takes over the perfume for a couple of minutes and it is beautiful, then Jeanne goes back to being a soft fizzy whisper of a scent that is floral/clean more than anything else but with an amber warmth towards the end at about 2-4 hours depending on my movements and the day. I find that the moisturiser creates a perfect stabiliser and gives the fragrance more depth and a longer lifespan and it is dirt cheap.

Photo Stolen polyvore

Jeanne by Lanvin is a perfect first grown up fragrance to take a girl from the celebrity scents to the next level. Enough like them to not cause outrage but with a bit of complexity to keep it interesting. Also a good work scent, you would have to pour the bottle over yourself to get it to skunk levels. Not sexy but a quiet sweet fruity scent; if that floats your boat then this is a great choice. I liked the amber moment and the middle, soft and nearly vanilla sweet accords, enough to buy a small bottle and some moisturiser for those days where I want to be softly fragrant but not challenged in any way.

Photo Stolen makeuptemple

For further reading PerfumePOsse and SkinScrubs
CheapSmells has 30ml EdP/$24 and 150ml Moisturiser/$11
MyPerfumeSamples start at $2/ml and I originally bought 5ml for $7

Don’t forget to trot over to the PerfumePosse today too because I Guest Post there on Thursdays and today we are looking at JEKE by Slumberhouse.

Hope this finds you all happy and well. Thanks for coming and reading my fragrant thoughts today.
Portia xx

PS We reached 70,000 IVs yesterday. That is fricken AH MAY ZING. Thank You. Feel free to drop this into your Facebook or Twitter so even more fabulous people can join the APJ family. (https://australianperfumejunkies.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3791&action=edit AustralianPerfumeJunkies is my fave frag site)

Magie Noir by Gerard Goupie for Lancome 1978

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Hello everyone Fume obsessed or otherwise,

I am a frag whore, slag, slut, it’s true. If you could see the crazy collection of bottles, decants, samples and paraphernalia that i have collected you would be aghast at my disgustingly hoarderish, greedy, spoiled brat ways. Even I suffer the odd pang of WTF sometimes when faced with the ridiculous enormity of my obsession and then something comes along that reminds me why I go to all this trouble and expense.

Magie Noir by Lancome

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bulgarian rose, galbanum (bitter, green, musky), hyacinth, cassia/cassis (blackcurrant buds and leaves), raspberry, bergamot
Heart: Ylang yland, orris, cedar, jasmine, narcissus, lily of the valley, tuberose, honey
Base: Patchouli, incense, musk, myrrh, vetiver, amber, sandalwood, oakmoss, civet, spices

Magie Noir (Mah-Zhee Nou-Ah) means Black Magic which frankly scares me to widdling my pants. I am reviewing the current formulation that I bought as a decant. The opening on my skin and to my nose is all old school perfume with a bitter, sexy, animal rush that is like a prelude, as if Magie noir wants to show you everything it’s capable of in a moment that lasts almost a minute before the leaves, stems and unripe fruit take their places at the head of the parade. I think it is the galbanum that already seems to have its base notes of wood, musk and civet on the sustaining chorus parts.

Photo Stolen lovespells-magicspells

Not too far further in and the flowers, spicy, honeyed rose and sensual white flowers with the siren call of narcissus all combine to explode upon your person and drift into the ether like the cartoon snakes of fragrance that reach out and capture peoples minds and hearts, all the while leading the inexorably to their doom. It’s hard to feel any less that a saucy seductress with a Salome like power when wearing this lovely and alluring wildcat of a fragrance. Magie Noir is only a loud, strong and pervasive scent for about an hour. After that it quiets down to some seriously sexy and lavishly luxurious accords that put me in mind of the way my imagination tells me that Scheherazade’s skin must have smelled, spicy, sensual, cool but inviting and slowly ripening as the night wore on. I can only imagine how outrageously naughty Magie Noir must have smelled originally and in extrait form. The mind sincerely boggles.

Unfortunately at around the 4 hour mark I become anosmic to Magie Noir but I still get compliments on it long after I have lost any sense of being perfumed. Maybe i am a little bit spicier that normal but really it’s the way I would expect me to smell always if I thought about it.
Definitely NSFW, no matter how scent OK your workplace is this will fuddle everyones brain’s, you could wear it to dinner if there was at least an hours window between spritz and sitting down, same with cinema but most other activities you would be good. Especially good for sexy rendevous, if this doesn’t work on them nothing will because Magie Noir could wake the dead and bring them back.

Dali-LaFemmeVisible Photo Stolen centaurgalleries

PerfumeSmellin’Things and PerfumeShrine for further, deeper reading
TradeServices are still offering what looks like an old 50ml EdT $54 (pictured at top)
FragranceX has the current 75ml EdT $63
MyPerfumeSamples start at $2/ml but I bought 5ml for $7 (CRAZY good value)

Hopefully your world’s magic will stay white but if it has to be black make it Lancome or Sarah Vaughan (below).

Have you tried Magie Noir? Do you remember the old formulations and what is different to you?
Till tomorrow, take care of yourselves,
Portia xx

De Profundis by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2011

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Gabriella

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Hello everyone! Hope you’ve all been well and had a lovely fragrant month.
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Today’s post is part review and part confessional. The confession is that, until recently, I have somewhat overlooked the Serge Lutens line. Pre-perfumista days, I tried Fleurs D’Oranger and thought it was nice, but a little too much for me at a time when Marc Jacobs was my perfume of choice.  Once on my perfumista journey, I tried a few, but the whole stewed fruits and woods thing that Serge Lutens is famous for scared me a little. Somehow, I also got busy trying other things and the rest is history. Thankfully, I’ve now righted my transgression and have been delving into Serge’s world quite seriously of late, so much so that it now ranks as my favourite line with as many full bottle wants as the line which incited my passion – Frederic Malle.
Photo Stolen marathi.wunderground
Exploring Serge has also been a wonderfully informative journey. The perfumes I thought I would like and that get a lot of love in the blogosphere – Chergui, Ambre Sultan – simply don’t work on me. However, Serge’s weirder florals that I’ve tested with ambivalence are the ones I’ve swooned over and are ones that simply bloom on my skin. These include Datura Noir, Vitriol D’Oeillet and the magnificent Paris exclusive, De Profundis.

De Profundis by Serge Lutens

Photo Stolen zuzafun

De Profundis is a composition based on chrysanthemum, a flower traditionally associated with funerals and death. The name, translated from Latin means “out of the depths” or “a cry of appeal expressing one’s deepest feelings of sorrow or anguish”.  Indeed, literary and biblical references of the term emphasise feelings of melancholy and despair: Oscar Wilde’s letter written during his imprisonment, Christina Rossetti’s poem and Psalm 130, which starts with the line: “From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord”.
The copy accompanying the release also emphasises morbidity, stating: “the chrysanthemum invites Death to leave the cemetery and offer us its flower.” For me, however, this fragrance is not so much about death, but a story about the cycle of a complete flower, from the first signs of buds to petals bruising, brown and overripe.
 De Profundis Serge Lutens for women and men
Photo stolen from Fragrantica.
De Profundis’ notes are chrysanthemum flower with additional notes of violets, green and earthy notes.
The perfume’s opening is very sumptuous, green and radiant. It is the smell of a garden after a winter’s storm, a cold wind against dew on stems, bright and chilly. It is reminiscent of other green florals, but here the green notes are voluptuous and full, not austere or astringent in nature. The vivacious opening is tempered by the slight pepperiness of the chrysanthemum and powderiness of violets.
The composition is fairly linear in character, but as it warms on the skin, the wood notes become more prominent, giving the perfume a richness and earthy feel.  It becomes a portrait of flowers left in their vase too long, their blooms now pale and wan, the stems slightly fetid and decaying.
Photo Stolen paranoias
But De Profundis is not nearly as melancholy or moody as I expected. Whilst somewhat haunting, it still manages to have a fresh, sparkling quality that is joyful and bright. What I love most about it is that it full of contradictions: bright but dark, happy but sombre, elegant but vampy, restrained but voluptuous.
De Profundis is a must try for anyone who likes green scents or for those who appreciate some of the stranger Serge florals.  For me, it’s very much full bottle worthy. Mr M and I are now hatching a plan to try and secure one of those bell jars from Paris.
For other reviews, please see Bois de Jasmin, Perfume Posse, and The Non-Blonde
Samples available from Surrender to Chance starting at $4/ml
Have you tried De Profundis? What are some of the more bizarre Lutens creations that have worked for you? Is there a fragrance line that you’ve overlooked and then come to love?
With much love till next time!
Madeleine x

Ambre 114 by Gerald Ghislain and Magali Senequier for Histoires de Parfums 2001

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Hey Hey Fume Addicted Family,

As it cools down up in the Northern Hemisphere and warms up in the Southern there is some crossover time where the temperatures are similar throughout the days and evenings, still brisk enough to take a cardigan with you but warm enough to often not need it. Now is one of my favourite fragrance wearing times because it seems the range that is comfortably wearable is limitless. Just recently I went in on a split from the lovely MH at FFF and I’m glad I did…

Ambre 114 by Histoires de Parfums 2001

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Nutmeg, caraway
Heart: Sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, cedar, rose, geranium
Base: Tonka bean, amber, benzoin, vanilla, musk

I have been wearing Ambre 114 to work for the last 3 days and yesterday it even got Disco Nap and Bedtime wears, I will wear it to bed tonight too. If you are frightened of the harsh, powerful or scary reputation that amber has then this is a wonderful gateway amber. It goes on sweet and yummy, slightly burnt like the sugar on brulee, is pretty and leaves a fabulous sillage, at times there is a Shalimar-esque ice cream sweetness to Ambre 114 that never goes so far down the vanilla road but is looking at the signpost on the fork. Creamy, delicious but still cool and light. A contradiction in theory but beautifully brought to life by Gerald Ghislain and Magali Senequier. So smooth and subtle even in the opening and all the way through to dry down. There is never a harsh moment and tonight at work one of the lovely workmen said I smelled “like a rich and fancy lady.” WOW! That is the kind of compliment that could seriously have me buying a bottle if I weren’t already saving.

There are so many featured accords that pass me by when wearing Ambre 114, the 114 is the amount of separate ingredients, that I feel it would be churlish of me to try and parse this perfectly balanced, all weather, fresh and light amber fragrance. I feel comfortable and relaxed in it, as if I’ve been wearing Ambre 114 for years and have always smelled this good.

Maybe a little too fragrant for work but all other occasions will be well served, even dinner or a movie. Jeans or ballgown, Ambre 114 will fit right in. You will smell beautiful.

From LuckyScent: This mythical raw material improves a 114-element composition. A caravanserai of scents for this hot oriental intensifying the natural sensuality of grey amber, sweet perfume and tinted with exoticism. In the Orient, women used to burn incenses, myrrh and amber. It is an oriental vision of voluptuousness.

Photo Stolen balkanholidaysblog

OlfactoriasTravels and TheNonBlonde for further reading
HistoiresDeParfums has 60ml/87euro
LuckyScent has 60ml/$125
SurrenderToChance starts at $5/ml

Whatever you do today make sure you take a moment for yourself,
Love and hugs,
Portia xxx

It’s nearly the 10 year anniversary of the Sydney Gay Games and here is the Opening number of the Opening Ceremony starring Bob Downe. You’ll see me at the end. Unfortunately I couldn’t find us doing our spiel, it was pretty cool, I got the whole stadium to do a Mexican Wave and when they were at the stand up position they had to scream PORTIA!! One of the high points of my career.

Knowing by Jean Kerleo for Estee Lauder 1988

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hello Lovelies!

I have had a soft spot for the Estee Lauder (EL) fragrances since someone at a Lauder counter gave me a mini bottle of Beyond Paradise Blue and I wore it for a week while on holiday, came back home and purchased my first bottle, while not a signature scent it has had pretty high rotation through the years and I have a back up bottle because of its discontinuation. I also have a vintage Youth Dew and a couple of Brasil Dream due to its discontinuation too. The rest of the range has completely passed me by so far but because our Guest Blog writer Tim extols the virtues of EL I felt I’d missed something and so when I saw a little Knowing on eBay while buying something else from a seller, I grabbed it.

Knowing by Estee Lauder

Estee Lauder site says: When on a holiday trip in the south of France, Evelyn Lauder, was intrigued with a floral scent that wafted through the garden below her balcony. She searched for the source and found that it was the pittosporum flower, which she immediately knew could be the floral center of a wonderful fragrance.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mimosa, pittosporum, rose, tuberose, plum, melon, coriander, green notes, aldehydes
Heart: Patchouli, iris, clove, laurel, jasmine, orris, cardamom, cedar, lily of the valley, bay leaf, orange blossom
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, oakmoss, civet, musk, orris, amber, spices

This is the last of its kind, a big brassy 1980s stand out floriental chypre. Everything but the kitchen sink perfumery, but maybe just the kitchen sink taps we wouldn’t want to go overboard.It opens bright, green, herbal and quickly the flowers come in too. The opening is surprisingly long lasting and instead of changing to the heart in a noticeable way Knowing moves gradually towards the sweet, cool, floral heart, cool as in both not warm and hip. Even the orange blossom here is cool. Have you ever been involved in a hot sweaty sex session with someone but your skin has stayed cool to the touch except where the two of you are joined? That’s how I feel Knowing by Estee Lauder is, so much action and almost complete forgetting of yourself but with a cool, unwarmed edge. You have to have a certain presence before you would wear Knowing or it would wear you, that’s how flamboyantly shoulder padded it is (Thank goodness the shoulder pad is coming back, I’ve missed them). There is an animalic undercurrent that serves only as building blocks at this point.

Much later in the day you will start to notice a warming of the flowers but not in a sweet way, its more a herbal and animal warmth and then the amber comes in and pumps a richness in until tomorrow morning when you shower it all off and start again.

In eastern Australia and on many international islands the Sweet Pittosporum has reached weed status, even though it is native here, causing shade, fire and outstripping local flora problems. It is so easy to grow and quickly reaches a height of 14 meters, so it is often used for screening hedges around the world

Photo Stolen ThePerfumeGirl

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ThePerfumeChronicles and TheMuseInWoodenShoes reviews for further reading
TheFragranceShop has 75ml EdP Tester under $60 after discount!
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

I hope you have enjoyed your wander through my fragrant musings about Knowing.. My day has finished and I am still immersed in a fragrant cloud of Knowing. I can only hope that you smell this good to yourself,
Till tomorrow.
Love,
Portia xx

Gilded Lily by INeKE Ruhland 2010

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Hello APJ Family,

I was blissfully unaware of this line of fragrance till Lanier posted about Field Notes From Paris (FNFP). Righto said I, better try this, sounds rather good. I did and was blown away by the quality, story and beauty of FNFP and have tried it a few times since because it did not then or now capture my heart. Not the fragrances problem, it has everything I wish for in a personal scent except I don’t love it. Since then I have also been trying…..

Gilded Lily by INeKE

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pineapple, rhubarb, grapefruit, elemi
Heart: Goldband lily
Base: Patchouli, oakmoss, labdanum

Ha ha Ha I love the opening of sweet tinned pineapple and slightly tart grapefruit with beautiful, resinous elemi keeping it from slipping into modern fruity sugar nightmare. I wouldn’t know what fresh rhubarb smelled like if you hit me with some and I can’t smell the rhubarb from apple & rhubarb pie that Mum used to make. No matter the opening is FAN TAS TIC! Makes me want to respritz again and again. This glorious opening is just for the wearer though because within ten minutes the outrageousness has settled into a very pretty fruity floral and a cool, calm and collected lily steps up and ever so gradually takes centre stage and the whole fragrance takes about 6 notches down. This is a good thing because that initial fireworks section would have many people gasping for air.

Once the opening craziness ends Gilded Lily (which is a FABULOUS Drag name BTW) becomes almost skin scentish. It is the way I dream my skin smells, the lily is so soft and the base notes so airy that though I am still fragrant and will give a lovely sillage, up close it is soft enough to believe it could just be me with a very slight residue of my floral/fruit fragrance. Lasting power is good in this stage at somewhere between 4-7 hours depending on the day and my original spritzes. It’s leather more than anything else at the end, soft well loved leather that has been a seasons firm favourite and started to take on the wearers scent and fragrance a little.

Photo Stolen from wetcanvas

Only the most fragrance phobic or closest of work environs would have a problem with this lovely scent. A great all round beauty that has enough story to keep a perfumista interested but is pretty enough for a non perfume hound to enjoy it too. Have I mentioned that incredibly desirable bottle? It’s not often I like the soft ones but Gilded Lily has a quiet dignity, an aloof warmth that I think is extremely alluring and provocative without trying. Bravo INeKE! You have captured my heart and all it took was a Gilded Lily.

For further reading try TheNonBlonde or CaFleurBon

INeKE has 75ml $95 and a wonderful World Stockists page
Anthropologie has the range including the Sample Set and ships worldwide
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

Which ones from the INeKE range have you tried? Is there a quiet fragrance that surprised you with its beauty? Tell us in the comments below please, we love to chat!

Till tomorrow we wish you well,
Portia xx

25:43 by LUSH 2012 and Johnny Ruffo

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hey Fumies!

So I know it’s not extravagantly pricey or hard to find but I was trolling the local mall recently and I stumbled across, no my nose led me to, a new LUSH kiosk in the middle of the mall. The crew at the kiosk were so friendly and fun, knew about their products and had clearly been testing the range and then talking together about their tastes and one of the girls had a definite perfumista in training feel, it was a great experience. Now I will always reward a good shopping experience with a sale, especially when the price is SO DAMN REASONABLE!! WOW!

25:43 by LUSH

Photo stolen LUSH

The LUSH site says:
Fresh, sophisticated and light
LUSH inventor and co-founder Mark Constantine created this perfume in twenty-five minutes and forty-three seconds especially for his son Simon on his wedding day. Talk about a flash of brilliance! Simon’s bride wore this fresh and citrusy perfume down the aisle, and it captured the moment beautifully with notes of tonka and lime accord. Simon (not one to be bested by his Dad) later added notes of lemongrass, vanilla, ylang ylang and listsea to round out the already light and clean essence of 25:43.

I love LUSH, my BFF Kath is a Bath Bomb fan, they are a great fun affordable range. Their fragrances can often be quite overpowering but in a soapy, fresh, bathroom spray way. That sounds like I dislike them but I don’t. I love their sillage and scent bubble, love that though they are quite strong they don’t seem to be skunkers, like you have applied a scented body lotion that smells amazing all day. 25:43 is no exception, it goes on all lemongrass and lime and not much later the warmer tones come through and then the fragrance stays as is for most of the day till it decides to be just an almost edible vanilla and then it disappears. If you are testing 25:43, or any of the LUSH frags, make sure you do it on a card first because they last so well that you are making a decision about how you smell for most of the day. Excellent products if you are not a huge perfume person but want to smell good all day every day.

Man, woman or child appropriate. I think this would be a super after gym and off to the evening choice, weekends, casual adventures, holidays et al. Perhaps too scented for offices or cinema or really close confines.

LUSHAustralia has 33ml under $40, 10ml under $15, 3ml sample $3

Johnny Ruffo

Completely off topic but this is the latest viral campaign for McDonald’s Australia. Cool squared! Obviously the web and social media is spaz-la-la over it here and I thought you may like to see how we advertise burgers down under. I also added 2 of the getting it together videos because then you get a sense of who the LOVELY star, Johnny Ruffo, is. I know!! SO CUTE! And not overly complicated by genius. My favourite combination in pop stars.

Rive Gauche by Jacques Polge and Michel Hy for YSL 1970

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hey Hey APJ Fumie Family,

A lot of the time we smell, think or write about perfume is spent on the memories it evokes when we smell them. It is amazing to me that when I get a whiff of many fragrances popular during the 1970s, 80’s and 90’s I am instantly transported back. One of the most glamorous girls in our circle as teens was Margie G. she had a horde of older sisters and they were the coolest of the cool. In many ways Margir G. was the diffused collective knowledge of her older sisters as well as her own striking personality. She was the first to bring back the mini skirt, corduroy, black wool skivvies and a host of other marvelous things in our crew, needless to say we all adore her. I remember her also as the one who wore Rive Gauche.

Rive Gauche by Yves Saint Laurent

Recently I wanted to be transported and went to a counter to spritz. The bottle is pretty much the same but I can’t smell my memory of Rive Gauche in Rive Gauche. Maybe the reformulation has changed it, said I. So off to eBay.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, honeysuckle, green notes, peach, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Carnation, rose, lily of the valley, ylang ylang, jasmine, gardenia, iris, magnolia
Base: Sandalwood, musk, vetiver, tonka bean, oakmoss, amber

Vintage Rive Gauche EdT opens sharp, metallic and green but also seriously sweet: it is an interesting counterpoint and has a very retro feel to it. I think my smell-o-vision has changed somewhat because though this hints at my memory it is not as I remember. Already in that opening half minute there is a fecal feral snarl though that is decidedly of the time and now IFRA and animal rights removed via Tom Ford’s direction of Daniela Andrier during the early 2000’s. That sweet citrus metal welcome warms enchantingly as the flowers come in, it is a big bouquet and no one flower makes a huge stand on my skin but it is honeyed, sweet but not the modern sugary sweet more fresh breath sweet. Beyond flowers but floral, when you smell it you’ll know what I mean but my vocabulary is not up to the task. The heart lasts for hours before allowing the base accords to shine, they are there but very background buoying the whole composition up. It is sweet amber/tonka and wood over dark oakmoss and something animalic that may be the musk. It is quiet by this time, around 5 hours, and will remain so on my skin for longer than I take notice of it, or sometimes I want a respritz before it has gone.

Leroy Neiman CafeRiveGauche Photo Stolen MyNewMaster

BoisDeJasmin and PerfumeShrine for further reading.

FragranceShop has 100ml/$60
MyPerfumeSamples has modern Rive Gauche EdT starting at $2/ml & 5ml/$7

Though my memory wasn’t served perfectly this is a lovely fragrance. Is there a fragrance that should ring bells for you but doesn’t? Have you had a similar experience? I love to read your stories too in the comments below.
Till tomorrow, oodles of love to you from us at APJ,
Portia xx

1980’s Rive Gauche ad, French