Review

Cuir Pleine Fleur, Knize Ten; Cher Uninhibited LIVE Video Sniff; Reviews

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey all,

It’s Easter Sunday and I was LAZY, LAZY, LAZY!! Lolled around in bed this morning, had brunch and basically let the world pass me by till it was time to put my Blogging and Trivia hats on.

While I was having my lovely lazy day I thought I’d try a couple of new to me scents from the leather family. Leather is my favourite note in a fragrance, I love the feeling that it gives me.

Photo Stolen from BridlewoodEquestrian

From my childhood horses and tack, leather driving gloves that my Dad had, leather golfing gloves that my Mum had, her new handbags or shoes, the formative years provided that super delicious scent of new leather couches and car interiors, my first ever, and only, leather jacket (in exquisitely soft and subtle, almost rubbery, sheep hide that was stolen from my car and I have not been able to bring myself to replace because I loved it so much and nothing will ever feel the same),

Photo Stolen from BLUFER

getting my groove on with sexy hairy chested muscle men in leather partywear,

Photo Stolen from TheTickleCompany

nowadays the subtle but delicious fragrance of new boots, belts, bags, the list goes on and on.

KNIZE TEN by KNIZE

Released all the way back in 1924 Knize (you pronounce it kah-neesh-ah) Ten’s 90th birthday is around the corner. This is a “Perfumes the A-Z Guide” by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez 5 star worthy offering. OH YES IT IS! This is exactly how I like to smell from top to bottom. It is a flowery, woody, leather, it has grunt, smells like a very expensive barber shop fragrance and lasts for ages, gradually warming itself on your skin till you wish it was on someone else so you could tell them how frigging delicious they smell and give them a great big snog, before you tear their clothes off and…

Photo Stolen from engrandepompe

Sorry, I had to go and have a cup of tea. Twinings’ Australian Afternoon to calm myself.

I put this on my right arm this morning and have given my neck a crick bending in to whiffle it so often. Cor blimey! I really like this.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

Opening with greens, citrus and herbs Knize Ten quickly moves away to the flowers, woods, musk, moss and leather for me, warming up with amber and an almost caramel flavoured vanilla as it progresses over hours and hours. I have reapplied to write to you tonight at 9pm Australian EST but could still have written from my arm because this yummy scent was still extant as a warm and sexy fragrance, not loud but discernibly not me. This could be the bulletproof fragrance for me. The one that helps stiffen your spine on those cowardly lion days.

You want the notes, accords and real people reviews? Fragrantica is your spot. Want to know a lot about how it is? Reviews that I read from YesterdaysPerfume and NowSmellThis filled in what I have left out. If you want to buy it LuckyScent will have it back in mid April.

CUIR PLEINE FLEUR by JAMES HEELEY

When I first sprayed Cuir Pleine Fleur it was musty morning wake up and ooh I smelled a leather and citrus cocktail, spiky and abrasive, yummy. I had enormously high hopes for a scruffy but refined journey through a magical wonderland. But no. I felt that the scent left me in about an hour except for this almost nothing, barely there memory of Muscs Koublai Khan-ishness that I tried the other day. Like scent resonance, as if the ultimate dry down of it had been reached a few days later, to near invisibility in this other fragrance.

Photo Stolen from JamesHeeley

Don’t get me wrong, this scent IS delicious. It is also interesting. Like new expensive leather gloves left overnight in a freshly turned and fertilised garden bed featuring an orange tree and fragrant shrubs in full bloom, maybe down the back near the old incinerator. For an hour. Then it becomes a skin scent. Way too quiet for me and my unresponsive nose.

Photo Stolen from BaseNotes

Something that should be noted though is TSO Jin thought Cuir Pleine Fleur was the winner out of todays 2 scents. Funny isn’t it? Oh well, if he likes it so much, he can buy it.

If he wanted to he could buy it at LuckyScent where there is also a beautiful description of the fragrance, better than I can give you and PerfumeNiche, where I got my samples for today, has a lovely story about first sniffing Cuir Pleine Fleur in James Heeley’s studio and review.

UNINHIBITED by CHER

A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on a very special vintage coffret of Uninhibited by Cher. My friend David/Margeaux (who just happens to be Cher’s greatest ever fan) and I decided to do a video presentation of it, I hope you enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Video shot and edited by my BFF Kath and cyber-tech work done by TSO Jin.

The Cher Uninhibited fragrance was lovely but I think the Body Lotion had turned due to air, or bottle, exposure because it smelled like plastic after 20 min’s and was IMPOSSIBLE to get off my skin.

Thanks for wandering around inside my fragrant thoughts today, see you tomorrow for Evie C’s update!

Portia xx

Bottega Veneta Review, WINNER ANNOUNCED

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey gang,

Well it has been a lovely day here, sunny, warm and delightful. Better than most of our summer here in Sydney. We spent it extremely lazily, couching, Sleeping, a bit of house re arrangement then off to the Greyhound Races. Awesome day. We even had a couple of wins. I even have a lovely greyhound bitch as a pet, Gucci is her name, and also retrain greyhounds for living with families. So, yes, I do know about the awful and tragic way they are treated after their racing career is over, but it is getting better and we are making a difference, dog by dog. If you have any interest in rehoming a lovely greyhound please get in touch with Greyhound Rescue here in Sydney, Australia. Best pets ever.

My greyhounds

Recently I ordered a bunch of sample sized fragrances in sets from The Perfume Niche and in with my lovely samples came a couple of surprises. One of those was a small manufacturers sample of Bottega Veneta EDT and what a surprise. I had been reading gorgeous things about this particular fragrance and was fully prepared to fall in love due to its notes and the favourable stuff being written by all and sundry.

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

When I first put it on though I was MASSIVELY disappointed because there was no fragrance there at all. I felt like I’d been completely cheated by all these awesome reports and thought that maybe the perfume world was playing an enormous joke on all of us no knowledge dunderheads, like the Emperor’s new clothes. So frankly I was a little bit peeved and went to the bedroom and used Gwen Stefani’s L LAMB body lotion on my arms so at least I could feel like I had something glorious upon my self. I was GRRR McGRRR. Off we trotted to the Greyhounds and I’d been there about half an hour and I started smelling this incredible sweet, floral leather scent and was looking around to see who had such ridiculously good taste in perfume, could it have been TSO Jin, Bestie Alice or one other of the crew? I asked and no luck. There was no one in the vicinity that fit my idea of scent whore, fume head or even perfumista, which made it even more intriguing, was it in fact one of the laddish blokes or swamp donkeyish girlfriends, could it be one of an elderly couple, that super hot drooly drooly poorly dressed handsome clueless guy. Then I leaned over in my chair to look further afield and a great big gust of glorious flew up my polo shirt. OMG! It was me. I smelled gorgeous, leathery and sweet all at once. This fragrance is not big but it is beautiful and persistent. I’ve now been wearing Bottega Vanetta for 6 hours and I smell better than ever. I could wear this baby for anything, this would be office, party, dinner, sex date, kids from school, walk down the back yard or watch TV scent, and it would not be out of place doing any of these. What a fragrance. Nobody is telling fibs when they praise this perfume, it is all that and a bag of chips. Try it only if you have spare money to purchase, you’ll buy it and be glad you did.

Now Smell This does an awesome review with some extra reading tags within, Fragrantica has the accords, notes and people reviews.

This weeks winner of our spectacular Giveaway Competition for

We are giving away approximately

1.5ml JINX by Tommi Sooni decanted spray sample

1.5ml L’Eau D’Ambre by L Artisan Parfumeur decanted spray sample

1.5ml City of Angels by Royal Apothic decanted spray sample

1.5ml Fantasia de Fleurs by Creed decanted spray sample

1ml Fig by Aftelier Perfumes remains of manufacturers sample spray

plus postage and packing to anywhere in the world

is Dionne. YAY!! DIONNE! WHOO WHOO!!

You have till Wednesday night to get in touch with an address so I can send you your prize. CONGRATULATIONS!!

To all our other contestants, Thank you. I love reading your stories and they all would have won in a perfect world. There will be another weekly GIVEAWAY COMPETITION next Thursday.

Aussie Fragrance Day.

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hi all,

Well it’s Good Friday and the shops are ALL closed. OMG! Well almost all, we went a nearby Korean grocery store and got everything except bread, which we forgot because we are dumb asses. Happy and safe Easter to all those who care about such things.

Photo Stolen from HomesSchoolsOases

So I’ve taken the chance today to try a couple of recent purchases that arrived on my doorstep from within this glorious country, Australia. We have a burgeoning fragrance industry down here and Evie C and I would like to find as many companies, groups or even solo perfumers in Australia as we can and hopefully help to create more of a community. We’d like also to meet and talk to any that are interested and find out bunches about them all and how they got to be perfumers and where their dreams are taking them. I know our Aussie readers love to hear about our own and I’m pretty sure that all over the world they’ll be inspired.

This dream is not, of course, just for Aussie perfumers. We want to meet and grill them all.

HOPE by ONE SEED

A delicious citrus opening, so sweet, spicy and sparkly it (you know pear, rocket and parmesan salad where the pear has been dipped in lemon to hold its colour and then a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar? That is exactly what I’m smelling, my mouth is watering from this fragrance). They call this a meditative scent on their site but I feel perky and ready for anything. About 40 minutes later while the citrus is still playing descant quietly, the woods and vanilla have moved in, I don’t get lavender but my nose can be unresponsive at times. This is a bright and alluring scent, a constant intriguing dichotomy between the citrus and warm dark sweetness, it’s nearly 2 hours since first spritz and still powering away on my, usually scent hungry, skin. It changes its mood and tone constantly, offering different depths and layers of scent harmonies, now showing lime, now vanilla, now woods. I had no idea of how good this fragrance would be and am madly impressed, this could be the citrus I’ve been looking for to add to my fragrance wardrobe. I will spend a week trying my sample.

One Seed is a super cool crew from Adelaide, Australia that use 100% botanical, nothing synthetic and are organic-focused and GMO-free (genetically modified organisms) headed by Liz Cook (stay tuned for Evie C’s interview coming soon) that gives 10% of all profits to charities close to their hearts. Snaps! Here’s what they have to say about Hope.

Hope EDP

Hope eau de parfumPhoto Stolen from OneSeedCompany.com

Fragrance Family: Soft, mossy & magnetic.

A meditative blend of Australian sandalwood & dewy oakmoss, with a delicate undertone of lavender & cedarwood, and sunny citrus accents.

Top notes: bergamot, lime Heart notes: cedarwood, lavender, vanilla

Base notes: Australian sandalwood, oakmoss, musk ambrette

Hope available at ONE SEED in 50ml and 5ml bottles or you can get the complete 7 x 1ml sample set from ETSY for AUS$28

SANDALWOOD VANILLA by INNER EARTH

GOSH! Sandalwood, Vanilla and Patchouli! So simple, an oil based 10ml roll on but it is so damn gorgeous, and affordable beyond your wildest dreams. Like the sweet, woodsy, dry down of some very expensive big name perfumes (which is often my favourite bit and I wish it was stronger) but all at once and lasts eternally! I have been wafting discretely and delectably through the house and enjoying this big, quiet, cuddly, sweet, furry fragrance. After about 3 hours you are left with a vanilla candy ice cream. it’s now over 5 hours and I am still sweetly delicious, Sandalwood Vanilla has now an amber-ish, musky depth that is so quiet but still discernible. Honestly, I can’t get over how good this smells for so little money. You must try this.

Erin, the brain behind Inner Earth says

The Sandalwood Vanilla perfume oil is a blend of fragrance and essential oils in a light base of fractionated coconut oil. The notes are sandalwood, vanilla and patchouli. That’s it! Over time I have completely gotten rid of my spray perfumes and just use perfume oils … I find them a softer, more understated way of wearing perfume, plus they’re moisturising and easy to pop into your handbag 🙂

Photo Stolen from InnerEarthSoaps.com.au

Inner Earth Soaps are based in Bondi, Sydney, Australia (of Bondi Beach fame) and are famous for interesting and quirky bath soaps handcrafted in the traditional cold process method and use only sustainable palm oil. I came to them because I was looking for a non chocolate Easter present for my BFF Kath who has lost 35kgs (I know, AH MAY ZING!!!) and has to be careful not to fall back into bad habits. Trolling the web I came across the Inner Earth Ducky Soap and thought, ‘It’s almost a chicky” and so that’s what she got. It has already graced her enormous spa bath and passed all tests for cuteness, fragrance and cleanliness.

Photo stolen from InnerEarthSoaps.com.au

Thank you all so much for sharing what’s inside my mind today, don’t forget our GIVEAWAY COMPETITION is drawn tomorrow night, so easy and you could win a swag of perfumes to try.

I was supposed to have a special video tonight of my mate Margeaux and I doing a video review but there has been a technical hiccup, hopefully resolved by tomorrow.

In its place I offer you this extremely gorgeous 2 minute extravaganza featuring our own Nicole Kidman