Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

April 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey Hey APJ,

Yes, I know I’ve said it before but I love the crossover months, where it is cool and crisp morning and evening but warms through the day. I love the mid seasons, warm enough for a t-shirt but cool enough that you need a jumper tied around your waist in case. These are the seasons in Australia when we usually get the most rain too. There are metal rooves both front and back of my house and I love to hear rain drumming on them, right outside my office I hear it on the back verandah roof and splashing in the pool. HEAVEN!

Bigarade Concentree by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2002

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange
Heart: Rose
Base: Cedar, grass, hay

Bigarade Concentree was one of the first of the Frederic Malle line that I studied in any depth because my BFF Kath has a bottle. we went together with EmmaKate who used to manage a niche & fine fragrance store in Sydney and she spent an hour taking us through the range, we had every scent on a card and all of the cards locked in greaseproof paper and cellophane. We were allowed pick three samples each to take away but Kath had decided there and then that she wanted Bigarade Concentree in her life for good. I have been lucky enough to smell it on her for a few years now and it is irrevocably entwined with her for me. I will try to be objective.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

I tell you what, when I spray Bigarade Concentree on myself I am transported to my childhood. We always had an orange and a lemon tree, I think Mum had planted them when they finished building the house. My two main memories of the orange tree are Mum grousing over the trouble it was and the orange juice we used to drink made of the oranges from the tree. At the start of the season the orange juice would taste like the bitter orange smell of the opening of Bigarade Concentree and Mum would add sugar to sweeten it enough for us to drink. JCE has captured my memory and bottled it, there is even the smell of the taste of the pith from eating the orange quarters down into the white.

Once the main orange note has calmed, though it never leaves completely, something rose-ish moves across my nostril-vision but it’s a hint towards rose note like a rose I’ve ever smelled, maybe a rose in an orange grove? The orange still walks all over the rose. Pounds the life out of it leaving me with a grassy? Still kinda grassy/pithy/animal/zesty citrus, the citrus still front and center, HOW have they done this. Incredible use of a note that usually is gone in two minutes. 5+ hours of citric goodness and still more almost fragrance before it leaves me completely, my ability to smell it anyway.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Scent For Thought and Scentrist
Frederic Malle has €75/3 x 10ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6/ml

Have you tried Bigarade Concentree? How was your experience? What did you think of it and why?

Thanks for taking a moment to wander through my fragrant thoughts,
Portia xx

Antonia's Flowers by Bernard Chant + Norbert Bijaoui

April 7, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 73 Comments

Post by Azar

Hello APJ,

The sun is finally shining here in the Pacific North West (PNW) – at least for a few more days. March 2014 has been the wettest on record in Western Washington, USA. The rain totaled 9.44 inches, at least three times the normal rainfall for the month of March. With all that precipitation and a little sunshine the flowers are now popping open everywhere. At long last spring is really here and what better way to enhance this natural seasonal bouquet than with a scent from Antonia’s Flowers!

Antonia’s Flowers by Bernard Chant + Norbert Bijaoui

Antonia Bellanca began her circuitous route to perfumery as a visual artist, studying in Boston and later in France. Exposure to Flemish floral art turned her innate love of flowers into a new career. Upon returning to the US she began working as a florist in New York City. In the early 1980s Ms. Bellanca opened her own shop, Antonia’s Flowers in East Hampton, NY. Spending so much of everyday with beautiful natural scents inspired Antonia Bellanca to create her own perfume. She worked with perfumer Bernard Chant (the creator of Aramis, Aramis Devin and Estee Lauder Aromatics Elixir among others) to recreate the scent of freesia, one of her favorite flowers. Her first fragrance debuted in 1985 and was named after her florist shop. Antonia’s Flowers EDT was a great success and for many years a best seller at Barney’s in NYC where you can find her latest fragrance Rokka.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

The popularity of the original Antonia’s Flowers fragrance led to the creation of an EDP and also an Absolute version. In 1990 Ms. Bellanca closed the florist shop to devote her time to the perfumery. In 1995 Antonia’s Flowers introduced Floret EDT, a fragrance with top notes of the illusive sweet pea. Floret eventually appeared as an EDP. (I prefer the lighter quality of the original version.)

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

In the late 90s Antonia Bellanca moved Antonia’s Flowers to the small seaside town of Osterville, MA. The next perfume to appear in the line, Tiempe Passate, was created in 1999 in collaboration with Norbert Bijaoui, the perfumer who developed Esteban Classic Chypre, Givenchy Organza Indecent and TL Pour Lui. Tiempe Passate was named after a love song written by Antonia’s grandfather, the title translating simply as “time passes” in Sicilian. On my skin Tiempe Passate is a light, clean and soapy classic with elements of mandarin and cedar wood.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

My favorite Antonia’s Flowers fragrance is Sogni del Mare (Dreams – or thoughts – of the Sea) launched in 2007. The AF website describes the fragrance as “a watery, fruity floral with notes of Italian bergamot, cassis buds, wild rhubarb, orange and lotus”. My first breath of Sogni del Mare is of salt, rhubarb and lotus, watery but not really oceanic. On my skin this fragrance is kin to OdlR’s Oriental Lace but without the overt gourmand notes of almond and honey. For me Sogni del Mare is an understated, salty floral with a hint of slightly tart rhubarb pie. This fragrance is intimate and ephemeral, lasting only an hour or two on my skin, the perfect scent for crowded places, spring mornings or hot summer days at the beach.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

The latest addition to the line is Rokka, a men’s cologne launched in 2013. This new fragrance was included in a sample pack I ordered in March from Antonia’s Flowers. Rokka opens with top notes of violet and citrus, develops a heart of cedar, moss, nutmeg and tonka bean and finishes with amber and patchouli. I find Rokka considerably lighter and greener than the listed notes imply. It reminds me a little of the Italian shaving products by Proraso but definitely unisex and very fresh. The name Rokka puzzles me. Perhaps it is a reference to the Rokka noYuusha series of novels about the Heroes (or Warriors) of the Six Flowers by Ishio Yamagata.

Antonia’s Flowers site has the complete range and very reasonable sample sets.

Photo Stolen hemodernhome

Antonia’s Flowers GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have ONE Winner who will get:
One complete sample set of Antonia’s Flowers fragrances including 1 ml of each of the following:
Antonia’s Flowers EDT
Antonia’s Flowers EDP
Floret EDT
Floret EDP
Tiempe Passate EDP
Sogni del Mare EDT
Rokka cologne
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

To be eligible for the draw please comment on any Antonia’s Flowers fragrance OR let us know what scent you will be wearing to the beach this summer!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Antonia’s Flowers Sample Set GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2F0 #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 10th April 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org or any other madcap but fair way Azar can choose
The winners will have till Monday 14th April 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Azar xx

Narcissus + Tuberose: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY WINNERS

April 7, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hi there junkies,

Thanks for all getting so on board with this giveaway. Clearly we hit a fave frag manufacturer and the prohibitive cost of these lovelies must be another factor. I have enjoyed these immensely and can’t wait to read what our winners think.

Narcissus + Tuberose: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will get:
1 x .5ml sample Narcissus Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
1 x .5ml sample Tuberose Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Tell me any memory of daffodils or narcissus, their smell, how they look, a fragrance you love with them. Maybe you grew them, grow them or love them as a cut flower, anything narcissus related will get you in.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie ~~CB I Hate Perfume Narcissus~~ GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Eq #Perfume #Giveaway @CBrosius712

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 6th April 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen markmontanoblogs

Patty Pong

Sister Mary

The winners will have till Thursday 10th April 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Frapin 1270 by Sidonie Lancesseur for Frapin 2010

April 6, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Hi There Crew,

I have only spent real time with one Frapin fragrance before and that was L’Humaniste which I liked very much, interestingly today’s fragrance was also re-created by the same perfumer. The original 1270 was created by Beatrice Cointreau. I don’t know why they had it reformulated, anyone?

Frapin 1270 by Sidonie Lancesseur for Frapin 2010

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Dried orange, pineapple, hazelnut, resins, dried plums, cocoa, tonka, coffee
Heart: Lime blossom, linden tree, pepper, spices, dried fruits
Base: Wood, Guaiac wood, white honey, vanilla

I have spritzed 1270 Frapin a few times before. I don’t know why but it has not struck me before as very likeable. I think my tastes may be expanding to include much more fun and frivolous fragrances because while trying to use up my unloved decant I have fallen madly in love.

PINEAPPLE, like smoking a pineapple flavoured hookah while eating fairy floss. 1270 is weird and fun and a little bit crazy. I get sugar and pineapple, some other amorphous fruit and some smoky, warm resins. At no point do I get any chocolate, damnit. But still I just LOVE it. So fun. There is a fizziness that doesn’t seem at all aldehydic but like pineapple flavoured Fanta, bubbling around in your mouth with that delicious, sugar filled, fizzy rush that you get on your first swallow from the can. MMMMMMM. Boozy? Kind of. You know those sweet drinks that you can’t taste the alcohol in? The ones that often go down quickly and you drink them like soda pop because all that sugar makes you incredibly thirsty? Then BAM you are drunk. That’s the kind of booze here in 1270.

Lime blossom passes me by but the pepper, spices and dried fruits give a wonderful night in a Delhi bar in a bazaar vibe during the heart while still pumping out the fizzy pineapple right through the heart of 1270. Gradually the whole fragrance warms through as the honey, killing off the pineapple completely, takes centre stage standing right out front of the woods and vanilla but you can tell they are just waiting their turn to complete the story as we head to dry down. Warm soapy vanilla and woods, like VERY expensive mini bath soaps from the 1980s, are a beautiful end to a ride that has been so diverse, interesting, fun, frivolous at times and in the end a big gentle hug. How did I miss all this before?

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Interestingly 1270 is not on the Frapin parfums site any more. Are they discontinuing it? Does anyone know? All the online stores have it…..

Wearing? Almost everywhere. After the first 30 minutes you won’t be skunking anyone unless you are an outrageous oversprayer. In frag phobic workplaces it may be a bit much but otherwise I see 1270 as an excellent and fun choice. It is pricey but now that I get it I feel that I might even contemplate a purchase, let’s see if I finish my 5ml decant first, only 1ml of it has gone yet.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Another Perfume Blog
Libertine Parfumerie has $199/100ml (with FREE postage in Australia)
First In Fragrance has €105/100ml and samples
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Have you spent any time with 1270? Any of the Frapin frags? Have you ever had one of their cognacs?
Portia xx

Pineapple Photo Stolen Flickr

Supreme Bouquet by Yves Saint Laurent 2013

April 5, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hey there Fellow Fumie Family.

Today we are chatting about one of Yves Saint Laurent’s newest lineup, the Oriental Collection. These are a new last year, extremely spendy, designer try at regaining some of their lost consumer ground through their own, and enforced, ruthless reformulations and cheapening of many of their products. Here is the big ticket item to lure us back. There are now four in the Oriental Collection with the addition of Splendid Wood this year.

Supreme Bouquet by Yves Saint Laurent 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Fruity notes
Heart: Ylang ylang, tuberose, jasmine
Base: Patchouli, amber, musk

Supreme Bouquet, seems like they have made the bar pretty high, Supreme? Really Supreme? I was already pre disposed to not like it just from the name, which seems both overblown and lame. Who is in charge of this stuff at YSL Fragrance, it just makes me squirm with embarrassment that out of the WHOLE English language (and the thousands of others available) that Supreme Bouquet is the BEST name they could come up with. Let’s wear it and see if it lives down to it’s moniker.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Peaches from a can, mango and pineapple? Like a fruit cocktail with added sugar syrup, actually, like the syrup that canned fruit comes in. YUMMY! I am taken directly back to my childhood in the first spritz, sadly this crazy fun, 100% unnatural scent only blasts for about 3-5 minutes before it is lost in a very honey-like sweetness that still manages to be dry, as the white flowers come strolling in with a sinuous, sensuous, insouciant abandon and wrap their lovely coils around the fruit till all you can smell are sweet, buttery, green, fatty white flowers. So beautiful there is almost a fairytale quality, Supreme Bouquet is ethereal but solid and wafting gently around me like a nimbus. It is like you have sat yourself in an arbour of exotic dream flowers that bear only a passing resemblance to anything of this world, more like the flowers I would expect Queen Amidala to cultivate. Sometimes I worry that I have TERRIBLE taste in fragrance, I think these are nearly completely aroma chemicals but still they smell fabulous to me. I love it.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

The amber highlights and warms the flowers as they start to fade, they don’t really leave but they do become less assertive, relax their hold and give some space to everything else, sadly the uber clean patchouli and musks smell a trifle generic and that lets the whole composition down a bit, after the fireworks of the opening and heart it would have been nice if the patchouli had given us a raspy, earthy depth. It doesn’t.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Katie Puckrik Smells and Kafkaesque
Available in department stores (not in Australia yet) UK YSL site £195
I bought my sample from Surrender To Chance from $5/.5ml

OK, so is this the SUPREME Bouquet? Naah, but it is lovely, wearable and sexy, super perfume-y and a look back at fragrances of the past till its slightly boring, but very nice, dry down. Would I pay £195 for a bottle? Probably not. On 50% discount? I’d be definitely thinking about it. Actually, for US$100 I would have been online and purchased a bottle already. It is very nice, great gift for someone but extremely overpriced to me.

Have you tried any from the new Oriental line at Yves Saint Laurent yet?
Portia x

Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes Rare Flowers Series

April 4, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 54 Comments

Hi there FUMIES!

I have been lucky enough to try this amazing, no amazing is too banal & used a word for the experience, sadly my vocabulary doesn’t stretch to how joyful and wonderful my experience has been trying today’s fragrance. I feel like one of the luckiest people just to have spent time with this magnificent creation that has bloomed so spectacularly on my skin in ways completely unexpected. I am moved.

Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes Rare Flowers Series 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

OK the note here is Narcissus, pure and practically unadulterated. Here are the words I wrote on my first wearing to refer back to while writing this review: Bitter, dark, tobacco-esque, green, earthy, herbal, poisonous, hay, urine, wind, fresh, sunshine, picnic, happiness, love. This is NOTHING like I expected. Narcissus is a complete revelation and not all of it lovely. I find myself twisting and turning with the notes as if caught in a flurry during a storm, or buffeted by the sea when you misjudge a wave. Narcissus smells like a concentration on the leaves and stem of the plant, not the flower, or at least very little of the flower.

Photo Stolen GeographUK

From CB I Hate Perfume: Narcissus Absolute is one of the rarest and most fabulously expensive floral absolutes still available in the world today. It is also to my mind one of the most stunningly beautiful and therefore very much a personal favorite. Although obtained from the flower of a quite common plant, the scent of Narcissus absolute smells not in the least like a pot of paperwhites. To me, the scent of the actual blooming flower is overpowering, piercing and usually quite nauseating. I really can’t stay long in a room where paperwhites are blooming. The perfume of Narcissus absolute on the other hand is magical. Have you ever walked though a field in spring when thousands of narcissus were blooming? It’s like that – a delicate spicy breath of spring.
Please note that the water perfume is translucent, and may have some sedimentation. If this happens gentle rock the bottle back and forth to reincorporate. This will not detract from the fragrance in any way.

Further reading: and Perfume Posse
CB I Hate Perfume has $500/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/.5ml

Narcissus: CB I Hate Perfumes GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will get:
1 x .5ml sample Narcissus Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
1 x .5ml sample Tuberose Water Perfume by CB I Hate Perfumes
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DO YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie ~~CB I Hate Perfume Narcissus~~ GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2Eq #Perfume #Giveaway @CBrosius712

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 6th April 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 10th April 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Lithium [3Li] by Nicolas Bonneville for nu_be 2012

April 3, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Post by Tina G

“The perfume becomes, even if only for a few instants, the object of an exclusive and absolute desire.” – nu_be

The concept behind nu_be is an olfactory mapping of the fusions which create matter – the primal sparks of chaos that slowly settle into order and being. nu_be harks to the fundamental building blocks of the universe by creating ‘elemental’ fragrances – hydrogen, helium, lithium, carbon, oxygen, sulphur and mercury.

Lithium [3Li] by Nicolas Bonneville for nu_be 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Cedar, patchouli, musk, saffron, iris, woods, spices, rose

I’m intrigued to smell black rubber when Lithium [3Li] opens. Specifically, inner tube rubber as from a bicycle tyre, being slightly powdery. It is not listed in the notes anywhere but I find it consistently on first spritz. Dancing high over the top is a sharp metallic tang like the smoke and sparks you get when hitting granite with a metal hammer. It is a very light, airy metal, unlike the wet blood-metal in Le Cherche Midi ‘28’ or the metallic-fruitiness in Blood Concept ‘O’.

Deep in the heart of Lithium [3Li] the brown leather is heavy and thick like leather of a welder’s apron – made roughly tactile from the scratches and wearing of its use. After only a short time the rubber has gone but the metal and leather stay on, rounded out by earthy, powdery floral notes of iris and saffron. There is a hint of woods and musk in the background, which become more prominent in the dry down.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The combination makes me think of an old fashioned blacksmith’s workshop. Springtime. In the corner of a green field, surrounded by wildflowers, is a rustic wooden workshop. As you walk in, the fresh scents of the flowers merge with the damp earth floor, wooden beams, and metal tools hanging up around the walls. In the centre of the room is a fire and anvil, and the smithy himself, clean musky sweat of his work shining on his arms, mingling with the heavy leather apron of his trade. As he drops each blow of the hammer, showers of sparks fly randomly in split-seconds of brightness, filling the air with a flinty smoke.

Photo Stolen Fotopedia

At 5 hours Lithium [3Li] is still lively, having warmed up to a comforting woody/spicy rose, with silage strong enough that I wasn’t needing to hunt for the scent on my skin to appreciate it. At this stage it reminded me of another favourite spicy rose fragrance, Pink Quartz by Olivier Durbano. Lithium [3Li] is totally wearable, even for all its interesting industrial opening overtones. I spritzed this 10 minutes before going into a work meeting, and it totally derailed the conversation. Eyes widened, people looked around and asked what the great smell was. One co-worker then spoke about her close encounter with a workman on a train, freshly clocked off, dirty with a clean sweat smell and how desperately sexy it was. I’d said nothing about my thoughts on the fragrance; it was her own random memory trigger from the muskiness of the scent. Unexpected, but interesting…..

Further reading: Now Smell This introduces the line
IndieScents has $160/100ml and samples

xx Tina G

The Afternoon of a Faun by Ralf Schwieger for Etat Libre d`Orange 2012

April 1, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Post by Ainslie Walker

Named after a Russian Ballet, this fragrance certainly is a dance, and tells a story. But not a pretty one. Nor a sexy one either. According to Wikipedia, a faun is a rustic forest god or goddess of Roman mythology often associated with enchanted woods and the Greek god Pan and his satyrs. Half man, half goat. I’m thinking big sexy leather and man smells, but I’m getting A LOT more goat. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE goats…but I think this this one’s going feral.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

CS Lewis describes Mr. Tumnus, the Faun in his Narnia series as having reddish skin, curly hair, brown eyes, a short pointed beard, horns on his forehead, cloven hooves, goat legs with glossy black hair, a “strange but pleasant little face,” and a long tail.

The Afternoon of a Faun by Ralf Schwieger for Etat Libre d`Orange 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Bergamot, pepper, cinnamon, incense, immortelle, orrisroot, myrrh, leather, benzoin, rose, jasmine, oak moss

I’m first hit with a big 80’s oak moss projection…My Dad wore grey flannel in the 80’s and it’s as if he has blasted past on his way out to work, doused. Saving the day, an aerated twist of iris and green dry foliage notes break in and take over. I feel its well structured, and giving me all the right imagery, but I’m not sure I like it. There’s something pungent. Daisies? Pee? Maybe it’s the immortelle?

WHERE’S THE PRETTY?

Not a pretty mix….more like some herbal witches brew. I WISH I could smell the jasmine or rose, but nope. I’d like to smell some hints of violets and more orris, for an enchanted forest, but no. Suddenly I am reminded of the smell of autumn leaves, as if I am kicking my way through them, or rakeing them up, dry, crispy leaves, crackling, underneath earthy moist mossy smells are also being exposed. I THINK I like it a little more. In fact this is my favorite moment in my Afternoon with a Faun.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Spicy, sparkly and fresh it continues. Playful and tart. Despite all the spice I’m not reminded of any foods so to speak. There’s no gourmand. I don’t like it much on my skin, and I cannot imagine nuzzling up to someone with it on either. It’s old fashioned, almost old mannish…slightly dated, and synthetic. I’m struggling, but slightly enchanted to make it through to the end.

I have a headache. I can smell it all day on the other side of the room. I am sensitive to one of its ingredients, but which one??

There’s something sweet, maybe fruity I’m thinking berries and brambles, but again none in particular. Maybe some frankincense, but not the smoking variety, and some cinnamon-sweetness. I think the Faun must be trotting about on a warm sunny autumn day. Kicking up earth, herbal roots, moss, moss and more moss…berries…herbal…and peeing in delight. Something does sparkle..maybe more of a sprinkle? Perhaps the ballerina has an old injury and is wearing a STRONG herbal liniment…a Thai healing balm smell. Could be cinnamon, possibly medicinal Myrrh. Immortelle is also commonly found in liniments, so maybe why I make this connection.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies and Chemist In A Bottle
LuckyScent has $149/100ml
Etat Libre d’Orange has €110/100ml (Delivers to the world)
Surrender To Chance starts at $4.50/ml

Dry. Green. Twisted green. I like the green. I’ve read one reviewer who thinks the green smells of celery. I know what they mean, and yet I don’t agree. Instead, I am picturing the dark green suede platform clogs my kindergarten teacher used to wear. Weird, but interesting. The drydown is gentler, leathery suede.

Despite busting to wash it off, and pack my decant away in a tightly sealed zip lock bag, far far away, I enjoyed trying Afternoon with a Faun. It’s EXACTLY what it says on the bottle!!

Ainslie Walker

Nectar of Love EdP by Tanja Bochnig for April Aromatics 2012

March 31, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Post by SarahK

Hello all! Valentine’s Day may have been and gone this year, but love is, I hope, never far away, so today I want to share with you my experience of April Aromatics fragreances. April Aromatics is a line of natural, organic perfumes and cosmetics created by Tanja Bochnig and based in Germany and this is one of my favourite fragrances from the range. It is available both as an EDP and perfume oil: this review is for the eau de parfum only, as I haven’t tried the perfume oil.

Nectar of Love EdP by Tanja Bochnig for April Aromatics 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, Indian jasmine, Bulgarian rose, sandalwood, fruit notes, amber

Nectar is definitely the right name for this scent. The notes Tanja gives for the fragrance include tuberose, neroli, rose and jasmine but, besides the neroli, none of these flowers jump out at me in their usual guises. Rather than a traditional ‘floral’ perfume, I experience Nectar of Love as a sweet plant perfume, in the way in which Clarins’ Eau Dynamisante is a plant perfume. When sniffing it I get crushed fleshy petals, pollen and nectar, mixed with some sweet benzoin resin reminiscent of the sweet balsams in by Kilian’s Sweet Redemption.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The fragrance starts as an aromatic mix with green overtones and a bit of ripe apple. As the top notes develop, the pollen drifts up, along with the scent of a sugary, yet slightly bitter, green sap. All the floral notes combine into a concentrated version of the honeyed scent of purple buddleia. It’s as if you are a bee in a summer field, flitting drunkenly from flower to flower, poking your nose right into the hearts of the blooms and inhaling deeply. The fruit in the top notes slowly dries, and a couple of hours after application the fragrance is a narcotic mix of caramelized apples and prunes and a little bitter clove spice. It’s darkly sweet, but not overly so. Instead, the heart of the fragrance feels like drinking a cup of smooth, slightly citrussy chai. As it dries down, woody elements come out to play and there’s a touch of smoke and black coffee. The whole experience is rich and dense, but never overwhelming, and the presence of an aromatic element (mostly reading to me as cloves over neroli) keeps this within unisex territory, especially in the dry down. I’d love to smell this on a man.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

For the first hour Nectar of Love creates a noticeable scent cloud around me, but sillage drops noticeably in the second hour, and by the end of hour three the scent is hovering softly above my skin. It remains noticeable for 8 hours or so, ending in a caramel coffee whisper. The more I wear it, the more I love it.

Further reading: Smelly Thoughts and Bonkers About Perfume
April Aromatics has €189/30ml and Samples from €13.99/2.5ml

Have you tried any of the April Aromatics line?
SarahK xx

Penhaligon's Iris Prima GIVEAWAY WINNERS

March 31, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Woo Hoo APJ!

Another sensational Libertine Parfumerie and Australian Perfume Junkies GIVEAWAY! Thanks for being part of our fab, fun and fragrant family. We are super glad to have you all along.

Let’s see who our lucky winners are…

Portia x

Penhaligon’s Iris Prima GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, pink pepper
Heart: Iris, jasmine
Base: Leather, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, vanilla, benzoin

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Major Winner who will get:
1 x Penhaligon`s Iris Prima 100ml bottle
(minus the Secondary Winners Prizes, the lid is wonky but spritzer perfect.)
P&H Anywhere in the world

3 x Secondary Winners who will each receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Penhaligon`s Iris Prima
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID YOU WIN?

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Go to Libertine Perfumes<<<JUMP and find me one of their BATH PRODUCTS and the COMPANY…………….. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 30th March 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Photo Stolen shannonmayer

Wheelspinner (Bottle Winner)

Hotlanta Linda

Victoria

Becky (Rebecca via Twitter)

The winners will have till Thursday 3rd April 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Special THANKS to LibertineParfumerie for these amazing giveaways. Please visit their site because they are so generous and helpful. If you wonder why they are sometimes more expensive than the discounters or OS retailers it’s because they are the only licensed company selling their fragrances in Australia; where you know you are buying new, fresh and genuine product. The cost of importing, and buying the right to import, alcohol based fragrances (and having the right to send alcohol based fragrances throughout Australia, which are illegal to send in the Australia Post air system) is expensive and they must cover their costs to bring you these luxury goods.