Samples

Khanbaliq by Enrico Buccella for Sigilli 2013

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Portia

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Hello lovers of Underrated Fragrances,

Somehow Sigilli has slipped through the cracks. The fragrances mainly come from the early 2000s but Khanbaliq was released in 2013, it’s the most modern offering from the house and not all of the fragrances are available on the Sigilli website anymore.

Jin and I discovered the brand in Venice on our first big holiday together. There is a maze of shops behind the Piazza San Marco and somewhere in there is an extremely well stocked little perfumery, run by two sisters. I purchased Pyrgos at that time but since have wished that I grabbed a couple of others.

Khanbaliq by Sigilli 2013

Khanbaliq by Enrico Buccella

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange, ginger, cinnamon, coriander
Heart: Cloves, plum, fir, pine tree, peony
Base: Peony, violet, ambergris

Spicy oranges and a slightly bitter chocolate smell. Pine and my nose is telling me patchouli, a breathy and earthy smelting that could be the ambergris. A weird dissonant herbaceous green and mentholated woodiness wars with the citrus and fruits. It’s an interesting fragrant contrapuntal effect. Unusual without being challenging, straight through the heart.

PDI

 

My surprise in Khanbaliq is that while projection is not enormous it is still very good at changing the smell around me. It also fills the room when I leave and return. Insidious, it seems to march off my skin and try to fragrantly populate whatever area i’m in.

A really good nod to some older fragrances. Breathy indole, some animals and a beautiful bouquet tempered by greenery. I am surprised there are no white flowers mentioned because Khanbaliq gives the feeling they are in there somewhere.  Though the nod is to vintage I feel that it may be the clarion call of a style we are about to see i the fragrant world. A return to having some ass in our fragrances.

WikiMedia

According to Wikipedia: Khanbaliq (or Dadu) was the capital of the Yuan dynasty, the main center of the Mongol Empire founded by Kublai Khan in what is now Beijing.

First In Fragrance has €95/100ml
Surrender To Chance have samples from $3.50/ml

Beach Hut Man by Elise Benat for Amouage 2017

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Portia

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Hi there Niche Nerds,

When I heard the name Beach Hut Man I laughed out loud. Not because it’s funny but because I was so surprised. The new direction that Amouage is going in is interesting. No one can say that Christopher Chong is afraid of change, experimentation or surprise. Having built up a stable of hefty, Arabic inspired, gloriously fabulous perfumes in the Amouage house he then moved to produce the Library series. They took me a while to get but others were much faster learners. Now he is bringing The Midnight Flower Collection which started with Bracken.

Beach Hut Man by Amouage 2017

Beach Hut Man by Elise Benat

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mint, orange blossom, galbanum
Heart: Vetiver, moss, ivy
Base: Myrrh, patchouli, woody note

interesting, like a chic mint patty being eaten while sitting on the damp grass under a tree near the compost heap. There’s also a note I’m smelling quite a lot in modern niche that is woody, warm and slightly electric. It’s a funny note because it jumps over everything else for me, thank goodness I really like it. Something warm and cosy about sit yet largely space age. Maybe it’s the idea of the smell of burning sand and baking driftwood?

Beach Hut Man Amouage wreck_wood_metal_rusted_weathered_decay_beach PXHerePDI

I really like how Beach Hut Man smells. It has this electro mint thing, a green, dank, earthy space smell and this weird woody/salty/glassy smell. Interesting.

One thing it doesn’t smell is finished. There felt like no synchronicity was ever reached, no full melding and blending of the parts. It’s like they are warring factions, unresolved and unhappy to be in the same perfume. I’m no perfumer, or even a real connoisseur, but Beach Hut Man smells slightly lazy and/or amateur to me. (Ducks) It smells like a newly minted indie frag, a boundary pusher, a slap. It in no way smells like a super smooth finished product from a mass-tige brand sold in department stores. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. It’s raw, a bit rough, weird and eminently wearable.

Beach Hut Man Amouage beach pivabayPDI

Will I wear my decant? Yes, I’m so bloody intrigued that I’m taking it with me on holidays. By the time you read this I’ll probably have bought a bottle.

Further reading: Persolaise and Brooklyn Fragrance Lover
Libertine has $435/100ml FREE Australian Delivery
Surrender To Chance has samples from $4.59/0.5ml

Are you interested in trying this one?
Portia xx

Incense Rose by Andy Tauer for Tauer Perfumes 2008

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Portia

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Hiya Fragrance Lovers,

Andy Tauer was my first niche perfume buy. He holds a special place in my heart because he was a pioneer. He let us see into his process of creating fragrance via his blog and opened a whole new world of ideas. What he was creating was revolutionary. That was the early days of niche and indie perfumes. We are so spoiled by a unbelievable onslaught of newness that I think it’s important to remind you all of some historically great perfumes that may become swamped and overlooked. Incense rose is one such, I’ve had this bottle ever since Andy first brought out the 3 x 15ml Explorer Set. Not sure why I never reviewed it. Remiss.

Incense Rose by Tauer Perfumes 2008

Incense Rose by Andy Tauer

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Clementine, Cardamom, Wild rose
Heart: Castoreum, Orris root, Frankincense
Base: Myrrh, Patchouli, Vetiver, Texas cedar

Sweet roses and jams, a zingy, bright and slightly green opening. All the citrus cut through pretty quickly by incense and iris but that just serves two highlight the fizzy drink nature of the top notes and ground them. For something that smells so strong initially Incense rose is remarkably diffuse smelling too. It’s huge but not overpowering or ferocious, more like a big friendly but well behaved dog.

06 Incense Rose Tauer Perfumes Incense_coils WikiMediaPDI

 

As the wood slides in under the rosy animalic incense, it seems to dry Incense Rose out. This is my favourite part of the fragrance. Still lightly sweet florals with a hint of urinous but now it’s contained in a box. I get mental images of wooden walled saunas.

Longevity is excellent and for the first hour or so the scent is quite large, then it dips back to a soft focus blur of scent. Still sweet rosy but now much attenuated and it’s incense with the upper hand and grassy woods.

06 Incense Rose Tauer Perfumes Incense_coils WikiMediaWikiMedia

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and I Smell Therefore I Am
Men’s Biz has $209/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $4/0.5ml

What is your Tauer of preference?
Portia xx

WINNER SOTD 23-29 October 2017

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Portia

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Hey there APJ,

Wonderful SOTDs, what excellent variety we all wear and love.

Thank you all for getting involved and being a part of the APJ Frag Family.

SOTD 23-29 October 2017 WINNER

Over 100 responses I will draw a Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)
This week:
Bal a Versailles parfum
Eau d’Italie Morn to Dusk
Guerlain L’Heure de Nuit
Neela Vermeire Creations Pichola
Vintage DIOR Miss Dior EdC
Comment purposefully on yours or anothers comment & you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw on Sunday.

WINNER: Sue Mills

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Sepia by Mandy Aftel for Aftelier Perfumes 2012

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Portia

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Hey Hey Indie Lovers,

You probably already know the name Mandy Aftel. She writes books, creates perfumes, teaches natural perfumery, has a museum of perfume and is a general, all round great gal. The thing is, after the initial fanfare of a fragrance launch things go a bit quiet on the blog front for Indie perfumers. They don’t have enormous budgets and marketing teams, mostly they do it themselves with a couple of key helpers. Since I am wearing Sepia today I thought it might be a good time to remind you all about its beauty.

Sepia by Aftelier Perfumes 2012

Sepia by Mandy Aftel

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Blood cedarwood, Yellow mandarin, Pink grapefruit
Heart: Pink lotus, Strawberry, Jasminum grandiflorum, Cocoa, Coffee
Base: Tobacco blossom, Oud, Indole, Ambergris, Cepes (mushroom), Labdanum

Today’s review is from a bottle I paid retail for after falling madly in love with a sample Mandy sent me.

Sepia is a bit of a blockbuster on my skin. It is a warm and dusty, floral and powdery, woody, smoky, dry and sere fragrance. So much light and shade. It smells to me like rural Australia. I can close my eyes and smell the unbroken expanses of sun beaten, dessicated red-earth desert where the properties are 1000’s of square kilometers with sheep, wheat and cattle. Stark sun and shade, the dappling of eucalyptus beside a dam or creek.

Sepia by Aftelier Perfumes outback cattle farm PixabayPDI

Many of the smaller towns have been deserted in the last 50 years and stand silent, crumbling, with only their stone chimneys left like a mouth full of broken teeth. Our croplands have been bought by the big farming companies, overseas investors and the mining groups. Mum and Dad farms are becoming the rarity. Sepia is our Australian outback. A dream of how the perfect Australian outback was.

It is also lovely, wearable and surprisingly strong for a scent sold as a watercolour wash. After 3 hours it starts to smelling like attics and bookstores Sepia then warms and dirties towards dry down and remains as a skin scent remnant for hours.

Sepia by Aftelier Perfumes outback hills PixabayPDI

From Aftelier Perfumes website;
Dry woods: Sepia is a tint, a watercolor wash, an atmosphere, a memory

Further reading PerfumeShrine and TheAlembicatedGenie
Aftelier Perfumes has samples from $7

Are you a Mandy fan like me?
Portia xx

Cotton Musk by Ramon Monegal 2011

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Portia

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Hi there Fellow Fumies,

Ramon Monegal has been in his own business in Spain for 10 years, before that he worked for and then was in charge Myurgia and later Puig. He seemed to make a huge splash in the world frag markets in 2012 and for the next couple of years but lately I hear less and less about his house. It’s a shame because I really love his scents, the bottles and his whole aesthetic. Even todays offering of Cotton Musk, while being almost polar opposite to the fragrances I crave most, still wows me with its ethereal beauty.

Cotton Musk by Ramon Monegal 2011

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Ward rose, Gardenia, Frankincense, Vetiver, Madagascan vanilla, White musk

I bought my decant that I’m reviewing from on Surrender To Chance recently and it arrived yesterday. I cap sniffed about five scents and though not my personal style there was something interesting about Cotton Musk so that’s the one I spritzed.

Musk, vetiver and rose open the show, they smell sharp and chemical originally, like when you accidentally get a heavily scented shower gel in your mouth while bathing. It only lasts a few seconds before everything gets fluffy, soft and downy. Suddenly I am floating in a cartoon cloud all warm and cozy. The smell of fresh bedlinen in the morning after your first sleep in the cool of autumn, it still smells freshly washed and your body is warm and you have that safe feeling of home.

Cotton Musk Ramon Monegal jingdianjiaju2 minimalist bedroom-7 FlickrFlickr

Cotton Musk is all this but surprisingly it doesn’t feel friendly. There is a cool austerity that reigns through the heart and I think it’s the vetiver and incense providing a grounding point to stop the whole fragrance floating off into space. Plush but sober, it’s an interesting dichotomy but Ramon Monegal does it with such finesse. Really amazing is such a sheer fragrance.

The bouquet seems fairly space age and even as the vanilla moves through to a more prominent position it doesn’t warm or humanise Cotton Musk. As the fragrance sinks into your skin though it does grow from being a walk into a recently used laundry back to being the morning of an autumn sleep in clean sheets. With different pieces of the puzzle sitting forward it is quite a feat to get me thinking the same cozy thoughts I had in the opening. Bravo Mr Monegal.

Cotton Musk Ramon Monegal Crumpled-Bed-Linen-Sheets-Bedsheets maxPixel
PDI

Further reading: EauMG and Olfactoria’s Travels
LuckyScent has $185/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples from $5/ml

Do you like white musks in full laundry mode? Could this be your gateway?
Portia xx

 

 

Aria in F# Parfum by Christi Meshell for House of Matriarch 2017

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Erica Golding

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Hello to everyone out there in the world of fragrance!

Recently, I was thrilled to witness the live creation of a 99% natural perfume, note by note, learning excitedly from every detail shared. The experience was about an hour and it just flew by, absolutely enthralling – I was hypnotized and filled with awe! Christi Meshell graced the famous group Facebook Fragrance Friends with the honor of this masterfully blended treasure, with members voting on their favorite materials that were then blended right before our eyes:

Aria in F# Parfum by House of Matriarch 2017

Aria in F# Parfum by Christi Meshell

Fragrantica

My notes below may not be perfectly accurate, but from what I recorded during the live event, Aria in F# is composed of:

Sandalwood Mysore (vintage and modern)
Amber accord
Styrax
Myrrh
Vanilla
Frankincense
Whiskey accord
Beeswax
Patchouli
Benzoin
Rose
Rooibos Tea
Jasmine sambac
Cinnamon (a non-skin-irritating variety)
Vetiver
Oakmoss
Ambergris tincture
Balsam fir
Leather accord
Orange blossom
Petitgrain
Mandarin orange
Ambrette seed
Musk
Gaiac wood
Black currant
Tonka bean
Rosewood
Tuberose absolute
Carnation
Pink pepper
Butter
Cocoa
Mimosa
Ylang ylang

The composition was built on a generous aliquot of vintage Mysore sandalwood as well as an equal volume of modern sandalwood. This genuine aroma is not super recognizable if you haven’t experienced it before. It has a powdery delicacy that sets it apart from the creamy, round sandalwood notes common in modern perfumery. After that, the materials that followed just had my heart leaping and aching with anticipation. The notes that I have listed at the end of this review speak to Christi’s dreamscape of materials and her gift of turning fantasy into reality.

WikiMedia

As for my personal impressions of this parfum, Aria in F# is very complex, but fascinatingly, resonates within a tight wavelength. For me, if Aria in F# was music, it would be a heartachingly harmonious strings orchestra. When my fragrance synesthesia associates a perfume with violins and cellos, it’s always a good omen! At the opening, I sense peaceful precious woods with a flashing, ethereal morning dew of rose, jasmine, and orange blossom. There is only one drop of carnation absolute in this parfum, but other notes lift and enhance and intensify this aroma such that I would go so far as to say that carnation features dominantly in this fragrance. Resins, amber, and incense are important to the blend, but they are uncharacteristically effervescent.

Overall, the parfum is deceivingly subtle on my skin, revealing hidden new facets with every anointment, and it lasts far longer than expected – especially for an almost purely natural work of art. I love this more every time I wear it, it’s fascinatingly passionate and tender.

 

PDI

I love how perfumers have been connecting with their fans to create semi-bespoke scents like this. Have you tried Aria in F#, or perhaps The Longing, or Destrier, or any of the other House of Matriarch fan collaborations? Which perfumer do you wish would create a fantasy perfume just for you?

House of Matriarch samples start at $22

Until next time, stay fragrant!
Love and light,
-Erica

First In Fragrance: Visiting Aus Liebe Zum Duft, Bruchsal, Germany

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Val the Cookie Queen

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Hey all you APJ Friends!

As you may or may not have gathered from my last post, I took off to Bruchsal, Germany with my husband (Chris) last week. I have wanted to visit ALZD/First in Fragrance (FiF) for years. So Chris and I made a deal. We would drive up there for three days, delivering my cookies in Salzburg on the way. One day perfume, one day downhill biking and hiking, one day Munich.

First In Fragrance

Visiting Aus Liebe Zum Duft, Bruchsal, Germany

ALZD/FiF was founded by Georg R Wuchsa in the year 2000. Hop over to the website First In Fragrance and you can read the history behind it all. I would be willing to bet that many of us have ordered, and still order fragrance samples from here. There is no better way to be able to try all of the hundreds of perfumes.


Filling Samples – How Does It Work?

There are four lovely ladies filling samples non-stop. All the samples are decanted from the original bottles. The sample is exactly what comes in the bottle. (I dunno if I am the only one to have noticed that sometimes carded samples do not smell the same as the perfume in the bottles.)

Of course many of the perfume houses are so small that they don´t do official samples anyway. There are around 2000, yep, two thousand, bottles to chose from. As the ladies look at the orders, they grab the bottles from the shelves and put them on a tray. Then back to the desk to fill the requested samples.
After completing several orders at once they return the bottles to their places, or at least that is the idea!! The orders are then beautifully packaged along with maybe some sweets, or little toys, perfumed feathers, and other little goodies. Making it a joy for anyone to receive, whether a small order or a big one. The girls fill at least 3000 samples a week.

ALZD/FiF now has a a beautiful range of cosmetics, and the Frederic Malle and Serge Lutens lines have recently been introduced. ALZD is now the online partner of the Austrian company http://www.naegelestrubell.at .

What did I buy? Travel sizes of Malle´s Iris Powder for me (I wish I had bought a big bottle, it´s divine), Dries Van Noten for the Blondeswunder, Monsieur for my personal trainer (He´s moving on from his 6 euro cologne ….!) and a BIG bottle of Portrait of a Lady for me. Finally. Chris came home with a bottle of Nasomatto´s Black Afgano. After getting over the initial disappointment of not being able to smoke it, he was quite happy. He never wears scent, but a few drops of this suits him really well. I have forbidden him to use more than half a spray at any one time. Two beautiful Diptyque candles joined the bag of goodies too.

It was an absolutely fabulous day. They have two canine noses, but only one was in the house. Beate Humbert, Georg´s right hand woman, has been with the company since day one. She took us through everything, from the offices, to the workplace and into the warehouse. Brilliant. Her son works there too, and it was their dog, Gatsby that was there. Chris split with him and took him for a walk, or perhaps the dog took him!

A million thanks to the whole ALZD crew it was such a brilliant day.

Following are pics, in no particular order. Chris took his camera and snapped lots of stuff. Had it been left to me you´d have had nothing. I suck at pics when I have to take them. Ask Portia.

Hallowe’en Bussis
CQ

WINNER SOTD 16-22 October 2017

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Portia

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Woo Hoo APJ,

This idea has been a winner. So excited to be reading what you guys are wearing all week. It also reminds me to go look out some of my neglected frag babies that you mention. Thank you all for getting involved and being a part of the APJ Frag Family.

SOTD 23-29 October 2017 WINNER

Over 100 responses I will draw a Scent Sample Pack (from my collection)
This week:
Amouage Dia Parfum
DIOR Mitzah
Miller et Barter A Quiet Morning
Neela Vermeire Creations Rahele
Vintage CHANEL No 19 EdC
Comment purposefully on yours or anothers comment & you’ll have a chance, random.org will draw on Sunday.

WINNER: MaggieCat

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

Majaïna Sin by Emilie (Bevierre) Coppermann for The Different Company 2017

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Portia

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Hello New Addicted,

You may have noticed that I’m addicted to Travel Packs and Travel Size. There are a few reasons for this. The major one is that 10-30ml is all I’ll ever need of most fragrances, it is in fact a lifetime supply. Otherwise I like to be able to carry most of my frags on holidays in my carry on luggage*. There is a pleasure too in using up bottles, even a travel feels like an achievement.

Why am I telling you this? Just arrived in the mail this week are a brand new, paid retail because I freaking love it, sent from France The Different Company Travel Set and a bunch of 10ml refills for it. VERY exciting stuff.

The Different Company

Majaïna Sin by The Different Company 2017

Majaïna Sin by Emilie (Bevierre) Coppermann

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Candied Orange Bigarade, Bergamot, Neroli, Orange Blossom, Madagascar Ginger
Heart: Heliotrope, Orchid, Chestnut Cream, Madagascar Cinnamon, Maple Syrup
Base: Guatemala Tonka Bean, Amber, Sandal Album, Musk, Madagascar Vanilla Gold Extract

Majaïna Sin is part of the l’Esprit Cologne range from The Different Company. I also have the luscious Tokyo Bloom from that series and love it through the mid seasons and warmer months.

Ginger marmalade already backed by a soft focus vanilla is how Majaïna Sin opens for me with cinnamon. Warm and cosy yet not incredibly hefty, as counterpoint we are given an unexpected lightness and lift. Definite nods to bakery but somehow Emilie Coppermann has made it about something more interesting: creamy, spicy, smoky, resinous amber.

WikiMedia

Charming is not a word I use often about fragrance but it keeps popping into my mind. We are not present with a groundbreaking, challenging fragrance in Majaïna Sin. It is different to what I have smelled before but not outrageously so. Here I feel like I’ve met an elegant friend that doesn’t overpower while still maintaining their place and adding to the conversation. I can easily imagine someone hugging you while you wear this and thinking, “MMMMMMM.”

The base is dryer and woodier but not by much and the fragrance fades into my skin with average longevity, way better than I expected from the l’Esprit range.

PDI

The Different Company has €18/10ml and €120/100ml

What is your favourite travel Set or single?
Portia xx

 

*I carry a just in case Wet Pack in my carry on with toothbrush, floss & paste, deodorant, stolen hotel shower gel and lotion, band-aids, sleeping pills, headache tablets, ear buds and a wash cloth. There are always at least 5 travel frags in there too. Also in cary on are spare undies, socks and polo shirt, Kindle, a bunch of cords, spare glasses, house keys and snacks. It usually clocks around 5kg. Even if my luggage doesn’t arrive I’m good.