Samples

Grand Soir by Francis Kurkdjian for Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2016

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Portia

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Hey Hey Lovers Of NEW!

So many people with noses that I revere are raving about Grand Soir. I tried it a couple of times while out shopping and it left me bored to tears and cold. By the note list I should be madly in love with Grand Soir. All those fabulous resins, tonka and amber? I’m not quite sure why it didn’t grab me by the scruff of the neck, shake me around and throw me to the ground with my eyes rolling into my head, panting and palpitating.  Pretty sure that it’s not the fragrances fault so I’m going to give it a home along wearing. I ordered 3ml from Surrender To Chance and I’m ready to go.

Grand Soir by Maison Francis Kurkdjian 2016

Grand Soir by Francis Kurkdjian

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Spanish labdanum
Heart:Siamese benzoin
Base: Brazilian tonka bean, Amber, Vanilla

So, in the comfort of my home with no other fragrant distractions grand Soir is a beautiful resinous amber. Softly comforting, tree sap sweet and cuddly. Actually the light touch here reminds me of Pierre Guillaume’s work. Toffee, maple syrup, salted caramel icing and peanut brittle are the images and tastes created in my mind & mouth.

Imagine if you took Absolue Pour Le Soir and dialled the animal back from 20 to one. Grand Soir has the same furry yet porcelain smooth feeling. Through the heart the sweetness lessens and Grand Soir becomes drier, more sweet warm summer evening winds.

PDI

My thoughts are that Francis Kurkdjian is a bit like Serge Lutens, he makes a rare few challenging and outrageous fragrances and a bunch of more accessible ones. These accessible ones are the bread and butter of his business, have a wide department store appeal but with the niche cachet. It’s a clever business model and it has worked for him, bringing MFK the brand to a place where it’s become one of LVMHs new acquisitions.

So Grand Soir is a beautifully blended amber/resinous scent. Easy to wear, lasts well and smells good. If I didn’t already have a dozen ambers in my collection or if I was newer to the perfumista life I would definitely put down my dollars for a bottle.

Wikipedia

Further reading: BLeauG
LuckyScent has $215/70ml
Surrender To Chance have samples from $4.50/0.5ml

Does Grand Soir appeal to you?
Portia x

Fumee d’Or by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes 2014

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Portia

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Hello Independent Fragrance Lovers,

A bunch of DSH samples arrived at once a while ago and I liked so many of them but having been trying to space them out so you all don’t get overwhelmed our bored. You know I love Dawn’s work, something about her style fits me really well and I LOVE the way she picks a note or style and creates the perfect setting to highlight it. The more fragrances I spend time with in her collection the more impressed she makes me.

A note of advice though. This is Independent Small Batch Perfumery. If you ONLY know or like the department store, super smooth, focus group tested out of all ingenuity or flair, ultra sweet fragrances that you are offered on a daily basis then you are in for a surprise. Give yourself a moment to adjust, don’t put your nose to the wet patch you just spritzed, give it at least a full 20 seconds before you go in for the up close sniff. These fragrances have top notes but they are also deeper, more interesting and have a real journey that you will have much more fun with if your nose hasn’t been blown out.

Fumee d’Or by DSH Perfumes 2014

Fumee d’Or by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

DSH Perfumes

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Aldehydes, Australian sandalwood, bergamot, oakmoss, Bulgarian rose, civet, jasmine, immortelle, incense, leather, myrrh, neroli, agarwood (oud), jasmine sambas, tobacco

Created as part of the Brilliant Collection for Denver Art Museum’s “Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century”. Fumee d’Or is designed as a stand alone AND to be used as a base for the other three fragrances in the DSH Brilliant Collection, to add the lustre of the goldsmiths creative process. I bloody wish I’d read that before I used up all the others. Oh well.

The first thing I smell is immortelle, civet and oudh. I swear there is also honey in here. Imagine the most gorgeous, brilliant cut cognac diamond set in a ring of clear pave diamonds in a matte yellow gold setting and you have some idea of how Fumee d’Or smells.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gottlieb-Salome%27s_Dance_1879.jpgWikiMedia

I’m sure all the notes listed are inside but I am solely captivated by the metal and animal facets. This is exactly my level of animals. They are friendly and furry, plush even. As thick as bear fur and as light as caribou. A very interesting juxtaposition of the dense and sheer that is absolutely captivating.

Here Dawn shows her absolute power over notes that in many others hands would become clunky, cumbersome and sickening. This is vintage done 21st century and without the stringent IFRA laws. A fun feral frolic with depth, elegance and a sense of having been made especially for me. Luminous, yet deep, hot and exotic.

Wikimedia

Further reading: IndiePerfumes and Colognoissseur
DSH Perfumes has a variety of strengths and sizes from $6

Does Fumee d’Or sound like something you might wear?
Portia xx

Miller et Berceaux GIVEAWAY WINNER

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Portia

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Thanks APJ and Miller et Bertaux,

This was a really popular giveaway. Good luck.

Libertine has the range in Australia
Aedes has the range in the USA

Portia xxx

 

Miller et Berceaux GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x set of Carded Manufacturers Samples of the above
NB: The A Quiet Morning will be a decant from my bottle
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 3rd May 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winner was chosen by random.org

Robert H.

The winners will have till Wednesday 10th May 2017 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

Xerjoff Xerjoff Xerjoff: Dipping My Toes In

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

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Sandra

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Hi APJ! Hope everyone is having a lovely smelling spring or autumn. I am currently surrounded by beautiful spring flowers and blooming trees and all of my senses are in overdrive. Here are a few pictures of the mesmerizing spring in the Netherlands. Every turn I take and every day brings a new colourful image to lock away in my memory chest. What is your favorite part of spring or autumn?

Rotterdam Photos by Sandra

Xerjoff: Dipping My Toes In

I am sure you are all well ahead of me when it comes to Xerjoff. It is an overwhelming brand for me and I have only really sniffed and enjoyed the Casamorati line and a couple from the Join the Club line. As a Vienna farewell gift I received three minis from the Shooting Stars collection. (Thank you so much – you know who you are.)

So, here I am freezing my butt off in chilly and beautiful Rotterdam and eagerly sniffing these little gems from Xerjoff. They are harbingers of early summer days. Here are my thoughts.

Fragrantica

Xerjoff: Shingl

Notes are: bergamot, basil, anise and artemisia, iris, rum, patchouli and vetiver, vanilla, amber and musk.
Shingl opens up quite sharp and spicey making my nose cringe. The sharp opening is herbal as well and it was confusing until the rum settled in. I always thought that rum or alcohol notes are not appealing, but the note here is subtle. It smooths out the opening together with the introduction of iris. What I find not only interesting but also addictive about Shingl is that it moves into a powdery, woody scent and is an intoxicatingly easy to wear good mood scent.

Fragrantica

Xerjoff: Lua

Notes are: bergamot, orange, lemon, melon, rose, iris, pink pepper, lily, cedar, vanilla and musk.
Lua opens up fresh, floral and full of spring promises. I love the touch of melon here as it cuts into the citrus nicely. This is a perfume for spring days where the vast changing skies provide a dramatic backdrop to the new young green leaves and grass cropping up everywhere. I cannot help but smile when I smell Lua. It is a beautiful perfume full of hope for the next six months of gorgeous long days. I will be wearing this through the warmer months here.

Fragrantica

Xerjoff: Dhajala

Notes are: african orange flower, galbanum, bergamot and orange, pink pepper, jasmine and rose, resin, amber, vanilla and musk.
To be perfectly honest with you, when I first spritzed Dhajala I recoiled. Something was not working for me. Perhaps it was the orange flower or the citrus vibe (which I normally have issues with), I do not know exactly. I promptly forgot about it being on my wrist and I put it in the pass pile. Well, after another hour or two I was taken aback of how good my wrist smelled. It was well rounded and very pretty but also easily unisex. I would love to smell this on a man.

I have been pleasantly surprised by these perfumes and would love to take the time to try others.

LuckyScent has the Xerjoff line
Surrender To Chance has a selection of Xerjoff samples

Do you know Xerjoff? Do you have any recommendations or favourites?
Sandra

 

NEW! NEW! NEW! Miller et Bertaux

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 48 Comments

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Portia

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Hi there Fragrance Family,

One of the houses that flies under everyones radar is Miller et Bertaux. I really love their lack of trend following and general wearable outrageousness. From people so obviously Arty they work really well to create unusual, challenging, mood altering scents that also can be worn as a daily go-to. My personal thought is that spritz volume makes the difference. When I’m home alone sometimes I do 15 chest spritzes so they fumes engulf me, it’s really trippy. In the world though my usual 5 or 6 spritzes is ample, for some the openings could still be formidable.

At Esxence in Milan this year as I was wandering through the overwhelming tunnel of scent I spied the miller et Beaux stand. Fortuitously the gent manning it was available and I wanted to tell him how much I loved their work. When I’m overwhelmed my social ability goes right out the window and so I walked up and blurted out with zero preamble how much I loved their brand and that I’d paid retail for three of their scents, and also had a backup of A Quiet Morning because something so exquisitely me could never last. So this handsome smiling man offers me the newest bottle in their range, that they’re launching. Embarrassed, I declined but when he offered a full set of the Miller et Bertaux range samples I jumped, knowing you guys would LOVE to try them too.

There is a part of me that associates this fragrance house with what niche could have been if greed, laziness and cynicism didn’t become the overriding factors.

Libertine has the range in Australia
Aedes has the range in the USA

Here’s a snapshot of the ones I’m giving away today. Many reviews to follow.

Miller et Bertaux

Fragrantica

New Study/Postcard 2017: Opening citrus is air mail adventure, the hearts warm fig is the arrival and dry down is a woodsy/sweet-fig-milk that could be the postcard on the fridge in the kitchen that gets looked at and brings a smile.

A Quiet Morning 2008: This saffron, turmeric, woods fragrance doesn’t seem so new nearly 10 years from its inception but though the imitators have tried they miss the sheer effortlessness and comfort of wearing A Quiet Morning.

Shanti Shanti 2008: Shanti (from Sanskrit शान्तिः śāntiḥ) means peace, rest. Rose, iris, spices and sandalwood, all backed by patchouli. It opens so cool and dewy before sizzling through the heart to a creamy, earthbound base.

For You/Parfum Trouvé EdP 1 2006: Sweet and spicy like Indian cooking, yet a dewy rose keeps the whole fragrance cool. Once the woods flow through they stay focused and linear till dry down. The perfumes idea is to be a base/dry down.

Spiritus/Land EdP 2 2006: Ahhhh, new incense sticks, soap and spices. Clean without the well worn connotations of marine and citrus. Like the ghosts of Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime Spiritus/Land floats through and above the earth.

Green, Green, Green and Green EdP 3 2006: HA! Surprise, surprise this is a super green fragrance, yet through all the broken leaf and twig shines some soft focus florals and sweet herbs. A soaring green, like the birds smell at the top of trees.

Miller et Berceaux GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 1 winner who will receive:
1 x set of Carded Manufacturers Samples of the above
NB: The A Quiet Morning will be a decant from my bottle
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

Please tell us in the comments which of the above Miller et Bertaux scents most interested you?

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Wednesday 3rd May 2017 10pm Australian EdsT and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 10th May 2017 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

 

Mitzah by Francois Demachy for Christian Dior 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

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Portia

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Hey Crew,

I am so sorry but I have no bloody post for you tonight. Somehow we ended up without on a Friday night. I was wearing Mitzah tonight so here’s how it went.

Mitzah by Francois Demachy for Christian Dior 2010

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Coriander, rose, spices, cinnamon, labdanum, vanilla, honey, patchouli, incense

I love how Mitzah opens all hot smoky spices and incense. Honey gives a sweet animalic, tobacco feel and the patchouli & labdanum make me think of flesh, earth and leather.  A cracker of a perfume, swirling around itself, making me feel all glamorous and giving me the va va voom of a Gabor sister in her prime. This is not an intense journey through the perfume with mountainous peaks and troughs, while there are definite start middle and end notes it’s more of a progression. The kick at the start warms slowly and languidly through mildly sweet towards a honey ouded amber dry down. On a good day I get 8+ hours before Mitzah is lost. As the PR says elegant, feminine and mysterious, but I think not so feminine; a man could wear it very comfortably because it is spicy amber.

I was out to dinner with Ainslie Walker and her partner Ben. We have loved Mitzah since it was released and often talk about it. I wore it in Ainslie’s honour and funnily she almost wore it too. It was a lovely night full of good food and laughs.

Further reading: ISmellThereforeIAm and Olfactoria’s Travels

Have you ever swanned around in lashings of Mitzah?
Portia xx

Atelier des Ors GIVEAWAY WINNER

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Portia

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Het Crew,

You all are amazing. Thank you all so much for getting involved and being a part of the APJ family.

HUGE thanks also go to Megan In St Maxime who works for Atelier des Ors and gave me the set to give.
Portia xxx

Atelier des Ors GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Kate Apted

You have till Monday May 1st 2017 to get in touch [portia (underscore) turbo (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au] with your address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit

Atelier des Ors Sample Set

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 56 Comments

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Portia

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Hi there APJ,

On Friday a fortnight ago I wrote about the newest Atelier des Ors, Iris Fauve. The house is wonderful and Megan who is their PR woman gave me a full set of samples for one lucky APJ reader. So here’s a quick run down of each scent in the collection, then move on down to the GIVEAWAY section and have a go.

Good luck,
Portia xxx

Atelier des Ors Collection

Fragrantica

Aube Rubis by Atelier des Ors 2015

Top: Bergamot, Grapefruit, Black currant
Heart: Sage, Violet, Iris
Base: Patchouli, Haitian vetiver, Praliné

 

Cuir Sacré by Atelier des Ors 2015

Top: Juniper berry, Cardamom, Cypress
Heart: Frankincense, Saffron, Cedar leaf
Base: Vetiver, Cypriol, Leather

Opens with sharp woodsy incense, like a cold incense stick. Interesting hints of an Indian meal too and slightly soapy. Gosh, they never do anything by the book at Atelier des Ors. The range is happily skew wiff, a sideways slant on each major note. Interesting how they do that without making weird stuff, all extremely wearable. When the leather arrives it is softly and bound by a salted vetiver, like a posh handbag in an Indian restaurant at a temple by the sea. Lastly it sits at plush suede.

Larmes du Désert by Atelier des Ors 2015

Top: Elemi resin, Frankincense, Cypress
Heart: Patchouli, Gaiac wood, Cedarwood
Base: Citric notes, Benzoin, Wolfwood

The resins open sweet and churchy. Woods back this up and keep the whole fragrance grounded. I love this and think Tears of the Desert a perfect name, like the resinous sap tears of those dry, twisted shrubs that produce such exquisite fragrance.

Lune Feline by Atelier des Ors 2015

Top: Cinnamon, Cardamom, Pink pepper
Heart: Cypriol, Cedarwood, Styrax, Cachalox, Wolfwood
Base: Tahitian vanilla absolute, Peru balsam, Musk

Cardamom, vanilla and a softly sizzling pink pepper open. It’s a luxurious beauty and smells like it cost money to create. A smooth milky opaqueness with little hints of booze and greenery. A light fizziness gives me memories of ice-cream spiders when I was a kid.

Rose Omeyyade by Atelier des Ors 2015

Top: Pink pepper, Rosebud, Raspberry
Heart: Patchouli, Gaiac wood, Brown sugar
Base: Sandalwood, Oud, Amber

A very interesting gourmand, fruity rose backed by a deep and mysterious oriental oud base. Clever and beautiful. The patchouli is that interesting clean plastic variety and it usually makes me squirm but here it is so perfectly and precariously balanced that I just want to sniff more and more and more. Excellent.

Go see the Atelier des Ors, Iris Fauve post if you want too.

 

Atelier des Ors Sample Set GIVEAWAY

CLOSED Thursday April 27 8am AEST

Brit Woman by Nathalie Gracia-Cetto for Burberry 2003

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

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Portia

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Hello Designer Frag Fans,

Recently Burberry Brit woman has received a bottle facelift. It spurred me to grab one of the older EdP bottles because I have always thought they looked cool and fun. Directly below is the new bottle and yes, I think it’s WAY more finished, luxe and modern but the old one is something I’ve liked for a long time so I prefer to have it in my collection.

I have no idea whether the new bottle points towards a reformulation or if burberry is just bringing the bottle more in line with current trends, and making it look more desirable. Whatever, I’m writing about the juice in the old bottle that you see below.

Brit Woman by Burberry 2003

Brit Woman by Nathalie Gracia-Cetto

Fragrantica

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top:  Iced pear, Italian lime, Green almond
Heart: Sugared almond, White peony
Base: Amber, Mahogany, Vanilla

The pear is just shy of ripe and the lime tar but not mouth puckeringly so. Green almond? Definitely almond but not so green, it’s the smell of cracking an almond shell open to find the delicious, creamy nut beneath. Don’t get me wrong Brit woman is sweet from the outset but it seems like a sweetness contained. Even when the sugared almonds come in it’s not tooth rottingly sweet or a bakery scent. There is a toastedness that keeps Brit interesting, a wetness that gives a fresh edge.

The base is quite pretty, a very comfortable, smooth vanilla. It’s cool, dry, quite austere compared to todays designer offerings and flanked perfectly by almonds and woodsiness. I get soft hints of dried, used coffee grounds too. Maybe it’s my imagination but I get the smell every wear.

Flickr

Who can wear and where would they? Burberry Brit Woman is super comfy. It doesn’t screech, isn’t sickly sweet and has a moderate sillage for the first hour ore so. Once the party is over though the soft warm hum of dry down persists for hours and hours. I see it as a reasonably priced go to for both sexes. Though ostensibly aimed at the women it smells really good on me, and I think Jin could rock it too.

I’ve been wearing it layered with the extrait. I smell really good.

Further reading: Now Smell This
FragranceNet has 50ml/$25
My Perfume Samples has samples starting at $2/ml

Which bottle do you prefer? Have you ever worn Brit?
Portia xx

Bois d’Oud GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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Portia

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Hey crew,

Thanks so much to Louis from Detail for his generosity. Very excited to be doing a giveaway of this lovely juice.
Portia xxx

Bois d’Oud GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Agarwood (oud), bergamot, labdanum
Heart: Saffron, cedar
Base: Tobacco, agarwood (oud), cedar, patchouli

Detaille has €90/50ml

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week there will be 2 winners who will receive:
1 x 10ml decant of Bois d’Oud by Detaille
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Wednesday 19th April 2017 10pm Australian EdsT
Winners were chosen by random.org

JackieB

Fanny

The winners will have till Wednesday 26th April 2017 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