Samples

Teazzurra GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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Post by Portia

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Heya APJ,

Thanks Guerlain, and thank you all for getting involved.

Portia xx

Teazzurra GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Teazzurra Guerlain FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, yuzu, grapefruit
Heart: Green tea, chamomile, jasmine
Base: Musk, calone, vanilla

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Carded Manufacturers Sample Teazzurra by Guerlain
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

Tell us your favourite Guerlain Aqua Allegoria fragrance or which one you’d like to try

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 24th September 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

APJ Winner Is

Sue Mills

The winner will have till Wednesday 28th September 2016 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.

Moon Shadow by Library of Flowers 2013

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Post by Portia

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Hi there APJ,

You know when you’re rummaging around in your samples and you find THE ONE? Your nose explodes, eyes roll back in your head, you take deep lungfuls of fragrant air and nearly sniff the skin off your hand to get more of this magnetic and all encompassing magic into your sensory stations? You get so excited that you immediately start to look for a bottle of this incredible, fabulous, unbelievably amazing fragrance that has just blown your brains out?

Right, so now you know how I felt smelling todays fragrance. Then I went to the Library of Flowers site to buy a bottle and DISCONTINUED!!!! Aaaaaarrgghhhh. Thank goodness Surrender To Chance has more. I’ve just ordered the lAST 5ml they had and it’s not being restocked. You can find it on Amazon though.

Moon Shadow by Library of Flowers 2013

Moon Shadow: Bottled by Margot Ellena

Moon Shadow Library of Flowers FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Waterlily
Heart: Lotus
Base: Jasmine

Library of Flowers is a house produced by Margot Ellena who you may know from Bloom, Lollia, Tokyo Milk & Love and Toast. I don;’t know how she does it but her fragrances are often really good and at excellent prices. I’m not sure exactly what a Botanical Perfume is but my assumption is that they have a high percentage of “natural” ingredients.

Never before have I smelt such a photo realistic jasmine. So real that I was given a stem of fresh cut vine jasmine the night I was wearing Moon Shadow and they were indistinguishable, melding into each other perfectly. I was not the only one to notice how eerily similar they were. As to the waterlily and lotus notes, sorry but I really don’t get any of them. I get a perfect jasmine.

Jasmine Portia 2016

One problem that often happens with jasmine-centric fragrances is that they open with a huge bang and then fade almost instantly to a quiet, safe, discrete wash that bores the fricken socks off me. Here we have a scent that stays pretty powerful for over two hours before softening in projection but still maintaining a good sillage. I also love that I can still smell it hours later, my nose doesn’t get that tired anosmia that so often happens for me with jasmines. It still smells like sticking your head in a fully flowering jasmine vine all the way to losing the scent all together.

Amazon still has a few bottles at around $37/50ml

What has rung your bell so hard that you had to find more lately?
Portia xx

Teazzurra by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2015

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Post by Portia

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Hello Tea Freaks,

I was in David Jones city store recently and was chatting with the Guerlain SA. She was so kind and offered a couple of Teazzurra samples, one for me and one for you.

I would like to take a moment here to say how distressed I am about Guerlain stopping the Sample/Decant services selling their product. As an Australian far from the Guerlain main markets it is nearly impossible to get my sniff on their products any other way. My list of Guerlain purchases while overseas is made in the year or so leading up to travel by sampling through these services. Not to mention being able to do as early as possible writing for APJ.  GRRRRR!

Teazzurra by Guerlain 2015

Teazzurra by Thierry Wasser

Teazzurra Guerlain FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, yuzu, grapefruit
Heart: Green tea, chamomile, jasmine
Base: Musk, calone, vanilla

Love the fizzy citrus opening that tickles my nose and feels luminous and fun. My nose does get the yuzu in there originally that bittersweet’s up to grapefruit. It does dry out through the heart and is slightly like a herbal infusion but basically it heads straight for a very soft, radiant vanilla/jasmine over laundry musks. Sadly I even miss out on the calone, which could have given me that fun salty melon thing it does so well. I fear Teazzurra has been a miss for me. BUMMER! If the opening and heart had lasted into 30 minute territory on me I would have forgiven it the less than exciting rest of its lifespan.

maxresdefaultYouTube

I used up my whole sample to write this so there was plenty of fragrance on my skin but it just did not live up to my expectations. I think I will pass on Teazzurra. If it was a lot less expensive, maybe. It’s not terrible scrubber material, just boring.

Obviously your mileage may vary and Teazzurra might be heavenly on you. Lucky you, I wish it was for me.

Further reading: Arabia Style and Now Smell This
GalaxyPerfumes has Au$86/125ml

Giveaway Kesha&Co

Teazzurra GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x Carded Manufacturers Sample Teazzurra by Guerlain
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

Tell us your favourite Guerlain Aqua Allegoria fragrance or which one you’d like to try

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 24th September 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 28th September 2016 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.

Estate Rosewood EdP by Angela St. John for Solstice Scents 2016

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Post by Erica Golding

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Fragrant greetings to all of you wonderful scent lovers around the world!

Today, my aura is fully saturated with a generous infusion of my new favorite indie masterpiece. Angela has done it again, and her latest Eau de Parfum composition is a complete addiction for me. I can’t get to sleep without wearing it lately, it’s got me mental!

Estate Rosewood EdP by Solstice Scents 2016

Estate Rosewood EdP by Angela St. John

estate-rosewood-edp-by-solstice-scentsSolstice Scents

Solstice Scents gives these featured accords:
Vanilla, tea rose, oak casks, tobacco, woods, bourbon, rosewood, hinoki wood

When Estate Rosewood was released several weeks ago, I ordered a sample and rocked on my heels next to my mailbox until it arrived. (This took about 30 seconds, haha! Solstice Scents still boasts an exceptionally fast turnaround time despite their well-deserved exploding fan base.)

Naughty confession: I tested it immediately, the little glass sprayer still warm from cooking in a hot summer mailbox. I inhaled and – and, well, it was like only being able to see the tail of a comet from your peripheral vision. It was incomplete, narrow, flat, and left me wanting more. Specifically, it made me crave pure Estate Vanilla. I just wanted to fill the void. I tested the next night and it was the same. The woods were nice but too subtle, the tobacco note was a bit minty and high pitched, the vanilla was confined.
I shrugged, put it aside, and decided it was just not my style.

estate-rosewood-edp-by-solstice-scents-pexelsPDI

A few days later, I was on vacation visiting my dear bestie Sammy, my partner in crime for all things fragrance (and otherwise). She was so deeply in love with her Estate Rosewood. I smelled it on her skin, and suddenly – Glory! A harmonious symphony! Rich, balanced, resonant magic! Experiencing this perfume with her fantastic chemistry was a turning point for me. (You should all be jealous, she amps dark notes like you wouldn’t believe!) Let’s also factor in the mail shock that my sample had been exposed to, it really took over a week to recover. Travel conditions like temperature shifts, pressure changes, varied elevations, and physical agitation impacted this perfume significantly. I hadn’t given it enough time to settle.

I quickly drained my sample once I realized it had recovered from the mail. (Duh. Idiot!) Next I scored a full bottle, and I’ve dented the volume 10% in just a few weeks. Really, it’s that good! The first two batches sold out almost instantly. It’s a must-try if you enjoy feeling like a legend.

estate-rosewood-edp-by-solstice-scents-apothecary11

Solstice Scents has $85/60ml and Samples

Do you have a story about wrongly judging a mail-shocked fragrance too soon? Have you ever had the chance to evaluate the effects of skin chemistry on perfume? Let’s chat about it below!

Love and light and scented hugs,
Erica

Limanakia GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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Post by Portia

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Hey Crew,

Thanks to Pierre Guillaume for sending this advance sample to share. What a honey. He even sent me this super sexy and tanned pic in his excitement. Next time I’m going to get him to write it in the nude…..

pierre-guillaume-thanks-portia

Limanakia GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Limanakia Parfumerie Generale FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Artemisia, cumin, flint, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, tiare flower, immortelle, patchouli, woody notes, cashmere wood, labdanum

Pierre Guillaume has sizes starting at €65/30ml

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Limanakia sample (decanted from my press sample)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 17th September 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

APJ Winner Is

Jackie b

Patty Pong

The winners will have till Wednesday 21st September 2016 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

Lovely by Laurent Le Guernec and Clement Gavarry for Sarah Jessica Parker 2005

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

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Post by Portia

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Hello Fragrance Friends,

Last week in Australia on our AFN FaceBook page we had a Wear Your Celebrity Scents week. We often have special Wear Your weeks because by highlighting a particular section of our collections to wear we remember to bring out things that have sat neglected. It’s been over a year since I last spritzed todays fragrant offering, and it used to be one of my go-to, wear everywhere frags. So it was really nice to spend a full day re-engaging with it. Fully respritzed it for morning, noon and night.

Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker 2005

Lovely by Laurent Le Guernec and Clement Gavarry

Lovely Sarah Jessica Parker FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives the following accords:
Top: Nectarine, bergamot, rosewood, lavender
Heart: Apple martini, white daffodil, orchid
Base: White amber, cedar, woody notes, white musk

The shimmery, hefty/sheer fruity opening of Lovely is skimming the edge of screechy as you apply it. I hold my breath for that first few seconds of zing because it’s completely overwhelming to me. It only lasts a few seconds and then  Lovely becomes well named. My mind has always told me that lovely is a fruity rose and jasmine bouquet fragrance over the most enormous hit of fluffy, powdery, clean woody musks. So there are no roses or jasmine in the notes list but even now that I’ve read the note list my nose is not getting the memo.

What I love about Lovely is how softly insistent it is. While you may not be strong smelling the fragrance does tend to have legs and will fill a room if you spritz in one room, leave for whatever reason and come back 20 minutes later you’ll still smell juicy/musky remnants. So when I wear Lovely I can sit down with someone and it may take 10 minutes for the fragrance to make itself known and then I’ll get a compliment.

Lovely-by-Sarah-Jessica-Parker

Longevity is excellent and because it’s now so cheap I can spritz with abandon. Lovely also leaves excellent sillage, people will look up about 30 seconds after you’ve walked past and will be looking for where that fabulous smell is coming form. Dressed up or lounging around the house Lovely feels like a perfect fit.

Further reading at Bois de Jasmin and Australian Perfume Junkies
FragranceNet has $20/30ml Before Coupon
My Perfume Samples starts from $2/ml to $7/5ml

What has been left loveless around your place that needs to see some spritzing?
Portia xx

Limanakia by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2016

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Post by Portia

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Hello New Fragrance Fans,

HOT off the Press Release I’ve been sent Pierre Guillaume’s newest fragrance to try. Anyone who is a fan of his earlier work will be thrilled. We have this so early that only Pierre has it for sale on his site, it was only released at Pitti this week!

Let’s try it together…

Limanakia by Parfumerie Generale 2016

Limanakia by Pierre Guillaume

Limanakia Parfumerie Generale FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Artemisia, cumin, flint, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, tiare flower, immortelle, patchouli, woody notes, cashmere wood, labdanum

One of the people whose opinion I trust about all things fragrant is Josie from OSSWALD NYC. When Josie said that Pierre Guillaume is an extremely gifted perfumer who makes really good smelling scents I really started to take notice of the brand. I’d always liked his style and had a couple FBs of his work and was totally infatuated with his handsome self already. It was the tiny push I needed to go from impressed to fan boy. Then earlier this year I met him, FAINT! He he he, what a charming, sexy and amusing man.

Green! The opening is curiously green and dusty, a dried herbiness then segues into a sweet immortelle wound tightly with a very pretty backing track of creamy white flowers. The transition is so smooth and feels utterly effortless, as if the new notes float in, creep in, gently until they completely take over. OOOOHHHH it’s so good. The green comes back after about 15 minutes but is less stark now, entwined with the floral bouquet and becoming softly balmy, maybe it’s the labdanum.  I am reminded of the Tommi Sooni range, that same old-world glamour girl feel.

After about an hour patchouli reigns supreme, a sheer, clean patchouli all tidied up and with floral flourishes. Still, it does nod to the headshop and the woods create a lovely setting for it to shine.

There is definitely a FB in my future.

Pierre Guillaume has sizes starting at €65/30ml

AllSteele giveaway 1

Limanakia GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
1 x Limanakia sample (decanted from my press sample)
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

Go to Pierre Guillaume’s Site<< JUMP. Tell us ONE of your favourite fragrances of his and ONE of its notes. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Saturday 17th September 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Wednesday 21st September 2016 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

Going Green? TinaG’s Quick Sniffs with Portia

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

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Post by TinaG

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Hi APJ!

Last week I caught up with Portia for tea and lunch. We spent a lovely few hours bubbling away merrily with laughter and stories. Portia has an amazing fragrance collection which we dove into in search of ‘green’ scents. I was presented with a plethora of options. I thought I would share my first impressions of these with you.

There is nothing considered or nuanced here just what jumped out and hit me first. What this style of testing allows for is a snapshot of a range of perfume in a short period of time. What I can then do is go back and explore individual frags at my leisure. Fun!!

Going Green?

TinaG’s Quick Sniffs with Portia

Here’s my notes, ranked from less to more green (if that can be a thing….)

Armani Prive Vert Malachite Giorgio Armani FragranticaFragrantica

Armani Prive – Vert Malachite
Where is the ‘vert’? A bit of pettigran wafts through but it’s mainly a big white floral, heavy on the jasmine and ylang ylang.

Robert Piguet – Futur
This is supposed to be enriched by ‘green’ accords, but I can’t get past the old school aldehydes in the opening. It burns off leaving jasmine & ylang ylang with some bitter orange.

Chanel – No 19
Cool green, jasmine, rose, iris, geranium. Elegant.

Silences Jacomo FragranticaFragrantica

Jacomo – Silences
Galbanum-heavy. Not a note I easily pick up in fragrances so I spend some time with my nose on the card trying to affix it in my scent memory.

Ormond Jane – Sampaguita
Watery green. Grassy, light florals, lily & rose.

Guerlain – Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune
Grapefruit green, sharp and fresh.

Tokyo Bloom The Different Company FragranticaFragrantica

The Different Company – Tokyo Bloom
Heavy pink pillar of florals in the middle of gentle plant greens.

Olfactive Studio – Panorama
Light green. Peppery notes, it is a study in various green shades.

Niki de Saint Phalle FragranticaFragrantica

Niki de Saint Phalle
Cool green, but full of colourful varied florals. Fun.

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz – Giverny in Bloom
Fresh cut wet plant stem green. OMG this is exactly like being inside a florists! Amazing!

Guerlain – Aqua Allegoria Teazzurra
Dry green tea note. Simple. Gentle.

Fleur No 1 1000 Flowers FragranticaFragrantica

1000 Flowers – Fleur No 1
I think I was coming to the end of my capacity here because I just wrote ‘green’. (I don’t think there’s 1000 flowers in there).

So, what would I go back to? I’d be interested to see how Silences developed, along with Chanel No 19. I’ve given Panorama a run through as I got a sample when it was released, and it really is layered greens.

What else should I add to my list for future sniffs on a green theme?

See ya!
Tina G xx

Lavender: Three Lavenders To Relax With

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

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Post by Anne-Marie

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Hi all

A member of an Australian perfume group on Facebook recently posted this remark:
“I just had a little stress out so I bought myself a perfume. Has this helped you before? My cupboard is full of fragrances.”

So you can imagine the answers. Yes, yes, yes – from many people, including me. (“Better for your health than alcohol or chocolate.”)
We buy perfume to de-stress, and as a little act of self-nurturing to bring beauty into what can feel like a cold, unfeeling world. You know this; I don’t have to labour the point. One member did admit: “I stress out on what to buy and wear so it’s a vicious but good circle.” I can identify with that too. I find owning too much stuff is stressful in itself.

I’m not going to rake over the issues of addiction and obsession today, though. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about what perfumes, or notes, you actually find relaxing. What helps you ride through the stress and anxiety of any given day? I’ll start.

Lavender: Three Lavenders To Relax With

Lavender is widely thought of as calming. Agree? For me it’s a maybe. If it’s very pungent I find lavender distracting and unpleasant.

Boy Chanel Chanel FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lavender, rose, lemon, grapefruit, rose geranium, orange blossom, sandalwood, heliotrope, vanilla, musk

CHANEL Boy is an exception; there it is too refined to be offensive, and interestingly a lot of lavender sceptics seem to be making allowances for Boy.

Gris Clair Serge Lutens FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Iris, tonka bean, amber, lavender, woodsy notes, incense

And Serge Lutens’ Gris Clair, now. This! A modern classic in the lavender genre. I don’t find Gris Clair cold or ashy, as some people do. One sniff and I lift my mental gaze from daily troubles and look into the middle distance to a calmer place. Lavender-scented clean cotton drying in the sun. Grey early light over green hills, the promise of a lazy summer day. I think I do generally associate lavender with sunshine; or at least, I like lavenders that bring out this quality.

serendipty_soap LUSH CosmeticaLUSH Cosmetics

There must be countless lavender bath and body products but I’ll mention just one: Lush Serendipity Soap. Again, this is a gentle lavender, blended with chamomiles. It’s more restrained than your average Lush product but I notice that the scent does linger in the bathroom and it’s a nice way to ease into the day.

It’s the sense of space and perspective that I value in lavender. It offers thoughts of things bigger than self. Beauty in simplicity. Perfumes can relax us because we just love them. They can have this effect regardless of notes and accords. If you know a perfume well and you have written your story into it, and it into yours, it will greet you like an old friend.

So over to you – what do you reach for when you when the world crowds in on you?
Until next time, relax and keep spritzing!

CHANEL N°5 L’Eau GIVEAWAY WINNERS

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Post by Portia

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Hello APJers,

Department Store release date in Australia is September 15 for the newest CHANEL fragrance. Thanks all for getting involved and thanks too to CHANEL SAs for their generosity.

CHANEL N°5 L’Eau GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Chanel No 5 L'Eau Chanel FragranticaFragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, mandarin, orange, neroli, aldehydes
Heart: Rose, ylang-ylang, jasmine
Base: Cedar, white musk

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 3 winners who will receive:
1 x Carded Manufacturers Sample CHANEL No 5 L’Eau
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Saturday 10th September 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

Winners Are Bodie Strain Sydney Opera House Fireworks Flickr

Nelle

Rickyrebarco

Lena

The winners will have till Wednesday 14th September 2016 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