Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls GIVEAWAY WINNERS

April 22, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

And here we have it my fragrant lovelies,

Thank you Azar for your amazing stories and giveaways.

Portia xxxx

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica lists these featured accords:
Peach, gardenia, bergamot, water lily, white rose, lotus, amber, sandalwood, musk

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will receive:
Continental USA DRAW: 1 x vintage Black Pearls .25 ounce parfum in the box
Worldwide DRAW: 1 x 2ml decant of the original Black Pearls EdP
1 x a little sample of a rare, impossible to find, weird mystery peach
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 21st April 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner were chosen by random.org

Brooklodge

World – Fanny

US – Fazal

The winners will have till Sunday 24th April 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.

Devil In Disguise by Mark Buxton Perfumes 2012

April 21, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Niche Nerds,

Yes, I know I’m late to the party. These samples were given to me at least a year ago and they have sat winking at me, reminding me not to forget them, wishing I would just damn well spritz. I did smell them on cards originally and thought they were interesting and fun. Mark Buxton has created many financial and critical hits and done a few things I really love: Salvador dali Laguna, a couple of biehl parfumkunstwerke, Le Labo Vetiver 46, loads of cool Comme des Garcons and the list goes on. He has also put his name to stuff I don’t love too. That’s cool, I like to be surprised. When the news came through that he was doing a self named line there was much excitement and fluttering of touchés (He He he who knows if that’s correct?). So finally I have grabbed them out from the draw and am giving them skin time. Here’s the one I really liked a lot…

Devil In Disguise by Mark Buxton Perfumes 2012

Devil In Disguise by Mark Buxton

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rhubarb leaf, ginger
Heart: Magnoli, neroli
Base: Patchouli, vetiver, musk

Everyone else gets sweet but I get a softly sweet green, a very olde worlde reminder of my Mum making rhubarb for the family and me thinking it tasted like shit. Everyone else loved it and asked for more. Here the rhubarb is a sweet starting point but not like the celebuscent spun sugar jelly crystals type sweet, more like a healthy sweet. Yeah, I’m making this clear as mud, I know.

WikiMedia

Devil In Disguise opens beautifully, it’s lightly sweetened and edible but not cake or particularly gourmand. I taste no vanilla or biscuit or candy. It’s warm and vegetal, softly zingy. Though I cringe at using gender definers it smells like a sexy masculine that could easily be worn by either sex. While not being strange it is compelling and it lures my nose in to sniff it again and again. Never really offering me anything concrete to write down for you because it’s not the same as anything I’ve smelled or easily correctable to ideas. Bittersweet. That’s the best analogy I have. It’s like the bittersweet feeling of losing your love, slowly and knowingly watching them shut down and yet loving them too much to let go. The heartache mixed with joyful memories. That’s what Devil In Disguise smells like to me.

My nose misses the heart completely and sniff directly to the base, particularly the vetiver and shaded by the patchouli. Vetiver becomes king though and the opening sweet green is repeated over the vetiver to warm its rough rasp and soften and smooth. Draped elegantly in clean musks the whole fragrance fades slowly and a whisper remains for morning, amorphous and pretty.

Flickr

Further reading: Non Blonde and Black Narcissus
Mark Buxton has €140/100ml

Did you spend any time with the Mark Buxton range? What did you think?
Portia xx

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls 1996

April 18, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 37 Comments

Post by Azar

Greetings Perfume Pals!

My previous post on APJ recalled my adventures in Spring Cleaning and the subsequent discovery of several bottles of the original Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls. I also wrote a bit of a back-story to the fragrance. Today I am attempting a review of vintage Black Pearls.

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls 1996

The Power of the Peach – Part II

Fragrantica

Fragrantica lists these featured accords:
Peach, gardenia, bergamot, water lily, white rose, lotus, amber, sandalwood and musk.

First of all I have to say that there is nothing quite like vintage Black Pearls. For me this frag is, at once, peachy, wet and powdery, a combination unique in my experience. Some people report a surfeit of lilac and/or melon in Black Pearls. My experience is one of citrus, lotus (of sorts), honeysuckle, vanilla, synthetic smelling sandalwood, a rich floral combo and, of course, the powerful peach.

I am not talking about a fresh peach here. Even though there is an obvious attempt to simulate freshness with the addition of aquatic elements (via the lotus and water lily?), Black Pearls has very little of that squeezable, tart juiciness that characterizes newly picked fruit. Instead, Elizabeth Taylor’s peach is big, fuzzy and over-ripe, sliced, spiced, powdered; vanilla sugared, battered, buttered and baked into a cobbler drizzled with cream. This fragrant, mouthwatering dessert is set out to cool next to a huge bouquet of lilacs, gardenias, pale roses and osmanthus. Can you imagine that? Most days my skin loves Black Pearls and the resulting sweetness and warmth is not unlike the tender, young voice of Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown in the 1945 film National Velvet. Sometimes, though, she smells like the sound of ET portraying the screeching, bitching Martha from the film adaptation of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (the film – 1966). The split personality of this fragrance – either a middle aged harridan with monster sillage or a sweet, shy girl who stays close to home – makes Black Pearls a perfume I can wear for a variety of occasions and purposes. The problem is I can’t predict how she will behave on my skin from one day to the next.

Flickr

Black Pearls started me wondering what percentage of the fragrances in my collection feature peachy notes. I haven’t come up with an answer to that yet, but a couple of the peaches I am currently wearing are Viktoria Minya’s Hedonist (date) and the new Miyako extrait by Auphorie (date). I imagine I will write more about those two sometime soon – in the Power of the Peach Part III?

Azar xx

YouTube

Elizabeth Taylor Black Pearls GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged. 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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

USA or WORLD

and

Please tell us your favorite peach-centric fragrance – if you have one. Or any fruit in a fragrance.

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Thursday 21st April 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Sunday 24th April 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.

Sable & Soleil GIVEAWAY WINNERS

April 18, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Woo Hoo! Sexy love of my life Pierre was a hit with you all again.

Let’s see who won.
Portia xxx

Sable & Soleil GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Lemon blossom, jasmine, African geranium, coconut milk, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, white musk

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winner who will receive:
1 x 2ml Sable & Soleil manufacturers sample
1 x sample Indian Wood by Perfumerie Generale 2016
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

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

prospectsplus

Koyel Bhattacharyya

Fazal

The winner will have till Thursday 21st April 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.

Unofficial Esxence 2016 Write Up

April 12, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 45 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

I managed two and a half hours at the Esxence. Virtual high fives are fine thank you very much. I did not try anything in the show because I prefer to do that at home in peace and not surrounded by nuclear clouds of oud.

Preparation for Esxence 2016

Unofficial Esxence 2016 Write Up

Milano Central Station art

Neela Vermeire introducing the new Take Two Packs. 2 x 15ml for travel and sharing!

Perfume Magpie, absolute delight.

I chatted with Pauline Rochas of Coolife NYC and brought home samples of their fragrances. She is the granddaughter of Marcel and Hélène Rochas absolutely charming and what a heritage.

HomoElegans. I mean you just have to. Two fragrance samples in an elegant box labelled as an “experience kit”. Stay tuned.

GriGri Parfums is another new fragrance brand, Anaïs Biguine the nose. She has created some really rather
good perfumes for Jardins D’Écrivains which encouraged me to take look. Seeking inspiration from the history
of tattoos throughout the ages, itself an art form, makes for an artistic combination. The Ukiyo-E with its genmaicha
and green tea notes, representing the Japanese tattooing called Irezumi, sounds particularly aromatic.

Intent on fulfilling the wish of a good friend I stopped by at the Stéphane Humbert Lucas stand to enquire about the new up and coming fragrance. They were rude and bloody arrogant, not to mention unhelpful. I left. I would not buy anything from this brand even if it WAS good……..

Imagine this ten times more crowded

Antonio from Bogue

Val (me) at the Prada Foundation Haunted House exhibition

Jeroen from Mona di Orio

I spent a joyful few hours with Jeroen Oude Sogtoen and his assistant Henrike, together the brilliant Mona di Orio team and did put the new fragrance Bohea Bohème onto my skin twice, each time smelling quite different. More to come.

Lecture

Prada loos with Vero

My first ever selfie

Mark Behnke, We would be best friends if he lived closer.

When I love something I get over excited and cannot stop talking about it. Ellis Fass Make Up! The best red lipstick I have ever used and as my dear stepfather would say “I have been through more of them than you’ve had hot dinners”. The last two days I have used their foundation. Sublime. I am in touch with them and ordering foundation, lipstick, concealer and mascara. Super excited I can tell you. Am I the last one to find out about them?

Vero getting ready to go downtown for dinner

Chatting outside Esxence 2016

Oh. And two days with Vero.

Milan discoveries? Hermès Doblis Parfum and Vintage Vol de Nuit EdP. Did I ever stand a chance?

Bussis.
CQ

Indian Wood GIVEAWAY WINNER

April 11, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Post by Portia

Hey hey Crew!

You guys were totally into this giveaway, no surprise, I love PGs work too. He was really excited that we showcased him on the weekend, look out for his new Pheadon one coming up soon here on APJ too.

Portia xx

Indian Wood GIVEAWAY WINNER

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Sandalwood, vetiver, moss, spicy mint, nutmeg, cardamom, coconut milk, lemon zest

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x 2ml Indian Wood manufacturers sample
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday 10th April 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

amberinblunderland

ELLEN M.

The winner will have till Thursday 14th April 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.

Scent Your Space Recipes

April 10, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Post by Suzanne R Banks

Hello! I’ve just turned on my vapouriser and somehow I’m still surprised after 20 years that it makes such a glorious difference in the home, or office – any space really. Here’s a few recipes to embrace the new season and expand your consciousness too, with a few drops of essential oil ….

A diffuser or vapouriser is a motorized machine to disperse essential oils throughout your space. There are so many wonderful designs now that it can be fun to have a few to choose from – hey some vapourisers may you suit your mood better than others, and even the recipe you’ve decided to use too. Some are colourful and have LED light displays, some are wood or bamboo and add a more natural vibe.

Banggood

Diffusing essential oils is a great way to relieve stress, calm children and pets, and beautify your home.

To Scent Your Space, my ratio has always been:

In a traditional oil burner with a candle or a diffuser add 25 drops of oil.

However many diffusers say to only use a few drops, so use your intuition and see how you go with your own diffuser, how long it lasts, and whether you want to use more or less next time. If you are using a traditional vapaouriser with candle (often referred to as a “burner”), then 25 drops is a good ratio as it takes a lot longer for the oils to disperse.

Scent Your Space Recipes

Pexels

There’s A Light

Orange 8 drops

Rose Geranium 8 drops

Lavender 5 drops

Patchouli 4 drops

YouTube

Pre-Party Party

Mandarin 8 drops

Lemongrass 7 drops

Rosemary 5 drops

Ylang Ylang 5 drops

Wikipedia

Date Night

Bergamot 12 drops

Cedarwood Atlas 8 drops

Jasmine 5 drops (don’t use 3% in jojoba as it will clog your machine. Only use pure essential oil as the jojoba could mess with the mechanics of the machine)

Geograph

My House Smells Weird I Need Essential Oils

Lemon Myrtle 10 drops

Geranium 6 drops

Palmarosa 6 drops

Cedarwood Virginiana 3 drops

Flickr

Study or Wake Up!

Rosemary 10 drops

Basil 5 drops

Tea Tree 5 drops

Siberian Fir 5 drops

It’s easy to find great vapourisers near where you are, just by looking on the Internet with your search engine.

Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.

Check out my YouTube Channel too, thanks
Suzanne R Banks Blog
Suzanne R Banks Aromatherapy
Suzanne R Banks FaceBook

Please check out my new book REVELATION! – Reveal Your Destiny with Essential Oils

Amazon USA Amazon AU Amazon UK

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

April 9, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there Fragrant Fumies,

This week my mate Alice & I decided to take a moment out of our lives and go down to the island off the bottom of Australia. It’s called Tasmania and it is beautiful.

Tasmania is 68,401 km² and has around 500K people. Let’s compare that to South Korea at 96,920 km² and 49M (July 2015 est.). Yes, it’s a quiet out of the way place full of beautiful mountains and rivers, small towns and larger ones, friendly people and an enormous amount of history, quite a lot of it as brutal and unforgiving as the winds that whip up direct from Antarctica.

What better way to commemorate such a journey than to do a Photo Essay and have you guys along on the trip.

I know you are absolutely agog to know what fragrances I took. EASY! I grabbed my Hermès 15ml travel size of Vanille Galante, a vintage Youth Dew, something I didn’t even look at and what’s left of my Oriental Brulant that I wore for the whole 2 days and LOVED!

Here are the pics of our adventure! All the gorgeous scenery ones were taken by Alice and I took the rest.
Portia xxx

Tasmania! Two Days Away: Photo Essay

Ready for TAKE OFF! One of my besties, Alice, and I off to look at Tasmania. YAY!

Hotel Grand Chancellor in Launceston. Trip Advisor gave it VERY mixed reviews but we found it comfortable & clean and the staff very friendly.

I know, but I love BUFFET BREAKFAST!!!

Serendipitously it was Farmers Market Saturday Morning and we had a wander through. The produce was unbelievably gorgeous and Alice bought some local wines, meringues and fresh picked, unsprayed raspberries! Happy Girl. We also grabbed some spicy sunflower and pumpkin seeds for our BFF Kath.

Home made chocolate whiskey meringues. WINNER!

Spicy Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds.

That will be Pinot Gris for the sexy bitch please.

Launceston has a wonderful olde worlde feel to it, we really liked the atmosphere and the people. It’s a cool town for a funky bunch.

On the road again. We hired a car and drove ourselves. Way more fun.

Mohur Extrait GIVEAWAY WINNER

April 8, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Post by Portia

SHIT! Sorry APJ,

Sandra and I completely forgot about drawing this giveaway! You all are so great and got really involved.
Let’s find out who our lucky winner is.
Good Luck everyone!
Portia xxx

Mohur Extrait GIVEAWAY WINNER

Sandra

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, coriander, ambrette (musk mallow), carrot seeds, pepper, elemi
Heart: Iris, jasmine, rose, violet, almond, leather
Base: Sandalwood, amber, woody notes, patchouli, agarwood (oud), benzoin, vanilla, tonka bean

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x sample pack of all of Neela’s creations including a tiny bit of the Extrait
P&H Worldwide

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Tuesday 5th April 2016 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org

HighestSelf

Helen Burrows

The winner will have till Monday 11th April 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.

Vanille d’Iris by Geza Schoen for Ormonde Jayne 2015

April 6, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Post by Tara

Hey APJ!

I’ve come across from A Bottled Rose today to hang out at my mate Portia’s place and talk about a perfume I came to with great expectations…

Vanille d’Iris by Ormonde Jayne 2015

Vanille d’Iris by Geza Schoen

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander seed, Sicilian bergamot, carrot seed, schinus molle (pink pepper)
Heart: Orris absolute, jasmine absolute, magnolia bud oil, osmanthus
Base: Vanilla extract, Tahitian vanilla bud, cedar wood, vetiver, amber, musk

From the moment I heard about its release last year, I couldn’t wait to try Vanille d’Iris. Ormonde Jayne’s fragrances are well done and wearable, while still having something interesting to say. I love iris and was interested to find out how it would be combined with vanilla.

Luckily I didn’t have to pay to get hold of some. My great pal Val the Cookie Queen sent me an unwanted sample, being far from enamoured with it herself. I had only read positive reviews therefore I was now beyond intrigued.

There’s nothing to dislike about the immediate opening combo of pink pepper and bergamot. Once it settles down, I become more puzzled than anything else. I get a watery thin vanilla and some papery iris before the overall impression quickly turns into one of a Stargazer lily. How strange.

Flickr

I don’t find it a scrubber but I don’t find it enjoyable either. Mind you, I’m not normally a lily fan and I don’t like the indoles thrown out by Stargazers. I thought maybe I was imagining things: How could an OJ be anything other than squeaky clean?

A little while later, I felt validated when I saw Portia’s typically perceptive review on Perfume Posse mentioned a “poopy undercurrent”. Ha! Not just me then.

I must say Vanille d’Iris is most definitely NOT a skanky scent but if you do register that facet and it’s not to your taste, it’s hard to disregard.

The vanilla is not the cupcake, sugary variety but it’s also missing the comfort factor. The iris isn’t powdery or doughy but rather carrot-y. Looking at the note list, I wonder if it’s actually the carrot seed that’s throwing it for me because I’m normally a fan of iris accords.

l was disappointed because I really like the Ormonde Jayne line as a whole and had high hopes for this one. I own and love both Ormonde Woman and Champaca but for some reason Vanille d’Iris sadly just hits an off-note (literally) with me.

Geograph

It should be pointed out that other reviewers love it so don’t be put off if you’re yet to try it. Portia found the subtle indolic backnote to be earthy in a good, if unexpected way and sums up the perfume as “classic and classy”.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and I Scent You A Day
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

If you’ve tried Vanille d’Iris I’d love to hear about your own experience in the comments.

Tara xxx

(Ed: Go read A Bottled Rose)