Samples

Alibi by Perfume & Skincare Company: Australia 2015

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hey hey Crew,

You know how much I love Australian independent Perfumers. We are getting quite a few and I am always excited when they send me their newest releases. Recently I replenished my Gardenia by the Perfume & Skincare Company. I bought fragrance, soap and a candle. As you can tell I really love it a dirty blue cheese gardenia that combines all the creamy and fatty white flower gorgeousness with the rank and fecal. It smell exactly like gardenias off the bush, beautiful.

With it I got two new samples and today we will talk about the first….

Alibi by Perfume & Skincare Company: Australia 2015

Alibi by Sheila Massetti

There is no note list or picture on the site yet, just two sizes to buy, that’s how new and exciting Alibi is. So we will be walking blind together on my second wearing of Alibi.

Obviously I have no idea what this is supposed to smell like but imagine burying your face in a mink coat just out of cold storage while being dusted in baby powder by a naked, slightly sweaty man. Ha Ha Ha! It most reminds me of a softer version of M/Mink by Byredo, kind of gorgeous and disgusting. It’s true and real arm sniffing compulsion walking a knife edge between amazingly beautiful and stomach turningly gross. I am kind of hooked. To be honest I’m unsure whether I’d wear Alibi outside the house, it’s just too intense. In fairness, though I love M/Mink I would not wear it outside the front door either.

Alibi by Perfume & Skincare Company Black_cross_mink_fur_cape WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Remember too that all Perfume & Skincare Company fragrances are extrait strength with over 40% ingredients before the alcohol is added. You get a really beautiful and intense ride and the fragrances are spritzed. PERFECT!! It’s heady and hefty, great projection and has excellent longevity, I’m at around the 4-5 hour mark and still Alibi is as outrageous as when I first spritzed.

OK, so Jin came home and he told me I had to shower. It was too intense and slightly stomach churning for him, in our three years together the only other time this happened was with a Slumberhouse frag. Goodbye Alibi.

Alibi by Perfume & Skincare Company Bright Nude Man HaydenWeal PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Skincare And Perfume Company starts a $15/5ml

Sheila Massetti the perfumer sent me through this after I asked: “soft and powdery with a touch of musk and light floral”.  Any more and I’d have to give you the recipe.

If you are a serious, boundary pushing perfumista who likes to be fabulously outraged then Alibi could be for you. It could also be my skin chemistry and there may be a single note inclusion that doesn’t work for me. Try Alibi, it’s a ride and a half.

Portia xx

 

 

 

 

SmellBent GIVEAWAY WINNER!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

SmellBent GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Brent Leonesio Facebook

Till Valentines Day Feb 14 you can get FREE SHIPPING with SmellBent orders over $30. You have only a day to get in there.

Go to it crew,
Portia xx

SmellBent GIVEAWAY!

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Winner who will receive:
5 x SmellBent 4ml samples: slightly used (FrankenSmellie s13#916, Gimme A Break!, Ice Station Zebra, Pere Noel Coward, Winter Vixen)
P&H

HOW DID 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 SmellBent and find me a fragrance and one of its notes. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet:  http://wp.me/p3PURw-3C9 SmellBent GIVEAWAY!   @smellbent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Friday 13th February 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winner was chosen by random.org

winner-is HighestSelfPhoto Stolen HighestSelf

Elia

CONGRATULATIONS!! The winner will have till Monday 16th February 2015 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.

Manto di Rugiada by i Profumi di Firenze 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Hey HeyGorgeous APJ!

Back in 2013 when I went on the Perfume Posse ScentSation Bus tour of Los Angeles we were introduced to the American importer of i Profumi di Firenze. She was extremely knowledgeable and I really loved her passion for the products. I really wanted to buy two fragrances on the spot but they were out of Ambra del Nepal at the time (they were also out of it in Barney’s Chicago and NYC in 2014) so I grabbed their Dolce Patchouly, a very refined fragrance that I adore. So I always get excited when I grab a new decant or sample from the line and this one I got in the 5ml Fridays at Surrender To Chance..

Manto di Rugiada by i Profumi di Firenze 2011

Manto di Rugiada i Profumi di Firenze BaseNotesPhoto Stolen BaseNotes

BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Verbena, Basil, Bergamot
Heart: Amber, Sandalwood
Base: Opoponax, Musk

From Beauty Habit: An i Profumi di Firenze bestseller in Italy, now available stateside, this delicately sensual fragrance quietly mesmerizes with its duality of lightness and ambery depth. Top notes of verbena, basil and bergamot flow effortlessly onto a base of sandalwood, amber, opoponax and musk. Opoponax (“sweet myrrh”) is renowned for its protective qualities by increasing awareness and intuition, hence the poetic name, Cloak of Dewy Mist.

SONY DSCPhoto Stolen Flickr

Opening with a fabulously fun hairspray sizzle that quickly calms to a herbaceous sweet creamy green, a bit like Matcha Tea Powder. It’s not long before lovely soft balmy resins, beautiful resins, sweet and cuddly and some floral action but it’s all so beautifully blended I am finding it hard to parse stuff out. I can see why Manto di Rugiada is cloakish but I get very little of the dew or any coolness at all. Maybe the cloak is warmth against dewy mist? I see it as a warm red cloak with soft velour inside. MMMMM. Doesn’t matter.

As the heart warms up the word amber perfectly equates, like light shining through a beautiful clear piece of amber and as balmy and smooth as the feel of vintage body warmed opaque amber beads. Really, though the notes are there all I want to do with Manto di Rugiada is lie back and float away on the lovely fragrance, the combination that works so beautifully together. Interestingly, the green comes back through the heart, it’s a dry raspy green, quite nice as a layer through the soft cuddly balms.

Manto di Rugiada i Profumi di Firenze Sweet-dreams-dreaming-of-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarves WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Manto di Rugiada will be my bedtime scent tonight. I can imagine myself floating away on it to the isle of nod.

This is not a BIG fragrance, I think it would be wearable even in an office. Very pretty, good longevity but not overpowering in any way.

Further reading: Now Smell This
Beauty Habit have $110/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml

Have you spent any time with the i Profumi di Firenze brand? Do you have a favourite?
Portia xx

Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

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Post by Poodle

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The word gardenia strikes terror in the heart of many. For a flower that has no perfume essence of its own and must be replicated by using other flower essences it has many variations and strengths. Most of these are dependent on the perfumers interpretation of what gardenia is. For some it always a bit too much and they shy away from anything called gardenia. Other times, when people smell a gardenia perfume the first comment made is “that’s not gardenia”. In that respect Gardenia will be no different.

Gardenia by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet 2014

Gardenia Robert Piguet FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, lily, ylang ylang
Heart: Madagascar vanilla
Base: Black leather, cashmeran, spice, woods

Gardenia opens with lilies and ylang-ylang. There a certain freshness to the top notes, a watery green-ness that stops it from veering into the big white floral territory of Fracas. It makes me think of a bouquet of flowers cut in the early morning after a spring rain. My nose detects a hint of gardenia every now and then but it’s not the headlining act here. After the top notes settle Gardenia is not as bold as you might think. I wouldn’t call it a big white floral either.

Gardenia Robert Piguet gardenia Flower oom_endro PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

The freshness gives way to warmth. Cashmeran and leather start to appear. They are soft and seem almost powdery combined with the vanilla. The lily notes linger throughout the development and now have a little spice to them. It’s not a huge hit of spice but just that tiny bit that you sometimes smell in real lilies. Gardenia reminds me most of gardenias early on and later in the dry down. When I was extremely young I’d take the spent blossoms from my grandmothers gardenia and smoosh the petals into my arm hoping to transfer the scent. Even at the age of 4 I had the makings or a perfume nerd. Anyway, that’s what I’m reminded of in the dry down. Salty sweet skin with the barest hint of a fleshy floral petals.

Gardenia Robert Piguet Creamy Nude ContemoraryArts PixabayPicture Stolen Pixabay

I wish they had named this something different because I fear the name will deter people from sniffing. Anyone who is gardenia shy will just pass it by. Those who are looking for a true to life gardenia will sniff but perhaps it won’t be enough gardenia for them. I think men who tend to like florals would like this as well because I don’t think it smells too girly. It’s a lovely scent though so please do sniff if you see it.

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Australian Perfume Junkies
Libertine Parfumerie has $239/100ml (with FREE Australian shipping)
Harrods has £150/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml

What is your favourite gardenia scent?

Hugs,
Poodle

SmellBent

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 29 Comments

Hey Hey Hey APJ!

As you may know we have been moving house, repainting, reorganising, decluttering etc to sell this apartment. Well during that madness I’ve found a few larger samples that did not get used, the sheer weight of samples and full bottles in this house would give you pause to think about my sanity, or lack of.

A favourite Independent Fragrance House, SmellBent makes affordable, fun filled fragrance that is both beautiful and sometime quite challenging. Owner Brent Leonesio is quite the hunk and has a super brilliant LA white smile and last time I caught up with him electric blue hair.

Brent Leonesio Facebook
Today on APJ we are giving away a supercool set of mostly discontinued SmellBent samples.

FrankenSmellie s13#916: Absolutely no idea what this is meant to smell like. I’m getting incense, wood, resins, some unnamed florals and musk. I think there may be some honey or something else quite sweetly animal.

Gimme A Break!: My skin amps the musks in Gimme A Break and it smells like a hookers Christmas panties, tenacity is extreme.

Ice Station Zebra: Resins and musk, a little bit of Vicks Vapour Rub too. I don’t get the zebra…

Pere Noel Coward: Dry, dusty, woodpile with the teeniest hint of syrup and a nod to the sauna.

Winter Vixen: Imagine the yummiest chocolate mud cake ever with rich chocolate, butter and cream icing. You have just been to the gym, you get home all sweaty and disheveled, you are taking a bite….

Till Valentines Day Feb 14 you can get FREE SHIPPING with SmellBent orders over $30

Go to it crew,
Portia xx

giveaway kbairdPhoto Stolen kbaird

SmellBent GIVEAWAY!

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 1 Winner who will receive:
5 x SmellBent 4ml samples: slightly used (FrankenSmellie s13#916, Gimme A Break!, Ice Station Zebra, Pere Noel Coward, Winter Vixen)
P&H

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 SmellBent and find me a fragrance and one of its notes. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet:  http://wp.me/p3PURw-3C9 SmellBent GIVEAWAY!   @smellbent

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Friday 13th February 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Monday 16th February 2015 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.

Tiare Moana by Crystelle Darchicourt for L`Atelier Boheme 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Heya Crew,

Right now we are doing a February Sample Challenge on Facebook’s Aussie Fragrance Network. It’s a very simple idea. We are trying to wear some of our never tried samples, we record our usage and give a little insight into what we wore and how it went. You have to do at least one sample a day, more if possible, and you don’t get disqualified if you just can’t help but break out a bottle. More about the fun and the using up of long owned and neglected samples, of which most of us have WAY TOO MANY! I am trying to use up my 1ml samples so I’m also going through a bunch of new mini atomisers because I believe that if it comes in a spritz bottle it should be spritzed for sampling.

I have no idea where this sample came from. It is beautifully carded and a 2ml sample vial. When researching where to buy it I only found Russian blogger reviews on the first 3 pages of Google other than Fragrantica which had only 2 loves and no reviews. Colour me intrigued…..

Tiare Moana by Crystelle Darchicourt for L`Atelier Boheme 2009

Tiare Moana L`Atelier Boheme FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green banana, tangerine
Heart: Tiara, coconut
Base: Patchouli, hibiscus seeds

Wikipedia says: Gardenia taitensis (also called Tahitian Gardenia or Tiaré Flower) is a species of plant in the Rubiaceae family. It is an evergreen tropical shrub…. The flower is creamy white…. and very fragrant. Native to the highland shores of the South Pacific, it has the distinction of being one of the few cultivated plants native to Polynesia. It is the national flower of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

IMG_6074Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Sweet, tart and sizzling, Tiara Moana is a very juicy fruit and the opening is like biting into a mango that is so soft and juicy but you can tell that by tomorrow it will go nasty. Right now though it is heavenly, not a sugary sweetness in the modern fruitchouli experience but a sweetness with some depth and green-ness to it. It may even be green banana-ish.

Tiara, coconut and still a waft of dry greenery, like papyrus or vetiver, or maybe it is a dry, clean patchouli collide beautifully in the heart. Tiara Moana still manages to maintain it’s juiciness too and the heart is luscious and very reminiscent of a tropical island dream. Imagine if Annick Goutal’s Songes was both fruit-juicier and had a dry counterpoint, add this to the creamy texture of white flowers (without the vanilla) and you have a very good approximation of what Tiare Moana smells like.

Tiare Moana L`Atelier Boheme Les_Petits_Chanteurs_de_Sainte-Croix_-_The_Paris_Boys_Choir WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

This is not a sensual or sexual fragrance on me. I get no fecal, blue cheese, body or breath from Tiara Moana. While being gorgeous and glorious it is pure and clean. Attractive but aloof right through the heart with only a touch of earthiness in the dry down. If this fragrance were song it would be the young sporty tenor lead in a choir, all the divine exuberance of youth unsullied.

Good longevity and having sprayed myself completely with the whole 2ml I’m saying excellent projection. In fact I’m a little scared to leave the house in case I set of fire alarms, in the next suburb. I am completely and utterly engulfed in this glorious scent and enjoying the ride immensely. This would make a splendid Wedding Fragrance for both bride & groom.

Tiare Moana L`Atelier Boheme Bride_and_Groom FantasyStock DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

L`Atelier Boheme has €120/50ml

From L’Atelier Boheme: A perfume duet : two cross matters, two universes…mother-of-pearl and perfume.
For its 7th perfume, L’Atelier Bohème has chosen Rivières d’Océanie as a partner, specialized in the Tahiti black Pearl and polynesian jewellery : www.rivieresoceanie.com. Rivières d’Océanie Treasure pretty dressed the flask-jewel concealing in its heart the tiara with 7 petals in mother-of-pearl and perfume 

Have you tried Tiara Moana? Any of the L`Atelier Boheme line?
Portia xx

 

 

Muguet Fleuri by Oriza L. Legrand 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hi there Happy Huffers,

Early in 2014 Michael B and I went and visited Hugo and Franck of Oriza L Legrand at their 18 Rue Saint-Augustin, Paris store. We had an excellent time going through their collection with them, having some laughs and I purchased some soaps and a bottle of Jardin d’Armide. The space is gorgeous and chock full of fabulous fragrant delights. Soaps, candles and fine fragrance. Did you know that Oriza L Legrand patented the idea of solid perfume?

Hugo is named as perfumer on Basenotes but I think he is a curator, overseeing the creation process. I may be wrong but that was my impression.

Muguet Fleuri by Hugo Lambert for Oriza L. Legrand 2014

Muguet Fleuri Oriza L. Legrand FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green leaves, grass, lily-of-the-valley
Heart : Galbanum, angelica, violet leaf, lily-of-the-valley
Base: Lily-of-the-valley, oakmoss, lily

Firstly, what welcome relief, a new niche house that is affordable. Bravo to the boys that they’ve managed to recreate this beautiful old fragrance house and keep their prices down to a very reasonable level. I, and my wallet, thank you boys.

I love the wetness, the cooling and calming feeling of a Lily of the Valley fragrance, dewy and air conditioned. The opening so often feels slightly plastic to me, so perfect as to be unreal if you know what I mean? Cool and slightly mentholated, of grass I get nothing but I get the impression of squeezing the juice our of Aloe Vera plants, that soft, fresh, ultra green oiliness that smells like it could cool the world. Flore by Carolina Herrera has a very similar Lily of the Valley note but in Muguet Fleuri I find it subtle and refreshing, the angelica keeps everything soft focus green and of galbanum my skin throws it as a very background player here, a presence that helps lift and frame the Lily of the Valley.

Muguet Fleuri Oriza L. Legrand Lily_of_the_valley WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

It’s excellent to me how they keep the focus so firmly on Lily of the Valley in Muguet Fleuri, one of my favourites in the Lily of the Valley lineup is Muguet de Bois by Coty (yes, I know it’s a shriveled, castrated, bastardised version of itself currently but I still like and wear it), I love the way that Oriza L Legrand makes the scent feel luxurious and refined while creating a thick and luscious fragrance that has a very nice silage for the first hour or so. Fairly linear througfhout its life, there are slight increments of difference and a gradual earthing of the scent towards the end.

Muguet Fleuri Oriza L. Legrand Lily_of_the_valley pots DailyMailUKPhoto Stolen DailyMailUK

If you often, or even sometimes, wish for a fragrance as true to cut Lily of the Valley stems from the florist as possible but still interesting and beautiful then I would send you immediately to try Muguet Fleuri. It does last but only the first two hours are super fragrant, then it hums along quietly as a wash. I find Muguet Fleuri serene, calm, cool and dewy: everything you’d hope for in a fragrance about Lily of the Valley.

Further reading: The Smelly Vagabond and Kafkaesque
First In Fragrance has 90/100ml
Oriza L Legrand has a 20/7 x 2ml Sample Set (delivered worldwide)

Are you a Lily of the Valley fan? Do you have a favourite?
Portia xx

Minimising Stress and Freak-Outs with Scent

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

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Post by Suzanne R Banks

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Hi there APJ,

If you are feeling stressed, anxious, or unable to cope as well as you usually do, then scent can help you. It is worth noting though, that if you are stressed, it can be really difficult to garner the energy to help yourself – even just a little bit.

Stress Ash Photoholic FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Minimising Stress and Freak-Outs with Scent

In this case I still definitely recommend the use of essential oils, as their healing power is unstoppable, so to invite you to heal yourself, it’s best to use the easy methods which are:

1. Open The Bottle and Take a Huge Whiff

Self explanatory and easy! This may be enough to change your focus (even slightly), and hopefully help you to feel a bit better about things. This method is especially good if you are really freaking out.

2. Put A few Drops Of Oil into the bottom of the Shower

This works in a similar way to just taking a whiff straight from the bottle, but if you’ve got an extra minute, it will give you a completely different experience. Your whole body will be immersed in an essential oil steam. Energetically this will cleanse your aura and have a positive effect on your mind and emotions. Just cover the drain with a cloth or your foot for a couple of minutes, and breathe in the medicinal goodness.

3. Sample

Put a couple of drops onto a scarf, handkerchief or cotton pad and take it with you, or tuck it into your pocket, or your bra. The scent of the oil will help support you through the day, people will comment on how lovely the scent is (then you’ll feel slightly better about life in general), the energetic presence of the oil will bring a sense of calm, and it’s really easy too!

Others Stress SlowTechPhoto Stolen SlowTech

Minimising Stress and Freak-Outs of Others with Scent

If you can help a friend or a partner who is stressing or freaking out, you could employ these methods which are easy for you, but could be monumentally hard for your friend at a time of stress and unrest.Something this simple can help begin the turning around.

1. Nourishing body oil blend

Usually I say “For a coat of your body use 3 teaspoons of carrier oil in a little dish and, add 7 – 8 drops of essential oil. It’s always best to patch test first, before you apply all over.” But you could make this little blend and massage someone’s hands or feet to help them chill out.

***** Always put the drops of essential oil into the bottle or dish first, then add the carrier oil. It gives the scents time to create a synergistic fusion.

For a 50ml bottle of oil add 25 drops and see my articles “Ratios for Blending Essential Oils – A Reminder of the Basics” and “Aromatherapy – It’s Easy as 1 2 3”

2. Scent Their Space

Use 25 drops of oil In a traditional oil burner with a candle, or a diffuser, in your friend’s personal space to help them feel more comfortable. It is easy for you, but could be too much for them at this moment.
A drop of oil can be essential

A drop of oil can be essential

Which oils?

Bergamot – calm, relieve mild anxiety

Chamomile – calming, soothing, medicinal

Cinnamon – sweetness, love what you do for work

Fennel – be kind to yourself

Frankincense – breathe deeply and relax

Geranium – cheery, helps improve downward spiraling moods

Lavender – calm, solidarity and strength

Lemon – gentle, refreshing

Marjoram – grief, emotional pain relief

Rose – Queen of oils to help with all stress issues

Rosewood – flow of love in the heart centre

Vetiver – absolute grounding, cooling to the hot emotions, stops kid’s tantrums

Ylang Ylang – release anger and frustation

 

…. and really, any oil that you love and can help you (or your friend) out.

Good luck.

Best wishes.

PEACE.

Remember to treat yourself first, then everyone will benefit.

Suzanne R Banks xx

Suzanne R Banks Blog
Suzanne R Banks Aromatherapy
Suzanne R Banks FaceBook

(Ed: CONGRATULATIONS to Suzanne whole blog Suzanne R Banks just hit 150,000 views. Nice one my friend. XXX)

copyright suzanne

 

Revelation! My new book out now

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

Amazon USA      Amazon AU      Amazon UK

1725 Casanova by Magali Senequier and Gérald Ghislain for Histoires de Parfums 2001

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

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Post by TinaG

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So, who is Casanova? If you follow the story in this scent, Casanova doesn’t stand out in a crowd. He’s the type of person you’d easily walk past in the street and not notice directly. But he knows himself – he is cool, calm, and confident. Dressed immaculately, the quality material of his suit and shirt shows that he has a refined taste and attention to detail. But it’s more than that. He has a subtle charisma which is alluring – once noticed. And he knows it. Catch his eye, and you’ll find a deep, challenging sparkle which you’ve taken a few steps towards involuntarily, drawn in like a house mouse to candy.

1725 Casanova by Histoires de Parfums 2001

1725 Casanova by Magali Senequier and Gérald Ghislain

1725 Casanova Histoires de Parfums FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, citruses, grapefruit, licorice
Heart: Lavender, star anise
Base: Vanilla, almond, sandalwood, cedar, amber

1725 Casanova opens with lavender and multi-citrus top notes, primarily smoky bergamot and grapefruit, with a fleeting touch of amber. After 15 minutes a dark green, moist, sticky liquorice joins the lavender. The impression I get from the liquorice is that of a thick glossy black stick which has been snapped in half exposing the softer centre.

The oily fresh lavender mingles with the liquorice and lifts it up, preventing it from being too overpowering. At half an hour an almond comes through – thankfully only lasting to the hour mark before it subsides back to lavender/liquorice, and the bergamot which has lost its smokiness and become much more orange in nature.

1725 Casanova Histoires de Parfums MCAD Library FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

The fragrance has an air of alcohol about it, which I can’t quite place until I realise it is just like basic aftershave. The absence of any herbaceous notes in 1725 brings a grey, austere effect to the fragrance. The effect is a smoothness of a well-cut good quality men’s suit. There is an almost transparent cedar in the background, which gives an anthropogenic slant to the scent. The cedar is refined, dead, cut and shaved into a cupboard or a set of draws in a room, almost undetectable but providing a sense of presence to the room.

I originally felt that 1725 had a longevity of around 5 hours, but I realised later that after that time the remaining skin scent sticks around for about 12 hours. This base still contains the lavender but gains vanilla. The combination of vanilla and lavender in the dry down has an oddly gourmand feel to it. So, overall, this feels like a relatively ordinary scent. But who ever said ordinary can’t be interesting? I wore this on a warm summers day, respritzed quite a few times, and the combination of lavender, bit of dust and residual oils from my skin created a clean muskiness that neither my skin nor the fragrance alone would have shown.

 1725 Casanova Histoires de Parfums man_in_bar WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Casanova is the man you’ll find standing quietly at a bar, watching a group of young men acting up and playing the fool to try and get the attention of a group of young women. He doesn’t need to do anything – just smiles and watches whilst stirring the ice in his drink. Slowly, one of the women notices him, and starts watching back. And another. Who is this silent stranger? They move over to chat. Eventually, the group of guys have given up, and Casanova is still standing at the end of the bar, which is now lined with ladies all talking quietly, sipping on their own drinks, and waiting for their chance to get closer to him…

Further reading: Chemist in a Bottle and Olfactoria’s Travels
Parfum1 has $36/15ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

Have you tried 1725 Casanova by Histoires de Parfums? Is it on your list?

Tina G xx

Rosa sur Reuse by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Heya Perfume Junkies,

SOIVOHLE (pronounced See-Voh) is an acronym for Sending Out Inspired Vibrations Of Healthy Loving Energy. What an amazing place to start for a fragrance house! Liz Zorn, the nose and also a famous American artist brings a joyful, light filled exuberance to fragrance and being an independent has less regulation than the big boys. Translated, that means when Liz says there is oakmoss in her creation you are getting the good stuff. Many of her fragrances have an old school feel simply because she can use ingredients not seen in fragrance this decade in the retail chains.

Liz is selling off the Mixed Media section of the fragrance business and is going to concentrate on the naturals. I wrote recently about her Alpha Musc and how I was ordering back ups of my two special favourites Rosa sur Reuse and Jasmine Summer. Really I do not want to live without them so I now have an EXTRA backup of Rosa sur Reuse, and the prices are so cheap!!

Rosa sur Reuse by Liz Zorn for SOIVOHLE 2012

Rosa Sur Reuse SoivohlePhoto Stolen SOIVOHLE

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, red rose, red berries, parma violet, jasmine, lily, lilac, orchid, oakmoss, vanilla, woody notes, musk

So I write about Rosa sur Reuse fairly regularly on the facebook fragrance boards (Aussie Fragrance Network (Aus) or Facebook Fragrance Friends (USA) are good ones) but haven’t reviewed it on APJ. I don’t know why but I thought I had done a review here…..

We have planted some lovely spicy and jammy smelling small floribunda yellow roses on mum’s grave that seem to need zero care to put forth enormous stems of flowers throughout the season. The brilliant flowers in front are everlasting silk ones that my Aunty changes every season but you can see the sprays growing up the back filled with rosebuds. We were the first at the cemetery to ask if we could plant a garden in mum’s grave in 2001 and since then it has become a bit of a thing. The newer graves all look so bright and lovely and though we would visit Mum regularly anyway it does give us an extra reason and a thing to do while we are there. I must look like a complete MADster doing the gardening, watering, burning incense and Hell Bank Notes and quietly chatting to my Mum the whole time.

Mum's Grave January 2015

Strawberry sweetness like a strawberry cola over a beautiful big jammy rose

The sweetness that opens is the most luscious stylisation of roses ever. Though it’s so much more than a rose smell, that kind of makes Rosa sur Reuse even more photo-realistic. You know when you are smelling roses in the garden? Even roses on the same bush at different times in their bloom or throughout the day will have quite distinctly different fragrances. So in my mind it says, “Maybe there is a moment when a real life rose smells EXACTLY like this.” Intoxicating and beautiful there is no mistaking that you’re wearing a perfume, even one spritz of this EdT is a dense scent, of course when I’m home I give it 2 on the chest and one on each wrist and then I am a WALL OF ROSES! Maybe this is what it smelled like in Sleeping Beauty’s enclosure?

The sleeping beauty (1921) oil on canvas 91.4 x 111.8 cmPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

After the initial fireworks burn off, around the one hour mark, I get a green-ness that speaks to me of fresh cut rose vegetation and maybe even the woody green scent of stem too. It bolsters the fruity rose and gives a new dimension to Rosa sur Reuse. As we head towards dry down, the woods and vanilla move in to replace the fruit with a soft focus warmth but my skin never lets me lose sight of the fact that this is first and foremost a rose soliflore. I get 5-7 hours of wear depending on the day and Rosa sur Reuse stays heavily fragrant until during its last hour it fades to nothing.

SOIVOHLE still has loads of the Clearance Sale items left and you can get 11ml of Rosa sur Reuse for $12.50! While you’re there check out Liz’s other magnificent stuff aty drop dead gorgeous prices.

Portia xx