Iris Nazarena by Ralf Schwieger for Aedes de Venustas 2013

Hello Niche Nerds,

Last week I met up with Clayton Ilolahia from What Men Should Smell Like, he happened to have recently been to NYC and spent some time at Aedes de Venustas. There he was given samples of their newest baby: a sleek greyhound of a fragrance that feels like 3000 years of selective breeding have culminated with

Iris Nazarena by Aedes de Venustas 2013

Iris Nazarena Aedes de Venustas FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Iris, anise, musk mallow, juniper berries
Heart: Leather, cloves, rose, oudh
Base: Vetiver, amber, woods, incense

Straight out of the gate I get a sweet iris/leather mix that is very much like brand new shoes. After initial burn off my skin smells wet and earthy prettiness that feels so elegant and refined, green and sappy like the smell after cutting hydrangeas for the house. Iris Nazarena is all crustless finger sandwiches, cream silk blouses, yellow gold + pearl jewellery and Cape Cod in blue and white. In fact it reminds me of how I imagine the women to smell in the upper crusts of John Irving books. Glamorous, pretty, fresh and just a little spicy,

Iris Nazarena High Tea TempletonRyePost Stolen TempletonRye

Parsing Iris Nazarena is easy because even I can smell most of the given notes, or nods to them, but even more enjoyable is spaying myself quite lavishly and just breathing in the beauty of a fragrance that seems particularly well constructed and seamless. One of the things that I particularly like is that the opening greenness stays well into the heart, riding over the leather, oudh and amber effortlessly, though I imagine to make something smell this pure and easy must have taken an enormous amount of persistence. There are some faint crossovers here between Bottega Veneta and Chanel 19 but Iris Nazarena feels newer and easier. Like the other two are trying a bit hard, Iris Nazarena is so comfortable in itself that it doesn’t have to try.

My advice is to give yourself an extra spritz of Iris Nazarena, it’s light and sheer enough not to skunk but the extra spritz gives a fuller and deeper story, and sillage. Longevity is good, though it softens off dramatically after 2 hours to a very sexy whisper, and scent bubble quite close but noticeable.

I can see why people are raving about Iris Nazarena, it is a grand beauty but without the pomp and ceremony.

iris_nazarena Aedes de VenustasPhoto Stolen Aedes de Venustas

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Perfume Shrine
Aedes de Venustas has $245/100ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $7/ml

Did you try the Aedes de Venustas eponymous fragrance or have you smelled Iris Nazarena yet?

Till tomorrow be nice to yourself and those in your orbit,
Portia x

Mysore Sandalwood in Australia!

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Guest Post by Jordan River

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Hey there Perfume Junkies,

Don’t forget our Enchanted Forest GIVEAWAY <<<JUMP

Jordan River of The Fragrant Man has again got the hottest news, an Australian story that makes me very happy,
Portia xx

Mysore Sandalwood in Australia!

Santalum Album is Mysore Sandalwood Photo: J.M. Garb

Santalum album is Mysore Sandalwood, now growing sustainably in Australia
Photo: J.M. Garb

It’s all Good News here at Australian Perfume Junkies.

The demise of Mysore Sandalwood from India is well documented. The root stock of the Mysore variety, Santalum album was planted in Australian plantations sometime ago and is now being sustainably harvested.

Australia does have a native sandalwood, Santalum spicatum, with an interesting scent profile but it is not as creamy or luscious as the Mysore variety. Now Australia has Mysore Sandalwood plantations.

I know Kafka will be thrilled and I suspect Bertand Duchaufour, the man who ate niche, has left India and is in Australia right now checking quality and shipping. Suzanne R. Banks will be glowing with happiness. I also predict a sighting of Neela Vermeire in Australia soon.

So how does Mysore Sandalwood grown in Austalia smell? And can you buy it? How does 1 gram for 55€ sound?

Let’s travel now to Italy to see what perfumer AdbesSalaam Attar has to say about this development.

Click link: The Return of Mysore Sandalwood

Addition: The largest grower in Australia, Tropical Forestry Services has a purpose built nursery with the capacity to produce over 500,000 Mysore stock seedlings per planting season. They have an astonishing 7,600 hectares of trees planted in the tropical north of Australia.

Further Reading
Brie’s historic encounter with Mysore Sandalwood
Suzanne on Australian Perfume Junkies
Amer on Sandalwood
Perfume Shrine – see comments section
The End of Oud – a similar situation to Mysore Sandalwood
Ecological Conscience – Ensar Oud on sustainability at Australian Perfume Junkies

Enchanted Forest by Bertrand Duchafour for The Vagabond Prince 2012

Hey Niche Nerds,

I know, I know. It’s taken me ages to write this review. There was so much chatter about it when it first came out that I wanted to let the dust settle. I was also deeply ambivalent about the fragrance and still am but having spent some time with it now, and having two people’s opinions that I respect highly with me as I’ve smelt it was interesting too, so welcome to

Enchanted Forest by The Vagabond Prince 2012

Enchanted Forest The Vagabond Prince fragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, aldehydes, sweet orange, blackcurrant (flower, fruit & leaf), hawthorn, rum, wine, rosemary, davana
Heart: Blackcurrant buds absolute, CO2 blackcurrant, Russian coriander seed, honeysuckle, rose, carnation, vetiver
Base: Opoponax resinoid, Siam benzoin, amber, oakmoss, fir balsam absolute, Patchouli, castoreum absolute, cedar, vanilla, musk

The first time I smelled Enchanted Forest was with Denyse of Grain De Musc and The Perfume Lover (available softback soon) at Jovoy in Paris early in 2013 and I found it interesting and a nit naughty, with a slight kitty litter accent that made me smile. Of everything we smelled that glorious sunny winter day it was Enchanted Forest that I kept the strip of and went back to over the next couple of weeks till it lost all memory of itself.

Enchanted Forest The Vagabond Prince Mushrooms MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

Months went by, as quickly as they do, and other fragrant launches and tests mounted and I forgot about Enchanted Forest until we started doing a Sample Round Robin here in Australia, along came a generous sample of Enchanted Forest that I swapped out for 3 or 4 things that I had here in the swap box. I put Enchanted Forest in the MUST TRY AGAIN pile and forgot completely because I went to Scentsation in LA and then India (bragging is a disgusting habit and I am fully ashamed). So yesterday I was having lunch with Catherine du Peloux Menagé, the producer of Sydney Perfume Lovers (a meet-up group), who is an avid fragrance lover and has started a business helping people choose a scent through education and interest rather than showing them gleaming ad copy bullshit: she is clever, fun and lovely and I wanted to take some fragrances for us to try over lunch, as we do. I pulled out the Enchanted Forest to get Catherine’s take on it.

Enchanted Forest The Vagabond Prince Kittens MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

So what did I smell? Sweet fruity opening that reminds me of very ripe melon or guava, it’s bright, fizzy and in your face taking the modern fruity fragrance by the neck and giving it a shake till its teeth rattle. All the green herbaceous notes slotted in here stop Enchanted Forest from being a so so SO sweet train wreck. Though  it opens both sweeter and neon brighter than I would choose, once the initial screaming opening sequence calms it is surprisingly wearable. I get no real cat but can understand the sweetness could be a public urinal far enough away that you can smell only the sweet but not the disgusting, make sense?

Honeysuckle often skews nasty on me but here it plays along well with the others, I get a little Ribena syrup through the middle section, a sweet blackcurrant children’s cordial that was responsible in Australia for more dental bills than all the other sweet stuff put together. I don’t get coriander, rose, carnation or vetiver, I do get booze through the middle and down into the base and the vanilla comes in giving a pudding vibe. Resins come through but I miss so many of the things that they write as notes: woods? No not really. Patchouli? I don’t know. I think my nose is too poorly tuned to catch a lot of what’s happening.

Enchanted Forest is intriguing and I have been wanting to spend some alone time with it. This is a statement fragrance, fun and ebullient. It is a modern fruit take on Giorgio Beverly Hills (though only by comparison, not scent) and I can imagine it on big haired, shoulder padded women with high heels, nipped in waists and peplums (anyone been looking at fashion lately?). They are ready to make an entrance and unafraid of fragphobes and the boorish who feel that less is more. It’s exciting, naughty and possibly the next step in frag evolution if we could just get it on the kids who’ve been wearing celeb fruitchouli (as they get bored) then it may be the perfect gateway scent.

Further reading: Kafkaesque, The Fragrant Man and The Muse In Wooden Shoes
LuckyScent has $180/100ml and samples

What did you think? Have you tried it? Would you like to? well, here’s your chance….

giveaway kbairdPhoto Stolen kbaird

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 2 prizes this week. Each winner will receive:

1.5ml Enchanted Forest Manufacturers Carded 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. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

All you need to do is be a follower, tell us how you follow and leave a hello in the comments! EASY PEASY!!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Enchanted Forest PERFUME SAMPLES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1Ld #Perfume #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 28th July 2013 11pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Wednesday 31st July 2013 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.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE,

Portia xx

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

Hello Fragrance Freaks,

I know you only want to know about scent but this is beautiful. Marc Jacobs is doing sensational things at Louis Vuitton. If only they would get their damn perfume on the shelves. GRRRR!

BTW Does anyone know if this is Kiera Knightly? It sure does look like her to this blind old tranny.

Louis Vuitton Summer 2013 Ad ChicsFillesPhoto Stolen ChicsFilles

Do please enjoy.
Portia xxx

L’Invitation Au Voyage – The Louis Vuitton Advertising Campaign Film

London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers 2013

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Post by Val the Cookie Queen

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London Scent Shopping and Serial Killers

CQ´s way to Bloom Perfumery

I headed to London a couple of weeks ago for a wedding and to purchase two Vero Profumo fragrances. There are times when ordering online is just perfect, and others where I chose to wait until I can purchase from a shop. I saw that Vero´s perfumes were available in Harrod´s and in Bloom Perfumery in Spitalfields. Concept Scents Store. In the East End of London. No question in my mind where I was heading.

23 Cranley Gardens

I stayed with at 23 Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill with a couple of girlfriends. They were kind enough to take a few days off work, so off we went first thing on Monday morning. I was über-excited. Finally I could stop stretching my samples of Rubj EdP and Mito. We jumped off the bus in Spitalfields, and walked through the beautiful covered market, although newly renovated, it has been there since about 1887.

Bloom London

So we arrived. 4 Hanbury Street, London. Walking into the shop, felt like landing at the bottom of the proverbial rabbit hole. It smelled absolutely divine. I have not been into that many perfume stores, but enough to know that this one was special. It gave me the same feeling I used to get when I would discover small indie/reggae record stores off the beaten track when I was much younger. That feeling of having discovered something totally unique, cool, and not for the masses.

Selling Vero's

Oxana, the delightful owner, came to greet us. Originally from Moscow, she has now lived in London for about seven years. After making sure that my two Vero fragrances were there, we started to talk. I wondered how she had ended up selling Vero Profumo.

Oxana: “Yes, I met Vero a couple of years before I decided to open the boutique. er passion and great craftsmanship at making her perfume creations has influenced me somewhat. I eventually thought that there should be a place (just normal, not elitist like the Harrod´s establishment) where people can buy the very best of modern perfume made with creativity and passion. It´s disappointing how much the generic mass market perfumes get promoted and how little people know about the finest niche brands- Hopefully I am making my small contribution to change that and that independent perfumers get more attention.”

Bloom cartoonFrom Bloom

Oxana also told me that a Russian lady will have about 7 fragrances in her collection. If not full bottles, then at least decants. I found that very interesting actually, because that is about the number I regularly wear over a year. No counting samples I try of course, but how many of them do I go onto purchase?

The shop is elegantly simple. Perfumes I knew of, and those I had never heard of. I intend to work my way through, sniffing all of them. There are hand written labels on the perfumes giving the list of top, middle and base notes. There are small black glass jars next to some of the perfumes, and these contain only the base notes. Brilliant. If you don´t care for the base notes then you know you can move onto something else. (A bit like allowing special customers to smell my vanillas!!)

Val's Fish & Chips

I left the shop elated, and fell exhausted into the iconic Poppie´s Fish and Chips restaurant, situated conveniently right next door. The best fish and chips in the world.

So APJ, this is CQ´s direction now. Scents from the here and now. For blogging at least. Because I do love other scents too!

Serial Killers? The first to recognize why this was a part of my fragrant trip, will receive a nice fat sample of Phaedon`s Rouge Avignon, my new love. Courtesy of Oxana.

If you’d like to shop at Bloom UK Website(<<<<JUMP)

Rock on and lock your doors at night.

CQ

CQ supplied all the photos from her iPhone

Purr 2010 + Meow! 2011 by Katy Perry

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Post by Katrina

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Excitement is building with pop singer Katy Perry about to launch her third perfume, Killer Queen created by Laurent Le Guernec who was also responsible for Lovely by SJP, twelve of the Bond No 9 releases and Viva by Fergie for Avon. In anticipation of the latest Katy Perry perfume I thought I would review her first two fragrances…..

Purr 2010 and Meow! 2011 by Katy Perry

Katy Perry Grammy AwardsPhoto Stolen SynergyByDesign Flickr

Purr and Meow! (with an exclamation mark) are fun and playful just like Katy Perry and the cat figurine bottles in purple and pink are ‘to die for’.

Katy Perry Purr

Purr Katy Perry FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Peach, forbidden apple, gardenia, green bamboo
Heart: Jasmine, pink freesia, Bulgarian rose
Base: Vanilla orchid, creamy sandalwood, white amber, coconut, musk

Purr in the purple bottle was the first Katy Perry perfume and is a fruity floral perfume that starts out sweet with apple and peach. The fruit smells fresh, juicy and bright. There are pretty floral notes and a creamy vanilla that sits nicely in the background. The gardenia and jasmine are distinct but not too strong for Katy Perry’s teen fans. I really love the Purr bottle and the perfume is a good choice for everyday use but the perfume is not as impressive as the gorgeous bottle. It doesn’t push boundaries or include any surprises. The perfume is good but very safe. I’m not as crazy about the perfume as I am about the purple cat.

Katy Perry Meow!

Meow Katy Perry FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica givees these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, pear, jasmine, gardenia
Heart: Honeysuckle, lily of the valley, orange blossom
Base: Amber, vanilla, sandalwood, musk.

Meow! is cloudy lilac/pink with an M dangling from its collar and is very girly and smells delicious from beginning to end. Meow! is super sweet and fruity at the start. The fruit notes are candy-like and smell more like cherry and banana to me, rather than the tangerine and pear listed in the fragrance notes. When the fruity sugar hit passes the vanilla and musk take over and the perfume smells a lot like a soft gooey marshmallow, which ever so slowly dissolves and disappears.

Meow! with its pale pink bottle smells softer than the deep purple Purr. The floral notes in Purr smell quite intense compared with Meow!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Although the perfumes smell good, the most impressive thing about Katy Perry’s Purr and Meow! is probably the bottles, so lets hope that Killer Queen lives up to its name and delivers something kick-arse.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin
FragranceNet has both Purr & Meow! from $23
My Perfume Samples start at $2/ml for both Purr & Meow!

For celebrity perfume news and reviews including more details on Killer Queen, please check out my website: Celebrity Perfume News

Katrina xx

Amoureuse by Michel Roudniska for Parfums Delrae 2002

Hey Hey Crew,

Recently we had a fragrant get together at my house and the lovely Madeleine brought some frags that were not getting any skin time for various reasons, growing taste, changing chemistry, poor choice whatever. It was fun to go through her box of rejects and in it I found a few things I really love or needed a back up bottle of, and Madeleine’s “mark it up and move it on” box is full of the stuff that perfumistas dreams are made of. Here is the second of my purchases.

Amoureuse by Parfums Delrae 2002

Amoureuse FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, cardamom
Heart: Tuberose, jasmine, lily
Base: Oakmoss, honey, sandalwood

First I need to tell you that the bottle looks way more desirable in real life, the photo does not do it justice in any way. Also, the juice in my Amoureuse is peachy, not green, like a tea made out of a tea bag used twice already or a scotch and water, and I think that also adds to the aged, luxe vibe of the fragrance itself.

Amoureuse Tangerine WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

Tangerine and cardamom say the notes and I get a lovely sweetness that could be tangerine but it seems a little amorphous, not specific enough to be so named. There is the sweetly herbal swish of cardamom but there’s a dirty, sweaty, animal underneath that feels very cumin-esque. Amoureuse walks a very fine line between gorgeous and disgusting in its first 30 minutes, not falling to either side definitively until the white flowers have almost taken over and then it becomes this fabulous and slightly raunchy attention grabber to people around. Between 45 minutes and two hours people really take notice of Amoureuse and compliments run thick & fast, well maybe that’s an exaggeration but there are spontaneous, heartfelt compliments.

Amoureuse Lilies MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

The white flowers are deep, narcotic and sensual. They are green, lactic, breathy, ripe, sappy, languorous, fecal and sweet, sometimes a combination of these together. The ride is great fun, and lovely. Still in the background there is a dark hint of animal that becomes less and less obvious as the honey and sandalwood working together (beautifully with no urinous facets from the honey) sweeten and soften the fragrance. Maybe I am immune to the oakmoss used here because it doesn’t register at all.

In Amoureuse Michel Roudniska, son of legendary Edmond, has made a wonderful fragrance. I was looking at his father’s works and there are some definite nods to Vintage Femme by Rochas here in Amoureuse, maybe I’m just being fanciful but it did slip through my mind a couple of times through the fragrant journey.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Katie Puckrik Smells
Beauty Habit has $135/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/.5ml

Have you spent any time with Parfums Delrae? Do you think you could wear this naughty vixen?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Arabie by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2000

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Post by Portia

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Hey There Fellow FUMIES,

We recently had a fragrant get togetrher at my place and Madeleine brought some unloved bottles and I bought this…

Arabie by Serge Lutens 2000

Arabie FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Cedar, sandalwood, mandarin, dried fig, date, nutmeg, cumin, caraway, clove, bay-leaf, Tonka, Siamese benzoin, myrrh, labdanum

My first whiff of Arabie is all cooking spices and humanity: cooking, slightly blackened toast, baking too with loads of vanilla, spice and citrus/fruit. I get a heavy tea backnote but I could be mistaking resins/incense for smoky tea. My question is how has anyone found Arabie hard to wear? Potent? Yes, but not scorchingly so like Angel or Giorgio Beverly Hills. Warm, dusty, foody, like eating sweets at a Dhaba in rural India sitting on plastic Coca Cola chairs with only a piece of cloth as roof between you and the desert sun, or in the freezing winter cold of a Korean fishing village where you duck out of the stormy winds to get a Korean version of a donut, searingly hot with sizzling spicy sugar and juices inside, straight from the hot oil, that is guaranteed to warm you up.

Arabie is sweet and dessicated, it could be a million miles from anyone or right by their side cuddled safe and warm under a blanket in front of a fire. Each wear is slightly different for me and I think much of the difference is what I bring in my demeanor, happiness, what I am mindful of. No wonder Arabie is still talked and written about as one of the Serge Lutens must try, must have fragrances.

Arabie Roadside Dhaba Flickr NehaSingh7Photo Stolen Flickr (NehaSingh7)

Arabie, maybe the name has swayed my thinking, feels like wearing adventure. It is busy and interesting, beautiful and welcoming, lavish and sparse, all of these things at different times. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an enormous longevity on my skin as a fragrant event but turns soft and skin warmed by sun scent-ish after only a couple of hours. Then it is a wash of resinous warmth both sensual and exotic but alas only for those very close.

Arabie Cresent Lake Oasis China Environmental graffitiPhoto Stolen EnvironmentalGraffiti

Further reading: Perfume Smellin’ Things and My Perfume Diaries
FragranceNet has $106/50ml
Posh Peasant starts at $6/ml

Did you try Arabie yet? What was your experience? If not, what have you tried that correlates?
Thanks so much for wandering through my fragrant musings today,
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Jungle L’Elephant by Dominique Ropion for Kenzo 1996

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Post by Chairman Meow

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Jungle L’Elephant by Kenzo 1996

Jungle L'Elephant FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin, Cardamom, Cumin, Clove
Middle: Ylang-Ylang, Licorice, Mango, Heliotrope
Base: Patchouli, Vanilla, Amber, Cashmeran

You’ll notice that plum is not listed as a note, which is intriguing, because to me it is the overarching theme in this scent. And what a shape shifter of a plum it is, taking on various guises, some more pleasant than others.
Pernicious Plum

L’Elephant opens off as a melange of dried fruit peel and spices, of which clove is quite prominent. I often have difficulty with this little nail of a flower bud, and its fondness of hijacking whatever perfume it takes a ride in, though thankfully here it is more dulcet compared with the rugged variety you might encounter in, say, Noir Epices. I can detect cinnamon, the everyman, the spice equivalent of Bruce Willis, who offends no one. It took some convincing that I could smell any cardamom, so for sport’s sake I spent some time snuffling away on some bashed up cardamom seeds that I balanced on the scented part of my arm. It’s there! It works! A random but recommended activity. Sitting in the background of the peel and the spices, like some shady trench-coated nogoodnik, is a sinister almond-y waft redolent of cyanide from the pit of the plum, which I’m taking to be the heliotrope.

Jungle L'Elephant MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

A recurring theme that you’ll encounter in reading reviews about L’Elephant is that it is a “strong” perfume, ambiguous word such as it is. People could be referring to the sillage, which is certainly impressive for the first hour or so before settling to a much more sociable pitch. They may be speaking of the longevity, for indeed it does have the endurance of several oxen. Alternatively, they may be talking about the paint blistering gust of nail varnish remover that sears the nostrils on first spray. I call it The Curse of Sally Hansen, and it persists for quite some time. Sally does eventually pack up her nail file and shuffle off, albeit reluctantly and with furtive backwards glances, and that’s when L’Elephant is at its most enjoyable. Yum Plum

The sinophiles (lovers of Chinese culture) amongst us may be familiar with the salty-sweet dried plums that go by variety of different names. I know them by their Cantonese name of Wah Mui. Imagine something that Shrek might excavate from his nose and you get a pretty good idea of what they look like.

Jungle L'Elephant Dried Plums WantChinaTimesPicture Stolen WantChinaTimes

Wah Mui are coated with a liquorice infused powdered sugar which, as a 7 year old, I found to be the best bit, actually the only edible bit, which would be licked off before abandoning the actual plum. I am transported to this memory in the late dry down of L’Elephant, hours after application, when you can finally approach the thing without a hazmat suit, and can detect the soft purr of the vanilla and amber. Later still, as L’Elephant is in its death throes, I think I can smell something indefinably wood-like, and then it expires.

Jungle L'Elephant Kenzo Elephants MorgueFilePhoto Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Another Perfume Blog and Bois de Jasmin
Beauty Encounter have $45/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

I haven’t found L’Elephant an easy love, but it does have legions of admirers. I suspect that had it been produced by a niche house, was double the price, had a slick ad copy and had listed as one of its notes an “accord of oriental desiccated plum snack”, it would have had the cogniscenti misty- eyed and lisping “JEEY-nius!”, and been awarded a swathe of Fifi’s.

See you next month,
Chairman Meow xxx