Lea by Calypso St. Barth

July 14, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

Hello Lovelies,

Quite often I check out the Weekly Chance Specials on Surrender To Chance and last month they had a couple of things I’ve been longing to try and this little number that I’d never heard of. On looking through the WWW I found very little information about it but a short and interesting reading note list, so I pulled the trigger on

Lea by Calypso St. Barth

Photo Stolen Lucky Scent

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Almonds, vanilla, musks

Do you ever want to smell delicious and pretty? Are the freaky niche frags getting you down? Sometimes all I want is to smell good. To smell rich, elegant, calm and sweet. Here is that scent. I can completely understand why Lea has become a cult hit, this is how I dream my skin should smell. I smell clean, fresh and healthy without resorting to “clean” scent of laundry or air. I am fragrant, smell gorgeously snuggly and I am smiling because my body smells so good and young. I know! What a dumb thing to write but this is the sort of fresh scent that really makes me feel so young and, dare I say it, coltish! And if you knew me I am anything but coltish, in fact I am the original old grey mare.

The notes tell the story almost exactly and this is no bombastic fragrance, it is a warm and cuddly, just above skin scent, aroma that is foody: as in smells like almonds and vanilla but only sort of foody, though very early in its development it does have an almond cookie smell. Lea feels sweet in a natural way but without the feeling of a natural perfume. The muscs keep everything skinnish and are very slightly lived in, the sweet smell of healthy flesh in the morning that has bathed before bed, MMMMMMMM. Other reviewers have smelt chocolate but I don’t get it, there is a ylang tint to me a buttery, milky, sensual wash that arrives about 2 hours in and stays till dry down.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Edited from Lucky Scent: Indescribably luscious Léa… Liliane, the owner of the ultra-chic boutique, Calypso, in St. Barth… visits Manhattan, Paris, London and Milan and selects the cream of the crop of fresh new designers and standout designs from established lines and creates a cohesive and trend-setting fashion vision. As it happens, she also loves fragrance, and created Léa for herself, with her daughter as inspiration. Other people fell in love with it, it became a cult favorite….

Excellent longevity upwards of 7 hours on my perfume thirsty skin and I think wearable for any occasion: sloppy, formal, studying, dating, eating and even the closest of workplaces.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Now Smell This and For The Love Of Perfume
Lucky Scent has $100/100ml and samples
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/ml

Have you succumbed to the beauty of this little gem? Are you a follower of the Lea by Calypso St Barth? Is it something you’d like or not? Too simple for you or maybe you are annoyed by vanilla scents?

See you tomorrow,
Remember to be nice to yourself, it’s hard to be happy when someone is constantly mean to you.
Portia xx

Lanvin Fall/Winter 2013 Ad Campaign

July 14, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Lanvin Fall Winter 2013 Ad Campaign

I have stolen these images and some copy from one of my fave fashion forward blogs art8amby. Please go check out their stuff, always amazing and totally up-to-date. Seriously, go see them.

Don’t you love them? They seem surprisingly wearable.

Portia xx

Steven Meisel photographed British model Edie Campbell for Lanvin Fall/Winter 2013. Hair and makeup Guido Palau and Pat McGrath.

Images via TFS.

Cuirs by Sonia Constant for Carner, Barcelona 2011

July 13, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Hello my lovelies,

Today we have a fragrance that has seen little scentbloggosphere chatter but what there has been seems completely ambivalent, people either are loving or hating it with no in betweens. More than anything that’s what drew me to try this Spanish offering from a very new house Carner, named for its creator Sara Carner.

Cuirs by Carner, Barcelona 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Saffron, caraway
Heart: Australian sandalwood, patchouli, guaiac wood, Virginia cedar, violet
Base: Musk, French labdanum, tonka bean, agarwood (oud), cypriol oil or nagarmotha, amber, leather, amyris

I am just starting to get to know saffron in a fragrance, here I am getting the amber base right from the first moment I spritz with what I think is saffron over the top(?) and some soft patchouli. For some reason I was expecting Cuirs to be more in your face, more leather tannery than soft kidskin gloves from the outside of a shop. It is very conservative in projection and sillage, this is self indulgent, introverted scent that is soft enough to be worn all day every day and becomes your own scent but better. Even workmates in very close quarters would think you had a lovely lotion, rather than perfume. The story of leather tanneries that is in the ad copies is a fiction, those places smelled like hell. Cuirs is dainty and soft, expensive and anything but in your face.

Photo Stolen FlickrCommons

Considering how quiet Cuirs is the tenacity is extremely good, well over the 6 hour mark and holding on. Cuirs is interesting and extremely pretty (going from saffron/amber through pretty, sweet woods and then to a well worn leather and smoky amber, the ride is muted but gorgeous) and perfect for anyone who likes the idea of leather fragrance but dislikes the harshness and heft of many leather-centric fragrances on the market today. I think it an excellent gateway scent for newbies or young people keen to experience fragrance, a wonderful office scent and I bet it sells well in some Asian cultures where scent is meant to work with your own body chemistry to create something lovely and different for every user, a wash of fragrance over and weaving through you. To be 100% honest, I want my fragrance to have a certain strength and projection so I will pass on Cuirs by Carner but I am giving the rest of my sample to Jin who I know will absolutely adore it.

Thinking about Cuirs, the price is not outrageous for a well produced and lovely niche fragrance, this could very easily become a go-to for many people. Spritz and forget luxuriousness that will give you mini wafts all day. Even if you are a huge over spritzer like me it’s nearly impossible to skunk with such a subtle scent and you get the joy of lavish spraying. On clothes the tenacity is awesome and a scarf could go for weeks and you would continue to smell Cuirs.

Maybe Cuirs is not for you, for a lot of the perfumista community I can see that Cuirs is a strength let down, for you I offer Cuir Ottoman by Parfum d’Empire, Cuir de Russie by CHANEL, Lonestar Memories by Tauer, Bottega Veneta, Leather Oud by DIOR, Cuir by Mona di Orio, Oud Cuir d’Arabie by Montale, Cuir Amethyst by Armani, Black Rosette by Strange Invisible Perfumes, Cuir Mauresque by Serge Lutens, Tuscan Leather by Tom Ford, Knize Ten and you may even like the plush leather in my favourite Shalimar. This is only the tip of an enormous leather iceberg and you could spend your lifetime enjoying the note and not be done.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Further reading: Ca Fleur Bon and The Scentualist
Min New York has $130/50ml with FREE USA Shipping
Bloom UK has £81/50ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $6/.5ml

Have any of you held the bottle in your hand? I love the look of them, I wish I had searched this out actively on my travels. Next year.
See you all tomorrow,
Portia xx

GUERLAIN – Gloss D’Enfer: Nails + Lips 2013 Mini Movie

July 13, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Hiya FUMIES,

Here’s some more of the Guerlain 2013 mini movie fest. This one is so fun and 50s. I love it. Makes me smile just watching and the colours really POP this season. Lucky us.

Photo Stolen jetsetfashionmagazine

Guerlain’s Spiel: Discover Gloss d’Enfer collection made of 20 shades of bare lips sensation gloss and 10 colourful nail polishes. Play with colour and shine to capture your admirers’ hearts even more than ever.

Enjoy it,
Portia xx

Fleurs de Citronnier by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2004

July 12, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 23 Comments

Hiya APJ Family,

This was originally scheduled to go live the day after Lucasz at Chemist In A Bottle but I didn’t want to tread on his beautiful post (follow the jump if you’d like to read it). So mine is happening a couple of weeks later now. Enjoy.

I found a 5+ml decant of todays fragrance and have no idea where it came from or how it’s in my collection. The writing is almost illegible and I had to check Fragrantica for things that might match. Whoever I have to thank for this lavish largesse you have my complete and utter gratefulness, I would never have chosen to try it and am so glad I have. It seems to be quite hard to find, Lucky Scent has almost every other Serge Lutens except this one and a few of the other regulars are either out of stock or don’t mention it at all.

Fleurs de Citronnier (Lemon Blossom) by Serge Lutens 2004

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon blossom, petitgrain, nutmeg
Heart: Lemon blossom, neroli, white honey, tuberose
Base: Iris, several musks, styrax resin

Citrus, spicy, fresh, fizzy and fun. Fleurs de Citronnier is everything I loved about growing up with citrus trees in the back yard. I miss them but in our temperate climate in Sydney they are particularly prone to infestations and disease. Mum spent a lot of time maintaining a lemon and orange tree. We LOVED them. Fresh orange juice, a great shady place to hide, pretending perfume from flowers, leaves and fruit and let’s not forget the endless uses for a stink bug! Sunny winter days drinking sugared, fresh orange juice with lemon to make it zing.

So now you know where it takes me, what does Fleurs de Citronnier smell like on me? Green, citrus and green, later the honey makes a beautiful, almost naughty, appearance with a silky sweet urinous warmth and the tuberose (white flower) is a little skanky but more soapy. Though it stays citrus it becomes warmer and more lived in as it heads into the 2 hour mark. There have been a couple of times during the first two hours that I thought Fleurs de Citronnier was going to fall into a deep hole of cleaning product fragrance but it nimbly skirted the edge of that nasty abyss and continued beautifully.

Photo Stolen AromaPersona

Tonight I wore Fleurs de Citronnier to work, I felt beautiful and floated through the night, catching wafts of myself throughout the evening. Driving home and now back home I can still smell some citrus, some white flowers and the musks have come through very cleanly but the resin is a back up whisper, like a little bit of sweet toffee floating underneath. That’s nearly 6 hours of wear and still going strong, impressive.

I think that unless you have a VERY light hand that Fleurs de Citronnier may be too strong for most workplaces, maybe even a little overpowering for dining unless you have some time between spritz and eat. For my work it’s an excellent choice, a big, phat, bombastic fragrance that takes no prisoners. FAB U LOUS!!!!

Photo Stolen LifeWorksRestaurants

Further reading: Now Smell This and Olfactoria’s Travels
Beauty Encounter has $100/50ml (I have enjoyed FdC so much that I bought one today)
Surrender To Chance starts at $4/.5ml

Have you tried Fleurs de Citronnier? What are your impressions?
Till tomorrow, be nice to yourself and those around you,
Portia xx

Relent by ETRO + Venice Photo Essay

July 11, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Hey there happy huffers,

While Jin and I were in Venice in January/February he had found us a wonderful hotel. My only rules for him to do bookings were 4 star, less than 300 metres from the railway station and that they include breakfast. In Venice he excelled himself. The hotel was very close to the station and near a bunch of major bridges, attractions, ferries and food. The room was bright, clean, spacious, quiet and sunny with a view of the rooftops of Venice and the Grand Canal and the hotel had wifi in the lobby 24 hours, with a bar that was quite comfortable. One of our favourite things about the hotel was the large, super-clean bathroom filled with ETRO Relent bath products: hair & body wash and lotion! We left the hotel every day smelling beautiful from our bath products and kept arm skin clear for frag testing. We also left the hotel CRAMMED with breakfast each day, HEAVEN!! Needless to say we asked for, and received, a handful of the mini shower gels which are big enough to last 10 days of showering. SCORE! The hotel? The Boscolo Bellini, Lista di Spagna 116/A | Cannareggio quarter, 30121 Venice, Italy

Photos Stolen Expedia

Relent by ETRO

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, orange, lime, eucalyptus
Heart: Orange blossom, rose, iris
Base: Amber, vanilla, musk (ETRO adds citron in the base)

From the ETRO site: The true Eden is never a precise location; we need to learn to create it inside ourselves, to carry with us some of the serenity that can be evoked by aromas that brighten the heart. Sparkling citrus fruits and the sweetest flowers, a hint of the sensuality of amber and the languor of rose, a drop of solemn musk.

Photo Stolen MorgueFile

Since Venice, every shop that has ETRO gets a visit from me but nobody seems to carry Relent anymore, only the newer ones in the lineup. So I went to the internet and recently I found a Relent 150ml Eau Parfumee at Beauty Encounter for only $70 and the 200ml Shower Gel for only $39!! I am extremely happy about it and bought fragrance and a couple of shower gels. It is such a vivid memory for both Jin and I, a happy, wonderful memory that we cherish, so easy to bring back just by fragrance. Fragrantica gives 2010 as this fragrances release but MUA has reviews from 2003.

How does it smell? The opening citrus and eucalyptus combination is fizzzy, dry and interesting, the citrus fizzes like a soda pop drink fresh from the bottle but the eucalyptus holds the sweetness in check giving a very herbal, green dryness. If you told me there was some cumin with coriander/lavender/basil here I would totally believe you because it’s such a vegetative yet sweaty green opening. I also smell some wood notes that are unmentioned. It takes a while for the opening scene to develop properly and it stays for a while before the orange blossom makes her appearance, not as an entrance but she comes in though the side door unannounced, no fanfare but there she is whispering something naughty in your ear and rose is giggling wickedly beside her. Then, as the star of the show is about to be announced, like a wedding everyone quietens down and there is a fragrant hush, a lull, a pause before IRIS stands tall at the top of the stairs in full spotlight. A woody, powder puff of an iris, gentle and soft and cuddly and furry with musks comes down the stairs to be the star of the night. Everyone gets to dance with her, maybe the best analogy would be a round dance where everyone is involved but only a few are near iris for the rest of the evening before the last slow dance and then gone.

Portia’s first Venetian Bridge

Jin loving Carnivale

The Last Gondola Builders

The Grand Canal

From our restaurant

Peggy Guggenheim Modern Art Museum, so fabulous

Cafe Ceiling

Jin loved this bridge

Main Square at night after the Carnivale crowds are gone

Venice sunset

I think Relent could be worn anywhere, including frag phobic works, it is soft and pretty enough to be passed of as body lotion but interesting enough to wear. Light, cuddly and to Jin and I joyful. Maybe you will think so too.

My scent hungry skin gets about 3-4 hours before there is only a sweet amber musk that smells like me. Jin says the scent continues but I have lost the ability to smell it.

Nobody else on the first 4 pages of Google has reviewed Relent
Beauty Encounter has the best prices I could find and none of the sample shops carry Relent, though some have other ETRO frags.

I hope you enjoyed our ETRO Relent and Venice Photo Essay. All unattributed photos taken by Jin or myself.
See you tomorrow for more fun and madness,
Portia xx

Duel by Camille Goutal + Isabelle Doyen for Annick Goutal 2003

July 7, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hey there Fellow Fumies,

As you may know I love the Annick Goutal house of fragrance. We have covered the Annick Goutal Story, Perfume Reviews #1, Perfume Reviews #2, Perfume Reviews #3, Songes, and Grand Amour already on APJ, so you can see I’m a bit of a fan. And we still haven’t covered all the bottles in my collection yet. Terrifying, isn’t it? This bottle is a mini 15ml that I’m not quite sure where I came across it, I have decanted and spritzed for the purposes of todays review because I find it has better longevity than when I dab.

Duel by Annick Goutal 2003

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Holly, petitgrain
Heart: Orris root, artemisia
Base: Guaiac wood, leather, musk

I’m going to start my story with another perfumer from another country. While in LA earlier this year Tom from Perfume Posse and Perfume Smellin’ Things were invited to see Roxanna Illuminated Perfumes at her magical home in the hills near Malibu. There, her husband Greg made us Green Maté which Tom and I looked at firstly with revolt and then gulped down like it was a milkshake, Tom even finishing the jug off. I have had random yearnings for the taste ever since. So when Annick Goutal writes on her page that Duel has Green Maté I now know what to expect.

The opening is green and striking and interesting, neither of the notes lists I have give any indication of how this lovely, sensual, slinky green sequined sheath of a fragrance smells. Both sharp and breathy, delicate and deep Duel does not make me think masculine at all, rustic, alluring, sparkling and earthy all come to mind but not masculine, though it will be a fabulous scent on a guy I think it equally beautiful for the girls. Oh and if you were wondering there is a real green mate feeling, green and milky but not sappy, full cream milk-ish and though Duel is all green it’s also sweet.

Photo Stolen CafeVirtuoso

Further along the woods take over with a backdrop of breath, green and leather. I am surprised that this is not more spoken of in the community because it is beautiful, I feel quite beautiful when I’m wearing it and sexy, dead sexy. If you told me there was fig here I would believe you. Though there is no fruit anywhere on the list I do get something fruity, delicious but not sweet like the current5 rash of bright, sweet, juicy frags this is a deep fruity humm below the main story.

More people should wear Duel. I am going to wear it much more often.

From Annick Goutal site: Always once step ahead, never follower, nor a conformist, Annick Goutal Parfums present Duel, the fragrance for men who live life boldly and with daring. Duel speaks of love, as it is the way of Annick Goutal.
Duel, the triumph of beauty, high expectations, sensuality.
Duel, for the new romantics.
Green Maté absolute, Paraguay petitgrain, iris root, absinth, gaiac wood, leather, musk

Photo Stolen RotoFugi

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Perfume Posse
Beauty Encounter currently has $55/100ml which is less than half price!
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

Which of the Annick Goutal’s, if any, have you tried? Do you like the house? Have you had a hit of Duel?
Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow for more fragrance fun,
Portia xx

Les Nombre’s D’Or: Vanille by Mona Di Orio 2011

July 6, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Hey there Niche Nerds,

Les Nombres d`Or: Vanille by Mona di Orio 2011

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Petitgrain, clove, rum, bitter orange
Heart: Vetiver, sandalwood, guaiac wood, ylang-ylang
Base: Amber, tonka bean, vanille, tolu balsam, leather, musk

The box and bottle are the first things you notice about Vanille. They are both so beautiful, sturdy, hefty and both also have a feeling that the creator is fueled by an ascetic of simple, elegant, design and longevity, this lovely glass brick and lid is completed by the useless but interesting, and intrinsic to its look of utter completeness, wire cage and ring pull. I find myself reaching for the joy of the box and bottle as much as I do for the juice inside, which is no less lovely, complete, designed and created.

Photo Stolen Mona di Orio

Before doing this review I had not looked at a note list except in passing in preparation for my purchase after going through a decant at light speed. When I saw a nearly full bottle being sold very reasonably on facebook I jumped on it. Since its arrival it has had the second most skin time of any fragrance in my wardrobe and I reach for it even more often without spritzing, just to enjoy its whole beauty. So it was quite a surprise to come back now and find that loads of people are talking about the amazing top note of bitter orange, which I now completely get. Ha ha ha the joke is on me, I had NO IDEA. My nose gave me only the spicy, fizzy, citrus like clove and some booze on a sweet vanilla and amber. I knew there was much more and the smokiness, earth and woods were more like the dying embers of a BarBQ for me than specifics. I felt the darkness, soared with the sensual ylang and dug down into the grounding vetiver without knowing what or why, Vanille is beyond lovely. It’s interesting, full of twists and turns that unexpectedly jump somewhere new but through it all I find it wearable, unchallenging, accessible and comfortable.

Photo Stolen TheCoastNZ

Surprisingly Vanille is becoming my comfortable jeans and favourite hoody. I have sometimes said a fragrance feels like a hug, this is a bear hug under a blanket with the one you love on a rainy day where you have cancelled all plans and have oodles of yummy leftovers and an endless supply of delicious teas, coffee and hot chocolate, and LOADS of Ferrero Rocher. I can wear it to slum, dine, relax, go out and stay home sniffing the story. I urge you to try Vanille and then come tell me if you enjoyed it. It’s pretty enough to gift a non perfumista and intriguing enough to keep a hard core perfumista entertained for hours.

EXTRA: I did a side by side throw down of Vanille MdO and Vanille Absolument L’Artisan the other day. The MdO is more interesting and has a better journey but the L’Artisan is warm amber, vanilla and booze all the way through, it’s richer, grander and sticks like glue in a very linear progression. Of the two I still find MdO a more relaxed and comfortable fit but L’Artisan has done an excellent job if you are thinking about grabbing it before it disappears forever.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels takes us beautifully through the scent and Scents Of Self talks of Mona di Orio.
Parfum1 has $230/100ml (and I tell you to join their mailing list for the 20% Discount coupons that come every so often)
Surrender To Chance starts at $7/ml

Have you tried the Mona di Orio scents? Which did you like? Do you have a favourite vanilla other than this? I love them and want to know more.

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Anya’s Garden Perfumes Miami

July 4, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 75 Comments

Hello Niche Nerds,

Today I bring you a perfumer who is doing some beautiful work, Anya McCoy: perfumer for Anya’s Garden, President of the Natural Perfumers Guild and Founder & Head Instructor of the Natural Perfumery Institute.. This is small batch, niche, natural perfumery from Miami, Florida, USA that has been produced by Anya since 1991. The beautiful Anya sent these samples for me to try and so I’m going to spend a couple of days with them and do a review on my 3 favourites.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

The instruction card that comes with them tells you to sniff from lightest to heaviest so you don’t over or under whelm your nose at any point, clever. Even the packaging is beautifully thought out and presented, it all bodes very well.

Photo Stolen VK.com

Light 2010: Crisp, bright, sharp and sexy are the four words that keep springing into my mind here. we have a very citrus fragrance with deep green facets, floral wafts and an animalic backbeat. This is like a 1950s men’s fragrance, before they took all the good stuff out. Slightly outrageous and narcotic, this is exactly how I want to smell. Light must mean physical light rather that lack of heft because this fragrance has a wonderful sillage making my room smell fresh and friendly when I return to it. Being all natural I’m surprised at how long the citrus lasts on my skin, also the incense is cool and rich and hums along nicely, weaving in and around, reminding me it’s there at intervals. I would LOVE to smell this on someone else but I’ve used up my whole sample over the last two days and will have to wait for a bottle to arrive.

LightA truly modern take on a classic cologne-style, blended as a pure perfume. Israeli yellow grapefruit, cedrat (citron) from Sicily, aglaia flower, genet, frankincense.

Modern Citrus Cologne

cedrat Sicily
yellow grapefruit Israel
juniper berry Bulgaria
neroli Tunisia
genet France
aglaia China
aglaia tincture Anya’s Garden
ambergris Ocean
frankincense Oman
frankincense resin Somalia

Photo Stolen HDWallpapers4Desktop

Amberess 2010: At once haunting and riveting Ambress opens sweet, spicy, resinous and a little sweaty. Gorgeous in a way only natural perfumerie can be. Layered, hefty, intricate and deep yet has a sheer floating beauty that slowly unfolds and becomes an ethereal veil that highlights the beauty of my own human smell. Yes i smell rose and spicy/minty geranium, the warm resins, soft and regal sandalwood melting deliciously into vanilla but Amberess is more than all these notes. Amberess is a journey, there is no smoky darkness here it is all smooth glamour and light. Way too over the top for most workplaces before the hour and half mark it is a siren song of entrapment. Lasting power is moderate and sillage excellent.

AmberessRare musk rose from Africa opens this soft, lush amber perfume. Ten carefully-blended base notes provide a gorgeous amber base that melts into your skin.

Floral Amber

musk rose absolute and otto Zambia
rose geranium sur fleurs South Africa
ylang ylang extra Madagascar
balsam of peru El Salvador
styrax Honduras
labdanum Spain
tolu balsam Brazil
amber fossil Himalayas
tonka bean Venezuela
sandalwood Sri Lanka
benzoin siam Laos
vanilla Madagascar

Photo Stolen RealWowz

Temple 2007: Interestingly with Temple my skin skips the oranges almost completely and goes straight to spicy, herby, sizzling BarBQ goodness. The juice is there but it’s not top of nose, I get the warmth, animalics and smoke of ambergris, ambrette, civet, castoreum and oudh. I get a waft of coffee, cool grounds after they’ve been used, slightly bitter and wet. The spices are rich and dry like being in the spice marketplace in Fiji or Vietnam and what feels, or smells, like an incense. This fragrance is killer! I want to start all over again. Temple is beautiful but I think it may need some warmth to really blossom. Currently I’m in Sydney winter and its lovely and lively but I think I’m missing something. Sillage is good and the scent bubble is not too big, but noticeable across a cafe table. The story as it dries to a smoky, soft, warmth is cuddly like polar fleece but stylish like leather.

TempleOrange juice surprises you, spices warm you and exotic Oud soothes you

Modern Oud Spicey

orange juice Brazil
ginger Indonesia
cardamom Indonesia
aglaia flower China, Anya’s Garden
coffee Brazil
civet Ethiopia
temple spice blend Anya’s Garden
benzoin siam Thailand
oud Laos
castoreum Canada
mitti – India, Anya’s Garden
ambrette India, Anya’s Garden
ambergris Ocean

Anya’s Garden GIVEAWAY!

Photo Stolen kbaird

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

There are 3 prizes this week in our special 4th of July GIVEAWAY. Each winner will receive:

3 x .5ml Anya’s Garden samples (missing what I used to review and no you don’t get to choose)
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.

Go to Anya’s Garden website and get an ingredient from one of her perfumes not mentioned in this post, and the perfume it came from. NO DOUBLE UPS!!

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

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 7th July 2013 11pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post Monday 8th.
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 Sunday 14th June 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

APJ Day Out #1: Hermes, Robert Piguet, Tom Ford, DIOR: Photo Essay

July 3, 2013 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 52 Comments

Hey there APJ!

Last Wednesday we had our first APJ Day Out. There were 13 of us, normally an unlucky number, but it turned out to be super lucky. We were treated extremely well by all the stores we went to, were given two amazing Masterclasses and loads of samples. It was great to meet some of you for the first time and an excellent opportunity for those of us who are already buddies to catch up, talk fragrance, shop, laugh and generally enjoy each others company. FABULOUS!

As we arrived a little early for our masterclass with Joe Garces, the CEO of Robert Piguet, I thought it would be a great time to pop across to Hermes, where the wonderful Jean was our hostess. She happily took us through some of my favourite scents in the Jean Claude Ellena Hermessence range and also some more of the Hermes fragrance catalogue including the Jardin range and then introduced me to one of their scents that I had never spent any time with, Rouge. WOW!! I can definitely see a full bottle in my very near future. Thank you Jean. XXX

Off to Libertine Parfumerie stand in David Jones Sydney City Store basement to meet Nick, the sexy proprietor, Gary and Dan, the regular SAs and a new boy whose name escapes me, sorry. There too was Joe Garces, and Joe took us through quite a lot of the range. It wasn’t much about notes etc, we were taken through the creation stories of each fragrance, the troubles, the inspiration and the triumphs. It was an illuminating class and I came away better informed about the way perfumes are created in a mass market niche company. Joe has effectively turned a dying dinosaur of a business back into a going concern with his and his teams plans. He is justifiably proud of the company’s achievements and really loves the perfumes he produces and sells, enthusiasm shining from and infectious. I tried a slew of the range that I had thought definitely NOT my style and walked away with a couple of new loves, a bottle of Bois Noir and a special gift roll on of VISA. YAY!! Review coming soon. Everyone was allowed to choose a Piguet fragrance to sample and were given very generous spray samples.

Then I took the crew up to the Tom Ford section at DJs. The SA there was so pretty, knowledgeable and helpful showing us some of the range and introducing many of us to Sahara Noir. I had tried it before in LA but it was a completely different experience in the cool of Sydney, I LOVED it here. At the end she finished by offering everyone a sample of their choice!

It was time for a sit and a cuppa, I had a sneaky Banana Bread too. During our time at the cafe Ainslie, who is a perfumer, brought out some of her current mods for us to share, smell, critique and enjoy. It was wonderful talking to someone on the cusp of a business and finding out how her perfumes are created. Fascinating. Soon I will have a story on Ainslie because she is thinking of setting up a trial where you can buy a small set of her mods to try and critique for yourself, providing useful perfumista feedback and giving us a chance to try new stuff very reasonably. HEAVEN.

Then it was onwards and upwards to DIOR’s outrageously gorgeousbnew flagship store in Sydney, the first in Australia. We were greeted warmly by the staff and Clayton the Oceania head of PR was there to whisk us upstairs to the shoe parlour where we were treated to a stroll through the 10 available Couturier/Privee fragrances exclesively available in Australia through that store. There was also a beautiful DIOR lady there whose name has slipped from my mind, she was helpful and informative and I apologise for my bad brain. It was a delightful ending to an amazing day. I was happy to add bottles of Oud Ispahan and Oud Leather to my perfume library. At the end we were all given DIOR swag bags with a couple of the fabulous 7.5ml FB replicas each and some beautifully presented literature. Just walking down the street with a DIOR bag is thrilling enough but when you’ve been feted by some of the best luxe companies in the world we were all walking on air. Thank you Clayton and DIOR.

As you can see we had lost some of our people along the way, the last photo are the DIOR Late Stayers. Thanks to everyone who came and who helped us have such an amazingly wonderful and special day.

I am currently thinking of other great APJ Day Out ideas. There will definitely be another day soon,

Portia xx

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APJ Day Out #1: Hermes, Robert Piguet, Tom Ford, DIOR: Photo Essay