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Mohur by Bertrand Duchaufour for Neela Vermeire Creations 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Welcome back Perfumistas,

Yesterday we had an interview with the amazing Neela Vermeire of Neela Vermeire Creations. today we are going to look at one of her fragrances, Mohur, composed with Bertrand Duchaufour.

Photo Stolen guerlain.pl

From LuckyScent:
The name refers to the most valuable gold coin in India’s history, the last of which was minted in 1918. A way, perhaps, of underlining the value given to perfumery during the Mogul era, an art so highly considered that the most powerful empress of the Mughal dynasty, Noor Jahan, devoted herself to perfecting it.
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Photo Stolen worldofcoins.eu

Fragrantica LuckyScent and Neela Vermeire Creations give these notes and accords, each site is slightly different so I have melded them all:
Top: Cardamom, coriander, ambrette (musk mallow), carrot seeds, black pepper, elemi oil
Heart: Turkish rose oil, Moroccan Rose Absolute (rose accords around 11%),  jasmine, iris/orris, aubepin (midland hawthorn), almond milk accord, leather, violet
Base: Sandalwood, amber, patchouli, oudh Palao from Laos, benzoin, vanilla, tonka bean

Photo Stolen Neela Vermeire Creations

What do I smell when I wear Mohur? The very first whiff is pepper and spices jumping off my skin but it doesn’t take long for the ambrette and elemi to add their musky/woody tones though there is still a strong spicy/herbal wash over all. This is no big blockbuster of a fragrance, it’s more refined than that; it does give great scent and more than moderate sillage but not in an overwhelming way so I think very wearable for dinner, cocktails or dates, but maybe a little too much for close quarters working
The green hawthorn is the next player to make itself known heralding the rise of the flowers, and boy are they something! Like the lithe and lovely Indian women in their bright colours walking to get water each morning and evening they sway into the picture and ROSES, roses, ROSES backed up by a bouquet that is way beyond my meager abilities to parse. This is exactly the scent I would love to wear to dinner at the Lake Palace in Udaipur (where you can watch the chefs make reincarnations of the feasts of Mughal and Raj days), or the Wildflower Hall in Shimla (where I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in 2010) or the Neemrana Palace outside Delhi (where we spent our 8th Anniversary) or even the hall of the Dalai Lama in McLeod Gang (though McLeod Gang is now so much a tourist Mecca that I hardly recognised it from 2000-2010). I feel like I am in the lap of India’s most jaw droppingly awesome and outrageous luxury, even almost smelling the dust that has to be hand collected in wet rags three times a day by the servants, and still the snap and sizzle of lunch frying, that was present in the opening, persists alongside the roses. What an adventure!

At around the 2-3 hour mark I still have a green pepper fragrance behind a slight sweetening of the bouquet of roses and other flowers, like an amber/vanilla mist that is laid over the top. Mohur smells really expensive on the body, lavish, opulent and glamorous are words that instantly jump to my mind. The whole fragrance is much softer now; the sillage is maintained at slightly lower levels.

By nearly 5 hours I have a sweet vanillic, milky, woody and ever so slightly soapy dry down that continues for somewhere over an hour when I lose all sense of wearing fragrance. WOW!! Every time I wear Mohur it’s a slightly different ride but it was really fun today to document my wearing of it for you.

Photo Stolen Neela Vermeire Creations

Looking for other reviews? NowSmellThis looks specifically at Mohur and CandyPerfumeBoy does all three NVC in the line.
NeelaVermeireCreations was where I bought my 10ml x 3 frags discovery set for only 90 euro delivered anywhere in the world
LuckyScent has 55ml bottles $250

These are a must try fragrance line because there is real love poured into their creation, they use the best ingredients available, smell incredible and God Damn It, you deserve the best. Come see us Thursday for a very special Neela Vermeire give away!

Have you tried this line? Do you have a favourite? Why?
As always love to you and yours,

Portia xx

PS: The opening photo stolen openlib

Neela Vermeire Talks To APJ

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hi Perfume Family,

You may have heard about Neela Vermeire Creations, if you have been anywhere on the scentbloggosphere then you’ve probably read about their line of fragrances too. If you are a perfumista then chances are you have smelled at least one of the magical fragrances, and maybe own a bottle, decant or sample set. I was lucky enough to win a sample set in a blog competition and have fallen deeply under the spell of these beautiful reminders of my times through India since 2000 with my last long term partner who is part of a hotel family over there. Loving the fragrances so much I wanted to understand the woman who has been the catalyst for their creation, the friendly, driven, intriguing and very pretty Neela Vermeire. Today she talks with us and I am thrilled that she has.

Photo Stolen guerlain.pl

Tell us about young Neela please, where you came from, family, siblings, poignant or helped create who you are moments?
Who am I? I guess I am a result of my life and travels. I am a global villager – restless, hopefully a mindful soul.
I was born in India and most of my family still live in India. I was educated in the eastern part of India in a city called Calcutta. I went to the US for my graduate studies. After completing my masters degree I moved to London, Aberdeen, Paris, London, Paris.
My earliest memories of perfumes were from the various ceremonies that took place in temples, my family who wore some form of perfumes – immediate and extended.  India is in general a phenomenal assault to ones senses – good and bad and ugly.
Family and school trips to various parts of India made me appreciate the vastness and variety of India and Indian culture. The smell of Indian flowers in markets, roadside food stalls – smell of Indian snacks like chaat, puris, parathas, wood stoves, roasted peanuts, tea stalls, fruit stalls – smell of mango ripe and unripe, guava, lychee, jack fruit (very strong smell), musty book stores, wet earth after monsoon, dry earth under the scorching sun, smell of freshly brewed Darjeeling tea, spices etc.

India (like most warm countries) can provide the most amazing natural smells and the most awful smells.

What were you doing before you became a perfumer?
I am a qualified solicitor in the UK, I started working on consulting projects, exhibiting emerging artists and creators in Paris and also doing Perfume Path Tours.

How did you become interested in fragrance?
Since my childhood days in India. Also each move to different countries made me deeply aware of cultural differences and preferences.

What qualifications do you have as a perfumer?
None because I am a creative director or a creator but not a “nose” or technical perfumer.A nose/perfumer must be a qualified and trained person. I worked with Bertrand Duchaufour who is a well known nose for the first India trio.

Photo Stolen theperfumemagazine.com

Who were and are your mentors and inspirations?
Too many to mention. Some other niche perfume creators were and are my mentors.
My inspirations are my life and travels.
Friends and loved ones who enabled me to express with the help of Bertrand the perfumes as a tribute to India.

Who is your favourite perfumer, other than yourself, and why?
As I mentioned before I am a “creator” and not a “nose” or technical perfumer. Many people call themselves “perfumers” when they have “noses” working for them.
Do you mean creators?
Frederic Malle (Creator)
Serge Lutens (Creator)
Guerlain (Perfumer and creator)
Annick Goutal (Perfumer and creator)
Patricia di Nicolai (Perfumer and creator)
IUNX by Olivia Giacobetti (Perfumer and creator)

You know many others who are true creators and not trained perfumers..etc….
There are many other independent niche perfumers .

Synthetic, natural or mixture, why?
“Mixology”
Mixing is good. Mixture is great – one is able to create exceptional creations with mixology.
Naturals can be heavy and aroma chemicals add the playfulness.

What do you have in development that you’d like to share with perfumistas everywhere?
A couple of fragrances – work in progress.

Photo Stolen lfort

Isn’t it nice to get a little insight into the lovely Neela, I hope you have enjoyed it. Please come back tomorrow, we will be looking at one of the Neela Vermeire Creations fragrances in depth,

NeelaVermeireCreations was where I bought my 10ml x 3 frags Discovery Set for only 90 euro delivered anywhere in the world or you can get 2ml x 3 frags Try My India Set only 22 euro delivered!
LuckyScent has 55ml bottles $250

Love to you all and hope for your good health, wealth and happiness,

Portia xx

Feels Like Spring In Sydney: SUNDAY QUICKSNIFF REVIEWS #16

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hi Fellow Perfume Junkies,
Click here for more graphics and gifs!

Today in Sydney was absolutely perfect so TSO Jin, EmmaKate, EvieC and I decided to go down to the Art Gallery of NSW and see the Eugène Atget Old Paris Photographic Exhibition which featured over 200 rare and original prints from the founder of documentary photography. He was quite a trailblazer because no one had properly recorded much of this architecture, era, or any of these rag n bone people, and Paris was making way for the grand designs of Baron Haussmann’s 19th-century modernisation program so loads of it was lost forever. After that we took a little side trip across the Domain and Hyde Park to David Jones, the world’s oldest department store trading under its original name, and slipped into their fragrance floor for a squiz.

What did I wear to look at art? What did we sniff? Below you’ll find a 3 line mini review and our ratings of a few of what we smelled today, it became a bit of an orgy of scent. Follow the jump to find our Rating System Page (<<jump).

Photo Stolen fragrantica

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DITA VON TEASE EdP 2012: Dita Von Tease has been peeking at me from her box, practically begging me to put her on, today I succumbed thinking she would be an excellent chaperone for the Art Gallery. This has a wonderful fresh opening that is citrus herbal to my nose, the pepper is wet not spicy. Warm, breathy, white flowers and rose slip in pretty quickly and tango with the wet pepper. I was still smelling a cool floral bouquet by the time I got lost in the photographs of Eugène Atget. After we lunched I was scentless, around 4-5 hours. CheapSmells 20ml/$23 S=**** L=** D=***

AQUA ALLEGORIA ???? by Guerlain: You want to know how angry I am at myself right now? I sprayed myself lavishly and didn’t get the name. WHAT AN IDIOT!!! I am going back for a bottle tomorrow, I smell AH MAY ZING. We all got coconut, white flowers, salt, honey and warm woods here but we are probably completely wrong. S=***** L=*** D=*****

Coco Noir Chanel for womenPhoto Stolen fragrantica

COCO NOIR by CHANEL 2012. I would like to take a moment to apologise to anyone that I have sneered at for loving Coco Noir. EvieC tried it on and it is fabulous, sexy, floral, tonka and musk. It has depth, charm, is present but not overpowering and that bottle is to kill for, don’t listen to people who say it’s not all that, it’s all that and a bag of chips. We only were together for 40 minutes while she was wearing it but, LORD oh Lord!! it smelled of a sweeter heaven: seriously impressed Chanel. S=***** L=? D=*****

WOODY 154 by JO MALONE. The SA gave Jin a spritz on each arm and told him that this arm is Woody 154. English is his second language and sometimes he misses the point of sentences but REALLY?? Woody 154? I hope the same girl is on tomorrow so I can ask her which one Woody 154 is because I can’t find that scent in the list on Fragrantica. Jin smells really good though, even after his bath I can smell it on him; tenacious much? S=**** L=***** D=****

Have you tried anything this week that you liked, loved, hated and want to share with us? Please do in the comments below.
Thank you for dropping by and being part of our APJ family, see you tomorrow.
Portia xx

Piment Brulant By Bertrand Duchaufour for L’Artisan Parfumeur 2002

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hey Perfume Junkies,

It feels like it’s not a week without a L’Artisan Parfumeur review. Today we are looking at an extremely discreet fragrance from their range, it starts out super fireworks but very quickly becomes an alluring skin scent, just enough to make you smell better than ever but not enough to pick unless you are very, very close. It’s like a reward for getting that close.

Photo Stolen L’Artisan Parfumeur

The L’Artisan Parfumeur site says:
Piment Brûlant was inspired by the Aztec drink of xocotatl, the bitter cocoa and chili drink beloved of the warrior king Montezuma. He was reputed to drink fifty cups a day. This is an aphrodisiac blend of cocoa, vanilla, clove and poppy all tempered with the fire and bite of chili. Surprisingly green and fresh on the skin, this wonderful study in contrasts brings the skin alive.

Photo Stolen flavors.me/marchudgins

Fragrantica gives these featured notes/accords all in a line:
Amber, cinnamon, musk, poppy, vanilla, dark chocolate, cacao, clove and chili pepper

What do I smell? I love the opening of Piment Brulant, it’s like that first cut into a Bell Pepper, we call it Capsicum in Australia, a fresh green, wet and herbaceous smell. This lasts about 10-20 minutes depending on the day but is gradually joined by spicy chocolate, not a sweet chocolate, nor an edible one yet, but an unrefined cocoa-ish will be chocolate. It’s almost like the fragrance is fighting itself with a very treble capsicum and this dark undertone. As the fragrance lives on my skin the two separate shades move together as the amber & vanilla weave their way through to the top of the pile making it all smell extremely good but not bakery style, did I mention that up super close you get the cinnamon but less so from far away.

Now at about the 1 hour point the whole fragrance kind of eats itself and becomes so close to the skin that it’s almost undetectable unless you are close or you stick your head in your top and breathe deep. This stage lasts indefinitely, I can never tell when it has truly gone but TSO Jin has still been able to smell traces the morning after if I wear 5 spritzes.

Photo Stolen L’Artisan Parfumeur

I love the freshness, the sprightly, springy, gorgeousness of Piment Brulant that is absolutely guaranteed to lift my mood. It fits well with warm weather but will also sit pretty on you in cool. Not too strong for work as long as there is no ANTI PERFUME LEAGUE there and I love to wear it for dinner and date night.

If you’re looking for other reviews NowSmellThis and EauMG
eGlobalBeauty has 50ml/$93 or 100ml/$131 including worldwide delivery!
SurrenderToChance has decants from $4/ml

What do you love in the world of spicy green fragrances? Does chocolate do it for you? Could you see yourself in this dizzying mixture? Where would you wear it?
I want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support, it means a lot to all of us at APJ that you have chosen to become part of our fragrance family, see you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Angeliques Sous La Pluie by Jean-Claude Ellena for Frederic Malle 2000

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hello Happy Huffers,

Not so long ago SurrenderToChance had a DailyChanceSpecial on Angeliques Sous La Pluie (Angelicas In The Rain) so I got 5ml for a very reasonable price. Do check by there every couple of days because sometimes the DailyChanceSpecials are incredible, never to be repeated bargains.

Angéliques Sous La Pluie Frederic Malle for women and menPhoto Stolen Fragrantica


Fragrrantica gives the featured notes/accords all in one line:
Coriander, pink pepper, cedar, angelica, juniper and musk.

I love the crisp medicinal pepper and then warm woody opening that makes me think of jasmine, though there is none. I have been reading that angelicas smell like juniper and musk mainly so that’s a tick for them. I have an expectation that the corriander would smell different to this or maybe I’m missing it all together? There is definitely a wet woods smell, like you have walked out at the start or end of a shower, maybe a sunshower. There is also the feeling of that marvelous extra green almost yellow tinged air that makes everything seem more alive sometimes. They are right not to give notes in order because though the scent list is small it works like a kaliedescope, constant change with lovely segways in between that are all and nothing. I don’t understand why I get powder here? Is that usual? A very powdery woods and now I kind of get the corriander, there is something herbal and spicy here lingering and fluctuating up and through.

Photo Stolen wikipedia

Though this is light a fresh and feels amorphous there is a definite fragrance here that is quite tenacious, sillage is great leaving a lovely effervescent scent trail for people to look after at your back. Though it is soft it is intrusive and I think it may be too big for close office work but comfortable for coffee, dinner, movie and would also be a beautifully crisp and fresh scent for sport or afterwards. Though it leans toward feminine I like it for men too, almost cologne-ish and light enough for most masculine endeavours.

This is a winner for me. It fits totally with our near spring weather in Sydney and will probably work for you Northern Hemisphere lot in the coming months. Crisp, light, fresh and totally wearable in most situations, even work I think.
Have you tried Angeliques Sous La Pluie? What did you think? Is it on your list? Please comment, I love to read your thoughts too.

Don’t forget to pop over to the PerfumePosse to see my Guest post there today too. It’s so exciting and an honour to be on one of the world’s most famous and read frag blogs.

Thanks for reading through my fragrant thoughts today, see you tomorrow too,

Love,
Portia xx

Patchouli Imperial by Francois Demachy for DIOR 2011

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Well Hello There Fumies,

Today we are going to delve again into that magnificent La Collection Couturier Parfumeur by Francois Demachy for DIOR. Having ordered a decant set recently we will be looking at the collection over the next few weeks.

La Collection Couturier Parfumeur Patchouli Imperial Dior for menPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Olfactoria’s Travels gives these featured notes/accords:
Sicilian mandarin, Calabrian bergamot, Russian coriander, Indonesian patchouli, cedarwood and sandalwood essence

My skin gives me the quickest burst of citrus and corriander before a dirty patchouli waltzes through, lasting about an hour and then my skin eats the whole damn thing and I’m left scentless. So ANNOYING! I felt as if I was going for an incredible ride and to have it so truncated was very disappointing, to say the very least.

DIOR Gown Photo Stolen pilarrossiblog

This is still an interesting fragrance because when I couldn’t get a handle on it for myself I decided to spray TSO Jin with it last night and the first thing he said was Old Spice!! I laughed in his face and asked him to be serious but he made me go and get the Old Spice and put it on him. I’ll be damned but it’s a darker, less sweet version of Old Spice on him. HA HA HA HA HA!! This morning there was a lovely warm, woody, suede-like extra zing to his personal body scent that I found very sexy, skin scent but SOOO good. I think I will give my decant to him, as a present to me.

BoisDeJasmin and Perfume Shrine do almost black and white reviews they’re so opposite.

SurrenderToChance does decants starting at $3/ml

Sorry I couldn’t be more help in your search for the one today but there are plenty of loving reviews for Patchouli Imperial, I just can’t be among them.

See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Champaca by Linda Pilkington for Ormonde Jayne 2002

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 17 Comments

Hey ho Perfume Junkies,

I have a super friend called Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass, (called Undinaba because she is Bloody Amazing) which is one of the frag blogs that I read EVERY installment of. We have sent each other a couple of fragrance care packages and my most recent one arrived just this week, a veritable scent filled goldmine of things long read & heard about, pored over and pondered upon while making hasty “Can I justify/afford this?” calculations in my head.  Ormonde Jayne’s Champaca is just such a one. Even the frickin box looks too posh for me. This stuff is SERIOUSLY GORGEOUS!!

I must now say that having done some looking I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the affordability of the range, well within reasonable splurge range even on a way less than CEO style financial package.

Photo Stolen fragrantica

The internet tells me that the Michelia champaca is closely related to the fragrant magnolia but the flowers are yellow and smaller but their scent stronger. It is native to South and South East Asia and some of China, and has been used for millenia in fragrance.

Fragrantica gives these main accords:
Top: Neroli, pink pepper, bamboo
Heart: Basmati rice, champaca, freesia
Base: Myrrh, musk, green tea

Photo Stolen fragrantica

That fizzy pink pepper and orange blossom opening that is so 21st century is only slightly softened by the dry light bamboo, had we not had a stand of bamboo in the back yard that we played in and around as children I would probably never have noticed its inclusion.

Basmati rice really does come through the champaca and freesia, like it’s buoying them up and they float beautifully above it. There is still a definite orange blossom through the very heart of the fragrance and still there 5 hours into my wear. I was expecting Champaca to become a skin scent much sooner than this, though the musk is making itself known. I think staying close to me rather than skin scent, Champaca doesn’t seem to need to announce itself to the room though for the first couple of hours on returning to a room I could smell I’d been there. My skin gives me no tea, everyone else raves about the green tea, I went and made myself a cup to check but to no avail, my skin drank the tea.

It’s now 8+ hours, we’ve been for dinner, watched a movie at home on TV and I’m finishing up my post, there is now a slightly musky smell but it’s a sweet sweat, the myrrh and still, amazingly, a little of that sexy neroli; but you have to be close enough to….

Photo Stolen OrmondeJayne

Above you can see pictured the ORMONDE JAYNE DISCOVERY SET 12 x 2ml for only 48 pound including postage worldwide!
If you’d rather spring for a bottle prices start at 64 pound for 4 x 10ml Travel Purse Sprays or 80 pound for 50ml EdP at the OrmondeJayne site which is a pretty good deal for such outstanding niche fragrance presented so beautifully.

I love the Olfactoria’sTravels review and BoisDeJasmin always knows the good stuff

Thank you for coming and wandering through my fragrant thoughts, I hope you have enjoyed yourself as much as I did to bring them to you.
Wishing each of you only the good stuff you wish for yourselves,
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx

This is Linda Pilkington chatting about Champaca from her Ormonde Jayne website.

Le Nuit De l’Homme by YSL 2009 Video

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Hey Hey All,

While I have never sniffed Le Nuit de l’Homme I do think they’ve done a great job with the ad. Not feminist inspired or even acceptable probably but I think it is the ultimate fantasy of most men. Wanted by 3 women at the same time, all gorgeous, all elegant all within a certain circle of society. The reality would be a disaster but it looks nice in this ad.

Out of interest, has anyone smelt this fragrance? Is it as good as the ad? Does the ad sell the correct product?I expect it to be screamingly masculine by the movie but….

Please enjoy the mini movie, even if it’s just to growl BASTARD at the computer,

Portia xx

Pics from Fragrantica, Video YouTube

Borneo 1834 by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2005

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 32 Comments

Heya Perfumistas,

I have had a decant of Borneo 1834 for some time. I would look at it and pass it over for something else. I don’t know why, clearly its pedigree is good and people rave about it but it just never got picked. An interesting name, Borneo is divided by 3 countries Indonesia, Malaysia and the Sultanate of Brunei and I think they plucked 1834 out of their arses because I can’t find anything interesting to do with that time and Borneo on the net. (edit: It was the year patchouli first arrived in Paris, and thus perfume, from Borneo)

Photo Stolen Borneo.com

So today I bit the bullet.

Fragrantica gives the featured accords: Patchouli, white flowers, cardamom, galbanum, french labdanum, cacao

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Someone somewhere wrote that this is like chocolate covered raisins and I can’t get the scent image from my head. It’s uncanny! I love the uber bitter chocolate here with forestry patchouli, this is not sweet at all to begin with. The cardamom and crackly green galbanum work double time under the radar to keep the whole dusty, smoky, murky; like being in a cold furnace with only the memory of woods or being in an underground cellar. I completely miss all traces of white flower on my skin until about an hour into the fragrance life and then just almost wafts, like they are outside a window. The labdanum is slightly vanilla but still not sweet until about 3 hours in when it gets an extremely low hum of a bakery feel to it but very quietly, just huffs every now and then, like those chocolate sea shells that are vanilla chocolate. Borneo 1834 is gloriously bitter sweet and has a dark resinous quality that is maintained through the 7+ hours I get of real and fully apparent lifespan, I feel like I’ve made a new friend. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right time to test something.

So now it’s 16 hours after I triple spritzed, I’ve worked, slept, woken, done my emailing and breakfasted and there is still a fabulous soft spicy vanilla presence on my skin, astounding.

Will this be a full bottle in my collection? I have a feeling it will be very soon gracing the fragrance fridge here in Sydney.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

TheNonBlonde does as great review as does AnotherPerfumeBlog
FragranceNet has 50ml for $112 after discount
SurrenderToChance does decants starting at $3.99/.5ml but for only $12.99 you can have a 2ml spray.
Thank you for dropping by. I’m not sure if you know how happy it makes me that you do? Very Fecking Happy!
Don’t forget to come check out my Guest Post on ThePerfumePosse it’s one of the biggest frag blogs on earth and I am so proud and honoured to be a regular contributor.

Till tomorrow, loads of love,

Portia xx

FAME by Lady Gaga 2012 Video

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Hey Hey Scent Addicts,

If you have been anywhere on the scentbloggosphere then you’ve probably seen this, It’s been popping up all over the place. I know though that some of you read here only so this is Lady Gaga’s FAME advertisement/movie. As usual she has chosen strong visual imagery that gives more to original black fairy tales than the modern one and could even be skirting horror. I don’t think I’d have wanted to see this before I was 10 years old, I probably wouldn’t have slept for a week,

Photo Stolen justjared

I hope you enjoy it,

Portia xx