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Portia
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Hey there APJ,
You may know that Thursday is my day to post on Perfume Posse. Every week over there I do some kind of fragrance review. As we don’t really do them here on APJ anymore I thought it might be nice to give you a heads up on what’s happening elsewhere.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Kylie has done a new ad for Australia. I don’t know why but every time I watch it I cry like a baby. There’s been some backlash but it shows so much of what I love about this country. Of course we are having problems, what country isn’t? Our government is making some poor decisions, I bet yours is too. We are mining, bulldozing and building over our food belt, killing the reef and country for profit and we’ve never had such a high percentage of homeless. Still, Australia is a terrific place to visit and who doesn’t love Kylie?
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Portia
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Hey APJ,
Whatever you do, or don’t do. Whoever you see, or don’t see. Whatever you have, or don’t have. Take good care of yourself and those around you.
If you, or those around you, are suffering during this time of enforced merriment here is a link to the Australian Helplines, covering most bases 24/7. Crisis Help Australia
What am I wearing tonight for Christmas eve??
It’s all the incense, the woods and the dusty cool halls of old churches. Basically a memory scent for me and my Roman Catholic Nuns & Jesuits upbringing. Poised and calming, a beautiful fragrance to wear on this night.
I bought mine from Libertine Parfumerie. Free Australian Shipping.
What do you have on? What are you celebrating?
Portia xx
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Silly Season is upon us. Running hither and thither trying to see the people we love. What a happy kerfuffle.
If you, or those around you are suffering during this time of enforced merriment here is a link to the Australian Helplines, covering most bases 24/7. Crisis Help Australia
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Portia
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Hey there APJ,
One of Jin and my buddies we met through perfume is Tara. Every UK trip we make some Tara time, she came to our wedding here in Sydney and has popped over to meet us a couple of times on continental Europe too. Lately I’ve also been guest posting on her blog A Bottled Rose.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ,
You may know that Thursday is my day to post on Perfume Posse. Every week over there I do some kind of fragrance review. As we don’t really do them here on APJ anymore I thought it might be nice to give you a heads up on what’s happening elsewhere.
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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
How did I even have time to breathe this week. It was CER AY ZEE! So many friends, oodles of food, Aunty tracey, Perfume, Sales, fun and games. WHOA! What a week.
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Portia
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Heya APJ,
Obviously my Best Of will be the best of what I got my nose on. Seriously. I’m smelling ALL YEAR the newest stuff and still I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Some of these may have been released in 2018 but were new to me this year. Soz about that, just doing my best here.
I’ve also cut it down by making it things I wear a LOT because I have bottles or travels of them.
WINNER OF THE YEAR! What the frigging hell have they put in this bottle? As addictive as crack. A clean mimosa with only the merest hint of feral adventure. It is so beautiful. Thick ropey gouts of spring come gushing off me like a fairy tale. Bought from Libertine
Creamy sandalwood? YES PLEASE! Imagine if you took the DIVA out of Samsara, yeah? Made it a little dryer, boyzier, more relatable in 2019. You got it. Gorgeous!
Yeah, this cost almost nothing and gets more wear than any other cologne in my wardrobe except Granville. Oranges and stuff, wears for about an hour and then you need to reload. Bloody fabulous.
I am not a skincare person. Doesn’t matter. The fragrance in Rose Face Elixir is so freaking amazing and the product makes my already pretty much perfect skin look even better. I have am inner glow and smell amazing. Who knew?
No idea why I love 1957 so much. Most of it is everything I think I hate in modern perfumery. It’s basically No 5 with all the interesting and perfumey bits removed and only the functional fragrance left. Still, I can’t stop wearing it and love it to pieces.
A crisp, dark, bittersweet opening is underwritten by logs of freshly chopped wood. The geranium and peppery blackcurrant do give an extremely photorealistic waft of rose. Later in the heart and depths there is an addition of chilli-chocolate coated leather and torn grass stem. (I’ve ordered a travel, calm the farm)
That initial apple burst is mesmerising, with an outdoor woodiness and a modern, cool metallic rose. An airiness that doesn’t feel ozonic and a dewiness that doesn’t feel aquatic, yet alluding to both of them. A plastic vibe runs through the heart, concurrently bringing a salty resinousness. (Spice Must Flow was a very close contender too). Press bottle from Gascoigne & King
Minty goodness, like a herbal mint tea with some spices giving it an added heat. The opening zings. The greenery is given sheer earthy warmth from a modern patchouli. I love a fragrant shock of zingy mint and this delivers in buckets. GWP from First In Fragrance)
I gets attention every time I wear it. Basically ambroxan with some amber and herbal bells & whistles but it’s a definite crowd pleaser. I also get happy when wafts blow up my nose. It’s an easy wear stunner. This was a Libertine Press bottle.
You want to be the most desirable amber/vanilla fragrance and like the idea of it smelling like it could be you, not a fragrance? Vaninight is a perfect choice. Rich, lustrous and elegant but also incredibly laid back. It should have been called The Chillest Amber Ever.
PINEAPPLE! with a springlike greenery bursting forth from its sweet embrace. Even though dry down is woods and musk focussed it still manages to be a clear, fresh, windswept depth. This is gardenia smelled through a luxury hotel waterfall in the lobby. (On the list to buy a shit load of)
Fizzy, fruity opening that feels like it’s got a bunch of aldehydes perking it up. The hearts ozonics are warm and balmy, with a light creamy ylang/sandalwood sweetness. The cleanest leather ever. Vanilla and sandalwood help make it smell expensive and lavish. Another Libertine buy.
There are MORE! I can’t bloody remember them off the top of my head.
What did you love (or hate) in 2019?
Portia xx
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Narth
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Hello friends, it’s Narth here in a bit of a pink quandary! Since it was released in 2017 to glorious praise I’ve wanted to try Parfums De Marly Delina. Not because of the glorious praise, we know that can be a cyclic thing in perfume land, but because of the glorious PINK. The opaque bottle is the most beautiful colour, a confectionery pinkness that draws the eye and the hand. It’s the exact colour I aimed for and achieved when I squeezed a couple drops of red food dye into a tub of Betty Crocker frosting for my Betty Crocker frosting high tea sandwiches (fluffy white bread, cut off crusts, spatula on the frosting). These weren’t exactly a success but they looked very pretty and that’s how I feel about Parfums De Marly Delina
Top: Bergamot, Lychee, Rhubarb, Nutmeg,
Middle: Turkish Rose, Peony, Petalia, Vanilla and Musk
Base: Cashmeran, Haitian Vetiver, Cedar and Incense
It took me some time to track this scent down. The one store stocking it never had the tester, though they always had a completely different tester bottle in front of the Delina box. For months it would go like this;
Narth: Would you happen to have the Delina in a tester?
SA: Yes it is right here.
Narth: No that’s Cassili, the Delina is pink.
SA: Oh I don’t think so..
Google ensues
SA: Well I guess someone stole it.
I walk through this shop enroute regularly and this weird conversation kept happening and still no pink, no very very mouthwatering Parfums De Marly Delina. But then one day, and you’d have to be Australian to appreciate how this signifies the heavens opening and the trumpets trumpeting, the SA said “oh I think we have a sample” and pressed one into my hand. YES! I couldn’t wait to get home and have it be Pinkness time!
Well just like my pretty sandwiches it didn’t deliver, I think it may even be as yucky as I secretly knew my sandwiches were.
We have rhubarb, we have custard apple, we have custard.. yes for maybe 5 seconds this is quite enchanting. And then the sharpness comes out. I’d like to say tartness but tartness is tasty and this is more a synthetic sharpness pretending to be tartness. And it’s nuclear. Couldn’t scrub it off in the shower. I was quite upset! In the end it’s a screechy mess.
I am THE person marketing and advertisements and stories and bottles are made for, I lie back before the marketing gods and wait to be influenced. That pink lettering on the Fracas bottle? That’s what Fracas smells like to me forever. Parfums de Marley Delina still smells pink, but it’s a bad pink. It’s a harsh pink. It’s the pink of a kitchen cleanser from the 60’s.
I am truly happy for those of you who love this, you have a beautiful bottle and I am sure Parfums De Marly Delina is a creamy goddess on you!
I want to hear your stories when all your untested fantasies didn’t deliver! What was your biggest disappointment?
Bye for now, Narth xx
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Sandra
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Hey there APJ!
Is anyone stressed with the holidays? I am trying to keep the stress at bay but am finding that time is flying by too quickly. This will be the first year where my son will have a three week vacation. Yay!! It will make all the difference to have the week before Christmas off.
Australian Perfume Junkies 