Department Store release date in Australia is September 15 for the newest CHANEL fragrance. Thanks all for getting involved and thanks too to CHANEL SAs for their generosity.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, mandarin, orange, neroli, aldehydes
Heart: Rose, ylang-ylang, jasmine
Base: Cedar, white musk
WHAT CAN YOU WIN?
This week we will have 3 winners who will receive: 1 x Carded Manufacturers Sample CHANEL No 5 L’Eau P&H Anywhere in the world
HOUSEKEEPING
Entries Closed Saturday 10th September 2016 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org
Nelle
Rickyrebarco
Lena
The winners will have till Wednesday 14th September 2016 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
I was looking around my house the other day and it struck me that collecting fragrance wasn’t my only “thing”. So it got me wondering about your other collections.
What Else Do You Collect?
I have a few.
Royal Doulton: Morning Star
Once upon a time back in the 1960s my Mum and Dad got married. They chose the Royal Doulton pattern Morning Star to be their “For Good” set of china. People were able to buy one or a few pieces for them from a Wedding Gift Registry. So for their wedding a beautiful 6 place set was bought with Mains plate, Salad plate, Bread plate, Bowl, Cup & Saucer. They also got a Vegetable Tureen, Tea & Coffee pots, Creamer, Milk, Sugar & Gravy Boat. We used it for birthdays, Christmas, congratulations and every other event in our household. After Mum and Dad died I was left with a pristine 6 place set but I tend to entertain on a larger scale than they did so over the next 10 years I grew the set to 15 seater with some extras of some. I also added Cream Soup bowls & saucers, Fruit bowls, 3 x Vegetable and 3 x Main Tureens, 2 x Platters, a Baking Dish, extra Tea & Coffee pots, Milk, Sugar and a bunch of curios as they come up on eBay. We now use this set as our every day set and each time I eat off a plate or make a pot of tea Mum and Dad are there with me. It’s like a daily hug and reminder of some of the super good times we spent together as a family.
Bath Products
I’ve talked about this before with you all. There is a special box that holds almost all my Bath Oils, Shower Gels, Bubble Bath and Soaps. It’s filled with modern, vintage, discontinued and current. From Amouage to Tom Ford, Caron to Olympic Orchids, Boucheron to Yves Saint Laurent and everything in between. There are vintage boxed soap & fragrance sets of Givenchy Le De, Hermès Amazone and Caleche, CHANEL No 5 & 19, Opium by YSL and many others. Soaps come in singles too like the Guerlain Mitsouko & Shalimar, Saipua, L’Occitane, Mysore Sandal Soap, Farmer’s Daughters Egg White Soap and loads of single bars found around the world. Shower Gels from Amouage, LUSH, Penhaligon’s, Korres, Lolita Lempicka, B&BW, Molton Brown, Jo Malone and others all roped in as bubble Bath (my favourite).
Tea
Yes, everywhere I travel if there is some local tea for sale I buy it. Particularly in India and the UK. Fortnum & Mason is now available in Australia which has dimmed it fabulousness somewhat but they still taste yum. Having spent time in India’s Kerala and Himachal Pridesh tea growing areas and doing some estate visits, through the production processes and then getting to sample some of the teas I also have a bunch from them. South Korea also has a tea farming culture, we went through the Jeju Island area and I have been through another one but can’t remember where. Not all of South Koreas teas are green or black they also do chrysanthemum teas and a slew of others that are interesting and delicious, once you get used to how different they are. I also have Chinese flowers that unfurl in the tea pot, Chinese loose leaf green, white tea from a few different places now and some red tea.
There are also a couple of other collections around here but……. next time.
So, what do you collect? Come on, ‘Fess up. You know I love to read your stories too.
Portia xx
Spring has arrived in Sydney. Here are a couple of the flowers in my area.
Oh yeah my first spring flower woo hoo! Jasmine on the front verandah.
Lovely wattle in Sydney
Gorgeous wild freesias
Australasian Artisan Botanical Perfume Expo
October 23rd ~ Sydney
We are getting really excited about the inaugural Australasian Artisan Botanical Perfume Expo ~ October 23rd ~ Sydney. We are botanical perfumers from the southern hemisphere passionate about the beauty of natural, BOTANICAL perfumes. Be part of the revolution of natural fragrance, beauty, sensuality, health and wellbeing.
WHEN Sunday, October 23, 2016 from 11:00 AM to 3:30 PM (AEDT)
WHEREKirribilli Neighbourhood Centre – 16-18 Fitzroy Street
Kirribilli, NSW, 2061
** close the to Kirribilli train station with lovely cafes in the village.
INCLUDED IN YOUR TICKET
A variety of teas to enjoy
Award winning dark chocolate mousse by Yalla (Gluten and preservative free)
fruit and more.
Gifts given out during the day by Lord Foppington
and
A door prize will be drawn at 2pm for one attendee to the value of $500 (Winner must be on site to receive the gift)
In the lead up to Christmas and a change in seasons, we’re seeing an influx of new releases…including Grace by Grace Coddington.
We’ve been waiting an eon to smell Comme des Garçons and Grace Coddington’s fragrance. It was released April 2016 overseas and late August in Australia, exclusive to Mecca nationwide.
As April came and went I observed some ‘spoilers’ on Instagram etc, however all I really knew was there was a cat connection and I had also heard it was rose based. Grace has been obsessed with roses since her English childhood experiences in rose gardens. She used to wear Floris’s Red Rose as a teen.
I have a soft spot for Comme des Garçon’s edgy fragrances. How might they ‘shake up the rose’ for Grace? Roses are well loved and Grace spending more than a decade with her finger firmly on the fashion pulse means it should really hit the nail on the head. [NB for those who do not know, Grace was Vogue’s Creative Director for at least a decade and before that a model, originally from England. If interested you can find out more about the fashion icon from her book, Grace – A Memoir or by watching The September Issue movie.]
Grace by Grace Coddington and Comme des Garcons 2016
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Mint, Basil leaf, Cardamom, Pink pepper
Heart: Moroccan rose absolute, Freesia, Peach blossom
Base: Vetiver, Cashmere wood, White musk, Crystal amber
On first whiff its light, fresh, rosy and white musk, with some transparency. Second whiff deeper rose notes with an impression of freshly laundered towels. Sweetness, maybe juicy peach. Sparkle..maybe green pepper, or still the fizz of laundry powder. What I see in my minds eye is; a rose growing on another planet wrapped in a thick clean towel, warm from the dryer, looking at the twinkling stars.
The lovely Grace bottle, designed by Fabien Baron is actually a cute, sophisticated cat. A heavy bottomed, curved – almost egg-shaped glass bottle. The lid is a weighted silver metal ball with little ears. A little drawstring bag features illustrations by Grace herself. VERY handbag friendly. The bottle feels lovely in the hand. There’s that swoony weight / balance thing…sigh.
Who would wear this? I recommended it as a gift for my friends’ daughter’s 18th, however the fragrance is not limited to a younger audience. I think the lightness, elegance and playfulness of a flirty cat is captured and who does not want to smell like that some days?
You could wear it to work, dates or outdoors. There’s a cosy feel to it…and yet a watery luminescence too. A nod to old-fashioned English rose scents, but interpreted in a more lasting, modern way. At no point does it feel thin, however for me longevity is medium – one that I would top up midway through my day.
Some days when the post arrives and a long awaited and expected package is finally in my hands I get a little tremor of uncertainty. Will this be the real deal? Will I have spent my hard earned (OK only mildly) cash on a winner or a bummer? The other day was just such a day, arriving opened and lightly used was a vintage extract that I had extremely high hopes for……
When First was released I was 8. Being in Australia we may have got it around then but it wasn’t really on my radar. At that time I was completely unaware of anything except that my Mum was the most beautiful and smelled the best of all the Aunties and all the other Mums. The reason I bought this perfume bottle is that I have memories of First being around through my teen years in a general sort of way. I don’t think Mum had it but some of the ladies in my sphere did, there were definitely bottles of it in my vision.
I had a modern EdT that basically bludgeoned my nose to headache with its opening cacophony and I wondered if an older perfume would be less ferocious.
PDI
How does it smell? Richer, less aldehydic at the opening though they are still a fizzy, slightly oily metallic patina over the fruits. First perfume is less about the opening though and more about the heart, as if it can’t wait to get to the white and yellow flowers. Once this jasmine-centric heart arrives it’s swoon time. So beautifully blended that my main reading is jasmine supported by other white flowers and creamy, slightly banana ylang. I’m sure better noses could parse it more succinctly. You have no idea how freaking gorgeous first perfume is. Unbelievable, eye-rolling, deep breath till I think my hand might get sucked up my nose fabulous.
The heart lasts for ages before I start to notice it becoming more honeyed and sweeter. I can’t decide if it’s sandalwood or a combination of other things. I do smell furry oakmoss and a lovely dose of animal, soft and plush. From just 3 dabs on my hand this baby lasts all night and I can still smell whispers of an animalic vanilla/amber in the morning.
I hope ya’ll are enjoying a summer or winter break and that life is good for you.
Summer vacation started and my son and I left the house at 0400 to get to the airport to catch the first flight on our way to Seattle. It had been 2,5 years since my last trip to the US to see family – to see my sister’s new home in Seattle.
I hope you enjoy my olfactory and visual trip of my travels this summer.
Summer Holiday Smells 2016 + Photo Essay
One of the first smells that I encountered was the airplane petrol that hits me every time I get to the airport and puts me right into vacation mood. I love it.
Summer Holiday Smells: Seattle
Smell of the BBQ at home and the smoke of the fireworks on the 4th of July on Lake Union.
Smell of flowers and raw fish at Pikes Market. Crocosmia with the vibrant red flowers have a very distinctive smell. The hydrangeas so big and colourful..
Smell of tossed Copper River salmon at Pikes Market. Seriously – we picked out the fish we wanted to buy and the fishmongers put on a show of tossing the fish to each other. The Copper River salmon was sublime.
Smell of the wet trees at Mr. Ranier National Park and fresh clean mountain air. I could actually smell the fresh water cascading down the waterfall at Paradise.
Smell of my hand after squeezing a ripe apricot at a roadside farmers market and of the juice from a Rainier cherry after biting into it. The Rainier cherry is incredible in its texture, flavor, sweetness and juiciness.
Smell of the lowest of the low tides at Carkeek Beach and searching for crab under the rocks – seaweed, moss and anemones on my fingertips. We found a largish crab and all sorts of little crabs.
Summer Holiday Smells: Atlanta
Smell of hand disinfectant and medicines at Urgent Care and doctors offices while getting my son’s broken arm in a cast. But we got to see colourful Australian Gouldian finches and their babies.
Heat and humidity creating a wall of comfort for me outside while everyone else ran for the AC. The humidity has a smell in Atlanta. Try to describe it? Sorry.
Smell of sun screen and chlorine every day. Yes – waterproof casts exist and we went swimming every day. That is what I enjoyed as a child and obviously so did my son. Vienna is not warm enough to have warm swimming pools outdoors.
Smell of the steam coming off of the side walks and roads after an afternoon thunderstorm and shower. How I miss the thunderstorms!
Smell of fresh boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce. Reminds me of my summer on Tybee Island where my friend’s parents caught 70 pounds of shrimp and all of us kids had to peel them all.
Sound of the cicadas in the trees. The night comes to life and the sound is magical and takes me back to my childhood in Atlanta.
I had forgotten of how abundant Crepe Myrtle trees are in Atlanta. They were in full bloom and my favourite colours were bright pink and deep red.
All in all it was a great trip. Next summer vacation perhaps a different destination with sights, smells and sounds that will make memories for a lifetime.
I would love to hear from you. How are you doing and which perfumes are you reaching for?
Sandra
Myrrh Casati! How did it take me so long to find you? I have hazy recollections of this being released. Mainly because it’s the first MdO not created by Mona. Here’s where it all gets weird because I remember the fragrance being soundly trounced by loads of reviewers. Woo Hoo! So my wallet breathed a sigh of relief that I need not try one fragrance. PHEW! Then, recently I was on Surrender To Chance seeing what was available and about and suddenly, seemingly without even trying, I had bought a couple of really big 8ml decants: Grandiflora Madagascan Jasmine and ………
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Peruvian pink pepper, Guatemala cardamom, Saffron, Licorice, Siam benzoin, Somalian myrrh, Somalian frankincense, Indonesian patchouli, Indian cypriol, Paraguayan gaiac wood
Spicy, dry spices, walking through the spice markets in India or Dubai. A melding of heat, dust, humanity and spices. Cardamom! I can smell it plain as day, as if I pulled a pod from its Tupperware to put into a curry or soup. Saffron and woods. It’s like market day here in Sydney and I smell amazing. All the resins come together in Myrrh Casati and create a balmy, smoky cushion for the spices to rest on.
The fireworks burn off after about 15-20 minutes and Myrrh Casati and it softens off to a comfortable, warm, resinous fragrance, only lightly spiced. Totally wearable and beautiful. The woods are present after a while, they smell fresh hewn but dry, no greenness here at all. Woods and resins float over you and around you softly but insistently. Myrrh Casati is calm, like being in a South Korean temple on a hill in the morning quiet when there’s just you, the monks and whatever your idea of god is. Incense, woods, lingering balms used for polishing, clean air and an internal conversation.
From Luckyscent: Inspired by Marchesa Casati, the legendary patron of the arts and muse of eccentricity, known for her extravagant dark fashion and lavish fetes replete with exotic animals, gilded servants, and an infectious waft of incense and mystery that surrounded her.
As you know Neela is one of my mates, we chat on Skype pretty regularly and whenever Jin & I are in Paris we always get some Neela time. Talking about travelling, one of the bummers about having full bottles of fragrance is that when you are abroad it becomes a bit of a pain carrying them in your checked baggage. Isn’t it always great to have a few decants or travel sizes that you can keep conveniently in your carry on? Up till now I thought the Hermès ones were my favourite, all that has changed though because Neela has unveiled her own travel sizes.
Neela Vermeire Creations Take Two
The Neela Vermeire Creations Take Two sets come in a very sensible two pack of 15ml each. The glass is hefty and sturdy and they are perfectly created for life in your bag. As always Neela’s packaging is super swish and the whole shebang looks very Ra Cha Cha.
Another clever idea is to buy the set with a friend and you’ll each have 15ml, meaning you can collect the whole Neela Vermeire Creations set at just over half the price of buying the big bottles. It’s a really good deal. Other fragrance houses make their smaller sizes nearly 80% of the big ones (looking at you sexy Pierre Guillaume, Amouage and a bunch of the others).
LuckyScent sells Ashoka in the 60ml for $230, the 2 x 15ml Take Two set is only $125
You may know that Mohur is my favourite of the NVC range followed closely by Ashoka and then Pichola. I’m going to start sussing out my mates about who would like to go halves in each of these sets. Those three combined with a few Hermès travels will mean I never have to think about my holiday frags, they’ll be packed and ready to go.
So, which Neela Vermeire Creations fragrance would you like to have a Take Two Travel Set of?
Portia xx
So I have had this decant rattling around my sample box. It’s hand written and has the First In Fragrance unicorn sticker, plus the date 05/16 so I’m thinking May this year. Really, I don’t know how it got to be there as I haven’t ordered from this wonderful people this year at all (OOOPS! Sorry guys). It is a mystery. If someone remembers why I have it could they enlighten me please?
LIGHTBULB!! TinaG, is this from you? WOW! Thank you.
Well it opens sweet and balmy. Coffee, urine, woods, birch, honey and balmy resins are my guesses. It’s a pretty aggressive introduction to Stercus and has the smell of animals and urine soaked hay after a flatulent night in the barn. I smell something that I’ve smelled before with Roxana from Illuminated Perfumes when we were composing a Feral Feet accord back in 2013. Well, I say we but it was her composition with Tom Pease and I egging her on to greater heights of outrageous.
Is this a natural perfume? It has a bit of that feel too, the dark, dank, murkiness that makes many of them so enveloping and deep. Labdanum and an oudh-ish barnyard seem to be the heart that still maintains a honeyed sweetness, the feral bits not the pretty modern sweet kind. Is it tobacco? Could be but honestly I am pretty lost. Why don’t we talk more about how Stercus makes me feel?
PDI
Stercus feels cold, alone and windswept. Imagine you are caught out in a very large and wooded park at dusk after a cool sunny autumn day. Now you’ve stayed too long feeding the ducks, the light is dwindling, the wind now has no sunlight to cut its icy blast and you are not dressed for the change. The leaves have fallen from many of the trees and they are stuck wetly to each other. As you walk briskly over them you disturb the smell of their decomposition and close by there is the smell of possums, or maybe it’s a fruit bat roost. That is how Stercus affects me, there is my vision.
Eight hours later and I’m still surrounded by a soft fog of Stercus. It’s green, sweet and funky. Still has the call of wilderness stamped upon it. Beautiful.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
French may rose, Venezuelan tonka absolute, Italian orris root absolute, Mysore sandalwood, Italian bergamot, musk, Haitian vetiver, Indonesian patchouli
Sometimes I get caught up in the hype around a product. By all accounts I should love Puredistance White. It’s supposed to be almost magical. Happiness bottled is what they promised me. One sniff and I’m going to be grinning from ear to ear. That’s what the press release said. That’s what the bloggers said. It took a while for me to get a sample but finally I did. I was almost afraid to try it for fear I would fall hard and then have to figure out how to save my pennies to buy a bottle. The only reason I didn’t blind buy is the price. (I do have limits on how much I’ll spend on blind buys.) When the sample arrived I gave myself a couple of good sprays from the sample vial and then sniffed.
Hmmm…did I get an instant shot of happiness?
PDI
No. Not exactly.
A few days later I tried again. My impressions were a bit different the second time and the third time I tried it but I can tell you with certainty this one is not for me.
The first spraying was sweet. Toothache sweet. I’ve never snorted any type of white powder but each time I brought my wrist to nose I couldn’t help but think of how this must be what it’s like to do lines of confectioners sugar. I like a lot of sweet perfumes but this wasn’t working for me. It was very dry, powdery, and saccharine. I couldn’t pick out any notes. It stayed linear and sugary and either faded away or my nose just stopped registering it. My guess is my wacky skin chemistry amplified the Tonka and orris root and turned them into a powdery sweet mess.
The next try was a bit different but still not much better. I got a bit of rose which was soured by the bergamot and again dusted with a dry, confectioners sugar. This was followed by the musk which was very clean and white.
I wish I could say all the wonderful things everyone else did but it seems that White and I were just not destined to be friends. I’m not blaming the perfume at all. I’m quite sure it’s made with the best ingredients and is totally quality like other Puredistance perfumes. It’s all me. My skin can take notes in perfumes that smell horrible on others and make them magical but it also can do the exact opposite which is what I think happened here. I know the rest of the world loves this fragrance but I do suggest you try before you buy just in case.
Australian Perfume Junkies 