shopping

Salt Caramel by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue London 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey hey Fragrance Fiends,

Do you ever read and hear about a new brand quite a bit, it piques your interest, you don’t try it immediately and then you completely forget about it because you’re onto the new next best thing? I find it happening more and more often lately. Shay & Blue were the name on everybodies lips last year but until I saw them on Surrender To Chance last month I had let them pass me by.

Salt Caramel by Julie Masse for Shay & Blue London 2014

Salt Caramel Shay & Blue London FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Caramel, sea salt, tonka bean, sandalwood (Vanilla is added on the Shay & Blue site)

My partner Jin makes the most gorgeously delicious salted caramel macaroons. They are breath taking and so perfectly formed. The sweetness is cut through with savoury and when he makes them I know I’ve been an excellent companion. It’s like the ultimate nod.

When I spritz Salted Caramel I get a really big smile across my face. It’s EXACTLY what a Salted Caramel macaroon smells like. I even salivated at the scent as it first went on. Hilarious! That super sweet caramel-ish moment tempered by salt is so realistic and so ridiculously good but as much as I go crazy for it part of my mind is asking me if this is how I want to smell. Like, really? Is this the scent that you think is the best fragrance to offer the world as a scent concept of who you are? My head says, “Super good trick, yes you made a smell that totally replicates food. Astounding but WTF!”

salt-caramel-shay-blue macaroon Coralie Ferreira FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

As we move further into the heart of Salted Caramel it does get deeper and the sweetness is knocked out a bit, now I’m getting brulee crust, still sweet but toffee crisp and bitter. Are there musks in here too? Something powdery?  Maybe it’s the sandalwood and my associations are running away with me. It doesn’t smell like sandalwood as I think of it but that doesn’t mean that it’s not sandalwood, know what I mean?

Salted Caramel sticks around, and if you like the way it smells then you’ll be thrilled because once the super sweet opening burns of you’re left with a linear fragrance that I got 3 hours from because it drove me crazy so I waited 3 hours and then had a bath.

salt-caramel-shay-blue Bubble_Bath Jelin DeviantArtPhoto stolen DeviantArt

Further reading: Ca Fleure Bon and Kafkaesque
Shay & Blue are available at department stores, David Jones in Australia
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Did you get to try these Shay & Blue fragrances? Which ones tickled your fancy? What have you recently had to scrub?
Portia xx

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura by Guerlain 2015

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey Hey APJ,

Something new from Guerlain! It reads fresh, fun and very Aqua Allegoria. Thierry Wasser has been producing like crazy over at Guerlain, so much new stuff and flankers. I hope it’s all selling for them because I’m enjoying the constant and extremely interesting cross-section of new arrivals. Yes, I know they’re not all the next Shalimar or Mitsouko but how many fragrances released nowadays are? Even if they were we have so much choice that masterpieces fall by the wayside as quickly as dross anyway. The industry is creating its own problem and we are lapping it up…..

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2015

Aqua Allegoria Teazzura Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, yuzu, grapefruit
Heart: Green tea, chamomile, jasmine
Base: Musk, calone, vanilla

You can spritz Teazzura at your local department Store for free. It could be the next big thing. How will you know until you try it?

Fingers crossed. I hope to try Teazzura on my holidays. Enjoy the ad.

Portia xx

AQUA ALLEGORIA – TEAZZURRA – GUERLAIN

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hi Crew,

As you know I am now writing fortnightly for the crew at My Perfume Samples. Can’t express fully to you how proud I feel to be asked to write for them. Excellent crew with great prices and service. This week there is also a wicked FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE OFFER.

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015: My Perfume Samples

top10vanillas-copy

Please go check out the 10 vanilla fragrances that I think are a great cross section of taste and texture, from super sweet to quite dry. All of them are interesting and beautiful to me, wearable in spring and many all year round.

Top 10 Vanillas for Spring 2015: My Perfume Samples

While you’re there please leave me a help so I know you’ve dropped by. It makes me happy to see you all around the web.

Portia xx

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hi there APJ,

Ermenegildo Zegna (pronounced Er-Men-Jill-Doe) makes great shoes. Comfort out of the ballpark and usually pretty fun to look at too. I have a pair that I really love. When I wear them it feels like, in the words of Mary Horowitz, “Because it makes my toes feel like 10 friends on a camping trip, that’s why” but I have hardly even dipped my toe in the Zegna fragrances.

It does seem that most mainstream brands are releasing a niche inspired highbrow line, inspired by the CHANEL & DIOR prive lines. I have fallen for, and own FB of, quite a few from these including Armani, VC&A, Donna Karan, Cartier etc. Zegna has had fragrance for years and his 1983 Zegna Pour Homme is still cited as a benchmark.

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna 2014

Ermenegildo Zegna Essenze Collection

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo Zegna FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Ambrette (musk mallow), orris, cashmere woods, guaiac wood

Spicy iris? Is there such a thing? Ginger? Pepper? Woods and some vegetative, humus rich damp healthy soil. Maybe some melon and some wet cardboard? GOSH! I don’t know. Any or all of these

What I smell is the kind of masculine oriented scent that the suit boys love to wear in cooler months. I can almost smell them arriving fresh for work and smelling very crisp and manly, no nonsense woods for us please. We like to smell good but in a pack of forest/woodsy fragrances that are almost synonymous with upper middle management. This fragrance is like code for earning well, on the stepladder of corporate success.

Am I selling it short? I don’t know. Maybe I was over expecting but for $250 I would like to be wowed.

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo Zegna Zegna Lars Plougmann FlickrPhoto Stolen Flickr

Don’t get me wrong, if you own or buy Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna you will smell good. You will not be a standout fragrant showpony and maybe the culture you would like to be a part of will feel that you smell like you fit the bill. There is nothing shameful about wearing a uniform and if Ermenegildo Zegna was aiming for the handsome, gym before work, power lunches, expensive customised off the rack designer suit crew then bravo because this is how my nose tells me they smell.

Peruvian Ambrette Ermenegildo-Zegna-suit-tie PixGoodPhoto Stolen PixGood

Dry down is a woodsy leather scent still with a clean musk and the lasting power is excellent for a working day. As an aside, I think the bottles look nice and they fit beautifully with the man in suit’s minimalist apartment.

Peruvian Ambrette by Ermenegildo Zegna is available in Department Stores and Zegna boutiques (US$195:£140:AUS$250/125ml)
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Do you ever fall for the mainstream prive lines? Favourites?
Have you tried any of the Zegna’s?
Portia xx

Copal Azur by Bertrand Duchafour for Aedes de Venustas 2014

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

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Post by Poodle

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I was pretty excited to receive a sample of the Aedes de Venustas perfume Copal Azur in the mail. When I read the promotional material I was a bit skeptical. Oceans and incense? Could they really pull it off? Honestly, I had my doubts. I’m an incense freak but can’t say that fresh, oceanic scents are something I’m drawn to.

Copal Azur by Aedes de Venustas 2014

Copal Azur by Bertrand Duchafour

Copal Azur Aedes de Venustas FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Ozone, salty notes, frankincense
Heart: Incense, cardamom, patchouli
Base: Incense, myrrh, Tonka bean, amber

I’ve been to Tulum, which is the locale that inspired this perfume, and I don’t remember it smelling anything like this. I’ve also never smelled actual copal so I have no point of reference for it. Copal Azur is a mix of salt air and plumes of incense rising to the heavens. There’s a freshness that brings to mind blue skies and lush green foliage. It smells like the sea without smelling like an air freshener. The incense in it is a bit woody, not too smokey, and meditative without being churchy.

Copal Azur Aedes de Venustas Tulum-Seaside WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The other bright incense perfume that I love is Heeley’s Cardinal. In comparison, that one is more like sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows of a church. Copal Azur is like sitting at a seaside temple at the point where the sand meets the jungle. It opens like a powerful gust of wind over the waves. You can imagine the sea spray hitting your face. The incense is there in every phase of the perfume’s development yet it never overpowers or gets very smokey to me but bear in mind I have a high tolerance for incense.

The salty mist gives way to warmer and greener notes almost like you have stepped away from the water to the shelter and shade of the trees. There’s a sweet, almost earthy quality that begins to emerge. As you’re walking towards the temple you can smell the branches breaking underfoot. The perfume takes a journey from coolness in the top notes to a definite warmth in the base. It is here where the Tonka bean and patchouli blend with the incense and woods and linger a bit until finally fading away like smoke on the breeze.

Copal Azur Aedes de Venustas tulum_sunrise lamassu72 DeviantARTPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

I thought this leaned masculine but hubby disagreed and said he liked it on me and I didn’t smell like a guy to him. That being said I still think I’d rather smell it on him. He likes fresh, clean scents that don’t thrill me in the least. It came close to being too chemical and clean in the opening but very briefly. Copal Azur blends the stuff he likes with the incense notes I love. There may be a bottle in his future.

Further reading: The Non Blonde and Goodsmellas (Vlog)
First In Fragrance have €210/100ml
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $7/ml

So, do you like ocean or marine scents or do you avoid them at all cost for fear of smelling like an air freshener?

Hugs
Poodle

Vintage Cabochard Parfum by Bernard Chant for Gres 1959

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hey Vintage Fumies,

Recently I was lucky enough to find a 2/3 full bottle of the vintage Cabochard parfum in its gorgeous black & white pedestal box. It wasn’t cheap but it wasn’t outrageously expensive either and I had long wanted to own a bottle for myself, having sampled earlier in my fragrant life.

Vintage Cabochard Parfum by Bernard Chant for Gres 1959

Cabochard Gres FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, spices, tarragon, fruity notes, sage, lemon, asafoetida
Heart: Orris, jasmine, geranium, rose, ylang ylang
Base: Tobacco, vetiver, oakmoss, coconut, musk, patchouli, amber, sandalwood, leather

Bernard Chant: Cabochard 1959, Aramis 1966, Aromatics Elixir 1971. A trilogy or family of fragrance. His three masterpieces, all similar but riffing different elements. If you want to know what a car looked like then, below is a 1959 Cadillac.

Cabochard Parfum gres 1959-Cadillac WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Now my top notes are slightly rusty, not in a big way but they have changed from the sample I had worn. I will have to use this up in the next year or so and I don’t think that’s any great hardship. The fruity sparkle is herbaceous, aromatic and dense. Imagine being in the storeroom of an Indian bazaar, the spark and buzz of faulty electrics, fruit and veg in waxy cardboard boxes, sizzling spices, bitter herbs, and the scent of dozens of boxes of sandalwood soap. That’s as full on as you can imagine, heavy, hectic, psychedelic scent that manages to be all this and warm & classy too. That is quite a feat to keep something so big from flying out of control.

Cabochard Gres Mary_Tyler_Moore WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

The flowers are a bouquet and I can’t pick any of them out, not really pick them out though I get flashes of ideas of flowers. It doesn’t matter anyway because already the base notes are coming through: sandalwood, tobacco, patchouli, leather and oakmoss are the ones I can detect but what I really smell is Cabochard. It’s the base of Cabochard that IS Cabochard to me. A gravel voiced granny with a fabulous high end leather handbag, a cigarette, hair done and nails painted and attitude. She’s lived and loved her life, and is reveling in her twilight years. A little bit creakier but mind as sharp as a tack and still ready for fun, a drink and a laugh.

Cabochard Gres granny YourStyleJourneyPhoto Stolen YourStyleJourney

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Perfume Shrine
My bottle from Ebay
FragranceNet has modern EdP $28/100ml before Coupon
Surrender To Chance has Vintage Parfum $6/.25ml

Do you have a vintage you love? Something that has changed in its newest form or is it gone altogether?
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton: Singapore City Guide

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hello Intrepid APJ Travelers,

As you may know Jin has accepted a new job and we have bought a new abode. Very exciting times and because we are unsure of when we’ll next be able to travel (probably January 2016 UK & Europe) we have decided to bring our November family visit forward to NOW, leaving Wednesday. We’ll do a few days in Singapore, where neither of us have stayed other than the airport, with one of my longtime girlfriends Julie and then go on to South Korea to celebrate Jin’s father’s birthday. We are taking them away to the West side of South Korea for a couple of days, their first holiday in years.

singapore DesignerPoint PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

So I thought it best to give you a glimpse of Singapore through the eyes of Louis Vuitton.
Do please enjoy,
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents the Singapore City Guide

Montaigne by Richard Fraysse for Caron 2007

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hi there Frag Family,

Caron is a fragrance house that is very hit and miss for me. A bunch of my all time favourite fragrances are from them. With Bellodgia I have a horde of the parfum as well as an ample stash of the EdP. Infini, Parfun Sacre, Nocturnes, 119, Nuit de Noel, Tabac Blond and Royal Bain are all in my collection and that’s a LOT from one house. There are a bunch that don’t work though, and they REALLY don’t work, so it’s always nice to find a new one that does. My frag buddy Scott and I were shopping the importer sale the other day and we spied a Caron I’d not yet tried…..

Montaigne by Richard Fraysse for Caron 2007

Montaigne Caron FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine, coriander, bitter orange, mimosa, tangerine
Heart: Narcissus, black currant
Base: Sandalwood, amber, vanilla

So my batch code tells me my Montaigne is a 2007, so re-released with the reformulation and I think it did not do so well. It’s certainly not one of the Caron’s you read or hear much love for, Victoria at Bois de Jasmin delightfully scathing of the sandalwood accord and the frag in general. Her nose is 100 times better attuned to picking such things and I miss the screech completely. Maybe my bottle has had a lot longer to settle?

Opening spritz has me smelling this fabulous fruity hairspray and makeup scent, there’s something completely over the top and carnival about Mointaigne, it feels irrepressible to me. It’s so perfumey it’s almost a caricature of perfume. honestly the notes bear very little resemblance to what my nose and brain smell. I get a high octane, 100% synthetic, dance all night, laughing, singing along, party girl scent. If ever a scent swang from the chandelier then Montaigne is it.

montaigne-caron disco PixabayPhoto Stolen Pixabay

Part of me is just laughing inside at how much fun someone wearing Montaigne could have.

Basically Montaigne wears pretty linearly for me, hairspray, nailpolish, makeup mixed with fun fruity tingles and a very thin dry down with a little amber/woods but really it is just a soft wash of sweet woods with a shade of fruit. This wash wafts softly around me for a few hours, longevity is quite good.

Further reading: Perfume Posse and EauMG
Beauty Encounter has $45/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4.50/ml

Do you have a Caron favourite? Tell me…. and why?
Portia xx

Misia by Olivier Polge for CHANEL 2015

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 30 Comments

Hello Happy Huffers,

Imagine. Your Dad has been in charge of CHANEL perfumes and his first two creations for the house were Anteaus (1981) and Coco (1984), and that was just the beginning of the amazing saga of Jaques Polge reign. We all know that fragrance is a nepotistic arena so no one was surprised that Mr J Polge’s successor would be his prolific son Olivier Polge (89 fragrances and counting) who has produced some of my personal favourites including Midnight In Paris, Spicebomb, DIOR Homme, Cuir Beluga, Liberte and The Beat Man: These are just the ones I have FB of in my collection.

Then you get offered the BIG job, in house perfumer for CHANEL! What will your first fragrance be? How can you carry on the CHANEL ideal and your father’s legacy while still putting your own stamp on the product? While I don’t envy Olivier Polge the shoes he has to fill I am agog to wear the produce of his labours……….

Misia by Olivier Polge for CHANEL 2015

Chanel Misia Chanel FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Powdery notes, violet, iris, orris root, Turkish rose, Grasse rose, Laos benzoin, tonka bean

Misia, I wonder who decided that Misia Sert would be the muse for this CHANEL creation? A modern woman of wealth. taste and an arts-centric philanthropist, ahead of her time yet fully a part of that time. A mover and a shaker, a catalyst, incredibly modern and yet a long time ago. It’s a perfect choice because almost anything fragrant you do can point to a facet of Misia, as long as it is brought to life impeccably.

Chanel Misia Chanel Misia Henri de Toulouse-Lautec WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

So many things Misia opens like. It’s a magical roll-a-dex of plush fragrant memories from that very first spritz, all of them expensive and lavish. Coco Chanel once said, “The best things in life are free but the second best are very, very expensive.” Many other bloggers have dwelt on its similarities so I’ll leave it there. I will say that a part of the mix that I’d always pegged as saffron is here, and I think it may be the violet/iris combo: balmy and cool yet slightly plastic. It smells like the feel of one of those old black bakelite CHANEL No 5 refillable canisters or the black case of a lipstick with the interlocking Cs at the tip and also some of the lipstick inside. More than any other CHANEL fragrance Misia smells like the essence of CHANEL, the dream and ideal we are being sold.

Chanel Misia Chanel large_classic_flap CHANELPhoto Stolen CHANEL

As we move into the heart of Misia the roses bloom, again vaguely reminiscent of other famous and beautiful fragrances but smoother, prettier, more tasteful and woven through with the violet/iris and very softly hinting of elegant leather handbags and folios. There is too a reminder of makeup and fragrances within, tidy but well loved. Sheer, a cloud of good fortune to surround you, the smell that money only wishes it could have but also a stark unclutteredness* like contemporary minimalism. Everything so perfectly placed and balanced, a harmonious whole.

Chanel Misia Chanel chanel-pret-a-porter-2014-15 CHANEL NewsPhoto Stolen CHANEL News

The end, a now whisper of what an old fashioned fragrance could have been in a dream. Bravo Olivier Polge, it feels to me as if you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Further reading: Now Smell This and Perfume Posse
CHANEL Les exclusives are available at large Department Stores and CHANEL stand alone beauty
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Which is your favourite CHANEL Exclusive? Are you excited for the new era in CHANEL fragrance?
What do YOU think of Misia?
Portia xx

*Unclutteredness – clunky word, made it up, you know what I mean. Ironically the using of this word is an antonym of what I think it stand for.