Scent Diary: 3.6 – 9.6.2019

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019 / AustralianPerfumeJunkies / 47 Comments

Portia

Hey there APJ Crew,

WOW! Mongolia, South Korea and home. What a sensational wrap up to nearly six weeks of travel. Jin really outdid himself as Cruise Director, we saw more than I dreamed possible. The whole adventure was planned perfectly, we also had a few very lucky breaks and helpful friends along the way.

We were so busy and there was zero sit time so almost the whole week was blogged from the Asiana Lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport on Friday evening while waiting for my plane. VERY relaxing.

Continue reading →

HOLIDAYS!! South Korea 2016: Photo Essay

November 13, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 31 Comments

Post by Portia

Hi there APJ,

It feels utterly sinful to be frolicking on holidays while the world implodes politically and in so many other ways. Still, here we are in South Korea with Jin’s family and friends.

Here are a few of the billions of photographs I’ve taken. Come see a slice of South Korea, its people and some fun things to do on a seven night getaway. Can I also tell you that South Korea is still incredibly affordable.

HOLIDAYS!! South Korea 2016: Photo Essay

Pick up from Ulsan station. You can’t tell but Mummy & Pappa are thrilled to see us. It’s very late at night.

Breakfast in Yangsan. You’ll notice the family has Pork Soup and I have a Croissant. I know, I’m a Philistine.

Visiting Grandma who has Alzheimers. 4 generations of family, from two branches, sharing love and special moments. Grandma remembered Jin so he was over the moon. We had bought her a bunch of Japanese sweets and treats because she studied in Japan when she was a teenager (unheard of for a woman in that time).

On our way to the mountains with Mummy & Pappa to see the autumn leaves. Sadly the leaves were not 100% co-operative because it’s been a really weird season. We did see some lovely colour and every new vista was so picturesque.

We stayed in the faded grandeur of the Jirisan Spa Land. Though the decor was tired and the maintenance on the gardens and building had lapsed we could still see what it was designed to be. Beds and rooms were comfortable and spacious. The spa baths were clean and neat and the family loved their time in the waters which left our skin soft and lightly fragranced with minerals and salts.

On our way home from BarBQ dinner in the village that night we saw some strange arguments and a boozy customer screaming. As we left the next morning the site was crawling with Police & CSI. Jin’s Dad got out and explained what we’d seen last night. We were all called into the Cop Shop for questioning and to give statements, also to identify the miscreant. It was super fun.

While Mummy & Pappa were in with the cops Jin & I went exploring and found this wonderful shrine. The plaque below explains everything. Nice find in rural South Korea.

The tip top of the highest mountain in South Korea you can drive to the top of. We wandered around, had some noodles and coffee. It was a great cheap family adventure. How handsome is Jin’s Dad?

Back in Busan they are having a Chrysanthemum show. While all the usual types were there I had never seen them trained into the tortured Bonsai experience. They look freaking amazing and I am now inspired to try it at home.

Jin thinks it looks like an ice-cream but I think it looks like a Butt Plug, making this photo extra creepy.

Dinner with one of Jin’s childhood BFFs Kinam in the Westin Chosun, Busan. We have stayed in this hotel and I really love the way they keep the 5* dream alive. Dinner in the Camellia Restaurant is always gorgeous.

Mummy & Pappa’s apartment block.

While shopping we found these crazy ETRO paisley slippers. VERY Roja Dove!

Hanging out playing Transformers with another of Jin’s BFFs, Jungyon, and her daughter. Loud screaming laughter ensued.

So next day we are off to the famous Kijang Crab Market in Busan. Below is a Korean Crab that came as a GWP for the huge monster King Crab we bought for lunch.

Yes, here it is. You can’t really see but the top of the shell was easily 3 of Jin’s hands. ENORMOUS! Mummy & Pappa had never had a King Crab before but their friends had talked of it for years after having the experience. I was completely unaware of this when I asked Jin to find out what the most delicious and meatiest crab they had. Not being a seafood eater my knowledge is pretty sparse.

Here they both are cooked and cut, ready for eating. You have no idea how much meat there was. The three of them ate till they were absolutely disgustingly full, then they ate some more. There was still a third of the meat left which will make delicious seafood salad over the next two days. Mummy & Pappa now have bragging rights for the next decade.

Then we went to the seaside Haedong Yonggungsa Buddhist temple. It’s about 100 steps down and on the way I managed to get a coin into the wishing pot, after many tries. We bought some candles to light and prayed for all of you, our friends, family and the world in general. I think in light of this weeks events that the world will need every ray of light.

Tonight I put my foot down. Dinner at HOME with the family. So we trooped out to Mummy & Pappas little farm with Jin’s BFF Jungyon & daughter and we gorged on Korean BarBQ, drank Whiskey & Soju and generally had a fabulous time celebrating Mummy & Pappas 4oth Anniversary and our 5th Anniversary, which are spookily only 5 days apart. Jin & I had procured a bunch of Roman Candle fireworks and we had a fabulous display after dinner. The whole night was magical and fun.

Back to Seoul tomorrow and then home.

Fragrantica

Been wearing Niki de Saint Phalle almost exclusively. It really seems to fit South Korea.

It’s been great. What’s your favourite family meal?
Portia xx

Holiday Perfume Packing Oct 2016

November 10, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by Portia

Hello Fumies,

The eternal holiday question; What Perfumes Should I Take? Every year I try and get myself to pick the perfect scents. You know, weather appropriate, walking, shopping, dinner, drinks, casual, dressy, cool, hot. It’s a very fine line we perfumistas walk and to try and have the right frag for the right time is a really fun experiment in scent.

Obviously if you choose wrong it’s not going to negatively impact your holiday but the sweet feeling of scenting success can definitely add a pleasurable lustre to already fantastic adventures.

Holiday Perfume Packing

Japan & South Korea Oct 2016

So our destinations for this very special Jin & Portia 5 year anniversary jaunt are Tokyo 3 nights and South Korea for 5 nights (I think). We got an insanely good deal to fly with Korean Airlines that takes us to Japan via South Korea for less than it costs to go to South Korea directly. We decided to use the money we save on the fare to stay for a few nights in Tokyo where Jin has never been. AWESOME!

Wikipedia

Then we are off to South Korea to see Jin’s parents. His Dad has had some heart problems over the years so Jin likes to make sure everything is OK every year. Something that really impresses me about Jin is that he sends some money home to his parents every month, so does his brother from Slovakia where he works in the car manufacturing industry. It has completely changed their parents life from poor working class to comfortable land and home owners.

We are also going to steal Mum & Dad away for a night in a fancy hotel somewhere. Last year we took them to a 5 star spa hotel for the first time in their lives and there was a wildflower garden and bonsai place that Mum had long wanted to visit nearby. They would only let us take them for one night but it was really fun to spend that time with them. It got to the point though that we had to take menus and stuff away from them because they were getting upset by how much everything cost. Even though they have almost no English and I zero Korean we manage to communicate and Jin does double time as interpreter as well.

Anyway, on to fragrant choices. Here are my list:

Fragrantica

Ambre Narguilé by Hermès 15ml Travel: Warm & crunchy amber.

Fragrantica

Eau des Merveilles by Hermès Rollerball Decant: An easy wear, softly salted, resinous wood.

Fragrantica

Niki de Saint Phalle 10ml Travel: Comfortable floral green chypre.

Parfumo

O/E by Bogue Profumo Decant: Freaky citrus and skank drilled over woods, resins and tobacco.

Fragrantica

Salome by Papillon Artisan Perfumes Decant: Naughty animalic leather chypre.

Fragrantica

Trayee by Neela Vermeire Creations 8ml Travel: I feel that this spicy floral incense will fit the bill this holiday

Fragrantica

Vintage CHANEL No 22 EdT Decant: ALL the aldehydes and a bunch of creamy white flowers with a tropical lilt.

By the time you read this we are already in South Korea, probably getting ready to come home.

Are you going on holidays this year or next? Where to? What fragrances would you take?
Portia xxx

Home Made Kimchi: Jin’s Family Recipes

September 2, 2016 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 36 Comments

Post by Portia

Hey there crew,

As you know Jin is South Korean. One of the most important dishes in the South Korean cuisine is Kimchi. Since he moved to Australia he has been buying his Kimchi pre made in bulk. Recently though he decided he was homesick for his families recipe. So he rang his Mum & Dad and got the details and then our house smelled like a South Korean outdoor food market for an afternoon.

So this photo happened on my FaceBook. A couple of my mates asked for the recipe. OK, but every family in South Korean family has their own recipes, often handed down over centuries. Sometimes melding different families recipes through marriage. So today Jin is going to give you two of his families recipes. They are really simple to make and not very expensive either.

Here Jin has added both of today’s Home Made Kimch Recipes with roast pork and sliced garlic cloves, wrapped in a lettuce leaf and eaten in one mouthful.

Chinese Cabbage Kimchi

This is what most people think of when they think Kimchi, it’s the most readily available in the store pre-made.

1 Chinese cabbage
1 cup of Sea Salt
About 10 cups of Water
1 Onion (+/- up to you)
2 or 3 Shallot/Scallions (+/- up to you)

Cut Chinese cabbage into quarters, remove core and then cut about 5cm strips
Submerge in sea salt and cold water
Leave it for 2-3 hours until it gets soggy
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce (it needs time for chili power to get wet and swell)
Cut onion in 1cm strips and shallots 2-3cm
Wash Chinese Cabbage with fresh water 3 or 4 times until all the salt is washed off
Drain the water
Mix the sauce, cabbage and onion together
Add shallot and mix
Leave for a minimum of 1 hour before eating but overnight in the fridge is better (gets more sour the longer it’s left)
Done

Radish Kimchi

Now, this Kimchi is traditionally made to go ONLY with boiled pork on celebration days but Jin loves it so much he’s eating it with everything.

1 Large Daikon Radish
3 tbsp of Sea Salt
1/4 cup Sesame Seeds (+/- up to you)
1/4 cup Sesame Oil

Peel large Radish, cut into 1cm discs, then cut discs into 1cm straws (like McDonalds French Fries)
Apply sea salt and mix together
Leave it for 30min-1 hour until it gets soggy, you must be able to bend the Radish straw without it snapping.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce (it needs time for chili power to get wet and swell)
Wash Radish with fresh water 3 or 4 times until all the salt is washed off
Drain the water
Mix the sauce with Radish (by hand is easier)
Add Sesame Seeds & Sesame Oil
Leave for a minimum of 1 hour before eating but overnight in the fridge is better (gets more sour the longer it’s left)
Done

Kimchi Sauce

This sauce combines with the vegetables and starts a fermentation process. After a few days sitting in your fridge it make lots of lactobacillus with a sour taste. Very good for your digestive system health, much like yoghurt. It should last up to a year in the fridge, getting more sour as it ages. Originally Korean farmers would do this at harvest time so they could have vegetables through the winter, like Westerners pickle.

1 cup of chili powder
1/2 cup of fish sauce
2/3 cup of crushed garlic
3 tbs of sugar

Put all ingredients together in a bowl
Mix all the ingredients quickly
When fully combined it will look like a thick paste
Set aside till needed
It takes an hour or so for chili power get properly wet and swell
Mix into ready vegetables
Done

With love from our family to yours,
Jin & Portia xxx

CHANEL Paris to Seoul, Cruise 2015/16 CHANEL

July 10, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Hey Hey APJ,

You probably know that my partner Jin is from South Korea. It’s exciting for both of us when it becomes a destination for the world stage. Here is a particularly fun look at the CHANEL team taking their Cruise 2015/16 runway show on the road. Lovely sound bites from Gisele Bündchen and Kristen Stewart and at the end the incredible, eternal Karl Lagerfeld.

Enjoy this look behind the scenes,
Portia xx

Photo Stolen CHANEL

CHANEL Paris to Seoul, Cruise 2015/16 CHANEL

South Korea 2015 Photo Essay

May 8, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hi there Fragrant Friends,

On to the South Korea leg of our latest adventure. Jin planned this part of our holiday to the millisecond and we filled our days with so much it’s hard to keep it all in order.

South Korea 2015

Jin had decided that this time we would do the history and art/museum tour of Seoul. I had said through the year that we seemed to do everything except see the cultural heritage of South Korea and he was determined to remedy this lack. We had three days in Seoul and two of them were given almost exclusively to the acquisition of aforesaid knowledge. As always Jin was an excellent guide and translator, thank goodness because some of the places we saw were so South Korean oriented that there we no translations for me to follow. The real deal.

Because we were so busy I took the camera out less while we were in the middle of stuff. There are quite a few shots of interesting or unusual architecture and light bi-plays, some of flowers because it was spring and the flowers were gorgeous and a few of us hanging out with Jin’s family because we took his Mum & Dad for their first holiday in decades. It was Jin’s Father’s birthday and we thought it would be a fun thing to celebrate. Older Koreans as a rule do not take holidays so it was especially fun to take them and it will give them a story to brag about for years among their contemporaries.

Wood Block Printing of Unified Silla: The Buddhists came to Korea from India in the 5th century AD and landed in Silla in southern Korea which was still a selection of kingdoms. The Silla people had united the lower third of what is now South Korea under their rule. The Buddhist priests learned how to carve wood blocks that would print on cloth and paper and used this technology to create more Buddhist Sutras, currently the oldest still extant piece of printed material in the world was created by these monks in the 7th century AD and it is the Buddhist Sutras. There was war and 80,000 of these hand carved wood blocks were moved hundreds of kilometers by the monks and the faithful to a mountainous region in the middle of South Korea. It is a place that Jin’s Mum had wanted to visit for a very long time and had a very nice hotel with mineral water baths so we decided we would go there. It was Jin’s parent first time staying in a hotel rather than the much cheaper pension style of guest house. They were thrilled and constantly trying to stop us spending money on them, having breakfast in the hotel restaurant an outrageous extravagance. A good time was had by all.

We also went through a lovely Korean Wildflower Park, a Bonsai Exhibition where the woman who owns and tends the bonsai took us through personally and explained some of the more interesting pieces, the Mineral Baths at the hotel and loads of local cuisine (some of which I could not bring myself to eat, yes I’m a food pussy). Jin’s mother wants us to have children, I told her to get stuffed.

South Korea 2015 Photo Essay

Seoul Airport Train Station is a marvelous modern structure that lets light and space feel like its main focus. I love arriving and entering its cavernous platform, every hour has different reflections and shadows

Straight to Lottie Burger for Jin’s Bulgogi Burger and my Cheesy Sticks. MMMMMM. Welcome to South Korea.

Street Food BarBQ vendor, full of students and the working class we knew it would be delicious. So reasonably priced too, I think we paid $40 including Jin’s Soju and my soft drinks.

My only fragrant shopping on the holiday, an Hermes 15ml set: Ambre Narguile, Cuir d’Ange, Poivre Samarcande, Vetiver Tonka

One of the original gates into the capital city, this has stood for a very long time. Centuries.

Changing Of The Guard at the Palace complex.

All pieces by the same artist, Jung Takyoung, whose art reminds me of Liz Zorn’s work

Seoul Art History Museum, we saw about 30 of their most beautiful and famous National Treasures. Our original guide was so shit we ran away from him and took ourselves around some of the exhibits. Finally we met a small group being shown the National Treasures by a very well informed and interesting young woman, she was so passionate that we were completely swept up in her stories. Fabulous.

The lilacs were in bloom, what a beautiful scent they have.

Jin being posh at a chi-chi 33rd floor restaurant & bar, we arrived just before closing thinking it had another hour to go.

All part of another Palace Complex, that door was so fabulous I just had to get a pic.

At the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art there was so much amazing stuff but these are the only two pictures I took. It’s a shame because the works were really great. Currently they have a multi-room exhibition all based around gardens and how they are so many things to the people that are lucky enough in 2015 to have one. So many South Koreans live in high rise apartments that may never know the joys of having their own garden to tend.

This peony bush going gangbusters in the cold foggy early morning spring air across thew road from Jin’s parents house

The modern South Korean garden and a couple of the hundreds of bonsai created by one woman with a great passion, these two were ones she showed particular regard and pride for. She was so shy to show her plant children but became very enthusiastic once she understood that I too loved to garden and that I had been brought up in a garden, tending it and creating it, with my Mum.

We had a little snack on our first night in the hotel restaurant in the mountains. Jin’s Mummy & Papa kept being outraged at the prices and then savouring every morsel that we got for them. Those walls are all carved creamy stone (maybe marble?) attached so perfectly you could hardly see a join. So lovely.

South Korea 2015 #41

These three shots are of the monks mountain hideaway. It’s a wonderful parkland setting and you can take the whole day to walk from the base of the hill to the monastery, there are stations along the way where you can stop for refreshment and a rest, even some street food vendors. We were naughty and caught a cab up and back.

Mummy & Papa saying goodbye at the Busan Train station. It was an excellent holiday and I really enjoyed my time with them.

Jin and I on the plane and ready to come home.

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

April 13, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hey Y’All,

As you may know Jin is changing jobs so to celebrate this sudden rise in fortunes we are bringing our 2015 holiday forward from November to now, we leave on Wednesday. OH YES WE DO!

Photo Stolen TripAdvisor

First stop is one of my long time buddies places in Singapore, hey Julie! I have never done a holiday in Singapore before; though my last partner Varun & I spent 36 hours in the airport because he didn’t have a visa while we were on our way to India. You would think we had a bad time, we did not. It was crazy fun, that Changi Airport is enormous.

Photo Stolen TripAdvisor

Then we go on to South Korea to visit Jin’s family. Cherry blossom time will just be finishing but I think they will still be slightly in flower. It’s Jin’s Dad’s birthday so we are taking them for their first holiday in years, two days on the west coast of South Korea. They think this is a ridiculous extravagance but Jin is hiring a car and we’ll drive 3 hours each way, fully across South Korea, and spend one night at a pension (not even a hotel because that would be too much). They are adamant that this kind of frivolity should be avoided and that we should be putting our money to better use. Fingers crossed they have a good time, Jin has really been working hard on TripAdvisor to get it just right for them.

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

So spring will be WARM in Singapore and mild in South Korea. I need a small range of fragrances to get me by till I can hit the stores and buy Misia by CHANEL. It’s the only fragrance on my To Buy List right now and I know they’ll have it in both Singapore and Seoul. So I’m thinking 5 frags, 2 bottles and three decants. It’s only 12 days.

Travel Scent Choices: Bottles

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

L’Heure Convoiteé II Cartier: This arctic, powdery, furball of a carnation/iris is so fabulously elegant and lasts all day. I can spritz and go and know I’ll smell freaking killer until I shower. I also love that it has it’s own sturdy leather pouch which means I don’t have to worry about it in my checked luggage.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

La Chasse aux Papillons L`Artisan Parfumeur: 7.5ml Rollerball (not pictured). Nick from Libertine Parfumerie gave me this one to test because they are brand new in 2015 and I thought what better place to try it than on holiday. Space will be tight, I need something small and easily accessible and the bottle feels surprisingly hefty. I also find that rolling La Chasse aux Papillons makes it last longer on my skin.

Travel Scent Choices: Decants

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Misia CHANEL: Yes, my decant is almost drained already. Makeup and leather together so beautifully, a delightfully powdery and lightly soapy wash of pure elegance. I can’t tell you what a zing this gives me whenever I spritz, it’s not just its own scent but the memories of all the other scents that it reminds me of through its life and you know what? I love it so much that I’m going to wear it on the plane.

Photo Stolen BaseNotes

Manto di Rugiada i Profumi di Firenze: I keep forgetting to wear this lovely green, resinous amber. It’s light enough for spring and will smell gorgeous on the cooler evenings. Softly nuanced and beautifully blended I always enjoy my ride. There’s a couple of ml left in my decant, I might as well use them up.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

07 Vetiver Dance Tauer Perfumes: One of my mates Natalie from Another Perfume Blog (now defunct sadly) gave me a manufacturers sample of this one. I like vetiver very much and Vetiver dance has been sitting in my Must Try box for ages. I’m taking it with me so I can spend some time with one of the few Andy Tauer fragrances that I’ve not smelled.

What do you think of my choices? What would you pick if you had to take 5? It’s not forever, only a fortnight, so it’s not a really big decision. it is fun planning and choosing though.

Portia xx

Muschio by Santa Maria Novella + Korea Photo Essay

June 19, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments

Post by TinaG

Hi APJ!

We’ve recently returned from an amazing trip to South Korea – Portia, Jin, Kath, Matt and I travelled around for about two weeks having an absolute ball in a wonderful & welcoming country. Before we left, I had a few chats and did some research on what fragrances I may have access to that I wouldn’t normally get my hands on in Australia. One of the names which came up was Santa Maria Novella, which I happily discovered has a flagship store in Seoul.

“Officina Profumo – Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella” is one of the world’s oldest pharmacies. Originally established in Florence, Italy in 1221 by Dominican Friars, who created herbal potions and remedies for use in their monastery, the pharmacy was opened up to the public in 1612. The original Florence pharmacy still stands, with all of their products continuing to be hand made at their Florence factory site utilising old recipes and classic artisanal methods.

The South Korean store in Seoul is located near pretty Dosan Park in an upmarket shopping district within Gangnam-Gu. We were greeted and kindly looked after by the shop hostesses. I made a beeline for the colognes whilst Portia explored all of the other wonderful goodies on display.

From Fragrantica: Santa Maria Novella is one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. It was opened in Florence, Italy in 1612, taking the formulas of Dominican friars that originate from 13th century.

Their products are all the types of things you may expect to find in an apothecary: high quality and beautifully presented soaps, fragrances, herbal extracts and essences, side by side with more modern home items such as wax candles and dog & cat grooming collection. I could so easily have stayed there for hours on end, but I did manage to get my nose to a fair few bottles including the recently released Alba de Seoul which had a refreshing pine needle note, a nod to the cultural importance of the South Korean pine trees. I wished I could have taken more home, but I decided to treat myself to a full bottle of ….

Muschio by Santa Maria Novella

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Musk, powdery notes

Muschio is a really gorgeous comforting scent and has quickly become my go-to fragrance this winter. Although technically a cologne, Muschio isn’t one of those which can be splashed on liberally or needs refreshing every couple of hours – there is no need as it has very good longevity and silage. On opening there is a predominant puff of musk with slightly woody undertones, a touch of vanilla and a ghost of lemon hovering over the top. The musk is nothing animalic but it light and airy. The dry white wood in the background keeps it from being overly candy-shop sweet, giving it a lovely powdery feel. It doesn’t change appreciably in dry down, although the musk softens and the woods become more prominent. I also get a cinnamon-stick note, spicy wood without the peppery kick, adding to the warmth.

The visit to Santa Maria Novella was a fragrant highlight of a fantastic holiday. I’m so glad I purchased Muschio, it holds a dozen happy memories for me along with the continued enjoyment of a really fabulous cologne.

Do you have a fragrant holy-grail location that you’ve managed to visit, or wish to? Here are some pics of mine.

TinaG

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

June 6, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 35 Comments

Hey Crew,

I hope you are all happy and well. So we are back from our Korean adventure and it was hectic! I have had to spend the return week recovering from the amount of stuff we packed into 17 days. There is no way I could show you the whole trip and all that happened because it was just too full on.

So here is a mini view of some of our highlights, obviously I couldn’t include every meal but some of my favourite stand outs were Korean Bar B Q beef (bought for us in a very chi-chi restaurant in Yangsan) and pork (in a tiny street food restaurant in Gangnam near the Zaha Hadid designed arts centre). We also fell in love with the Lotte Burgers and Paris Baguette. The rest of the crew had loads of extra fresh seafood and pronounced it wonderful and I even ate some of the fish we caught on our fishing trip.

As we were with a local, Jin my partner was born and raised in Korea, we had the inside skinny on what was good and crap so we went to a couple of important temples, Jeju Island which is the honeymoon destination of Koreans where newlyweds wear couples outfits (super cute). We were also lucky enough to go to the JSA (Join Security Area) in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North & South Korea which was both incredible and frightening because we went into the border house where talks happen and crossed over into North Korea, we were supposed to be there for 15-20 minutes for photos etc but the armed guards who were escorting us got new information and we were ushered out after only about 2 minutes, the guards and our guide becoming very nervous and agitated. Jin could only catch some of the conversations but there was a drama and we needed to be out PRONTO. It was all quite disturbing but so amazing to have been there. If you are in Seoul; there is a small tourist market for trips there, ask your Concierge.

We also did a bunch of shopping. South Korea has an amazing array of excellent makeup and fragrance chains of their own (Etude House, Skinfood and Japan’s Shu Uemura) and every time I shopped they gave me some testers of their other products, which brings us to

Photo Stolen manoneileen

Korea 2014 GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen Ebay

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

This week we will have 2 winners who will each get:
1 x Etude House Fresh Cherry Lip Tint
1 x mixed bag of 6 Etude House, Skinfood & Shu Uemura samples
1 x pair faux LV socks
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 to be eligible. I must be able to check that you follow so if you have an email address on your gravatar that’s different to your follow address then please email me so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You must tell me how you follow APJ

and

Please tell me a memory that involves a travel fragrance experience or a beauty product someone brought back from overseas for you.

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie Korea 2014 Beauty Product GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2PW #Beauty #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday 8th June 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org
The winners will have till Thursday 12th June 2014 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.

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

All photos donated by Kath, Matt and Portia.

I hope you enjoyed this little look into our trip. Sadly I was so busy seeing and doing that I didn’t capture enough vistas or places of interest. Also you’ll notice that there is often someone at the table using their iPhone, this is ONLY allowed after mains are finished and the time I would remember to take a snap.
Portia xx

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

South Korea

Scent Diary: 3.6 – 9.6.2019

HOLIDAYS!! South Korea 2016: Photo Essay

HOLIDAYS!! South Korea 2016: Photo Essay

Holiday Perfume Packing Oct 2016

Holiday Perfume Packing

Japan & South Korea Oct 2016

Home Made Kimchi: Jin’s Family Recipes

Chinese Cabbage Kimchi

Radish Kimchi

Kimchi Sauce

CHANEL Paris to Seoul, Cruise 2015/16 CHANEL

CHANEL Paris to Seoul, Cruise 2015/16 CHANEL

South Korea 2015 Photo Essay

South Korea 2015

South Korea 2015 Photo Essay

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

Travel Scent Choices: Singapore + South Korea Spring 2015

Travel Scent Choices: Bottles

Travel Scent Choices: Decants

Muschio by Santa Maria Novella + Korea Photo Essay

Muschio by Santa Maria Novella

Korea 2014: Photo Essay

Korea 2014 GIVEAWAY

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

HOW DO YOU WIN?

HOUSEKEEPING

Korea 2014: Photo Essay