style

Clever Graffiti Artists, Spicebomb by Viktor N Rolf, Timebomb by Kylie Minogue

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey Stink Junkies,

I know this is a perfume blog but sometimes I get sent stuff that I want to share. Unfortunately the email had no photo credits but my mate Wendy sent it to me if that helps. These are just my favourite of an enormous collection of crazy graffiti done by super clever creatives.

SPICEBOMB by VIKTOR & ROLF 2012. It is amazing to me that Spicebomb only came out January this year. There has been so much talk about it that it seems like it’s been around longer. I don’t feel quite so remiss in coming to it this late then, especially because it was generally dismissed rather than applauded. I did find 2 positive reviews below. Opening with citrus, red berries and the sharp, resinous, pine/lemon scent of elemi you could be forgiven for expecting Spicebomb to travel towards generic barbershop but NO WAY! The spicy, sizzling, warmth really ramps up as the paprika and cinnamon move in (I can’t smell the saffron) and then tobacco and leather, which have been sitting there unnoticed, take more of a lead role. Funnily, I really start to smell the pink pepper distinctly over the top of the second and third stages before real dry down begins rather than during the opening sequence, where it is peripheral. The amalgam of these featured scents is fun, spicy and punchy.

Photo Stolen winterfashions

I like the feeling of wearing a fragrance and I like to be fragrant, without skunking those at the next table. It’s awesome that Viktor & Rolf have offered such a sweet and spicy fragrance to the men, even though it’s perfectly unisex and would smell dynamite on a woman. The advertisement (below) features a sexy, buff man chewing on a matchstick, (above) about to pull the pin on a grenade; model Sean O’Pry photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.. He’s hot and so is Spicebomb. This is a General Public winner, I reckon.
NowSmellThis and 1000Fragrances do excellent reviews from different viewpoints and Fragrantica has notes, accords and GP reviews.

TIMEBOMB by KYLIE MINOGUE 2012. At the very start of my drag career I was lucky enough to be one of the cast of The Kylie Show at the Albury Hotel on Oxford St in Sydney, Australia with Miss 3D and Bernina Bod. We put the soundtrack, costumes and choreography together in a week. The year was 1990 and I’d only been doing professional Drag work for about a year. For some reason this show became the focus of a phenomenon, it ran for over a year, was written up in national papers, talked about on TV and radio and the venue was so crazy crowded that people were standing on tables, sweat ran down the mirrors and people fainted from the crush. It was the “only” thing to do on a Sunday night and many real stars came to see us do our thing if they were in town, and every week the rumour would be that Kylie was coming in person (she didn’t). Over the next 4 years we put together 2 more Kylie Shows with dancers and bigger costumes but it was never the same. Funny thing is, in this Timebomb video, Kylie doesn’t look a day older. Time Machine would be a good name too, she must have one.

I’ve tortured you all enough,
Thanks for dropping by.
What did you think of Spicebomb?
Hopefully see you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Towards 10,000 IVs, Cartier Film

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Hiya Everyone,

We made our 6,000th individual view (IVs) over the weekend! For anyone who’s run a blog for a long time that doesn’t seem like a lot but we only started in mid March 2012. Individual views (IVs) is the amount of separate people who’ve viewed the site, each day you can make a new entry. If you come to the site and look at 10 pages you count as 10 in page views, only 1 in individual views. So you can imagine there were a few rowdy Woo Hoo’s when we noticed it had clicked over.

Click here for more graphics and gifs!Click here for more graphics and gifs!Click here for more graphics and gifs!Click here for more graphics and gifs!

GIF Stolen from picgifs

This got me to thinking, can we make it to 10,000 individual views (IVs) by the end of June? On stats it should be doable; March we did around 700, April just over 2000, May we’ll fly over the 3,000 mark. So then the CHALLENGE for June is to do 4,000 individual views (IVs). If we hit 10,000 IVs all up in June I think there should be a SUPER DOOPER GIVEAWAY.

Photo Stolen dancingastronaut

How can you help to make this happen? Easy Peasy!
TWITTER = Portia@OzPerfumeJunkie
FACEBOOK = Portia Turbo
Every time there’s a new post that you find interesting, reTweet or share on Facebook with all your buddies. Hopefully some of them will have a look, like what they see and continue the process.

Here’s what we at AustralianPerfumeJunkies will give away if we make 10,000 IVs in June.

Brand New Box In Plastic Wrap L’Homme Sport 50ml EdT by Lanvin
5ml spray decant Smell Bent Tibet Ur bottom $ EdT (Discontinued)
5ml spray decant Rochas Byzance EdT (Discontinued)
5ml spray decant CHANEL No 5 Eau Premier EdT

WOW! 4 lucky winners will win one of these great prizes each with postage anywhere in the world.

If you are a regular scentbloggosphere reader you will have seen this lovely Cartier mini movie before. Every time I am about to post it someone else I read puts it up, last time it was Birgit at Olfactoria’s Travels (AT) and this time Nathan Branch at Good Taste Is A Trillion Dollar Industry (NZ) but I’m going ahead today because it’s so incredibly and ridiculously lovely. Please enjoy.

I hope you loved it and on a completely different track I re-found this wonderful quote on the weekend and thought it would be fun to share it.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months, Oscar Wilde

Thanks for tuning in again, we are grateful that you do. Don’t forget to help us reach

Photo Stolen brisseaux

Wishing you only the good stuff,

Portia xx

Madonna: Truth or Dare

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hi Fellow Fumies,

Madonna. Released her first single “Everybody” in 1982. It became a dancefloor hit in the underground clubs of the USA and, soon after, the world but it wasn’t until “Burning Up” was released that we in the Australian club scene heard of her. I remember seeing the video of Madonna writhing around on street asphalt looking like Marilyn Monroe and wearing loads of plastic bracelets. We instantly, guys and girls, adopted this look and a million shades of it and took our 15 year old selves out to the streets and clubs of Oxford St in Sydney. It was the era of acid trips, no doze and spumanti, disco was dying and Madonna seemed to step up to the mark and take its place effortlessly. After the sexy slow groove of the 70’s we wanted faster, more confrontational, heart racing music formulas and video hits. Here it was; and with her wicked, so slutty, don’t give a toss, finger up at the establishment, messed about attitude we were hooked.

Photo Stolen wikipedia

We were her slaves, even personally being part of 2 Madonna tribute shows. The peak of my Madonna madness came while she was doing the Girly Tour. It was her brother Christopher’s birthday and a group of us were asked to perform at the party. It is surreal standing next to your idol and singing Happy Birthday with her, to her brother on a stairwell overlooking a room full of Sydney’s most beautiful movers and shakers. Christopher and I picked the chocolate dipped strawberries off the cake and threw then to the heaving throng. I was extremely let down by Madonna at that party, she was tired and clearly just wanted to get the hell away from the madness but stayed, maybe for Christopher, and looked bored out of her brain. This was after a MONSTER world tour so she had earned tired.

Photo Stolen frenchculturesf

Madonna has been not stop in your face to the point where I can’t remember a time without her musically. Having also been there for every movie, yes even the ones we fans would prefer to forget about, we were thrilled when she nailed Evita so well. Trailing along in the wake of her oft times disastrous personal life through the lenses of the paparazzi Madonna has become so entrenched in our psyches that it’s often like we know her better than we know the people in our street, making it easy and painless to gossip about her, which brings her more into our world. Everybody has a Madonna moment to share, be it a disastrous date movie, early bedroom hairbrush singing, rollerblade track, wedding waltz or a zillion others, just bring her name up at a dinner party, everybody has a story.

Now I’m the first to admit that lately there has been a whiff of desperation about our Madge; the need to stay current, creative and controversial starts to look like a hard slog when you’ve been doing it for over 30 years. Every time she has brought out a new album in the last few years I have felt a little more embarrassed for her. Staying young forever is clearly thinning her out, in all ways.

Photo Stolen rollingstone

So, about 20 years after I would have expected it, Madonna has finally made her first foray into the world of fragrance. She has chosen the house of Coty as her scent mother, which strikes me as both extremely clever; for their enormous marketing and distribution powers, their long running work with many big celebrities; Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Celine Dion, and our very own Kylie Minogue are just some of the Coty celebs, but also in all honesty on the flip side I would have hoped Madonna might have gone and found a more niche brand perfumer and really rocked our socks off. I suppose the lure of making big profits ran roughshod over the siren call of making the best. As yet Madonna’s fragrance Truth or Dare has not made it to our shores but by a lovely stroke of luck my friend Jay was over visiting in the USA teaching shoe design and cobblery last week and he just happened to drop by Macy’s, where there just happened to be a friendly sales assistant who just happened to let him have the free gift with purchase tote AND clutch, as long as he bought the BIG bottle. So Jay dutifully bought me 75mls of Truth or Dare and I am so grateful.

Photo Stolen allaboutmadonna

Design wise I love the gold and white box with its embossing. It looks cool and, for want of a better word, classy. As a side note an Australian artist RJ Williams (his work has hung in the Art Gallery of NSW and Museum of Contemporary Art) is currently suing Madonna for her use of his copyrighted symbol. Upon opening the first thing you notice about the bottle is its unusual hexagonal shape with the look of beading around the perimeter. It is stark and neat, comfortable in your hand, the little gold tone crown on top like the head of a scepter or a scaled back Westwood-esque world. The whole bottle has heft and could even be a nod to Deco. I really like it, while being a much calmer piece that I ever would have expected Madonna to put her name to it does fit.

Photo Stolen style.mtv

So history and design aside, the most important thing in a perfume, in my eyes anyway, is the juice. Madonna asked perfumer Stephen Nilsen who is the nose behind Vera Wang’s 2011 Lovestruck, SJP’s 2009 Dawn, and Bond No 9’s 2008 Andy Warhol Union Square for a white floral tuberose fragrance reminiscent of Robert Piguet’s 1948 Fracas that her mother wore. Having lost her mother while she was very young Madonna wanted to bring her memory back in olfactory terms while still giving her a massive update and facelift.

How does it smell? Buttery tuberose, creamy gardenia and neroli open in a big fat mouth watering HELOOOOO! I can hear my arteries clanging shut and wouldn’t be surprised if this fragrance could cause blood pressure problems it is so full of delicious fatty flavour. OMG! Madonna has blown my nostrils

As the initial blast calms down to a dull roar there is a peeking in of the lovely benzoin, which gives us a sweet and balsamic, slightly milky vanilla, and I love it when the Casablanca lily starts to hum in the background. I’m sure it’s there but I am not getting any jasmine in the heart, I’ll wait a while, maybe it’s a late starter. The tuberose, vanilla and gardenia pump gloriously through the heart of this perfume backed up by Casablanca, amber and, I think, musk with little softening of the after initial rush scent so far at 5 hours. I am thrilled that Madonna has done such a good job here. Sweet but not sickly, vanilla but not foodie, white flowers done with distinction.

Good for perfumistas, Madonna fans and the general public. A winner.

Photo Stolen fabsugar

I hope you have enjoyed this lengthy look at Madonna’s Truth or Dare,

Much love,

Portia xx

CHANEL, Cuir de Russie Review

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

Hello Gang,

Photo Stolen from londonprettyboy

I have a friend who is generous beyond belief. She is also one of the scentbloggers I read religiously because we see such different things in the fragrance, and because clever is an understatement. Undina from Undina’s Looking Glass is also a great community person, ie reads a lot of blogs, writes thoughtful and thought provoking comments often, helps out and does it all with a cyber smile.

I received a fair satchel of lovelies recently from her in the mail and inside was a fragrance I’ve long read about, desperately wanted (yes I’m the guy who has been bidding against you all but only to a certain amount, which is why you all win) but have not tried yet. Till today.

CHANEL Cuir de Russie (CdR)

Photo Stolen from Fragrantica

When I sprayed myself today with Chanel’s Cuir de Russie I was expecting a bear, to be picked up, shaken, savaged and left for dead in a steaming, spreading puddle of fear related incontinence. There has been so much written about this extreme, hard to love, hard to get fragrance that I was slightly nervous, just in case I was overwhelmed.

This is the Les Exclusives modern range not the mid 1920’s Ernest Beaux original. Ernest Beaux was the perfumer behind Chanel No 5 also a few years before.

Picture Stolen from finearts1

Honestly, 15 minutes after I sprayed I had to come back and check the decant spray to make sure I hadn’t misread. This is one of the softest and most elegantly refined perfumes I’ve ever tried on myself. On me it is powdery iris and lovingly cared for driving gloves from last season, maybe even a little blonde mink-ish, it’s soft too, a whisper of rich beyond our wildest imaginings. It seems like Hollywood, but not the actresses; the lovely parts they played in those magnificent sets and gowns. Pretending to be the rich, elite, decorous daughters and wives of the extreme upper classes, instead of the children of migrant/itinerant/working class people that most of them were. This scent is all sensual evenings with a fire, a delicate waft perhaps in restaurants, theatre or cinema. On reflection, this is a great treat-yourself-to-the-best office fragrance, not a sillage monster or powerhouse fragrance. Only the people that you want close enough to you to reap the reward will be any the wiser that you smell terrific. This is the fragrance you do checklists with catering staff, book holidays, shop at Paspaley or seduce your next husband while wearing.

Photo Stolen from abeilles10

BOTOBlog (Beauty On The Outside) has a fabulously fun CdR conversion story. NSTPerfume (Now Smell This) does a wonderful job giving you history, notes and story. Fragrantica also has some great information.

Thanks for dropping in, I hope all is lovely where you are.
If it’s not, it gets better,

And Undina, Thank You.
Portia xx

MONDAY!!!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 2 Comments

Hi Everyone,
I know you are expecting an Evie C adventure but sometimes life gets in the way. Evie C is going to take a short think tank break and will be back on board soon. I have the list of interview questions and will get my interview hat on soon but right now it seems a little overwhelming so instead I will dedicate the next couple of Mondays to off topic stuff. Maybe a blog I’ve read that has inspired, interested or instructed. A piece of music, fashion, art or video that caught my attention. Something worthy, in my eyes.

Click here for more graphics and gifs!
GIF Stolen from picgifs

So I love this video piece, it has a bunch of great music, images, ads all mashed together. Some of the music and visual editing is kinda bumpy but to me that ads a home made nerd-at-desk appeal. Having spent an amazing mindless evening with one of my already legendary heroes, the inimitable Grace Jones, back in 1995 at Heaven, London I love the mini showcase of her surrealist imagery that so many people born after 1985 will have completely missed, it happens later in the video. There are also some really camp retro references that you’ll either remember or be astounded by.

Please enjoy my first sideways Monday offering.

Portia xox

Yves Saint Laurent Revolution Movie, WINNER ANNOUNCED

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a super great weekend. Today a group of us went for Pedicures and Yum Cha. I am currently sporting Lime Green toenails and a HUGE belly, so full it hurts.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!

To be in this weeks Competition Giveaway you had to leave a short comment on your favourite gamekeeper, in life, film, novel or story, or if that was too hard just a Hello in the comments. We had a great bunch of stories, gamekeeper and otherwise.


Photo stolen from WildBunchAdventures.com

Here are the 6 great prizes

1.5ml spray decant of Annick Goutal’s Passion
3ml spray decant of Fracas for Men by Robert Piguet
1.5ml spray decant of Eau Mega by Viktor & Rolf
1.5ml spray decant of Bud Parfums Gamekeeper
by Kilian Water Calligraphy manufacturers sample (remains)
Aedes de Venustas EdP manufacturers sample (remains)

Plus P&H anywhere in the world.

AND THE


Photo Stolen from sistersavealot.com

is StMurphy, who is the gamekeeper: you must get in touch by Wednesday 23.5.12 or I’ll give your prize to someone else.

YVES SAINT LAURENT REVOLUTION

As my nose is still out of action this movie has nothing to do with Perfume or Fragrance. It is the Yves Saint Laurent Revolution lipstick ad. 1000 types of fabulous, like a Burton cartoon, maybe it is. Probably not. So the Making Of comes first and then the movie proper.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did,

Portia xx

Denyse Beaulieu: The Perfume Lover

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hi Snifffters,

I have recently finished Denyse Beaulieu’s book “The Perfume Lover”. Denyse has been a long time blogger on Grain de Musc and a perfume afficianado, teaching “Understanding Fragrance” courses in London, living and working in Paris. She is a bit of a hero and writes many of her blog posts in English and French.

Unfortunately I am a bit under the weather today and my nose has gone on strike for smelling because it’s already full.

So instead of talking about perfume, I thought perhaps that I would tell you a tiny smidge about Denyse’s book. I found it a delightful and entrancing page turner, teaching me a lot of history, some of the perfume making process, and a whole bunch of side related trivia that you have to be on the inside track to know. Like a perfumed version of a rag trade novel. Behind this font of knowledge though is the story of how a perfume came to be from a vivid recollection of youthful dalliance Denyse had enjoyed in Spain, some of her loves through time and the scented thread holding all together.

Many of you don’t read novels, I know. This is such an easy read that few of you will find it in any way challenging. You may learn some new vocabulary though, which will stand you in much better stead next time you are faced with a pushy salesgirl or the incredible gamut of fragrances available currently. It will also give you some hints of great perfumers and the companies they have created for, who to look out for and what they put into the juice. All knowledge is power, right. For you ladies your buys will look more savvy and for the gentlemen the same holds true. Imagine being able to surprise a loved one with something they’ll cherish or brag about your own splendid choice of fragrance.

Buy The Perfume Lover (after the jump) from Book Depository in hardcover for around $21 delivered to your door. It is also a sensational gift. I was going to write this about a fortnight before Mother’s Day because it is a perfect book for gifting. Beautifully bound, writing not too small, light and entertaining while still informative.

It has inspired me to go and find a couple of the mentioned perfumes too.
Is there a book I need to read about perfume that you adore, please leave it’s title and author in the comments.
Much reading pleasure to you,

Portia xxx

Bedtime Perfume; Chanel No 5 Review

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 27 Comments

Hey gang,

“To sleep, perchance to Dream; Ay, there’s the rub, For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,” Hamlet; Shakespeare

Does anyone else wear a different perfume to bed? It’s a ritual with me. I like to put on a favourite to send me off to sleep, quite often it’s a perfume that doesn’t get much daytime or work wear, for any number of reasons. To loud, too floral, too celebuscent, too often ignored. Sometimes you just pass fragrances over for a while because other things have caught your attention or you are testing, on you or a room of Turbo Trivia players. When your scent wardrobe starts to become a scent library you need to find new times to wear perfume so they all get smelled. I know, these are the most shallow of first world problems but I like it.


Photo Stolen from bootsandcateyes

The other night I decided to put on some Chanel No 5 EdP before I went to bed. No 5 is an old memory scent for me, of my Mum. She left me a black bakelite and gold large refillable spray when she died that must have been almost full because it lasted for ages. At the time though she’d not thought to tell me they were refillable so it has been lost to eternity. Through my mind ran the most wonderful memories of my Mum, always smiling and glamorous when wearing No 5 because it was one of her grown up “going out” scents, a swirl of skirt, swish of hair and a wall of perfume. It was the 80’s and 90’s so she was unafraid to multispritz. Nowadays she would be frowned upon probably as an olfactory pollutionist and not allowed into restaurants, cinemas, workspaces or buses. Back then you were supposed to have a scent that entered the room before you and left weeks later, and all the curtains in every venue felt as if they’d been dry cleaned nightly.


Photo Stolen from bookdepository

Evie C wrote us some great No 5 stories recently and I find it hard to believe that any of you wouldn’t know what Chanel No 5 smells like because it was as ubiquitous as Shalimar, Georgio, Joy et al but I think the world has moved on in some respects, so…

Chanel No 5 is a big, fat, delicious, glamorous, gorgeous, mouth watering, head turning, man pulling siren of a fragrance designed by one of last centuries style icons, Gabrielle Coco Chanel in 1921 with Ernest Beaux, to grab you by the nose and take you to places you never thought you’d be. It was released 5/5/21 because 5 was Coco’s lucky number, and so last week it celebrated its 91st birthday. They say it was a stolen formula from the Russians who were fleeing the collapse of their empire. They say a million things. If you want a history The secret of Chanel No 5 by Tilar J. Mazzeo is a rollicking great read and could even be the true story. You may have heard Marilyn Monroe’s scandalous quote about wearing only Chanel No 5 to bed. What matters is the scent; reformulated many times over the years, even the great Luca Turin is amazed at how true to its ancestors it smells. I have a few different bottles of Chanel No 5. A fairly recent EdP, an 80’s EdT and a 1940’s US made, wartime .5oz Parfum, still wax sealed and waiting for an enormous opening ceremony. I think maybe a perfumista dinner party where we can all sniff, snort and snuffle unashamedly.

Fragrantica gives…

Top notes; neroli, ylang-ylang, bergamot, amalfi lemon and aldehydes;

Middle notes; iris, jasmine, orris root, rose and lily-of-the-valley;

Base notes; vetiver, musk, sandalwood, patchouli, oak moss, amber, vanille and civetta.

…but you can’t read this litany and think you know what it will smell like. That’s like looking at a Claude Monet painting of Giverny and thinking you know what spring is like, though you’ve never left your home.


Monet’s Spring at Giverny (1886) from thecultureconcept.com

The wonderful thing about Chanel No 5 is that you need only go to your nearest department store and try it. It costs nothing to go and spray yourself silly with it. But beware, Chanel No 5 is magic, even still. There is a little drop of white witch in every bottle. You will become a walking siren should you dare to cross the threshold. Go on.

I dare you

The ad below was recently on Olfacroria’s Travels and it thrilled me. I’d not seen it before and it felt so gorgeously expensive, even for a fragrance commercial which are notoriously spendthrift. Now whenever I put Chanel No 5 on I feel transported to this imaginary story as well. It is a hard working fragrance that takes me to a million places.

What do you wear to bed? Is there a special fragrance or are there many?

Portia xx

DIOR: Shanghai Spring/Summer 2012 highlights

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 3 Comments

Hey Fellow Fumeheads,

Having adored it all my life I studied Fashion in the 1980’s and there is a thrill still left for me in the words Yves Saint Laurent, Vivenne Westwood, Hermes, Donna Karan, Gucci, Thierry Mugler, Louis Vuitton, Gianni Versace and of course Christian Dior. There are many more names that could have been in this list but these names are the ones that have stuck in my head and which I associate with the longing I felt for high fashion while having neither the budget, body or where with all to be it. There was a spate of label purchasing through my 20’s and 30’s of usually off beat, unwanted, ready-to-wear pieces that had found their way to the discount stores in Europe and the USA, some house store sale shopping and the very rare in-season piece that I couldn’t live without. What I did do through these years though was buy ties, shoes, belts and fragrance from the big guys, giving me a taste of my dreams without losing the shirt off my back.


Photo Stolen from gatshfros.blogspot.com

For the rest I have stolen runway ideas and thrown them into my costumes; a collar, cuff, colour or treatment that moved me each season. Not to be up to date but because I was inspired by the bevy of amazing things done. Most of it was grown out of and handed down to the next generation and sometimes I see a newbie in bits and pieces of something I made 20 years ago.


Photo Stolen from internationalposter.com

My favourite designer purchase I ever wore was a gold/orange and dark coffee Thierry Mugler footed catsuit with the Thierry Mugler TM as the LV in open mockery of Louis Vuitton luggage. It was funny and silly and I wore it a lot. Its first ever wear was at the Cannes Film Festival to be interviewed by Ruby Wax while we were there promoting Priscilla: Queen of the Desert in 1994, or 1995? Cool huh?


Photo Stolen from egodesign.ca

Why have I included this long and seemingly pointless preamble? I came across this awesome video of the Shanghai DIOR show from March and realised that I am completely without a fragrance from Christian Dior in my Wardrobe. I love Diorissimo, Dune, J’Adore, Poison, Eau Savage, Fahrenheit and Dior Homme but have not purchased any of them for years, maybe because it’s so easy to go to a counter and get a squirt when the mood takes me, maybe not. It seems a glaring omission and I think I’ll have to rectify it during the week.

No reviews or anything today. Sorry. It’s Sunday and sunny and I want to be out among it. Wearing Soivohle; Rosa Sur Reuse and am quite liking it though. Maybe I’ll review it for you someday.
Have a super lovely day,
Portia xx

Please enjoy this short and sweet look at Shanghai DIOR Spring/Summer 2012.

Parfum d’Empire, Fragrance Reviews

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 7 Comments

Hi Stinkophiles,

Today we are looking at 4 of the Parfum d’Empire range of fragrances. I’m glad I’ve had a couple of days to do this because they have been so delicious, interesting and fun to wear, not to mention totally enjoyable to look up on different sites all the reviews, chatter, science and mystery surrounding them. Considering how little we know about the perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato there is a wealth of information about his fragrances, which has made my job easier and harder in equal measure. What to put in, what to leave out, what is true, fantasy, science, madness or necessary to give a complete picture? The samples were bought from the Parfum d’Empire website, all of them were purchased late 2011 and I had tried only a couple and from that have 2 unopened bottles awaiting a suitable opening ceremony.  I hope you enjoy this short journey through about a third of the range. This is not a favourite list it is merely a random snapshot of the magicians art of fragrance in one house. I will give you my first impressions in words then work through the fragrance as my often wonky nose takes me through each perfume. Come.

Eau de Gloire EdT

The first fragrance that Parfum d’Empire brought to the world in 2005, modeled on Marc-Antoine Corticchiato’s scent memory of his boyhood home Corsica, literally translated as Water of Glory and dedicated as an homage to all those who’ve left their homelands to go into the world and conquer. Especially to his own home island boy Napoleon Bonaparte.


Photo Stolen from telegraph.co.uk

Bracing, Citrus, Salt, Squeaky, Floral, Masculine

WOW! This opens with a powerhouse icy cold screech of bergamot, citrus twig and broken branch and briny sea air then the herbs and flowers come and take the edge off. As the rosemary, lavender and star anise waltz in they warm the scent slightly but still it stays cool and laid back. I don’t believe in fragrances for the sexes but I keep imagining Eau de Gloire on a very masculine man though I would love to see how it smells on a woman. There is a squeaky dissonance here, the trilling of the citrus which lasts well into the heart of the fragrance and the rumbling of the incense, anise, oakmoss and tobacco. Unfortunately my nose misses the tea and leather in the composition completely, maybe you will have more luck. At about 3-4 hours I get more soft and flowery notes over the various resins, this fragrance grows more interesting and textured as it matures. At 7 hours it is soft as butterfly kisses and almost as ephemeral.

Fragrantica gives you the low down but Olfactoria’s Travels really does this lovely fragrance justice.

Osmanthus Interdite EdP

The French missionary and plant hunter, Jean Marie Delavay in the mid 19th century “discovered” Osmanthus (O. fragrans), a native of the GuiLin area of China (GuiLin means “Forest of Osmanthus” in Chinese). Osmanthus is a fast growing “bushy” tree that can grow 20 feet tall and 8 feet wide with glossy leaves and clusters of small, highly fragrant, yellow tubular flowers. Traditionally a symbol of love and romance and one of the 10 famous flowers in China and Taiwan.

Photo Stolen from trax2

Green, Crisp, Fresh, Light, Cold tea, High florals.

Osmanthus Interdite, which means Forbidden Osmanthus, is like arriving late for the presentation of tea during the cooler days of  jasmine and rose blooming. Honestly, I don’t smell jasmine and rose as I know them in life, this is an aloof, cool and soft scent on my skin, not a clean scent but reminiscent of cleanliness. Discernible and noticeable without a fanfare or scream, this is no bombastic floral. It is an old perfumed leather pair of driving gloves kept in perfect condition but worn, used and loved. The leather notes are far gone but you still can almost smell them, do I make sense? Almost as if they have become soaked with the wearers tea scented perfume and bodily fragrance over time, on top of a soft floral fragrance impregnated into the leather pre-purchase. They work side by side to create an intriguing unisex dichotomy through the heart. At the 8 hour point and there is still a whiff of something lovelier than me, faint and clean.

Here is Fragrantica and Abigail at I Smell Therefore I Am gives a 5 star rating to this luscious juice. WOW!

Wazamba EdP

Wassamba or Wassahoumba is a percussion instrument or disc rattle played rhythmically in loud, penetrating pulses by dancers during ceremonies in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Made of gourd and white wood the Wassamba usually weights about half a kilo.


Photo Stolen from ancestralmemory.com

Char, Sparkle/fizz , Olive green, Incense, Bark, Intense

Once the initial screaming, burning rush of Wazamba cools it becomes another perfume, churchy and sepulchral. It reminds me of years spent in Roman Catholic churches and the theatre and drama of religion. I think it’s interesting that many ceremonies of religious and tribal spiritual cleansing over the world smell similar. Having never been to West Africa personally, a neighbour once bought back a good luck talisman in the form of a fragrant pillow of woven grasses with smokey herbs, spices and incense inside, this has almost the same smell. What a powerhouse of memory and reflection Wazamba has been for me. A fragrance that wanders through a thousand shades of itself, more a journey than a scent. You must try this. Wazamba gave its all for about 5 hours and then became a skin scent, discernible to my partner as something other but lost to me.

Fragrantica for the notes and accords, but you must take time to read the Perfume Shrine‘s review, it covers everything and more, that I wish I could have said. Snaps!

Cuir Ottoman EdP


Photo Stolen from settemuse.it

Heat, Medicine, Booze, Fire, Hot new patent leather, Rubber, Road tar

OMG!! This opens like a Banshee wailing on my skin. It’s infernal and smells like I imagine being in Paul Chenavard’s (1807-1895), Inferno di Dante would smell like if they were burning tyres and a road in the background while drinking Kentucky bourbon in a hospital. I can’t believe I am smelling these things and wish I had a fragrant Godmother here so I could talk it through. WOW! Awesome MC AWESOME! After about 15 minutes Cuir Ottoman starts to breathe a bit, there’s air between the notes and I have a moment to think, leather, sweet leather and the flowers have arrived. There is a softening and prettying of the abrasive opening, we are covered in luscious leather and blossom and root. By the one hour mark we have arrived at the seraglio, beautiful full lipped sweating women, incense, hookah, floral unguents, leather and horses. There is still a beautiful ride and drydown to dark vanilla and spice but that is hours and hours away.


Photo Stolen from believerwoman

The Scented Hound has done a lovely review of Iskander by Parfum d’Empire today also, go check him out,

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed our mini trek through the Parfum d’Empire range. I think I’ll do another set of four next month for you all,

Happy, fragrant and loving hopes for your day,
Portia xx