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Rose de Grasse by Aerin Lauder 2015

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Heya All,

I grabbed this in the Surrender To Chance 5ml Fabulous Fragrance Fridays and I think they were trying to empty the bottle because I can’t find it on the site at all now. BUM!

Rose de Grasse by Aerin Lauder 2015

Rose de Grasse Aerin Lauder FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Watery accord
Heart: Rose Centifolia, Bulgarian rose otto, Rose absolute
Base: Violet wood, Ambrox, Musk

These Aerin bottles look super luxe in the pictures, have any of you held them? Do they measure up in life? It looks like cool white porcelain.

Dewy rose buds at dawn, cool and just beginning to open, high up in the Himalayas because the air is brittle and thin. The rose is lightly fizzy and sweet but not jammy, far too crisp for that. There’s something green and leafy too like crushing aphids against the stem to attract more lady bugs who feed on them, crush a few and the lady bugs will do the rest. I am severely underwhelmed by the projection but think Rose de Grasse would make a perfect office scent. Really, during the first 15 minutes it smells more like a very nice fabric softener or body wash than a fine fragrance. This is on my skin and to my nose your results will vary. Having said that it does warm very nicely through after that point and also has a nice pithy background, it’s all extremely muted. Jin says it smells like Acacia and once he said it I get what he means, there is that slightly waxy green wetness I smell with acacia here in Rose de Grasse. Interesting.

Rose de Grasse Aerin Lauder Pink_roses WikiCommonsPhoto Stolen WikiCommons

The soft muted scent of Rose de Grasse is lovely but far too thin for my liking. I’m going to give my decant to a non perfumista girlfriend who likes fragrance and works corporate to see if she likes it for a work scent. It’s like they’ve added too much perfumers alcohol and not enough perfume, insipid. For $185/50ml I want more, more of everything.

What I have after 4 hours is a very soft geranium and carnation cross waft, very very soft. A bit spicy and floral over a soft musk base. Actually I like this almost scent better than the heart of the fragrance by far, a bit clove-y, stark and frosty. It tingles my tongue as I sniff it. I really cannot tell you enough how quiet it is but it does smell nice.

SONY DSCPhoto Stolen Flickr

Further reading: Now Smell This and Luxury Daily
Aerin is available in the USA at Estee Lauder online $185/50ml

Will I buy a bottle? No. Should you try it? Yes, at least so you feel that you have. You can also come back and tell me if I got it totally wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time I had.
Portia xxx

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

Scenting Characters: What would ‘X’ wear?

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 12 Comments

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Post by Liam

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Good evening fragrance aficionados!

Scent associations fascinate me. Most pertinently, when watching film and TV I often find myself scenting fictional characters. The way certain actors and actresses portray a character astounds me, and sometimes I wonder how they would smell considering their personalities.

Scenting Characters: What would ‘X’ wear?

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991):

Intellectually staggering; an enigma wrapped in multitudes of haunting mystery. Hannibal Lecter, despite his cannibal tendencies, is an upperclass gentleman with a great disdain towards bad manners!

Bal a Versailles Jean Desprez FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

For Lecter, I choose Jean Desprez floriental “Bal a Versailles”. Totally classical in its composition, I am reminded of scenes when Lecter draws pictures of Clarice whilst listening to classical music. Bal a Versailles is textured wonderfully, expensive (rare), and most importantly for those with great taste! It is exotic, yet grounded by an impression of properness and prissiness. Perfect for Lecter.

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk in Monk (2002 – 2009):

OCD-ridden, Adrien Monk is a delicate creature and a brilliant detective. Often when watching I find Shalhoub delivers a very tangible human quality to the character, verging innocuous yet persistent as his OCD often gets in the way.

Escentric 01 Escentric Molecules FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

I particularly love the ‘square tomato’ scene and another when he meticulously gets his haircut. But, considering this, I don’t think the character would wear perfume because he would find it both interfering and may never find something he loves! Therefore, I choose Escentric Molecules “Molecule 01”. The ISO-E Super is something I cannot smell on myself, which I feel would be a feature Monk would appreciate. Molecule 01’s subtle woody and cedar-like aroma is clean and clinical, much like the character.

Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (2006):

Powerful, important, and amazingly dressed (the way she tosses Prada bags and expensive coats carelessly – wow!). Clad in the most amazing garments (I consider this film as the impetus for my fashionable awakening), Priestly is the epitome of a contemporary ‘Boss Lady’. She demands respect and universally sets the tone.

Infusion d'Iris Prada FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

I was tempted to give this character Mitsouko, but given her haute position as the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine she needs to be ‘with it’ as well as timeless. Thus, I choose Prada’s “Infusion d’Iris” for her in work mode. Sleek, slightly cold, and very professional. It is discrete elegance, remembering that iris is very expensive! Opening with citruses, then layered with soft incense and resins on a bed of cedar.

Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner in The Birds (1963):

Rod Taylor portrays the male hero in Hitchcock’s suspense horror “The Birds”. Whilst the character is firmly placed in a heroic role protecting Tippi Hedren from vicious birds, we also view a romantic tale. The film features really dark and challenging undertones, including the idea of uncertainty and a supernatural-esque danger. Rod Taylor’s character requires something strongly grounded, yet delicate and romantic up on top. Often he is well dressed, donning typical duotone suit outfits for work, with tweed blazers and white sweaters for relaxation.

Chanel Sycomore Chanel FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

I think Chanel’s “Sycomore” is most appropriate. The mild flounce and tendency to be cheeky is expressed with an amazing violet note, grounded in a vetiver and tobacco accord (a bit like wood varnish) also calling to mind the classicism of Guerlain’s Vetiver.

All these fragrances can be sampled at Surrender To Chance if you’d like to try them

Your turn! How would you scent the following?

Norman Bates – Psycho

Mildred Pierce – Mildred Pierce

James Bond (Sean Connery)

-Liam.

Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hey there crew,

Every day, or every couple of days, I do a whole bunch of things. They are my routine. I clean down the kitchen benches, shower, wash clothes, cook, drive, drink tea and coffee and a whole shemozzle of stuff. Problem is, I am a sensualist. What I’m looking for is a ride, a story, moment or a fantasy. An experience. One of the best ways I know how to make the hum drum routine zing is with scent, here are a few of my faves.

Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING!

Footworks Cracked Heel Cream AVON

AVON Footworks Cracked Heel Cream: My feet are the pits underneath. Years of sport, dance, clubbing, high heels and neglect meant that by the time I was 25 my feet were cracked and bleeding on the underside. Thick soles, cracks and calluses had become agony and I thought it was my lot in life to be continuously grating dry skin from under my feet. Till someone sold me some AVON Footworks. Yes, I had used others but the positive effect was negligible, something in Footworks really works. The smell is smooth and balmy with a hint of chemical flowers and musks. I put it on religiously after every bath and shower and wander around in little cotton socks. The difference is unbelievable.

aromachologie-volumizing-shampoo-33017

L’OCCITANE Aromachologie Volumizing Shampoo for Fine and Normal Hair: So you know, I pay full price $35/500ml for this baby. It’s made with and smells like 5 essential oils; artemisia, petitgrain, sweet orange, rosemary, palmarosa. Yes it leaves my fine, sparse hair shiny and squeaky clean but the smell? The scent is freaking terrific. I lather up and leave it on for about a minute while doing other stuff so I can keep smelling the super green citrus burst, both calming and energising.

Aramis Soap On A Rope

Aramis Soap On A Rope: If you want to remember what old school Aramis smelled like then the Aramis Body Shampoo On A Rope is your friend. The smell is absolutely and utterly divine. That amber leather floral filled to the brim with gorgeous greenery and spices dancing around the center. It also hold a million memories because this was the first grown up bottle of scent my Mum bought for me. It makes a fabulous base for any of your leather or green fragrances, amping the herbs and woods. So beautiful.

White Vinegar
White Vinegar: I really don’t like the smell of most household cleaning products, I want my house to BE clean. Smelling clean is not important, and I also dislike left over cleaning smells that affect the way I smell the fragrance I wear and the ambient fragrances I choose to use. White Vinegar, boiling water and a dash of disinfectant takes away all the nasty smells and leaves everything squeaky clean. It’s better for the environment and doesn’t eat away your bathroom or kitchen. We also use it instead of fabric softener.

anastasia kasumi tea JPG

Kasumi Tea Anastasia: Recently the tin has been made over by Jean Paul Gaultier in very typical JPG nautical stripe & tattoo style. The current tin we have open on the kitchen bench is less modern in design but the orange zest and sweet fruit notes in this black tea are a real winner. It’s one of Kasumi’s oldest and most popular blends, fragrant and delicious. Perfect to lift lifes sometimes monotone days into sparkling rainbow brights.

So what are your Boring Stuff that Smells AMAZING? What do you use to make the daily grind smell better?
Portia xx

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

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.

Gentlewoman GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

/ australianperfumejunkiescom

Hi there Cyber Frag Family,

Another lovely GIVEAWAY! I hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to Romano Ricci, Libertine Parfumerie and especially Nick, so generous always.

For those that celebrate, HAPPY EASTER!

Let’s get to the winners.

Portia xx

Gentlewoman GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Gentlewoman Juliette Has A Gun FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, bitter orange blossom, neroli
Heart: Almond, courmarin, orange blossom, lavender
Base: Ambroxan, woody notes, musk

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

This week we will have 3 winners who will receive:
1 x decant Gentlewoman by Juliette Has A Gun (from my Press bottle)
P&H Anywhere in the world

HOW DID 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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) 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 comment with any reason you could be called a Gentleman or Gentlewoman

Extra Chance?
Tweet:  Gentlewoman: Juliette Has A Gun  http://wp.me/p3PURw-3KA   

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Thursday 2nd April 2015 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org

WinnersAre LifestyleSolutionsPhoto Stolen LifestyleSolutions

TaraC

Sun (via Twitter)

Vivian

CONGRATULATIONS!! The winners will have till Thursday 9th April 2015 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.