Santal Royal EdP by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2014

January 23, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello Fabulous Frag Heads,

I am a Guerlain creature. You know it. When they released Santal Royal I was so freaking excited because in my mind I was thinking the Australian sandalwood plantations are going gangbusters and that we would be getting a modern “next Gen’ look at Samsara. A beautiful creamy and delicious fragrance that would have me smelling like a very rich hippy just back from India via Paris.

Santal Royal EdP by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica giuves these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, leather, oud, neroli, cinnamon, rose, amber, musk

There has been a lot of hate for Santal Royal and I think our expectations we just too high, and saints preserve me but that bottle is to freaking die for. Don’t tell me that marketing plays no part in my buying, the black and gold flaccon is amazing. I got to hold one in Las Vegas at the Venetian Guerlain store. LOVE at first sight. we spritzed it and on me it was OK but Jin smelled absolutely fabulous in it all day. He already has Mona di Orio’s Oud so having this would be tautology.

Though I’m sure there is a bunch of sandalwood in there, and I will say the longevity is extraordinary, this is an oudh fragrance. Yes it is, sorry to say it. It’s very nice. It does have a story and it changes through time to something soft and very sensual but even to the bitter end I still get that oudh. Which I like very much but it’s not so groundbreaking that I feel the need to purchase because there are other oudhs in my wardrobe that I would reach for before it, even with that killer bottle.

Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml

Have you tried Santal Royal? How did it strike you?
Enjoy the ad,
Portia xx

Santal Royal – Eau de Parfum – GUERLAIN

Criminal of Love by Kilian (Russia Exclusive)

January 22, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Erica Golding

Hello loves!

The weather in my neck of the woods is currently a deep freeze. The nights slow the soul, while the moon slices the sky with icy precision – and although I don’t limit my scents to the seasons, that doesn’t mean I never crave sexy warmth to counter the frigid winter darkness!

Tonight, I have chosen to set my aura aglow with a new obsession….

Criminal of Love by Kilian (Russia Exclusive)

Criminal of Love by Dorothee Piot

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cardamom, saffron
Heart: Turkish rose, papyrus, atlas cedar
Base: Patchouli, incense, tobacco, immortelle

by Kilian Russia says (via Google Translate): Sharp , sharp and at the same time – oily intoxicating and sensual , this fragrance for dangerous criminals who need to be as soon as possible handcuffed – satin, which you will find in the box with the scent.

On my skin, the opening reveals leather and scotch, a particularly dark leather evoking clean lines and gleaming surfaces. Then, the bracing intensity begins to curve as a juicy, jammy Turkish rose moves into the spotlight. The queen of the flowers remains the star of the show, as warmly aromatic cinnamon, cardamom, and an associative apple cider swirl in perfect harmony. Sweetly smoky tobacco and incense accent the base of the composition, intoxicating and irresistible.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

I very rarely buy a bottle of perfume unsniffed. I am a sample glutton, to the point where my thumbnail is perpetually fraying from prying open so many vials. Blind buys are very few and far between; however, when I had a chance to score a partial bottle of the highly sought after, ultra-hyped Criminal of Love, I caved and trusted my instinct.

I can’t put into words how fortunate I feel, nor how exceptionally blown away I am by this pure pleasure-bomb of fragrant allure. The bottle design alone makes my heart flutter, but it’s the nectar within that lights the blaze.

Photo Stolen Flickr

I’ve heard rumors that after four years, the Russia Exclusives will be released to the general market. I hope this is true, so that more scent aficionados will be able to experience this incredibly sexy, addictive potion!

by Kilian Russia has 11 200 rubles/75ml

Have you tried any of the Russia Exclusive perfumes by Kilian? Do you have a favorite fragrance from the Kilian brand?

Wishing you gorgeously scented evenings this winter and always,
Erica

The Smelliest Surprise: A Tale

January 18, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

OK APJ,

I do love a good story, and never pass up a fart joke no matter how awful. Yes, I admit it, I love to fart. There you have it. This story could so easily have been Jin & I and as I first read it I felt like I was reading my own writing. The husband could definitely have been Jin, this is such a Jin thing to do……

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Here we have the story of a loving husbands dinner surprise gone terribly wrong.

Enjoy,

Portia xx

The Smelliest Surprise: A Tale

Lys Soleia by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain: Aqua Allegoria 2012

January 16, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hey Frag Fiends,

Hey Northern Hemisphere, remember summer? Here we are down here sweltering in the heat and humidity and loving it. Days are long, fruit and vegetables are abundant and cheap, the extremely fragrant frangipani, lilies, jasmine and lemon trees are all blooming like crazy, the beach and pool are awaiting, we’ve just had holidays and life feels good. I’m even lightly sunburned, getting my vitamin D levels up so my body will run efficiently and has the tools to fight disease and depression.

Well today In am writing about one of my summer fragrance staples which I also use midwinter to remind me of the warmth and steamy tropical evenings of summer.

Lys Soleia by Thierry Wasser for Guerlain: Aqua Allegoria 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, palm leaves
Heart: Lily, ylang-ylang, tropical fruits
Base: Tuberose, vanilla, white musk

Lys Soleia basically opens right in the heart already for me, the citrus is so fleeting but it does add glitter to the bouquet and there is a green sugariness that I can only detect with a respritz. Lily, ylang and vanilla like a beautiful warm tropical dream. Sweet and sensual I am immediately transported to faraway islands, feasting on platters of fresh cut super sweet fruits and walking through gardens decked with evening blooming exotic flowers that pump out their fragrant song. Hot and sweaty skin fresh from swimming in the sea and from sunbathing, there is even a trace of sun lotion. The white flowers and vanilla wear hot, ripe and sensual in such a “come hither and ravage me” way that I am always blown away. It’s a welcome surprise every time. No wallflower is Lys Soleia but a red blooded, thrumming sex drive, naughty and fabulous adventure waiting to happen.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

One of the most obvious and perfume-y of the Aqua Allegoria line Lys Soleia is a sirens song that makes me smile in secret, guilty delight. Deeper and more dense than the rest I find its intoxicating and mesmerising beauty a bit of a brain scrambler. Seriously, this will have your dates so befuddled that they will be putty in your hands. Always a good thing.

Rich, yes very rich, and regal I could imagine Lys Soleia on a woman of supreme confidence, Samantha Jones of Sex and the City played by Kim Cattrall in her powerful sexual woman mode. It can also be worn by a man who wants to stand out from the crowd as someone who is unafraid to be their own person, who is happy to be known to be different, maybe someone in business who needs to sell their own angle or point of difference.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

As we head towards dry down the tuberose and vanilla stand forth over a slightly furry musk that I can barely smell but which feels a bit fuzzy. I know that description is absolute shit and gives you no clue to what I smell but there you have it, that’s the way I perceive Lys Soleia in the later stages before it starts to really fade out.

Fully fragrant and good longevity for an Aqua Allegoria. You need to be careful because with an overzealous application you could suck the air from a room and dry clean the curtains.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Further reading: Now Smell This and Candy Perfume Boy
Available through Guerlain counters at large department stores
FragranceNet has $61/125ml before coupon

What do you like to wear to remind you of summer, or in the midst of it? Are the Aqua Allegoris to your taste?
Come on and join the conversation, I love to read your thoughts.
Portia xx

Lipstick, Perfume and Pop Heroes: A True Story

January 13, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 45 Comments

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

The Clash and subsequently Big Audio Dynamite are amongst my all time favourite bands. Mick Jones is my lyric writing hero.

Amsterdam 1985. I never go anywhere without my red lipstick. In the early days of my relationship with Chris he would ask why it was so important. I always answered the same “You just never know, I might bump into Mick Jones one day.”

Lipstick, Perfume and Pop Heroes: A True Story

Photo Stolen Pixabay

Amsterdam 1987. We were in the Paradiso at a Hoodoo Gurus gig. Which all these years on is kind of fab since they were Sydney´s coolest band, and now I´m with Sydney´s most sublime drag queen. But life IS strange. About half way through the gig, a colleague of mine from the “Melkweg” where I worked, tapped me on the shoulder. (The Melkweg is a famous concert venue and multimedia centre. It includes an art gallery, cinema, dance/theatre and teahouse. It was founded in 1970. It is known as the “Milky Way” in english.)
He asked me to leave the gig and go over to the Melkweg as the boss wanted me too look after an English band who were visiting. I had absolutely no intention of leaving the Hoodo Gurus gig. I yelled at him over the music, asking who it was. He replied “Some band called Big Audio Dynamite.” I kid you not. I leaned over and told Chris I had to leave because Mick Jones was waiting for me. I touched up my lipstick and left.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Chris stayed on until the end of the Gurus, and then joined me. We hung out with the band for a couple of days, and they went onto support U2 at a stadium gig in Rotterdam. Don´t ask. What happened in Amsterdam stayed in Amsterdam. 🙂 It did not lead to a life long friendship, but we did get to join up with the band in 1989 for three brilliant Big Audio Dynamite gigs in Boston.

This is a perfume blog so it would do to mention what I was wearing. Amsterdam would have been

Photo Stolen instyle

Chanel No 5 Extrait

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, neroli, ylang-ylang
Heart: Jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris
Base: Vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli

Boston was

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Samsara EdP by Guerlain

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, ylang-ylang, peach and green notes
Heart: Jasmine, iris, narcissus, violet, rose
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, Tonka bean, amber, musk

Samples of CHANEL No 5 Extrait and Samsara EdP both available Surrender To Chance

I still carry my red lipstick.

Be Prepared. You never know.

Happy 2015.

Bussis
CQ

Louis Vuitton Presents the Singapore City Guide

January 11, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Heya Fragrant Travel Nuts,

In under 3 minutes Louis Vuitton is about to show you a couple of things in Singapore that you probably never thought of doing, and a few on everyone’s lists.

No matter what style of travel you choose, backpacker to 6 star, there are always a few “Must See” destinations in every city you land, disembark or alight. Of course I have been to cities and not seen them all, often unwittingly or because I’ve been working in the clubs and our hosts have taken us to do very low key local stuff instead (equally valid way to see a city but very different). Louis Vuitton always manages to pick a couple of things I’ve not done in the city or did too quickly to enjoy.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

I hope you enjoy a little slice of Singapore, one of the few places I’ve landed in that I felt totally at home.
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents the Singapore City Guide

Versace Blonde by Nathalie Feisthauer for Versace 1995

January 9, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 21 Comments

Hi there Sniffa Crew,

Today we are going back to 1995. It was a particularly good year for me, I was finishing up my time in London (which was totally incredible in itself) and coming home to Sydney in time for Christmas with the family. I cannot tell you how excited I was. HOME!

Anyway, we got this fragrance in Australia in time for Christmas but I think we might have had it for Christmas 1996 because I was working as a drag hostess at one of our clubs and we had to give out samples of Versace Dreamer and A’Men by Mugler on the same night. The whole club smelt incredible with everyone dousing themselves in fragrance and the night was a huge success, one of my favourite nights ever. Though it took me years to stop retching whenever someone was wearing A’Men because right at the end of the night someone Guerrilla spritzed me and it went in my mouth, not nice and the scent seemed to stick in my nostrils for about 3 days.

This is a vintage frag but you can still get your hands on a bottle of extrait/parfum for very reasonable prices

Versace Blonde by Nathalie Feisthauer for Versace 1995

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, Pitosporum flowers, violet, orange blossom, bergamot
Heart: Tuberose, daffodil, ylang-ylang, carnation
Base: Benzoin, musk, civet, sandalwood

Perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer has worked on a few frags that you’ve definitely heard of: Hermes Eau des Merveilles, VC&A Collection Extraordinaire Gardenia Petale, ELdO Putain des Palaces and Delicious Closet Queen as well as Must de Cartier Pour Homme. This is just a very small portion of her output.

How does Blonde wear on me? Well it opens green and sappy with a photorealistic (but clean) gardenia that’s sweet, green like bulb flower stems, creamy and the whole experience in the first 5-10 minutes is one of enormous presence. It’s not mentioned but I get a mild galbanum feeling through the opening too. HUGE! Outrageously gorgeous white flowers lightly framed by the citrus.

The opening of the extrait is sweeter and fruitier, very canned peachy.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

No need to fear, Blonde doesn’t stay at these nuclear sizes for long. 15 minutes in and though you are still quite fragrant the power has been turned down considerably and my head can think of other things. Here is where Blonde is really beautiful and wearable. The heady mix of white and yellow flowers are kept crisp by the carnation and already some of the resins make their way in to give depth and breadth. Then Blonde stays pretty much the same for a few hours getting more lived in and raunchy, up to 5 on a really good day, and slowly the whole fragrance goes from that very sensual animalic base as it fades leaving a very soft wash of nothing pickable to nothing at all.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies
FragranceNet has $40/15ml extrait (I prefer to decant and spritz)
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/.5ml extrait

In 2013 I did a LIVE Video Sniff with Blonde, it kinda captures the feeling of the fragrance better than mere words on screen can. Please be ready to hear the word bombastic about 300 times though.

Thanks for wandering through my thoughts on one of my all time favourite fragrances.
Do you have a discontinued fave that you’ve hoarded a few bottles of?
Portia xx

Tama Blough: A Party for Tama

January 9, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom

Tama Blough Oct 18, 1954 – January 9, 2015

Hiya Australian Perfume Junkies,

Tama Blough, who started SF Sniff – the San Francisco group who’d come together and sniff fragrances (obviously, sorry) and Managing Editor for CaFleurBon is in trouble. We have a fragrant friend in need, diagnosed with incurable cancer and a desire to stay at home with her cat for as long as possible. Tama is not a wealthy person and needs our help to make this small wish come true.

Already the fragrant community has rallied behind this cause: April Aromatics released a Limited Edition fragrance that sold out in minutes, Nina Zolotow set up a GiveForward campaign to raise the $25,000 needed to pay for health care and living expenses (who will BTW give $25 for every blog written about it to a max of $1000, very freaking cool)

Paul Kiler of PK Perfumes has now created TNT (Tama N Tuberose) and is donating 90 percent of all proceeds to Tama’s fundraiser.
60ml/$150 90 percent ($135) going directly to a fund managed by Tama’s family.

To buy TNT click here<<JUMP

Do check the original Ca Fleure Bon post about TNT for more information

A Party for Tama

Coming up on the 17th of January are a couple of amazing events in San Fransisco. If you are nearby then you should definitely think about attending.

Private Lunch and Auction: $35 includes Lunch and Auction (more details about Auction nearer the date)

Shopping event & Cocktails: A percentage of all sales will go to Tama from the Tigerlily event.

And Tama, if you get to read this. Best of luck, cuddle the kitty from us at the Australian Perfume Junkies..
Portia & the APJ Crew

DIOR and Japan: A symbiotic relationship

January 4, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hi there DIOR Couture and Fragrance fans,

I love the house of DIOR. It has been with me through my childhood years making clothes for Barbie dolls, the years of fashion school and the fashion industry, even after I have tried to keep up with what is happening on the world’s runways. So here is a very interesting piece of information that I was only vaguely aware of. Christian Dior loved Japan! Now that it’s pointed out so simply it makes complete sense.

Photo Stolen wallpaper

Here then is a short film introducing the idea and giving a potted history of their engagement through time. I really enjoyed it as a forerunner to the DIOR Esprit Tokyo show.
Enjoy,
Portia xx

DIOR and Japan

Esprit Dior Tokyo 2015 Show – Best Of

Louis Vuitton Presents the Milan City Guide

January 2, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 1 Comment

Yoo HOO!

Whether you love to travel or you love to watch short pieces about travel then the Louis Vuitton Travel Guides are excellent under 3 minute extravaganzas of interesting things you’d probably never think to do when traveling to particular cities, and new ways to look at the city when you get there.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

I have not yet made it to Milan but now it has jumped to a place in my Top 10.
Enjoy!
Portia xx

Louis Vuitton Presents the Milan City Guide