Hey Hey Fashion Mavens,
I have been rifling one of my fave Fashion Go-To-Blogs art8amby. Here is the latest from Hermès. As always, YUMMO!!
Diana Moldovan and Yumi Lambert are replacing Iselin Steiro as the new forest nymphs, sorry we mean campaign models, for Hermès. (source)
Heya Lovelies,
This year I have not really made any resolutions as such, and it has taken me the better part of a month to formulate any kind of focus for change anyway. I came across a piece online last week that resonated and I sent it to a few of my buddies. None of the things I read were new to me, nor are they earth shatteringly lightbulb moments. These are the things that you forget in the daily grind of life. It’s also interesting how things evolve.
My BFF Kath was so taken with the subject headings of this piece that she grabbed a photo she had taken of me in China at the Summer Palace a few years ago and overlaid the titles. Yes that’s me on the point looking back at Kath and smiling, it was an incredible holiday, Kath’s first adult overseas experience and my first glimpse of China. I have been so blessed in a multitude of ways but my friends are number one. I think these few action sentencess give a great and thought provoking way to start 2014.
Resolutions? None really
Things I would like to improve? I’d like to live leaner without so much clutter around me, also to streamline the businesses so they are less tiresome, put aside definite time to spend with Jin as he seems to be the one I skimp most time from and he deserves better, remember to breathe slowly, walk purposefully and stand straight. I hope I can spend the year feeling as relaxed, happy, hopeful and centered as I look in this photo.
As always, everyone here at APJ wishes you a life chock full of the good things and the least possible of the other stuff.
Portia xx
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Post by Val the Cookie Queen
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Hi APJ,
From Fragrance Republic site: FRAGRANCE REPUBL!C 01/03 was inspired by the deliciously complex yet accessible mojito, the sunny, potent, Cuban drink. Marrying the fresh, exuberant aspect of mint and lemon to the darkly sweet and powerful Rhum Pure Jungle Essence creates a sparkling effervescent fusion.
APJ readers please check out the website. I cannot possible do it justice. There is so much fascinating information on it, including a conversation between Denyse Beaulieu (of Grain de Musc) and the perfumer Cécile Matton.
FRAGRANCE REPUBL!C is a club of fragrance enthusiasts that gives exclusive access to original fine fragrances as created by world class perfumers ……….. you may read on yourselves.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Gurjum (a resin that flows naturally from the trees of the dipterocarpus species); Mojito Accord (Rhum Pure Jungle Essence, Mint, Lemon)
So onto the 01/03 juice. I have a 21 year old son. He works with the deaf. He is a body builder. (He is also extremely sick of me shoving various parts of my body under his nose and telling him to sniff.) I sprayed a hefty amount of n°03 onto paper as he walked into the room. Let´s just say I don´t own the bottle any more.
Photo Stolen Hammerin Man Flickr
It smells very resiny in the beginning and quite peppery. It sweetens up as time goes on, but the lemony overtones stop it from being cloying. It is bright and exhilarating and exuberant. It veers towards the masculine side of the spectrum to my nose, but that could be because my son has been wearing it for month. He said one of the reasons he likes it so much is because no one else has it! Ah ha.
Perhaps he has inherited some of my snobby perfume habits after all!
So Perfumista Mums and Dads. You all have an advantage over me. When your kids start to reach that age of totally covering themselves in Axe (aaaaargh, scream, ) you have a great option. Treat them, and in turn yourselves to FR!´s 01/03. You cannot go wrong. They´ll thank you for it.
I can only say bring on 01/04 … these are fab and we want more.
Love from Austria, where I am sat with Portia and Michael. Well, someone´s gotta do it.
Bussis from us all
CQ
With thanks to FR! for giving me the opportunity to sniff!!
Hello my lovelies,
One of my favourite Niche/Indie houses Mona do Orio was busy in 2013 bringing out two fragrances. This was the first offering and I wanted to give a bit of space between the lovely reviews for launch and a look at it after some time, giving the dust a moment to settle. I have here a 10ml decant about 1/4 used. Whenever I reach for it I think that I will want to wear it every day but then, of course, pick up something else tomorrow. When I wear it often the thought “Dessert Island Top Ten” passes through my brain. Would it be? Hopefully I’ll never have to choose.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica Gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, clementine, petitgrain
Heart: Geranium, java vetiver oil, bay leaf, pink pepper
Base: Cedar, musk, labdanum
BZZZZZZZ! The citrus opening is loads of fun but kept from being a zingy space cadet by whispers of the resins to come even in the first minute. While I sit here in a balmy Sydney summer evening I am enjoying the very unexpected opening. I have read a few reviews before writing tonight, which is not something I usually do, so my expectations were for something quite different, something more mainstream and fizzy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is, as I should always expect with a Mona di Orio fragrance, something quite densely layered with everything in the notes list all at once and what will happen is certain accords will get precedence on occasion.
Photo Stolen Chris Isherwood Flickr
I get zero geranium or pink pepper but the citrus, bay, musk and labdanum seem to be the stars in Eau Absolue for my skin and nose. Eau Absolue is warm, cuddly and inviting without giving any sexual vibes and almost no fleshy animal. It’s so friendly and smells like my Mum and the kitchen would smell during winter, like food seasonings, smoke, wool wash, clean skin and unconditional love. There is something waxy and lip balm-ish too. I am madly in love with the memories Eau Absolue is conjuring. What an enjoyable ride, when I normally spritz Eau Absolue I just enjoy the fragrance and don’t really stop to question the whys and wherefors, sitting here and having the time and space to let my mind wander and really enjoy this beautiful, flawless creation by Mona di Orio is a joyful experience and I think I’ve been smiling for two hours. This is the good stuff and if I wasn’t going on a perfume voyage in a moment I’d be looking up LuckyScent or Peony Melbourne and ordering.
Though Eau Absolue is not a big projector it does have good silllage and I get around 5-6 hours of fragrant wear before it dries down to a soft fuzzy powdery wash. Wearable? Anywhere. Everywhere. Dress up or down. Dawn or dusk or romantic interlude.
Further reading: The Non-Blonde and Chemist In A Bottle
LuckyScent has $230/100ml
Surrender To Chance samples start at $7/ml
I think this could be my everyday wear frag. Eau Absolute is comfortable like so many of the Mona di Orios and so fabulously unusual too. Is there one of these for you that you still don’t have a Full Bottle of? Why?
My answer is that I will never get through 100ml of it. 100ml is a LOT of fragrance for a perfumista but if I see someone selling their 50mls left, reasonably priced, on a list I will jump all over it.
I hope your day is happy and bright,
Portia x
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Post by Ainslie Walker
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This afternoon, I feel like Miss Marple of the fragrance world.
The first fragrance I ever loved and owned as a child in the 80s was something contained in a little amber and pink, gingerbread house shaped bottle. I have just unearthed it from my mothers attic and opened it, expecting terrible things, when to mine and her surprise, on opening, out came a blast of something ‘Chanel number 5-esque’!!?? My mum actually had a stash of Chanel number 5 Eau De Cologne back then, and she exclaimed “Oh, you must’ve topped up from MY bottle!!”
It WAS quite feasible…. but I needed to clear my name…
Inspecting the underside of the bottle it read “AVON Charisma Cologne”. Intriguing. I went straight to the WWW and found the description listed as;
Floral, musky, aldehydic, powdery, animalic, balsamic
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, bergamot, peach, neroli, hyacinth, coriander
Heart: Iris root, carnation, jasmine, rose, narcissus, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley
Base: Sandalwood, amber, civets, musk, tonka bean, vanilla, styrax
WOW! To think I was enjoying green spicy florals even back then! It explains A LOT!! Not to mention that this fragrance was packaged in a gingerbread house for young girls –almost shocking!!
Avon’s Charisma was obviously heavily inspired by Chanel. For reference, Chanel number 5 Eu De Cologne, is listed as;
Woody, powdery, aldehydic, musky, white floral, amber, animalic
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Boom! I run for my Chanel number 5– a 100ml bottle of the eau de cologne from the late 60’s/early 70s, (which indeed was mums) which smells much stronger, smoother and heavier on the anamalic and rosey-powder ingredients than the Charisma, but still overall very similar, and surprising, considering the obvious price and branding differences. I would like to think the No 5 I have is full of beautiful naturals, due to its manufacturing date, and this could be why it is more rounded and full smelling.
I read on, many people compare Charisma to Coco, but I have none here to compare, from memory, this sounds feasible, but did not come straight to my mind. Coco is also balsamic, so perhaps.
Coco was launched in 1984. HANG ON, that was 16 years after Avon’s Charisma, which came out in 1968…..would Jaques Polgue actually have ‘borrowed’ some ideas from AVON?!?!?!?!
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Either way we perfume lovers must realize, that what can come from a tacky brand or cheap novelty bottle, may in fact be almost identical ingredients as what some of the more “high end/exclusive” brands contain. Don’t judge a perfume by it’s package, price or branding, shut your eyes and smell- you and your bank balance may get a pleasant surprise!
Ainslie Walker X
Hiya Junkies,
As you may know I have a bit of an addictive personality, also I am a Drag Queen, so you’d think I would have box loads of make up. The answer is no. Yes, I have backups of my favourite products but everything fits into a small drawer. I do love watching makeup fashions evolve though and this season I think DIOR has hit a home run. Looking like a pastel Bambi with eyes the surprised vacant look of a bunny about to get Dunlop disease, the model is absolutely outrageously gorgeous.
Of course it is referencing Marie Antoinette but in my mind it also harks back to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. GLAM.
Like the look? Want to know how to get it? Below is a how to video.
Enjoy,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen TheMalayMailOnline
Photo Stolen DIOR
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Post by Azar
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Hello APJ,
In early December one of my young piano students wanted to try playing the Christmas classic “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson. I rummaged through my semi-organized music library for an easy version but all I came up with was an old collection of Anderson’s own piano arrangements. The student took one look at “Sleigh Ride” and immediately decided it wasn’t for her. (She obviously was not yet convinced by my mantra “Fear No Musical Score”.) We looked at the other pieces in the collection and when I played a little bit of “Forgotten Dreams” (1954) we both knew we had found a good match.
Later that evening I looked at the music again. Every piece seemed to be a distillation of a memory. As I played “Forgotten Dreams” I found myself as a child in the 1950s, sitting in front of an old radio, listening to Leroy Anderson’s music. A sudden “fast forward” brought me to the mid 1990s when several of my piano students were learning to play the same music. With these ’90s musical memories came a recollection of fragrances I’d worn at the time. I recalled not only the scents but also the bottles, the boxes and where I had purchased them. While playing “Forgotten Dreams” one fragrance in particular came to mind:
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Spices, orange blossom, sea notes, jasmine, powdery notes
Most perfume related sites and blogs list the creation of L’Eau de Monteil as either 1995 or 1996. I could swear I’d purchased a bottle a couple of years earlier than that. I couldn’t find any information on the perfumer who actually created the scent. The designer Germaine Monteil died in 1987. (I’ll be telling her story and reviewing more of her fragrances in an up-coming post).
Once again I went rummaging around, but this time in my even less organized perfume storage. I discovered my stash of L’Eau de Monteil, including three full 15 ml pure perfumes, one partially used 50 ml EDP and one full 100 ml spray still sealed in the box. It seems that L’Eau de Monteil had been a favorite!I picked up the used EDP and gave myself a generous blast and then dabbed on some pure perfume for good measure.
Again I found myself time traveling, but not to the 1990s, as I would have expected, but to my childhood in Florida and to a dark and eerily quiet, semi-tropical garden. I found myself crossing a bridge over a pond (or was it a stream?) the banks crowded with plants that I called “elephant ears” (.). The air was thick with the odors of moving water, jasmine, wet earth and sweet rotting leaves. The smell was at once fresh and spicy, earthy and very aquatic. This combination of scents was unique to this particular garden in 1957. I did not encounter the same fragrance again until I discovered L’Eau de Monteil sometime in the mid 90s and rediscovered it in late 2013, thanks to the music of Leroy Anderson.
Thousands of fragrances and pieces of music are created every year. It is inevitable that most of these and the dreams that inspired them will be lost or forgotten. That being said, it is wonderful and strange how one memory leads to another and yet another. I am forever amazed how music and fragrance can “fold” time and space (a memory from the sci-fi classic “Dune”) and return us to events and places of long ago to remember and relive our “Forgotten Dreams”.
Ebay and Amazon seem to be the only places left to find L`Eau De Monteil, you can still grab a BNIC 100ml for under $100
This week we will have TWO winners:
Who will each receive:
1 x 2ml decant of Germaine Monteil L’Eau de Monteil
1 x 2ml decant of a “mystery” fragrance
P&H Anywhere in the world
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
Do you have a perfume memory that you would like to share or a forgotten moment that came to life because of music or scent? Please leave comment to be eligible for today’s give-away
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie L’Eau de Montiel GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-2ou #Perfume #Giveaway
Entries Close Thursday 16th January 2014 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by random.org or some other more fun way at the discretion of Azar, our host for this giveaway
The winners will have till Sunday 19th January 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.
Photos Taken by Azar unless otherwise stated.
Hi All,
You may remember the very lovely Emma Kate who wrote for APJ for a while and did a bunch of LIVE Video Sniffs with me. She moved to another Australian city for work recently and gave me a bunch of her unloved frags. This happened to be in the bunch and I had totally ignored it till the other day. The heat was making me scratchy and the bottle looks a little like a melting ice cube. PERFECT!!
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin, green lilac, wild mint, bois de roseau
Heart: Jasmine, amaryllis, lotus, Guinea pepper, white peach
Base: Vanilla, musk, Virginia blue cedar
This is a fresh, fruity, cool scent that is both sweet and tart. Nothing extraordinary but extremely cologne-ish with a sweet twist. I smell nothing natural and it is probably quite cheap to produce. The minty mandarine water opening, the peachy amorphous white flower bouquet has a hint of stem and bell pepper and it ends on a woodsy note that doesn’t really smell like anything particular, but is synthetically non intrusive. What I feel when I wear L’Eau Par Kenzo Wild is clean. Imagine it’s summer, you are hot and sweaty, L’Eau Par Kenzo Wild is like shaving/waxing your legs, having a beautiful soak in the pool afterwards and then slipping into fresh cool 100% Egyptian cotton sheets with the overhead fan on low. MMMMM Perfect.
Photo Stolen julien haler Flickr
I tried to find somewhere for you to buy L’Eau Par Kenzo Wild but though I could find the Homme version everywhere the Femme is SOLD OUT! I tried oodles of online sites and nothing. You may be lucky enough to find it on Ebay. Don’t worry if you can’t though, there are a million others quite similar. If you don’t have it you’re missing nothing. Having said that, it’s not going out in my cull.
Further reading: Pink Sith
Sorry for introducing you to a winner that I can’t even find online.
Portia xx
Hello Fabulous Fumies,
This is a fragrance I have long loved, every now and then I would spritz it in the department stores and never purchased it but often looked at it for a purchase but would be tempted away by something else, something newer or more towards the top of my list. I haven’t even owned a decant, and nowadays it’s extremely affordable at the discounters. Weird. The bottle is great with its fun pumper and I love the lilac so I bought a bottle for my BFF Kath a while back and today I’m stealing it off her to write a review.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Anise, violet, green ivy
Heart: Licorice, almond, orris, iris, cherry, amaryllis, heliotrope
Base: Tonka, vanilla, white musk, vetiver, praline
What everyone else says about Lolita Lempicka EdP is not the way I smell it. It opens sweet sugar and almond, with a fizzy drink like Fanta bubbling over it. It’s fun, frivolous and totally fabulous. I don’t get any ivy or violet at all and cool rooty or even carroty iris seems nowhere to be found., not as I know it anyway. I do get the praline, vanilla and some resins through the heart and base though which offers some sweet depths, some heft that plays counterpoint with the lovely PEZ like fizz of the higher notes. I don’t really get a great change through Lolita Lempicka EdP but it gradually slides into the base without losing anything, just changing scent volumes. I think I need to spend some more time with Lolita Lempicka EdP, I’m sure it has some secrets hidden that only repeated wearings will unravel.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
I am no great fan of Angel but I am a fan of Lolita Lempicka EdP, it is a calmer, prettier and less strident good time, there is still the candy floss vibe but without the headache inducing size. Yes they have both become cliches but I think that Lolita Lempicka EdP is still an extremely viable fragrance choice. I get excellent projection and sillage, scent life is really good at over 5 hours before it has faded to a sweet nothing.
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Fragrance Shop has $22/50ml
My Perfume Samples starts at $2/ml
Have you spent any time in Lolita Lempicka EdP? Great fragrance, I’ve had such fun wearing it the last few days.
Portia xx
Hello lovely fragrant people,
We are cleaning the Perfume Room and giving it a new paint job. It’s quite a BIG DEAL so over the next couple of days I am dropping in some Video stuff that I’ve found interesting, educational or took me outside my box. Some of it is ONE TOPIC but some will also be TOTALLY OFF TOPIC!
Photo Stiolen TEDxHouston
Today I am introducing you to someone who changed the way I think about how I live my life. You may know I have had some low level depression over the years, nothing dramatic, just a buzz of blue flying low for a while that would disappear as it had come. Part of what my problems were was exactly what Brené Brown talks about here. Opening myself up to being vulnerable. Now Brené Brown wasn’t the first person to give me this blueprint for a happier life, though she does put it better and more amusingly than others, but as I was already beginning the road to change when I heard her speak the resonance was incredible. Give this smart, funny, insightful person a few minutes of your time and she may help you change outmoded behaviour patterns that you are using, or maybe just because it’s a very entertaining watch.
From Wikipedia
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”.
TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event. The annual conference began in 1990, in Monterey, California. TED’s early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its origins in the Silicon Valley.
TED Site <<<JUMP for anyone inspired, anywhere in the world, who would like to go and be a part of these amazing talks.
Please enjoy the amazing……..
Australian Perfume Junkies 