style

Ambre Ceruleen by Pierre Guillaume for Huitieme Art Parfums 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hiya Everyone,

I am a bit of a sucker for a yummy amber but I though I’d reached my limit of FB in the amber range. Since the Huitieme Art Parfums were released in 2010 I had thought the bottles drool worthy, they look like modern art sculpture in the photos and so while visiting LA for the Scentsation Bus Tour my new buddy Tom from the Perfume Posse and Perfume Smellin’ Things and I snuck back into Scent Bar, the physical store for the Lucky Scent Crew. I tried a few of the set and the one that was most interesting on the day, on my skin, in the first 30 minutes was…

Ambre Ceruleen by Huitieme Art Parfums 2010

FG Ambre Ceruleen FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, opoponax, tonka bean, lemon verbena, powder

Straight up the bottle is hefty and the matte finish feels like carved soap stone, porcelain or clay and is cool to the touch, already the experience feels luxurious and interesting. I also like that no light can enter to get to the juice meaning I don’t have to worry about leaving the bottle on my desk which doesn’t get loads of light and is cool. I have found myself reaching for Ambre Ceruleen quite a bit since my return from LA and have worn it almost exclusively since my return from India, I want to feel the bottle and smell the opening rush again and again.

How does it smell on my skin? I absolutely adore the resinous, sweet, crunchy opening that is tempered by the lemon, and made unusual by it. It’s not a lemon cake but there is certainly a nod to that genre and if you love gourmand but are looking for something a little more grown up and sophisticated then this could be the one. It feels like being wrapped up in love and hugged till you can’t breathe with joy. An elegant, inviting and, to me, interesting amber that throws a golden patina over everything. There is a story here but it’s not a huge one, some of the lemon burns off after about an hour and Ambre Ceruleen becomes slightly more woodsy and as it fades the powder becomes more intense. There is still the amber all the way through and it gets a little deeper, a little sweeter, a little deeper again through the long fragrance life which is another great thing.

Ambre Ceruleen Fairy Fedio.netPhoto Stolen Feedio.net

I am getting around 7 hours of fragrance life and when I wear Ambre Ceruleen outside the house it gets noticed, people that don’t normally comment on my fragrance ask questions about it.

This could be the perfect gateway amber for anyone toying with trying the style, beautiful, wearable, practical fragrance that smells excellent. It was lovely in the heat of late LA spring and is gorgeous in the soft winter cool of Sydney, I’m wearing it again today and tonight.

Ambre Ceruleen beads ForeverAmberPhoto Stolen ForeverAmber

Further reading: EauMG really didn’t like it and CandyPerfumeBoy did
LuckyScent has $125/50ml or samples available
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml

Till tomorrow, waft fragrantly and fearlessly,
Portia xxx

Al-Khat by Sergio Momo, Sonia Espelta, Laura Santanda for Xerjoff 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hello High End Nichers,

Do you ever have a sample that rolls around in your drawer for a long time, ignored, and then one day you give it some skin time to find that it is the most beautiful and engaging scent and that you can spritz the whole decant away over the next 4 days at different times?

Al-Khat by Xerjoff 2012

Al-Khat Xerjoff FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine, bergamot, cashmeran, vanilla, oakmoss, benzoin and agarwood (oud)

For some reason I was expecting Al-Khat to blow the back of my head off then pick me up and throw me against a wall while laughing at my outrage, panic and pain. No way, this is SMOOTH! Al-Khat is the Belgian chocolate of oudhs, if you have a problem with the note then this is a perfect way to start with this pretty, caramelised, chocolate covered song of a fragrance.

The opening is rich but light, it smells like the vaults of treasure hoarded by a dragon, with a slight animalic that owes more to scales than fur, like the dry rustle of a snake section at the zoo. The citrus and jasmine is sparkling quietly away but you only notice when you look because this baby is all base. Warm, sweet, sexy and pretty with a slight edge and darkness provided by the oakmoss and oudh. I also get a soft powdery woods scent running in and out that is very comfort scent and as it leaves I hope for it to return, which it does a few times, like a manly talc smell.

Al-Khat snakepit Douglas Fromm FineArtAmericaDouglas Fromm Photo Stolen FineArtAmerica

I smell amazing with Al-Khat on, the decant is nearly all gone after 3 wears and I am thinking that a bottle is definitely in my future, and can’t wait to put it on Jin. It smells like clean, youthful, healthy, moisturised skin warming up for sex as it progresses into the second hour. The drydown is very nice, a slightly dirty vanilla, but not outrageous, inviting perhaps.

Though the scent is ridiculously gorgeous Al-Khat is not a huge projector, staying within a half meter of my body, though it does leave a very light, sweet sillage for a moment and as a fragrance I get about 3-4 hours before I become a slightly better smelling me. Unless you went crazy with the spritzes I think it wearable even for a work scent.

Al-Khat Xerjoff The Guardian of the Seraglio FramingPaintingPhoto Stolen FramingPainting

Further reading CaFleurBon does the whole Xerjoff Oud Stars range and I couldn’t find another review on the first 5 pages of Google. I wonder why? Did the Xerjoff crew piss perfumistas off at some point?
LuckyScent has $315/50ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $7/.5ml

The Xerjoff line is interesting to me, there is not a lot of talk about them on the scentbloggosphere but on FB there is much more. Often Xerjoff will come up as a SOTD. Whatever they are doing for promotion, it’s working. Which of the line have you tried?

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

DIOR: Secret Garden 2 – Versailles

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 4 Comments

Hello APJ Family,

You may remember last year Christan Dior brought out a sensational mini movie shot in Versailles, the Louis XIII through XVI hunting lodge turned palace. I was lucky enough to be in Versailles in February and it snowed during our visit. Outrageously, perfectly, incredible. I would very much like to go back and spend three days looking because there was way too much to take in in one viewing. Here then is this years installment in what looks like it may become a tradition.

DIOR Versailles Hall Of Mirrors Atanar.comPhoto Stolen Atanar.com

I hope you enjoy it and the making of.
Portia xx

‘Secret Garden 2 – Versailles’ | Film

‘Secret Garden 2 – Versailles’ | Behind the scenes

Robert Piguet Masterclass with Joe Garces

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 33 Comments

Hi there Perfumistas,

Today I have the most incredible exciting offer from Libertine Parfumerie (who are always so supportive and generous with APJ), David Jones and Robert Piguet. I hope you are all as excited as I am.

Fracas Robert Piguet Ad vk.comPhoto Stolen vk.com

What is happening? The CEO of Robert Piguet fragrances, Joe Garces, is in Sydney, Australia in June to celebrate the 65 years of Fracas by hosting four one hour Masterclasses that will take us through some of the Piguet fragrance line notes, creation and intent with a Q&A section afterwards. The seats are limited to only 14 per class and Libertine Parfumerie has offered the 2.30pm class on Wednesday June 26 to AustralianPerfumeJunkies! Already from the APJ Contributors we have Madeleine, Margeaux, Michael and Portia coming, from Aussie Fragrance Network Sonya Yu, Jack Seven and Scott Steward and one other person. That leaves SIX places for our lucky readership!!

What: FREE Fragrance Masterclass hosted by Joe Garces
When: 2.30pm Wednesday June 26 2013
Where: Meet 2pm David Jones Sydney City Store cnr Elizabeth & Market St Sydney

Should you purchase any Robert Piguet Fragrance Product on the day there will be a VERY special gift to take home.

If you are taking time off work then you should be back there by 4pm or if you take the afternoon off I thought we could sniff through the halls of David Jones, have a spot of afternoon tea and then trot down to Christian Dior’s flagship store and smell the Couturier range.

Would you like to come and talk perfume with people who are TOTALLY interested and won’t think your habit absurd or you mental? Maybe you can’t wait to pick the brains of someone who makes the perfume world run? It could be that you have never yet smelled Fracas, or any of the other wonderful Robert Piguet line and you’d like to remedy that. Personally, I hope we get a run through of one of the newer fragrances, Bois Noir, which I love and am already considering a purchase of.

RP_Masterclass_Email

Please add your interest in the comments below. Don’t worry if there are already six names, we may be able to siphon you into the other three classes if there are any spaces. Also, it would be terrible if we held a space for you and you did a no show, genuine interested parties only please.

I AM SO FRICKEN EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!

Portia x

Rubj: Extrait de Parfum by Vero Profumo 2007

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 16 Comments

.

Post by Val the Cookie Queen

.

Rubj: Extrait de Parfum by Vero Profumo 2007

Rubj Extrait FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Sweet orange blossom from Morocco, in a mellifluous shimmery dress of the finest notes of musk, earnestly courted by tempting Egyptian jasmine & cumin.

I fell in love with Rubj EDP on New Year´s Eve. I had saved my sample for that evening. So I knew it would only be a matter of time before I had to try the Ruby Extrait. Every time I attempted to get a sample, they were temporarily unavailable. Very annoying. So after writing my last APJ piece on the EDP, I thought, that´s it. I am waiting no longer. I ordered it right then and there, untested. So the waiting game began. I am sure all you APJs and other readers are familiar with the sensation? Adrenalin starts to pump, and our ears become sensitive to the sound of every UPS van within a 5 mile radius!! It only took 4 days, and that included a weekend. I snatched the package and put it into my wardrobe, to be opened in the evening when I wasn´t knee-deep in dough.

I ordered the 7.5 ml bottle. One and a half teaspoons. Gulp.

Such a petite, pretty, feminine bottle. And, luckily for me, the fragrance is ravishing. It won´t please everyone. Which as some of you know, is just the way I like it. It might be a good idea to try it before buying. I don´t want to encourage buying blind. On the other hand, the thrill is exhilarating!

Rubj Extrait Egypt Jasmine CrystalMountainPhoto Stolen CrystalMountain

On my skin it starts out very softly. As it heats up it conjures up strawberries, incense (the hippie kind), saltiness, menthol, rose, musk and ice lollies (the fruity sweet and sour kind). Utterly warm and sensual, and perhaps a little wanton. Not straight up sexual, like the edp. It is kind of radio-active. My whole body glows from it. Ambrosial. Wholly unique. I know of nothing else like it, but I am just at the beginning of my perfumista journey ………..

Rubj Extrait KarmaYogaCenterPhoto Stolen KarmaYogaCenter

Don´t confuse the Rubj EDP with the Rubj Extrait. Related but definitely not identical.

I am chuffed to bits that I bought it. The cat that got the cream. Thank goodness vanilla extract runs a little cheaper!!

You can find more thoughts on Rubj from Olfactoria, Bois de Jasmin, The Candy Perfume Boy
VeroProfumo has an info page with worldwide stores.
LuckyScent has $235/7.5ml or $325/15ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $10/.25ml

Bussis
CQ

Chamade by Jean-Paul Guerlain 1969

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

.

Gabriella

.

Hello fragrance friends. Hope you are well and enjoy today’s post.

Well, like any other perfume obsessive, I’m pretty unfaithful when it comes to scents. Sometimes I’ll wear several a day, let alone dozens in a week. So it’s surprised me that I have been pretty much faithful to one scent for several weeks now:

Chamade by Guerlain 1969

Chamade was created by Jean-Paul Guerlain in 1969, and it was inspired by the Francoise Sagan’s novel “La Chamade” which was later adapted into a movie starring Catherine Deneuve. The word, from French means a drumbeat signifying a retreat from war.

Chamade Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords (Ed: different in the blurb and pictures, I’ve melded):
Top: Hyacinth, Turkish rose,  jasmine, bergamot, aldehydes
Heart: Lilac, cloves, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, galbanum, ylang-ylang, blackcurrant buds,
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, musk, benzoin, amber, tonka bean, Tolu balsam, Peru balsam

Many others have written of the fragrance so beautifully, that I can’t really add much more to what’s been said already. However, the perfume, as many have noted, feels like a perfume in three separate acts. The first is the bright green, spring-like opening of galbanum and hyacinth at first fresh and then powdery; the second act is all about dewy rose and lilac, underpinned by juicy blackcurrant; the final act is another beast entirely, where the green rosiness segues into smooth and sweet vanilla and amber.

Chamade Guerlain TemptaliaPhoto Stolen Temptalia

I acquired my bottle of Chamade a few months ago, knowing it was hard to find here in Australia and a classic. I initially regretted my purchase and wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. Fast forward some time and Chamade is now so perfect to me, I’m actually wondering how I lasted without it as long as I did. The perfume is everything I’d like to think I am and everything I want in the idealized version of myself: sophisticated, elegant, intelligent, beautiful and warm. It is at once a perfect adornment whilst at the same time being innately part of me. For note, I have the EDP version.

Chamade Gown TrendsEvePhoto Stolen TrendsEve

Further reading:Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This

SurrendertoChance has samples starting at $3/ml

Have you tried Chamade? Have you been more faithful to one fragrance lately? What perfumes are currently in rotation for you?

With much love until next time!
M x

N°5 CULTURE CHANEL – Interview with Christopher Sheldrake, CHANEL Perfumer

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 5 Comments

Hi All,

After some missing of planes and arriving 12 hours late and a whole bunch of stuff I must apologise that this is very little and late. Still it is interesting to see Christopher Sheldrake talk about CHANEL No 5 Exhibition. He is quietly handsome and engaging. I hope you like it.

Portia xx

CHANEL SeedOfHappinessStolen from SeedOfHappiness

N°5 CULTURE CHANEL – Interview with Christopher Sheldrake, CHANEL Perfumer

Coco (Modern) by Jacques Polge for CHANEL 1984

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 26 Comments

Hello Fragrant Fumies,

This is one of my girlfriends, hello Alice I’m looking at you, favourite fragrances. While in LA last week my mate Thomas Pease from PerfumePosse and Perfume Smellin’ Things and I were trolling the malls of LA together. It was super fun and I was looking for a few things including the large 35ml spritz of CHANEL No 5 Parfum which I am finding impossible to get my hands on, anyone know where I can grab it? Anyway, during our travels we spritzed the modern incarnation of

Coco by CHANEL 1984

Coco FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, pomegranate blossom, mandarin orange, peach, jasmine and Bulgarian rose
Heart: Mimose, cloves, orange blossom, clover and rose
Base: Labdanum, amber, sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax, civet and vanilla

I am usually of the mind that all change is good, progressive, necessary unless it’s an obvious exception like finding ways to log virgin rainforest faster or better and quicker ways to torture people for information, now I’ve added a new one: REFORMULATION!! Yes, I understand that the fragrance community is self regulating and these changes are important but OMfreakingG! If this was not called Coco I would have thought it a summer flanker of Coco. This is what a softened, prettied, lighter and less ambitious Coco should feel like for summer wearings. If it was that I would say, “BRILLIANT! CHANEL have thought this out and done a superb job of bringing the fragrance up to date without losing its original idea completely, as a fun and frivolous, sunny reference point. A Coco water-colour if you like.” But to sell this non-Coco and claim it as the truth, NO! Like claiming the first and second paintings below are as filled with warmth, depth and colour, though both are beautiful they are not the same.

CHANEL Coco florinda watercolourPhoto Stolen FranzXaverWinterhalter

CHANEL Coco Lányok bál után HungArtHungaryPhoto Stolen HungArtHungary

Is there anything left to love about Coco Modern? Sure. If you had never worn it before and were just discovering perfume you would think it beyond beautiful. Still with that perfect CHANEL blending, still a Fl-Oriental and still quite a bit more exotic that most of the range. What it lacks is the dirty bitch grind and sexy, sensual, animalic undertones that were a warning as much as a signal for seduction. Coco Modern is almost office wearable and its predecessor is most definitely not in the current frag climate. They have castrated our Coco and I for one am sad.

Coco is available for FREE spritzing at most department stores.
EssentalMall starts at 50ml EdT/$109
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

See you tomorrow,
Portia xx

Zombie for Him by Demeter Fragrance Library 2013

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 13 Comments
.
Post by Kymme CV
.
Greetings testers…this post is not for the squeamish, faint of heart, those who are afraid of things that go bump in the night and/or don’t enjoy eating brains! Demeter Fragrance Library has caught on to the latest zombie craze and have bought for our olfactory delight Zombie for Him and Zombie for Her (on sale for a limited time only). Ladies, gentlemen and the undead…
.

Zombie for Him by Demeter Fragrance Library 2013

Zombie Demeter FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Dried leaves, mushrooms, mildew, moss and earth
.
Being a sucker for advertising of any kind, I followed the pretty link on LuckyScents website.  (Incidentally I’d also seen a series of photos on the World of Wonder blog, but didn’t connect the dots until visiting the Demeter website).  My curiosity got the better of me, so off to SurrenderToChance I went to get me a sample.

Zombie Demeter TheWeekPhoto Stolen TheWeek
Before giving in to a very demanding Portia and giving my review, I wanted to see what others thought about Zombie for Him, so I picked on some unsuspecting victims at work where I did some blind testing.  Not only where the results interesting on a fragrance interpretation level, but it also raised a valid scientific question ie., is the female brain wired differently from the male brain when it comes to the sense of smell? I don’t mean, for example, if a plate of cheese were placed before a blindfolded man and a blindfolded woman would they both smell cheese.  The answer is of course ‘yes’, but if they were asked to describe the cheese, would they say the same thing?  This has probably been studied and results published, nevertheless I found my blinded results quite remarkable.
.
I asked five colleagues to extend their fragrance free wrists for a squirting.  I asked them to tell me, without thinking too deeply about it, the first thing that came to mind when they smelt the fragrance for the first time.  They had no prior knowledge of the name of the fragrance…the results:
.
Guinea pig 1 – immediately got salad dressing (variety unknown)
Guinea pig 2 – lemons
Guinea pig 3 – pine/forest smells
Guinea pig 4 – dug soil
Guinea pig 5 – the smell of a florist’s shop
.
So, from the results above, could you pick the girls from the boys?
.
Would it shock or surprise you to know that 3 and 4 were boys and the others girls? It did me…I thought we’d all smell the same thing.  When I told them the name of the fragrance, number 2 couldn’t wait to wash it off! I consoled her by saying that no dead bodies were harmed in the making of the fragrance!!
Zombie Demeter AmericaBlogPhoto stolen AmericaBlog
Zombie for Him is exactly what it says on the tin…less the rotting flesh and blood and guts.  I immediately get dirt, dug soil and cut grass.  The mix is not an unpleasant smell either.  It’s heavy on the dirt and dug soil, but it’s a nice earthy heavy, if you’ll excuse the pun. On it’s own it’s a refreshing daytime scent and even though it’s called Zombie, I could imagine Bill the vampire (True Blood) wearing this.  Zombie for Him, as I suspect with many Demeter fragrances, can be mixed with other fragrances…I was daring and wore it with Chanel’s Cocomandrel and it made a very enjoyable warm scent and one I will wear again tomorrow.
.
Zombie for Him is available at the Demeter site $20/30ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/2ml
Brains for all!
Kymme