So Boyfriend is not new but I do like the way Kate Walsh has thought out her fragrance. That it is a set for layering, works with most other scents and has a fun boyfriend story to boot. She talks really well and interestingly here.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Woody notes, amber, flowers, dark plum, myrrh, lily of the valley, night blooming jasmine and musk.
Short and sweet today. You all know how I love Tom Ford and think he understands fashion and the craziness all that embodies better than anyone else I know of on the planet.
Azure Lime by Tom Ford 2010
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Woodsy notes, floral notes, citrus, musk
Light, sparkling, fizzy lime opens up and stays for ages, as it calms the woods and musk play salty beach samba rhythms till tomorrow lunchtime. Are there really flowers? I never smelled them but what I can smell is so gorgeous and fun, then so reminiscent of summer that it is beyond good. Definite date night with intentions to cook breakfast and roll around in bed till teatime. It will last and smell gorgeous till then. Promise.
Loads of reviewers are complaining that it smells like a cologne that you can get across the aisle for much less money. I agree that it smells a little like them, it’s fresh, aquatic in the best sense and summery, and yes, if you wore the cheaper versions you would smell nice too but Azure Lime has a swagger, a cock-sure-ness that they lack, and is blended so beautifully that I think it justifies the extra spend if you have that kind of money. Otherwise cross the aisle and get something withing your budget. The idea is to smell good, not beggar yourself. Maybe you could get a sample or decant of Azure Lime, or go in on a split?
As usual, Tom Ford photographed his namesake label’s campaign himself. This season, the 51 year old fashion designer and movie director photographed models Karlina Caune and Simon Van Meervenne, clad in the latest collection from Tom Ford naturally.
What is with the weather in Australia this summer? While Portia has been exploring a winter wonderland in Europe we’ve experienced heat-waves, flooding, crazy storms and bush fires. I hope the APJ family has made it through the extreme weather without any major dramas. The weather in Brisbane this week has been more rain and my backyard is becoming overgrown. Between showers last weekend I got out in the backyard, trudged through the long grass to cut back the overgrown geraniums and prune the lavender. The damp green smell with lavender and geranium leaves reminded me of Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica lists the fragrance notes.
Top: spicy-green-mint note of geranium leaves, Sicilian lemon, lavender and chocolate notes
Middle: honeysuckle, magnolia, and lily of the valley
Base: cashmere wood, musk, vetiver, teak wood and amber
When I dare to wear Covet it’s a bit like entering the wilderness of my backyard to prune my geraniums and lavender. The opening of Covet is energising with some really interesting green notes. There is loads of lavender that combines nicely with the lemon and chocolate. The chocolate is not at all sweet and wafts in and out. There are some really lovely floral notes in Covet too. The warm base notes of musk and woods are earthy and long lasting.
Covet is louder, bolder and more sophisticated than Lovely, the original Sarah Jessica Parker fragrance. However once the initial intense opening of Covet dies down there are a lot of similarities to Lovely with the lavender, lovely floral notes and woody, musk base.
If you like Lovely then you should try Covet for a more intense perfume experience. But if you prefer sweet fruity celebuscents then you will probably prefer SJP NYC. See the Sarah Jessica Parker page on my website for more fragrances by SJP.
I have not really spent any amount of time with the Prada fragrances. Though Prada opened back in 1913, it was while I was at Fashion School during the 1980s that they really started to take over the world. I have loved their meteoric rise and swooned with delight at some of their runway stuff but it has never seemed to be a good fit for me or my life so I pretty much left them alone. One grey cashmere jumper is all I’ve owned from Prada and it is looking decidedly worse for wear after being dragged from pillar to post around the world since the 1990s. To tell the truth the label fell out in its first week and I caught a sleeve on a London bus not even a month after buying it in Rome. So it has been a mended item since then, seriously luxe and comfortable though even now.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these notes in one line:
Mandarin orange, neroli, tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom
Like my Prada pullover I find Infusion de Fleur d’Oranger extremely comfortable. It is fresh, warm and bright, basically staying that way with a fade rather than a story, though it still holds some differences with each wear. The copy calls it a middle ground between Prada’s Exclusive Scent No. 4 Fleur de Oranger and Infusion d`Iris, and that is a pretty good representation of it. Infusion de Fleur d’Oranger is simple, uncluttered fragrance that gives 4-6 hours depending on other factors. I love the 100ml bottle, it’s so hefty and square, to me it has a refined elegance that adds to my enjoyment every time I spritz. Originally I bought decants but I was going through them so it was time for a bottle and the box is also lovely in a black, lime and pink ex fabric combo Prada had in its collection a few years ago. Last week I put it on over one of my favourite body lotions and it went totally toilet spray for an hour, awful, but usually I find it an easy spritz, waft and wear fragrance suitable for all but the most fragrance phobic of workplaces.
Today I sit swathed in the glory of Ubar. I jumped onto a split with the fabulous Ruth K of FFF, thanks mate. Coming from last century it feels like ancient niche to me.
Ubar by Amouage 1995
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Top: Tangerine, orange, litsea cubeba and violet leaf Heart: Jasmine, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, tuberose, freesia, lily-of-the-valley and palisander rosewood Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, vetiver, copahu balm and black amber
It is so thick and dense and lavish, reminiscent of fragrances of old and full of animal and human depths. Ubar smells like I remember perfume smelling when I was a kid. Rich, intense and glorious. The first 2 hours are big and wonderfully powerful on me and then it calms to a stealthy purr that comes upon me unexpected and gives me a little waft of wow every time. I’ve been out and about in Ubar doing return from holidays chores: bank, hair, car, bills, and it has stayed with me all morning. There is a story but its a not a tale of surprises and jolts, more a blossoming and then a fade. I lose track of Ubar at the 6-7 hour mark, fine longevity and I’m sure there is still some fragrance there but I can’t smell it. I wonder how long this decant will last, I’m guessing not long.
The Lost City of Ubar Photo Stolen TheSecretWorldSP
I must have purchased these fabulous set of samples from somewhere but I can’t for the life of me remember doing it. I also wonder if Jin went looking through the fragrance online world and found them, maybe the perfumer sent them? I am lost but can I just let you in on a secret: they are great!!
White Lotus by Illuminum Haute Perfume 2012
Photo Stolen Illuminum
Top: Lily of the valley, blue lotus Heart: Egyptian jasmine, Indian tuberose Base: Lotus absolute, musk, patchouli
From the Illuminum site: If innocence had a horizon at its borders, you would find a pond of Lotus. Its beauty is impossible to describe as it is a blend of moods, tones and bricks of imagination where beauty, purity and your most angelic desires meet.
White Lotus opens very pretty, the lily and lotus are soft and fleshy, almost plastic, like when you run your nail down a petal. Within 5 minutes they are already eclipsed by the heart of jasmine and very womanly tuberose. Not skanky though, just feminine, a little breathy and silky like healthy, young, taut, tanned skin after a scrub and moisturiser. White Lotus is a little softer than I am used to, a veil more than a mask. They sit lightly on top of my own scent and weave through it, in a way they become me, an interesting offering from Michael Boadi a UK stylist/hairdresser to the magazines and stars. I am definitely fragrant but in the softest and most unobtrusive way. Tenacious yet unassuming, best sprayed into fabric as well as on yourself, I can still smell it in my top the day after next.
The bottles look really hefty and their stark, linear shape is classy and elegant in the pictures. I think White Lotus is the perfect scent when you want to feel luxe but just for yourself and someone intimate. Perfect even for fragrance phobic workplaces, this will sail under everyone’s radar, and secretly you will smell fabulous.
Tried anything, or any brand completely new this week? I can’t wait to try some more Illuminum for you all. I have the set so await the next installment.
Take care of yourselves and those around you,
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx
Launched all the way back in 1997 when I was a mere 22 years of age, I didn’t buy my first bottle of this until the early 2000’s when the local department stores interest in it started to wane and the cost came down. After you’ve read a few of my “reviews” you’ll see that there is a recurring theme here – I’m cheap and hate paying full price for fragrance, even if it means waiting for a few years til the novelty has worn off and others are onto the next hot thing. Billed as a woody aromatic for men, in my experience it doesn’t stray too far away from the familiarity of other Boss scents. They’ve carved out a deserved reputation for everyday fragrances for men over the years. Not overly adventurous in my experience but for men that aren’t as into this as we stink junkies are, they can safely rely on a Boss fragrance delivering what they need.
The first spritzes (again remember I am a super heavy spritzer) I find to be very pleasing, not overly tart or demanding, but you definitely get a strong tantalizing waft of a lovely fresh masculine scent. I’m usually applying this one as soon as I’ve dried off from the morning shower, and I love the crispness of those opening notes and the way it plays with my senses in those minutes as I get ready for my day ahead. Really peps me up!
There’s a lovely wash of the mint and just a hint of the pineapple that opens this up, and as it starts to settle down the lavender joins in keep things interesting. It’s nearly like a gently softly scented soap at this point but nowhere near as soapy sterile for my nose.
When the mid notes to start to warm it up ever so slightly, its still quite green, which I am learning is most likely the inclusion of freesia. After a good 30 minutes or so, it definitely begins to progress towards a spicier tone thanks to the tea and pepper, coriander and I can detect the beginnings of the base notes coming through. I’m a sucker for sandalwood based smells and actively go looking for them, and although this one tends to be a little light on the sandalwood, it is there and hangs in for the run which tends to fade around the 8 hour mark on my skin.
The real surprise for me in this set of ingredients is the patchouli, which no matter where I smell it always, ALWAYS, reminds me of opening Madonna’s Like A Prayer album all the way back in 1989. When the album was initially released, it was heavily perfumed with patchouli. I was working in a record store at the time and I found the heady smell intoxicating for those weeks when we held and sold an incredible amount of this album. (Does anyone else remember this? It was amazing!)
So I think you’ve got the idea that Elements Aqua has become a firm favourite of mine, I think I may have gone through at least 5 or 6 bottles so far. I usually have a 100ml and a 50ml on the go at once, the smaller one being my travel smell because it just works brilliantly no matter what I’m doing. I find it to be exceptionally wearable just about anywhere, anytime.
I also love that as its notoriety has waned, there are fewer guys that seem to be wearing it. If you are looking for a bargain scent that just about everyone will love, you could do worse than ignore this forgotten gem before it disappears forever.
My mate Jordan has often talked to me about todays fragrance and when I saw it for a reasonable price on a friends sell list I jumped at the chance. As you may know I was taught by Nuns and then Jesuits and there was an enormous amount of RC Church going involved in my formative years, not to mention my choir years.
Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Avignon 2002
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
French labdanum, spices, incense, chamomile, vanilla, patchouli, ambrette, oakmoss, musk, olibdanum, myrrh, Brazillian rosewood, Virginia cedar, elemi
If you want to know what church smelled like, it may still, then you need to get your hands on Avignon. It opens like the refectory where we would get ready for the processional entrance and the priest would have his censer in readiness: incense, frankincense, myrrh, wood, men and boys, excitement. At once spicy, woody, aromatic and smoky Avignon becomes woodier and darker as it wears on the skin, but there is also a sweetness that emerges from time to time and becomes more prominent towards the dry down. A circular and circuitous fragrance, it feels linear because you keep coming back to the same pieces but in different arrangements, so similar but not the same. One moment you think the woods have moved into stay, next it’s all about the smoking incense, then vanilla-esque warmth and resins. There even seems to be a wood wax bit like they shone the pews and wooden kneeling pads, and also a candle wax accord. Am I imagining things? Also the scent of a blown out match and something quite alcoholic. Towards the end it fades slowly, never losing its integrity, just intensity, and remains beautiful and haunting to the end.
Unusually for an incense fragrance I get quite a long wear 5+ hours and counting on this occasion, but I spritzed in the cool of evening, in the day with more heat and movement the lifespan is a good deal shorter. This is a wear it for myself fragrance, though I imagine you could wear it almost anywhere except close working/fragrance phobic workplaces. It would be especially fun to wear to church, dinner with clergy or anyone, shopping, picnicking, movies etc.
Have you been to Catholic rites? How does the incense in Avignon effect you? What if you aren’t from a Catholic background, does incense still effect you?
So many new questions every time I find some kind of answer for another one. It is kind of exciting to be questing though,
See you tomorrow.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Photo Stolen 
Australian Perfume Junkies 