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Dot by Annie Buzantian and Ann Gottlieb for Marc Jacobs 2012

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Hello Christmas Shoppers,

Buying for tweens, teens and young adults can be hard. Perfume buying for same a NIGHTMARE! Not only because they are mainly so indoctrinated and brain washed to think that sweet, fruity, patchouli and clean musks are the only things that smell good but also because they are often so damn ungrateful about the time you’ve taken to get something that you feel is just right. In the end it’s easier to go with the flow.

Dot by Marc Jacobs 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pitahaya (Dragon Fruit), red berries, honeysuckle
Heart: Coconut, orange blossom, jasmine
Base: Musk, vanilla, driftwood

When I first saw that Marc Jacobs was doing Dot with the super crazy bottle I was all, ” Oh Gawd! What a freakin’ SHOCKER! Why bother with that gimmicky CRAPOLA! He has insulted our intelligence with BLEAGH!” And then I read the note list and thought maybe this will be a little different. Still I only gave it a mini spritz as I was wandering the department store counters and smelled sweet fruits, went immediately to the bathroom and after that washed my hands, so the only impression I got of Marc Jacob’s Dot was the Gawd awful bottle and sweet fruit. Then I saw the below interview and read a bit about the 2 perfumers responsible for Dot who between them are responsible for some super great fragrances, Annie Buzantian, Pleasures & Puredistance 1 and Ann Gottlieb, CK Contradiction & SJP Covet. Maybe it’s time to revisit Dot with Christmas coming up because if I buy the young ones fragrance that I would wear then it will sit unused forever.

So it was with great trepidation I decided to go back to the mall. At this point I just finished reading PerfumePosseHATEList and guess what? Dot was #2 after Marc Jacobs Lola. Oh Dear!

OK. Dot was nice, but not amazing, and not something I could imagine myself wearing. I can see the youth market enjoying it and it lasted about 5 hours before I lost it completely. Opens big and bright and fruity, calms quickly and then pretty linear but the fruity sweetness becomes more vanilla towards the dry down. I did not hate it and can’t imagine anyone being offended by your wearing it.

Photo Stolen langhamherbs

If you want to read further NowSmellThis

FragranceShop has 50ml $71
MyPerfumeSamples starts at $3/ml but I got the $9/5ml deal

I hope this has been some help when searching for a more youthful fragrance and idea. It’s pretty and safe but will be an excellent gateway product for budding perfumistas, they will have a cut above their peer celebuscents but not be out of their league.
Good luck,
Portia xx

Marc Jacobs talks about Dot

Dot Ad

Aftelier Perfumes Reviews

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Hey Fumie Crew,

Don’t forget to have a go in our Aftelier Giveaway in yesterdays post and check my Guest Post on PerfumePosse today please,

Wednesday we were lucky enough to Interview Mandy Aftel, you still have time to enter Thursday’s Aftelier Giveaway and today we are looking at 3 of her fragrances. Two of these, Sepia and Parfum de Maroc, are already in my Fragrance Library on high rotation and I have a feeling the newest release Wild Roses isn’t far behind. I’m putting Wild Roses at the top of my Christmas Wish List and you might think about buying someone you love a set of the samples with a promissory note of a full bottle if they love one.

Wild Roses

Photo Stolen PerfumePharmer

Floral: to capture in perfume the experience of walking around my garden and smelling each rose, as their perfumes blended in my nose.
Top: rose CO2, heliotropin, bergamot, geraniol, m-methyl anthranilate, damascenone.
Heart: apricot, Turkish rose absolute, pimento berry, p-ethyl alcohol, rose petals attar.
Base: tarragon absolute, vanilla absolute, indole, aged patchouli.

I love the opening in Wild roses, dark like deep red rose petals left to dry and alcoholic. Imagine rose water and brandy but not mixed; side by side, like that; you get the idea. I dabbed and I find it rich, treacle-ish and warming. Sizzling rose water sherbet so thick you can become lost. I am going to order a bit more for myself so I can spritz. My mind is offerering me no perfume correlation to this magnificent rose. Spicy, boozy, fresh, dark, sweet, narcotic and magical: Mandy Aftel says this is to have become drunk on the scent of all roses. Yes, it certainly gives that feeling, floating o a sea of roses, buoyant, drifting. Only into the first hour but I’m finding it a linear scent that seems to be warming slowly, it feels like it will be around for hours and hours more.

Further reading PerfumePharmer and SmellyThoughts

Parfum de Maroc


Photo Stolen from Aftelier

I forgot what a delicious journey Parfum de Maroc (perfume of Morocco) takes you on. At once spicy, sweet and resinous like the best curries the opening of Parfum de Maroc is so enticing and full of nuance. It is warm here in Sydney and I feel like I’m back in Africa or India standing near a street vendor as the spices hit the ghee on the hot pan under the baking sun.This is the kind of spicy gourmand that makes me salivate in expectation of a flavour explosion. I now remember what saffron smells like because the opening is pure saffron and cardamom, and reminds me of sitting with my BFF Kath on my birthday at the Wildflower Hall in Shimla watching the chefs cook fabulous meals through the glass and flirting outrageously with our waiter. I get 4-6 hours from Parfum de Maroc depending on my day.

From Aftelier Perfumes website;
Spicy floral inspired by an ancient Moroccan spice recipe Ras el Hanout or “top of the shop” – a mixture of the best spices a seller has to offer….
Top: saffron, galangal.
Heart: Turkish rose, nutmeg.
Base: cardamom, myrrh.

Further reading ThisBlogReallyStinks and TheAlembicatedGenie

Sepia

Photo Stolen from perfumepharmer

Sepia is a bit of a blockbuster on my skin. It is warm and dusty, floral and powdery, woody, smoky, dry and sere and smells to me like rural Australia. I can close my eyes and smell the unbroken expanses of sun beaten, dessicated red-earth desert where the properties are 1000’s of square kilometers with sheep, wheat and cattle. Many of the smaller towns have been engulfed in the last 50 years and stand silent, crumbling, with only their stone chimneys left like a mouth full of broken teeth. Sepia is the outback. It is also lovely and surprisingly strong. Still powering at 3 hours, now smelling like attics and bookstores Sepia warms and dirties towards dry down at around 5 hours with a skin scent remnant for a couple more.

From Aftelier Perfumes website;
Dry woods: Sepia is a tint, a watercolor wash, an atmosphere, a memory
Top: blood cedarwood, yellow mandarin, pink grapefruit.
Heart: pink lotus, strawberry, jasmine grandiflorum, cocoa, coffee.
Base: flowering tobacco, oud, indole, ambergris, cepes, labdanum.

Further reading PerfumeShrine and TheAlembicatedGenie

All of these delicious fragrances and many more available as well as candles, teas and cooking flavours at AftelierPerfumeswhere they have a sensational Sample Program

I hope you have enjoyed our Mandy Aftel and Aftelier Perfumes extravaganza this week. Don’t forget to go back to yesterday and have a go in our Aftelier Giveaway, good luck. Also don’t forget to go and check my Guest Post on PerfumePosse today please, say Hi while you’re there, it gives me shivers of pleasure when you do.

Till tomorrow,
Portia xx

Aftelier Perfumes

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 131 Comments

Hello Stink Monkeys!!

Yesterday we were lucky enough to Interview Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes and she has kindly sent us not one but TWO GIVEAWAY PACKS!! They are both different fragrance sets and no, you don’t get to choose, they will go out to our two winners randomly.

AFTELIER PERFUMES GIVEAWAY!

Photo Stolen

How Do You Enter?

You must follow AustralianPerfumeJunkies via RSS, Email, WordPress, please tell me RSS/eM/WP in your comment. Yes, you can join and follow to be eligible. EASY!

You must also tell me any Aftelier Perfume/EdP/Candle/Tea/Chef’s Essence currently available on the Aftelier Perfume Website (<<JUMP). NO DOUBLE UPS!! There is enough fabulous stuff on the site that we can have hundreds of commenters before we need to repeat anything. Got It? EASY PEASY!!

What’s In The Packs?

PACK #1
Lumiere Spray Tester
Tango Spray Tester
Wild Roses Parfum Splash Micro

PACK #2
Wild roses Spray Tester
Secret Garden Spray Tester
Honey Blossom Parfum Splash Micro

EXTRA!!!
If we have more than 50 Separate Individual Commenters I will also draw a $25 Aftelier Gift Voucher, more than 100 Separate Individual Commenters I will draw 2 x $25 Aftelier Gift Vouchers

Extra Chances
You can earn an extra chance each for
Facebooking this link: AFTELIER DOUBLE GIVEAWAY https://australianperfumejunkies.com/2012/11/29/aftelier-perfumes-double-giveaway/
Tweeting this: https://australianperfumejunkies.com/2012/11/29/aftelier-perfumes-double-giveaway/ @OzPerfumeJunkie Aftelier Perfumes DOUBLE GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen Aftelier

Entries Close Saturday December 1st 10pm AEDST and winners will be announced in a separate post on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and TSO Jin will pick them. He doesn’t even stop watching TV to do it usually.
Winners will have till Wednesday December 5th to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or I will give the prize to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit too.

Photo of Mandy Aftel stolen Aftelier Perfumes

What are you waiting for? If you haven’t already done so, JUMP TO IT!! Aftelier Website link
See you tomorrow for reviews of the Aftelier range of fragrances.
Portia xx

Givrine by Evelyne Boulanger for E.Coudray (1950, 2004)

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Gabriella

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I am hoping for a long, hot summer down here in Sydney. Judging from the wet, cold and dire spring weather we’ve had over the past few weeks, I’m afraid my hopes might be in vain, but that doesn’t mean my olfactory choices can’t reflect a sense of optimism.

I’ve therefore been compiling scents for sweltering and humid conditions as summer temperatures can sometimes reach the high 30 or low 40-degree celsius mark come January. When you have had a long day, all you want to do is peel off damp work clothes, have a cool shower, turn up the air conditioning and slip on a soft cotton t-shirt and shorts. On days and nights like these, I want my perfume to be light and fresh, but still devastatingly feminine and pretty.

Givrine by E.Coudray (1950, 2004)

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Kumquat, bergamot and watermelon
Heart: Peony, gardenia, violet and lily-of-the-valley
Base: Sandalwood, patchouli, musk and white woods.

Enter Givrine by E. Coudray, a soft floral citrus perfume that sounds like the perfect thing for such needs. Les Senteurs even describes it as “the perfect summer holiday perfume – fresh and carefree and exhilarating”. The scent was originally launched in 1950 and then reissued in 2004 by perfumer Evelyne Boulanger. There’s very little information about Givrine, and discrepancies in notes lists. I was expecting a scent that was soft and clean. I was, however, thoroughly unprepared for Givrine’s supreme elegance and classical beauty.
It opens with a vibrant accord of mandarin and bergamot, so rich and lush, it speaks of old-school sophistication and grand chypres of yesteryear. The rose then comes to life – a rich red rose – with the citrus notes making it velvety and bright. The citrus fades rather quickly and the rose note is then underscored by powdery violets and peony. The florals here are all boudoir: a ballgown on a chaise longue, silk stockings, softly lit dressing table, crystal perfume bottles and jewellery boxes filled with strands of pearls.
Photo Stolen visit-the-farm
The effect also recalls the times when perfume rituals were taken seriously and women bathed in bath oil and sprinkled talcum before dabbing on the matching parfum. The result is a fragrant mille-feuille of dozens of soft petals gently caressing warm skin. The petals aren’t the colours of a vibrant rainbow, but the most delicate lilacs and pinks of a Monet painting. The rose-violet accord is accentuated by a hint of gardenia, the dry down a mellow skin scent of soft woods.
Givrine brings back memories of when I was a teenager. I was obsessed with fashion and would spend my pocket money on huge tomes of sea-freighted US Vogue, wide-eyed over the Chanel ads and pictures of Linda, Christy and Naomi. My parents, for various Christmases and birthdays, also bought me all the books in the Vogue “decades” series: “The 1930s in Vogue” and so on. Givrine to me is the “The 1950s in Vogue”. It’s not a femme fatale of the era like Jane Russell or Marilyn Monroe, but rather the smooth, feline curves of a Hitchcock blonde.
Photo stolen sensibility
Givrine is also the demure little sister to the pin-up diva of Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose. Both feature a central rose-violet accord, but the grapefruit and vetiver in Lipstick Rose gives it more lushness and vibrancy. Givrine’s powdery woodiness is somewhat more sedate and refined.
It’s not my first choice for a “t-shirt-after-a-shower” fragrance but would help me keep my poise during a blisteringly hot work day.
For more reviews, please see Fragrantica and Now Smell This, which reviews the original version.
Givrine is available at Les Senteurs and at Madame B in Melbourne as well as many other places worldwide, according to the E. Coudray website.
Samples from Les Senteurs are £5, while the 100ml EDT is £63.
Have you tried Givrine? What’s your favourite rose or violet fragrance? What’s your perfume of choice when the heat just gets that little too much?
With much love till next time!
M x

Grab Bag LIVE Video Sniff

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

Hey Happy Huffers,

Today EmmaKate and I take a little look at 3 entirely different perfumes, not only in scent but in price and availability. As usual we only give you the top notes and development is left for full posts which may happen in the future.

If we have made mistakes, left anything out or generally have misfired in any way, please leave us a message in the comments so everyone else can have a good laugh at us too. We don’t mind but we do like be put straight when we’re wrong.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Jennifer Aniston (NOT- Lolavie) – Jennifer Aniston 2010
Fragrantica gives these featured accords
Top: Citruses, rose
Heat: Jasmine, violet, lily
Base: Musk, sandalwood, amber

Photo Stolen fragrantica

Amber Oud – by Killian 2011
Fragrantica gives these featiured accords in one line:
Amber, oud, Madagascar vanilla, benzoin from Laos

Photo Stolen news.bbc.co.uk

Jackeroo – Bud Parfumes by Howard Jarvis
Fragrantica gives only the note leather
Buy Jackeroo $20/10ml at Bud Parfums

This week we have some really exciting stuff happening on the blog. I hope you come back and have a squiz,
Loads of love,
Portia xx

Cartier – L’Odyssée and Making Of Documentary

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hello Beautiful People,
If ever there was a time where my writing was superfluous, this is it. Please enjoy these 2 Cartier movies. you may have seen one or both before but it’s worth having another look.

Photo Stolen thesnapassembly
Until we see you tomorrow please be good to yourselves and those around you,
Portia xx

Cartier – Behind the scenes of L’Odyssée


Cartier – L’Odyssée

02 L`Air du Desert Marocain by Andy Tauer for Tauer Perfumes 2005

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 34 Comments

Hello Happy Huffers,

Andy Tauer is a name most perfumistas know, many love his work and can’t get enough, some find it horrific and can’t understand why the rest of us are so smitten. Tauer-ade is the killer, long lasting fragrant base that Tauer Perfumers are famous for but on some skins it turns into a screaming nightmare with the half life of uranium. Luckily, i am one of the former, not merely smitten with the fragrances but also with Andy Tauer himself who looks remarkably like Homer Simpson’s sexy Christian neighbour Ned Flanders.


See what I mean? Really, it’s uncanny isn’t it? I can’t take all the credit for this discovery but I am thrilled that you are now in on the secret.

02 L`Air du Desert Marocain by Tauer Perfumes 2005

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, cumin, petitgrain
Heart: Rock rose, jasmine
Base: Cedar, vetiver, ambergris

I love this spicy opening, like a blast of herbal resin, sweet, sharp and delicious. The opening feels more wet than you’d expect in a fragrance named for the Moroccan Desert, as if you’ve landed at an oasis after the arid desert dryness. The ambient wetness seems to dry within a few minutes and while keeping a spicy feel the focus turns floral, but not a bouquet. If ambergris it is then I feel its salty tang, but that could be the vetiver, and it flows in before the first half hour is over tamping down the florals and keeping them as background noise. I don’t read vanilla in the notes, or amber, but maybe the rock rose has hints of labdanum because I’m getting a lovely warmth and sweetness. I don’t know really but these are the things I am picking up, the cedar is a lovely freshly hewn scent.
.

Photo Stolen saharawelcome

Though L`Air du Desert Marocain is named for the desert I feel the only thing desert-ish about it is the lovely sense of space between the notes, an airiness. I was expecting armpits, camels, dust and dog mixed with zinging spices and the sizzle of oil over a wood fire. What I get is a beautifully constructed fragrance that hints at the cloudless sky, a long expanse of desolate space, the warmth and waxiness of desert plants and the seraglio, filled with clean and bodily hairless women softly sweating in the heat and awaiting their masters pleasure.
.

Photo Stolen from bigdave44

Further reading BoisDeJasmin and TheScentedHound

Andy Tauer’s webpage has 50ml $102
PoshPeasant starts at $5/ml

Have you tried any Tauer Perfumes? How were they on you? Do you have a fave?
Thank you so much for dropping in, see you tomorrow.

Portia xx

Versilia Vintage – Boise by Profumi del Forte 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

G’Day to you all,

Do you ever rummage through your samples looking for something and never find it because you’ve been stopped by something else that completely takes your fancy? I was going looking for my INeKE Gilded Lily to spend a little more time in its glorious company when I came across a frag that I had wanted to try but become enamoured of its twin and completely forgot to go back when the next haul of goodies arrived, so

Versilia Vintage – Boise by Profumi del Forte 2009

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bitter orange, bergamot, vetiver
Heart: Bourbon geranium, lavender, honey
Base: Texas cedar, Indonesian patchouli, Tonka, Philippine elemi

Fragrantica & LucyScent said: Versilia Vintage – Boise reinterprets how perfumers admire pine forests by making a precious and delicate composition with character. Subtle and elite. A journey modulated by fragrances of citrus, then flowers of lavender and sweet honey, and finally persistent and woody: delicate with character

I love the opening here, my skin gives me a burst of salty citrus, almost minty and very early there is the sweet honey that smells like a spicy sweet Thai dish. The vetiver is lemon grassish and the geranium adds a green snappy spark too. Before half an hour has passed the foodiness has wafted away and left a very appealing something that I can’t parse but its a salty lavender wood, no it’s not exactly that but clearly my scent vocabulary is not up to the task. Thai coconut curry is what happens next including the rice; and before you ask, “NO, I am not hungry, just ate.” Do I have to know what I’m smelling? In the end, no, but I do like to be able to tell you more than just please go try this if you want to smell something usual but slightly skewed, as if I’m smelling something again but it has changed for the better. Much better.

Still pumping away this lovely salty floral after a couple of hours and looks set to stay for the duration. Pushing on to 4 hours and I’m getting really lovely warm woods and some humus rich earth smelling so good; warm and yummy.

Photo Stolen wildattitude

The only Versilia Vintage – Boise reference review I could find was an introduction by NowSmellThis

LuckyScent has .7ml/$5 & 100ml/$240
SurrenderToChance starts at $6/ml

Not so long ago I reviewed, and loved, the companion fragrance Versilia Vintage – Ambra Mediterranea on the PerfumePosse where today we have a LIVE Video Sniff please duck across and have a look.

Another beautiful pair of fragrances on the list. How many do you have on your FB wish list? Mine is longer than my legs.
See you tomorrow for more fun and fragrance adventure,
Portia x

Midnight Oud by Romano Ricci for Juliette Has A Gun 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Hello Frag Hags,

Every now and then I get to town and at one of our department stores, David Jones, there is a niche perfume store hidden on the basement level and the guys there, Gary and Dan, are so incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. I love to go there and spend half an hour talking fragrance releases, trying the newest releases to hit Australia and shopping. You pay a bit more than overseas prices but the advice and joy the men have in perfume is astounding, and priceless. Not so long ago I was given a sample of today’s fragrance which has morphed magically into a full bottle.

Midnight Oud by Juliettte Has A Gun 2009

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives thee featured accords:
Top: Damask rose, saffron, bergamot, papyrus
Heart: Morroccan rose, agarwood, castoreum, geranium
Base: Patchouli, musk, sandalwood, amber

Love Oudh? Hate Oudh? Never tried the nearly over madness of the 21st century’s most overused and abused new mainstream fragrance ingredient? Worried that you’ll smell like a Band-Aid, medicine or as if you’ve just rolled in horse apples. Maybe you tried an Oudh and Rose fragrance and it scared the living beJesus out of you, punched you in the nose, picked you up by the scruff of the neck and threw you to the ground? And then stayed on your skin for DAYS!! Quell Horror! Calm down, this is not like those scary Rose Oudh oils from the Middle East, it nods elegantly to them, whispers of souks, harems and Ali Baba but does it with a modern and refined European sensibility.

The opening spritz whiff is the most confronting and oudh-ish that Midnight Oud ever gets, and it is so not confronting. It is beautiful and deep and resinous and dusty with rose floating beautifully and dominantly over all. I love to wear Midnight Oud and it is so deliciously wearable. There is a Blue Moon rose blooming in the front yard and it is so like the rose in Midnight Oud a spicy, citric, leather rose. YUMMY!

Though the fragrance has a story and heads sweeter in the dry down it isn’t a huge story with enormous highs and lows but a short story that weaves in and out of itself and comes back to points you think long forgotten. There is a little side swiping at the gold tone bottle in blogs but I love it and the chocolate coloured suedette cylindrical case it comes in is so unusual and hints at the care taken with the juice. Some days I get 8+ hours out of Midnight Oud and others only four but every time I enjoy the ride immensely, a fragrance that should definitely be on your try list.

Photo Stolen ZeusBox

For further reading 1000Fragrances and BeautifulWithBrains

Libertine is the Australian site for Juliette Has A Gun, and many other niche brands, their prices include shipping and they only do Australia
FragranceX has 100ml $95 + shipping to the world
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/ml

Have you tried Midnight Oud or any of the Juliette Has A Gun range? What did you think? Are there any you really want to try?

I hope you enjoyed wandering through my fragrant musings because there is real joy in bringing them to you and I hope it’s a nice place for you to de-stress and just float along with me. We at APJ are grateful that you do come by. See you tomorrow.

Portia xx

24-09-11 by Hilde Soliani 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 8 Comments

Hiya Fumies,

You probably don’t care but my Birthday is September 25, born just after midnight, so when I saw a fragrance for the 24th September I wished that I had hurried but as with much of my life I was just a few minutes late. Hilde Soliani is famous for her quirky fragrances and boundary pushing art. I have only spent time with one of her fragrances before Tutti Matti per Colorno which I enjoyed very much.

24.09.11 by Hilde Soliani 2012

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Calamus (milky, green, cinnamon like grass root), amber, frankincense, myrrh

The Scoop (Stolen wholesale from LuckyScent):
This one took our breath away. A reverent and contemplative perfume built around the ancient and resinous notes of amber, incense and myrrh, combined with the milky green, uninhibited notes of calamus. The perfume’s name is beautiful and touching homage from a daughter to her late father, a dedication to her “angel.” Hilde was led by her nose from the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to a local bazaar where she encountered special mixes of resins that spoke to her spirit. One day, while studying about the world’s religions, she discovered that calamus is considered a sacred grass in many religions, and she knew she’d found that touch of earthly spirit she needed celebrate a life she dearly loved.

24-09-11 is part of the Hilde Soliani The Invisibles range, meant to compliment your own fragrance and enhance your confirm your presence. What a stunning way to think of perfume. In reality though 24-09-11 is way too fragrant to be melded with your skin and enhance it, you will be decidedly and lavishly fragrant when wearing this. the opening is sweet and spicy, a non edible radiant caramel incense. Warm and lush and ever so slightly discordant, as if it’s about to topple over into disgusting over sweetened caramel slice at any moment but the green calamus and the incense win out and keep it delightful, wearable and distinguished. Caramel slice is a good analogy though because the calamus has a bitterness that could be dark chocolate and mixed with the sweet amber reads like an imaginary caramel slice. Absolutely unisex 24-09-11 has great staying power and dries down to a smooth amber/vanilla with a touch of smoke and takes between 4-7 hours depending on my day to be lost.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

While being too fragrant for close office work I would not hesitate to spritz for any other venture. You are fragrant and have a lovely sillage but unless you are within a meter people will only get hints of how lovely 24-09-11 smells on you. This is on my FB buying list.

For further reading Sandra Raičević Petrović writes for Fragrantica

LuckyScent has .7ml/$4 or 100ml?$160
SurrenderToChance start at 1ml/$5

Have you tried any of the Hilde Soliani? Did you like them? Maybe you have heard but not yet tried, tell us about it in the messages please. I love a chat.

I hope you are as happy and busy as I am leading up to the end of the year. I am about to take an hour for myself, it will be the first time I’ve stopped completely for a week and I bloody well deserve it. Going to go lie with the dog in the sun with a cuppa and a biscuit.
Till tomorrow, fragrantly yours,
Portia xx

Completely off topic but we made 80,000 IVs today. That is only 2 weeks since 70,000 IVs and I want to thank you for coming, reading, commenting and coming back again. You are our APJ Family, the secret scent society, and we love you. THANK YOU!!