Thank You APJ,
What a wealth of great feedback. You are the best and I have read and read again your comments.
Our winner of the $50 Surrendeer To Chance GIFT VOUCHER is LENA
Please get in touch Lena with your email address to: portia (underscore) turbo (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au and I’ll send your voucher
THANKS,
Portia xx
Hey there APJers,
Life is happily hectic and the house has most of my attention. There just does not seem to be enough time in the day, though fortunately I am managing to stay afloat. Hopefully you all are coping, if not take a moment to be still and listen to yourself in this moment. You really do know what’s best for you.
Not so very long ago though I was reading one of my all time favourite blogs and the piece was so involving and interesting. How your head can work while trying to be involving and engaging. We at APJ are verystructured because I really like that format and it means you can drop in at any time (day or night, ballgown or suit, bus, work, home, in between courses at dinner, just about any time you have 5 minutes) and get a quick fragrant fix from a wealth of voices across the globe.
Photo Stolen WikiMedia
Here though is a piece that really made me think about what we do. I will need some more percolation time but it has caught my attention.
Jump across to I Smell Therefore I Am and have a read, I’d LOVE to know what you think about the piece and how YOU feel it relates to APJ. We are all good for constructive criticism and I want this to be a place everyone feels welcome and has something here to capture and hold their attention.
One lucky commenter will receive a $50 Surrender To Chance GIFT VOUCHER to be drawn on Sunday night 10pm Australia EST and they will be chosen by random.org
Go for it crew,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen DeviantArt
Hey there Crew,
I have a bunch a samples & decants that sit here tested but now in the discard pile. There are many reasons for being there. Maybe I bought a FB, it had an issue that renders it unwearable, I hated it, I liked it but have something similar, I LOVED it and completely forgot about it, I’ve moved on. So many reasons, so MANY samples. They are all used a bit but they have heaps for testing and trying, all are at least 2ml and most are spritz. I know you’re going to love at least something in this pack.
Most of these samples have been purchased from Surrender To Chance in 2015
SAMPLE PACK
Please help me with a little clear out.
Portia xx
Photo Stolen TheTruthAboutMummy
This week we will have 1 winner who will receive:
1 x SAMPLE PACK
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 (portia underscore turbo @ yahoo dot com dot au) so I know. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.
You must tell me how you follow APJ
and
Please tell us what single 2014/5 fragrance you would like to sample if there were no money constraints and you were given the chance
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie SAMPLE PACK GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-330 #Perfume #Giveaway
Entries Close Sunday 14th June 2015 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winner will be chosen by random.org
The winner will have till Thursday 18th June 2015 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.
So APJ,
It’s Friday!! What does that mean?
From $2.99 – $32.99 for 5ml. All heavily discounted and on sale today.
Some examples?
At $32.99 for 5ml
At $12.99 for 5ml
At $5.99 for 5ml
At $2.99 for 5ml
So go visit my friends at Surrender To Chance and grab yourself some serious BARGAINS!!!
Portia xx
Hey Hey APJ,
GREAT response this week. Of course it’s an exceptional giveaway. Surrender To Chance is a fabulous site and I love to go and trawl their wares. For us to give you the Gift Certificate you’ll need to send me an email address that is attached to your Surrender To Chance account. We can then get your gift certificate added to your account.
Thanks
Portia xx
Photo Stolen SmartDraw
This week we will have 2 Winners who will get:
1 x $30 Surrender To Chance Gift Certificate
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
Go to Surrender To Chance<<JUMP and find me a Fragrance and Manufacturer…………….. NO DOUBLE UPS!!
Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie GIFT CERTIFICATE GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p3PURw-330 #Perfume #Giveaway @Surrendertochan
Entries Closed Sunday 10th August 2014 10pm Australian EST
Winners were chosen by random.org
Photo Stolen brooklodge
The winners will have till Thursday 14th August 2014 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their Surrender To Chance Account Email Address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.
Special THANKS to Surrender To Chance for these amazing giveaways. Please visit their site because they are so generous, friendly and helpful.
Hi there APJ Family & Friends,
I love trolling through the Surrender To Chance site. They have excellent Weekly Chance Specials, Vintage frags, Hard to find stuff and best of all, I can order a 2ml spray and get a true experience of a fragrance for a fraction of the price of a bottle, and it’s way easier to store 100 samples than 100 bottles too. Recently I was looking through and came across this super set that read like EXACTLY the kind of set that I should possess, natch. So I went all out and ordered the 2ml Spray Set. It’s pricey but SOOO worth it.
Animalic – Skank Sample Set
From Surrender To Chance: Perfume should always play with naughty. What is naughty? It’s referred to as “skank.” First coined by March at Perfume Posse in January 2006, she refers to it as “Skank is not gracious, or nice, or even fundamentally pretty. The Skank is about sex, and only sex. It’s a rump-grinding, head-shaking invitation to a booty call, no matter how politely the scent’s been dressed up at the opening.”
This is the sex in perfume, and it’s been there even back in the days when the hems of dresses never got above the eyelet lace-ups of their Victorian boots.
So I have been having a wonderful time trying them all.I think my skin eats, or I have become immune, to the extremes of animalics. I love them and they smell great on my skin but where most people are coughing, tears streaming and running to the shower, I merely smell like a big cuddly teddy bear all warm and squishy. I have written about a few of these already, mostly quite early in the blog’s life, but it has been super fun revisiting and reminding myself how good they are, and to have even a sample size back in the collection. There are a few too that are FB in my collection already: MKK, Femme and Bal a Versailles. I also have a vintage Jicky Parfum so it’s great to meet it’s modern EdP sister.
My girl friend Natalie from Another Perfume Blog took one whiff of Courtesan by Worth and I knew she had to have it. You know the look, eyes glazed over, head thrown slightly back and nostrils flaring? There was that and more: positively fabulous viewing and at an outdoor lunch table in one of Sydney’s ritzier suburbs. I had to laugh, and give her the vial.
Surrender To Chance has the lot starting at $33/.5ml but I went all out and grabbed the $116/2ml spray set
Why did I spend so much? Well, 2ml will last me 4-10 wears depending on longevity and projection strength. That’s months of delicious spritzing and a different one every day for 3 weeks, not that I desperately need more choice to be honest. I also like that they are already in a spritz atomiser so no messing around with decanting into a spray to get the manufacturers intent. I think the extra is worth it for me. You may only want or need the .5ml to taste the frags, excellent. $33 is a wonderful deal for amazing frags that are a must try on your frag journey.
Love & hugs,
Portia xx
Fumies!!
In the lead up to the holidays SurrenderToChance were having a special deal in the DailyChanceSpecial section. Which I always try to have a squiz at, at least twice a week so I don’t miss anything FABULOUS!! Sometimes the deals are so good that even if I am not a desperate fan of the manufacturer I will grab it to see if I’m wrong. Always happy to be taught a lesson. On top of that Patty has been wittering on SO MUCH about Gardenia, a scent I’ve always loved in the garden, and though I have a few I always like to have comparison frags, OH DEAR I AM A PERFUME BORE!! Ha, if you’ve read this far you probably are too so let’s continue
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pink pepper, galbanum, black currant
Heart: Gardenia, floral notes, lily-of-the-valley, peony, lavender
Base: Musk, cedar, patchouli
WOW!! The first spritz waft is almost photo realistic Gardenia, that burns off quickly and I have a softly sizzling pink pepper and galbanum with morning breath. Sounds ghastly doesn’t it? It is not at all ghastly, deep, bright and intense are the 3 words that spring to mind but no notes, they are blended into a blue cheese and sweet floral naughtiness. Quite alluring I think. My BFF Kath loves it and thinks I smell gorgeous, so we agree which is good. After the fun and naughtiness Fleurs de Gardenia becomes a soft and very discrete floral with no hint of its outrageous beginnings, the patchouli has been scrubbed raw and musks are barely there. The flowers are pretty and prim and sexless and after the first 20 minutes would be a very good work fragrance.
Photo Stolen gardenDebut
In the heat of summer here in Sydney, maybe 38 degrees celsius/100+F today I am lucky to get 3 hours but what I get is lovely and interesting. I have quite a big decant, let’s see how fast it goes and whether I feel I need a bottle at the end. Really though, I doubt it, for the money Creed is asking I want my fragrance to last through dinner.
I have worn Fleurs de Gardenia again tonight and in the cooler temperature it has a longer story, I am at 4 hours and there is still a whiff of something that is lovelier than me, it could be the extra layers of scent as this is the 3rd respritz today but it is hanging in there.
Further reading TheScentrist
Buying from Creed counters (Limited Edition Re-Release)
SurrenderToChance $5.25/ml
Have you been trying anything just because? Do you have a frag house that you WANT to love but they don’t ever seem to fit? Tell me, I love to read your stories.
Till tomorrow, have some fun,
Portia x
Heya APJ Family,
This week I’m doing something slightly different again. I recently received from SurrenderToChance a set of 3 Etro fragrances and I’ve been wanting to get them on the blog and thought that I can try all 3 in Quicksniffs and then do a full review on my favourite at a later date. So that’s what I’ma gonna do for you and give you the usual 3 sentences and a star rating. Follow the jump to find our Rating System Page (<<jump).
ETRO is a crazy fabulous Italian fashion house, check their site here <<JUMP
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
MESSE DE MINUT 1994. COR!!! Citrus explosion, almost like a spicy citrus souffle, sort of cake-ish but with a crackle of pettigrain that keeps the balance from getting too foody, though it is delicious enough to eat my arm. I’m not really a citrus fan, in my mind though my collection calls me a liar, but I really love this and think the Etro crew have done a warm citrus perfect for a sunny autumn, winter or spring day, like today was in Sydney, this felt perfect as it dried down to woods, fresh hewn. S=**** L=**** D=****
SHAAL NUR 1997. After the citrus has burned off I get herbal, spicy and wood. It is great but the flowers don’t appear on my skin in a starring role and Shaal Nur goes straight to an amber, patchouli and woodsy vetiver skin scent that plays so softly it’s almost miss-able that it’s more than me, but I lose the ability to smell it after 5 hours. This definitely has date night potential. S=*** L=*** D=***
LEMON SORBET 1989. This, as you would expect, is also a burst of citrus, a bitter sweet cloud of cool herbal lemon gelato. It is a good deal more linear and less cluttered than the other 2 Etros we are looking at today, almost linear but still with an interesting journey. Part of me loves the simplicity here, and it smells really good on me too, but I think it would be a better wear in the warmer months, perfect for you Northern Hemisphere people right now. S=**** L=*** D=***
I bought a pick 3 Etro Gateway Sampler from SurrenderToChance which starts at $7.99
I hope you’re all having a glorious weekend.
Thank you for being part of our APJ family.,
Portia xx
Hey gang,
This is the glorious colour I get to look at every day at the moment. I love Autumn. So pretty.
You know how much I love to order decants and samples? Well, let me tell you, I love it.
Recently I was trolling around one of my favourite decants and samples stores, SurrenderToChance, and found a sample set called the Honey Badger. Gosh, thought I. What on earth could be in a Honey Badger Special Deal Sampler?
This sampler contains .5 ml (1 ml sample vial filled half full) sample of the following new releases, but you can buy bigger amounts, I went all out and ordered the 2ml sprays:
So they arrived and I am so excited to be writing about brand new things, fresh pressed as it were and I thought I’d give you a snapshot view of four of them. How does that sound? Terrific? I thought you’d like it. Just a reminder that my nose will smell things differently to yours but it’s always nice to have a starting point, especially with new stuff.
Guerlain Myrrhe et Delires. The citrus opening in this soft oriental wood is sensational, with just a touch of balmy sweetness keeping the squeal under control. The floral heart seems to rush by on my skin, a shame because the fleeting glimpse I get of it is magic, and I’m left with a skin scent that is mainly soft vanilla/myrrhe that is almost leathery. I think you need to sample this, my scent hungry skin just doesn’t want to let it do itself justice, barely discernible after 1 hour. Still barely discernible next morning. If I was about, or had any use for, understated glamour skin fragrances then I would certainly think about buying this.
Olfactoria’s Travels reviewed Myrrhe et Delires last week and here’s Fragrantica
Serge Lutens L’Eau Froide. Boy, this aquatic opens all vetiver, incense and mint like an icy cold blast from Antarctica, maybe ginger, so fresh it made my nostrils tingle. Quickly the blast dies away to nothing, really nothing just fresh air by the beach in Autumn, and then the fragrance warms on my skin and the frankincense comes to dance with the musk and warms the waters and I think I can smell the memory of mint weaving very quietly through but never quite revealing itself. I want my partner to come home and smell me. Maybe it’s my own smell mingling with fresh air? I’m so glad I bought this as a sample spray because I’m glad to have experienced it and will use up my 2ml, just to get the opening 12 minute rush again, but will probably not buy a bottle.
GrainDeMusc does an awesome review and here Fragrantica
Byredo Seven Veils. This spicy oriental opens up green, boozy, spicy and sweet, quite different to anything I’ve tried before, like the pink pepper has been harnessed by the spicy pimento and carrot and something else that I can’t find in the notes that’s giving me cognac. The warmth of the sandalwood and vanilla swing in quickly though and run through leaving flowers in their wake. then a moment later they all play through again. I think the orchid is adding dark, sexy presence as we travel along at the 2 hour point and I LOVE THIS. We are now at 5 hours and I’ve cleaned the whole house, including bathrooms and kitchen, there is still a vanilla, spicy fruit roll on my skin. This is how fragrance should be done. Congratulations Ben Gorham of Byredo, I am seriously thinking FB.
CafeFleurBon does an informative review with some great Salome history and Fragrantica has the notes etc.
Hilde Soliani Tutti Matti per Colorno. This is my first look at Hilde Soliani’s work. The spiel says that this is the Autumn smell of Colorno where she lives in Italy; hay, fennel, grass, wildflowers and weeds on a fresh Autumn day. I can smell it but I think there is also the smell of decomposing Autumn leaves after you’ve raked them, also something sweet and warm, a little smoke/charcoal, even though the notes don’t allow all that. I can even almost smell the sun shining. Even if you don’t like crisp, light green, fresh fragrances this is a lovely story, not to be missed.
NowSmellThis introduces the whole range and here’s Fragrantica too
Thanks for coming along for a quick look at half of the Honey Badger Deal Sampler with me today. I hope you liked it, and learned something. It’s been a most enjoyable couple of days trying them. Why did I choose these 4? They were the first 4 to come to my hands. What new stuff have you tried this week?
I wish you the best of everything, thanks for dropping by,
Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow.
Portia xx
PS All fragrance photos today were stolen from Fragrantica and I used my own photo of the tree in my front yard.
Hey Hey gang,
You may never have heard of the CdG series 6. They were deleted before I became a serious perfumista and though they have come into my radar area a couple of times I’d not ever thought of possessing them. There was so much else to be snorted that I really, really wanted to try.
Then, not so long ago, my mate Radium (AKA Robert Maxwell) asked if I knew where to procure such hard to find gems. So as an essay in “I can do that” I set out to. It wasn’t easy, in fact I could only find the 3 that Radium asked for at SurrenderToChance and so, as a great way to have them, smell them and share them, I offered to purchase if he would come and sniff them with me LIVE! for a video presentation. He jumped at the chance and here is the outcome. Do please enjoy.
Both the photos stolen from Number3store.com where you can but these 3 lovelies currently. Woo Hoo!
I must also congratulate the extraordinary talents of my BFF Kath who shot ans edited and TSO Jin who made it blog ready. You 2 are awesome, great joys and I’m lucky to have you both. XX
Much love,
Portia xxx
Australian Perfume Junkies 