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Post by Portia
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Hey Hey Crew,
You know how I love the fragrance ads. This one is fun and I can’t wait to sniff the juice.
Have any of you tried it yet? How is it?
Portia xx
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured acccords:
Top: Orange, bergamot, pink pepper, grapefruit
Heart: Almonds, neroli
Base: White musk, vetiver
Hello Stink Monkeys!!
In 2012 L’Heure Bleue had its 100th birthday. In honour of that extraordinary milestone Thierry Wassser and the Guerlain team put together a fabulous set of three new fragrances built around the L’Heure Bleue magic but in essence dedicated to different hours of the day and the only one that made it the regular range is…….
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
White musk, orange blossom, iris, heliotrope, jasmine, rose, sandalwood
I have been trying to get this post written for years. I buy a decant and wear it for a day or two, get ready to write my post and “swoosh” the damn decant disappears. Clearly I have been putting them down and in a rush to clean, for one reason or another, the decant gets put away. WELL….. I found one of my earliest L’Heure de Nuit decants (I think) from a Ruth K split. It’s the softest violet grey colour in a smaller decant, so pretty.
Of course the Guerlain mini bee bottle is reason enough to wish for this fragrance but what does it smell like? OMG! How I love this magical fragrance. It is candied violets and musk sticks, sugar plum fairies and hearts desire.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Sheer, smooth and elegant. A cool, sweet smelling beauty that is light as air and hefty as a bowling ball. The first hours sillage is really amazing, especially considering how soft the fragrance feels to wear. I know the notes don’t list licorice or anise but I smell them softly woven through the flowers, lightly rooty and diaphanous white floral that really conjures up the feeling of evening in the placid cool of winter Paris, where the air is crystal clear and you are warmed in your long-johns and puffer jacket. MMMMMM. The sense of quiet expectation hinted at in L’Heure Bleue is fully realised in this modern lilac reinterpretation. Sweet, floral, magical expectation. On a night like this……
Jin having a hot banana chocolate waffle dusk Paris Jan 2013
Longevity is out of this world. I spritzed L’Heure de Nuit at around midnight last night, it’s nearly 2pm and I still have a sweet and creamy fragrance dolloped over a wash of much nicer than laundry musks. It’s still clean and fresh smelling and when I stick my head into my T-Shirt and the freshness is mixed with my after sleep man smell the whole fragrance is really yummy.
Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Alembicated Genie
Guerlain counters at larger department stores or Guerlain stand alone stores stock L’Heure de Nuit
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6.50/ml
Did you get to try L’Heure de Nuit?
Portia xx
Hello Stink Monkeys!!
In 2012 L’Heure Bleue had its 100th birthday. In honour of that extraordinary milestone Thierry Wassser and the Guerlain team put together a fabulous set of three new fragrances built around the L’Heure Bleue magic but in essence dedicated to different hours of the day and the only one that made it the regular range is…….
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
White musk, orange blossom, iris, heliotrope, jasmine, rose, sandalwood
I have been trying to get this post written for years. I buy a decant and wear it for a day or two, get ready to write my post and “swoosh” the damn decant disappears. Clearly I have been putting them down and in a rush to clean, for one reason or another, the decant gets put away. WELL….. I found one of my earliest L’Heure de Nuit decants (I think) from a Ruth K split. It’s the softest violet grey colour in a smaller decant, so pretty.
Of course the Guerlain mini bee bottle is reason enough to wish for this fragrance but what does it smell like? OMG! How I love this magical fragrance. It is candied violets and musk sticks, sugar plum fairies and hearts desire.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Sheer, smooth and elegant. A cool, sweet smelling beauty that is light as air and hefty as a bowling ball. The first hours sillage is really amazing, especially considering how soft the fragrance feels to wear. I know the notes don’t list licorice or anise but I smell them softly woven through the flowers, lightly rooty and diaphanous white floral that really conjures up the feeling of evening in the placid cool of winter Paris, where the air is crystal clear and you are warmed in your long-johns and puffer jacket. MMMMMM. The sense of quiet expectation hinted at in L’Heure Bleue is fully realised in this modern lilac reinterpretation. Sweet, floral, magical expectation. On a night like this……
Jin having a hot banana chocolate waffle dusk Paris Jan 2013
Longevity is out of this world. I spritzed L’Heure de Nuit at around midnight last night, it’s nearly 2pm and I still have a sweet and creamy fragrance dolloped over a wash of much nicer than laundry musks. It’s still clean and fresh smelling and when I stick my head into my T-Shirt and the freshness is mixed with my after sleep man smell the whole fragrance is really yummy.
Further reading: Candy Perfume Boy and Alembicated Genie
Guerlain counters at larger department stores or Guerlain stand alone stores stock L’Heure de Nuit
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $6.50/ml
Did you get to try L’Heure de Nuit?
Portia xx
Hey Hey APJ,
Something new from Guerlain! It reads fresh, fun and very Aqua Allegoria. Thierry Wasser has been producing like crazy over at Guerlain, so much new stuff and flankers. I hope it’s all selling for them because I’m enjoying the constant and extremely interesting cross-section of new arrivals. Yes, I know they’re not all the next Shalimar or Mitsouko but how many fragrances released nowadays are? Even if they were we have so much choice that masterpieces fall by the wayside as quickly as dross anyway. The industry is creating its own problem and we are lapping it up…..
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, yuzu, grapefruit
Heart: Green tea, chamomile, jasmine
Base: Musk, calone, vanilla
You can spritz Teazzura at your local department Store for free. It could be the next big thing. How will you know until you try it?
Fingers crossed. I hope to try Teazzura on my holidays. Enjoy the ad.
Portia xx
Hello Fabulous Frag Heads,
I am a Guerlain creature. You know it. When they released Santal Royal I was so freaking excited because in my mind I was thinking the Australian sandalwood plantations are going gangbusters and that we would be getting a modern “next Gen’ look at Samsara. A beautiful creamy and delicious fragrance that would have me smelling like a very rich hippy just back from India via Paris.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica giuves these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, leather, oud, neroli, cinnamon, rose, amber, musk
There has been a lot of hate for Santal Royal and I think our expectations we just too high, and saints preserve me but that bottle is to freaking die for. Don’t tell me that marketing plays no part in my buying, the black and gold flaccon is amazing. I got to hold one in Las Vegas at the Venetian Guerlain store. LOVE at first sight. we spritzed it and on me it was OK but Jin smelled absolutely fabulous in it all day. He already has Mona di Orio’s Oud so having this would be tautology.
Though I’m sure there is a bunch of sandalwood in there, and I will say the longevity is extraordinary, this is an oudh fragrance. Yes it is, sorry to say it. It’s very nice. It does have a story and it changes through time to something soft and very sensual but even to the bitter end I still get that oudh. Which I like very much but it’s not so groundbreaking that I feel the need to purchase because there are other oudhs in my wardrobe that I would reach for before it, even with that killer bottle.
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml
Have you tried Santal Royal? How did it strike you?
Enjoy the ad,
Portia xx
Hey Frag Fiends,
Hey Northern Hemisphere, remember summer? Here we are down here sweltering in the heat and humidity and loving it. Days are long, fruit and vegetables are abundant and cheap, the extremely fragrant frangipani, lilies, jasmine and lemon trees are all blooming like crazy, the beach and pool are awaiting, we’ve just had holidays and life feels good. I’m even lightly sunburned, getting my vitamin D levels up so my body will run efficiently and has the tools to fight disease and depression.
Well today In am writing about one of my summer fragrance staples which I also use midwinter to remind me of the warmth and steamy tropical evenings of summer.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, palm leaves
Heart: Lily, ylang-ylang, tropical fruits
Base: Tuberose, vanilla, white musk
Lys Soleia basically opens right in the heart already for me, the citrus is so fleeting but it does add glitter to the bouquet and there is a green sugariness that I can only detect with a respritz. Lily, ylang and vanilla like a beautiful warm tropical dream. Sweet and sensual I am immediately transported to faraway islands, feasting on platters of fresh cut super sweet fruits and walking through gardens decked with evening blooming exotic flowers that pump out their fragrant song. Hot and sweaty skin fresh from swimming in the sea and from sunbathing, there is even a trace of sun lotion. The white flowers and vanilla wear hot, ripe and sensual in such a “come hither and ravage me” way that I am always blown away. It’s a welcome surprise every time. No wallflower is Lys Soleia but a red blooded, thrumming sex drive, naughty and fabulous adventure waiting to happen.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
One of the most obvious and perfume-y of the Aqua Allegoria line Lys Soleia is a sirens song that makes me smile in secret, guilty delight. Deeper and more dense than the rest I find its intoxicating and mesmerising beauty a bit of a brain scrambler. Seriously, this will have your dates so befuddled that they will be putty in your hands. Always a good thing.
Rich, yes very rich, and regal I could imagine Lys Soleia on a woman of supreme confidence, Samantha Jones of Sex and the City played by Kim Cattrall in her powerful sexual woman mode. It can also be worn by a man who wants to stand out from the crowd as someone who is unafraid to be their own person, who is happy to be known to be different, maybe someone in business who needs to sell their own angle or point of difference.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
As we head towards dry down the tuberose and vanilla stand forth over a slightly furry musk that I can barely smell but which feels a bit fuzzy. I know that description is absolute shit and gives you no clue to what I smell but there you have it, that’s the way I perceive Lys Soleia in the later stages before it starts to really fade out.
Fully fragrant and good longevity for an Aqua Allegoria. You need to be careful because with an overzealous application you could suck the air from a room and dry clean the curtains.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Further reading: Now Smell This and Candy Perfume Boy
Available through Guerlain counters at large department stores
FragranceNet has $61/125ml before coupon
What do you like to wear to remind you of summer, or in the midst of it? Are the Aqua Allegoris to your taste?
Come on and join the conversation, I love to read your thoughts.
Portia xx
Aha! How are you Scented Scallywags?
I never saw this Idylle mini movie, I wonder if it ever came to Australia?
Here we discover the backstage mini movie story for Idylle by Guerlain directed by Jaco Van Dormael and then I’ve added the finished commercial too.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Freesia, tincture of rose, litchi, raspberry
Heart: Jasmine, peony, lilac, lily, lily of the valley
Base: Patchouli, musk
Photo Stolen Perfume Posse
Enjoy
Portia xx
Heya Lovers of Fine Fragrance,
Today I want to look at a decant I’ve had lying around here for a while but never seem to get to. Why has it lain forlorn and unloved? Who knows, sometimes it happens around here. What I did do yesterday after my bath though was spritz myself and WOW! So I spritzed again for work and now I am wearing it again. Masterpiece? Naah, but enjoyable? YES
Fragrantica says: Mademoiselle Guerlain is chic, elegant, cheerful Parisian scent. It is launched in 2014 in the exclusive Guerlain collection, but in fact it is the same fragrance as La Petite Robe Noire 2 from 2011 in a new bottle and a new name.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum, bergamot, lemon
Heart: Iris, orange blossom, marshmallow
Base: Vanilla, leather, white musk
There hasn’t been very much written about Mademoiselle Guerlain except to announce its coming and to tell us its history. As you may know I love Guerlain and most of their offerings work for me on some level so I was super dooper excited when told they were going to re-release the LPRN2 that I was 100% sure would be a million times more me than LPRN original, which I like very much most days but sometimes it’s like being suffocated by a macaroon.
Photo Stolen Flickr
I have spent a couple of days wearing Mademoiselle Guerlain now. Its green opening is at once sticky and cool, like the first gulp of a soft drink on a warm day. Refreshing but not thirst quenching. Interesting……. This initial frisson sadly lasts too briefly and the sugar enters like Pez or pastilles wrapped in marshmallow. Reads as if it’s TOTALLY disgusting, right? It’s not, it is sweet and fun and youthful, though not particularly sophisticated. Slowly the orange blossom, vanilla and iris bloom together underneath the sweetness and now you can feel that the whole fragrance has a lovely depth, here is where Mademoiselle Guerlain becomes a Guerlain. Something better than its contemporaries, frankly it is beautiful. Lavish but subtle, you won’t skunk people with Mademoiselle Guerlain unless you are in a fragphobic environment. Fragrant but not imposing or intimidating, Mademoiselle Guerlain will never be mistaken for a 1980s BIG WHITE FLORAL. Pretty and delicate, lovely and wearable through the heart I feel that Mademoiselle Guerlain could have been a best seller if offered in a less expensive flaccon and size.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Dry down is an intimate, musky and fluffy confectionery barely tempered by a hint of leather, after 6 hours I am still softly fragrant and putting my head into my top to smell I can definitely get wafts. Nothing stands out to me at this point but it’s a sweet and attractive wash rather than discernible notes. Nothing earth shattering but very nice, wearable in that modern sweet white musk way. I guarantee that Mademoiselle Guerlain will be a hit if you gift it, even to the least interested in fragrance, as long as they like sweet fragrances. There is nothing new or confrontational in the dry down for them, it could very well be a better quality celebuscent ending.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
Further reading: Perfume Shrine
Guerlain Flagship Stores and some large Department Stores have Mademoiselle Guerlain
My Mademoiselle Guerlain came from a split, thanks RuthK
Surrender To Chance have samples starting at $3.30/.5ml
Did you ever try La Petite Robe Noire 2 when it was available? Are you a fan of the original La Petite Robe Noire? What do you think of the Bee Bottle and pink juice?
Portia xx
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Post by TinaG
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I have been blessed in my youth to have travelled more than the average teenager, having spent time in the tropics away from the major cities. Terracotta unexpectedly gave me a glimpse back to that time. I was lucky to gain a sample of the 2014 le Parfum, and tested it blind, so really didn’t know what to expect. It quickly laid itself bare, beckoning, and began telling me its luscious story.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, coconut, tiare flower
Heart: Jasmine, ylang-ylang, orange blossom
Base: Musk, vanilla
Terracotta le Parfum opens with the most wonderful tiare flower. Tiare has facets which could be compared to frangipani, although it is a form of pointy-petalled gardenia. It has a full bodied fragrance, but deep in its heart is the touch of a strange, slightly uncomfortable greenness, that just takes the edge off the headiness and provides a bit of breathing space. Along with the tiare, a rich jasmine bursts forth, which is beautifully balanced being neither overly indolic nor squeaky clean.
Photo Stolen Flickr
The warmth of these opening flowers is amazing, it feels like the individual blooms have been resting in the sun, to be woven into a lei and gently placed around my neck. I can feel the sunlight captured in the moist waxiness of the petals. There is a touch of orange blossom in the silage, which I don’t find close to my skin, which accentuates the impression of being surrounded by the thick heavy tropical air.
At around 2 hours I can smell a subtle, slippery coconut note with a hint of skin-generated musk in the background. It makes me feel like I’ve just applied the sheerest layer of moisturiser into sun-tinged skin at the end of a lazy day. The whole effect is intoxicating enough to gently disengage me from the normal barrage of everyday banality and just…. relax, smile, breath, and enjoy.
I have fond memories of the tropics, having spent some of my formative years in Papua New Guinea. Terracotta le Parfum particularly invokes images and memories of a visit we made to an active volcanic island off the north coast of PNG.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Next to the black sand beach are long swaths of well-manicured lawn, a residual feature of the colonial management of the copra oil plantation. This scent finds me walking bare-footed on the spongy grass past the white-washed main house, holding a lei of tiare & jasmine up to my nose and breathing deeply – although there is no need to, the humid air is filled with the smell of flowering frangipani trees and the deeper richness of the jungle spreading up the hill behind the house. Strung up between two coconut trees is an old gnarled sun-bleached rope hammock, which I wander over and roll in to. Lying in the shade, no sense of being too warm or too cold, cares being washed away by the tiny ripples of waves against the shore, breathing in the richness of the waxy blooms: there is not really any place closer to heaven on earth.
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Chemist In A Bottle
Guerlain quickly sold out and I have read that Terracotta le Parfum will become regular range
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/ml
Tina xx
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Post by CyndiH
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Hello Fellow Fragrance Friends!
Today I just have to dish about a decadent love affair I am having. I cannot get enough of this sultry little minx. She is a Parisian – sexy in an awe-inspiring, effortless way I could only dream of achieving in real life. She is chic and stylish: she wears a Chanel jacket with Levi’s jeans and makes it look movie-star cool. She is slightly dangerous, fun and romantic – like screaming down the Autobahn on a Moto Guzzi at night with a very handsome date that you get to squeeze very tightly … Her name is
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Black cherry, bergamot, red berries, almond
Heart: Bulgarian rose, Turkish rose, licorice, smoked black tea
Base: Aniseed, tonka bean, vanilla, iris, patchouli
When I first sprayed La Petite Robe Noire EdP, I thought, “Oh wow, this is TOO much.” I had a wave of panic that it was more than I bargained for. But I resisted the urge to wash it off, surrendered and let her take me where she wanted to. The first spray of this dark beauty borders on the obscene. It is a cacophony of dark fruit saturated in tonka bean, smoke, black licorice, anise, refined black tea, vanilla and Patchouli. It’s thrilling – like that breathless, intoxicating feeling of waiting for that first kiss with someone you are so into, that you just KNOW is going to happen at some point in the evening. It’s not all heavy though – part of the thrill is there is also an effervescent frilliness in the top notes of bergamot and sparkling berries that swirl around like a black lace crinoline under a tango dancer’s fuchsia skirt, blended expertly into the deep notes so that no seams show whatsoever.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
After a few minutes La Petite Robe Noire EdP calms down, but simmers with the same unabashedly sexy concoction of dark fruit and gourmand notes, with a dark ripe rose coming into the scenario. But only slightly – I would not call this a ‘rose dominant’ fragrance. And while it is certainly sexy, it is not bawdy or garish. It is extremely smooth, balanced and deep. This is posh, upscale, 5-star-hotel, crystal chandelier sexy. This is definitely black dress material, but no polyester here sister: La Petite Robe Noire EdP is silk chiffon, taffeta, lace, pearls, and diamonds all the way. It is a complex, plush fragrance – I have only worn it in summer but can imagine how beautiful these black velvety notes would be against the crystalline cold of winter.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
I get easily 6-8 hours out of La Petite Robe Noire EdP, but traces of it linger even after that. I would wear this fragrance everywhere – from a black tie affair or cocktail hour where I am actually wearing a little black dress, to a work seminar (which I did and inspired me to wear a black, ruffled, bow-tied, Napoleon-sleeved blouse instead of a stuffy suit jacket and I got rave reviews), to the most casual of daily activities – any occasion where you want to feel opulently sexy and pretty.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
Further reading: Australian Perfume Junkies, The Candy Perfume Boy and Now Smell This
FragranceNet has $75/50ml before Coupon
My Perfume Samples starts at $3/ml
Have you tried La Petite Robe Noire EdP yet? What are your thoughts?
Until next time, when I dish about my next love affair!
Cyndi xoxoxo
La Petite Robe Noire – GUERLAIN
Australian Perfume Junkies 