Video

Back To Black: Aphrodisiac by Calice Becker for by Kilian 2009

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Hello All,
Here I am surrounded by the magical mystery of Back To Black, a Calice Becker produced powerhouse for by Kilian, Kilian Hennessy’s glamour fragrance company, from the discreet and wallflowerish-ly named L`Oiuvre Noire (Black Masterpieces). I have read so much about Back To Black that I feel like I’m living other peoples fragrant lives but I really want to write about this interesting fragrance today. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Aphrodisiac Box Photo Stolen cupslj

Back To Black was allegedly made in tune with the Amy Winehouse song in mind. I was introduced to that album, rather than just Rehab, in India by my then partner and played Back To Black incessantly thinking it would be a super great number to do. It is still the #1 most played song on my iTunes and that’s big numbers. In fact it was playing in the car tonight on my way home from a gig and that was when I decided that it was time to confront my self created demons (aren’t they all?). The video is at the bottom, I think it sums up the sweet darkness that is Back To Black by Kilian.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these official featured accords:
Bergamot, saffron, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, raspberry, chamomile, olibanum, honey, cedar, oak, tobacco, patchouli, almond, vanilla, labdanum

Back To Black opens like a lolly shop on my skin all sugary sweet fruits, dusty shelves and old people, then goes completely boozy like Grappa, the spices and honey come waltzing in through the booze, and we have a really lovely gourmand, the tobacco is sweet on my body early, not smoky until hours into the fragrance life where it turns pipe-crud-ish, and the woods clean and beeswax polished and the sweet amber-ish base notes are there too. It’s all here on my skin and I just have to look for a note and there it is. They are masterfully blended though so even when one is showing itself in new and beautiful array the others are still wafting around waiting for your attention. This is how I would like to smell, rich, multi-layered, deep, warm and dark. This is how mystery smells, enticing, beguiling, in my mind Rita Hayworth as Gilda singing Put The Blame On Mame smelled like this and so did Paul Newman in everything and nothing.

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to finally write about this magnificent fragrance. Yes, it is expensive but I think after I save up for Sweet Redemption that I might just do the same for a bottle of this afterwards; it’s wearable most seasons, interesting, luxurious, long lasting and ultimately suits my chemistry.

Photo Stolen wellbeing

TheNonBlonde, CandyPerfumeBoy and NowSmellThis for further reading.
I bought my Back To Black sample from SurrenderToChance from $7/ml

Here’s a present. Paul Newman. Hubba Hubba!

Paul Newman Photo Stolen Tumbler@2 years ago with 103 notes

What did you splurge on lately, or what’s on the list, that may take a while to recover from? Do any of the by Kilian line call your name? Please leave us a message below, they will all be answered and we LOVE visitors, and let’s face it: Your input is usually way more interesting than mine anyway.

Till we see you tomorrow we at APJ wish all of you only the good stuff you wish for yourselves.
Love, Love, Love,
Portia xx

Here is the wonderful Amy Winehouse. RIP Princess.

Bois D’Argent EdC by Annick Menardo for DIOR 2004

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Hey Hey Perfumista Buddies,
I hope today has been awesome for you all! Of course, if it’s been shite then things will no doubt get better sometime in the near future. Peaks and troughs, or as I say PIGS and TROUGHS. It will get better, the sun will shine again. Promise. Whenever I feel the black dog at my back I try a new fragrance sample and really move into the fragrance and do my best to understand the story and twists & turns of its life cycle. though not currently in a bad patch it’s good to remember them when life is going well and prepare, as much as anyone can, for the next time. So there are a GAZILLION untried samples in this house. When I found these 2 lovely mini movies from DIOR I wanted a fragrance from the house as an excuse to give you these as a present. I have the complete La Collection Privee from SurrenderToChance a while back and today Bois Argent EdC by Annick Menardo took my fancy.

Bois D’Argent EdC by Annick Menardo for DIOR 2004


Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Juniper berries, cypress, iris
Heart: Incense, Somalia myrrh, patchouli, wine, woods
Base: Vanilla, musk, amber, woody notes, honey and leather

I love the fresh, juniper and cypress opening on my skin, it is a very citrus blast that is quickly cooled by the iris and the cypress soon gets quite woody. A surprising reminder of the fragrant Hindu rites in Varanasi as the patchouli and incense/myrrh take their allotted places there is already a quiet waft of vanilla and a honeyed sweetening coming up behind and sitting just under the full radar but hinting at great things to come. It doesn’t say it in the notes but there seems to be a whisper of oudh here also: earth, livestock and dander. I don’t get wine at all, and the musk is well hidden, both must be bit players used to fill the fragrance out or maybe my skin/nose overlooks them. I love that the powdery goodness stays quite a way into the fragrance life and that the leather isn’t even noticeable until a couple of hours in, and then it’s like a change in the wind and back to sweet honeyed amber and then it pops its lovely soft leather head out again to remind you to notice it for a while and then flits away. Though not a big sillage fragrance it is tenacious, pumping out its lovely story for hours and hours, ever more quietly till it is a whisper more than you. I like that this EdC lasts so well and tells a beautiful story while it lives. Wearable even in the most zero fragrance tolerant workplaces, you could get away with saying Bois D’Argent is a scented body lotion because it is quietly gorgeous and rich. A completely selfish guilty pleasure. 12 hours later I am still skin scented and TSO Jin can definitely still smell a difference.

Dashaswamedh Ghat, Varanasi Photo Stolen en.wikipedia

I wish this was easy to get hold of here in Australia but it is not stocked. I will continue with samples till I see a split on one of the Facebook pages, or till I get to the Northern Hemisphere.

Olfactoria’sTravels does a wonderful review and so does TheNonBlonde
SurrenderToChance sells Bois D’Argent EdC from 1ml/$3 or you can buy from VERY select retailers and DIOR shops

Which of this range has taken your fancy? I’ve reviewed a few now and have yet to dislike one though they aren’t all skin compatible for me.

Below are a couple of lovely newish DIOR videos, please take a moment from your life to enjoy them.
Until we see you tomorrow, be well.
Portia xx

Lady Dior Teaser

Lady Dior Web-Umentary

The Floral Waltz – Miss Dior and Winners Announced

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Welcome back this lovely Saturday,
We have all been hanging out and had a Bar B Q, a few drinks and loads of laughs. The world seems to be a happy place. So good in fact that I have got a beautiful new video for you to watch The Floral Waltz was released to the DIOR site last week to celebrate Miss Dior, which used to be Miss Dior Cherie

During the week we have had a super draw for the Perfume And Skincare Company fragrances. Here is their WEBSITE JUMP

The Perfume and Skincare Company PERFUME GIVEAWAY

Photo Stolen P&SCo

We’ve been looking at The Perfume and Skincare Company from Australia this week; Monday we Interviewed Sheila Masseti and Tuesday we Reviewed PS&Co Fragrances (JUMP back to catch up if you missed them)

We decided to have a draw so that 3 lucky readers could get to try the 5 awesome fragrances we reviewed too. All you had to do was name the town where The Perfume And Skincare Company is located and your favourite of the 5 we reviewed by review alone. It was EASY PEASY!!

How did it work? The draw was open to anyone in the world who follows this blog by email, RSS etc till 9pm Saturday 22.9.12 Australian EST that correctly included the 2 items of information necessary. All the names were written on pieces of paper and TSO Jin picked three to get the packs.So who did Jin pick?

Photo Stolen berryreview

POODLE, TONY, LUCASAI

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Winners must get in touch by 9pm Wednesday 26.9.12 Australian EST with your address details or I will give your prize to someone else.
Facebook: Portia Turbo-Gear
Twitter: @OzPerfumeJunkie

Miss Dior The Floral Waltz released 13/9/12

Photo Stolen mylusciouslife

Louis Vuitton Mini Movie

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Hey Hey Perfume People,

I know that Louis Vuitton and master perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud (Stella McCartney, Dior’s Addict and Jean Paul Gaultier’s Classic) are still preparing LVs first fragrant offering since the 1930s; so to honour their choice to finally cross to the dark side, also to assuage my need for visual stimulation, and to keep me pumped as the time grows nearer, I am gifting you this lovely mini movie. Hopefully it’ll help keep you in a simmering, speculating, craze of what ifs and how wills.

Photo Stolen 1000fragrances

I am hoping for something beyond gorgeous but will be happy with interesting and beautifully crafted. In my minds nose I smell ink, leather, salt and rue. Ink for the money that it will cost, leather for the historical luggage, salt for my tears of longing and bitter rue for my regret and sadness when it is a lazy fruit-chouli. Please Perfume Goddesses, let it be at least GOOD!

Photo Stolen butterflydiary

Don’t forget to go enter yesterdays GIVEAWAY and if you want a full review I am Guest Posting over at PerfumePosse about Sweet Water by Liz Cook for One Seed. Please go over and wish me well there, it is still a huge deal to be asked to Guest Post on one of the world’s biggest and most popular frag blogs.

We wish all the best of everything for you, it is out there, all you have to do is go get it.
See you tomorrow.
Portia xx

LV Paris Perfumeries 2011

Manifesto YSL 2012: Behind The Scenes and Ad/Movie

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 11 Comments

Hey APJ Family,

Photo Stolen hollywoodreporter

This Ad/Movie for YSL’s new fragrance Manifesto was released on Wednesday and the Making Of Thursday. I think the ad terrible but the Making Of is lovely and much more interesting and Jessica Chastain makes a fabulous fragrance face, so beautiful and elegant.

Photo Stolen musicrooms

I am now wondering what the juice will be like……

BoisDeJasmin says in her review: Take Thierry Mugler’s Angel and dilute it with sheer, lemony jasmine till all you have left are the pastel colored outlines of the original gourmand patchouli. Shake it up, label Yves Saint Laurent, and you have Manifesto!
Featured Accords: Green leaves, bergamot, black currant, jasmine, lily of the valley, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla, and tonka bean.

Advertisement Manifesto YSL

Behind the scenes MANIFESTO YSL

Just short and sweet today, if you’d like to read a full post pop on over to the PerfumePosse where I am lucky enough to Guest Post on Fridays. It’s one of the world’s most read and loved blogs and each week I feel so honoured that they let me contribute. Please go see me there and leave a little Hello note so I know you’ve been.

What did you think of the Manifesto Ad and Making Of? Are you as excited to smell the product as I? Do you like the bottle? I’m thrilled that they’ve used such a glorious purple. Do tell….
Wishing you all the good stuff you wish for yourselves till we see you tomorrow,
Portia xx

FAME by Coty for Lady Gaga 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 20 Comments

Hi all you Little Fragrance Monsters,

So it’s not news that Lady Gaga has a fragrance released by her own The Haus Laboratories Paris and the historic house of Coty. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s the first black Eau de Parfum. The bottle is pretty cool looking in pictures, like a Thierry Mugler cuff treatment or a freaky fascinator for the races. The ads have been wonderful homages and pastiches and have included enough excellent visual content, costume, make up, art direction and lighting to almost completely obscure the fact that we are being sold the same fruit tingle, soft jube, fizzy, fruity, 100% artificial pap that nearly every other celeb and quite a few of the expensive big boys are bottling and calling perfume.

WTF? Lady Gaga, you have let us down. Your promises of an olfactory adventure, the blood & semen accord, the outrage and scandal of your brilliant advertising that hits your target market dead on have all lead to this slightly fizzy dross? Oh yeah!! You know your target market. You know that this has been what is served to them since they started thinking fragrance, you want to sell stuff not make a gesture, not teach a lesson, not change the board but play to it. Smart! It’s not bad, just derivative and BORING Boring boring ZZZZZZZZZZzzzz

Instead of venting my spleen here I decided to do something different. I took FAME by Lady Gaga to Trivia last night thinking I would get the crowds reaction because many of my players are the target market, here’s how that turned out.

I was wearing FAME and the first thing that happened when I walked in was a question about my fragrance and a compliment on it. I had my dinner as everyone was arriving and was chatting and welcoming everyone over the next 40 minutes. As we got started on the trivia I asked if anyone would like to smell my pre Aussie release import of FAME and a surprising amount of hands went up. Thank goodness I’d ordered a 5ml  decant! So around the room I went spraying on a couple of wrists at each table and folks, the place smelled absolutely gorgeous. Those opening notes are really great en mass in a large room with no other scent distractions. Everyone was huffing away at themselves from 18 to 80 years old and it really smelled wonderful.

Even as they were leaving 2 hours later I was getting fragrant wafts of fruity fizz, not strong but still quite nice and everyone had really enjoyed being the first Aussies to get a go at it. Some even going as far as to say that they would definitely be purchasing a bottle when it is released here later this month. So what do I know? Bloody nothing obviously. It’s a hit across the board. All ages and sexes were entranced by FAME.

Fragrantica gives these featured accords: Belladonna, incense, honey, saffron, apricot, Sambac jasmine, tiger orchid

On me the opening zips, fizzes and sizzles and that must be the apricot and saffron, there is also a very clean white flower that has been completely stripped of its sensuality. After about an hour it becomes much quieter and stays quite linear after the initial rush. I feel that there is no base holding the fragrance down. I would have liked some real depth to centre it a little more. Somewhere in the 3-4 hour area it becomes too soft for me to notice much other than that it is not my skin but something sweeter, almost but not quite milk and fairy floss, or DAIRY DROSS. I can’t say after wearing it for 2 days that I hate it but I don’t love it and wish I had more of a reason to purchase the bottle, but no…..

What fragrance have you been let down by lately? You know, the build up and hype had you HYPErventilating till you tried it? Please leave me a message in the comments. I love this kind of insight.

I hope you’re having a great day, if not the good times will roll around soon enough so please endure the crap.
Love always,
Portia xx

All Videos and Photos stolen Fragrantica

Neela Vermeire Creations LIVE Video Sniff

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hey Y’all,

Don’t forget to pop over and see my Guest Post on PerfumePosse today. It is linked with today’s special treat.

Well I have a little treat for you today. I hope it’s a treat. No, it WILL BE a treat! Got it? Last week we had a Neela Vermeire Creations spectacular here on APJ. If you missed it and would like to catch up we had an Interview with Neela Vermeire and reviewed Trayee from the line.

Photo Stolen wikiperdia

Robert “Radium” Maxwell and I took some time out after a gig recently to come to olfactory grips with the Incredible Neela Vermeire line of fragrances. We had had a couple of bevies, and frankly, we are enthusiasts not perfume professionals. So we sprayed and sniffed our first time sniffing impressions of the top notes of all 3 Neela Vermeire Creation: Bombay Bling, Mohur and Trayee. What you get is more entertainment than information because though we are lovely sometimes I am a bit dim and Radium is so smart that few have any common ground with him anyway. So do please press on and watch the madness that is an AustralianperfumeJunkies LIVE Video Sniff and enjoy it for what it is. A fluffy bit of Friday night fun.

I can only hope it brings you as much pleasure as we had making it, which was a shitload.

Please go and follow @neelavermeire on twitter and Neela Vermeire Creations, Parfums Paris FaceBook page. She is so friendly and I can promise you won’t want to miss the exciting updates in the near future.
NeelaVermeireCreations was where I bought my 10ml x 3 frags Discovery Set for only 90 euro delivered anywhere in the world or you can get 2ml x 3 frags Try My India Set only 22 euro delivered!
LuckyScent has 55ml bottles $250

Thank you to my BFF Kath for the filming and editing; thanks too to TSO Jin for making it loadable form.
Take care of yourselves till we see you tomorrow,
Portia xxx

New Look 1947 by Francois Demachy for Dior 2010

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Hey All,

I am becoming a Francois Demachy fan Queen! Though not all of La Collection Couturier Parfumeur have been super wins on my skin the line is so great and who honestly expects all perfume to work for you? Not me, everybody’s chemistry is different and my scent hungry skin sometimes hampers long term enjoyment of fragrances. I have yet to smell a perfume from this line that I don’t like.

Photo stolen customfad

In the blogs I’ve read about New Look 1947 there is a lot of talk about how Christian Dior changed the world of fashion to a more feminine silhouette at a time when fragrance was becoming less in your face, more about wearing it as lingerie, a lady like accessory. Expensive, mostly hidden decoration for you and your lucky lovers to enjoy and screw the world. This is clearly not my fragrant mantra so it took me a while to wear New Look 1947 for blogging purposes. At my buddy Undina’s urging I have given it a whirl and…..

La Collection Couturier Parfumeur New Look 1947 Dior for womenPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
White flowers (mostly tuberose), ylang-ylang, iris, Damask rose, Sambac jasmine, peony, vanilla, benzoin

What do I smell when wearing DIOR New Look 1947? Well it opens with a big flashy and fleshy burst of white floral, I love to just stand and drink in the warm aromatic glamour that lasts about 10-20 minutes. All the accords are already there but the tuberose is at this point king. It’s like a fantasy fragrance, all the good stuff without being heady, overwhelming or an oxygen stealing white floral screamer (which I also love BTW) so those of you who are repelled by such overt displays will be thrilled. I find this whole range to be extremely classy, after the initial fireworks rush New Look 1947 settles into a lovely sheer glamour girl of a scent. At about the half hour mark I am starting to get a brightening of the vanilla and ylang ylang, which adds a sensual, feminine womanliness to the whole and the white flowers start to take a turn for the sexy, present but not making a song and dance, I am discreetly perfumed and fragrant.

After the first hour I am getting a slightly spicy powder over the top or through the bouquet, and the white flowers give me more jasmine now, almost photo realism jasmine which no other review I read has noticed. It’s like wearing perfume in a jasmine glade, quite pronounced. I am pleasantly surprised at how well New Look 1947 behaves on my skin, at nearly 2 hours there is only the faintest diminution of fragrance but I can tell it is going to head for skin scent soon because the white flowers are packing their bags and putting their gloves and coats on.

I’ve been out and done the grocery and post office and come home so we are at about 4 hours and I am a very, very quiet floral vanilla, so soft I can barely register it but it is beautiful and lush.

The sillage throughout the fragrance life is barely there, a whispered change in the air as you pass, for a moment. Otherwise you are wearing New Look 1947 for yourself, an introverts lavishness, or for the lucky people who are in your closest orbit.

Raf Simons 2012 DIOR Photo Stolen thefrisky

1000Fragrances and MuseInWoodenShoes have very different experiences with New Look 1947 if you care to read more about it.
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml or you can but the 13 x 1ml samples $36 or for super extravagant testing the 13 x 3ml set only $105

Thanks for coming along on today’s scented journey. I hope to see you tomorrow too.
As always we at APJ wish you great health, wealth and happiness.
Portia xx

Neela Vermeire Creations Winners Announced

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hey all,
The excellent week of Neela Vermeire Creations here on APJ has included an Interview with Neela Vermeire, Review of one of her fragrances Mohur and now a giveaway! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who entered, clearly the Neela Vermeire Creations prize was a great draw card.

As you may know India is one of my great loves, I’ve traveled there 15 times since 2000 and am always surprised by the magic it weaves around and through me each visit, from Jammu/Kashmir down to Kerala and many amazing places in between. Right at the bottom today I have added a beautiful mini documentary about the Ganges at Benares/Varanasi where my BFF Kath and I spent an amazing couple of days. Even watching this mini doco sent shivers of remembrance and recognition through me,  just the way Neela Vermeire’s creations bring to life all the gorgeous smells of India through the ages.

Here’s what we are giving away today..

4 x 2ml Try Your India sets including 2ml of all 3 Fragrances in the line and shipping
Value = 22 euro each!!!
We have 2 sets for the world and 2 sets for Australia to give away, courtesy of the AH MAY ZING Neela Vermeire.
HOW DID YOU WIN?
Firstly, you must be a follower of AustralianPerfumeJunkies and YES you can become a follower to enter. Then you must leave in the comments below the names of the 3 Neela Vermeire Creations fragrances.

As always I printed out your names, cut and folded them and put them on a tray for TSO Jin to choose…..

Photo Stolen propercourse

WORLD: Hylda, Dionne

AUSTRALIA: Sinnerman, KillerRabbit

Winners must PM/DM their details to Portia Turbo-Gear on FB or @OzPerfumeJunkie on Twitter before Wednesday 5.9.12 9pm Australian EST or I’ll give your prize to someone else.

.
Please go and follow @neelavermeire on twitter and Neela Vermeire Creations, Parfums Paris FaceBook page.
NeelaVermeireCreations was where I bought my 10ml x 3 frags discovery set for only 90 euro delivered anywhere in the world and you can get a 2ml x 3 frags Try My India set for only 22 euro delivered
LuckyScent has 55ml bottles $250

Back to regular programming tomorrow. I have really enjoyed spending a week in Neela Vermeire Creations, definitely not the last, I think it will be a regular and long lasting love affair..

As always wishing you all the good things you wish for yourself,

Portia xx

Laguna by Marc Buxton for Salvador Dali 1991

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 10 Comments

Hey Hey Funky Fumies,

It’s starting to warm up here in Sydney so (as much as I don’t believe in seasonal fragrance, clearly I am more swayed by weather than I thought) it is with great excitement that some neglected fragrances are making their way back onto my skin.

Photo Stolen edali

Laguna is just such a fragrance and with that crazy Pierre Dinand designed bottle, who could resist.

Fragrantica gives these featured notes/accords:
Top: mandarin, grapefruit, peach, and apricot
Heart: Jasmine, rosewood, iris and lily of the valley
Base: Tonka, cedar wood, patchouli and vanilla


Photo Stolen Fragrantica

On my skin, and with this nose, the opening is ferociously bright fruits, don’t get too close for about 90 seconds or you will become anosmic for the next hour. Once it’s had a chance to burn off though a lovely fruity jasmine comes through but not sweet, gourmand or girly; I think fresh is a good word though often used to describe something quite different in fragrance. It’s lively and fun, not too in your face or serious but certainly present and has terrific sillage without being a scent bomb. There is an airy quality, like there is space between the accords and a shimmering patina of powdery iris and woods hold the white flowers in check, not letting them become overwhelming. So many things in Laguna that would normally send me running to the shower through their sheer ubiquitousness yet Marc Buxton has managed to pull it all together in a wearable, lovely cloud of delicious.

As we run through the life of Laguna the vanilla, wood, patchouli become pronounced. They have been there all along but overwhelmed by their earlier accords they have happily waited softly in the background for their time to shine. Even 4-5 hours in I still get beautiful glimpses of the bouquet and I don’t completely lose the scent to my nose till 7+ hours, I’m not sure when it happened because I was busy doing stuff but last time I checked was around the 7 hour mark.

Where would I suggest wearing Laguna? If fragrance is allowed at your work no one will be skunked though for really close work probably ill advised, excellent for anything that you need to stay scented for, picnics, lunches that morph into dinners, dinners that end up at brunch. I think it’s quiet enough for dinner, movies or any public endeavour where you are in close-ish proximity.

TSO Jin wears Laguna beautifully too, on him there is a spicyness to the fruit at the beginning and the woods and patchouli really shine through the heart and base and on his skin if he puts it on at lunch I can still smell it next morning, so very tenacious.

Should you wish to read more on Laguna NowSmellThis is the only one I could find. I was sure TheCandyPerfumeBoy had done one too.
FragranceNet has 30ml/$10, 100ml/$20 before discount!

Photo Stolen dali-art-salvador-dali

I am a great fan of Salvador Dali’s work, he took us beyond our lives into a realm of fantasy that instigated an incredible change of the world of art but done with such exquisite technique that it can also be praised for its beauty. I think that’s part of the Dali charm, this accessibility and gorgeousness, even though the works are often confronting, disturbing, ghastly or need you to reassess your own long held beliefs. Yet he was also clever enough to be able to feed his own publicity through outrageous and crazed behaviours, I think that nowadays he would not have survived. Down the bottom you’ll find a very interesting 10 minute Dali-mentary.

Photo Stolen blog.onlineclock

Thank you all for dropping by, I hope the universe is good to you.
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx