Emily Blunt in Opium 2009 by YSL Video

Hey all,

Running late from a gig. We have 2 winners to announce tonight

10,000 GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Picture Stolen covenantbuilders

We reached our June goal of 10,000 total individual views last weekend so it’s an extra special giveaway, there are 2 because we smashed our goal so early. Thanks. If you are loving AustralianPerfumeJunkies don’t forget to spread the word, you’ll be surprised who is a secret fume head amongst your buddies; lost and alone thinking they’re the only crazy who is perfume obsessed.
How do you win?

Giveaway #1 you had to TWEET

1ml manufacturers sample OLYMPIC ORCHIDS ARTISAN PERFUMES Siam Proun
1.5ml spray decant of GUCCI No 3
1.5ml Spray decant of TAUER’s Lonestar Memories
Manufacturers sample TALLULAH JANE NATURALS Alyana Perfume Oil
P&H anywhere in the world

Giveaway #2 all you needed do was Congratulate us on our 10,000 IVs in the comments

50ml BNIP LANVIN Homme Sport
4ml travel size SMELL BENT Frankin Smellie SII#900
P&H anywhere in the world


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GIVEAWAY #1 winner is Dr. Talson T. Jose

GIVEAWAY #2 winner is Sam Duncan

Winners will have till 10pm Wednesday June 27 Australian EST to send address details or I’ll give the to someone else.

EMILY BLUNT in OPIUM 2009 by YSL VIDEO

Picture Stolen fashion.telegraph

As a speciasl gift here is the lovely Emily Blunt for OPIUM by YSL.
I hope you stay happy and well, I am touched and thrilled that so many of you have come and looked. Thank you,
Portia xx

LOU LOU by CACHAREL

Hiya Everyone,

Last weekend I was lucky enough to pick up a bunch of Tester bargains at a closing down sale. One of those bottles is a nearly full 50ml Lou Lou by Cacharel, a house I quite like because they’re stuff is all so off the wall; it seems they do it harder, better, with much more tongue in cheek and flair than many of the mass market crews, making them a super lot in my eyes. Snaps!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Today we are talking about a fragrance that brings back such wonderful fragrant memories of all the girls loving it while we were at drama school and having one girlfriend in particular deciding it was her signature scent. BAM! In your face. Hah, I’m smiling writing this. Launched in 1987 and still available widely but quietly for really great prices, this is a classic. An outrageous, fun and flirty masterpiece. I am loving having this on, loving it. Even the bottle is awesome, that bright turquoise and red are basically 2010, 11, 12 fashion done in uber-kitsch retro plastic. So now; it hurts!


Photo Stolen sale-action

As it opens I get a big smack of mimosa (Korean Jin calls it Acacia) that is caught up with ivy, spicy cinnamon and other flowers including a big fat cream and buttery tuberose. The ivy and orris root keep Lou Lou from becoming too fly away flowers, almost grounding the fragrance; and the sandalwood is definitely there too with the vanilla and other resins like a counterweight. I get slightly indolic humanity in there too, not skank as such but a very lived in feel, like a freshly waxed ballbag after some light sport and hefty foreplay. My freaky nose completely misses the incense, plum and anise, it’s probably there I’m just too poorly schooled in fragrance to smell it.

The sillage and lasting power are extremely impressive here, tomorrow morning I will still be a fragrance pump, sending out a musky, vanillic, slightly floral booty call. Woo Hoo!

Photo Stolen vintage-ladivas.

PerfumeShrine does an awesome review with loads of historical knowledge and Fragrantica lists the accords
Top notes: Violet, plum, black currant, marigold, ivy, jasmine, iris, lily
Heart notes: Sweet Tiare flower, tuberose, ylang-ylang, orange blossom, anise, heliotrope, orris
Base notes: Sandalwood, musk, tonka bean, incense, vanilla and balsam

GlobalBeauty has 100ml for $92 including P&H.

I’ve dropped the video in here for you. We thought it was the height of mystery and that the model was so seductive back then, it all looks a bit cheap now after some of the incredible movies we now get. Enjoy,

Portia xx

DIOR HOMME Fragrance Review and Video

Heya Stink Junkies,

I hope this finds you happy and well, I have an admission to make. I am poorly prepared for today’s topic and nearly out of time to present it. A busy weekend doing Jin’s Birthday celebrations over a 4 day period left me little time to prepare my week. I have just finished my Q&A for 5 nights of Turbo Trivia this week. OOOPS! So I decided to chat about a scent I smell quite often around the house….

2005 DIOR Homme Photo Stolen Fragrantica

2011 DIOR Homme Photo Stolen DIOR

DIOR HOMME 2005. This is not to be confused with the Francois Demachy 2011 version that comes with a black central suction pole, 2005 Dior Homme has a silver suction pole. An Olivier Polge superstar fragrance that takes you on a journey through the scent scale. It is bold and fearless, majestic, manly and feminine, herbs, spice, flowers, food, leather, so rich and diverse its like looking at a Kashmiri 10×7′ silk hand knotted rug. The closer you get and the more time you spend with it, the more you will see. This is TSO Jin’s favourite scent and I can rarely tell he is wearing it because every time it’s a different story. This is regularly the scent I ask him, “What IS that?” Some days it will be a back street market stall in India, others we might be on Bond St London, a Spanish leather shop, a desert town in Australia or an African campfire. A panoply of visions with what seems a surprisingly short accord list. There is a grunt to DIOR Homme 2005 that is hard to find in modern perfumery but it still manages to become Jin, meld with his scent and seem like him. It is also tenacious, giving him up to 12 hours of story. We can wake up and I still smell something deliciously other about him, but it’s him plus. It is a sensual, easy wearing fragrance that can be worn with a suit, sweats or jeans and is not so strong that you couldn’t wear it to a movie or dinner.  I think women should give it a go to0, it could become your new go-to, DIOR Homme 2005 will definitely invite the beast out to play.

It is getting increasingly hard to find pre-reformulation and I have not tried the new one yet.

DIOR Homme Intense Photo Stolen luxuryes

Fragrantica gives the notes but I find that they don’t particularly run in this order and that you get revisitations of top notes and middle notes all the way through to dry down.
Top notes: lavender, sage and bergamot;
Middle notes: iris, amber, cacao and cardamom;
Base notes: patchouli, leather and tahitian vetiver
NowSmellThis didn’t love DIOR Homme 2005 when it was released and sadly is the only non video review I could find on the first 5 pages of google by a blog.

I have shown the video before but Jude Law is always worth a second look.

Before I sign off, Thank You for coming and reading, and commenting. It makes me happy that you do and I hope you enjoy it also. What “mens” fragrances have you been trying on?
Love, Love, Love
Portia xx

Abercrombie n Fitch VIDEO, Winners Announced

Hey gang,

Sorry it’s late been out at the Sydney Observatory with the crew, it was fun.Photo Stolen Sydney Observatory

Photo Stolen Powerhouse Museum

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

All you had to do this week was go and find the code wrds for $5 off Olympic Orchid Artisan Perfumes. EASY PEASY! and you’d be in the running to win one of 2 GIVEAWAY PACKS:

1ml Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes manufacturers samples of Carolina & Olympic Rainforest or A Midsummer Days Dream & Arizona.
2ml manufacturers sample of Fugue or Barocco by new fragrance house Esther produced by the crew at Fragonnard
Plus P&H anywhere in the world


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SaffyIsHere and Kymme

Please get in touch via email or Twitter DM by Wednesday 20.6.12 9pm Australian EST or I’ll give your prize to someone else.

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH MODELS

Here’s a little video of the A&F models doing the latest US #1 Billboard hit, Call Me Maybe. CAMP!!!

Oodles of love to you all,

Portia xx

Thursday Giveaway Competition, Gucci by Gucci Videos

Well Well Smellophiles,

It has been a great week here in Sydney, Australia. Today is TSO Jin’s birthday and he has wanted DIOR Homme for a while. I was lucky enough to find a 50ml pre-reformulation bottle with the silver tube in the middle and only bounced the $50 Birthday/Xmas spend limit by a teensy bit, oh well he’s so worth it. Of course being a sparky it was crack of dawn make a wish and blow out candle, prezzie, vitamin tablet with Up&Go, here’s your lunch (today he got a Birthday special cold corned beef, cheese and pickle sandwich, choc chip muffin, passionfruit fizzy can and a Twix) and he was gone.

Being Thursday we have our

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

Photo Stolen immercedemo

I thought because we’ve done such a big Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes week that we could do 2 special giveaways. All you need to do to win is to tell me what the code word you need to put in the coupon box at checkout on Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes for the $5 discount in the comments below. You’ll find the code word here on AustralianPerfumeJunkies in Monday and Tuesday‘s posts (a hint, the days in colour are jumps, hit them and you’ll be transported). It’s drawn on Saturday night around 9pm Australian EST. Jump to it! Here’s what you could win:

1ml Olympic Orchids Artisan Perfumes manufacturers samples of Carolina & Olympic Rainforest or A Midsummer Days Dream & Arizona.
2ml manufacturers sample of Fugue or Barocco by new fragrance house Esther produced by the crew at Fragonnard
Plus P&H anywhere in the world

Photo Stolen GUCCI

Next up I’ve given you an ad and a short film about Gucci by Gucci. The ad has the incredible Deborah Harry from Blondie singing one of her all time great classics, Heart of Glass. I was lucky enough to meet her in London, she had come to the opening night of DillyBoy in a club under Picadilly Circus, I was asked to produce the shows and there were a crew of us entertaining. The venue was full to overflowing and Ms Harry came out back to see us and after the shows she stayed around and partied with us till we fled to our next engagement. Christmas 2010 she was in Sydney and came down to the Opera House to watch the show that I was compering and performing in “DRAG!” and though she pretended to remember me and the night in Piccadilly Circus I know she was just being nice. It has however been one of the few mega stars that I have admired since childhood that when I’ve met them I have been pleasantly surprised at their friendliness and candor. She is the bomb and had I known she sang the ad I would have bought Gucci by Gucci sooner. I just gave the Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme to a mate for his birthday on the back of this loveliness. Enjoy.
Portia xx

Gucci by Gucci (Deborah Harry- Heart of Glass)

Gucci by Gucci maybe filmschool?

Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d`Orange LIVE Video Sniff

Hey Hey All,

Something incredible happened today. My set of Andy Tauer’s Dark Passage, Miriam and Loretta all arrived! YAY!! Look out for my breathless reviews very soon. I’m so EXCITED!

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

About 2 weeks ago one of my buddies, Robert “Radium” Maxwell, and I were doing a video on Comme des Gracons Series 6, Synthetics. Radium is a Freaky Fragrance Fanatic, loving the weird and quirky side of the perfume coin. As a special Thank You to him I brought along an extra special LIVE sniff sample. Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d`Orange.

Photo Stolen ELdO

We had seen Katie Puckrik do a live sniff and found it entertaining and a little gross sounding. BINGO! We wanted to get us some of that.

Photo Stolen answersto

Here is our LIVE sniff. The video was shot and edited by my BFF Kath and made ready for the internet by Jin. Thanks guys. You are AWESOME!

I hope you enjoyed watching us, it was fun bringing it to you.

See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Midnight In Paris on Perfume Posse, David Gandy DnG Undies Video, Winners Announced

Hi Everyone!
The exciting news is that the Perfume Posse has taken another piece of my writing and put it on their site!! What an awesome feeling to be a guest writer on such an entrenched and valuable learning tool for perfumistas the world over. My smile is broad today. Go have a look at Midnight In Paris please and leave me a message so I know you’ve dropped by. Thrilled, I tell ya!

David Gandy in Dolce & Gabbana underwear 2008 just for a delicious bit of eye candy. Why not?

>

THURSDAY COMPETITION WINNERS

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This week the deal was the most Twitter shout outs and we had a few. Only one person retweeted more than once and interestingly nobody onward tweeted from your tweets. So this week the second prize goes to the first retweeter.

Here’s what our 2 lovely winners receive:

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

Picture Stolen berryreview

Amy Orvin had the most.
Tarleisio was first.

Congratulations to you both. Please get in touch with addresses so I can send your prizes by Wednesday 13.6.12 Midnight Australian EST or I’ll give you prizes to the homeless.

I hope the rest of your weekend is AWESOME!!
Portia xx

Making of DIOR’s Secret Garden, Thursday Giveaway Competition

Hey Hey Everyone!

I hope your weeks have been lovely. Most of this week has been cool and wet here in Sydney but today is sunny and glorious. I’ve just come in from sitting in the front yard reading in the sun with a cuppa and watching the cockatoos, galahs and lorikeets eating the seed rings I put on the liquidamber. It’s easy to be grateful when life is so lovely.

Last week we nearly made 1000 IVs, 994! We also nearly had a 200 IVs day, 197! AH MAY ZING! We also had our first guest blog on Perfume Posse if you didn’t get a chance to see it. Wrote about the old and the new, Bob Mackie & Kerosene’s John Pegg. Hit lightly on Viktor & Rolf’s Spicebomb and a multitude of other great stuff. With any luck you’ve enjoyed reading all these as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing them to you. Here’s the payoff.

THURSDAY GIVEAWAY COMPETITION

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It’s my favourite day of the week again. The day where we get to look through all the great stuff we’ve talked about during the week and decide what will go in the draw and how we are going to get a winner.

This week we will have 2 winners, each will receive.

2ml spray decant of Mackie by Bob Mackie
2ml spray decant of Dreaming by Tommy Hilfiger
.5ml spray decant of a Kerosene fragrance (remains of my samples)
.5ml decant of an Arquiste fragrance
P&H anywhere in the world

How do you win? This is a complete no brainer, copy and paste the below sentence into your Twitter. EASY PEASY! The 2 people who tweet or have retweeted the most number of times with their handle included will win. I will see each tweet and retweet in my interactions so it will be super easy to follow. If anyone reaches 50 retweets (that’s 50 of your friends retweeting) they will get a special prize 2ml of something niche & discontinued.

https://australianperfumejunkies.com/ I smell a GIVEAWAY COMPETITION Retweet to enter Go to it @ozperfumejunkie

These giveaway competitions are our way of saying THANK YOU for your support. Even if you enter and don’t win you will have earned a million thank yous, just for being part of our AustralianPerfumeJunkies family. It is noticed and appreciated. As a special thank you I’ve added the making of DIOR’s Secret Garden mini movie. You’ll get the full movie tomorrow, see you then.

Wishing all of your good dreams come true,

Portia xx

Making of Secret Garden Versailles

Mackie by Bob Mackie

Hey everyone,

Photo from Unknown Source

Let’s go down memory lane together today. I remember as a kid sitting around with Mum & Dad watching the Sonny and Cher show. It was a hugely popular weekly musical/comedy TV show with some seriously special guests that looked largely thrown together in an afternoon by a bunch of totally un-gifted high school students. At the time, there was nothing to compare it to in suburban Australia, even living in Sydney. We would laugh at Cher’s deadpan, Sonny’s bad Dad jokes and completely over the top delivery, the terrible skits and the fun they all seemed to be having. It was a time of peace and laughter that we could all share. The real stand out star of the show though were the incredible Bob Mackie costumes. Every week there would be something more fabulous, gala, showstopping than last. Of course Cher was the perfect clothes horse then as now and would wear these sometimes ridiculously extravagant creations as if she was in jeans and t-shirt down the local shops.

Photo Stolen vlistings

It wasn’t just Cher that Bob Mackie designed for though. Every star had at least one Bob Mackie gown in her wardrobe, from uber glam to sophisticated and elegant, to Las Vegas showgirl. He was the king of amazing.

Photo Stolen stylenews

Then Bob Mackie decided to go with the designer flow and introduce fragrance.

Photo stolen Fragrantica

According to Fragrantica; An Oriental Floral fragrance for women. Mackie was launched in 1991.
Top notes are pineapple, raspberry and peach
Middle notes are tuberose, orange blossom, narcissus, jasmine, ylang-ylang and rose
Base notes are sandalwood, amber, patchouli, musk and vetiver

My question to you all is, HAS THIS BEEN REFORMULATED?

An aqueous, light, fresh scent. I was expecting to have to spray this and walk through the mist because it was going to be a blockbuster. If this is how it smelled in 1991 was it not a ground breaking fragrance? Cartier Declaration wasn’t released till 1998 and I thought that it was the original aqueous fragrance? Does anyone know because I am baffled. What I’m smelling from a bottle bought from a reputable online store is pretty much the ubiquitous pastel water that we are being given currently instead of perfume. WTF?

Don’t get me wrong this is pretty and very wearable, and I’m over reacting because I was expecting something different. I could see this being a go to daywear scent, weekends, cinema and dinners. It doesn’t scream, it blends and melds. Now that I’ve given myself a decent spritz there is charm and intrigue.  I am surprised though that this is what Bob Mackie chooses as his signature scent for women.

Thanks for coming along on my fragrant carpet ride. Underneath is a super Bob Mackie retrospective video. You’ll LOVE it.

Portia xx

Clever Graffiti Artists, Spicebomb by Viktor N Rolf, Timebomb by Kylie Minogue

Hey Stink Junkies,

I know this is a perfume blog but sometimes I get sent stuff that I want to share. Unfortunately the email had no photo credits but my mate Wendy sent it to me if that helps. These are just my favourite of an enormous collection of crazy graffiti done by super clever creatives.

SPICEBOMB by VIKTOR & ROLF 2012. It is amazing to me that Spicebomb only came out January this year. There has been so much talk about it that it seems like it’s been around longer. I don’t feel quite so remiss in coming to it this late then, especially because it was generally dismissed rather than applauded. I did find 2 positive reviews below. Opening with citrus, red berries and the sharp, resinous, pine/lemon scent of elemi you could be forgiven for expecting Spicebomb to travel towards generic barbershop but NO WAY! The spicy, sizzling, warmth really ramps up as the paprika and cinnamon move in (I can’t smell the saffron) and then tobacco and leather, which have been sitting there unnoticed, take more of a lead role. Funnily, I really start to smell the pink pepper distinctly over the top of the second and third stages before real dry down begins rather than during the opening sequence, where it is peripheral. The amalgam of these featured scents is fun, spicy and punchy.

Photo Stolen winterfashions

I like the feeling of wearing a fragrance and I like to be fragrant, without skunking those at the next table. It’s awesome that Viktor & Rolf have offered such a sweet and spicy fragrance to the men, even though it’s perfectly unisex and would smell dynamite on a woman. The advertisement (below) features a sexy, buff man chewing on a matchstick, (above) about to pull the pin on a grenade; model Sean O’Pry photographed by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.. He’s hot and so is Spicebomb. This is a General Public winner, I reckon.
NowSmellThis and 1000Fragrances do excellent reviews from different viewpoints and Fragrantica has notes, accords and GP reviews.

TIMEBOMB by KYLIE MINOGUE 2012. At the very start of my drag career I was lucky enough to be one of the cast of The Kylie Show at the Albury Hotel on Oxford St in Sydney, Australia with Miss 3D and Bernina Bod. We put the soundtrack, costumes and choreography together in a week. The year was 1990 and I’d only been doing professional Drag work for about a year. For some reason this show became the focus of a phenomenon, it ran for over a year, was written up in national papers, talked about on TV and radio and the venue was so crazy crowded that people were standing on tables, sweat ran down the mirrors and people fainted from the crush. It was the “only” thing to do on a Sunday night and many real stars came to see us do our thing if they were in town, and every week the rumour would be that Kylie was coming in person (she didn’t). Over the next 4 years we put together 2 more Kylie Shows with dancers and bigger costumes but it was never the same. Funny thing is, in this Timebomb video, Kylie doesn’t look a day older. Time Machine would be a good name too, she must have one.

I’ve tortured you all enough,
Thanks for dropping by.
What did you think of Spicebomb?
Hopefully see you tomorrow,
Portia xx