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Sandra
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Hello dear APJ readers. How are you all doing?
Life is quiet here at the moment. Loving the routine and no added stress this week. As I sit and write this post, the sun is shining and the sky is a brilliant blue. The trees and bushes are starting to bud and as I walk around doing all of my errands each day, I stop and smell flowers along the way. Not much is out yet, but give it a couple of weeks and it will be gorgeous. Continue reading
Hiya Happy Huffers,
Here is an interesting thing, depending on where I read I learn that Grenats, or Grenades on some sites, was created by either Gabriela Domecq or Yann Vasnier in 2001 or 2005. GOSH! I love it when there is a mystery.
From First In Fragrance: Les Parfums Keiko Mecheri
Born in Atami, Japan, Keiko Mecheri was originally an artist and through painting found her way to the world of fragrances. With her partner, Kemal Mecheri she founded in the 1990s the “Bazaar des Senteurs” where they produced perfumed toiletries and candles. “Les Parfums Keiko Mecheri” was created in 1997 in Beverly Hills, California.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica Gives these featured accords in one line:
Pomegranate, citruses, pomegranate rind, rose, angelica, musk
OK, so I don’t understand why Greats doesn’t get more love. It’s not a blockbuster but a sexy stealth frag. It’s all green, fruits and musk with a softly spicy rose. Pretty is the wrong word for it but one that keeps popping into my mind. It’s an unsweet, in modern terms, rose/citrus. Why aren’t non perfumistas buying this by the bucketload. It reminds me of the feel that the softer DIOR Prive fragrances have. Very luxurious, quiet but insistent, elegant sweet nothings.
Not as tart as pomegranate seeds but with the lightly dry bite of pomegranate juice and melding seamlessly with the bright sparkle of citruses. The musk is pithy and plush, fluffy and whipped and a watercolour wash of green keeps Grenats interesting without being intrusive.
Loads of people love the laundry fresh scents and if you don’t then this burst of sunshine just might turn you around. It’s better, more glam than the others in the genre and perfectly wearable at all times.
PDI
From LuckyScent: Vivid, fresh and sparkling, this pomegranate based scent is for the free spirit. If you’ve banished the blow-out and revel in your curls, if you feel comfortable mixing the wispiest vintage blouse with the toughest leather belt, if you are ginger ale in a diet cola world – this one is for you. Clean, light and utterly charming.
Further reading: From Pyrgos
Essenza Nobile has €149/75ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml
Where do you stand on Grenats? Love it? Hate it? Never bothered with it?
Portia xx
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Post by Portia
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Hey there APJ Frag Family,
I found this random sample in my clear up around here. I have no idea where it came from, or whom, and certainly can’t remember ever ordering it. I even went and checked my order histories, no luck. So I think the universe is telling me to put some on and wear it. Let’s see how this baby purrs……
“Then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier far.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gices these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, lime
Heart: Jasmine, tuberose
Base: Sandalwood, musk, Bourbon vanilla
Softest wash, barely there, citrus open with white flowers and vanilla already noticeable. A young, extremely sheer, elegant, out of focus white floral that smells like the fruits are way more tropical, maybe it’s the banana facets of the tuberose and there feels like a coconut kick. All drenched with clean musks and Paradise Lost makes me think it was made for people who love the smell of clean clothes and hair rather than perfume, it’s not a laundry scent but it makes me think virile.
There is a fleshy component but imagining it’s a guy he’s fresh from the shower, dry and cooling on the bed. You are still sleep rumpled but the sheets have been slept in only once and you can smell his clean skin as he wraps you in his still warm embrace. Paradise Lost is a modern fragrance that I could easily imagine myself exhaling for, though it’s not groundbreaking or even very different to a lot of other stuff on the market. What I smell is a beautifully blended version of them, an excellent, better remake done for people who want to smell quietly and subtly luxe.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Paradise Lost could very easily be dismissed as boring, and I almost did, but as you wear it a few times it becomes a second skin. Even well into the heart there is a shimmer of fruit through the flowers and vanilla. After a couple of hours I become almost anosmic to it but I have had someone say how nice I smell nearly 5 hours after application. That’s pretty good for something so amorphous.
Work, date, opera, dinner or casual Saturday with the crew, Paradise Lost will fit them all. I think it especially good though for Booty Calls, this is exactly how I would want someone to show up smelling.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
Libertine Parfumerie has $229/75ml with FREE Australian Postage
First In Fragrance has €145/75ml
What do you like your lovers to arrive smelling like? Past or present favourites?
Portia xxx
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Post by Ainslie Walker
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Melbourne, the 6th November in Peony Carlos Hubert will launch The architect’s club and a new L’Etrog. Contact Jill in the store for details!
Sydney, the 19th November for a Sydney Perfume Lovers Meetup
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
The Architects Club starts fresh, cool and billowing – soft vanilla, pith-like with orange and lemon rind that fizzes like its just been dropped into tonic. It crackles a little, peppery in nature, though not sharp, rather cushioned. Immediately I realize its firmly unisex. The next stage is tart, astringent. A London Gin cocktail gives a backbone of robust juniper berries.
There’s something slightly musty and resinous on the up – Amber, old books. My mind darts to member’s club lounge chairs –Chesterfields and the like, fireplace in the distance, no smoke, but woody wafts. I remember interiors of Home House and Royal Automobile Club in London – heritage listed clubs that mix stuffy and traditional with opulent, cool and modern. Modern food and drinks served with finesse in comfy rooms that feel like they hold much heritage. Even empty its possible to hear the chatter of times gone by in the high ceilings of these places. The odour of cigars still seems seeps from somewhere. A few women must have visited here wearing Shalimar, as vanilla continues to billow.
The scent of Hotel bars Claridge’s and The Berkeley are captured. “It’s a London thing” as They say and it’s one of the reasons to go there if you haven’t already.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
An astringent oak wood note and something herbal, almost aniseedic comes to my attention. I’m reminded of my favorite pub in Soho with its oak interior The French House, serving only half pints, as it’s “a Gentlemen’s Pub” even to this day. Looking up the notes I realize its pepperwood, oak and Guaicwood and clary sage giving a distinctive smell. It’s dapper and timeless. I can see it suiting an English Dandy from years ago to a man in a suit to this day off to work in Sydney.
Its distinctive, solid and luminously light, making it not too over bearing or strong for an office, and certainly comfortable. A balmy Amber fragrance. I rarely wear vanilla, but with the woods, herbs and juniper in balance, I’m enjoying the ride. It’s extremely wearable. You could wear it to work, and out after for an alfresco meal. Smart whilst hinting at fun.
Overall I’ve made myself homesick for London. Which is a good result, as where many fragrances claim to smell like London, this is the first one I have tried which actually transports me straight there.
Ainslie Walker x
Heya BWF Freaks and everyone else too!
The other day at lunch with my buddy Cassandra and she passed across a decant of something I may have heard about but seriously had no recollection of, we had eaten and it was super sniffa time: this was maybe the 10th or 15th frag that had been spritzed on touches. It was like my whole body went en pointe.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tuberose, peach, coriander
Heart: Orange blosson, rose, spices, patchouli, gardenia, jasmine
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, musk, oakmoss
Divine is the most aptly named fragrance I’ve come across in ages. WOWIE!! Straight out of the spritzer and WHOOOSH Big White Flowers and peachy/coriander skank bomb. The tuberose is excellent and lushly indolic, I am surprised there is no ylang here because I am reminded of its sensual lushness, maybe it’s the orange blossom/tuberose melange. So this smells like money, good old fashioned money spent on VERY sexy ladies who dress well and swear like truck drivers. A wall of old school glamour from when fragrance was used as a weapon in the arsenal of the huntress. Divine is what movie stars of a certain age must still be wearing.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Sold as a chypre (Arielle at Scents Of Self writes that a Chypre is defined by a lack of florals) so my conclusion is then FlOriental. With a super Double WOW! So reminiscent of bygone fragrances, deep and soft and satin sheened fragrant magic. The heart stays BWF on me but slowly I can smell the bases creeping in, underneath to bolster but not obscure. The creeping and sneaking continues until suddenly you’re left wondering how the dark green woodsy vanilla has overcome the spicy, sensual florals and now are in charge. The white flowers are still there though, just quietly humming along and adding a breathy counterpoint to one of the prettiest drydowns still left in modern perfumery.
Photo Stolen HollywoodDreamLand
Wear time 6-8 hours and heat helps Divine bloom even more invitingly, though it wears beautifully in the cool also and will be gorgeous in the snow. This is a BIG perfume in a genre nearly forgotten. People say it’s high, dressy evening but I will be more likely to wear it selfishly for cleaning, shopping and other drudgeries that need a glamorous something to help me endure them. Divine may become my paperwork fragrance.
Further reading: I Smell Therefore I Am and EauMG
Divine has an online boutique that sends to the world. I just went and bought 20ml Parfum for 140€ shipped to Australia.
LuckyScent has refillable 50ml goldtone atomisers $120
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml
Have you tried this? Can you believe it?
Portia xx
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Gabriella
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The opening is sharp and bright, bringing to mind the effect of dropping an alka seltzer in water and that searing nostril effect you get from the fizzing lozenge as it dissolves. Images also come to mind of the heat mirages over searing bitumen roads in the outback or the white light-type effect one experiences when entering the bright sunshine on a hot summer’s day from a darkened room: retina piercing, hot, clean and white.
Courrèges/Moschino Photo Stolen IntoTheFashionHello Stink Monkeys,
Many of you are stuck in the grip of winter with no end in sight but down here it is 32C swimming, Bar B Q and sunbathing days. Whether you are sweltering or wish to be reminded of the long hot days of summer then I think I’ve found the answer. Currently as ubiquitous as oudh, fig seems to be everywhere in fragrance currently but this one is light and bright and reminiscent of summer, enough to warm your heart.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Fig, yuzu (long lasting bitter dry grapefruit), cypress
I enjoy the short story that Fig Splash by Marc Jacobs tells. Ripe fig, not very bitter citrus full of sugar and the crackly green woody backbeat of the Cypress. From the notes you would expect a fresh light, cologne-ish fragrance but just like figs themselves, Fig Splash by Marc Jacobs is a more complex story, there is something deep hidden beneath the fresh burst of fruit that hints at autumn, a warmth, a yeastiness that centres the fragrance and makes it interesting and lovely. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very simple and enjoyable easy wear fragrance that would suit anyone, young or old, man or woman. Modern, translucent and pretty, without being a super sugar sweet girly fruit-choouli nothing.
While it is all this, Fig Splash by Marc Jacobs is ultimately very forgettable on me. I am lightly fragrant with a soft sillage and small scent bubble, I know I smell nice but unlike Mandy Aftel’s Fig or Hermes, Un Jardin en Mediterranee, I don’t feel enfolded or engaged. Even Diptyque, Philosykos which I didn’t particularly like moves me more.
I know, it reads like I hate it, I don’t. I like it. Wear it and it is perfect for summer or as a reminder of those lovely warm, fruit filled, on the terrace eating days. This decant will not last the summer.
If you want something not too sweet, not too fragrant and not too anything else then Fig Splash by Marc Jacobs could be the one for you. A great office-safe, pretty something that is better than a lot of the dross out there. Spritz with abandon too because the bottle is E NOR MOUS and cheap in the discounters.
Photo Stolen mandmwallace
Further reading NowSmellThis does an introduction and that’s all I could find
eGlobalBeauty has 300ml/$57 delivered
SurrenderToChance starts at 2ml/$4
Do you have a favourite fig? What would you wear to remind you of summer, or if in the Southern Hemisphere what are you wearing to beat the heat?
I’m off to the pool, then definitely some more Fig Splash!! Wish you were here.
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 