Hey Posse! I hope this finds you all happy and well. Portia reporting from AustralianPerfumeJunkies and very glad to be back from holidays in India, even though they were terrific fun. What did I end up wearing most and how did they cope with the super heat of a Rajasthani summer? Here are my Top 5 most worn during my trip.
India Holiday Fragrances 2013
Iunx Splash Forte: Friction de Iunx
I can’t find this on Fragrantica and frankly Basenotes has gone mental and it’s impossible to find ANYTHING in their fragrance directory anymore. What i did find was on the SurrenderToChance site and it says that these are old fragrances being re-released and only for sale in the Hotel Costes in Paris. interesting! A super boozy opening that hints at spice and cloves and Bourbon that calmly becomes a deep and sensuous woodsy, earthy wash. I wore Friction de Iunx (Yooonx) for 3 days of my India holiday because it is so easy, interesting without being arresting and softly masculine. I think it would be delicious on a lady too. My only sadness is that in the heat I was only getting 3-4 hours of wear, I can’t wait to see how my remaining couple of ml Friction de Iunx wears in the cool.
Tauer: L’Air Du Desert Marocain
I have long loved Andy Tauer’s work and he was my first major niche purchase after finding you all on the internet, along with Eau d’Epices. I gave LDDM to my bestie for Christmas a couple of years ago now and have been smelling it on her ever since. I decided to go in on a split recently because I have not worn it since I used up my initial sample from Tauer. The spicy, feisty and fresh opening is marvelous and beautifully reminiscent of the wide open sky and dirt of the desert, but a desert filled with humanity that has added its cooking, living, farming influences over millenia. Like India, funnily LDDM can only be noticed for the first half hour in India because it becomes exactly the smells surrounding me. I still smell beautiful but like I am part of the landscape rather that landing in it from afar. Gorgeous.
Amouage: Ubar
Don’t let anyone tell you that the Amouage line is too big for heat. Ubar blooms (Thanks Sheila for the word) like a desert flower and it lasts FOREVER in the heat of India, I can still smell traces of Ubar when I go in for my morning shower. What a fragrance! It really comes to life in surprising ways and smells more than ever like a traditional attar or oil. In the desert heat the flowers become the focus,, white, sensual, narcotic and beguiling Ubar becomes a glorious coruscating trail of light that burns down to a woody/oudhy, still glittering and sparkling siren song. I have nearly used my 10ml from Ruth K and am SERIOUSLY thinking FB. WOW!
PS: I have in fact pulled the trigger on the Ubar, can’t live without it.
L’Artisan Parfumeur: Cote d’Amour
Recently re-released by L’Artisan Cote d’Amour is the fresh, salty, spicy natural perfume of my dreams. I love its perfectly bright opening and how it greens out but never loses its briny tang that is so reminiscent of the seaside. The ultimate foil for India desert heat Cote d’Amour is not very long lived, maybe 3 hours maximum, but I love the salt and citrus opening so much that I enjoy a respritz anyway. I took 5ml with me and came back with only a skerrick. The dry down is softest skin scent of whispering vanilla woods, like the susurrus of wind over the leaves and needles dropped by trees leading from the beach.
India – bride with jasmine in her hair
CHANEL: No 5 Vintage Parfum
A dream in the heat, all the animalics overrun as the aldehydes whizz past at 100 miles an hour taking most of the citrus and a few of the flowers. What was I left with after 20 minutes? A really sensual woodsy, patchouli, animal musk that stayed around for hours in the evening. I could still grab delicious whiffs after dinner, drinking and playing pool till 4am. The booze only added to the depth of fragrance and it was so far removed from any India scent that it stood out like dogs balls. Very enjoyable.
At last look all these were available as samples and decants from SurrenderToChance
Did you like this? If you did why not drop over to AustralianPerfumeJunkies. We’d love to see you.
Do you have some more surprising heat friendly frags to share with us? I stole all the photos today from previous Perfume Posse posts and I know that some of them don’t quite fit……
Till next week, take care of yourself,
Portia xx
Thank you for this gorgeous warm weather fragrance post! We, too, have had a very rainy and cold spring, and while I am the only person on earth who happens to rejoice in that weather (and further because I can wear my favorite intensely forest-y scents even longer, like Slumberhouse Norne and Tom Ford Bois Marocain and Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman), I know that the warm weather is coming! L’Air du Desert Marocain has been on my most wanted list forever, but now I am super interested in Cote d’Amour…that sounds fabulous!
Hey there Shaney,
LDDM is so good, and Cote d’Amour also. Get yourself some samples, then you’ll really know how good.
Portia xx
We’re heading into a heat wave. This might have been the rainiest, most dismal spring in a while so I’m hoping for some sunshine even if I have to deal with nasty high temps. I’m glad you had a good time on your trip. You were most definitely the best smelling tourist in town.
He He he Poodle, I hope it gets nicer where you are, warm but not scalding, sunny but not humid, and I felt like a Princess for much of my delicious trip.
Portia xx
LMAO on the “dog balls” analogy. I laughed so hard I had to share that with my hubby lol. I LOVE vintage No. 5 and LDDM in the heat! Such sultry sexiness…alliteration FTW.
YAY for laughing. i’m so glad.
I bet you give it 1000% sultry sexiness Devon H. I know I tried to.
Portia xx
I LOVE the expression, “it stood out like dogs balls” – have to remember that! But best of all is, “Like India, funnily LDDM can only be noticed for the first half hour in India because it becomes exactly the smells surrounding me. I still smell beautiful but like I am part of the landscape rather that landing in it from afar.” So poetic, and I adore LDDM, so I’m dreaming of melding with a LDDM landscape.
Hey nozknoz,
You should go to India and try it, very interesting olfactory journey. Every smell imaginable froom disgusting to gorgeous in every breath. LDDM is most of the beautiful smells compressed, Andy Tauer = GENIUS. I love his work,
Portia xx
Nearly choked, laughing over the dogs balls! You know how much I love BIG frags in the heat. Amouages (except Memoir) bloom in the heat. Vintage Ubar is phenomenal! Tribute? 100F and it sings! Carnal Flower blossoms but it doesn’t last. vintage Mits is shockin-good in extreme heat.
we’re having a bit of a heat wave ourselves – mid 80s in June. Yoiks. I’ve been wearing Micallef’s Denis Durrant, which has a bit of a Encens Mythique/Amouage Tribute vibe.
xoxoxoA
Hiya, doll! So funny that you should mention that new Micallef. I just tried a sample today and at first, a metallic-oudlike vibe did me wrong, but now, later in the drydown it’s nice.
Is that the new Micallef Musette? With the beautiful lace bottle? I just bought an ounce of Micallef Black. The diamantes around the rim are so pretty and the bottle so elegant, on top of the magic fragrance. MMMMMMM
Portia xx
Ooh … you smelled fabulous!
And I think I will wear some vintage No. 5 parfum this evening because it is bloody hot here and I really need the distraction and smell gorgeous at the same time. xox
How did your CHANEL No 5 go in the heat CC? Did you love it? Was it exactly how you’d hoped it would be?
Portia xx
Really nice reviews, Portia. I enjoy your thumbnail sketches of each one and how they intermingled with your vacation experience. Thanks for sharing.
Great to see you Dina C,
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. Have a lovely week,
Portia xx
Glad that you had a lot of fun! I love wearing Amouage Lyric, Dia and Gold in the dead of summer. Ubar is not one of my favorites due to the bug spray aspect. I was surprised on vintage Mitsouko on how glorious it smells in heat. Problem with hunting down vintage Mitsouko, is that the prices, even in flea markets are horrible. I can find vintage Shalimar for a reasonable price. Guess it’s off to Surrender to Chance for all of my vintage needs.
Hey Eldarwen, I think Mitsouko women wear their frags and Shalimar girls have standbys. Many of the vintage frags come from estate sales and I think men know Shalimar and CHANEL No 5 for buying purposes so women end up with more and don’t use them all up.
Just conjecture but I think they are reasons why Mitsouko is more pricy.
Portia xx
I was surprised that I liked Prada’s Infusion d’ Iris Absolue in the heat. I thought it would be too much, but I really liked it. I am beginning to see that I really like iris…love, Chanel #19 Poudre and Le Labo # 39, and, of course, Infusion d’ Iris.
Iris has remained a little beyond me I’m afraid Maureen, I have Iris Nobile which I love for the hour I can smell it, Dior Homme vintage, Hiris and Chanel 19 off the top of my head but I find on my skin that the iris is often overtaken by other notes or so well blended that I am only superficially aware of it unless looking.
I’m totally jealous of your skins ability to make it central.
Portia xx
Hellooo, Portia! So glad you’re back safely and that you had a great time! What a beautiful, evocative post you have written. All your fragrances are lovely (I am finally coming around a bit to No. 5, but in the parfum only, alas), but I was so happy to see Ubar listed. It is such a glorious composition — I treasure my decant of it (thanks, S!). I need to try that L’Artisan, however. Thanks!
Hey Ann,
The parfum is a completely different animal isn’t it. You can still get some of the 7.5ml sprays on eBay & Etsy for great prices, in those pretty little lipstick cases. Ubar, ooohhhhhhhhhh, what a fragrance.
Do try the L’Artisan, yummy.
Nice to see you,
Portia xx
Between L’Air du Desert Marocain, Ubar and vintage Chanel No. 5 parfum alone, you smelled fabulous in India, Portia! I love Ubar in the heat – and for me the beautiful rose note of Ubar is more noticeable in the heat.
Btw, you gave me my first laugh of the day with your line, in regard to No. 5, “it was so far removed from any India scent that it stood out like dogs balls.” 😀
He He He! It’s funny because I’m so used to seeing desexed dogs that the term had never really had any meaning until I went to India. They are most prominent and every time I go to India they jump out at me, like No 5 did.
Portia xx
Glad you’re back safely. Glad you had success with Ubar, too. I bought a decant of this one with great anticipation, because most white florals are right up my alley, but unfortunately on me it mucks around in a way that’s both medicinal and barnyard, with no flowers to speak of. In fact, it’s one of the few that ever earned my husband’s “not so nice” designation.
I’m looking over your photos and realizing that, just once, I want my hair all done up with jasmine blossoms. What a lark!
I am sad that Ubar went nasty on you FeralJasmine but I would love to be there when you become jasmined in India.
Portia xx
There are so many lovely white florals in the world that it’s hard to complain about the ones that don’t work. Maybe one day we’ll be in India and you can direct my be-jasmining.
We are organising a 12 day mini tour in 2015, it will be mainly Indian type hotels and a couple of palaces, Delhi, Jaipur, Alwar, Agra, Delhi. we are trying to get all meals and sites, bus, hotels, everything into the package deal. You should come, there’ll be jasmine hair and hennaing included.
Portia xx
Would I ever love to meet up with you!!!! At least in Jaipur. I am hoping to make it there before 2015 however. I was seriously addicted to India before I ever got there…lol…then a few years ago I spent 3 months there and have been saving to return asap…..Amazing things happened that I could not believe unless they had actually happened to me.
Fragrance question: have you ever found anything in India? If so, what and where? Sandlewood of course but even with that not sure of how to get things that are, “good”. Last time I got a few things but they were not of good quality.
Do you have any info on the book by your friends father? Any special place he went to?
So glad you wrote about Ubar. I have samples of Interlude and Gold, but Ubar is my favorite. It is a gem of a fragrance with its various dry down phases and super longevity. I love smelling it on my clothes the next day after an application. You are dedicated to have purchased a FB, but it ought to last you a long time. The other perfumes you tried are unknown to me – now I’m curious. Also, I’m curious about why you chose India for a holiday.
Hey Martha,
I’ve been going to India for years. I was lucky enough to fall in love with an Indian man while he was living in Sydney for some years. Unfortunately his father became ill and he had to return to India to run the family Hotel business. We kept the love alive for years but in the end it became too hard. He had just finished building a new hotel and wanted to show it off, and also ask for some suggestions, it was a perfect excuse to go see him because I hadn’t been since 2010.
I’m still waiting for my Ubar to arrive, got a great price in the Parfum1 20% off deal.
Portia xx
Hey Portia –
Great story about why you went to India. Way better than going because you wanted to visit an ashram, or something. XO
Well Martha, my friends father has written some books on yoga and is quite famous in India because he used yoga and breathing techniques to nurse himself back to health after his illness which was heart related. So I kind of slightly went to that kind of thing but, NAAH, I just hung out.
Having gone to India for all these years I completely missed the spiritual awakening that so many others have found, though I have seen loads of wonderful religious rites. This time I was lucky enough to be in the giant Hanuman in Karol Bagh early enough on Tuesday, which is Hanuman’s day, to be a participant in the morning singing and light ritual that all the servants go to before work. It was very moving and joyous and I really enjoyed the spectacle, the priest was kind enough to bless me, take my candles and offer them directly to Hanuman. I was warmed by their exuberance, and touched by their kindness, and extremely grateful to be a part of it all.
Portia xx
I knew I’d regret the ashram remark. I was being a smart a**. No offense intended, Portia. I admire people who are honestly devoted and actually LIVE their religions. You were fortunate to be involved in such a celebration. XO
Ha Ha HA!! As if. Why would you regret it. I was LAUGHING, excellent remark. I was agreeing with you.
I did want to tell you about my wonderful experience too though, because until you reminded me it had slipped my mind. The memory is wonderful.
Portia xx
Whew! Thanks for letting me off the hook! I once was in southern Mexico, driving (with some friends) along a path, it was barely a road, when we found ourselves in between two processions. From one direction, the devil and his followers were marching, and from the opposite direction an angel and his followers were also marching. All the participants were costumed accordingly. Mexicans celebrate saints and religious days very colorfully. It was a lot of fun.