Milano Caffe GIVEAWAY WINNER

Hey there all,

We have had a lovely response for the Milano Caffe Giveaway. Thank you all so much for getting involved, I hope you also took a moment to go and follow the La Via del Profumo crew on twitter. If not this is the handle: @LaViaDelProfumo

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

WHAT COULD YOU WIN?

1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Milano Caffe
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Palermo Don Corleone
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Venezia Giardini Segrett
P&H Anywhere in the world

These are remains after I have sampled them so not exactly 2ml (1.5-2ml)

HOW DID YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

You had to go to La Via Del Profumo and find me ONE perfume and ONE of its ingredients. NO DOUBLE UPS!! EASY!

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Closed Sunday August 4 2013 10pm Australian EST.
Winner chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin picked a winner. He hardly even looked up from his iPad because he is choosing a hotel for a weekend in Melbourne. YAY!! I love Melbourne, can’t wait.

AND THE

Photo Stolen ganjer

NATALIE

CONGRATULATIONS!! You have till Thursday August 8 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Thanks everyone!!

Portia xx

Milano Caffe by AbdesSalaam Attar for La Via del Profumo 2013 + GIVEAWAY

Heya Frag Hags,

Recently there has been a flurry of excitement because La Via del Profumo, the natural perfume house from Italy, run by a French ex-pat who dresses like a fairytale Arabian desert bedouin (plural of badawī بَدَوِي,) is releasing a series of fragrances in honour of his adopted country Italy. The first of these arrived today with samples of two others for me to try. VERY EXCITED!!

Milano Caffe by La Via del Profumo 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Coffee, cappuccino, chocolate, iris, woody notes, spicy notes, opoponax, tonka bean, amber

Milano Caffe, the name alone is fabulous. I have a 15.5ml spray bottle and love its aesthetic. Chunky square glass with a smaller version repeated in the lid in plastic, its simplicity is exotic, feels expensive and is so perfectly simple. I have only had Milano Caffe 3 days and have worn it all three mornings, just for myself, completely selfishly and have enjoyed it immensely.

A warning: Give Milano Caffe a minute to soften off before you put nose to wrist, or in my case down your top, it will burn you out very quickly and some of the enjoyable development will be lost for you.

Photo Stolen Özge Okcuer Flickr

OK second go. First spritz gives me a blast of woodsy, resinous amber that could be the creating of coffee at the barista bar, that blast of hot water meeting ground beans, the milk being heated and the street smells of cars, pets and humanity all encompassed in that five minute rush of excitement. It is big and loud and in your face, just like a busy Summer streetside coffee house (though I’ve only done Florence, Rome and Venice, assuming similarities) in the middle of the tourist section.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Interestingly here I get the amber and other resins through the heart of the fragrance with some totally gorgeous smoke, still with a coffee teinté over the top. The whole fragrance then softens off and becomes a sweet/woodsy very sensual wash before drying off to cool, earth and woods, then just wood, dry wood alone and then gone. Around 4-6 hours before I lose the scent completely depending on the day, it may still be hovering over my skin but I can’t smell it. That’s pretty good longevity for a natural.

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Now Smell This
La Via del Profumo has €12,40/5.5ml (Splash), €33/15.5ml (Spray), €71,40/33ml (Spray), €98/50ml (Spray)

Photo Stolen Kesha&Co

WHAT CAN YOU WIN?

1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Milano Caffe
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Palermo Don Corleone
1 x 2ml Manufacturers Sample of Venezia Giardini Segrett
P&H Anywhere in the world

These are remains after I have sampled them so not exactly 2ml (1.5-2ml)

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Open to everyone worldwide who follows AustralianPerfumeJunkies via eMail, WordPress, Bloglovin or RSS. Please leave how you follow in the comments to be eligible. Yes, you can start following to enter, in fact it’s encouraged.

Go to La Via Del Profumo and find me ONE perfume and ONE of its ingredients. NO DOUBLE UPS!! EASY!

Extra Chance?
Tweet: @OzPerfumeJunkie La Via del Profumi ITALIAN SERIES GIVEAWAY http://wp.me/p2fQBU-1QK @LaViaDelProfumo #Giveaway

HOUSEKEEPING

Entries Close Sunday August 4 2013 10pm Australian EST and winners will be announced in a separate post.
Winners will be chosen by putting names on same sized papers, folded similarly, put on a tray and Jin will pick a winner.
The winners will have till Thursday August 8 2013 to get in touch (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with their address or the prize will go to someone else.
No responsibility taken for lost or damaged goods in transit.

Good Luck Everyone!
Go To It.
Portia xx

Mecca Balsam by AbdesSalaam Attar for La Via del Profumo

Hello folks,

I was lucky while in Vienna to catch up with one a the scentbloggospheres most loved bloggers, Birgit from Olfactoria’sTravels. Sitting pretty at breakfast with the gorgeous Sandra they both plied me with samples and Birgit handed me the most fabulous bottle ever. I wish I had known that gift giving was a traditional perfumistas handshake, so embarrassed, but the girls are so wonderful that they didn’t even bat an eyelid at my gaucherie, for which I will be forever grateful.

Photo Stolen La Via del Profumo

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Labdanum, tonka bean, Arabic frankincense, raw tobacco, Indian tuberose, damask rose, incense, agarwood, benzoin

From the AbdesSalaam’s blog: In Mecca, the scents of Labdanum resin, of Benzoin, frankincense and of the precious Agar wood invade the streets together with the 4 million pilgrims who pour to the streets 5 times every day, walking to the great mosque like river. The trail of a million scents in the wake of the pilgrims at Mecca raptures the nose of the visitor and make this travel an unforgettable experience for a westerner little used to such a profusion of olfactory stimulus.

Photo Stolen 22h22

AbdesSalaam Attar is the name that perfumer Dominique Dubrana goes under to create his all natural, astounding fragrances. I have a little sample set of them on my desktop that I’ve almost used entirely and one of my favourites has always been the Mecca Balsam. The bottle Birgit gave me had the name Balsamo della Mecca on the base, in our excitement I did not put 2 and 2 together and realise that these two names could be one and the same. Oh joyous rapture, oh bliss eternal!! They are the same and I now have this extraordinary bottle on my desk.

Straight out of the atomiser and onto skin it is resinous and sweetly balsamic, bitter, herbal, dark and still light. Tobacco notes both sweet and burnt, burning, smoky. Oudh adding its cow poo/medicinal/acrid/beautiful voice and the whole is so complex and happening at once and big, brash, shouty. It picks you up by the hair and shakes you till your teeth clack like castanets, then it throws you to the ground a laughs at your incapacity. OK it doesn’t really do that but this is certainly experiential perfumery of a class that you will never find in department stores. This is the real thing and I love it. Loving it SICK!!

After an hour or so it calms to a dull roar, the size is considerable less but the fragrance is pretty linear, at this stage though there’s enough air between the notes that it’s not the bombardment of before. Now you have time and the ability to savour the resins and the flowers make a very quiet and pretty descant over the base notes of everything else. It softens and softens till gone, hours into the dry down.

Photo Stolen ABC

Further reading PerfumeShrine and TheNonBlonde
La Via Del Profumo starts at €13.22/5.5ml up to €396.69/10gr of Attar
SurrenderToChance starts at $7/ml

Have you seen the website and do you have favourite names? They are all so evocative for me. Maybe you tried these fragrant masterpieces? What were your impressions?

Till tomorrow, take care of yourself and those in your orbit,
Portia xx