Just The Juice: Brief Fragrance Reviews – Voyage by Hiram Green

Welcome to Just The Juice. Why “Just The Juice”? I want to talk about fragrances that I’ve come across, both new releases and older ones, and I want to keep it focused on the perfume (what we perfume lovers call the “juice”) itself. So often I write about the background, the history, the sociological and psychological significance, etc. etc. of a smell or a perfume. But in the interests of pure perfume prose, in this series I’m going to write about the juice, in 300 words or less per perfume, and include relevant artistic/conceptual notes from the perfumer too, if I can. I hope to introduce you to some wonderful perfumes in this series.

Today I will be reviewing the recently released Voyage by Hiram Green, who I interviewed late last year for my Thirteen Thoughts: Perfumer Interview Series. Hiram is based in the Netherlands and creates perfumes entirely from natural materials.

Voyage by Hiram Green

Publicity material and sample of Voyage by Hiram Green

The photograph above shows the publicity material that I received for Voyage, which is identical to the information on Hiram Green’s website for the fragrance:

“An ode to the exotic mysteries of India, our new fragrance is as atmospheric and thrilling as a Mysore street market and as opulent as Octopussy’s floating palace on Lake Pichola.

Voyage is an intoxicating blend of fresh citrus top notes, a heart of warm amber and luscious suede over a smooth vanilla base.

Limited to only 250 bottles entirely natural eau de parfum.”
Source: Hiram Green website

International Women’s Day 2016. Memories and Music In Celebration of my Grandmother

My grandmother, c. late 1930s, Adelaide.

Above is a photo of my grandmother as a young woman, sometime in the late 1930s (or perhaps early 40s), captured by a roving street photographer in Adelaide. I love the slightly surprised, somewhat reproachful look on her face. I love her clothes, her shoes, her hat and gloves, that handbag and the way she carries it. I love that I do not know what she was like when this photo was taken and that she had a long history before I came along. I love that she was young, and beautiful, and stylish and sassy. I wish I knew what perfume she wore – Vol de Nuit, Shocking, Tabu, Joy? – but sadly I don’t.

Fast-forward forty years, more or less, and I enter the equation. My Granny, as I call her, lives in a little house with my Papa, in a tiny beachside town in South Australia. It’s a long drive to Granny’s house from where we live, and we’re always welcomed at the back door with hearty greetings and warm hugs. Granny is a wonderful cook and always makes lunch or afternoon tea when we visit. The house smells of pasties and biscuits, the occasional lamb roast, vegetable soup, cups of tea.

Muse-Inspired Scents: IME Natural Perfumes Australia Review

IME collections pack

It should come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that I am a sensitive soul. This means that sometimes my body over-reacts to the world around me: stimuli, chemicals, medications and food become sources of irritation and inflammation. At times like this, I need to dial it back: eat simple foods, make sure I sleep enough, tone down the synthetic perfumes, get lots of fresh air and exercise. This week has been one of those sensitive weeks. My cat and I have both been unwell, and with infectious bacteria lurking in the house, I turned to burning bug-banishing essential oils to scent the house and soothe us a little. We also evacuated from a bushfire last week, so my stress levels went through the roof. I’ve gone off my perfume it seems: at times like this synthetic fragrance can aggravate my eyes and skin, so IME’s natural perfumes seemed like an appealing and even healing choice to wear while I try to bring my stress levels down.

Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire: Musings on the Nature of Fire and the Smell of Smoke

I’ve had an interesting week and the smell of smoke has played a starring role. As the saying goes, “where there’s smoke there’s fire”, and this week there was indeed a fire, a 1,200 hectare fire (3000 acres) in fact, quite close to our house in rural Victoria. On a 39 degree, windy day, with grass and foliage as dry as tinder at the end of an El Niño summer, we watched a terrifying bushfire start in the nearby mountains and get out of control very quickly. Our adrenal glands were exhausted from the panic of that day and we are still recovering from the stressful evacuation that we chose to undertake. Though the fire was 18 kilometres away, across the dry grassy paddocks, fire can move at a speed of 60 kilometres an hour in the right conditions (trust me, it was the right conditions), and with the strong wind shifting to fan the fire our way, there was no way we were going to take any chances. We left.

Just The Juice: Brief Fragrance Reviews – Albino (A Study in White) and The Voices of Trees by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Today marks the start of a new series of brief perfume reviews called Just The Juice. Why “Just The Juice”? I want to talk about fragrances that I’ve come across, both new releases and older ones, and I want to keep it focused on the perfume (the “juice”) itself. So often I write about the background, the history, the sociological and psychological significance, etc. etc. of a smell or a perfume. But in the interests of pure perfume prose, in this series I’m going to write about the juice, in 300 words or less per perfume, and include relevant artistic/conceptual notes from the perfumer too, if I can. I hope to introduce you to some wonderful perfumes in this series.

Today I will be reviewing two recent releases by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes, both in VdP (voile de parfum) strength.

Albino (A Study in White)

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes says of her recent (2015) release Albino (A Study in White):

“What began as a fascination with the albino raspberry soon became an exploration from the real to abstraction.

What is it to be without pigment?  There seems to be a kind of quality; a luminosity and sense of lightness.  So then what?  “White” materials… and a questioning: what does white feel like?

Albino takes an abstract look at white from a synesthetic and textural stance.  The textures being crisp, pithy, and creamy; shifting from fruity crispness to pithy to a creamy feel, with blond woods, and musk at the final drydown.

Meet Albino.  He’s gorgeously unusual.”
Source: DSH Perfumes website

Epic Road Trip: Ten Fragrances From ROADS Ireland Reviewed

The original range of ten fragrances from ROADS

I first heard about ROADS fragrances during a visit to one of my favourite local haunts, Kleins Perfumery in Fitzroy, Melbourne. I was surprised to come across this brand as I’d not heard of it before, nor had I heard of many Irish perfumers or perfume houses either. The friendly sales assistant (who knows about my blog and my penchant for all things cross-media) thought that ROADS might appeal to me as the company also produces books and movies as well as perfume. “Gosh yes!” I said, and she kindly wrote down the ROADS website address for me to investigate later.

Investigate I did. I wrote to ROADS and my request for further information about the fragrances and the chance to review some samples was responded to by the lovely Annalee from the Australian distributor for ROADS, T2M Scents. Annalee very kindly provided me with a Selection Box of 4ml samples of the original ten ROADS fragrances for review; all are eau de parfum strength, and all were launched at the same time in 2014. A further four fragrances – The Africa Collection – have been released since, but I haven’t tried these yet. Today I’ll be reviewing all ten fragrances from the original range.