Budget

Six Weeks Till Xmas
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Six Weeks Till Xmas

Hey crew, I’m from the RC family and Xmas is what’s engraved in my mind. No matter what religion, or lack of, whatever you are doing or celebrating over this time gifts are often attached to the events. Anyone who says religions aren’t big business for big business, haven’t been paying attention. So today I thought we could look at some excellent value fragrant presents. Nothing over US$100 and some below US$30. Six Weeks Till Xmas! Let’s get looking.

Six Weeks Till Xmas

Six Weeks Till Xmas

Wavertree and London are an Aussie home scenting company that do candles, diffusers and body care BUT the thing I love them for most is their soap. We have been using them around here for the last year and they are so satisfying. Suds, softness and scent are all so good. Ive picked the Dreams Soap Trio Set to show you today. The presentation is Betty and good to look at, easy to wrap too. To buy here in Australia it’s only AU$25, aprox US$18 for 3 x 200g individually wrapped soaps.

Have you seen on FragranceNet that the Floris 10ml travel sizes are around the US$25 mark? They come boxed and are a really beautiful quality. They fit in handbags or gym bags and are tough enough to take the knocks.

Six Weeks Till Xmas

Gascoigne & King are an Aussie home fragrancing company that do some of the best candle fragrances I know. Every year they do a GK20 code for getting a 20% discount and they send to the world. They also have world outlets: Georges of Dubai, Dubai UAE: Studio G Home, Sarasota Florida: The Runyon Group, Los Angeles. My favourite two candles from them are Gritty, Paddington and Stem. Just over US$40 for a 400ml candle with 80 hour burn time, before discount.

My most worn fragrance through Aussie Autumn/Winter 2026 has been Maasai Mara from Berdoues. It’s a warm spiced amber with fruity, resinous bells and whistles. I find so calming, warming and satisfying. Available at discounters for around US$50/100ml, the bottle and box are also very nice without being over the top grandeur.

Maasai Mara from Berdoues

Perfumer H is doing incense and they are so luxurious. I was given a set of Ink and they get used before guests come. There’s only a couple left and I’m thinking to put them on my list of wants for this year. 30 sticks, beautifully packaged are £38 or just over US$50. If someone you know loves incense then this is the bomb. There are a range. If you really want to spoil them, there is a three pack that flies just over US$100.

Completely unrelated, and I had it on my list last year but did not get it. Wedgwood has done the Fortune Mug. Made of bone china, 330ml and with the loveliest design, who doesn’t need a little extra fortune? Around the US$75 mark at Wedgwood I can find it for les at the discounters. For around US$100 they have a double set. Perfect for giving to couples.

 

So there you go. Six ideas with Six Weeks Till Xmas.

Do you have any good ideas to share?
Portia xx

 

 

Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker
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Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker

Hey there ULGers, I have this perfume in my collection, Stash Unspoken. It’s not niche leaning, pushes zero boundaries and does not make me swoon with rapture every time I spritz it. So you’d think I would ignore it and wear other more interesting things, right? Nope. It gets the spritz way more often than many of my super amazing, eye rollingly gorgeous, weird and wonderful bottles. I have a theory, probably we have talked about this before. Sorry if it’s old news. While the boundary pushing elixirs are fabulous, fun to write about, share with perfumista buddies and swoon over; what I really want in my day to day life is to smell good. Simple, easy to waft, pretty and friendly fragrances that don’t overtake my mind with rapture in the midst of doing my daily whatever. I also love that it was relatively inexpensive. So if I get really busy or distracted and totally ignore it then so what?

Stash Unspoken by Sarah Jessica Parker 2017

Stash Unspoken

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Quince, Pink pepper
Heart: Honeysuckle, Peony, Wisteria
Base: Musk, Sandalwood, Tonka bean, Frankincense

Quince? I dunno. Maybe if you squint your nose, from a distance, backwards with a following breeze. It’s kind of fruity, a cross between fig and citrus so it could be quince and the zingy pink pepper berry gives it a lift.

None of the amorphous bouquet heart really seem to match the notes list at all, maybe some fruity rose. Maybe honeysuckle.

The base is a pretty, nondescript waft of sweet-ish woodsy nothings that don’t really have definition as notes.

Sounds like crap? It’s not. Well, not for me anyway. Stash Unspoken is so easy going and stress free. It got a really bad rap when released because the original Stash was so damn good. After that high bar everyone was expecting more fabulosity and what we got was something tame and friendly.

Well, stuff the haters, I really love Stash Unspoken and while wearing it last week noticed how empty my bottle is. So I jumped on FragranceNet (not affiliated) and bought a new one. 50ml for under US$20.

Are you a lover, hater or meh-er on Stash Unspoken?
Portia xx

Sand + Sable by Coty
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Sand + Sable by Coty

Hi crew. Sand & Sable is a bargain Coty fragrance you can get at drug stores and online for a song. I can’t remember who first put me on to it but I’d like to thank them. It was a few years back. I was ferociously reading blogs, hitting links, searching for bargains night after night after night. On top of work, domestic duties, friends, travel and blogging daily for APJ (OK I had contributor’s doing a few days a week) and weekly for Perfume Posse. There were also guest spots on Olfactoria’s Travels and others. No, I can’t tell you how I did it all. When did I sleep?

Anyway, I had a bottle for years and a friend loved it so I gave it to them. Really, I never missed it because there’s so much other stuff here. Then it came up somewhere, maybe Perfume Posse? or NST? Suddenly I wanted it B A D! So in my next FragranceNet order I grabbed the small bottle.

Sand & Sable by Coty 1981

Sand + Sable by Coty

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Gardenia, Tuberose, Jasmine, Peach, Green Notes, Rose

Rich buttery white floral goodness. It’s so pretty and a little over the top on application. Sand & Sable is peachy, peachy and luxuriously breathy. An early adopter of the 1980s BWF that can hold it’s own against the heaviest hitters. It isn’t sophisticated but it does smell kind of arch and ageing starlet-ish. It could easily be the fictitious Summer Rain in 1939 film The Women.

Fruity white florals have long been part of the perfume oeuvre. After about an hour Sand & Sable is not terribly far from Madonna Truth or Dare and Piguet Fracas at the same point. It has decent longevity and continues on its buttery, fruity white floral way until it disappears.

Should you have it in your collection? Sure. If you love a white floral, like to have an easy spritz and go, want to smell quite different to the usual niche offering or even if you are on a budget and still want a spritz of joy. Sand & Sable is a pretty good pick me up for next to nothing.

Have you tried it?
Portia xx

Yuzu Solinotes
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Yuzu Solinotes

Hi there crew. You may know that Undina has been searching for the ultimate Yuzu. In a recent order from Surrender To Chance I happened upon one I’d not seen before. Yuzu by Solinotes. Now that I look it up I have seen this brand in the drug stores. Very inexpensive. Honestly, I passed them by thinking they’d be dross.

Yuzu by Solinotes

Yuzu Solinotes

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon, Bergamot
Heart: Yuzu, Tangerine, White Flowers
Base: Oakmoss, Patchouli

Full disclosure, I can’t remember ever having Yuzu. Wikipedia tells me it’s “A naturally occurring hybrid between an Ichang papeda (hardiest citrus, bitter juice) and a Mandarin orange.”

Citrus! Yes, of course citrus but the opening burst is juicy and tart. It has just the right amount of pith to make it seem like you’ve cut open a fresh something off the tree. It’s a soft focus, bittersweet amalgam of the citrus I know. Just shy of ripeness. The opening lasts unusually long and citrus still remains the main player through the heart. That musky pith comes up to meet it as the fragrance softens in strength.

Yuzu Solinotes

About 20 minutes in all fireworks are over and a smooth, quite clean feeling, faint wash of fragrance remains. A little citrus, pith and better-than-me skin scent remain. It quietly pumps for a while and I’m not sure if the fragrance disappears or I become blind to it.

Super easy wear scent for both sexes. Perfect for anyone who loves perfume but works where it is eschewed. By the time you arrive it will be so soft it could be your face or body lotion.

I’m pretty sure you don’t need this in your Yuzu army Undina but it is nice enough and definitely punching above its price range.

We are heading into summer here in Oz. I’m going to pop this decant into the fridge and spritz with abandon a couple of times to use it up.

Do you like a cheapie? Is Yuzu a thing for you?
Portia xx

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Musette made me Jean Nate

Hey Crew, Do you ever read a blog post and suddenly your are pressing PayPal on your favourite online perfume store or discounter? Right, well not long ago over at Perfume Posse Musette waxed lyrical about Jean Nate. It’s always been her go to summer spritz after bathing but it had never been talked about so fulfillingly. Suddenly I had to know. So I bought a cheap 8oz after bath splash mist bottle off FragranceNet, seriously it cost about the price of a McDonalds burger. More recently Tom had a swoon over it too.

Jean Nate (now by Revlon) 1935

Musette made me Jean Nate

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Lemon Bergamot Lavender
Heart: Geranium Spicy Notes Rose Jasmine Lily-of-the-Valley
Base: Musk Sandalwood Tonka Bean Virginia Cedar

So, after all this lead up, what does Jean Nate smell like?

A softly refreshing cologne. The spices and lavender give citrus a frosting of elegance. It’s nothing amazing or extraordinary but it is a pleasant, very short lived scent. I’m lucky to be able to smell it an hour later.

I’m not sure what note or accord it is but I get a definite smell of base humanity as an undercurrent. As if after showering you need to get those lived in, slightly feral aspects back onto your body ASAP.

As the northern hemisphere warms up it might be a good additive if your perfume wardrobe is without a bright, sparkling cologne. Much less zingy than 4711. Jean Nate is more sophisticated and deeper.

Have you tried Jean Nate or do you have memories of a wearer?
Portia xx