Lost and Found

Decants are funny things. It's funny when they just seem to keep multiplying without even slowing down and sooner or later, they are everywhere. I kind of have a system of keeping track. What I have worn and reviewed, I keep in a medium sized makeup bag. The ones that I have not worn and reviewed are kept in another makeup bag. I am quickly outgrowing those bags and have bought another that I am about to start filling. But I am finding it difficult to actually just get started on that needs to be worn and reviewed bag. My biggest problem in procrastination, as much as I love perfume, I just procrastinate on trying new stuff and review it. I think that I should start a system of once a week of trying one perfume and then review it. Let's see how long that will last.

Last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out my closet and bedroom. As it always happens, things get moved around but I always know where things have been placed. The worn and reviewed bag was moved to a second nightstand and for some reason, something was placed on top of it and something was placed in front of it. When I was getting ready to go to work, I could not find the bag. I couldn't find the stupid bag to grab a decant to slip into my work cardigan to spray my wrists before work. I was lucky in the moment because there were some decants that I've already worn and reviewed that were work safe scents. But I did actually manage to find the stupid thing and not look through the garbage after work.

Now it actually feels like fall and I am really pulling out my fall scents. You know what that means? I can haul out my Amouage offerings and really start wearing them. Once in a while, I do like to wear Lyric or Epic in the summer but they work better in colder months.

Montale Full Incense Review

It's been a long weekend for me. Even though I had the weekend off, it was full of things that I wasn't looking forward to doing. Cleaning was something that I was not looking forward to doing. It wasn't a top to bottom clean but dusting, vacuuming and then having to tackle the bedroom. Sorting things, throwing things out and then having to put it back together. It's amazing how much crap that gets accumulated without realizing it. Finally, it's done for the weekend. I might get going on some wall washing and steam cleaning carpets in the bedrooms later in the week or next week.

Yesterday and today, I had spent time with Montale's Full Incense. I do enjoy a good incense dominant perfume. The best time to enjoy them is either in the fall or winter. I mostly enjoy them in the fall. Cleveland has clambakes, bonfires, falling leaves and just a different smell in general and incense just works.

I have never spent a whole lot of time with any offerings from Montale. I think that it's a house that has never really caught my eye and stayed on my radar. But when STC ran a sale recently, I was looking for something that was kind of cheap. I had thought I grabbed another decant of something but Full Incense was the one I grabbed and sprayed. Immediately, I knew exactly what perfume that it smelled like and Full Incense smelled just like Avignon.  Full Incense is an almost ripoff from Avignon, maybe a little smoother and longer lasting. Full Incense it a little more approachable than Avignon but not very different. I swear that it smells just like Avignon, I had sprayed it on mistakenly but nope. I had looked at Luckysent for some peer reviews and I am not alone is most of what was said. For an EDP, Full Incense is a long lasting perfume. I had sprayed some on at 2 this afternoon and I am smelling the extreme dry down at 11pm.

For the price tag of $120 and a longer lasting power, I kind of have to nope out of that one. I just don't see how I can justify a $25 markup when there is CdG's Avignon for $25 cheaper. Yes, I have become pretty cost conscious due to cutting back and just don't see the merit of spending tons of money on one bottle o perfume so much any more. I am thinking that my collection is still pretty large and I must keep up the trying to use up some bottles of perfume before acquiring more of them.

Eau No

Did anyone ever have this computer problem? Every time that I go to certain websites on my PC, it pops up as "connection insecure" and can't get on said website? I am having this issue. Facebook, STC, TPC and a few others but not my blog or Yahoo. I don't know if it the firewall or not but I know that I am not having this issue with my Kindle Fire. So I have no flipping clue on what's up with the computer and I am not motivated right now to deal with it.

On Sunday, I was searching for one of those perfumes that I haven't worn in a while. I do have a few that I don't wear often and some have a reason. Sunday was the day that I decided to wear vintage Mitsouko. I do love Mitsouko but she can be a little hard to wear. When I applied my vintage Mitsouko, it seemed like a mistake and didn't have the time to wash Mitsouko off and apply something different.

Some perfumes can be a mistake in certain circumstances. L'Heure Bleue and L'Heure de Nuit are two of them. Both are powder bombs but L'Heure de Nuit isn't a massive powder bomb as L'Heure de Bleue. Both of them just are not meant for hot and humid weather unless dabbed and a very small amount. I've noticed that no. 22 can be that way as well, especially in the vintage EDT form but the extrait form is wonderful and barely any powder in it. But it's difficult with perfumes loaded with powder or the vintage chypres to wear on a daily basis.

The Makeup Runs

The debate seems to rage on about who is better, Sephora or Ulta? I find that it really depends on what you want and the price point. I find Ulta to be better in terms of product and the rewards are a little bit better. Ulta seems to be better with sales and coupons and there are more stores around. So Ulta gets more of my business than Sephora.

It takes me quite a while for me to accumulate any worthwhile points with Sephora but what I like is the notification of a "birthday gift". I think that is what I like the most about Sephora. Sure, I am given only two options and they are sample sized but they can serve a purpose. But when that birthday e-mail hit my inbox, it was off to the races to fill up on a couple things.

Sometimes those makeup runs can be a fun thing. Well, in a lot of ways, makeup ends up being cheaper for me than perfume. My makeup routine is pretty basic and I love most of Urban Decay's Naked collection and tend to favor the smaller Naked pallets. I'm not big on colorful eye shadow nor am I a fan of shimmery or glitter on my eyes. But I am still pissed about Kat von D's Hellbent (color) being discontinued and I am looking at what is comparable to that shade of red. But it was fun to mostly browse Sephora to see what was available but mostly saw the same old same old and I was reminded why I keep my beauty routine fairly basic. I'd rather spend time picking out what perfume I am wearing for the day instead of spending at least a half an hour on applying purple eye shadow with questionable results.

Pulling Out the Fall Favorites

Technically, the Northern Hemipshere is in fall. The sun sets a little earlier, the temps are falling a little bit and the trees are going to start turning and losing their leaves. That means the perfume rotation. I have spent a little bit of time pulling fall/winter bottles to the forefront and some summer ones to the back. I haven't totally finished yet. I haven't finished due to me being in Cleveland. I can still expect the odd stretch of temps in the 90's or the mid 80's, so I still need some summer scents in the front. What I have pulled out is some of the "classic" Amouage offerings. Lyric, Memoir and Epic have been pulled to the front. Dia and Gold always sit in perfume limbo. They (Gold and Dia) don't really seem to fit in any set seasonal category and Gold, no matter what, is too urinous to be worn anywhere for me. Shalimar has been pulled to the front along with my vanilla perfumes.

What is great about fall, is the lack of reruns on television. I'm thinking that I might have to stick out the last season of the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory hasn't really been too good the past few seasons for a number of reasons. My biggest peeve is when they started to pair everyone off with only one single guy that can't get a girl, I was turned off by it. My latest thing now is watching Chicago Fire, which I have been binge watching. I couldn't get into it at first but now I am. There are doctor shows, police shows but how many TV shows are about firefighters and paramedics? I'm not talking about the reality ones but fictional ones. The shows that I have to wait until spring of next year is Call the Midwife and Poldark on PBS.

Andy Tauer Hyacinth and a Mechanic Review

A strange thing has happened to me and a vintage bottle of Miss Dior. About 2 years ago, I had bought a 2 ounce screw top bottle of Miss Dior and it came with a screw on spray mechanism. I hadn't put on the spray mechanism on the bottle right away and that is something that I normally do but just didn't. Then about 10 months ago, I had actually did and somewhat forgot about the bottle except of the periodic spray. Fast forward to a week ago, I noticed some serious evaporation. To the point of maybe 10ml left on an 80% full 2 ounce bottle. So I made sure that that bottle was my bed time scent and now I can mostly say that I actually finished my 2nd bottle for the year. It seems that I have more issues losing perfume due to me either being a klutz that just simple evaporation.

In the past 6 months, I've had Andy Tauer's limited edition Hyacinth and a Mechanic sitting in the not reviewed pile and it's time to get going on wearing it. At first, I was very confused. First blast of HaaM is somebody is chewing cinnamon gum and I don't see cinnamon listed as a note anywhere. The cinnamon still is pretty loud for me 20 minutes in but I notice an oily hyacinth and the barest hint of shoe leather. Hyacinth even as a live plant or cut has an oily element to it. The only other perfume that I have smelled that has a fairly realistic hyacinth is Un Coeur en Mai. But the hyacinth is portrayed a little different in HaaM. HaaM is meant to be a story or a situation. The mental image that I get is an oily mechanic is chewing cinnamon gum, while working on cars while the hyacinths outside are blooming.

The price point of a full bottle was pretty decent (but I only have a small decant) and lasting power on skin is pretty good. But I find that HaaM is not something that works for me, not on skin, not on clothing and I am okay with that.

i Profumi di Firenze Vaniglia del Madagascar Review

After shuffling through my unworn bag of perfume, I had realized that some of my decants are evaporating, I realized that I really needed to get the show on the road with wearing and reviewing. Yesterday, I had a huge craving for a vanilla dominant perfume and that landed me in Vaniglia del Madagascar.

I've always had a hard time with vanilla perfumes because I work in a bakery and I have ended up with not exactly liking vanilla dominant perfumes. Most of them came across as smelling like a cupcake or straight up vanilla extract. Then came Havana Vanille and Guerlain's SDV and then I realized that I like my vanilla inedible.

Ever since my perfume journey started, I came to realize that most, if not all perfume houses, mainstream or niche, has a vanilla or tow in their line up. But it was time for me to try Vaniglia del Madagascar. And I can't make up my mind about it. Upon first blast, I smell a cross between SDV and Tom Ford's Vanille Tobacco (or is it Tobacco Vanille, I'm not digging around for my decant to find out). Smoky like SDV and what smells like pipe tobacco and maybe a kind of teeters on the boozy side. But then I figure out what that smokey, boozy smell is and it's chocolate. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with chocolate in perfume that I am aware of, so the chocolate did come as a surprise when I identified it. What I noticed that Vaniglia del Madagascar it that the vanilla is noticeable but kind of stays in the background. If you are going to say that it's a vanilla, the vanilla should have a staring roll not regulated to a supporting roll. What I did like is that it teeters on the edge of either being edible or inedible. The wear time on my skin is about 7 hours and has moderate projection. Would I pay $110 for a 50ml bottle? No, it's more of a $60 dollar kind of perfume. If Andy Tauer can pull of a vanilla and sell it for under $70, i Profumi di Firenze can as well.