Saturday, June 27, 2015

The Collection Experience

I have been trying to shop my own perfume collection and not buy so much perfume. Right now, this is kind of questionable. Ever since the weather has stayed warm, I have been able to wear two or three perfumes a day. But I've come into a little roadblock.

The roadblock comes in the form of what I have forgotten about and think about a back up bottle. I do tell myself that I don't need anymore perfume because I haven't even finished one full bottle let alone mini to justify another bottle of anything. Definitely not a sixth bottle of Theorema or my millionth bottle of Bal. So it is a little tough to get through my collection without adding more. I am considering just going cold turkey and see if I can get through a bottle of Mitsouko (not a vintage bottle) or maybe no 5.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Vintage Bottle Annoyance

Since there are no flea markets, let alone good ones where I live, let alone Goodwill or the Salvation Army, I have to rely on E-bay for my vintage perfume needs. But I'm really starting to get annoyed with the whole advertising a vintage bottle with the box and damaged cellophane listing it as new in box.

With buying vintage, with or without the box, if the seal on the perfume bottle isn't broken, yes I do expect some kind of evaporation. The older the bottle is, the more evaporation I do expect. But there is only so much evaporation I will accept before I will have to do a double take and think about getting that vintage.

But there are some bottles that are described as brand new, never used or new in box. What I am referring to is the spray bottles of vintage Bal. Bal is one of those perfumes in vintage form that I can't stop praising enough but those white spray bottles can be a bear. I have recently gotten a sealed box of the PdT version off E-Bay. It was listed as brand new and I was thinking that hey, it's vintage, even if it has not been opened or used, there is going to be a little bit of evaporation. When it arrives, I eagerly open it and find that it is actually about half full. This was reminiscent of the other PdT spray bottle that was listed as new. I am beginning to wonder if the spray bottle for Bal was the best design. Right now, I am staring at a sealed vintage bottle of Shalimar (teardrop EDT) from probably sometime in the 70's and it's about 95% full and a 1950's sealed Mitsouko EDC that is about 90% full. Even my vintages that were not listed as new or sealed are just about full. So it pretty much annoys me that I have found a couple vintage sealed items that are as full as one would expect for vintage and a spray bottle (vintage) doesn't seem to hold up.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Serge Lutens La Religieuse Review

What I do like about summer is that in the morning/afternoon is that I can wear one perfume and another in the evening. Last night, I went into my unworn and reviewed bag for something a little different and got La Religieuse by Serge Lutens. I know that Serge Lutens offerings can be really odd smelling and it's always been kind of a crap shoot for me with Serge Lutens. La Religieuse is not different.

This is supposed to be a jasmine dominant perfume but I'm having a whole lot of trouble finding the jasmine and I love jasmine (skankier the better). This offering is very perfumey and there are a few that are in my collection that are that way but this time, I'm not liking it one bit. I do think that the musk in this one and the lack of jasmine makes this one a stinker.

Stinker in the way of this isn't what I already haven't smelled in the mainstream. The Bois de Jasmin blog did some it up nicely by saying that one could go to the department store and this statement is very true. But I think that one can do a little better in the department store.