All Sorts of Things

I kept flirting with the idea of doing a post (if I hadn't already), of what I would like to see in parfum form. Not seeing Chanel no 5 parfum in stock online got me to think on that a little bit. You very rarely see parfum version of anything anymore. You might see extrait de parfum once in a while with niche but nothing else. Amouage did have the parfum version of some of their line but but that was mostly done away with and they now have the Exceptional Extrait line up. Intense version of any perfume is pretty meaningless to me. I want the ritual of a splash bottle of parfum version.

The two perfumes that I would like to see done in parfum form would be Estee Lauder Pleasures or Clinique Happy. Pleasures does come in an intense version and I haven't smelled that yet. I don't want to go back into the habit of blind buying again since I have pulled myself out of that recently. Estee Lauder and Clinique have the means to do something like this but they don't. Maybe something in the original formula doesn't translate well or they think something might not be good enough for even just a holiday run. I don't know which one I would get first if that happened because I am sure that they would be more reasonably priced that what Chanel would sell and maybe a little bit of a bigger bottle.

It looks like Andy Tauer did release another limited edition after he released Nexin. This one that he just released, was sold out when I got to the website. I wasn't looking to get a bottle, I was interested in the price, the concentration and how big the bottle was. I did notice a price increase on Andy Tauer offerings but I did notice a price hike on other perfume line ups. The price hikes on groceries is a little rough but seeing bigger price hikes on everything else sucks. I have enough perfume perfume to last a few lifetimes but I still want to try new things.

One TV show that I have watched ever since the beginning is Call the Midwife on PBS and the 15th season will drop sometime in 2026. I just found out that season 15 will be the last season and we will be getting a prequel. I am sad that Call the Midwife is ending but I did notice that the quality of the show has gone down in the past few seasons. Too many new characters were introduced and left fairly quickly with little to no explanation. I did noticed in the past season or two is that there have been a couple episodes that were very nitty gritty like in the first three seasons. I think that that should have been my first inkling that there really might not be a whole lot of time nor life for Call the Midwife. I did notice the past season when one of the main characters that has been there since the beginning was absent for a couple episodes, and she was in every episode before. So after Call the Midwife is finished, it will be mostly Grandchester and All Creatures Great and Small of my TV watching.

Starting to Get Somewhere

I am typing this on my Kindle since this is the only technology I have that is still working okay for the most part.So I view it as getting somewhere since I kind of gave up on the home computer for now. I am not so willing to even attempt trying to blog on my cellphone.

I am not fully sure on what happened with my mother and why she was having a meltdown. But she has been in the hospital since last Monday and she is coming home tomorrow. So that means that I have to get a little more serious with the cleaning right now. I am just taking a little break before I hunker down to get going on the last little bit.

 What I did was refreshed the bottles of perfume that I have sitting out. I was a little tired of looking at the bottles that I had out for weeks but not really wearing. There are some that remained. I kept Lyric because I still wear it quite often and no 5 edt and the parfum  version. I still have loads of no 5 that I really need to get working on to thin that part of my collection. What changed was I put away what I wasn't really wearing and pulled some new ones out. I pulled out some Epic and Ubar along with a bottle of no 19 edt. We are going to have loads of 90+ degree temps next week and want something a little cooler but has some kind of backbone. My bottle of Charles 62 has remained due to this be my current work go to.

One thing that I am looking forward to is either a full bottle or travel spray of something from the perfume house called Headspace. Portia from Perfume Posse was having a drawing and somehow managed to win. I am not one who wins anything in any drawing too often. I am perfectly happy with a travel spray, especially since I have never tried anything from Headspace. There are just so many perfumes houses and perfumes and I can't get to them all.

Out of Stock? And Other Things

My computer is still being an ass and I still can't get a whole lot to work on this stupid thing. Too many things get "timed out". I can't exactly do much of anything on this stupid thing, even Blogger is having a tough time. So I am a little frusterated with a few things and might have to switch to my really old and crappy laptop to get some of the results that I want in terms of blogging.

My mother is back in the hospital and this time she is in a place where the staff is better able to manage her care for the time being. I don't know how long she is going to be there or what is going to happen. So with missed time from work, things are going to be very thin for a while. But what makes a couple things easier is that the Father's Day gift has already been paid off and my dad's birthday is in August. 

You know how I wasn't exactly enthused with Cheirosa 62? Now I am smitten and I never exactly expected to be smitten with it. For what it is, I think it should be priced more like the Bath and Body Works line up. I still think that it is a little overpriced for what it is. I did break down and did get the 8 ounce bottle of the body spray and after that bottle is gone, it probably won't be replaced and I will probably be sticking to the lotion which is a little more reasonably priced. But with all of the perfume that I already have, it might be a while and I have two one ounce body sprays which will make that other bottle last a whole lot longer. If I only had a handful of perfume, that body splash would be gone pretty quick. But there have been perfumes in that past that I have either disliked or outright hated but then fell in love with it for some reason, or developed some kind of liking for it.

While I was poking around and planning my next purchase of Chanel no 5 parfum, I kept noticing that many of the major retailers that carries Chanel have been out of stock of the parfum version. In a tizzy, I go to the Chanel website and see that Chanel isn't carrying the parfum version of no 5, no 19, Coco and Coco Mademoiselle and I find that a little strange, Why would Chanel get rid of the parfum version of anything, especially no 5? No 5, along with Coco Mademoiselle are their flagship perfumes. Unless there are issues with production or shipping. I am dreading that no 5, especially in parfum form will be reformulated, even though I am not really in the market for a bottle right now. I am hoping that when Sephora has thier fall sale, it will be back in circulation but if it isn't, it won't be the end of the world. 

A Zip (Buy Now, Pay Later) Review

        My computer is still being an asshole since Windows 11 has been installed and so is my internet connection for some reason (still) and I am hoping that sometime soon things will get straightened out but today is not that day. I am still kind of new to the whole buy now pay later scene. For the longest time, I was only able to get my foot in the door with Afterpay and I have been using that for about 3 or 4 years. Thus far, it seems like Afterpay is still the easiest to get your foot in the door with. I still can't get my foot in the door with Klarna, Paypal pay in 4 or Affirm and I am okay with that.

     In the past couple months, I somehow managed to get my foot in the door with Zip and Sezzle and I was never able to beforehand. I haven't used Sezzle yet but I have used Zip. There is a reason that I am reviewing Zip today. Some of the reason why I wanted to use Zip was for the times where I need to pay my cellphone bill and didn't quite have the means to pay it. Afterpay has never let me pay my Verizon bill through them. I can buy cellphones, gift cards and giftcards if I went to Verizon through the Afterpay app but was never "allowed" to pay my cellphone bill for some reason. With Zip, I have the ability to do that.

     While it is a great thing that I can pay my cellphone bill on Zip and I am sure that I probably could pay other bills through Zip, I have only a $150 limit. To get a higher limit, I would have to pay off 5 orders. I am working on my last 2 orders to pay off and even then I wouldn't know what kind of limit I would have afterwards and it would raise my limit to probably $200. It kind of helps but it doesn't, I would rather pay my entire cellphone bill if I need to on Zip but a $340 cellphone bill is quite a bit. I have the top of the line cellphone plan and 3 brand new cellphones that I am paying on. But I have been able to pay at least part of my cellphone bill with Zip and this is mainly what I am going to be using Zip for.

     There are some big differences between Zip and Afterpay in terms of getting things. More often than not, Afterpay doesn't have a minimum threshold when using Afterpay. If I spend $15 at Ulta and use Afterpay, I am only paying $3.50 every two weeks. With Zip, the minimum threshold is $35 but the biggest thing that I have noticed with Zip, there is a $4 surcharge with every purchase that I would make and have made. Let's just say that I am a little hesitant to use Zip because I am not exactly so willing to pay an extra $4 for every purchase that I am thinking of making. So if I am making a $35 Walmart purchase, I am actually paying $4 on top of that $35. Yes, for every order, Zip tacks on an extra $4 surcharge for every order that I make using Zip. I haven't used Sezzle yet and don't know if they do the same thing. But Zip is giving me more of a credit card kind of vibe without really being a credit card.

     I am intriged though on when I pay off my two other orders on what my limit would be afterwards. I am not expecting too much of an increase. With Afterpay, the limit increases start out pretty small. When my limit was $100 and after about 6 weeks my limit was raised to $200 and was increased by $100 until I hit $1,400 and then I was looking at $250 to $500 increases in one sitting and I am thinking that Zip might be more of the same way but I haven't been using Zip that long or that often. For me, Zip does have a purpose but it's probably not going to be my primary BNPL go to, that's why I use Afterpay because I am not a fan of surcharges or added fees tacked on to my purchases. While I might be okay with having what I have with the whole BNPL, which is the fact that I have options if I need them.

Vacation and Technology

       Right now, my internet connection is being a jerk along with this huge computer update. It was decided that we needed to switch to Windows 11 since apparently Windows 10 won't be supported too much longer. So it's been a rough few days trying to get things to work let alone properly. Having a hard time trying to upload pictures to stick on here but I am not going to worry about that right this second. Then I am trying to get used to the Samsung Galaxy update and I am not liking it too much. I just don't like slow internet along with system updates. I am just sick and tired of things getting "timed out".

     So far I am day 6 of my first vacation of the year. Yesterday was my mother's birthday and we went out to dinner. Wednesday was marked by one doctor's appointment and I had another one today. But I did manage to go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This was the first time that I have been in there since before the pandemic. It took them 4 years to remodel the whole thing. It looks nice enough but there seems to be less stuff on display. No Balto display, no shrunken head display and there seemed to be much less. But then again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time there. There were too many schools trying to get one last field trip in before summer vacation. It seemed that nobody was paying a whole lot of attention to these kids and I was constantly tripping over groups of 10 year olds with no situational awareness. I am hoping that I will be able to go back with far fewer people and more time on my hands. That pesky doctor's appointment said that I couldn't spend a whole lot of time there. In a way, I was a little more hoping that I would go to the art museum and I think that it might have been a little quieter with less kids running around. With every field trip that I ever took as a kid, nobody was turned loose, we all had to stay with our group. Maybe standards have been relaxed.

     Right now, I seem to be beefing with Ulta right now. A couple years ago, I had ordered a bigger bottle of Chanel no 5 edp or Eau Premiere and was sent some kind of celebrity scent. I was not thrilled with that one and it was a massive pain in the ass to fix. And I thought that that was going to be a simple mistake. A month ago I had placed an order and when it showed up, I was missing a couple lip liners and I just decided that I was just going to be refunded. I just didn't want the hassle. On Sunday, I had placed an order for smaller bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense and some Lush bath and body stuff and paid with a good chunk of points that I have accumulated. When I got my order, I was a little surprised to find that I was missing the Rose Jam body wash and somehow ended up with a purple eyeliner. I was a whole lot less amused this time around. I don't wear eyeliner and if I did, it wouldn't purple and it was a NYX eyeliner. Since when does a NYX eyeliner cost a shade over $12? And how can one confuse eyeliner and bodywash? For a while the Ulta reps couldn't find my order and when they did, I had said that I have been a loyal customer for 8 years and I have noticed a decline in getting what I have ordered and when I get it. I hate complaining about stuff like this but when these mistakes are becoming more frequent, I think that this is a training problem. And the training problem rests at the feet of corporate suits as I always think it does and some of the blame rests at the manager's feet. I had the choice of either getting my points back or they send me the bottle of Rose Jam and I chose the Rose Jam. After all is said and done, I still have $80 in rewards points but I will wait for when Ulta has a really good point multiplier going on before I go and make another order since I will probably need more lotion and face cream.

Bath Stuff and Bad News

 Well, there has been some pretty bad news on the mom front. The hospital finally got around to doing the tests that they needed to do. The tests have determined that my mother has dementia. I am thinking that it's probably in the moderate stage. Mom hasn't been released yet and at first they were talking on releasing her tomorrow but now they seem to be going for Wednesday. I am just waiting for them to push it back further, so I don't know when she is coming home. At this point, we don't know what kinds of services she needs or anything. I know that my dad wants to keep her home as long as he can. So I think that my father is starting to get a lot of things in order and see what exactly needs to be done. I am not fully sure that we would be able to keep my mother at home for very long. In some ways, I do hope that my sister comes out, even if it is a week, to help us get a few things set up. Mom's dementia could progress slowly or quickly and my mother is about to turn 70 next week, so she is kind of on the young side of all of this. It's just a lot to take in at this point. So I have been trying to clean up the house a little more and use up some candles to try and save my sanity. In the past 2 weeks, I have used up 3 candles.

I know this is a rip off from March's post over at Perfume Posse butI don't often talk about bath stuff but something kind of funny did happen. Some time last year, I had bought the Drunk Elephant Sweet Pitti deoderant and I started to use it about 2 weeks ago when I ran out of my other deoderant. For the first couple days, everything seemed to be fine until about 3 or 4 days ago. I noticed a smell while I was at work. Since I work at a grocery store, sometimes you can get just random bad smells and I didn't think anything of it. Then when I was at work the next day, it was the same thing. Then after I took a shower the next day and put on my deoderant, I realized that smell was me. Well it was the deoderant and I had to take a look at it. The Sweet Pitti doesn't have baking soda or aluminum in it. When one works in the bakery, it can get really hot and humid and that means that I sweat. I don't want to be wafting onions in the bakery. The smell of rising bread and cookies is what most people should be smelling when they enter the bakery. But that doesn't stop me from wearing perfume while I am at work.

Apres L'Ondee and Other Things

Life is really kicking my butt right now. I have a family member that's been in the hospital for a week with a mental health issues and last Monday, I had teeth pulled. The teeth in question were all on one side and what was left of four back teeth. Early June is when I get the rest of my back teeth taken out and then I will have just my front teeth up to my eye teeth. Then I can have partial dentures. I have had bad teeth for years and it will be a relief to have the better ability to eat and not have to deal with the threat of infection. Well, I will still have my front teeth but the threat will be lowered in terms of develpoing an infection.

Since I have had a little more free time than usual, I almost finished the Lieberman Papers but haven't really watched a whole lot of Vienna Blood. I thought that yesterday I would finish the last book and maybe watch some of the Star Wars movies but I got sidetracked with getting dog food and some grocery shopping. It was a weekend of trying to catch up on housework.

About a week and a half ago, I had a hankering for Apres L'Ondee and after going through tons of decants to find the decant I had of Apres L'Ondee, I realized that it had evaporated. So I made the trip to STC to get a small decant and I have no idea why I added a small decant of Muscs Koubli Khan but I did. I suppose I wanted to make the shipping cost a little more worth it. I haven't gotten around to spraying my decant of Apres L'Ondee but from what I remember, it smelled like a stripped down version of L'Heure Bleue. Jicky has the same association with me in regards to Jicky being a stripped down version of Shalimar. I think the reason that I have been wearing Jicky a little more and have more of a hankering for Apres L'Ondee is that since I have been reading the Lieberman Papers and watching Vienna Blood, both perfumes would have been around during the time frame that both have been written about. So much of my collection dates from much later in terms of when they were released. I was also thinking that if I do fall head over heels for Apres L'Ondee, I might get a bottle. But I am on a no buy right now and I am slowly trying to use up more decants and I am hoping to finish a bottle or two of perfume this year and I already added enough to my collection. What I think that I will end up doing is that when I am on vacation is that I will really get going on finishing decants. It's only 11 more days before I get my first vacation.

 

Eau Premiere Thoughts

For a good, long while, I couldn't get enough of no 5 Eau Premiere or any version of no 5. The only version of no 5 that I can't get into is L'Eau, to my nose, it bears no resemblance of no 5. But for some reason, any no 5 variation had dropped off my radar. I think that I was sidetracked by other things, especially MAC lipsticks and my recent tuberose love.

But when I couldn't get enough of no 5, I was more obsessed with the EDT and extrait version and it was to the point of ignoring my first no 5 love, Eau Premiere.

When Eau Premiere first came out, I was a little hesitant to try it. My dislike of no 5 came from when I was at a perfume counter. My hands were horribly dry and didn't have any hand lotion on me. So I figured that I would give the no 5 hand cream a try. It was either the hand lotion was old and gone off or the lights from the counter itself made the lotion go bad and then I had a dislike for no 5.

Fast forward a few years when Eau Premiere came out, I had ordered an eye shadow from Chanel and for some odd reason, I picked out a sample of Eau Premiere to try. But when I did, my opinion of no 5 had started to change to maybe no 5 isn't so bad. What really changed my opinion of no 5 is the Sensual Elixer. When I was at the mall, I bought the Sensual Elixer instead of Eau Premire. The Sensual Elixer is long gone and if you can find it, it's stupid expensive and stupid expensive isn't my thing right now. When I realized my mistake, I went over to the Chanel website and ordered myself a bottle. At the time, Eau Premiere wasn't sold in the traditional Chanel bottles and there were many sizes. Today, I think that I probably should have gotten the 5 ounce bottle of Eau Premiere when it was being offered but that was then, tI don't know when Chanel did away with some of their larger sized bottles of Eau Premiere and the old bottle that it used to come in but it did happen. There is very little in the Chanel line up that is over 100ml. Most people are not seeking out the Les Exclusifs line.Outside of the Les Exclusifs line, the 200ml bottles are either no 5 edp or Coco Madamoiselle. But I was pleased to see that Eau Premiere has a travel spray and when that happened, I snapped that up. Currently, my travel spray set is MIA but I have a general idea of where it might be but I am not quite ready to tear apart a room or two to try and find it.his is now. I am trying to save some money and not spend it.

 

Sephora Spring Sale and Chanel No 5

So it's the Sephora annual spring sale and it runs until the 14th. I had initally planned to give this one a miss. For me, April can be a lean month or a flush month. This April is a lean month for me in terms of money. Can't always control how things go in terms of money and I did forget that Sephora has a spring and fall sale.

What I do like about Sephora's spring and fall sale is that you are not limited on which brands are whatever percentage off. If Ulta is having a percentage off sale or a really good coupon, some brands are off limits. I have never been able to use a coupon on MAC or Chanel. Urban Decay and Too Faced can be hit or miss. But I have taken advantage of the Sephora sales to get some Chanel perfumes for less. You have no idea on how happy I was to nab a bottle of no 5 extrait and the 200ml bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense.

So replentishing my supply of no 5 extrait isn't in the cards right now. And you know what, I am okay with that. The only things that I am getting from the Sephora sale are two inexpensive hand lotions, well, inexpensive for Sephora. I am trying to keep the grand total to be under $20. I work in retail and I go through hand lotion like no tomorrow and I would like to think that I would spoil myself a little bit. One of those hand lotions is going to my mother for Mother's day and the other is going into my work coat. I am not wasting my Amouage or Chanel lotions on my place of employment.

I am hoping that the next Sephora sale I will be able to get that bottle of no 5 extrait. My no 5 collection might be fairly large but I don't want to start to really tear into my vintage no 5 extrait collection just yet. My vintage no 5 collection is nowhere near as extensive as my vintage Mitsouko collection so I don't exactly want to wear it quite as freely as Mitsouko. But now is not the time I want to go spending money like a drunken sailor, I spent enough on my cellphone bills and dog food for the past two or three months.
 

Rogue Perfumery Tuberose and Moss (short review) and Other Things

Things are not going so well here. Somehow, my mother ended up breaking her brand new cellphone. You have no idea on how happy I was to have insurance on our cellphones. When we headed up to the Verizon store, I figured that it would be just filling out a claim and she would walk out with a new phone. Well I was qrong about walking out with the new cellphone thing. I did have to fill out a claim but the issue that I did have was that a new cellphone would be shipped to our house. We did expect it to arrive by Friday but somehow, there was "severe weather" and there is a scheduled delivery for that phone to arrive tomorrow and this was the notification that I got on Friday. The stupid package is only a half an hour away from where I live. A coworker of mine who lives near that area had said that things were fine over there. So I am none to thrilled with UPS. I am wondering what the real issue with the late delivery is since I don't have issues with UPS deliveries. So when my package comes, the guys at the Verizon store will see what they can do with data from the old phone to her new phone and make this phone function better for my mother.

Same family member somehow scheduled something the same day and time as my dentist appointment for getting the rest of my back teeth pulled. So that meant that I had to reschedule my dentist appointment for later this month. I was not happy and it was a whole week of April Fools. I just wanted to get all of this done and over with and move on. I want my busted teeth out because I am tired of not being able to eat well, I am tired of the threat of an infection or I have some kind of tooth infection. I am tired of being in some sort of pain due to my teeth. Health conditions like this drain energy like it's nothing.

I am still testing out more of Rogue Perfumery's line up and this time around, it's Tuberose and Moss. I wasn't expecting too much. There is a whopping tuberose opening with vintage Mitsouko oakmoss. The oakmoss did die off a little bit but remained pretty steady as the tuberose. I did detect a little bit of a whipped cream smell but the whole thing reminded me of Amouage Jubilation 25, maybe a little less rich and a little less dense. I do like Tuberose and Moss but what keeps me from really loving it is that it is so similar to Jubilation 25. So if Jubilation 25 is out of your price range or just a little too much for you, Tuberose and Moss would be an excellent substitute for Jubilation 25. But I do think that eventually I will end up with a bottle of this, even though I have a bottle of Jubilation 25.

I do have to admit that with the three Rogue Perfumery offerings that I have tried thus far, I find the execution of the perfumes are very good. I think that whomever owns Rogue Perfumery has a vison of to make perfumes like they used to and give mainstream perfume houses the middle finger. I think that I made a wise move to buy the discovery set because I like the concepts of this perfume house I do love the Art Deco vibe of the packaging.
 

Binge Watching and Reading

Slowly but surely, I have started my whole binge watching of Vienna Blood and I have started to read the Leiberman letters series. I haven't been much in the mood for reading or binge watching anything. But I did force myself to get started on reading the first book of the Leiberman papers series. After getting through the first book, I did realize that this series is not for someone on a diet. The descriptions on food an coffee will make one not diet. I did enjoy the first book but I think that I am going to have to read it again. I am not used to every chapter being from a different character's point of view and I think that there is a ton that I missed.

After the new year, there isn't much happening on television. This is a dreary time of year. There isn't a new season of anything going on right now. The Sunday after Super Bowl Sunday was the season finale of All Creatures Great and Small and there hasn't been much on to keep my interest since then. PBS will premire the newest season of Call the Midwife on the 30th. So until that time, I will have to get moving on binge watching Vienna Blood, which is based off of the Leiberman papers.

 

But let's talk some bottle porn. I'm at a point where I don't care too much about the packaging of a perfume any more, I am more interested in the perfume itself. But when my bottle of the original Lolita Lempicka tipped over and I lost most of the contents, I decided to get a new bottle. The old style bottle was and is darling and I am wondering on why a bottle change was needed. Was it because Lolita Lempicka went cruelty free and that is why there was a need to rename the original perfume to Mon Premire and change the bottle with it. I found the original bottle of Lolita Lempicka is be a stripped down, easier to wear version of L'Heure Bleu but still a really good perfume that wasn't a morgage payment.

 One can obviously tell the difference between the bottles and I do prefer the old style bottle compared to the new bottle. The base of the new bottle is so tiny to the point of too tiny. The older bottle might not have been as stable as it could have been but it I found that the older bottle was a little easier for me to wield when I would apply the perfume. With this new bottle, there are too many inconsistenties to be held comfortably in my hand. Now I am terrified that if I drop this bottle, this bottle is all over the place with bottle thickness and with the bottom being so tiny, it will just be easier to break. The new version of the juice seems to be a little more sheer than what I remember. I can't exactly be mad though, I spent around $30 for a 50ml but in this economy, if I am going to shell out 2 hours worth of work, I do expect something a little bit more. That is how my approach to perfume buying is when I am in the market for a full bottle. With the cost of food and everything else, I have to be a little more cautious.

Right now, I am not in the market for full bottles.My latest sin is when Luckyscent sent me an email for 10% off everything in the store and free shipping over the weekend. I splurged on a travel spray of Gris Charnel and the Parfums Nicholai discovery set. If the Gris Charnel extrait version ever came out in travel spray form, I would probably get that.

Spring and Upcoming Stuff

Spring is supposed to be on it's way. What is funny, the past few days, we were in the low 60's and on Saturday, we hit the low 70's. What bummed me out on Saturday was that I had to work until 8pm and I couldn't enjoy the weather. But here I am on St. Patrick's Day with temps in the 30's but do get to enjoy some 70 degree weather on Wednesday. In ways, I really hate this time of year. I never know what the weather is going to be. We might have a day or two of warm weather and then it's a week of cold and crappy weather.

Since the weather is pretty odd, I have taken to having only 4 or 5 full bottles on my nightstand. Partly to see what I can do with finishing full bottles. The only full bottle that is 100ml is Amouage Lyric. The rest are 30ml or 50ml. But I do have a couple travel sprays and a fist full of dabber samples that I want to use up. Yes, I am still on the using things up challange.

I made a pact with myself is that I am not getting anymore full bottles of anything until I finish at least 5 bottles of perfume. I say this after I decided to order a full bottle of the original Lolita Lempicka perfume. The price was a little too good for a 1 ounce bottle. I have a smidgen left of my 50ml bottle. Three years ago, my bottle of Lolita Lempicka had tipped over and I lost most of the perfume and I didn't realize it right away. Some of the reason was that when there was a monster cleaning going on in my bedroom, my aunt was helping me for some reason and she was just carelessly throwing my perfume into a storage tub. I didn't catch that part right away but when I did, I had to bring her up short. Every perfume nerd has quite a few perfumes that cost major money and I had to tell her that I wasn't game for losing bottles of perfume that kind of ran to be $200 and above. In a way, I was happy that the original Lolita Lempicka didn't cost me a lot when I first bought it and it's still inexpensive.

Since finances are still a sore spot, I had to sit down and look at some things. I have Mother's Day and two birthdays coming up in May. With my TBI and ADHD, I do have issues with execuative function. I might have a few weeks to plan gifts, I can't wait until the last minute. If I wait until the last moment, I won't really have the financial means and I run the risk of whatever I get to not arrive in time. My mother's birthday is a week and a half after Mother's Day and my friend's birthday is 3 days before my mother's. This friend and I have a boundry of gifts that will be exchanged are to be no more than $15 to $20. I mostly have my Mother's Day gift ready but have to get going on thinking on her birthday. Worst comes to worst, I have $300 worth of Ulta points that I can use and gwt her a Dolce and Gabanna travel spray set. But I still have the time to come up with ideas. Or wait until Sephora has their spring sale and save 15%.
 

Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 Perfume Mist Review

 For the longest time, I didn't pay much attention to the Sol de Janeiro line up. It seemed like their line up was a little too expensive for what it seemed to be. And maybe a little too common. For a while, Sol de Janeiro had this whole Bath and Body Works vibe but a shade more expensive. But then I got a travel body wash and lotion sometime last year and did enjoy them. So a few days ago, Ulta offered a 5 points per every dollar spent on Sol de Janeiro products. I did bite on the travel kit of the Cheirosa 62. It came with minis of the body wash, Bum Bum cream and a body spray. With that order, I did spring for the travel spray of the perfume since summer is on the way.

So yesterday, I decided to give the Cheirosa 62 body spray a go. While I did enjoy the body wash and lotion, I haden't tried the body sprays or the perfume proper, I will eventually get to that travel spray, I wanted to bust out the body spray and give that a go. Some times with matching bath and body stuff, the perfume itself can smell pretty different than the body wash and lotion. I noticed that with my Chanel no 5 products and a little bit with  the Amouage body products but I didn't get that with Cheirosa 62. While I didn't layer the body spray with the bath stuff, the body spray smells exactly like the body wash and lotion. I wanted to get a little better impression if I just used the body spray on it's own to see what I thought.

The look and feel of the bottle reminds me of all the bottles of the Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon that I went through when I was in high school and the first couple years of college. I am not going to discuss what happened to Bath and Body Works in the past 20 years because it's not the Bath and Body Works that I remember. Too many reformulations, discontinuations and bottle changes and not to mention price.

I did get a little bit of a nutty, foodie type of smell with maybe some hints of flowers. But I got a little bit of a Worth Courtesan vibe to it too but fruit isn't listed in the notes. But what really got to me is that how the Cheirosa 62 faded pretty quick on my skin. I had only gotten about three to four hours of wear before I had to reapply. I wanted to see what kind of development would happen and there was none, it was just linear to my nose. But Cheirosa 62 was sweet but not horribly so. I honestly think that the body spray isn't to be used on it's own but with the lotion and body wash. All I know right now is that the body spray of Cheirosa 62 is not something that I am going to seek out. Eventually, I will get to the EDP version and see what the reading for that one is. So I am probably going to stick with the lotion and body wash.

Rogue Perfumery Flos Mortis Review

 A couple weeks ago, I had a dentist appointment and the news wasn't good. I am losing pretty much the rest of my back teeth. As far back as I can remember, I have always had dental anxiety. But 10 to 15 years ago, I did start to have some serious trouble with my teeth. The whole teeth were starting to break apart and did have quite a few of my back teeth pulled. What my neurologist failed to mention is how a good chunk of seizure medications cause dry mouth and dry mouth can do quite a number on your teeth. If things like this are talked about well before dental issues arise, I think I might have been able to save teeth. So now I have an appointment on April 2nd for getting those teeth pulled.

For the past week, I have been wearing the living snot out of my decant of Rogue Perfumery's Flos Mortis. Since my love for tuberose is really recent, I have been slowly giving tuberose dominant perfumes either another try or just trying them. So it's Flos Mortis right now. I have a couple other tuberose dominant scents to try out but let's do this one at a time.

I had to give a laugh at the translated name of Flos Mortis. The translated name is flower of death. Unlike De Profundis, which sounds and smells like something sad, Flos Mortis doesn't smell sad. It's a lush, loud tuberose without smelling crude. The indoles are in the tuberose but the indoles don't beat you over the head. Flos Mortis is slutty, just like vintage Bal a Versailles. Vintage Bal a Versailles has no real dominant note that stands out besides the musks and the dominant not in Flos Mortis is tuberose. I do get a little bit of jasmine and leather in this get up but I mostly smell the sluttiest tuberose that I have smelled so far. But I enjoyed my rollerball sample of Flos Mortis to the point of almost using up the whole sample and skipping to Luckyscent to snag a bottle. Spraying Flos Mortis might give me a little bit of a different reading but the rollerball gave me a solid reading. I enjoyed how long this lasted on my skin. The lasting power was at least 6 to 7 hours. The 30ml bottle that I ordered is a little more expensive than the 30ml bottle of Number One Intense but anything under $100 for niche is a bargain.

 

Theodoros Kalotinis Jasmine of Athens Review

You know that tuberose dominant perfumes used to be something that dispised until recently. But the funny thing is that I always had a love for jasmine dominant perfumes. In the past few months, I have been buying cheap bottles of perfume and samples from Luckyscent but it's more the sample buying than anything else. And poking around Luckyscent, late at night, I stumbled across Jasmine of Athens and figured that I was going to give this a go.

I was hoping for a jasmine bomb type of perfume, kind of like A la Nuit. Jasmine of Athens is decidedly not a jasmine bomb. I only got a shit ton of jasmine in probably 5 minutes and then it turned into some kind of generic vanilla perfume with a handful of bananas thrown in. The jasmine tries to peak out but all I am getting is vanilla. In all honesty, I was mentally spitting out all kinds of profanity. With niche, I do expect something a little bit more. Jasmine of Athens was lacking on so many levels. No jasmine bomb, too much vanilla and it didn't need bananas thrown into the mix. For $55, I expected something a little better. If I want something vanilla, I would slap on some Vanilla Flash. But with a banana, I think that anything with banana isn't my vibe. So I think that I will stick to the tried and true A la Nuit and Sarrasins for my jasmine needs right now.

For a while, I was doing just fine by not getting more bottles of perfume and refraining from full bottle blind buys but this was a stupid move. The only two things that were remotley good was I didn't spend boatloads of money on this one and one of my friends fell in love with this one, so I gave it to her.
 

The Only Time I Feel Like a Millionaire

 It's that time of year again. The time of year where you either owe or get a refund. It's tax season and I just filed my taxes. For me, it's the only time where I feel like a millionaire because I get a refund. Since I don't have dependants, my refunds are small. This year's tax refund is a little bigger.

On one shoulder, I have a voice saying that I should get one of the many perfumes that I haven't bought yet but really want and the other shoulder, I have the sensible voice saying that I can't do that. With a larger cellphone bill and I am making sure that this year is the year that I follow through with bankrupcy. I scoured the Ohio missing money website and saw that I did have something and it is a fairly big amount. With the tax refund and that "missing money", I would have enough to pay a lawyer for the bankrupcy and have enough left over to pay for my larger cellphone bill and not have to worry so much. Plus, I am on the using up decants and sample challange. So I don't exactly want to go adding more full bottles or decants to my collection.

One of the bottles of perfume that I really want is a larger bottle of no 5 parfum and the other is a current version of no 19 edt or maybe the parfum version of Coco. There are some niche bottles that I would like but I am drawing a blank on which one would I like the most. Maybe I will go with an Andy Tauer offering but the perfume buying is going to be much farther down the road.

Rogue Perfumery Chypre Siam EDT Review

 Not too long ago, I did buy a discovery set from Luckyscent. It seems like more and more niche perfume houses are offering discovery sets. Discovery sets didn't seem to be as common back when I fell down the rabbit hole. Mainstream perfumes did have some of those mini perfume sets but the ones I mainly saw was from Calvin Klien or whoever made the Curve line up. So it was the low end perfume houses that offered those. But since more and more niche brands are offering discovery sets, I have been more of on the hunt for those. Discovery sets are a little more cost effective than a full bottle blind buy.

So I did decide to bite and get a discovery set of Rogue Perfumery. The price was right for how many of the Rogue Perfumery offerings. I was impressed with the packaging. The very outer part was almost like a jewelry box and when I opened the box, all the perfumes were in a velvet bag with a card that listed all of the perfumes in the bag along with the the notes. What took me by surprise was that the samples were 1.5ml and instead of spray samples, they are rollerballs. Most discovery sets that I have gotten were either dabbers or spray decants so this was new territory for me.

The first one that I pulled out was Chypre Siam. I did get a little bit of lime but then the mossiness from the oakmoss hit. And the oakmoss component is huge in this one. One would think that with a more realistic oakmoss smell, it would be a vintage Mitsouko. But the longer that this was on my skin, I was wondering and asking on where have I smelled this before. Then it came to me. It was like vintage Mitsouko and vintage Obsession got together and Chypre Siam was the end result. Once I made the association, I couldn't smell much else, even after two seperate wearings. With a rollerball application, the projection is probably not as strong as a spray. But with this being an edt formulation, I got a solid 7 hours out of Chypre Siam.

Would I ever get a bottle? I don't know, the Rogue Perfumery prices are reasonable (in terms of niche) when I go to Luckyscent. But I am going to see how the rest of the discovery set plays out. But I am really interested in the rest of the set due the fact that this is a perfume house that thinks more outside the box.

Retail Therapy and Lyric

 Ever since Luckyscent had that free shipping sale on no matter how much you spent, I did have a little bit of a bender. Instead of using up more samples, I just ended up adding more to my stash. Then I preceded to hop on over to Fragrancenet and ended up with a bottle of the edt version of Narciso Rodriguez for her and a mini of Obsession. I made the mistake of browsing Fragrancenet again and saw that there was a 50ml bottle of Amouage Lyric for around $120. As much as I love Lyric, I didn't bite. With three 100ml bottles and the travel spray set, I couldn't quite justify that, even with Afterpay. I had to remind myself that I ordered a Rogue Perfumery discovery set, a MAC lipstick and a lipliner and had to order my sister's birthday gift. And I have to keep in mind that I my cellphone bill is higher and it's slow at work. I might be filing my taxes and getting a tax refund but that still does not justify another bottle of Lyric or any more full bottles of anything right now. I need to take a break.

It is always tough to remind myself that I shouldn't be going and spending money on fun things with no regard for tomorrow or three months from now. The only thing is that I haven't been adding to my candle collection. But even though I am not adding to my candle collection, I am not using up any candles either. But I am hoping that if I burn one candle for an hour or two a day, I can start to get moving on my collection. But I am going to stick to my days off. When the weather gets warmer and I can have my windows open, I can burn them for longer.

But back to the Narciso Rodriguez for her. I found that the perfume has grown on my and I now have a liking for it. A one ounce bottle for a shade under $40? Sold! What is really catching my eye is that the bottle is black and I mean solid black to where I cannot see how much perfume is actually in the bottle. I have tons of vintage Bal a Versailles that are completly white and have no real way to tell how much perfume is actually in there. Weighing the bottle in my hands does not tell me a whole lot.

Now we have to circle back to Lyric. I have no idea on why I am not wearing Lyric too much. For the longest while, I was wearing Lyric at least once or twice a week but just stopped. Maybe it's because I am trying to show other perfumes that I own at least some affection? Or maybe I just needed a break from wearing Lyric. But I do think that I might start wearing Lyric for the hell of it on Sunday.

Calvin Klein Obsession, A Blast From the Past

There are some perfumes that are pretty distinct to my nose and Calvin Klein's Obsession is one of them. The full bottle that I have is from either 1996 or 1997. So it can probably be considered vintage and I haven't smelled the 80's version. But I am not commenting on the 80's version.

When I got my first Obsession bottle in either 1996 or 1997, it was part of a gift set. When I got it, I was in high school. Even though I loved it, it was incredibly strong and didn't really wear it too often. I was usually wearing Cucumber Melon from Bath and Body Works or Clinique Happy during that time period. I did wear Estee Lauder Pleasures as well but not as often. Most of the time, I could only afford Cucumber Melon on a regular basis. A big bottle of Cucumber Melon body mist wasn't more that $10 in the 90's. So for two and a half hours worth of pay, I could mostly keep myself just in Cucumber Melon. And my other wasn't the biggest fan of Obsession. She said that it was too old for me. Maybe it was or it could have been the fact that so many women in the 80's wore heavy hitters and Obsession was one of them. So that bottle of Obsession that my grandparents gifted me for my birthday languished in the back of my perfume storage. Rarely do I take out the bottle to do a tiny spritz. It still is fairly strong and just like I remember. But this time, I am a little wiser to how I want to wear my strong perfumes.

When I was poking around Fragrancenet, I saw that there was a mini available and I figured that for $10 and some change, I will give it a whirl and see what has changed. Turns out, a fair bit has changed. I mean, it still smells like Obsession but it's thinner, has less projection and doesn't seem to last as long. It's just not the same and I am a little bummed. I know that reformulations happen all the time but even though Obsession is dirt cheap through discounters, it's not worth buying, even if it is a mini. It is sad when something that is more of a legendary perfume like Obsession doesn't smell like it should.
 

Parfums de Nocolai Number One Intense Review

In Ohio, we are in the depths of what I like to call the yucky part of winter. The holidays are long gone and there isn't much to look forward to. There might be Valentine's Day but when you are single, Valentine's Day doesn't mean much. So, it's just cold and wet. There are no movies that I want to see, nothing much going on with television. The only thing that is worth watching on television right now is All Creatures Great and Small on PBS but that's on Sunday.

So right now, I am binge watching Vienna Blood. The whole show is based off of the Liebermann Papers by Frank Tallis. For a while PBS has this thing going on where they might have released a season or two for everyone to watch and then they would yank it and say if you want to keep watching this series, you have to have a subscription. So for a few years, I fought with getting a subscription and then I finally caved because I was missing some really nice programs. So back to Vienna Blood. It's kind of like this Sherlock Holmes vibe set in early 20th century Vienna. There were a few times that I had to look some things up. Late 19th and early 20th century, you had all of these political movements going on that were wreaking havoc. So with some stuff, I didn't quite understand the context of some things. I can binge watch Tales of Yanxi Palace but I am not up for 80 episodes that require tons of thinking right now.

Ever since the new year, I have spent way too much time cruising Luckyscent and Frangrancenet and probably shouldn't have spent any money. I didn't spend obscene amounts and the grand total is probably a a hair over $100 even though I am honestly supposed to be working on using up decants and samples. The only sample that I have used up is my Patou Joy extrait sample. I am working on getting back to not buying perfume samples and not buy full bottles. I just typed that sentence as a bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her just arrived on my doorstep today. I am fighting the urge about the body wash and lotion since I want to use up my Amouage body products this year.

Since the Vanille Banane was more or less a bust, I decided that I would give Pafums de Nicolai Number One Intense a go. I have mostly given up blind buying full bottles and curbed the blind travel spray buying. The full bottle of Number One Intense was a little more of a gamble than Vanille Banane.

Tuberose was the bane of my perfume journey for the longest time. When Andy Tauer had his Sotto perfumes, it was either the gardenia one or the tuberose one that planted the seed for me to start liking tuberose. Then it was Serge Lutens Tuberose Criminalle that make my love for tuberose bloom. Now I can't get enough of tuberose. But I have to pump the breaks with getting new stuff and trying new stuff.

Number One Intense is a whopping tuberose perfume. The tuberose isn't apparent in the first five to ten minutes, it's a blast of green. Then the tuberose comes in. The tuberose is a heady, lush tuberose with hints of jasmine to flesh out the lush aspects of Number One. The green from the black current remains throughout but grounds the tuberose and jasmine a little bit. I do get some bits of rose in there but it's the smallest amount and when I do smell the rose, it's fleeting. This perfume is incredibly lush and full of curves. It's a curvaceous woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. A woman who isn't afraid of what she wants. The Intense part of Number One is true, this is a truly intense perfume with really good projection and lasting power. Number One Intense was pretty close to the clouds parting and angels stating to sing type of deal for me. This perfume is a keeper and will have a permanent place in my collection.
 

Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane Review and Sub Zero Temps

There are some notes that are not often used or at least featured prominently in perfume. Pine is one of those notes. I haven't smelled pine featured so strongly in perfume until I tried Dior's Granville and then in CdG Zagorsk. So pine isn't featured too often. Maybe due to Pine-sol or Christmas tree associations. Banana is another note I haven't smelled in a perfume. I have smelled fruity perfumes, citrus perfumes but nobody seemed to use bananas. Until I met Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane.

I was attracted to Vanille Banane partially due to the price point and the fact that banana took more of a center stage. So I decided to take a gamble on this one. For 30ml at a shade over $50, what did I really have to lose?  If I didn't like it, it wasn't going to be a huge loss.

Let's just say that I am not fully sure if I like Vanille Banane. The banana isn't like a fresh banana, I am reminded of either banana candy or those banana flavored popcicles that I loved as a kid. So the banana is an artificial smelling banana. But the banana doesn't last too long. When the banana dies down a little bit, I do get some vanilla and maybe a little bit of a whipped cream type of smell. But after that I get pretty much nothing. For $50, I did expect a little more. It has more of a Bath and Body Works vibe and smell to it and Bath and Body Works is cheap. I honestly did expect a little more, I expected more along the lines of Clinique Happy and Clinique Happy is a cheap and cheerful type of perfume. At this point, I am not fully sure if I like this or not.

Maybe I am not so sure about Vanille Banane is that Ohio is locked into some sub zero temps and will be until Wednesday. So my focus is not going outside and to stay warm. The only day that I need to actually go out in this weather is tomorrow for work. And I am not looking forward to going to work. I did wimp out today though. I was supposed to go out and get dog food but instead, I had it delivered to my doorstep. I could have done a little bit of grocery shopping to but I wasn't game for grocery shopping today, that's going to be tomorrow.
 

Of Shalimar and Decants

When Portia on Perfume Posse announced that she was getting back into the habit of using up samples and decants for the year of 2025. I leapt at the chance of using up some of my decants and samples as well. I figured that with all the decants and samples that I have, I really should start using some of what I have. The decants that I am currently working on is Patou Joy extrait, Amouage Honour and one of my decants of Diagilev. I figure to start out with 3 a month and stick to my dabber samples right now. If I can work on getting more than 3 a month, that would be awesome and it would be a bonus if I could actually use up some travel sprays and full bottles this year as well. But with the 3 that I mentioned that I am working on, I am almost done with those. And when I finish those 3, I will move on to something else.

But what do I do when I commit to this decant challenge/resolution thing? I order 2 more decants. I ordered another decant of Tigress Musk and a sample of Memoir Man. I think that since that I don't order decants too often anymore, it's okay, I just won't get more samples for a long while. What works a little more in my favor is the TPC doesn't do as many sales as they used to and I can't recall the last time that STC had a sale. I figure with inflation and all, it's not exactly worth it. Without sales and coupons, I am less tempted to buy. But I am doing that even with groceries (looking at sales and coupons). I am only trying Memoir Man because I haven't tried too many of Amouage's men's offerings and maybe I should try more. I did try the men's version of Lyric and Epic way back when and wasn't too terribly impressed. The men's version of Gold was something I liked much better than the women's version. But we shall see how Memoir Man fairs.

There is a reason that I did mention Fabrege Tigress Musk. Earlier, I did pull out one of my bottles of Shalimar and sprayed an unhealthy amount. The Shalimar bottle that I used was when it was the early days of my perfume journey. It's kind of vintage but not really and I haven't pulled out a vintage bottle of Shalimar or vintage anything in a long time. Shalimar was always a lovely perfume on my skin. But I had forgotten how slutty Shalimar is. It's not exactly vintage Bal a Versailles or MKK but the sluttyness is there. When I sprayed Shalimar, I started to get a really wicked craving for Tigress Musk and naturally it's in the pile of decants that I can't get to at the moment. The decant of Tigress Musk that I have already is probably half full. The reason that I only ordered a decant is because getting a full bottle never quite works out. When I remember to look, it's either not available or the cost is a little over the top for me.
 

BDK Rouge Smoking Extrait Review

I guess that I did luck out with the new Exceptional Extrait from Amouage. It wasn't Lyric. My adoration for Amouage knows no bounds and that is today's scent of the day. If Lyric is the next release, I will spit nails since I don't need another massive craving for a new bottle.

I figured that it was time that I actually bothered with testing something new. And since I fell in love with Gris Charnel, I figured I would try BDK Rouge Smoking extrait. Gris Charnel was one of those blind buys that really did work out. When I was buying my bottle of Vanille Banane, I put a sample of BDK Wood Jasmin in my cart as well. So when my bottle and Wood Jasmin arrived, a Rouge Smoking sample was in there.

When I wore Rouge Smoking, I couldn't help but think that I have smelled this before. I just couldn't place what perfume that it smelled like. It bothered me for the longest time, well it was two whole wearings that it bothered me. Then it hit me, it was pretty much a dead ringer for Tom Ford's Lost Cherry. Maybe it's the less trashy version of Lost Cherry. But with Rouge Smoking, I detect s stronger tonka note. Tonka is one of those notes that took me forever to figure out why I might not like certain perfumes. The tonka kind of amps up the sweetness of the whole perfume and I am pick about the sweetness in any perfume. If it is a thick, syrupy type of perfume, I despise it. Or if it is too fruity, I am not exactly a fan. At this point, I am not a fan of Rouge Smoking. From a dabber, the lasting power is pretty good. Again, since I am not a fan, I would hate Rouge Smoking if it were sprayed. At this point, it's money saved. Saved because I didn't spring for a travel spray without smelling it first. 

Lately, I have been guilty of springing for travel sprays instead of just getting some sample for the same price. But the travel spray buying and full bottle buying has stopped. One, it's not sustainable, two, it's kind of stupid. I can order a hundred travel sprays and only find a couple that I love, a couple that I like and the rest of them suck.
 

More Exceptional Extraits

It was either yesterday or the day before I had gotten an email from Amouage. Normally, I delete emails from my inbox. I think what made me open the email was the fact that there are going to be more Exceptional Extraits coming out. The email didn't say which ones, so it's going to be a surprise on which ones.

For a long time, I did have a real thing for Amouage. Up until either Honour or Beloved, if Amouage was rolling out a new perfume, I badly wanted to get my paws on it. But after either Honour or Beloved, I really didn''t care so much. I don't know what exactly changed. Maybe it was similar to Serge Lutens. It seemed like both Amouage and Serge Lutens seemed to be releasing perfumes every 6 months or so. So in ways, I lost interest. At the time, I had all the Amouage offerings that I more or less wanted. For a long time, my Amouage holy grail was Lyric. It took me around 2 years to save up for a bottle of Lyric. I don't think that I will ever forget that the lady who ran her online shop, called me and said that she was out of the 50ml bottle that I had ordered and offered me one of the 100ml bottles for the same price. Of course, I jumped at the chance to get a larger bottle. But back to that email.

I am not exactly enthused by getting that email saying that more were going to be released. The sheer cost of those full bottles. Even on discounters, the price is still out there. But I always try to keep in mind that Amouage has never been cheap. But after having the regular extraits and body line pulled from their shelves, my thoughts were that those were either sold out or discontinued. I didn't exactly think about the fact they were shaking things up. The other reason on why I wasn't so enthused is because I don't exactly want Lyric to be on this go around of the Exceptional Extrait releases.

While I did manage to get my hands on a sample of Epic 56 and Honour 43, I wasn't quite head over heels in love. I would like to have a full bottle of Epic 56, it's not so vital for me to find a way to get a bottle. Honour and I have a pretty strange relationship. One minute, I can't get enough of it and then the next minute, I can't stand it. So Honour and mostly avoid one another and I am happy that I could never quite commit to getting myself a bottle. But I do think that I should have just gotten Honour instead of Gold. In theory, I should love Gold because I love no 5 so much but Gold smells like I stepped in dog poop.

Make no mistake, I still love and adore Lyric. My adoration for Lyric is well known. My collection of Lyric is three 100ml bottles, travel spray set and matching soap and lotion. The only thing that I am missing is the extrait bottle that Amouage used to sell a year or two ago. But the reason that I don't want Lyric to be a part of the Exceptional Extrait is the fact that I don't want to have that full bottle craving that will last for years. But knowing on how my luck seems to go, it will be an Exceptional Extrait. If it goes that way, I will probably move heaven and earth just to get my hands on a sample and who knows what I would do to get my hands on a full bottle. I just love Lyric that much. Sooner or later, I will find myself in better financial shape to get a bottle. I am hoping that by year 2026, my finances will be in better shape.
 

The Wonderful World of Grocery Delivery

Ever since I have started to subscribe to Walmart Plus, I had been slowly transferring quite a bit of my grocery shopping to Walmart. Most places that are around me don't have something like Amazon Prime or Walmart Plus and if they do, it's more cash than I am willing to pay. Since I have spent a couple days going through all of my subscriptions and saving myself $50 a month, I am just not willing to spend money on another subscription that I might not use often enough to keep using it. Barkbox, Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus are enough for me.

The reason for Walmart Plus is because of the fact that I don't drive, limited financial means and live in a rural area. So grocery delivery is a lifesaver. With Walmart Plus, I can basically get all the groceries delivered and not have to pay massive amounts in delivery fees. If Walmart doesn't have any item but Target does, I might just bite the bullet and just spend the $10 for delivery. It just depends on how badly I need said item and what is the cost of item is. I might have an Aldi that isn't far from me but it's a pain in the ass to make arrangements to get there for groceries. The grocery store that I work at has gotten a little too expensive and ever since the beginning of Covid, they don't carry about half of what I consume. So Walmart is my only real option. I could go to Target but Target is a little too fancy and a little too expensive for food.

Last night, I knew that I was getting pretty close to not having any of the Tazo Chai Latte concentrate. So I placed a delivery order thinking that everything would be fine. Was it fine? Hell no. I fully expected the $2 fleece throw to be out of stock along with another clearance item and not get those. Somehow I got the clearance items but was only able to get 1 of my Tazo chai. Since I wasn't charged for what I didn't get, I figured that I made the delivery time pretty early, I would place another order since maybe the Walmart closest to me might not have gotten their delivery truck yet and schedule it for much later in the day. Nope, didn't get that either. So now I am having it shipped to me and will have it by Sunday. I have already complained to Walmart about how the website needs updating. If Bath and Body Works can keep their website updated for ordering online and someone picks it up, why can't they? Other companies are able to do that. With all the money Walmart makes, they can't invest the time, money, people and technology to do that? So Walmart just said sorry but tough luck. If something went sideways with an order from Amazon, they would have offered a month of Prime for free. Barkbox would try to find some kind of solution to make it right. All to try and keep a customer. Maybe it is time to revisit the Walmart Plus subscription.
 

It's the New Year

 Now we are in 2025 and my New Year's Eve and day were pretty much low key. I got off work at 8 last night and let me tell you that New Year's Eve can be busier than Christmas Eve in a grocery store. One would think that in my neck of the woods, Christmas would be the bigger deal but ever since Covid, it seems like New Year's has become the bigger deal than Christmas. But I live in a rural area so I can only comment on what I see here and not in the suburbs. My aunts and uncles said that their grocery stores were packed but mine wasn't too horribly busy on Christmas. Maybe because I work in the bakery that now requires 48 hour notice for any kind of order, maybe people started to get their shit together to plan a little better. So after I got off work, I ate dinner, watched YouTube until about 11:30, watched the ball drop and then went to bed. At the age of 42, I am not game for dealing with drunk people in public in bars or driving. Plus, I don't have the tolerance for booze that I used to.

I managed to get New Year's day off and I just hung around at home. You know that mulled white wine thing that I was going to make? That didn't happen. There was too much chaos and drama in the kitchen with the pork roast and potatoes to make that happen. So the mulled wine is going to have to wait another time. But I was kicking around a few ideas for the new year.

My first idea would be to binge watch Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace and Tales of Yanxi Palace. Both of those shows are now on Amazon Prime so I can watch those in my room instead of watching them on my Kindle Fire. At this point, there isn't much on television right now. The new season on All Creatures Great and Small won't air on PBS until the 12th. Call the Midwife won't be on until spring and Grantchester will probably air sometime in the summer.

My second idea is to make a serious effort on using up my Amouage body products. This idea came about when I applied some Epic body butter. The body butters that I have from Amouage haven't gone off in terms of smell but the consistency of the lotion itself has changed. So I want to use the body butters up before the smell goes off. I didn't notice anything when it came to the Amouage soaps though. Yes, I decided that I wanted to go big or go home for the new year, especially since I wore Clinique Happy for New Year's Eve.

My third idea is to start getting back into playing some of my video games. I am still waiting for my Quake II game to arrive but since I am trying to make a concerted effort to reduce my spending, I want to appreciate what I already have. I want to replace window shopping and shopping itself with other things. I know that I can't entirely avoid shopping, I want to do less of it. I want this to be a year of actual change and not lip service.