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 ne 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.