Well, That was a Bust

A few days ago, I turned 44. It seemed like it was just not a good birthday no matter how you wanted to hash it. Family pretty much forgot it was my birthday and seemed to gone on their merry way with whatever they had planned and it seemed to be kind of late in the day before anyone actually remembered. The older I get, the less I want to go out to eat or just out in general. People started to get pushy when I said no on going out to eat. It was a big mess and nothing happens. So it was a bust.

But here is where the second bust was, I was poking around Luckyscent and looking at the sales. I had noticed that Number One Intense was on sale. Even though it was a one ounce bottle for $70, it was better than $115. I put it in my shopping cart but I see that it is now sold out and should have just got it when I had the chance, even though I already have two bottles. Maybe I will get the chance next year or when Christmas rolls around.

I did try to snag a bottle of Worth Courtesan on fragrance net and that didn't pan out either. You know what I did snag? A one ounce bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her in the black bottle. It just seems like I am striking out on a few things right  now. I just wants some things to start going right.

End of Vacation/Summer and Sundowner Review

 

So, my vacation is just about over. I reason I say it is just about over is that I have to go back to work tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. Did I make any progress with binge watching Grantchester? Nope but played a fair bit of Halo Campaign Evolved. I did go to that Rob Zombie concert on Wednesday. Four bands in a single concert was a little too much. Orgy was absolute garbage, The Hu's instruments was drowning out the singing and Mongolian throat singing is pretty deep sounding, Rob Zombie was just too much for me. Marilyn Manson became a big thing when I was in middle school and never got around to listening to him, I was starting to get into the Smashing Pumpkins then. But holy shit, was Marilyn Manson good. He was the one that really impressed me. I would go and see Marilyn Manson in concert again but not when there are 3 other bands performing.

There were some minor mentions on the Perfume Posse about L'Heure Bleu and did see what the bottle looked like. I had initially thought that Guerlain had just did something with the bottle, but this is pretty much a whole new perfume and I thought that there would be more of the traditional Guerlain offerings at Ulta. You know, something Like Apres L'Ondee, or maybe Mitsouko but nope, just this strange version of the original L'Heure Bleu. L'Heure de Nuit was a homage to the original and you could smell it. I had almost wasted my Ulta rewards points on a 1 ounce bottle but didn't. It was 2 in the morning and that is when I lose a lot of things, like restraint and reading compression. But somehow managed to not go through with it. I would like to get some kind of sample first before I commit. So I backed out of that purchase.

I didn't drag anything that I haven't worn in forever out nor did I go wearing Cheirosa 62 or Infusion d'iris. The most notable thing was that I wore was Andy Tauer Sundowner. I do think Sundowner is not really a great name for a perfume, it conjures up the memories of my grandmother sundowning when the dementia was quickly becoming apparent to the world. But I did spend time wearing at least 1 new thing and now reviewing it.

Sundowner is definitely a Tauer offering. I noticed that the Tauer base seemed to be a little bigger than I remember but it has been a long time since I have worn any kind of Tauer offering often enough. The notes that really stuck out was the cinnamon and the chocolate. I will admit that I am not so sure that I like cinnamon as a dominant note in perfume but I have never liked chocolate as a perfume note. I want to eat my chocolate and not wear it. It is I just can't make heads or tails of this one right now and will probably have to give this another go before a proper review can be done.

Vacation Time

 

I could and probably should make some kind of review posts but haven't felt up to it. But it's time for another vacation and that means another vacation post.

Since I have taken a big vacation in July, I don't have the cash for another trip. I drained what was left of my savings account and paid some bills with that money. I didn't pay off anything, but I wanted to set myself ahead in one way or another, even if it was a little bit. I was not going to let Chase charge me a $5 monthly fee to have a savings account. In the fine print, they said if the balance for a savings is under $300, it would be a $5 fee. So I said, to hell with it, let's get a little farther with paying down some stuff with at least Afterpay.

So I do have a little fun money to do some fun things this week. On Wednesday, I am going to a Rob Zombie concert. He is performing with Marilyn Manson, The Hu and Orgy. I am not so interested in Marilyn Manson or Orgy, I will tolerate them. But after Rob Zombie, I want to see The Hu. Who would have thought that heavy metal would work so beautifully with Mongolian throat singing. But since we are coming up on Labor Day, that means my county fair will be going on. So my parents and I are going to pick a day and go to it. I just have to pick a day to go and figure out my budget. I have never been someone who bought whatever craft things that tons of people are selling, I am making a food budget. I am thinking that $25-$30 should be more than enough for way

I did find something that I am going to binge watch though. You know how Granchester ended this year? I am going to work on binge watching that. I couldn't quite get into Granchester until season 5 or 6, so I am going to watch from the very beginning. 

But before I really do anything, I have to get that pesky doctor's appointment and dentist appointment out of the way, along with a Costco run. I am thinking of adding in some video gaming in as well and wearing perfumes that I don't get to do all that often.

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu

Chanel is coming out with a new flanker and I am not so sure what to think about it. As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of flankers. Once in a while, the flankers can be just as good, if not better than the original. Let's take Shalimar, for example. Back when I was new to being a perfume nerd, Guerlain did back to back Shalimar flankers. The two Ode a la Vanille and Parfum Initial. I did sample both the Ode a la Vanilles but was only able to procure the Mexican and not Madagascar one, even though I preferred the Madagascar. Now both the Ode a la Vanille versions have long been discontinued and kicking myself for not trying a little harder to find a bottle of the Madagascar one. I was a little late to the Initial and by that time that was discontinued but I think they did bring that back with another name. Eventually, I will get a bottle of the Initial but that isn't high on the list of priorities since I don't have fuck you money to spend.

Another person that has jumped on the bandwagon, at least a little bit is Andy Tauer. He's just recently came out with L'Air du Desert Morccain Noir. And I was a little surprised but a little excited to try it. I have a sample and still haven't managed to really give it a go and this is a flanker of a flanker. And I honestly should get moving on that. But that is not what I am talking about right now. I am talking about Chanel coming out with another flanker.

This flanker's name is Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu. Chanel has made flankers for no 5 and for no 19 and I ended up liking only Eau Premiere. Now they are really starting to do all kinds of flankers for Coco Mademoiselle. I did rea!My like the intense version and nabbed a bottle when Sephora was having a sale. I haven't even tested the lighter version of Mademoiselle. When you don't drive and live in a rural area, sniffing new releases isn't a thing. So far, Sephora just has it on their website but not up for sale just yet. From what I am seeing thus far on Fragrantica, I keep seeing people saying that it reminds them of Prada Paradox but there seem to be a lot of mixed reviews.

What makes me hesitant about even trying to find a sample and giving it a go, is that I am still salty about Chanel making the extrait version of no 5 way out of my price range. There was a time where I was thinking of getting the extrait of Coco Mademoiselle but didn't get the chance to nab a bottle before they took the smaller bottles of extrait off the market. I should have stocked up when I had the chance.

That is Strange

 

Well, party time with finances has come to an end for the next month. I have done some damage to my bank account with Afterpay and now, I have to seriously take some stock. Afterpay reintroduced the nothing down and I stupidly started to take advantage of it. Right now, things have started to come in and have to really budget for the next two, maybe three weeks. I would rather not use up the last of my savings to pay Afterpay. I haven't added anything new to Klarna, Zip or Affirm and that is probably a good thing. I don't have any payments on Klarna that are coming up until September and my Affirm payments are technically not this paycheck but the next but I don't want to pay both Affirm and Afterpay in the same week, it is just not going to work. I know that I can manage the next two or three weeks to begin to really get myself back on track with my finances. But it is still hard to make changes, especially when the executive dysfunction decides it is going to be a bigger brat and when the depression starts to creep in, it can be a recipe for disaster. The one thing that is making me somewhat happy is that Ulta has a huge multiplier promo going. Ten points for every dollar spent. I had a $30 gift card and I managed to only go over by 15 cents. That is a little bit of progress. I have gotten a brush and sponge cleaner (my brushes and makeup sponges are pretty dirty), a face wash and some cotton rounds. I couldn't justify another lipstick, and eye shadow. Perfume was really out of the question and I am banking the $182 in rewards. I want to get up to $250 in rewards and have a blowout perfume run at the end of the year.

 What is funny in terms of perfume is that my mother has started to have a liking for the long discontinued Deneuve. I wore it a few days ago without any regard for anyone else. I haven't worn Deneuve in a long time. On my work days, I am working on using up my bottle of Cheirosa 62 and travel sprays of Infusion d'iris and BDK Gris Charnel. I am getting a little bit fixated of the vintage version of Bal a Versailles and I haven't worn that in forever. It's just so many that I haven't worm in forever and trying to start wearing again. But back to Deneuve. Deneuve has made my mother nauseous and I couldn't wear it. When I pulled it out and started to wear it again, my mother has really started to like Deneuve and I find it funny. My mother has never much cared for Deneuve but now she does. But for the longest time, she has worn Light Blue and a few other Dolce and Gabanna offerings and still wears a lot of it. But right now, she has branched out into wearing Flowerbomb. She enjoyed it so much, she went to Fragancenet for a bottle. But my mother still hates Coromandel, Mitsouko and a couple others. She says that they make her queasy, too strong, and dated. I am thinking that Light Blue is becoming dated and too many people are wearing it. I will have to say that both Mitsouko and Coromandel require a light hand though.

Halo Campaign Evolved and Other Things

This post is probably not going to be too much of a perfume post. I kept meaning to write something but time would get away from me.

So Halo Campaign Evolved came out late last month and I have been playing it off and on since I have gotten it. I am one of those that prefers having a physical copy of my games for some reason. I view it as if something were to happen, I would still have a physical copy of the game. I did specifically got the Xbox game since the computer we have has an old video card that would not support Campaign Evolved along with the fact that we really don't play video games on the PC like we used to.

Even though I am currently on the Truth and Reconciliation level, I have played enough to have some opinions on it. The original Halo (both the 1st Xox, then the 360), the controls were intuitive and was kept the same on both formats, not with Campaign Evolved. The controls are not intuitive and it make the game play more difficult. While I do enjoy the Marines in the game, I am not a fan of them just clumping together. What is really starting to bug me is the enemies and game play in general. Really good graphics will only go so far and the graphics are phenomenal but with how the game is played all around, it has become sensory overload. How the enemies behave, how the Marines behave and all of these new weapons, I think it is way too much and way too soon. The anniversary version of Halo didn't have all of this junk. I get it, you want to update the game but all the changes that were made were not necessary. It seemed to be just showing off instead of enhancing the story line. Shit, we didn't get a sword until the 2nd Halo and I just don't see how a sword fits in the first Halo. I just find the whole set up to be confusing. I think it will probably take a go around or two to make a sound judgment.

While we are still on the topic of media, I did watch the very last episode of Granchester. While I did enjoy the final season, I did think about the fact that I don't have much left in the way of shows to watch. Downton Abbey ended years ago, Call the Midwife ended earlier this year and now Granchester. The only show that is still standing is All Creatures Great and Small. I know those are all PBS shows but there isn't a whole lot in the way of TV shows that have caught my interest and held my attention. So I am back to spending way too much time on YouTube.

But on to the perfume. It was last week that I was window shopping at Ulta and noticed something really odd. Ulta is selling some Bath an Body Works offerings.When I saw that, I had to do a double take. The lotions, body washes and perfume mists from Bath and Body Works get this huge Play Dough note and they just don't work for me. I used to wear the living daylights out of the Cucumber Melon, Gardenia LIly and Night Blooming Jasmine when I was in my early 20's and then couldn't afford perfume for the longest while. So in the past 20 or so years, it's to be expected that prices have gone up and there have been reformulation but I remember the days where the bath and body stuff would run you about $6 for each piece but that is not the case anymore.
 

Very Late and a Dollar Short

 

I know, I know that I am really late with the back from vacation post but I haven't been up for the posting. Let's just say that I didn't finish that bottle of no 19 like I was hoping to. I spent a whole lot of time near my sister's pool and it was a little pointless to be wearing perfume with how much time I spent around the pool. So I think that I should have stuck with the Infusion d'iris travel spray in terms of perfume. Hell, I didn't even need to bring mascara or lipstick. I think that it was my mother's vanity that got to me since she wanted me to take some make up. With 90 degree and up heat and a pool, it was mostly dumb idea to have any kind of makeup or perfume but I wasn't about to not pack something in terms of perfume.

Since I have been back, there has been a candle incident. I have been working on using or giving away some of my candles. I am not sure what triggered a family member but anywhere from a third to a half of my candle collection was destroyed. It wasn't the loss of those candles or the mess that was created or the nasty cut on my thumb that bothered me the most. What bothered me the most was that the family member just up and decided to just get mad over something that couldn't be controlled and willfully decided to go after my candles. When things calmed down somewhat, I had said that I didn't care that she had a mental illness and she was angry but to just go and destroy someone's belongings was uncalled for. Someone or the dogs could have been seriously physically hurt. And she did take away a whole lot of enjoyment from something I like. Was I mad about the money that I spent on candles that were broken in a fit of someone else's rage? Yes, I was angry. Angry because I could have enjoyed those candles and some of them were limited editions. So I did hide about 95% of what was left and while I was at it, I hid 90% of my perfume collection and almost all of my Galileo thermometer collection. So if there is another incident, the destruction will be much less severe. At this point, I want to be able to enjoy the things that I have without the threat of them getting broken.

So while I was dealing with the candle mess and hiding things where she can't get to them, I was sorting through my papers and all of that. Shredding things and all of that jazz. In ways, I am a very private person and I am not a fan of being the object of gossip. So the less ammunition I give people I don't become that subject. So privacy is very important and there is no reason why anyone needs to go through any kind of important papers and that is one thing that have always bothered me. I mean, if you don't want me to go through your xtuff, you don't need to go through mine.

Bags are Packed

 

Okay, so my bags are packed and I'm ready to go to California for a week. My carry on is already in the car and I am just about finished with my personal item. And let's be honest, I am not looking forward to getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning for a 6:50 flight. I probably could have picked a later time but didn't want a 3 or 4 hour layovers and get to California at ten at night.

Do you know how hard it is to try to figure out what to take in general for a trip? I know I am only going foe six days but it's the having to pre plan a week's worth of clothes.

What was the biggest was was what perfumes I was going to take. I did pack that vintage(ish) bottle of no 19 edp. There isn't a whole lot left in that bottle and I am hoping that I can finish the bottle at the end of my trip. I also packed a travel spray of Infusion d'iris. Yes, it's iris and iris and did sneak in a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. It is going to be hot when I am in California and didn't want my perfume to be too heavy. At this point, I have to go to bed. I might be able to fit post in but not fully sure.

Rogue Perfumery Jasmin Antique Review

Now is the time that I should get a move on with a perfume review. After last post's freak out with the no 5 extrait price (which is still ridiculous), I needed something to take my mind off of it.

I am in the beginning of this heatwave. We closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning. We live in the 21st century and why suffer with temps in the 90's when one has air conditioning? The only time that I will be out of air conditioning is if I am going to work and coming home from work. 

I am slowly getting things together for my trip to California. I had to message my doctor for a prescription of nicotine patches (yes, I smoke). My sister doesn't allow smoking, even if it is a vape. So it will be the patch and the lozenge garbage. She said that she quit cold turkey and sucked on a lot of sugar free candy. Well, I am not that kind of girl, I haven't had the desire to quit for good. What is probably going to happen is the moment I get home, I will be lighting up a cigarette. So I will pick up my patches on Saturday along with lozenges and start that stuff on Monday. So I am not that serious about quitting right now. The only perfume that I have committed to taking with me is no 19. I am going to take a travel spray of Infusion d'iris or BDK Gris Charnel. With Gris Charnel it's either going to be the edp or the extrait one. I don't want to take any kind of serious heavy hitters or anything that might scare people away. I would love to take Lyric but that would be a little much and I adore Lyric. But I haven't committed to anything definite yet in terms of vacation perfume. But on to Jasmin Antique.

I was flirting with trying out Jasmin Antique ever since I got the Rogue Perfumery sample set. It smelled really poopy and I wasn't so sure. One day I figured I might as well bite the bullet and just give it a go. I do love jasmine dominant perfumes. It seems like many perfumes can't appreciate how indolic jasmine can be. After working my way through Rogue Perfumery, Rogue Perfumery doesn't seem to shy away from white florals but embraces them in all their glory.

Jasmin Antique is a huge slutty jasmine. At first, I couldn't figure out which perfumes that it reminded me of and then it came to me. The first perfume that came to mind was Sarrasins but without the leather. I did pick up some musk in there but it was mostly jasmine. The second perfume that Jasmin Antique reminded me of was A la Nuit but Jasmin Antique leans more towards A la Nuit than Sarrasins.

What did get me was that I didn't get a whole lot of staying power. I had gotten a shade over three hours but I do have to make some allowances. What I have is a little roller ball sample, not a spray and Rogue Perfumery makes everything an edt. If it were a spray sample I probably could get a better reading. But I will admit that I do love Jasmin Antique and will eventually get a bottle but not yet. With the price of Lutens offerings, I find Jasmin Antique more affordable than Sarrasins or A la Nuit.

 

This is Stupid

I was going to do a review of Rouge Perfumery's Jasmin Antique. Well, that is not happening right now and I have a fair bit on what I want to say about it.

When I was reading either today's scent of the day or the 3 day weekend, there was something mentioned about the Chanel Les Exclusifs line extraits and had to go and take a look and there was a vain hope that there might be a more "affordable" option on any kind of no 5 extrait that wasn't the family sized version of no 5. When I saw what looked like the extrait is back in stock, I took a look. That seemed to be a huge mistake. It looks.like they rebranded/redid the whole extrait thing. If you just want the extrait itself, there is only 1 size and that is a 30ml bottle and that will set you back $440. But if you want it to come with a stupid case that has something that will help you open the bottle that is and extra $100. Yes, I had to do a double take at the whole set up was $550.

When I was that, all I could think about how stupid the whole set up was. For $400 I could buy an Amouage at full price or go to a discounter and get 2 Amouage offerings and those would be 100ml not 30ml. I could get a Serge Lutens bell jar for that price and those are 75ml. And all the while, kicking myself on not stocking up on the no 5extrait when I really had the chance 2 or 3 years ago or even when I started collecting perfume and 7.5ml of extrait set me back only $95. But that was a long time ago. It looks like I will be rationing what I have of the opened extrait and keep my sealed vintage sealed until I can nab more extrait.

 

Pre-orders, Samples and Traveling

I did mention a while ago about the new Halo being released this summer. I kept my eyes and ears peeled for some released pictures and what day it would be released.

I found out some time in the past couple weeks that Halo Campaign Evolved was coming out July 27th or the 28th. I am not looking it up for the exact day but was looking at some of the screenshots. When I found out the release date, I had pre-ordered the game. For new video game releases, $50 is not a bad price since most game releases are around $70. I don't often order video games and when I do, they are usually not the latest release. So this was on the more unusual side for me. I know that my dad and I will be playing this quite a bit.

So I have done more perfume shopping in the passed couple weeks. I have given up on finding my travel spray of Hedonist and said screw it and ordered one from the Victoria Minya website. The travel spray arrived yesterday and I was a little less than enthused. I expected it to be shipped in a box and not an envelope. The travel spray was in a silky bag. I just expected a little more protection but the good thing was that my travel spray was undamaged and I love the aesthetic of the Victoria Minya bottles and travel sprays.

What is worrying my is in about two and a half weeks, I will be traveling to California to see my sister. I have the clothes I want to take picked out, my toiletries are already taken care of and I have my medication. The only things I have to do is pack, and pick out which perfume(s) I want to take. I will be flying out early Monday morning and coming home on Saturday. I let my sister know that I have $1,000 in my bank account and a $300 limit credit card, so I can't go hog wild. Even though she said that it was plenty, I am still worried about the financial part of it. I know things are not going to be cheap and if the subject of Disney comes up, I will probably have to give Disney a pass. I am not and never was one of those adult Disney fans.

This is the first time that I have traveled and didn't have a fist full of credit cards and working 40 plus hours a week. Even though I have 2 low credit limit credit cards, 1 of those will be left at home. Having a fist full of credit cards has led me to a whole lot of financial help that I have been trying to dig myself out of.

The perfume choices that I have made thus far for my trip to California is my almost finished bottle of vintage-ish Chanel no 19 edp and a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. The no 19 is the only definite one since the bottle is almost empty and I have figured that I might as well do is finish it. But the Gris Charnel could change though and I do want to stick to a travel spray. Since it will be horribly hot in California, I don't want to take the heavy hitters with me.

 

Lush Rose Jam Line Up Review, Kind Of

When I was on vacation, I did devote a day to the Lush Rose Jam line up. It was either late last year or early this year, Ulta had some of those gift set minis of Lush products and I had gotten both the Sleepy and the That's My Jam gift set. I did develop a liking for Sleepy and it has taken me forever to get around to the Rose Jam stuff. A few days ago, I gave the Rose Jam another go.

The first go around, I fell in love with the body wash. The body was is a huge jam like rose with some lemon. The body wash is just like Sleepy and Sleepy Bear. Thick, cleansing and none too drying. So I fell in love with the body wash. When I get matching bath and body stuff, I can still smell the soap when I dry off. With the Rose Jam body wash, there was no lingering scent and I was and am, a little miffed about that. Maybe because I am used to the Chanel and Amouage bath and body stuff and it is probably an unfair comparison of even the soaps lasting well after I got out of the shower.

The body conditioner was what I really struggled. I have never used a body conditioner before and probably didn't use it right or maybe because I take showers and not baths. When I put it on my legs, it seemed to just slide right off, no matter how I moved the shower head. But my second go around was a little different. I moved the shower head to where it wasn't being rinsed off right away and used a little more. The first time, no scent seemed to have been left behind. So the second shower with the body conditioner was way different. My legs and arms felt really greasy when I rinsed off the conditioner and took a little of the body wash to see what I could get off but I was still left with a greasy feeling. I did enjoy the smell of the body conditioner because it was rich, it was heady but it was just a hot mess on me. I think that Lush should have just stuck with having a regular lotion. So the body conditioner is going to be regulated for when I shave my legs.

Then came the travel spray of perfume. For a while, I was thinking of what Rose Jam reminded me of. Then I remembered what it reminded me of. I was reminded of Guerlain Nahema and PHI Une Rose de Kandahar. Now, I love Rose de Kandahar and have a travel spray of it but no full bottle. Andy Taker and Lush are using the same roses from the same region. So I am viewing the Rose Jam perfume as a dupe for Rose de Kandahar.

Would buy any of the Rose Jam stuff again? No, even though I love the body wash. I didn't think that Lush is my thing and I have heard people on the Perfume Posse rave about Lush and I wanted and tried to give Lush a fair shake. So I will probably gift what I have and use up what is already opened and what hasn't been opened, I will just gift.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady Review and Other Things

For a while, I did kick around the idea of taking weight loss medication. I always was a little hesitant to take them. My line of thinking was that it was an easy way out to lose weight and seeing some people like Kelly Osbourne take it to the extreme. What if I take this to the extreme and end up looking like I have an eating disorder? The when my doctor had mentioned that I did make strides in weight loss and my health, I probably wasn't going to lose a whole lot more weight with just diet and exercise. With my family history of heart disease and diabetes along with my having PCOS, it was time to talk about weight loss medication. After kicking around that information, researching and talking to others who have been on weight loss medication, I decided to go ahead.

Then I ran into a big snag, Medicaid. You would think that Medicaid would pay for a medication to help me get healthy. Apparently not. I just don't understand how Medicaid would rather pay for the complications of being obese but not a medication to help people get healthy. I want to get healthy. I am tired of my feet and knees hurting, I am tired of being winded and I want to not have diabetes like my grandfather did and eventually his kidneys failed. Even my band aid health insurance through my job won't pay for it. Apparently, I am not the only one in the same boat. Even people who just have private insurance have a difficult time with this. But I will tell you that even Good RX could only get it down to $149 a month. But I would have to pay Good RX for some kind discount and paying $39 per month and then $149 for one medication is excessive. I don't have $149 per month to spend out of pocket. My savings account would only be able to get a little over 6 months. But yet, Medicaid has no issues with paying for bariatric surgery. I just get it, what do I have to do? Start a go fund me for this?

Over Memorial Day weekend, I saw that Frederic Malle had a sample set of 3 for $20. One of those samples is Portrait of a LwrongSo I gave that a whirl towards the end of the week. I did hear that it was one of those more sensual perfumes. I am one of those that will wear vintage Bal a Versailles out of the house and was hoping that it would be along the lines of Bal a Versailles.

Turns out that it was not the case. What I got was something that was pretty much identical to Headspace Rose. The whopping dose of rose was just all sorts of wrong. The rose is like the dreaded "old lady" type of rose. I do smell some kind of crushed stems but it doesn't seem to suit the rose. All I know that Portrait of a Lady hates me and I dislike Portrait of a Lady. I will have to admit that the lasting power is pretty close to the half life of plutonium and the projection has a far reach. So all I got was something that smells dated.
 

First Vacation of the Year

 

I am on my first vacation of the year and don't have a whole lot planned. On Sunday, my family celebrated my mother's birthday and I wore the original Hedonist. Yesterday, I wore Worth's Courtesan and today will be Nasomatto Nuda. After today, I have no idea what perfumes I will be wearing.

My plan isn't really to use anything up right now. Would that be great to use something up? You bet but it's probably not going to happen. My goal is to wear the things that I don't wear too often.

I tried to sit on my hands and not buy anything related to make up and perfume, even samples. I had some success in not partaking in this passed BOGO candle sale from Bath and Body Works. Right now, they are having some kind of bath and body sale going on and I am not interested. Most of their soaps, lotions and body sprays turn into smelling like Play Dough on me. But I failed on the perfume front. I hopped on over to Andy Tauer's US website with no intention of getting anything. Some times, window shopping can be fun. But my down fall was the sample set. Five 1.5 spray samples for $53 was a little pricey but I was able to get samples of the newest releases. I would like to support a perfumer directly when I can. It seems like Andy Takes has released quite a few perfumes in a short period of time. I keep hoping that he brings back Noontide Petals and Une Rose Vermeille and the 10ml travel sprays.

A couple weeks ago, Call the Midwife ended after 15 seasons and I cried throughout the final episode. But I was a little disappointed. The last episode seemed rushed and disjointed. We did see Sister Evangilina (sp?) make an appearance but some of the original characters did not make an appearance and I was not enthused. Some of of the original characters that left, we were left hanging on to what happened to them after they left because they were real life characters. Instead,it was just a collage of pictures. After season 7 or 8 is when the quality had started to go down and too many characters were introduced and then left after a season or two. Then the storylines seemed to be rushed. Call the Midwife used to take their time with story lines but then storylines got shorter and it didn't quite feel the same. There might be a Call the Midwife prequel and movie but this wouldn't come out for a few years. Next is what will be the last season of Grantchester some time in June or July. After that, I will have to find another series to get lost in. It's rare that I can find a series that I can get lost in. So it is back to the drawing board.

Lush Dream Cream and Stuff

It seems like I can't get through two or three months without spending money at Bath and Body Works. It seems like ever since Bath and Body Works did the Bridgerton collaboration, I have always taken a look but didn't buy. I did spend and got the Queen Charlotte's Tea candles and a couple hand washes but that was it. I had no interest in the Stranger Things collab or the Disney Princess one. But stupid me, I had to check last week and there it was, a Star Wars collaboration. I do love Star Wars and I did cave in. The damage was 3 hand soaps and a three wick candle. Two of the hand soaps will be gifts but the rest will be used up. It just seems like when I seem to make any kind of progress, I seem to back slide. I just have to get back on the bandwagon and keep moving.

I kept meaning to do another Lush review but kept forgetting to actually sit down and do it. The products that I did test out was the Sleepy Bear body wash and the Dream Cream body lotion. I honestly thing that the Sleepy Bear body was smells similar to the Sleepy but is toned down. What bothered me was the chamomile, I think because I can be a little iffy on chamomile. But the scent didn't linger past me stepping out of the tub. So Sleepy Bear isn't my thing scent wise. But Sleepy Bear body wash does have that lather that Sleepy does and it does take a little bit longer to rinse off. Sleepy Bear will be regulated to shaving.

Dream Cream, I thought would be something I did like, in spite of having chamomile. Turns out, the answer is nope, I don't like this one bit. The lavender and chamomile are faint but the lavender is even fainter than the chamomile. All that would have been fine because I could douse myself in Jicky and things would be fine. There is a huge oat note that is incredibly big and doesn't seem to calm down let alone fade away. The oat just sits there. There is no development or anything.  But what annoys me so much is that Dream Cream is so greasy. My skin might be dry but this was too much. The two small unopened containers of Dream cream will go for birthdays an Christmas.
 

It is Starting to Feel Real

My trip to California is starting to feel real. It hit me that I have a shade over two months of waiting. I am close to paying off Afterpay and Klarna and at this point, I want to pad my checking account a little more but still have a good amount in my savings. 

But I had to really think about a couple other things. One is which BNPL cards do I want to take. Do I take Klarna or Affirm? I am leaning towards Klarna due to it's higher limit and I can use it in more places. But the decision that I made in the past 12 hours is to apply for a credit card. A pre approval from Capital One came in the mail. For the past month, Capital One has been sending me some letters about a pre approval and when I thought about it, getting a credit card for my trip might be a wise idea. With my lousy credit, I didn't expect any kind of approval. To my surprise, I was given the Quicksilver One. It might be a $300 limit with a $39 annual fee but I will take it. I hope that I won't mess this one up. I will have to remind my sister that I don't have tons of money and say that I have been working on getting a couple things squared away in terms of finances.

I am still thinking of which perfume I am going to take. I don't expect to go and do any kind of perfume shopping or sniffing during my trip. My idea of taking that vintage bottle of no 19 edp still stands. It will be hot when I will be in California and it would probably be a great idea to just finish that bottle. I could take that bottle of Nasomatto Nuda or Number One Intense but I think that I should take only 1 bottle. Since I will be traveling by my lonesome, maybe on the way back, I can check out duty free. Doesn't mean that I buy anything but if I remember, I will take a look.

In my using things up resolution, I used up more stuff. I used up the little bottle of the Lush Sleepy body wash and a little bottle of the Cheirosa 62 body wash. Now if I could use up the lotions, I would feel better. I found a little dabber sample of Serge Lutens MKK and decided to use that up if nothing else, just get rid of it. I still have to larger decants of MKK. The upside is that I am not buying more stuff to drag into the house and setting myself back when more than I already have. If I could find a way to use up those lotions even faster, it would be a great thing.
 

Look at What I Just Found

I know that I did chronicle at some point of not being able to find some bottles of perfume. The most notable one was Amouage Memoir and to a lesser extent, Zagorsk. I did wonder where my full bottle of Jubilation 25 and the original Hedonist.

Yesterday was a day that I decided to work on more perfume organizing. I made it mostly through. I knew that I had one backup bottle of Lyric but it turns out that I had 2 backup bottles of Lyric and have a quarter used bottle of Lyric on my nightstand. So if Amouage decides to discontinue Lyric (I hope the hell not), I will be okay but will probably try and grab another bottle. So I went through 2 of the tubs with no luck finding Memoir or Zagorsk. I did end up throwing quite a few evaporated dabber samples and perfume packaging. But I also combined some half used bottles of body wash and some shampoo. So in a way, I made it into something marginally more productive. Well, my resolution is to use up/get rid of stuff is happening, just happening slowly but I am not adding any more stuff that what I got at the Sephora sale.

When I didn't find the bottle of Memoir or Zagorsk, I was about it just give up and say that it was most likely either gone for good or somewhere still in the house. But I pulled out a box of what I thought were just candles, turns out had some perfume in their as well. That is when I found Memoir, Jubilation 25, Zagorsk and Hedonist. They were hiding in one of the many boxes that I store candles in. I am not sure what possessed me to put those perfumes where I store candles but I did. 

The reason why this has been bothering me was that Amouage is pretty pricey and not too many can sink $250 and up for one bottle of perfume. I know that I can't do that anymore. I was worried when I couldn't set my hands on my full bottle of Jubilation 25 or Zagorsk. Well, Zagorsk wasn't a huge deal but losing a full bottle of Amouage is.

While I am happy to have found some of my perfumes, I am still trying to locate my travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere and my travel spray of Hedonist. I have the Hedonist travel spray in Iris and Cassis but can't find the original Hedonist in the travel spray. I got the Hedonist travel set when I actually had fun money on a regular basis and it was when Luckyscent carried the Victoria Minya travel sets. I could go over to her website and buy it but I keep chickening out and remember that I am on a perfume no buy thing. I do have the Eau Premiere travel refills but the spray mechanism that would work is currently being used for the edp version of no 5 since the travel spray hasn't been used up yet. I just wish I can find those two damn things.

 

Chanel No 19 EDT Review

You know how I blogged a little earlier about the Sephora spring sale? And said I would spend no more than the allotted $45? I failed by about $25. I didn't spend any of that on perfume. It was mainly on the Drunk Elephant body wash and lotion and some skin care stuff. Some of this was to finish up the Mother's Day gift and finish up my mother's birthday gift. I wasn't exactly game for even attempting to justify another bottle of perfume. I just recently got a bottle of no 19 and that leads me to this whole post.

For the past year, I have been flirting with the idea of getting a bottle of the most current version of the edt. I have three bottles of the edp and two bottles of the parfum. About ten years ago, I was getting buying tons of vintage perfume and two of those bottles were a kind of vintage edt versions of no 19. I don't know when Chanel had travel spray bottles of no 19 so I am guessing they are probably from some time in the 80's at the earliest and maybe the 90's at the very latest but I am more leaning towards the 80's.

I fell head over heels in love with the no 19 edp, it took me a little longer to understand and love the edt version. The vintage edt is a very leathery, green rose but this current version is very different. In the first hour, I was very confused. I have never recalled the vintage edt to be over the top iris, the over the top iris is something that I associate with the parfum version of 19. Even the edp doesn't have that whopping dose of iris that can be identified right away. Then things started to get even stranger. In all three concentrations, there was a huge dose of rose and I don't recall the rose being plush and in the current edt, the rose takes on a heavy more plush type of deal. Nor am I a fan of the powdery type of note that just doesn't fit. The brightness and green smell is still there but it doesn't quite get there and the leather has been scaled back and had to go looking more the leather. It seems like this version of no 19 was trying to smell like the edp, parfum and edt all in one. With that being said, it seems like the latest version of the no 19 edt is trying do too much and things are getting lost along the way. Reformulation is inevitable but this is getting a little nuts. I think that I am going to need a few more wearings to fully gage on how much I like this version.

 

End of an Era...Sort of

One of my new year's resolutions was to finish things and not add anything more. So far, it's some mixed results. The fact that I have added 3 full bottles to my collection and haven't finished a bottle of anything is the bad part. But I haven't added any body products and in fact used some of them up.

I have finished another Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 hand cream, 2 Gold Bond hand creams and 2 foaming hand washes from Bath and Body Works. But the most notable thing that I have finished is the Amouage Lyric body butter and I am a little sad about that because it is a bit like an end of an era because finding Amouage bath and body stuff is as rare as slug's teeth at the moment. So there is nothing to replace it with. I just can't find the matching bath stuff for the older Amouage offerings. If I can, it's a little too pricey for me. So the era of Amouage body stuff is pretty much over since I do like the concept of matching bath and body stuff that matches any given perfume. But I am still salty about my aunt knocking over my Memoir body cream and very little of it could be saved and I am still looking for my bottle of Memoir. I know I have it somewhere but I just can't find it.

I think that I am a little sad that I used up the last of the Lyric body butter was because Lyric was one of my first niche perfumes that I fell head over heels in live with and when I saved up enough money for a bottle, my love deepened because I could quit buying large decants only to drain them pretty quickly. I am still in love with Lyric but I do have to admit that even though I have one of my full bottles sitting on my nightstand, it doesn't get as much wear as it used to. I do have a backup bottle and a travel spray set when Amouage still had their travel sprays. I think a year or two ago, they pretty much did away with those as well. But I will admit that I do see less and less Amouage being sold in the way of discount sights like Fragrancenet. I do wonder if Amouage is doing what Chanel did way back when is putting an end to their perfumes being sold just about anywhere. I will keep hoping that the body products will make a comeback.

Rogue Perfume Champs Lumaires Review

 

Rouge Perfumes is my latest perfume house discovery. I have been slowly working my way through my discovery set. I was really starting to get bored with constantly wearing the same 2 or 3 perfumes and needed a break. And since I adore Flos Mortis, I figured that I would give Champs Lumaires a go.

Champs Lumaires is another tuberose heavy perfume. I had initially thought that Champs Lumaires would be a lighter version of Flos Mortis. The tuberose is the only thing that both have in common. Flos Mortis is a raunchy tuberose, Champs Lumaires is a more polite tuberose. But I did notice something a little on the goofy side though. There was a banana chew type note. I wonder if it is the coconut that is giving that kind of vibe or something else. The banana vibe smells artificial and I am going to have to give this another go at a later date.

In other news, partially out of boredom and the other part of curiosity is I was looking at the Chanel website. I wanted to know if Chanel had their no 5 extrait/parfum bottles back in stock. The only version of the parfum version was the grand extrait version. Then I hit the chat button. When asked, I was just told that they do have the grand extrait version for sale and to sign up for the newsletter. My not so hot retort was that not all of us can spend what probably be 2 or 3 months of a mortgage payment or rent on a bottle of perfume. I was looking for just a quarter ounce of the extrait for gifts. I know I am signed up for the newsletter but I am not into the Chance line up and I have enough makeup at the moment. So I am still hoarding what is left of my extrait.