General Stuff and Coromandel

My folks left for Cincinnati about an hour and a half ago for a Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan concert. Since I am not in the demographic that can listen to either one and enjoy it, I am at home hanging out with the puppies. My candle is lit, lunch has been ordered. Today is the only day that I can have a candle going since they come back some time tomorrow. Since my mom has a difficult time with so many of my candles, I have the Bath and Body Works Pink Lavender and Espresso single wick candle going. Maybe, just maybe I can have this candle finished by tonight and have the house aired out before they come home tomorrow. I would like to have at least one candle finished up.

Had to have a wart removed from my index finger pretty much burned off on Monday. The stupid thing was catching on everything and one of the edges was cracking and bleeding. Another freezing treatment and the wart bandage thing wasn't going to work on this thing so it was going to have to have part of it cut off and then burned off the rest of the way. My directions are to keep the bandage on until it pretty much comes off. I am seriously starting to wonder about that part of the directions. Even though I work in food service and I am always either washing my hands or wearing gloves, the bandage looks a little cruddy is one spot and it seems to be pulling in another. The stupid thing is sore, especially around the site where the doctor worked on it. Part of me wants to follow the directions to leave the bandage on but the other part wants me to rip off the bandage, wash my hands and then put some antibiotic cream on with another bandage. I am wondering if the doctor wants some kind of scab or to be partially healed before the bandage comes off.

I finally managed to pull out my bottle of Coromandel and place it on my dresser a few days ago. I had forgotten on how much I love Coromandel and in some ways I regret getting the 6.8 ounce bottle when I was more financially secure. But on the other hand, I did buy the extrait version around the same time so it kind of evens out in some ways. The only problem is that even with my parents being gone, I don't quite have the ability to wear it. It's perfume that lingers and seems to get onto everything. I might love Coromandel but my mother hates it and my dad says that it's too strong and smells weird. What's funny that it's the only amber perfume that I am head over heels about. I am not really a fan of amber perfumes due to the resinous nature of amber.

So what is going to happen today in terms of perfume is that I am going to wear Sarrasins. I love the slutty, leathery jasmine and loving the bottle design and color of the perfume doesn't help. If I ever get back onto solid financial ground and my bottle runs out, I will get another bottle. I am hoping that things will eventually work themselves out

 

Art Museum

I did actually manage to go up to the art museum today. There were a few exhibits that I actually got to see today. 

For some reason, I never could quite manage to see every exhibit. The main part of the art museum is free but if there is a special exhibit, you have to pay. I wasn't so interested in the current special exhibit, probably because I am not into the whole Impressionist art thing. I mostly wanted to see the Chinese collection and the Faberge collection. I can't believe out of all the times that I have been to the art museum, I walked past the Faberge collection. I think that it's in a little corner that's kind of out of the way. The notable Faberge egg that we have is the Imperial Red Cross egg. It might not be the most extravagant or flashy egg that was created but it's still impressive. The amount of skill that was needed to make it makes it impressive. Every time I go to the museum, the egg is never open to reveal the inside paintings. Right across the Faberge collection, was the armor. The armor always fascinated me when I was younger for some odd reason but I didn't spend so much time with the armor. U think that I was a little too hot and remembered that I had a pretty long trek to the car.

For the longest time, I had a hard time with which perfume to wear. I really wanted to wear Coromandel extrait but also wanted to wear Gris Charnel. I did have to think long and hard about that one. My mother loathes Coromandel and my dad isn't a huge fan of it. That left Gris Charnel for the art museum. Coromandel is pretty strong even in the tiniest dose. Since I am not going anywhere tomorrow and family will be at a party tomorrow, I will wear Coromandel. I will be home alone and I can enjoy every bit of it.

 

Coco Coromandel Parfum Review

 I thought that I would actually get around to reviewing the parfum version of Coromandel while I was on vacation at the beginning of the month. But I've been dealing with and still somewhat dealing with financials. The pandemic has done a serious number on some finances and it's tough dealing with some of the fall out. Yes, I would love to go out and get that bottle of Gris Charnel but I can't justify any frivolous spending for a long time. There will be too many things going on that need my time and cash.

While I was on that vacation of mine, it was in the mid 80's and pretty humid. So I only managed to use up 3 candles. If it wasn't so humid, I might have been able to use at least a couple more. But who really wants to hear about some candles? I also managed to catch up on some reading that I had been meaning to do.

Last year, I seemed to be adding perfume to my collection at a rapid rate and both the Coromandel EDP and parfum made it into my collection. But it wasn't until recently that I have gotten around to giving the parfum a whirl. There are a few reasons on why I don't really go for parfum versions of anything. The freaking cost for the amount of perfume, evaporation of dabbers are my two biggest ones.  

I've noticed that the parfum is a definite amber perfume with some citrus in the beginning. When I spray my decant of the EDT, I don't really notice the amber and the EDP, the amber is more pronounced. What really remains from start to finish on me is the patchouli. Patchouli and amber are two notes that can be a little iffy on me. Amber and I don't normally mix too well. Patchouli, it can depend on what it's with. The parfum is much deeper and richer that anything that I've smelled in the EDT and EDP. Lasting power is about 11 hours on my skin and that did surprise me though. Most Chanel parfums don't last quite as long, mostly 6 or 7 hours on my skin. After my 15ml bottle is all used up, I don't think that I will run out and replace it. It's great but the amber is a little too loud for me. I'll stick to the EDP.

Perfume Bottles

In my massive collection, I don't have too many dabber bottles. Most of the ones that I do have are either vintage BaV, minis or pure parfum bottles.

There is a pretty good reason on why I don't have too many of them. I've spilled a few of them. With the ones that I have spilled, I managed to save a fair bit of perfume but I don't really want to take too many chances at this point. 

Since last year, I've had Coromandel and no 5 in pure parfum form sitting on my dresser, untouched. Well, this past week, I decided to rectify that. I really wanted to try Coromandel in pure parfum form. Anyone who is familiar with Chanel, knows that every concentration smells a little different. But I had forgotten how much of a pain in the ass opening an extrait bottle of Chanel can be. Trying to get the string undone and then trying to get the stopper out without shattering or spilling the bottle. I had gotten Coromandel directly from Chanel and no 5 from Sephora.

I had an easier time opening no 5 than I did with Coromandel. What I am thinking is that since no 5 is a huge seller, there might not be such a huge need to really seal the bottle. Coromandel was damn near impossible, probably since Coromandel isn't as widely known to the general public. So who knows how long my bottle of Coromandel was sitting around before it got to me. I was incredibly paranoid of spilling my bottle of Coromandel; knowing that if I broke/spilled the bottle, I wouldn't be getting another bottle anytime soon.
 

It's Vacation Time...Again

 

So it's vacation time for me again. Since I punched out on Friday, I am been doing nothing but lounge around. I did a couple odd cleaning jobs but nothing truly major. I don't have anything planned even though tomorrow is my birthday. I just haven't had much motivation to do many things or plan things. It's the thought of doing some things at my own pace and not having to plan many things around my work schedule that excites me.

I had initially set a goal of using four candles but from what it looks like, I might get through two and might start a third before I have to head back to work. While I was poking around the internet, to see if there were people who did have large candle collections and there are. There was one interview/artical about someone who has around 500 candles. This woman always seems to have 4 or 5 going at once either at home or in her office. I'm the idiot who has trouble finishing one or two a week and I have around 70. I swear that I am trying but I think I've just have had enough of candles and will have to start using them 2 at a time. I might get a couple Winter (actual title) candles when Bath and Body Works has their candle day sale. But I have to find a way to use up or get rid of some candles to make space. I just need some damn space. I think that I have no other choice but to burn 2 at a time.

For the past few months, I seemed to have been buying quite a bit of perfume. It just seems like this past year has been the year for a flurry of perfume buying. I always seem to do the Now Smell This quarterly damage polls, even if I don't buy anything, I still participate. Mostly go to see what other people indulged in and that does give me some joy to know that there are other people that enjoy getting new bottles of stuff, even if it's a back up bottle of something that they love. And that brings me to my love of Chanel.

I do own and enjoy many Chanel products and a decent chunk of my collection is about Chanel. Yes, I still love my Amouage bottles, Andy Tauer offerings and Guerlain but I find Chanel to be a little more accessible when it comes to how easily I can get their products. Guerlain's new stuff might be easily accessible but not the older stuff. My style is not hiking all the way to an upscale place to get a bottle of Mitsouko or LBH. Chanel no 5 is something that I can kind of get anywhere and not go out of my way to get a bottle but Coromandel is a little different though.

If you are not by a proper Chanel boutique, Coromandel and the entire exclusive line is readily available, most of the time. I am going to have to admit to the fact that I impulsively bought the extrait version of Coromandel. Spending over $240 for a half an ounce of perfume is one of things that I'd never thought I'd do again but it will be quite a while before I can do anything like that again. I just can't keep going frivolously doing it and at this point, just don't really want to. I will admit that I did enjoy getting those bottles of perfume.

Backups and Obsessive Loves

 

My Chanel package arrived on Friday and you have no idea on how quick I ripped open the package. I haven't ripped into the cellophane yet as I am still gazing at it. It did cross my mind about maybe picking up that Eau Premiere travel spray but ultimately decided against it. I honestly do have enough no 5 to last me quite a while. Maybe at a later date will I get that. Or that 5 ounce bottle of Estee Lauder Pleasures. Decisions don't have to be made today or any time soon about new bottles of perfume. Ever since the last third of last year, I haven't been buying a whole lot in terms of perfume, even decants. I had some other worries and not a whole lot in terms of fun money to even really contemplate buying anything and when I did, it went to candles for some strange reason. Well, candles are cheaper than perfume, right?

What got me to thinking of obsessive loves is Amouage Lyric. Lyric, I think was one of my first major loves when I did fall down the rabbit hole and waited quite a while to procure a bottle. Spent most of Sunday debating on if I should get that a back up bottle or not and eventually did get that back up bottle of Lyric. I have been wearing the snot out of Lyric recently. 

I've had many obsessive loves when it comes to perfume. The type of obsessive that I wear that perfume most often and I do quite a bit to get a few bottles. It seems like every perfume person has back ups of certain perfumes and even those back ups have back ups. There is always the fear of reformulation or any perfume being discontinued. 

Mitsouko would be another perfume that I have a shit load of. I have two bottles of current formulation but even more of the various vintage versions. Gotta compare between vintages and how the newer bottles fair.  But the longer the perfume has been in production, the greater the chance of reformulation. Hence why I do try to grab back ups of perfumes that I love.

Didn't Chicken Out This Time

 Those small financial windfalls did come in and I did get that full bottle of Coromandel after wanting a full bottle for a few years. Last year, I did have an opportunity to get a bottle but chickened out. Every year, for a few years, I did have the chance to nab a bottle but in every year, something else took precedence. The unexpected big bill or something else was going on and the majority of the funds went to that or I just wimped out. Spending $200 or more for a bottle of perfume is sheer insanity to me right now and there was a time that I wouldn't have thought twice about spending that much.

But it actually happened but I had to wait a little bit longer though. My older Lab, Jake, needed to have   surgery to get that fatty tumor removed and that took some precedence over Coromandel. I was expecting that surgery to cost more than it did. I could have gotten the larger bottle but decided against that. There is no freaking why that I could use up a 200ml bottle somewhat quickly. The bottle is on it's way and I am pretty content right now. Another bottle of perfume will be purchased this year but I am just going to hold off on that on this point.

Jake is doing pretty good. The vet had said that was a fatty tumor with a couple nodules but from looking at the nodules, looks like it would be some slow growing cancer that just keeps coming back with or without chemo. The nodules were still "with in parameters" so there probably wasn't any kind of indication that it was end stage cancer. Jake is and the vet said that he's pretty healthy, spry and old age would probably get to him first. Even Jake is 10ish, I think that if the surgery buys a year, it's money well spent. As long as his quality of is good and happy, I am happy. It's quality not quantity.

My candle collection keeps getting bigger and bigger. It seems like as soon as I use one, three more candles are taking it's place. But now since I have mainly run out of candle space, I have no choice but to not buy more and really start using them. Even if I have to start burning two at a time.

Random Stuff

 

It looks like I will be getting that bottle of Coromandel that I have been wanting for the past couple years. Probably in the next month if all goes according to plan. I haven't been able to buy a lot of perfume in the past few years, especially the past year. Things financially haven't been that great for me and a lot of other people this past year. Even though I have worked through the pandemic, prices of so many things have gone up and my paycheck has remained the same. I haven't really been able to buy decants like I used to. Yes, I have bought candles but have always waited for pretty good sales and looked at my bank account first before I did buy any.

Speaking of candles, I mainly get mine at Bath and Body Works and they might not be the cheapest ones around, but I like the quality. I might not like foody or super sweet, I have a few seasonal ones that I like. With that brawl that happened in an Arizona Bath and Body Works, I can't fully be sure on who is fully to blame for that, employees or customers. I have seen and experienced shitty behavior from employees but have experienced even shittier behavior from other customers. I can't really go blaming the pandemic for this, I have to go with the corporate culture. Customer is king and the customer is always right have let customers get away with bad behavior for too long. This is going to be a wait and see type of thing since I am curious on the outcome.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is coming up in a few days. That means that my e-mail is being bombed with sale ads. Ulta sent me a couple emails about extra points on perfume but I didn't bite and that is just one example and I know it's going to get worse.

I just filed my taxes on Saturday and will be getting a little back and I am thinking about adding a new full bottle to my collection. I am debating between Coromandel, Lonestar Memories and Viktoria Minya's Hedonist travel set. I haven't made up my mind which one I will get, let alone if I should get one. I haven't decided on anything. But it is looking less and less likely that I'm going to spend some cash on Coromandel. The EDP is a little to thin and sheer to be the strongest contender and I don't really think that the EDP is worth $200, $120 at best. I haven't smelled the extrait but I have never been one to justify spending $250. I've pretty much grown out of buying extraits. Extraits are just more money than I care to spend on so little a bottle.


Due to my taxes and Valentine's Day, I was thinking about my collection. Thinking about all the cash I have spent on perfume. I've never added up the totals of what I have spent over the past decade but I know it adds up into the thousands of dollars. Whoever is a perfume fiend and has been at this for a few years knows about what it can cost for a few millileters of scented alcohol. It's a scary thought and scary to see what a few millileters of perfume could cost.

Some niche brands are fairly cheap and easily gotten and others are not so easy to obtain and wildly expensive (I'm looking at you Roja Dove and your bell jars, Serge). I don't have the cash to spend on anything hugely expensive nor the space to do it. If I do get a new perfume in the next few weeks, I wan't something that I am going to, you know, use. But I am liking the fact that a few niche brands are catching on to the whole travel set thing. I think it's to appease us perfume freaks who don't really want full bottles of anything anymore or just maybe something no more than an ounce. Considering what I've spent on niche, backup bottles and vintage, I want some travel sets in my collection.

Chanel Coromandel EDP Review

I actually decided to get a decant of Coromandel off of E-bay. The seller shipped it out pretty quick and I got it pretty quick. I have been pretty wary of the Les Exclusifs line since they went from the EDT to the EDP formulation. Anyone familiar with Chanel knows that no matter which formulation of any of their scents are going to smell different.

Take no 5 for example. The parfum will smell different than the EDT and the EDT will smell different from the EDP. But they all smell like no 5 but certain things might be emphasized in one formulation but the next formulation, something else is emphasized.

After trying the EDP version of Cuir de Russie and not being to amused, I was a little reluctant to get a full bottle of Coromandel EDP without trying it out. I was pretty late to the party with Coromandel. When I tried Coromandel, my 5ml decant was half evaporated and STC and TPC were not and still not allowed to sell any decants of Chanel. So I had reservations about decants off of E-Bay for a long time due to the fact that I had a pretty good chance of getting something fake.

When I ordered my decant of Coromandel, the only available size that the seller had was 10ml. I was looking for more of a 3ml size. The EDP does smell like the EDT but with a few differences. I found the EDP to be more sheer but in a way, smoother than the EDT. I noticed that the patchouli was a little smoother and a little quieter. I noticed that there wasn't as much projection. I expected this kind of projection along the lines of a parfum. The lasting power is much shorter though. The EDT gave me 6 hours of wear but the EDP only gave me 4 hours.

I wouldn't mind a full bottle of this but I am still kicking myself for not getting a bottle of the EDT while the prices were still fairly reasonable. I do want to try the parfum version on this one and I am sure that it's glorious.

Back and Forth

I am failing miserably at this whole not buying full bottle stuff. I haven't bought anything yet but seriously looking at the Chanel travel sets. I honestly shouldn't even be trying to look but yet committed to what is the best bang for my buck. Thus far, I can't decide if I want to go with Coco Mademoiselle or no 5. I am leaning to Coco Mademoiselle due to the fact that I do not have any of it in my collection and loads of no 5. I am spending way to much time on this trivial thing. But with being on the Chanel website so much, it's made me think about my perfume journey a little bit and how much I have probably spent. At this time, I am more interested in getting travel sets instead of full bottles. But still a little annoyed, it seems in this respect with Chanel, I seem to be getting more packaging instead of perfume for the price I am thinking of paying.

In year past, it didn't seem to matter too much on how much I have spent on any one bottle of perfume. It didn't matter so much if I smelled the perfume before I bought it, $130 for under an ounce of perfume, sold! A 50ml or anything for over $200, why not? But circumstances did change and that meant that dropping any kind of money on perfume had to be thought about and limited to a couple times a year. Then I had to think very carefully. It boiled down to how much I could afford after my bills were paid. It's been tough and I am hoping that by the end of the year, I can nab a bottle of Coromandel.

Amouage Myths Woman Review

Yesterday, I had meant to grab my decant of Shalimar and instead grabbed Amouage Myths Woman. I was starting to run late and just grabbed the wrong decant. Usually, I don't spray any perfume when I leave for work until I am about two or three minutes away from work. Don't ask my why work is the only one that gets that treatment.

When I found out that I grabbed the wrong decant, going into work without wearing perfume wasn't an option. So on went Myths. I had first thought that it would be great. Crushed greens note and a green hyacinth note. Both notes were huge. Then after 10 minutes, things started to fall apart and in a big way. Patchouli and chocolate became huge players too. Patchouli and I are not friends and I am not a fan of chocolate in perfume. With the patchouli and chocolate, I was reminded of Coromandel, which I didn't much care for either. But Myths was still kind of in the awesome category.

After the chocolate and patchouli, came the musk. Holy crap, it became horrible after that. It took me a few hours to figure out what I was smelling. Because I've smelled it before. Then two hours later, I finally figured it out and it was Narciso Rodriguez for Her and I hate Narciso Rodriguez for Her. But when the musk came, the Coromandel element was lost. Yep, my nose gets a whole green Narciso Rodriguez for Her. Myths sits on my wrist like a hot mess for at least 9 hours.

I won't be getting a full bottle of these. Not even the first 10 minutes and a kick ass bottle can save it and in a way, I'm happy and so is my credit card. But I feel that Amouage has lost it's way especially after the creation of Honour. I miss the spiciness and dense manner of Amouage, which made Amouage great.

Chanel Cormandel EDT Review

It's time for me to just review Coromandel due to the fact that I've spent more time than I really needed to with it. I picked Coromandel due to the fact is that I've kind of been wanting to slowly work my way through the Les Exclusifs line by Chanel. My thought about the line is that Chanel is trying to get somewhat of a foothold in the niche department but still be mainstream. And I'm confused by that. Chanel's prices are already in the price range for niche but the Les Exclusifs line has some of the old offerings (Cuir de Russie and no 22 for starters) from way back when. Maybe they are marketing this line for perfume people like be who don't tend to shop mainstream and have smelled much more than the average consumer.

When I had first put on Coromandel, I smelled something akin to Frapin 1270 without the booze. I initially liked that but did need to wear it again because I knew that there was something that I was missing and it had something very familiar about it. On my second and third wearing, I knew what I was missing and what was familiar about it. It smelled an awful lot like Coco Mademoiselle. The patchouli and the fruity parts are tones down in Coromandel but still there. The thread of vanilla that shows itself an hour in tames the fruit and patchouli. I've said before that anything that has patchouli as a dominant player really isn't my friend. There is something about patchouli that I haven't come around to, probably the fact that it always smells kind of dirty to me. Yes, the patchouli is smoothed out and toned down but it's still there and still detectable to me. I will admit that Mademoiselle is a frenemy to me and Coromandel is a little more of a friend but not much. The decant that I have is at least a couple years old and obviously the EDT since the EDP version came out a couple months ago. Lasting power on my skin is about 6 hours and the sillage is about medium. Maybe my luck will change with Coromandel and I do fall in love with it but my track record with CM tells me otherwise.