Eau No

Did anyone ever have this computer problem? Every time that I go to certain websites on my PC, it pops up as "connection insecure" and can't get on said website? I am having this issue. Facebook, STC, TPC and a few others but not my blog or Yahoo. I don't know if it the firewall or not but I know that I am not having this issue with my Kindle Fire. So I have no flipping clue on what's up with the computer and I am not motivated right now to deal with it.

On Sunday, I was searching for one of those perfumes that I haven't worn in a while. I do have a few that I don't wear often and some have a reason. Sunday was the day that I decided to wear vintage Mitsouko. I do love Mitsouko but she can be a little hard to wear. When I applied my vintage Mitsouko, it seemed like a mistake and didn't have the time to wash Mitsouko off and apply something different.

Some perfumes can be a mistake in certain circumstances. L'Heure Bleue and L'Heure de Nuit are two of them. Both are powder bombs but L'Heure de Nuit isn't a massive powder bomb as L'Heure de Bleue. Both of them just are not meant for hot and humid weather unless dabbed and a very small amount. I've noticed that no. 22 can be that way as well, especially in the vintage EDT form but the extrait form is wonderful and barely any powder in it. But it's difficult with perfumes loaded with powder or the vintage chypres to wear on a daily basis.

Evaporation

Let's get this straight, I have tons of bottles like any good perfumista. This means back up bottles. I have back ups for discontinued perfumes and a whole lot more back ups in vintage perfumes. The vintages that I do have are mostly in splash or dabber bottles. But I always seem to run into the same problem. The dreaded evaporation.

The older the vintage is, the less likely the dabber seems to hold the perfume. A lot of the vintage bottles I have date from the 1950's to the 1990's. I love my vintage Guerlain's but find that the ones that are earlier than the 1970's don't seem to have plastic over the glass part of the stopper that goes into the bottle. My newer ones do. This means that I have to start wearing some of these and use the bottles up. Truth be told, I don't mind it so much when the vintage splash bottles are screw top and wither EDT or EDC concentration. I mind the most when the vintage extraits are doing this. Vintage extrait is fairly expensive and I have less of vintage extrait. I don't wear my vintage L'Heure Bleue too often but noticed that one of the bottles did have some noticeable evaporation. It isn't a huge amount but it was noticeable and the other one, I'm not totally sure. It looks like I have to get some snack sized Zip lock bags to prevent some of the evaporation and start wearing them more often.

Perfume Minis and Other Things

Cleaning has never been my favorite thing to do, nor replacing things that need replaced. But both needed to be done. I'm not one of those who has to scour everything once a week, I usually do that once or twice a year. The rest of the time, it's some maintenance (vacuuming, minor cleaning). After putting off cleaning my bedroom for about a year, I went through and sorted out some stuff to throw out or donate. You don't realize how much you really own until you start to go through things. Part of the reason is that I had bought a new mattress because my old one was falling apart. I needed more space to maneuver the old and new mattress.

I periodically do poke around for perfume minis. Usually I find them when I am doing my vintage searching on E-Bay. Most of the time, I find them through searches of  vintage L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko and Deneuve. The mid to late '90's must have been the time where sample vials of perfume of minis that sprayed must have become more common. But minis must have been the decants. Where people could spend maybe a dollar on a mini to try out at home. Or they might have been those free with purchase or cost a dollar or two if some couldn't afford a full bottle. But minis don't seem to be common anymore in the land of travel sprays, TPC, STC and perfume companies getting on board with spray samples for people to take home. No, I am not talking extrait bottles because those are not minis. I do have a few minis myself in my collection. they are predominantly Deneuve. The Deneuve minis are the ones that I mostly see and for a fairly reasonable price on E-Bay. Let's face it, even partially full bottles of Deneuve are pretty pricey and the minis are wither the EDT or the extrait. But I've never been overtly enthused with spending what seems like a million dollars for a small amount of perfume.

Not Often Worn but Not Forgotten About

I can't believe that I went almost a month without posting a thing. It's been a wacky month for me and blogging kept slipping my mind. Mostly because I had nothing to blog about. Not wanting really to wear and review, nothing that I haven't blogged about at one point or another.

I think that everyone has a handful of perfumes that they haven't exactly forgotten about but haven't been wearing them either. It's more than you "forgot" about them. You just are not wearing them. The larger the full bottle collection and the bigger the decant pile, the harder it is to keep track of things. I might have to really force myself to wear and review a minimum of one or two perfumes a week to get the ball rolling.

I'm not talking about just vintage perfume. I'm talking about the current formulations of some perfumes. I do have a couple vintages that I am hoarding because I have so little of the vintage formulation. L'Heure Bleue is one of those vintages that I do tend to hoard. I do own a fairly current version of L'Heure Bleue but it's such a powder bomb and kind of a sad scent that doesn't get worn often. Yes, I don't find LHB to be a cheerful perfume to wear.

When I go to pick out my scent of the day, I gaze at my collection and tend to wear the same thing over and over again. But when I do wear something a little different, I wear it for days. Take Amouage Epic for example. Even though I somewhat wear it regularly, I will wear it for days on end. But it always seems to be the same ones that I will wear day after day.

Some that are not quite forgotten about are the ones that are more of a seasonal thing than the ones that can be worn year round. Many of the classic Amouages do seem to wear much better in the winter than any other time of year. Can you tell that I haven't been enthused by the latest released that I have tried with Amouage? Some of them I have worn but haven't reviewed.

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue Vintage Parfum Review

My hunt still continues for a bottle that is reasonably priced vintage L'Heure Bleue. But so far, I'm coming up empty. Vintage L'Heure Bleue is hard to come by and expensive and yet I keep looking.

By chance, it was either The Perfumed Court or Surrender to Chance was having some sort of sale and I pounced on a very small decant of the vintage parfum version. At that point, I could only afford a fourth of a milliliter. I wasn't about to have a repeat performance of what I did with Chanel's Cuir de Russie. I actually put Cuir de Russie in a spray decant and naturally sprayed, Never again will I put pure parfum in a spray decant. Pure parfum is meant to be dabbed, not sprayed. I think that a roller ball would be the only way I could do the application of parfum. Dabbing is really not me deal, so it's either spray or roller ball.

I do not have the current version of LHB in parfum form but I do have the current version of the EDP that I hardly ever reach for. Since I am not spraying the vintage stuff, LBH parfum isn't as loud nor the huge powder bomb that the EDP is. But the vintage is pretty close to the current EDP. The orange blossom is a little more pronounced along with the anise. The musk is a little different since it comes from a time when there were no regulations on ingredients. The musk gives a animalic growl. It's not the animalic growl that makes vintage LHB a total skank bomb like vintage Bal. Sadly, like most Guerlain parfums, it doesn't last on my skin. I would like to have this last a little longer my skin. The vintage LHB is worth seeking out and trying.

Of Travel Sets, Rollerballs and Hoarding

This month seems to be a little lean for me in the wants of perfume. Not a whole lot of visiting E-Bay and Surrender to Chance. Just not interested right now, thanks a lot cellphone bill and activation fees. Yep, I switched cell carriers and the family and I got new phones, so there was some pearl clutching when I saw the first bill. But I was thinking and looking at my hoard of perfume.

With my collection, quite a number of it seems to be back ups. Back ups of discontinued and vintage finds but I'm still looking for that reasonably priced bottle of vintage L'Heure Bleue but coming up empty handed. So I keep looking. But after gazing at my collection filled with multiples and such, I asked myself on why I was hoarding some of this. Five bottles of Theorema, what the hell, I should be wearing this more often. A million bottles of vintage Bal, I am out of my mind, I need to wear this every night to bed just to finish one bottle of this. Nine bottles of vintage and new Mitsouko, I have to get that one bottle unstuck but I am starting on trying to finish one bottle of that. But there are a couple that I could mention but I have to get a move on.

Then after looking at all of that, my eyes landed on that Amouage Lyric travel set and that Tocca Florence rollerball. I like the idea of the travel sets and rollerballs. First off, they can be more economical than buying a full bottle. You might now get the equivalent of a full bottle but you can come pretty close. The Lyric travel set that I got came with 3 refills but had four total and it came to 1.32 ounces. So it was pretty close and with a FragranceNet discount, I had paid a shade over a $100, no joke. Now if the Epic set was a little cheaper, I would add that to my collection but I will stick to the two full bottles that I have and get the body butter. But the Tocca line has some decent offerings, perfume wise. What I have tried hasn't been earth shattering for me but it is a decent line. Not really niche but not exactly mainstream. The only brick and mortar store that I have seen them in is Sephora. Those that regularly shop/scout the perfume will have seen them already. But what I do like about the Tocca line is that they have created a rollerball version of their offerings. I like that because I don't really want a full bottle of Florence or pretty much any of them. I got the Florence due to the fact that Bath and Body Works wrongfully discontinued Gardenia Lily and Florence comes close but not quite enough to justify a full bottle.

But all in all, the fact remains that I must start to finish off a few bottles. My dresser is overflowing with perfume.

Perfume Frenemies

Does anyone have perfume(s) in your collection that can be called a frenemy? I certainly do. It starts out as reading about a perfume and then going over to the perfume counter to get a sniff. Then a few days or weeks later, you either order online and it arrives on your doorstep or you buy it at an actual brick and mortar store. And then you wonder what the hell happened.

It's happened to me a couple times with a few of my perfumes. Let's start with Diorissimo shall we. Diorissimo and I started out as almost the best of buds. I had a decant of pre-reformulation EDT, then I tried the current EDP version. I really liked both but the EDP called to me a little more. I'm thinking that it was the whopping dose of jasmine that was a little poopy. And there was the fact that I really didn't have a Dior in my stable at that point. I don't exactly know what happened with Diorissimo.

Another example of a perfume frenemy is L'Heure Bleue. I do love L'Heure Bleue because of it's historical value but it's the powder that makes it a frenemy. I swear that it is a huge powder bomb in the current formulation, as I have yet to smell the vintage version. I find that wearing Apres L'Ondee much easier to wear because there is little to no powder and is pretty much the same structure as LHB. L'Heure de Nuit is different though. LHN is the one with a whole lot less powder and there is some laundry musk in there but I find it easier to wear than LHB.

At the end of the day, I'm not one to reach for any of these perfumes that often. I guess it's because these perfumes are exausting to wear after a while/

L'Heure Bleue and Mitsouko

Ever since I 'got' Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleue and have worn them quite frequently, I have come to a few thought on the both of them. Both of them shouldn't be worn when it's 80-85 degrees out. When it gets to be in the 70's, things are a little dicey. The top notes are fine and I love the top notes in heat but when the middle notes come out to play, there is trouble coming to paradise. Be cause there is something that is starting to smell sour in Mitsouko's case and something too powdery and sour in L'Heure Bleue's case. I'm not sure on what gives on that. With Jicky, Apres L'Ondee I am not getting any of this funk and Shalimar is the same. I can wear Shalimar in heat and there is no problem. I'm thinking thaat in Mitsouko's case and smelling similar things, I just have a hard time with chypres in general.

So I am thinking that L'Heure Bleue and Mitsouko really need to be worn during the winter. An that's when I really get them and I can enjoy their sensuality.

Guerlain Apres L'Ondee EDT Review

I've finally got around to wearing something new. Not exactly got around but kind of got out of that rut of either finishing off my smaller decants or just wearing the same old things. For a long while, when I was reaching for full bottles, I was reaching for my no 5 in EDT form. And I still am fixated on L'Heure Bleue and L'Heure de Nuit. It took me a while to get L'Heure Bleue and now love it. I love L'Heure de Nuit but just can't bring myself to drop almost $300 for a shade over 4 ounces of perfume, so a large decant is gonna have to do. But both of those bring me to Guerlain's Apres L'Ondee.

For a while during my wearing of Apres L'Ondee, I couldn't place what perfumes that it smelled similar to. Then in the dry down it hit me, L'Ondee smelled like a very stripped down version of L'Heure Bleue. If L'Heure de Nuit was somewhat stripped down, L'Ondee is even more stripped down. Then I looked online and found that L'Ondee was created in 1906, a mere 6 years before L'Heure Bleue and over 100 years before L'Heure de Nuit. Comparing the three perfumes, they share similar notes. I was really loving Apres L'Ondee but the only formulation that I am seeing online is the EDT formulation. Guerlain EDT's and I don't exactly mix unless they are the vintage versions. So Apres L'Ondee only lasts about 3 hours on my skin and it sticks really close. When sprayed on clothing, I can get maybe 4 and a half hours. Not all is quite lost for me because I can enjoy it's two siblings and not be missing much. But it was fun wearing L'Ondee while it lasted.

Guerlain L'Heure de Nuit Review

Guerlain is one of those perfume houses that I have come to love. I've had a hard time liking, let alone loving a good most of what I have tried. It took me a long while to love Mitsouko, L'Heure Bleue and understand Jicky. But I understood and loved Shalimar right away. But I realized one thing about Jicky. The EDP version of Jicky doesn't last all that long on my skin, even when wearing a thicker moisturizer. I had ordered a fresh bottle of it and was so excited to spray it on my skin. I had gotten about 4 or 5 hours of wear before it petered out to nothing. Boy, I was disappointed and Shalimar in EDP kind of does the same thing too. But Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleue (in EDP form) simply last forever on skin. So there is a lot of head scratching there.

With flankers, there is a lot of pearl clutching going on on my end. Especially when it comes down to classics. No. 19, no. 5, Shalimar, and now L'Heure Bleue have flankers. Even though I like Eau Premiere and now L'Heure de Nuit, classics really shouldn't have flankers.

For the past three days, I have been wearing L'Heure de Nuit. At first, I was kind of unimpressed. It did smell exactly like L'Heure Bleue and I felt a little on the cheated side, Then on the second day, I smelled a whole lot less powder and maybe a little more on the flirty side. With L'Heure Bleue, I got a whole lot of powder with maybe some flirt deep down. L'Heure de Nuit when compared with L'Heure Bleue, there is a whole lot of flirt on L'Heure de Nuit. The flirty part is almost skanky unlike Mitsouko who makes you dig for the sensual or Shalimar that has an animalic growl to it.

While I really do love L'Heure de Nuit, I hate the price tag for 75ml. For almost $300 and packaged in a bee bottle, I just really am not able to fully love it like I should in spite of the color of the juice being blue. I'm guessing that I will have to make do with large decants and my bottle of L'Heure Bleue.

Peek a Boo Spring

After a very long winter with nothing but storms and sub zero weather, it looks like spring is trying to get here. For the past week or two it's been a couple flashes of spring then it's the biting cold with maybe a heavy snow. Now we are starting to get temperatures in the 40's on a consistent basis.

Now, I don't know how to perfume myself when it first gets warmer. This winter has been marked by wearing quite a bit of no. 5, Amouage Gold, Epic, and Lyric and not really trying out new stuff. I really want to start wearing Courtesan and no. 19 EDP form but I think that it might still be a little too cold for those to. I think that I'm sick of wearing dense, bombastic scents and want something a little lighter. So even though I'm kind of sick of orientals, I'm thinking either Shalimar or Havana Vanille might do the trick. Both Shalimar and Havana Vanille are orientals that are easy on the nose and don't seem to be loud or dense or maybe Mitsouko even though the Empress is a chypre. Mitsouko can be a great transition scent.

It's somewhat of a good thing that I've kept up with dealing with my using what decants that I already have. I remember wearing and liking Diorissimo and now found the small decant that's been floating around in my make up bag of decants. Trying it now, all I can say is wow and now I want a full bottle of it along with L'Heure Bleue which I've come to love. Now if my bank account would stop trembling at the thought...

Adventures and Sniffage

For the first time in a long time, I found myself at an upscale mall. I usually avoid the mall like the plague due to the fact I don't like huge crowds of people and I don't want to be sprayed with the latest release. Most malls that I have been to have had an okay perfume counter at Dillard's and Macy's but the Saks Fifth perfume counter was something else. The perfume counter was massive and it offered a larger collection of things that I would wear.

My purpose of going to an upscale mall was to look for the EDP version of Jicky, hence why I was at Saks Fifth Avenue. Jicky is hard to find in stores that isn't the EDT version if you can find it. I find the Guerlain counter and was amazed that I actually did find Jicky but it was either the parfum or the EDT. I even asked if they had the EDP version but they didn't have it but offered to order me a bottle or get the parfum. I'm hardly at Saks Fifth, let alone an upscale mall, so obviously, I can't just go back for one perfume. But I don't often get the great customer service the way I did but I'm lazy and can't justify going to an upscale place for no real reason. There are people in my house that hold it against me that I own enough perfume. But I kept going back to getting a bottle of Mitsouko or L'Heure Bleue. In the end, I chickened out of L'Heure Bleue and got the 2nd back up bottle of Mitsouko. Yes, I've really started to enjoy L'Heure Bleue but it's still a little too sweet for me.

Even though it was Valentine's Day and I was at the mall, I did like the customer service that I did get. But I was surprised at the Dior counter because I was looking at finding a bottle of Diorling even though I've always had trouble with Diorling's sliced green pepper opening. But alas, they didn't have Diorling.

What did surprise me at Saks was the lack of the newest releases being pushed at people. Maybe people were looking more for the grab and go or maybe spending 5 minutes at most with a sales rep. But I did have some fun with being at a perfume counter.

Now I Know Why

It's been a slow and agonizing process of using up my smaller decants (thanks Surrender to Chance for those flash sales). But it can be a great thing too. I've had a chance to truly know if I still like, love or hate a perfume. I'm still hoarding my vintage Mitsouko, Deneuve and Jicky though. This time, I've landed on Guerlain L'Heure Bleue.

The first few times that I did try it after I reviewed it, that it was just the wrong me that day. Nope, I'm having a hard time getting past the composition as a whole. I want to like it but I can't get past the association of after visiting the dentist. Every time that I wear L'Heure Bleue, I get those phantom sensations of Novocaine wearing off. For me, this does suck because I love most classic perfumes and never had one that I associated so strongly with something that is just so horrible for me. I'm not sure if I should just toss what is left of my decant or wait a few more years to see if my opinion has changed.

Guerlain L'Heure Bleue EDP Review

My opinion of Guerlain at first was a perfume house that I didn't get along with. For the longest while, the only perfume from Guerlain that I really enjoyed was Shalimar. Then this past fall, I have finally understood Mitsouko and why she is a classic and I can finally enjoy Mitsouko. So now, I think that I am starting to warm up to Guerlain.

L'Heure Bleue is one of those classics that I kept meaning to try but kept on forgetting because other perfumes were catching my fancy. I think that what kept throwing me off was the anise note. After having to get up pretty early this morning, L'Heure Bleue was the first decant that I reached for is my semi awake state. First blast was what smelled like cloves. If you have ever been around someone who smoked clove cigarettes, or maybe tried them yourself, you have an idea of what they smell like. But I was actually smelling the anise. The anise doesn't come across like somebody bottled black liquorice but it has almost a medicinal element to it. Even after 12 hours, all I am smelling is the anise. Do I like it? Kind of but I'm probably going to need to test it out a few more times for the next few months or so before I can make a final judgement call on it.