Seriously? Of Serge Lutens Arabie, Laundry and Storage Gone Wrong

I didn't have a ton of clothes that needed to be washed but needed to wash 3 sets of sheets. I got a little lazy and hadn't washed those 2 sets of sheets that I have bought in the past 5 or 6 weeks. Yes, I was sleeping on sheets that were starting to get a little gross. I don't know what possessed me to wash 2 sets of sheets at 9pm last night but washed those 2 sets but I did. So this morning, I stripped my bed and threw that set of sheets in the wash and started it. So I now have fresh, clean sheets on my bed.

I am not a big fan of washing any kind of bedding. You can wash a fair bit of clothes in one load of laundry but only 1 set of sheets in a single load of laundry. But I don't think I am a big fan of doing laundry. It's the time it takes and the amount of steps for just 1 load of laundry. As it stands right now, I don't have to wash any kind of bedding for a while.

This morning, I had a hankering for Serge Lutens Arabie. Portia from Perfume Posse did make a mention of it in her recent post and I promptly forgot about it until this morning. So I pulled it out of one of my bins and something went horribly wrong. At first, I noticed that the spray mechanism smelled like it smelled like A la Nuit. Then I unscrewed the spray mechanism and smelled no resemblance to the Arabie that I know. So something must have leaked into the bottle to make it smell all sorts of wrong. So that means that I am going to have to check my massive collection to see if I have a backup bottle of Arabie. 

I have already done a half assed search about the price of a new bottle. I wasn't aware or didn't pay attention that Arabie is now only in a bell jar form. I check my old stand by of Fragrance Net and didn't see a bottle and should have bought a bottle of it when they did have it. I did find a brand new bottle of it on Amazon but if I don't have a backup bottle of Arabie, I am going to have to bite the bullet and get a bottle. I don't have the $300 some dollars lying around and it is hard to find a spray bottle.

The reason why Arabie is is important to my collection is because it is one of the first niche perfumes that I purchased many years ago. Even though I didn't really "get" it at the time. I can only hope that I don't have to get another bottle. 
 

Serge Lutens Feminite du Bois

A few moons ago, I did blog about that Headspace Rose giveaway that I won. It was either last week or the week before, I was going through some of my emails and I did remember and started to worried that I might have missed the package. So I did email Portia asking about it and what do you know, the next day, I get an email saying that it was shipped through DHL. DHL is not a common shipping company in the States and the few times that I had to contend with them, my opinion isn't that great. They seem to take forever to deliver anything. The longest that I had to wait for an item is 2 and a half weeks.

So on Sunday, I was finally able to see the new Downton Abbey movie. It is supposed to be the grand finale but with how the end was portrayed, I don't think it is the last time we heard of Downton Abbey. I am thinking that they might revive it to take place during WWII with the younger generation. But I do want this to be the end of Downton Abbey.

On the day that I saw Downton Abbey, I had a huge hankering for Feminite du Bois. I could have gone with more period appropriate Patou Joy or no 5 or no 22. But I wasn't thinking of those things. But let's move on to Feminite du Bois.

I hate gotten my first bottle of Feminite du Bois when I was new to perfume and Luckyscent still sold some of the Serge Lutens line. It was one of those blind buys that worked out pretty well. I love the dusty, woody fruit combination and at the time, it was something that I had never smelled before. In many ways, it seems like the house of Serge Lutens is niche for beginners and most budding perfume nuts start there when expanding their tastes. There are some offerings that are out there I the Serge Lutens line up. But I quit paying attention to Serge Lutens after the Berlin offering, or was it De Profundis? I think at that time I had moved on and was testing out new things. Maybe because you couldn't readily get your hands on a bell jar either due to the price tag whe  they were at Barney's or one needed to have someone go to Paris and bring it back for you. I was lucky enough to get a bell jar of De Profundis or Sarrasins off on EBay and slightly used.

A la Nuit Revisited

 There was a time where I was new to the world of perfume collecting. Most of what I had smelled and bought was mostly from either the drug store or Bath and Body Works. For most of my life, I never paid a whole lot of attention to perfume. Growing up, the adults in my life didn't wear perfume on a daily basis. If they ever did wear perfume, it mostly bypassed me because I never paid too much attention to it.

Chanel's Cuir de Russie changed all of that. I am not sure how or why I got an email from Chanel about the Les Exclusifs line but with Cuir de Russie it was off to the races. 

It seems like just about every perfumista's journey with niche starts with exploring the house of Serge Lutens. Feminite du Bois was my first Serge Lutens and then I branched out a little more. A la Nuit was probably the second one I got. I must not have been paying attention to it or my nose was goofy. Or the latter option is that I wasn't all that great at picking out individual notes about perfume.

People had said that A la Nuit was loaded with indoles but at the time, I wasn't so good picking that stuff out. All I got was some kind of sweet floral that might have smelled marginally poopy. While I was trying to find something else, I found a decant of A la Nuit. Of course I had to give this another go.

I hadn't worn A la Nuit in years and wasn't expecting a whole lot. I still got the jasmine and now I am finally getting all the indoles that people were talking about. A la Nuit is a lovely perfume that I probably wouldn't reach for as much but still lovely. I do prefer Rose de Nuit or Sarrasins for my skank needs in terms of Serge Lutens.

I am still not happy that so many Serge Lutens perfumes are out of reach. Out of reach due to price and I am not the biggest fan of the bell jars. My take is well over $300 for a 2.5 ounce bottle isn't much of a deal.

Moving More Things Around and Chergui

Today is the first day of my first vacation of the year. It just so happens that it is Mothers Day in the US. As the years have gone on, my mother hasn't wanted to make a big deal out of Mothers Day. Probably because her birthday is always a week or a week and a half away, depending on when Mothers Day is. It might have served a purpose when my sister and I were younger. But since my sister and I are adults and my sister is in California with her 4 kids, getting together takes a whole lot of work.

So today was spent moving even more bedroom furniture. It was mainly to get that tall dresser into my bedroom since my bedroom was freshly painted a few days ago. Just have to get that other dresser into my bedroom so I can really put my back together. This would mean that I could have things better organized. What I really want is to have more options of perfume because I don't have enough space. What is currently on the tall dresser is a TV, so there is no real space there to put anything else. I probably could but it would probably get lost. I would like to get some candles moved back into my room because I had a designated spot for a lit candle. My new nightstand has been designated to a lamp and the few bottles of perfume I managed to get to.

While I was replacing the old nightstand with the old one, I found my bottle of Chergui. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out where it went to. Chergui was one of my first Serge Lutens offerings that I did buy. The bottle I have, doesn't have the new label design. I had initially planned on Ubar today but since I have found Chergui, I am wearing that today. Chergui is probably one of the easiest Serge Lutens offerings to understand or like outside Un Bois Vanille. Un Bois Vanille is still on my to buy list but I cannot go out to buy any full bottles. I would be pretty happy if Ulta started selling some of the Serge Lutens line. The reason I wish that would happen is that I have $130 in Ulta rewards points and it would make a Serge Lutens purchase viable. I wouldn't be asking for the bell jars, that wouldn't be quite Ulta's vibe. The bell jars would be more of Sephora's vibe because Sephora is pretty expensive in general.

I am hoping that since the zoo is free on Monday (tomorrow) that we actually get a chance to go. Maybe the art museum would be a good pick for this week. I am hoping that we can do something besides sit around or home improvement projects.
 

Serge Lutens Tuberose Criminelle

It always seems to take me forever to test out anything new and then blog about it. Back when I was new to the world of perfume and niche, Serge Lutens was the first house that I started with. Even when I first started, I didn't try anything of the Serge Lutens lineup. For a long while, I didn't pay attention to Serge Lutens. I think that it was after De Profundis is when I kind of lost interest in Serge Lutens.

For a very long time, I hated tuberose as a dominant note in perfume. I haven't done a complete 180 on tuberose but I have started to enjoy it as a dominant note. I think it was Narcotic V that made me start to see the light.

A week or two ago, I won a raffle for a Surrender to Chance gift card and decided to get a tuberose sampler set in my order. And in that sample set was Tuberose Criminelle. What I am going off of is a dabber but that's alright, I have a bell jar of Sarrasins and De Profundis and dabbers are nothing new in the Serge Lutens lineup. I had bought a spray decant of the Gris Charnel extrait to really make sure that I still really love the Gris Charnel extrait. But onto Tuberose Criminelle.

 Tuberose Criminelle starts of kind of like Sarrasins does. That wintergreen candy like blast followed by a whopping dose of jasmine. The jasmine stays pretty strong throughout the entire wearing but not quite the star player. Then the tuberose comes roaring onto the scene and never leaves. I do detect a smidge of leather once in a while but not often and leather isn't even listed as a note. I did notice some oily notes in the whole thing and I am thinking that the hyacinth is probably doing that and I don't really smell the hyacinth nor the vanilla or orange blossom.

This isn't what seems to be the queen of tuberose perfumes, that's pretty much Fracas. I do really like Tuberose Criminelle and I mean like it. I would like to get a bottle eventually but it's one of those exclusives that are horribly expensive and that is going to have to wait before I hop onto the Serge Lutens website to pull the trigger to get a bottle.

Serge Luten Muscs Koublai Khan New Review

 

A while back, Serge Lutens did some rearranging with packaging. For some reason that means that chances are that the perfume is going to be reformulated. I had to hop on over to TPC to get a small decant to check (Ciel gratto bottle).

I will admit that I do love musk in perfume. Musk can add depth and richness to a perfume. I love vintage BaV, Kiehl's Original Musk and don't wear them too often. Sometimes musk can go sideways for me like it did with Amouage Gold Woman.

I never had gotten around to getting a bottle of Muscs Koublai Khan while I could and now it's gotten out of my price range but honestly, I am okay with that; considering how large my collection is already but onto the review.

While I do have a couple older decants and have worn them off and on for the past few years, my latest yet smallest decant it the most recent. I've noticed that MKK is a more sheer, less slutty and not as long lasting. MKK is still pretty slutty but it's quieter and doesn't seem to last as long on skin but still the same perfume to my nose. But I don't love this reformulation to get a bottle.

One Over the Other

Ever since I've started down this perfume journey, I've noticed a few things. I have always preferred one house over the other. Or I lose interest in a house at a certain point. Some perfume houses seem pretty prolific when releasing perfume, others, not so much. But I lose interest all the same.

Let's start with Chanel. I do have some Chanel offerings in my collection. No 19, no 5 and no 22, Cuir de Russie. For a while, it was pretty easy to get decants of any Chanel offering, all I had to do was bop on over to TPC or STC and get a decant. Then Chanel decided that they didn't want that stuff and probably said that not so hot legal stuff will happen if you don't stop selling Chanel decants. That kind of ended a good chunk of my Chanel thing. I live out in the boonies and don't have access to a mall too often let alone a Chanel boutique. I just can't justify blind buying and I have underwhelmed by recent releases nor am I amused with Chanel changing the formulation of the Les Exclusif line (EDP instead of EDT). So it was time for me to move on.

Serge Lutens was another house that I kind of was obsessed with for a while, especially in the beginning of exploring what perfume had to offer. After a while, I did get kind of bored with his work. It all started to smell the same and the new releases started to smell like they were just poorly constructed. What also got me is some of the pricing has gotten outrageous. Three hundred plus dollars for a bell jar. Not happening unless I somehow manage to win enough with a scratch off lotto ticket (which ain't gonna happen since I don't play).

Amouage got irritating to me. While I love a ton of the earlier stuff, I did lose interest after Honour. Then Amouage really departed from their roots. What I did try were things that I have already smelled a million times before with a lower price point. So I am not amused with an already expensive brand cheapening itself but keeping the prices.

The one house that still fascinates me is Tauer Perfumes. Andy Tauer has experimented quite a bit but stayed true to his roots. Andy Tauer has kept prices reasonable in terms of niche perfumery and makes the effort to give the best quality perfume he can. The works released have been consistently good even though I didn't get along with a couple perfumes. I know that Andy Tauer is coming out with a new perfume and I can't wait to give it a go.

Perfume House Foolish

I am kind of excited right now. There are very few things in the perfume world that gets me excited. I used to get excited about any new release by Amouage, Chanel and Serge Lutens but it's not that way anymore.

The three houses that I mentioned have been cranking out offerings that I haven't smelled at one point or another already. So with Amouage, Chanel and Serge Lutens, I have lost interest in those perfume houses. Chanel was probably the first house that I really lost interest in. Chanel has the money and had the perfumers on staff to take the time to make a perfume worth it for me to actually drag my ass anywhere to smell it but they don't utilize that talent or money wisely. The recent releases from Chanel have been horrible smelling.

Chanel hasn't exactly been in my good graces for a while. I remember when Chanel decided to mess with the Les Exclusifs line, changing it from and EDT form to an EDP form. Uh Chanel, us perfume nuts know that your EDTs and EDPs smell different and what you did with Cuir de Russie wasn't that great. I've also noticed that your prices have been slowly creeping up and I would like to see the Les Exclusifs line to have a 1.7 ounce option.

The one perfume house that I am excited about is Andy Tauer. On Facebook, I found out that he is releasing a new perfume soon and if I remember right, he is not putting any rose in this one. Andy Tauer has released tons of work that's consistently good. There have been a few that I have not liked, I have enjoyed quite a bit of his work. I hope that this new one will be released soon and I will be able to give it a try.

A Harsh Mistress

Come recently, I've been rearranging my perfume collection. Pulling things that I don't wear too often to the front and things that I have been wearing quite a bit to the back. It's the whole forgetting about which bottles I have and why I bought them. So it's the whole trying to use up what I already have. Forgot that I had a bell jar of Sarrasins and De Profundis and I remembered the joy I felt to finally have a bell jars of two scents that I loved. And yet I still kind of hoard them. Then I started to wonder why.

Perfume is a harsh mistress when it comes to collecting. I haven't counted how many bottles of perfume that I have but I have a lot. Every time I gaze at my collection, I ask, "Do you really know how much you've spent on full bottles alone?" Truth is, I don't and I don't think I really want to know the answer to that question. I figure that I have probably spent almost a year's wages or a little more than that over the span of 10 years. Vintage finds, high and low end offerings, some discounted, some not and with the vintage finds; I might have spent more than what I should have on a few bottles. Back up bottles played a roll too, the fear of anything being discontinued is real. And yet, I want to add more to my collection.

I've had many collections and I have found that perfume has been the most demanding and expensive to date. Books, makeup, nail polish have been fairly cheap compared to perfume. Amouage, Serge Lutens bell jars don't come cheap and I don't really have the means to snap up bottles left and right anymore. So the perfume buying has slowed down and I don't even buy so many decants anymore. I still love perfume but I really need to start using some full bottles up and add only 1 or 2 more bottles to my collection.

What Not to Wear Out of the House

I have some good news, the bottle of Arabie that I thought was lost has been found. Somehow, Arabie ended up is a random toiletries basket. I'm blaming the puppy and her learning how to counter surf and then my mother throwing it in that basket. The vintage bottle of L'Heure Bleue has arrived and I am ecstatic. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with it, except for gazing at the bottle marveling on how small a 1.6 ounce bottle of EDC is.

I have compiled a list of perfumes that I can only wear alone. I think that every perfumista has a handful of perfumes that they only wear when they are alone in the house. Those perfumes can be too skanky or there is something about them that renders them not fit for public.

Amouage Gold for men and women: I honestly don't thing that it's the structure of the perfumes themselves but I think that it's the whopping dose of civet (or is it ambergris?) that makes this too poopy. The men's version has a whole lot less going on and I am more apt to wear the men's version then the women's

Patou Joy: I have yet to try the extrait version of Joy, so I can't comment on it. I have the EDP version and I do love Joy. I love how the jasmine and rose play well together. The rose and jasmine is bright, not at all powdery and don't compete with each other. But Joy has a noticeable cat pee type of note that I think that the jasmine probably creates.

Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan: What seems to be the musks to end all musks. I personally love it but while people like it on me, they just simply don't like the perfume itself. So it's regulated for the alone pile. But it's not the sluttiest perfume I own and that's vintage Bal a Versailles and I wear it out of the house and everyone swoons.

Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande Review

Did you have two or three days where everyone and everything is just bugging the shit out of you? I'm going through that right now. My goofy Lab puppy decided that she was going to chew up my slippers today. Sidney was doing so well, not chewing up our belongings and chewing on her toys. I think that since it's cold, wet, rainy and gray, she's mad. Walks have been kind of quick due to the rain and having her just run around in the back yard is pretty much a no go. The front and back yard is nothing but a mud puddle. I was hoping that grocery shopping was going to happen today but it was the home opener for the Cleveland Browns and nobody wanted to do it before or after the game. I hate football and I don't really understand why the home opener for the Browns was so important to the people in my household, sense tells me that what is the point of watching, I know what's going to happen, the Browns pretty much always lose. It's difficult to make anything when half of what you need for anything isn't in the house, so it was beef stroganoff, which I pretty much hate. I might not like grocery shopping but at this point, we need food because I can't live off of huge platters of mac and cheese and Salisbury steak that last for days.

I noticed that I am getting sick of looking a my full bottle collection and it was time to give something else a go. So I pull out Encens et Lavande and spritz. Lavande seems to have been on my radar for a while but I never managed to remember to get a decant when STC or TPC was having a sale but finally managed to remember. I try to keep in mind when testing any Serge Lutens offerings, anything seems to go. But Lavande left me cold and disgruntled. At first, I couldn't smell anything other than a Serge Lutens does ck One. I had said that ck One was an airy, androgynous citrus thing with a whole lot of no development. Lavande isn't much different. Lavender slowly comes on to the scene and the lavender is a pretty cold one and then the incense seems to show up much later. The incense is more like a ghost than an actual note in this one. Lavande is kind of a blatant rip off, a ck One with a cold lavender note and a whisper of incense. There was no real development, if at all. But the biggest thing for me was that it was cold, not ice cold but it was starting to. The lasting power of a spray was around 6 hours and it was 6 hours to long for me. For an Amouage price for a bell jar, I would have expected something better.

Serge Lutens Bois de Violette Review and Other Stuff

It's been really difficult to blog lately and I mean really difficult to blog about anything, let alone perfume. My dad had surgery almost a week and a half ago due to colon cancer and we are waiting for the biopsy results to come in. Having my dad home means less time to blog (not like I do a whole lot of it) and work leaves almost no time to write about perfume. I do still wear perfume but I haven't really attempted to wear anything new. Financial troubles have also taken their toll on me but I am starting to see some marginal progress. With financial troubles makes me hesitant to reach into my unworn bag of decants. I just can't afford to buy anymore perfume right now and buying decants is almost out of the question right now.

With finances being very out of wack, it is making me appreciate my perfume collection a whole lot more. I am being forced to be content with the collection that I do have and I am hoping that I can drain a few bottles and sell off the ones that I don't wear. I haven't gotten around to seeing if Goodwill will accept perfume. Maybe a consignment shop would work a little better.

I was craving something new to wear, my hand picked out Serge Lutens Bois de Violette. I've always had somewhat of a rocky road with Serge Lutens offerings. Some don't smell good to my nose or too fleeting. It doesn't help that his exclusive line is sold at Barney's for an Amouage price. A Serge Lutens perfume works better for me if I spray, not dab. Dabbing just doesn't work all that well for me considering. I can't fathom why Serge Lutens refuses to include spray tops with his bell jars just like he does with the export line. With his export line, you have the option of spraying or dabbing. I'm too lazy as well to decant my own perfumes.

In the review, there will be a lot of comparisons between Bois de Violette and it's eldest sister, Feminite du Bois. Feminite du Bois is actually the mother ship for the whole Bois line, so there will be tons of comparisons between the two. The whole structure of Violette is almost identical to FdB from top to bottom. I'm not kidding, in a blind test, I probably wouldn't be able to differentiate between the two. Not at first sniff at least but then the violet comes out to play. It's not a shrinking violet but not an aggressive violet either, the violet is more of the assertive type. Then the whole FdB thing kind of quiets down and hums along. The sad thing is that Violette doesn't last long on me with a spray decant. I maybe get 3 and a half hours worth of wear out of this. I don't know when Serge moved Violette from the export line to the non export line but it must have been in the past 3 or 4 years. Most export sprays that I have last me at least 8 hours. Will I ever get a bottle of this? Probably not because I already have a bottle of FdB in my arsenal. I wouldn't turn my nose up if someone gifted me with a bottle of it either. My wallet is thanking me right now.

L'Heure de Nuit and Bottles

After yapping, panicking and a little bit of whining, I did manage to get my paws on a full bottle of L'Heure de Nuit. It was somewhat difficult to find a bottle because it has been discontinued and I didn't know about it. There have been a couple of perfumes that were being discontinued and I did manage to become aware of it beforehand to get a couple bottles. Sometimes I find out and can only afford one bottle. So now the hoarding begins.

After my bee bottle had arrived, I don't know what I was exactly expecting but this wasn't it. Let me be frank, I own some huge bottles of perfume and I mean huge. I had bought Cuir de Russie and Sycomore before they came in a manageable 2.5 ounce bottle. I own 8 ounce bottles of Chamade and Jicky and a 9 ounce bottle of vintage Bal. So it was a little bit of a shock to see how little 4.2 ounces is compared to the bottles that I have mentioned. Maybe it's the fact that the bottle is like the Serge Lutens bell jars, they are round. But I was still excited to add a bee bottle to the collection.

It's not often that I actually do buy a brand spanking new bottle of perfume. Just can't afford that often. After the rush of tearing off the cellophane and opening the box, I have to gaze at the bottle.There is something about getting a brand new bottle of perfume, especially if it has been discontinued. A good most of my collection isn't in a cool cabinet but out in the open and mostly protected from light. Yeah, I'm sure that some are clutching their pearls but what's the point in having some good looking bottles and not look at them. I will admit to the fact that I can be a bottle slut once in a while.

Some bottles are pretty utilitarian when you look at them. The classic Chanel bottles are pretty plain and so are Serge Lutens' export line. Serge Lutens must have taken a couple notes from Chanel but still has his exclusive line in bell jars. But Guerlain might have been the first to create bottle swag to help sell perfume.

No Motivation and La Fille de Berlin

I absolutely have not motivation to even delve into my unreviewed pile of decants. The last one I was trying out was La Fille de Berlin. But I think that I am going to give it a go anyway.

La Fille de Berlin is a huge rose. But the rose is not this sweet delicate thing like I would get in La Majeste la Rose and that one was a little more on the jammy side. It's not on the dirty side like Voleur de Roses, nor the spicy Amouage Epic Woman. It is an assertive rose and a little bit on the jammy side. It's not massively aggressive but it does border on it though. After the initial blast of nothing but an assertive rose, I do get some animalic undertones but I wouldn't go calling it animalic, La Fille just flirts with it for a few minutes. The rose still stays as a dominant rose perfume with hints of musk. What surprised me is that my decant actually gave me some staying power. More often than not, decants of any Serge Lutens offerings don't make it past four hours but this lasts of my skin for 7 hours. The Serge Lutens spray bottles that I do own, when I spray from them, I get 10 hours of lasting power. My verdict is that I would either go for a full bottle or a very large decant, I haven't quite decided on which list it would go on, color of the juice not withstanding.

Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille

It's really cold here in Cleveland and wanted to try something new. So I dug around my unworn decant bag in search of a heavy hitter or something that might warm me up a little bit. It was either L'Artisan Vanilla or Serge Lutens Un Bois Vanille. I went with Un Bois Vanille because Un Bois Vanille would most likely last longer and be a little more heavy hitting.

This Serge Lutens offering is definitely a vanilla perfume. But it's not one of those vanilla perfumes that leaves you smelling like a cupcake. It's more of the inedible type of vanilla. While is smells more akin to Guerlain's Spirueuse Double Vanille but there are differences. While Un Bois Vanille does have more of that burnt vanilla smell, like SDV, it's not as severe. What keeps Un Bois Vanilla from outright copying SDV is the coconut. The coconut isn't the sunscreen lotion type of coconut but the actual coconut itself. Coconut lends a creamy texture to Un Bois Vanille. While I can smell and notice the coconut, the coconut is not overwhelming to my nose. Un Bois Vanille isn't as loud as some of the Serge Lutens offerings, it is on the softer side. I really do like Un Bois Vanille and find it at very least large decant worthy, if not bottle worthy. I will have to wear my decant a couple more times to see if it is full bottle worthy for me. If SDV is out of any one's price range, Un Bois Vanille would most likely do the trick because it's close enough to SDV and bottles on Beauty Encounter and maybe Fragrance Net (haven't looked) are reasonably priced for Un Bois Vanille.

Serge Lutens La Religieuse Review

What I do like about summer is that in the morning/afternoon is that I can wear one perfume and another in the evening. Last night, I went into my unworn and reviewed bag for something a little different and got La Religieuse by Serge Lutens. I know that Serge Lutens offerings can be really odd smelling and it's always been kind of a crap shoot for me with Serge Lutens. La Religieuse is not different.

This is supposed to be a jasmine dominant perfume but I'm having a whole lot of trouble finding the jasmine and I love jasmine (skankier the better). This offering is very perfumey and there are a few that are in my collection that are that way but this time, I'm not liking it one bit. I do think that the musk in this one and the lack of jasmine makes this one a stinker.

Stinker in the way of this isn't what I already haven't smelled in the mainstream. The Bois de Jasmin blog did some it up nicely by saying that one could go to the department store and this statement is very true. But I think that one can do a little better in the department store.

Bell Jars and Exclusive

I am not the type that is usually swayed by the look of a bottle of perfume but I do have my moments and many more moments of grouching about exclusivity of some perfumes. Ever since Chanel has come out with the Les Exclusifs line, there has been a little bit on unavailability but not much those come recently. When Les Exclusifs came out, it was only online at the Chanel site or the Chanel boutiques. But some of that has changed. How I can get them has not changed but the sizes have. I think that the prices of those bottles have made me do a double take and made me think twice about a bottle. But Chanel never has been one to have fancy bottles so there is nothing eye catching in that respect.

But Serge Lutens offerings have been a whole different matter. For the longest time, the US hasn't been privy to being able to get a bottle of the non-export line without going to Paris. Now the bell jars are being sold at Barney's and their stock seems to be dwindling but the bell jars are being sold on the Serge Lutens website to US customers. After I found a three quarters full bottle of De Profundis on E-bay for $165, I had a couple thoughts and was a little disappointed. I still love De Profundis, Iris Silver Mist and Sarrasins but it seemed to be the bottle itself that was the source of the disappointment. I don't know why I had thought that the bell jar would be larger for a 2.5 ounce bottle. I honestly think that I was seduced by the exclusivity of the bell jars and was comparing the size to my Chanel no 22 bottle and my Mitsouko EDP bottle. I couldn't help but think about spending $300 and over for a bell jar that a sprayer doesn't come with it and that I can get a 3.4 ounce Amouage for the same price. I think that it is spending time on E-bay and getting lucky. But I don't know what exactly I was thinking about the bell jar except that I might have over hyped it in my mind. I don't regret getting De Profundis and still want Iris Silver Mist and Sarrasins but it might be a while before I do.

Serge Lutens Bois et Musc

Slowly but surly, I am working my way through reviewing my pile of perfumes needing to be reviewed. And most of that pile seems to be a sampler set of some kind. And I landed on Bois et Musc for review.

I do have a somewhat troubled history with the Serge Lutens line for a few reasons. One is the import/export thing and that most of his offerings are one extreme or the other. Or most of the offerings are a variation of something he has already done before. I have managed to smell a few that I did fall head over heels in love with (Sarrasins, A la Nuit, De Profundis just to name a few).

After my morning/afternoon wearing of vintage Mitsouko wore off, I put on Bois et Musc. I knew upon first application that this was a variation of Feminite du Bois. Variation, I mean that it smells kind of like a stripped down version of Feminite du Bois. But Feminite du Bois is the basis for most of Serge Lutens' creations. Since I already have Feminite du Bois, I see no need to own Bois et Musc. But lasting power is about the same as most of what I have tried with the Serge Lutens line.

Kat Von D Make-up Review

Yesterday, started off to be a pretty good day for me. I managed to finish off that vintage Mitsouko EDT that only had one or two small squirts left and when that faded, I finished off another small decant of Sarrasins. Then, I checked my email and discovered that waiting in my inbox was overflowing with perfume deals. So I just added more to my collection. And it looks like that I will be able to order Sarrasins through the Serge Lutens website. Right now, I am verifying this. For the past few years, I have been drooling over Sarrasins and a couple other bell jars. The price tag at Barney's had me raise an eyebrow and on the Serge Lutens website, I have to raise an eyebrow. For 75ml, it's about $300 and I am not exactly thrilled in wanting to pay that much and even 75ml of Mitsouko EDP doesn't even cost that much! I didn't decide to blog so much about that but about makeup.

After a few years of either not being able to afford makeup or having it fall of my radar, I have somewhat got back into the habit of wearing it again and forgot how long it could take to put it on. After receiving a gift card to Sephora, I had the opportunity of getting an eyeshadow palette from Kat Von D which I had been looking at. I did enjoy her lipstick in Hellbent. I actually bought two different palettes and have worn them for a little bit. Sinner and Beethoven were the two that I have been experimenting with and both palettes are very similar in colors. I did enjoy experimenting with the colors but did find them a little too glittery for my liking and the glittery part did catch me off guard even with the neutral colors. While I liked the set up mostly, I had a hard time with the fact that the eyeshadow itself was not compacted and seemed pretty loose compared to other brands of eyeshadow that I have used. What really took me by surprise is that in Sinner, there is no applicator brush to apply the eyeshadow, instead there was eyeliner instead of a brush and had to hunt one down. Thus far, after a lot of experimenting, I'm not exactly thrilled with the Kat Von D eye shadows even though I like the eye primer that I got.

Serge Lutens Feminite du Bois Review

I'm finding it hard to believe that I haven't reviewed my very first Serge Lutens. What I mean is that when I fell down the rabbit hole and was really new to niche perfumers, I was buying bottles left and right. I was most intrigued by the reverence in the perfume world with Serge Lutens. I wasn't sure what the fuss was about and still kind of don't.

Feminite du Bois (not the Shisedo version) was the very first Lutens offering that I did get. It's a spicy, fruity, dusty combination that seems pretty linear. Even though cedar is listed in the notes, I don't get any kind of cedar. Stewed fruit and spice market seems to be a recurring thing in many of Lutens' work and I still don't know if I like the stewed fruit and spice combination. It always smells dusty to be because of Feminite du Bois. Sarrasins and A La Nuit seems to be the exception to this and to a lesser degree De Profundis. There is the lasting power of plutonium in many of Serge Lutens offerings when you get the full spray bottles. Spray decants seem not to give the longevity as the full bottles.

What I have noticed with many of Serge Lutens perfumes, is the color of the perfume itself. Red, orange, pink, purple and a few others. It is a little jarring to see that in a perfume when one is accustomed to seeing an orangey yellow or clear. I'm wondering if I was attracted to this line because of the different colors in the perfumes themselves. I really don't wear Feminite du Bois too much but it is nice for what it is though.