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.
 

Subscriptions

 

Every so often, I do look at subscription services and if they look like they might be worth the money, I look for a free trial. It seems like I have become more aware of subscription services. I have been a Prime member since the beginning of time and ever since Amazon stepped up their game with Prime, I started to take notice. Then it was Barkbox and my dogs love their Barkbox. Wal-Mart Plus is questionable and I am debating on if I should discontinue the Wal-Mart Plus since I don't see any worthwhile benefit to it.

For a while, I have been taking a look at the Sephora same day delivery subscription. When it was offered for free around Christmas, I decided to give it a whirl to finish off a Christmas gift. While I didn't subscribe to the free 30 day trial then, I kind of liked it but it saved my bacon on Christmas Eve and I forgot about it. But a few days ago, I decided to give it a go. I was completely out of my retinol and was almost out of one of the shampoos that I like and figured what do I have to lose? While I ordered the shampoo and retinol, I threw an Infusion d'iris travel spray. My order arrived pretty quickly and I was impressed with that. Even though Ulta doesn't offer a same day delivery subscription like Sephora, I can order at 6am and I might not get it until 7 or 8pm. So it is Sephora for the win for prompt delivery.

After 30 days, I will have to make a choice on if I want to keep the same day delivery from Sephora. At the end of the day, it would only cost me $50 per year to keep it. I don't think that that is a bad price for what is being offered. If you are a huge Sephora shopper, I think that this is a pretty good deal. I am becoming a bigger Sephora shopper than I have been in the past and I do think that this would be worth the $50 per year. If my math is correct, you would only have to use it 7 times before it pays for itself. On Sephora, same day delivery is $6.95 per delivery.

It's getting to the end of August and normally, I have already hit the threshold to keep my diamond status with ULTA but I am only 27% there. So I am probably not going to hit that by the end of December. I am only $60 from maintaining my VIP status on Sephora for the next year.So with the same day delivery subscription, Sephora is starting to become a little more of my go to for some of my beauty needs. Now if they sold Lush and have No. 5 in extrait form, I would be a fairly happy camper.

Vacation and Technology

       Right now, my internet connection is being a jerk along with this huge computer update. It was decided that we needed to switch to Windows 11 since apparently Windows 10 won't be supported too much longer. So it's been a rough few days trying to get things to work let alone properly. Having a hard time trying to upload pictures to stick on here but I am not going to worry about that right this second. Then I am trying to get used to the Samsung Galaxy update and I am not liking it too much. I just don't like slow internet along with system updates. I am just sick and tired of things getting "timed out".

     So far I am day 6 of my first vacation of the year. Yesterday was my mother's birthday and we went out to dinner. Wednesday was marked by one doctor's appointment and I had another one today. But I did manage to go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This was the first time that I have been in there since before the pandemic. It took them 4 years to remodel the whole thing. It looks nice enough but there seems to be less stuff on display. No Balto display, no shrunken head display and there seemed to be much less. But then again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time there. There were too many schools trying to get one last field trip in before summer vacation. It seemed that nobody was paying a whole lot of attention to these kids and I was constantly tripping over groups of 10 year olds with no situational awareness. I am hoping that I will be able to go back with far fewer people and more time on my hands. That pesky doctor's appointment said that I couldn't spend a whole lot of time there. In a way, I was a little more hoping that I would go to the art museum and I think that it might have been a little quieter with less kids running around. With every field trip that I ever took as a kid, nobody was turned loose, we all had to stay with our group. Maybe standards have been relaxed.

     Right now, I seem to be beefing with Ulta right now. A couple years ago, I had ordered a bigger bottle of Chanel no 5 edp or Eau Premiere and was sent some kind of celebrity scent. I was not thrilled with that one and it was a massive pain in the ass to fix. And I thought that that was going to be a simple mistake. A month ago I had placed an order and when it showed up, I was missing a couple lip liners and I just decided that I was just going to be refunded. I just didn't want the hassle. On Sunday, I had placed an order for smaller bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense and some Lush bath and body stuff and paid with a good chunk of points that I have accumulated. When I got my order, I was a little surprised to find that I was missing the Rose Jam body wash and somehow ended up with a purple eyeliner. I was a whole lot less amused this time around. I don't wear eyeliner and if I did, it wouldn't purple and it was a NYX eyeliner. Since when does a NYX eyeliner cost a shade over $12? And how can one confuse eyeliner and bodywash? For a while the Ulta reps couldn't find my order and when they did, I had said that I have been a loyal customer for 8 years and I have noticed a decline in getting what I have ordered and when I get it. I hate complaining about stuff like this but when these mistakes are becoming more frequent, I think that this is a training problem. And the training problem rests at the feet of corporate suits as I always think it does and some of the blame rests at the manager's feet. I had the choice of either getting my points back or they send me the bottle of Rose Jam and I chose the Rose Jam. After all is said and done, I still have $80 in rewards points but I will wait for when Ulta has a really good point multiplier going on before I go and make another order since I will probably need more lotion and face cream.

Sephora Spring Sale and Chanel No 5

So it's the Sephora annual spring sale and it runs until the 14th. I had initally planned to give this one a miss. For me, April can be a lean month or a flush month. This April is a lean month for me in terms of money. Can't always control how things go in terms of money and I did forget that Sephora has a spring and fall sale.

What I do like about Sephora's spring and fall sale is that you are not limited on which brands are whatever percentage off. If Ulta is having a percentage off sale or a really good coupon, some brands are off limits. I have never been able to use a coupon on MAC or Chanel. Urban Decay and Too Faced can be hit or miss. But I have taken advantage of the Sephora sales to get some Chanel perfumes for less. You have no idea on how happy I was to nab a bottle of no 5 extrait and the 200ml bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense.

So replentishing my supply of no 5 extrait isn't in the cards right now. And you know what, I am okay with that. The only things that I am getting from the Sephora sale are two inexpensive hand lotions, well, inexpensive for Sephora. I am trying to keep the grand total to be under $20. I work in retail and I go through hand lotion like no tomorrow and I would like to think that I would spoil myself a little bit. One of those hand lotions is going to my mother for Mother's day and the other is going into my work coat. I am not wasting my Amouage or Chanel lotions on my place of employment.

I am hoping that the next Sephora sale I will be able to get that bottle of no 5 extrait. My no 5 collection might be fairly large but I don't want to start to really tear into my vintage no 5 extrait collection just yet. My vintage no 5 collection is nowhere near as extensive as my vintage Mitsouko collection so I don't exactly want to wear it quite as freely as Mitsouko. But now is not the time I want to go spending money like a drunken sailor, I spent enough on my cellphone bills and dog food for the past two or three months.
 

Little Bit of a Relief

I got a little bit of financial relief today. The short term disability that I wasn't so sure that I would get has come through. I got two weeks worth of that money. It still might be less than what I am used to but I have some kind of breathing room. Not a whole lot of breathing room but I feel a little bit better than I have been in the past few days. So that means that I can plan things a little bit better.

Thanksgiving was pretty quiet at my house. I somehow found a fresh turkey that was under 10 pounds. Turns out that the smaller the turkey, the bonier it is. For once, I got to watch the dog show on Thanksgiving day and a decent chunk of the parade before I got bored with that. I really enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to go anywhere and making Thanksgiving dinner wasn't the big pain in the ass that it usually is.

It's going to be a long 5 more days before I return to work. After being off a little over 3 weeks, I get to go back on Friday. I honestly can't afford to sit at home anymore and I am getting a little on the bored side of things. I didn't get to finish any candles nor did I get to polish my nails like I thought that I would be able to. The only thing that I did binge watch was the Hobbit trilogy, I couldn't even focus on reading a book.

Since we are in the holiday shopping season, I honestly will not be partaking in the whole Black Friday to Cyber Monday nonsense. One, I am not flush with money and two, most of my Christmas shopping is done already. All I have to do is shop for my 2 eldest nephews but I am probably going to get them an Xbox gift card and call it a day or maybe an inexpensive video game. Video games are expensive and I don't ever recall video games being this expensive. But the sale that I am most waiting for is the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale that's happening the weekend of December 6th. I will have a little more money for that but I still want to take it easy with that sale. I still have tons of candles already. I know that I shouldn't get more and probably should give this Candle Day a pass. If the price is more than $10.50, I will. The gift card that I have is $30 but I might embellish that with an extra $10 but everything boils down to price and how bad do I really want this.

I will admit to the fact that I used some of my Ulta rewards points to make a fairly large purchase. I did create a stockpile of stocking stuffers and one or two emergency gifts if I need them. But the big ticket item was the Estee Lauder Pleasures gift set that Ulta had on sale. How was I going to refuse a 1.7 ounce and a 3.4 ounce giftset for $80? I couldn't refuse that type of deal and it came with all of these gift with purchase type of thing. I am thinking of using another chunk of my rewards to load up on MAC lipsticks since they are on sale. But I really should hold off on that for at least a couple weeks.
 

De Profundis and Other Stuff

Saturday, I had to attend a funeral in the family and I wore De Profundis. Now I haven't worn De Profundis in a very long time and De Profundis seemed to be the most appropriate for the occasion. I have the old bell jar version and was thankful that it was a dabber. I think spraying De Profundis would have been a little much and most of my collection would have been too much.

I could have gone commando to the funeral but I seem to have a perfume for just about any occasion. I don't wear Serge Lutens offerings so much anymore. After a while, I had lost interest in trying out Serge Lutens offerings. Price point was one factor and the other was availability. Anything from Serge Lutens has gotten a little harder to find without paying sky high prices.

It seems to be the final push for many retail companies for online orders. I know that Ulta has sent me e-mails telling me that the 14th is the last day to order anything online for order to reach doorsteps by Christmas Eve. At this point, Christmas shopping is pretty much done. At this point, I am just exhausted. Exhausted because it's the holidays. Sick and tired of hearing a million different versions of Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Baby and all the rest of  Christmas music. People somehow get nastier this time of year. Only a week and a half before Christmas Day arrives.

I don't know if this is good news or bad news for me but I have so many points with Ulta that I can load up on Chanel perfume and not bust a sweat. And I mean really load up on Chanel. What I would like to see from Ulta is no 19 in any concentration or the gigantic bottles of no 5. Hell, I would love to see is the extrait version of Coco Mademoiselle or no 5. I am not going to hold my breath anytime soon with that.

Living Dangerously

Fall is quickly coming to Ohio and I have already started rotating some of my collection. I am starting to put away the more summery perfumes and getting out some of the fall stuff. When fall starts to arrive, that means county fairs come and that means that I have to start rotating stuff. Not all of my summer stuff has been put away though. We still might get a heat wave or two and I would still need a lighter perfume to wear.

When I went to my county fair yesterday, I wore LADDM. I wasn't about to waste no 5 or anything fancy really. LADDM seems to suit fall pretty good and does suit a county fair. I think that fall suits LADDM the best. LADDM congers up bonfires, clam bakes and just about anything fall.

For the past few days. I've seemed to have been living dangerously. For me at least. A while back, I did some bonehead things and got into some trouble with credit cards. I've gotten it about half way paid off and haven't even tried to apply for anything new. Until about Saturday when I was poking around the Ulta and Sephora websites. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular but did impulsively applied for their credit cards and got approved. Low limits but having the chance of things growing as things improve but it's nice to have some new credit. Sephora has a couple Chanel things and sizes that I can't find at Ulta but the Sephora card probably won't be used all that much but it will be a great tool to have in the future. I did use both cards and took advantage of the discounts. Had my eye of no 5 extrait and the full sized Coco Mademoiselle travel sprays. But I am making a point not to charge very much on both of them and in ways those two new credit cards are serving a purpose. One reason is utilization and the other is that they are places I both shop, even though I mostly shop at Ulta. I am just going to pay them off in a couple months and probably not going to use them for a couple months afterwards. Not like I really needed those two new perfumes and credit cards but it's nice to have a little back up in terms of credit.
 

That Sephora Sale

It's that time of year where Sephora has their spring sale. I had some spare change and got a couple things and spent under $50. There was nothing that truly really wanted at Sephora to make me go hog wild. My discount wasn't too inviting but then again, how often do I really shop at Sephora? What I was really hoping is to use that $10 credit along with my 10% off but that was a no go. I've never had an issue with this when shopping at Ulta. Ulta lets you use points along with a sale, except for gift cards and that's not unusual though. I am stockpiling Ulta points at this point. Maybe at the end of the year I will get that massive bottle of Estee Lauder Pleasures of something from Chanel but we will see what happens. Stockpiling points is fairly easy to do when point multipliers are in play.

At this point, the candle purchasing has stopped along with using them. The weather has gotten to the point of I don't want to start a candle and it's too much or just doesn't fit. At first, it was the low to mid 60's and ever since those 3 days of upper 70's, it's been in the upper 40's and mid 50's. I just want it to get and stay warm so I can have the windows open and not be suffocated by the smell of whatever candle that I have going. I've planned to use certain candles over the next 5 weeks. Let's hope the weather in my neck of the woods will improve a little bit.
 

Made It Through Another Candle Day

 

So I made it through another Candle Day at Bath and Body Works. While I wasn't exactly happy with a price hike for it and stores and online selling out of a couple things that I truly wanted, I am happy that I set aside money for this. I did manage to get my Frozen Lake candles and I am going to try out Vanilla Bean Noel. Even though the price hike was 45 cents and not a huge increase, I want the best bang for my buck. When you work in retail, any kind of price hike can make or break a budget so I am not understanding on why people have to accuse me of being cheap. My sister said that not everyone needs a gift and maybe I should consider cutting back. My retort was that I have cut back of gifts and made a budget. Throughout the year, I bought gift cards to set aside for gifts and stuck to the limits on what I had set aside. Her reality is different than mine and my reality is different than the next person's. I am happy that I did stick to my guns and bought the amount of candles within my budget.

This week has been an hard but yet interesting week. At work, a coworker in my department had quit, one coworker called off Wednesday. I covered the Wednesday shift, mainly for a few extra dollars in my paycheck. But when that snowstorm rolled through on Monday night/Tuesday morning, my family and I lost power early Tuesday and had power came back late Wednesday. The really fun part of the power coming back on was finding out that our well pump went bad. So from Tuesday to Thursday, there was no water. Most places that my dad called to fix that pump couldn't come out until late next week but he found a company that could come out on Thursday to fix it. It was glorious to be able to take a full shower and wash my hair instead of a spot wash and not being able to wash my hair.

After cleaning out a sock drawer and finding a $25 Sephora gift card, I managed to score that Coco Mademoiselle Intense mini travel set. I took advantage of the $15 off $75 deal that Sephora has running right now. Why did I go to Sephora instead of Ulta? I prefer Ulta in many ways but it seems like Ulta is getting chintzy with some things like coupons. If you are going to give me a 20% coupon and say I can use it on "prestige" brands, I'd like to be able to use it. I might have saved another dollar or two. But I am okay with that, especially after finding that gift card. Now I cannot wait until my Sephora package arrives.

Can't Come up with a title

 

I am still debating on if I should  pull the trigger on my Ulta shopping cart. When I read my email this morning, I find a $10 off $40 and even "prestige" brands were included. I tried to apply the coupon and apparently Chanel was excluded. I sent a tweet to Ulta saying what good is this coupon if I can't use it. Well, there are plenty of things but I could use it on but can't use it on something that I really want isn't the greatest PR move. I am just not moved by what I am seeing online with Black Friday deals so far. Even what Bath and Body Works isn't moving me deal wise. For some reason, I'm okay with not buying anything today or tomorrow. I really need to get one more gift and then I am done with Christmas shopping. I am finding it harder and harder to shop for people and it's gotten pretty difficult to find any great deals that I am looking for, especially for the things that I want to get somebody. I would think that with this pandemic going on, deals would be better and there would be more of them. I am just going to see what the next couple weeks look like and go from there.

At this point, I am just anxious for some reason. It's the holiday season right now and I am waiting on a few important things that should have been mailed weeks ago but haven't even arrived. Thus far, I have faxed a couple things to a couple places but I am going to hope that some things start to work out. I am going to take things one step at a time. I am not sure on who is dropping the ball but it's being dropped. How do I know what is needed and who needs to get it if I don't get the information?

The Shopping Season

 

We are coming up on the holiday season and already my email is filling up with all of these Black Friday previews and deal type things. I will admit that I am tempted by a few things but my bank account is telling me to take a step back. Most of my Christmas shopping is finished but I do have 3 more people to shop for but I am holding off for a couple weeks on finishing up a couple gifts. I have some shipping deadlines because my nephews live across the country from me, so I need to know that. At this point, I am trying to survive Thanksgiving. Due to Covid, holidays are going to be very different and much quieter. It will be my parents and I along with my aunt and quite possibly my grandmother who is still living. So I have a 20 pound turkey in my fridge thawing out and wondering about what the hell is going to happen with all of this turkey. I think that a large roasting chicken would have been a better fit. Let's hope that I won't be asked to pick up anything between now and Thanksgiving or I will be spitting nails.

What is tempting me the most is Ulta. I am hardly ever in an Ulta brick and mortar store, I do tons of shopping through their website and have accumulated almost $60 in rewards and now I am a Platinum level rewards person. Ulta does carry some Chanel perfumes but I never see them sell Chanel through their website. I have only seen it once before and I am now seeing that again. While Ulta might not have the selection that Sephora has in regarding Chanel offerings, even online, I am tempted to get the mini travel spray of Coco Madamoiselle intense. I know that I shouldn't blind buy but I am incredibly tempted. I shall see if there will be some kind of coupon when Black Friday comes to make the mini travel spray much more possible for me, especially if I want to keep saving up my Ulta points. But we shall see because I am trying to avoid Bath and Body Works as well. I am trying incredibly hard to to purchase anymore candles until Candle Day when the deals will be the best for Bath and Body Works candles.

Sephora

I have said for a while that I do think that Ulta has been a better store than Sephora. There was a time where I never even knew Ulta existed, Then about 4 or 5 years ago, I knew that Ulta existed but thought that it was a beauty place that was for cheap make up. But things did change. Sephora used to carry my Skyn Iceland face wash and moisturizer but quit carrying the line. Then I switched to Amazon for my Skyn Iceland stuff but took a look at Ulta. Ulta did sell Skyn Iceland and Ulta started to knock Sephora off it's pedestal. When I figured out the Ulta Rewards, sales and coupons, Sephora was brought down. I hardly ever shop at Sephora.

Today was the first time in over 6 months that I have gotten anything from Sephora.Why? Sephora had a sale going on and a couple things that I had my eye on that Ulta didn't have. I spent $20 more than I should have but I am okay with that. I couldn't justify buying a bottle of perfume but was tempted to use the sale to snap up a bottle of Coco Mademoiselle but managed to say no and walk away from that. If I spent enough at Sephora and my coupon was a 15% or 20% off, I probably would have.

One of my biggest gripes about Sephora and Ulta is the Chanels. Ulta does not let one buy a bottle of Chanel online but Sephora does.Chanel and I have a little bit of a contentious relationship. I do own and enjoy many Chanel perfumes but never was enthused with sizing or prices. I do wish that the prices of any of the Chanels were a little lower and the sizing was a little better. I would like there to be 30ml sized bottles. But my biggest gripe will always be about the Les Exclusifs line, sizes and prices.

At the end of the day, I am pretty stoked about my Sephora purchases. I got myself two lipstick samplers and a mini of the Kiehl's Ultra face cream. It's late fall and we are going into winter and the Skyn Iceland Cloud cream won't cut it when the dry air really does hit. I am hoping that this stuff will work and if it does, it will be fabulous.

Of TV Shows and Rewards

I am not the biggest TV show watcher, I have a select few that I watch. But sometimes I do have to call it quits on a TV show. The longer the show runs, the more potential of it going bad. I was really big into the Chicago series (Med, PD, and Fire) but now I have given up on them. Chicago Med hasn't been that great for the past two seasons, PD wasn't that great last season but Fire isn't worth watching anymore. I was a fan of Fire since day one but the beginning of season 8 was what made me give up on the whole series. I would have went with someone else dying and the story lines are stale at this point.So yes, I have got to find something new.

This past month, I have spent quite a bit of money at Ulta. Since September was my birthday month, I was able to score double points. Then there was a double points promo that was going on and scored a little more in the points department. I log onto Ulta to see how much I have accumulated so far and my jaw dropped. I had managed to accumulate 755 points and that equals out to $30 that I can take off my next purchase or save them and rack up more points and then get something else for myself. This is what I love about Ulta, is how the rewards system works. The most I have ever accumulated in previous years was about $15 or $20 and this is a record.

At this point, the past few days have been strange.Today and tomorrow, people are filming a movie. It is pretty cool to have that happen in my small town. But that means, I am boxed it at the moment. Can't exactly leave my street at the moment but that's okay, I don't have any place to be. I am currently poking around the Internet for the best price for the Amouage Lyric body butter. So far I am not having a whole lotta luck but found something strange. Walmart is now selling Amouage product from their online store. I had to take a look ar it and after taking a look, most of them are being sold through third party sellers. Some of the prices are pretty good but I am not willing to take that chance of it being fake. I would not have pegged Amouage allowing Walmart to sell their stuff.

Can't Think of Anything

Amazon Prime day has come and gone. Ever since I have been a Prime member, a week before Prime day, I am anticipating what kind of deals. Sometimes, I don't find anything that I'd like but the past couple years have been a little different. Last year, I had gotten my dad a Kindle and he has been loving it and has been watching a few of the Prime shows and doing other things. This year, I had bought him a Fire Stick for the TV and then he can watch Prime shows and movies on the TV.

But every time Prime day passes, it almost seems like a big letdown, kind of like Christmas. All this preparation, money spent and waiting for everything to come. After that, the anticipation is gone. But I am still making an effort to finish up my dad's birthday gift. I still have about 3 days to do it and I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later so I don't have it hanging over my head.

 For at least a couple years, I haven't done much in the way of perfume buying. I've cut back on the decants, E-Bay prowls and full bottle buying in general. I still dig buying perfume but priorities had to change. I've had to limit to when I could buy full bottles and decants. The decant part, I had to shift into STC and TPC 15% off or more sales and the full bottle buying to my birthday or tax time. Yesterday, I did break down and did buy a bottle of Kiehl's Original Musk Blend no 1. I had a $5 off coupon (from Ulta), free shipping over $35 and a $15 gift card that was burning a whole in my pocket. Original Musk Blend no 1 was cheap enough to buy without those things but with those things, the price became too good to refuse. Cost has become a huge factor in the full bottle buying. I can't exactly go buy tons of full bottles but I can do it once or twice a year if I am very mindful of the cost. But I am happy that I was able to get an inexpensive bottle of something.

La Maison de la Vanille Vanille givree des Antilles Review

Thus far, it seems like I have wasted more time and money at Ulta and Sephora. Last Saturday, I was starting some Christmas shopping and ended up at Ulta. After poking around the little perfume section that mine has, I smelled Chanel's Gabrielle. I didn't spray any on due to the fact that I was wearing Amouage Epic and forgot to pack some decanting supplies. From what I could tell, it was mediocre at best and something I have smelled a million times before. I think that Chanel can do a better job when creating new perfumes.

But I have to get going on this review that has been floating around my brain and sitting in my drafts section of my blog. I have started to really explore vanilla perfumes and stumbled across the La Maison de la Vanille travel set. For 5 15ml coming in at $50, it was a bargain. For $50, I am not expecting them to be SDV or Havana Vanille but I am expecting something a little better than something cheap smelling. So for the past week, off and on, I have been wearing Vanille givree des Antilles.

At first spray, I get a very mellow, slightly inedible vanilla. Then things get a little funky and I couldn't place what kind of took over. It was a shaving cream note that started to dominate. My nose has always found a shaving cream note to be a funky note that tries to add a creamy type of vibe. But the issue becomes the threat of the shaving cream note completely turns me off. The vanilla was slightly inedible, like I had mentioned before but not far enough over for me to enjoy it. This one lasted about 5 hours on skin before fading out. That's pretty good for an EDT but a full bottle isn't in the cards for me.

Beauty Sponges

A couple months ago, I had done a Sephora run (or was it Ulta?) and had thrown a beauty sponge in my shopping cart. Once in a while, I do read makeup blogs and kept seeing beauty sponges mentioned in them. So yes, I had to get one and try it out. I had chosen one that was about $5 for a reason. Reason being is that I have never used a beauty sponge before and I wasn't willing to go and spend a million dollars one one if I didn't like it or it turned out to be an epic disaster.

Yesterday, I had actually decided to give it a shot with foundation. I've never really worn a lot of foundation and with some sun damage and being 36, it's time that I should start wearing some. After watching a video, I thought that it was as easy as I had thought. I had a fairly easy time blending foundation and my foundation job looked pretty good. Which did remind me to actually go physically go into Sephora or Ulta and get matched for a foundation. It's been years since I had bought a foundation and I think that the foundation stick isn't good anymore and maybe doesn't really match my skin so much anymore.

**The brand of beauty sponge was Japonesque.

The Makeup Runs

The debate seems to rage on about who is better, Sephora or Ulta? I find that it really depends on what you want and the price point. I find Ulta to be better in terms of product and the rewards are a little bit better. Ulta seems to be better with sales and coupons and there are more stores around. So Ulta gets more of my business than Sephora.

It takes me quite a while for me to accumulate any worthwhile points with Sephora but what I like is the notification of a "birthday gift". I think that is what I like the most about Sephora. Sure, I am given only two options and they are sample sized but they can serve a purpose. But when that birthday e-mail hit my inbox, it was off to the races to fill up on a couple things.

Sometimes those makeup runs can be a fun thing. Well, in a lot of ways, makeup ends up being cheaper for me than perfume. My makeup routine is pretty basic and I love most of Urban Decay's Naked collection and tend to favor the smaller Naked pallets. I'm not big on colorful eye shadow nor am I a fan of shimmery or glitter on my eyes. But I am still pissed about Kat von D's Hellbent (color) being discontinued and I am looking at what is comparable to that shade of red. But it was fun to mostly browse Sephora to see what was available but mostly saw the same old same old and I was reminded why I keep my beauty routine fairly basic. I'd rather spend time picking out what perfume I am wearing for the day instead of spending at least a half an hour on applying purple eye shadow with questionable results.

Ulta vs Sephora

On Monday, I had stopped by Ulta with the intention of only returning the eye shadows that I had ordered online. That didn't happen, I mean, I returned the eye shadow but didn't just leave the store to finish up my errands. I made the mistake of looking at the sale fliers that they hang in their windows and saw the nail polish sale that they were having. Buy two, get one free and I could mix and match brands. So what did I end up doing? After my return, I did take a look at the Iceland collection. Sometimes you really need to see the color of anything in person before purchasing. I will maintain that this fall/winter collection from OPI, while nice, is a little on the drab side. I expected at least one red but they had a brighter pink and that was it. But I did fall in love with the Check Out the Old Geysirs and This Isn't Greenland because they were pretty unusual for OPI.

I have never spent a whole lot of time with Ulta and have always been pretty dismissive of Ulta. But being broke ha made me reasess my elitism when it comes to places like Sephora and Ulta. I always thought that Ulta was a poor man's Sephora but I don't think it's the case when I took a closer look. Ulta is a place that sells much more than fancy make up and skin care. Ulta is not like Sephora in that respect. I think Ulta figured out that Sephora seems to cater to a wealthier demographic and not everyone wants to spend tons of money on make up, hair care and body care. But there are people like me, who are tired of the drug store stuff and have a little more to spend on quality. I had found most of my favorite brands (SkynIceland, Urban Decay and Too Faced) at Ulta to win me over from the Sephora camp. I haven't really looked at the perfume section the few times that I have been in the store but didn't really have a whole lot of time to look at them.

Sephora isn't what it used to be, I don't think. It seems like they have raised their prices and the selection has gone down in the stores. Online is a little different due to the fact that they have online exclusives and most of the time, they are sold out of them. I don't see as many full Sephoras in malls and find more free standing Ultas. Well, I'm not really in Sephora's target demographic and I'm okay with that.

The biggest difference between the two is that Ulta runs a lot of sales and I do like a good deal on stuff I am going to use. Sephora never seems to run too much in the way of sales and when they do, it's not a good sale and something that I am not interested. So at the end of the day, it's going to be Ulta for make up and some body stuff.

Random Sniffage

After having a week away from my job, it's now time to recap on what kind of happened perfume wise during my vacation. Did it involve perfume buying? Yes, but who really wants to her that? It did involve a lot of general being out and about. I really wasn't interested in the whole going to the mall or beauty supply places but it happened anyway.

In my area, where my local Borders used to be, an Ulta beauty supply store moved in. Yes, it happened a couple of years ago but I still miss Borders and haven't gotten used to the sight of Borders being gone. Wednesday was the first time that I actually set foot in Ulta and I have never been inside. I was curious to see what was inside. I wasn't expecting Ulta to sell perfume but they do. Let's just say that the perfume selection is pretty similar to Sephora but in some respects maybe a little better. Ulta is trying to be like a cross between what would be the normal drugstore fare of make up and hair care and Sephora. The reason that I say that it is like Sephora is that it offers higher end perfume not the general stuff like CK Obsession and the like. To tell you the truth, I was surprised to see Chanel offerings (no 5, Mademoiselle, Noir) and some Guerlains. Mind you that a lot of these perfumes are sold at Macy's but Ulta is not Macy's where I can find a whole lot more than just the best sellers. And best sellers is pretty much what is sold in Ulta. I didn't expect the whole Chanel line and all of the variations of no 5 but that is somewhat impressive.

I was at my local mall briefly while getting a couple blouses and noticed that they had a little baby Sephora in my local Macy's. Naturally, I poked around and didn't see too much that interested me in terms of perfume. Mostly because the baby Sephora was that tiny. On the upside of going into Sephora, I did find the Kat von D lipstick in Hellbent. For the longest time, I couldn't even find it on the Sephora website.