Clinique Happy Bath and Body Stuff

It can be a difficult thing to find matching body products for perfume. Most of my niche perfumes don't have matching body products or they were discontinued (looking at you, Amouage).Unless something is a huge seller or the body products would be cheap to make and sell really well, none too many make matching bath and body products any more.

I know that Chanel focuses bath and body products on the no 5. Bath and Body Works has always done matching bath and body stuff since day one. I have only been able to find Estee Lauder Pleasures in lotion but no soap. But this leads me to Clinique Happy. A couple years ago, Ulta had stocking stuffers or the beauty stuff you could hang on your tree. So naturally, I snapped a couple of those up. How could I refuse a 5ml travel spray and 2 ounces of lotion?

Turns out that the 2 ounce lotion is some kind of funky lotion. I have had and tried the Amouage body butters and for a body butter, there was a firmer texter and it took a while to work into skin. This funky lotion is called a gelato and who knows why, maybe Clinique thought the term body butter was over used or wanted to draw some people in. I am just not so enthused with something just sits on my skin and takes forever to absorb.

I did eventually get the body wash and lotion. I find that the lotion doesn't quite moisturize enough. I find that the texture is nice but with my dry skin, I want my lotions to be a little more substantial, even in summer.

But the body product that really liked was the body wash. It cleans all the gross that has been accumulated. I love how much lather there is with the body wash and how it takes all the grime without fully stripping my skin.

I will admit that the Happy body care doesn't quite smell like the perfume but few body products smell like their perfume that they are supposed to go with. But I am mostly okay with that. With the way that Happy seems to deteriorate, I think I will mostly stick with the Happy products.

 

Of L'Occitane and Travels

Looks like I am finally going to be able to go to California this year to visit my sister and nephews. I finally bit the bullet and went to the unclaimed funds website for Ohio and will be getting my paws on that old savings account that HSBC account. At the time, HSBC had the best interest rate for savings accounts but trying to access the website and getting at the money was pretty much impossible. It is enough so I can get that crown for my tooth, and pay for a plane ticket with a little bit left over. My tax refund and whatever I can save from my paycheck should cover the rest. It is still going to be tough trying not to spend money on stupid stuff.

But I do know that since I am going to be traveling, I am going to need some travel sized toiletries. I have the body wash aspect taken care of since I have plenty of Lush mini bottles. I am not so sure that the lotions would get through security because they are in tubs. There just seems to be tons of work into planning a trip. This will be the third time in my life that I have had to travel by plane. I think I will figure that out closer to my trip but really make sure that anything I might need to order, arrives beforehand.

Outside of making sure I am okay with having enough of my medication, I am wondering on which perfume(s) I want to take with me. I don't want really want to travel with full bottles of perfume, nor do I want to travel with decants. So I am probably going to be traveling with purse sprays. The current ones that I have picked out are BDK Gris Charnel, Infusion d'iris and Clinique Happy. My travel spray of no 5 or Coco Mademoiselle Intense are up for debate. But on to L'Occitane.

A few months ago, I had bought some L'Occitane hand lotions. I do have a liking for small tubes of hand cream. I think they are great for small purses but I especially like to stick them in the fleece coat that I wear to work. Since I work in food service, I wash my hands quite often and that means dried out hands. Since my mother has a strong liking for L'Occitane, I figure I would get a couple tubes to try out. I got the almond one and the lavender one. Since this week's work perfume is Infusion d'iris, I figured that the lavender would play nice. The Sephora lavender plays nice with Infusion d'iris, I gave both a shot. I quickly found out that Infusion d'iris does not play quite so nice with the L'Occitane lavender. Then a night that I was too lazy to reapply perfume, I decided to try the hand lotion by itself. Turns out that I am not a huge fan of the L'Occitane lavender hand lotion for some reason. I just didn't jive with it and I love the Lush Sleepy lotion. I will admit that the L'Occitane lotion absorbs fairly quickly and sticks around for a little while longer but it is must not for me and will give this to my mother.

 

Sol de Janeiro Lotion and Body Wash

The winter storm that was supposed to be bad turned out to be a little more of a joke here in Northeastern Ohio. I was expecting it to be a little more on the horrible side but didn't seem all that bad. I honestly think it was over hyped or it stayed more to the south. What is funny is that the place that I worked closed at 4pm. In all the years I have worked there, there has never been a spontaneous early closing due to weather. Early closings or just not being open on a holiday are planned beforehand. I was a little bummed though, I had my candles all ready to go, my grocery shopping was done and I have a few books to read and a couple movies to watch in case we lost electricity.

 I finally made it through a four day stretch of Cheirosa 62. I was using the matching body products along with it. And there was a small victory to go along with it. I finished a small jar of the Bum Bum cream but have 2 large pots of lotion that I have to get through. But progress is progress when it comes to finishing things. I remember really enjoying the lotion during the summer but didn't use the body wash until this week.

Let's say that I was underwhelmed with the body wash. I found it to be thin, very runny and didn't leave a very clean feeling. What really got me was that there was little to no smell in the body wash. I have used body washes from Bath and Body Works, Chanel and Amouage and all of the body wash have left a scent behind but I didn't notice a smell afterwards. When I applied the lotion, I got the Cheirosa 62 smell that I am familiar with. While I did enjoy how easily the bum bum cream went on and how fast it absorbed, I was not a fan on how dry my skin still seems to  feel, especially since it is winter. When it is summer, I am fine with my skin feeling a little on the dry side. I am, in a way, happy that I only have the travel size of the body wash. But I noticed that even with the Bum Bum cream, the Cheirosa 62 smell doesn't seem to stick around very long. So I am thinking that maybe that Sol de Janeiro isn't quite for me. But I do have to see what the shampoo and conditioner brings before I make a final judgement.

It's the New Year

 Now we are in 2025 and my New Year's Eve and day were pretty much low key. I got off work at 8 last night and let me tell you that New Year's Eve can be busier than Christmas Eve in a grocery store. One would think that in my neck of the woods, Christmas would be the bigger deal but ever since Covid, it seems like New Year's has become the bigger deal than Christmas. But I live in a rural area so I can only comment on what I see here and not in the suburbs. My aunts and uncles said that their grocery stores were packed but mine wasn't too horribly busy on Christmas. Maybe because I work in the bakery that now requires 48 hour notice for any kind of order, maybe people started to get their shit together to plan a little better. So after I got off work, I ate dinner, watched YouTube until about 11:30, watched the ball drop and then went to bed. At the age of 42, I am not game for dealing with drunk people in public in bars or driving. Plus, I don't have the tolerance for booze that I used to.

I managed to get New Year's day off and I just hung around at home. You know that mulled white wine thing that I was going to make? That didn't happen. There was too much chaos and drama in the kitchen with the pork roast and potatoes to make that happen. So the mulled wine is going to have to wait another time. But I was kicking around a few ideas for the new year.

My first idea would be to binge watch Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace and Tales of Yanxi Palace. Both of those shows are now on Amazon Prime so I can watch those in my room instead of watching them on my Kindle Fire. At this point, there isn't much on television right now. The new season on All Creatures Great and Small won't air on PBS until the 12th. Call the Midwife won't be on until spring and Grantchester will probably air sometime in the summer.

My second idea is to make a serious effort on using up my Amouage body products. This idea came about when I applied some Epic body butter. The body butters that I have from Amouage haven't gone off in terms of smell but the consistency of the lotion itself has changed. So I want to use the body butters up before the smell goes off. I didn't notice anything when it came to the Amouage soaps though. Yes, I decided that I wanted to go big or go home for the new year, especially since I wore Clinique Happy for New Year's Eve.

My third idea is to start getting back into playing some of my video games. I am still waiting for my Quake II game to arrive but since I am trying to make a concerted effort to reduce my spending, I want to appreciate what I already have. I want to replace window shopping and shopping itself with other things. I know that I can't entirely avoid shopping, I want to do less of it. I want this to be a year of actual change and not lip service.

Hempz Lotion

 It's rare that I deviate from unscented lotions. With my perfume collection as it is, I don't want my lotion to be scented. I do have scented lotions from Chanel and Amouage but those are not my day to day kind of lotion. I usually use the Cereve lotion but I was running out of that but found a small bottle of the Hempz Age Defying Peptides and Caffine lotion. So in that went to what is left of the Cereve bottle. I like to eek out everything that I can with soaps and lotion.

The first time that I went to use the lotion, I was a little puzzled. I have never tried any of the Hempz products and didn't think that there would be a smell. But there is a smell and I was thrown off by it. The age defying lotion has a musky kind of smell. The smell reminded me of MKK's last hurrah before it leaves my skin for good or the base of Tigress Musk. I will admit that I had to laugh though. Are lotion companies trying to make their suppoesedly unscented things smell more like perfume without being perfume? I have had some lotions that did smell good but the smell faded after about 10 minutes and then I could put on perfume. But the smell to this one just does not fade, there is a lingering musk note. It's a little on the dirty side. I can see myself pairing this with MKK, Tigress Musk or vintage BaV. I am not so sure if it would work so well with Shalimar but will work with any kind of not so clean musk note.

Part of me wants to purchase this again but another part doesn't. I am working on trying to use things up and not buy so much stuff. I still have a ton of Drunk Elephant lotions and soaps that I want to use up and a couple Amouage lotions that I want to use as well. I more of want to have more space in general and a little more money in my bank account at the end of the day.

Something About This Month

There has been something about this month. I haven't been able to sit down and blog about anything. I have a few perfumes that I would like to review but I just can't focus long enough to get it done.

Since I am on a fairly strict budget, there really isn't a whole lot of extra cash laying around. I've had to take some extreme measures on budgeting. I've had to take a real close look at my grocery bill. I've had to cut out a lot of things to make a grocery budget last longer. Gone are most of the snacks. I only get snacks once a month and when they are gone, they are gone. If there is a buy one get one deal, I will take a closer look at it. Especially if it is something from the meat department, then I can freeze that into smaller portions so I cant take out what I need, when I need it.

But since there is no financial wiggle room, I am not able to get my normal face cream and face wash. Skyn Iceland is my go to when we are talking about face care stuff. And since I am out of the face wash and face cream, I have been relying on the gift with purchase Tula probiotic stuff. I am not impressed with the Tula face wash and cream. I find the face wash too drying and the face cream not hydrating enough. I have really dry skin and it's hard to find stuff hydrating enough without being too much. What pisses me off the most is the smell of both of them. They both have this fake rose smell that lingers. Don't get me wrong kids, I like the smell of rose but I am very picky on the smell of body stuff. I do have loads of Chanel and Amouage body products and I knew what they smelled like. That's why I got them but I don't want too many smells when it comes to my day to day soaps and lotions. I switch my perfumes quite often and I don't need some lingering smells from my soap and lotion.

The upside is that I still managed to hold fast and not buy anything from the Sephora spring sale. I wasn't mad about it when I first decided to give it a miss and still not mad about it. I know that there will be the fall sale and other deals coming but buying anything from Sephora or even Ulta isn't in the cards for me. Redeeming my free product from Bath and Body Works is going to have to wait as well. I still have tons of candles that I am trying to use and I have a couple of months before I use the reward.
 

Pleasures Body Lotion and Amouage Honour Bath and Body Stuff

 While I was on vacation a couple weeks ago, I kept meaning to post something but never seemed to come up with anything. If I did think of something, I forgot, then time really got away from me and now we are at the end of the month. And I don't really talk too much about perfumed bath stuff. I managed in the past couple weeks to start using Estee Lauder Pleasures body lotion and Amouage Honour soap and body butter.

I don't really get into bath soaps and lotions too much any more. In high school and when I went to college, I loved body washes and lotions. When I fell in love with something at Bath and Body Works, I had to have the matching body wash, lotion and mist. Back in the late 90's and early 00's, Bath and Body Works was cheap and cheap was my budget. 

Since my perfume collection has grown, my bath collection didn't. Most of my perfumes don't have bath and body lines, so regular soap and unscented lotion will have to do. Chanel, Clinique, Estee Lauder and Amouage are the only ones that have a full bath and body line. Truth be told, that suits me just fine. I don't really need tons of bath stuff since I am trying to use things up and get rid of things.

When I was testing the Pleasures body lotion, I wasn't expecting to be impressed with it. Until I was impressed with the body lotion. I was expecting it to be either not moisturizing enough or too heavy. I was also expecting it to be either overwhelming with perfume or bear no resemblance to Pleasures. It was the right amount of perfume and moisturizing enough without being too heavy. I have dry skin with really scaly elbows and my elbows need all the help they can get. When you spend almost sixty dollars on a lotion, my expectations are a little higher than what I would spend at a grocery store for some lotion.

It took me forever to finally open and use the Amouage Honour woman bath stuff but I finally did. I can never make up my mind on if I like or love Honour woman. Honour woman can be equal points of love and annoyance for me. Honour woman was the last Amouage that I really paid attention to. I didn't pay too much attention to Beloved. I think that was when Amouage was really starting to release tons of things at once and it got to be too much for me.

Amouage packaging has always been on the decadent side but Amouage is a house that knows that if someone is going to spend the money, the details of everything matter. When I opened the bar soap, it was the engravings on the soap that really wowed me, just that little detail amazed me. Yes, the little decorations will wash away but it is still awesome. The bar soap didn't really lather up too well but I have the same issue with my Epic bar soap. The body butter was mostly decadent but in terms of moisturizing properties, it wasn't moisturizing enough for me. It definitely smelled like Honour but I found the smell to be a little too dense.

What I have noticed is that it is harder and harder to find Amouage bath and body stuff. I am having a harder and harder time trying to find Epic, Lyric and Memoir in bath and body stuff. I think even Amouage might be having problems too getting  supplies in to make these things. I am running pretty low on Lyric and Memoir bath and body things. I'm hoping that I can start replenishing my stock soon enough.

More Body Stuff to Review

 Clinique Happy is a throwback perfume for me. Happy came on to the market my sophomore year of high school (I know that I am dating myself). A few girls, along with myself did wear Happy but it seems like we seemed to stick with Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon. Working at minimum wage job for only 15-20 hours a week isn't a ton of cash and affording something a little more expensive than Bath and Body Works at the time was a luxury. When I was younger, and in high school, I did spend quite a bit at Bath and Body Works.

I don't ever recall trying out Happy's matching soaps and lotions but I now have had the opportunity to try out the gelato body cream. The body cream felt rich and decadent when I put it on after my shower and I really did enjoy the feeling while applying but I did notice about an hour in, the body cream doesn't seem to be enough for my dry skin. It might be leaving my skin feeling a little softer but not exactly moisturized. It might be due to the fact that it's almost 90F outside and pretty dry outside. This is where I think that I  have gotten a little too used to Chanel and Amouage body products. The Happy gelato cream does smell like Happy but there isn't a ton of scent to the cream. With Chanel and Amouage products, I don't really need to apply the perfume on top of the body products. This is probably a shrewd move on Clinique's part to get people to buy more but I'm not going to grudge them on that. I find the lotions to be nice enough but it doesn't really suit my needs in terms of lotion.

It's a rarity for me for me to use one of those pore strip things. I've never had problems with pimples, acne or blackheads. Once in a while I do use the pore strips when the sides of my nose look a little clogged up. The original pore strips got some of the crap out and I wanted to see if the charcoal pore strips would work any better. This turned out to be a bit fat no. The only thing that I noticed is that it was just easier to see what kind of crud came out of my nose than anything else. Do the Biore pore strips really work? Can't really say for others but for me, they don't really work all that great.

I just seem to be striking out with a lot of things come lately and all that I am hoping for is that we actually do get rain tomorrow even if it's in the form of thunderstorms.

Chanel No 5 Bath and Body Stuff

I decided to give the Chanel no 5 bath and body products a go on Friday. For quite a few years, Ii have been hesitant to give them a go. Years before I was a perfume fiend, I had put on a tester of no 5 hand lotion. It was Christmas time and I was shopping and didn't have any hand lotion in my purse. I thought at the time that maybe the tester might have gone rancid.

The bar soap did it's job with cleaning and the lotion did the moisturizing but I wasn't happy. I was so excited to try this things but felt let down. My first indicator was the bar soap itself didn't really smell like no 5. It smelled like a generic perfumey soap but I decided to carry on and hope that the body lotion would be better. The body lotion didn't smell rancid but didn't smell a whole lot like no 5 and I wondered if that Chanel expected me to spray on some no 5 as well. The body lotion and soap are strong enough on their own that spraying or dabbing perfume really is overkill. I wasn't very impressed with the smell. It smelled reformulated, just like the mini travel EDP set that I had gotten in January. At this point, I am thinking that Chanel no 5 really is too far gone to have a permanent place in my collection. I haven't tried the current version of the EDT or extrait but after smelling the current version of the EDP and using the body products and owning a little bit of the current EDP, I have lost way too much faith in Chanel. I didn't get these from a store I never heard of but the lotion came from Sephora when they had their sale and the body soap came from the Chanel website.