Amazon Prime Day 2025

Since we have gotten through another Amazon Prime Day, I have some thoughts on Amazon. Amazon used to be a website that used to sell only books way back in the day when online shopping really wasn't much of a thing. So I have been shopping from Amazon for quite a while. Eventually, Amazon became this huge thing.and I became Prime member. Back in the day, I would have to wait the better part of a week before I got my books and it was the shipping cost was atrocious but as online shopping evolved, so did Amazon.

For quite a while, I was a Prime member off and on but for the past couple years, I have stuck with Amazon Prime. With how much Prime shows I watch and how much my dad likes the 2 day shipping, it's worth it. But for the past couple Prime Days, I haven't been too interested. This year, I did spend a little bit but not much. I ordered a 4 pack of spearmint tooth paste, 2 bottles of hair and nail vitamins and a video game for my dad to give on his birthday. Do you know how hard it is to find spearmint toothpaste? It is pretty difficult. When I got my package, the game and toothpaste were correct but what I got instead of the vitamins that I ordered, I got Poo Pourri. That is nowhere near what I ordered. I chatted with Amazon and wondered how vitamins and the Poo Pourri were similar. I got a refund via an Amazon gift card and I didn't have to return the wrong item. I can use the Poo Pourri as a gag gift. I did have to download a couple songs that I was thinking of getting.

But last week, I did get some things accomplished. I went through all of my clothes and got rid of what I didn't want and organized the rest of it. Do you k ow how hard it was just to even get started on just my closet? It was rough. It was a grand total of three and a half black trash bags of clothes for donation. I wasn't quite so willing to go through my makeup and perfume to see what can be either donated or possibly sold. I did find a place that will accept the candles that I do not want but I do have to sit down and really think about what needs to go and what stays.

 

Moving Shit Around

 I don't know who knows, but I have a grandmother who has dementia. On Wednesday, we had to start moving some things into her new room at her new memory care unit. The skilled nursing place wasn't really taking care of her. Thursday was the day when she moved in as well with more belongings. 

At this point, I am livid. What was sprung on me is that I had to give up my tall dresser. Then I had to take apart my smaller dresser because I am supposed to get new dressers. If I wanted new bedroom furniture, I would have said so and got it. Does anyone know what it is like trying to move heavy furniture that you still want to hang on to and use? I don't think my mother quite understands the amount of time and brute strength it takes to move large, heavy pieces of furniture up and down flights of stairs.

Since I am functioning with two little nightstands that are covered with candles. I managed to do a little shuffling (used up) and crated a tiny space for 5 bottles of perfume that I did manage to liberate. Yeah, with how everything is, I can't get to 99% of my collection. I have Ubar, Lyric, Mitsouko, Courtesan and a bottle of Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon. It's probably the oddest lineup that I have ever created.

Since I am dresser-less, I have to start going through the trash bags of clothes and figure out what I want to keep, throw out or donate. But that is going to have to wait right this second, I have a few other things that I need to take care of. What kind of sucks, besides having things being all over the place, it lack of access. I don't have the access to most of my perfume collection, I do have access but how motivated am I to move tons of things out of the way to get to what I am looking for. I don't like the fact that I don't have the space to burn candles safely. I'm not willing to risk setting the house on fire because one of the dogs knocked over a candle by either wagging their tail or roughhousing. 

Let's hope that I can find another perfume to add to that odd collection. I don't think my coworkers would appreciate Ubar or Mitsouko. I am not sure my parents would appreciate that either now that it's going to stay warm.

Found the Bottle

 Remember last week, I was shuffling around some perfume bottles and doing some dusting? Well, I shuffled around some more stuff and was actually able to find my bottle of Nasomatto Nuda and that was after I had to throw out a few dabber minis and a couple bottles that evaporated.

The couple bottles/minis that evaporated were no big loss to me, they were cheap as cheap could get. I didn't get them for free but insanely dirt cheap. Sometimes I do have to wonder about bottle designs. My bottle of the original Lolita Lempicka has evaporated to where only 1/4 of the perfume remains. The ones that were empty and thrown out due to evaporation were kind of strangely shaped as well. So I am thinking that the designers are not thinking things through with the bottles and spray mechanisms. For crying out loud, I don't want to pitch perfume bottles due to the perfume evaporating, I want the perfume to actually be used up and then throw the bottle away. This is probably the biggest issue when there is a large collection.

But while I was shuffling some stuff around, I had found my bottle of Jubilation 25 and naturally had to pull that one out and wear it. I think that I am head over heels in love with Jubilation 25. But with the current issues with Amouage, I hope that I am not so head over heels in love, I can let it go when I finish the bottle and that is if I actually finish the bottle first.

Dusting and Reshuffling

After my doctor's appointment yesterday, I got kind of bored and wasn't able to focus on too much. The news at my doctor's appointment was good and that I can learn how to drive.

Having epilepsy isn't always that fun. I have spent one too many years trying all different medications until we found one that worked and the right dosage. Since I have been under control for a while, I can now learn how to drive and to me that means freedom. The state of Ohio has certain requirements when it comes to epilepsy and driving. I must be seizure free for at least 6 months and must get a doctor's release. The doctor's release means that I can be counted on complying with my treatment plan. So I won't be so dependent on someone else taking me places and I won't be wasting money on shipping fees for things that I need and don't have a ride for the store.

But after yesterday's doctor's appointment, I was a little bored and couldn't focus on too much. There was nothing on TV that was catching my interest and wasn't game for a movie.I took a look at my room and was bothered by the dust on my dressers. I have to idea how my house gets so dusty but it does. My bedroom was the only thing that really needed to be dusted. All that dust was a little grosser than I thought. The smallest swipe was a bunch of dust that I couldn't see and it seemed thicker that I thought. But by moving stuff around and cleaning it up, that meant that I could reorganize things to where it made the most sense. That meant that I had a little more room and it allowed me to really plan the order that I wanted to burn my candles. 

When you have around 50 plus candles, space becomes limited. My 3 wick candles have taken up the most space and I need to lay off the 3 wicks and probably need to focus more on the single wick candles. That means it will be easier on my wallet if I mostly go the single wick route instead of the 3 wick route. This won't mean that I won't be buying 3 wicks, I will be buying less of them. I am curbing that candle and perfume buying in general. With prices going up on everything and I mean, everything. Yes, I still want that bottle of Gris Charnel but I can't go and get it since I am getting that Afterpay balance down.
 

Clearing Out the Old

I spent a little bit of time on Sunday going through and getting rid of my make up and finished the job today. You have no idea on how much I threw out. It was tons of eye shadows and lots of scary looking lip gloss. I am in a serious de-cluttering mode. I just want to either use things up or just throw them out.

When I was going through everything, I didn't quite realize how many Kat von D eye shadow palettes that I had. What in the world was I thinking? Getting those palettes full of shimmer and phenomenally strong colors. Medium or dark purple? I don't have wicked mad makeup skills to work with anything outside of neutrals that are pretty close to my skin tone. I'm pretty basic with eye shadow and the two palettes that I use are the original Urban Decay Naked palettes., especially the mini palettes.

Yes, I threw out a bunch of lip gloss too. Just like all of the eye shadow that I threw out, the lip glosses were pretty ancient as well. Like 7 years old or older and were really looking sketchy. And I realized that lip gloss isn't my thing anymore but lipstick. But what has amazed me was the amount of lipstick that I have bought in the past 6 months and I hung on to those. I am seriously going to have to start wearing lipstick again.

Since I have seemed to have doubled down on the de-cluttering, I've doubled down on trying to use up one bottle of Chanel no 5 edt and one bottle of no 5 edp.  My collection of no 5 is truly horrifying and just want to slim that down a little bit. But I seem to be talking out my butt a little bit when I am waiting for the Sephora sale to start in a little over a week. My mother asked me to add a lipstick that she wants to my back and I have a cheap brush set and another travel spray added to my cart. But I want to start using up my make up. Now if I could really quit getting so many candles, I'd be in better shape.
 

Trying to Create More Space

 I have made some marginal progress in creating more space. Today, I am going to be finishing a 3 wick candle then start a single wick candle. It fills me up with joy when I do finish a candle because it creates a little more space. The candles that I am going to be focusing on a little more is the straight up apple candles. Why? Because that seems to be the bulk of my collection and I don't think that I really need to have that many. I did the math and Honeycrisp/Heirloom/Farmstand Apple take up around 40% of my collection and that is pretty sad. 

Bath and Body Works emailed my to let me know that they are doing a BOGO on their 3 wick candles. When I did the math, it was not better than the deal that they had, what a month ago? I am waiting for the Candle Day sale to snap up the Frozen Lake, Winter and Evergreen candles. Some of them will be for Christmas gifts. So at this point, I am saving up some cash to get some gift cards for that. Then I know some cash has really been set aside for that. So I am sitting this sale out and besides, I am not a big pumpkin fan to begin with. What I dislike about fall is everyone seems to lose their mind over pumpkin spice or anything related to pumpkin. As much as I love apple stuff, even that can get aggrivating after a while.

I am on vacation this week and I am overjoyed to be able to wear whichever perfume I want and hopefully finish off a mini or two, or maybe a full bottle or start to review some stuff. But I am expecting some storms tonight and tomorrow and hoping the power doesn't go out. If it does, I will probably have two candles going and probably have two more candles out of the way.

The Things We Carry

I was cleaning out my purse today and getting some stuff ready for an appointment for tomorrow. I carry a smaller purse in hopes that I wouldn't accumulate so much in my purse. But I still accumulate stuff in my purse but my purse fills up faster, making organizing a must every 2 weeks.

It was amazing what I found in my purse. A whole bunch of lip balms, lipsticks and hard candy along with hand lotion and my wallet but not one tiny decant of perfume. I couldn't help but think, how did I accumulate so many lipsticks and lip balms in my purse? Naturally, I had to think about what I really needed to carry in my purse besides my cellphone and wallet. I chose one lip balm, the tube of mascara and one lipstick.The hand lotion was a given but I didn't need a million lip balms and lipsticks in my purse. I picked out two small decants for the road tomorrow, Miss Dior Original and Amouage Beloved for women. I won't be wearing perfume to my appointment tomorrow, I need to focus on other things, not my perfume. When my appointment is finished, I can spray all I want.

I have never been a makeup fiend and don't have a ton of it. I figure that all I really need for my makeup is mascara, lip balm and a lipstick or lip gloss. I leave the eyeshadow and other make up things at home. I don't need an eyeshadow pallet nor do I need a primer or eyeliner. I just don't have the space for that in my purse. If I need to put on makeup in a hurry, the mascara and lipstick will do. I normally carry perfume in my purse about 97% of the time but this recent cleaning didn't turn up and decants in my purse. I did put a few but not many hard candies in my purse.

First World Perfume Problems

I have been going on and on about the whole cleaning out stuff and furniture but I do have two extra dressers and a nightstand. New dressers and a nightstand were needed, the ones that I had were small in so many ways. Since they were not that tall, it was easier for my dogs to go and knock things over. I had lost a few perfumes over that past few years with the dogs looking to see if there was anything interesting to swipe.

Now the guest bedroom is in chaos with so many of my clothes just piled up and there are other things all over the place. That means that I don't have access to at least 98% of my perfume collection. The only ones that I have access to already sit on my new dresser. A full bottle of vintage Jicky and Mitsouko, Kyoto, Noontide Petals and Chanel no 5 EDT. I am happy that I was able to swipe a mini of L'Air du Desert Morocain and all of my Andy Tauer samples and a decant of vintage BaV. Everything else is in cardboard boxes in a corner of the guest bedroom where I cannot get to it yet. So in a way, I am incredibly limited on what I really have available to me perfume wise. In a way it's hard because my perfume collection is there but right there, in s spot that I can't get to it. At least not yet. Today is not the day where I try to liberate my collection because I have something at least in the world of perfume but it's not going to be what I want. I want my bottle of Cuir de Russie, my decant of Coromandel, etc. I think that I will tackle this problem on Saturday and hopefully, I will have space for my Galileo thermometer collection too.

Cleaning and Rearranging Stuff

For the past few weeks, it's been an effort to clean and rearrange shit in my house. For every project that I complete, I realize how much shit I actually own.

Today was the day that I "had" to turn my attention to my dresser. The project of the day was placing my old dresser somewhere else and replacing it with another, bigger dresser. Other people in my household wanted to do that. And that meant that I had to pack up my entire perfume collection. When I was packing up my perfume, I didn't count how many bottles that I had but became more aware of the sheer number of back up bottles that I did have. When I was packing up, I was more concerned about the dabber bottles that were opened and making sure that they were didn't get tipped over in the box.

The dresser that I moved into my room is taller, has more drawers to it. In went a million shirts, shorts and jeans. Putting all of my full bottles on top of the dresser isn't practical because of the height but I was able to place all my candles and some of my Galileo thermometers on top of the dresser. This means that I have three boxes full of perfume bottles split up into two places and no clear solution to get them back into one spot yet. As this was going on, this was the perfect time to get rid of more clothes that I didn't need or was worn out.

But some interesting things did happen while this was going down. I did manage to finish a full bottle of vintage BaV. Yes, I actually finished a bottle of perfume and I was so excited to do that. But with the dresser switch, a bottle of vintage(ish) of Chanel no 19(EDP, 1.2 ounce) was found and I forgot that I had more no 19. For the better part of an hour, I was wondering when I had bought the bottle and how in the hell did it get behind the dresser. I think that it might have either gotten knocked behind the dresser or  just randomly fell back there. I thought I was actually starting to make headway into finishing bottles of perfume but it looks like I didn't make progress at all.

A few hours later, I did a rough count of all my full bottles. I counted 95ish but I am sure that number is wrong and much higher. I didn't count my minis because I don't view them as full bottles but did count all of my back up bottles. Ninety-Five full bottles is a little embarrassing but kind of funny and I didn't think that I was up to about that number. I knew my collection was big but not that big.

Lost and Found

Decants are funny things. It's funny when they just seem to keep multiplying without even slowing down and sooner or later, they are everywhere. I kind of have a system of keeping track. What I have worn and reviewed, I keep in a medium sized makeup bag. The ones that I have not worn and reviewed are kept in another makeup bag. I am quickly outgrowing those bags and have bought another that I am about to start filling. But I am finding it difficult to actually just get started on that needs to be worn and reviewed bag. My biggest problem in procrastination, as much as I love perfume, I just procrastinate on trying new stuff and review it. I think that I should start a system of once a week of trying one perfume and then review it. Let's see how long that will last.

Last weekend, I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out my closet and bedroom. As it always happens, things get moved around but I always know where things have been placed. The worn and reviewed bag was moved to a second nightstand and for some reason, something was placed on top of it and something was placed in front of it. When I was getting ready to go to work, I could not find the bag. I couldn't find the stupid bag to grab a decant to slip into my work cardigan to spray my wrists before work. I was lucky in the moment because there were some decants that I've already worn and reviewed that were work safe scents. But I did actually manage to find the stupid thing and not look through the garbage after work.

Now it actually feels like fall and I am really pulling out my fall scents. You know what that means? I can haul out my Amouage offerings and really start wearing them. Once in a while, I do like to wear Lyric or Epic in the summer but they work better in colder months.

Family and Visiting

It's always the same song and dance that seems to happen everywhere. Out of town family members some for a visit. In January/February, I was pretty excited. Earlier this month, I was excited but now, not so much.

I have two Labs and my dogs shed. Tufts of hair everywhere, dirt from their paws are everywhere. My house has never been spotless and pretty cluttered. My house is still sanitary but my sister is the type that will be judging. She knows that the house is cluttered and I have dogs. I figure that I will have some deep cleaning to do before she and my nephews need to be picked up from the airport. Mind you, I'm not going overboard, the bathrooms will get a good cleaning as opposed to a surface clean, make sure that everything is vacuumed and mopped and I have something set up in the guest bed for sleeping. Somehow I must manage this before Tuesday between work and watching Call the Midwife on Sunday. I'm not amused with what needs to be done but I do have a game plan on how to tackle the cleaning.

Along with the cleaning is making sure the house is somewhat stocked with snacks. My nephews are in grade school and probably are growing out of that fruit snack phase and wondering on what to do for snacks. It's just a lot of confusion and I am going to wait and see with this stuff.

Feeling like a little bit of a freak

A couple years ago, I had downgraded from carrying a messenger bag/large purse due to the fact that I had started to accumulate too much stuff in there. I've lost count of how many times I had found broken decants,full bottles, and minis. Then I downgraded to a medium sized bag because one would think that I would get nervous with the sound of clinking glass coming from my purse. Turns out, I found Tocca Giulietta, a vintage no. 22 along with the current version of no. 22, and somehow, found my no. 19 extract unopened and in the box and wondered how it got there.

The reason that I feel like a freak is that I found a couple other things that I forgot that I had. I've mostly stopped wearing makeup because the only thing that take 30 seconds to apply is lipstick and once I decided on a perfume, it takes me a split second to apply it. I feel a little freakish because I cannot bear the thought of leaving the house, even to go to the grocery store, without perfume. I know that at the grocery store I shop at, there is a moderately large perfume counter. Not exactly what you would see at the mall, but for a grocery store, it's huge. Shalimar EDC, Estee Lauder Pleasures are just an example of what is sold. Yeah, they have testers but I'm not interested in trying out celebrity perfumes nor am I willing to test out Madonna's Truth or Dare. Tuberose and I don't exactly get along.

In the end, I do come down to the what if something happens to the house (fire, maybe)? Quite a bit of my collection is expensive and can be replaced but I still want to smell good.