Guerlain Habit Rouge Vintage EDC Review

There was a bit of good news today. I had my post op appointment today and managed to get the drain removed. The doctor did note that my skin was becoming irritated with the surgical tape and there was some irritation around the drain site. But she said all that would heal up because she is removing the drain. Now I can get in and out of chairs and my bed without discomfort. I still need to take it easy. I asked if I can go back to work with restrictions and it looks like I can start doing that. I just can't afford to stay out of work too long. Some paperwork was goofed up with corporate and I won't get the sick leave pay for a while due to the holiday and all. Now I can start getting more thorough showers now that my incisions are mostly healed up.

Since my surgery, I haven't exactly wanted to wear some of my old favorites like Lyric. I don't want any kind of associations of pain when wearing Lyric. So I have been wearing tons of Chanel no 5 and Infusion d'Iris. Both of those are a little more soothing and have bottles upon bottles of both of those.

Since I was starting to get a little bored with Infusion d'Iris and Chanel no 5, I wanted to test out something new. Tom Ford's Black Orchid was a bust and this time, I went with Guerlain Habit Rouge in vintage EDC form. I was poking around STC and somehow ended up browsing vintage stuff and stumbled upon the vintage version of Habit Rouge. So naturally, it went into my shopping cart and went back to browsing STC. I mainly was on STC to get a small decant of Rose de Nuit. Did you know that Habit Rouge comes in parfum form? I didn't and had to throw a decant of that in my shopping cart as well. With those 3 decants, I hurriedly checked out before I started to add more to my shopping cart. I was finally able to finish off the last tiny bit of the STC gift card that Portia from the Perfume Posse sent me when I won some sort of give away.

So I was needing a break from my normal stuff and took a little bit of a chance and sprayed on the vintage Habit Rouge. I had remembered the lemon, dusting powder and a halfway decent staying power. I had a hard time with the lemon then but I have always had a hard time with citrus. The biggest thing that I noticed was there was oakmoss. Actual honest to goodness oakmoss. Nothing made today with actual oakmoss, just some kind of moss variant. While I was loving the oakmoss, I was quite loving the lemon and the dusting powder note. Like I have already said, I always had a hard time with citrus, especially if it is sharp or has a powdery element to it. Habit Rouge combined both of it. Besides the oakmoss, what kept me fulling hating this was the leather. I do love leather in perfume, while most of the time I prefer a plush leather, this is more of a butch leather. I didn't fully realize how well oakmoss proper plays well with leather.
 

Demeter Elvira's Vamp

I couldn't decide on which perfume to wear for my bedtime scent and that is when I knew that it was time to try something new. I have a fairly large decant of Demeter Elvira's Vamp.

In a way, I was hoping for something in terms of skank but there was nothing that I smelled that suggested anything skanky. All I got was something that smelled like a tuberose that was loaded with table sugar and the barest hints of vanilla. When I looked at the notes listed, there is nothing that lists tuberose and I don't have any kind of experience with smelling belladonna and that is what I could be smelling. When I think of the word vamp, I think more of the lines of a sensual person not some cheesy Halloween type of deal. The lasting power is about 5 hours. Even though the decant was cheap enough, I did not need to get a huge decant and into the ignored pile it will languish.

I don't like to do really short reviews but I really didn't like Vamp and it's borderline hate for me. I might have tried one other Demeter and wasn't wild about it either.

Faberge Tigress Musk Cologne Review

I've been sitting at my computer for the past few days trying to get my act together to write this post. I keep staring at the screen, trying to start and just not finding the right words. Then I end up on Facebook, playing Farmville 2 for hours on end.

At this point in the game, I am a little fearful of trying new perfumes. Especially vintage. It's always the same old song and dance right now. What if I love it and I find out that it's way out of budget? That bottle of Ubar was one out of the two full bottles that I can get this year. It's been a pretty rocky couple years and the good thing is that it is making me use what I already have.

But I have come to realize that I few decants that I haven't worn, let alone reviewed yet are evaporating I now is the time where I need to get a move on. I noticed that my Faberge Tigress Musk cologne was really starting to evaporate. So it came time to sample.

All I can say is wow, the clouds parted and the angels started singing for me. What I can best come up with is a sluttier, louder version of Rose de Nuit. Rose de Nuit is pretty slutty but Tigress Musk takes that to a whole new level. MKK and vintage BaV can't even touch it on the skank-meter, it's that skanky. I love skanky perfumes and Tigress Musk is no different. I do find some nods to Nahema but I don't see a whole lot of similarities but I think that Rose de Nuit got together with Nahema and this was the result. But after a while, I kept asking myself where the hell have I smelled this before? Then I think that my aunt might have worn this one before it was discontinued. I can't be sure. Tigress Musk is no skin scent, but it's not bombastic either, nor is it crass or rough around the edges. It's sleek like a cat and almost has a velvet feel if it were cloth. Lasting power for me is about 5 hours and that's pretty good for a cologne. I might have to keep a look out on E-bay to see if one pops up for a song. Yes, it is worth a try.

Jo Malone English Pear and Freesia Review

Over the years, I've heard a lot about Jo Malone and the perfumes. I have always kept meaning to try one of her perfumes since what ever was in the line up didn't really excite me. I had figured that I would try at least one. After thumbing through the unworn pile, I found the only Jo Malone that exists in the pile. It was English Pear and Freesia with only one and a half wearings, so I had to wear it before the decant entirely evaporated. Unfortunately, this review with be short and disjointed due to the fact that I don't have anymore to test on skin or paper, so I'm going off on what I remember.

First blast was the freesia and maybe some hints of pear. I was intrigued with the pear and wished it was a little more dominant because the freesia was a little too aquatic for my liking. After spending a couple more hours wearing English Pear and Freesia, the patchouli and musk came out. The musk was one of those clean musks. I don't have a problem with musk in general, but the musk kind of bugged me with the way it played with the patchouli. I'm not a fan of patchouli, there is something about it that just bugs me. The patchouli stood out and just didn't go with the rest of the composition. But before the musk and patchouli, I kept thinking about what English Pear and Freesia smelled like and what it reminded me of and then I figured out what. Amouage Reflection for women. For a while, I tried to like both but failed. Aquatic, weak and generally annoying to me. So after spending 6 hours wearing on one day of testing and four hours of testing, this isn't for me, even though the lasting power is impressive for an EDC.

Miss Dior Vintage EDC Review

For some odd reason, I have a few bottles of vintage Miss Dior waiting to be worn and reviewed. Now is the perfect time to be reviewing it. On one bottle I scored a pretty awesome deal for the version of Miss Dior. Got the vintage version of Miss Dior EDC and vintage Diorissimo along with it. Both in box and sealed. On both of the hounds tooth boxes, there is no bar code and the price tag says $6.50. That is how vintage my bottles are. They were made back in the day where perfume was a very expensive luxury and most didn't buy perfume let alone wear it. So the lucky few that were not millionaires, had only one bottle of perfume and wore it sparingly. I think that after WWII, when this was released, $6.50 on a bottle of perfume took a healthy chunk out of what most make in a week. Now, times have changed and perfume has become more affordable.

Now, onto Miss Dior. In the beginning of my perfume journey, I did have a bit of a hard time with chypres. I couldn't really understand them, let alone enjoy them but I was intrigued by them. Then Deneuve and Diorling came along and then I understood. It was the chypre structure that I really loved and learned to really love oakmoss. The beginning of Miss Dior is a little tough and I am thinking that it's because of the aldehydes are either too harsh for Miss Dior or they are starting to go off. Then the galbanum and jasmine come in with the oakmoss comes through. I smell the other notes but can't pick out what they are. What did surprise me is that there is a animalic note that hits right about 15 minutes into wearing. I do love a skank note in perfume but not quite sure if this example is something I like. A few more wearings will tell. I really liked that this was a vintage version of an EDC because I get at least 5 hours of wear on skin. With any modern EDC, I am lucky if I get an hour or two of wear. I do think that I might get another bottle of vintage to make sure I am stocked up a little bit.