Well, That was a Bust

A few days ago, I turned 44. It seemed like it was just not a good birthday no matter how you wanted to hash it. Family pretty much forgot it was my birthday and seemed to gone on their merry way with whatever they had planned and it seemed to be kind of late in the day before anyone actually remembered. The older I get, the less I want to go out to eat or just out in general. People started to get pushy when I said no on going out to eat. It was a big mess and nothing happens. So it was a bust.

But here is where the second bust was, I was poking around Luckyscent and looking at the sales. I had noticed that Number One Intense was on sale. Even though it was a one ounce bottle for $70, it was better than $115. I put it in my shopping cart but I see that it is now sold out and should have just got it when I had the chance, even though I already have two bottles. Maybe I will get the chance next year or when Christmas rolls around.

I did try to snag a bottle of Worth Courtesan on fragrance net and that didn't pan out either. You know what I did snag? A one ounce bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her in the black bottle. It just seems like I am striking out on a few things right  now. I just wants some things to start going right.

Vacation Time

 

I could and probably should make some kind of review posts but haven't felt up to it. But it's time for another vacation and that means another vacation post.

Since I have taken a big vacation in July, I don't have the cash for another trip. I drained what was left of my savings account and paid some bills with that money. I didn't pay off anything, but I wanted to set myself ahead in one way or another, even if it was a little bit. I was not going to let Chase charge me a $5 monthly fee to have a savings account. In the fine print, they said if the balance for a savings is under $300, it would be a $5 fee. So I said, to hell with it, let's get a little farther with paying down some stuff with at least Afterpay.

So I do have a little fun money to do some fun things this week. On Wednesday, I am going to a Rob Zombie concert. He is performing with Marilyn Manson, The Hu and Orgy. I am not so interested in Marilyn Manson or Orgy, I will tolerate them. But after Rob Zombie, I want to see The Hu. Who would have thought that heavy metal would work so beautifully with Mongolian throat singing. But since we are coming up on Labor Day, that means my county fair will be going on. So my parents and I are going to pick a day and go to it. I just have to pick a day to go and figure out my budget. I have never been someone who bought whatever craft things that tons of people are selling, I am making a food budget. I am thinking that $25-$30 should be more than enough for way

I did find something that I am going to binge watch though. You know how Granchester ended this year? I am going to work on binge watching that. I couldn't quite get into Granchester until season 5 or 6, so I am going to watch from the very beginning. 

But before I really do anything, I have to get that pesky doctor's appointment and dentist appointment out of the way, along with a Costco run. I am thinking of adding in some video gaming in as well and wearing perfumes that I don't get to do all that often.

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu

Chanel is coming out with a new flanker and I am not so sure what to think about it. As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of flankers. Once in a while, the flankers can be just as good, if not better than the original. Let's take Shalimar, for example. Back when I was new to being a perfume nerd, Guerlain did back to back Shalimar flankers. The two Ode a la Vanille and Parfum Initial. I did sample both the Ode a la Vanilles but was only able to procure the Mexican and not Madagascar one, even though I preferred the Madagascar. Now both the Ode a la Vanille versions have long been discontinued and kicking myself for not trying a little harder to find a bottle of the Madagascar one. I was a little late to the Initial and by that time that was discontinued but I think they did bring that back with another name. Eventually, I will get a bottle of the Initial but that isn't high on the list of priorities since I don't have fuck you money to spend.

Another person that has jumped on the bandwagon, at least a little bit is Andy Tauer. He's just recently came out with L'Air du Desert Morccain Noir. And I was a little surprised but a little excited to try it. I have a sample and still haven't managed to really give it a go and this is a flanker of a flanker. And I honestly should get moving on that. But that is not what I am talking about right now. I am talking about Chanel coming out with another flanker.

This flanker's name is Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu. Chanel has made flankers for no 5 and for no 19 and I ended up liking only Eau Premiere. Now they are really starting to do all kinds of flankers for Coco Mademoiselle. I did rea!My like the intense version and nabbed a bottle when Sephora was having a sale. I haven't even tested the lighter version of Mademoiselle. When you don't drive and live in a rural area, sniffing new releases isn't a thing. So far, Sephora just has it on their website but not up for sale just yet. From what I am seeing thus far on Fragrantica, I keep seeing people saying that it reminds them of Prada Paradox but there seem to be a lot of mixed reviews.

What makes me hesitant about even trying to find a sample and giving it a go, is that I am still salty about Chanel making the extrait version of no 5 way out of my price range. There was a time where I was thinking of getting the extrait of Coco Mademoiselle but didn't get the chance to nab a bottle before they took the smaller bottles of extrait off the market. I should have stocked up when I had the chance.

That is Strange

 

Well, party time with finances has come to an end for the next month. I have done some damage to my bank account with Afterpay and now, I have to seriously take some stock. Afterpay reintroduced the nothing down and I stupidly started to take advantage of it. Right now, things have started to come in and have to really budget for the next two, maybe three weeks. I would rather not use up the last of my savings to pay Afterpay. I haven't added anything new to Klarna, Zip or Affirm and that is probably a good thing. I don't have any payments on Klarna that are coming up until September and my Affirm payments are technically not this paycheck but the next but I don't want to pay both Affirm and Afterpay in the same week, it is just not going to work. I know that I can manage the next two or three weeks to begin to really get myself back on track with my finances. But it is still hard to make changes, especially when the executive dysfunction decides it is going to be a bigger brat and when the depression starts to creep in, it can be a recipe for disaster. The one thing that is making me somewhat happy is that Ulta has a huge multiplier promo going. Ten points for every dollar spent. I had a $30 gift card and I managed to only go over by 15 cents. That is a little bit of progress. I have gotten a brush and sponge cleaner (my brushes and makeup sponges are pretty dirty), a face wash and some cotton rounds. I couldn't justify another lipstick, and eye shadow. Perfume was really out of the question and I am banking the $182 in rewards. I want to get up to $250 in rewards and have a blowout perfume run at the end of the year.

 What is funny in terms of perfume is that my mother has started to have a liking for the long discontinued Deneuve. I wore it a few days ago without any regard for anyone else. I haven't worn Deneuve in a long time. On my work days, I am working on using up my bottle of Cheirosa 62 and travel sprays of Infusion d'iris and BDK Gris Charnel. I am getting a little bit fixated of the vintage version of Bal a Versailles and I haven't worn that in forever. It's just so many that I haven't worm in forever and trying to start wearing again. But back to Deneuve. Deneuve has made my mother nauseous and I couldn't wear it. When I pulled it out and started to wear it again, my mother has really started to like Deneuve and I find it funny. My mother has never much cared for Deneuve but now she does. But for the longest time, she has worn Light Blue and a few other Dolce and Gabanna offerings and still wears a lot of it. But right now, she has branched out into wearing Flowerbomb. She enjoyed it so much, she went to Fragancenet for a bottle. But my mother still hates Coromandel, Mitsouko and a couple others. She says that they make her queasy, too strong, and dated. I am thinking that Light Blue is becoming dated and too many people are wearing it. I will have to say that both Mitsouko and Coromandel require a light hand though.

Very Late and a Dollar Short

 

I know, I know that I am really late with the back from vacation post but I haven't been up for the posting. Let's just say that I didn't finish that bottle of no 19 like I was hoping to. I spent a whole lot of time near my sister's pool and it was a little pointless to be wearing perfume with how much time I spent around the pool. So I think that I should have stuck with the Infusion d'iris travel spray in terms of perfume. Hell, I didn't even need to bring mascara or lipstick. I think that it was my mother's vanity that got to me since she wanted me to take some make up. With 90 degree and up heat and a pool, it was mostly dumb idea to have any kind of makeup or perfume but I wasn't about to not pack something in terms of perfume.

Since I have been back, there has been a candle incident. I have been working on using or giving away some of my candles. I am not sure what triggered a family member but anywhere from a third to a half of my candle collection was destroyed. It wasn't the loss of those candles or the mess that was created or the nasty cut on my thumb that bothered me the most. What bothered me the most was that the family member just up and decided to just get mad over something that couldn't be controlled and willfully decided to go after my candles. When things calmed down somewhat, I had said that I didn't care that she had a mental illness and she was angry but to just go and destroy someone's belongings was uncalled for. Someone or the dogs could have been seriously physically hurt. And she did take away a whole lot of enjoyment from something I like. Was I mad about the money that I spent on candles that were broken in a fit of someone else's rage? Yes, I was angry. Angry because I could have enjoyed those candles and some of them were limited editions. So I did hide about 95% of what was left and while I was at it, I hid 90% of my perfume collection and almost all of my Galileo thermometer collection. So if there is another incident, the destruction will be much less severe. At this point, I want to be able to enjoy the things that I have without the threat of them getting broken.

So while I was dealing with the candle mess and hiding things where she can't get to them, I was sorting through my papers and all of that. Shredding things and all of that jazz. In ways, I am a very private person and I am not a fan of being the object of gossip. So the less ammunition I give people I don't become that subject. So privacy is very important and there is no reason why anyone needs to go through any kind of important papers and that is one thing that have always bothered me. I mean, if you don't want me to go through your xtuff, you don't need to go through mine.

Pre-orders, Samples and Traveling

I did mention a while ago about the new Halo being released this summer. I kept my eyes and ears peeled for some released pictures and what day it would be released.

I found out some time in the past couple weeks that Halo Campaign Evolved was coming out July 27th or the 28th. I am not looking it up for the exact day but was looking at some of the screenshots. When I found out the release date, I had pre-ordered the game. For new video game releases, $50 is not a bad price since most game releases are around $70. I don't often order video games and when I do, they are usually not the latest release. So this was on the more unusual side for me. I know that my dad and I will be playing this quite a bit.

So I have done more perfume shopping in the passed couple weeks. I have given up on finding my travel spray of Hedonist and said screw it and ordered one from the Victoria Minya website. The travel spray arrived yesterday and I was a little less than enthused. I expected it to be shipped in a box and not an envelope. The travel spray was in a silky bag. I just expected a little more protection but the good thing was that my travel spray was undamaged and I love the aesthetic of the Victoria Minya bottles and travel sprays.

What is worrying my is in about two and a half weeks, I will be traveling to California to see my sister. I have the clothes I want to take picked out, my toiletries are already taken care of and I have my medication. The only things I have to do is pack, and pick out which perfume(s) I want to take. I will be flying out early Monday morning and coming home on Saturday. I let my sister know that I have $1,000 in my bank account and a $300 limit credit card, so I can't go hog wild. Even though she said that it was plenty, I am still worried about the financial part of it. I know things are not going to be cheap and if the subject of Disney comes up, I will probably have to give Disney a pass. I am not and never was one of those adult Disney fans.

This is the first time that I have traveled and didn't have a fist full of credit cards and working 40 plus hours a week. Even though I have 2 low credit limit credit cards, 1 of those will be left at home. Having a fist full of credit cards has led me to a whole lot of financial help that I have been trying to dig myself out of.

The perfume choices that I have made thus far for my trip to California is my almost finished bottle of vintage-ish Chanel no 19 edp and a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. The no 19 is the only definite one since the bottle is almost empty and I have figured that I might as well do is finish it. But the Gris Charnel could change though and I do want to stick to a travel spray. Since it will be horribly hot in California, I don't want to take the heavy hitters with me.

 

First Vacation of the Year

 

I am on my first vacation of the year and don't have a whole lot planned. On Sunday, my family celebrated my mother's birthday and I wore the original Hedonist. Yesterday, I wore Worth's Courtesan and today will be Nasomatto Nuda. After today, I have no idea what perfumes I will be wearing.

My plan isn't really to use anything up right now. Would that be great to use something up? You bet but it's probably not going to happen. My goal is to wear the things that I don't wear too often.

I tried to sit on my hands and not buy anything related to make up and perfume, even samples. I had some success in not partaking in this passed BOGO candle sale from Bath and Body Works. Right now, they are having some kind of bath and body sale going on and I am not interested. Most of their soaps, lotions and body sprays turn into smelling like Play Dough on me. But I failed on the perfume front. I hopped on over to Andy Tauer's US website with no intention of getting anything. Some times, window shopping can be fun. But my down fall was the sample set. Five 1.5 spray samples for $53 was a little pricey but I was able to get samples of the newest releases. I would like to support a perfumer directly when I can. It seems like Andy Takes has released quite a few perfumes in a short period of time. I keep hoping that he brings back Noontide Petals and Une Rose Vermeille and the 10ml travel sprays.

A couple weeks ago, Call the Midwife ended after 15 seasons and I cried throughout the final episode. But I was a little disappointed. The last episode seemed rushed and disjointed. We did see Sister Evangilina (sp?) make an appearance but some of the original characters did not make an appearance and I was not enthused. Some of of the original characters that left, we were left hanging on to what happened to them after they left because they were real life characters. Instead,it was just a collage of pictures. After season 7 or 8 is when the quality had started to go down and too many characters were introduced and then left after a season or two. Then the storylines seemed to be rushed. Call the Midwife used to take their time with story lines but then storylines got shorter and it didn't quite feel the same. There might be a Call the Midwife prequel and movie but this wouldn't come out for a few years. Next is what will be the last season of Grantchester some time in June or July. After that, I will have to find another series to get lost in. It's rare that I can find a series that I can get lost in. So it is back to the drawing board.

End of an Era...Sort of

One of my new year's resolutions was to finish things and not add anything more. So far, it's some mixed results. The fact that I have added 3 full bottles to my collection and haven't finished a bottle of anything is the bad part. But I haven't added any body products and in fact used some of them up.

I have finished another Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 hand cream, 2 Gold Bond hand creams and 2 foaming hand washes from Bath and Body Works. But the most notable thing that I have finished is the Amouage Lyric body butter and I am a little sad about that because it is a bit like an end of an era because finding Amouage bath and body stuff is as rare as slug's teeth at the moment. So there is nothing to replace it with. I just can't find the matching bath stuff for the older Amouage offerings. If I can, it's a little too pricey for me. So the era of Amouage body stuff is pretty much over since I do like the concept of matching bath and body stuff that matches any given perfume. But I am still salty about my aunt knocking over my Memoir body cream and very little of it could be saved and I am still looking for my bottle of Memoir. I know I have it somewhere but I just can't find it.

I think that I am a little sad that I used up the last of the Lyric body butter was because Lyric was one of my first niche perfumes that I fell head over heels in live with and when I saved up enough money for a bottle, my love deepened because I could quit buying large decants only to drain them pretty quickly. I am still in love with Lyric but I do have to admit that even though I have one of my full bottles sitting on my nightstand, it doesn't get as much wear as it used to. I do have a backup bottle and a travel spray set when Amouage still had their travel sprays. I think a year or two ago, they pretty much did away with those as well. But I will admit that I do see less and less Amouage being sold in the way of discount sights like Fragrancenet. I do wonder if Amouage is doing what Chanel did way back when is putting an end to their perfumes being sold just about anywhere. I will keep hoping that the body products will make a comeback.

Sick and Stuff

So I have been sick since last Thursday and I am looking at going to my local walk in first thing. This is starting to look like a case of bronchitis but we shall see. All I know is that I haven't been able to sleep for the past two nights. It seems like as soon as I drift off, I have another asthma attack and then it's a nebulizer treatment. I probably should have gone yesterday or today. So I haven't been able to wear anything scented outside a little bit of the Cheirosa 62 lotion. So that means that any serious perfume wearing is going to have to wait.

It was a sad Monday for me. I had to do some cancellations. Two of the three subscriptions that I had, I had to cancel. I have no regrets about canceling Walmart Plus. For what I was paying, it wasn't worth the price. It was either half of what I ordered would be out of stock or my groceries would never arrive. The order would be delayed with no way knowing when anything would come and it seemed like every time you turned around, I had ordered groceries. So was wasn't too upset over that. The one that had to be cancelled was Barkbox. I had Barkbox for at least 12 years and my dogs always lit up when it came. So it's probably going to be around Thanksgiving or Christmas when I can probably get Barkbox again. People say that my dogs won't notice but I think they do when they have had something come for them every month. Today was the last Barkbox box that came. So I am saddened that I had to cancel Barkbox. The grand total might be a shade under $50 but I would have liked to hang on to Barkbox. But there are a few things that have to wait right now.

What I am waiting for is when Sephora will have their spring sale event. I am not holding my breath for the pure parfum version of no 5 to come back into stock. I set aside $25 in a Sephora gift card for a cheap bronzer and find something for my mother to round out her mother's day gift. I already have her birthday gift but I like to do a little grab bag for mother's day. Mother's day is always a week or week and a half before her birthday so it's a pick wisely on what to give her and when.

Chanel no 19 EDT

I am a tad disappointed in myself. I made the mistake of going back to browse the Chanel website. It was to just window shop and check if Chanel had their parfum version of no 5 back in stock. No such luck right now and I still find that strange. I am not sure why Chanel would go and discontinue the parfum version of the perfume version that put Chanel on the map. So the only pure parfum that Chanel is selling right now is from the Les Exclusifs line or the Grand Extrait. How many people honestly have a few grand sitting around to spend a bottle of perfume if you want the family sized bottle of no 5 parfum? I sure as hell don't. I am lucky at this point if I can get one bottle of nicer perfume once a year than, I don't know, Cheirosa 62 or Happy.

So I caved and got a bottle of no 19 edt. I do have a fair bit of the edp and just about out of the vintage-ish edt. I was kicking around the idea of getting a bottle of the edt for a while but never did get around to ordering a bottle. I did play this off as I won this in a raffle to avoid the stink eye at home. Any package that I get gets some kind of comment. I can't use the rewards excuse right now. I used up all of the use it or lose it points around Christmas or by the 1st of the year. So I am still trying to watch the frivolous spending and with the bottle of no 19; I am more on the losing side of this. The only good thing is that I haven't spent a penny of the savings account, worked on the Afterpay balance a little bit more and haven't bought anything from Bath and Body Works. So in some respects, I am doing ok but want to get a move on with the actual saving and getting Afterpay paid off and keeping it paid off. One day and one step at a time is all I can do right now. Let's hope that I can make a little more progress as time moves along.

What I am really waiting for is for my dogs' Barkbox to arrive. Normally I get a notification when it has shipped and a tracking number but I am not seeing any of that. When I check the website, it just says it was shipped but with no tracking info. If nothing shows up in the next couple days, I will reach out.

 

Trying to be Smart

 

The past few days have been pretty interesting for me. The federal tax refund did get deposited into my bank account and I did deposit that check. I did want to go on a major spending spree but didn't. I decided to be a little more responsible and open a savings account and put some money in there.

I was looking to see if I could pay for both that crown my tooth desperately needs and get that plane ticket to California. Turns out that what the dentist sent in to my health insurance was the before x-ray instead of a post root canal x-ray. So we are going to see if that will work for getting insurance to cover that crown. I was fully prepared to pay that $600 and just be done with it. But I still stuck that $600 into that savings account, just in case. When I tried to see what kind of flights were available and how much it was to go to California. My dad said to hold off on that. I would rather have it done and over with since the closer to spring break, the greater the risk of prices going up and maybe way up but of course, nobody really wants to listen. So I have set myself ahead with some other things in terms of money and see what bill is coming up and take care of it.

You want to know something wild? For the longest time, Sephora did not carry any MAC lipsticks or makeup in general. There is the very real possibility that I never much paid attention to a whole lot outside of Too Faced or Urban Decay for a very long time. But when I discovered MAC lipstick and foundations from YouTube, I started to pay attention to other brands of makeup. For the longest time, I knew that ULTA was the only store close by that sold MAC stuff in store and online. So I was getting MAC stuff from Ulta. So now Sephora has MAC and since Sephora is having or has a makeup point multiplier going on, I got one of those mini lipsticks, which will be great for my trip to California. The most I am packing, makeup wise is a lipstick, lip balm and mascara. I know that it will be probably hot and can't justify a full face of makeup for the trip. I still haven't made a decision on which perfume(s) I am going to take but it is probably that bottle of no 19 edp that has just about next to nothing in it and maybe a travel spray. But who knows.

FOMO and BOGO with Some no 5

 

Most of us have dealt with buy one get one free or the whole fear of missing out. And I am sure we have all fallen victim of those things depending on what foods you like to eat, drinks you like and get some, even though you have plenty of those things. But hobbies can be worse in terms of that.

My latest with the fear of missing g out and buy one get one free is the travel sprays of Clinique Happy. I impulsively partook in that sale and added some hair, skin and nails vitamins to ease my mind a little bit. I could have gotten one travel spray and a mini MAC lipstick but wasn't so wowed with the mini lipstick. Ulta does have the buy one get one sales on a regular basis but usually for things that I don't and probably wouldn't use on a regular basis. So it is back on the wagon, even though Bath and Body Works is having a candle sale.

A few days ago, I decided to wear no 5 body products and put a heavy dose of the edp on top of it. I have done this in the past but this time, I really paid attention to it. When I did, I was dumbfounded because all of the body products (bar soap and body lotion) and three healthy sprays was maybe pushing it but I didn't have to work that day so it didn't much matter. The body products amplified the musk and the musk part reminded me of the Bal a Versailles musk. That kind of musk that is only really found in vintage perfumes. The musk also reminded me of vintage no 5. So I wasn't expecting all of that.

I did get a little good news today. My federal tax refund is heading my way. I had gotten my tax refund from the state last week. The bad thing is that I have to use all of that on getting that crown that my health insurance refuses to pay for since it is considered "cosmetic". The too the is behind an eye tooth and is visible, especially when I smile. If this was a front tooth, I probably would have been able to get insurance to pay for a crown. Insurance (even Medicaid, which I have) is pretty funny on what it will cover and what it won't cover. Most of the time, the dental insurance is a joke.But with the tax refund and unclaimed funds check, I can get the crown and plane ticket to California and be okay but still work on saving more money for my California trip.

The Wait Begins

Since we are now in February and this month is off to a little bit of a strange start. Late last week, I received a letter reminding me that I needed to get dog licenses for both my dogs. If I didn't get them or order them by January 31st, I would have to pay $30 per dog but get them by the 31st, it's $15 per dog. I didn't forget about getting the license bit, just forgot about the whole cost thing. By the time I got home from work, I couldn't run back out and get them. So I ordered them online, had to pay an extra $2 because I was paying by debit card.

I did file my taxes last week, even though I said that I would hold off. I just said screw it and let's just do it. So the wait now begins to get my refund. There are some things that I want to get ahead on and hopefully get that crown on my tooth, especially before I go to California. Thus far, my state refund should be in my account by the 17th. So that is a little over a week away. Something did pop up that I had to put on my federal taxes and even though the IRS did accept my return, there has been no word on if it was "approved" yet. Maybe I will find out in the next few days about what is going on through there website. So there is nothing that I can really do in the meantime except wait. I am still holding off on depositing that large check but thinking of doing a 30 day CD, mainly so I don't lose the check and maybe earn a little interest on it.

You know that whole not buying anymore perfume and candles? Yeah, I failed on both accounts. Amazon decided to drop the price of the Lolita Lempicka Le Parfum and I snapped up a bottle. A residual bit of a gift card brought down the price a little more. Well, all it did was pay for the tax but still. Yesterday, Bath and Body Works had a candle, hand soap and body spray for $20. It was an offer that I couldn't refuse. I got the Japanese Cherry Blossom body spray to give to my coworker for her birthday, the Sweet Lavender hand soap for a Mother's Day gift and if I think that the Lavender Bergamot might be a good smelling candle, but if it sucks, it becomes an emergency gift. I failed again in the past hour as I spent a shade over $35 on samples from Luckyscent. Any perfume nut can tell you that vintage and niche perfume doesn't come cheap. I am hoping that I can stay on the no buy in terms of no perfume and candle buying thing.

I have had a little bit of success though. I managed to finish another Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 lotion and I am about to finish up the travel sized body wash. I also finished a face wash balm and a face cream. I am pretty close to finishing a couple foaming hand soaps. I think I have to count my wins where I can. And let's hope I can keep using things up.

Winter Storms

I am going on day 4 out of 5 of wearing Cheirosa 62 and looking for a break. And that break will arrive tomorrow. When I clock out at 7pm, I will be off for the next few days and that can't come soon enough.

The reason it can't come soon enough is that later tonight a nasty winter storm is headed my way. It's been a strange winter this year. It's been a lot of small winter storms and it's a bigger winter storm headed my way. So I am doing whatever cleaning up I can do before work and make an effort to finish up after I get home from work. But probably the most important thing is that I make sure everything is charged, especially my phone. I do need to get an extra gallon of milk and maybe a couple snacks. I have more than enough caffeinated drinks to get me through and food but I do have a hankering for some snacks.

What I worry about is the loss of electricity. Even though we have a generator, the generator is gas powered and I have to fill up a gas can or two to make sure that when we dig ourselves out, we will really be alright. I have my candles picked out, just in case. I don't have a lot of candles picked out but I want to have just enough but had a harder time picking out perfume for the next few days.

My choices are Narciso Rodriguez for her, Lyric and my stand by is no 5. I am still debating if I want the edt version or the edp version. Both smell like no 5but they are different. There are tons of others in my collection but this were the ones that won out. I very well could go with Eau Premiere as well. I don't exactly want to give myself too many options so I do not get overwhelmed with choices. I remember when there was another storm and loss electricity and I wore Mitsouko for the duration and I don't want a repeat performance of being that kind of irritated.

Getting Sick of Some Shit

Have you worn a handful of perfumes so much that you have gotten sick of them? I am currently going through that right now.

I own tons of perfume and I have probably more than two that are work safe but have been way to lazy to look for them. So I have been wearing a shit ton of Infusion d'Iris and Cheirosa 62 on days that I have to work and have started to get sick of them. So at this time, I added Chanel no 19 edt to the mix. It is a vintage ish travel spray with not a whole lot left in the bottle. When I finish that bottle, I can work on the vintage ish no 19 edp bottle. So I am still trying to finish samples and bottles and mostly failing.

I am a retail worker that works part time due to disability. So I work 3 days a week. What has gotten me pretty annoyed right now is one of my co-workers. Apparently, they didn't get paid for a vacation that they took last year and didn't notice. How can one not notice that stuff until higher ups caught it. They were probably given a choice of either adding that vacation pay to a paycheck or take another vacation, so that coworker took an extra week. And so I end up working extra shifts and while I want the extra money, I am not thrilled with working more days but shorter shifts. It might help with my California trip nut would have liked a little more of a heads up.

But earlier tonight, I was wasting time on Luckyscent and was thinking of another bottle of Number One Intense. I saw that a one ounce bottle jumped from $80 something to $115. So it was around a $30 price hike. But I wasn't poking around too much and it was a good thing that I looked at the pricing before I did anything in terms of buying. The whole fact that everything has gone up in price. I bought the same amount of groceries that I normally do for the week has gone up by at least $20. So it is imperative that I show some serious restraint in terms of buying anything fun.

Organizing and Can't Find Shit

Don't you hate it when you can't find something? You have a hankering for something specific in your collection but just can't find the sample or bottle of it? Right now, I am going through that. My hankering is foe Amouage Memoir and I am searching for my one ounce bottle of Narciso Rodriguez edt. I know that I just got a five ounce bottle of the edp but I want the edt right now.

This is my problem right now. I am having trouble finding some bottles of perfume that I have a craving for and just can't find right now. So far, I have organized 2 boxes of perfume. I threw away decants of things that either have completely evaporated or just about. A few bottles are going to be donated to a women's shelter. What I have for donations is a healthy amount of Bath and Body Works stuff. So those two boxes became one and a quarter full boxes. But haven't found my bottle of Memoir yet. So for today, I have ended my search for my bottle Memoir. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I will get a move on with the rest of my collection. I know damn well that I haven't thrown away my bottle of Memoir. But Memoir and Narciso Rodriguez for her edt are not the only things that are missing that I can't easily find. I seem to be missing that travel spray of Eau Premiere. I have the two refills but missing the spray mechanism that still has some juice. But I am asking myself is that why I am looking for two black bottles of perfume? It's just so oddly specific to be.

At this point, I am kind of amazed with the little I have done is how much no 5 I currently have just by going through those two boxes. I am not fully sure on why I have so many bottles of Chanel no 5 but all I know is that I better get serious about wearing no 5 to free up some space. That extra space can be just extra space and not automatically filled with a new perfume.
 

Pulling Out the Old Stuff

So I am starting to pull out some of my older stuff. It's not always the vintage stuff. Some of what I have been pulling out is the stuff that I have had since the beginning of my perfume obsession or pretty close to it. Today was the original Lolita Lempicka and yesterday was vintage Mitsouko.

It took me a while to get into the original Lolita Lempicka. It was the licorice or anise that I wasn't used to, probably because whatever I might have tried or smelled that was very anise dominant, I wasn't a fan of. Now the the original became Mon Premier, the original scent is getting harder to find and hard to find at a decent price. I still think that the Mon Premier bottle sucks because I think it is too crude compared to the original. The Mon Premier is a little thinner and has been tinkered with. I would rather have the original bottle and juice but I will keep searching. Or just might bite the bullet and order a bottle, even though I have made a resolution to not buy anymore perfume for the next six or seven months.

But I have been flirting with the idea of pulling out and wearing Mitsouko.. As much as I love Mitsouko, I find that Mitsouko is a challenge to wear. Mitsouko is a bossy perfume, even in the best of circumstances, Mitsouko can run you over. So, I don't wear Mitsouko all that often.

There was a time were I couldn't get enough of Mitsouko. When I first got into perfume, I wasn't thinking about vintage perfumes or looking for vintage. Then a few years later, I did get into vintage perfume and started shopping on Ebay for vintage. I was snapping up vintage bottles of not only vintage Mitsouko but vintage bottles of Bal a Versailles. Let's just say that vintage Bal a Versailles seemed to be a little cheaper. Since finances are a little on the tight side, I don't have the income to prowl Ebay let alone too many bottles of anything as much as I would like. Let's just say that I am hoping that tight finances and saving up for a trip will force me to make a bigger effort to use up what I have.

 

Out With the Old and in With the New

Technically, it's New Year's Eve and I am debating on setting resolutions or goals for myself for the new year. Every year, I say that I am going to finish some bottles, save money, only get one bottle of perfume. But that shit never happens.

This year, I have a little more motivation for some of this shit. I am planning on taking a trip to California to see my sister and nephews. As it stands right now, it looks like it is going to happen some time in June. So that means is that I have to take care of Afterpay, Zip, Klarna and Sezzle. That means that there will be no more candles to be bought, no more perfume buying and saving money like crazy. The upside is that this might force me to actually start using up some perfume for the sake of creating space and not adding to my collection.

The biggest challenge for me is when I file my taxes. I know that I will be getting a refund and I will be tempted to spend that money on frivolous things. But I can't exactly do that. So I have to cut expenses somewhere. The candle thing will probably be the easiest thing to cut since I am a little bored with it and since I live with people who don't really want me to have a lit candle around, the luster has gone off. I am going to have an issue with staying off of perfume discounters, Sephora, Ulta and Luckyscent. I did blog about how I probably shouldn't have bought that big bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her. I did get more stuff than I probably should have in the past couple weeks. At this point, I have to buckle down and get moving on the saving part. So I am looking at where I can make the cuts. I am not holding my breath on any kind of stimulus payments that our current administration has been talking about/promising since their campaign. I am going to get moving on getting my hands on that abandoned bank account check to give myself a buffer.

But since I am planning on a trip to California, I am thinking of which perfumes to take. I know that I am only limited to 3.4 ounces but I do want to take two perfumes. The one that is really sticking out is Chanel no 19 and I have no idea on the other one. Maybe Nasomatto Nuda would be another great idea for the second bottles. I would rather take two bottles of perfume and not one.

 

Those Large Bottles and Christmas

You know that in my last post I talked about not getting anymore perfume for the year? Well, that resolution didn't last 24 hours. A new Sol de Janeiro or newish one was on the ULTA website and with the five points per dollar, a twenty percent off and free same day delivery, I was hooked and impulsively got in. I was looking at picking up some lotion and kind of figured, why not? It's not like Sol de Janeiro breaks the bank in terms of perfume. Some people might think that but I don't. I am the one sitting with bottles of Chanel and Amouage offerings and those are pretty expensive. But usually this time of year, I know Ulta and Sephora offer free same day delivery this time of year. That shit is fine for one or two things but I have enough being delivered in the next couple days to truly wrap it up for Christmas. But that isn't fully the reason on why I am posting.

When I got to really thinking about bottle sizes, for a good long while, you were hard pressed to find anything larger than 100ml of any perfume now. I know way back when Guerlain did some very bizarre sizes. But that was way back when. You still are hard pressed to find anything larger than 100ml and anything larger you really have to look for and only online. I do have a fascination with massive bottles of perfume. There is just something about them. To have a bottle of anything larger than 100ml is quite a rarity. I do have bottles of perfume that are over 100ml. The largest one is a vintage bottle of Bal a Versailles that is 9 ounces. Most of my large bottles are vintage Guerlain bottles that are probably 8 ounces. How am I going to refuse a reasonably priced bottle of vintage Mitsouko? But my big bottles of Chanel are mainly from the Exclusifs line up and that was way back when the Exclusifs line only came in the 200ml size. Yes, Chanel has massive bottles called the Grand Extrait or something like that but there is no way in hell that I am able to sink a minimum of seven grand for a few ounces of no 5 extrait. I just can't find any smaller bottles of the extrait bottles anywhere and have been looking for months for one.

But since we are a couple days away from Christmas, I am way behind on wrapping my gifts and a little behind on which perfume I want to wear. The only choices that I have thought up are Lyric, Theorema, and Feminite du Bois. I am not fully sure on which one I want to pick out but will probably be able to make a decision soon enough. I just have to get through the next few days. But the bigger issue at this point is wrapping my gifts. I have a couple packages that are arriving today and would rather have all the gifts that I ordered in the house before I commit to wrapping.

 

Probably Shouldn't Have Done That

A couple days ago, I made the mistake of taking a peek at Fragrance net. I have no idea why I was doing that. Maybe it was because I had found my travel size of the original Narciso Rodriguez for her in edt form. Off and on for the past few months, I had debated of if I should get the 5 ounce bottle of it but never did. I just couldn't make that decision or it might have been more than I wanted to spend.

But late Friday night, I decided to take a look. Fragrance net didn't have the the original edt when I looked. The edp was being sold in the 5 ounce bottles. And being tired and impulsive, I was sold. What really sold me is that Fragrance net was offering free 1 to 3 day shipping and I still was spending a shade under $95, including tax. So I am thinking that since I ordered late Friday night or very, very early Saturday morning, it should be at my doorstep on Tuesday. I am more hoping that it arrives tomorrow. 
 

I had swore to myself that redeeming my ULTA rewards for a bottle of Chanel no 5 was going to be my last full bottle purchase for the year and probably for a good while. Then I moved the goal post of that bottle of Narciso Rodriguez would be the last but nope, the goal posts got moved yet again. I made another mistake of checking out Sephora and saw one of the Sol de Janeiro body sprays on sale and I am doing the same day delivery factually

Yes, I probably shouldn't have done those things. Well, I know that I should have stopped at the Chanel no 5. I really have to stop those late night window shopping things and it always seems to be right around Thanksgiving or right around Christmas that quite a bit of this stuff happens. I think that I seriously need to crack down and actually adhere to not buying full bottles of anything for at least 6 months.