Chanel No 19 EDT Review

You know how I blogged a little earlier about the Sephora spring sale? And said I would spend no more than the allotted $45? I failed by about $25. I didn't spend any of that on perfume. It was mainly on the Drunk Elephant body wash and lotion and some skin care stuff. Some of this was to finish up the Mother's Day gift and finish up my mother's birthday gift. I wasn't exactly game for even attempting to justify another bottle of perfume. I just recently got a bottle of no 19 and that leads me to this whole post.

For the past year, I have been flirting with the idea of getting a bottle of the most current version of the edt. I have three bottles of the edp and two bottles of the parfum. About ten years ago, I was getting buying tons of vintage perfume and two of those bottles were a kind of vintage edt versions of no 19. I don't know when Chanel had travel spray bottles of no 19 so I am guessing they are probably from some time in the 80's at the earliest and maybe the 90's at the very latest but I am more leaning towards the 80's.

I fell head over heels in love with the no 19 edp, it took me a little longer to understand and love the edt version. The vintage edt is a very leathery, green rose but this current version is very different. In the first hour, I was very confused. I have never recalled the vintage edt to be over the top iris, the over the top iris is something that I associate with the parfum version of 19. Even the edp doesn't have that whopping dose of iris that can be identified right away. Then things started to get even stranger. In all three concentrations, there was a huge dose of rose and I don't recall the rose being plush and in the current edt, the rose takes on a heavy more plush type of deal. Nor am I a fan of the powdery type of note that just doesn't fit. The brightness and green smell is still there but it doesn't quite get there and the leather has been scaled back and had to go looking more the leather. It seems like this version of no 19 was trying to smell like the edp, parfum and edt all in one. With that being said, it seems like the latest version of the no 19 edt is trying do too much and things are getting lost along the way. Reformulation is inevitable but this is getting a little nuts. I think that I am going to need a few more wearings to fully gage on how much I like this version.

 

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.

 

It's My Gallbladder

I thought I was making some kind of progress with getting better with my stomach problems but apparently not. I ended up in my local ER Wednesday night instead of the one a half an hour away. I wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with this crap again of waiting for hours after a blood draw to be seen. I managed to be taken back, have a blood draw, urine test and was examined all within 15 minutes. The nurse that was doing the examination had said that it was probably my gallbladder and ordered an ultrasound. The biggest thing is that I was given pain and nausea relief and I wasn't waiting for hours and not have anything done except a blood draw. The ultrasound had confirmed that my gallbladder was the issue. I was given scripts for pain, nausea and directions for a surgical consult. I made that consult before I left the ER. So Monday afternoon, I go for that consultation. The total time that I spent in the ER was probably 3 and a half hours. After complaining for around a year, I am happy to have some answers. My endocrinologist and my regular GP had pretty much decided that keeping an eye on it was the only thing to do.

The hard part is just managing the pain and nausea. Before the medication, I couldn't eat period without vicious amounts of pain that would last for hours. Now I can eat a little more but I am kind of limited and will be limited for a while on what I can and cannot have for a few weeks. It will be a very bland, low fat diet and I am not looking forward to that. But I am looking at a month with less than $75  coming into my bank account per week for about a month and I am seriously not looking forward for that part.

Monday is the day I will know if I am having surgery and what type of surgery. I probably will not be wearing any perfume if I have to go the surgical route but I am debating on wearing either no 19 extrait, no 22 extrait or Iris Silver Mist. I want something that is subtle but with a little bit of backbone. Dabbing make most perfumes more subtle. The only one that might be kind of comforting is no 22. I will have plenty of time later to wear what I want.
 

Grocery Delivery and Chanel no 19

 I have blogged fairly recently about Door Dash and have made some comments about having food delivered. But somethings have changed in the past couple weeks. I have become one of those psychos that gets most of my groceries delivered now. I have epilepsy and I do not drive. It's a tough thing to go grocery shopping. When I leave work, I try to grab the things I need and head home. I know that for $100 a year, I can join the Target Circle and get free same day delivery. Since I am on Medicaid, I can get Amazon Prime and Walmart Plus for much less. But if I am not shopping on Amazon or Walmart, I would need to spend at least $10 per order and most places have some kind of minimum threshold before I can get same day delivery and this is not including tip.

For quite a while, the Walmart closest to me did not do same day delivery to my house. I live in a goofy spot. Most places either don't deliver or charge a little more. I live in a rural area and not being able to drive, I am more dependent on delivery services more than your average person. But in the past two and a half weeks, I have been able to have groceries delivered to my house at no extra charge from Walmart. I guess all that griping on Twitter might have paid off. I can't be the only disabled person that is a little more reliant on delivery services. My blind friend has the same issues with trying to find rides and someone help her with grocery shopping. I gave her the heads up with Walmart Plus. Why not give someone else a helping hand? So my dry goods are delivered to my door and I pick out my fruits, veggies and meat in person. I can't fully trust someone else to pick out those things yet. Some people like the convenience but it's a lifeline for me.

I am still having some issues with the most current version of no 19 EDP. The bottle that I currently have is at least 10 plus years old. Last week, I had a huge hankering for some no 19 and found my 2 vintage versions of the EDP. While I do have a couple vintage travel EDT versions, I couldn't really get to those. The bottle in the picture might be from sometime in the 80's or 90's. I will admit that I enjoy the vintage version of no 19 much better than the current version. I think that it is the musk that is used in the vintage that I like a little better. The whole set up in the vintage version of no 19 seems to be better. I know reformulations are inevitable but I am not the biggest fan of them. Most of the time, reformulations make a perfume worse off. Mitsouko is one of the few perfumes that in spite of not having actual oakmoss in it anymore, the reformulation has Mitsouko still smelling like Mitsouko. If someone tried to bring back Deneuve, it probably wouldn't smell like it should. But is Deneuve was rereleased, I would still give it a go because why shouldn't I give it a shot?

Green Perfumes for Fall and Winter

I do not have a whole lot in terms of what is called "green" in perfume. Green can be floral or could be like cut grass or leaves or a few other things in terms of perfume. But there isn't much of a presence of green in perfume.

The greens that I do have fall into two camps. It's either geared for spring and summer or geared more for fall and winter. The long lamented Deneuve in either edt or extrait form is more of the spring/summer type of thing. Chanel no 19 is in the same category. Spring is where the days are getting longer and warmer and full of promise. The days of wearing short sleeves and shorts are either in full swing or just beginning.

Givenchy III and the queen, Mitsouko fall into the fall/winter camp. Where daylight is in short supply and it's either pretty cool out or outright cold. The large decant if the Givenchy III just doesn't give the whole spring/summer vibe when I wear it. Givenchy III gives off more of the late fall/early winter type of vibe. Where most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, it's mostly rainy outside and I would rather just stay indoors. I still wouldn't associate Givenchy III with any kind of fall activity or food. I can associate many of Andy Tauer offerings with state fairs or clam bakes.

Now we get to the queen, Mitsouko. When I do wear Mitsouko, I usually wear the vintage edt or the current edp. I cannot get the current edt to last anymore than an hour or two on skin or clothes, so the current edp it is. I am not spending major amounts of money on something that lasts only an hour or two on skin. The reason that  I have so much of the vintage stuff is the oakmoss. The vintage edt has some staying power that rivals the current edp. I remember someone saying that Mitsouko is like a Tiffany lamp. The light of a Tiffany lamp is muted and gives a soft glow and Mitsouko does the same thing in terms of perfume. 

The reason that I'm really not going to mention Diaghilev is that I only have two dabber samples. The other reason is that the sheer price point for a 100ml is either a full months rent or mortgage payment for a lot of people. Unless you are swimming in fun money, I don't think anyone would really have a bottle. Even with Afterpay, a payment would be most of one of my paychecks.
 

The Dry Down Now Sucks

Did you ever have one of those perfumes that you have always loved but now there is something about it that bothers you? For me, Chanel no 19 is that one.

I discovered Chanel no 19 early in the days of when I went down the rabbit hole. It never mattered the concentration, I had to have every concentration and I do have every concentration. But my favorite concentration has always been the EDP. For many years, I have worn it with abandon and haven't worn it a whole lot in the past year for some reason.

In the EDP, I have always loved the sharp, very green rose with the iris back up. The EDT was a very leathery iris and the parfum was a powdery, carroty iris. But something seemed to change for me. There is something that happens right around the dry down is where something seems to go wrong. I can be rocking the top and middle notes but when I seem to go from the middle notes to the base notes, the musk and green part just seems to smell bad to me. I am not sure on what is happening. It could be the fact that I haven't been wearing a whole lot in the past year. So maybe what is in the spray mechanism is a little on the stale side.

I'm also thinking that maybe I have too much perfume and just can't get to a whole lot in my collection. What probably needs to happen is that I only have 2 or 3 perfumes out at a time and I start to use those and then move onto the next 2 or 3 perfumes. I am also thinking of maybe selling off some of what I have to make my collection a little more manageable.
 

Is it Spring Yet?

Sunny has taken to letting me sleep a little later. Sleeping in with a puppy is great but it doesn't change the fact that having a puppy that's only 3 months old is still exhausting. Too many late nights with super early mornings.

I think that spring is slowly coming but I really want spring to arrive right now. Cleveland is starting to get some warmer temperatures but it's either full of rain or windy but it's starting to warm up.  

With spring coming and all, that means that I can start pulling out my spring summer offerings. I don't have tons of them but I do have some. But naturally, Sunny's crate in my bedroom is blocking the area to were I keep most of my perfumes. I can move it but I am not so interested in rearranging stuff to even attempt to get them. So right now, I have to make due with just having Courtesan, no 19 and some Deneuve. I am okay with having just three out right now. I want to start really using that leaky bottle of Courtesan and I am still not happy with Worth for discontinuing Courtesan. I used to be able to get Courtesan for a reasonable price but I can rarely find it now. Deneuve is long discontinued and has gotten horribly expensive, even for minis and I'm probably not going to be wearing that tons but when you have a nice stock of it already, so I don't want to go hoarding it either.

Still waiting for my tax refund to arrive in my bank account so I can get ahead of some things. That is what I am really waiting for. Yeah, I am looking forward to the Sephora sale but I want to go and get ahead of some stuff. When I always file my taxes and get a refund, I get impatient with the IRS. The refund is money I actually earned and I am not too thrilled with the whole interest free loan thing. The IRS is pretty quick to demand payment if you owe but takes forever if you are owed some money. Now let's see what happens Monday to see if I can get a date on when I can get ahead of some stuff.

Spring Seems to be Here

 It looks like the weather has skipped over spring and went straight to summer type weather. Ohio weather just does it's own thing. I am just sitting around trying to muster some kind of focus to see what I can come up with but it's not working out to well at this point. Just too much anxiety and with a couple problems with my health insurance not wanting to pay for a test, and hasn't wanted to for months, what happens is is going to happen. The more specialized the test means that it's more expensive and naturally, I can't get the authorization for it no matter what. But I can't exactly go paying for that test on my own. I can't afford to worry myself into a panic attack over something like this, it's not going to change what has already happened.

Since there have been summer temps this week after boatloads of rain and cold, it looks like it's going to stay warm, if not hot. I could have dug of Diorissimo but wasn't exactly feeling it and dug out some vintage Chamade instead. I'm going to tell the truth, I think that Chamade is much better than Diorissimo when the weather heats up. I think that I enjoy the hyacinth and the crush green stems are better suited to hotter weather. At this point, I've pulled out what is pretty much going to be the bulk of my summer perfume collection.

The choices for summer are Deneuve, Chamade, no 19 and Worth Courtesan. Yes, three of them are greens and the other is a fruity type of perfume. I really want to start working on Courtesan since the bottle that I have going is pretty wonky and seems to be evaporating and with no consistent way of being able to get more (without breaking the bank), I'd rather it not go to waste. This doesn't mean that I won't wear other perfumes but I think that these will be probably be the most predominant perfumes.

Trying to Finish Stuff

For years, I have been trying to finish off some full bottles. Last year, I managed to finish two full bottles and this year, I have finished one. I don't really have a goal of how many bottles to finish but I just want to really start on finishing some of my full bottles. There is going to be some success though. I managed to reach a box of perfume. When I took a look inside, I saw success just waiting to happen. I saw two Chanel extrait bottles that were mostly empty.

The extrait bottles that I have are not huge bottles and the extrait bottles never really are big ass bottles to begin with. I saw that one of the bottles of No 19 is two thirds empty and Cuir de Russie probably has only two or three wearings left. I love both perfumes and have back ups in one form or another. I have other extrait bottles of no 19 and I don't know how many bottles of EDT and EDP that I have but I am mostly set for a little while longer. Back when Cuir de Russie was released, Cuir de Russie was only sold in a 6.8 ounce bottle of the EDT. Cuir de Russie was my first perfume that made me fall down the rabbit hole.

Things have changed with the Les Exclusifs line at Chanel. They used to be $200 for a 6.8 ounce bottle but now up to $350. A 2.5 ounce bottle now sells for $200 and it used to be $130. How do I know? I took a look in my e-mail. It's amazing how the prices at Chanel have skyrocketed. I am a little dissapointed that I cannot find a way to test out Coromandel or no 22 in EDP form. I am also working on finishing bottles of Chanel no 5 in EDP and EDT form. I have so many Chanel bottles, I have to start working on finishing something, why not start with Chanel.

The extrait bottles might be small but every victory counts. Every victory means more space that I do have.

Springtime and Rambling

Cleveland is getting into warmer weather and it's sticking around a little longer than a day or two. I don't think short sleeved shirts and shorts weather but we are starting to get into short sleeved shirt weather on a more consistent basis.Wearing shorts might be a late May/early June is possible. Last night, we had our spring peepers and the Great Horned Owls hooting. I was just starting to fall asleep, the puppy, Sydney, starts her baying/barking thing. Since she got all excited, our other dog did too. Jake and Sydney got all bent out of shape because the owls were hooting. Good thing that I had leashes on when I took them to pee. Yes, my dogs are insane.

I still haven't come onto a concrete solution to my perfume organization plan. Let's just say that 98% of my perfume collection is still in Amazon boxes and somehow got moved to a spot elsewhere that is difficult to get to. Right now, I have 8 full bottles and a few worn and reviewed decants. So I am a little limited on what I have.

The good thing about the weather being warmer, I can wear my lighter scents. Out of the bottles that I do have on my nightstand is a vintage bottle of no 19 EDP and the current version of the EDP version of no 19. Out of all of the concentrations of no 19, the EDP is my favorite. I love the green rose and iris of the EDP better than the extrait and the EDT. I also managed to snag my bottles of Zagorsk and Kyoto for spring/summer. I think that I might be able to finish more than two bottles this year if I just limit the bottles I have on my nightstand. One can only hope.

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.

Summer Perfume

It's that time of year. The time of grilling, mosquitoes and mosquito bites, bees and most of all hot weather. That muggy type of hot, that insufferable type of hot. I got to thinking about perfumes that can work when the heat is insufferable.

A few of my picks are from the Commes des Garcones incense line, specifically Kyoto and Zagorsk. Summer heats doesn't make anything really stick around all that much, maybe 3 or 4 hours at best. Kyoto and Zagorsk are not heavy perfumes and in heat, they are great. Dry but not bone dry, airy but not really. They just seem to work in summer.

Another favorite in summer in Chanel no 19 in EDT form. It's bitey, it's light, slightly bitter but it works in summer. The extrait and EDP don't do the trick in summer, early spring, maybe but not summer. The extrait and EDP just get annoying and seem to be too much in summer. Worth Courtesan is another good one to. It's cheerful, relativity cheap and it's fun. That slightly sweaty pineapple and the barest hint of musk make it a wonderful perfume for the summer.

The last perfume that seems to suit in my collection is En Passant. The lilac, cucumber, wheat and the watery aspect just work in heat, if you use a light hand. Spray with a heavy hand, it might not work.

Spring is here to stay

It looks like spring is here to stay. I have been pretty busy. With the new puppy and many changes at work, I don't have much of a motivation to blog or try anything new. But since the weather is much warmer, almost unseasonably warm, it's difficult with my perfume collection.

A few days ago, while having the new puppy outside to use the bathroom, I end up getting stung on the top of my head by a hornet. I don't know why but I remember wearing vintage Bal that day. That's the little dickens to the left. I have forgotten many things with having a puppy in the house. How often I need to take them out to go to the bathroom, playing, chewing everything, even hands and much more. Right now, she is napping on the couch downstairs, so I have a little bit of time to blog.

But back to the hornet sting and vintage Bal, I had to take a look at my collection. Most of my collection is on the oriental side or kind of on the sweet side. I don't have much in the way of stuff that will keep the bees away or be overwhelming. I have Chanel no 19, Mitsouko on cooler days, Deneuve might be a little sketchy and LADDM. So I have just four perfumes that probably would bet me through spring and summer but I'm not counting on it. I am looking for another spring/summer perfume that won't attract bugs and things that sting but coming up short with what would be good.

Vintage Chanel no 19 EDP Review

Chanel no 19 is one of those staples in my perfume collection is one of those perfumes that doesn't really get a whole lot of wear anymore. For a while, it was my go to perfume for many occasions. But in the past 2 or 3 years, my collection has really expanded and it is not exactly on my radar so much anymore. When I had applied the vintage version of Chanel no 19 EDP for a bed time scent on Sunday, I had to take a look at both the vintage and the current version. Yesterday, I put some of the current EDP to really take a look.

I had noticed with the vintage that the opening is much sharper and much more astringent than the current version. After the bite of the beginning wears off, and it wears off massively, the rose comes into play. The rose isn't as clear, the rose is now powdery and that is something that I haven't found in the current version. A powdery rose is not something I exactly like. The iris in no 19 is not carroty and earthy and it seems like the powder had kind of gotten that too. The vintage version seems to have some serious staying power over the current version.

At the end of the day, I prefer the current version of the EDP but I'm starting to favor the EDT version due to the fact that in green perfumes, I don't like much more than the barest hint of powder. I find it kind of sad in some ways that Chanel is not my most favored house anymore in terms of perfume. I think in some ways, Chanel has kind of lost Coco Chanel's vision and direction. Coco Chanel had revolutionized women's clothing and revolutionized perfume as we know it.