Eau Premiere Thoughts

For a good, long while, I couldn't get enough of no 5 Eau Premiere or any version of no 5. The only version of no 5 that I can't get into is L'Eau, to my nose, it bears no resemblance of no 5. But for some reason, any no 5 variation had dropped off my radar. I think that I was sidetracked by other things, especially MAC lipsticks and my recent tuberose love.

But when I couldn't get enough of no 5, I was more obsessed with the EDT and extrait version and it was to the point of ignoring my first no 5 love, Eau Premiere.

When Eau Premiere first came out, I was a little hesitant to try it. My dislike of no 5 came from when I was at a perfume counter. My hands were horribly dry and didn't have any hand lotion on me. So I figured that I would give the no 5 hand cream a try. It was either the hand lotion was old and gone off or the lights from the counter itself made the lotion go bad and then I had a dislike for no 5.

Fast forward a few years when Eau Premiere came out, I had ordered an eye shadow from Chanel and for some odd reason, I picked out a sample of Eau Premiere to try. But when I did, my opinion of no 5 had started to change to maybe no 5 isn't so bad. What really changed my opinion of no 5 is the Sensual Elixer. When I was at the mall, I bought the Sensual Elixer instead of Eau Premire. The Sensual Elixer is long gone and if you can find it, it's stupid expensive and stupid expensive isn't my thing right now. When I realized my mistake, I went over to the Chanel website and ordered myself a bottle. At the time, Eau Premiere wasn't sold in the traditional Chanel bottles and there were many sizes. Today, I think that I probably should have gotten the 5 ounce bottle of Eau Premiere when it was being offered but that was then, tI don't know when Chanel did away with some of their larger sized bottles of Eau Premiere and the old bottle that it used to come in but it did happen. There is very little in the Chanel line up that is over 100ml. Most people are not seeking out the Les Exclusifs line.Outside of the Les Exclusifs line, the 200ml bottles are either no 5 edp or Coco Madamoiselle. But I was pleased to see that Eau Premiere has a travel spray and when that happened, I snapped that up. Currently, my travel spray set is MIA but I have a general idea of where it might be but I am not quite ready to tear apart a room or two to try and find it.his is now. I am trying to save some money and not spend it.

 

My First Bottle of No 5

Even though it's Labor Day in the US, it was a day of labor for me. Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer and beginning of fall. I wasn't at work today but after procrastinating for a few months, I moved all the clothes that I had in the guest bedroom back into my bedroom. I don't know how many dressers that have been moved in and out of my room these past few months. I could have started months ago to start putting those clothes away but never could muster the motivation to do it. So my clothes are now back in drawers. My candles haven't made it over into my room but I don't have the same set up nor space to have them in my room. What I did manage to get was my bottles of De Profundis and Sarrasins out. I am a little excited to start going through my collection to see what I want to keep and what I can sell. I am still looking for a place where I can drop off my unwanted perfume and have someone else sell it for me.

Way back before I started to seriously collect perfume, I did try the Chanel no 5 hand cream. I don't know what the hell happened to that hand cream but I think that the hand cream might have been either left out for years or was in the back of the cabinet and rather than throw the thing out, the sales people put a try me sticker and put it on the counter. So I promptly ignored no 5 for a few years, until the release of Eau Premiere. When I tried Eau Premiere, is when I began to understand no 5. 

When I was at the perfume counter and I thought I was getting a bottle of Eau Premiere but got a bottle of the long discontinued Sensual Elixir. So off to the Chanel website and ordered the Eau Premiere and a bottle of no 5 edp or I might have gotten the extrait first. But when I was working on one of our guest bedrooms, I found my first bottle of no 5 edp. The bottle is about 2/3 empty and when I took a whiff, I noticed on how different the first bottle smells compared to the most current bottle of no 5 edt. I find that the older bottle is much less powdery and less floral smelling. I am thinking that Chanel might have either had to do some serious reformulations to suit modern tastes of the rose and jasmine harvests got pretty funky. But there is a fairly noticeable difference if you do a side by side comparison and I have noticed that in the edt version as well. Let's see what I can do with my perfume collection before I test out more no 5 or add anything new.
 

My Chanel no 5 Journey

 It's a well known fact that I do love Chanel no 5. The first bottle that I had purchased was the extrait version around 10 or 12 years ago and promptly drained or my mother nicked it. Then I got a 50ml bottle of the EDP that is about two thirds empty.

Before I got serious about perfume, there was a time that I tried the no 5 hand lotion at a department store and I promptly hated it. I don't recall exactly why I hated it but I honestly think that the lotion might have been improperly stored and had gone rancid or I was trying the wrong no 5. But when I had bought my first extrait bottle, it was $95 for a quarter ounce bottle. But the first version on no 5 that I really understood was Eau Premiere when I tried it at a department store and bought a bottle. But when I arrived home, I realized that I had bought the Sensual Elixer, which has been discontinued for years. But I ordered a bottle of Eau Premiere a couple days later.

So fast forward at least a decade and how many bottles of perfume later, I have tons of Chanel no 5. The only no 5 that isn't in my stable is the L'Eau version because it has no resemblance to any other version of no 5. But when I finished that bottle of no 5 edt, I kind of took a little bit of a break but opened a brand new bottle of the edt and almost physically recoiled. Chanel has messed with the edt version. I knew that the edp version was messed with and kind of liked it. But after wearing my first bottle of no 5 edp, I am pretty annoyed with Chanel at this point. Because no 5 isn't something that I exactly recognize anymore. No 5 has been reformulated. Reformulations do happen but not to this extreme. I can't comment about the extrait being reformulated because I don't have any older bottles to compare it to. But the luminous nature of the edt isn't there and the sharpness of the edp isn't there. So it looks like I am going to be sticking to Eau Premiere for a very long time. 

I will admit that I would love to have another bottle of the extrait version of no 5 but the prices of Chanel have gotten to the point of being ridiculous. To the point of I can't exactly justify buying any of Chanel perfumes. Out of all of the no 5 offerings, Ulta doesn't carry the extrait version of no 5 and I have almost enough points that I would get a quarter ounce bottle. But things haven't worked out that way at Ulta.

What's in the Bag?

It's nothing unusual for me to carry perfume in my purse. My purse might be on the smaller side because I am not a fan of a huge purse. There is something about large purses that don't do it for me and I see so many women, especially young women who don't have children that have these massive purses. What the hell are they carrying in those things to begin with? Their whole entire life?

There is a reason that I carry a smaller purse. There is less potential for things to get lost or forgotten about at the bottom. Less stuff that might get broken or leak. A smaller size means that I have to be a little more sniper like when it comes to putting things in there. Of course, I carry my wallet, cellphone and my iPod (Yes, I still use an iPod), mascara, lipstick and lotion. But I always have a mini or a travel spray in there.

It's more than if I forget to put on perfume before I leave the house or to reapply after what I am wearing fades. If there is something that happens to the house, where everything is a total loss, I won't exactly be starting over from square one in terms of perfume. I can tolerate losing many things but there is something about the thought of losing of selling my collection that scares me for some reason. I can't explain that feeling but losing my dogs and perfume seems to conjure up that feeling.

Currently, I have a mini of Les Annees 25 BIS, travel spray of Lyric and a travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere in my bag right now. Those 2 might be an odd mix but there is a little bit of a selection going on in there. While wearing Les Annees, I have forgotten how good it is and don't regret getting a bottle but regret no getting the original one when I had the chance.
 

The Same Stuff Over and Over Again

My mother cut her California trip short and is now home. So much for some of the projects that I had planned to do. Three of the candles that I had started, refused to stay lit and in the trash they went. I have already finished 2 candles yesterday and will finish 2 more today. I have no freaking idea on what candle I am going to start now but that's okay at this point.

I was none too happy when I found out that a trip was cut short. I had made a decision to redeem most of my Ulta rewards points and get a bottle of no e Eau Premiere and another bottle of no 5 edt. I figured that it would arrive before my parents came home and they wouldn't see any kind of packages and gripe about it, even though I redeemed my Ulta points for them.

But I noticed something. There are some perfumes that I buy over and over again. No 5 in many of it's concentrations, Mitsouko, vintage BaV, Amouage Lyric and Epic seem to be the ones that I have the most of. I will admit that after no 5, I haven't gotten the other ones listed in quite a while. But with vintage Mitsouko and BaV, I haven't been prowling E-Bay for them. Amouage is getting harder to find a discounters and my beloved Deneuve has gotten so stupidly expensive, especially for minis. So no 5 it is.

I do wish the no 19 was a little more widely available and if Ulta carried it, I'm sure I would have stocked up even more. But Ulta and even Sephora mostly focus on best sellers but that seems to be most department stores that focus on things they know that they can sell pretty easily and even with my healthy supply of no 19, I don't reach for it often enough. I really ought to start wearing some other stuff that I have.
 

No 5 Eau Premiere and Other Things

I've been wearing boatloads of Chanel recently and already bought boatloads in the past year and I am taking a little bit of a break from the house of Chanel. It's the fact that I have seemed to neglect so many of my other perfumes. Amouage, vintage BaV and a few others have been seriously neglected.

Initially, when I bought that travel spray set of no 5 Eau Premiere, it didn't smell like it had been tinkered with. Eau Premiere has been tinkered with. I mentioned before that the current edp smells quite a bit different than what I had gotten 6 years previously. My full bottle of Eau Premiere was procured when Eau Premiere made it's debut. The Eau Premiere tinkering is more along the lines of what happened with the current no 5 proper edp. The reformulation is slightly noticeable but not something huge. I still love Eau Premiere but hate reformulations. I get that reformulations happen for many reasons but there is no reason to screw up a perfume, especially if it is a classic.

We have barely started fall and Bath and Body Works has started to drop their winter line up. This is just insanity, it was maybe mid July, that Bath and Body Works started to drop their fall line up. It seems like seasonal line ups are released earlier and earlier. Especially this year though. Not sure if it is because the pandemic is still going on or what is going to be happening with the whole Christmas season and the American postal service. Every time that I watch the news, the news people seem to be asking store owners about the Christmas season. The answer always seems to be the same, they don't know what they will be getting in their shipments or even if they will get anything. I am about 2/3's done with my Christmas shopping but with the postal service, I will probably need to order things earlier than I really want to.

Yes, the Winter candle from Bath and Body Works has just come out and I did order 3 of them. I wasn't able to really stock up on them due to a poorly planned out Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale. I'm still trying to use up or get rid of candles but yet, I still end up getting more. I have half a mind to see if there is one consignment shop near me that will off load some of these candles or maybe I could donate some. I'm all set on apple candles though.
 

Chanel no 5 Eau Premiere and Coco Mademoiselle EDT Review

When my parents were in California, I did spend tons of time in no 5 Eau Premiere and starting to look at a back up bottle or get the travel spray. Or I could go for an econosized bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense but haven't made up my mind. There is a little more room in my budget than I initially thought for adding something new in terms of perfume. 

I had forgotten to mention that when my parents were gone, I managed to finish almost 10 candles. My initial goal was at least 6 candles but I decided, fuck it, and burned more than 2 at a time. Since I am currently on vacation myself at the moment, I intend to try and finish at least 3 or 4 candles this week. Every candle that I use up is a small victory because that leaves me with more space and right now I need to free up some space. Now if I could finish up some decants and finish off a no 5 extrait bottle, I'd be even happier. The using things up and throwing things away is slow going but progress is being made because I am using up candles and getting rid of more clothes and not adding anymore of those.

My love for Coco Mademoiselle is pretty new. I know I loved it right when it came out but when it came out, every woman seemed to wear copious amounts of it and I could never really afford to keep a bottle in rotation. Then came the lotion on a new cut and I was really turned off to Coco Mademoiselle. Every good perfume nut seems to know that any Chanel fragrance can smell differently in various concentrations and I was kind of curious to see what the EDT version of Coco Mademoiselle was. What I found is that the EDT version was heavier on the citrus but a much less concentrated version of the EDP, I don't recall ever trying the extrait version, so I can't comment in that department. The biggest differences is that the EDT lasts nowhere near what I expect from a Chanel EDT. Chanel EDT's last quite a while on my perfume eating skin but not this one. At best, I get 4 or maybe 5 hours before it fades into nothingness. The lack of projection is something to be noted as well. The EDP has more of a presence than the EDT. I am happy that I didn't get a huge bottle of this due to the fact of lasting power and lack of projection. This would probably be great when it's 90 degrees out but want to wear Coco Mademoiselle.

Wearing Chanel no 5

My folks have arrived back home on Tuesday and happy to be home. It was a goofy 10 days though. Too many late nights and too many early mornings and with a retail job makes things a little crazy. The late nights, early mornings was due in part because of the dogs. They always wanted out but since they have a hard time staying in the yard, they could only be outside on a leash.

Things got pretty strange when I lost electricity on Sunday, the day after my parents left. The sun was out, it hadn't rained that day and it was out for almost 10 hours. The only thing to do was to sit tight and try not to flush the toilet or run water needlessly. I was getting pretty annoyed after a while since I was really starting to run low on battery life with my cellphone. The constant checking to see when electricity would be restored and trying to keep in touch with my family kind of sucked it up. When the electricity came back on, the computer didn't work quite right but obviously works fine now.

It does seem during those 10 days I mostly wore no 5 in various concentrations. Eau Premiere, the EDP, and the EDT but mostly Eau Premiere. I had the opportunity to wear many other things and did wear other things but mainly stick to no 5. Maybe it was more of a comfort thing. I am thinking about getting a back up bottle of Eau Premiere but not fully sure if I want to get one quite yet. My bottle of Eau Premiere is when Eau Premiere was first released. I am thinking that Eau Premiere mostly likely been reformulated and definitely been put into new packaging. I am not fully sure if I truly want a new bottle of anything right now.

Wearing Old Favorites

 

Vacation has been over for a few days and have to wait a few more weeks before I take my last vacation of the year. I didn't finish any decants, let alone bottles and sure as hell didn't try anything new. That half candle that I started on Sunday has decided to be an ass and the lid to the stupid thing won't come off. So right now it's in purgatory and I started a new candle. Thus far only $30 has been set aside for the Candle Day sale but probably will end up saving more closer to December 5th. That gives me time to use up some candles but when the sale comes, I will not go hog wild, just don't want to be overrun with candles again.

But I rediscovered no 5 Eau Premiere and have been wearing it at some point in the day for the past couple days. I had bought a 2.5 ounce bottle when Eau Premiere came out when I didn't fully understand the original no 5 but kind of liked it.

I love Chanel no 5 and love all of the formulations. Well, except no 5 L'Eau. L'Eau doesn't really smell similar to no 5, it's more of a third cousin once removed. Yeah, L'Eau has no real resemblance to Eau Premiere; let alone no 5. Eau Premiere is more of the younger sister or maybe first cousin at the very outside to no 5. I have forgotten how good Eau Premiere smells but I have no idea how the current version of Eau Premiere smells, Hopefully, sometime soon, I will get to a department store to get a whiff and maybe score a sample to see how it smells. I am hoping that I will start wearing more old favorites in the coming days or weeks.

The Holiday Challange

Last week, I did make a goal for myself and mostly kept it. If I remember right, I had said that I would wear Chanel no 5 for at least five whole days. I can't remember if I had said it in a comment on Now Smell This or a blog post.

I did say that I was going to stick to wearing solely the EDT version. For the first three days, I had managed to accomplish. Then I got annoyed with no 5 on the third day and when the third day ended, it was time for bed. I still wanted to keep with my theme and grabbed Eau Premiere and wore it to bed. I have forgotten how wonderful Eau Premiere was. Friday, Saturday and today, I had worn Eau Premiere. Tomorrow will be a coin toss between no 5 proper or the Eau Premiere and I haven't decided on which yet. I don't have a current bottle of Eau Premiere, my bottle of Eau Premiere from when Eau Premiere was first released, so I can't comment on reformulations.

The whole reason I decided to stick with one perfume for 7 days is because of my job and trying to finish some bottles. I work in retail and this time of year, it's mass chaos and I don't want to put tons of effort into thinking about what perfume to wear. I have backups of no 5 and there is no need for me to hoard it.

Is no 5 sexy? I don't find it to be, it's got that freshly scrubbed face type of feel to me. Vintage is a little different though due to the nitro musks and those nitro musks lend a hint of sexy. I didn't want to give off that vibe when I was at work. But I really want to start wearing my Tauers, I want my vintage Bal and Shalimar. Christmas day is when I am hoping to bust those out and wear them.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

The Two Months of "No Buy"

For the past two months, I inadvertently decided to not buy any decants. It hit me around mid-November that Christmas was a month away and I would not have a lot of my own money left over if there was for decants let alone full bottles. So, I neglected getting decants and full bottles of perfume in favor of gifts for my family. When Christmas Day rolled around, it was a pretty good day for me perfume wise. A flanker of Chanel no. 5 Sensual Elixir (haven't tried it out yet) was gifted to me along with some Christmas money that did turn into a bottle of no. 5 Eau Premiere. But I still didn't and have not bought any other decant or perfume.

I'm still obsessed with perfume but I am not finding anything that is really catching my fancy where I must get my hands on a sample or decant. The new Lubin Idole is catching my fancy somewhat because it is in EDP form. But have not decided if I really should get a decant. But in the past couple of months, I kind of did slow down with my perfume buying due to the fact that I a paying more for my cell phone bill. Instead of having a dumb phone, I now have an Android phone and with any smartphone/Android comes a data package. The higher cell phone bill has eaten into my perfume budget. At first I lamented, but now I have learned to embrace a higher cell bill eating up my perfume budget by $30. It has made me realize that I need to use up some smaller decants before I go buying more.

Chanel no. 19 Poudre EDP Review

When I heard that Chanel was tweaking no. 19, I was slightly horrified like I was with no. 5 eau Premiere. While no. 5 eau Premiere turned out to be a lighter version of the no. 5 I know and love, but no. 19 Poudre is different. My slightly horrified feeling turned into full horror when I tried no. 19 Poudre. It smelled nothing like the no. 19 that I love. Poudre is nothing but powder, powder and more powder with iris laced through it. The no. 19 EDP is a very cold, green rose. It's like a leather corset. It's the type of perfume telling me this too, will pass when things get rough. No. 19 Poudre is a weak in the silage but has staying power. Will I get a bottle? Not in a million years. Will I get another decant? Definitely not. Poudre just turns my stomach in ways that are not good.

Chanel no. 5 eau Premiere Review

I had gotten a sample of Chanel's no. 5 eau Premiere when I bought Chanel's Cuir de Russie in parfum form about a year ago. Naturally, I was hesitant to chose the sample instead of some other sample. The reason is that there was a horrified feeling of tampering with a legend. I had initially tried it and dismissed it as nothing impressive and proceeded to give away my sample. After wearing the originally no. 5 in eau de parfume, I wondered if I had dismissed eau Premiere to readily. Then it was off to the Perfumed Court to get a 1.5ml decant to try. After wearing eau Premiere for two days straight, I'm still not wild about eau Premiere. Eau Premiere is lighter and softer than the original. After wearing Eau Premiere, I did notice that it didn't last as long as any of the Chanels that I have tried and own. It only lasted about 6 hours compared to the 24 hours that I am used to with other Chanels. I did find myself craving the original no. 5 while wearing eau Premiere. Would I get a bottle? No. Decant? Maybe.