Rogue Perfume Champs Lumaires Review

 

Rouge Perfumes is my latest perfume house discovery. I have been slowly working my way through my discovery set. I was really starting to get bored with constantly wearing the same 2 or 3 perfumes and needed a break. And since I adore Flos Mortis, I figured that I would give Champs Lumaires a go.

Champs Lumaires is another tuberose heavy perfume. I had initially thought that Champs Lumaires would be a lighter version of Flos Mortis. The tuberose is the only thing that both have in common. Flos Mortis is a raunchy tuberose, Champs Lumaires is a more polite tuberose. But I did notice something a little on the goofy side though. There was a banana chew type note. I wonder if it is the coconut that is giving that kind of vibe or something else. The banana vibe smells artificial and I am going to have to give this another go at a later date.

In other news, partially out of boredom and the other part of curiosity is I was looking at the Chanel website. I wanted to know if Chanel had their no 5 extrait/parfum bottles back in stock. The only version of the parfum version was the grand extrait version. Then I hit the chat button. When asked, I was just told that they do have the grand extrait version for sale and to sign up for the newsletter. My not so hot retort was that not all of us can spend what probably be 2 or 3 months of a mortgage payment or rent on a bottle of perfume. I was looking for just a quarter ounce of the extrait for gifts. I know I am signed up for the newsletter but I am not into the Chance line up and I have enough makeup at the moment. So I am still hoarding what is left of my extrait.

Hiram Green Tryst Review

I am not sure what has been up with me come lately. It's either I am testing something or I am wearing the same old thing. But this time, it is a new to me brand and that is Hiram Green. Earlier this year, I had gotten the Hiram Green discovery set from Luckyscent. Luckyscent was probably running some kind of promo and Luckyscent isn't one to do too many promotions like a percentage off or free shipping on anything and everything. 

But Tryst is the first one up. First blast was something citrus and I have a very difficult time with citrus. But there was a big alcohol type blast for some reason because Hiram Green is supposed to be a natural perfume. While the citrus went way into the background, the orange blossom and honey came front and center and stayed there. I do love a slutty perfume but this is the kind d of slutty that I didn't care for at all. I don't know if it was the honey, orange blossom or the two being together but it smelled like I urinated in my pants and couldn't be bothered to change. Even though my sample is a spray sample and this is an edp, I found that the longetivity was lacking. I expected at least 8 hours but only had about 4 or 5 hours but in this case, it was a good thing. With the way things are going with inflation, I would have expected a little more. But I am not a fan of Tryst and I will not be getting a bottle any time soon.
 

Narciso Rodriguez Pure Musc Review

 

So I did make it to the county fair yesterday. I did have a good time but I did pay for it this morning. Ever since my gallbladder surgery last year, I cannot have a lot of fried food. I had a milkshake, one corndog and a small serving of fries. I was hoping to find deep fried pickles but couldn't find them for some reason. I found some taco trucks and a Chinese food truck at the fair but wasn't interested. I did not go to the fair for Chinese food or tacos, I wanted deep fried junk food and to see the 4H animals.

For the past week, I have been poking around Fragrance net to find some pretty good deals on travel sprays. But for a while, I was looking at blind buying a bottle of Narciso Rodriguez Pure Musc and realized that I have a little mini running around to test out.Good thing that I did find it and test it out. For the first 10minutes, I enjoyed the living daylights out of it. After the initial 10 minutes, I was like, is this it? I was waiting for the whole thing to keep developing and stay enjoyable. But it got a little more annoying than anything else. I wanted it to go to the realm of Kiehl's Original Musk Blend. You know, kind of slutty but not really. I do get a little bit of orange blossom but mostly generic musk. It might be a me thing right now. I just expected a little bit more out of the whole thing but my opinion might change in a month or two.

Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 Perfume Mist Review

 For the longest time, I didn't pay much attention to the Sol de Janeiro line up. It seemed like their line up was a little too expensive for what it seemed to be. And maybe a little too common. For a while, Sol de Janeiro had this whole Bath and Body Works vibe but a shade more expensive. But then I got a travel body wash and lotion sometime last year and did enjoy them. So a few days ago, Ulta offered a 5 points per every dollar spent on Sol de Janeiro products. I did bite on the travel kit of the Cheirosa 62. It came with minis of the body wash, Bum Bum cream and a body spray. With that order, I did spring for the travel spray of the perfume since summer is on the way.

So yesterday, I decided to give the Cheirosa 62 body spray a go. While I did enjoy the body wash and lotion, I haden't tried the body sprays or the perfume proper, I will eventually get to that travel spray, I wanted to bust out the body spray and give that a go. Some times with matching bath and body stuff, the perfume itself can smell pretty different than the body wash and lotion. I noticed that with my Chanel no 5 products and a little bit with  the Amouage body products but I didn't get that with Cheirosa 62. While I didn't layer the body spray with the bath stuff, the body spray smells exactly like the body wash and lotion. I wanted to get a little better impression if I just used the body spray on it's own to see what I thought.

The look and feel of the bottle reminds me of all the bottles of the Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon that I went through when I was in high school and the first couple years of college. I am not going to discuss what happened to Bath and Body Works in the past 20 years because it's not the Bath and Body Works that I remember. Too many reformulations, discontinuations and bottle changes and not to mention price.

I did get a little bit of a nutty, foodie type of smell with maybe some hints of flowers. But I got a little bit of a Worth Courtesan vibe to it too but fruit isn't listed in the notes. But what really got to me is that how the Cheirosa 62 faded pretty quick on my skin. I had only gotten about three to four hours of wear before I had to reapply. I wanted to see what kind of development would happen and there was none, it was just linear to my nose. But Cheirosa 62 was sweet but not horribly so. I honestly think that the body spray isn't to be used on it's own but with the lotion and body wash. All I know right now is that the body spray of Cheirosa 62 is not something that I am going to seek out. Eventually, I will get to the EDP version and see what the reading for that one is. So I am probably going to stick with the lotion and body wash.

Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane Review and Sub Zero Temps

There are some notes that are not often used or at least featured prominently in perfume. Pine is one of those notes. I haven't smelled pine featured so strongly in perfume until I tried Dior's Granville and then in CdG Zagorsk. So pine isn't featured too often. Maybe due to Pine-sol or Christmas tree associations. Banana is another note I haven't smelled in a perfume. I have smelled fruity perfumes, citrus perfumes but nobody seemed to use bananas. Until I met Comptoir Sud Pacifique Vanille Banane.

I was attracted to Vanille Banane partially due to the price point and the fact that banana took more of a center stage. So I decided to take a gamble on this one. For 30ml at a shade over $50, what did I really have to lose?  If I didn't like it, it wasn't going to be a huge loss.

Let's just say that I am not fully sure if I like Vanille Banane. The banana isn't like a fresh banana, I am reminded of either banana candy or those banana flavored popcicles that I loved as a kid. So the banana is an artificial smelling banana. But the banana doesn't last too long. When the banana dies down a little bit, I do get some vanilla and maybe a little bit of a whipped cream type of smell. But after that I get pretty much nothing. For $50, I did expect a little more. It has more of a Bath and Body Works vibe and smell to it and Bath and Body Works is cheap. I honestly did expect a little more, I expected more along the lines of Clinique Happy and Clinique Happy is a cheap and cheerful type of perfume. At this point, I am not fully sure if I like this or not.

Maybe I am not so sure about Vanille Banane is that Ohio is locked into some sub zero temps and will be until Wednesday. So my focus is not going outside and to stay warm. The only day that I need to actually go out in this weather is tomorrow for work. And I am not looking forward to going to work. I did wimp out today though. I was supposed to go out and get dog food but instead, I had it delivered to my doorstep. I could have done a little bit of grocery shopping to but I wasn't game for grocery shopping today, that's going to be tomorrow.
 

Amouage Epic 56 Review

A while back, TPC had a little bit left of the Amouage Epic 56 in stock. Since I adore the original Epic, I had to nab a little dabber. I haven't seen TPC offer it again and haven't seen it at all at STC. When I got it, I figured if I wouldn't be able to find it ever again on those sites, I'd have to make that dabber last if I really love it.

So Monday, I decided to give Epic 56 a test drive. And holy shit, is it good. It's Epic on steroids. A deeper, richer Epic. Yes, I love it in all of it's spicy, rosy goodness that made me fall in love with the original Epic. It's a little on the stronger side but this is Amouage and most of their older offerings are pretty strong.

I did a comparison of the extrait version of Epic (also dabber) on Monday night and the extrait of the original Epic does have the same potency but the original Epic extrait doesn't have the depth and richness of Epic 56.

I do love Epic 56 but at a price tag over over $500, it's not for me. I can get a little bit more from the Amouage website since they have the sample set of the exceptional extraits. I think that if Lyric was released as an exceptional extrait, I would truly be screwed since I really adore Lyric.

 

 

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 EDP Review

Off and on for a while, I've wanted  to get my hands on Baccarat Rouge 540. It was never a pressing thing for me to go and nab a sample. When I saw that Luckyscent had a Maison Francis Kurkdjian sample set that included Baccarat Rouge 540 in edp and extrait form, I jumped at the chance. I love sample sets. Sample sets allow me to try an entire line or most of a line. I always hope that there is at least one or two that I really like or love.

Baccarat Rouge 540 seems to have been a cult classic ever since it's been released in 2014. Everyone seems to have either raved about it or is raving about it, so my hopes were kind of high for this one.

I'm not so sure what exactly what I was expecting but I was hoping that one of two things were going to happen. Either the clouds were going to part and the angels were starting to sing or I would just fall in love. Well, it wasn't either one of those. I got something that smelled like perfumed dust that was maybe trying to go the Feminite du Bois route. I couldn't really pick out any one note but I was reminded of Feminite du Bois. But I did notice that this did smell like a more expensive smelling perfumed dust. For something that has more of an Amouage price tag, I did expect something that would be a little bit more impressive. Let's hope when I work my way through the sample set, I will find something that I enjoy but 540 in the edp form isn't for me.
 

Clinique Hint of Citrus Review

 It looks like I won't have a snooping relative coming over and spending a few days with me. This snooping relative is the one that loves to open other people's mail, especially to find out how much cash they have. They decided that they were going to stay home since there are no televisions in bedrooms and Fox News has been blocked. Televisions don't belong in bedrooms in my opinion. 

On the other hand, I made a somewhat decent Sephora run and don't really have any desire to purchase anything from Sephora anytime soon. Most of the time, I only really shop at Sephora when they have their November and April sales. I find that most of their stuff is somewhat more than I am willing to spend.

I haven't paid much attention to Clinique line outside of Happy. But I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the Happy lineup in years. I love the original Happy and Happy Heart but for so many years, I either wasn't interested in perfume or was getting other perfumes. In the years that I wasn't into perfume, outside of passing moments, the money wasn't there. The whole broke ass college student thing. I was more worried about tuition and books than buying that bottle of perfume. And when I dropped out of college, it was the whole low level retail thing and the cash wasn't there. And slowly, what little perfume I had, dwindled down to nothing.

But when I saw the little Happy mini set at Ulta, I pounced. I mainly wanted to try Hint of Citrus and the price was right for me, I figured that if Hint of Citrus sucked, I had the others to enjoy at least. I find that Hint of Citrus really isn't really what I would call a flanker. Hint of Citrus flirts with the idea but never goes into the flanker territory. I mainly smell grapefruit and some floral hints but nothing ties Hint of Citrus to the Happy line and I spent a few hours trying to find the relationship. But got nothing of the sort and thought that this could have been a Theorema dupe of sorts. I will admit the bottle was cute and did kind of like the grapefruit note but I am not really a fan of Hint of Citrus. I don't dislike it or hate it, I am just not impressed with it

Since I am not really a fan of this, I will have to say that outside of the mini set, it looks like Hint of Citrus was discontinued years ago. I don't think that Clinique was ever in the habit of discontinuing any Happy flankers but there might have been a few. This sample mini set might be a testing the waters bit to see if Hint of Citrus would be possible either as part of the Happy line up all year long or just a seasonal thing, just like Wrappings is a seasonal thing.

Amouage Opus I Review

 My massive bottle of Estee Lauder Pleasures arrived a few days ago and I am admiring the sheer size of the box. It always takes me a few days before I actually open the box to get to the bottle. My points balance from Ulta seems to be growing at it's own accord but I am banking those points for later on for a bottle of Chanel. I don't know which one and I do hope around Christmas time, Ulta will offer more travel spray options.

Currently, my mind is running through the list of things that I need to do tomorrow night and Saturday morning. It's always the stupidest, smallest stuff that gets to me. The never ending cleaning list, my mother's birthday is next week and want to finalize any kind of odds and ends I need to get before her birthday. But her gift is pretty much finished.

I haven't really kept up with Amouage after Lilac Love was released. I might have sampled something after Lilac Love but all I know is that I didn't really like what direction Amouage was going perfume wise. Still not very interested in acquiring more samples at the moment and definitely no full bottles. I've already spent too much cash on perfume and so early in the year.

While I did pay a whole lot of attention to Amouage, especially early on, I didn't pay too much attention to the Opus line. Amouage prices have always been a little scary for me but knowing what I know now, I can check out Fragrancenet and BeautyEncounter for my Amouage needs. 

Opus I is a strange tuberose dominant perfume. Normally, I abhor tuberose as a dominant note in any perfume. Tuberose is usually too dense and overwhelming and really overpowers everything else. The tuberose comes close on a few occasions to overtake everything else but doesn't quite to that. Opus I is described as a chypre and I do get that vibe. I think what keeps the tuberose from taking over is the old books note and I think that is why I am calling the tuberose strange. Opus 1 kind of hums along without being loud. Lasting power is about what I do expect for an Amouage, about 8 to 10 hours. Right now, while there are aspects I like, I am still not sure about the tuberose. At best, I can say that I am indifferent to this Amouage offering but I do think that I need to wear this a couple more times before I can make a sound judgement and hopefully pick out a few more notes.