All Over the Place

For the past few months, I have found myself wrapped up in all sorts of drama that leaves me not wanting to try anything new and found myself wearing the same few scents on top of it. Or the it's so damned hot out, why would I really want to.

I've sort of made a resolution to finish some of my smaller (3ml or less) decants of perfume to make some kind of room in that makeup bag overflowing with decants. It is somewhat working because I've actually managed to finish 10 small decants but had to throw out 6 because of evaporation issues. That's alright though, the evaporated ones were ones that I didn't care for much or hated. It seems like every time that I finish a couple decants, Surrender to Chance has one of those really good sales of take 15% off your order and it's the here we go again, getting a bigger pile of decants. It's funny how I can make a half hearted resolution and mostly stick to it.

Hoardin Vintage and Hard to Find

I have found myself hoarding some of my perfumes. Hoarding in the hoarding the 3ml decant of vintage Mitsouko EDT and the 8ml of vintage Chanel no. 22 and not wearing them a whole lot. Don't get me started on my 16 ml of Deneuve extract or the mostly full bottle of the EDT.

The reason of why I really do it is because vintage can be hard to find or out of reach price wise. When I find a bottle that is halfway full or mostly full for a reasonable price, I try and see if my budget allows for it. Thus far, no, but next couple weeks, I should be able to.

Ever since I have joined Ebay, I have found a reliable source for full bottles of Worth Courtesan but none for full bottles of Sarrasins. It kind of bothers me that something may be readily available in Europe but not in the US. I know for a split second Barney's had the bell jars but the prices were horrible. I would love it if the Serge Lutens non export line were available in the US. Say, 5 or 6 would be sold full bottle wise then back to the non export line then it would be the the next 5 or 6. Not everyone has the desire to fly to Europe nor the means. It would take me 6 more years to save up for a trip to Paris. I know there is Surrender to Chance and The Perfumed Court but certain decants cost quite a bit if a perfume is not available in the US.  Discontinued, I understand.

I do hoard my vintage collection most of the time is that there never seems to be a situation or good time to wear these. I'm not wearing vintage anything to work is I've dealt with too many nasty people and bad situations where it has ruined some of my perfume collection. Or it is a family situation that has utterly ruins a perfume for me. It's kind of funny how something like perfume can get ruined by something or someone.

Tablets and Cellphones

I absolutely hate it when that time of year rolls around. The dreaded contract renewal of cellphones. Before I had a family plan, it was an easy process of contract renewal. Now, when there are three people, everyone wants something different. One wants a plan with more minutes, a bigger cell screen or what have you. Since someone else makes those decisions, it still means that I have to do all the research. I can write down what exactly is needed and said person doesn't get it. How hard is it to upgrade or downgrade? I let the one who is in charge of the cellphone plan know that they are on thier own, if they can't figure it out or complain about prices, then the cellphones must go. I find that some people make it harder than need be for something so simple.

Tablets like the iPad can be the worst thing for when I can't sleep. I don't have an iPad but the Samsung tablet and love it. I've never bought into the Apple hype like many people have. I can see cellphone wise if carriers are offering the iPhone for free. A friend of mine has an iPhone and after looking and using it a little bit, I've come to the conclusion that the iPhone sucks. But for the past couple nights, I haven't been able to fall asleep and I've been watching YouTube videos and reading blogs until 3 in the morning. I am thinking of leaving my tablet downstairs so I am less inclined to use it at night.

Of Power Outages

This past week, has been nothing but thunderstorms, heat and intermittant loss of power. In my neck of the woods, it means no running water, no flushing toilets, and don't you dare open the fridge type of deals. Before I started wearing perfume, I didn't care too much. Now, it kind of matters in a way.The smell of body odor and perfume covering it up or the smell of stale perfume can be horrible, even if you don't leave the house.

Every time, there is a storm system that looks like it will pass through my area, it's the same routine, get every bucket that I own, fill it with water, just in case. I never know how long my power is going to go out, it could be 24 hours or 3 days. I always chose my perfumes very carefully. I figure if the power goes out and I have to go out in public, I am not going to smell of BO and stale perfume. So it's a quick bath. Usually, I tend to chose Mitsouko, Chanel no. 5 or no.22.

If Something Where to Happen...

I adore online shopping for a lot of reasons but sometimes I do hate it. Having 3 Labrador Retrievers that eat twice a day, I go through a lot of dog food and a quality dog food can be expensive. My local pet store has raised their prices and at a recommendation of a vet, ordered their dog food online. It turns out that the dog food I got was recalled. I send the dog food back, and get an email saying that they are refunding my credit card, minus shipping. The refund has yet to show up on my credit card. Why is it that companies are quick to take your money but really slow on refunding it when you return something? I'm guessing that it was the weekend and I will give them a couple days and see if it shows up.

Bookstores are hard to come by when you live in a rural area. And rural libraries are not the greatest either. Rural bookstores and libraries are prone to carry whatever is on the bestseller list (aka whatever is really popular at the moment). The only bookstore that is halfway decent is an independant bookstore a half an hour away. I do love indepandant bookstores in small towns. Often, they are in the middle of town, in these small, century buildings. A few days ago, I was attending a free concert and took advantage of being able to walk around the square and remembered the bookstore. When we had a Borders that was 20 minutes away, it wasn't unusual for me to just drop $100 or more on books, this was a treat to me to wander around and actually get a book. I often don't limit myself to how many books or how much I can spend on books but with limited space and selection, I managed to walk out with only one book. And I had forgotten how it's highway robbery with hardcover books.

A couple friends of mine asked me that because they are marginally interested and mostly disgusted by my "perfume habit". If one likes collecting teapots and other little nick knacks and the other loves collecting old postcards, I will collect perfume. I've been asked that if something were to happen, what perfume(s) would I take. At first, I was a little confused because that could be a loaded question. If the house where on fire, if I remembered to grab my purse, it would be whatever decants and/or full bottles that are in there. If I have to move over seas and had to downsized, I'd take Mitsouko, Deneuve, Chanel no. 22 and Amouage Dia. The airline companies limit your liquids to 3 ounces and some of my favorites are 3.4 ounces. If I had to move 50 miles away, I'd probably take as many bottles as I could.

Trashy and Cheap, Versace Signature Review

Rooting through the medium sized box of perfumes that I've somewhat outgrown, I came across Versace Signature, and I was amazed when I spritzed it on me. I was amazed that I spent around $40 for something so trashy smelling. It smelled of cheap fruit and rotting flowers to my nose. Sometimes cheap and trashy in perfume can smell quite good and well made but this is something that smells like someone took a bad air freshener and combined it with fruit. This might smell good to someone who has never smelled anything besides Bath and Body Works or Victoria's Secret. Versace Signature seems to last forever and has an airy quality to it. But I am still wondering on why I bought it in the first place.

Trashy and cheap can be great when well done but not when it smells like this. Can a $200 bottle of perfume smell cheap and or trashy? Yes, but if you have the means to put quality ingredients in perfume by all means, do. Sometimes I wish that perfume companies would take the time to create a perfume and release one perfume every couple years instead of every 6 months.

Frederic Malle's En Passant Review

Did you have one of those times where you want to try something in your unsniffed and unreviewed pile that you hoped where it wouldn't be all that hard to figure out? I was there a couple days ago and I did grab En Passant.

En Passant has been floating around in perfume land since 2000 and I've been a perfume nut since 2007/2008. I am wondering on how En Passant kept falling off my radar. I think that I was wrapped up in smelling other things.

En Passant starts with a huge blast of lilac. I have to do a double take in the beginning because En Passant is very much like the lilac room spray that I had gotten at Bath and Body Works. But the lilac is not as harsh as the lilac room spray. After about 10 to 15 minutes later, the lilac calms down but the lilac is dominant from start to finish. There is a wheat note that I do smell an hour afterwards, I kind of like the wheat bit because it off sets the lilac a little bit and seems to give the whole perfume some kind of anchor. I did notice that En Passant does have a watery element but I think that it keeps the lilac from being overwhelming and the wheat from being yeasty. If you have ever smelled fresh baked bread with too much yeast or bread that spent too much time rising, it gets a really yeasty unappetizing sort of smell to it. I like En Passant very much but I would probably only be wearing my decant in the spring time so right now a full bottle is out.