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!

Holidays and Perfume

To me, there is a definite correlation between Christmas and perfume. I haven't received a bottle of a perfume as a gift in over 10 years. The perfume was called Pure Turquoise and at the time, I didn't like it but had to say that I did. Back then, I wasn't really interested in perfume. I had a few bottles but didn't wear them that much. Things have changed and what I like is expensive and nobody wants to give it to me because I am a little on the picky side too. I don't often get other people perfume for Christmas unless it was specifically asked for. Most people that I know, are not the perfume wearing sort. Perfume is a personal thing and I don't want to go looking like the equivalent of restocking milk in the fridge.

There is something else that I seem to have taken to doing with holidays. During the holiday week, I wear the same perfume continuously. I had worn CdG Kyoto. While I enjoyed it, Kyoto seemed to bore me towards the end and had too much in the bottle to finish it. I think that Christmas and New Years will be a little different. Last night, I had applied no 5 Eau Premiere for my bed time scent. Then the idea struck for this blog post and made up my mind for this week at work. I have spent my 2 waking hours debating which concentration of no 5 I should be wearing. I had to look at the EDT and the EDP and decide. In the end, I chose the EDT. When I saw that my bottle of no 5 EDT was about half full, I figured that I should really try to finish the bottle. I had to ask myself why I was hoarding my current versions of no 5 and I had no answer to why I was. I want to see if I can actually finish another bottle before the year is over.

Les Annees 25 by Andy Tauer Review

It's been a crazy couple weeks, between work, holiday shopping and the puppy needing surgery. Sydney, my 9 month old Lab, somehow got a huge gash in the area on the inside of her back leg and her belly. It was big enough and serious enough to require surgery instead of a couple stitches. It's been tough keeping her quiet and keeping her from licking her wound. But somehow, I actually managed to try something new.

I've admitted so many times in the past that I am a huge fan girl of Andy Tauer's work. Every time that I try a new perfume, I always hope that the clouds will part and the angels will start singing and the biggest house that I hope for is Andy Tauer. Les  Annees 25 is no different. I will admit that I had a tough time with the first 5 or 10 minutes, The first few minutes had a huge rubber or tar note and I can't quite figure out which one it is. I will be frank, I didn't like the tire/people paving a road type of thing at all. That kind of thing just doesn't belong in a perfume. After that tar/rubber thing disappears, some kind of citrus comes along. It's not a fresh cut lemon sort of thing but does come across as more of a lemon Pledge type of thing and I do find that pretty interesting. Citrus is hit or miss with me due to the fact that it is either nauseating or pretty nice. The lemon loses the Pledge thing pretty quick and goes for creamy. The creaminess is really what I call the shaving cream note. Specifically, the type that comes in an aerosol can. Most of the time I can't stand that whole shaving cream thing by Andy Tauer somehow manages to make it smell really good. I think that he pulled all these things together and got them to play nice with his typical Tauer base.

I find Les Annees 25 to be pretty smooth and pretty gentle. The lasting power on my skin is about 7 hours. For this time of year, and my skin being dryer than normal, that's pretty good. To tell the truth, I am kicking myself for not trying Les Annees 25 sooner and snapping up a bottle. I either didn't realized that full bottles are very limited or I simply forgot.

The Strangeness of Luckyscent

I used to be an avid shopper of Luckyscent. Years ago, I was receiving a package every 2 weeks but now, I am lucky if I place an order every 5 months. There is a reason for that. Or a few.

I had realized, at the time, that The Perfumed Court was legit and I was less eager to go to Luckyscent and just buy a full bottle of something that I probably wouldn't like. Then I had realized that FragranceNet and Beauty Encounter sold the Amouages that I had wanted for less. So yes, those sites actually did save me money.

What made me lose some interest in Luckyscent was the lack of coupons. Free shipping when you spend $75 or more is pretty easy to do when you are easily spending over $75 but a coupon for 15% off once or twice a year? The 20% off of Amouage that seems to go on year round? That doesn't make me run over to Luckyscent. Then I had noticed on Luckyscent that there were a few Tauer offerings that were not being sold. I was looking at getting a backup of Une Rose Vermeille and it was not on Luckyscent but was still being sold on Andy Tauer's website. Even with the cost of shipping, the cost was much cheaper. But I still wimped out and decided to get a backup of LADDM instead. Maybe with the new year, I will have that backup bottle. But after poking around Luckyscent, they do have Une Rose Vermeille back in stock and I'm wondering if it's for the holidays but I will still hop over to the Tauer website and order from there.

Dry Skin

Well, on Tuesday, Sydney (the puppy) has gotten spayed and she is now back to being her normal terrorizing self. She is very sweet and affectionate but into everything. Somehow, she had gotten into my Christmas gift bag and killed off a cheapo Sephora lip gloss that I was going to use as a stocking stuffer and almost destroyed an iTunes gift card meant for a friend. Luckily, I managed to save the actual gift card itself with the redemption code. Luckily, she didn't grab a hold of the Amouage Honour bar of soap that I have gotten for my mother, otherwise I would have been screwed because Amouage ain't cheap.

It's now winter here in Cleveland, well not officially according to the calender. That means dry skin city. This time of the year is more than a little rough on my skin. It always is pretty difficult to find a lotion that will help with my dry skin. Many lotions that I have tried have either been too light, too heavy or caused some sort of reaction for my skin. It's not just dry skin, it's dry lips too. I have had cracks in the corners of my lips for the past few years. I attribute some of those cracks to the fact that I have lost teeth and can't eat as well as I could but winters are the worst.

Finding a good moisturizer has always been a problem for me. It's either too thick, too thin or causes irritation. I don't always use the Amouage body stuff that I have. Part of the reason is that Amouage is usually pretty expensive and it's rare that I find anything that is in my price range. Like yesterday, while poking around Amazon before work, I had found Jubilation 25 body milk (lotion) for $58. That was something that I couldn't refuse and naturally I snapped it up. Hey, when am I going to find a deal like that. I am still waiting on a good deal for the Epic body butter or lotion.

The Holiday Season

We are now into the holiday season. Some don't consider the few days before the holiday season as part of the holiday season but I do. The older I have gotten, I haven't been able to enjoy the holidays as much. It doesn't seem to be the same without little kids and the magic that they bring.

The one thing that I really don't like about the holiday season is Christmas shopping. About three quarters I do online but I have to go to an actual store to finish. I am not a fan of crowds, the being pushed around by other customers, the insistent Christmas music and the inevitable question of, "Do you work here?'. How can you not notice that I am not wearing a uniform, not notice that I am wearing a coat and carrying a purse.

I am not asking for any kind of perfume and learned years ago, not to. The last time I was gifted a bottle of perfume was well before I got into perfume. The name was Pure Turquoise  by (I think) Ralph Lauren and I hated it. It smelled like a chemical mess and didn't wear it more than twice. I am waiting until after the holidays for getting another perfume. That is if I don't end up going over to Smell Bent and get Bohemian Rhapsody.

La Maison de la Vanille Vanille givree des Antilles Review

Thus far, it seems like I have wasted more time and money at Ulta and Sephora. Last Saturday, I was starting some Christmas shopping and ended up at Ulta. After poking around the little perfume section that mine has, I smelled Chanel's Gabrielle. I didn't spray any on due to the fact that I was wearing Amouage Epic and forgot to pack some decanting supplies. From what I could tell, it was mediocre at best and something I have smelled a million times before. I think that Chanel can do a better job when creating new perfumes.

But I have to get going on this review that has been floating around my brain and sitting in my drafts section of my blog. I have started to really explore vanilla perfumes and stumbled across the La Maison de la Vanille travel set. For 5 15ml coming in at $50, it was a bargain. For $50, I am not expecting them to be SDV or Havana Vanille but I am expecting something a little better than something cheap smelling. So for the past week, off and on, I have been wearing Vanille givree des Antilles.

At first spray, I get a very mellow, slightly inedible vanilla. Then things get a little funky and I couldn't place what kind of took over. It was a shaving cream note that started to dominate. My nose has always found a shaving cream note to be a funky note that tries to add a creamy type of vibe. But the issue becomes the threat of the shaving cream note completely turns me off. The vanilla was slightly inedible, like I had mentioned before but not far enough over for me to enjoy it. This one lasted about 5 hours on skin before fading out. That's pretty good for an EDT but a full bottle isn't in the cards for me.