Pre-orders, Samples and Traveling

I did mention a while ago about the new Halo being released this summer. I kept my eyes and ears peeled for some released pictures and what day it would be released.

I found out some time in the past couple weeks that Halo Campaign Evolved was coming out July 27th or the 28th. I am not looking it up for the exact day but was looking at some of the screenshots. When I found out the release date, I had pre-ordered the game. For new video game releases, $50 is not a bad price since most game releases are around $70. I don't often order video games and when I do, they are usually not the latest release. So this was on the more unusual side for me. I know that my dad and I will be playing this quite a bit.

So I have done more perfume shopping in the passed couple weeks. I have given up on finding my travel spray of Hedonist and said screw it and ordered one from the Victoria Minya website. The travel spray arrived yesterday and I was a little less than enthused. I expected it to be shipped in a box and not an envelope. The travel spray was in a silky bag. I just expected a little more protection but the good thing was that my travel spray was undamaged and I love the aesthetic of the Victoria Minya bottles and travel sprays.

What is worrying my is in about two and a half weeks, I will be traveling to California to see my sister. I have the clothes I want to take picked out, my toiletries are already taken care of and I have my medication. The only things I have to do is pack, and pick out which perfume(s) I want to take. I will be flying out early Monday morning and coming home on Saturday. I let my sister know that I have $1,000 in my bank account and a $300 limit credit card, so I can't go hog wild. Even though she said that it was plenty, I am still worried about the financial part of it. I know things are not going to be cheap and if the subject of Disney comes up, I will probably have to give Disney a pass. I am not and never was one of those adult Disney fans.

This is the first time that I have traveled and didn't have a fist full of credit cards and working 40 plus hours a week. Even though I have 2 low credit limit credit cards, 1 of those will be left at home. Having a fist full of credit cards has led me to a whole lot of financial help that I have been trying to dig myself out of.

The perfume choices that I have made thus far for my trip to California is my almost finished bottle of vintage-ish Chanel no 19 edp and a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. The no 19 is the only definite one since the bottle is almost empty and I have figured that I might as well do is finish it. But the Gris Charnel could change though and I do want to stick to a travel spray. Since it will be horribly hot in California, I don't want to take the heavy hitters with me.

 

Lush Rose Jam Line Up Review, Kind Of

When I was on vacation, I did devote a day to the Lush Rose Jam line up. It was either late last year or early this year, Ulta had some of those gift set minis of Lush products and I had gotten both the Sleepy and the That's My Jam gift set. I did develop a liking for Sleepy and it has taken me forever to get around to the Rose Jam stuff. A few days ago, I gave the Rose Jam another go.

The first go around, I fell in love with the body wash. The body was is a huge jam like rose with some lemon. The body wash is just like Sleepy and Sleepy Bear. Thick, cleansing and none too drying. So I fell in love with the body wash. When I get matching bath and body stuff, I can still smell the soap when I dry off. With the Rose Jam body wash, there was no lingering scent and I was and am, a little miffed about that. Maybe because I am used to the Chanel and Amouage bath and body stuff and it is probably an unfair comparison of even the soaps lasting well after I got out of the shower.

The body conditioner was what I really struggled. I have never used a body conditioner before and probably didn't use it right or maybe because I take showers and not baths. When I put it on my legs, it seemed to just slide right off, no matter how I moved the shower head. But my second go around was a little different. I moved the shower head to where it wasn't being rinsed off right away and used a little more. The first time, no scent seemed to have been left behind. So the second shower with the body conditioner was way different. My legs and arms felt really greasy when I rinsed off the conditioner and took a little of the body wash to see what I could get off but I was still left with a greasy feeling. I did enjoy the smell of the body conditioner because it was rich, it was heady but it was just a hot mess on me. I think that Lush should have just stuck with having a regular lotion. So the body conditioner is going to be regulated for when I shave my legs.

Then came the travel spray of perfume. For a while, I was thinking of what Rose Jam reminded me of. Then I remembered what it reminded me of. I was reminded of Guerlain Nahema and PHI Une Rose de Kandahar. Now, I love Rose de Kandahar and have a travel spray of it but no full bottle. Andy Taker and Lush are using the same roses from the same region. So I am viewing the Rose Jam perfume as a dupe for Rose de Kandahar.

Would buy any of the Rose Jam stuff again? No, even though I love the body wash. I didn't think that Lush is my thing and I have heard people on the Perfume Posse rave about Lush and I wanted and tried to give Lush a fair shake. So I will probably gift what I have and use up what is already opened and what hasn't been opened, I will just gift.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady Review and Other Things

For a while, I did kick around the idea of taking weight loss medication. I always was a little hesitant to take them. My line of thinking was that it was an easy way out to lose weight and seeing some people like Kelly Osbourne take it to the extreme. What if I take this to the extreme and end up looking like I have an eating disorder? The when my doctor had mentioned that I did make strides in weight loss and my health, I probably wasn't going to lose a whole lot more weight with just diet and exercise. With my family history of heart disease and diabetes along with my having PCOS, it was time to talk about weight loss medication. After kicking around that information, researching and talking to others who have been on weight loss medication, I decided to go ahead.

Then I ran into a big snag, Medicaid. You would think that Medicaid would pay for a medication to help me get healthy. Apparently not. I just don't understand how Medicaid would rather pay for the complications of being obese but not a medication to help people get healthy. I want to get healthy. I am tired of my feet and knees hurting, I am tired of being winded and I want to not have diabetes like my grandfather did and eventually his kidneys failed. Even my band aid health insurance through my job won't pay for it. Apparently, I am not the only one in the same boat. Even people who just have private insurance have a difficult time with this. But I will tell you that even Good RX could only get it down to $149 a month. But I would have to pay Good RX for some kind discount and paying $39 per month and then $149 for one medication is excessive. I don't have $149 per month to spend out of pocket. My savings account would only be able to get a little over 6 months. But yet, Medicaid has no issues with paying for bariatric surgery. I just get it, what do I have to do? Start a go fund me for this?

Over Memorial Day weekend, I saw that Frederic Malle had a sample set of 3 for $20. One of those samples is Portrait of a LwrongSo I gave that a whirl towards the end of the week. I did hear that it was one of those more sensual perfumes. I am one of those that will wear vintage Bal a Versailles out of the house and was hoping that it would be along the lines of Bal a Versailles.

Turns out that it was not the case. What I got was something that was pretty much identical to Headspace Rose. The whopping dose of rose was just all sorts of wrong. The rose is like the dreaded "old lady" type of rose. I do smell some kind of crushed stems but it doesn't seem to suit the rose. All I know that Portrait of a Lady hates me and I dislike Portrait of a Lady. I will have to admit that the lasting power is pretty close to the half life of plutonium and the projection has a far reach. So all I got was something that smells dated.
 

First Vacation of the Year

 

I am on my first vacation of the year and don't have a whole lot planned. On Sunday, my family celebrated my mother's birthday and I wore the original Hedonist. Yesterday, I wore Worth's Courtesan and today will be Nasomatto Nuda. After today, I have no idea what perfumes I will be wearing.

My plan isn't really to use anything up right now. Would that be great to use something up? You bet but it's probably not going to happen. My goal is to wear the things that I don't wear too often.

I tried to sit on my hands and not buy anything related to make up and perfume, even samples. I had some success in not partaking in this passed BOGO candle sale from Bath and Body Works. Right now, they are having some kind of bath and body sale going on and I am not interested. Most of their soaps, lotions and body sprays turn into smelling like Play Dough on me. But I failed on the perfume front. I hopped on over to Andy Tauer's US website with no intention of getting anything. Some times, window shopping can be fun. But my down fall was the sample set. Five 1.5 spray samples for $53 was a little pricey but I was able to get samples of the newest releases. I would like to support a perfumer directly when I can. It seems like Andy Takes has released quite a few perfumes in a short period of time. I keep hoping that he brings back Noontide Petals and Une Rose Vermeille and the 10ml travel sprays.

A couple weeks ago, Call the Midwife ended after 15 seasons and I cried throughout the final episode. But I was a little disappointed. The last episode seemed rushed and disjointed. We did see Sister Evangilina (sp?) make an appearance but some of the original characters did not make an appearance and I was not enthused. Some of of the original characters that left, we were left hanging on to what happened to them after they left because they were real life characters. Instead,it was just a collage of pictures. After season 7 or 8 is when the quality had started to go down and too many characters were introduced and then left after a season or two. Then the storylines seemed to be rushed. Call the Midwife used to take their time with story lines but then storylines got shorter and it didn't quite feel the same. There might be a Call the Midwife prequel and movie but this wouldn't come out for a few years. Next is what will be the last season of Grantchester some time in June or July. After that, I will have to find another series to get lost in. It's rare that I can find a series that I can get lost in. So it is back to the drawing board.

Lush Dream Cream and Stuff

It seems like I can't get through two or three months without spending money at Bath and Body Works. It seems like ever since Bath and Body Works did the Bridgerton collaboration, I have always taken a look but didn't buy. I did spend and got the Queen Charlotte's Tea candles and a couple hand washes but that was it. I had no interest in the Stranger Things collab or the Disney Princess one. But stupid me, I had to check last week and there it was, a Star Wars collaboration. I do love Star Wars and I did cave in. The damage was 3 hand soaps and a three wick candle. Two of the hand soaps will be gifts but the rest will be used up. It just seems like when I seem to make any kind of progress, I seem to back slide. I just have to get back on the bandwagon and keep moving.

I kept meaning to do another Lush review but kept forgetting to actually sit down and do it. The products that I did test out was the Sleepy Bear body wash and the Dream Cream body lotion. I honestly thing that the Sleepy Bear body was smells similar to the Sleepy but is toned down. What bothered me was the chamomile, I think because I can be a little iffy on chamomile. But the scent didn't linger past me stepping out of the tub. So Sleepy Bear isn't my thing scent wise. But Sleepy Bear body wash does have that lather that Sleepy does and it does take a little bit longer to rinse off. Sleepy Bear will be regulated to shaving.

Dream Cream, I thought would be something I did like, in spite of having chamomile. Turns out, the answer is nope, I don't like this one bit. The lavender and chamomile are faint but the lavender is even fainter than the chamomile. All that would have been fine because I could douse myself in Jicky and things would be fine. There is a huge oat note that is incredibly big and doesn't seem to calm down let alone fade away. The oat just sits there. There is no development or anything.  But what annoys me so much is that Dream Cream is so greasy. My skin might be dry but this was too much. The two small unopened containers of Dream cream will go for birthdays an Christmas.
 

It is Starting to Feel Real

My trip to California is starting to feel real. It hit me that I have a shade over two months of waiting. I am close to paying off Afterpay and Klarna and at this point, I want to pad my checking account a little more but still have a good amount in my savings. 

But I had to really think about a couple other things. One is which BNPL cards do I want to take. Do I take Klarna or Affirm? I am leaning towards Klarna due to it's higher limit and I can use it in more places. But the decision that I made in the past 12 hours is to apply for a credit card. A pre approval from Capital One came in the mail. For the past month, Capital One has been sending me some letters about a pre approval and when I thought about it, getting a credit card for my trip might be a wise idea. With my lousy credit, I didn't expect any kind of approval. To my surprise, I was given the Quicksilver One. It might be a $300 limit with a $39 annual fee but I will take it. I hope that I won't mess this one up. I will have to remind my sister that I don't have tons of money and say that I have been working on getting a couple things squared away in terms of finances.

I am still thinking of which perfume I am going to take. I don't expect to go and do any kind of perfume shopping or sniffing during my trip. My idea of taking that vintage bottle of no 19 edp still stands. It will be hot when I will be in California and it would probably be a great idea to just finish that bottle. I could take that bottle of Nasomatto Nuda or Number One Intense but I think that I should take only 1 bottle. Since I will be traveling by my lonesome, maybe on the way back, I can check out duty free. Doesn't mean that I buy anything but if I remember, I will take a look.

In my using things up resolution, I used up more stuff. I used up the little bottle of the Lush Sleepy body wash and a little bottle of the Cheirosa 62 body wash. Now if I could use up the lotions, I would feel better. I found a little dabber sample of Serge Lutens MKK and decided to use that up if nothing else, just get rid of it. I still have to larger decants of MKK. The upside is that I am not buying more stuff to drag into the house and setting myself back when more than I already have. If I could find a way to use up those lotions even faster, it would be a great thing.
 

Look at What I Just Found

I know that I did chronicle at some point of not being able to find some bottles of perfume. The most notable one was Amouage Memoir and to a lesser extent, Zagorsk. I did wonder where my full bottle of Jubilation 25 and the original Hedonist.

Yesterday was a day that I decided to work on more perfume organizing. I made it mostly through. I knew that I had one backup bottle of Lyric but it turns out that I had 2 backup bottles of Lyric and have a quarter used bottle of Lyric on my nightstand. So if Amouage decides to discontinue Lyric (I hope the hell not), I will be okay but will probably try and grab another bottle. So I went through 2 of the tubs with no luck finding Memoir or Zagorsk. I did end up throwing quite a few evaporated dabber samples and perfume packaging. But I also combined some half used bottles of body wash and some shampoo. So in a way, I made it into something marginally more productive. Well, my resolution is to use up/get rid of stuff is happening, just happening slowly but I am not adding any more stuff that what I got at the Sephora sale.

When I didn't find the bottle of Memoir or Zagorsk, I was about it just give up and say that it was most likely either gone for good or somewhere still in the house. But I pulled out a box of what I thought were just candles, turns out had some perfume in their as well. That is when I found Memoir, Jubilation 25, Zagorsk and Hedonist. They were hiding in one of the many boxes that I store candles in. I am not sure what possessed me to put those perfumes where I store candles but I did. 

The reason why this has been bothering me was that Amouage is pretty pricey and not too many can sink $250 and up for one bottle of perfume. I know that I can't do that anymore. I was worried when I couldn't set my hands on my full bottle of Jubilation 25 or Zagorsk. Well, Zagorsk wasn't a huge deal but losing a full bottle of Amouage is.

While I am happy to have found some of my perfumes, I am still trying to locate my travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere and my travel spray of Hedonist. I have the Hedonist travel spray in Iris and Cassis but can't find the original Hedonist in the travel spray. I got the Hedonist travel set when I actually had fun money on a regular basis and it was when Luckyscent carried the Victoria Minya travel sets. I could go over to her website and buy it but I keep chickening out and remember that I am on a perfume no buy thing. I do have the Eau Premiere travel refills but the spray mechanism that would work is currently being used for the edp version of no 5 since the travel spray hasn't been used up yet. I just wish I can find those two damn things.