Chanel no. 22 EDT Review

I ordered a fairly large 15 ml decant of Chanel no. 22 EDT from the Les Exclusifs line. I read up on the notes and reviews and thought that no. 22 would be something I would like. I was wrong, I don't like it. Much of no. 22 is a characteristic Chanel but it is very green smelling. It's the type of green that churns my stomach and a headache sets in. Then the powdery dry down sets in and put no. 22 in the migraine category. No. 22 smells like it is unfinished in many ways. The green element is screechy and seemingly crude. This is the first Chanel that I have disliked right off the bat since I have become a perfume fanatic.

L'Artisian Voleur de Roses Review

I have been one a little bit of a rose kick and I am wearing L'Artisian Voleur de Roses. Voleur de Roses is not your typical rose scent. It's an earthy rose. What keeps popping into my head is a certain part in the book Anne of Avonlea where Anne and her friends find Hester Grey's lost garden and the book The Secret Garden. But what happens is that I find a lost, dead garden. A completely dead garden. Then, as soon as it starts to rain, the garden only partially comes back to life in the form of roses. Like most of L'Artisian scents, they are eau de toilette and that does prevent me from testing a lot of thier scents. Eau de toilette is difficult for me. Part of it is having dry skin no matter what time of year it is and eau de toilette does have the tendancy to go a little sour on me. Voleur de Roses lasts a surprising 5 hours on my skin. In the last hour, it does begin to go sour but Voleur de Roses disapears on my skin. I have a huge 3.4 ounce bottle of it that is slowly getting used. I am still undecided on if I like it or not.

Worth Courtesan

I stumbled upon Worth's Courtesan on the Perfumed Court looking for skanky perfumes. Courtesan is supposed to be a skanky perfume but I am not getting any kind of skank. Initially, I was wary of getting a sample because a lot of notes listed are fruit notes. After wearing Courtesan for a few hours, I get flowers with a hint of fruit. Courtesan is a sweet, skin scent with a weak note of seduction. It's nice and likable but it is a perfume in transition. Courtesan seems to be trying to go from being a fruity floral mess to something very seductive, a real woman's perfume. The Perfumed Court is the only place I can find Courtesan without going on Ebay. Ebay just scares me and that would be another post. Staying power is good and sillage is minimal. I probably won't get another 1.5 ml or any decant once I finish this one. It's pleasant but it doesn't move me in any way to the point of where I have to get another decant or take the plunge into Ebay.

Frapin Passion Boisee Review

Frapin is a house that seems to be hit or miss for the most part on me. I love Frapin's 1270 for it's warm booziness and have a mild dislike of Espirit de Fluers for it's weird ability to make me queasy. Then I tried Passion Boisee. I like it but I don't love it. Even though it is pegged for men, I find it to be wearable on a woman. Passion Boisee reminds me of Chanel's Sycomore with out the smokey quality to it. But I do get a distinct cedar chips. Cedar chips as in the type that people use for hamster cages. What reins in the cedar, before it runs away, is cloves. I find it to be a surprising airy scent for something that is so woody. I am not getting a leather note at all with this and I love leather. Leather as in a well made and well used saddle not suede. As I have said, it's likeable but not something I would reach for when I am craving a man's scent.

Chanel no. 5 Parfum Review

It has taken me a while to warm up to Chanel no. 5.When I first tried it at the age of 23, I disliked it immensely. I did try it in a department store and I used the lotion. The reason why I didn't like it at the time is because I was used to flowery perfumes and my nose wasn't too developed. Then, a few years later, I took the plunge to try no. 5 again but in parfum form. I simply cannot be without the parfum form of no. 5. I love Chanel no. 5 in eau de parfum but I am madly in love with no. 5 in it's parfum form. I find it to be deeper and richer than any other version. In pure parfum form, the aldehydes still fizz and sparkle but no. 5 pure parfum has more of a floral element that I haven't really noticed (or paid attention) until now. I do enjoy having the flowers out a little more but I do have a strong love of aldehydes and the flowers give them a boost and compliment the aldehydes. I don't consider Chanel no. 5 to be a bombshell fragrance. No. 5 is not meant to seduce the other sex, in my opinion. I consider it a perfume for a bookworm or those lounging around the house with a fire going.

Guerlain Jicky Perfume Review

For the first time, I have tried Guerlain Jicky. When I was wearing Jicky, I kept wondering if I have put on Guerlain's Shalimar by mistake. Jicky ans Shalimar both open with a blast of citrus but Jicky seems to keep a heavy citrus element the whole way through. There is something not quite civilized in Jicky, I wouldn't go and call it animalistic but a perfume that is not so refined in manners. I find Jicky to be more of on the unisex end of feminine. Could a guy wear this? Yes, but I find Jicky not quite me for some reason. I do not mind the big citrus note in Jicky, but I do get a big shaving cream note that kind of turns me off. I will probably keep my decant of Jicky just for reference purposes and won't end up wearing it too often.

Serge Lutens Sarrasins Review

I have been trying to find a way to describe Serge Lutens Sarrasins. Supposedly, it is supposed to be a jasmine dominant perfume. I find it to be a waxy. Imagine lighting a wax candle and then smelling the melted candle wax with a hint of jasmine. I do detect a slight dirtiness but that fades in 10 minutes. It's not bad by any means, I am just not used to smelling wax in my perfume. I like Sarrasins, but I don't love it. I find the staying power from Sarrasins is weak, very weak. Sarrasins only lasts about 2 or 3 hours on my skin and it wears very close to the skin.

What attracted me to Sarrasins what the unusual purple color and I do have a liking for jasmine in perfume. Sarrasins is even more of a rich purple color in person than what I see online. I am having a hard time getting over a perfume so intensly colored to be so weakin staying power and sillage.

Amouage Jubilation 25 for Women Review

Since I started getting into decants, I had ordered a spray decant of Jubilation 25. Yesterday, I decided to test drive Jubilation 25. It was a warm, muggy day and when I first put it on, I initially thought that I had put on Mitsouko by mistake. All day yesterday I kept thinking that I did put on Mitsouko but I was like, no, you didn't reach for a bottle, you reached for a decant. On the website, Now Smell This, it is described as a fruity chypre. I agree with the chypre part but I disagree with the fruity part of Jubilation 25. I get more of a flowery chypre. I must be graduating from the beginning phase to the intermediate stage of being a perfumista. I still am not sure if I like chypre perfumes, but it took me a while to really like or love aldehdes. The sillage and staying power of Jubilation 25 like most if not all Amouages is really good. But every Amouage is really expensive, so my bank account is sighing in relief with this one. I don't hate it, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly Review

One of my perfume guilty pleasures is loving Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly. After normally spending $125 and up for perfumes, it's cheap. Not quite drugstore cheap, but it's not expensive. I find it to be the non-fruity type of perfume geared at teens and women in their early to mid 20's. I get a lot of white musk and sandalwood. Sillage and staying power are good, so I am not applying throughout the day. But it does seem like a lot of teens and many of my coworkers wear Heavenly so I've regulated it to my lazy day perfume.

Amouage Ubar Review

There is nothing crass nor crude about Amouage perfumes that I have smelled thus far. The only Amouage that I have tried that I didn't enjoy was Reflection for women.

Amouage Ubar is a loud floral. It doesn't scream cheap and badly made but there are many badly made expensive perumes. Ubar is a well built perfume and if one is not looking, it will wear you, like many Amouages. When I initially applied Ubar, I got a bug spray smell. The bug spray element threw me a little bit and I hoped that it wouldn't be another Coco Madamoiselle. Coco Mademoiselle is straight up bug spray from top to bottom for me. When the bug spray element passed, for the most part, I got a very rich floral that was a little on the dirty side. Ubar is not you typical floral/oriental. It's not quiet, it's not so clean as many florals seem to be. In the dry down, I get a little bit of an animalistic touch but not a whole lot. I do find it to be bottle worthy and until I have enough pennies saved up, I will be hoarding my decant.

Kat Von D Painted Love Lipstick

Poking around Sephora.com for a new lipstick, I came across Kat Von D's Painted Love lipstick. I ordered one of her lipsticks in Hellbent which is a blood red. I had a strong desire to explore red lipstick before because it has always scared me. Over the past two days, I have been testing it and I can honestly say that I find lip gloss easier to apply than this brand of lipstick. Kat Von D's lipstick is on the dry side compared to my other lipsticks. I do find that the Painted Love lipstick does have the tendency to stain my lips even if I do use lip balm under lipstick. I've never encountered this in a lipstick before. I do find that there is no sheen with the Hellbent but that doesn't bother me. I am undecided if I like this brand of lipstick but I think I am going to check out Kat Von D's lip gloss and see if those are any better.

Chanel Cuir de Russie Parfum

I have just recently received my Chanel Cuir de Russie in parfum form. I had initially balked at paying $160 for 50ml but quickly realized that it is not eau de toilette or eau de parfum. I find that the parfum version is much more complex than the eau de toilette that I own as well. There is more depth with the parfum version than the eau de toilette. I was very careful applying this version of Cuir de Russie due to the power of parfum. I did have a bit of an issue with the staying power of the parfum but during the summer, that is not unusual for me. I don't know why my skin eats perfume in the summer more than any other time of year. I find myself enjoying the parfum version much more than the eau de toilette. Cuir de Russie is the closest thing I have to a signature scent but there are too many perfumes that I want to try and a few full bottle wants that prevent me from always having $160 on hand to keep myself in steady supply of Cuir de Russie.

Andy Tauer Une Rose Vermeille Review

Andy Tauer's Une Rose Vermeille is an impulse buy from 4 months ago. Just before my wanting decants instead of full bottles of anything. I find it to be more of on the fruity floral side than on the floral side. It's a nice enough perfume but I'm not wild on the fruity aspect on it. I've never been wild for fruity floral perfumes. They just don't speak to me like a leather or tobacco perfume does. I'm not wild about the whole perfume is because I am not getting any kind of rose and I do love rose in my perfumes. I have to really dig for the rose note in this. On perfumes than are not fruity, I don't mind it so much, but when a perfume is fruity, I do mind. Maybe I am just weary of this fruity floral idea phase that has gone on too long with perfumers. The sillage is nice enough and staying power is 7-8 hours. The bottle is interesting though. I am a little bit of a glass junkie and I kind of like the concept of glass beads in perfume bottles. A few have mentioned that it takes away from getting more perfume. It's gotten to the point for me where I want less not more. Some for economical reasons, some for space reasons.

Serge Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan Review

For the longest time, I have been afraid of any perfume that has been described as animalistic and or skanky. Reason being that I don't want to smell like I haven't taken a bath in a few days. I have read a lot of mixed reviews of Serge Lutens's Muscs Koublai Khan. Some said that there was a huge fecal note or barn yard element. After ditching some of my fear, I ordered a 2.5 ml decant from The Perfumed Court. And for the past 2 weeks, I've been afraid of trying it out. But yesterday afternoon, I was in a mad dash to meet a friend, so this was the first thing I grabbed and sprayed on. I don't find it to be dirty or animalistic. I find it to be more of a sensual perfume. Sensual as in one is not afraid of being a sensual person. I find that MKK is a little dirty because it doesn't fit into the mold of squeaky-clean category.

MKK is kind of a mellow perfume that doesn't really announce itself, someone has to be close to you to really smell MKK. I was a little disappointed in they staying power of MKK because after 5 hours, I couldn't smell it on myself. I kind of expect that out of an eau de toilette but not an eau de parfum. Is it full bottle worthy for me? I find it decant worthy so far, but I am undecided on if it truly is bottle worthy.