Whenever I get a new bottle of perfume that comes with perfume samples, I'm kind of honor bound to try the perfume sample. That's only if it's a perfume I have never smelled before. So when I got a sample of Coco Noir, I had to give it a go.
I had blogged previously about my dislike of flankers and Coco Noir is no different. I used to somewhat like Coco Mademoiselle and wore it often. Coco Mademoiselle was my first Chanel and I think that I did wear it when it first was released or shortly thereafter. This was before I wore perfume on a regular basis and had no knowledge of perfume. Why am I mentioning Coco Mademoiselle? Because Coco Noir is almost exactly like Mademoiselle and I'm not kidding. When I first sprayed Noir, it smelled really familiar and I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me, Noir is the little sister of Mademoiselle. I find Noir to be a little more toned down than Mademoiselle and maybe a little more fruity.
Even though Coco Mademoiselle and Coco Noir last quite a long time on skin, I'm not sure that I even like these perfumes. Hell, I don't think I ever really cared much for Mademoiselle, I think I was more into the idea of having a Chanel bottle sitting on my dresser and how it actually smelled. I think with both Noir and Mademoiselle, the patchouli it the culprit on why I'm not enamoured with these two and that there is no similarity between them and the original Coco.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Multiple Bottles and Flankers
When I first started my perfume journey, I could never imagine owning more than one bottle and it never crossed my mind to own a flanker. I never imagined that I would have back up bottles, let alone vintage bottles, of anything about 7 years of perfume collecting. This horror of owning multiple bottles came when I had looked at my bottle collection and saw my stock of no. 5 in various concentrations and 4 bottles of Shalimar.
Some of this stemmed from the whole 'limited edition' bit that Chanel loves to peddle on the website. I kid you not, when you look at no. 5 (for a while it was) and no. 19 in EDP form online, there is the 'limited edition'. Since I love no. 5 and did hear about the potential reformulation, I did load up on the EDP and EDT form.
Shalimar, as good as it is, is actually not a perfume that I wear often. I either forget about it or it just doesn't suit that particular day when I think of wearing it. In this case, I don't have back up bottles in a literal sense. My back up bottles have been in the form of two vintage EDT bottles. At the time, I was still kind of wanting the tear drop bottle and vintage Shalimar is easy and cheap to find of E-bay.
I've never been much of a fan about flankers, especially when it comes down to classic perfume. My thought has always been, why mess around with a classic? No. 5 Eau Premiere was the first Chanel flanker that I tried and at first, I didn't like it. It smelled like a toned down no. 5 but it's messing around with a classic. I had tried no. 19 Poudre and was horrified by what it smelled like. No. 19 Poudre smelled a lot like Prada's Infusion d'Iris and nothing like the original no. 19. If you are going to mess around with flankers and classics, try to make it resemble the original perfume.
Some of this stemmed from the whole 'limited edition' bit that Chanel loves to peddle on the website. I kid you not, when you look at no. 5 (for a while it was) and no. 19 in EDP form online, there is the 'limited edition'. Since I love no. 5 and did hear about the potential reformulation, I did load up on the EDP and EDT form.
Shalimar, as good as it is, is actually not a perfume that I wear often. I either forget about it or it just doesn't suit that particular day when I think of wearing it. In this case, I don't have back up bottles in a literal sense. My back up bottles have been in the form of two vintage EDT bottles. At the time, I was still kind of wanting the tear drop bottle and vintage Shalimar is easy and cheap to find of E-bay.
I've never been much of a fan about flankers, especially when it comes down to classic perfume. My thought has always been, why mess around with a classic? No. 5 Eau Premiere was the first Chanel flanker that I tried and at first, I didn't like it. It smelled like a toned down no. 5 but it's messing around with a classic. I had tried no. 19 Poudre and was horrified by what it smelled like. No. 19 Poudre smelled a lot like Prada's Infusion d'Iris and nothing like the original no. 19. If you are going to mess around with flankers and classics, try to make it resemble the original perfume.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Adventures and Sniffage
For the first time in a long time, I found myself at an upscale mall. I usually avoid the mall like the plague due to the fact I don't like huge crowds of people and I don't want to be sprayed with the latest release. Most malls that I have been to have had an okay perfume counter at Dillard's and Macy's but the Saks Fifth perfume counter was something else. The perfume counter was massive and it offered a larger collection of things that I would wear.
My purpose of going to an upscale mall was to look for the EDP version of Jicky, hence why I was at Saks Fifth Avenue. Jicky is hard to find in stores that isn't the EDT version if you can find it. I find the Guerlain counter and was amazed that I actually did find Jicky but it was either the parfum or the EDT. I even asked if they had the EDP version but they didn't have it but offered to order me a bottle or get the parfum. I'm hardly at Saks Fifth, let alone an upscale mall, so obviously, I can't just go back for one perfume. But I don't often get the great customer service the way I did but I'm lazy and can't justify going to an upscale place for no real reason. There are people in my house that hold it against me that I own enough perfume. But I kept going back to getting a bottle of Mitsouko or L'Heure Bleue. In the end, I chickened out of L'Heure Bleue and got the 2nd back up bottle of Mitsouko. Yes, I've really started to enjoy L'Heure Bleue but it's still a little too sweet for me.
Even though it was Valentine's Day and I was at the mall, I did like the customer service that I did get. But I was surprised at the Dior counter because I was looking at finding a bottle of Diorling even though I've always had trouble with Diorling's sliced green pepper opening. But alas, they didn't have Diorling.
What did surprise me at Saks was the lack of the newest releases being pushed at people. Maybe people were looking more for the grab and go or maybe spending 5 minutes at most with a sales rep. But I did have some fun with being at a perfume counter.
My purpose of going to an upscale mall was to look for the EDP version of Jicky, hence why I was at Saks Fifth Avenue. Jicky is hard to find in stores that isn't the EDT version if you can find it. I find the Guerlain counter and was amazed that I actually did find Jicky but it was either the parfum or the EDT. I even asked if they had the EDP version but they didn't have it but offered to order me a bottle or get the parfum. I'm hardly at Saks Fifth, let alone an upscale mall, so obviously, I can't just go back for one perfume. But I don't often get the great customer service the way I did but I'm lazy and can't justify going to an upscale place for no real reason. There are people in my house that hold it against me that I own enough perfume. But I kept going back to getting a bottle of Mitsouko or L'Heure Bleue. In the end, I chickened out of L'Heure Bleue and got the 2nd back up bottle of Mitsouko. Yes, I've really started to enjoy L'Heure Bleue but it's still a little too sweet for me.
Even though it was Valentine's Day and I was at the mall, I did like the customer service that I did get. But I was surprised at the Dior counter because I was looking at finding a bottle of Diorling even though I've always had trouble with Diorling's sliced green pepper opening. But alas, they didn't have Diorling.
What did surprise me at Saks was the lack of the newest releases being pushed at people. Maybe people were looking more for the grab and go or maybe spending 5 minutes at most with a sales rep. But I did have some fun with being at a perfume counter.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Stuck in a Rut
It seems like I am stuck in a little bit of a rut. That rut is where I am wearing the same old thing. Chanel no. 5, the current version of Shalimar and from time to time either no. 22 or Havana Vanille. Right now, I can't even believe it because I do have a large collection of perfume and I'm stuck wearing the same four perfumes while I am trying to date my two vintage bottles of Shalimar EDT.
Dating my vintage Shalimar is taking a bit of work. It looks like one bottle might be somewhere in the 1980's (even though the seller said it was dated to the 1960's) and the other somewhere in the 1990's. Both of them smell like Shalimar and smell like an older version of it but I'm frusterated trying to figure it out when two different websites have two different things or my smaller bottle is from a different era. I think what is throwing me off the the stopper. Since my bottles didn't come with boxes, I can't be sure. Many people swear by getting Shalimar that's dated from the 1960's and earlier. But what's wrong with getting bottles a little later? I'm scratching my head over that one.
Dating my vintage Shalimar is taking a bit of work. It looks like one bottle might be somewhere in the 1980's (even though the seller said it was dated to the 1960's) and the other somewhere in the 1990's. Both of them smell like Shalimar and smell like an older version of it but I'm frusterated trying to figure it out when two different websites have two different things or my smaller bottle is from a different era. I think what is throwing me off the the stopper. Since my bottles didn't come with boxes, I can't be sure. Many people swear by getting Shalimar that's dated from the 1960's and earlier. But what's wrong with getting bottles a little later? I'm scratching my head over that one.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
