Tableau de Parfums Ingrid EDP review

A few months ago, LuckyScent sent me an e-mail of perfumes that were either being discontinued or were not going to carry anymore. Naturally, I bit because of the fact that three of Andy Tauer's offerings were on the list. And the three perfumes were on my to try list but really didn't see them on Surrender to Chance or The Perfumed Court. The samples being offered by LuckyScent were dabbers and dabbers are not my style when it comes to perfume. So buying a full bottle blind was my only choice at this point. Most of the time, I don't go buying full bottles of anything blind but this time, it turned out well. I didn't get all three bottles but chose Ingrid because it sounded most like me in spite of the citrus notes. And I was mostly right.

Ingrid starts out with citrus. Not the oven type nor the candied or dusty citrus but bright citrus like I just cut up a lemon. Soon the lemon and the others fade into the background and then the famous Tauer base comes in. The Tauer base isn't as strong as it normally is but it is still noticeable and I love it because the frangipani comes into play. On my skin, it's huge and I mean huge and I love it. While the frangipani looms large after the citrus mostly dies off and the Tauer base hums in the background, I get hints of vanilla. It's not a lot but it peeks out then runs away again. I'm happy that this one lasts forever on my skin. I would say about a good 10 hours and most Tauer offerings last at least 7 hours on me. This one has probably been my best blind buy in a good long time. I think that there might be a bottle or two left on LuckySent.

*photo stolen from Fragrancia

Vintage Diorling EDT Review

The chypre family is one of those perfume families I just love. I love the bergamot, labdanum and oakmoss balance of them. Especially in vintage form because oakmoss is one of those ingredients that can only be used in the most minuscule amounts in today's world. In vintage form where else can I smell the inkyness of oakmoss? And this brings me to vintage Diorling.

I don't have a full bottle of the current version of Diorling but have a decant and I so wear it but I was always wanting to get my hands on a vintage version, and I have gotten my hands on some. Even in the current formulation, Diorling is not about flowers, even though they are in there. The vintage version is all about the leather and the whole chypre concept. But the leather in the vintage is amped up, the leather is not plush at all. I like leather but I lean to the plush side of leather, so it is a little difficult to wear Diorling. My note of fresh green peppers is still there but that bite isn't quite there. The oakmoss is not as inky as I thought it would be but it is there. I probably get 4 or 5 hours from the vintage version of Diorling, which is great on my perfume eating skin. Diorling, new or vintage, is worth seeking out.

*picture taken from etsy

Of Travel Sets, Rollerballs and Hoarding

This month seems to be a little lean for me in the wants of perfume. Not a whole lot of visiting E-Bay and Surrender to Chance. Just not interested right now, thanks a lot cellphone bill and activation fees. Yep, I switched cell carriers and the family and I got new phones, so there was some pearl clutching when I saw the first bill. But I was thinking and looking at my hoard of perfume.

With my collection, quite a number of it seems to be back ups. Back ups of discontinued and vintage finds but I'm still looking for that reasonably priced bottle of vintage L'Heure Bleue but coming up empty handed. So I keep looking. But after gazing at my collection filled with multiples and such, I asked myself on why I was hoarding some of this. Five bottles of Theorema, what the hell, I should be wearing this more often. A million bottles of vintage Bal, I am out of my mind, I need to wear this every night to bed just to finish one bottle of this. Nine bottles of vintage and new Mitsouko, I have to get that one bottle unstuck but I am starting on trying to finish one bottle of that. But there are a couple that I could mention but I have to get a move on.

Then after looking at all of that, my eyes landed on that Amouage Lyric travel set and that Tocca Florence rollerball. I like the idea of the travel sets and rollerballs. First off, they can be more economical than buying a full bottle. You might now get the equivalent of a full bottle but you can come pretty close. The Lyric travel set that I got came with 3 refills but had four total and it came to 1.32 ounces. So it was pretty close and with a FragranceNet discount, I had paid a shade over a $100, no joke. Now if the Epic set was a little cheaper, I would add that to my collection but I will stick to the two full bottles that I have and get the body butter. But the Tocca line has some decent offerings, perfume wise. What I have tried hasn't been earth shattering for me but it is a decent line. Not really niche but not exactly mainstream. The only brick and mortar store that I have seen them in is Sephora. Those that regularly shop/scout the perfume will have seen them already. But what I do like about the Tocca line is that they have created a rollerball version of their offerings. I like that because I don't really want a full bottle of Florence or pretty much any of them. I got the Florence due to the fact that Bath and Body Works wrongfully discontinued Gardenia Lily and Florence comes close but not quite enough to justify a full bottle.

But all in all, the fact remains that I must start to finish off a few bottles. My dresser is overflowing with perfume.

Spring Still Isn't Here

Here in Cleveland, even though spring is technically here, winter hasn't gotten the memo. Yep, it's still cold and we had another blast of snow. I honestly was starting to think that spring was actually coming but it still hasn't arrived yet. This means that my bedroom, especially my closet is a disaster. Disaster as in clothes and shoes everywhere. I'm sorting through all of my clothes trying to get rid of clothes, trying to put the winter stuff away and getting out my spring/summer stuff. I really hate doing this kind of stuff because it is labor intensive and there never seems to be enough space for anything. There isn't really a whole lot of clothing that I can donate due to quite a bit being so worn and holey and besides, who wants to wear used underwear? So most everything that I am not keeping, goes right into the trash. But with what I have done already, I realized that I'm pretty close to not having a whole lot to wear. But that's okay, eventually, I will have to get more jeans and tops.

But with the cold weather followed by a couple days of warm weather and then getting cold again is making picking out a perfume a little more difficult. I always hate this whole rapid fire change in the weather. I really want to start wearing short sleeves and start breaking out Chanel no 19, Deneuve and some Courtesan. I'm so over the cold and snow.

Perfume Frenemies

Does anyone have perfume(s) in your collection that can be called a frenemy? I certainly do. It starts out as reading about a perfume and then going over to the perfume counter to get a sniff. Then a few days or weeks later, you either order online and it arrives on your doorstep or you buy it at an actual brick and mortar store. And then you wonder what the hell happened.

It's happened to me a couple times with a few of my perfumes. Let's start with Diorissimo shall we. Diorissimo and I started out as almost the best of buds. I had a decant of pre-reformulation EDT, then I tried the current EDP version. I really liked both but the EDP called to me a little more. I'm thinking that it was the whopping dose of jasmine that was a little poopy. And there was the fact that I really didn't have a Dior in my stable at that point. I don't exactly know what happened with Diorissimo.

Another example of a perfume frenemy is L'Heure Bleue. I do love L'Heure Bleue because of it's historical value but it's the powder that makes it a frenemy. I swear that it is a huge powder bomb in the current formulation, as I have yet to smell the vintage version. I find that wearing Apres L'Ondee much easier to wear because there is little to no powder and is pretty much the same structure as LHB. L'Heure de Nuit is different though. LHN is the one with a whole lot less powder and there is some laundry musk in there but I find it easier to wear than LHB.

At the end of the day, I'm not one to reach for any of these perfumes that often. I guess it's because these perfumes are exausting to wear after a while/