The Makeup Runs

The debate seems to rage on about who is better, Sephora or Ulta? I find that it really depends on what you want and the price point. I find Ulta to be better in terms of product and the rewards are a little bit better. Ulta seems to be better with sales and coupons and there are more stores around. So Ulta gets more of my business than Sephora.

It takes me quite a while for me to accumulate any worthwhile points with Sephora but what I like is the notification of a "birthday gift". I think that is what I like the most about Sephora. Sure, I am given only two options and they are sample sized but they can serve a purpose. But when that birthday e-mail hit my inbox, it was off to the races to fill up on a couple things.

Sometimes those makeup runs can be a fun thing. Well, in a lot of ways, makeup ends up being cheaper for me than perfume. My makeup routine is pretty basic and I love most of Urban Decay's Naked collection and tend to favor the smaller Naked pallets. I'm not big on colorful eye shadow nor am I a fan of shimmery or glitter on my eyes. But I am still pissed about Kat von D's Hellbent (color) being discontinued and I am looking at what is comparable to that shade of red. But it was fun to mostly browse Sephora to see what was available but mostly saw the same old same old and I was reminded why I keep my beauty routine fairly basic. I'd rather spend time picking out what perfume I am wearing for the day instead of spending at least a half an hour on applying purple eye shadow with questionable results.

Pulling Out the Fall Favorites

Technically, the Northern Hemipshere is in fall. The sun sets a little earlier, the temps are falling a little bit and the trees are going to start turning and losing their leaves. That means the perfume rotation. I have spent a little bit of time pulling fall/winter bottles to the forefront and some summer ones to the back. I haven't totally finished yet. I haven't finished due to me being in Cleveland. I can still expect the odd stretch of temps in the 90's or the mid 80's, so I still need some summer scents in the front. What I have pulled out is some of the "classic" Amouage offerings. Lyric, Memoir and Epic have been pulled to the front. Dia and Gold always sit in perfume limbo. They (Gold and Dia) don't really seem to fit in any set seasonal category and Gold, no matter what, is too urinous to be worn anywhere for me. Shalimar has been pulled to the front along with my vanilla perfumes.

What is great about fall, is the lack of reruns on television. I'm thinking that I might have to stick out the last season of the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory hasn't really been too good the past few seasons for a number of reasons. My biggest peeve is when they started to pair everyone off with only one single guy that can't get a girl, I was turned off by it. My latest thing now is watching Chicago Fire, which I have been binge watching. I couldn't get into it at first but now I am. There are doctor shows, police shows but how many TV shows are about firefighters and paramedics? I'm not talking about the reality ones but fictional ones. The shows that I have to wait until spring of next year is Call the Midwife and Poldark on PBS.

Andy Tauer Hyacinth and a Mechanic Review

A strange thing has happened to me and a vintage bottle of Miss Dior. About 2 years ago, I had bought a 2 ounce screw top bottle of Miss Dior and it came with a screw on spray mechanism. I hadn't put on the spray mechanism on the bottle right away and that is something that I normally do but just didn't. Then about 10 months ago, I had actually did and somewhat forgot about the bottle except of the periodic spray. Fast forward to a week ago, I noticed some serious evaporation. To the point of maybe 10ml left on an 80% full 2 ounce bottle. So I made sure that that bottle was my bed time scent and now I can mostly say that I actually finished my 2nd bottle for the year. It seems that I have more issues losing perfume due to me either being a klutz that just simple evaporation.

In the past 6 months, I've had Andy Tauer's limited edition Hyacinth and a Mechanic sitting in the not reviewed pile and it's time to get going on wearing it. At first, I was very confused. First blast of HaaM is somebody is chewing cinnamon gum and I don't see cinnamon listed as a note anywhere. The cinnamon still is pretty loud for me 20 minutes in but I notice an oily hyacinth and the barest hint of shoe leather. Hyacinth even as a live plant or cut has an oily element to it. The only other perfume that I have smelled that has a fairly realistic hyacinth is Un Coeur en Mai. But the hyacinth is portrayed a little different in HaaM. HaaM is meant to be a story or a situation. The mental image that I get is an oily mechanic is chewing cinnamon gum, while working on cars while the hyacinths outside are blooming.

The price point of a full bottle was pretty decent (but I only have a small decant) and lasting power on skin is pretty good. But I find that HaaM is not something that works for me, not on skin, not on clothing and I am okay with that.

i Profumi di Firenze Vaniglia del Madagascar Review

After shuffling through my unworn bag of perfume, I had realized that some of my decants are evaporating, I realized that I really needed to get the show on the road with wearing and reviewing. Yesterday, I had a huge craving for a vanilla dominant perfume and that landed me in Vaniglia del Madagascar.

I've always had a hard time with vanilla perfumes because I work in a bakery and I have ended up with not exactly liking vanilla dominant perfumes. Most of them came across as smelling like a cupcake or straight up vanilla extract. Then came Havana Vanille and Guerlain's SDV and then I realized that I like my vanilla inedible.

Ever since my perfume journey started, I came to realize that most, if not all perfume houses, mainstream or niche, has a vanilla or tow in their line up. But it was time for me to try Vaniglia del Madagascar. And I can't make up my mind about it. Upon first blast, I smell a cross between SDV and Tom Ford's Vanille Tobacco (or is it Tobacco Vanille, I'm not digging around for my decant to find out). Smoky like SDV and what smells like pipe tobacco and maybe a kind of teeters on the boozy side. But then I figure out what that smokey, boozy smell is and it's chocolate. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with chocolate in perfume that I am aware of, so the chocolate did come as a surprise when I identified it. What I noticed that Vaniglia del Madagascar it that the vanilla is noticeable but kind of stays in the background. If you are going to say that it's a vanilla, the vanilla should have a staring roll not regulated to a supporting roll. What I did like is that it teeters on the edge of either being edible or inedible. The wear time on my skin is about 7 hours and has moderate projection. Would I pay $110 for a 50ml bottle? No, it's more of a $60 dollar kind of perfume. If Andy Tauer can pull of a vanilla and sell it for under $70, i Profumi di Firenze can as well.

Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande Review

Did you have two or three days where everyone and everything is just bugging the shit out of you? I'm going through that right now. My goofy Lab puppy decided that she was going to chew up my slippers today. Sidney was doing so well, not chewing up our belongings and chewing on her toys. I think that since it's cold, wet, rainy and gray, she's mad. Walks have been kind of quick due to the rain and having her just run around in the back yard is pretty much a no go. The front and back yard is nothing but a mud puddle. I was hoping that grocery shopping was going to happen today but it was the home opener for the Cleveland Browns and nobody wanted to do it before or after the game. I hate football and I don't really understand why the home opener for the Browns was so important to the people in my household, sense tells me that what is the point of watching, I know what's going to happen, the Browns pretty much always lose. It's difficult to make anything when half of what you need for anything isn't in the house, so it was beef stroganoff, which I pretty much hate. I might not like grocery shopping but at this point, we need food because I can't live off of huge platters of mac and cheese and Salisbury steak that last for days.

I noticed that I am getting sick of looking a my full bottle collection and it was time to give something else a go. So I pull out Encens et Lavande and spritz. Lavande seems to have been on my radar for a while but I never managed to remember to get a decant when STC or TPC was having a sale but finally managed to remember. I try to keep in mind when testing any Serge Lutens offerings, anything seems to go. But Lavande left me cold and disgruntled. At first, I couldn't smell anything other than a Serge Lutens does ck One. I had said that ck One was an airy, androgynous citrus thing with a whole lot of no development. Lavande isn't much different. Lavender slowly comes on to the scene and the lavender is a pretty cold one and then the incense seems to show up much later. The incense is more like a ghost than an actual note in this one. Lavande is kind of a blatant rip off, a ck One with a cold lavender note and a whisper of incense. There was no real development, if at all. But the biggest thing for me was that it was cold, not ice cold but it was starting to. The lasting power of a spray was around 6 hours and it was 6 hours to long for me. For an Amouage price for a bell jar, I would have expected something better.