E-Bay and Thanksgiving

We are two days away from Thanksgiving. My family and I are hosting and know that 3 people are probably going to be spending the night. For the past couple days, I have been doing a lot of picking up, organizing and some dusting. I am still going to do more in between shifts at work. I am dreading work though, knowing it will be a mad house.

But with Thanksgiving comes Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I still can't believe that some companies think that Black Friday starts on Thanksgiving evening. That just rankles me to no end. In my opinion, retail workers are not important or essential on a holiday. Forgot that extra dozen of eggs or not quite enough rolls isn't important. If your not a nurse, doctor, firefighter or police officer, retail employees are not a vital. I am wondering what deals that there are going to be. I'm not so interested in buying something, most of my Christmas shopping is done. I think that I am really just interested in what Bath and Body Works is going to have for sales. For the family that lives close by to me, I am pretty much done except for a few odds and ends. I haven't committed to anything yet.

It's been a fun few days with E-bay. My mother asked me to use my E-bay account to order her two collector's music boxes. She wanted a specific two Christmas music boxes and I managed to find them for a reasonable price. We get one still in the box with everything in it and the seller made sure that it was well packed. This one works perfectly. The second one came and the story isn't the same. When the box came, it looked like the box itself was falling apart and taped up by a two year old. The packaging looked old and battered and that was our first indication that something might be wrong. My mother opens the package and finds no adapters and a couple other things missing. But when she was making sure that the music box played music, it was off, the bells didn't work right and just seemed like it just wasn't working right. I contacted the seller and started a return. My mother had said that the music box doesn't work right and what exactly was wrong. And she did say a shame on you type of deal. Whoever the seller was got all snotty and attacked my mom a little bit and said that it "worked". So I am waiting on a return label and hope we get it soon to ship it back to the seller. If I don't find a return label, I am going to have to contact E-bay.

Tauer Les Annees 25 BIS Review

In mid-September, Andy Tauer did release a new review. At this moment, I can't remember the name of it and I do have a decant but haven't tested it out. But a couple weeks ago, Andy Tauer had a surprise release. He released a flanker of Les Annees 25 BIS. From his em-mail, the impression that I am getting is that he was surprised on how fast the original sold out. Granted, it was a limited edition with only 500 bottles made. I hoped that this will be more of a permanent part of his line up. I was lucky enough to get a 5ml mini directly from his website. I ordered within a half an hour of getting the e-mail, I was that eager to test this one out.

Since I haven't put this in a spray decant, this is from dabbing Les Annees 25 BIS. It is so much like the original Les Annees but yet it's a little louder but yet a little smoother than the original. It's kind of like what happened with L'Air du Desert Marocain and Au Coeur du Desert. Louder yet smoother at the same time.

Since I am working off a couple dabs from 3 days ago, I have to give this another go today and see what else that I can get from BIS. But from what I am remember that BIS is pretty much full bottle worthy and I hope it sticks around in the line up for a while.

Lipstick, Candles and Les Annes 25 BIS

It's been pretty interesting. I was eagerly awaiting some packages to arrive during my vacation. Since I am on vacation, I thought that my packages would be spaced out a little bit. Today, all my packages came today. BarkBox, Sephora and Les Annees 25 BIS, the only one that I am waiting on is my Old Navy package. I am trying to avoid the malls when it comes time to finish Christmas shopping. I hate crowds, the noise, children acting like plum fools and that irritating Christmas music. I am hoping within the next two or three weeks to fully be done.

When Sephora had those sampler sets of so many things, the lipsticks interested me the most. I have gotten sample packs in the past from Sephora but can't remember which ones exactly. That goes to show you how far I have strayed from Sephora. But the sample sets of lipsticks looked like a good variety but the sizes of those samples looked pretty decent. If you are going to part me from my hard earned cash, I expect some jumbo sized samples that I can wear for 2 or 3 weeks. Too many samples have been good for 1 or 2 measly wearings and can't help but think of the cash I could have spent elsewhere. But a couple of those lipsticks seem to be full sized. If the Urban Decay and Tarte are full sized or pretty close, I am happy. So I am set on make up right now and very curious on how the Kiehl's Ultimate Facial Cream is going to work and hey a 1 ounce jar was pretty reasonable but I hope that this will help with winter facial skin.

What surprised me the most is that the mini of Les Annees 25 BIS came in today and I expected it to arrive later in the week since I ordered it on Thursday. I am excited to try it and I hope that I do actually do a couple wearings to review. But I am teetering on the edge of ordering a decant of the Coromandel EDP off of E-bay but just not ready to pull the trigger just yet.

I was doing some cleaning and organizing last night and had to count how many candles that I had in my bedroom. The total count is 26 and Bath and Body Works is doing a special that ends tonight of buy 2 candles and get two free. Yes, I am sorely tempted but I think that I will just hold off on the whole candle bit right now. After counting how many candles I have at the moment and I am sure that the promo will come again, I need to burn some candles before I will buy more. I didn't realize that I had so many candles since I don't use them as often as I used to.

Les Annees 25 BIS

Only a couple months ago, Andy Tauer released L'Air des Alpes. I have finally gotten my decant of that after waiting pretty much a month for it but at least I got a decant to try. When I woke up yesterday and checked my e-mail, I saw that I had an e-mail from Tauer Perfumes. There is a surprise release called Les Annees 25 BIS.

In the e-mail, Andy Tauer stated that minis would be shipped to the US and I naturally snapped one up. I am wondering how different it is going to be from the original Les  Annees 25. I am still kicking myself for not getting a bottle of Les Annees 25 when I had the chance. I wonder if it is going to be like Au Coeur du Desert. Au Coeur des Desert is a smoother, quieter version of L'Air du Desert Marocain. A full bottles of Les Annees 25 BIS is being sold for $160 and I hope that this is not a limited edition.

Chanel no 22 Vintage Extrait Review

It's time for me to get moving on a review of some sort. What seems like forever and a day, I have been bitching about Chanel. The prices seem to have gotten out of hand. I understand inflation and cost of materials but really, I am sure that the glass and the perfume itself costs next to nothing but to charge an arm and a leg and make certain lines unaffordable to quite a few people. I keep hoping that Chanel will either make their exclusive line in smaller sizes or have maybe a travel set for a few of them and have them priced reasonably would be a good thing. I could get behind spending $75 or $85 for a travel spray of Coromandel but I don't see it happening anytime soon. I think Chanel should consider it. They have travel sets for most of their lines, so why not?

I was kind of bored with my current line up. Recently, I have been wearing the shit out of LAADM and a couple others. So I looked through some things and found a little dabber decant of vintage no 22 extrait. I do have a sealed vintage bottle of no 22 in extrait form but can't quite get to it now and haven't even busted the seal open on it. I dabbed some on yesterday and said that it smelled almost exactly the same as the vintage EDT. For those of use who have been floating around the perfume world a while, you know that the current EDT of any Chanel is going to smell different than something that is 10 to 15 (or more) years ago. One becomes aware that all concentrations of any Chanel offering is going to smell different. After a few minutes, I did notice that the vintage extrait is smoother and a little less powdery than the vintage EDT. But was surprised me the most is the musk in vintage no 22. I don't ever recall smelling any kind of musk in the vintage EDT but I am going to have wear the vintage EDT to see. The musk was nice and gave no 22 a very small growl, I'm not fully sure that it quite fits. The musk in the vintage no 5 gives that vintage a nice growl without falling apart or making no 5 slutty. The lasting power of Chanel no 22 vintage extrait was about 7 hours which I liked. I don't ever think that I will ever come across another bottle of vintage no 22 for a reasonable price again.

Sephora

I have said for a while that I do think that Ulta has been a better store than Sephora. There was a time where I never even knew Ulta existed, Then about 4 or 5 years ago, I knew that Ulta existed but thought that it was a beauty place that was for cheap make up. But things did change. Sephora used to carry my Skyn Iceland face wash and moisturizer but quit carrying the line. Then I switched to Amazon for my Skyn Iceland stuff but took a look at Ulta. Ulta did sell Skyn Iceland and Ulta started to knock Sephora off it's pedestal. When I figured out the Ulta Rewards, sales and coupons, Sephora was brought down. I hardly ever shop at Sephora.

Today was the first time in over 6 months that I have gotten anything from Sephora.Why? Sephora had a sale going on and a couple things that I had my eye on that Ulta didn't have. I spent $20 more than I should have but I am okay with that. I couldn't justify buying a bottle of perfume but was tempted to use the sale to snap up a bottle of Coco Mademoiselle but managed to say no and walk away from that. If I spent enough at Sephora and my coupon was a 15% or 20% off, I probably would have.

One of my biggest gripes about Sephora and Ulta is the Chanels. Ulta does not let one buy a bottle of Chanel online but Sephora does.Chanel and I have a little bit of a contentious relationship. I do own and enjoy many Chanel perfumes but never was enthused with sizing or prices. I do wish that the prices of any of the Chanels were a little lower and the sizing was a little better. I would like there to be 30ml sized bottles. But my biggest gripe will always be about the Les Exclusifs line, sizes and prices.

At the end of the day, I am pretty stoked about my Sephora purchases. I got myself two lipstick samplers and a mini of the Kiehl's Ultra face cream. It's late fall and we are going into winter and the Skyn Iceland Cloud cream won't cut it when the dry air really does hit. I am hoping that this stuff will work and if it does, it will be fabulous.

Holidays Starting Early

It wasn't even Halloween when retailers started putting out Christmas decorations. It seems like the Christmas season is starting earlier and earlier and we probably start seeing that stuff right after Easter.

What is bugging me the most is that I am seeing so many more promos, sales and many other things in my e-mail. I love a good deal as anyone else but I know that most of them are not very good deals. Even with the promos and sales, they are still out of my price range or the quality isn't there. I will admit to the fact that I have started my Christmas shopping early and started in the beginning of October.

I work in retail myself and I don't make huge amounts of money. I have bills like everyone else. A little bit here, a little bit there and that is if I have the breathing room. My gifts are nothing extravagant but I make sure they are nice gifts and something that someone might not buy for themselves. I also keep it to something that they can use. I have gotten plenty of gifts that I can't use or won't use. Nothing says you don't give much of a shit if you can't pay attention to what I like, dislike or where I shop the most. What's the point of getting me a Kohl's or a Bed, Bath and Beyond gift card that I will never use? I will say that I love getting gift cards as a gift and a couple of my friends prefer them as a gift. But I pay attention to what they like and where they shop the most.