It's Almost a New Year

 

We are about embark on a new year and leave the year 2020 behind. It's been a long year and it's been a tough one.

I am not making any real resolutions this year. One thing I want to do is really straighten out my financials not just kind of straighten it out. I kind of half assed it this year but I just need to really get moving on this. The other thing is to really start is actually finish bottles of perfume and get a move on with using up some candles. It seems like as soon as I make actual progress with candles, I buy more but this time, I really got to make progress. I need, you know, space and I am running out of space. I am about to go through my book collection to see if I can offload some at Half Priced Books or any kind of place that buys used books. Space and cash is probably going to be my biggest thing this year. Jake's upcoming surgery was the wakeup call to take a look at a lot of the messy parts of my life and really start fixing them. I also plan on doing some big home projects that involve getting rid of stuff.

This year, I seemed to wear a lot of no 5, no 22, Kyoto and Shalimar. I was wearing Jicky quite a bit earlier in the year but I haven't been able to since my grandmother passed in April. Coromandel is still on my list for a full bottle purchase and I am hoping that this year will be the year where it's possible to add that to my collection. I am hoping that I am able to get the Covid-19 vaccine soon and just an easier year this year. We can only hope that the new year will be better than this year.

Post Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and now I have to gear up for New Year's.  As of right now, I am waiting for a load of laundry to dry and plotting my next few moves. In a couple ways, I made out like a bandit for Christmas. Had enough in Amazon gift cards to order a new pair of shoes that I desperately needed and with some left over to either do a Prime Pantry order or books. I am kind of leaning towards a Prime Pantry order and not books.

Every time I say that I won't get anymore candles, I end up getting more. But I just got through counting the ones that I have in the house and the ones that are on the way, the grand total is 46 candles. When that fact hit me, I realized that I really needed to quit. Today was the last day for me to actually get some candles and finish off a gift card. The semi annual sale at Bath and Body Works is pretty lackluster online and even more lackluster in the stores. Prices were alright but nothing really wowed me to really spend. I will admit that I like to shop but I have to be a lot more careful and look for some really good deals. Since the holiday season in just about over, I am looking at more reduced means because it's, you know, retail and nobody buys much of anything after the holidays. 

I am looking forward to spring though. Looking forward to the days when the weather warms up and stays warm, the sun not setting so soon in the evening, not having to wonder when the next polar vortex, freezing rain or snow storm is coming. The days that I can have my windows open and then I can burn, I mean, really burn my candles without someone in my house complaining. An open window allows that but why should I open a window when it's cold out? I keep hoping that I am going to catch a break somewhere at this point. Between the dogs and the holidays and not knowing what's going to happen in the next two weeks.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 

It's Christmas Eve. Presents are wrapped and I am waiting for people to go to bed so I can fill stockings with all kinds of chocolate and finish off that a candle that I have been trying to finish for at least two damn weeks. I detest wrapping presents. I don't have a whole lot of gift bags and tissue paper this year due to expenses. So many of my gifts were small, awkward things to wrap and you have no idea how aggravating it was to wrap those. My dogs got their Barkbox today and everything was already here. Now we just wait for Christmas morning to arrive to open gifts.

This year it is going to be a very quiet Christmas. With my grandmother passing away in April and the pandemic still raging on, it's just going to be me, my parents and the dogs this year. The meal is ham, candied sweet potatoes, pasta salad and lemon meringue  pie. Yes, it's that basic but it's the three of us and tons of food isn't really necessary. I am just hoping that we don't lose power since my neck of the woods is probably going to get around 10 inches of snow by tomorrow night.

I haven't really thought about which perfume that I am going to be wearing tomorrow. Ubar, Memoir or something else but we will see. I am about to clean up the kitchen and think about what I will be wearing tonight as a bedtime scent. I just can't think straight at this point or remember what I wore yesterday but know I have worn Kyoto today. I think that I will probably reach for vintage Shalimar extrait for tonight. I kind of want something warm/cozy and maybe a little sensual for tonight. What is everybody doing for Christmas?

Coco Mademoiselle Intense EDP Review

 It's been somewhat of a wild week and I am weary. Weary of this year in general, weary of the holidays and just general drama. Thursday, I took my dog to a specialist vet and there are two benign tumors on his parathyroid that need to be removed. With some sedation, ultrasound, consult with a specialist, it was a $900 vet bill. The surgery is going to cost $4,000 to $4,500 to do. At this point, every spare penny is going to go to this surgery. That means no new bottles of perfume, no more candles, no more of a lot of things. I say Christmas is on the way and I will probably be getting some gift cards but I need to be very careful with money right now.The good news is that all of my Christmas shopping is totally done, stocking stuffers too. Now if my dogs would get their Barkbox before Christmas, I will be pretty happy.

I finally tore open the package to Coco Mademoiselle Intense mini set. Eventually, I will get to Clinique Wrappings but probably not until the new year. There is something about actually tearing open the cellophane to a new perfume that brings me joy. I don't know why but it does. I spent all day yesterday and most of the morning in CM Intense so I can really do a proper review. When I first sprayed, the citrus part seemed a little different, maybe a little sharper but I think that I need another wearing or two. I had never smelled a vanilla note in the original CM but smelled vanilla in CM Intense. It wasn't in your face like Shalimar or Havana Vanille. The vanilla is a little more noticeable but not overwhelming. The vanilla creeps up intermittently throughout the wearing but never takes over. The patchouli seemed like it doesn't come as far forward like it does in the original. I will say one thing is that I expected something a little louder or a little denser but CM Intense wasn't either. I think that this version was not named properly. It wasn't intense but did smell incredibly similar and almost identical to the original. The lasting power on skin is about the same as the original CM.

Chanel has the time and the means to make a really great flanker but they never seem to get it right. They hit the mark with no 5 Eau Premiere, L'Eau was a disgrace to no 5. L'Eau had no resemblance to Eau Premiere let alone no 5. No 19 Poudre had no resemblance to no 19. I haven't had the time nor a way to get my hands on the Chance flankers or the original Chance.

Right now, I am considering this a full bottle worthy type of thing. I really did enjoy CM Intense. Is it original? No, but neither is the original Coco Mademoiselle. The clouds didn't part nor the angels sing but I really enjoyed it to the point of love.

Givenchy Monsieur de Givenchy Reissue Review

My Chanel order came in a day earlier than expected. Nothing can be more satisfying than ripping apart the boxes a perfume comes in. Back in the early days, I would tear open the box, find the perfume and then tear open the package to get to the bottle. Since I don't get too many new bottles, I take my time. I haven't busted the cellophane to take a look at everything, I am relishing the moment of having a new perfume. I want to relish the moment of when my little set of Clinique Wrappings comes. That was another impulse, blind buy for me. That blind buy came from Now Smell This when Robin posted one of her daily lemmings. The price and size was right. At this point, I think that I'm done with the year for perfume buying and probably for a good chunk of next year too. I don't really want to buy decants anymore. I think with all that has been going on in my life at this point, perfume buying and trying is mostly on the back burner for me but I have a big pile of things to test out and review.

I went into my big pile and pulled out Givenchy Monsieur de

Givenchy last night to try out. I've never been the biggest fan of masculine scents. It's either this really aquatic thing or nothing but ozone and citrus crap. Or it's really cheap and crude smelling. When I first applied Monsieur, I was like, what the hell? A huge blast of citrus, not any kind of citrus but a citrus that smelled like Lemon Pledge. I figured if this wasn't going to develop or develop badly, I was going to wash it off and apply something else. For a good half an hour to an hour, I held out to see how Monsieur was going to play out. The Lemon Pledge started to mellow out a little bit and some kind of shift happened. I started to get the dry down of vintage Jicky and the middle or top of Habit Rouge. But Monsieur leans more towards vintage Jicky than Habit Rouge. While I enjoy Jicky, I haven't really been able to wear it let alone smell it to a recent experience. That recent experience was when I visited my grandmother a week before she passed.

Lasting power was actually pretty decent but I am leaning toward it being an EDT. While I did enjoy Monsieur in the middle and end, I think that I will keep a medium to large decant for the occasional wearing but it's not something that I would want as a full bottle. Now when I have two vintage bottles and one current formulation of Jicky and a decant of Habit Rouge.
 

YSL Black Opiom EDP Review

 

It's been a while since I have done any kind of reviewing and now it's about time to do one. I haven't really been in the mood to review let alone try anything new. I really can't afford new perfumes any way. If I do have some spare cash for some, I have to use that cash wisely. That Coco Mademoiselle Intense mini travel spray was a little bit of an impulse buy along with being a little bit of a blind buy. I know what the original smells like but I am never close enough to be able to go into a mall to see if I could get a sniff or maybe a sample. With Covid, I am trying to avoid being in public as much as I can. If I am not at work, I am home, so outings are pretty limited to more essential stuff.

Last night, I tried YSL Black Opium EDP to see if there was anything interesting. The only things that are interesting to be is the bottle itself and the color of the perfume. Black Opium is marketed as vibrant and sensual and it's anything but. How can coffee or cedarwood be sensual? I smell hints of coffee but very light and vague hints of it and I don't smell cedar in there either. Patchouli? Nope, can't smell that either. White flowers? All I smell is tuberose and an aquatic one at that. Basically, this smells like so many other reasonably priced mainstream perfumes that I've smelled a million times before; in a million different ways. This is in no way sensual. Shalimar is sensual so is Worth Courtesan. Vintage Bal a Versailles is flat out skank along with MKK. I hope perfume companies are listening when I say this. Sensual is not a weak, vapid smell. Sensual and skank have teeth, claws and a brain. Needless to say that this one won't be in my collection and I can save some cash in that department.

Made It Through Another Candle Day

 

So I made it through another Candle Day at Bath and Body Works. While I wasn't exactly happy with a price hike for it and stores and online selling out of a couple things that I truly wanted, I am happy that I set aside money for this. I did manage to get my Frozen Lake candles and I am going to try out Vanilla Bean Noel. Even though the price hike was 45 cents and not a huge increase, I want the best bang for my buck. When you work in retail, any kind of price hike can make or break a budget so I am not understanding on why people have to accuse me of being cheap. My sister said that not everyone needs a gift and maybe I should consider cutting back. My retort was that I have cut back of gifts and made a budget. Throughout the year, I bought gift cards to set aside for gifts and stuck to the limits on what I had set aside. Her reality is different than mine and my reality is different than the next person's. I am happy that I did stick to my guns and bought the amount of candles within my budget.

This week has been an hard but yet interesting week. At work, a coworker in my department had quit, one coworker called off Wednesday. I covered the Wednesday shift, mainly for a few extra dollars in my paycheck. But when that snowstorm rolled through on Monday night/Tuesday morning, my family and I lost power early Tuesday and had power came back late Wednesday. The really fun part of the power coming back on was finding out that our well pump went bad. So from Tuesday to Thursday, there was no water. Most places that my dad called to fix that pump couldn't come out until late next week but he found a company that could come out on Thursday to fix it. It was glorious to be able to take a full shower and wash my hair instead of a spot wash and not being able to wash my hair.

After cleaning out a sock drawer and finding a $25 Sephora gift card, I managed to score that Coco Mademoiselle Intense mini travel set. I took advantage of the $15 off $75 deal that Sephora has running right now. Why did I go to Sephora instead of Ulta? I prefer Ulta in many ways but it seems like Ulta is getting chintzy with some things like coupons. If you are going to give me a 20% coupon and say I can use it on "prestige" brands, I'd like to be able to use it. I might have saved another dollar or two. But I am okay with that, especially after finding that gift card. Now I cannot wait until my Sephora package arrives.

Candle Day is Almost Here and Une Rose Chypree

 Christmas shopping is pretty much done for me. I am looking at getting my dad another video game and getting a friend a small Starbucks gift card and that will complete my Christmas shopping. Thus far, I still haven't seen any kind of deals that excite me.

What I am really excited for is when Bath and Body Works is going to have their 3 wick candle sale this weekend. This candle event is different due to the pandemic, instead of it being 1 day, it is being held all weekend and the price is a little lower than last year's price. Instead of $9.50, it's $8.95. Not a huge difference but either way, it's still a fabulous price. I am going with a friend on Saturday to get some candles but I gave him the heads up that we are going fairly early and we are not pushing it to later afternoon nor pushing it to Sunday. I'd rather not lollygag and not get the ones that we wanted. With the pandemic and what might be sketchy stocking, it will be better to go early. We both don't plan on getting the maximum of 15 candles. I have only budgeted $50 and never planned on getting the full 15 to begin with. Even though I know what I want, I am pretty stoked to go.

I was poking around Luckyscent for some strange reason last night and Andy Tauer's website and had to do a double take. It looks like Andy Tauer might be revamping his whole line. I don't know if it's because of the pandemic or just wanting to make changes but it seems like this year, the changes have been huge. Earlier in the year, Une Rose Vermeille was discontinued and now it looks like Une Rose Chypree has fallen victim to discontinuation. I hope that they are not permanantly discontinued, it just seems like Andy Tauer has released so many things so quickly but has discontinued a bunch of things in the process. It looks like I might be using Une Rose Chypree a little more sparingly even though I don't wear it a lot.

Can't Come up with a title

 

I am still debating on if I should  pull the trigger on my Ulta shopping cart. When I read my email this morning, I find a $10 off $40 and even "prestige" brands were included. I tried to apply the coupon and apparently Chanel was excluded. I sent a tweet to Ulta saying what good is this coupon if I can't use it. Well, there are plenty of things but I could use it on but can't use it on something that I really want isn't the greatest PR move. I am just not moved by what I am seeing online with Black Friday deals so far. Even what Bath and Body Works isn't moving me deal wise. For some reason, I'm okay with not buying anything today or tomorrow. I really need to get one more gift and then I am done with Christmas shopping. I am finding it harder and harder to shop for people and it's gotten pretty difficult to find any great deals that I am looking for, especially for the things that I want to get somebody. I would think that with this pandemic going on, deals would be better and there would be more of them. I am just going to see what the next couple weeks look like and go from there.

At this point, I am just anxious for some reason. It's the holiday season right now and I am waiting on a few important things that should have been mailed weeks ago but haven't even arrived. Thus far, I have faxed a couple things to a couple places but I am going to hope that some things start to work out. I am going to take things one step at a time. I am not sure on who is dropping the ball but it's being dropped. How do I know what is needed and who needs to get it if I don't get the information?

The Shopping Season

 

We are coming up on the holiday season and already my email is filling up with all of these Black Friday previews and deal type things. I will admit that I am tempted by a few things but my bank account is telling me to take a step back. Most of my Christmas shopping is finished but I do have 3 more people to shop for but I am holding off for a couple weeks on finishing up a couple gifts. I have some shipping deadlines because my nephews live across the country from me, so I need to know that. At this point, I am trying to survive Thanksgiving. Due to Covid, holidays are going to be very different and much quieter. It will be my parents and I along with my aunt and quite possibly my grandmother who is still living. So I have a 20 pound turkey in my fridge thawing out and wondering about what the hell is going to happen with all of this turkey. I think that a large roasting chicken would have been a better fit. Let's hope that I won't be asked to pick up anything between now and Thanksgiving or I will be spitting nails.

What is tempting me the most is Ulta. I am hardly ever in an Ulta brick and mortar store, I do tons of shopping through their website and have accumulated almost $60 in rewards and now I am a Platinum level rewards person. Ulta does carry some Chanel perfumes but I never see them sell Chanel through their website. I have only seen it once before and I am now seeing that again. While Ulta might not have the selection that Sephora has in regarding Chanel offerings, even online, I am tempted to get the mini travel spray of Coco Madamoiselle intense. I know that I shouldn't blind buy but I am incredibly tempted. I shall see if there will be some kind of coupon when Black Friday comes to make the mini travel spray much more possible for me, especially if I want to keep saving up my Ulta points. But we shall see because I am trying to avoid Bath and Body Works as well. I am trying incredibly hard to to purchase anymore candles until Candle Day when the deals will be the best for Bath and Body Works candles.

My Last Vacation of the Year

 

I am incredibly irritated with the news. It was a long week with me being on vacation but it was nothing but the election on the news. For too many days, there was no clear cut winner with the election. But I don't know if this shit is just ramping up or is this shit going away. I am just too damn tired of it right now. Tired of how people are carrying on about the results. My mother has the news on 24/7 pertaining to the election.

Nothing much really happened on my vacation. Didn't go anywhere or do anything. I only managed to finish one book out of the 8 books loaded on my Kindle and that's pretty sad though. To have the time but no motivation to actually do it. My last vacation, I managed to finish 3 candles but this vacation; I only got through one and a half. A few days ago, Bath and Body Works had single wick candles for about $7 and broke the whole can't get anymore candles until I use some more. Right now, Bath and Body Works is having a BOGO 3 wick candle sale and I am sitting on my hands at this point. I have pretty much figured out which candles that I will be burning before Candle Day comes in about 3 and a half weeks. I am currently burning a Fresh Balsam candle and I don't think that I will be getting anymore of that scent. I have a single wick of it as well. Burn both of them and that will be the end of it.

I'm Tired

 

Today was the day that Jake was supposed to have a large fatty tumor removed but it was a no go due to something coming up in his preoperative blood work. So the anxiety shifted because he had a more in depth blood test and the vet is waiting on the results. So at this point, everything relating to Jake and his fatty tumor has to wait and I hate waiting for results.

I have a shade more than 3 days before my last vacation of the year starts and I can't wait. I have four books that I want to get through and hopefully burn 2 more candles while on vacation. It will be great to wear whatever I want perfume wise without listening to people complain and just do things more of on my own time table. I will still be broke on this vacation but I have a small windfall coming soon.

At this point, a friend and I are making plans for Candle Day and are going to go pretty early so we can get it out of the way and hopefully avoid most of the craziness. He wants to get a certain candle for his mother and I want to stock up as much as I can on 3 scents but I have about 6 weeks to scrape up more cash.

With all that is going on with Jake and all the crap going on in the world, I'm plain worn out. It will be a shit storm, no matter who wins the election and there will probably going to be a 2nd lock down. I am wondering as well how the holidays are going to work out, especially there is going to be a 2nd lock down

More Accidents

 

Yesterday was a little bit of a panicky day. I was getting ready for work yesterday, somehow my little mini of L'Air du Desert Morocain got knocked over onto some tile and broke. Well, the corner broke and some of the perfume came out. I managed to save most of it and I spent hours trying to find what little I had of decanting supplies to salvage the rest of it. I found the last 3ml empty decant after I ordered 4 5ml travel sprays off of Amazon. Eventually I was going to condense some other decants in the interests of space. I have so many decants of LADDM and I am going to move those into one of those 5ml decants. But when I was transferring that mini to the empty decant, what was probably 1 or 2 ml went all over my hand. As much as I adore LADDM, it was too much, even when I washed my hands. So I spent all of last night and most of the morning in way too much LADDM. I think that I am going to give LADDM a huge rest for a little bit. I hate it when things like this happen. I have had it happen to a bottle of vintage Bal a Versailles and Mitsouko and managed to save a fair chunk of both. I missed out on grabbing a bottle of Une Rose Vermeille and I am a little bummed about that but things didn't pan out the way that I hoped

Bath and Body Works is really starting to drop their winter/Christmas offerings. I don't give a crap about their body products anymore, I just find them to be overpriced for what they really are. What I really go for is their candles. I was excited when they finally brought out the Winter candles along with the Fresh Balsam. It seemed like it was either yesterday or the day before they finally brought out the Evergreen candles. I love the Fresh Balsam and Evergreen during winter. The Frozen Lake is nice enough but I don't consider that one to really be a wintry type of candle. When Candle Day hits, I will stock up on the Winter, Evergreen and Fresh Balsam. Well, we shall see how much cash I can stockpile for Candle Day, namely in the form of gift cards since it seems like I get most of my candles around Candle Day and shortly after Christmas.

Amazon Prime Day and Other Things

 Amazon Prime Day has come and gone and it was a let down. Not because I couldn't buy much of anything at all but the deals were pretty lousy in my opinion. One would think that with Covid and people being low of funds, the deals would be a little better. I was hoping that some of the books that were on my wish list would have some kind of really good discount but nope. I did manage to score one book that was within my budget but since when do I read trashy romance novels or the whatever low grade books? But the things on my wish list will have to wait. My parents went on a little bender for house things and a couple plant things. My mother got some kind of vacuum thing to vacuum under her bed and to vacuum the stairs. I have been trying to fix the attachment for one of the vacuums to get the carpeted stairs, the thing won't work no matter what I do. So yeah, the stairs leading upstairs are pretty gross with dog hair and whatever dirt that can't be seen. I will probably be using that Saturday.

I've noticed that Sephora has been bombing my email account trying to get me to buy stuff. Okay, Sephora, you are to the point of way too expensive. I can only afford to shop at your physical store once a year, if I can actually get to a store. Or if I am shopping online, I will do twice a year. But even then, I am not spending a lot and usually it's either your spring sale of you have given me a coupon if I have spend a certain amount. We shall see what my financial state looks like when the coupon you sent me is active. Maybe I will get that Coco Mademoiselle lotion or that travel spray. 

I have no idea on what is the problem with the postal service around here. Every month my dogs get a Barkbox and I've noticed that Barkbox seems to be shipping their stuff a couple days earlier but the box seems to be arriving at my doorstep later and later. It's not Barkbox's fault but something is going on with the postal service. So Barkbox said that if the box doesn't arrive by the 26th, to contact them to make it right. But I do think that Barkbox needs to reassess their relationship with the post office.

Amouage Honour Woman Extrait Review

 

Amazon Prime Day ends today and I am still not seeing anything that I need for a good price. No good book deals, well, on the books that I want to get. But my parents had a field day with getting all kinds of things. I decided to get only 1 book on my wish list.

My dog's vet appointment is tomorrow and as far as I can tell, I do think that I will be OK financially but only tomorrow will tell. I don't think that the appointment in itself will be too bad but the medication he is on is where I am kind of worried. The medication is more of an expected expense but a vet visit is not exactly. But to have both the medication and a vet visit in the same week seems to be a little much. I shall see what the final bill is for both of them tomorrow. My local pharmacy always seems to get a little salty when I use GoodRx but I don't care.

Now off to the review but in many ways it's not really a review. It's been a few years since I had Amouage Honour on skin. I remember enjoying it on skin but not much else. It's supposed to be more of a gardenia type thing. Nope it's more of an aquatic tuberose type of thing, not really a gardenia thing. I have never been a fan of anything tuberose dominant. In extrait form, it's nothing but aquatic tuberose to my nose with not a whole lot going on development wise. I think that I was eager to get and like Honour in the beginning and did like the EDP but I will have to dig out a decant of the EDP to see. I think that I was more enamored with the concept of Madam Butterfly, the white bottle and the word gardenia. The extrait is not for me and my bank account is happy with that.

Shalimar and Books

 I haven't really done a ton of reading this year. With Covid, instead of having more time to read, I somehow have less time to read. I have either 3 or 4 books on my Kindle that I haven't even read. Hopefully I can find some kind of time to read them. A while back, I took a quiz for a $3 gift card for Amazon and now they send me the code to redeem the stupid credit. Funny thing is that even though I have books to read, I want a few more books. You see that my Chase account has these offers where if you spend some money at certain stores/websites, you get some kind of credit to your bank account. The catch is that you must use it before certain dates. I am sorely tempted and most books that I want are more than $5. What was it, my last post I blogged that I really have to watch the spending and no frivolous spending? I do have a couple that I am want to get and with the $3 and some cash back, I will keep it really cheap and limit myself to one book but keep it under $5 or less.

I am still trying to finish decants and bottles as well as candles at this point and I was looking for things that I haven't worn in a while. Yes, I want to try new things but can't afford to fall in love with anything at this point and wore some Shalimar Ode a la Vanille Madagascar last night and this morning. I like the original Shalimar but I adore the Ode a la Vanilles, especially the Madagascar one. For the longest time, all that seemed to be available was the Mexique one and it I did stumble across the Madagascar, it was and still is more cash that I am willing to part with. What sucks about the Ode a la Vanilles is that they were limited edition. Nothing can aggravate me more than limited editions and flankers. Flankers don't always smell good and nothing can sell out faster than a limited edition. I hope that the perfume gods send a message to Guerlain that they should release the Ode a la Vanilles again. I would love a bottle or two of the Madagascar one, especially if the price is right.

Coco Mademoiselle and Flankers

 This new blogger still won't let me upload pictures off of my computer and still just don't feel like messing with the settings to slap a picture for this post. The only pictures that will show up are the ones that I've already used on Blogger.

A rough idea about flankers has been floating in my mind for a few days now but couldn't come up with any kind of concrete ways to blog on it. Most of the time, I hate the idea of flankers for perfume. Flankers are probably a form of laziness. The flanker idea basically sounds like that a perfumer wants to create a perfume but doesn't want to be bothered to try to create something new. So they go with what is one of any houses bestsellers and creates a flanker. Hey, why not? Most of the work has been done anyway and just do a little tweaking somewhere and you got a flanker.

For years, I didn't like Coco Mademoiselle. At first, it was that everyone seemed to be wearing it, then it was the patchouli and annoyed the crap out of me. I tried it again earlier this year and I actually really enjoyed it. I have only tried the EDP but would like to get my hands on the parfum to try.

But it seems like yesterday that Chanel released Coco Mademoiselle Intense and now Chanel has released L'Eau Privee eau Pour la Nuit. I haven't even tried the intense version let alone the L'Eau Privee. I don't really get to the mall too often so I haven't been able to try them and Chanel has really cracked down on the decanters. I am still annoyed with Chanel on that one. I want to test a perfume for a couple days or more before springing for a new bottle of anything. Hopefully, I will get to try these out and before, I don't know, Christmas. If I do, maybe I can sweet talk a sales person into giving me a sample or two to test out at home.

Too Many Things to Worry About

 

We are pretty close to September being over and Christmas is a little over 3 months away. The reason why I am mentioning Christmas is that I was at Costco, what, almost 2 weeks ago and saw that Costco had some of their Christmas stuff out.

I normally start Christmas shopping in, I don't know, late October but I started a little earlier this year. Ever since the pandemic started, I have been trying to spend less and it's been pretty difficult to do. With a Jake going to the vet in a couple weeks, I really have to scale back. Plus Jake needs a prescription filled around that time, scaling back is even more important. Every thing that I spend has to be really thought about, So no frivolous spending at all, groceries have to be bare bones. I'm not so worried about the cost of a vet visit but the cost of his medication, even with GoodRX. If that means I have to miss out on a STC or TPC sale, so be it.

When you work retail, you don't make a whole lot of money. So every penny has to be carefully budgeted and I mostly gave up on the 2nd stimulus package. Yes, another $1,200 in my bank account would help me immensely but I'm not holding my breath. I have $30 for Candle Day and some sitting on my Amazon account but I am trying to pretty much prepay as much as I can, when I can. I am trying to bank as many Ulta and Sephora rewards as I can. I'm banking those just in case as well as any credit card rewards to make sure that I can get everyone something.

But I have gotten some gifts already but I never want to wait until I am under the gun so that is why I am trying to kind of prepay in the form of gift cards. The only rewards that I have seriously made progress on was Ulta but I am still only half way to what I was last year with the points but I can't do a spending spree at this point, have to wait until the serious deals start coming out and I hear from a couple people on Christmas gifts.

Wearing Old Favorites

 

Vacation has been over for a few days and have to wait a few more weeks before I take my last vacation of the year. I didn't finish any decants, let alone bottles and sure as hell didn't try anything new. That half candle that I started on Sunday has decided to be an ass and the lid to the stupid thing won't come off. So right now it's in purgatory and I started a new candle. Thus far only $30 has been set aside for the Candle Day sale but probably will end up saving more closer to December 5th. That gives me time to use up some candles but when the sale comes, I will not go hog wild, just don't want to be overrun with candles again.

But I rediscovered no 5 Eau Premiere and have been wearing it at some point in the day for the past couple days. I had bought a 2.5 ounce bottle when Eau Premiere came out when I didn't fully understand the original no 5 but kind of liked it.

I love Chanel no 5 and love all of the formulations. Well, except no 5 L'Eau. L'Eau doesn't really smell similar to no 5, it's more of a third cousin once removed. Yeah, L'Eau has no real resemblance to Eau Premiere; let alone no 5. Eau Premiere is more of the younger sister or maybe first cousin at the very outside to no 5. I have forgotten how good Eau Premiere smells but I have no idea how the current version of Eau Premiere smells, Hopefully, sometime soon, I will get to a department store to get a whiff and maybe score a sample to see how it smells. I am hoping that I will start wearing more old favorites in the coming days or weeks.

It's Fall Again

 

Fall is pretty much here in Ohio, or at least starting up. Cooler temps, it's getting darker, earlier and I am starting to break out the cold weather clothes. And the heavy hitters in terms of perfume. 

Since I have been on vacation, I have finished 2 candles and about half way on my 3rd candle and by either tomorrow or Sunday at the very outside, I will be finishing that candle. I am just wanting to get as many as I can used up. When I was looking at the burn time for the Bath and Body Works single wick and 3 wick candles, the burn time is pretty much the same. So I am probably going to start favoring the single wick candles. But I still need to work on trying to use up the 3 wick candles and try not to go hog wild on Candle Day.

I've been keeping a casual eye on what's happening in the political arena. I know I might mention something in passing but don't get into depth with this. I'm not like many in my family who are pretty much watching the news 24/7 right now because of politics. I am not keeping the closest eye because it's gotten much too polarized and I refuse to engage and I refuse to get all worked up over something that I can't control outside of casting my ballot. I was surprised when I read a few minutes ago the Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away. A woman who fought for women and the disabled like me. Justice Ginsberg took a real beating with her many battles with cancer and still fought on, trying to protect rights and not have them restricted.

I am also keeping an eye on the battle over the 2nd stimulus bill. I am not really expecting any monies to hit my bank account like the first one but I do hope that some ends up in my bank account. If a 2nd stimulus bill passes and cash gets deposited I hope to pay off a credit card or two and get that bottle of Coromandel. But I am not going to hold my breath at this point. This stupid thing has been going on since what, May? Let's get going on this nonsence and just pass, preferably with actual cash going to the American people so they can pay for a roof over their heads or get some groceries.

Trying to Create More Space

 I have made some marginal progress in creating more space. Today, I am going to be finishing a 3 wick candle then start a single wick candle. It fills me up with joy when I do finish a candle because it creates a little more space. The candles that I am going to be focusing on a little more is the straight up apple candles. Why? Because that seems to be the bulk of my collection and I don't think that I really need to have that many. I did the math and Honeycrisp/Heirloom/Farmstand Apple take up around 40% of my collection and that is pretty sad. 

Bath and Body Works emailed my to let me know that they are doing a BOGO on their 3 wick candles. When I did the math, it was not better than the deal that they had, what a month ago? I am waiting for the Candle Day sale to snap up the Frozen Lake, Winter and Evergreen candles. Some of them will be for Christmas gifts. So at this point, I am saving up some cash to get some gift cards for that. Then I know some cash has really been set aside for that. So I am sitting this sale out and besides, I am not a big pumpkin fan to begin with. What I dislike about fall is everyone seems to lose their mind over pumpkin spice or anything related to pumpkin. As much as I love apple stuff, even that can get aggrivating after a while.

I am on vacation this week and I am overjoyed to be able to wear whichever perfume I want and hopefully finish off a mini or two, or maybe a full bottle or start to review some stuff. But I am expecting some storms tonight and tomorrow and hoping the power doesn't go out. If it does, I will probably have two candles going and probably have two more candles out of the way.

Andy Tauer L'Air des Alpes Suisses EDP Review

It looks like Andy Tauer might have discontinued another one. This time in the form of Une Rose Chypree. I'm not really convinced that he discontinued both Une Rose Chypree or Une Rose Vermeille. Partly because of Covid-19 and it's making shipping a real bear to deal with. I hope that he really hasn't and maybe someone out there has the straight answer. But finally I get motivated enough to actually review a perfume. Part of the reason is that the decant I had had only one or two measly wearings before it was all gone. I think that either STC or TPC changed their decants and evaporation is a bigger problem now.

L'Air des Alpes Suisses is definitely a Tauer perfume because of the Tauer base. Hints of pine, lavander and a whisper of ambergris but it's not a heavy perfume. Nor is it in the likes of the generic colognes that I have smelled a million times before. For a while, I couldn't put my finger on why it smelled so familiar. It's similar to Les Annees 25 (not the BIS version). Pine isn't a not that's used too often in perfumery. If it ever is, pine takes on that pine car freshener or Pine-Sol. I really do enjoy L'Air des Alpes Suisses and not because it is from Andy Tauer and I am a fangirl of his work; I just enjoy this one. The lasting power on my skin is about 6 hours. For me, this would be great on hot and humid days or just plain, old humid days. Suisses is definitely full bottle worthy to me.

Wait, What?

 Every so often, I poke around Luckyscent for no reason. Rarely do I buy things from Luckyscent. I find that in so many ways, they are just too expensive in my eyes. I can get my Amouage fix by hoping over to BeautyEncounter or Fragrancenet to pick up a bottle for at least half off most of the time. At this point, I'm good on Amouage. I can hop on over to Andy Tauer's website and pick up a bottle and it works out a few dollars cheaper even though shipping to the US is a shade over $20 but if I save $10-$15 and the bottle gets to me within a week, cool beans. But now it's looking like Une Rose Vermeille has been discontinued according to Luckyscent.

I might have 2 bottles and most would think that would be enough for one perfume. But since I am a Tauer fangirl and I find that he is discontinuing an offering that I really enjoy, I want to stock up even more. I didn't find out that Noontide Petals was discontinued until I really had to hunt down a bottle. Eventually, I did manage to get that backup bottle. I am hopping that in the next couple months I can scrape up enough cash and get another backup bottle, even though it might mean that I put Coromandel on the back burner. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Fingers crossed.

I might not wear Une Rose Vermeille but when I do wear it, I really do enjoy it. I think the reason that I don't wear it a whole lot is because it really lasts on skin. My skin is incredibly dry and if this is lasting through 2 showers, that says something.

Youtube and Stuff

 I can't seem to come up with anything really to write about. Yes, I can start busting things out to wear and review but it doesn't seem to pan out. I have this massive pile to test out but what holds me back is the fact that I don't want nor need to add to the list of what I want to get next on the full bottle list. You know the whole limited means type of shit. I want to score that bottle of Coromadel sometime this year. At this point, I do want to spend some time with the full bottles that I already own any start to really use some of them up.

But since I am talking about Chanel, I noticed on Ulta, that for the briefest moment they were selling Chanel through their website. It seemed like for a week or two and then they were not selling Chanel offerings on their website. Ulta does sell Chanel perfume of their website but never had it sold through their website. The whole thing made me do a double take because Sephora does sell Chanel on their website.

For the past few weeks, I have spent way too much time on YouTube. It started with watching some random videos but somehow turned into specific things. I started watching Ask a Mortician, Chinese ear cleaning, various types of massage but I really started watching English Heritage. Specifically the Victorian Way (English Heritage). So many of the of the things that they make seem to either be loaded with sugar and if it isn't, it's loaded with brandy. The one with the title of "Soup for the Poor" is just a way for making freaking split pea soup. Another one was what looked like a fancy applesauce mold with custard around the base. I think that I might have to find different channels to watch.

Cleaning, Cleaning and More Cleaning

 Recently, my cleaning habits have changed. The sorting through stuff has mostly stayed the same. I do through bits at a time. I have been trying to use things up or if it's not going to be used and can't be donated, throw it out. Why hang on to things that you aren't going to use either ever or ever again? I've started to do more little projects.

Last night, I was really motivated to dust my bedroom. I don't know how or why my bedroom gets so dusty but it just does. I was sick and tired of the bottles of perfume on my dresser being on the dusty side. I was tired of the tops of my candle lids collecting dust. But the dusting gave me the chance to organize the candles and the perfume bottles and now there is more space. Well, temporarily more space.

Bath and Body Works had a decent run on the 3 wick candles and then a day or two later, really good deal on the single wick candles. So, I made progress on using some candles but then turned around and bought more. I am pretty much in the same place I started with trying to use up some candles. I managed to finish one candle last night but haven't started a new candle. I am trying to figure out which candle to use this time.

I've noticed that if there is a sale with Bath and Body Works (a really good one), if shopping online, grab it early and don't go back and forth if you should get it. It seems like Bath and Body Works either limits stock for their website. I've gone on their website after a sale has ended and the item is in stock, albeit full price. I did stock up on my fall seasonal favorites but after this, I am going to wait until Candle Day and even if I have to sit on my hands and start burning two candles at a time.

Skyn Iceland Glacial Cleansing Cloths

I still have no idea why Blogger still won't let me upload pictures any more than this new interface. Don't ask me why they changed the layout but I find the whole thing annoying, confusing and more difficult to use. I don't always like it when things change but when it's made harder to use, I loathe it.

Last night, I finally finished a candle and started another one this morning. After I did some math, I figured that it is about 17 or 18 weeks before Bath and Body Works has their massive candle sale. And if I do a candle a week, I can whittle my 34 candles to about half the size and then stock up on more. I am probably talking out my but butt I am trying to create more space by either using up stuff or getting rid of it. I figure using up candles, minis and soaps is a good place to start.

A couple months ago, I did a Skyn Iceland run at Ulta. At the time, they were running a gift with purchase, I had to spend a certain amount to get it and since I was only $14 or $15 away, these fit the bill. I also figured when summer hit, with all of the high temps and humidity glory. this would do me good. Since I have to wear a face mask, my nose and chin get unbelievably oily and gross feeling. Or when it's late at night and don't want to wash my face but want to get the make up off, these would work too.

I have tried them a few times and it was a big fat no. I lathered the cloth up and the thing really lathers. The thing is soapy and felt like I was going to need to rinse this stuff off of my face. When this stuff was drying, my face started to feel sticky, like icing kind of sticky when it's drying. When my face was fully dry, it was filmy and filmy sucks. The whole thing made me feel uncomfortable and it didn't take care of the grit and grime that was left on my face. My nose and chin felt as greasy as before I used the cleansing cloth except with a filmy type of thing going on. I think that when I use them, I will rinse off my face with water. I don't think that I will get these again.

Gearing Up for a Vacation

When I clock out at 6 on Friday, I will be on vacation. I will have 9 days to rest, relax, catch up on a couple TV shows and do a couple other things. I won't have a ton of cash to do much of anything. It always seems like a week or two before vacation, I seem to have a bigger bill that pops up. But that stuff happens. I always hope that I try out my unworn and actually review them but that never seems to happen. I think that I should make a concerted effort to review at least 3.

I have 2 birthdays coming up, my father's and a friend on my vacation. Gifts are already bought and I hope they both like them. My dad is getting a couple nice shirts and some lawn lights. My friend is getting a Bath and Body Works wall plug and some refills that should take him until January. My friend can't have candles but likes the smell of them, so this is the next best thing.

Even though I started a 3 wick candle yesterday, I hope to finish 2 more candles. Lets face it, after counting 33 candles and running out of shelf space, I really need to start using up some candles. Part of me wants to throw caution to the wind and burn an Heirloom Apple candle even though one person in my household hates the smell but part of me doesn't. I don't really want to deal with an argument. Let's hope I can figure something out and get the candle I have going finished by Saturday.

Demeter Elvira's Vamp

I couldn't decide on which perfume to wear for my bedtime scent and that is when I knew that it was time to try something new. I have a fairly large decant of Demeter Elvira's Vamp.

In a way, I was hoping for something in terms of skank but there was nothing that I smelled that suggested anything skanky. All I got was something that smelled like a tuberose that was loaded with table sugar and the barest hints of vanilla. When I looked at the notes listed, there is nothing that lists tuberose and I don't have any kind of experience with smelling belladonna and that is what I could be smelling. When I think of the word vamp, I think more of the lines of a sensual person not some cheesy Halloween type of deal. The lasting power is about 5 hours. Even though the decant was cheap enough, I did not need to get a huge decant and into the ignored pile it will languish.

I don't like to do really short reviews but I really didn't like Vamp and it's borderline hate for me. I might have tried one other Demeter and wasn't wild about it either.

More Candle Chatter

It seems like every time that I finish off two candles, I always seem to add two more to my collection. When I did a count last night, the grand total was 36 candles. Now is the time to really start powering through some of these candles. I want to try and go through 1 or 2 candles a week just to whittle it down to a more manageable amount. What is that manageble number? I have no idea yet, I just want less stuff lying around and more space.

All of my candles come from Bath and Body Works. I think the throw from these candles are pretty good but they come out strong with being burned. The longest that I can burn a candle is about 3 hours before I have to put it out. Even though most of my collection is the 3 wick candles, I am attacking the single wick ones. Partially, because they are smaller and I can get rid of them faster but the spot where they are is where I can really use the space first for other things.

Since I have burned through about single wick candles, I don't think I am the fan I used to be of the BBW candles as I once was. I noticed that there was a bigger uneven burn issue and I have had an issue with tunneling when I was burning the candle. So it probably was a good idea that I made the decision to get the show on the road and start with the single wick candles. But I have to really think about when I am going to burn the Honeycrisp and Heirloom Apple candles though. There is a person that I live with that hates the smell of those candles and I can't burn those at this point. I love straight up apple smelling candles but when someone hates them, I have to be cautious on when I can burn them.

Mona di Orio Les Nombres d'Or Rose

I am not sure what is going on with Blogger at this point. Can't upload pictures, their version of spell check has been taken away. Well, it's some kind of server rejected thing. It's a little irritating.

Today is going to be a little bit of a busy day today. I am taking a short break from cleaning up the house to blog for a little bit. It's more of putting things back in place and finishing some vaccuming. My dad is coming home from visiting my sister in California, so I want things to look nice. Not only that, I am spending the weekend at an aunt's house so the packing has to be finished up. My biggest issue is that I have to pick out a decant and/or a full bottle for the weekend. I think that a decant in my purse and a full bottle for my carry on will be sufficient. I haven't made any decisions yet on what I am taking with me.

Last night, I originally planned on wearing Worth Courtesan but remembered that there are a couple of decants that I haven't worn, let alone reviewed that only have one wearing left. Mona di Orio's Les Nombres d'Or Rose was one of them and since I took advantage of that 60% sale from STC, I would just wear Rose and review it.

Mona di Orio's Rose seems to have a huge resemblance to Nahema. A big, jammy rose and I am getting sick of comparing rose dominant perfumes to either Nahema or Rose de Nuit. My nose is detecting something maybe a little boozy. It's pleasant enough but not really me. Projection is moderate and lasting power is average on my skin. When I get the musk and leather offerings from Mona di Orio, I will see if this is a house that is for me.

Amouage

I haven't blogged about Amouage in quite a while. A few days ago, I tested Jubilation 25 in extrait form and started thinking. I find in many ways that Jubilation 25 is difficult to wear. I think because of the overripe fruit and the fact that I am not a fan of Rochas Femme makes Jubilation 25 a hard one to wear. But my sample of the extrait is a dabber vial and I started to enjoy Jubilation 25. Funny thing is that a full bottle of the extrait is a spray bottle. The EDP of Amouge offerings is potent enough with spray bottles but I think that a spray bottle of the extrait would kill me and everyone around me.

I will admit that I really haven't paid attention to Amouage after Beloved. I might not like a few of the older ones (Gold, Reflection) but Amouage lost me after Beloved. After Beloved, there was a shift in what they created, to appeal to different markets and my nose didn't much care for it. I wanted my dark, smokey and heavy on the incense back. But after a while, I did lose interest and pretty much forgot about Amouage.

My perfume full bottle buying has been down for years. With the pandemic and the stimulus, I did acquire more bottles than I normally have but not what it was before finances couldn't support 15 or 20 new bottles every year. I have noticed in the past year and a half, I don't really have the desire to buy as many decants. Finances have to stabilize a little more and besides, I have so many to get through before I can really get more. I am hoping that this year that I will be able to add Coromandel to my stable.

Tired of the Heat

I am going to start by saying that this craziness has to stop. These assholes have got to stop throwing toddler worthy temper tantrums over having to wear a mask inside a store. These businesses have the right to make you wear a mask if you are going to shop there. It's private property, not public. You have the right to shop elsewhere if you don't want to wear a mask. People need to quit coughing on food in grocery stores, it's gross and it's not cute. People need to quit coughing on other people (willfully) and those who are immunocompromised seem to be getting the brunt of this nonsense. Just quit it.

At this point, a heatwave has hit northeastern Ohio and I am really feeling it. Temps in the 90's and had to turn on the air conditioning. My perfume habits have changed, not only because of the weather but because it seems like perfume is the new smoking. I can't wear perfume at work anymore and it has made me lose some interest in perfume. With my work schedule being changed because of Covid-19, I don't really get to wear a whole lot of perfume and enjoy it. The interest is still there but society in general has taken a lot of the enjoyment out of it.

Since it has been either really warm or really hot, I have had a fixation on wearing CdG Kyoto. It's cool, dry and not aggravating. Kyoto isn't really loud either, so it's a great perfume for heat. I rediscovered Worth Courtesan. I remember when I was new to the whole perfume scene and I was obsessed with it but couldn't find it in the US. I managed to snag a bottle off E-bay and one off of Amazon a few years ago. Funny thing is that you can't find it anymore, Courtesan might be discontinued, I'm not sure though. Courtesan is a great summer perfume, not to heavy or dense. Just a flirty, fruity perfume. Yesterday night, I pulled out Feminite du Bois and had forgotten how lovely it was. FdB was either my first or second full bottle from Serge Lutens. FdB might not be the greatest for extreme summer heat, but it is lovely.

Weariness

Did you ever get a kind of weariness? That kind of weariness of what's going on in the world. That is why I just gave up on the news. I don't watch it anymore, I don't really read it anymore as well. I am beyond sick of hearing about Covid-19, I am beyond sick of the political climate, I am just sick of how people are behaving.

My other weariness is about my dog, Jake. It's been a long few days and was finally able to get to the vet yesterday. It was hard dealing with the diarrhea that turned bloody on Sunday night. We did take him out quite often but it was still happening in the house. Hardwood is pretty easy to clean, carpets are another matter. The cleaning wore me out and we are hoping that the medication works. We were told that there was nothing in the blood work that showed a why.

I was looking forward to having my parents go to California for 10 days but that didn't happen. My mother didn't think it was such a wise idea with Jake being sick. It is the what if he takes a turn for the worse? She cancelled her part of the trip and sent my dad. I was looking forward to being on my own, doing some projects without someone breathing down my neck, wearing what I want, burning the candles that I want. I am really starting to burn the candles that I have. Having 34 candles is quite a bit and I am running out of room to put them. I am hopping to have about 4 or 5 finished in about 10 days. I want to have a little more space in my room to display my Galileo thermometer collection.

Molinard Vintge Habanita EDT Review

I have finally found a spare moment to blog. It's just been a little strange around here. I have been having a little trouble trying to find the time and even more trouble getting to have more than 30 seconds on the computer without someone needing to use it.

It has been years since I have worn Molinard's Habanita. Almost 10 years and it was in the beginning of being a perfume fiend. After being a perfume fiend for around 10 years, my nose and tastes have changed and will keep changing. I remember liking Habanita and have a small decant of the vintage EDT. I am not going to yap about the history of Habanita, well not really. I don't know how old my vintage decant is but it probably is a fairly new vintage, if that makes any sense.

I get a slightly fruity type of oriental. I am not talking the fresh type of fruity smell, more like a cooked type of fruit. My nose can't pick out any one kind of flower but it does have a floral aspect to it. I think the flowers keep Habanita from going straight up Shalimar. What bothers me the most is that distinct plastic, powdery doll smell. I keep wanting to say Barbie but my nose leads me into the baby doll type of deal that I probably played with when I was really little.

Vintage Habanita was a bit of a let down for me. I wanted something maybe a little more on the skanky side, a little smokier, just a little different and maybe a little more complex. Maybe I am so used to my older perfumes being more complex and having more working parts. Maybe it's because smoking doesn't shock anybody anymore, especially a woman smoking in public. Women smoking led to the development of Habanita and I think that Molinard dropped the ball a little bit when creating something for skin.

Decants Everywhere

Friday night and Saturday morning were dedicated to straightening up and organizing. Cleaning out my purse, doing a couple loads of laundry and a few odds and ends like that. The battle of the candles has been raging on between my mother and I. She either hates of dislikes most of the candle scents that I have got. I have been trying to find ways to use my candles to where she is not going to complain.

When I was cleaning and organizing, I had decants everywhere. In my purse, in my wallet/wristlette thing and in the fleece jacket that I use at work. I am not a huge makeup person and the makeup that's in my purse is basically a lip balm, mascara and one lipstick. You would be amazed on how put together one looks with just mascara and lipstick. But having decants the way I do, it kind of puts me at ease. If something were to suddenly happen to my perfume collection, I would have at least something. Might not be all of what I want but it would be something. I usually have one maybe two 15ml decants in my purse, a couple 1.5ml Tauer offerings in my wallet and usually one 5ml of whatever in that fleece work jacket. It usually varies on the weather and what I am in the mood for but a decant of vintage BaV is always there and more and more frequently no 22 is there. I view it as I have to have something full of skank, something a little more mainstream and maybe something either loud or strange. So I have most of my bases covered.

Chanel Jersy EDT Review

After Portia's post on the Perfume Posse yesterday, I hunted down my itty bitty decant to try out. When I found the decant, it was almost gone, so wearing and reviewing it is at the moment. I probably could get another wearing out of it but I'd rather not.

Jersey is full of lavender with hints of clean musk. The first split second I thought it was Chanel tries to imitate Guerlain's Jicky. I do have a liking for Jicky but I am realizing more and more that a lavender dominant perfume is not my thing. Jersey has the connotations of laundry soaps and softener and home fresheners. But somewhere after 10 minutes, there is something about it that makes me feel under the weather. It could be that lavender has been overused in so many home products, to the point of sickening. There were moments where I thought this would work and I could like it but it became a nope, this isn't happening. This had a chance of being something that I might like but Jersey is too simple and familiar. I noticed that it lasts on my skin at least 7 hours. That is one thing Chanel has done rather well, make an EDT last on my skin for much longer than two hours.

My biggest beefs with Chanel at this point, is that Chanel is becoming a too expensive and is starting to price themselves out of the market. I have not been thrilled with their reformulations nor the changing the Les Exclusifs line from EDT to EDP. I know that they did a number on Cuir de Russie when they switched over to the EDP concentration. I haven't been fond of recent releases either because it either smells cheap or it smells like something that I already haven't smelled a thousand other times before in other perfumes.

Let's just say that a bottle won't be purchased and my bank account is incredibly happy over that fact.

Viktoria Minya Hedonist Cassis Review

It seems in a lot of ways, things are starting to get back to normal but there is a new normal. Stores are starting to open back up along with restaurants. But the new normal in those places is social distancing, retail establishments limiting how many can be in a store at a single time and a few other things. But all in all, I am pretty happy to see things open up. I don't care if I have to wear a mask in a store or do a little extra social distancing, things are returning to more of a normal state. I am hoping at this point that shipping returns to more of a normal state (looking specifically at Old Navy and Gap in terms of shipping).

Yesterday, a friend and I were out and about for a little while yesterday. We ate at Panera for lunch and stopped at Bath and Body Works for some foaming hand soap. I had only the intention of just getting the hand soap but walked out with the soap and two single wick candles. I keep trying to use the candles I have before I get anymore but I keep failing at it.

Last night, I tested Hedonist Cassis and I am spending a little more time with it this morning. I find it to be more of a springtime scent and a little unusual. I wasn't expecting a blast of grapefruit but I got a blast of grapefruit in the beginning. The first couple seconds, I wasn't sure if I liked it but turns out I do. When a perfume has citrus listed in the notes, it's kind of a vague, generic type of citrus note, not a specific one. Then I get a cut grass smell, which is nice but didn't quite move me but I enjoyed the cedar aspect of it. What tickled me the most and wish it lasted longer was the grapefruit. If the grapefruit lasted longer, I probably would have put this on full bottle worthy but since it didn't my decant will do just fine.

Chanel No 5 Bath and Body Stuff

I decided to give the Chanel no 5 bath and body products a go on Friday. For quite a few years, Ii have been hesitant to give them a go. Years before I was a perfume fiend, I had put on a tester of no 5 hand lotion. It was Christmas time and I was shopping and didn't have any hand lotion in my purse. I thought at the time that maybe the tester might have gone rancid.

The bar soap did it's job with cleaning and the lotion did the moisturizing but I wasn't happy. I was so excited to try this things but felt let down. My first indicator was the bar soap itself didn't really smell like no 5. It smelled like a generic perfumey soap but I decided to carry on and hope that the body lotion would be better. The body lotion didn't smell rancid but didn't smell a whole lot like no 5 and I wondered if that Chanel expected me to spray on some no 5 as well. The body lotion and soap are strong enough on their own that spraying or dabbing perfume really is overkill. I wasn't very impressed with the smell. It smelled reformulated, just like the mini travel EDP set that I had gotten in January. At this point, I am thinking that Chanel no 5 really is too far gone to have a permanent place in my collection. I haven't tried the current version of the EDT or extrait but after smelling the current version of the EDP and using the body products and owning a little bit of the current EDP, I have lost way too much faith in Chanel. I didn't get these from a store I never heard of but the lotion came from Sephora when they had their sale and the body soap came from the Chanel website.

Viktoria Minya Hedonist Travel Set

I had forgotton that I had done a review of Viktoria Minya's Hedonist Iris. I had worn it today and do think that it's a cross between no 19 Poudre and Infusion d'Iris. It's not exactly not my cup of tea. It just smells like a few other cheaper perfumes. It's nice enough but it's not going to get a ton of wear from me. The last Hedonist that I haven't tried was the cassis one. I have dabbers of the absolu Hedonists and will give those a shot to see how those fair on skin. I don't think spending $200 for a blind buy is a great idea. Well, it's not a great idea anymore, well, it never was.

Saturday, my travel set from Viktoria Minya arrived from Luckyscent. I had fully expected it to arrive Monday but I was tickled that it came yesterday. While the pictures were fabulous, the 15ml vials were even more gorgeous in person. I couldn't stop gazing at them. The crystals made the whole thing awesome. I will admit that I have never been much of a fan of the whole crystal/bead thing is perfume bottles. Most of the time, that means that there is less room inside the bottles for actual perfume. Pretty packaging may catch my attention but like any good perfume nut, I am more interested in the perfume itself. It's nice to display a pretty perfume bottle but what good is a pretty perfume bottle if the perfume sucks? It is nice to have some pretty bottles, or bottle swag but the perfume has to be really good to have a spot in rotation.

I like the concepts of travel sets. When there are weekend getaways or trips that involve flying, travel sets make things easier. Just pop that large decant into a purse and you are good to go. I have never traveled with decants from TPC or STC, I don't exactly know how decants from them would go with TSA, so I feel a little safer with actual travel sets and samples from the perfumers themselves.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Liquid Lipstick Review

It's not often that I wear lipstick or lip gloss but somehow I have accumulated quite a bit. Most of what I accumulated was from a drawing from the Perfume Posse. With some uneven lip issues because I am missing some back teeth, finding colors that don't accentuate that can be a little more difficult. I don't find the uneven lips to be very noticeable but darker colors and some reds make it more noticeable.

I haven't a whole lot of experience with liquid lipstick and I decided to give Anastasia Beverly Hills a try. The color that I tried was Crush. I found that it went on a little too thick on me and really needed to blot the excess off my lips and took a deeper look. I found that the lipstick seemed to be on the dry and sticky side. Sticky can be a little hard to deal with on my lips but the dry part I was not amused. I didn't like how it dried out my lips and a lip balm is necessary to keep from getting dry lips. I noticed without a lip balm, the color settled into every fine line in my lips, making me look older. Mostly, I am thinking that the color itself and not using lip balm made me look older and that's not a good sign. One good thing is that it stays put for a whole day. I guess at the end of the day, this will have to be a miss because of the color itself and the dry factor.

The Continuing Saga of Spring

I don't know if spring is coming or going. Yes, the trees and bushes are starting to wake up but flowers on the other hand is another matter. The primroses are blooming just fine and will continue to do so, we are finishing up with the daffodils and not seeing a whole lot of anything else blooming. No irises, no lilac bushes are blooming. It just seems to be a whole lot of nothing. We might get one day that's warm and sunny but so many of the days are cold, gray and rainy. I don't really think spring is here and Covid-19 isn't making things any easier. Still can't go anywhere or do anything.

At this point, I am happy that my Viktora Minya travel set shipped yesterday after me gripping on Now Smell This about things not shipping. It should arrive by Thursday or Friday and I can't wait to check it out. My Harry and David packages should arrive by the end of the week. One of those packages contain a Mother's Day gift. I am still waiting on my Sephora packages to ship*. I had made my Sephora order on the 23rd of last month and I have only gotten an email on how things are delayed due to Covid-19, sanitation at Sephora warehouses and the Sephora sale. I know a lot of this is first world problems but after what, about 2 months, nobody can have a better system in place by now? I'm hoping that the last of my packages are shipping soon, before I know it, my mother's birthday will be here and I don't really want to go the lame ass route of just a gift card and a happy birthday card.

*One of my Sephora packages has shipped at the time of blogging. Just wish both of them shipped today.

Amouage Memoir Man EDP Review

 I finally bit the bullet this morning. I went to Luckyscent and ordered the Viktoria Minya travel set. I do like travel sets, especially if they are different scents like the one I ordered. A little less commitment. Sometimes, I get weary of plain perfume bottles. So this time, I went with some bottle porn or travel set porn. When the original Hedonist came out and my bottle arrived in the mail, I did squeal. The rhinestones in the bottle, the color of the perfume, the packaging in general was pretty much bottle porn.

I have enjoyed quite a few of Amouage offerings in the past. It seems like after Beloved, I kind of lost interest in Amouage. Too many new releases and a change in direction that made me lose interest. I've never really explored the men's offerings that Amouage has. I am working on that.

Last night, I applied Amouage Memoir Man for a test drive. I have never been the biggest fan of the men's offerings when coming from Amouage. I have found what I have tried to be kind of thin and I don't smell the resemblance to the women's version. Amouage Gold Man was the only one that really tied in to the women's version of Gold. I prefer Gold Man to Gold Woman. Memoir Man in ways has left me unimpressed. Thin, no relation to Memoir Woman but I've said that with other men's offerings. I am not smelling much of anything that's listed. I smell hints of leather, hints of wood and grass.

Memoir Man smells most like Chanel Sycomore on steroids with the extreme dry down of CdG Kyoto. I have both Sycomore and Kyoto. As time goes on, I get a little bit of a dusty smell to it. The lasting power is about 7 hours on my skin. I am not going to actively seek a bottle but wouldn't refuse a bottle if it were dropped in my lap.

Vintage Jicky Extrait and Other Things

It's been a rough few weeks. Some things are sad and a couple things are looking up.

Not this last Sunday but the Sunday before, I went to see my sick grandmother. She had been battling ovarian cancer for almost a decade but decided enough was enough and entered into hospice care. We understood her decision and supported it. It was getting difficult at the end with all the tests and she was getting sicker and sicker. My grandmother wanted to go more of on her terms. She passed on Friday and the funeral was today. The last visit, I went with a dab of vintage Jicky extrait.

Maybe it was the wrong me or the wrong perfume that day but it just didn't work. I have never gotten a whole lot of skank out of Jicky, even in vintage form. Jicky has always been one of those perfumes that seem to be acceptable in most situations but not that day. I think that it was the lavender that was bugging me.

Things seemed to be looking up when I got home today and checked the mailbox. I was eager to get my STC package but a couple other letters came for me and both made me pretty happy. A couple headaches did go away that were pertaining to my cash flow. Except for my Sephora order, I received my Barkbox order and my Ulta order. Gap finally decided to ship the shirts I ordered and my Chanel order is arriving tomorrow. Now I feel more comfortable with adding a new full bottle to my stable but I still kind of have my eye on the Viktoria Minya Hedonist travel set but I haven't made any hard and fast plans on what I should get.

The Illusion

I have been so tempted to get a new bottle of perfume. When the stimulus packaged passed, I was thinking of getting a new full bottle but I had to really stop myself a few days ago from pulling the trigger. The quarantine and a couple other things made me a little hesitant on getting one. My game plan is to pull $10 or $15 per week out of my bank account and set it aside. Yes, cold hard cash and then when most, if not all of my drama is fixed, I will get that new bottle. There is something that is helping the tiniest bit.

A couple days ago, I had bought two bar soaps from Chanel. I arrived too late to snatch up some no 19 bar soaps and that left me with no 5. I've never really had a massive fixation on getting matching anything when it comes to bath products. In high school, I kind of did and that was back when Bath and Body Works was affordable and most of their things actually did smell good. But that's faded and I moved on to other things and not all of them haven't been pleasant. What I am waiting for is the Sephora sale so I can get the body lotion. Between the bar soaps and the body lotion, I kind of gave myself the illusion that I did get a full bottle, even though it's no 5. I still don't understand Chanel prices at all. What they charge for soap and lotion is pretty ludicrous. The prices of the perfume is even worse. Think about it, Chanel is mainstream and I don't get the logic on why they need to be that expensive.

The orders that I made online still are not moving along. It's still as aggravating as ever. No updates or anything. Gap sent me something a couple days ago about Covid-19 and they are cleaning or some such thing. My question is how much cleaning do you need to do before you decide to ship a package? It was two weeks ago that I placed an order.

Life Suspended

Right now, life is kind of lousy. With family illnesses, some financial drama on top of Covid-19 shutting down everything, I can't catch a break at this point. I made the decision to hold off on getting a new bottle of perfume and just about all frivolous spending. I doesn't mean I won't get myself something nice but even with the stimulus package, I really have to seriously cut back on trivial spending. And I just wrote that sentence as I place an order for 2 Chanel no 5 bar soaps.

But the things that I have ordered at the beginning of the month, haven't even shipped yet. My Gap order that I placed over 12 days ago hasn't even shipped, my dogs' BarkBox has shipped 5 days ago and it's sitting somewhere in Indiana. When I placed my Skyn Iceland order a couple days ago, Ulta had let me know yesterday that with the Covid-19 virus, things are taking longer to ship and when they ship, it's taking longer to get to my house. I know that the stuff I have ordered isn't essential stuff and a couple things are for birthdays in mid-May. But it's the annoyance of so many things. Nobody can really go out and do anything, if you order online, it takes forever to get a damn thing. Even Prime Pantry orders are taking at least two weeks to get to anyone's house. I am pretty sure that the post office, UPS and FedEx employees are feeling the strain of all of this. I am hoping that things get back to normal soon.

Seveline Vanille de Madagascar EDP

The whole shelter in place thing has made me a little stabby. It seems like every time I turn around, the shelter in place order has been extended. I can't help but think with so many other people out of work, even with the stimulus package, they probably are terrified right now. I am happy that I am still working but that extra $1,200 is pretty nice. Coromandel looks like it will be possible but I still haven't made any decisions yet.

I was getting pretty bored with some of the stuff that I was wearing on a regular basis and decided to try something new. I had pulled out Seveline Vanille de Madagascar. I will admit that there isn't anything to exciting about a vanilla perfume. I have never been a huge vanilla fan and it's hard to find a vanilla heavy perfume that excites me.

I find that Seveline Vanille de Madagascar is mostly a pipe tobacco and vanilla mix. I am reminded of Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille but this is probably more of a poor man's Tobacco Vanille. Vanille de Madagascar is a little creamier and does have a decent staying power on skin, and I would say that it lasts about 7 hours on skin. The projection is alright because it isn't an incredibly loud perfume and most vanilla perfumes seem to be a little on the loud side. It's nice enough but I won't be seeking out a bottle but decants are cheap enough on Surrender to Chance.

Vintage Perfume

After reviewing Jungle Gardenia, I got to thinking about all the vintage in my collection. Vintage perfumes seem to be the ones that seem to have tons of staying power on skin. Mitsouko, Shalimar, BaV and s few others have staying power on skin in vintage form, no matter the concentration.

I think that perfumes of the past, before all these reformulations, were built to have staying power. Way back when, many could only afford to have one perfume and it was used only sparingly. I managed to score a set of vintage Dior, probably from the '60's, maybe earlier and both Diorissimo and Miss Dior are both in EDC concentration and have staying power. What was great for me is that they came in the original packaging and it was pretty interesting to see the prices that were marked on them. The price tag read either $2.50 or $2.75.

It seems like many new releases do not have lasting power. Amouage and Andy Tauer are one of the few brands that release perfumes with lasting power. Amouage's earlier perfumes can take a couple showers before they fully wash off. Andy Tauer's Une Rose Vermeille is nuclear waste. With Une Rose Vermeille, I need to use both Tide and Dawn and at least 3 showers before it fully comes off. I wish more companies would take notice. And take notice of the price points as well. Why should  I shell out $60 or more for a perfume that lasts only an hour or two, even on clothes?

Tuvache Jungle Gardenia Vintage Parfum Review

I was starting to bored with the same old scents and wanted to try something new. It happened when I was doing a decant cull. I was going through decants and throwing out the evaporated ones or ones that might have had 1 measly wear. Let's say that space was created, which was nice. The clearing out of old decants led me to my vintage parfum dabbers and since I was looking at trying something new, I figured that testing out Tuvache Jungle Gardenia.

I have never been a fan of tuberose, especially as a dominant note in any perfume. Too big, too buttery, well just too much period and Jungle Gardenia is no exception to my nose. I had ordered a tiny bit of it while reading a post on Perfume Posse. I always hope that there might be a tuberose that works for me but I keep coming up empty handed.

Jungle Gardenia is a huge tuberose scent with no discernible gardenia in it. It's the biggest, slutiest tuberose that I have smelled so far. It's the tuberose that's starting to rot with a little bit of some kind of musk thrown in. If there is musk, it's somewhere, and very hidden. Even though I adore skank in my perfume and not afraid of massive skank notes in my perfume, this is missing the mark with me. Don't get me wrong, there is no shortage of skank in Jungle Gardenia, it's the type of skank that I sure as hell don't understand. Good thing that I have only a tiny bit and I am not eager to find more of this.