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.