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.