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.