Getting Closer

 Two more days and I will be officially on vacation for the next 8 days. I have no real plans except reading about 4 books, burning 4 or 5 candles and having the ability to wear whatever perfume that I want. I do want to do one small fun thing that doesn't break the bank during that week.

I am enjoying the fact that I currently have any perfume obsessions right now. For far too long I had wanted a full bottle of Coromandel and now have a bottle. Rose Flash and Lyric were a little overboard but since when do I really get to spend any kind of cash on full bottles. Shit, I haven't even been buying decants of anything and haven't done it since, what, maybe Boxing Day last year or Black Friday. STC hasn't really sent out any kind of promos and TPC haven't sent a whole lot of them either. The only bottle that I would like now is Hedonist Cassis but that isn't really that high on the priority list at this point. But whatever is on my buy list is more of a slow burn. With trying to take care of some serious financial stuff, perfume buying is still not going to be all that high on the priority list. Ulta points are being saved up for a new bottle of perfume but that is going to have to wait for quite a while. I'm just hoping that I can actually force myself to actually review a perfume during my vacation. Or maybe review more than one. But I am going to focus on just getting through my next 2 shifts at work before I go doing things.

Thunderstorms and Covid Vaccine

Yesterday morning, I got my second Moderna shot. I am still fairly tired, have a headache and a sore arm. Today is a day to take it easy and not overdo it.

Thunderstorms are headed my way this afternoon and I would like to get this post in before they hit. Being in a more rural area, losing electricity during a thunderstorm is nothing unusual and that means to make sure that all of my technology is charged up and whatever needs to be done it done. I did quite a bit over the last two days so it wouldn't be so much of a pain in the ass. Even though I am currently wearing Theorema, I am debating on which perfume I will wear post shower, just in case I lose electricity, I don't want something that is a powerhouse and take two showers to fully wash off. URV would be an idea but that one lasts more of 3 or 4 showers before I can really wear something else.

Time to Get Serious

 

This is the year where I have started to get serious about things and the past month, very serious about some things. A few years ago, I got stupid with some credit cards and just got stupid with money in general. Everything financially got out of control and I never really got back in control.

My resolution this year is to really get back in control in the financial area of my life and now, it's really starting to take shape. I have made progress and things have gotten a fair bit more manageable but I am still working on some kinks but I am getting through. It's a little hard to be taken seriously when on buys three perfumes this month and have bought tons of candles since January. Since there is nothing I really want right now, I think that since I have one thing payed off and two others just about payed off, I can get moving on on getting more ducks in a row.

I have a vacation coming up the first full week of May and I am making some plans for it. They might be small things but I want to get them accomplished. I seriously want to wear and review a couple perfumes and really get going on finishing a couple bottles of perfume. Two bottles might be a month long project and not a week long project. I also want to use up 5 or 6 candles between now and May 9th and it's doable. I have noticed that the single wick candles from Bath and Body Works don't last as long as their three wick candles. I can get 7 days out of the 3 wick but only 3 or 4 out of the single wicks. If I can use up more candles, then it will be a lot much better because then I will have some space.

Here's to some new beginnings!

Avignon, YouTube, and Sephora

 Had some snow roll through my neck of the woods a couple days ago. I was vaguely worried about losing electricity but not excessively worried. The last time, I was without power for days.

Recently, I have been watching even more YouTube reactions to certain things. It's been reactions to the songs Bohemian Rhapsody, Nessun Dorma and Du Hast live in Paris. I quickly noticed a few things about the people who are doing the reactions. They keep pausing the video every other second to talk about something or just yap the entire way through and not really pay attention to what they want to react to. I want to jump through the screen, smack them upside the head and tell them to quit pausing every two seconds to just talk about something or just talk throughout the damn thing. I think a good chunk of them are just talking to hear themselves talk or just to show off. I think they miss a little too much by perpetually pausing and talking.

As so many know, Sephora has had their spring sale and I participated with buying a couple things. Turns out that one of the items was missing from the order. Namely an eye shadow that it supposed to be part of a gift. Trying to get a hold of someone on chat can be a bear. This may be a first world problem and the eye shadow wasn't going to land me in the workhouse but I do expect to get what I ordered. I did finally break through and I am having a replacement sent out. This actually cements my love for Ulta a little more.

For a while, I was flirting with getting a bottle of Avignon but since I have worn it today, I decided against it. Can't get past the dirty guinea pig cage thing. My sister had guinea pigs and never could really be bothered to clean the cage too often and somehow that kind of became my job. I think that I will like Rose Flash much better since summer will be here soon enough. I have enough perfume as it is and I have bought a bottle of Coromandel and Lyric already.

I keep talking about finishing a couple bottles of no 5 and at this point, it's really time to get serious about finishing them. There is no good enough reason on why I need to not be finishing these bottles. The edt bottle is about two thirds gone and the edp is less than half full. I am starting to need space again and I think that finishing those two bottles would be a start.

That Sephora Sale

It's that time of year where Sephora has their spring sale. I had some spare change and got a couple things and spent under $50. There was nothing that truly really wanted at Sephora to make me go hog wild. My discount wasn't too inviting but then again, how often do I really shop at Sephora? What I was really hoping is to use that $10 credit along with my 10% off but that was a no go. I've never had an issue with this when shopping at Ulta. Ulta lets you use points along with a sale, except for gift cards and that's not unusual though. I am stockpiling Ulta points at this point. Maybe at the end of the year I will get that massive bottle of Estee Lauder Pleasures of something from Chanel but we will see what happens. Stockpiling points is fairly easy to do when point multipliers are in play.

At this point, the candle purchasing has stopped along with using them. The weather has gotten to the point of I don't want to start a candle and it's too much or just doesn't fit. At first, it was the low to mid 60's and ever since those 3 days of upper 70's, it's been in the upper 40's and mid 50's. I just want it to get and stay warm so I can have the windows open and not be suffocated by the smell of whatever candle that I have going. I've planned to use certain candles over the next 5 weeks. Let's hope the weather in my neck of the woods will improve a little bit.
 

Worth Courtesan

 Worth Courtesan was one of my first perfume loves when I fell down the rabbit hole. I fell in love with it's fruity goodness and I am not a big fan of fruity perfumes in general. I fell in love with Courtesan's flirty, mildly spicy nature too. At the time, it was pretty hard to track down in the US but did manage to snag a couple bottles at a reasonable price.

For a while, it seemed to be around and easily ordered online in the US that didn't break the bank. For quite a while, I didn't seem to wear Courtesan too much. When I wore Courtesan a few times last year I noticed some kind of condensation inside the cap of the perfume and the base of the spray mechanism, I wiped things up, didn't find anything that would warrant the condensation. I went to apply some Courtesan last night and noticed that there seemed to be a little bit of evaporation going on. Not a huge amount but still a somewhat noticeable amount to my eyes. I take off the cap and perfume dribbles everywhere. And I mean everywhere, all over my hands and some trickled down my forearm. The spray mechanism is now wonky and I am pissed at this point. It seems like recently that I haven't had a whole lot of luck with spray bottles. 

I spent an hour or two last night scouring the internet looking for bottles for sale and came up empty handed. I saw one or two bottles for major money and the shipping was killer as well. I am not fully sure if this has been discontinued or not but I know that this bottle of Courtesan will probably be my go to summer perfume. I seriously don't want to lose a bottle to just evaporation. There doesn't seem to be any kind of information on Courtesan let alone information on if it is still in production or not. Let's hope that the perfume gods haven't decided to pull a fast one on me.