Vacation is Long Over

 Vacation is long over and I am grudgingly back at work. While on vacation, I didn't manage to try any new perfume or use up any bottles but did manage to use 3 candles and start a 4th. That 4th candle is almost finished and will be finished by tonight.

What I have noticed about my candle collection is the quality of the 3 wick candles has gone down. Before the pandemic, I never had an issue with the wicks themselves, with or without a wick trimmer. After the first burn, the candle stays barely lit (very small flame) and that is with a wick trimmer. Without a wick trimmer, it's the same thing, an incredibly small flame. The biggest thing that I have noticed is that when the candle reaches the half way point, the candle starts to either not smell that great or not smell good at all. I have found that the single wick candles are the only ones that have maintained a decent wick. The type of wick that doesn't give a tiny flame after the first time the candle has been lit. The 3 wick candles that I have bought before the pandemic burn just fine but I am slightly hesitant to use them but will eventually use them after I have used all of the post start of the pandemic 3 wicks. But I will have to say at this point, I will definitely be burning single wick candles after all of my 3 wicks are gone. Yes, I am giving Candle Day a pass this year, after last year's Candle Day. Last year's Candle Day was poorly planned and executed.

My go to candle company has always been Bath and Body Works. I've tried other brands but have always gone back to Bath and Body Works. I haven't had issues with tunneling, decent burn times but there is one thing that brings me back. While there are quite a few offerings that I just plain don't like or just not my thing is how realistic some of the offerings can be. Honeycrisp Apple, Evergreen and Fresh Cut Lilacs are three that spring to mind. No funky supporting notes, not artificial smelling; just smelling like the name on the candle.

Perfume Minis and My Last Vacation

 Since the holidays are coming up, all kinds of perfume sets are coming out. Sample sets, travel sets and minis. For many years, perfume minis were normally only given as a gift with purchase or sold as part of a gift set. Now minis are sold as sets. 

Let's face it, minis are cute and they serve a purpose. They are for the most part, pretty affordable. Yes, Amouage has minis but Amouage isn't really the most affordable perfume house. Sometimes niche minis or sample sets can be pretty affordable. You just have to dig a little bit.

What I like about minis and sample sets is that I can try some stuff out before I will commit to anything. Most of the time it is possible to travel with minis but not always. If they are the dabber minis, there is a very real risk that the lid will pop off and spill all over a purse and that is why I don't put any of the Deneuve minis in my purse. I'm not taking that chance of having a discontinued perfume spilling and making a mess out of my purse. Deneuve can be difficult enough to find and prices have gotten to be pretty outrageous. 

I am currently on my last vacation for the year and I just finished one candle and I hope to finish one or two more before my vacation is up. I don't have too much planned right now I am just trying to relax and enjoy my vacation. Before I know it, I will be handed another vacation form and will have to plan next year's vacations. What I am going to do is probably space my vacations out a little bit more and maybe plan things to do a little bit better. I don't know if I will be taking any kind of trips but I would still like to space them out a little more and save up more cash for them at least.

Burberry Brit EDP Review

 There are many perfume houses that I used to pay attention to but don't anymore and there are perfume houses that I haven't paid much attention to from the get go. I used to be an avid follower of Amouage, Serge Lutens, Chanel and a couple others but there came a point to where I mainly stopped avidly following some perfume houses. Amouage after Beloved, Serge Lutens after De Profundis and I can't remember when I really kind of lost interest in Chanel. I haven't been keeping tabs on Andy Tauer offerings either; probably when a lot of his line got the axe.

There are too many perfumes houses out there and they release so many perfumes a year and Burberry is one house that I never paid attention to. I have no real idea why. Maybe because the line up didn't impress me too much or just wasn't interested. It could be that I was too wrapped up in either vintage or niche to really take a look. Now that I have taken a little bit of time to explore Burberry, I have Brit to review.

But speaking of reviews, while I was reading reviews from Sephora and Ulta, along with reading the product descriptions, I had to laugh. People kept saying that this was a sexy perfume and I'm thinking about how horrified they would be if the actually smelled vintage BaV or Shalimar. Those are sexy perfumes if not outright slutty. I guess laundry musk with fruit notes is sexy.

I am used to wearing complex or demanding perfumes and Brit was pretty undemanding. For a while, Brit was demanding my attention and couldn't figure out why. I knew I smelled something similar to it and owned something similar and couldn't place it. Then I realized I was strongly reminded of the original Hedonist. Yes, Brit is a striped down dupe. It's Hedonist without the booze and maybe a little too much tonka. For all of my wearing I couldn't get Hedonist out of my head and tonka out of my nose. I can be a little iffy on tonka. It's the whole trying to be vanilla and something akin to almonds. The lasting power for my little roller ball is pretty much 8 hours and I am okay with that. For me, a perfume that lasts only an hour or two on skin isn't really worth wearing. I think that I am just going to stick to having just a roller ball for reference and not go for a full bottle.