Sick and no 5

Thanks to my parents, I have their cold thing. I hate being sick. The whole nose being stuffed up, not being able to smell or taste shit isn't that great. That makes sleeping rougher than it needs to be especially. Some people are naturally mouth breather but I am not one of those. I was starting to want to take a perfume for a test drive but had to pick up my parents' cold. So reviewing anything perfumed is out of the question. In the meantime, I will be in many variations of Chanel no 5.

Even when I am not sick, I love Chanel no 5 in many of it's variations. The only flanker of Chanel no 5 is L'Eau. There is nothing in L'Eau that would make me think of no 5. Eau Premiere is a lighter version of no 5 but a still recognizable as a variation of no 5.

Today I am currently in no 5 Sensual Elixir. I am not quite sure why this version of no 5 was discontinued. For the life of me, I can remember when exactly it was discontinued and all of the sizes but I know they had larger sizes than the bottle that I have. I probably should have gotten the largest available bottle that they had and at least got some kind of back up bottle of it. Now if Chanel can keep the gold body oil in stock, I would be a happy camper. I never can seem to get my hands on a bottle of that stuff.
 

Guerlain Teardrop Bottle

Did you ever find yourself wishing that certain perfume companies would either change or bring back a certain bottle design? This is one of those times that I do wish exactly that. It's a rare thing that I do think about bottle designs.

Chanel has always been consistent with their bottle designs. And most perfume companies have always been pretty consistent with that in terms of packaging. But the one perfume company I wish would bring back a bottle design is Guerlain. Specifically their teardrop bottle design.

There is something that I absolutely love about the teardrop design for some reason. For the past few days, I have been wearing vintage Shalimar from the teardrop bottle. There is something alluring about dabbing perfume. I find dabbing perfume to be sensual about it. It doesn't matter if it's an edt or a parfum version, it's just a sensual act to me for some odd reason.

Guerlain is a very old perfume company that has gone through so many bottle changes through the years. But I find that I like the teardrop bottle the best. After poking around, it almost seems like the teardrop bottle always seemed to be the best bang for your buck in terms of sizes available. I have some various sizes of some vintage Guerlains and most of them are the larger sizes. There is something aesthetically pleasing to see when I see a teardrop bottle on my dresser. I have no idea why Guerlain had decided that they were going to discontinue that type of bottle sometime in the 90's. I have a couple of the clock/watch EDC bottles but those are not so pleasing to the eye when I actually pull one out and use them.
 

Amouage Epic 56 Review

A while back, TPC had a little bit left of the Amouage Epic 56 in stock. Since I adore the original Epic, I had to nab a little dabber. I haven't seen TPC offer it again and haven't seen it at all at STC. When I got it, I figured if I wouldn't be able to find it ever again on those sites, I'd have to make that dabber last if I really love it.

So Monday, I decided to give Epic 56 a test drive. And holy shit, is it good. It's Epic on steroids. A deeper, richer Epic. Yes, I love it in all of it's spicy, rosy goodness that made me fall in love with the original Epic. It's a little on the stronger side but this is Amouage and most of their older offerings are pretty strong.

I did a comparison of the extrait version of Epic (also dabber) on Monday night and the extrait of the original Epic does have the same potency but the original Epic extrait doesn't have the depth and richness of Epic 56.

I do love Epic 56 but at a price tag over over $500, it's not for me. I can get a little bit more from the Amouage website since they have the sample set of the exceptional extraits. I think that if Lyric was released as an exceptional extrait, I would truly be screwed since I really adore Lyric.

 

 

Bath and Body Works Sensual Amber Review

I normally don't go for Bath and Body Works offerings. Back in the day, I used to. Back in the day is my high school days and that was in the mid to late 90's. Bath and Body Works was new to the scene and Cucumber Melon was all the rage. Bath and Body Works did offer tons of things that still smelled really good. But something happened some time in the 2000's when they started discontinuing a ton of stuff and the quality changed along with the price.

Yesterday, a package from Bath and Body Works arrived in the mail. I nabbed some had lotions for Mother's Day and for a birthday. On the day that I ordered, I decided to throw a fragrance mist in and the Sensual Amber sounded pretty good to me.

For the price point, I wasn't expecting the clouds to part and the angels to start singing. And those things didn't happen. Even though the notes don't list vanilla as a note, I get a strong vanilla vibe from this. I'm thinking that the amber and the sandalwood might be doing that to my nose or maybe the orange flower could be doing that to my nose. Even though vanilla isn't my thing, I find this wearable. Sensual Amber isn't ground breaking in any way but Bath and Body Works isn't revolutionary any more in terms of new things. Bath and Body Works seems to play it safe when releasing new stuff. Sensual Amber sits close to my skin and lasts about 8 hours on my skin.

For 8 ounces being priced at $16.50, I think that it is something decent and wearable. But I think that Bath and Body Works has kept the fragrance mists at a reasonable price. The shower gels and lotions are up for debate in terms of price. Maybe not something I would reach for too often. The reviews on the Bath and Body Works website say that this is sensual but I am not smelling anything sensual about this one. Maybe because I have worn too much MKK or BaV and that has thrown my sensual meter in a different direction. I probably won't be buying another bottle or the body lotion or gel. But again, it's decent and I'm not exactly blown over by it.  

That Shit You Ain't Ever Going to Afford

Did you ever have those types of perfumes that you know damned well that you will never be able to afford? I have a few that I will never be able to afford. Unless I come into some kind of cash. My tax refund is going to be used on sensible things that I need. But that tax refund is going to be tiny this year because of tax law changes.

There are a few that I know that I will never be able to afford on my own. When the price of food, rent and other necessities take precedents and paychecks are not that huge, some of the things I want are way out of my price range. 

I want that trip to either Iceland or Scotland but I know god damned well that's not happening anytime soon. There are places even in the US that I want to go but I don't have the cash to go do them. I keep hoping that something works out for even a weekend get away. Every time I get asked from family on why I don't go anywhere, I get a little snippy. It's great that my cousins make enough to afford to go on these vacations but I don't have the financial luxury to do that. I'm more interested in keeping a roof over my head and food on the table. My priorities have to be a little different.

But right now I am looking at the Amouage extraits and the prices. I'm looking at Lyric, Epic, Epic 56 and Jubilation 25. But who really has $400 or more lying around to spend on a perfume? I sure as shit don't and would love to spring for one of those bottles but have to content myself with the dabber vials from either TPC or STC. Rarely to I take a look at perfume discount sites for Amouage.

Outside of those bells jars of Sarrasins and De Profundis that I got in more financially stable times, any other bell jars are out of the question. It's not worth looking at the Serge Lutens website. I just don't want anymore sticker shock at this point.

 I do have perfumes that I would like to get but I have to take stock on what I can really do if I save my pennies. I wonder what other people's limits are in terms of price when it comes to perfume.