Sol de Janeiro Lotion and Body Wash

The winter storm that was supposed to be bad turned out to be a little more of a joke here in Northeastern Ohio. I was expecting it to be a little more on the horrible side but didn't seem all that bad. I honestly think it was over hyped or it stayed more to the south. What is funny is that the place that I worked closed at 4pm. In all the years I have worked there, there has never been a spontaneous early closing due to weather. Early closings or just not being open on a holiday are planned beforehand. I was a little bummed though, I had my candles all ready to go, my grocery shopping was done and I have a few books to read and a couple movies to watch in case we lost electricity.

 I finally made it through a four day stretch of Cheirosa 62. I was using the matching body products along with it. And there was a small victory to go along with it. I finished a small jar of the Bum Bum cream but have 2 large pots of lotion that I have to get through. But progress is progress when it comes to finishing things. I remember really enjoying the lotion during the summer but didn't use the body wash until this week.

Let's say that I was underwhelmed with the body wash. I found it to be thin, very runny and didn't leave a very clean feeling. What really got me was that there was little to no smell in the body wash. I have used body washes from Bath and Body Works, Chanel and Amouage and all of the body wash have left a scent behind but I didn't notice a smell afterwards. When I applied the lotion, I got the Cheirosa 62 smell that I am familiar with. While I did enjoy how easily the bum bum cream went on and how fast it absorbed, I was not a fan on how dry my skin still seems to  feel, especially since it is winter. When it is summer, I am fine with my skin feeling a little on the dry side. I am, in a way, happy that I only have the travel size of the body wash. But I noticed that even with the Bum Bum cream, the Cheirosa 62 smell doesn't seem to stick around very long. So I am thinking that maybe that Sol de Janeiro isn't quite for me. But I do have to see what the shampoo and conditioner brings before I make a final judgement.

Winter Storms

I am going on day 4 out of 5 of wearing Cheirosa 62 and looking for a break. And that break will arrive tomorrow. When I clock out at 7pm, I will be off for the next few days and that can't come soon enough.

The reason it can't come soon enough is that later tonight a nasty winter storm is headed my way. It's been a strange winter this year. It's been a lot of small winter storms and it's a bigger winter storm headed my way. So I am doing whatever cleaning up I can do before work and make an effort to finish up after I get home from work. But probably the most important thing is that I make sure everything is charged, especially my phone. I do need to get an extra gallon of milk and maybe a couple snacks. I have more than enough caffeinated drinks to get me through and food but I do have a hankering for some snacks.

What I worry about is the loss of electricity. Even though we have a generator, the generator is gas powered and I have to fill up a gas can or two to make sure that when we dig ourselves out, we will really be alright. I have my candles picked out, just in case. I don't have a lot of candles picked out but I want to have just enough but had a harder time picking out perfume for the next few days.

My choices are Narciso Rodriguez for her, Lyric and my stand by is no 5. I am still debating if I want the edt version or the edp version. Both smell like no 5but they are different. There are tons of others in my collection but this were the ones that won out. I very well could go with Eau Premiere as well. I don't exactly want to give myself too many options so I do not get overwhelmed with choices. I remember when there was another storm and loss electricity and I wore Mitsouko for the duration and I don't want a repeat performance of being that kind of irritated.

Headspace Rose Review

 

I don't know if anyone remembers (but I do) that a few months ago, Portia from Perfume Posse did a giveaway for Headspace's newest perfume called Rose. Well, I won the giveaway and I hardly win anything. For what seemed like the longest time, I waited and waited for the bottle to arrive at my doorstep and it finally arrived. And it took me even longer to actually wear it and review it.

I don't think I ever heard much about Headspace but then again, it's hard to keep up with all the niche brands and releases. So this is my first foray into Headspace.

I certainly didn't expect to be sent a 100ml bottle of perfume. I would have been happy with a 30ml bottle or travel spray. The bottle feels substantial like the Amouage 100ml bottles but even the 50ml Amouage bottles feel heavy. I am not exactly liking the round shape of the bottle even though I do like plain bottles and labels. Round bottles don't quite fit my ascetic even though I like the bell jars from Serge Lutens. Maybe the cap isn't my style. Maybe I am not a fan of the industrial look of it. But that's not the most important thing, I want to know now it smells, so I gave it a go last night.

The first thing to hit my nose is either a black currant or cassis not. I kind of do like a black currant but haven't tried too many, so I can't exactly know now much I like it. Them I get the whopping dose of rose and geranium. There is something about that combination that isn't doing it for me. It smells dated to my nose and this is someone who will wear Mitsouko an many of its iterations. I am thinking that the rose geranium combination reminds me of an old school lotion that women who came of age on the 60's or 70's and that was the style back then. So there is something that is working for me.

I am a little disappointed that this was a no go for me. Normally I do like roses in my perfume. I am hoping that maybe I could pass this along to someone who does lime it.

Getting Sick of Some Shit

Have you worn a handful of perfumes so much that you have gotten sick of them? I am currently going through that right now.

I own tons of perfume and I have probably more than two that are work safe but have been way to lazy to look for them. So I have been wearing a shit ton of Infusion d'Iris and Cheirosa 62 on days that I have to work and have started to get sick of them. So at this time, I added Chanel no 19 edt to the mix. It is a vintage ish travel spray with not a whole lot left in the bottle. When I finish that bottle, I can work on the vintage ish no 19 edp bottle. So I am still trying to finish samples and bottles and mostly failing.

I am a retail worker that works part time due to disability. So I work 3 days a week. What has gotten me pretty annoyed right now is one of my co-workers. Apparently, they didn't get paid for a vacation that they took last year and didn't notice. How can one not notice that stuff until higher ups caught it. They were probably given a choice of either adding that vacation pay to a paycheck or take another vacation, so that coworker took an extra week. And so I end up working extra shifts and while I want the extra money, I am not thrilled with working more days but shorter shifts. It might help with my California trip nut would have liked a little more of a heads up.

But earlier tonight, I was wasting time on Luckyscent and was thinking of another bottle of Number One Intense. I saw that a one ounce bottle jumped from $80 something to $115. So it was around a $30 price hike. But I wasn't poking around too much and it was a good thing that I looked at the pricing before I did anything in terms of buying. The whole fact that everything has gone up in price. I bought the same amount of groceries that I normally do for the week has gone up by at least $20. So it is imperative that I show some serious restraint in terms of buying anything fun.

Organizing and Can't Find Shit

Don't you hate it when you can't find something? You have a hankering for something specific in your collection but just can't find the sample or bottle of it? Right now, I am going through that. My hankering is foe Amouage Memoir and I am searching for my one ounce bottle of Narciso Rodriguez edt. I know that I just got a five ounce bottle of the edp but I want the edt right now.

This is my problem right now. I am having trouble finding some bottles of perfume that I have a craving for and just can't find right now. So far, I have organized 2 boxes of perfume. I threw away decants of things that either have completely evaporated or just about. A few bottles are going to be donated to a women's shelter. What I have for donations is a healthy amount of Bath and Body Works stuff. So those two boxes became one and a quarter full boxes. But haven't found my bottle of Memoir yet. So for today, I have ended my search for my bottle Memoir. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I will get a move on with the rest of my collection. I know damn well that I haven't thrown away my bottle of Memoir. But Memoir and Narciso Rodriguez for her edt are not the only things that are missing that I can't easily find. I seem to be missing that travel spray of Eau Premiere. I have the two refills but missing the spray mechanism that still has some juice. But I am asking myself is that why I am looking for two black bottles of perfume? It's just so oddly specific to be.

At this point, I am kind of amazed with the little I have done is how much no 5 I currently have just by going through those two boxes. I am not fully sure on why I have so many bottles of Chanel no 5 but all I know is that I better get serious about wearing no 5 to free up some space. That extra space can be just extra space and not automatically filled with a new perfume.
 

Pulling Out the Old Stuff

So I am starting to pull out some of my older stuff. It's not always the vintage stuff. Some of what I have been pulling out is the stuff that I have had since the beginning of my perfume obsession or pretty close to it. Today was the original Lolita Lempicka and yesterday was vintage Mitsouko.

It took me a while to get into the original Lolita Lempicka. It was the licorice or anise that I wasn't used to, probably because whatever I might have tried or smelled that was very anise dominant, I wasn't a fan of. Now the the original became Mon Premier, the original scent is getting harder to find and hard to find at a decent price. I still think that the Mon Premier bottle sucks because I think it is too crude compared to the original. The Mon Premier is a little thinner and has been tinkered with. I would rather have the original bottle and juice but I will keep searching. Or just might bite the bullet and order a bottle, even though I have made a resolution to not buy anymore perfume for the next six or seven months.

But I have been flirting with the idea of pulling out and wearing Mitsouko.. As much as I love Mitsouko, I find that Mitsouko is a challenge to wear. Mitsouko is a bossy perfume, even in the best of circumstances, Mitsouko can run you over. So, I don't wear Mitsouko all that often.

There was a time were I couldn't get enough of Mitsouko. When I first got into perfume, I wasn't thinking about vintage perfumes or looking for vintage. Then a few years later, I did get into vintage perfume and started shopping on Ebay for vintage. I was snapping up vintage bottles of not only vintage Mitsouko but vintage bottles of Bal a Versailles. Let's just say that vintage Bal a Versailles seemed to be a little cheaper. Since finances are a little on the tight side, I don't have the income to prowl Ebay let alone too many bottles of anything as much as I would like. Let's just say that I am hoping that tight finances and saving up for a trip will force me to make a bigger effort to use up what I have.

 

I Tried and Failed

You know how I said that I wouldn't imbibe in getting anything new in terms of perfume? Yeah, four days in, I caved and ordered a Rose Jam shower and body kit. It was the debate of a one ounce bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her bottle or the That's My Jam kit. I could have used my $25 credit on Fragrance net and gotten the Narciso Rodriguez for just about free. I also was starting to use the justification of if I want to start reclaiming my diamond status at Ulta, I needed to get a move on. After I made the purchase, I called myself a dumbass and said I have all damn year to level up with Ulta rewards. So now it's back to square one. Now I have to make a bigger and better effort into achieving the no new perfume for at least 6 months. It is going to be tough to do. The only thing that I am holding firm on is my breakup with Bath and Body Works. I guess I have to take my wins where I can since it's been a month or a little over since I made a Bath and Body Works purchase.

I already have some Rose Jam body wash and some of that "conditioner" but haven't given it a try yet. But when I smell the conditioner, I am reminded of Andy Tauer's  Rose de Kandahar perfume. So I am thinking that I am going to see if I can layer the Rose Jam body stuff and Rose de Kandahar. But I want to give the Rose Jam stuff a go before I go layering stuff. But let's hope that I can keep my resolutions for right now.