Bags are Packed

 

Okay, so my bags are packed and I'm ready to go to California for a week. My carry on is already in the car and I am just about finished with my personal item. And let's be honest, I am not looking forward to getting up at 3:30 tomorrow morning for a 6:50 flight. I probably could have picked a later time but didn't want a 3 or 4 hour layovers and get to California at ten at night.

Do you know how hard it is to try to figure out what to take in general for a trip? I know I am only going foe six days but it's the having to pre plan a week's worth of clothes.

What was the biggest was was what perfumes I was going to take. I did pack that vintage(ish) bottle of no 19 edp. There isn't a whole lot left in that bottle and I am hoping that I can finish the bottle at the end of my trip. I also packed a travel spray of Infusion d'iris. Yes, it's iris and iris and did sneak in a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. It is going to be hot when I am in California and didn't want my perfume to be too heavy. At this point, I have to go to bed. I might be able to fit post in but not fully sure.

Rogue Perfumery Jasmin Antique Review

Now is the time that I should get a move on with a perfume review. After last post's freak out with the no 5 extrait price (which is still ridiculous), I needed something to take my mind off of it.

I am in the beginning of this heatwave. We closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning. We live in the 21st century and why suffer with temps in the 90's when one has air conditioning? The only time that I will be out of air conditioning is if I am going to work and coming home from work. 

I am slowly getting things together for my trip to California. I had to message my doctor for a prescription of nicotine patches (yes, I smoke). My sister doesn't allow smoking, even if it is a vape. So it will be the patch and the lozenge garbage. She said that she quit cold turkey and sucked on a lot of sugar free candy. Well, I am not that kind of girl, I haven't had the desire to quit for good. What is probably going to happen is the moment I get home, I will be lighting up a cigarette. So I will pick up my patches on Saturday along with lozenges and start that stuff on Monday. So I am not that serious about quitting right now. The only perfume that I have committed to taking with me is no 19. I am going to take a travel spray of Infusion d'iris or BDK Gris Charnel. With Gris Charnel it's either going to be the edp or the extrait one. I don't want to take any kind of serious heavy hitters or anything that might scare people away. I would love to take Lyric but that would be a little much and I adore Lyric. But I haven't committed to anything definite yet in terms of vacation perfume. But on to Jasmin Antique.

I was flirting with trying out Jasmin Antique ever since I got the Rogue Perfumery sample set. It smelled really poopy and I wasn't so sure. One day I figured I might as well bite the bullet and just give it a go. I do love jasmine dominant perfumes. It seems like many perfumes can't appreciate how indolic jasmine can be. After working my way through Rogue Perfumery, Rogue Perfumery doesn't seem to shy away from white florals but embraces them in all their glory.

Jasmin Antique is a huge slutty jasmine. At first, I couldn't figure out which perfumes that it reminded me of and then it came to me. The first perfume that came to mind was Sarrasins but without the leather. I did pick up some musk in there but it was mostly jasmine. The second perfume that Jasmin Antique reminded me of was A la Nuit but Jasmin Antique leans more towards A la Nuit than Sarrasins.

What did get me was that I didn't get a whole lot of staying power. I had gotten a shade over three hours but I do have to make some allowances. What I have is a little roller ball sample, not a spray and Rogue Perfumery makes everything an edt. If it were a spray sample I probably could get a better reading. But I will admit that I do love Jasmin Antique and will eventually get a bottle but not yet. With the price of Lutens offerings, I find Jasmin Antique more affordable than Sarrasins or A la Nuit.

 

This is Stupid

I was going to do a review of Rouge Perfumery's Jasmin Antique. Well, that is not happening right now and I have a fair bit on what I want to say about it.

When I was reading either today's scent of the day or the 3 day weekend, there was something mentioned about the Chanel Les Exclusifs line extraits and had to go and take a look and there was a vain hope that there might be a more "affordable" option on any kind of no 5 extrait that wasn't the family sized version of no 5. When I saw what looked like the extrait is back in stock, I took a look. That seemed to be a huge mistake. It looks.like they rebranded/redid the whole extrait thing. If you just want the extrait itself, there is only 1 size and that is a 30ml bottle and that will set you back $440. But if you want it to come with a stupid case that has something that will help you open the bottle that is and extra $100. Yes, I had to do a double take at the whole set up was $550.

When I was that, all I could think about how stupid the whole set up was. For $400 I could buy an Amouage at full price or go to a discounter and get 2 Amouage offerings and those would be 100ml not 30ml. I could get a Serge Lutens bell jar for that price and those are 75ml. And all the while, kicking myself on not stocking up on the no 5extrait when I really had the chance 2 or 3 years ago or even when I started collecting perfume and 7.5ml of extrait set me back only $95. But that was a long time ago. It looks like I will be rationing what I have of the opened extrait and keep my sealed vintage sealed until I can nab more extrait.

 

Pre-orders, Samples and Traveling

I did mention a while ago about the new Halo being released this summer. I kept my eyes and ears peeled for some released pictures and what day it would be released.

I found out some time in the past couple weeks that Halo Campaign Evolved was coming out July 27th or the 28th. I am not looking it up for the exact day but was looking at some of the screenshots. When I found out the release date, I had pre-ordered the game. For new video game releases, $50 is not a bad price since most game releases are around $70. I don't often order video games and when I do, they are usually not the latest release. So this was on the more unusual side for me. I know that my dad and I will be playing this quite a bit.

So I have done more perfume shopping in the passed couple weeks. I have given up on finding my travel spray of Hedonist and said screw it and ordered one from the Victoria Minya website. The travel spray arrived yesterday and I was a little less than enthused. I expected it to be shipped in a box and not an envelope. The travel spray was in a silky bag. I just expected a little more protection but the good thing was that my travel spray was undamaged and I love the aesthetic of the Victoria Minya bottles and travel sprays.

What is worrying my is in about two and a half weeks, I will be traveling to California to see my sister. I have the clothes I want to take picked out, my toiletries are already taken care of and I have my medication. The only things I have to do is pack, and pick out which perfume(s) I want to take. I will be flying out early Monday morning and coming home on Saturday. I let my sister know that I have $1,000 in my bank account and a $300 limit credit card, so I can't go hog wild. Even though she said that it was plenty, I am still worried about the financial part of it. I know things are not going to be cheap and if the subject of Disney comes up, I will probably have to give Disney a pass. I am not and never was one of those adult Disney fans.

This is the first time that I have traveled and didn't have a fist full of credit cards and working 40 plus hours a week. Even though I have 2 low credit limit credit cards, 1 of those will be left at home. Having a fist full of credit cards has led me to a whole lot of financial help that I have been trying to dig myself out of.

The perfume choices that I have made thus far for my trip to California is my almost finished bottle of vintage-ish Chanel no 19 edp and a travel spray of BDK Gris Charnel. The no 19 is the only definite one since the bottle is almost empty and I have figured that I might as well do is finish it. But the Gris Charnel could change though and I do want to stick to a travel spray. Since it will be horribly hot in California, I don't want to take the heavy hitters with me.

 

Lush Rose Jam Line Up Review, Kind Of

When I was on vacation, I did devote a day to the Lush Rose Jam line up. It was either late last year or early this year, Ulta had some of those gift set minis of Lush products and I had gotten both the Sleepy and the That's My Jam gift set. I did develop a liking for Sleepy and it has taken me forever to get around to the Rose Jam stuff. A few days ago, I gave the Rose Jam another go.

The first go around, I fell in love with the body wash. The body was is a huge jam like rose with some lemon. The body wash is just like Sleepy and Sleepy Bear. Thick, cleansing and none too drying. So I fell in love with the body wash. When I get matching bath and body stuff, I can still smell the soap when I dry off. With the Rose Jam body wash, there was no lingering scent and I was and am, a little miffed about that. Maybe because I am used to the Chanel and Amouage bath and body stuff and it is probably an unfair comparison of even the soaps lasting well after I got out of the shower.

The body conditioner was what I really struggled. I have never used a body conditioner before and probably didn't use it right or maybe because I take showers and not baths. When I put it on my legs, it seemed to just slide right off, no matter how I moved the shower head. But my second go around was a little different. I moved the shower head to where it wasn't being rinsed off right away and used a little more. The first time, no scent seemed to have been left behind. So the second shower with the body conditioner was way different. My legs and arms felt really greasy when I rinsed off the conditioner and took a little of the body wash to see what I could get off but I was still left with a greasy feeling. I did enjoy the smell of the body conditioner because it was rich, it was heady but it was just a hot mess on me. I think that Lush should have just stuck with having a regular lotion. So the body conditioner is going to be regulated for when I shave my legs.

Then came the travel spray of perfume. For a while, I was thinking of what Rose Jam reminded me of. Then I remembered what it reminded me of. I was reminded of Guerlain Nahema and PHI Une Rose de Kandahar. Now, I love Rose de Kandahar and have a travel spray of it but no full bottle. Andy Taker and Lush are using the same roses from the same region. So I am viewing the Rose Jam perfume as a dupe for Rose de Kandahar.

Would buy any of the Rose Jam stuff again? No, even though I love the body wash. I didn't think that Lush is my thing and I have heard people on the Perfume Posse rave about Lush and I wanted and tried to give Lush a fair shake. So I will probably gift what I have and use up what is already opened and what hasn't been opened, I will just gift.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady Review and Other Things

For a while, I did kick around the idea of taking weight loss medication. I always was a little hesitant to take them. My line of thinking was that it was an easy way out to lose weight and seeing some people like Kelly Osbourne take it to the extreme. What if I take this to the extreme and end up looking like I have an eating disorder? The when my doctor had mentioned that I did make strides in weight loss and my health, I probably wasn't going to lose a whole lot more weight with just diet and exercise. With my family history of heart disease and diabetes along with my having PCOS, it was time to talk about weight loss medication. After kicking around that information, researching and talking to others who have been on weight loss medication, I decided to go ahead.

Then I ran into a big snag, Medicaid. You would think that Medicaid would pay for a medication to help me get healthy. Apparently not. I just don't understand how Medicaid would rather pay for the complications of being obese but not a medication to help people get healthy. I want to get healthy. I am tired of my feet and knees hurting, I am tired of being winded and I want to not have diabetes like my grandfather did and eventually his kidneys failed. Even my band aid health insurance through my job won't pay for it. Apparently, I am not the only one in the same boat. Even people who just have private insurance have a difficult time with this. But I will tell you that even Good RX could only get it down to $149 a month. But I would have to pay Good RX for some kind discount and paying $39 per month and then $149 for one medication is excessive. I don't have $149 per month to spend out of pocket. My savings account would only be able to get a little over 6 months. But yet, Medicaid has no issues with paying for bariatric surgery. I just get it, what do I have to do? Start a go fund me for this?

Over Memorial Day weekend, I saw that Frederic Malle had a sample set of 3 for $20. One of those samples is Portrait of a LwrongSo I gave that a whirl towards the end of the week. I did hear that it was one of those more sensual perfumes. I am one of those that will wear vintage Bal a Versailles out of the house and was hoping that it would be along the lines of Bal a Versailles.

Turns out that it was not the case. What I got was something that was pretty much identical to Headspace Rose. The whopping dose of rose was just all sorts of wrong. The rose is like the dreaded "old lady" type of rose. I do smell some kind of crushed stems but it doesn't seem to suit the rose. All I know that Portrait of a Lady hates me and I dislike Portrait of a Lady. I will have to admit that the lasting power is pretty close to the half life of plutonium and the projection has a far reach. So all I got was something that smells dated.
 

First Vacation of the Year

 

I am on my first vacation of the year and don't have a whole lot planned. On Sunday, my family celebrated my mother's birthday and I wore the original Hedonist. Yesterday, I wore Worth's Courtesan and today will be Nasomatto Nuda. After today, I have no idea what perfumes I will be wearing.

My plan isn't really to use anything up right now. Would that be great to use something up? You bet but it's probably not going to happen. My goal is to wear the things that I don't wear too often.

I tried to sit on my hands and not buy anything related to make up and perfume, even samples. I had some success in not partaking in this passed BOGO candle sale from Bath and Body Works. Right now, they are having some kind of bath and body sale going on and I am not interested. Most of their soaps, lotions and body sprays turn into smelling like Play Dough on me. But I failed on the perfume front. I hopped on over to Andy Tauer's US website with no intention of getting anything. Some times, window shopping can be fun. But my down fall was the sample set. Five 1.5 spray samples for $53 was a little pricey but I was able to get samples of the newest releases. I would like to support a perfumer directly when I can. It seems like Andy Takes has released quite a few perfumes in a short period of time. I keep hoping that he brings back Noontide Petals and Une Rose Vermeille and the 10ml travel sprays.

A couple weeks ago, Call the Midwife ended after 15 seasons and I cried throughout the final episode. But I was a little disappointed. The last episode seemed rushed and disjointed. We did see Sister Evangilina (sp?) make an appearance but some of the original characters did not make an appearance and I was not enthused. Some of of the original characters that left, we were left hanging on to what happened to them after they left because they were real life characters. Instead,it was just a collage of pictures. After season 7 or 8 is when the quality had started to go down and too many characters were introduced and then left after a season or two. Then the storylines seemed to be rushed. Call the Midwife used to take their time with story lines but then storylines got shorter and it didn't quite feel the same. There might be a Call the Midwife prequel and movie but this wouldn't come out for a few years. Next is what will be the last season of Grantchester some time in June or July. After that, I will have to find another series to get lost in. It's rare that I can find a series that I can get lost in. So it is back to the drawing board.

Lush Dream Cream and Stuff

It seems like I can't get through two or three months without spending money at Bath and Body Works. It seems like ever since Bath and Body Works did the Bridgerton collaboration, I have always taken a look but didn't buy. I did spend and got the Queen Charlotte's Tea candles and a couple hand washes but that was it. I had no interest in the Stranger Things collab or the Disney Princess one. But stupid me, I had to check last week and there it was, a Star Wars collaboration. I do love Star Wars and I did cave in. The damage was 3 hand soaps and a three wick candle. Two of the hand soaps will be gifts but the rest will be used up. It just seems like when I seem to make any kind of progress, I seem to back slide. I just have to get back on the bandwagon and keep moving.

I kept meaning to do another Lush review but kept forgetting to actually sit down and do it. The products that I did test out was the Sleepy Bear body wash and the Dream Cream body lotion. I honestly thing that the Sleepy Bear body was smells similar to the Sleepy but is toned down. What bothered me was the chamomile, I think because I can be a little iffy on chamomile. But the scent didn't linger past me stepping out of the tub. So Sleepy Bear isn't my thing scent wise. But Sleepy Bear body wash does have that lather that Sleepy does and it does take a little bit longer to rinse off. Sleepy Bear will be regulated to shaving.

Dream Cream, I thought would be something I did like, in spite of having chamomile. Turns out, the answer is nope, I don't like this one bit. The lavender and chamomile are faint but the lavender is even fainter than the chamomile. All that would have been fine because I could douse myself in Jicky and things would be fine. There is a huge oat note that is incredibly big and doesn't seem to calm down let alone fade away. The oat just sits there. There is no development or anything.  But what annoys me so much is that Dream Cream is so greasy. My skin might be dry but this was too much. The two small unopened containers of Dream cream will go for birthdays an Christmas.
 

It is Starting to Feel Real

My trip to California is starting to feel real. It hit me that I have a shade over two months of waiting. I am close to paying off Afterpay and Klarna and at this point, I want to pad my checking account a little more but still have a good amount in my savings. 

But I had to really think about a couple other things. One is which BNPL cards do I want to take. Do I take Klarna or Affirm? I am leaning towards Klarna due to it's higher limit and I can use it in more places. But the decision that I made in the past 12 hours is to apply for a credit card. A pre approval from Capital One came in the mail. For the past month, Capital One has been sending me some letters about a pre approval and when I thought about it, getting a credit card for my trip might be a wise idea. With my lousy credit, I didn't expect any kind of approval. To my surprise, I was given the Quicksilver One. It might be a $300 limit with a $39 annual fee but I will take it. I hope that I won't mess this one up. I will have to remind my sister that I don't have tons of money and say that I have been working on getting a couple things squared away in terms of finances.

I am still thinking of which perfume I am going to take. I don't expect to go and do any kind of perfume shopping or sniffing during my trip. My idea of taking that vintage bottle of no 19 edp still stands. It will be hot when I will be in California and it would probably be a great idea to just finish that bottle. I could take that bottle of Nasomatto Nuda or Number One Intense but I think that I should take only 1 bottle. Since I will be traveling by my lonesome, maybe on the way back, I can check out duty free. Doesn't mean that I buy anything but if I remember, I will take a look.

In my using things up resolution, I used up more stuff. I used up the little bottle of the Lush Sleepy body wash and a little bottle of the Cheirosa 62 body wash. Now if I could use up the lotions, I would feel better. I found a little dabber sample of Serge Lutens MKK and decided to use that up if nothing else, just get rid of it. I still have to larger decants of MKK. The upside is that I am not buying more stuff to drag into the house and setting myself back when more than I already have. If I could find a way to use up those lotions even faster, it would be a great thing.
 

Look at What I Just Found

I know that I did chronicle at some point of not being able to find some bottles of perfume. The most notable one was Amouage Memoir and to a lesser extent, Zagorsk. I did wonder where my full bottle of Jubilation 25 and the original Hedonist.

Yesterday was a day that I decided to work on more perfume organizing. I made it mostly through. I knew that I had one backup bottle of Lyric but it turns out that I had 2 backup bottles of Lyric and have a quarter used bottle of Lyric on my nightstand. So if Amouage decides to discontinue Lyric (I hope the hell not), I will be okay but will probably try and grab another bottle. So I went through 2 of the tubs with no luck finding Memoir or Zagorsk. I did end up throwing quite a few evaporated dabber samples and perfume packaging. But I also combined some half used bottles of body wash and some shampoo. So in a way, I made it into something marginally more productive. Well, my resolution is to use up/get rid of stuff is happening, just happening slowly but I am not adding any more stuff that what I got at the Sephora sale.

When I didn't find the bottle of Memoir or Zagorsk, I was about it just give up and say that it was most likely either gone for good or somewhere still in the house. But I pulled out a box of what I thought were just candles, turns out had some perfume in their as well. That is when I found Memoir, Jubilation 25, Zagorsk and Hedonist. They were hiding in one of the many boxes that I store candles in. I am not sure what possessed me to put those perfumes where I store candles but I did. 

The reason why this has been bothering me was that Amouage is pretty pricey and not too many can sink $250 and up for one bottle of perfume. I know that I can't do that anymore. I was worried when I couldn't set my hands on my full bottle of Jubilation 25 or Zagorsk. Well, Zagorsk wasn't a huge deal but losing a full bottle of Amouage is.

While I am happy to have found some of my perfumes, I am still trying to locate my travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere and my travel spray of Hedonist. I have the Hedonist travel spray in Iris and Cassis but can't find the original Hedonist in the travel spray. I got the Hedonist travel set when I actually had fun money on a regular basis and it was when Luckyscent carried the Victoria Minya travel sets. I could go over to her website and buy it but I keep chickening out and remember that I am on a perfume no buy thing. I do have the Eau Premiere travel refills but the spray mechanism that would work is currently being used for the edp version of no 5 since the travel spray hasn't been used up yet. I just wish I can find those two damn things.

 

Chanel No 19 EDT Review

You know how I blogged a little earlier about the Sephora spring sale? And said I would spend no more than the allotted $45? I failed by about $25. I didn't spend any of that on perfume. It was mainly on the Drunk Elephant body wash and lotion and some skin care stuff. Some of this was to finish up the Mother's Day gift and finish up my mother's birthday gift. I wasn't exactly game for even attempting to justify another bottle of perfume. I just recently got a bottle of no 19 and that leads me to this whole post.

For the past year, I have been flirting with the idea of getting a bottle of the most current version of the edt. I have three bottles of the edp and two bottles of the parfum. About ten years ago, I was getting buying tons of vintage perfume and two of those bottles were a kind of vintage edt versions of no 19. I don't know when Chanel had travel spray bottles of no 19 so I am guessing they are probably from some time in the 80's at the earliest and maybe the 90's at the very latest but I am more leaning towards the 80's.

I fell head over heels in love with the no 19 edp, it took me a little longer to understand and love the edt version. The vintage edt is a very leathery, green rose but this current version is very different. In the first hour, I was very confused. I have never recalled the vintage edt to be over the top iris, the over the top iris is something that I associate with the parfum version of 19. Even the edp doesn't have that whopping dose of iris that can be identified right away. Then things started to get even stranger. In all three concentrations, there was a huge dose of rose and I don't recall the rose being plush and in the current edt, the rose takes on a heavy more plush type of deal. Nor am I a fan of the powdery type of note that just doesn't fit. The brightness and green smell is still there but it doesn't quite get there and the leather has been scaled back and had to go looking more the leather. It seems like this version of no 19 was trying to smell like the edp, parfum and edt all in one. With that being said, it seems like the latest version of the no 19 edt is trying do too much and things are getting lost along the way. Reformulation is inevitable but this is getting a little nuts. I think that I am going to need a few more wearings to fully gage on how much I like this version.

 

End of an Era...Sort of

One of my new year's resolutions was to finish things and not add anything more. So far, it's some mixed results. The fact that I have added 3 full bottles to my collection and haven't finished a bottle of anything is the bad part. But I haven't added any body products and in fact used some of them up.

I have finished another Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 hand cream, 2 Gold Bond hand creams and 2 foaming hand washes from Bath and Body Works. But the most notable thing that I have finished is the Amouage Lyric body butter and I am a little sad about that because it is a bit like an end of an era because finding Amouage bath and body stuff is as rare as slug's teeth at the moment. So there is nothing to replace it with. I just can't find the matching bath stuff for the older Amouage offerings. If I can, it's a little too pricey for me. So the era of Amouage body stuff is pretty much over since I do like the concept of matching bath and body stuff that matches any given perfume. But I am still salty about my aunt knocking over my Memoir body cream and very little of it could be saved and I am still looking for my bottle of Memoir. I know I have it somewhere but I just can't find it.

I think that I am a little sad that I used up the last of the Lyric body butter was because Lyric was one of my first niche perfumes that I fell head over heels in live with and when I saved up enough money for a bottle, my love deepened because I could quit buying large decants only to drain them pretty quickly. I am still in love with Lyric but I do have to admit that even though I have one of my full bottles sitting on my nightstand, it doesn't get as much wear as it used to. I do have a backup bottle and a travel spray set when Amouage still had their travel sprays. I think a year or two ago, they pretty much did away with those as well. But I will admit that I do see less and less Amouage being sold in the way of discount sights like Fragrancenet. I do wonder if Amouage is doing what Chanel did way back when is putting an end to their perfumes being sold just about anywhere. I will keep hoping that the body products will make a comeback.

Rogue Perfume Champs Lumaires Review

 

Rouge Perfumes is my latest perfume house discovery. I have been slowly working my way through my discovery set. I was really starting to get bored with constantly wearing the same 2 or 3 perfumes and needed a break. And since I adore Flos Mortis, I figured that I would give Champs Lumaires a go.

Champs Lumaires is another tuberose heavy perfume. I had initially thought that Champs Lumaires would be a lighter version of Flos Mortis. The tuberose is the only thing that both have in common. Flos Mortis is a raunchy tuberose, Champs Lumaires is a more polite tuberose. But I did notice something a little on the goofy side though. There was a banana chew type note. I wonder if it is the coconut that is giving that kind of vibe or something else. The banana vibe smells artificial and I am going to have to give this another go at a later date.

In other news, partially out of boredom and the other part of curiosity is I was looking at the Chanel website. I wanted to know if Chanel had their no 5 extrait/parfum bottles back in stock. The only version of the parfum version was the grand extrait version. Then I hit the chat button. When asked, I was just told that they do have the grand extrait version for sale and to sign up for the newsletter. My not so hot retort was that not all of us can spend what probably be 2 or 3 months of a mortgage payment or rent on a bottle of perfume. I was looking for just a quarter ounce of the extrait for gifts. I know I am signed up for the newsletter but I am not into the Chance line up and I have enough makeup at the moment. So I am still hoarding what is left of my extrait.

Clinique Happy Bath and Body Stuff

It can be a difficult thing to find matching body products for perfume. Most of my niche perfumes don't have matching body products or they were discontinued (looking at you, Amouage).Unless something is a huge seller or the body products would be cheap to make and sell really well, none too many make matching bath and body products any more.

I know that Chanel focuses bath and body products on the no 5. Bath and Body Works has always done matching bath and body stuff since day one. I have only been able to find Estee Lauder Pleasures in lotion but no soap. But this leads me to Clinique Happy. A couple years ago, Ulta had stocking stuffers or the beauty stuff you could hang on your tree. So naturally, I snapped a couple of those up. How could I refuse a 5ml travel spray and 2 ounces of lotion?

Turns out that the 2 ounce lotion is some kind of funky lotion. I have had and tried the Amouage body butters and for a body butter, there was a firmer texter and it took a while to work into skin. This funky lotion is called a gelato and who knows why, maybe Clinique thought the term body butter was over used or wanted to draw some people in. I am just not so enthused with something just sits on my skin and takes forever to absorb.

I did eventually get the body wash and lotion. I find that the lotion doesn't quite moisturize enough. I find that the texture is nice but with my dry skin, I want my lotions to be a little more substantial, even in summer.

But the body product that really liked was the body wash. It cleans all the gross that has been accumulated. I love how much lather there is with the body wash and how it takes all the grime without fully stripping my skin.

I will admit that the Happy body care doesn't quite smell like the perfume but few body products smell like their perfume that they are supposed to go with. But I am mostly okay with that. With the way that Happy seems to deteriorate, I think I will mostly stick with the Happy products.

 

Sick and Stuff

So I have been sick since last Thursday and I am looking at going to my local walk in first thing. This is starting to look like a case of bronchitis but we shall see. All I know is that I haven't been able to sleep for the past two nights. It seems like as soon as I drift off, I have another asthma attack and then it's a nebulizer treatment. I probably should have gone yesterday or today. So I haven't been able to wear anything scented outside a little bit of the Cheirosa 62 lotion. So that means that any serious perfume wearing is going to have to wait.

It was a sad Monday for me. I had to do some cancellations. Two of the three subscriptions that I had, I had to cancel. I have no regrets about canceling Walmart Plus. For what I was paying, it wasn't worth the price. It was either half of what I ordered would be out of stock or my groceries would never arrive. The order would be delayed with no way knowing when anything would come and it seemed like every time you turned around, I had ordered groceries. So was wasn't too upset over that. The one that had to be cancelled was Barkbox. I had Barkbox for at least 12 years and my dogs always lit up when it came. So it's probably going to be around Thanksgiving or Christmas when I can probably get Barkbox again. People say that my dogs won't notice but I think they do when they have had something come for them every month. Today was the last Barkbox box that came. So I am saddened that I had to cancel Barkbox. The grand total might be a shade under $50 but I would have liked to hang on to Barkbox. But there are a few things that have to wait right now.

What I am waiting for is when Sephora will have their spring sale event. I am not holding my breath for the pure parfum version of no 5 to come back into stock. I set aside $25 in a Sephora gift card for a cheap bronzer and find something for my mother to round out her mother's day gift. I already have her birthday gift but I like to do a little grab bag for mother's day. Mother's day is always a week or week and a half before her birthday so it's a pick wisely on what to give her and when.

Chanel no 19 EDT

I am a tad disappointed in myself. I made the mistake of going back to browse the Chanel website. It was to just window shop and check if Chanel had their parfum version of no 5 back in stock. No such luck right now and I still find that strange. I am not sure why Chanel would go and discontinue the parfum version of the perfume version that put Chanel on the map. So the only pure parfum that Chanel is selling right now is from the Les Exclusifs line or the Grand Extrait. How many people honestly have a few grand sitting around to spend a bottle of perfume if you want the family sized bottle of no 5 parfum? I sure as hell don't. I am lucky at this point if I can get one bottle of nicer perfume once a year than, I don't know, Cheirosa 62 or Happy.

So I caved and got a bottle of no 19 edt. I do have a fair bit of the edp and just about out of the vintage-ish edt. I was kicking around the idea of getting a bottle of the edt for a while but never did get around to ordering a bottle. I did play this off as I won this in a raffle to avoid the stink eye at home. Any package that I get gets some kind of comment. I can't use the rewards excuse right now. I used up all of the use it or lose it points around Christmas or by the 1st of the year. So I am still trying to watch the frivolous spending and with the bottle of no 19; I am more on the losing side of this. The only good thing is that I haven't spent a penny of the savings account, worked on the Afterpay balance a little bit more and haven't bought anything from Bath and Body Works. So in some respects, I am doing ok but want to get a move on with the actual saving and getting Afterpay paid off and keeping it paid off. One day and one step at a time is all I can do right now. Let's hope that I can make a little more progress as time moves along.

What I am really waiting for is for my dogs' Barkbox to arrive. Normally I get a notification when it has shipped and a tracking number but I am not seeing any of that. When I check the website, it just says it was shipped but with no tracking info. If nothing shows up in the next couple days, I will reach out.

 

Trying to be Smart

 

The past few days have been pretty interesting for me. The federal tax refund did get deposited into my bank account and I did deposit that check. I did want to go on a major spending spree but didn't. I decided to be a little more responsible and open a savings account and put some money in there.

I was looking to see if I could pay for both that crown my tooth desperately needs and get that plane ticket to California. Turns out that what the dentist sent in to my health insurance was the before x-ray instead of a post root canal x-ray. So we are going to see if that will work for getting insurance to cover that crown. I was fully prepared to pay that $600 and just be done with it. But I still stuck that $600 into that savings account, just in case. When I tried to see what kind of flights were available and how much it was to go to California. My dad said to hold off on that. I would rather have it done and over with since the closer to spring break, the greater the risk of prices going up and maybe way up but of course, nobody really wants to listen. So I have set myself ahead with some other things in terms of money and see what bill is coming up and take care of it.

You want to know something wild? For the longest time, Sephora did not carry any MAC lipsticks or makeup in general. There is the very real possibility that I never much paid attention to a whole lot outside of Too Faced or Urban Decay for a very long time. But when I discovered MAC lipstick and foundations from YouTube, I started to pay attention to other brands of makeup. For the longest time, I knew that ULTA was the only store close by that sold MAC stuff in store and online. So I was getting MAC stuff from Ulta. So now Sephora has MAC and since Sephora is having or has a makeup point multiplier going on, I got one of those mini lipsticks, which will be great for my trip to California. The most I am packing, makeup wise is a lipstick, lip balm and mascara. I know that it will be probably hot and can't justify a full face of makeup for the trip. I still haven't made a decision on which perfume(s) I am going to take but it is probably that bottle of no 19 edp that has just about next to nothing in it and maybe a travel spray. But who knows.

FOMO and BOGO with Some no 5

 

Most of us have dealt with buy one get one free or the whole fear of missing out. And I am sure we have all fallen victim of those things depending on what foods you like to eat, drinks you like and get some, even though you have plenty of those things. But hobbies can be worse in terms of that.

My latest with the fear of missing g out and buy one get one free is the travel sprays of Clinique Happy. I impulsively partook in that sale and added some hair, skin and nails vitamins to ease my mind a little bit. I could have gotten one travel spray and a mini MAC lipstick but wasn't so wowed with the mini lipstick. Ulta does have the buy one get one sales on a regular basis but usually for things that I don't and probably wouldn't use on a regular basis. So it is back on the wagon, even though Bath and Body Works is having a candle sale.

A few days ago, I decided to wear no 5 body products and put a heavy dose of the edp on top of it. I have done this in the past but this time, I really paid attention to it. When I did, I was dumbfounded because all of the body products (bar soap and body lotion) and three healthy sprays was maybe pushing it but I didn't have to work that day so it didn't much matter. The body products amplified the musk and the musk part reminded me of the Bal a Versailles musk. That kind of musk that is only really found in vintage perfumes. The musk also reminded me of vintage no 5. So I wasn't expecting all of that.

I did get a little good news today. My federal tax refund is heading my way. I had gotten my tax refund from the state last week. The bad thing is that I have to use all of that on getting that crown that my health insurance refuses to pay for since it is considered "cosmetic". The too the is behind an eye tooth and is visible, especially when I smile. If this was a front tooth, I probably would have been able to get insurance to pay for a crown. Insurance (even Medicaid, which I have) is pretty funny on what it will cover and what it won't cover. Most of the time, the dental insurance is a joke.But with the tax refund and unclaimed funds check, I can get the crown and plane ticket to California and be okay but still work on saving more money for my California trip.

The Wait Begins

Since we are now in February and this month is off to a little bit of a strange start. Late last week, I received a letter reminding me that I needed to get dog licenses for both my dogs. If I didn't get them or order them by January 31st, I would have to pay $30 per dog but get them by the 31st, it's $15 per dog. I didn't forget about getting the license bit, just forgot about the whole cost thing. By the time I got home from work, I couldn't run back out and get them. So I ordered them online, had to pay an extra $2 because I was paying by debit card.

I did file my taxes last week, even though I said that I would hold off. I just said screw it and let's just do it. So the wait now begins to get my refund. There are some things that I want to get ahead on and hopefully get that crown on my tooth, especially before I go to California. Thus far, my state refund should be in my account by the 17th. So that is a little over a week away. Something did pop up that I had to put on my federal taxes and even though the IRS did accept my return, there has been no word on if it was "approved" yet. Maybe I will find out in the next few days about what is going on through there website. So there is nothing that I can really do in the meantime except wait. I am still holding off on depositing that large check but thinking of doing a 30 day CD, mainly so I don't lose the check and maybe earn a little interest on it.

You know that whole not buying anymore perfume and candles? Yeah, I failed on both accounts. Amazon decided to drop the price of the Lolita Lempicka Le Parfum and I snapped up a bottle. A residual bit of a gift card brought down the price a little more. Well, all it did was pay for the tax but still. Yesterday, Bath and Body Works had a candle, hand soap and body spray for $20. It was an offer that I couldn't refuse. I got the Japanese Cherry Blossom body spray to give to my coworker for her birthday, the Sweet Lavender hand soap for a Mother's Day gift and if I think that the Lavender Bergamot might be a good smelling candle, but if it sucks, it becomes an emergency gift. I failed again in the past hour as I spent a shade over $35 on samples from Luckyscent. Any perfume nut can tell you that vintage and niche perfume doesn't come cheap. I am hoping that I can stay on the no buy in terms of no perfume and candle buying thing.

I have had a little bit of success though. I managed to finish another Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 lotion and I am about to finish up the travel sized body wash. I also finished a face wash balm and a face cream. I am pretty close to finishing a couple foaming hand soaps. I think I have to count my wins where I can. And let's hope I can keep using things up.

Of L'Occitane and Travels

Looks like I am finally going to be able to go to California this year to visit my sister and nephews. I finally bit the bullet and went to the unclaimed funds website for Ohio and will be getting my paws on that old savings account that HSBC account. At the time, HSBC had the best interest rate for savings accounts but trying to access the website and getting at the money was pretty much impossible. It is enough so I can get that crown for my tooth, and pay for a plane ticket with a little bit left over. My tax refund and whatever I can save from my paycheck should cover the rest. It is still going to be tough trying not to spend money on stupid stuff.

But I do know that since I am going to be traveling, I am going to need some travel sized toiletries. I have the body wash aspect taken care of since I have plenty of Lush mini bottles. I am not so sure that the lotions would get through security because they are in tubs. There just seems to be tons of work into planning a trip. This will be the third time in my life that I have had to travel by plane. I think I will figure that out closer to my trip but really make sure that anything I might need to order, arrives beforehand.

Outside of making sure I am okay with having enough of my medication, I am wondering on which perfume(s) I want to take with me. I don't want really want to travel with full bottles of perfume, nor do I want to travel with decants. So I am probably going to be traveling with purse sprays. The current ones that I have picked out are BDK Gris Charnel, Infusion d'iris and Clinique Happy. My travel spray of no 5 or Coco Mademoiselle Intense are up for debate. But on to L'Occitane.

A few months ago, I had bought some L'Occitane hand lotions. I do have a liking for small tubes of hand cream. I think they are great for small purses but I especially like to stick them in the fleece coat that I wear to work. Since I work in food service, I wash my hands quite often and that means dried out hands. Since my mother has a strong liking for L'Occitane, I figure I would get a couple tubes to try out. I got the almond one and the lavender one. Since this week's work perfume is Infusion d'iris, I figured that the lavender would play nice. The Sephora lavender plays nice with Infusion d'iris, I gave both a shot. I quickly found out that Infusion d'iris does not play quite so nice with the L'Occitane lavender. Then a night that I was too lazy to reapply perfume, I decided to try the hand lotion by itself. Turns out that I am not a huge fan of the L'Occitane lavender hand lotion for some reason. I just didn't jive with it and I love the Lush Sleepy lotion. I will admit that the L'Occitane lotion absorbs fairly quickly and sticks around for a little while longer but it is must not for me and will give this to my mother.

 

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.