Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu

Chanel is coming out with a new flanker and I am not so sure what to think about it. As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of flankers. Once in a while, the flankers can be just as good, if not better than the original. Let's take Shalimar, for example. Back when I was new to being a perfume nerd, Guerlain did back to back Shalimar flankers. The two Ode a la Vanille and Parfum Initial. I did sample both the Ode a la Vanilles but was only able to procure the Mexican and not Madagascar one, even though I preferred the Madagascar. Now both the Ode a la Vanille versions have long been discontinued and kicking myself for not trying a little harder to find a bottle of the Madagascar one. I was a little late to the Initial and by that time that was discontinued but I think they did bring that back with another name. Eventually, I will get a bottle of the Initial but that isn't high on the list of priorities since I don't have fuck you money to spend.

Another person that has jumped on the bandwagon, at least a little bit is Andy Tauer. He's just recently came out with L'Air du Desert Morccain Noir. And I was a little surprised but a little excited to try it. I have a sample and still haven't managed to really give it a go and this is a flanker of a flanker. And I honestly should get moving on that. But that is not what I am talking about right now. I am talking about Chanel coming out with another flanker.

This flanker's name is Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu. Chanel has made flankers for no 5 and for no 19 and I ended up liking only Eau Premiere. Now they are really starting to do all kinds of flankers for Coco Mademoiselle. I did rea!My like the intense version and nabbed a bottle when Sephora was having a sale. I haven't even tested the lighter version of Mademoiselle. When you don't drive and live in a rural area, sniffing new releases isn't a thing. So far, Sephora just has it on their website but not up for sale just yet. From what I am seeing thus far on Fragrantica, I keep seeing people saying that it reminds them of Prada Paradox but there seem to be a lot of mixed reviews.

What makes me hesitant about even trying to find a sample and giving it a go, is that I am still salty about Chanel making the extrait version of no 5 way out of my price range. There was a time where I was thinking of getting the extrait of Coco Mademoiselle but didn't get the chance to nab a bottle before they took the smaller bottles of extrait off the market. I should have stocked up when I had the chance.

That is Strange

 

Well, party time with finances has come to an end for the next month. I have done some damage to my bank account with Afterpay and now, I have to seriously take some stock. Afterpay reintroduced the nothing down and I stupidly started to take advantage of it. Right now, things have started to come in and have to really budget for the next two, maybe three weeks. I would rather not use up the last of my savings to pay Afterpay. I haven't added anything new to Klarna, Zip or Affirm and that is probably a good thing. I don't have any payments on Klarna that are coming up until September and my Affirm payments are technically not this paycheck but the next but I don't want to pay both Affirm and Afterpay in the same week, it is just not going to work. I know that I can manage the next two or three weeks to begin to really get myself back on track with my finances. But it is still hard to make changes, especially when the executive dysfunction decides it is going to be a bigger brat and when the depression starts to creep in, it can be a recipe for disaster. The one thing that is making me somewhat happy is that Ulta has a huge multiplier promo going. Ten points for every dollar spent. I had a $30 gift card and I managed to only go over by 15 cents. That is a little bit of progress. I have gotten a brush and sponge cleaner (my brushes and makeup sponges are pretty dirty), a face wash and some cotton rounds. I couldn't justify another lipstick, and eye shadow. Perfume was really out of the question and I am banking the $182 in rewards. I want to get up to $250 in rewards and have a blowout perfume run at the end of the year.

 What is funny in terms of perfume is that my mother has started to have a liking for the long discontinued Deneuve. I wore it a few days ago without any regard for anyone else. I haven't worn Deneuve in a long time. On my work days, I am working on using up my bottle of Cheirosa 62 and travel sprays of Infusion d'iris and BDK Gris Charnel. I am getting a little bit fixated of the vintage version of Bal a Versailles and I haven't worn that in forever. It's just so many that I haven't worm in forever and trying to start wearing again. But back to Deneuve. Deneuve has made my mother nauseous and I couldn't wear it. When I pulled it out and started to wear it again, my mother has really started to like Deneuve and I find it funny. My mother has never much cared for Deneuve but now she does. But for the longest time, she has worn Light Blue and a few other Dolce and Gabanna offerings and still wears a lot of it. But right now, she has branched out into wearing Flowerbomb. She enjoyed it so much, she went to Fragancenet for a bottle. But my mother still hates Coromandel, Mitsouko and a couple others. She says that they make her queasy, too strong, and dated. I am thinking that Light Blue is becoming dated and too many people are wearing it. I will have to say that both Mitsouko and Coromandel require a light hand though.

Halo Campaign Evolved and Other Things

This post is probably not going to be too much of a perfume post. I kept meaning to write something but time would get away from me.

So Halo Campaign Evolved came out late last month and I have been playing it off and on since I have gotten it. I am one of those that prefers having a physical copy of my games for some reason. I view it as if something were to happen, I would still have a physical copy of the game. I did specifically got the Xbox game since the computer we have has an old video card that would not support Campaign Evolved along with the fact that we really don't play video games on the PC like we used to.

Even though I am currently on the Truth and Reconciliation level, I have played enough to have some opinions on it. The original Halo (both the 1st Xox, then the 360), the controls were intuitive and was kept the same on both formats, not with Campaign Evolved. The controls are not intuitive and it make the game play more difficult. While I do enjoy the Marines in the game, I am not a fan of them just clumping together. What is really starting to bug me is the enemies and game play in general. Really good graphics will only go so far and the graphics are phenomenal but with how the game is played all around, it has become sensory overload. How the enemies behave, how the Marines behave and all of these new weapons, I think it is way too much and way too soon. The anniversary version of Halo didn't have all of this junk. I get it, you want to update the game but all the changes that were made were not necessary. It seemed to be just showing off instead of enhancing the story line. Shit, we didn't get a sword until the 2nd Halo and I just don't see how a sword fits in the first Halo. I just find the whole set up to be confusing. I think it will probably take a go around or two to make a sound judgment.

While we are still on the topic of media, I did watch the very last episode of Granchester. While I did enjoy the final season, I did think about the fact that I don't have much left in the way of shows to watch. Downton Abbey ended years ago, Call the Midwife ended earlier this year and now Granchester. The only show that is still standing is All Creatures Great and Small. I know those are all PBS shows but there isn't a whole lot in the way of TV shows that have caught my interest and held my attention. So I am back to spending way too much time on YouTube.

But on to the perfume. It was last week that I was window shopping at Ulta and noticed something really odd. Ulta is selling some Bath an Body Works offerings.When I saw that, I had to do a double take. The lotions, body washes and perfume mists from Bath and Body Works get this huge Play Dough note and they just don't work for me. I used to wear the living daylights out of the Cucumber Melon, Gardenia LIly and Night Blooming Jasmine when I was in my early 20's and then couldn't afford perfume for the longest while. So in the past 20 or so years, it's to be expected that prices have gone up and there have been reformulation but I remember the days where the bath and body stuff would run you about $6 for each piece but that is not the case anymore.