Apres L'Ondee and Other Things

Life is really kicking my butt right now. I have a family member that's been in the hospital for a week with a mental health issues and last Monday, I had teeth pulled. The teeth in question were all on one side and what was left of four back teeth. Early June is when I get the rest of my back teeth taken out and then I will have just my front teeth up to my eye teeth. Then I can have partial dentures. I have had bad teeth for years and it will be a relief to have the better ability to eat and not have to deal with the threat of infection. Well, I will still have my front teeth but the threat will be lowered in terms of develpoing an infection.

Since I have had a little more free time than usual, I almost finished the Lieberman Papers but haven't really watched a whole lot of Vienna Blood. I thought that yesterday I would finish the last book and maybe watch some of the Star Wars movies but I got sidetracked with getting dog food and some grocery shopping. It was a weekend of trying to catch up on housework.

About a week and a half ago, I had a hankering for Apres L'Ondee and after going through tons of decants to find the decant I had of Apres L'Ondee, I realized that it had evaporated. So I made the trip to STC to get a small decant and I have no idea why I added a small decant of Muscs Koubli Khan but I did. I suppose I wanted to make the shipping cost a little more worth it. I haven't gotten around to spraying my decant of Apres L'Ondee but from what I remember, it smelled like a stripped down version of L'Heure Bleue. Jicky has the same association with me in regards to Jicky being a stripped down version of Shalimar. I think the reason that I have been wearing Jicky a little more and have more of a hankering for Apres L'Ondee is that since I have been reading the Lieberman Papers and watching Vienna Blood, both perfumes would have been around during the time frame that both have been written about. So much of my collection dates from much later in terms of when they were released. I was also thinking that if I do fall head over heels for Apres L'Ondee, I might get a bottle. But I am on a no buy right now and I am slowly trying to use up more decants and I am hoping to finish a bottle or two of perfume this year and I already added enough to my collection. What I think that I will end up doing is that when I am on vacation is that I will really get going on finishing decants. It's only 11 more days before I get my first vacation.

 

Caron Aimez Moi Review

Caron is a perfume house that I've never explored but I had gotten bored with my current collection. Yesterday, I was bored with my collection and I pulled out Aimez Moi. Looking at the translation of Aimez Moi, the name translates to Love Me and the whole love me just sounds clingy and stalker like. This is pretty much a flanker of another Caron offering that is escaping me but I'm too lazy to look for the actual perfume title.

At first, I didn't know what I was smelling but the whole thing was familiar to me. The first thing that smacked my nose was the anise. I have always been a little iffy on anise because it does smell like black licorice and black licorice is something I have never liked. The anise does settle down a little bit but the anise isn't a smooth anise. The violet and heliotrope comes out to play and on my skin, they are not playing nicely. I get a little bit of a water note and I am thinking that the magnolia is the cause but the vanilla keeps the magnolia from getting too watery. I smell the thinnest thread of tonka in Aimez Moi. Tonka smells a lot like vanilla to my nose and it keeps everything from either running away or totally falling apart. After a while, I realized that this smells like Guerlain's Apres L'Ondee. I swear that this is Caron's version of Apres L'Ondee. I do get some references to the original Lolita Lempicka but Aimez Moi is too soft to be a sister but maybe a 2nd cousin.

Aimez Moi doesn't do anything for me, it just sits on my skin. I don't get a whole lot of development and this one is an EDT that lasts forever on my skin. So a bottle won't be added to my collection.

Perfume Frenemies

Does anyone have perfume(s) in your collection that can be called a frenemy? I certainly do. It starts out as reading about a perfume and then going over to the perfume counter to get a sniff. Then a few days or weeks later, you either order online and it arrives on your doorstep or you buy it at an actual brick and mortar store. And then you wonder what the hell happened.

It's happened to me a couple times with a few of my perfumes. Let's start with Diorissimo shall we. Diorissimo and I started out as almost the best of buds. I had a decant of pre-reformulation EDT, then I tried the current EDP version. I really liked both but the EDP called to me a little more. I'm thinking that it was the whopping dose of jasmine that was a little poopy. And there was the fact that I really didn't have a Dior in my stable at that point. I don't exactly know what happened with Diorissimo.

Another example of a perfume frenemy is L'Heure Bleue. I do love L'Heure Bleue because of it's historical value but it's the powder that makes it a frenemy. I swear that it is a huge powder bomb in the current formulation, as I have yet to smell the vintage version. I find that wearing Apres L'Ondee much easier to wear because there is little to no powder and is pretty much the same structure as LHB. L'Heure de Nuit is different though. LHN is the one with a whole lot less powder and there is some laundry musk in there but I find it easier to wear than LHB.

At the end of the day, I'm not one to reach for any of these perfumes that often. I guess it's because these perfumes are exausting to wear after a while/

L'Heure Bleue and Mitsouko

Ever since I 'got' Mitsouko and L'Heure Bleue and have worn them quite frequently, I have come to a few thought on the both of them. Both of them shouldn't be worn when it's 80-85 degrees out. When it gets to be in the 70's, things are a little dicey. The top notes are fine and I love the top notes in heat but when the middle notes come out to play, there is trouble coming to paradise. Be cause there is something that is starting to smell sour in Mitsouko's case and something too powdery and sour in L'Heure Bleue's case. I'm not sure on what gives on that. With Jicky, Apres L'Ondee I am not getting any of this funk and Shalimar is the same. I can wear Shalimar in heat and there is no problem. I'm thinking thaat in Mitsouko's case and smelling similar things, I just have a hard time with chypres in general.

So I am thinking that L'Heure Bleue and Mitsouko really need to be worn during the winter. An that's when I really get them and I can enjoy their sensuality.

Guerlain Apres L'Ondee EDT Review

I've finally got around to wearing something new. Not exactly got around but kind of got out of that rut of either finishing off my smaller decants or just wearing the same old things. For a long while, when I was reaching for full bottles, I was reaching for my no 5 in EDT form. And I still am fixated on L'Heure Bleue and L'Heure de Nuit. It took me a while to get L'Heure Bleue and now love it. I love L'Heure de Nuit but just can't bring myself to drop almost $300 for a shade over 4 ounces of perfume, so a large decant is gonna have to do. But both of those bring me to Guerlain's Apres L'Ondee.

For a while during my wearing of Apres L'Ondee, I couldn't place what perfumes that it smelled similar to. Then in the dry down it hit me, L'Ondee smelled like a very stripped down version of L'Heure Bleue. If L'Heure de Nuit was somewhat stripped down, L'Ondee is even more stripped down. Then I looked online and found that L'Ondee was created in 1906, a mere 6 years before L'Heure Bleue and over 100 years before L'Heure de Nuit. Comparing the three perfumes, they share similar notes. I was really loving Apres L'Ondee but the only formulation that I am seeing online is the EDT formulation. Guerlain EDT's and I don't exactly mix unless they are the vintage versions. So Apres L'Ondee only lasts about 3 hours on my skin and it sticks really close. When sprayed on clothing, I can get maybe 4 and a half hours. Not all is quite lost for me because I can enjoy it's two siblings and not be missing much. But it was fun wearing L'Ondee while it lasted.