Avignon, YouTube, and Sephora

 Had some snow roll through my neck of the woods a couple days ago. I was vaguely worried about losing electricity but not excessively worried. The last time, I was without power for days.

Recently, I have been watching even more YouTube reactions to certain things. It's been reactions to the songs Bohemian Rhapsody, Nessun Dorma and Du Hast live in Paris. I quickly noticed a few things about the people who are doing the reactions. They keep pausing the video every other second to talk about something or just yap the entire way through and not really pay attention to what they want to react to. I want to jump through the screen, smack them upside the head and tell them to quit pausing every two seconds to just talk about something or just talk throughout the damn thing. I think a good chunk of them are just talking to hear themselves talk or just to show off. I think they miss a little too much by perpetually pausing and talking.

As so many know, Sephora has had their spring sale and I participated with buying a couple things. Turns out that one of the items was missing from the order. Namely an eye shadow that it supposed to be part of a gift. Trying to get a hold of someone on chat can be a bear. This may be a first world problem and the eye shadow wasn't going to land me in the workhouse but I do expect to get what I ordered. I did finally break through and I am having a replacement sent out. This actually cements my love for Ulta a little more.

For a while, I was flirting with getting a bottle of Avignon but since I have worn it today, I decided against it. Can't get past the dirty guinea pig cage thing. My sister had guinea pigs and never could really be bothered to clean the cage too often and somehow that kind of became my job. I think that I will like Rose Flash much better since summer will be here soon enough. I have enough perfume as it is and I have bought a bottle of Coromandel and Lyric already.

I keep talking about finishing a couple bottles of no 5 and at this point, it's really time to get serious about finishing them. There is no good enough reason on why I need to not be finishing these bottles. The edt bottle is about two thirds gone and the edp is less than half full. I am starting to need space again and I think that finishing those two bottles would be a start.

Smell Bent Bohemian Rhapsody Review

I will admit to the fact that I just adore the band, Queen. You just don't hear that kind of musicianship any more and Freddie Mercury was an absolute showman. Most of what comes out today is manufactured crap not worth listening to. But when I found out that there was a perfume called Bohemian Rhapsody, I had to get a decant of it to try.

There don't seem to be many reviews on Bohemian Rhapsody or a lot of talk on the perfume blogs. I did, in a way, to have high hopes for this one. When I first put Bohemian Rhapsody on, there was a huge blast of head shop patchouli. If patchouli is a very minor player in a perfume or just a whisper, I can enjoy it. This patchouli is the kind of patchouli that I do detest. It's loud and in your face. When patchouli is loud or dominant, it seems to be pretty crude. Then comes the incense and I do love incense. But the incense is pretty much drowned out by the patchouli. I do get a CdG Avignon vibe from Bohemian Rhapsody but at the end of the day, I get a cheap ripoff of Avignon. After a while, something just goes sour on me and I can't place what is going sour on me. Bohemian Rhapsody belongs in the '60's to my nose. I think that Freddie Mercury would have worn something a little more musky and something more refined than this.

The lasting power of this one is about 6 hours on my skin and sadly, this won't be in my collection. The funny thing at this point, my mother commented on Bohemian Rhapsody and now wants to try it and I will cough up the decant and if she really enjoys it, it will be a birthday present.

Montale Full Incense Review

It's been a long weekend for me. Even though I had the weekend off, it was full of things that I wasn't looking forward to doing. Cleaning was something that I was not looking forward to doing. It wasn't a top to bottom clean but dusting, vacuuming and then having to tackle the bedroom. Sorting things, throwing things out and then having to put it back together. It's amazing how much crap that gets accumulated without realizing it. Finally, it's done for the weekend. I might get going on some wall washing and steam cleaning carpets in the bedrooms later in the week or next week.

Yesterday and today, I had spent time with Montale's Full Incense. I do enjoy a good incense dominant perfume. The best time to enjoy them is either in the fall or winter. I mostly enjoy them in the fall. Cleveland has clambakes, bonfires, falling leaves and just a different smell in general and incense just works.

I have never spent a whole lot of time with any offerings from Montale. I think that it's a house that has never really caught my eye and stayed on my radar. But when STC ran a sale recently, I was looking for something that was kind of cheap. I had thought I grabbed another decant of something but Full Incense was the one I grabbed and sprayed. Immediately, I knew exactly what perfume that it smelled like and Full Incense smelled just like Avignon.  Full Incense is an almost ripoff from Avignon, maybe a little smoother and longer lasting. Full Incense it a little more approachable than Avignon but not very different. I swear that it smells just like Avignon, I had sprayed it on mistakenly but nope. I had looked at Luckysent for some peer reviews and I am not alone is most of what was said. For an EDP, Full Incense is a long lasting perfume. I had sprayed some on at 2 this afternoon and I am smelling the extreme dry down at 11pm.

For the price tag of $120 and a longer lasting power, I kind of have to nope out of that one. I just don't see how I can justify a $25 markup when there is CdG's Avignon for $25 cheaper. Yes, I have become pretty cost conscious due to cutting back and just don't see the merit of spending tons of money on one bottle o perfume so much any more. I am thinking that my collection is still pretty large and I must keep up the trying to use up some bottles of perfume before acquiring more of them.

Amouage Jubilation XXV Review

I have slowly been wading through Amouage's men's offerings. I think that I just have Gold for men left to try.

At first whiff, I get the incense and a big slug of it. At a closer sniff, I get a little bit of orange that peeks out and a little bit of rose. The rose and orange peek out once in a while but they are not really in the forefront. I do get some patchouli in there that gives it some earthiness. Patchouli and I are definitely not the best of friends but the patchouli isn't annoying and it's smoothed out by the oud. I couldn't place what Jubilation XXV smelled like at first and then I knew. Jubilation XXV is mostly a dead ringer for Comme des Garcons Avignon. I swear, it's almost Avignon but a little more expensive smelling. Probably because Bertrand Duchaufour created Avignon and Jubilation XXV. Jubilation XXV lasts on my skin for about 6 hours and I wasn't thrilled about that. I expected better from Amouage and I'm used to 10 to 12 hours from the women's offerings.

I've been underwhelmed and disappointed by the men's offerings from Amouage. The men's versions are thin and nowhere near as impressive the the women's versions (especially the ones up to Honour). Jubilation XXV doesn't fit the bill and I am not amused.

Comme des Garcons Avignon EDT Review

It was time to break out of my rut to try something new. For some reason, I was really craving Kyoto but decided that I had to try out Avignon instead. I do keep hearing about Avignon and Kyoto on Now Smell This on what people are wearing for the day. But after hanging out at with the perfume crowd online, it seems like Comme des Garcons Series 3 seems to be the best loved out of all the CdG offerings. Yes, next up on my list is Avignon. I am slowly working my through the line.

I have full bottles of Kyoto and Zagorsk and love them both, even though I really don't wear them often. Zagorsk and Kyoto are dry and Avignon is no different. Avignon is definitely not a happy perfume nor is it sad. I find it somber and not very uplifting. The incense note is even more massive and domineering than Kyoto and Zagorsk. I do smell some vanilla and cistus labdanum to keep Avignon from being too sad and dry.

At this point, I find after 4 hours, this one peters out and leaves me wanting more. Do I love it? Yes! Do I want it? Yes but can't afford a new bottle of perfume right now. CdG isn't one to impress anybody with this line's choice of bottle. Yes, there is no bottle swag to grab anyone really. But Series 3 is worth seeking out.

Comme des Garcons Avignon EDT Review

A couple days ago, after my first perfume of the day wore off, I was looking around for my second perfume to wear. And reached into the unworn bag and pulled out Avignon. I have been wanting to try CdG's Avignon ever since I fell in love with Zagorsk and Kyoto. Zagorsk and Kyoto is about the incense but I can smell the supporting notes that don't make it boring. Kyoto had the cedar note (that didn't smell like bedding for a hamster) and Zagorsk had a funky iris note that made both likable and bottle worthy to me. But Avignon was different.

Different as all I got was incense and something I couldn't identify. I'm thinking that it's something to do with something of wood note. I say that because I get the impression that it does have a vibe of bedding for a hamster cage. If one ever has had a hamster or a guinea pig, you would know. But that stuff doesn't agree with my nose because when my sister was younger she had guinea pigs and didn't want to clean the cages all that often and the smell of those wretched cages were horrible when my parents had me clean the cages. so any kind of wood note can be hard due to that association. What I have tried with this line is that I get decent lasting power (about 4 hours).

So Avignon is a no go for me but I can see why some would like it. The one thing that I do admire CdG is that the price of their offerings have always been pretty reasonable, especially for niche perfume.