Dragging Stuff Out

My goal was to seriously start working on finishing samples and full bottles of perfume and I have failed miserably. I thought that if I kept a very limited amount of perfume out, I would have a chance. The only things that I have finished was that very small decant of Joy extrait, vintage Jicky extrait decant, A vintage no 5 extrait bottle and did drain a 1 ounce bottle of the Cheirosa 62 body spray. It seems like I accumulated more stuff in terms of perfume. But I haven't finished anything else. I keep trying and failing which leads to this post's title.

I just had to pull out one of those storage containers just to find a bottle of Mitsouko and vintage Bal a Versailles. With Mitsouko, it didn't matter if it was the newer EDP version or the vintage, I just wanted a bottle of Mitsouko, in all of her glory out. To a lesser extent, I did want a little bit of vintage Bal a Versailles out as well. 

When I first tried vintage Bal a Versailles, I immediately understood it and loved it and for a while, I would wear just about nothing else but that was fairly early on in my perfume journey, back when I didn't know the difference between my ass and a whole in the ground. I had no real knowledge of what a skank note was nor what an aldehyde was, let alone the perfume groups. I did discover Mitsouko early on as well.

I remembered that I did like Mitsouko a lot and couldn't quite figure out why I did. It took me a few wearings of Mitsouko, Diorling and reading about perfume families to figure out why. I loved the balance of a more traditional chypre. Then I discovered the vintage Mitsouko and then I knew what oakmoss really smelled like. At that point, I spent way too much money and time on Ebay trying to find the best bang for my buck in terms of vintage Mitsouko. I was specifically looking for the old teardrop bottles that were mostly filled and especially if the bottle itself was sealed. Then my financial woes were just beginning and perfume buying became harder to justify. Buying perfume is still hard to justify at this point. But I still want more perfume but need to start wearing what I have. I think that I did get a little bored with the line up on my nightstand

 

Sealed Vintage

I managed to liberate one of my boxes of perfume. The box I managed was a box full of dabber bottles. I still don't have shelf space yet but I did have to take a closer look to what I have in there. Most of those dabber bottles were extrait versions and a couple were my bell jars. Half of them were open and half of them were not. Two of them were the vintage Shalimar extrait and they were sealed.

No matter what the name of the perfume is, finding a sealed bottle can be difficult and finding it at a reasonable price is a rare thing. I do have a few sealed, vintage bottles of perfume and I always seem to wimp out on opening them. I worry about evaporation with dabber bottles, especially with vintage. I might have a substantial supply of vintage BaV and Mitsouko but I don't have a large supply of vintage Shalimar. Part of me is saying that life is short, start wearing it but the other part of me knows that vintage has a finite amount floating in the world and I should use the vintage sparingly.

Some of this rings true with discontinued finds. I have a few bottles of Theorema and Shalimar Ode a la Vanille that I want to wear with abandon but always seem to hesitate because I want to hoard.

Cleaning and Rearranging Stuff

For the past few weeks, it's been an effort to clean and rearrange shit in my house. For every project that I complete, I realize how much shit I actually own.

Today was the day that I "had" to turn my attention to my dresser. The project of the day was placing my old dresser somewhere else and replacing it with another, bigger dresser. Other people in my household wanted to do that. And that meant that I had to pack up my entire perfume collection. When I was packing up my perfume, I didn't count how many bottles that I had but became more aware of the sheer number of back up bottles that I did have. When I was packing up, I was more concerned about the dabber bottles that were opened and making sure that they were didn't get tipped over in the box.

The dresser that I moved into my room is taller, has more drawers to it. In went a million shirts, shorts and jeans. Putting all of my full bottles on top of the dresser isn't practical because of the height but I was able to place all my candles and some of my Galileo thermometers on top of the dresser. This means that I have three boxes full of perfume bottles split up into two places and no clear solution to get them back into one spot yet. As this was going on, this was the perfect time to get rid of more clothes that I didn't need or was worn out.

But some interesting things did happen while this was going down. I did manage to finish a full bottle of vintage BaV. Yes, I actually finished a bottle of perfume and I was so excited to do that. But with the dresser switch, a bottle of vintage(ish) of Chanel no 19(EDP, 1.2 ounce) was found and I forgot that I had more no 19. For the better part of an hour, I was wondering when I had bought the bottle and how in the hell did it get behind the dresser. I think that it might have either gotten knocked behind the dresser or  just randomly fell back there. I thought I was actually starting to make headway into finishing bottles of perfume but it looks like I didn't make progress at all.

A few hours later, I did a rough count of all my full bottles. I counted 95ish but I am sure that number is wrong and much higher. I didn't count my minis because I don't view them as full bottles but did count all of my back up bottles. Ninety-Five full bottles is a little embarrassing but kind of funny and I didn't think that I was up to about that number. I knew my collection was big but not that big.

Spring is here to stay

It looks like spring is here to stay. I have been pretty busy. With the new puppy and many changes at work, I don't have much of a motivation to blog or try anything new. But since the weather is much warmer, almost unseasonably warm, it's difficult with my perfume collection.

A few days ago, while having the new puppy outside to use the bathroom, I end up getting stung on the top of my head by a hornet. I don't know why but I remember wearing vintage Bal that day. That's the little dickens to the left. I have forgotten many things with having a puppy in the house. How often I need to take them out to go to the bathroom, playing, chewing everything, even hands and much more. Right now, she is napping on the couch downstairs, so I have a little bit of time to blog.

But back to the hornet sting and vintage Bal, I had to take a look at my collection. Most of my collection is on the oriental side or kind of on the sweet side. I don't have much in the way of stuff that will keep the bees away or be overwhelming. I have Chanel no 19, Mitsouko on cooler days, Deneuve might be a little sketchy and LADDM. So I have just four perfumes that probably would bet me through spring and summer but I'm not counting on it. I am looking for another spring/summer perfume that won't attract bugs and things that sting but coming up short with what would be good.

Perfume Accidents

I don't know how many people that own dogs that like to counter surf or animals that let themselves on counters, dressers, or nightstand. And I don't know how everyone stores their perfume hoard. But I know that I own two dogs that love to counter surf and that I store my perfume on my dresser. But even with the best storage system and even with no animals, perfume accidents can happen.

People, like me, who have large perfume collections can relate to spilled perfume. Let's think about it for a minute. I have perfume minis, vintage splash bottles and perfume in extrait form and that means that these don't have a sprayer, leaving them more prone to being spilled. I'm not talking that a little extra goes on your hand when you are applying perfume. I am talking that either the whole bottle gets emptied or most of the perfume gets spilled. It's annoying when it happens when that happens.

Last night, I was applying Cuir de Russie in extrait form as my bedtime scent. I hadn't worn it in quite some time and wanted to dab it on, not spray it on. The bottle slipped out of my hand and most of it went into the carpet. My bottle of Cuir de Russie in extrait form was a third gone but quite a bit had soaked into the carpet. I did manage to save 4 ml at best and I am pretty bummed out even though I still have that massive bottle of EDT that I don't seem to wear that often. This is the third time in recent memory that this has happened. First, I knocked over a bottle of vintage Mitsouko, spilling a third of it and then my dogs knocked over a bottle of vintage Bal and I lost 80% of the bottle. I hate losing perfume due to spills and most of my spills seem to be the vintage version.

Of Travel Sets, Rollerballs and Hoarding

This month seems to be a little lean for me in the wants of perfume. Not a whole lot of visiting E-Bay and Surrender to Chance. Just not interested right now, thanks a lot cellphone bill and activation fees. Yep, I switched cell carriers and the family and I got new phones, so there was some pearl clutching when I saw the first bill. But I was thinking and looking at my hoard of perfume.

With my collection, quite a number of it seems to be back ups. Back ups of discontinued and vintage finds but I'm still looking for that reasonably priced bottle of vintage L'Heure Bleue but coming up empty handed. So I keep looking. But after gazing at my collection filled with multiples and such, I asked myself on why I was hoarding some of this. Five bottles of Theorema, what the hell, I should be wearing this more often. A million bottles of vintage Bal, I am out of my mind, I need to wear this every night to bed just to finish one bottle of this. Nine bottles of vintage and new Mitsouko, I have to get that one bottle unstuck but I am starting on trying to finish one bottle of that. But there are a couple that I could mention but I have to get a move on.

Then after looking at all of that, my eyes landed on that Amouage Lyric travel set and that Tocca Florence rollerball. I like the idea of the travel sets and rollerballs. First off, they can be more economical than buying a full bottle. You might now get the equivalent of a full bottle but you can come pretty close. The Lyric travel set that I got came with 3 refills but had four total and it came to 1.32 ounces. So it was pretty close and with a FragranceNet discount, I had paid a shade over a $100, no joke. Now if the Epic set was a little cheaper, I would add that to my collection but I will stick to the two full bottles that I have and get the body butter. But the Tocca line has some decent offerings, perfume wise. What I have tried hasn't been earth shattering for me but it is a decent line. Not really niche but not exactly mainstream. The only brick and mortar store that I have seen them in is Sephora. Those that regularly shop/scout the perfume will have seen them already. But what I do like about the Tocca line is that they have created a rollerball version of their offerings. I like that because I don't really want a full bottle of Florence or pretty much any of them. I got the Florence due to the fact that Bath and Body Works wrongfully discontinued Gardenia Lily and Florence comes close but not quite enough to justify a full bottle.

But all in all, the fact remains that I must start to finish off a few bottles. My dresser is overflowing with perfume.

Leap Day

It's Leap Day and I'm impatiently waiting for spring. This time of year I am really sick of winter. Sick of the wearing of coats, long sleeve shirts, hoodies and getting pretty sick of wearing heavy perfumes. This is the time of year where what I would normally wear during spring and summer. Chanel no 19, Deneuve, Chamade, Patou Joy are what I seem to be reaching for more often. But I am still wearing vintage Bal quite a bit. I just can't wait to have spring arrive so I can start wearing short sleeves again and quit using so much moisturizer.

At this stage I keep poking around Gap and Old Navy checking to see what they have for spring and if I am seeing anything, it's not really my style or it isn't in my size. But I am one of those people that is in between a size with shirts and it can be difficult to find anything that I like. I've never been one to go into loud colors or patterns, I just look goofy in large and loud patterns. And they seem to make me look bigger than I already am.

A Five Day Deal

Here in America, there are only about three more days until we celebrate Thanksgiving. Since I work in a bakery, I do not see any kind of day off until Thanksgiving. So instead of picking out a different perfume to wear for each day, I've decided to wear Chanel no 5 EDT or EDP to wear until Thursday. Then on Thanksgiving, I will be wearing something else. I don't know what but I'll probably be figuring it out before I have to go to a relatives house. But for some reason, I'm already weary of wearing no 5 in EDT form. I think it's the whole 5 day stretch that's getting to me, well, the idea of the whole thing. I'm wondering if I should switch over to Lolita Lempicka.

But I did have a nice little surprise, perfume wise a few days ago. Before bed on Wednesday, I had forgotten that I was wearing Bal in PdT form, I sprayed Muscs Koublai Khan on my wrists. Bal was starting to get into the dry down phase but I've done questionable things with perfume before but this turned out really good. Both vintage Bal and MKK are slutty in their own way and Bal depending on the concentration, can be even sluttier than MKK. But this combination is just wow, it smells really good. Maybe not something I could wear in a tight space but if I were at an outdoor function, it would be great. There is so much slut note that I will wear in public. I'm not overly brave yet to have anything really sensual perfume wise.

My bathroom/kitchen remodeling saga continues. A new contractor was hired and I now have one of my bathrooms done, except for a face plate for the light switches and an door for the bathroom. So I now get my bathroom back, mostly. I am not some of the people in my household that can use the bathroom to either take a shower or do my business with the door open. As soon as I can, I will be putting the door up so I can do my thing without an audience. I'm strange that way.

Vintage Bottle Annoyance

Since there are no flea markets, let alone good ones where I live, let alone Goodwill or the Salvation Army, I have to rely on E-bay for my vintage perfume needs. But I'm really starting to get annoyed with the whole advertising a vintage bottle with the box and damaged cellophane listing it as new in box.

With buying vintage, with or without the box, if the seal on the perfume bottle isn't broken, yes I do expect some kind of evaporation. The older the bottle is, the more evaporation I do expect. But there is only so much evaporation I will accept before I will have to do a double take and think about getting that vintage.

But there are some bottles that are described as brand new, never used or new in box. What I am referring to is the spray bottles of vintage Bal. Bal is one of those perfumes in vintage form that I can't stop praising enough but those white spray bottles can be a bear. I have recently gotten a sealed box of the PdT version off E-Bay. It was listed as brand new and I was thinking that hey, it's vintage, even if it has not been opened or used, there is going to be a little bit of evaporation. When it arrives, I eagerly open it and find that it is actually about half full. This was reminiscent of the other PdT spray bottle that was listed as new. I am beginning to wonder if the spray bottle for Bal was the best design. Right now, I am staring at a sealed vintage bottle of Shalimar (teardrop EDT) from probably sometime in the 70's and it's about 95% full and a 1950's sealed Mitsouko EDC that is about 90% full. Even my vintages that were not listed as new or sealed are just about full. So it pretty much annoys me that I have found a couple vintage sealed items that are as full as one would expect for vintage and a spray bottle (vintage) doesn't seem to hold up.

Vintage Bal a Versailles EDT Review

Sometimes there are perfumes with many variations like parfum. EDP, EDT and so on. Sometimes
they smell exactly the same or they can smell completely different. Chanel no 5 is one of those that can smell exactly the same or very different depending on the concentration. But the Chanel no 5 structure is there and you can smell the variation in the concentration.

Vintage Bal a Versailles is one of those perfumes as well. I have tried the parfum, PDT and now the EDT. At first, I thought that I would not like it maybe even hate it. I am not really a fan of the vintage parfum because of the emphasis on the patchouli and not the flowers and skank that I love in the PdT version. But it turns out that I love it. The EDT still has the skank and flower dominance but it's much softer than the PdT. Softer as in not as strong or as loud as the PdT. Some perfumes, even vintage can have a bigger heft than Bal a Versailles in EDT form. The vintage EDT of Bal a Versailles does last quite a while but not like the PdT. It's not a bad thing though, sometimes I want that huge projection and sometimes I don't. Hopefully, I will get my hands of the EDC version and try that because I hear that it is the skankiest version out there.

*Decant from Surrender to Chance.

Of Taxes and Refunds and Bal a Versailles

Spring is slowly but surly getting here since we are having a minor heat wave in Cleveland. Everyone that I have talked to has just filed their taxes and now are waiting on some kind of refund. Some are yapping on how much they are getting back and how they plan to spend the money. I think it's pretty rude to brag about that. I have no problem with people just saying that they just did their taxes but bragging about refunds and what they will spend it on is just plain rude to me for some reason. I have just filed mine today and now have to wait on the government to accept my return.

I have always complained about not being able to find vintage Bal a Versailles PdT for a reasonable
price, when I actually could find it on E-bay. But the past couple weeks have been where I have found bottles for a decent price. But I am comparing the two partial bottles that I managed to get off of E-bay.Both of them definitely smell like Bal a Versailles PdT. But I am thinking that the half full bottle is of a much earlier date than my three quarters full bottle. The darker Bal a Versailles takes a couple minutes before it smells like it should but it seems to be a little heavier on the patchouli and what seems to be the little more recent bottle but both smell divine and I don't regret them at all. What is funny that I have spend a little more on the half full one. But vintage seems to command a higher price tag then most current formulations of the same scent.

Reformulations and Skank

As of now, I'm looking to see if I had reviewed the current version of Bal a Versailles and not finding it. I'm sure that I did review it but just not overtly motivated in finding the review.

I absolutely adore vintage BaV in EDP form. I love all of it's skanky goodness but quite a while ago, I had bought a large bottle of BaV in EDT form because I didn't want to drain my 2 vintage decants. BaV (current version) is pretty cheap and easy to find online. Holy crap, the current version of BaV is horrible to the greatest degree and I mean horrible. I almost didn't recognize it because halfway through the dry down is when I did recognize it. And I wondered where the skank was is BaV in the current formulation and then I realized that the skank isn't there. Just wasn't there at all.

I love skank in perfume, I really do. Don't care if it's Sarrasins, BaV, Shalimar Cuir de Russie or MKK, I love having a perfume with an animalic growl to it. But there have been a few that are beyond skank and just flat out raunchy. L'Air de Rein is one that I cannot abide by because it is flat out raunchy and a little worse. To me L'Air smells like wet panties that have been worn for a couple weeks with out having to been washed. For some reason, I find it disgusting.

Bal a Versailles Vintage Parfum Review

For the past couple months, I've been enthralled with BaV in EDP form and have been raving about it pretty much nonstop. I was itching to get my hands on a decant of the parfum version of this. The parfum version is a completely different animal compared to the EDP version. I'm aware that the same perfume in different concentrations can be different animals. This is no different. I haven't found a way to write this perfume without making the comparison. BaV in EDP there is an emphasis on the floral notes but in the parfum for, there is no emphasis on the floral note. In the parfum form, all the emphasis is on the patchouli with the periodic whiffs of some floral notes. I am never sure on what to make of patchouli but I do find it to be pleasant. After two days of wear, I'm not smelling anything in BaV (in parfum form) that is going to endear me to it like the EDP version did. The EDP version, there is a huge floral note from the get go and lasts for 10 hours.

I'm Not Getting This

No, it's not about shopping or getting things but I'm having perfume issues. This week, it's been in the mid to upper 70's and for two days it was in the 80's and I am having issues with my perfume lasting. Just like today, I am wearing Bal a Versailles in vintage EDP form and I've had to apply it twice because it just disappeared. Even my beloved no. 5 and my Amouages are disappearing just a mere 4 or 5 hours afterwards. It's bad enough that I have dry skin but even with lotion my perfumes are not lasting. It's kind of made it difficult for me to attempt to try the decants that I have not worn yet and review them because I can't get a full reading on lasting power on them. It's driving me insane because I want to review something but I'm out of ideas on how to make my perfume last this time of year.