Guerlain Habit Rouge Vintage EDC Review

There was a bit of good news today. I had my post op appointment today and managed to get the drain removed. The doctor did note that my skin was becoming irritated with the surgical tape and there was some irritation around the drain site. But she said all that would heal up because she is removing the drain. Now I can get in and out of chairs and my bed without discomfort. I still need to take it easy. I asked if I can go back to work with restrictions and it looks like I can start doing that. I just can't afford to stay out of work too long. Some paperwork was goofed up with corporate and I won't get the sick leave pay for a while due to the holiday and all. Now I can start getting more thorough showers now that my incisions are mostly healed up.

Since my surgery, I haven't exactly wanted to wear some of my old favorites like Lyric. I don't want any kind of associations of pain when wearing Lyric. So I have been wearing tons of Chanel no 5 and Infusion d'Iris. Both of those are a little more soothing and have bottles upon bottles of both of those.

Since I was starting to get a little bored with Infusion d'Iris and Chanel no 5, I wanted to test out something new. Tom Ford's Black Orchid was a bust and this time, I went with Guerlain Habit Rouge in vintage EDC form. I was poking around STC and somehow ended up browsing vintage stuff and stumbled upon the vintage version of Habit Rouge. So naturally, it went into my shopping cart and went back to browsing STC. I mainly was on STC to get a small decant of Rose de Nuit. Did you know that Habit Rouge comes in parfum form? I didn't and had to throw a decant of that in my shopping cart as well. With those 3 decants, I hurriedly checked out before I started to add more to my shopping cart. I was finally able to finish off the last tiny bit of the STC gift card that Portia from the Perfume Posse sent me when I won some sort of give away.

So I was needing a break from my normal stuff and took a little bit of a chance and sprayed on the vintage Habit Rouge. I had remembered the lemon, dusting powder and a halfway decent staying power. I had a hard time with the lemon then but I have always had a hard time with citrus. The biggest thing that I noticed was there was oakmoss. Actual honest to goodness oakmoss. Nothing made today with actual oakmoss, just some kind of moss variant. While I was loving the oakmoss, I was quite loving the lemon and the dusting powder note. Like I have already said, I always had a hard time with citrus, especially if it is sharp or has a powdery element to it. Habit Rouge combined both of it. Besides the oakmoss, what kept me fulling hating this was the leather. I do love leather in perfume, while most of the time I prefer a plush leather, this is more of a butch leather. I didn't fully realize how well oakmoss proper plays well with leather.
 

Guerlain Tobacco Honey EDP Reviw

Since it's pretty much the beginning of fall and the temps are starting to drop, it's time to start rotating some of my perfumes out. From Labor Day to the end of September or the beginning of October, I kind of flirt with the idea of switching out my summer perfumes and start to bring out the fall ones. It's only when the temps don't climb out of the low 70's is when I starting to make that switch. Now I am starting to make that switch. This is the time of year is clambake season in northern Ohio and it's football (not soccer) season too. Where it is nothing new on either Saturday or Sunday to have a clambake get together at your house and when it gets dark out, someone starts a bonfire. So this is the time of year that I want some of my heavier perfumes.

I am going through a little bit of a phase of where I want to try a few new things and this time it's Guerlain Tobacco Honey. When Tobacco Honey came out, I heard a lot of good things about it. I still see it mentioned on Now Smell This. When TPC was having either a Black Friday sale or a Boxing Day sale, I did jump on a few decants. Granted, they were dabbers but it was one of the few times that I actually did spring for a few decants.

Since I have finally gotten around to sampling Tobacco Honey, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. The only experience with honey as a dominant note is the long discontinued Ginestet Botryis and Viktoria Minya's Eau de Hongrie. I don't wear my decant of Eau de Hongrie often and my decant Botryis is long gone and I am still kicking myself for not getting a bottle of Botryis when I had the chance.

Tobacco Honey is loaded with honey.The really thick, syrupy type of honey, not that thin type of honey. I was thinking it would be more of like Eau de Hongrie that more of hints at honey. Botryis is the honey perfume that is more of a thin type of honey. The honey stayed dominant through the whole duration of the wearing. The tobacco part did come through but never quite take the edge of the honey. After a while, I could smell some vanilla. Towards the end, I could help but think that Tobacco Honey was a much less trashy version of Tobacco Vanille. Yes, I find Tobacco Vanille to be a little on the crass side but Tobacco Vanille is by Tom Ford and I judge Tom Ford by his ad campaigns and perfume.

I did enjoy Tobacco Honey in many ways but I wasn't fully sold on this one. I wasn't the biggest fan of how thick it smelled and I have a dabber sample. How pungent would it be on my skin if I sprayed it? Probably very pungent on me. I had Tobacco Honey last about 8 hours dabbed on my skin.

When I went to look at the price tag for this one, I was a little less amused. The price tag was almost $400! I can get 2 Amouage offerings at FragranceNet for the same price or spend about $30 more and get a larger sized bottle of Tobacco Vanille. I think that it's highway robbery with how these mainstream perfume houses on how much they will charge for their more "exclusive" line. Well, I am not in that demographic for those types of perfume lines.
 

Shalimar Millesime Vanilla Planifolia Review

I have been on vacation all week and swore to myself that I would wear something that I have never worn before and review it. I probably could have reviewed this Monday or Tuesday but it wasn't quite in the cards for this week. It's been a week of dealing with garbage relating to my grandmother who resides in memory care and I wasn't so up to reviewing anything.

It seems like at least in the past couple years, Guerlain has been cranking out flankers of Shalimar. I think Guerlain picked up on people missing the Ode a la Vanille flankers and probably thought it was a great idea to creating more Shalimar flankers. The biggest problem that I have with the slew of Shalimar flankers is that most of them are limited editions. Shalimar and it's flankers have always been on the more "affordable" side but it's still a little too much for me price wise.

After dithering on getting a sample, I got a dabber sample from STC and it's been sitting on my dresser, begging to be tried. Parts of me wanted to give it a go but I was hesitant to. What if I fell in love with it? I love the original Shalimar and love both the Ode a la Vanille flankers but the Odes are long discontinued. So on Tuesday, I gave it a go.

The first time I tried it, I thought that I had put on some Spiriteuese Double Vanille. I figured with all of the perfumes that the ladies at STC had, they could have mistakenly grabbed the wrong bottle and given me SDV instead. After a few minutes, I started to smell what I knew to be Shalimar. The issue is that the SDV parts seem to overpower Shalimar. Guerlain has always been very good at a classy vanilla perfume. But this is a little different It's like SDV and Shalimar had a love child and it's name is Millesime Vanilla but this version of Shalimar is closer SDV than Shalimar. While I do thing that this version of Shalimar is fairly awesome, I think that you would be better off layering SDV with Shalimar or just wear SDV on it's own.

The Perfumes That I Wish Would Come Back

Here in Ohio, we are in the beginnings of a heatwave. My household turned on the air conditioning this morning. Usually it is my mother that doesn't want the air conditioning turned on, this time it was my dad. He said it wasn't quite hot enough. So this week it's probably going to be a week of no 19 edt, Jicky and Worth Courtesan. Even with air conditioning, I don't want anything too heavy. 

So far, I have more access to my perfume collection and was able to pull out Une Rose Chypree and my Taur samples. I am still trying to locate my bottle of Une Rose Vermeille but I have my 2 spray vials of it to tide me over. I just don't want to pull out the unopened bottle of Une Rose Vermeille yet.

It seems like shortly before the pandemic, Andy Tauer had made a slew of discontinuations. Noontide Petals, Une Rose Chypree and Une Rose Vermeille were discontinued pretty quickly. A few others were discontinued along with the three I just mentioned. I had managed to nab backup bottles of Noontide Petals and Vermeille but wasn't quick enough to grab a bottle of Chypree. Even though I have a more difficult relationship with Vermeille, I do enjoy it. Vermeille has a huge raspberry note that can be irritating on the wrong day but Vermeille has the lasting power of nuclear waste. Even after using Tide, Dawn dish soap and a couple showers, Vermeille is still there. Which is pretty strange because I have dry skin and even with lotion, my skin still eats perfume like their is no tomorrow. Maybe Andy Tauer had to make some cuts to his line up and those three ended up on the chopping block.

There are other perfumes like Guerlain's Liu and L'Heure de Nuit that I would love to see a comeback. Liu was Guerlain's take on no 5 and L'Heure de Nuit was L'Heure de Bleue toned down. I did manage to get a bottle of L'Heure de Nuit but not Liu. But a whole lot of these purchases were made in better times. But I think with Liu and L'Heure de Nuit, they were bee bottle exclusives and probably too expensive for a lot of people to really buy.

But I am hoping that some, if not all, of these perfumes will come back. Guerlain has the means to do this, especially will all of the Shalimar flankers that they have cranked out in the past few years.

Guerlain Mitsouko

 The good thing about not having my whole perfume collection totally at hand is that it is forcing me to try and use what I have. Even though I did manage to grab a couple more bottles, my selection is limited. And by a 200 full bottle strong collection, having around around 12 bottles to choose from is a little more difficult to do. I am always worrying about what if I have a craving for Amouge Epic or Coromandel? That means I will have to muscle my way through that craving.

Every Friday, Now Smell This has a community project where one wears something that corresponds to whatever theme there is for that day. This past Friday, the theme was chypre. And since the only chypre that I had from the 12 bottles that I have, it was Mitsouko, what seems to be the queen of all chypre perfumes that's still in production. Mitsouko was pretty well represented on Friday. In some ways, Mitsouko was a little lame because so many wore it but it was all I had in terms of a chypre that day. Plus, it was a very long time since I had worn Mitsouko. I had forgotten how strong Mitsouko could be and the lasting power is phenomenal. Since I was wearing the current EDP, I would not recommend wearing it outside of the low 70's in temps or it gets unbearable.

When I was pretty new to serious perfume smelling and collecting, I found Mitsouko early on. I didn't fall head over heels with it right away but really enjoyed it for some reason. After a while I mostly figured out why. It's not like most modern perfumes. Most modern perfumes release anything that makes them smell good are in the first 15 minutes. Mitsouko releases it's beauty slowly. It took me a while on why I liked Mitsouko so much and eventually fell in love was Mitsouko's balanced nature. I was taken surprise by how peach was presented in Mitsouko. I am used to sickly sweet peach in so many of those cheap perfumes that I did wear in the past.

Then I tried vintage Mitsouko in all of it's oakmoss glory. I heard people waxing poetical about the vintage version, I wanted to try it on one hand but didn't on the other. Around this time, it was my first attempt at trying to curb reckless spending. When I did try it and fell in love, it led me down a rabbit hole called E-Bay. I was buying as many reasonably priced bottles as I could. By the time I was finished with getting vintage bottles of Mitsouko, I moved away from Mitsouko and went on to Shalimar. I do think that I will have to pull out and wear Mitsouko more often.

Seeking the Familiar

Since I am still working with that strict budget, I have been seeking out some of the old, familiar perfumes. Perfumes that I had bought early in my perfume journey and wore the shit out of. So since I have been cleaning some things out, I've been finding a couple things.

Chanel no 5, no matter what the concentration is one of those old favorites and a soothing one at that. I have the EDT, EDP and parfum all on my vanity. And that reminded me to pull out my bottle of no 22 EDT. I haven't gotten around to trying out the EDP due to lack of funds and I don't need to be on E-Bay looking for decants. I don't need to get burned because people like to sell Chanel dupes.

I found a large decant of the current batch of Diorling, right before it was discontinued and a vintage bottle of it. I am still kicking myself for not getting a bottle or two when I had the chance. Even though the people at Dior told me that they have no intention of bringing back Diorling, one can hope and keep pestering them about it. If they can keep cranking out these J'adore flankers, they can bring Diorling back for a limited time for me to nab a couple of bottles.

An old favorite that is comforting is Mitsouko. It doesn't matter if it is vintage or current to me, I adore Mitsouko. I don't pull it out often enough and wear it and I did pull out a bottle of a newer version of the EDP and a vintage EDT. The EDP that I did pull out was from probably 10 plus years ago, so no honest to goodness oakmoss in that one. I have tons of the vintage EDT and I am still trying to get a stopper to come lose from my huge bottle of Mitsouko.

Lyric is another perpetual favorite for me. I love wearing Lyric in all of it's spicy, rosy goodness year round but I love it especially in the heat of summer. It took me a long time to actually get 1 bottle of Lyric but I am glad I did get that bottle and got the travel spray and a back up bottle. I have no clue with what is happening with Amouage. I can't find the Lyric or Epic bath product and there isn't any Ubar to be had anywhere. Let's hope it's a supply chain issue with the ingredients.
 

Guerlain Teardrop Bottle

Did you ever find yourself wishing that certain perfume companies would either change or bring back a certain bottle design? This is one of those times that I do wish exactly that. It's a rare thing that I do think about bottle designs.

Chanel has always been consistent with their bottle designs. And most perfume companies have always been pretty consistent with that in terms of packaging. But the one perfume company I wish would bring back a bottle design is Guerlain. Specifically their teardrop bottle design.

There is something that I absolutely love about the teardrop design for some reason. For the past few days, I have been wearing vintage Shalimar from the teardrop bottle. There is something alluring about dabbing perfume. I find dabbing perfume to be sensual about it. It doesn't matter if it's an edt or a parfum version, it's just a sensual act to me for some odd reason.

Guerlain is a very old perfume company that has gone through so many bottle changes through the years. But I find that I like the teardrop bottle the best. After poking around, it almost seems like the teardrop bottle always seemed to be the best bang for your buck in terms of sizes available. I have some various sizes of some vintage Guerlains and most of them are the larger sizes. There is something aesthetically pleasing to see when I see a teardrop bottle on my dresser. I have no idea why Guerlain had decided that they were going to discontinue that type of bottle sometime in the 90's. I have a couple of the clock/watch EDC bottles but those are not so pleasing to the eye when I actually pull one out and use them.
 

Shalimar and Books

 I haven't really done a ton of reading this year. With Covid, instead of having more time to read, I somehow have less time to read. I have either 3 or 4 books on my Kindle that I haven't even read. Hopefully I can find some kind of time to read them. A while back, I took a quiz for a $3 gift card for Amazon and now they send me the code to redeem the stupid credit. Funny thing is that even though I have books to read, I want a few more books. You see that my Chase account has these offers where if you spend some money at certain stores/websites, you get some kind of credit to your bank account. The catch is that you must use it before certain dates. I am sorely tempted and most books that I want are more than $5. What was it, my last post I blogged that I really have to watch the spending and no frivolous spending? I do have a couple that I am want to get and with the $3 and some cash back, I will keep it really cheap and limit myself to one book but keep it under $5 or less.

I am still trying to finish decants and bottles as well as candles at this point and I was looking for things that I haven't worn in a while. Yes, I want to try new things but can't afford to fall in love with anything at this point and wore some Shalimar Ode a la Vanille Madagascar last night and this morning. I like the original Shalimar but I adore the Ode a la Vanilles, especially the Madagascar one. For the longest time, all that seemed to be available was the Mexique one and it I did stumble across the Madagascar, it was and still is more cash that I am willing to part with. What sucks about the Ode a la Vanilles is that they were limited edition. Nothing can aggravate me more than limited editions and flankers. Flankers don't always smell good and nothing can sell out faster than a limited edition. I hope that the perfume gods send a message to Guerlain that they should release the Ode a la Vanilles again. I would love a bottle or two of the Madagascar one, especially if the price is right.

Vintage Shalimar Extrait Review

I have finally cracked open a bottle of vintage Shalimar extrait and wore it. I don't wear Shalimar that often for some strange reason. For quite a while, I was prowling E-bay and was always on the hunt for reasonably priced bottles of vintage Mitsouko, Shalimar and Jicky. I was mainly looking for the teardrop bottles and if the price was reasonable, I got it. If the bottle was sealed, bonus. Somehow, I managed to score two unopened bottles of vintage Shalimar extrait and one of the bottles was from the 1950's and the other is probably from the 1960's. The one I am reviewing is from the '60's.

The first blast was a whole lot of citrus, something lemony. Since it is vintage, the citrus smells a little bit damaged. Then the vanilla and leather do come out. I've noticed that the vanilla and leather doesn't come as far out in the extrait like in the current EDP, which I am the most familiar with. Nor do I get an animalic growl, well maybe a faint trace of it. Maybe I am too used to the skank in vintage BaV, Keihl's Original Musk and MKK.

After wearing the extrait and then wearing the current EDP version, I had remembered why I don't wear the original Shalimar too much. I don't wear it much because I am not a huge fan of a large dose of citrus in an oriental perfume. I really do enjoy the Shalimar Ode a la Vanille. The Ode a la Vanille does bring the animal growl out and amps up the vanilla while toning down the citrus aspect. But at the end of the day, I wasn't moved by the vintage extrait of Shalimar and that is probably a little sad.

Old Favorites

It's May and May Day has already passed. Now it is May 4th and it's Star Wars Day. But May 1st got me into Diorissimo and Diorissimo is not a perfume that I wear often. A younger me, 15 or 20 years ago would have probably worn this exclusively. Ever since I have fallen down the rabbit hole, heavy florals is not something that I reach for often. But for some reason, I was looking at Guerlain's annual Muget perfume release. I have never smelled any of the Muget releases. Reason being, it's always been out of my price range and I don't need to fall in love with something that I can't afford. I don't care if it is a 4.2 ounce bottle but if the price varies between a minimum of $400 to $600, that's out of range for most people when talking about a bottle of perfume. I think that I will stick to the more affordable and more available Diorissimo.

Since I don't have a realistic way to organize my perfume collection yet, I have been looking through my collection a little bit more. There are things that I kind of did forget that I actually did own. Mind blindness is to blame. Cuir de Russie is an old favorite and I have a huge bottle. Sycomore is another favorite that I don't reach for often. Sarrasins, Nahema, Mitsouko, are others that I sort of forgot I had but yet knew that I had. Now is the time to start wearing the crap out of them. I think that I have been so wrapped up in vintage BaV, L'Heure Bleue and Ubar that they fell off my radar. It doesn't help that I have a pretty large collection anyway that some perfumes were going to get lost in the shuffle. How many of you have done this?

Guerlain Cuir Beluga EDP Review

Off and on I have thought about getting a decant of Cuir Beluga for years. But never quite did until recently because it always seemed that other things were catching my fancy. I got my little decant a few days ago and decided to test drive it yesterday.

At first, I got this strange powdery smell that I couldn't place. Well, I just couldn't place the whole damn perfume, I knew I smelled it before from Guerlain but couldn't figure it out. Eventually, I did figure some of it out. To me, this was basically Tonka Imperiale. I did enjoy Tonka Imperiale but do not like Cuir Beluga. From start to finish, I did get a Play-Doh/chemical/plastic smell with a sweetness overload. I did smell a whole lot of tonka and a hint of vanilla but not enough to even begin to redeem itself. Lasting power is around 7 or 8 hours on my skin but that was 7 or 8 hours too long. I view this as money saved.

Evaporation

Let's get this straight, I have tons of bottles like any good perfumista. This means back up bottles. I have back ups for discontinued perfumes and a whole lot more back ups in vintage perfumes. The vintages that I do have are mostly in splash or dabber bottles. But I always seem to run into the same problem. The dreaded evaporation.

The older the vintage is, the less likely the dabber seems to hold the perfume. A lot of the vintage bottles I have date from the 1950's to the 1990's. I love my vintage Guerlain's but find that the ones that are earlier than the 1970's don't seem to have plastic over the glass part of the stopper that goes into the bottle. My newer ones do. This means that I have to start wearing some of these and use the bottles up. Truth be told, I don't mind it so much when the vintage splash bottles are screw top and wither EDT or EDC concentration. I mind the most when the vintage extraits are doing this. Vintage extrait is fairly expensive and I have less of vintage extrait. I don't wear my vintage L'Heure Bleue too often but noticed that one of the bottles did have some noticeable evaporation. It isn't a huge amount but it was noticeable and the other one, I'm not totally sure. It looks like I have to get some snack sized Zip lock bags to prevent some of the evaporation and start wearing them more often.

New vs. Old

Many classic perfumes have gone through reformulations. The longer a perfume has been in circulation, it's a given. There are many reasons why reformulations happen and it can be very annoying or down right infuriating. I understand why some reformulations happen. Some ingredients are either banned because of allergies, harvesting is cruel or some become endangered. I understand why some things have to be outright banned or severely restricted. But I'm never a fan of having things banned due to allergies. Perfume is not essential to living, it's honestly not. Food is essential to staying alive. But I am strange when it comes to the vintage and current stuff.

Let's take Mitsouko, probably the most talked about reformulation. I like both the current version and I also like the vintage version. Since they have restricted oak moss, Mitsouko hasn't quite been the same. But the reformulation is still beautiful. Even though I don't wear Mitsouko as often as I should, I'm finding myself drawn more and more to the current version of Mitsouko than the vintage version and wearing the current formulation more. I don't know why I am drawn to the current formulation more but I'm thinking that the current version is a little brighter than the vintage version.

Chanel no 22 is another one. At first, I didn't like no 22. I found the EDT version to be too harsh and the vintage version to be smoother. Eventually, I started to enjoy no 22. Now I thing that I wasn't prepared or used to the powder and incense combination. I haven't tried the EDP version of no 22 so I can't comment on the EDP version. The version that I enjoy the most is the extrait version. It's rosier and more subdued. Powder bombs are hard to wear and harder to pull off.

Guerlain Derby Reissue Review

Since I am so slowly working my way through my bag of those that haven't been worn or reviewed, it was time to get something reviewed. This time my grubby fingers landed on the Derby reissue. I have enjoyed a few of Guerlain's classic offerings and thought this was worth a shot.

This starts of with a peppery citrus note along with carnation. At first, I couldn't figure out where I smelled this before. I swear that I smelled that before. Was that the opening of Christalle? I would have to give Christalle another go to refresh my memory. But then I realize that it smells a whole lot like Givenchy III which I do like wearing from time to time. There is a moss note that comes into play after a while giving Derby a little bit of a Mitsouko feel. The leather that I smell, doesn't exactly suit the whole thing. It smells kind of poopy and just doesn't fit. The lasting power with Derby is a decent 6 hours. Derby keeps fairly close to skin but is not a skin scent. EDT's are usually sit pretty close to me because I have dry skin and I was amazed with the fact that I got 6 hours of wear before this faded into nothing.

Since I don't care for Derby, I won't be getting a bottle of this. Which in some ways, a relief.

It's Holiday Season and Guerlain Samsara EDP review

It's now the holiday season and I am dreading the next 5 weeks. Nothing but holiday parties, gift shopping and all of that. It seems like everyone is in a rush and in a bad mood, driving themselves crazy.

I think that people are driving themselves crazy with the whole having a perfect Christmas thing. Nothing is perfect and that perfect stuff is in your head. Some of it has got to be insecurity and people just want to impress their family and friends. It's Christmas, enjoy it, the world is not going to end because it wasn't perfect. Since Black Friday has since passed and we are on Cyber Monday. Did I go shopping? You betcha, and spent more than I really should have. My version of shopping is going online and getting it because I loath crowds. My e-mail is getting bombed with deals but the discretionary spending money is gone for a couple weeks and all I have to do is hop to the Toys R Us website for my nephews and I can call it a day.

Today was the day that I went into the unworn bag and pulled something out to wear. The reason was that the unworn and not reviewed bag was overflowing and now I have more on the way in terms of things to review. It turned out to be Samsara in EDP form. I was hoping it wouldn't be one of those typical '80's perfumes. In a way, it was the normal run of the mill '80's scents but quieter. I smell a whopping dose of creamy jasmine that stays front and center throughout my journey. Eventually, I get some fresh green note that follows the jasmine. I think that it's to tone down the jasmine note but Samsara evolves a little more. I get hints of tonka bean with an undercurrent of vanilla. This is the most modern version of Samsara and it does seem to be a little rough around the edges which bothers me a little bit due to the fact that I like my perfumes well blended and smooth. Lasting power for me was about 6 hours. Don't think that I would get a bottle though, my 8ml decant will suit me just fine.

Pre-Reformulation SDV

Since my computer is being a butt, I am writing this on my Kindle. The weather has gotten much cooler and now I can start wearing my heavy hitters. After digging in my unworn bag, I had pulled out a small decant of SDV. I had to take a closer look to why I had a decant in there in the first place. On the label, it has the pre-reformulation 2007 on it, so I had to test it out and do a comparison with the current version.

Guerlain has always been able to make vanilla sing. I had learned to love vanilla a little later in my perfume journey and how I like my vanilla. I like my vanilla either burnt, boozy or inedible. Spirirtuese Double Vanille delivers on all three. The pre-formulated version is smoother, quieter and less boozy than the reformulation. But SDV is still fairly loud on me and has the half life of plutonium on skin, reformulated or not. I would like to have a bottle of the current stuff but it's not in the cards right now.

Guerlain Habit Rouge EDT Review

A few days ago, I was craving a new perfume to test out. It was one of those days where I had to be at work at 5 in the morning, so I didn't have the time to really spend any kind of time nor the inclination to make an effort. So it became Guerlain's Habit Rouge in EDT form. I had packed Noontide Petals in case Habit Rouge was an epic failure.

I figured that since it was a classic and I hadn't done any prior reading up, it would be fabulous on me. Guerlain and I do get along, most of the time. When I first put Habit Rouge on, I got lemons instead of a vague citrus note. Fresh cut lemons and I loved it to pieces at that point. When the lemon faded from the top and other notes started to come into play, I wasn't so enthused. I started to get a lot of Diorella, that earthy fleashiness. The type is that at the end of the day in the sun and that squeaky clean is gone. That stays to the end. I did get some vanilla and some herbs. The vanilla took me by surprise because I normally associate the vanilla and the lemons with Shalimar, which is pretty feminine and I don't know any man that I see on a regular basis that wear Shalimar or even wear Shalimar. The herbs had said Jicky to me and it's funny that Guerlain took the basic composition of Jicky and made Shalimar with it. I think that Guerlain took both Jicky and Shalimar tweeked them both a little bit to get Habit Rouge. Yes, a masculine Shalimar, which in itself, isn't such a bad idea. I have yet to try Derby and Veviter and Jicky was probably the only Guerlain that men had ever dared to wear. For an EDT, this lasts about 6 hours on my EDT eating skin and that surprised me.

Do I like it? I'm not sure and I will have to wear this a little more. Wear it more so I can understand it and end up enjoying this.

Guerlain Shalimar Ode a la Vanille Madagascar

I have always loved the original Shalimar since I first sprayed about 8 or 9 years ago. I keep wondering about why I am not wearing Shalimar more when I do reach for it. But I was a little late to the party and a little miffed at why Guerlain would release two flankers of Shalimar. I was asking on what were the differences and why were they needed.

I already reviewed the Mexique and managed to snap up to bottles. It was time for me to seek out the Madagascar version to see what the difference is. This version of Shalimar smells like Shalimar but there are differences between all three (original, Mexique, and Madagascar). The Madagascar version doesn't have the huge citrus note. The citrus is still there and noticeable but not overwhelming and not as sharp. After a while, the citrus does fade way back into the background and lets me smell the rest of the composition. The vanilla is much deeper and much more smoky and I haven't really noticed it in the other two. What I really enjoyed was how slutty this version of Shalimar is. Mexique and the original Shalimar are pretty slutty but Madagascar takes this to a whole new level. The skank level is almost on the level of vintage Bal. It's a pity that I only have a pretty small decant of Madagascar. It's also a pity that Mexique and Madagascar are only limited editions, long discontinued. It's much easier to find the Mexique version for a somewhat decent price where when I find the Madagascar version (it's rare to find it), it's an arm and a leg. I will try my best to console myself with having the Mexique version.

Extrait Bottles

I do go through times where I take a really good look at my bottles of perfumes. And there have many times that I have waxed poetical on bottles and perfume bottle porn. I am somewhat attracted to perfume bottles, even though the perfume maybe crap, I'm still attracted. But now I'm intrigued with something in my collection. My various bottles of extrait. Guerlain, Chanel, Deneuve and probably a couple others.

Most of the extract that I have is vintage and more often than not, it's gonna be Chanel or Guerlain. Most current versions of extract is going to be in quarter, half, or full ounce bottles. You are not going to find strange sizes, except when you are looking around. Guerlain in vintage is pretty funky in terms of size. Let's see, I have two vintage bottles of Shalimar that are a third of an ounce and a bottle of L'Heure de Nuit that is either two thirds or three quarters of an ounce. I don't know why it really isn't done so much anymore. I think that it probably wasn't profitable anymore. I wish there were a little more choice in perfume sizes period.

Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Toner

Back when I had ordered my bottle of L'Heure de Nuit, I wasn't expecting a sampler of Guerlain's facial care stuff. Most of the stuff I knew wouldn't be a great fit for my skin and gave it to my mother but the toner looked like it would be a great fit for me. My skin care regimen is pretty basic and I don't use a lot of products. I normally use SkynIceland's glacial face wash and the cloud cream and that's it. I do use an astringent once in a while. What I mean by once in a while is when I have to be at work at 5 in the morning and I am not lazy enough not to brush my teeth but too lazy to wash my face or when it's really hot out. Since I have been out of the Burt's Bees rose toner, I decided to give the Guerlain toner a go.

Most toners/astringents tend to dry out my already dry skin (except my nose, which is oily and prone to pimples) but the Orchidee Imperiale toner didn't. Looking at the bottle, is was a moisturizing toner. Many have claimed that theirs is moisturizing but are not. This one is but I noticed that what ever moisturizer they use kind of doesn't absorb all that well into my skin. But my face didn't feel greasy for the rest of the day. What I noticed is that it does get a lot of dirt, grime and oil off of my face. Yes toners and astringents are kind of like a mini face wash for when you don't have quite the time to wash your face. The good news is that my face didn't break out nor did it develop any kind of irritation to this one.

In spite of it's flaws, I was looking at buying a bottle of this. When I looked online for this one, I got some sticker shock. For a 4 ounce bottle of this stuff, it was $140 dollars. I know that I have spent that and much more on a bottle of perfume but perfume lasts longer. I think at this point, I am going to stick to the Burt's Bees rose toner.