Clinique Happy Bath and Body Stuff

It can be a difficult thing to find matching body products for perfume. Most of my niche perfumes don't have matching body products or they were discontinued (looking at you, Amouage).Unless something is a huge seller or the body products would be cheap to make and sell really well, none too many make matching bath and body products any more.

I know that Chanel focuses bath and body products on the no 5. Bath and Body Works has always done matching bath and body stuff since day one. I have only been able to find Estee Lauder Pleasures in lotion but no soap. But this leads me to Clinique Happy. A couple years ago, Ulta had stocking stuffers or the beauty stuff you could hang on your tree. So naturally, I snapped a couple of those up. How could I refuse a 5ml travel spray and 2 ounces of lotion?

Turns out that the 2 ounce lotion is some kind of funky lotion. I have had and tried the Amouage body butters and for a body butter, there was a firmer texter and it took a while to work into skin. This funky lotion is called a gelato and who knows why, maybe Clinique thought the term body butter was over used or wanted to draw some people in. I am just not so enthused with something just sits on my skin and takes forever to absorb.

I did eventually get the body wash and lotion. I find that the lotion doesn't quite moisturize enough. I find that the texture is nice but with my dry skin, I want my lotions to be a little more substantial, even in summer.

But the body product that really liked was the body wash. It cleans all the gross that has been accumulated. I love how much lather there is with the body wash and how it takes all the grime without fully stripping my skin.

I will admit that the Happy body care doesn't quite smell like the perfume but few body products smell like their perfume that they are supposed to go with. But I am mostly okay with that. With the way that Happy seems to deteriorate, I think I will mostly stick with the Happy products.

 

All Sorts of Things

I kept flirting with the idea of doing a post (if I hadn't already), of what I would like to see in parfum form. Not seeing Chanel no 5 parfum in stock online got me to think on that a little bit. You very rarely see parfum version of anything anymore. You might see extrait de parfum once in a while with niche but nothing else. Amouage did have the parfum version of some of their line but but that was mostly done away with and they now have the Exceptional Extrait line up. Intense version of any perfume is pretty meaningless to me. I want the ritual of a splash bottle of parfum version.

The two perfumes that I would like to see done in parfum form would be Estee Lauder Pleasures or Clinique Happy. Pleasures does come in an intense version and I haven't smelled that yet. I don't want to go back into the habit of blind buying again since I have pulled myself out of that recently. Estee Lauder and Clinique have the means to do something like this but they don't. Maybe something in the original formula doesn't translate well or they think something might not be good enough for even just a holiday run. I don't know which one I would get first if that happened because I am sure that they would be more reasonably priced that what Chanel would sell and maybe a little bit of a bigger bottle.

It looks like Andy Tauer did release another limited edition after he released Nexin. This one that he just released, was sold out when I got to the website. I wasn't looking to get a bottle, I was interested in the price, the concentration and how big the bottle was. I did notice a price increase on Andy Tauer offerings but I did notice a price hike on other perfume line ups. The price hikes on groceries is a little rough but seeing bigger price hikes on everything else sucks. I have enough perfume perfume to last a few lifetimes but I still want to try new things.

One TV show that I have watched ever since the beginning is Call the Midwife on PBS and the 15th season will drop sometime in 2026. I just found out that season 15 will be the last season and we will be getting a prequel. I am sad that Call the Midwife is ending but I did notice that the quality of the show has gone down in the past few seasons. Too many new characters were introduced and left fairly quickly with little to no explanation. I did noticed in the past season or two is that there have been a couple episodes that were very nitty gritty like in the first three seasons. I think that that should have been my first inkling that there really might not be a whole lot of time nor life for Call the Midwife. I did notice the past season when one of the main characters that has been there since the beginning was absent for a couple episodes, and she was in every episode before. So after Call the Midwife is finished, it will be mostly Grandchester and All Creatures Great and Small of my TV watching.

Christmas is Over

Christmas is finally over but the holiday season isn't quite New Year's. Since I work in retail, I can't exactly relax yet. I just have to make it one more week before everything calms down.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day had some drama in it. The skilled nursing place that my grandmother is at, isn't really doing what they really need to be doing. She has dementia and a busted leg that can't put any kind of weight on her leg. God above, I know it's the holidays, could someone really try to keep a better eye on her? To keep reminding her to call for help if she needs it and making sure that she isn't getting up on her own. Bringing a dish to Christmas dinner is always filled with drama. I wanted to just make the mashed potatoes with caramelized onions the night before but that led to when I make mashed potatoes, it's too lumpy. At the end of the day, Christmas was nice enough. But I am tired between work, wrapping presents, having to travel places.

I didn't get any perfume presents per se but got money towards it. Got a $15 Sephora gift card and had a $10 reward and turned that into the By Killian sample set. I have an Ulta gift card and there is a Clinique Happy sale, so I will nab that when I get a chance some time soon.This is pretty much been the closest that I have come to being gifted an actual bottle of perfume in years.

I have said that Clinique Happy doesn't have the longest shelf life when it comes to perfume. I have vintage bottles of Mitsouko that smell fabulous but for some reason Clinique Happy has a shelf life of about 5 years if you don't wear it to often. If Happy is your signature, you don't need to worry so much about shelf life.

It seems like the Bath and Body Works semi annual sale is pretty lackluster this year. I do remember last year's semi annual sale having more of a selection online. I narrowly missed out on nabbing more of the Sweet Whiskey candles but did manage to nab more Leather and Brandy single wicks. I was hoping for a little more selection for this sale. The good news is that the Pink Lavender  and Espresso candles are back in stock and what makes it really awesome is that they are in single wick form. But more candle buying has to wait until I use some more candles up and the next really good candle sale comes along.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving is Now Over

Thanksgiving is now over and now we have entered the Christmas season. That means from now until a couple days before Christmas, my inbox will be filled with sales ads.

This year, the deals seemed to be decent but nothing was really exciting me. I did nab a couple foaming hand wash things from Bath and Body Works for 20% off but didn't bite on the buy 3 get 3 free because I am really waiting for Candle Day. I did find the Clinique Happy body wash for a song. There was a time where I could easily get a body wash that matched but I don't see that anymore. In the mid to late 90's, I could get a gift set that was a bottle of perfume and the matching lotion and the soap. When I find those types of gift sets, it's usually a full bottle, lotion and travel spray. The last gift set that I got that I had a body wash was CK Obsession and that was in the later 90's. I kind of wonder when that switch over came about. It doesn't look like too many perfume companies offer body washes anymore. Even Amouage doesn't even have a whole lot in their bath and body line up. I keep looking for the Lyric, Epic and Honour stuff and I am having a hell of a time trying to find that stuff. That means that Amouage might be redoing their whole line up. I hope that Amouage isn't discontinuing anything as well, especially Lyric. Lyric is pretty much my go to Amouage.

Perfume Minis

 I am having a real hankering of going back to basics. Recently, I have been wearing tons of Estee Lauder Pleasures and Clinique Happy. Now I am starting to get a hankering for the original Vera Wang for her perfume. It's cheap enough on BeautyEncounter and Fragrancenet and I am flirting on if I should get a bottle but at this point, I am going to have to wait and see if I can finish a bottle or two of perfume before I go adding more shit. I am trying not to add anything more and it's not an easy thing to do. But I do wish that Sheer Veil wasn't discontinued and not a million Princess flankers.

Going back to basics in perfume isn't too bad. Maybe I don't want anything too demanding in terms of perfume. The pandemic has left me exhausted and with the stress related to grief, demanding perfumes are not what I want. I want perfumes that are a little more comforting and right now some of them are blasts from the pasts.

This is something that I really don't see very often anymore. There was a point in time where I would get myself perfume gift sets. I am talking probably late 90's early 2000's. I might not have had tons of cash then but when I would buy perfume, I would save every spare penny I could and get the gift set. I wanted the most bang for my buck. In those gift sets was a bottle of perfume and either the body lotion or soap but there would always be a little perfume mini in there. I always did enjoy the perfume minis. They were fun, cute and easily displayed. Problem with those is that most of the time is that they were dabbers and not sprays. So I couldn't really put them in my purse or book bag. At that time, travel sprays were not much of a thing. I would like to see minis make a comeback and preferably in spray form. Those 4ml spray minis were great because a regular travel sprayer can be a little too big and bulky. Sometimes just too much in general. Let's hope that the perfume gods will listen and bring back more perfume minis.

Made it Through

I made it through another snow storm and didn't lose electricity. I am happy about that. Yesterday was not the greatest day. The roads were a mess and I still had to go to work. Many places in my area were closed for the day but not where I worked. Funny thing is that I received a phone call from my manager stating that there were a bunch of call offs for my department and there wasn't enough work for me to do in my department. I had the choice of either taking the day off or going into work and working in another department. It's been many years since I had to work in a different department and I was not willing to deal with another departments drama so I took the day off. In all the years that I have worked for my current company, I don't ever recall getting a phone call like that. So this was just a random day off and I shall take it. I used the day to get on top of a couple things and try and set myself ahead of a couple things. My bank account can take the hit. I didn't realize that I had leftover vacation from last year until I looked at my last paycheck and might have a residual amount left.

Valentine's day is just around the corner and I am really started to be bombarded with emails about when the last day of shipping is or extra points per dollar in rewards. I am not looking for anymore perfume at the moment. Well, I'm always looking for new perfume but I am trying not to buy anymore perfume except for when Sephora has their spring sale in April. I am trying not to add much of anything to my collection but trying to use things up. It's the whole idea of companies trying to make you think that you have to buys gifts or just buy stuff for whatever holiday that has gotten pretty annoying. I am just trying not to buy as much in general this year and it's difficult to change the bad habit of buying things because it was a good deal. Or because I was bored, anxious or just had a little extra money. I am just trying to get myself in a little better financial state.

Slowly but surely, I am whittling down my candle collection. Even though it's slow going, every candle that I finish, it's a little more space that I have. I'm not adding candles or perfume at the moment, I just want less clutter at this point. By using things up or just throwing out what I don't use creates space.

With all of the cold weather and the back to back winter storms and the cold, I want spring to arrive. I really want to bust out the Estee Lauder Pleasures and Clinique Happy. I have worn both recently but they don't quite fit with winter. I had forgotten how much I love both of them. Pleasures is more of a spring perfume and Happy is more of a summer type of perfume. Truth be told, I was over the moon when Ulta had a special going for Estee Lauder products and I nabbed that 5 ounce bottle. I haven't seen the 5 ounce bottle on Ulta since early last year. It's still available on the Estee Lauder website but sells out often. I do wish that the body lotion was available at Ulta or just more available in general. I have been craving the EDP version of no 19 as well but to a lesser extent. I want sunny, warm days again. The days when I I can go outside without a coat on, wear short sleeves, the days were I can start breaking out the spring/summer candles. I have a couple candles that I am sick of looking at and I just want to use them to just get rid of them. There is no reason on why I need 10 lilac candles, no reason why I need that rosewater ivy or strawberry pound cake. I only have 1 of those two and why not just use them when spring comes and just be done with it.
 

Clinique Hint of Citrus Review

 It looks like I won't have a snooping relative coming over and spending a few days with me. This snooping relative is the one that loves to open other people's mail, especially to find out how much cash they have. They decided that they were going to stay home since there are no televisions in bedrooms and Fox News has been blocked. Televisions don't belong in bedrooms in my opinion. 

On the other hand, I made a somewhat decent Sephora run and don't really have any desire to purchase anything from Sephora anytime soon. Most of the time, I only really shop at Sephora when they have their November and April sales. I find that most of their stuff is somewhat more than I am willing to spend.

I haven't paid much attention to Clinique line outside of Happy. But I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the Happy lineup in years. I love the original Happy and Happy Heart but for so many years, I either wasn't interested in perfume or was getting other perfumes. In the years that I wasn't into perfume, outside of passing moments, the money wasn't there. The whole broke ass college student thing. I was more worried about tuition and books than buying that bottle of perfume. And when I dropped out of college, it was the whole low level retail thing and the cash wasn't there. And slowly, what little perfume I had, dwindled down to nothing.

But when I saw the little Happy mini set at Ulta, I pounced. I mainly wanted to try Hint of Citrus and the price was right for me, I figured that if Hint of Citrus sucked, I had the others to enjoy at least. I find that Hint of Citrus really isn't really what I would call a flanker. Hint of Citrus flirts with the idea but never goes into the flanker territory. I mainly smell grapefruit and some floral hints but nothing ties Hint of Citrus to the Happy line and I spent a few hours trying to find the relationship. But got nothing of the sort and thought that this could have been a Theorema dupe of sorts. I will admit the bottle was cute and did kind of like the grapefruit note but I am not really a fan of Hint of Citrus. I don't dislike it or hate it, I am just not impressed with it

Since I am not really a fan of this, I will have to say that outside of the mini set, it looks like Hint of Citrus was discontinued years ago. I don't think that Clinique was ever in the habit of discontinuing any Happy flankers but there might have been a few. This sample mini set might be a testing the waters bit to see if Hint of Citrus would be possible either as part of the Happy line up all year long or just a seasonal thing, just like Wrappings is a seasonal thing.

More Body Stuff to Review

 Clinique Happy is a throwback perfume for me. Happy came on to the market my sophomore year of high school (I know that I am dating myself). A few girls, along with myself did wear Happy but it seems like we seemed to stick with Bath and Body Works Cucumber Melon. Working at minimum wage job for only 15-20 hours a week isn't a ton of cash and affording something a little more expensive than Bath and Body Works at the time was a luxury. When I was younger, and in high school, I did spend quite a bit at Bath and Body Works.

I don't ever recall trying out Happy's matching soaps and lotions but I now have had the opportunity to try out the gelato body cream. The body cream felt rich and decadent when I put it on after my shower and I really did enjoy the feeling while applying but I did notice about an hour in, the body cream doesn't seem to be enough for my dry skin. It might be leaving my skin feeling a little softer but not exactly moisturized. It might be due to the fact that it's almost 90F outside and pretty dry outside. This is where I think that I  have gotten a little too used to Chanel and Amouage body products. The Happy gelato cream does smell like Happy but there isn't a ton of scent to the cream. With Chanel and Amouage products, I don't really need to apply the perfume on top of the body products. This is probably a shrewd move on Clinique's part to get people to buy more but I'm not going to grudge them on that. I find the lotions to be nice enough but it doesn't really suit my needs in terms of lotion.

It's a rarity for me for me to use one of those pore strip things. I've never had problems with pimples, acne or blackheads. Once in a while I do use the pore strips when the sides of my nose look a little clogged up. The original pore strips got some of the crap out and I wanted to see if the charcoal pore strips would work any better. This turned out to be a bit fat no. The only thing that I noticed is that it was just easier to see what kind of crud came out of my nose than anything else. Do the Biore pore strips really work? Can't really say for others but for me, they don't really work all that great.

I just seem to be striking out with a lot of things come lately and all that I am hoping for is that we actually do get rain tomorrow even if it's in the form of thunderstorms.

Simply Pretty

Before falling down the rabbit hole of perfume, I never gave perfume much thought. I did wear perfume but I was quite a bit like many people, casual perfume user. I didn't seek out new things, didn't explore notes, nothing. I was into simply pretty. For years, I was a user of Estee Lauder Pleasures and Clinique Happy. If I wore other perfumes, they were of the straight up floral type.

Then came that e-mail from Chanel and getting that massive bottle of Cuir de Russie. I found Cuir de Russie to be pretty likeable but still wasn't sure of it, it wasn't what I was used to smelling, especially on me. Then I started to love it and seek out the perfumes that were not the simply pretty. I started seeking out the unusual, the animalic and the straight up weird. And I had found plenty of those and then started branching out into looking for vintages. When you starting seeking stuff out and trying new things, it gets expensive and fast. Now I am at the point of I have enough right now and I am trying to finish some full bottles perfume and decants. Let's see how long this lasts.

Now back to the simply pretty. Pretty and nice is just that, pretty and nice. But after a while, the pretty and nice failed to move me. I think it was the fact that I wasn't this person that was a teenager or someone in my early 20's anymore and did want the things that were a little more mature and maybe those that are a little more funky. Simply pretty and nice is more for the person who doesn't really love perfume, it's for the ones that are wearing perfume for the sake of wearing perfume. I do have a couple of perfumes in my collection that are pretty (Un Coeur en Mai for example), I find myself not reaching for them too often to seek out a lot of the simply pretty.