Perfume Spillage and Shalimar

Once in a great while, I do have some very unfortunate perfume accidents. There were instances of spilling some of my perfumes. Cuir de Russie, vintage Bal a Versailles and a bottle of vintage Mitsouko fell victim to being spilled. I did manage to save most of the actual perfume but what was spilled was soaked up by my carpet. Eventually, by weekly vacuuming and the periodic steam clean, you can't smell that now. But there was an unfortunate accident of a broken decant. I was in my bathroom about to take a shower and my decant of Rose de Nuit got knocked over and shattered all over. There was no saving anything. Even with mopping the floor, my bathroom smells like a slutty rose. It was my only decant of Rose de Nuit and decants of it are a little pricey and a bell jar is out of my reach. I am hoping that a tax refund will get me a bottle. But that's a ways away and if something else doesn't grab my attention.

There seems to have been quite a few Shalimar flanker releases. It seems like it has been so rapid fire that I can't keep up with it. I try to kind of ignore the Shalimar flankers for a reason. When I first discovered Shalimar, the Ode a la Vanille flankers were limited editions and production on those had stopped. I spent way too much time trying to procure a bottle or two. The only Ode a la Vanille that I could find were the Mexique ones and if I did find the Madagascar, it was way out of my price range. I will be honest, I think that the Madagascar was the better of the two. The Madagascar seemed to be in more of the spirit of Shalimar.

I do have a decent amount of Shalimar. The edp version, vintage edt, vintage parfum and the Odes. With a bottle of my dresser, I have no idea on why I don't reach for Shalimar that often. It's gentle, plush but not too plush leather, the civet of ambergris lends a sensual element. But let's not forget the vanilla. It's not an edible smelling vanilla, nor does it smell like something a tween/teen or early twenty something would wear. I think that I am going to have to make a habit of wearing Shalimar more often, even though my mother says that Shalimar is dated. And this is a woman who's go to perfume is Light Blue or anything Dolche Gabbanna. So I will keep wearing Shalimar anyway.
 

Faberge Tigress Musk Cologne Review

I've been sitting at my computer for the past few days trying to get my act together to write this post. I keep staring at the screen, trying to start and just not finding the right words. Then I end up on Facebook, playing Farmville 2 for hours on end.

At this point in the game, I am a little fearful of trying new perfumes. Especially vintage. It's always the same old song and dance right now. What if I love it and I find out that it's way out of budget? That bottle of Ubar was one out of the two full bottles that I can get this year. It's been a pretty rocky couple years and the good thing is that it is making me use what I already have.

But I have come to realize that I few decants that I haven't worn, let alone reviewed yet are evaporating I now is the time where I need to get a move on. I noticed that my Faberge Tigress Musk cologne was really starting to evaporate. So it came time to sample.

All I can say is wow, the clouds parted and the angels started singing for me. What I can best come up with is a sluttier, louder version of Rose de Nuit. Rose de Nuit is pretty slutty but Tigress Musk takes that to a whole new level. MKK and vintage BaV can't even touch it on the skank-meter, it's that skanky. I love skanky perfumes and Tigress Musk is no different. I do find some nods to Nahema but I don't see a whole lot of similarities but I think that Rose de Nuit got together with Nahema and this was the result. But after a while, I kept asking myself where the hell have I smelled this before? Then I think that my aunt might have worn this one before it was discontinued. I can't be sure. Tigress Musk is no skin scent, but it's not bombastic either, nor is it crass or rough around the edges. It's sleek like a cat and almost has a velvet feel if it were cloth. Lasting power for me is about 5 hours and that's pretty good for a cologne. I might have to keep a look out on E-bay to see if one pops up for a song. Yes, it is worth a try.

Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit

This is just ridiculous that I have a bag filled with 40 decants that I have not reviewed yet. So, it's time for me to review stuff this week. That's if the power holds up through Hurricane Sandy. Since Sunday was pretty much the day I decided to do the Fragrance Frankenstein Challenge from Perfume Posse. Let's just say it was a cross of hilarious and a little horrifying. It was Serge Lutens Arabie, CK Obsession, with a healthy dose of Sarrasins.

I had gotten a sampler set of Serge Lutens non-exports a couple months ago and dug it out for a test run. I'm always a little bit hesitant of trying any of Serge Lutens scents. They are either exports, too much spice cabinet, or it gets a little too soapy or powdery. Rose de Nuit is somewhat of an odd perfume for me. It's odd because I get many other perfumes that are close to Rose de Nuit but not quite. The rose is a dominant note but it's not the musky, powdery rose of Fleurs de Bulgarie (Creed) it is more like the sharp, clear rose of Chanel no.19. About 5 minutes after the rose dies down a little bit, I get the familiar chypre category (little bit like Diorling and Deneuve) then come a fruit note. Normally, I abhor a strong or noticeable fruit note because I don't enjoy smelling like a overripe fruit salad or rotted fruit. This time, I'm not sure if I like it or not but it does take away from Rose de Nuit. In the dry down, is what I did not enjoy. The dry down smelled like a very old rose soap along with fruit. Would I go to Paris or find a connection to get this? Only if the soap and fruit wasn't a part of Rose de Nuit.