Another Old Favorite...Memoir

 I do keep spending time rummaging around that huge tub of perfume that I do have and I pulled out a really old favorite, Amouage Memoir for women.

Back when I was pretty new to the world of perfume, I longed for bottles of Lyric and Memoir and eventually got bottles of them. For some reason, I haven't worn much of Memoir and I don't have a great reason to hoard Memoir. With the direction that Amouage seems to be going in terms of not being able to find a whole lot in the way of bath and body stuff and I can't seem to find Ubar anywhere, I have been slowly getting back ups of the Amouage offerings that I love. I don't know exactly why I stopped wearing Memoir but I did. I was probably busy trying other things.

Even the pickings on discounters are getting a little slim.I still am trying to curb the frivolous buying and I am making every effort to not go buying everything in sight. In years past, I could go to discounters to get my bottles of Amouage but I'm not seeing the selection and I am blaming Covid for it. While I did snap up a back up bottle of Memoir, I got another back up of Lyric to cover my behind. I will get that back up of Epic eventually but I am not going to get that bottle right now. I have other things that I need to be worrying about.

Bath and Body Works has started their semi annual sale a few days ago. While I did imbibe, I didn't see tons of offerings that really wowed me. It wasn't the price points, it was the scents that were offered that I wasn't too wild about. I just grabbed what I could use for birthdays and Christmas gifts and now I am just waiting for it to arrive on my door step. I would have loved it if Night Blooming Jasmine and Gardenia Lily was brought back along with Milk and Honey. Bath and Body Works said that they had no plans to bring those back but they might at a later date. With that answer, I doubt that those will be brought back.

The Full Bottle Hustle

It is now a rarity for me to purchase a full bottle of anything. The past two or three years, I've gotten around 6 or 7 bottles (I think) of perfume. Necessity has made it to where I can't just end up spend any kind of money on a full bottle of perfume very often. Want that bottle of Lonestar Memories? Gotta wait for it. It's difficult o get out of the habit of just buying full bottles. I have worked out a budget of what to get and when.

I have blogged about which full bottle was next. I couldn't decide on either Ubar or Lonestar Memories. I spent at least two or three weeks going back and forth and just yammering on about how difficult the choice was. In the end, I went with Ubar. Fragrancenet was offering a 1,7 ounce bottle for $105. Yes, it was that cheap. I was a little unsure if I wanted to pull the trigger. Beauty Encounter, Amazon, Luckyscent and any reputable place that sells Amouage, only sells the 3.4 ounce bottles. So I have never seen Ubar sold in a smaller size than a 3.4 ounce bottle. The price sealed the deal for me because Lonestar Memories turned out to be a little more expensive than Ubar. Maybe I will get Lonestar Memories later on in the year or there is a really good sale in the next couple months.

After every full bottle purchase, I want to go and buy another on my wish list. I do have to step away. Because the new rule for me is that I can only pick one perfume and not two. After about a couple hours, I am okay because I had saved up enough fun money to get a bottle of perfume. If I could only keep away from buying so many decants.

Ubar Bath Products?

Recently, I have been wearing the crap out of my Amouage body products. It's winter and the Amouage body butters fit the bill for my dry skin. It moisturizes my skin without causing breakouts. Jubilation 25 and Dia I have in hand lotion form but don't see a whole lot of wear. Dia lotion and soap seems to be best suited for spring and Jubilation 25 gets aggravating. But there is something on my mind.

Ever since I have fallen in love with Ubar, I am not seeing any matching bath products. Yes, I am pining for a bottle and hoping that I will get a bottle sometime soon. You see, Ubar has been around for a while and hasn't had the benefit of having the body butter nor soap. Even Gold has matching soaps and body lotions and that has been around since the '80's. Is Ubar's formula not making it possible? Or is Ubar not the biggest seller to warrant one? I want to know.

Perfumes That Have Grown on Me

Every time Surrender to Chance or The Perfumed Court has some sort of sale, I am taking a look and most likely buying a decant or two. It just happens, I could ignore it but I don't. There is always something that I read that puts a certain perfume on my radar or back on my radar. I have rediscovered my copy of The Guide by Luca Turin and was looking through it. I came across his review of Ubar and suddenly, I had a craving to try it again.

Even though I hated Ubar but tried to find something good to say about it, I hadn't smelled it in years. But I had to try it again. Why? I knew that when I tried Ubar, I was still pretty new to the scene with niche. Now since I am not so new, I wanted to give Ubar another look. I have lost the whole bug spray thing that I smelled years ago and now I am rocking it. So now I am thinking that a full bottle is on my list.

Do I have a couple others that I that are growing on me? Yep but I am having trouble remembering what they are. And that is what happens with a large collection of perfume, things getting lost in the shuffle.

Ubar Relaunched

 Now is the time where I really get a move on with the revisiting the things from early in my perfumeista journey. Back when I started blogging about perfume, I feared not liking a perfume and saying so on my blog. My tastes have changed and I have become less afraid of saying what I think about perfume. If I think that something smells like a really bad fart, I'm going to say so, if it smells wonderful, I'll say so too.

When I had first tried Ubar, I almost physically recoiled. I thought that I got a decant that was bad or someone wanted to play a prank on me. It did smell like the Off bug spray with flowers somewhere in there. At the time, I had made every effort to make friends with Ubar but Ubar wasn't having it. I really think, at the time, I predominantly wanted the cheapest Amouage perfumes. At the time, it was $250 for a 3.4 ounce bottle and that was a bargain for an Amouage if you wanted to pay full price. Now I know better and can find it cheaper.

Since a few years have past and I haven't had a decant in any form, I had ordered one when STC was having a sale. I figured that if I have fallen in love with a few perfumes that I initially hated, I should give Ubar another go. After I had worn it a couple times, my opinion has somewhat changed. Does it smell different? Yes, probably due to some reformulation. The bug spray note doesn't seem to be prominent in this and I get more of a floral note to this. Ubar still lasts forever and isn't the best to wear when you are working in a bakery. Heat makes Ubar really bloom. Has my opinion changed? Yes, I am starting to like this one and I'm thinking that I will eventually fall in love and get a full bottle.

Lanvin Arpege Vintage EDP Review

I don't know what possesed me to seek out and try Arpege. Maybe it's my wanting to work my way through the classics or the quest for trying vintage versions of classics. The price for a larger decant at The Perfumed Court was reasonable. I like to get larger decants of vintage for some reason. For the past three days, I've been wearing Arpege to form an opinion. At first, it smelled like a strange cross of Chanel no. 5 and Amouage Ubar. I just find that combination of a bombastic floral and an adlehydes don't seems to work to well on my skin. After about 45 minutes, I get smacked in the face with this huge Johnson's baby powder note. Lasting power is about 9 hours. I don't find it to be a scrubber, but I just don't like the baby powder bit.

Amouage Gold Cristal for Women

I was poking around the Perfumed Court looking to see what the price for a decant of Amouage's Gold for women. I didn't come across it but did come across what was Amouage Cristal for women in EDT. I do have a small sample of Amouage Gold for women from Luckyscent and had to bring it out to compare with the decant of Gold Cristal. I find that there is no difference between the two. Gold is similar to Amouage's Dia, but Gold is heavier. I get the same astringent like note from Gold like I do Dia. I actually find it to be pleasant in both. But I find that Gold seems to be a marriage between Dia and Ubar. It's not quite the big floral monster like Ubar but Gold is not a skin scent either. I love Amouage's Gold and find it to be very bottle worthy and would be a welcome addition to my collection.

Amouage Ubar Review

There is nothing crass nor crude about Amouage perfumes that I have smelled thus far. The only Amouage that I have tried that I didn't enjoy was Reflection for women.

Amouage Ubar is a loud floral. It doesn't scream cheap and badly made but there are many badly made expensive perumes. Ubar is a well built perfume and if one is not looking, it will wear you, like many Amouages. When I initially applied Ubar, I got a bug spray smell. The bug spray element threw me a little bit and I hoped that it wouldn't be another Coco Madamoiselle. Coco Mademoiselle is straight up bug spray from top to bottom for me. When the bug spray element passed, for the most part, I got a very rich floral that was a little on the dirty side. Ubar is not you typical floral/oriental. It's not quiet, it's not so clean as many florals seem to be. In the dry down, I get a little bit of an animalistic touch but not a whole lot. I do find it to be bottle worthy and until I have enough pennies saved up, I will be hoarding my decant.