Fall is Slowly Coming

In Ohio, we are getting into the tail end of August. My local school system started school on Thursday. It's funny how early kids go back to school now. When I went to school, our school year started a few days before Labor Day. When most of my classmates were in 4H, it would have been wiser to start school after Labor Day. Most of the 4H kids were at school on Monday and Tuesday but were at the local fair the rest of the week. So the first week of school was pretty much a waste of time when I went to school.

With fall on it's way, that means it's time for everything that is either pumpkin or apple. I honestly prefer apple over pumpkin and this whole pumpkin spice craze has gotten out of hand. There is something about the taste and smell of pumpkin spice that makes me gag.

The Honeycrisp Apple candles from Bath and Body Works hasn't come out yet and in some ways I am happy and in other ways I am sad. I am currently on a strict no buy in terms of candles. I am not buying anymore candles until Candle Day in December. So until next fall, I will not be buying any Honeycrisp Apple candles until then or I get a Bath and Body Works gift card for my birthday. At the end of the day, not getting anymore candles until Candle Day will be good for me. It will allow me to use up some of what I have and I have five or six Honeycrisp Apple candles, so my stock is fine.

Since fall is on the way, it's time for me to pull out LADDM and Vanilla Flash. I haven't worn my stash of Andy Tauer's work too much. One, I couldn't get to it and two, out of sight and out of mind. But I found both Vanilla Flash and LADDM and put them front and center. But since fall is on it's way, I do have to pull out more of my transition scents.

Since I have pulled out Vanilla Flash and have worn it, I got to thinking about Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille. Truth be told, I find Tobacco Vanille to be stupid expensive for what it is. For the price of a full bottle of Tobacco Vanille, I can think of many other nicer perfumes for the same price. A travel spray of Tobacco Vanille is around $75 and that is about 10ml of perfume. Vanilla Flash is the same price for 30ml of perfume and I find that Vanilla Flash is a nicer perfume. One could say that it's Andy Tauer does Tobacco Vanille but I find that Vanilla Flash is better made and has that Tauer base that I love so much.
 

Life Before Perfume and Other Things

Since it looks like I have what I call a "baby cold" and a stye on my upper eyelid, reviewing a perfume is out. I still can smell but with a small cold, I can't smell that well to judge anything. It turns out that I did have a little more funds than I thought due to holiday pay, spending less than I thought for Christmas and returns. But I dared not and really couldn't spend a whole lot for a new bottle of perfume.

Inexpensive and niche perfume is not easily used in a sentence. But periodically, you do find something. What I have on my to buy list, in terms of perfume, is fairly up there in terms of price, so I proceeded with caution on Luckyscent and took at look. I posted on Twitter to Luckyscent that they shouldn't be so reliant on that sale page of theirs. Some of those bargains, are not exactly bargains. My idea was to every 4 or 5 months, offer a 10% or 15% off your order. Hopefully, they will take that into consideration. So after dithering on Andy Tauer's Vanilla Flash or spending extra money Viktoria Minya's Hedonist travel set, I went with Vanilla Flash. For $63, that's practically free in terms of niche. I'm going to have to wait until I file my taxes to see what's going to be my deal in terms of a refund. Maybe that full bottle of SDV is in the cards. But I digress.

But it got me into thinking about how things were before perfume. Before 2007, I only had one or two bottles of perfume. They were popular perfumes at the time, Clinique Happy and Estee Lauder Pleasures.  I wasn't someone who wore perfume every day. If I remembered to put some on, I did but it wasn't something that crossed my mind very often. So they sat around most of the time and took quite a while for me to use up. Somehow, I had received an e-mail from Chanel, telling me about Cuir de Russie. At the time, spending $200 on a perfume was a massive deal to me, especially since I had never smelled it. I figured that it was 6.8 ounces and if I didn't like it or had an allergic reaction, I would return it. Now, spending $200 or more on a perfume, doesn't scare me so much and I don't do the blind buy thing any more. I do consider the price and if I am going to spend over a $100, it better be for something I absolutely love before I commit. It's funny that now I can't really leave my house and go anywhere without perfume. What's even funnier is that in 2018, Cuir de Russie is no longer in EDT form and while they have a 2.5 oz bottle and a 6.8 ounce bottle, the prices have changed dramatically. The 2.5 ounce bottle now costs as much as what I paid for a 6.8 ounce bottle 10 years ago ($200). The 6.8 ounce bottle is a whopping $350. That made me shudder to think of Chanel becoming uber expensive to the point of not wanting to buy perfume from Chanel anymore.

Tauerville Vanilla Flash Review

Yes, I actually did go ahead and test something new and now I have to review it. For the longest time, I thought I hated vanilla in perfume, especially if it was the dominant note. Vanilla had to be buried under a bunch of other notes before I would even try it out, Then came Havana Vanille (traumatically discontinued) and Guerlain SDV and to a lesser degree Tobacco Vanille. I figured out why I didn't care for vanilla too much. Most of what I have been smelling was the edible vanilla and I didn't like smelling like I just baked a batch of cupcakes. My vanillas must be inedible to be worn. This leads me to trying out Andy Tauer's Vanilla Flash.

For a while, I have been debating about exploring the Tauerville line for some reason. I love Andy Tauer's work even though I don't care for some of his offerings. That's OK though, there are plenty of Andy Tauer offerings to go around. When STC was offering a 15% or 20% off sale, I figured why not try it out? I might actually enjoy a couple out of this line.

First up was Vanilla Flash. Vanilla is the dominant note of this one (obviously) but it's not the cupcake variety. It's a slightly burnt vanilla with maybe a little hint of booze. Even after a few hours of wearing it, I thought that there might be a hint of tobacco in there lending the slightest leaning to Havana Vanille. There probably is a hint of tobacco in there. From start to finish, I did smell the Tauer base. The Tauer base isn't in your face like some of Andy Tauer's offerings and Vanilla Flash does need something to make it as something recognizable to be Mr. Tauer's work. A whopping dose of Tauerade would have rendered this as kind of bad. I was really impressed with the lasting power of Vanilla Flash. I had applied this one at 11am and by 10pm, the last of Vanilla Flash disappeared.

If you find that SDV is too burnt, boozy and expensive or Havana Vanille to be too hard to find and expensive, this is for you. What make this perfume even better, for a niche perfume, this is practically free. Luckyscent is selling the largest bottle available (30ml) for $63 and that it free for niche perfume. This is going on my wish list because it might be quite a while before I can get a bottle. Unless it gets discontinued like Ingrid did.