Apres L'Ondee and Other Things

Life is really kicking my butt right now. I have a family member that's been in the hospital for a week with a mental health issues and last Monday, I had teeth pulled. The teeth in question were all on one side and what was left of four back teeth. Early June is when I get the rest of my back teeth taken out and then I will have just my front teeth up to my eye teeth. Then I can have partial dentures. I have had bad teeth for years and it will be a relief to have the better ability to eat and not have to deal with the threat of infection. Well, I will still have my front teeth but the threat will be lowered in terms of develpoing an infection.

Since I have had a little more free time than usual, I almost finished the Lieberman Papers but haven't really watched a whole lot of Vienna Blood. I thought that yesterday I would finish the last book and maybe watch some of the Star Wars movies but I got sidetracked with getting dog food and some grocery shopping. It was a weekend of trying to catch up on housework.

About a week and a half ago, I had a hankering for Apres L'Ondee and after going through tons of decants to find the decant I had of Apres L'Ondee, I realized that it had evaporated. So I made the trip to STC to get a small decant and I have no idea why I added a small decant of Muscs Koubli Khan but I did. I suppose I wanted to make the shipping cost a little more worth it. I haven't gotten around to spraying my decant of Apres L'Ondee but from what I remember, it smelled like a stripped down version of L'Heure Bleue. Jicky has the same association with me in regards to Jicky being a stripped down version of Shalimar. I think the reason that I have been wearing Jicky a little more and have more of a hankering for Apres L'Ondee is that since I have been reading the Lieberman Papers and watching Vienna Blood, both perfumes would have been around during the time frame that both have been written about. So much of my collection dates from much later in terms of when they were released. I was also thinking that if I do fall head over heels for Apres L'Ondee, I might get a bottle. But I am on a no buy right now and I am slowly trying to use up more decants and I am hoping to finish a bottle or two of perfume this year and I already added enough to my collection. What I think that I will end up doing is that when I am on vacation is that I will really get going on finishing decants. It's only 11 more days before I get my first vacation.

 

Binge Watching and Reading

Slowly but surely, I have started my whole binge watching of Vienna Blood and I have started to read the Leiberman letters series. I haven't been much in the mood for reading or binge watching anything. But I did force myself to get started on reading the first book of the Leiberman papers series. After getting through the first book, I did realize that this series is not for someone on a diet. The descriptions on food an coffee will make one not diet. I did enjoy the first book but I think that I am going to have to read it again. I am not used to every chapter being from a different character's point of view and I think that there is a ton that I missed.

After the new year, there isn't much happening on television. This is a dreary time of year. There isn't a new season of anything going on right now. The Sunday after Super Bowl Sunday was the season finale of All Creatures Great and Small and there hasn't been much on to keep my interest since then. PBS will premire the newest season of Call the Midwife on the 30th. So until that time, I will have to get moving on binge watching Vienna Blood, which is based off of the Leiberman papers.

 

But let's talk some bottle porn. I'm at a point where I don't care too much about the packaging of a perfume any more, I am more interested in the perfume itself. But when my bottle of the original Lolita Lempicka tipped over and I lost most of the contents, I decided to get a new bottle. The old style bottle was and is darling and I am wondering on why a bottle change was needed. Was it because Lolita Lempicka went cruelty free and that is why there was a need to rename the original perfume to Mon Premire and change the bottle with it. I found the original bottle of Lolita Lempicka is be a stripped down, easier to wear version of L'Heure Bleu but still a really good perfume that wasn't a morgage payment.

 One can obviously tell the difference between the bottles and I do prefer the old style bottle compared to the new bottle. The base of the new bottle is so tiny to the point of too tiny. The older bottle might not have been as stable as it could have been but it I found that the older bottle was a little easier for me to wield when I would apply the perfume. With this new bottle, there are too many inconsistenties to be held comfortably in my hand. Now I am terrified that if I drop this bottle, this bottle is all over the place with bottle thickness and with the bottom being so tiny, it will just be easier to break. The new version of the juice seems to be a little more sheer than what I remember. I can't exactly be mad though, I spent around $30 for a 50ml but in this economy, if I am going to shell out 2 hours worth of work, I do expect something a little bit more. That is how my approach to perfume buying is when I am in the market for a full bottle. With the cost of food and everything else, I have to be a little more cautious.

Right now, I am not in the market for full bottles.My latest sin is when Luckyscent sent me an email for 10% off everything in the store and free shipping over the weekend. I splurged on a travel spray of Gris Charnel and the Parfums Nicholai discovery set. If the Gris Charnel extrait version ever came out in travel spray form, I would probably get that.

Parfums de Nocolai Number One Intense Review

In Ohio, we are in the depths of what I like to call the yucky part of winter. The holidays are long gone and there isn't much to look forward to. There might be Valentine's Day but when you are single, Valentine's Day doesn't mean much. So, it's just cold and wet. There are no movies that I want to see, nothing much going on with television. The only thing that is worth watching on television right now is All Creatures Great and Small on PBS but that's on Sunday.

So right now, I am binge watching Vienna Blood. The whole show is based off of the Liebermann Papers by Frank Tallis. For a while PBS has this thing going on where they might have released a season or two for everyone to watch and then they would yank it and say if you want to keep watching this series, you have to have a subscription. So for a few years, I fought with getting a subscription and then I finally caved because I was missing some really nice programs. So back to Vienna Blood. It's kind of like this Sherlock Holmes vibe set in early 20th century Vienna. There were a few times that I had to look some things up. Late 19th and early 20th century, you had all of these political movements going on that were wreaking havoc. So with some stuff, I didn't quite understand the context of some things. I can binge watch Tales of Yanxi Palace but I am not up for 80 episodes that require tons of thinking right now.

Ever since the new year, I have spent way too much time cruising Luckyscent and Frangrancenet and probably shouldn't have spent any money. I didn't spend obscene amounts and the grand total is probably a a hair over $100 even though I am honestly supposed to be working on using up decants and samples. The only sample that I have used up is my Patou Joy extrait sample. I am working on getting back to not buying perfume samples and not buy full bottles. I just typed that sentence as a bottle of Narciso Rodriguez for her just arrived on my doorstep today. I am fighting the urge about the body wash and lotion since I want to use up my Amouage body products this year.

Since the Vanille Banane was more or less a bust, I decided that I would give Pafums de Nicolai Number One Intense a go. I have mostly given up blind buying full bottles and curbed the blind travel spray buying. The full bottle of Number One Intense was a little more of a gamble than Vanille Banane.

Tuberose was the bane of my perfume journey for the longest time. When Andy Tauer had his Sotto perfumes, it was either the gardenia one or the tuberose one that planted the seed for me to start liking tuberose. Then it was Serge Lutens Tuberose Criminalle that make my love for tuberose bloom. Now I can't get enough of tuberose. But I have to pump the breaks with getting new stuff and trying new stuff.

Number One Intense is a whopping tuberose perfume. The tuberose isn't apparent in the first five to ten minutes, it's a blast of green. Then the tuberose comes in. The tuberose is a heady, lush tuberose with hints of jasmine to flesh out the lush aspects of Number One. The green from the black current remains throughout but grounds the tuberose and jasmine a little bit. I do get some bits of rose in there but it's the smallest amount and when I do smell the rose, it's fleeting. This perfume is incredibly lush and full of curves. It's a curvaceous woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. A woman who isn't afraid of what she wants. The Intense part of Number One is true, this is a truly intense perfume with really good projection and lasting power. Number One Intense was pretty close to the clouds parting and angels stating to sing type of deal for me. This perfume is a keeper and will have a permanent place in my collection.