Worth Courtesan and Door Dash

Since today is the unofficial start of summer in the US, I got to thinking about some of the summer like perfumes that I have and how I can't access most of my collection. The only on that I was able to get a hold of was one of my unopened backup bottles of Worth Courtesan. Courtesan is probably the most summery perfume that I own. But I noticed some things with it.

The first thing that I noticed was that the cap and spray mechanism are not compatible. The cap takes the little spray part right off the rest of the spraying mechanism and the base that is attached to the bottle has condinsation issues. So the cap, more often than not has some of the perfume itself in it. Who ever did the bottle and spray design was an idiot that didn't think this through. Courtesan isn't so easily purchased like Chanel no 5 is. Online retailers only have it intermittently, making backups a little harder to procure. With the sprayer being all wonky means that evaporation is a massive threat.

The second thing that I have noticed with Courtesan is that Courtesan has the lasting power of nuclear waste on my dry skin. With how fruity and light Courtesan seems to be, that is a remarkable feat to be that long lasting. My dry skin eats perfume like there is no tomorrow. I can apply Courtesan at 8 in the morning and I can still smell it at 8 the next morning. I had forgotten how long lasting Courtesan is. So with those two issues, I think that I will be wearing Courtesan a whole lot more.

Two or three years ago, one of my guy friends had gifted me a Door Dash gift card. Some of it was a joke but maybe he might have gotten it from someone else and he had no use for it. Maybe he figured that since I don't drive, I would probably have a little more use for it than he would, since he drives. So I used that gift card today. I had a hankering for some fast food, a promo code to make the price just right for me to use. There have been a couple times where I was in a bind where I had to use a delivery service for groceries. Delivery services like Door Dash and Instacart are freaking expensive so I make an effort not to use them too much. I know it's about the convenience but a $10 fee at the low end and a tip kind of makes that a little out of price range to have it on a regular basis. One of my friends is totally blind and only gets $600 a month in disability is reliant on these services. She has said that even with a roommate and having food stamps, it's something she has to use because it's difficult for her to find any kind of ride or help to go grocery shopping. Yeah, having a disability can be expensive and time consuming. But it was kind of nice to just get a burger and fries and not have to deal with any kind crowds
 

Worth Courtesan

 Worth Courtesan was one of my first perfume loves when I fell down the rabbit hole. I fell in love with it's fruity goodness and I am not a big fan of fruity perfumes in general. I fell in love with Courtesan's flirty, mildly spicy nature too. At the time, it was pretty hard to track down in the US but did manage to snag a couple bottles at a reasonable price.

For a while, it seemed to be around and easily ordered online in the US that didn't break the bank. For quite a while, I didn't seem to wear Courtesan too much. When I wore Courtesan a few times last year I noticed some kind of condensation inside the cap of the perfume and the base of the spray mechanism, I wiped things up, didn't find anything that would warrant the condensation. I went to apply some Courtesan last night and noticed that there seemed to be a little bit of evaporation going on. Not a huge amount but still a somewhat noticeable amount to my eyes. I take off the cap and perfume dribbles everywhere. And I mean everywhere, all over my hands and some trickled down my forearm. The spray mechanism is now wonky and I am pissed at this point. It seems like recently that I haven't had a whole lot of luck with spray bottles. 

I spent an hour or two last night scouring the internet looking for bottles for sale and came up empty handed. I saw one or two bottles for major money and the shipping was killer as well. I am not fully sure if this has been discontinued or not but I know that this bottle of Courtesan will probably be my go to summer perfume. I seriously don't want to lose a bottle to just evaporation. There doesn't seem to be any kind of information on Courtesan let alone information on if it is still in production or not. Let's hope that the perfume gods haven't decided to pull a fast one on me.

Wait a Minute, Thought You Couldn't Get This One

Apparently, Worth Courtesan has landed in the US. Every time that I have looked for it on Amazon or any other online place, it was labled out of stock or some such thing. Well, Ebay was the only place that I could find it and me getting stuff there is a very recent thing. I knew for the longest while, Courtesan was sold only in Europe. Even though I have a bottle, I want a backup and don't really want to go to Ebay for another bottle. Ebay is still scarey for me. I'm wondering on how the hell did I miss this fact that I now can find Courtesan here in the US and Amazon has it for a reasonable price.

Even though there are a lot of people who won't use Amazon for getting perfume, I'm less adverse to it. Yes, I get my Chanels from the Chanel website or the Chanel counter at the mall because the 3rd party sellers want a fortune ($100 or better) for a 1.2 ounce of no. 5. But I will use the 3rd party for my Amouages because I've had nothing but great experiences with Lady Ruth Perfumes. But normally, when I do get perfume from Amazon, they are pretty reasonable and sometimes you can get a bargain. I did manage to get a bottle of 1.7 ounce of Joy in EDP form for about $$60 instead of the usual $80 or more.

Ebay

After flirting with idea of Ebay for years, I've finally signed up for an account. Ebay has always scared me because I have always been afraid of being scammed. And sometimes the cost of things. What finally made me take that plunge was trying to track down a few bottles of vintage perfumes and maybe find a couple that are not sold full bottle wise in the US.

Thus far, I've made only one purchase (Worth Courtesan) and waiting for it to arrive. I have a large decant of Courtesan and a full bottle of Courtesan was fairly inexpensive so most of this is hanging on how good my experience is going to be. I hope that it is good and I am going to get the real thing because I am eyeballing some vintage no. 19, no. 22, Deneuve and Mitsouko.

How in the World

With this perpetual heatwave has brought out a monster craving for jasmine dominant perfumes and let to something strange. By digging through my huge, and I mean huge, pile of decants, I've managed to accumulate 3 decants of A La Nuit, 4 decants of Sarrasins, 2 for Deneuve and Courtesan and a few others. I'm not exactly happy that Serge Lutens hasn't made Sarrasins available to the folks who live here in the US but I'm not Serge Lutens and unfortunately, don't get to make that choice of which is an export and which is not. So, I make due with decants of Sarrasins because I don't have means to go to Paris. But I'm still a little embarrassed to have that many decants of the same 5 or 6 perfumes.
My skin is insanely dry year round but I am having perfumes vanish on me without warning. Even though I am chugging lots of water and using a fair amount of lotion, perfume is still not sticking around on my skin. I'm not happy because I have a slew of perfumes that I really want to try and review but I want to know about the staying power of any scent before I can review.

Worth Courtesan

I stumbled upon Worth's Courtesan on the Perfumed Court looking for skanky perfumes. Courtesan is supposed to be a skanky perfume but I am not getting any kind of skank. Initially, I was wary of getting a sample because a lot of notes listed are fruit notes. After wearing Courtesan for a few hours, I get flowers with a hint of fruit. Courtesan is a sweet, skin scent with a weak note of seduction. It's nice and likable but it is a perfume in transition. Courtesan seems to be trying to go from being a fruity floral mess to something very seductive, a real woman's perfume. The Perfumed Court is the only place I can find Courtesan without going on Ebay. Ebay just scares me and that would be another post. Staying power is good and sillage is minimal. I probably won't get another 1.5 ml or any decant once I finish this one. It's pleasant but it doesn't move me in any way to the point of where I have to get another decant or take the plunge into Ebay.