Random Sniffage

After having a week away from my job, it's now time to recap on what kind of happened perfume wise during my vacation. Did it involve perfume buying? Yes, but who really wants to her that? It did involve a lot of general being out and about. I really wasn't interested in the whole going to the mall or beauty supply places but it happened anyway.

In my area, where my local Borders used to be, an Ulta beauty supply store moved in. Yes, it happened a couple of years ago but I still miss Borders and haven't gotten used to the sight of Borders being gone. Wednesday was the first time that I actually set foot in Ulta and I have never been inside. I was curious to see what was inside. I wasn't expecting Ulta to sell perfume but they do. Let's just say that the perfume selection is pretty similar to Sephora but in some respects maybe a little better. Ulta is trying to be like a cross between what would be the normal drugstore fare of make up and hair care and Sephora. The reason that I say that it is like Sephora is that it offers higher end perfume not the general stuff like CK Obsession and the like. To tell you the truth, I was surprised to see Chanel offerings (no 5, Mademoiselle, Noir) and some Guerlains. Mind you that a lot of these perfumes are sold at Macy's but Ulta is not Macy's where I can find a whole lot more than just the best sellers. And best sellers is pretty much what is sold in Ulta. I didn't expect the whole Chanel line and all of the variations of no 5 but that is somewhat impressive.

I was at my local mall briefly while getting a couple blouses and noticed that they had a little baby Sephora in my local Macy's. Naturally, I poked around and didn't see too much that interested me in terms of perfume. Mostly because the baby Sephora was that tiny. On the upside of going into Sephora, I did find the Kat von D lipstick in Hellbent. For the longest time, I couldn't even find it on the Sephora website.

Adventures and Sniffage

For the first time in a long time, I found myself at an upscale mall. I usually avoid the mall like the plague due to the fact I don't like huge crowds of people and I don't want to be sprayed with the latest release. Most malls that I have been to have had an okay perfume counter at Dillard's and Macy's but the Saks Fifth perfume counter was something else. The perfume counter was massive and it offered a larger collection of things that I would wear.

My purpose of going to an upscale mall was to look for the EDP version of Jicky, hence why I was at Saks Fifth Avenue. Jicky is hard to find in stores that isn't the EDT version if you can find it. I find the Guerlain counter and was amazed that I actually did find Jicky but it was either the parfum or the EDT. I even asked if they had the EDP version but they didn't have it but offered to order me a bottle or get the parfum. I'm hardly at Saks Fifth, let alone an upscale mall, so obviously, I can't just go back for one perfume. But I don't often get the great customer service the way I did but I'm lazy and can't justify going to an upscale place for no real reason. There are people in my house that hold it against me that I own enough perfume. But I kept going back to getting a bottle of Mitsouko or L'Heure Bleue. In the end, I chickened out of L'Heure Bleue and got the 2nd back up bottle of Mitsouko. Yes, I've really started to enjoy L'Heure Bleue but it's still a little too sweet for me.

Even though it was Valentine's Day and I was at the mall, I did like the customer service that I did get. But I was surprised at the Dior counter because I was looking at finding a bottle of Diorling even though I've always had trouble with Diorling's sliced green pepper opening. But alas, they didn't have Diorling.

What did surprise me at Saks was the lack of the newest releases being pushed at people. Maybe people were looking more for the grab and go or maybe spending 5 minutes at most with a sales rep. But I did have some fun with being at a perfume counter.