Neela Vermeire Pichola and Luckyscent

 Ever since the verdict for the Trump trial came down on, what was it, Thursday, I have been avoiding Twitter and most news sites. Too many people saying that the former president wasn't guilty. Well, the justice system worked as it should have and we don't always get the outcome that we want. I won't comment anymore about that other than I was wearing Mitsouko that day.

For the most part, I have been avoiding Luckyscent. If I do go to the Luckyscent website, it's mostly to window shop. But this time I wasn't quite so lucky. When Luckyscent sends me emails about discounted items, I do look but I don't partake. Most things, even when discounted are either out of my price range or sounds like something that I would hate. I was just poking around the sale items and stumbled upon the Neela Vermeire Pichola travel sprays. The going rate for 2 15ml travel sprays  was $96. I wasn't exactly going to complain about the price for an ounce of niche perfume. So this purchase was unexpected and will have to be probably the only perfume purchase that I will make for the year. Mind you, I know I have a Neela Vermeire sample set running around somewhere but I just don't know where.

But with the Prada Infusion d'Iris travel spray (Sephora now carries the Prada Infusion line) and now the Pichola travel spray, it seems like I am really starting to get into the whole travel spray thing. I have plenty of the Chanel travel sprays but I find those to be a little on the bulky side for travel sprays. If space in my purse is at a premium, why do I want to have something so bulky? Most travel sprays that I have are pretty sleek and don't take up the amount of space that a Chanel spray does. I love travel sprays to keep in my freezer coat for when I need to be in the freezer.

I am going to have to kind of take back about not being able to spend money on perfume for the rest of the year. I have a little over $250 worth of Ulta points that I can use. What I am probably going to do is see what I can bank towards either my birthday or maybe around Christmas. I think that those Ulta points might come in handy later on in the year. Since Ulta has started to carry the Tocca line, I have been eyeing the Guiletta perfume. Maybe I will get Guiletta and another bottle of the original Coco but we will see that the end of the year will bring.

Some General Stuff

My folks have left for their trip on Saturday and I am starting to really enjoy the peace and quiet. Most of Saturday was spent on doing projects that I planned on doing after the whole airport drop off. Yesterday was a whole lot of nothing with the electricity going out. The vacuuming that I had planned along with a few other things went out the window. When the electricity came back on, it was mid evening and I just wasn't up to the cleaning. Today it was just some of the vacuuming.

Thus far, I finished up 1 partial candle and 3 that are burning now. I hope to have those finished off either tonight or tomorrow before I start 3 more. I just want to create more space and what faster way to do that is to burn candles? With 60ish candles and with not a lot of space, they have to get used. I still have a goal of using 6 candles before my folks come back. Especially before my mother comes back because I want to use 2 Honeycrisp Apple candles. I am trying to use up candles that are not my thing or thing anymore. Fresh Balsam, Rosewater Ivy are 2 that I did enjoy but not so much anymore. The Fresh Cut Lilacs I still enjoy to a certain extent but it's a candle that is just too potent to be burned for very long. I am starting to find that while I like heavy hitters in terms of perfume, heavy hitters in candles, not so much.

Sephora has their point multiplier thing going on right now and if I remember right, it goes until Saturday. I did brake down and used that $10 credit and the point multiplier for a bottle of Coco Mademoiselle EDT. If anyone who is familiar with Chanel knows that parfum, EDP and EDT smell slightly different. But I have noticed with the Chanel twist and spray minis that I have, they seem to have either an evaporation issue of the spray mechanism isn't the best since I noticed that with the Coco Mademoiselle Intense that I have, there is some condensation around the spray part. If CM or no 5 were my signature perfume, this would not be too much of an issue. At this point, I am sure sure that I would be getting any more of the twist and sprays. Travel sprays are an awesome idea but the execution isn't quite there.

I could have ordered that bottle a little later but want to have any kind package delivered before people come back from their travels. I don't need them questioning me about a Sephora package or an Amazon or my Tazo chai tea order. I've made a huge dent in not ordering things. The next time Bath and Body Works will be getting any of my cash is when Candle Day comes and I can stock up a little more with the Winter candle that I enjoy so much. Until that day comes, I hope that I can get through more candles.

Viktoria Minya Hedonist Travel Set

I had forgotton that I had done a review of Viktoria Minya's Hedonist Iris. I had worn it today and do think that it's a cross between no 19 Poudre and Infusion d'Iris. It's not exactly not my cup of tea. It just smells like a few other cheaper perfumes. It's nice enough but it's not going to get a ton of wear from me. The last Hedonist that I haven't tried was the cassis one. I have dabbers of the absolu Hedonists and will give those a shot to see how those fair on skin. I don't think spending $200 for a blind buy is a great idea. Well, it's not a great idea anymore, well, it never was.

Saturday, my travel set from Viktoria Minya arrived from Luckyscent. I had fully expected it to arrive Monday but I was tickled that it came yesterday. While the pictures were fabulous, the 15ml vials were even more gorgeous in person. I couldn't stop gazing at them. The crystals made the whole thing awesome. I will admit that I have never been much of a fan of the whole crystal/bead thing is perfume bottles. Most of the time, that means that there is less room inside the bottles for actual perfume. Pretty packaging may catch my attention but like any good perfume nut, I am more interested in the perfume itself. It's nice to display a pretty perfume bottle but what good is a pretty perfume bottle if the perfume sucks? It is nice to have some pretty bottles, or bottle swag but the perfume has to be really good to have a spot in rotation.

I like the concepts of travel sets. When there are weekend getaways or trips that involve flying, travel sets make things easier. Just pop that large decant into a purse and you are good to go. I have never traveled with decants from TPC or STC, I don't exactly know how decants from them would go with TSA, so I feel a little safer with actual travel sets and samples from the perfumers themselves.

Amouage Memoir Man EDP Review

 I finally bit the bullet this morning. I went to Luckyscent and ordered the Viktoria Minya travel set. I do like travel sets, especially if they are different scents like the one I ordered. A little less commitment. Sometimes, I get weary of plain perfume bottles. So this time, I went with some bottle porn or travel set porn. When the original Hedonist came out and my bottle arrived in the mail, I did squeal. The rhinestones in the bottle, the color of the perfume, the packaging in general was pretty much bottle porn.

I have enjoyed quite a few of Amouage offerings in the past. It seems like after Beloved, I kind of lost interest in Amouage. Too many new releases and a change in direction that made me lose interest. I've never really explored the men's offerings that Amouage has. I am working on that.

Last night, I applied Amouage Memoir Man for a test drive. I have never been the biggest fan of the men's offerings when coming from Amouage. I have found what I have tried to be kind of thin and I don't smell the resemblance to the women's version. Amouage Gold Man was the only one that really tied in to the women's version of Gold. I prefer Gold Man to Gold Woman. Memoir Man in ways has left me unimpressed. Thin, no relation to Memoir Woman but I've said that with other men's offerings. I am not smelling much of anything that's listed. I smell hints of leather, hints of wood and grass.

Memoir Man smells most like Chanel Sycomore on steroids with the extreme dry down of CdG Kyoto. I have both Sycomore and Kyoto. As time goes on, I get a little bit of a dusty smell to it. The lasting power is about 7 hours on my skin. I am not going to actively seek a bottle but wouldn't refuse a bottle if it were dropped in my lap.

Less is More

My Chanel package has arrived today. You have no idea on how excited I was to tear into that package when it came. But the packaging seemed a little odd to me. The outer most looked a little too big. Funny thing is that the whole packaging was much too large for what I had ordered. The keepsake package that held my mini travel sprays was filled with mostly shredded tissue paper along with the receipt, return label and a cloth satchel with two samples. I couldn't help but think, "really?". I could understand some of this fancy packaging if I was ordering a gift for someone or I had made a larger purchase but not a mini travel set of no 5.

Thus far, for all the perfume that I have ordered and have had shipped to my house, none has had more unnecessary packaging than Chanel. I don't recall Luckyscent getting carried away, nor Andy Tauer. They came well packed with the appropriate sized boxes with minimal amounts of boxes and packing peanuts. Come on Chanel, the huge, fancy boxes can be used for the bigger bottles of perfume but make smaller fancy boxes for your smaller items. I also believe that maybe you should have a selection of the Les Exclusifs line samples instead of those makeup samples. I just found all of this a little excessive for what I had ordered.

Of Discontinued Things

The past couple days, it seems like I have gotten into some pretty big discussions of Now Smell This. On Sunday, on the Lazy Day weekend thread, I was discussing Call the Midwife with others who also enjoy Call the Midwife. I was happy to know that there were a few people that did agree with me on the past two seasons were not that great. Too many cast changes, the Chummy story line isn't really finished up and a few other things. But the one yesterday sent me into a little bit of a panic.

Ever since Andy Tauer came out with Noontide Petals back in 2013, I have really enjoyed wearing it but I still never wore it a lot until the past couple weeks. When I had started poking around Andy Tauer's site when I had noticed something. I had known that the travel set was not being sold. I figured that it might have been a supply issue or something that was offered only once a year. I noticed that Noontide Petals wasn't being sold on Andy Tauer's website. Initially, I thought that it must have been sold out. When another poster on NST was talking about the travel set, I made a mention of contacting Tauer Perfumes and that I couldn't find Noontide Petals being sold on Tauer perfumes. Someone did ask about the travel set and Mr. Tauer had said that the travel sets were discontinued due to it being cost prohibitive. Another poster said that she found out April of last year, that Noontide Petals was discontinued. I can't exactly remember how they found out but it was by accident. I found a legit bottle on Amazon after asking the people on NST if the seller was legit. I didn't go to Luckyscent because I wasn't exactly willing to pay full price and did have a credit on my Amazon account. So now I have a back up bottle of Noontide Petals.

I always seem a little sad when perfumes that I really enjoy, get discontinued. But it's far worse if I test something, love it and find that it was discontinued years ago. Noontide Petals probably wasn't a huge seller in the long term to justify keeping it in the line up.