Chanel Sycomore

After a long break from wearing Chanel's Sycomore, I decided to wear it yesterday. It's part of Chanel's Les Exclusifs line. I am not one to wear an eau de toilette because on my skin, there is no staying power. But this one does have have staying power with this one and some really good sillage with this one that doesn't overpower and makes everyone sick. But it is a strong smelling eau de toilette so it can't be spritzed with wild abandon. Even though it is listed as a women's scent, I list it as a more of a unisex scent bordering on the masculine side. Sycomore has a deep, woody smell and I can make out a faint hint of incense. I love my vetiver scents in the fall where I know it is going to stay cool and it's wonderful in the winter time. I find it to be a comfort scent when the snow is falling and there is a crackeling fire going.

Method to my madness

On an online forum that I belong to someone asked me about my perfume shopping habiits. Do I buy a perfume by how the bottle looks? Color of the perfume in the bottle? And the questions go on.

I mainly have niche scents so I can't exactly go to the nearest mall and smell them. I tripped over the websiteluckyscent.com a year ago and it is where I get a lot of my niche scents. What is great about lucky scent is that they have samples. Granted these samples are $3(USD) and up but they are little vials of perfume and you can try them before commiting to a full bottle. I don't want to commit $100 or more on a full bottle of perfume that I am going to hate and that will sit on my dresser for 10years or more.

I am not interested what color the perfume is in the bottle. The odds I run is that the bottle itself may be tinted or I am not able to see what color the perfume is. I simply don't care about that. Like my Amouage Epic perfume, the glass bottle is green so I have no clue on what the color of the juice is. I am interested in how it smells on me.

Does the bottle interest me? It may be eyecatching and make me look at it but it does play a role. I have some perfumes that are in interesting looking bottles (Kenzo Flower). But an interesting bottle does not make for a good or great smelling perfume. Some of my favorite perfumes are in some pretty plain looking bottles. Plain bottles are not a bad thing but it is a great thing when you are packing to go on a trip. I make sure that some of my perfumes can easily be packed into my carry on bag.

The size of the bottle matters. Does it come in different sizes? If they do, what are those sizes? Some perfumes come in only one size. One size fits all does not always suit for everybody. For those loyal to one or two perfumes and never travel, it's perfectly fine. For someone like me who does travel from time to time, it does matter. With travel restrictions when you fly, the limit it 3 ounces and more often than not a large bottle of perfume is 3.4 ounces. Not everybody (including me) was born with the gift of knowing how to decant perfumes.

I look to find out what the notes of the perfume I'm thinking of buying. I can't stand the note anise of my skin. I don't like smelling like a bag of black licorise with a flower or two mixed in. Everybody has thier own preferences. Some people love vanilla in thier perfume and can't get enough but others can't stand it. I am not a fan of vanilla and really don'tlike it when it is front and center or noticeable.

The biggest factor for me more often enough is the price tag. I ask myself did I like or love the sample enough to warrant a full bottle? Is the price a little too steep for my bank account to handle? Sometimes I really love the perfume but cannot justify paying $300 and up for a perfume (I'm looking at you Agonist). I do have limitations, sometimes it can depend on the time of year and what is going on at work.

My final factor right now is how strong is the perfume? Will it make an entrance before I do? I am a light sprayer but some perfumes are super strong so a very light hand is needed. Or am I going to end up applying this through out the day? A weak perfume is hardly worth any kind of money. I view it as a waste of money. I want my perfumes to last all day.

Prada Infusion D'Iris review

Over the past few days, I have been dallying in Prada's Infusion D'Iris. It was an impulse by from Amazon.com. I didn't smell it beforehand and have never tried anything of Prada's. The notes on the bottle are listed as: mandarine D'Italie, neroli de tunisie, bois de cedre, benjoin du laos, and encens de somalie. The perfume starts off with what hospitals use to disinfect air (air disinfectant) and on my skin it stays that way. The cedar and incense does give it an anchor on my skin but they are faint. Everytime I get a wiff ofit on my skin, I do want to scrub it off. It's not migraine inducing, I gotta scrub it off right away, but not something I really will wear. The bottle itself is pretty plain Jane and most likely going to get overlooked in my collection. This Prada is something that is probably going to take me 10 years to finish off, even though it is 1.7 oz. That's if I don't find someone who will take it off my hands.

Kenzo Flower review

On today's review list is Kenzo's Flower. I have been wearing it for the past couple days and I am not really enjoying it. I can't say I hate it. After reading a lot of rave reviews about it and then trying it, I am a little disapointed by it. The top notes are hawthorn, Bulgarian rose, and black currant, middle note are jasmine, opoponax, parma violet, and more Bulgerian rose. The base notes are listed as white musk and vanilla. I think it is the black currant that is pretty front and center that I am not liking at all. It just lasts like there is no tomorrow. What I am also getting is this Play Dough smell going on with Flower. The sillage is moderate on my skin and logetivity is pretty good. I do give Kenzo kudos for creating an eye catching bottle but a hard to store bottle and prone to be easily tipped. This is probably not something I would buy again when I finish my bottle whenever I do run out of it.

Perfume prices

Just like everything else the price of perfume seems to be going up. The perfumes that I love are not expensive to begin with. Niche scents are pricey enough as is but they seem to be going up. I remember back in what was it, when I ordered one of my now go to fragrance (Chanel's Cuir de Russie) it was $200 (USD) for the 6.8 oz bottle. At that time Chanel only offered it as a 6.8 oz bottle. Now it stands at $210when I checked a couple of months ago but that could have changed. I know that Chanel has given consumers the choice of thier Les Exlusifs line of a 2.5 oz or a 6.8 oz. The 2.5 oz is $110. What kind of makes me raise an eyebrow is that the concentration of the perfumes are the eau de toilette version and not eau de parfum. If it were the eau de parfum, I could see some of the reasoning behind the prices. Chanel is probably gunning on thier name and how percieve the Chanel name and product. I am using Chanel as an example.

I broke down

I can't remember in my last post if I stated that I did order Vera Wang's Vera Wang for Women perfume set. But I did last night and this morning after my folks left for Cincinatti for an Octoberfest earlier in the day, I broke down and ordered Serge Luten's Feminite du Bois perfume. I order a lot of stuff through Amazon.com due to the fact that I can get a lot of things a lot cheaper (perfumes, books) or I would have to buy something that is overseas and pay an arm and a leg with taxes and stuff. Some of the stuff is harder to find and would have to go out of my way to find it in stores.

It's been a while

It's been a while and I am on day 5 of my vacation. Even though I haven't gone anywhere for it, I am enjoying it. Over Labor Day weekend, I had to put down my 14 year old Lab, Annie. She wasn't able to walk much anymore and it wasn't a life for a well loved dog. I just celebrated my 28th birthday and it is hard to believe that in 2 more years I will be 30.

Today I went to an outlet store and bought myself 3 shirts from Gap. The weather is getting cooler and I needed some new long sleeves shirts. Besides, I needed something that wasn't black, gray or brown. I stopped at the Perfumeria and tried Vera Wang's pefume for women and I do really like it. It's not going to replace my Chanel no. 5 or Chanel's Cuir de Russie or Sycomore. It will do when I want something more in the lines of floral. Perfume seems to be my new thing and I am trying some new things. I will blog more soon.