I've already blown one of my New Year's resolution

I have already blown my New Year's resolution about perfume. I made the resolution to not buy anymore perfume until I use up at least 4 of my many 1.7 ounce perfumes. But this past year I've added 8 new perfumes to the mix. I am thinking of giving a few of them away. My sister is coming into town at the end of march and I am going to see if there is something that she likes enough to take with her. Right now, it's probably a good thing that my bank account is hating me at the moment because it will be a while before I will be able buy some samples from luckyscent.com let alone a full bottle of anything. I think that my dresser top will be thankful and there will be more room but quickly filled.

Online shopping Part 1

I love online shopping, I really do. I can shop day or night, I don't have to bother with making myself look presentable, I don't have to get into my car and drive anywhere. But I have to admit, the online shopping scene has really changed. And not really for the better. A little bit before the recession here in America, I did notice some changes. I've mainly shopped at Amazon.com for many years and prices went up a little bit but didn't give it much thought. What Amazon was doing was doing some kind of quiz thing and for every question you got right, you got a nickle off and it did add up especially if you stock piled the rewards. I can't remember exactly how it went but they have not done it in many years. Fast forward about 2 or 3 years, prices have gone up with Amazon quite a bit. Especially in the past year. Or course the prices of many things have gone up but this is getting out of hand. I've picked Amazon because it used to be my go to shopping website and probably one of the most recognizeable. I think it is because Amazon has gotten so huge as a company and the market has changed. On Amazon, I didn't see as many products that are being sold by other companies through Amazon. One of the things that I have really liked with Amazon was free shipping for orders over $25 if it is sold by Amazon. The Prime membership that they have has become a real hassle and I decided to drop it. My reasoning is why pay $75 a year when most of the stuff is sold by other companies are charging shipping and I can't get the free 2 day shipping that I'm paying $75 a year for? The sales and deals with Amazon are getting worse and worse. Why are they recommending that I buy something that I am not going to use? And they know I won't. What am I going to do with another set of soup bowls? I have 15 one of my kitchen cabinets. I am also finding less selection on Amazon than previous years. I used to find just about everything now, I do have totry and find it elsewhere. Part 2 will be posted a little later.

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.