Chanel's Flanker Game

A few weeks ago, I had received an email from Chanel stating that they were releasing a new perfume. A part of me groaned and a part of me was curious about it. Come to find out that Chanel is releasing Coco Noir. For some reason, I was hoping that Chanel was revamping the original Coco. The original Coco does have a somewhat dated feel to me. But digging around the Internet a few have gotten a hold of a sample, the reviews seem to be mixed on it. I'm still wary of this flanker, even though the bottle looks cool.

I have noticed that Chanel has been playing around with their scents. First it was the ionic no. 5 with Eau Premire. Then it was no. 19 with no. 19 Poudre. Now it is Coco with Coco Noir. I kind of hoped that Chanel would have stopped after no. 5.That was in vain.

I was finally able to grab a back up bottle of no.19 EDP when it was in stock at the Chanel website late last week, so grab a bottle before it goes out of stock again.

Penhaligon Amaranthine Review

I've had this 1.5ml decant sitting in my 'waiting to be reviewed' pile for who knows how long. I don't know what prevented me from trying this out. What got me to test this one was that I had lost most of the decant through evaporation and was left with just a little bit for one or two wearings.

After wearing it yesterday, I can say that I honestly dislike it. Because I get milk and iris. Iris is not listed on the official notes but I think that it is the tea note that is giving me the iris impression. Amaranthine becomes tiresome after a while because I don't a whole lot of development. The milk whatever is giving me the iris note starts to give out a bad raunchy vibe. The raunchy vibe reminds me of someone I knew who bragged about how much sex that they had over the past few days and didn't feel like bothering to shower before leaving the house. I think that I'm just going to toss whatever is left of the decant away.

Isabey Gardenia EDP Review

Thus far, I am still looking for a gardenia perfume that is not loaded down with tuberose. Bath and Body Works' Gardenia Lily is about the only one so far that I don't detect a huge tuberose note. After looking around the Internet, I kept hearing about Isabey's Gardenia. It was off to Surrender to Chance to order a decant.

On first spray, I was clubbed over the head with a coconut note. The coconut vibe was alright when it calmed down a little bit but then the tuberose came out. The tuberose is very dense, creamy and somewhat in your face. That has always seemed to be my issue with tuberose, it's just too much. After a couple hours, I do get the impression of gardenia, but the gardenia doesn't smell that great. Isabey Gardenia seems to drift into the pleasant perfume territory. The pleasant but generic category which is nice but that is only good when one is just kicking around the house and relaxing. Staying power and sillage are about average. I just can't see myself spending $165 for 50ml of this at the end of the day.

Chanel no. 5 EDT Review

I have been meaning to try Chanel no. 5 in EDT form and have finally gotten around to trying it. After the first spray, I can tell that it is indeed no. 5. Even in the first stage, I noticed that the EDT for is lighter, much lighter. But about 15 or 20 minutes in, there is a distinct scented toilet paper note to it. The toilet paper note lasts through the rest of the wearing. The EDT version has a half way decent staying power of 5 hours on my skin. But as much as I love Chanel no. 5, this concentration of no. 5 is not a love for me all due to the scented toilet paper note that bothers me.

In Stock Out of Stock

In the past, I've blogged about Chanel's no. 19 in EDP form being out of stock. Then a couple weeks ago, it was in stock. When it was in stock, my discretionary spending money was all used up. What I am having trouble understanding is that American consumers do not have any consistent access, even online, to purchase no. 19 in EDP form. I am one such person that does have the driest skin on the planet and EDT's are the quickest to disappear on my skin. I have two thirds of a bottle left of Chanel no. 19 in EDP form and a full bottle of extract but I adore it in EDP form. Do I honestly need a backup bottle of no. 19? The logical part of me says no but the perfume nut in me says, if you truly love it, yes. When Chanel sent out the first e-mail a year or two ago about having no. 19 in EDP form, it seemed to be constantly in stock until a month or two ago where it seemed to be having it sporadically in stock. I didn't stock up a year or two ago because at that stage, I couldn't justify owning two full bottles of the same perfume. So yeah, I'm kicking myself.

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.

Frapin 1697 Absolu Review

I keep meaning to review Frapin's 1697 but I always get sidetracked with something else. When I first heard about this being released last year, I was kind of excited. I was going through an odd phase of just randomly buying full bottles of Frapin perfumes. Espirit de Fleurs and Passion Boisee left me underwhelmed and one of them left me a little nauseated. I'm guessing that I was so enamored with Frapin's 1270 that I thought that the others would be in the same vein. Passion Boisee and Espirit de Fleurs were nowhere near the same vein as 1270. Then, I got my hands on a decant of 1697 when first released. I was reading a lot of perfume blogs to see what other's were saying about it and the results were mixed.

On first contact with skin, there is a massive blast of booze along with what I can maybe identify as pineapple. I've never had a huge liking of fruity perfumes but Frapin did a fine job with fruit in 1270 but in 1697, I think it (the fruit aspect) was overdone along with the boozy aspect. I've noticed after three hours of wearing, the fruit and booze mellows out but still packs a huge punch. After 12 hours, 1697 is still going strong with no signs of slowing down. To tell the truth, I find this to be a much harsher and louder version of 1270. Would I buy? No, not when there is the mellower and much better 1270.

**Please note that 1697 is no longer sold in absolu form. The current version is an EDP.