Lolita Lempicka for Her EDP Review

Since yesterday was Valentine's Day, I was looking for something fun and a little foody to wear to work yesterday. My eyes were going back and forth between L'Heure Bleue and the original Lolita Lempicka perfume. I chose Lolita Lempicka because it was more fun and a little more foody that L'Heure Bleue. People have said that it's a more toned down version on Angel but I never have consciously smelled Angel, so I wouldn't know but I can make the association between L'Heure Bleue and Lolita Lempicka.

I had initially drained a mini of Lolita Lempicka and did like it but couldn't quite smell a whole hell of a lot because the mini didn't spray to give a reading. Enter Beauty Encounter and the perpetual sales allowed me to get a spray bottle for dirt cheap. Not like it was expensive before but the pricing on Beauty Encounter was better than Fragrance Net that day. Lolita Lempicka is more edible smelling than L'Heure Bleue and smells a little more like it's price point but I do find the LL is a little more wearable than L'Heure Bleue. It's hard to find a situation to be wearing L'Heure Bleue due to the huge powder note but LL is a little more on the universal side of wear. I really do love Lolita Lempicka because it is different but not drastically so. Because it's sweeter and not as powdery.

But I do have to talk about the bottle though. I have always had spray perfumes where you had to take off the cap to spray but I was thrown for a loop with this one. The bottle, as in the picture, is in the shape of an apple and the stem is the spray part and I'm not used to a perfume where I don't have to pull off a cap to spray. I remember in reading the Guide, one of the authors had said that one of the Lolita Lempicka offerings bottle looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie and this one looks like it would be out of Tim Burton's Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and not out of his Sleepy Hollow or Sweeney Todd. I do think that the bottle is cool.

The Collection

Picking out what perfume I want to wear on any given day is a little tricky. Let's think about it, in the past four or five years, I have amassed a huge decant collection and a growing full bottle collection. And that leaves me with too many choices on some days and other days it's not big enough and that seems to lead to more minis, decants and bottles. I partly blame my love of window shopping on the internet.

But since I spend a couple days a week getting up at about 3 a.m. now, I kind of need to have a decant or two in my wristlette that doubles as a purse. On those days, I figure that I might want something different than the day before but do finding that I actually did want what I wore yesterday. I had kind of figured that when I am about to head out the door a little after 4, I'm not coherent enough to really think about perfume. But having that decant or two really does help with the whole production if I end up running late.

But I have started to go through my collection of perfume and started to wear those neglected bottles and wonder why I am relying on just no 5 and Shalimar. Part of the reason is that I have back ups of those out the wazoo and kind of need to start draining those bottle. I found that point of where you can have one too many bottles of the same perfume and when that happens, I need to get going on finishing a bottle. I think that it will be quite an event just to finish just one bottle but I need to get to get the show on the road with this.

This and That

I have no idea on what has happened to my nose over the past 3 or 4 days but all I know is that my sense of smell seems to be off. Could it be all the drywall dust that has clogged up my sinuses or could it be that I am flirting with a cold? I have no idea because the only perfumes that I can smell with some kind of ease is my Amouages. The rest of my collection I can only smell bits and pieces and it's not funny. So right now, it's the louder the perfume, the better I can smell it.

I did find out that in October, I will be traveling to the Dallas area for a wedding and I am already making plans on what perfumes to take with me. Should I stick with Jicky, a more polite skank and no 5? Or should I just wait it out? I am a little disappointed that I am traveling to Dallas a little to late for me to pick up Aldehyde 44 even though the closest thing that I have to it is no 22. But oh well, I have a few months to figure it out.

What constitutes a big trip to me is when it does involve a day or two in the car or a plane ride. The last time that I was on a plane was a little over 5 years ago and it took months and months of careful planning. But at this point, I'm leaning to flying down to Texas in the name of it would be a little cheaper and I am not spending two days in the car with someone who is elderly. But at this point, I pretty much know where my tax refund is going and it means that until November, I won't be getting anything new in terms of perfume other than the rare decant because it's not like I am going down to see family in Virginia and I could afford to get a couple bottles and some decants.

Wish Lists or To Buy Lists

Yesterday it struck me that my whole perfume wish or to buy list is mostly for backups right now. But my backups are for those pesky discontinued or vintage perfumes. I'm still kicking myself for not getting a bottle of Le Labo Aldehyde 44 when I could but my fun money was used up. But who knew that it would be discontinued and Chanel no 22 smells similar but not quite.

Since I am going through my collection and wearing things that I haven't worn in forever, it seems like that list has really grown. Wanting an extra bottle of Havana Vanille, Amouage Memior and my millionth bottle of Theorema and Shalimar are on the list. But I noticed when running my list, no 5 and Mitsouko are not on there. I'm thinking that because I am not so enamored with Mitsouko as I once was, I figured that I had enough or when I bought a full tear drop bottle with real oakmoss, it was time to stop. No. 5 just seems like when you have just about every concentration and maybe a back up or two of one, it's time to stop.

In a way, the whole back up bottle and having an already kind of large collection is counter productive. Let's think about it, I have probably more perfume than I will use in a lifetime and yet I keep acquiring more. I'm beginning to think that I need to finish one or two bottles in my collection before I go out and getting more.

Hold On Just One Minute

Quite a while ago, I had bought a bottle of vintage Chanel no 5 in EDC form off of E-bay and finally got around to giving it a go before bed last night. It hasn't gone bad or anything but the bottle smells like the middle part of no 5 in EDP form. I'm not kidding, it really does smell like that. But after reading The Guide by Turin and Sanchez and their take on all the variations on no 5, I have come to the conclusion that they haven't smelled the EDC version of no 5. The reason I say that is because I remember reading Turin saying that the EDP version of no 5 has no buisness in the no 5 universe because it smells like something from the 1980's. I have to disagree with that part because I was a child in the '80's and do remember, especially Obsession, what the '80's scents smell like. I have tried and own the EDP, EDT, and the EDC version of no 5 and I like the EDP version the best out of all that I own. In the beginning of my perfume journey, I did own a small bottle of the parfum version and used it up real quick and I can't remember what it smells like anymore but remember a fourth of an ounce was $95 but now $125. Thirty dollars might not seems like a lot, but it can be huge when one is about to get for a quarter of an ounce of perfume.

Still Remodeling and Comparisons

Now I am starting to wonder why I am limiting myself to what I wear. For almost three months, I really have limited myself to maybe the same 4 or 5 perfumes. But it kind of did start out with what is work friendly and wear those to work and on days off, I can wear whatever I damn well want. But then the holidays hit and I just seemed to continue on with wearing the same 4 or 5 perfumes. I doesn't mean that I have drained any bottles but have drained a few decants. I would have preferred to drain a bottle or two but I will take some drained decants. But wearing Theorema at work yesterday made me ask myself, why am I doing this? Is it more than if I have a really bad day at work, I don't want it ruined with an association of a horrible day? Perfume is meant to be enjoyed and worn not hoarded and not really enjoyed.

But since my bathroom is still being remodeled, I have spent time looking at my mother's small perfume collection. It's small to me because I have around 40 perfumes (not including backups) and hers is drastically different than mine. Besides the bottle of Chanel no 5 EDP that she occasionally wears, her collection is either heavy patchouli or some light, aquatic thing. But she does seem to prefer the light, aquatic stuff. Light and aquatic does not suit me and on skin, it's outright nasty in a way because there are just too many offerings just like it. And she finds my collection overwhelming and many of them old lady and weird smelling. But I love my Shalimar and vintage Bal a Versailles and wouldn't change my collection for hers.

Chanel no 5 EDT Vintage Review

After wearing a lot if no 19 and a couple other things in my collection, I realized on how I kind of was getting bored with wearing no 19 and just wearing the same old thing, I kind of needed a break. When I reached into my unworn/unreviewed bag, I pulled out a vintage decant of no 5 in EDT form and decided to give it a go yesterday, even though it broke my rule of not wearing anything new to work.

When I first put vintage no 5 on, it kind of was that whole funky vintage opening and then after a couple minutes, it became what I recognized as no 5. I kept thinking that I was gypped and wasn't impressed at all. Then I was smelling what I think were the nitro musks and I was head over heels in love with the vintage version. The current version is squeaky clean where the vintage version isn't so squeaky clean. The vintage version isn't outright dirty or skanky but hints around at a dirty side. All day yesterday, I couldn't stop smelling my wrist because it smelled that good. I wish that nitro musks and a whole lot of other things were banned because it is really starting to make modern perfumery a joke.