Queen Elizabeth II and Vacation

Thursday morning was the beginning of a post about a cosmetics cull and lipstick but as the day wore on, it wasn't going to happen. With Queen Elizabeth II passing away on Thursday, that post seemed to be a little too frivolous.

But couldn't help but think about all of the people on Twitter who decided to be idiots and be political about the queen dying. Folks, Queen Elizabeth was a figurehead, not a politician. The woman had no political power and no bearing on what laws were passed, if you are going to criticize the things that happened during her reign, look at the various governments she had. If you otherwise don't do that, you are just a fucking asshole. I shouldn't really be surprised at how many assholes there are in the world.

Right now, I am on my 3rd week of vacation this year. I have some rough plans but nothing set in stone. I don't have tons of cash but I do want to do some things. One of them is the art museum and the other is the Mansfield Reformatory but other than that, it's up in the air. I am happy to have the ability to wear any perfume that I want to wear without any kind of restrictions. On days that I have to work, I do have to be mindful about what I pick out in terms of perfume. I don't want something too heavy because I work in a bakery and it gets pretty hot there. Nor do I want to wear my favorites in case I have a hard day at work and why ruin that favorite with a bad association.

 Currently, I have 3 candles going right now and I am hoping that those will be finished by Tuesday. The other 3 that I have picked out, I hope to have finished by Saturday. If I finish more, that would be awesome. I am trying to scrap together some money to set aside for the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sale. Whatever I can save up is going to be great and whatever candles that I can use up before than would be awesome. It's funny that I am trying to finish up some candles only to get more. But with winter being on it's way and all, I still want to make sure that I do have a decent amount of candles. The Honeycrisp Apple and Apple Weather ones that I do have, my mother doesn't like and she says that they stink, so I must be a little more careful with those. I might have a decent supply of the Winter candles but I want to get more of those and maybe add some Evergreen candles.We shall see how that goes before Candle Day. And no, I don't plan on setting foot in a Bath and Body Works store on that day.

Talking About Lyric

It's been a while since I've talked about Amouage Lyric. I remember many years ago when I first smelled Lyric from a sample from Luckysent. I think that I might have bought either Epic or Dia but I am leaning more towards Epic. Then I fell head over heels for Lyric. Even in more financially secure times, it took me at least a couple years and burning through countless decants before I ordered a full bottle of Lyric. Then a a couple years later, a travel set arrived at my doorstep. My back up bottle of Lyric was bought a couple years ago with some extra cash.

Ever since the pandemic, I've been hunting for Lyric body products from discounters and having no such luck. Even the official Amouage website doesn't even have the Lyric bath and body stuff. At discounters, I could find all kinds of Amouage Lyric but not so much anymore.

A few days ago, Luckyscent sent me an email saying that they had some specials going on. Out of boredom, I decided to take a peek and my jaw dropped a little bit. Lyric is on sale on Luckyscent. It seems like if Luckyscent has some specials going on, it's either they want to get rid of some old stock or there are some perfumes about to be discontinued. I'm hoping that Lyric doesn't get discontinued because even with Afterpay, another bottle of Lyric isn't in the cards for me. Last year, the pandemic didn't hit me as hard as this year. I think with rampant inflation and the Ukraine invasion, things are not looking up for me in the world of money. But I always hope that things will turn around for me soon.
 

 

Gucci Guilty for Her Review

A while ago, I had purchased a rollerball of Gucci Guilty. I make every effort on not making blind buys even though it can work out. Rarely does it ever work out. This time, that blind buy didn't work out.

I thought that Guilty might be interesting and I was attracted to the lilac note. I smelled no lilac from start to finish. Truth be told, I couldn't pick out one single note except for some patchouli and something amber. Patchouli can be a little iffy on my and amber is a no go most of the time for me. It was a messy floral oriental on my skin. After reading some reviews, I fail to see anything sexy or sensual about this one. Guilty just smells like so many mainstream women's perfumes. If Guilty is sexy to you, I would really like to introduce you to Shalimar (current formulation and maybe vintage) and I would like to introduce you to vintage Bal a Versailles. Sexy is not and should not be a squeaky clean smell. It's a human smell not a soap and water smell.

Yes, I don't like this perfume and happy that it was only a rollerball and not a full bottle of perfume. I do think that I associate sexy and sensual with MKK and vintage Bal a Versailles along with Shalimar. Maybe I've been spoiled with niche perfumery. Niche perfume doesn't seem to follow the trends like mainstream does. For so long, I've been pretty bored with mainstream and getting a little bored with niche as well.
 

Coco Coromandel Parfum Review

 I thought that I would actually get around to reviewing the parfum version of Coromandel while I was on vacation at the beginning of the month. But I've been dealing with and still somewhat dealing with financials. The pandemic has done a serious number on some finances and it's tough dealing with some of the fall out. Yes, I would love to go out and get that bottle of Gris Charnel but I can't justify any frivolous spending for a long time. There will be too many things going on that need my time and cash.

While I was on that vacation of mine, it was in the mid 80's and pretty humid. So I only managed to use up 3 candles. If it wasn't so humid, I might have been able to use at least a couple more. But who really wants to hear about some candles? I also managed to catch up on some reading that I had been meaning to do.

Last year, I seemed to be adding perfume to my collection at a rapid rate and both the Coromandel EDP and parfum made it into my collection. But it wasn't until recently that I have gotten around to giving the parfum a whirl. There are a few reasons on why I don't really go for parfum versions of anything. The freaking cost for the amount of perfume, evaporation of dabbers are my two biggest ones.  

I've noticed that the parfum is a definite amber perfume with some citrus in the beginning. When I spray my decant of the EDT, I don't really notice the amber and the EDP, the amber is more pronounced. What really remains from start to finish on me is the patchouli. Patchouli and amber are two notes that can be a little iffy on me. Amber and I don't normally mix too well. Patchouli, it can depend on what it's with. The parfum is much deeper and richer that anything that I've smelled in the EDT and EDP. Lasting power is about 11 hours on my skin and that did surprise me though. Most Chanel parfums don't last quite as long, mostly 6 or 7 hours on my skin. After my 15ml bottle is all used up, I don't think that I will run out and replace it. It's great but the amber is a little too loud for me. I'll stick to the EDP.

Perfume Bottles

In my massive collection, I don't have too many dabber bottles. Most of the ones that I do have are either vintage BaV, minis or pure parfum bottles.

There is a pretty good reason on why I don't have too many of them. I've spilled a few of them. With the ones that I have spilled, I managed to save a fair bit of perfume but I don't really want to take too many chances at this point. 

Since last year, I've had Coromandel and no 5 in pure parfum form sitting on my dresser, untouched. Well, this past week, I decided to rectify that. I really wanted to try Coromandel in pure parfum form. Anyone who is familiar with Chanel, knows that every concentration smells a little different. But I had forgotten how much of a pain in the ass opening an extrait bottle of Chanel can be. Trying to get the string undone and then trying to get the stopper out without shattering or spilling the bottle. I had gotten Coromandel directly from Chanel and no 5 from Sephora.

I had an easier time opening no 5 than I did with Coromandel. What I am thinking is that since no 5 is a huge seller, there might not be such a huge need to really seal the bottle. Coromandel was damn near impossible, probably since Coromandel isn't as widely known to the general public. So who knows how long my bottle of Coromandel was sitting around before it got to me. I was incredibly paranoid of spilling my bottle of Coromandel; knowing that if I broke/spilled the bottle, I wouldn't be getting another bottle anytime soon.
 

Combining Decants

My decant collection seems to have stopped multiplying for the most part. Which is a good thing because I was running out of containers to put them in. For many years, I was buying decants like it was going out of style. Now since that funds are not what they used to be, the decants have stopped reproducing. Getting travel sprays have been on the up but I am not buying nowhere near as much perfume as I used to. There are perfumes that I would love to buy but my bank account says no and I do have enough perfume and I do need to give it a rest.

 A few days ago, I started to go through all of my decants. I don't completely know how I managed to get multiple decants of some of my perfumes but I did. Some multiples I do know why. The problem with the decants that I have is evaporation. While I was looking at all of the decants, I was looking on which ones that I could combine. Three decants of Diorella, combined, 2 decants of Tigress Musk, combined them too and so on. I didn't go mixing all whilly nilly here but it was enjoyable to go and get rid of some of those decants and create some space. It was just extra space that I am not going to be filling up anytime soon but it just felt good to create some space. While I was going through that stuff, I managed to finish off a decant of Amouage Memoir.

There is more good news, I have made some progress with my candles as well. I have used up a few candles and have sorted through my candles. The ones that I don't want have been weeded out and I am debating on either donating them or giving some for gifts. I haven't quite figured it out yet. As we are halfway through summer, Bath and Body Works is starting to roll out their fall stuff. Thus far, the only thing that is interesting to me is the Apple Weather candle since they haven't released their Honeycrisp Apple candle. I have enough of the Apple Weather and Honeycrisp Apple but I always want more of them. But if I purchase more candles, I will just undo whatever progress I have made.

BDK Gris Charnel EDP Review

 Buying perfume blind is usually a bad idea. What if the perfume suck? Most places that sell perfume won't accept opened perfume bottles, even if you have an allergic reaction. Then you are stuck with something that you think sucks and out of money. Buying a travel spray blind is still a bad idea, maybe not a huge bad idea but can still be a bad idea. But sometimes it really can work out. For me, a travel spray of Gris Charnel EDP did work out.

A few months ago, I had gotten an email from Luckyscent about travel sprays and I went to take a look. I don't often visit Luckyscent but once in a while it's worth taking a look and occasionally buying something. And I did get that Frapin 1270 travel spray and also the Gris Charnel EDP travel spray. I've heard people talking about Gris Charnel and never quite got around to seeking it out. Then when my package arrived, my travel spray languished a little while longer until Sunday.

Very rarely do the clouds part and the angels started singing in terms of perfume for me. The last one that I can recall was either Lyric woman of the much lamented Deneuve. Gris Charnel is one of those perfumes that the clouds did part and the angels started singing. 

At first, I thought it was coconut but I realized that was the fig. If you know anything about dried fruit like cherries, raisins, it had almost a mouth feel of the fleshy part of the dried fruit and not the skin. The last time I had any kind of mouth feel with a perfume was Andy Tauer's tragically discontinued URV. The fig remained prominent throughout the wearing and did mellow out some. I got some whiffs of cardamon and more whiffs of tonka. I do have a love hate with tonka. Tonka has the tendency to overwhelm whatever else is in the perfume. Tonka is a difficult note for me, it's a vanilla but not a vanilla. But the sandalwood and tonka lend a creaminess and a sweetness to Gris Charnel that doesn't go overboard. The lasting power on my skin is about 6 to 7 hours and I do wished that it lasted a little longer on skin.

Gris Charnel is definitely on my to buy list and it's been a long time since I've had a perfume that goes on that list. Especially after the first wearing. When I order a bottle for my birthday, I am going to have to order a sample of the extrait version to do a side to side comparison.