Viktoria Minya Hedonist Absolute Review

Back in 2013, I was still in the habit of buying full bottles of perfume without testing them out first. At that point of time, the packaging still had some sway over me. Around tax time that year, Andy Tauer came out with Noontide Petals and Viktoria Minya released her debut perfume Hedonist.

You have no idea on how hard I fell for the pictures of Hedonist online and fell even harder when Hedonist arrived on my doorstep. It was a good thing that the original Hedonist matched my expectations. I loved the peach, the rum and the osmanthus. 

In 2019, Hedonist Absolute was released and I knew it was going to be a long wait before I could get my hands on this. I was looking for a more intense version of Hedonist and I'm not sure what really happened. The absolute is a stripped down version of the original with too much birch. A touch of birch could have added something interesting but the birch just doesn't fit. The birch, I think, is trying to make Hedonist a little more masculine but it doesn't seem to play well with the other notes. 

I find that Hedonist Absolute just doesn't play well on my skin and I am blaming the birch for it. The original was toothsome and more of my vibe. I do love a boozy perfume when it is done well and I do like woody notes when those are done well too; but the both of those elements combined are not the greatest idea. I have no idea why this isn't working for me right now.

But I do have to swing back to the packaging though. I love the black bottle with the gold embellishments. What I am not really loving is how I cannot see the juice inside. I have Memoir for women and that bottle is black but I can still see how much juice that I have left. With the Absolute, I don't have the ability. I would have loved to see some of those crystals in the bottle just like in the original Hedonist. The crystals in the bottle really fit the whole Hedonist vibe. I think it's not so much Hedonist Absolute but it's a me problem.
 

Well, That Was Interesting

Let's just say it has been an interesting few days. When Prime Day came around, I only had a $10 gift card on my account and used that to get 2 fairly cheap books. I was hoping that I would be able to find either a movie that was on sale or a couple books that I had been eying on sale but they were not. The movies that were on sale were something that I already have or just not interesting. So I had to content myself with two books. I'm not mad but I find that Amazon Prime Day not as exciting as it used to be. I am not seeing the sales that I have seen in years past but maybe it's because my financial circumstances are diminished but slowly stabilizing. The pesky cellphone bill, dog food and a couple other things pretty much eat up my paycheck and I have to make sure that the obligations are taken care of first.

Somehow, I had the pleasure of losing my internet service. The bill was paid and nobody could tell use what the hell was going on. We had a ticket and someone was supposed to show up on Friday but never showed. Then we had to wait until Monday afternoon to have someone come and replace our router and mess around with something else. Friday and Saturday were the days were I could take advantage of my work's WiFi system but the rest of the time, I was pretty much burning through my cellphone data. That does remind me to look into upgrading my cellphone service but pennies have to be saved up for that one.

It is amazing how dependent one becomes on the internet. I remember the days of dial up and you really couldn't use the internet for much or long without tying up a phone line. With DSL, it's a whole different matter. I couldn't play my Xbox, wasn't able to stream Netflix, I was limited to the books and movies that I downloaded to my kindle but there wasn't that much to really keep me occupied. There is only so much cleaning that one can do as well to kill time. Now I am playing catch up on a few things.
 

Roja Dove Diaghilev Extrait de Parfum Review

There are very few perfumes that I want to try but in ways I am scared to try them. It could be for a variety of factors, cost, vintage, how hard is it to find and a couple others. Amouage exceptional extraits are one of them due to cost even though I tried the Epic one. But then came Roja Dove Diaghilev extrait de parfum.

For the longest time I wanted to try Diaghilev but was hesitant. Mainly due to the $1050 price tag. I can't afford to love any perfume with that kind of price tag. But I have a dabber sample and decided to test it out. I figured what is the worst that can really happen?

Let's just say that this is Diaghilev is divine. To my nose, it's a cross between vintage Mitsouko and vintage Givenchy III. Some have said that it reminds them a little bit like Amouage 25 but I am not getting that vibe. I absolutely love vintage Mitsouko in all of it's oakmoss goodness but have just a little bit of Givenchy III. Diaghilev has the lasting power of nuclear waste and some pretty good sillage for my having just a dabber sample. So if you have enough Givenchy III and or vintage Mitsouko, you can get away with not having Diaghilev.

In all honesty, while I love it, there is no way I can swing over a thousand dollars for 100ml. Not even with Afterpay and I am okay with that at the end of the day. I have enough vintage Mitsouko and enough of Givenchy III to where it's not in anyway saddening that Diaghilev is out of my reach. Sometimes I think that the prices of some of the niche offerings is outrageous. I might buy some niche but sometimes that I think even mainstream prices have gotten to be a little much. I know we are coming out of a pandemic but sheesh. I don't care if it is extrait de parfum but over $1,000 for 100ml isn't something that is really worth it to me.
 

 

Amouage Gold Extrait Review

Back when I started my perfume journey, I had an unhealthy obsession with Amouage Gold. It was a dabber sample after dabber sample for quite a while. Then when I sprung for a full bottle of the EDP, I quickly figured out that Gold really wasn't for me. There is something about the musk that really went wrong. It smelled like I stepped in dog poop. Years later, I tried Gold for men and it was a little more of my vibe but not really. Vintage Gold for women smelled pretty good but not really.

For some reason, I have a decant of Gold extrait and decided to give it a shot. I figure that if I don't care for the extrait, Gold for women and I just aren't meant to be. And we are not meant to be. While the extrait is well made and incredibly well blended, it's just too much in all respects. The musk part is amped up and this smells like an upscale vintage no 5. The musk in Gold is overwhelming and gives a a bigger stepped in dog poop vibe. I am sure that this does work for some people but this isn't my thing. I think that I will stick to either Dia or no 5 proper for my aldehydes fix.

 I am happy that I honestly gave Gold a true shot to see if she was my vibe and after about 10 plus years of perfume blogging and trying Gold off and on through out it. Gold just seems to go off the rails on my skin. My bank account is incredibly happy that this perfume just really isn't for me. I am also happy that there are other Amouage offerings that I have and totally work for me.
 

Tauer Golestan Extrait de Parfum Review

I am currently in the middle of some kind of eczema flare right now. Currently, I'm an itchy mess. My mother asked if it was all the perfume I wear and I had to say no. Perfume is one of the things that doesn't trigger my eczema no matter what I seem to wear. I'm thinking that it's all of these weather fluctuations that are triggering it. I think that I really should think about making that doctor's appointment and see if I can get in early before I go to work. The joys of working in the afternoons is having a hard time trying to get a doctor's appointment early enough so I am not late for work.

When Andy Tauer released Golestan last year, I quickly snapped up a mini from his website. It seems like TPC and STC seem to not be stocking as many perfumes as they used to but then again, I am ordering less from them to begin with. But I haven't been wearing any Tauer offerings a whole lot for some reason and I have quite a bit of Tauer offerings.

Yesterday, I quit dragging my feet and decided to wear Golestan. I didn't give a shit if it was humid out, I wanted to try Golestan. When I first dabbed it on, I immediatly identified the Tauer base. Then the tuberose came in to full effect about 5 minutes after I first put it on. For a while, I couldn't figure out why Golestan seemed to familiar. I knew that Andy Tauer did something like this not too long ago. I was mulling over that all day yesterday and then this morning, I finally figured it out. This is almost like Tuberose Sotto la Luna. Some people have compared it to Gardenia Sotto la Luna. But it has the Sotto la Luna Tuberose vibe. And you can't get the tuberose one anywhere and I am guessing that it has been discontinued. I do get some jasmine is Golestan but it's mostly tuberose and the Tauer base to my nose.

I can't exactly tell you about the lasting power since what I have is a dabber but it is an extrait de parfum and you can smell it. I would like a full bottle of this and maybe I will get it for my birthday or I will get that bottle of Lonestar Memories first. But my birthday is months away and I have time to make that decision.
 

What's in the Bag?

It's nothing unusual for me to carry perfume in my purse. My purse might be on the smaller side because I am not a fan of a huge purse. There is something about large purses that don't do it for me and I see so many women, especially young women who don't have children that have these massive purses. What the hell are they carrying in those things to begin with? Their whole entire life?

There is a reason that I carry a smaller purse. There is less potential for things to get lost or forgotten about at the bottom. Less stuff that might get broken or leak. A smaller size means that I have to be a little more sniper like when it comes to putting things in there. Of course, I carry my wallet, cellphone and my iPod (Yes, I still use an iPod), mascara, lipstick and lotion. But I always have a mini or a travel spray in there.

It's more than if I forget to put on perfume before I leave the house or to reapply after what I am wearing fades. If there is something that happens to the house, where everything is a total loss, I won't exactly be starting over from square one in terms of perfume. I can tolerate losing many things but there is something about the thought of losing of selling my collection that scares me for some reason. I can't explain that feeling but losing my dogs and perfume seems to conjure up that feeling.

Currently, I have a mini of Les Annees 25 BIS, travel spray of Lyric and a travel spray of no 5 Eau Premiere in my bag right now. Those 2 might be an odd mix but there is a little bit of a selection going on in there. While wearing Les Annees, I have forgotten how good it is and don't regret getting a bottle but regret no getting the original one when I had the chance.
 

Well, That's Not Happening

Previously, I had blogged about getting that back up bottle of Memoir from Fragrancenet. I don't know what exactly happened but that bottle never arrived. What I am thinking that either the bottle broke, lost or either stolen in transit. I am leaning more to stolen. I have had packages stolen in transit before. Fragrancenet had said that they could either give me a refund or reship the package. At this point, I didn't even want that bottle of Memoir, so I asked for a refund. There are so many new shipping companies and some that I never even heard of. I've never heard of Better Trucks for a shipping company, so right now, they are not in my good graces in terms of shipping.

In the Cleveland area, we finally got some rain with more expected over the next few days. So many yards went brown and all the flowers were just not happening. Now with some rain, I think everything will start perking up.

For the longest time, I've hated tuberose as a dominant note in perfume. I thought that it was always too much. Now it's becoming one of may favorite notes. Narcotic V has helped me change my view on tuberose. But I think that I tried Fracas in my early perfume days and thought that it was just too much of everything but always had a love for jasmine perfumes. I am not sure what happened with my nose and tuberose but my nose has probably developed more to where I can enjoy it. Go figure.