Dior Diorling Vintage Extrait Review

Dior is a perfume house that I haven't spent a whole lot of time exploring. There are so many houses and perfumes out there and I can't get to them all, so there are going to be tons that fall through the cracks.

For a long time, I was focused on the original Miss Dior. The other Dior offerings didn't do it for me. Then came vintage Diorling. I don't know how I came about my first sample of vintage Diorling but I fell in love with Diorling. At that point, I was really falling in love with the classic chypre category.

The vintage Diorling extrait has a huge cut green pepper note that I have never noticed before when I tried the most current formulation or the vintage EDT. I have noticed that the leather was more of a butch leather and not the plush leather that I am used to smelling in Cuir de Russie. As much as I do love Diorling, she can be the type to wear me.

At the end of the day, Diorling is a difficult perfume to wear and not something that I wear often. I am still kicking myself by not getting a bottle of the current stuff when I had the chance since it's not available in the US anymore. I figure that if Dior can release all of these Miss Dior and J'Adore flankers, they can keep Diorling in production. It seems they have kept all of the Dior classics except Diorling.
 

Still Going Through Old Favorites

I am still finding some old favorite perfumes. So far, I have been wearing the crap out of Lyric and no 5. I am so close to being able to finish a bottle of no 5 in EDT form and I am fairly excited about that. It's been so many years since I have been able to finish a full bottle of anything. The last time I was able to finish a bottle of anything was either Estee Lauder Pleasures or Clinique Happy and that was probably in my very early 20's. I have boatloads of Chanel no 5 and don't really need to add any more to my collection.

Back when I first fell down the rabbit hole, I discovered Mitsouko. I had spent a lot of time and money procuring the current formulation and all kinds of vintage and amassed a fairly big collection of Mitsouko. When I first applied Mitsouko, I immediately loved it and understood her. I still have that teardrop bottle with the dolphin label that I can't get open for the life of me. So now I think that I am going to be wearing Mitsouko tons more.

For some reason, I have gotten more compliments on Mitsouko than any other perfume in my collection. Maybe because Mitsouko is so unusual in terms of a perfume. Most perfumes now seem to be either the fruity floral, aquatic or the your skin but better thing. I figure since Mitsouko has been around since 1919, there must be something about her that keeps her in production. I hope that she stays in production for many more years to come.
 

The Dry Down Now Sucks

Did you ever have one of those perfumes that you have always loved but now there is something about it that bothers you? For me, Chanel no 19 is that one.

I discovered Chanel no 19 early in the days of when I went down the rabbit hole. It never mattered the concentration, I had to have every concentration and I do have every concentration. But my favorite concentration has always been the EDP. For many years, I have worn it with abandon and haven't worn it a whole lot in the past year for some reason.

In the EDP, I have always loved the sharp, very green rose with the iris back up. The EDT was a very leathery iris and the parfum was a powdery, carroty iris. But something seemed to change for me. There is something that happens right around the dry down is where something seems to go wrong. I can be rocking the top and middle notes but when I seem to go from the middle notes to the base notes, the musk and green part just seems to smell bad to me. I am not sure on what is happening. It could be the fact that I haven't been wearing a whole lot in the past year. So maybe what is in the spray mechanism is a little on the stale side.

I'm also thinking that maybe I have too much perfume and just can't get to a whole lot in my collection. What probably needs to happen is that I only have 2 or 3 perfumes out at a time and I start to use those and then move onto the next 2 or 3 perfumes. I am also thinking of maybe selling off some of what I have to make my collection a little more manageable.
 

Amouage Honour 43 Review

Right now, I am fairly keyed up and not looking forward to the next couple days. On Thursday, I get to have a colonoscopy, so I get to go through the prep tomorrow. I didn't get a whole lot in the way of directions diet. Most of the instructions that I got were no iron pills, aspirin or any other blood thinners for the week and a clear liquid diet at least 24 hours before. Then they tell me yesterday of a low residue diet that I need to be eating. Well, thanks for the info a few days too late. Talk about 3 or 4 days too late to really start with. I am not rescheduling this thing and the medical field is going to get what they get Thursday afternoon. There is just so much conflicting information about what and what not to do for the prep and when to start. When this is whole thing is over, I will be much happier to put this behind me.

After my colonoscopy and the rest of the work week, I will be on vacation. I have my yearly physical that I have to deal with that week but that is the only thing I have to absolutely do and the rest of the week is up for grabs. I will have a little bit of cash to do some stuff but not as much as I would have liked. I am hoping to use up 3 candles and read 4 or 5 books before the week is over. I am just hoping that the week isn't eaten up by my grandmother in memory care. I just want to be able to relax.

A while back, I blogged about Amouage releasing their exceptional extraits. I was happy enough to nab a smidgen of Epic 53 and Honour 43. I was wowed by Epic 53 and still have to content myself with the EDP version. Epic 53 is a deeper, richer version of the original Epic. Now, I just went on to Honour 43.

I do have some liking for the original Honour woman but not exactly impressed. I think that the aquatic note gets me every time. I like how Epic was based with Turnadot and Honour with Madame Butterfly. Honour 43 is a more intense version of the original Honour. Can I say that it is a richer version? Not really. The tuberose/gardenia thing is amped up along with the aquatic note. I was kind of wowed by Honour when it came out. At that point, outside of Reflection, Amouage didn't have anything in the way of light or aquatic. After a few wearings, I wasn't too inclined to get a bottle of the original Honour and after a couple wearings of Honour 43, I am still not inclined to get a full bottle of this either. And my bank account is breathing a sigh of relief.
 

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.