Fall Has Arrived

According to the calendar,summer is over and now it is fall in the Northern Hemisphere. That means that I have to start rotating out some of my summer stuff and adding some of my fall stuff. With cooler temps, the days getting shorter and leaves changing colors, summer friendly perfumes don't cut it. But it's not cold enough to pull out my winter perfumes. 

I want things that are a little more substantial but not too substantial. I am looking for some kind of transition between seasons. I don't have a whole lot in terms of transitional perfumes and I am not seeking more of them. My collection is large enough as it is. Well, I'm not really seeking out a whole lot in terms of perfume right now. I'm still trying to see if I can actually finish a full bottle or two before year's end.

I find that a good many Tauer offerings are great for fall. Au Couer du Desert and L'Air du Desert do come to mind for fall, along with Lonestar Memories. I find that Shalimar and Memoir are great for the fall as well. The original Chanel Coco is probably going to be pulled out of storage a little later. I find the original Coco more of a later fall, early winter type of perfume.

I've just pulled out my massive bottle of Cuir de Russie. After years of not really wearing too much of it, it's time that I started wearing it a little more. When I first fell down the rabbit hole, Chanel's Cuir de Russie was my first purchase. At that time, there wasn't a huge Les Exclusifs line and the bottles only came in a 200ml bottle. When the Les Exclusifs line was only in EDT form and it was $200 for 200ml. Looking at the whole line again, I am amazed about how expensive perfume has gotten in the past 10-15 years. I'm just amazed about how many big perfume names now have an exclusive line and some of the prices of those things. But while I am at it, I should think about pulling out that bottle of Sycomore and start wearing that as well.
 

Vacation and Candles

My cold has cleared up but I am still dealing with all of the nasal swelling and post nasal drip. I found myself in the ER last night after having a hard time with my asthma. It took a grand total of 4 and a half hours and a set of x-rays to determine that I don't have pneumonia or bronchitis and my cold has cleared up. It's just some swelling that hasn't resolved and now I am on steroids to make that swelling go down.

Even though I have been sick, I still have been wearing perfume. I might be only wearing perfume to bed and bed only, I am still wearing it. It's whatever is on the light side and whatever can be dabbed on. So with the steroids, I think that I can probably start wearing some stronger things but I don't exactly want to really push it though.

But I am still washing my hands a million times a day and quickly depleting that foaming hand wash stash. I guess all of the Bath and Body Works hand soap deal did pay off and now we have a little more room. So one collection is vanishing but the other collection isn't. And that is my candle collection.

Every vacation I set some kind of goal to use some candles and I don't always get to meet that goal. Since I have been sick, I haven't even touched my candle collection. I am thinking that Thursday I might be able to get going again on using my candles. There is a Lavender Cedarwood candle that I would like to finish off. The only good thing is that even though I am not using up my candles, I am not adding more to my collection right now. Let's hope that I won't be adding anymore candles to my collection until Black Thursday or when Candle Day comes around again.
 

Perfume and Being Sick

 Somehow, I got some kind of summer crud that is going around work. I've had this garbage since Friday and I sick and tired of not being able to sleep due to all of the coughing. It's got to be all of the post nasal drip. No matter how many nedulizer treatments, blowing my nose or coughing up crap I do, I still end up coughing the night away. It's the wheeze when I am not coughing that really annoys me. I also am doing the cough suppressant stuff and sleeping with two pillows to no avail.

Even though I am getting my sense of smell back, I still don't really want to wear perfume. Most of the time, the only perfume that I want to wear and can wear is Chanel no 5 edt but I don't even want to wear that. My asthma doesn't seem to want to behave to well so I shouldn't even attempt any kind of perfume. I have already taken a couple days off from work that I probably shouldn't have but I don't really want to end up in the ER due to my stupid asthma.

With my birthday coming up in a few days, I'm really holding off on another full bottle of perfume. I put a freeze on Afterpay and is going to remain that way until it's paid off. I am probably get a few decants from STC or TPC. I haven't made decisions yet, I'm just trying to kick this whole cold bushiness.

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.