Guerlain Nahema EDP Review

A while back, I did review Guerlain's Nahema and really enjoyed it. But what I reviewed was the vintage PdT. The only time that I see a perfume in a PdT form if it is in vintage form and nobody does a perfume in PdT today. Ever since the 80's when companies were launching perfumes in the new at the time, EDP version, the PdT's were discontinued.

Months ago, I had revisited the PdT version of Nahema and instead of just really enjoying it, I fell in love. In a moment of impulse, I bought a bottle of the current EDP version. I always like to review vintage versions and current versions of perfume separately. I like to do it because they might be somewhat different or massively different.

Is the current version of Nahema different than the vintage PdT that I have? Yes and no. The vintage version was more about the imaginary plush, jammy rose and the current version is more about the green hyacinth and a little less on the rose. The rose is still a dominant player but it's not as huge as the PdT. I do love green perfumes are there are many out there but there are not too many that include hyacinth. I love hyacinth in my garden, in the grocery store when they sell them as potted plants in the spring, and when they are either a star player in perfume or as a major supporting character in perfume. I can't fathom why perfumers don't use this more often in perfume. When they seem to, hyacinth is pushed way back or it's trampled by everything else. What I have noticed is that the current EDP is a little thinner than the vintage PdT. I still find the current version of the EDP very enjoyable and I do think that Nahema will have a permanent place somewhere in my collection.

Frapin 1697 Revisited

I remember a few years ago that Frapin had announced that there was going to be a new perfume to be released. That perfume's name was 1697 and since I had already fallen in love with 1270, I wanted to try it. When I got my hands on a sample, I was so excited. I promptly wore it, reviewed it and decided to not get a bottle. At the time, I was confused with the whole absolu thing and I still don't know what the hell it is. It's not exactly high on my priority list to fund out. I remember saying that 1697 was pretty much a toned down, less boozy version of 1270. While 1270 and 1697 are boozy, 1270 has more booze and stewed fruit than 1697. And since I had gotten another decant of the absolu, I stand by that statement. Wearing a decant of 1697 a few years later and knowing that the absolu isn't being sold anymore makes me want to take another look. I remember taking a look at the price tag for the absolu and saying that I don't love it enough for the price tag. Frapin's price tags are still a little scary to me even though it's a 100ml of perfume. I still stand by my statement that if you like 1270 but find it a little over the top, 1697 would be the better bet. I do love 1697, I don't love it enough to have a bottle since I have 1270. I wouldn't mind if 1697 were dropped in my lap but I am not going to buy it anytime soon.

I still don't know why I decided to visit 1697 again and look through it with new eyes but I did. I think that shopping my collection has something to do with it and being on a no buy. I have been wearing perfumes that I haven't worn in a while and some of them have been waiting over a year for me to grab them. Now, I need to rectify that and hopefully this no buy will help me use up a couple bottles. It's horrible to have almost no space because my collection is large. Maybe not the 700 bottle type of large but the 60 bottle large.

Keeps Getting More Difficult

It seems like this past week in general has been pretty rough. I was surprised with the election results and Trump actually winning the election. Was I disappointed that he won? Yes, because his rhetoric struck me as some newsreels of Germany back in 1932 and it scares me. That is all I am going to say because I am just not exactly motivated to get into or referee any type of political argument.

But since I have pretty much gone on a no buy journey for right now, I have noticed that I am having a bit of trouble with the whole no buy. I will admit to the fact I did buy a vintage bottle of no 22. I was surprised that it was still sealed and the seller said that it was a 1/4 ounce, it was a half an ounce instead. If you are not very familiar with pure parfum sizes, it's easy to do. I will admit to taking advantage of the latest STC flash sale and getting three small decants. I know that I have what seems like a million decants of what I have already worn and reviewed and a thousand more that haven't been reviewed and worn. And I am still sitting on two perfume reviews that I have forgotten to post when I was on vacation.

I am still shopping my collection and starting to look at some of my perfumes a little more closely. I am thinking that I should really think about using up some of these minis that I have lying around and possibly look at selling what I don't wear anymore. The sheer size of my collection has gotten a little ridiculous for me and I do want to do a cull. So I must take a look at E-Bay to see what the fees are.

Dior J'Adore EDP Review

I'm somewhat making good on my challenge on wearing and reviewing things from my bag that I haven't worn yet. Ever since I have started my perfume journey, I haven't been smelling a whole lot of mainstream perfumes. Many of my perfumes are either vintage, discontinued or niche. Yes mainstream does have the tendency to get the short end of the stick with me. Why? Because perfume coming from the mainstream doesn't smell very good to me. J'adore is no exception. After seeing so many commercials for it, I decided to spray my sample on to see what it smelled like.

When I first sprayed J'adore on my skin, I smelled nothing. After a minute, it came on, all at once, like a freight train. All I smelled was this sweet, watery, floral thing that was a little on the harsh side. After about a half an hour in, I was waiting for this to morph into something a little better. Lose that harshness and the aquatic note was what I was mainly looking for. Nope, that was never going to happen during the time I wore it. It just stayed there, for 10 hours and didn't do anything at all besides smell awful to my nose. It's linear to me and it seems to last forever to me. You know, I kind of expect a little better from Dior. Dior gave us the original Miss Dior, Diorling, Diorissimo and many other classics and I am thinking that they are cheapening themselves by making this garbage. I obviously will not be buying this.

Chanel Bois de Iles EDT Review

I did swear that I would review perfumes that I have not worn and reviewed. Last night was the night that I did apply something new to me, Chanel Bois de Iles from the Les Exclusifs line. Bois de Iles is generally well loved on the blogosphere and perfume people. On Now Smell This, some one's husband (can't remember who) looked at either the box or the bottle itself and pronounced it as Box of Eels and that is what it seems to be called on Now Smell This.

I do have a lot of respect for the house of Chanel and a lot of it's creations and I do have a few perfumes loves from Chanel but Bois de Iles isn't one of them. I keep looking at all of these reviews and a few other perfume sites and I am not seeing anything with tuberose, and I'm smelling tuberose. I have said many times before and will say it again, tuberose is my nemesis and if it's tuberose dominant, I'm not going to like it one bit. Some might say maybe the sandalwood or maybe the tonka is giving you that, but I wouldn't know what sandalwood smelled like if it bit me in the butt. I'm maintaining that there is a huge tuberose note in there. At first, it smelled like a typical Chanel, heavy on the aldehydes, rich in the Chanel base. But it king of turned out to be Chanel does tuberose. Sadly for me, that tuberose note seems to take over everything else. I'm sure I would have enjoyed this a whole lot more if it wasn't tuberose dominant to my nose. Lasting power is typical for a Chanel EDT, I get 6 hours on my skin. I will not be buying this one.

Thoughts on Chanel no 5

Yes, there is another flanker to the iconic Chanel no 5. That new flanker is called no 5 L'Eau and yes, I am suspicious of it. I am suspicious of it just like I was of Eau Premiere. Flankers of this classic confuses me. It seems like no 5 would not be the greatest canidate for 1 flanker, let alone 2. Now, Shalimar is something that has spawned many flankers and I can see why. You have room to play around with Shalimar. No 5 doesn't have the room to create flankers. I'm not a big fan of flankers in general but there are exceptions to the rule and some are well done.

I love the regular no 5 and have the current EDP, EDT, and some vintage parfum. I will admit to that I have a bottle of Eau Premiere in the original bottle but no 5 doesn't get a whole lot of love from me so much anymore. When you have a lot of full bottles to choose from an who knows how many decants, there are some perfumes that get lost in the shuffle. I know I shouldn't be picking on Chanel releasing a flanker and people are going to be asking why I am picking on a perfume that I haven't tried yet.

Apparently, Eau Premiere hasn't done as well as it could have or sales have really been horrible for Eau Premiere lately and maybe Chanel thought that a flanker of no 5 would perk people up and get them buying Chanel items again. Maybe the newest Chanel creations (Bleu, Chance, Coco Nior, etc) are not doing anything besides sitting on the shelf. I wish that Chanel would create and release something new that actually smells good and that isn't a flanker. Maybe they should look into ignoring the Les Exlusifs line or change that one completly. No 22 and Cuir de Russie are from the back catalog and should be released as part of their regular line up. Maybe Chanel should start looking at their back catalog and release some of those. The elusive no 46 would be a start as well.

The Random Post

Today is the last day that I have to go into work before I go on vacation. I have a couple of day trips planned but I am not leaving town. Having a vacation but staying home is a great thing. I don't have to go anywhere, I don't have to do anything, very rarely do I have to actually have to be anywhere. I always plan on wearing some perfumes with the intent of reviewing them and that almost never seems to happen. I hope to rectify that this coming week. I hope to have at least 3 or 4 since I have 10 days off. Hopefully I can stick to that much. My unworn and unreviewed perfume bag will thank me because it's overflowing and I really should see what decants in my reviewed bag have evaporated so I can make room.

After amassing a fairly large perfume collection and going through phases of perfume, I've come across something strange. Normally, in the perfume world, vintage smells better than the current batch of a certain perfume. Sometimes, the current batch smells better. At this point, after not wearing no 22 in forever, something changed. One day, I wore the current formulation and thought about my blog post on the current formulation and the vintage formulation. Something did change with my nose. I found that I actually do like the current formulation loads better than the vintage version. I think that the powder note in the vintage is more pronounced and smothers the other notes to a certain extent. Through my perfume journey, my views of a huge powder note has evolved. I still like powder bombs and musk notes. Laundry musk is nice in it's place but I don't need whopping doses of it in a perfume. The powder note can be huge but I don't like it to be overwhelming.

I think for the rest of this month and most of next month, I will probably be staying off E-Bay due to the fact that I am not going to have a lot of discretionary spending money to look for vintage perfume. I am starting to get into the serious dental work that I need to have done. And the serious dental work is going to cost lots of money, so perfume is mostly out except maybe the random decant of perfume. This will probably be good for me because I seriously need to use up a few bottles so I can have a little more space.