Sick Day (well, probably several of them)

It got to me. Everyone around me at work was sick, or in various stages of getting sick, and loading up on Airborne (whatever it's called) tea & honey, all their home remedies and preventions. They offered me some  of the Airborne, but not the honey since one girl supposedly attempted to stick her contaminated spoon in it already, and given the advice to drink some Nyquil before going to bed as a preventative. Since I'm on some medications already I didn't take either of what was offered, especially the cough syrup, no idea if it would all mix. I did my usual thing-nothing- to strengthen up my immune system to the germs.

That backfired. OMG, am I ever sick! Not only have I got a cold thing going on, I also have a stomach bug or something, too. I took Tuesday off (no sick days left) and spent the day running back & forth from bed to bathroom, keeping a cold, wet wash cloth on my head, running the air conditioner and when I'd get hot I'd put the blankets over me. Kept a bucket nearby, I felt like I was going to throw up. TMI, every time I ate it would go right through me. I had made a nice soup before the sickness took hold,  I don't dare eat any more of it because now I'm wondering if the chicken or the dandelions in it were bad, something gave me a stomach bug, or could it be the cold?

Oh, the cold. Started off as a scratchy inflamed throat, now I feel like cement was poured into all the muscles of my face, up my nose, down my throat and neck. My eyes & ears are bothering me. My bones ache. I ate some ice cream which made my spit so thick I went into a coughing fit and coughed up, oh, you don't want to know. The coughing fit was like the ones I got when I had bronchitis. Oh shit. And on top of all this I got my period. I am just a mess.

Most people, when they get sick they lose weight. I am the opposite, with the exception of an episode several years ago when my throat swelled from strep & tonsillitis, I had a fever through it all and lost about 10 pounds in about a week or less. More like a weekend. I couldn't eat at all, couldn't swallow. My mother made one of my favorites, Orange Chicken w/ rice in the crock pot. I chewed a small piece, couldn't get it down, had to spit it out. That Monday I wound up back in the ER because I was not getting better in spite of the antibiotics prescribed,  I was drooling and my throat took on this smell, more like a stench. I could even smell it, it smelled like old blood. Ugh. Obviously I'm better now, but I swear my throat has never been the same since. Where was I going with this? Oh, this past month I lost 7 pounds! Now I hope I don't blow it being sick, I really haven't been eating much, been mostly drowning myself with watered down orange juice, ginger ale,  my usual triscuits-today they've been too difficult to swallow, a soft tuna sandwich for supper tonight. Ugh, I hate, hate being sick!

Sniffs of the Week (or so)

Very busy the past week or so. Been a lot of places, did a lot of things (as in fixing up the house/housecleaning) and some got shopping in!

In Store sniffs-

Hello Kitty. Why do I even bother taking a whiff of things like this? Pure noisiness. Sugar & Apples. No thanks.

Demeter Pure Soap. Not a bad scent for a $5 roll-on at my local drugstore. Smells like soap, with maybe a hint of musk, clean musk. It certainly smelled better than the Vanilla Cake Batter sitting next to it.

Burberry Body.  Different. I don't think I like it. My girlfriend has been raving about this so I had to try it. My nose was shutting off at that point so I will give this another go. (why is it that whenever I go to Sephora or Ulta my nose stops working? Even the coffee beans don't help much. Is it perhaps these "new" fragrances are weak?)

Chanel Coco Mad. EDT version. I like this, it's not really me, but maybe it is? I've really been getting into Chanels lately.

Chanel no.19 Poudre. I think I'll stick to my vintage no.19 and save my money. Vintage 19 makes a bold statement, the Poudre is wimpy in comparison.

Smelled off others:

Estee Lauder Beautiful (from a friend at work). It smelled beautiful. Really. It smelled a bit like Mitsouko but then I realized that the last time I wore the jeans I had on I was wearing Mitsouko so it might have been me. Ok, ok, no I don't run around in dirty clothes, I wore them twice then they got washed. It helps the envoirment and the water bill.  Nor to a apply perfume to my pants, I was thinking since I had Mitsouko on my fingertips, perhaps some got transferred to my pants via my pockets or whatever.

I found a tester of Beautiful in the store and it didn't smell like Mitsouko, it was floral and sweet. My other girlfriend wore this on her wedding day waaaay back in 1992. I remembered asking her what it was, I liked the scent. I like the scent now, but not really enough to buy a bottle.

I don't know exactly what it was, but somebody was reeking of perfume in the Walgreens down the street. My guess was Calvin Klein's Europhia or Narciscio Rodriguez. They must have sprayed themselves from head to toe, I couldn't even tell who it was, it was just an invisible perfume cloud floating around the store.

Angel Garden of Stars Le Lys. My Angel lovin' girlfriend wore this to work. I knew right off that she wasn't wearing her regular Angel, I just couldn't figure out which flanker it was. Le Lys is my 2nd favorite flanker out of the series, La Rose is my 1st.

John Galliano EDP. Another friend at work. I said, "Oh, what have you got on? Smells nice." What a big dummy I am, I'm the one who got her into that and hooked her up with a bottle. Oh well, win some, lose some.

A man getting out of his car in a parking lot smelled fabulous. I don't know if it was him or he had a fragrance-like air freshener in his car. It kind of sucks with men fragrances, if I don't know the guy I don't want to ask for fear of him thinking I'm flirting or trying to pick him up.

Serge Lutens Gris Clair. Off my husband. I need to hide the bottle better, he not only sneaked some sprays out of it, he took it to work with him and left it in the car. He has plenty of fragrances, why pick this one? (I shouldn't be so greedy, but he has been pissing me off with things lately.)

And purchases.....

On a side note, I spent way more than I should have recently. I went overboard. I may have to shut myself off for a while. Still have money for the bills and all, I just went a little crazy. Not just perfumes, I got new clothes (just 2 pairs of pants and 2 tops) plus some items for the house, sheets and kitchen things. Am really broke right now  : P

Serge Lutens Boreno 1834. Love. Love. LOVE. Used bottle, great price, how could I resist? Wore it the other day, was smelling exquisite chocolates and patchouli all day.

Boucheron Japiur. Oops, I meant to get the Safir Japiur. Slaps self. I didn't realize they had flankers of this, although the Japuir came first. I think this was all she had of Boucheron, other than Trouble (a possible future purchase). Am in the middle of testing this to see if it's a keeper or not.

Dior Miss Dior EDT. A new/old stock purchase, one ounce for $44. I am wondering how old this "old stock" is, it's in the white packaging. I think I should have held out and got the older version in the hounds tooth packaging, located at another store for about $10 more.

Chanel no.5 Sensual Elixir. Wow, pure heaven. It's a perfume gel, do I slather this all over myself or where I usually apply perfume? A few dabs on my arm lasted quite a while. A keeper.

Miss Habanita by Molinard. Different for me, rather on the sweet side. The dry down was the most beautiful creamy scent. Need to fully test drive this.

Macy's Pt. II

My real hatred of Macy's was brought on in early November 2010, I had a job interview there. Applying at Macy's consists of filling out an online application and a loooooong questionnaire which makes you jump through hoops, you are asked the same questions over and over. Hello? If I checked off yes on the 1st question that I would report another worker stealing I'm going to check it off again the second time, the clever re-wording didn't fool me. Once the application is completed and sent, you sit and wait for days for an interview, or more of an interview opening. After the 1st interview they might make you go to one or more group interviews and some unpaid training. maybe a group training session,  individual multiple choice tests, a training session involving role-playing scenarios, a night course on customer service, several random drug tests, during this time you have to send them all your records: school, medical, marriage, copies of any and all your library card, undergo a a psych evaluation, a lie detector test, and if after all that if they hire you you go on to get fingerprinted, mug shots, sign waivers and release forms and so on. Ok, I laid that on a little thick....

I figured they'd snatch me right up because I have over 20 years of cash handling experience, plus credit cards, checks, all forms of payments, dealing with unruly people, customer service and so on. They pay MINIMUM WAGE. A very experienced worker for min wage, quite a bargain.

It started off well, the woman who interviewed me said I fit the dress code because I was wearing all black with a grey dress jacket. Not only that I wore my hair pulled back in a chic, tight bun, no flashy earrings or jewelry, my face well made up to look polished and natural, neutral nail polish, no nose ring, the whole shebang. I looked in the mirror that day and nearly didn't recognize myself. Even after I dropped a few hints to my extensive perfume knowledge, and my desire to work the fragrance counter, she told me I wouldn't be at the cosmetics or fragrance counters, I'd be where they needed me. I'd probably get stuck in the men's department, or the lamp department, or stationary. Yawn.

I was ready to accept the men's or lamp departments or whatever miserable place they'd put me because Christmas was coming up and who doesn't need some extra cash during that time? But at the interview I was told that I didn't get the job, they didn't have any openings. They did all their seasonal hiring in August/September. WHAT? Why in hell's name did they interview me knowing there wasn't any openings? I took a double shift off from my regular job to go to that interview, which means I lost over $200 (plus tips) to go to Macy's and be told they were not hiring. I think my not getting hired had something to do with my regular job, and I had first checked off that I wasn't available on Saturdays, but when she said they needed people on Saturdays I said I could take them off from my job and work at Macy's, no problem. They probably thought I was full of shit. Who cares? I didn't get the job and I will not be applying there again.

Into the Mist, Musk, Sweat and Whatever Else

Finally I had a day off (not really by choice, there wasn't any work today) in which I got up and out. Not as early as I would have liked, but at least I got out. The weather was horrible, it was either pouring rain or misting. I managed to escape the pouring and spent the day in the mist-in more ways than one.

Got my nose into Serge Lutens' Muscs Koublai Khan. First spray (on my skin, no spraying cards with that one) it smelled fine, like a strong musk & I had no problems with it. I kept sniffing and waiting to smell rose and/or amber notes. Didn't smell any. 

While I was waiting for this to develop (yeah, I'm impatient) I tried a few others on the paper. Ah, ho-hum. The ones that made an impression were Borneo 1834 (which I sprayed on my opposite hand) Jeux de Peau higher up on my wrist/arm and Vitriol d’œillet which the SA suggested-that wasn't even on my list. Chypre Rouge also seemed promising although surprisingly sweet.

I knew I'd like Jeux de Peau (pronounced Juo de pwah, I kept making the faux pas of pronouncing it wrong) because I believe I had tried it the last time I was in the store (9 months ago) and its an oriental. I got a sample of it and will give it a good test drive.


Boreno 1834 smelled FABULOUS upon first spritz, absolutely yummy and dark. Bittersweet chocolate and Patchouli. After a bit it turned into an extremely deep and strong patchouli, very masculine. Perhaps too masculine or too patchouli for me. It can be found on ebay cheaper than in the store. Maybe I'll go that route if I have to have it.


Vitriol d’œillet smelled pleasant on the paper, I had enough on my plate by that time so I didn't give it much thought. And the SA only had the tester bottle, none for sale yet.

During all this spraying and testing, I kept checking in on the Muscs. After a while (I had spent some time in the store talking to the SA) the MKK took an unexpected turn. Kinda for the worse. Yup it began to smell dirty. I was expecting dirty as in the dirtiness I detect in Patou's Joy-which I always smell right off, right out of the bottle. Are roses dirty smelling or something? I keep smelling, uh, a pungent odor from Joy, kind of poopy. I know it's not the rose note, must be the civet and/or castroneum but whoa, I smell a lot of poop. Not just from Joy, I've smelled in others and not just ones that have civet or castroneum listed in their notes. I began to associate roses with poop in perfumes. And that is another post in itself.

So what did I do? I bought the Muscs Koublai Khan. I justified that by thinking that this was priced very high on ebay (wrong, the prices are comparable to retail-there's just not many bottles to be found, I must have had this mixed up with a purse or something) and the SA told me they were discontinuing it in the US, and he only had 3 bottles left. They're also discontinuing Boreno 1834. 


When I met up with Hubby, I stuck the Boreno 1834 hand under his nose. He liked it, why wouldn't he? At that point it was smelling like a deep patchouli with hints of cocoa. Hours later, even after a hand washing it still smells good.

Now when I stuck the MKK hand under his nose, after a quick sniff it he pulled his head back and said "What is THAT?"  followed by "You didn't buy that did you? It smells awful, like some of the guys at work who don't wash." I have smelled those guys myself (at a normal distance, no invading any one's personal space) and it isn't pretty. I can think of worse smelling things, though. I have a customer at my work that smells absolutely putrid, I have to hold my breath when dealing with him. Tonight I accidentally stepped in dog poop and that was a bad smellin' batch, must be the Kibbles n' Bits or the new cookies.


Can it be that bad? I need to get more acquainted with MKK. And now I have a whole $140 bottle to do so with, which came with a 1/2 dozen or so samples of others: Jeax de Peau, Five O`Clock Au Gingembre, Arabie, Bas de Soie, Chergui, Datura Noir and Fille en Aiguilles.

 8+ hours and a couple of hand washes later, MKK smells like a regular musk fragrance like Kiehel's, and the musks I used to wear like the ol' Skin Musk, Jovan Musk and the various small bottles of musks I'd buy from street vendors and small shops back in the day: Black Musk, Egyptian Musk, Africian Musk, Dark Musk, Nubian Musk, I've been a musk lover forever.

At this point, I haven't opened the package of MKK. I feel like opening it and giving myself a good spray. BTW the SA suggested not to overdo it with this one. When I make a big purchase I get nervous about it, maybe I should just sell it? Make a few bucks on it and buy something else, maybe a Chanel or something? Something safe. Can or should I even wear MKK out in public? Return it for the Boreno 1834? Then I'll have MKKMKK smells more like a sweat rather than poop, right? I'll go and open it up and find out  : P

The Unscented Man

My work husband is scentless. He must not wear any fragrance because I never, ever, ever smell anything from him. We often work right next to each other, he drives me to work and home, so I'm right next to him in the car. An unscented man. Not even sweat or bad breath. One day he picked me up for work, he had been painting the house earlier that morning and still had paint on his hands, even though he had just taken a shower. I didn't even smell soap off him, as I was expecting to smell Irish Spring or Ivory.

He's a bit older than me (13 years) so I imagine him using old school products like Irish Spring, maybe Brut or Enlish Leather, although he's of Italian decent. Perhaps he's got a bottle of Gucci, Krizia or Cerruti stashed for special occasions.

Not that I'm right up against him sniffing around all the time. I get smells from other people, all the time. Maybe not everyone at every moment, but enough of the time. When I used to go to the gym, whenever someone rushed past me causing a breeze I'd hold my breath for a few seconds because I knew the scent of their sweat would soon follow. When I walk through a crowd (at work, for example) I will get whiffs of things here and there, sweat, different perfumes and after-shaves, beer, booze, cigarettes, cigars. Whenever my friend at work moves I can smell Angel-one day I could smell it as I approached the door to our room, and she isn't heavy handed, either. It doesn't smell chocolately on her, it smells very patchouli, I had guessed at being a chypre before she told me. A few years ago a co-worker was extremely ill, she wouldn't see a doctor even though we all persuaded her to. One day I smelled acetone when I went into her section, I thought someone had been doing their nails. No one else could smell it. I recalled my mother's commode when she was ill, it smelled like that when her sugar was out of control. It's the diabetic smell. Anyhoo, when my coworker finally got admitted to a hospital her blood sugar was oh, around 700 and they found spots on her pancreas. From there on it's a long, sad story which I can't get into here.

Back on topic, I don't claim to have a bionic nose or anything. I do think of myself as being fairly sensitive to smells. Tolerant but very aware of smells. My husband has often said that I should work for the state police because I can smell alcohol a mile away.  Even if you've just chomped on mints or still have them in your mouth, I can smell the liquor through it. Do you know how many times I've smelled liquor off people who shouldn't have been drinking or were not in a drinking setting, like a bar? Too many.

Again, back to the unscented man. Really, I don't get any sort of scent from this guy.  I read somewhere that the smell of a man's sweat-it has to be different smelling from your own for you two to be attracted. I am extremely attracted to this guy and he has zero smell, what does that say about me? I must reek or something.

The Perfume Partner

An interesting weekend.  I was given not one, but two perfumes while at work! How do you like that?  I have found a perfume partner at work! We were friendly anyway  & our conversations often turn to fragrance (and skin care, hair care, all that). He's not as overboard as me, but enjoys fragrances. He calls himself a "metrosexual"-I dunno, I have heard the term before but still had to look that one up. He's a year older than me, been married about as long as I've been, oh, and he grew up one street away. Small world.

He is much more concerened with his looks than I. He has mentioned wanting work done on his face. Those ideas have crossed my mind, but right now I'm just taking things as they come, I'm happy that I look younger than I am. Whatever happens in the future, well I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I'm too busy fighting grey hairs and unwanted hair to be worrying about crow's feet. I would LOVE to get a breast augmentation, nothing fake or bigger, I'd like mine higher. I'd run around bra-less, something that I haven't done since I was 10 or so.

Back to my buddy, one perfume in his arsenal is Drakkar, which I fell in love with and got a bottle for Hubby. Couple of weeks ago he sprayed  ne with a sample of....oops, I forgot what it was now! Whatever it was, it was a men's fragrance and I wasn't in the mood for wearing one. Didn't smell bad, though. He showed me how he takes an empty sample spray, somehow bites off the nozzle and fills it with whatever he wants to take to work. I didn't need to see or hear anymore, next day I brought him in some brand new empty atomizers (plastic 4mls) a bulb, a couple of funnels, and two 1ml decants of men's fragrances he should try. He was so happy with it all the next day he gave me an  atomizer which he filled up one of the with some of his stuff for me to give to Hubby. It's ok, my husband likes it more than I do. I might decant him some Kouros next time. Right now I feel like taking a few huffs out of the bottle, it's that sexy. It's filthy. Ahhh.

What does my buddy do with the decants I gave him? He puts one on each wrist, his clothes are already drenched with his own scent of the week (the one he decanted for my Hubby) and asked a few women at work their opinions. He chose women in different age brackets. He figured whatever these women were the most enthralled with he'd wear, something like that. They all picked his own scent of the week-which was this. They didn't pick the Rochas Man or Daim Blond that I decanted. Humpgh.I'm teaching my perfume partner as we go along. I had to tell him to wear what he scent loved, whatever makes him feel confident and/or sexy-whatever scent turned him on, something that brings a smile to his face whenever he gets a whiff of it,  not what others voted on. All this from me, who has been drowning myself in Madame De Carven nearly every day because it seems to bring about the most positive reactions from the work-husband (a man other than my perfume friend) whenever I wear it around him. Well, I usually do the wear it for myself thing, but I seem to be stuck on Madame. It never ceases to thrill me whenever I get a whiff. Madame had a day off today, I wore Molinard Orient de Chypre, a test drive. So far so good, I like it very much.

The other perfume I was given was a sample vial of Cartier's Baiser Vole from a very kind co-worker. I just commented on how nice her perfume smelled and she spilled the beans-what it was, where she got the samples, and gave me one. I like Baiser De Vole but haven't fully tested it, just took a few sniffs from the bottle. It seems to have a lot of vanilla for a perfume that doesn't list any vanilla notes. 

Labor Day 2011

Ahhhhh, Labor Day, a celebration of social contributions of workers. The end of summer. No more wearing white-I'm old school. Hmmm, do I even have any white purses or shoes? Nope.

Friday afternoon I made potato salad before working the night. That's the closest to celebrating we'll be doing around here: potato salad. It's summery and it's barbeque fare. There's just no BBQ or hot dogs to go with it. Both me and Hubby worked all weekend and are working today.

I must have worked every Labor Day since 1992-when I began the job I'm at currently. I'm not complaining, it's time and a half.  I will do my celebrating sometime after payday, maybe even with this week's paycheck, depending on how much I get to work this week & after figuring out whatever bills need to be paid, etc. Going to Barney's and sniffing up all the Serge Lutens is still on the radar. I have a list, all I need is the time and the luck of getting myself up, dressed and out of the house early enough to do my thing without being rushed.

The end of summer also marks the end of my crazy working season. The working nearly every day, pulling double shifts, sometimes coming in on my day off, picking up extra shifts while others are on vacation, that all comes to an end about now. Sometimes not. You never know. It's feast or famine. Hey if it is, I just work what ever shifts they give me and go back to doing Ebay, it's what I do every year somewhat.

What fragrances will I be putting away when the summer is over? Not many,  as much of what I've been wearing can be go through the fall and into the winter. I can see me wearing Jil Sander's Sun on Indian Summer days & nights, along with the Aliens, Chamade and Patou's Eau De Patou, although Sun got worn the most out of those.

This summer wasn't so hot so what I planned to wear in the heat didn't get worn much. Diesel's Zero whatever wasn't a hit with me, didn't even wear it out of the house. I was dabbling in Guerlain's Terracotta Voile d'Ete, didn't fall in love with it, it's a very pretty scent-and that's about it, it doesn't bring much else to the table. 

Thierry Mugler's Angel Sunessence Ocean d'Argent, La Rose Ange, Le Lys, Eau De Star and Womanity got several wearings. Womanity will be shelved for the winter. Or maybe I'll drag it out on a few dreary, snowy winter days. I've also noticed some sneezing around me when I've worn it. Hmmmm? Still undecided on the Angels & Eau De Star. I do not get to wear those often because my girlfriend and co-worker (my work-wife, lol) wears Angel religiously (uh, no pun intended) and I don't want to match or try to steal the spotlight when I'm with her. She wears it well, very well, it smells different on her and I let her bask in it solo when I'm around, if that makes any sense. I gave her samples of the flankers that I had to see what she thought of them. Haven't heard any thoughts yet.

Hands down Madame De Carven is what I wore the MOST this summer and it will get it's own post whenever I get around to it. And that one will be kept in heavy rotation well after the summer ends.

Macy's and their Stingyness

Have I mentioned before that I hate Macy's? That horrid Macy's. I was never a big fan of the place, being the discount shopper that I am, I'd only go there if they were the only place that carried what I wanted. Off the top of my head,  one my last big or memorable purchase from there was Gucci Rush in 1999 and at the time it was a big "ouch" because it cost $90-it was a set with the perfume and lotion. At the time they gave you samples with purchase, an enjoyable part of buying perfume at retail price. Last Christmas my husband got me a bottle of J'Adore which in-itself was a complete mistake, and no samples, they were all out. After Christmas when we returned that bottle of J'Adore and  I purchased a bottle of Chanel Coco EDP and they said they had no samples, come back another time. More like you've made your purchase, get outta here, kid, you bother me. I just spent over $100 and they practically tell me to screw when I asked for a sample.

When I drop over $100 bucks on perfume I expect a goodie or two. Is that asking for too much? All the other stores do it. They're not stingy. When I go to Saks, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom's, Barneys' I am showered with samples-and GRACIOUS sales associates. Even Sephora will give you 3 samples. Really, the SAs at Saks are specaticular, they will give you a sample when you're just browsing. I didn't even buy anything and the SA gave me a sample of the Bond no.9 I had my eye on and told me to come back next week for their "Friends and Family" sale. And I did, and I was showered with samples with my purchase. The SA at the Guerlain counter, I would marry her if I could. She mailed 10 Guerlain samples to my house after I purchased from her. Not once, but TWO times. She decanted them herself. So now I have samples of nearly all the Guerlain line, well, 20 of them, and no crap either, as if Guerlain makes crap.* She sent me Attrape-Coeur, Chypre Fatal, Gourmand Coquin,  Oriental Brulant, Boise Torride, Iris Ganache, Muguet, Philtre d'Amour (she knows I love chypres) Quand Vient La Pluie, Vega, Rose Barbare, Liu-which I had been eyeing and testing every time I was in the store. I am still undecided with that one. After I got a good whiff of the Attrape-Coeur I went and bought it from her, hence the second set of samples mailed. I would have loved a sample of  Spiritueuse Double Vanille but I'm not complaining, she gave me a LOT of good ones.

The woman at Neiman Marcus is fabulous also. She is extremely knowledgable and was able to answer any and every question of mine. And I ask a lot of off the wall questions. She gave me a sample of L'Heure Bleue and I was just browsing. When I made a purchase she loaded my bag with samples, plus some men's fragrances for my husband, and a few things she wanted to get rid of, like a Gucci cosmetic case-which I later sold on ebay, I didn't have any use for it.

 The SAs at the the stores above, are so accodomating, pleasant and generous it makes me want to go back and buy, buy, buy.  And I'm not one who buys a lot of perfume at retail prices. The SA's at Macy's, well, I find myself shrugging my shoulders when talking to them and wanting to leave in a hurry. Like I mentioned above, I only go there when they're the only place that has what I want. The Coco, well my husband said I could spend the money we got for returning the J'Adore and I was right there so I did. Chanel is the same price at all the stores, unless I go to a discount place and I didn't know of any back then so I bought it there. When you're a perfume addict like me and someone sticks money in your hand and says buy some perfume you do.

Another thing I don't like about Macy's is they took over all the regional high end department stores. I'm sure there was  one in your neighborhood, Marshal Field's (Chicago), Kaufman's (Pittsburgh-I was in that one once) Strawbridge's (NJ & Delaware) Robinsons-May (West Coast) Fliene's and Jordan Marsh (Boston). It sucks when you're traveling out of state and you find all the same stores that you have back home. Well, whatever. It's the way things go nowadays.


*After recently trying the Narciso Rodriguez For Her inspired Idylle, I am not so sure. What came first NR or Idylle?  First impression is that Idylle smells an awful lot like a many of the "new" scents on the market, the floral, woody, musk that is too common today.  And now there's a couple of flankers. Wait, let me get a taste of the Idylle Eau Sublime before I make any hasty decisions. I really need to get my behind into the city, I'm sure Saks has got a tester of the Sublime, and I have yet to try the Duet.