Money

The video of Money by Pink Floyd has been removed by You Tube. : (

Yesterday was the 2nd (or possibly 3rd) time I've attempted to buy either Jeux De Peau or Musc Ravageur, didn't even make it to Barney's this trip. Hung around downtown, met up with an old friend I didn't know I had, lol.

Its the money. Currently not a lot of disposable cash around here. Me, being laid off since November-it's only til spring, I do work an odd day here & there -so I'm not too bad off. But combined with a new development for the past month: Hubby has had to support the mother-in-law financially (and mentally, and every other way that you can possibly support a person)* so the spending money has gotten a lil scarce.

Things are tough when you're about to leave the house, thinking you have at least a $5 and some singles only to find it's just $4 and a shitload of quarters. (Somebody's gotta go back and get a shit-load of dimes!-Blazing Saddles) Enough money or not, I went out  (armed with my debit card) because it isn't easy hanging around the house all the time, even for me.

My husband knows what a Serge Lutens bottle looks like and how much it costs, he also knows the smell (and price) of Musc Ravageur, there's no sneaking either of them past him. Well, I suppose I could, but I'd rather be honest about things. Most things. Big things.

A bottle of Caron's Narcisse Noir fit into my purse discreetly. $45. And some mini perfumes. Less than the price of Musc or Jeux.

I should have started a "no perfume purchases" thing for lent. Notice how I didn't call it, "no new perfume" as if that makes any sense grammatically. Too late now. New or old, I have to cut back. That being said, a bottle of Fleur de Feu or something rare, a once-in-a-lifetime find will turn up somewhere.

I'm going to work with what I have, take inventory, weed out some stuff, test, get to know and evaluate all my samples, decants and whatever else, instead of rushing after my newest lust. Work on that "to do" box of decants/samples. (like I need to find a new love in there!)

Stop shopping. I just groaned at the thought.

No big purchases right now. Just can't do it. The month is almost over, maybe in a couple of weeks I'll be picking up that Serge or Malle bottle.

I should go back to work. Save some bucks. Get back into the swing of things. Or paint the house. Something. Actually I have today (Saturday) all to myself, I might do some painting.

*Yes my MIL has become one of THOSE MILs. Oh, I'm ready to tear my hair out over her.

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Happy Valentine's Day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't have much to say about today, not a big deal, no plans. Maybe I'll put on my red fake fur coat and go out? Hang around or something.... ♥♥ ♥♥

Notes from out in the Wild

Whoo-hoo I went out! It was the coldest day of the week, I was short on cash, short on time and I felt crappy. As in crappy on the outside: my hair needed a washing and I feel fat, too much sitting/hanging in the house, the winter isn't good for me. But my jeans still fit : ) Crappy or not I had to get out for an afternoon, so I did.

I had my sights set on either Jeux De Peau or Musc Ravageur, both of which I have tested at length (in the form of a couple of sample vials and a  8ml decant).  No money. I brought my Saks card (just in case, in case of what? Me falling for another Guerlain?)

Photo: Tom Kelley / Getty Images

Some quick thoughts & impressions:

on the back of my right hand is: Serge Lutens Fleurs D'Oranger. Um, it's ok. Didn't knock me off my feet. Nice and indeed similar to Eau De Naphie which I have a bottle of stashed away.

on the back of my left hand is: SL's Cuir Mauresque. I am sorry I wasted my hand on this. First impression: bleech. Not good. Sounded good on paper (the notes, that is) not good to my nose.

On a slim strips of test paper are:

Sa Majesté La Rose: I have never smelled a perfume that smelled more identical to a rose as this. It's all rose, as if you've stuck your nose right into one, inhaling the soul of a rose. Yes it's green in the beginning, but that's just you as you're approaching the garden, once you're at the rosebush, it's all rose. It smells alive. Like there are freshly cut roses in a vase nearby, but even that doesn't fully describe the "alive" part. It's hard to explain. I don't think this is something I'd wear, I don't know-I like to think of myself as adventurous, if given a sample/decant I'd give it a whirl. I have been thinking of roses lately,  Rose is my middle name-and my family would address me using both my first & middle names to distinguish me from the other N's in the family.  I have a rose tattoo, I feel I'm entitled to have a rose perfume, too. But this doesn't seem as the rose scent for me. I am not writing it off completely, though.

Feminite du Bois: Classical, smokey, woods, I don't get peach or florals in this, it's striking me as inscense-y.  Did I spray one thing & write down another? My next trip will tell.


Now....what the hell is on my left wrist? Wowee, 7 hours later and after washing some dishes I'm smelling something outstanding on my wrist. Not Palmolive. I have good reason to believe it's Tubereuse Criminelle, I am almost positive it's what I sprayed on my left wrist because right after I sprayed the SA* appeared again and I asked for a test strip because I was running out of skin.  This is warm, spicy, slightly creamy,  like something I've smelled before. My vintage Dioressence comes to mind, but this is sweeter and not as perfume-y, not in an old school sense of perfume, if that makes any sense.

Tubereuse Criminelle :
The fragrance features jasmine, orange blossom, hyacinth, tuberose, nutmeg, clove, styrax, musk and vanilla.

Dioressence:
Top notes are aldehydes, orange, fruity notes, patchouli, green notes and bergamot; middle notes are carnation, tuberose, cinnamon, violet, orris root, jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose and geranium; base notes are musk, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, oakmoss, vetiver and styrax.

Well, they share some notes....will have to get to the bottom of this. It's got to be Tubereuse Criminelle, I just bought a decant (hasn't arrived) and I recall picking up the bottle and thinking I'd be getting a preview.

Edited: My Tuberose Criminelle decant arrived today. That just couldn't be what was that on my left wrist. It smells NOTHING like Dioressence. If I experienced that horrid opening in the store I would have ran for my life : 0 Medicinal, menthol, Ben-Gay, Vicks Vapor Rub, gasoline, rubber (?).
The medicine cabinet notes dried down within 1/2 an hour, but what remained was faint. By that time I was out the door running and running. As in running to the bank, to the vet for the baby's prescription diet food (yes, the baby is a dog, don't think I've mentioned her before here), to the drugstore for the human prescriptions and so on. Not a lotta time for wrist sniffing. Will have to test drive this one when I'll be home all day.

I'm beginning to wonder if one of the Kilian strips rubbed on my wrist when I was searching for something in my purse? It did slightly resemble Love. But it had s spicy vibe. *Sighs* I may never know. And by the time I get back to the store I will have forgotten what it smelled like.

Moving right along....

More paper strips:

By Kilian: Beyond Love. It's beyond yum. Coconut makes me weak at the knees. It's Beyond Reach right now, lololol. Saks does have a set of travel vials equal to 1oz for $70, not too bad.


Love by Kilian. There's enough "Love" at the Kilian display to cause confusion. Prelude to Love, Love and Tears, Beyond Love, Love, Don't Be Shy, Love and Rockets, Make Love Not War. Ok, the last two I added for fun. I sprayed plain old "Love" on my paper strip, took a few sniffs and stuck it in my purse.**

Love is ok, pleasant, but a tad too sweet. Not full bottle worthy. If I need a sweet fix (marshmallow) I can go to La Petite Robe Noire 2. Have to add the 2 in there, did not like the LPRN 1.

One paper strip sprayed with Love, Chloe. The notes sounded promising, but in store and on paper it smelled like a chemical, shrill mess.  Threw the paper away somewhere in my travels.

Alright, next trip with money the Jeax De Peau will be mine. Samples have run out. The last of the samples I let Hubby try, figuring since it's unisex and if he liked it, that would justify buying a bottle. He said the sprayer vial was empty.

*My usual, very helpful SA was not around today. If one of the other SAs had given me the spiel of  "If you apply for a Barney's Card you'll get 10% (or whatever it is) off your purchase today" I would have done so, since I am broke. Ah, it's just as well I didn't. I don't need to be spending money that I don't have. Been there, done that. Learned the lesson. I will go again, next time with some spending money.

**Test Strips: I have a system: spray the paper strips, stick in separate areas for future reference-one in each pocket, one in each compartment of my purse, one in my bra, and so on. Prior to spraying, write name on strip!

Mystery Bottle Monday Week 1

Although Monday is over in my time zone, it's not over until I go to bed. Mystery Bottle Monday will be a regular feature since I have a few mystery bottles in my collection. Usually the mystery resolves itself at some point in my research (aka shopping via online & ebay) but I thought it would be fun to post them here until the mysteries are solved.

From out of a group of vintage mini perfumes, here are two unlabeled bottles. The black capped one has Carven on the bottom. Funny, when I was taking the items out of the box and saw this one I thought to myself, Oh, this is the Carven. Then I didn't see any label & couldn't find my lupe to read the bottom of the bottle. Double checked it's description and no mention of Carven. Weird.


Carrying on, this Carven perfume was all by itself  in a small zip lock bag and when I opened that baggie a little burst of something like Fracas escaped. A creamy, deep, heady scent. Gardenia? Tuberose? I'm not sure which gives Fracas (or Carnal Flower) that oomph but this was very much like it. Made me want to douse myself in some. The scent was so strong I didn't have to open the bottle. Until I found my lupe I was beginning to wonder if this was a mini of Fracas. I tried to imagine how a Robert Piguet label would work on this bottle, with it's square flat surface label space on the front, instead of a lengthwise strip of a label. Maybe, depending on it's size a mini version might be labeled different than the rest of the line. Well, one magnified look at the bottom and it's Carven. Can't be Ma Griffe, unless every bottle of EDC and PDT of it I've come across was "off". Robe d'Un Soir is supposedly a chypre, so is Vert et Blanc, I believe. My first guess was Vert et Blanc, since this smelled fairly green and white, more white than green though.


To add to the confusion, this other bottle, this red capped one, which was in it's own baggie, has a similar scent. No label, nothing on the bottom of the bottle. Only tiny, raised dots in the glass near the sides of the bottle, which remind me of a cluster or grapes. Took a dab of what little is in there and that, too smelled Fracas-like.

Now a couple of days later I'm sitting here and dabbing myself with what little is left. As you can see, I can't do any extensive testing with either of these. The juice in both is like syrup, I have to turn the bottle upside down and wait for it to slowly make it's way to the opening. Tonight I noticed a slight camphor note in there, similar to Carnal Flower-from the Carven scent. The red cap scent smelled more floral, flowery than creamy and not as Fracas like as I thought it did the other day. The Carven has more "green" compared to this one. Then again, one dab of scent on each wrist and my nose going at both it's all blending together. And it's getting late. Think I'll spritz a bit of Fracas on and turn in for the night.

Snow or Lack thereof (Miss Dior Cherie)

I'm not complaining. Not in the least. I hate snow. The only time I want to see snow is on or around Christmas Eve and not much is required for that event, a light dusting will do. I tend to slip and fall in snow, ice, slush and all that, I avoid going out in it. This year has been great! Except for one weekend that I was at work, a co-worker had to help me get to the car because of the ice. Otherwise it's been a fabulous winter. *fingers crossed*

Today it was around 40 degrees. In the cold winter I go for orientals, some of my go-to's are: Shalimar, Habanita, Tom Ford's Black Orchid, Baghari, Diesel's Plus Plus Feminine (the milk bottle one) Kenzo's Jungle Elephant, I even dabble in Angel,  plus Jesus De Pozo's In Black, Burberry Woman, and Guerlain's My Insolence-although the latter three are considered  floral fruity perfumes, they work well in winter for me. It's been so un-winter like this year I haven't used any of them so far.

And now for something completely different: Miss Dior Cherie. Being the sultry 40 degrees or so it was, it felt more appropriate. Yes I finally got my hands on the coveted 2005 version in the form of  several carded manufacturer's samples. They have the photo of Riley Keough,  Elvis' granddaughter on the card so it's the right one. (Why is it that whenever I get samples or just a small amount of a perfume to try I wind up loving it and wanting a full bottle?This won't be easy.)

Anyhoo, nearly 10 hours later I'm still smelling strawberries. And a bit of everything else, notably saltiness. At first spritz this is tingly, tantalizing and aggressive. All that fruit and salt grabs your attention and demands more, more wrist sniffing. The saltiness (presumably the popcorn note) smells like the beach minus the pina coladas, at least the coconut ingredient, the pineapples are included. The salt with musk and patchouli later on mixed smells like skin bathed in ocean water, which I love the smell of. I don't really smell caramel, more of a salty caramel. I guess you could say I like the smell of salt. The opening of fruits is borderline sour, but the salt or something or other eases the blow, and must stop the headache because I felt one coming on shortly after spraying this-but it subsided before it amounted to anything. Whew!

The drydown is like the rest of this, but a lighter version of the strawberry mixed with patchouli and musk, more musk. I can't get over that I'm still smelling strawberries so late in the game. When will it wear off? Not that I'm in a hurry, just wondering ; )

Now I know what everyone is squawking about. They have good reason to, this stuff is different, dare I say masterpiece? So it's fruity, a chypre fruity but it's got an edge. Not your typical pink candy fruit crap juice. Not the usual fragrance I'd go for, but it's so different when I full bottle comes my way I'm going for it.

Hats off to the nose behind this, Christine Nagel. She's also the nose behind my above mentioned In Black. Why the hell was Miss Dior Cherie reformulated two years later? Or whenever, there's enough versions plus flankers that you have to keep notes to keep track. All I know is that it's the bottle with silver writing on it, not the one with the paper label. Not the taller bottle, that's the EDT. I won't be getting this in a store since the new juice is now named Miss Dior, the 1947 version is Miss Dior Originale or Miss Dior Classic. I'll be too busy trying out the new Diorling anyway, if my Saks will ever get it in the store.

Cherie has left the building. Fast forward to 6 months or a year from now, can you imagine the confusion this will cause on ebay and other places with all the name changing and juice reformulating?

"Dear Ebay Seller,

What perfume is this auction for?  Is it Miss Dior, Miss Dior Cherie or Miss Dior Classic? Is it the 2005, 2007, 2008 or 2011 formulation? Or some other year? Is it EDP or EDT? If you don't know, can you tell me what color is the bow? How tall is the bottle?...."

It will be a mess. I'd better grab me some now!