Perfumes and Purses

I don't know what happened, I seem to be on a purse buying spree. Well, I'm not really buying any much, the prices make me uncomfortable. A couple of months ago I came across this ad in a magazine, probably Vanity Fair or Vouge:

and just fell in love with it. Bubble gum pink leopard print! Va-va VOOM! With loads of hippie-esque fringe hanging all over the place. Drool : ) Yes, I am a peculiar dresser and I do not find it tacky in the least. I would use that purse in a heartbeat. A New York minute. Why, I even have a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers in the same shade of pink. I can see myself now, that fantastic purse, matching sneakers, a pair of jeans and my fur coat for the winter. Oh, you say it's a Spring/Summer purse?  I could rock that year round.

Unfortunatly, the closest I'm going to get to that purse is the ad hanging on my fridge, which it is. It's by Blumarine, which is somehow connected to schiaparelli pikenz, anyhoo, they all make perfume so I was familar with the names. But the prices....yikes, I saw a plain Blumarine purse, no leopard but it had the fringe-and it was around $1,000. Nearly knocked me off my chair.

Talk about Champange tastes on a beer pocketbook. Literally.

"A shitload of money" seems to be the going rate for a designer purse. As in more than I'd ever dream of paying for a purse. So I've been shopping around. Then the desire to out-do somebody (my sister in law, it's a long story) came about and I decided to buy myself a really nice purse. I've never owned one before. Plus, every year when I work my ass off during the summer I buy myself something special. Last year it was a vintage diamond ring, $200, with very sparkley mine cut diamonds. Another year it was a tiny ruby heart shaped pendant. I have been doing 50 to 60 hour weeks the past few weeks, so it's that time again. The price of gold is crazy right now, and I have enough perfumes, there isn't any paticular perfume I'm pining for at the moment. Why not a new purse?

SIL has a Coach, and since what I knew about Coach (plain, brown signature pattern purses) I looked around for something better. Prada, Gucci, Balengencia, to name a few. No can do, they're pricier than Coach. Next I inadvertently bought a fake Coach off ebay. Only $30, but it was too small to actually use, I couldn't fit all my stuff in it. Yes, I'm doing the chargeback now. Anyway, there are some Coach purses I do like, they're not all that boring brown signature print. Actually, the signature C's in "Moonlight" is very appealing. So is the horse and carriage print. And the C pattern in pink and silver. I still check them out on ebay, very leery of buying one there again. It's a project, I'd have to check the serial numbers, make sure the style number matches the bag and so on. My fake one had serial numbers. It isn't easy.

Betsy Johnson has a few nice purses, nothing spectacular though. Fossil has some eye catching stripes. I kind of like the Juicy Coulture Daydreamer bags, BUT I've seen them in person, in a store and am not so sure. Terry cloth seems cheap, especially for the prices they're asking for. I also like the B. Makowsky leather purses, there's one in pink I've been eyeing-but I've heard that the color of your clothes can rub off onto the lighter purses. If I'm going to drop some serious cash on a purse it better not have/get any issues. Is that too much to ask?


We may be going to an outlet place in the morning. Yup, I've hounded Hubby about purses since this kick has started. Then I cried in front of him when I found out my first Coach was fake. It hurt getting taken like that. I don't break my neck working 50 to 60 hour weeks to get taken by buying fake purses. It wasn't just $30 (plus shipping)  I had just won another one on Ebay for $50 and that was a fake, too. I would have been out $80 to $100 for crap.  Needless to say, I wrote to the seller of the 2nd purse explaining that the serial number was wrong, it was a replica purse and I wasn't going to pay. I also reported it to ebay, they have done nothing.

So this outlet place, they have Coach store, a Juicy store and several others. Wonder if any of the places would have that Blumarine purse? I'll look. My maximum to spend is a soft $200. I say soft because I could go a bit higher, but not more than $250 or $300. My spending comfort level is being tested here, I don't know if I can go through with a purchase like this! I felt the same way when I splurged on that bottle of Guerlain's Sous Le Vent, $315 at Saks. It took me several trips to the store to actually go through with it. Then I signed up for their credit card and got 20% off, which eased up the tension a bit. I paid it off within the month, so no finance charges, I spent enough for it, didn't want to have pay any extra.

I wonder if the outlets carry perfumes? You know, in case I have money left over.

Back in the day

Speaking of my mother, she passed away in 2008. I think of her often and know she would have LOVED having all this perfume around, perfume coming and going, it's sniff fest around here. She'd be having a ball right along with me. I probably wouldn't be able to sell any of it! Sure we had perfumes when she was alive, she had a modest collection herself. Several years ago (and before she became ill) I was always going shopping on my days off and would pick up things on sale, bargains and such. Actually, me and my mother did a lot of shopping together, mostly clothes and things for the house, flea markets and second hand stores. My more favorite memories of us would be the ones of us out and about shopping. When I was 21 we went into the city for an afternoon of shopping and dinner out. I showed her around the city. She was probably wearing her Giorgio and I probably had on some patchouli or sandalwood. It was in July and boiling hot out, I remember the both of us resting and cooling off on a stoop, and people watching. Does anyone people watch anymore? I haven't done that in years. Who has time anymore to sit and watch the world go by?

My perfume craziness isn't a replacement for the loss of my mother. I do miss her terribly, but I'm not filling a void with the perfumes. Not that I'm aware of, and I've thought that one out before.

Back to the perfumes, if I brought one home and she took a liking to it, I'd have to go back and get a bottle for her. She had to have her own bottle. And she'd say things like, "I like this, it smells 'rich', like something a rich woman would wear." If I remember correctly that's what she said of Norell. When I smelled Van Cleef by VC&A I instantly thought of my mother, she would have loved that. Mitsouko, too. And Rumba by Balenciaga. Well, our tastes were usually along the same lines. Usually. She hated Sunflowers. She once said to me after I has sprayed on Sunflowers while in the other room, "You've got that stuff on again. It smells like a haystack." I don't recall washing it off before going out that time. I do remember giving away 2 bottles of Sunflowers to an aunt when I got tired of it.

The haystack comment, that was one of many several of her critical comments she'd use on me when I was about to go out. The others were:
"Have you got a bra on?"
"You're going out in that?"

"Where's the rest of your clothes?" (That one was used once, which was when I was about to emerge from the house to a night of drinking and clubbing wearing a bustier for a top. What the hell, Madonna and a couple of my friends were wearing them as tops. Mine was a black lace (not sheer) number, I also wore a long black wig with a pink streak, it was around Halloween 1989. I threw a black button-down sweater over it & left with her approval. An hour later, the sweater was dumped into a trash can downtown.)

 And the usual ones like,
"Those stripes make you look bigger than you are"
"That (add whatever article of clothing) doesn't do anything for you."

Although I wasn't crazy about her comments at the time, I kind of miss them now. I often wonder if my bra is doing what it's suppose to do and if what I'm wearing is flattering or not. I think my friends are too polite to say otherwise, and my husband knows better.

Heatwave

I thought everything was cool. As in cool temperature in the room I store many of my perfumes in. A spare bedroom, it was my mother's room. I don't recall it ever sweltering in there. Toward the end of her life she didn't even use an air conditioner in there, just two windows open for "cross ventilation" and it was cool.

Not anymore, not for this current hot weather. After going in there and feeling the heat, I went into panic mode and moved EVERYTHING outta there and into our bedroom, nice and air conditioned 24/7. We have an elderly pet so the AC stays on for her, well, for both of them. She also has a heart condition so once the vet discovered it, I decided the electricity bill didn't matter, my baby is more important. The electricity bill never got too crazy, not even last year with 2 air conditioners running nearly all the time. Now my perfumes reap the benefits, too.

Did I mention that I moved everything? All of it. Took maybe 2 hours. In my mother's room I had everything somewhat organized-the permanent collection, stuff to sit on and sell someday, stuff I'm currently selling, things for next Christmas, for Christmas/birthday gifts, stuff I frequently wear, and so on. Now it's not so organized, some are in a cabinet, on top of the dresser, and on 2 shelves of a bookshelf.  My husband slept through it all. Through all my Guerlains: my big bottle of vintage Shalimar extrait, my tiny 1/8th of an ounce of Ode in the umbrella bottle and box,, my Djedi,  Parure, Jardins de Bagatelle, Apres L'Ondee, L'Heure Bleue extrait and a bottle of EDC, the most precious and important ones were moved first. Some were already in our room. Then I moved 2 bottles of Joy extrait, my Chanels-especially the Cristalle and no.19 my mother owned,  Calendre and La Nuit, and so on. It was a busy night. Hubby didn't notice that the perfumes in our room had multiplied over night. Bless him! Since a bunch are in cabinets with the doors shut he still doesn't know the how big my collection is, but it shouldn't bother him too much. He encourages me with my collecting, even now that it's perfumes. Oh, they don't make that anymore? Haven't made it in years? That might bring in a bundle on ebay? Then just get it. See what I mean? I love him!

Gris Clair. What to Wear?

What do you wear when you're going to meet your oldest and best-est  friends, ones that you've know since you were 15 (they were 16 & 17, I was the baby of the group, or clique) and haven't seen in a couple of years? Three to be exact. One lives several states away-when she makes a trip here it equals a reunion. The others, one lives 30 miles away, another lives about 10 miles away and the third I see every time I pay my house insurance late & have to run into her office to pay it. When you're a grown up it's just so difficult getting together, this one has kids, that one is far off, this one is taking care of an ill husband/mother/insert relative here, the other works weekends (that would be me). You all can't get together every Friday night for movies, or pop into that one's apartment when I get out of work to watch SNL and drink cold ones. Or hide out at anothers' house after you're had a fight with your boyfriend or mother. Not anymore.

Sooooo, we meet up every couple of years. They feel like family to me and practically all of us have not many blood relatives. These are friends I don't need to impress at all. There was a point where my life was falling apart, we only met up once during that time and I just kept mum about it. They knew it anyway. And here we are a couple of years later, things are fine in my life .

Other than clothes, I had to decide what perfume to wear to this occasion. It was 2 occasions, first day me and the long, long distance friend hung out on her hotel room, caught up on things and went out for a bite. Last night all of us met up and went to a more formal dinner. The clothes were easy, jeans and a new top. I stood over my dresser covered with perfume bottles and had to pick something. Something modern because I know one might drop an  "old lady" or "old fashioned" comment if I wore something like Madame de Carven (which I've had in frequent rotation recently) or Sherrer 2,  and it had to be something that wasn't familiar to their noses. As if I know where their noses have been. I wanted to wear something I was comfortable in and enjoyed, of course. I was leaning toward Alien or one of the Sunessence flankers, but decided against it, too strong. Couldn't wear anything overbearing because one has allergies. Supposedly. She spritzed her bottle of Jessica McClintock every time she went near the bathroom. Uh, not my style and I would not run out and buy a bottle for myself after smelling it.

I went with Serge Lutens Gris Clair for both occasions. Why? Well, it smells good, no great. Powerful silage, but not enough to make others sneeze. No one sneezed. I love the the stuff. Originally purchased for my husband,  I snagged it, kept it out of his reach so I could wear it. It's too yummy for him, very vanilla and soothing lavender, kind of masculine but strong and sexy smelling. Confident. VERY modern smelling, most likely nobody had encountered before.

Unfortunately it didn't stay with me long. I didn't put a shitload on and it wore off a couple of hours later. There was a lot working against it. We met up at 3pm, and between going outside for them to smoke pot (I did not partake) and with the wind blowing their pot smoke and my cigarette smoke on me,  a few raindrops, then her Jessica  McClintock filling the air, and at 7pm the insurance friend joining the group wearing Boyfriend my perfume fizzled out.  At dinner, a hot and steamy restaurant where they cook the food at your table, flames and smoke and all, whatever was clinging to me was gone completely. I should have sprayed my clothes, the shirt from the other day still smells like it. The Boyfriend wearing friend, I guessed it as Pink Sugar, of all things! I do have a small purse spray of it myself, I should have known what it was. Once she told me it made sense, but it smelled very sweet on her. When the hell am I going to guess a perfume off someone and be correct?

Work tomorrow, it's going to be hot & humid for the next couple of days. Hmmmm, maybe I'll dip into one of the Sunessences or Jil Sander Sun. If it had been a sunny & bright day today I probably would have worn the Sun. It was grey and cloudy, more approiate for Gris Clair. Mellow.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Ok, so it's not "Hot Fun in the Summertime", but the video is stunning and very summery. Couldn't find any summer themed videos for "Hot Fun".

It's the middle of July and things are finally heating up around here. Finally. I love the heat, love heatwaves, long hot days and even longer hot nights. I love it when it's so hot out and everyone scurries from one air-conditioned place to another.Nobody pushes you to do anything or rush with things because of the heat, you just go along at your own pace. Finishing work for the day, picking up dinner on the way home (because it's too hot to cook) and relaxing in the somewhat cool house for the night. We have air conditioners in the bedroom and one in the room next to the kitchen, both make the heat liveable. Icy cold beer, wine coolers and iced coffee & tea. Capris, shorts & tank tops. Throwing those on along with a pair of sandals and calling yourself dressed.

Soooooo, what do you do for fragrance in the summer? I'm finding that some things fade very quickly. Others seem to "heat up" on my skin and amplify, sometimes making them become too heavy. Like Kenzo Jungle L'Elephant,  Thierry Mugler's Angel and Mitsouko to name a few.  Last week I dabbed on some Shalimar extrait and I could feel a cloud of it following me around. People looked at me, I do dress a bit odd so I don't know if it was the Shalimar or my attire.

In the heat and in heavy rotation now:

Jil Sander's Sun. Pure yummyness, it's almost drinkable. Lots of sunshine, crisp citrus, oranges, dewy fruits (I smell raspberries) with a dry down of amber and vanilla. It's a delight to wear this. Happiness in a bottle.

Thierry Mugler* Alien which is on the heavy side for hot weather, but just a small spritz will adorn you in smooth jasmine creaminess all day into the night.
Alien Eau Luminescente and a Sunessence-have to check the box to figure out which one. The Alien flankers smell like sunshine to me.
Womanity. A unique & different scent, fresh, (no fish) and salty. Makes my skin smell like I've been swimming in the ocean. I own a mini and a mini body lotion, I think the lotion smells better than the perfume, it smells creamier and less tart, both wear well together.

Guerlain's Chamade which I didn't care for at first, I had a bottle of the current formulation which I sold. Picked up about an ounce of the vintage EDT (in one of those deftware canisters) and although it's similar to the current, it blows the new formulation out of the water. Vintage Chamade is all dewy galbanum,  hiacynth, dew drops on roses,  it's green and sweet, it's bright and strong. It's much more deeper & richer, the current smelled flat, it lacked oomph.
 Mahora  ohhh, a little something I've had for years. Literally. All I have left is maybe 5ml plus a mini.  I bought a bottle when it was first released, back in 2000, the summer to be exact. It got me off my Gucci Rush addiction, which I had been wearing since the year before. I drowned myself in Mahroa that summer, it's kind of tropical in a perfumey way but without any coconut or fruits. Loaded with tuberose, ylang ylang, jasmine, a bit o' vanilla, sandalwood, it's exotic. I am revisiting (what I have left of) this perfume this summer, 11 years later.  I don't have much luck with applying Mahora. The nozzle on my full bottle broke off, I extracted the remains out with a syringe and into a  new & functional atomizer. At least then it was, I went to spritz myself with it the other day and the nozzle stuck!  I dabbed it on.

So we have Mayonette in place of Mahora now. Same stuff supposedly, but I've seen different note listings. Have yet to try a side-by-side test of the two.

Diesel Zero Plus Feminine. I love the Milk Feminine, Milk Plus Feminine? Plus Plus? What's it called? Cute and quirky in the milk carton. The Zero in the red grenade is not as fabulous as the milk. I get a lot of pineapple and lightness out of the zero, all the other notes meld into the pineapple (with a hint of coconut) and make it one linear smell. Interesting. A perfumed Pina Colada. I like it, but I don't love it. And it's one of the ones that I just sweat right off in a couple of hours or less.

Jean Patou's Eau de Patou. An oldie but goodie if you can find it. Light, bright, fresh and pineapple again. Refreshing. Citrusy, fruity, but ends on a deep note of  amber, moss and civet. Have only worn it once or twice so far, I am impressed but haven't made a final decision on this one yet.

Gucci no. 3

It tingles the nose is the perfect way. In the beginning it tingles and entices, soaps and spices in the middle, toward the end it seduces with smoky & mossy leather.

Starts off on the sweet side and tingly. What gives it that tingly, magical quality? The coriander, bergamot or both? Or Neither? Orris root? I've encountered this tingly scent in other perfumes: Ralph Lauren's Safari, Krizia's Teatro Alla Scala, Revillon's Turbulences, (all of which have the orris root note) and in Anne Klein,  and if I remember correctly Versace's Blonde. Whatever it is, it smells opulent, rich and sophisticated.

At the same time Gucci has that soapy aspect, rich (again) thick, bubbly soap toward the middle. I don't get really any of the supposed floral notes in this, but I do need to familiarize myself more with the scents of flowers.  Notes of Lilly of the Valley, Narcissis, or what have you, don't ring any bells with me, I can't remember the last time I've smelled them. I ought to be familiar with Lily of the Valley, it's my birth month flower (May) and I remember we had some growing in the backyard years and years ago. But that was years ago. Nowadays whenever I'm near a flower stand (usually in the supermarket) I stick my nose in the different flowers and usually come up empty. They all seem to be scentless. I'm working on it, the flower smells. Currently I have roses in the yard, 3 different types, but roses are easy scent-wise. The others, well I don't have the greenest of thumbs. Roses, catnip, basil, chamomile, I can handle, heaven forbid I attempt a hydrangea or gardenia, they won't thrive. My husband seems to have brought some life back into my potted gardenia, we'll see how that goes.

Enough of the gardening, back to the Gucci. From beginning to end, this perfume is heavenly. Maybe "heavenly" isn't the right word, the leather in Gucci 3 is so sultry, seductive, as in a femme fatal. It's warm, inviting and sexy smelling. Brings to mind of seductresses in leather, not dominatrices, but an attractive woman in a tasteful leather coat, or skirt. Or at least a fancy leather handbag. No floozy or air-head, an intelligent woman in leather, with some experience and street smarts under her leather belt.

Whenever I wear my leather jacket or coat I reach for the Gucci 3 or Miss Balmain, sometimes Robert Piguet's Bandit. With the current rise in temperatures its been at least a month. Actually, last time it was Kelly Celeche, but that didn't work out like the others mentioned above, didn't give the impression of femme fatal, it was a bit too light and more citrusy for that.

Just one of those days

I've been slightly sick for the past couple of days, possible oncoming head cold: infrequent stuffy nose, the feeling that my head is stuffy, cloudy, feeling "off", tired, oh, everything. My husband got a 48 hour or so bug, maybe I was getting it, too. I worked all through it, had to. Felt so bad Sunday night after work I checked my blood pressure and blood sugar to make sure it wasn't something else. All fine. Went to bed at 11 pm, VERY early for me. And my period is due so I've been munching on actual potato chips, ice cream, with some dark chocolate thrown in.

Enough about my physical ailments, I'm feeling better now. The rest, potato chips and chocolate really helped!

Ever have one of those days when everything smells horrible? Today is one for me. Started off wearing Thierry Mugler's La Rose Angel, which smelled lovely. Unusual, too, I'm not really a fan of Angel, in fact I don't care for it. After changing my clothes at the end of the day, Angel had worn off and I felt like trying something that was new to me: Rochas Alchmie. Good God, after a couple of sniffs I got a headache. Couldn't stand it, a scrubber. After one washing I still could smell it, more subdued but headache inducing. Washed the dishes, more soap on my hands and it was gone. Then I was in the mood for something tried & true and coconutty: Versace Crystal Noir, which I have in a 2ml sprayer, decanted from my mini parfum. An unmarked, unlabeled sprayer.* Did I get that mixed up & use the wrong stuff? Ewww, another headache! Actually, it does smell as I remember Crystal Noir, but it's bothering me, it's not giving me the comforting, pleasant scent and feeling it once did. Blah. I took a whiff of my bottle of Bulgari Jasmine Noir and that also smelled like crap.

Everything smells wrong today. Maybe it's the possible head cold? I give up. I'm going to bed now and may dab on some Shalimar extrait, and if that smells wrong I'm going to eat some pancakes.

*Edited to add:  Today, 8 days later I came across my Crystal Noir, the bottle which I thought was unlabeled. It's labeled  & smells fine. The stuff I sprayed that night was still sitting where I left it. Wonder what it is? Looks like it's from Sephora, one of those clear, small sprayers, although it's slightly too tall. And I usually keep my samples from Sephora in the labeled baggies they provide. Might be Midnight Poison. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I'm going to organize my decants/samples tonight, been meaning to to that for a while.