19 posts tagged “perfume”

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2nd July is the last day.  

Ok, so they never have sales, but you can't complain about their service. I ordered a couple of perfumes to coincide with Cat Flying's visit to New York, so that I could save on international shipping. LS were offering free shipping within the US with a code, so I would have saved on shipping entirely. My order was fedexed to Cat Flying's hotel on time, but for some reason they couldn't find her room on the hotel records, and Fedex returned the parcel to LS before anybody could do anything about it. This is where LS really impressed me: they shipped it to me in Singapore by USPS EMS for free. Ok, so I didn't get any of the samples I requested, but that's a minor quibble at this point.

My order: ProFumum Santalum (sandalwood, myrrh, cinnamon) and Mazzolari Patchouli (Indonesian patchouli, spices, hints of amber, honey), both horrendously overpriced Italian perfumes. Mazzolari came in the prettiest box, like an old-fashioned hardcover volume made of red velvet.

I should be saving to shop in Melbourne next month, but instead, I've been spending more. My only defence is that with my days of being a taitai-wannabe drawing to a rapid end, I can't help but want to enjoy it while it lasts.

Yesterday, I went shopping with A, with the intention of buying a gift for TM. I returned with no gift, but with

• HABA powder wash refill and washing puff
  

• Massimo Dutti cotton top

At the risk of sounding incredibly gauche, I must say I adore the little Chanel carrier bag!

I've also been surveying credit cards, now that I'll soon be eligible for them (again). On my shortlist, I have Citibank Clear Platinum, UOB Lady's (why isn't it Ladies'?) and DBS Takashimaya. Apparently, I can even try for the UOB Platinum (but what would I do with golf privileges?) So much for the cachet of platinum cards!

I'm just too greedy. The other silly thing I've done is to agree to a tuition assignment on Sunday mornings, 9-10.30, before yoga. I'm a sucker for punishment! If the radio freelancing thing does finally come through, will I become a workaholic? Waaah - don't want!!

I went with K to check out Les Exclusifs de Chanel yesterday. I was very excited about them, what with all the hype (Luca Turin raved about them, okay!)

Imagine my disappointment when I sprayed the blotters and found them all kinda... blah. Okay, maybe not the 4 classic boutique scents, but certainly all the new ones. I think I've been misled by the fact that Chris Sheldrake was involved to expect something SL-ish. Nevertheless, I decided to try three on my skin: Coromandel, No. 18 and 31 rue Cambon. The lesson I learnt was that the scents have to be applied on skin to "bloom". I won't try to describe what I smelt here, but I found Coromandel and No. 18 to be worth a second try. I should probably also try the others too, just in case there's a surprise there.

I really like the bottles and the display. The bottle caps are magnetised to stick tight to the bottles, and I find capping and uncapping the bottles rather fun! The testers come with their own stand, with labelled paper blotters neatly arranged in a row of acrylic pockets in front of the bottles. A pull-out table top allows you to rest the bottle you're trying (they're heavy) and lay out your blotters as you spray them. The SA that attended us was annoying, but the boutique was crowded enough for him to find other people to bother.

Unfortunately, the price here is higher than in the States (S$328), and the bottles are so big (200ml!). I anticipate having lots of problems finding people to share them with, should I decide that I have to have one (or two).

My $$ decant haul from Fragrant Fripperies, mostly funded by my eBay sales, arrived today. Yes, I sold perfume to buy more perfume - such is the life of a collector (or addict).

My haul:

Etat Libre d'Orange 1 ml sample set of 11 scents
Caron Farnesiana parfum 5 ml
Caron Tabac Blond parfum 5 ml
Guerlain Mitsouko parfum 5 ml
Montale Black Aoud 5 ml
Montale Jasmin Full 5 ml

The raison d'être for my order was the Etat Libre set, which was going at a discount for pre-orders. Standby for some of the most puerile perfume names ever:

Sécrétions Magnifique (magnificent secretions): iris, cocoa, sandalwood, opoponax

Vraie Blonde (real blonde): aldehydes, Champagne, rose, white pepper, myrrh, patchouli, suede

Je Suis un Homme (I am a man): bergamot, orange bigarade, lemon, myrtle, cinnamon, clove, cognac accord, leather, patchouli, animal notes

Encens et Bubblegum (incense and bubblegum): peach, raspberry, vanilla, lily of the valley, orange blossom musk, incense

Jasmin et Cigarette (jasmine and cigarette): jasmine absolute, tobacco, hay, apricot, tonka bean, turmeric, cedar, amber, musk

Putain Des Palaces (hotel slut): Rose absolute, violet, leather, lily of the valley, tangerine, ginger, rice powder, amber, animal notes

Eloge du Traitre (praise of a traitor): pine, laurel, mugwort, clove, geranium, jasmine, patchouli, leather, musk

Rien (nothing): incense, rose, leather, iris, rock rose, oakmoss, styrax pyrogene, patchouli, amber, cumin, black pepper, aldehydes

Nombril Immense (large belly button): patchouli, balsam of Peru, vetiver, black pepper, sweet myrrh, bergamot, carrot seed, ambrette seed

Antihéros (anti-hero): lavender, musk, wood

Divin'enfant (divine child): orange blossom, rose, amber, musk, leather and tobacco

Two new ones not included in this set are Vierges et Toreros (virgins and bullfighters) and Don't Get Me Wrong Baby, I Don't Swallow. If you'd bothered to click on the link to their website above, you would have seen that their tastes in graphics match their tastes in names.

I'm almost more excited by the parfums I ordered, though. I have a few parfums (Givenchy III, Chanel Cuir de Russie, Guerlain Jicky, DK Black Cashmere) that I hardly wear, so it might seem foolish to buy more. It's just that I've read so much about the beauty of pure parfums (particularly the classics), I'm dying to experience their magic for myself. I think my problem with parfums is that they're so expensive (and therefore precious) and often come in dab bottles, which I hate. The result is that I often pass them over for something in a lighter concentration. Decants are still pricy, but they are more affordable for me, especially to try.

To end the post, here's a picture of the top I bought while shopping with I (a rare event these days - we're so nostalgic for the days of being carefree students in Melbourne!) It's from G2000 "Pink Label", which is new to me.

About a week ago, I decided to spend some of my hard-earned Paypal $$ (I've been supplementing my PG earnings with eBay auctions) on a 50ml bottle of Comme des Garçons Eau de Parfum (the original, not "2"). I've wanted it since trying it at Apothecary & Co, liking it more than Sequoia from the Red series which I honestly thought would be my next CdG purchase. Fortunately for me, the EdP is much more widely available, even at discounter prices. The best deal I found was from French eBayer risto132, who even has the 50ml size I prefer (there are very few perfumes that I need 100ml of). I paid US$35.75 altogether, including shipping, which is much less than the RRP of US$78.

Anyway, it arrived today (quick shipping!) in good condition. When I opened the box, I was surprised to see this:

Yes, the bottle is vacuum-packed! And by scrunching the excess plastic around the bottle, they're able to keep the bottle pretty well-padded against breakage. It reminds me of the bottles from the CdG Synthetic series. Anyway, I'm so tickled by this I haven't cut the bag open yet!

The notes are labdanum, cedarwood, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, honey, clove, nutmeg, sandalwood. This is a very spicy incense scent, and probably won't appeal to everyone. It reminds me quite strongly of the really good, traditional Baieido incense sticks. Particularly this one:

I got this link to some great pictures of Les Salons from the fragrance boards. Clicking on the 3 numbers at the bottom will give you to more thumbnail pictures to click on.

Can you believe I've never been inside? And I have 3 bell jars! Tragic...

My L'Artisan Fleur d'Oranger is here! My bottle is No.703 of 2990. In the end I guess I saved about 18% off the RRP here (from S$415 to S$340, with S$20 going to vPost).

This perfume was produced from the 2004 harvest of orange blossom from Nabeul in Tunisia. The nose was Anne Flipo, and the notes are orange bigarade, petitgrain, neroli, honey, beeswax and orange blossom. Looking at the notes, it's no wonder that this smells so pure and "true". Not that I've smelled real orange blossoms, but there's definitely a freshness about it that gives it a realistic quality.

A belated Happy New Year from me! I spent my New Year's Day sniffling, so 2007 has been quite blah for me.

I have just upgraded to the new Blogger - love the new Layout and Labels functions, but I just wish they had also added more interesting templates. I could find nice ones elsewhere, but few are compatible with the new Blogger features, it seems.

Speaking of blogs, it seems that many people find it difficult to keep track of new posts on their favourite blogs (I'm excepting those who read only LJs). If that's you, then you need a news aggregator. A news aggregator will work not only with blogs but any site with an RSS (or similar) feed. At a glance, you can see which blogs have been updated, and with how many new posts. You can choose to read all the new posts from all your subscriptions, from a particular group of blogs, or from an individual blog, on the same page. I use and love Bloglines because it's web-based and the interface makes it so easy to use. With the latest Firefox, it's become even easier to subscribe to sites with Bloglines, since Firefox's built-in RSS subscription function now offers Bloglines as an option. The blogroll you see on the right sidebar on this page was created from my public Bloglines subscriptions; as my list of subscriptions changes, so does the list on this page. Together with my del.icio.us roll, I never have to edit the links on my blog directly.

I guess the easiest way to talk about what I've been up to is to list my new acquisitions. I've been very good with clothes and shoes shopping recently - nothing new there.

I did buy some new makeup during the recent Isetan private sale: MAC Jadeye and Graphic Brown fluidlines, and Aire-de-blu and Pastorale pigments.

I've also got some new books: Süskind's Perfume (in anticipation of the new film), Deutscher's How to Read Derrida (finished the library's copy and found it worth buying), Mill's Michel Foucault (good reviews) and a copy of Advanced Grammar in Use for self-reference. I bought all but Perfume during Kinokuniya's 20% off sale.

Also new are a pile of CDs: Natsukawa Rimi's Selection, Eason Chan's What's Going On...?, Ivana Wong's 詩情.畫意 and Pet Shop Boys' Fundamental. I've got a few more CDs on my sights - lots of listening to catch up on. Finally, having watched The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し Neko no Ongaeshi) recently, I decided I needed more Studio Ghibli goodness and bought Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便 Majo no Takkyūbin) on DVD.

My recent perfume haul is more substantial. I haven't commented on everything below simply because I haven't tried everything yet.

eBay decants:
Divine L'Homme Sage (my favourite Divine)
Mazzolari Patchouly (excellent amber-dominated patchouli)
Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande (best lavender scent I've tried)
Lorenzo Villoresi Alamut (very pretty, but not for me)
Profumum Santalum
Profumum Patchouly
Eau d'Italie Paestum Rose

Swap decants:
Miller et Bertaux #1
Comme des Garçons Jaisalmer (a spicy incense)
Parfums de Nicolaï Balle de Match (one of my favourite citrus scents)
Lorenzo Villoresi Teint de Neige (my 2nd decant of this sweet, powdery scent)

Samples:
Les Nez set (3 very interesting scents, though no must-haves)
Eau d'Italie set (Paestum Rose plus 3 others)
Divine L'Inspiratrice (their newest and quite pretty)
Andy Tauer Lonestar Memories and Orris (former extremely leathery, latter a limited edition which thankfully I did not fall for)

Full bottles:
Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle (thanks to the very kind S, who brought it back from Palais Royale)
L'Artisan Fleur d'Oranger

Okay, the last I don't actually have yet. I found it for 20% off, local shipping waived, at Vivre.com, and realised only after it'd been shipped that vPost won't forward perfumes anymore. The only way out of the bind was to pay vPost $$ to send the package on to somebody in the US (who will then forward it to me the "usual" way, i.e. lying on the customs sticker). Panicking, I posted on the MUA fragrance board for the first time, asking for a kind-hearted soul who'd help. I did get a few offers, to my relief. Then in a strange twist of fate, it wasn't required anymore.

What happened was that I'd also ordered a wireless laser mouse from eBay, to be delivered in the same vPost shipment. As usual, vPost couldn't match invoice to package correctly, processed the FdO package as the mouse and sent it on the Singapore before I could even arrange for it to be sent to the MUAer. Once I make the vPost payment, it (and the actual mouse) should be delivered.

Despite the happy ending (I'm assuming the package will arrive at my doorstep nice and intact), I worry about how much more difficult it is becoming to order perfumes from abroad. Already, Strawberrynet has stopped selling perfumes. Some vendors are using ground shipping for their customers abroad, but that's both slow and unreliable.

Friends always want to know what I do to fill my time these days. Well...

I watch DVDs (in addition to huge amount of cable tv I already watch daily).

I scan the papers and websites for job opportunities, and send in applications.

I read and write (too occasionally) online.

I sell some things on eBay (makeup and perfumes). For some reason, swap offers have increased recently too.

I started attending yoga classes at the CC.

I cook for the family sometimes, a dish or two for dinner, or a simple lunch.

Here's something new I tried recently that my family really liked: Orange Duck Casserole. I'm cooking mostly non-Chinese dishes, but I try to keep it to stuff that isn't too "exotic" for my family.