Went sniffing,recent buys and Synchronizing on Fridays...

Friday July 11th, 2014
Today's synchronized Friday theme is flankers .
 ( To those of you who are newbies to the perfume hobby a flanker is a sequel to the original creation -and often not as good as the original [or connected by anything but the name]but a easy way to market something to keep the brand in the public eye ).
My favorite flanker is probably Samsara Shine which is what I chose to wear today. It ,unlike many other flanker scents IS very similar to its origins . The Shine variation adds a soft,fruity touch to the top notes with fig leaves , red current,and citruses. This is by no means frooty candy stuff ! Samsara Shine IS a Guerlain after all and does live up to its heritage with a rich ylangylang and jasmine  florals and sandalwood as it's primary attributes.
After a crazy work shift ( manager was late , register till was weird, and the LB ordering was down ,and then the power went out cause some knucklehead had to go cause a big wreck and knock out the digital box for phone lines! Heard that a truck had caught fire too from the wreck so it must've been pretty bad. The fire alarm blared and lights strobed ( for no good reason for probably an hour - I still have a slight headache from the cacophony!) I went over to Belk to return two dresses that were not as described( polyester in description , rayon upon arrival ,one print not as pictured either!)and while there spent a while sniffing a few scents.
  I started at the Lauder counter and smelled the newest flanker to Pleasures , Pleasures Flower. It was quite nice ( I sampled it on skin  on my way back out) . Flower smelled similar to EA Green Tea and EA Pretty eau de Cologne . I could pick out citrusy scent, apple blossomy ( peony and rose ) and lily of the valley . May be a limited edition I need  to pick up.
I also skin sampled Pleasures Delight . It smelt like Angel maybe minus some of the pineyer aspects of the patchouli note. This one's been recently discontinued ,and I like it so I placed a bid on some after I got back home. Between the initial card sniffing and the final skin test on the way out the door I got other cards sprayed with:
Clinique Calyx-fruity different and interesting note progression ,going on the to buy list.
D&G La Lune -soft sweet pepper citrus? Interesting.
D&G La Amouroux- which smells somewhat masculine upon later sniffing of the card but perhaps it got too near something else in my bag?
Three of the Gucci flower collection Violet - nice soft floral similar to F but with a bit more peony.
                                                  Gardenia- okay sorta dryer and warmer than a true Gardenia scent  .
                                                  Mandarin- I seem to recall this smelling the best of these Gucci that I skin tested previously. Card may have also acquired some masculine scents from my purse.
Oscar de la Renta  Live in Love - smells very good, OdlR usually does good fragrances,this is no exception. As I saw a bottle on Ebay for under $20 ,it'll probably be a new addition sooner than later.
Untold by Elizabeth Arden caught my eye ( pretty bottle) but the scent was shampoo and a bit of licorice . Meh. Another pretty bottle and new release is Lucky Brand Lucky Darling sort of soft like Essence of Woman by Benetton mixed with M by Mariah Carey.Like. Easy wear type. Probable buy.
Lastly I tested on cards a couple of Rihanna 's scents Nude and Rogue.
Rogue .........was funny . It opened on paper with a strong cough syrup smell - the counter guy for Clinique agreed said it was cherry cough syrup.later it seemed to go into a lemonish cleaner musk unless I'm mixing the two cards up ! One (Nude?)gets a synthetic " creamy-ish musky vanilla "  in the dry down which may not be terrible but it isn't wowing me either here at home . In store the scent was developing to be a copy of Betsey Johnson's first ( self named ) scent which I already have. As Rihanna has a somewhat dicey reputation I'm not really unhappy to pass on collecting her line.

Wednesday April 16,2014

Showered with BBW Black Amethyst gel and body cream. I'm smelling good! I need to send a package to a fellow BNer and should get a box eventually from another one. Some Teo Cabenal samples ,VC&Arpels,and Diva by Ungaro. I can't go very strongly scented just now- choir practice later. I'll probably dose up with either a deep Rose or Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle .

Going and coming-perfume shareing

Today I got  a variety of perfumes decanted into samples to share in a semi-swap .
Marjorie had offered the Marina de Bourbon fragrance( fb) free to good home as well as JPG Classique parfum mini .She was giving others away as well .Marjorie is into spicy roses right now like Amouage Lyric or OJ Tai'f . She also is interested in trying linden,heliotrope,and any other unusual florals.

I am sending :
Roberto Cavalli Oro-woodsy-creamy-spice
Urban Rituelle Siam Ginger-Orange spice tea
Bvlgari Au T'he Rouge-smoky tea
Chopard Madness-Rosewood hit
Dior Dolce Vita -heliotrope is supposed to be in it
La Perla -Musky rose chypre
Basile -spicey rose
CDG edp -ditto
Cabaret -Lyric dupe
Balmain Ambre Gris- cardamomy-spicey
Kenzo Jungle L'Elephant -ditto
Organza Indecence-ditto again
YSL Nu edp -insence floral
Ineke Sweet William-different floral
may add a Jo malone lime blossom possibly..and maybe some Nantucket Briar ,the hawthorne note is quite nice.....
Boy do I smell interesting after all these!

Yesterday for Sync Fri I wore a lotta dabs of Un Air de Samsara for the Guerlain noses sync. Wore fairly soft all day at work (and I wouldn't have minded scentbombing the place a bit) .I ended up doing freight most of my shift and I found a 5x8 rug out back that was getting tossed from Kirkland's -so it smells of potpourri they aparrently weren't able to sell it and so they slashed it ( Mom & I taped the back) and tossed it. It's interesting to see if Zorro (17 lb black male cat) will "misbehave" on it -we are using it as a test run .If he behaves himself we can upgrade to a undamaged rug that we have to pay for.

Today I wore Nantucket Briar (shower gel/lotion/edp) and Aarid xxdry Regular AP/d stick as both are carnation-y spicy . NB has a bit of a powdery retro older scent (it should -it's been around since the '70's I think) and the SG though new has a bit of watercolor-tempra paint smell in the bottle .It smells spicer when used.

Chuch tomorrow ,scent is faded enough now to be okay .May apply something else once home perhaps something vanilla or green...

To Begin

This is going to be my blog to review fragrances and anything that smells (candles /room sprays /diffusers etc.). I may or may not do SOTD/SOTE/SOTN/etc.

I will probably try to participate with the Basenotes Syncronized Fridays but I am often a bit forgetful of it when I get busy.
I hope I can develop better writing skills and review my perfume experiences .Maybe I can cull some of my collection as I define my personal likes and loves for scents .With my current collection already over 400 scents and a LOT of others that I really like and want too ,somethin's(to quote Fred Astaire in Daddy Long Legs) gotta give .So blog giveaways are  a eventual possibility.I may also host sample passes .
Getting late .I'll try to blog at least once a week .
Wore Ted Lapidus Creation  today (and did create two new blogs -too! )
Yeah -I know very punny.