Week in Perfume - August 2015 (The Sample Size Edition)

I'm a huge fan of travel sized perfumes, both for their handbag portability and the fact that they allow me to try a range of scents without encumbering me with 100ml bottles to store in my beauty room. Inspired by Larie's recent 'Scents of the Week' and a discussion we had in the comment section of the post, I went about gathering up a few perfumes to set aside and use for the week. It wasn't until I got to number 5 that I realised I had only chosen sample and travel sized scents - seems this sample trend was meant to be!

Kim Kardashian - Kim Kardashian EDP

This is a strong, sexy white floral that I really enjoy wearing. I've gone through a full bottle of this in the past and when I saw this travel rollerball in Las Vegas last year I jumped at the chance to buy it in this format - one of my favourite things about visiting Sephora and other American stores is the huge travel size selection available! It's something we definitely miss out on as Australian's!

Candide Bath & Body Chocolate Macaron Fragrance Oil*

This smells just like I've baked something delicious...in fact, not long after applying it I popped into the kitchen and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I just couldn't help myself! The rollerball leaked a little bit before it got to me so it's a slippery little sucker to open, but delicious nevertheless.

 

Urban Rituelle Caramella Petit Parfum*

After the immense success of the Cotton Candy parfum (one of my all time favourites!) this was a greatly anticipated release from the team at Urban Rituelle! It's definitely sweet and the edge of caramel gets me comments each and every time I wear it (much like Cotton Candy, actually)

 

Lush Lust Gorilla Perfume*

This scent is definitely full on - wear with caution! I originally had the solid perfume in this strong jasmine scent and had wanted to pick up the travel spray, so when I was offered a wee Lush spree at an event I took the opportunity and love that a little spray goes a long way with this stuff.

L'Occitane Sun Verbena EDT

This was the scent I wasn't expecting to like as much as the others, verbena isn't typically a scent I wear as perfume very often...but as it turns out, I quite like wearing a citrus scent! I have a feeling the orange blossom note in this is what turned it from a cleaning product to a happy little jolt of sunshine on my wrist. I think it was my first time using a perfumed towelette to apply a scent sample - that was a pretty interesting experience! Sadly I just found out this is a discontinued scent - L'Occitane do have a regular Verbena scent though!

 

Do you change your perfume daily, or do you have them sorted into work/weekend scents? Are you equally fascinated with travel sized sprays, or is it just me?

-Emma

 

 

*Marked items provided for consideration. Honesty, always.

Week In Perfume - March 2015

It wasn’t until I switched my beauty room from one spare room to the other that I realised how many perfume bottles I actually own (hint: a ridiculous amount!) What makes this fact even worse is that more often than not I forget to apply a spritz from a bottle before I head out the door, relying on my Travalo purse atomizer to keep me smelling sweet throughout the day. At the moment it’s filled with Vivienne Westwood’s ‘Flirty Alice’ so that is getting a good workout, but I thought it was time to rotate and show some love to other scents in my fragrance wardrobe. Here are the scents I wore last week!

Saturday 21^st March - Vivienne Westwood 'Flirty Alice'*

“Embodying the flirtatious charm of the Westwood heroine, this composition begins with fresh and sparkling citrus notes of bergamot accented by aquatic shades of green tea. Its feminine heart captures the scent of rose buds that are ready to bloom. Vanilla and blonde woods blend in the carefree base of the perfume.” (Fragrantica notes)

This is definitely my fallback perfume at the moment, it’s light and easy to wear but still has a bit of spunk about that I think comes from the citrus tones in the fragrance. I feel as though my nose can tell this isn’t an affordable fragrance and that it’s been made by a designer brand, which I also tend to really like. Despise the name but adore the perfume!

Sunday 22nd March - Elizabeth and James 'Nirvana White'

“Both [Nirvana] perfumes are described as sensual, edgy and mysterious. Nirvana White is a musky - floral fragrance composed of peony, lily of the valley and musk…” (Fragrantica notes)

This is a strong, sexy floral scent that reminds me of many of the Stella McCartney scents that Mumma Bovary wears. It’s a punch of fragrance and I love it for that, just wish I had’ve bought the full bottle on our honeymoon! If you follow me on Pinterest you might have noticed my undeniable obsessed with the Olsen family – they can do no wrong in my eyes!

Monday 23^rd March - Benefit ‘So Hooked on Carmella’

“So Hooked on Carmella by Benefit is a Oriental Floral fragrance for women... launched in 2010. Top notes are grapefruit, amalfi lemon and rhubarb; middle notes are tiare flower, peony and cyclamen; base notes are sandalwood, amber and vanilla.” (Fragrantica notes)

This is all about the vanilla and amber for me – my two favourite notes in any fragrance! This induces headaches almost immediately in Mumma Bovary so I can’t wear it around her, but Mister and I love a good strong sweet vanilla scent so I adore this cute perfume.

Tuesday 24^th March – 'Lolavie' by Jennifer Aniston

“Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston is a Floral fragrance for women. Lolavie was launched in 2010. Top notes are citruses and rose; middle notes are jasmine, violet and lily; base notes are musk, sandalwood and amber.” (Fragrantica notes)

Back again with a white floral amber, I just can’t seem to help myself when it comes to scents like this. I originally had this on my wishlist after seeing Allison Andersen (Amarixe on YouTube) talk about it in some videos and I ended up buying this little travel bottle in Vegas and wearing it through our whole holiday. I love how scents can bring back such strong memories with ease!

Wednesday 25th March - Ralph Lauren 'Midnight Romance'*

“Passions are awoken by raspberry, Italian bergamot and juicy litchi in top of the composition; the heart encompasses seductive peony, sambac jasmine and freesia warmed with a sexy blend of black vanilla, ambroxan and iris absolute.” (Fragrantica notes)

I’m not sure that this sweet and fruity scent awakens passions in me, but I can see where they were going with it. This reminds me of Lancome Tresor Midnight Rose which also has peony and vanilla, but in this Ralph Lauren scent I feel like a bit of blackcurrant comes through alongside the litchi/lychee aspect of the fruit notes.

Thursday 26^th March -Demeter ‘Daffodil’*

“Daffodils come in many types and variations. We chose the Poeticus Daffodil for the heart of Demeter's Daffodil, creating a light, almost playful floral scent with hints of greenery. Very feminine and slightly sweet, Daffodil is in the tradition of other Demeter florals that are inspired by the living flower, not a concentrated, perfumed version of Daffodil.” (Demeter Fragrance Library notes)

Mumma Bovary’s favourite flowers are daffodils and mine are jonquils, so it made sense to choose this fragrance to test from MU Australia when they reached out to me. I definitely sense the ‘greener’ aspect of this and it doesn’t really smell as strongly as a jonquil flower (which is probably better for most people as they find it too strong, but the scent happens to be my all-time favourite natural scent!!) I love how original and inventive Demeter fragrances are!

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I found changing up my perfume everyday a really positive experience, it was great to use unloved bottles and it has made me notice trends in my scent wardrobe which I think will be helpful when I decide to buy another bottle of the pricy juice. My favourite picks from the week would have to be ‘Nirvana White’ and ‘So Hooked on Carmella’ – the sweet and strong prevail, it seems!

What perfumes have you been wearing this week?

-Emma

*Provided for consideration. Honesty, always.