Y’ALL. After two exams and fifty pages of essays, I am somehow finished with my very last set of college finals EVER EVER EVER. I so don’t have a full post in me today, but I just had to check in and see how everyone’s doing! What are the haps? What’s the best new (or new to you!) perfume you’ve tried recently? Any fun recent purchases? What perfumes are you looking forward to trying? As for me, I’ve been buying more nail polish than perfume recently, including the very festive Nails Inc. Sweets Away. Tom Ford Sahara Noir is my biggest must-try ever since Bois de Jasmin described it as “incense and amber to the power of ten”.
SCENTS OF SELF 
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really want to try the new Le Labos, and the new Dyptique.
I’m really loving Aldehyde 44, which I finally got my mitts on. And of course, it’s now GONE. UGH.
Oh, I can’t wait to try the new Le Labo Lys! I’m sure the Ylang will be great too, but ylang-ylang is less of my scene.
That’s sooo sad about Aldehyde 44! Maybe there’s someone out there who doesn’t want their guaranteed refills and would be willing to sell them to you? For an insane price, of course!
Yeah, I haven’t checked eBay, etc. I better move fast!
What’s the deal with their guaranteed refills? I just need a bottle and show up at a Le Labo store?
Yes, I believe that’s exactly it. I doubt they check ID! 😉
Well done Ari! Now you deserve a break and some time with your real and online friends 🙂
I’d like to try Eau d’Italie Acqua Decima and New Dior Privee named Gris Montaigne, but no luck with finding someone who would swap for these so far.
Thank you, Lucas! It is very exciting to finally emerge from my finals cave, as I’m sure you know! I haven’t tried either of those perfumes, but I wonder if “Gris” is Dior’s attempt to one-up Chanel’s “Beige” 😉
I know the pain of exams, but you’re graduating this year and in Polish university system I still have one year to go.
Congratulations, Ari! You are truly an awesome human bean. Take a well-deserved rest. Nothing big w/me, just really concentrating on anti-aging skincare. Probably too late, hah! I’ve recently rediscovered SSS Ambre Noir. I was so-so on it when first sniffed, now I’m loving it.
Thank you so much, Julie!! I’ve been wondering myself whether it’s too early to start using anti-aging products, but have so far been deterred by the fact that they’re generally pricier.
Yea, I just use the drugstore brands. All those years frying in the Florida sun are coming back to bite me. Sunscreen should be considered an anti-aging product.
Congratulations, Ari!
Thank you so much, Birgit! BTW, I was so happy to read your Ashoka review- I just knew it would be a winner.
Congratulations, Ari!! I’ve been a nail polish kick, too. Bought the new Chanel Bel Argus and Taboo for my daughter. Wanted to get Lilas, but it was really close to other colors I already had, so I decided to pass.
Can’t think of any new perfumes I desperately need to try. When I’m in NYC at the beginning of June, I’ll probably stop in at Bergdorf’s and Barney’s and sniff there.
What’s next for you? Do you have some time off before you head into the work world? Best of luck to you!
Oh, Taboo is such a gorgeous color! I can’t wait for the inevitable (cheaper!) knock-offs 😉
The future is very uncertain at the moment! I’ve been so focused on passing all seven classes that I haven’t done a single job application yet. I’m a little nervous about it, actually!
Fifty pages of essays! Wow! You worked hard girl!
Thank you so much, Barbara! The essays were way tougher than the exams, because I’m a pretty slow writer.
Way to go Ari! Congratulations… I can only imagine the weight off your shoulders. Now it’s time for summer fun!
Thank you, SH!! Alas, my summer fun will most likely consist of job applications 😀
Congratulations! Such a freeing feeling, isn’t it, to walk out of that last exam. Glad to see you back online here already, too!
Thank you, Joanne! It was very surreal walking out of the final final. At least, I hope it was my final final… I only have 4/7 grades back yet!
I think you’ll like Sahara Noir. It is very good. Lots of incense and amber, but I personally don’t think it is as amped up as some have made out. It wore fairly soft on my skin but I loved it.
Congratulations! What a great feeling. My husband is a grad student and will be done for the semester this Friday. Looking forward to him having a little more free time this summer. But because he is crazy and wants his PhD, he’s still got a whole lot longer to go.
Nothing new that I am dying to try. I think I will get myself a bottle of JM Blackberry & Bay soon – Neiman Marcus is doing some promotion with Discover now they accept it and it’s basically $30 off a purchase! I will get it once I finish my studying – I have to take a certification test for work and it will be my congratulatory gift to myself (granted I pass!).
Congratulations Ari, I hope you take some time for yourself before starting with the job applications. I just got a sample of Seville A l’Aube yesterday. It is lovely, I may have to get a decant, sadly it is out of my affordable price range.
Welcome back and Congratulations!
The best (new to me) thing that I’ve tried lately is Lalique’ s Hommage à l’Homme. I blind bought a bottle -something I do waaaaay too often- and I love it! I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course, at this time of the year I mostly “shop at home” and rediscover my neglected “summer” fragrances. But this year, for some reason, temperature going hot one day, freezing the next, I’ve been wearing a lot of leather frags. Cuir de Russie, naturally, but also Traversée du Bosphore, Montana’s Eau de Peau, Parfum d’Homme, Black Edition, Trussardi Uomo, et tutti quanti.
Congrats! Glad you made it through it all okay. Take some time for yourself if you can. Relax and enjoy a bit.
Yay, Ari! You deserve a treat.
I too want to try the new Tom Ford. Sort of feels like who needs another amber, but if it’s a cheaper version of LADDM, sign me up!
Fifty pages? Congratulations!!! Have a wonderful summer!
Congrats, Ari!
congratulations, Ari
well done
I’m so glad to see you back, I miss you
good luck with the applications !
zelda became a beautiful grown up
Bravo!
The only perfume discovery for me that might tempt me soon is Lab on Fire’s What We Do In Paris Is Secret.
Congrats, Wishing you success!
Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 18:01:29 +0000 To: ayotol@hotmail.com
SO HAPPY YAY FOR YOU!!!!
Bookworm is about to finish her Gov School stuff (last exam tomorrow, but it’s a bear: physics), and then graduation the day after she turns 18, on May 31.
Am ca-RAZY into leather lately. Don’t know what’s up with that, but grrrrr give me some floral leathers please. (Wearing Jolie Madame and Memoir and Cuir de Lancome, and… wait for it… actually had a good experience for once with the Chanel Cuir de Russie that used to smell like our cattle working pens. Just yesterday, it was pretty much all ylang and saddle, which was a vaaaast improvement.) I need more leather.
But not Bandit. And as nice as Cuir Ottoman is, it’s ambery, and not really what I want.
Actually, you know? I just want an unlimited supply of vintage Jolie Madame parfum. My land, that stuff packs a frickin’ wallop – it is leather plus violet with a side of gardenia, as if the Sugar Plum Fairy put on combat boots and started kicking a** and taking names before giving everyone a corsage and some candy.
Congratulations on finishing up school. So proud, bb! Knew you could do it! Also, Zelda looks fabulous there, sunning herself. I need to meet this cat and give her kisses, but I suspect it would end up with me doing my Elmyra from Tiny Toons impersonation. KISS YOURSELF! I’m like a high-strung 4 year old when meeting new kittehs.
My recent perfume purchases were Carthusia Mediterraneo because for all my love of Italian colognes in summer, I was lacking something the smelled like straight up lemon spritzer. Of course, it ended up smelling like tea w/ lemon peel and delicate dusting powder, which is actually gorgeous. My other recent purchase was to finally buy a bottle of L’Air du desert marocain which I’ve been vying after for over three years when I first received a sample along w/ my bottle of Avignon. I want to just roll around in it. It works so well with the heat.
In other fragrant news, I’ve been having this ongoing struggle w/ trying to raise a Chrysler Imperial rose. The first attempt resulted in me lovingly tending to a dying bare roots rose for upwards of 6 weeks. This is probably a commentary on my life, but it just kind of makes me laugh. So, I got another one which appeared to be in better condition. 4 weeks in and the roots had done nothing, so that got an 18 floor send-off down the trash chute yesterday after I finally went to Merrifield Garden Centre and viola! they had hybrid tea rose bushes and there was my beautiful Chrysler Imperial. So I spent yesterday afternoon flinging potting soil across my tarp covered kitchen floor in an attempt to transfer it into a larger container and realized that this was a terribad idea from the get-go, but after 45 minutes I had it planted, the floor vaccumed & mopped, & my rose bush basking in the afternoon sunlight. I picked this type of rose because it’s extremely fragrant, and I’m desperately hoping it actually makes it this time. Also, word of advice, when you live in a highrise apartment, trying to replant a rose bush is a really bad idea. Find a friend with a yard, otherwise it looks like you’re trying to clean up after a murder. The things I do when my husband is out of town.
Now that you’re done with school, we need to have a perfume shopping date, or just hang out in general. I’ll make my raspberry serrano white sangaria and we can lovingly coo over my rose bush like crazy ladies.
Yyaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!! For you!!!!!! Bc you are awesome!!!!!!
The Tom Ford is indeed good. We’ll have to get you some to sniff.
I have Roja Dove’s Amber Oud and it is teh precioussssss.
How long will you be there? I can send you a care package. But not if you’re En Route.
Congrats on getting through to the other side! I’ve been in a bit of a work tunnel myself – nothing as momentous as finals, mind – and my perfume lemmings are all forgotten or sleeping. I guess they will stir by and by, but for now my mind is blank! Enjoy your summer – richly deserved. : – )