Unboxing Belle Âme from Toronto perfume brand Les Abstraits. My favourite perfume from the three that launched. Love this luxe packaging and I had to really savor the moment and not rush it. I really love this perfume and it’s my favourite of the 3 that have been released. It’s a cozy dry cocoa, iris perfume that’s comforting and easy to wear.
Perfumes mentioned:
Dior Bois D’Argent
Olfactive Studio Chypre Shot
Serge Lutens Arabie
Guerlain Oud Nude
Cherigan The Purple Bar
Most worn: Glossier You, Zoologist Camel, Frederic Malle Carnal Flower, a chaotic mix if there ever was one but it represents what my perfume collection is.
Glossier You is a compliment-getter every time. It’s a clean musk but with warm ambrette that really gets better and better as you wear it. Sillage is good and lasting power is amazing. Has Glossier You reached its peak now that it’s a Sephora and everyone can get their hands on it? I probably won’t get another bottle once this one is done.
Zoologist Camel is a warm date-forward perfume, with rose and a touch of oud. It’s got a vegan animalic note too. I love the heaviness of this bottle and how lux the cap looks. Lutens Arabie is my other date perfume and it’s on my wishlist because I adore the smokiness of it. I wish that Zoologist had put the perfumer’s name on the bottle like Frederic Malle does. Each Zoologist perfume is done by a different perfumer, so why not?
Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle, maybe the perfume that’s most “me”, make of that what you will.
Tell me what you wore the most.
Realizing the profound loneliness of being an adult. You’re in it for you and nobody but you, and Bottega Veneta edp is all that in a bottle.
Maybe because I was having a day, I did the odd thing of spraying this at work instead of at home, and everyone who stepped inside the door paused thoughtfully at the threshold.
I was told that I smelled like the natural remnants of a perfume.
That this was probably how my house smelled.
Was I wearing something French today?
This is the only perfume that makes sense, because I’m still leaving into the Iris, and leather, and this is a powdery suede. There’s some Violet too, but without being candy-like. Maybe I wore this because I was feeling like a melted lipstick and I needed to smell like it. I wore my favourite perfume that day, and saw people, and found joy in that.
Bottega Veneta is adjacent to Guerlain’s Bois d’Armenie but without as much benzoin and vanilla making it less sweet. It’s also missing the smokiness so it’s not an incense scent as much as an Iris leather. It’s a closer dupe of Armani Privé’s Cuir Amethyste which is also by Michel Almairac, but of course Bottega Veneta is a fraction of the price and none of the awards.
Michel Almairac has a line called Parle Moi de Parfum, and there’s an orris perfume in there that I wouldn’t mind trying, and I need to see if I’ve come across samples from the brand. Apparently, he figured out a new way to create this lovely sueded leather accord, and it’s a secret and he won’t tell.
Tell me your favourite powdery perfume.
Full size only.
Empties that is.
And that’s just the kind of week it’s been.
I ran out of my prescription retinol and I’ve had it for over a year so that’s how long it lasts even when you use it regularly. I’d say it’s worth it. This is a micro-encapsulated Tretinoin which means that it gets released on your skin in a slower dose rather than a lot hitting it all at once. It’s better if you’re trying to avoid irritation but it’s still very very strong and even after a year of it, my skin can’t tolerate it nightly.
I use a more gentle retinol too, and just finished the Trinny London Overnight Sensation. This is a retinal so it’s a little stronger than other options but still not as strong as prescription.
I also finished my favourite Maybelline foundation, and this is discontinued. I’ll say that drugstore foundation colours have come a long way and it’s nice that I can find a warm golden colour for my skin pretty easily. I’m switching to Fenty for now, but I do have this in a darker colour which is what I use in the summer.
Alterna Scalp serum! I actually used this. I just massage it into my scalp once a day and it didn’t make my hair greasy either. I think the applicators made it super easy to apply and so I reached for it more than the Ordinary one, but I will go back to using The Ordinary one now.
Lastly, the Neem and Tulsi face wash is from the Indian store and the Body Oil is from Chermere Beauty and imported from Trinidad and Tobago. I mixed it with coffee grounds and scrubbed my skin with it weekly and I think you should too.
Pat McGrath Superstar mascara. I can’t believe I’ve never heard anyone talk about this one before. It’s so volumizing and gave me serious lashes but without smudging all over the place. The real ones will remember me having tried the FetishEyes mascara that came out a few years ago and that one is super smudgy. As you can see, I’m into luxury mascaras right now. I just love the amount of pigment they have and there seems to be more in the tube. A drugstore mascara is great and of course, you can replace it every month but the performance on this one is amazing.
I’ve had so many people message me last weekend and ask about The Ordinary’s Multi-Peptide Serum for Hair Density. I also had a lot of people dm me and tell me that it was the best and that they were using it in their hair and loved it, LOVED IT. Lots of people said that it helped with hair growth and with thinning hair. People said that there was no hair product like it, nothing else in their lineup of products that was irreplaceable like this one is. For me, that spot goes to Wonder Water, and honestly, I don’t have a problem with thinning hair,. I added this to the cart last November when Deciem was having their 23% off sale and I was getting free shipping. I figured that using this couldn’t hurt, and it hasn’t hurt. I kind of love giving myself the massage when I apply this to my scalp, and I just do it when I’m rinsing my mouth with mouthwash since I have to do that for 30 seconds anyway. That’s the true meaning of multitasking.
This serum has a peptide complex that helps hair grow, the research is there for the ingredients. However, you do need a certain amount of the peptide in the formula in order for it to work, and we don’t know the concentration in this formula, which is weird because The Ordinary prides itself on being transparent with its ingredients. In any case, this might work for you if you have thinning hair. The other thing to do is to make sure your scalp is clean – so lay off the dry shampoos and just wash your hair. You could also try regular scalp massages as increasing blood circulation to the scalp has been shown to help hair growth.
Does this make your hair greasy? Kinda. I find it best to NOT use at my part and I apply it everywhere else. I also apply it after I wash my hair while my hair is still wet and that helps it not be so greasy.
I don’t like leather and don’t like gourmands, but I can get behind this leather gourmand if we want to call it that. It’s Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur. It picks up the benzoin where Candy left off and takes the sweets to the circus.
When you first spray it, you definitely get a blast of the barnyard and cotton candy mixed together, maybe you’re at a kid’s birthday party at the petting zoo. The barnyard smell is thanks to castoreum but also hay which brings a sweetness. There’s a bit of a skanky musk, a waxiness, and powdery sweet benzoin. Instead of leather paired with florals, this is leather paired with something yummier and it just works but it’s not for everyone.
It definitely smells dirty and sweet, but when I wear it I’m the topper on a cake, observing (and smelling) chaos without letting it bother me.
If I’m talking about leathers I like, I go from Dzing! to Cuir de Russie.
While Dzing! is dirty, Cuir de Russie is clean, the leather there thanks to birch tar, a mix of soapy florals, jasmine and rose, but also a bit of ylang ylang. Dzing! is whimsical and playful, Cuir de Russie is buttoned-up and formal.Where Dzing! uses the element of surprise, Cuir de Russie gives you what you would expect from Chanel. Refined elegant outdoorsiness.
Do you like this kind of a formula? It’s not sticky and very pigmented but feels like a balm on instead of a lipstick or even lipgloss. I feel like these lipsticks are nice but don’t stay on but at least they are not sticky and your hair doesn’t get caught in them.
YSL’s formula was one of the first on the market.
Elizabeth and James Nirvana Bourbon is said to be a dupe for Guerlain’s revered Spiriteuse Double Vanille. Other than the overdose of vanilla, I can’t see the similarities, and it’s like buying a Zara version of the latest design by your favourite designer. The effect might be the same momentarily, but a while into its wear the cheaper version just falls apart. I remain unmoved by either and there’s no vanilla that I really love. I’ve always been more into chocolate anyway.
Watch the full video comparison of these two scents.
