The holidays are a perfect time to give a fragrance gift to a woman you care about. Manufacturers and designers offer lovely gift sets of their popular fragrances and new perfumes for consumers to try. If you are stumped on a gift, check out my fragrance suggestions for every type of woman. All suggestions are under $100.00 and most are under $70.00.
1. Estee Lauder is a classic fragrance brand that always has numerous holiday gift sets to choose from. Try the Limited Edition Estee Lauder Pleasure Bloom Gift Set for $55.00. The gift set includes 1.7 Eau de Parfum Spray and .17 Eau de Parfum Atomizer. The gift set is presented in a lovely coral box with etched golden peonies. Fragrance notes include but are not limited to; violet, peony, grapefruit and raspberry. I would recommend this fragrance for a woman with a youthful spirit and a lot of energy. This woman prefers a fragrance that is contemporary without being too trendy.
2. Kim Kardashian Love Collection- Personal life of the spokesperson aside; this lovely collection includes three, 1 oz. eau de parfum sprays of Kim's scents; Love, Gold and Signature. You may not be able to find this set, on my last search it was sold out on two popular internet sites. People are buying it for the irony. Could become a collectors item. I recommend this for a woman who is trendy and current and must have all the latest in fashion and beauty.
3. My Life by Mary J. Blige Gift Set - I am pleasantly surprised to see Mary J representing Carol's Daughter as a beauty spokeswoman. I grew up with the sounds of Mary J. Blige soundtracking my adolescence. For the holiday's, consider the My Life Gift Set. The website describes the scent as a fragrance "that’s as sweet, passionate and soulful as her lyrics". This set includes: My Life Mary J. Blige Eau de Parfum, 1.7 fl oz and a My Life Mary J. Blige Keepsake Clutch. Available on the Carol's Daughter Website as well as the Home Shopping Network. I would recommend this fragrance for a woman who is natural and confident. She likes fashion, but she is classic and original, not following trends, but always looking good.
4. Dark, Gothic, alternative. These are words that describe your special womans lifestyle. She wouldn't be caught dead in anything that was mass marketed or produced for the "regular" public. She scoffs at commercialism and prefers under represented artisan brands. For an exceptional and innovative option, I suggestBlack Baccara's Fairy Story Artisan Perfume Oils Set. Just the names of the scents evoke fanciful dreams and mythical imagery; Titania, Water Nymphs and Star Fish. The price is pretty reasonable as well.
5. This last suggestion is for a sultry woman who embraces her femininity. The Signature Fragrance Seductive Luxuries Gift Set from Frederick's of Hollywood is the perfect set for a woman who is not afraid to indulge in her sex appeal. The set includes; 1.7 oz bottle of Signature Fragrance, Seductive Shimmering and Seductive Body Silk. The packaging is a red box, with black lace accents, very naughty. The fragrance notes include, jasmine, patchouli, mandarin, and cashmere musk.
Take these suggestions and buy that special woman in your life a gift that reflects her personality. If you have personality geared suggestions, I would love to see them in the comments.
As some one who purchases fragrances on the internet, about 98% of the time I found this recent Australian article quite disturbing. The West online edition, discussing counterfeit products, reported that a number of bargain perfumes obtained through the internet, include unknown chemicals and a few "extra" ingredients;
Australian consumer watchdog Choice says tests on fake fragrances have found traces of human urine and pond water.
Considering that commercial perfumes (the most likely to be counterfeited), use synthetic means to create fragrances, I am left wondering where does this urine and pond water come from? Filler possibly?
This is a great article to read around Christmas time, when shoppers are hitting the internet for discounts on fragrance gifts for their family. Be careful out there. Click here to read the rest of the article.
There are many places you can find perfume oil on the internet. Sometimes they have exotic and sexy names and sometimes they have names that are familiar to you. How are you to determine what the sent actually smells like? What is sweet to you may be bitter to me. You can try to compare it to fruits or flowers, but what does musk actually smell like?
I have taken a few scents that stand out and tried to summarize what the smell like.
Your scent is your signature. I prefer not to smell like everyone else. In my personal perfume collection, I have been attracted to the marketing and promotion of many scents that were widely available in drug stores and department stores. As I matured, I grew to look for the more obscure, exotic and lesser known perfumes. The more obscure and less available the less likely another woman is wearing that scent. This creates another dilemma. If a perfume is too obscure it won't stay on the market long. Next thing you know, you can't find it all.
Here are 3 of my top tips to help you find discontinued and vintage perfumes.
1. Ebay - On Ebay.com, you can find just about anything. That is good and bad. The good thing is that it has hundreds of listings of discontinued and vintage perfume. The bad thing is the seller knows that and may jack the price up due to its limited availability. I lucked out a few months ago when I bought a lot of six vintage fragrances for a very reasonable price. At least three of them, I had never even heard of and smelled very vintage and floral and different from the candy-apple-vanilla-floral collage of fragrances that are available now. There is a richness about a vintage scent due to the age and the time its sat in the bottle that makes it a gem among rocks.
2. Estate Sales - Go to the right estate sale and you can find really good quality, well preserved vintage and discontinued fragrances. I like to go to estates in rural areas that get less traffic in order to spend my dollars. You can find these sales in your local paper as well as on the internet. Be careful, some sites may require you pay for a list that if you search hard enough is available for free. Save that money for your next perfume.
3. Friends and Family - You would be surprised by how much a simple question can get you, "do you want that?" Many people buy perfume or receive it as a gift, wear it once and never open the bottle again. These people are also your relatives and friends. Try swapping something of yours for something of theirs. I have found many a bottle that my aunts or cousins don't use and don't want, and they were more than happy to give it to me.
Three tips you can use to find that long lost scent. Please feel free to share some of your vintage and discontinued fragrance finding tactics in the comments, I would love to hear about them.
Miniature perfume bottles are adorable. When I see them, I just want to snatch them right up! This week I have a few available for purchase as a lot on ebay.
What do you think of the concept of swallowing a scent or perfume in a pill? The jury is still out for me as I really enjoy the ritual of spraying, slathering and powdering myself with a fragrance. I barely take vitamins now. I can't see me actually remembering to pop my perfume pill.
And what if your sick? We are all familiar with how when your body is malfunctioning your body will release the toxins through your skin, and sometimes, it stinks. Will you smell like some sort of conflagration of vomit and roses? Forget all that ease of use, they will try to sell you on, the most important thing is will I smell good and is it safe, of course. Australian ballerina Lucy McRae is the visionary and force behind the concept of a swallowable perfume, below is her description for how it works;
"Fragrance molecules are excreted through the skin's surface during perspiration, leaving tiny droplets on the skin that emanate a unique odour. The potency of scent is determined by each individual's acclimatisation to temperature, stress, exercise or sexual arousal."
In my search for vintage scents, I came across a great article written about the exploration of perfumery starting in African countries other than Egypt.
I particularly enjoyed the description of dry perfumes, excerpt below;
Both the Himba and the San makes a dry perfume for personal use. The Tsumkwe (Namibia) San women not only know many different species of aromatic herbs, but are also skilled at creating their own individual perfume powder. Originally, the powder bags were made from tortoise shell, decorated with ostrich eggshell beads, seeds, grasses and roots. A piece of fur was applied to the shell openings for applying the powder. Wildlife authorities have discouraged the use of tortoise shell, and today most bags are made from horn.
This site also has an exotic collection of artisan perfumes, that I am interested in trying. Check it out.
This post is a little late, because I was busy researching my new (old) fragrances. Today is part one in my six part review of what I bought on Ebay, see Duking it out on Ebay for background.
Fragrance 1
Countess Maritza Silent Night Toilet Water
To start off, this is the toilet water version of the fragrance and has a high alcohol to perfume ratio and thus smells heavily of alcohol. That being said, overall it has that "grandmother's closet" scent to it. As a novice, I am straining to pick up any heart notes, and all I smell unfortunately is cheap scent. I will reserve my judgement on this scent. Its possible that due to the lack of proper storage and the fact that it is toilet water that the original scent has faded. To add insult to injury, I am struggling to find background information on the brand and this particular scent. One bonus is the bottle is really cool. It has a sun embossed on both sides which is kind of ironic, because the scent is "Silent Night" and on the bottom of the bottle the glass is an embossed signature "Countess Maritza."
All in all, it takes a lot to disappoint me and I am totally pleased with this 1/6 of my purchase. The one ounce bottle is almost 100% full (it will most likely stay that way), the bottle design is intriguing and the mystery behind who is this Countess Maritza and what does the real Silent Night smell like will keep me interested. If you have information about this particular perfume, I would love to know more, please comment or email me resurrectedscent@gmail.com.
"Sleeping with the Enemy, Coco Chanel's Secret War", by Hal Vaughan explores Coco Chanel's connections to a Nazi military intelligence agency as well as a relationship with a dangerous Nazi agent.
The real question for me is this - I am positive this is not a new revelation. There are many modern day brands that had Nazi connections(VW). Is it our ability to forgive a person for their personal biases if they make a good enough product or is it the amazing ability of media gatekeepers that keeps this information under-wraps for 60 years so it's totally irrelevant to today's consumers?
Just a few questions to consider. I look forward to reading the book, but not sure how it will effect my view of an iconic perfumer.
Its Friday night and I decide what perfume goodies, might I find Ebay? Seeing as I don't have much of a budget, I went to see what low cost gems I could sneak a bid on at the last minute.
First attempt - A vintage bottle of JOY, in its original box with about 1/3 of the perfume left in it. It had 4 bids and was at $18.50. I decided to employ my patent pending, sure way of winning an Ebay auction method(Of course I can not share it with you!), but my husband, Mr Pesky Pessimissm, insisted, I was waiting too long and so I bid to early, and lost out. It went for $26.25
Second Attempt - A lot of 6 vintage perfume bottles full of perfume. The bottles looked a little dusty, but I wondered what bottled gold was held within. 1 bidder $0.99, 16 minutes to go. Here is what was in the lot;
Figurine Cologne
Countess Maritza Silent Night Toilet Water
20 Carats Cologne
Quelques Fleurs
Chantilly Houbigant
Cytherea Paris
So with Pesky Pessimism temporarily gone, I waited like a tiger in the jungle for the right moment and then..... wait for it...... POUNCE! Its mine. $5.50 plus shipping. I am now the proud owner of the above vintage scents, and of course I have no idea what I own, so I am itching to get my research on. And of course I can't wait to smell them, but by looks of them, I hope they have aged well........
So now I wait for my package to arrive. I let you know if it was worth it.
I like to research any endeavor that I am going to put my time and energy to which includes this blog and its contents. Like a good blogger I have checked out the other scentastic(yeah, I just did that) individuals reviewing perfumes, providing discontinued scents and purveyors of vintage memorabilia. I came to the rude awakening that I am a perfume novice. There is a whole other world of fragrance and perfume that I have not even begun to explore. Basically I know nothing.
So the question is what does a non expert have to offer when there are so many well read and researched blogs on scent? That will remain to be seen. I am committed to the adventure of it all. First things first, I have to get sniffing. My budget is small, really non existent. So I am on the hunt for samples and taking my opportunities as they come. But what I really need to smell is no longer in production, I want to smell discontinued scents. Am I making this too hard? Not at all, I love a challenge. Good for me I have other interest, like vintage advertisements and perfume bottles and offering perfume oil. I have to say I was a little bit discouraged, but what is life without adventure.
Coming up: The sniff around; how to sample scents without spending a dime.
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