Perfume Notes (October 2018)

2018-10-052018-10-06 fivezero10 Comments

Instead of doing a perfume roundup this month for the scents I’ve tested, I thought I’d do a little organization, instead. While I have been rather disappointed by a great number of the new releases I’ve tried, there are still plenty of scents I missed out on over the years, and for which I am now pining. Here’s my current wishlist, divvied up into several different categories.

Top 10: Definite Wishlist

Annick Goutal — Rose Absolue

1984 | May rose, Turkish rose, Bulgarian rose, Damascus rose, Egyptian rose, Moroccan rose

I’m a rose lover, and this is one of the ultimates. Rose, rose, and even more rose.

Annick Goutal — Rose Pompon EDP

2018
Bulgarian rose, Taïf rose, peony, blackcurrant, raspberry, pink pepper, cedar, patchouli, white musk

Fruity rose with a some sophistication about it…and actually I just bought it. Hudson’s Bay is having a 10% off any $75+ beauty order this weekend, so I took advantage and it will be part of my upcoming birthday gift! (It’s quite different from the EDT, by the way. Test both. I didn’t like the EDT, as I found it a bit sharp and overly sweet.)

Annick Goutal — Vanille Exquise

2004 | Isabelle Doyen, Camille Goutal
vanilla sur-absolute from the Marquisas Islands, angelica, almond, benzoin, gaiac wood, white musk

A divinely dry, complicated vanilla.

Berdoues — Vânira Moorea

2016 | Alexandra Monet
Tahitian vanilla, orange, petitgrain

This is a unique vanilla in that it’s not all sweet and warm and fluffy. It’s a crisp, green vanilla. Weird vanilla, and I’m fascinated by it.

Britney Spears — Fantasy Intimate

2015
lychee, violet leaf, lemon, ozone, lily-of-the-valley, jasmine, brown sugar, genet, vanilla, heliotrope, benzoin, white musk

So easy to love, and in a pretty bottle, as well. The longevity on me is superior to that of most other Britney scents I’ve tried. I still love Private Show the best, but that doesn’t last well on my skin.

Happy National Fragrance Day! (2018)

2018-03-212018-03-21 fivezero4 Comments

Today is National Fragrance Day! I don’t know which nation this is from (probably not Canada), but I’ll celebrate it, anyway!

In honor of the day, I will round up all my Canadian drugstore perfume deals. For those who do not know, many locations of Shoppers Drug Mart and Rexall drugstores have clearance perfume shelves, where they rotate perfumes priced at CA$19.99. Occasionally, Shoppers even has weekend deals for $17.77!

These perfumes are often the cheaper drugstore lines (drugstore staples and celeb scents), but occasionally one will also find discontinued smaller sizes of designer fragrances that usually go for a lot more! It’s well worth it to swing by the clearance shelf once a week.

Here are the ones I’ve picked up over the years:

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI
Manifesto EDT (50 mL)

basil, pepper, bergamot, lily, orange blossom, musk

This is a super old one in my collection! To be honest, I haven’t used it in forever; hope it hasn’t turned. But it is quite a lovely herbal green scent.

OSCAR DE LA RENTA
So de la Renta EDP (30 mL)

kiwi, mango, watermelon, white florals, lotus, peony, musk

This remains one of my very favorite florals. It’s light and bright, youthful yet completely classy, and supremely easy to wear. My bottle is very old, so I don’t know if the certainly reformulated version out today compares. But I do love the original.

Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Essence de Parfum advertisement

Perfume Notes (January 2018)

2018-02-132018-02-15 fivezero9 Comments

Hello all!

I know I have been AWOL for a while, now—among other things, I have been hard at work on the nail polish database—a brand spanking new version is coming, with the ability to track your own collection. (‘Cause I personally really, really need to do that!)

For now, I can only offer up this rather long list of perfume notes that I have compiled over the month of January. As you can see, I’ve been doing a lot of huffing. This comes just in time for Valentine’s Day, which is tomorrow, in case you need some gift ideas for a lovely lady in your life!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! 💝

The full list for January:

adidas Born Original for Her
Ariana Grande Ari
Bvlgari Splendida Iris d’Or
Calvin Klein Obsessed for Women
Calvin Klein Reveal
Chanel Allure (EDT)
Chanel Allure (EDP)
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (EDP)
Dior Miss Dior Absolutely Blooming
Dior Hypnotic Poison
Dior Pure Poison
Escada Sorbetto Rosso
Estée Lauder Modern Muse Le Rouge
Etat Libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette
Etat Libre d’Orange Putain de Palaces
Giorgio Armani Sí
Givenchy Ange ou Démon
Guerlain Mon Guerlain
Jason Wu Jason Wu
Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Essence de Parfum
Lacoste Eau de Lacoste
Lancôme La Nuit Trésor EDP
Prada La Femme Intense
Paco Rabanne Lady Million
Paco Rabanne Olympéa
Rihanna Rogue
Salvatore Ferragamo Signorina Misteriosa
Sofía Vergara Love (Fragrance Mist)
Sofía Vergara Sofía (Fragrance Mist)
Mugler Angel (EDP)
Mugler Womanity
Vera Wang Princess of Hearts
Vera Wang Princess Noir
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Floral Shock
Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Nuit Blanche

I also got minor sniffs of these on cards, so I won’t talk about them today. Several are scents I had tried once and forgotten—I’ll have to revisit some of them on skin!

Chanel Beige
Chanel Chance
Chanel Cristalle (EDT?)
Chanel Gabrielle
Dior J’Adore Eau Lumière (EDT)
Mugler Aura

[Quick edit note: I had to fix quite a lot of things in this post; WordPress appeared to have not saved some of the bits I wrote, so certain entries were just incorrect. I think I’ve fixed everything, now! (Feb 13, 2018 at 11:55 PM)]

Fragrance sale shelf, Shoppers Drug Mart (December 2017)

Fragrance Sale Shelves & Revlon Street Chic Collection (December 2017, Canada)

2017-12-132017-12-13 fivezero7 Comments

One of the things I love best about drugstores in Canada is the fragrance sale shelf, where amazing deals can often be found—perfect for holiday giftgiving!

I’m not sure whether it was started by Shoppers Drug Mart, where there’s typically a $19.99 sale shelf, but Rexall definitely has this sale shelf now, too. They actually do two tiers of prices, at $19.99 and $29.99, though I generally still find perfumes I’m more interested in at Shoppers. Granted, I have more Shoppers locations in my repertoire.

Over the last week, I’ve hit up several of my usual locations in downtown Toronto and snapped shots of their perfume sale shelves. I think if you check out the shelves throughout the year, you’ll find better deals than they have right now, but it’s not too shabby in this holiday shopping season.

My personal picks from the Shoppers shelves (sorry, I’m not too well versed in the guys’ selection):Read More »

fivezero's beautyBOUTIQUE Haulage (March 2017)

Haulage! beautyBOUTIQUE by Shoppers Drug Mart (March–April 2017)

2017-05-122017-05-12 fivezero3 Comments

I never did get around to posting my beautyBOUTIQUE hauls (gotta love those Shoppers Drug Mart coupons and Optimum Points events!), so I’m combining five of them into one post.

Perhaps these will provide some inspiration for Mother’s Day gifts? Speaking of which, today was a special day for me because I received my first ever Mother’s Day gift from our little peanut!

Behold (the peanut clip art is covering his name):

I am totally wearing that necklace on Sunday.

Anyway, here’s my fairly reasonable damage! All prices are in CA$.

Orders 1–2

First up, I received two $10 off coupons for beautyBOUTIQUE.ca when I was buying stuff at Shoppers Drug Mart. Cool. Of course, I had to use them on two orders:

Haulage! beautyBOUTIQUE.ca by Shoppers Drug Mart (March 2017)

2017-03-072017-03-14 fivezero14 Comments

Well, my husband and I have basically spent the last several days cleaning up vomit, snot, and poop. Thanks, norovirus! Seriously, neither of us ever got this horrible bug until a few years ago, and suddenly it’s an annual thing. Of course, now that Peanut’s in preschool, life is an apocalypse movie every other weekend, too.

At this point, everyone has gotten sick but me, so I’m running on very little sleep and very little food (because I’m afraid I’m going to come down with symptoms soon and would rather not have to puke it all back). I’ve also been washing my hands a hundred times a day, so it’s eczema city on my hands, too. I sincerely hope you are all keeping healthy, because this sucks.

Here’s a haul post, because I haven’t been able to find the will to do very much else!

As I mentioned last week, Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada has been handing out $10 gift cards to their online beauty store, beautyBOUTIQUE, and well—I’ve been taking advantage.

Today and tomorrow, March 7–8, Shoppers are also running a Spend Your Points Plus promo in the form of a coupon you load onto your Optimum Card. I do not know whether this works online at beautyBOUTIQUE (their Twitter staff didn’t seem to know), but I redeemed my points, anyway, since I kind of wanted to use up the third $10 gift card I got. If the points don’t get added later on, I’ll just give the beautyBOUTIQUE people a shout to see if they’ll give me the bonus points.

Here’s what I hauled after redeeming 95k points. I spent CA$184, so in the end I paid $4 plus the tax on $184, which came to just under $27. Also, don’t forget that ebates.ca works with beautyBOUTIQUE, too! It’s 4% cashback today.
Read More »

Shopping: Nostalgia for the Camera Bag

2016-09-092016-12-07 fivezero6 Comments

[Marc Jacobs Small Shutter Camera Bag, US$325. Image: modasens.com]

My very first handbag was a little blue camera bag, though I didn’t know what the style was called at the time—I was about 10! It was dark blue, not quite as deep as navy, and very plain, which is the way I liked most things as a child. I’m pretty sure I got it at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s.

I have no idea what happened to it (though, as faux leather, it probably didn’t hold up too well), but camera bags seem to be making a comeback, and I am toying with the idea of getting one for my birthday.

Here are a whole whack of styles I’ve come across. Do any catch your eye?

My favorites are the Gucci Soho Disco, the Longchamp 2.0, the Rag & Bone Mini Flight Camera Bag, and the Vasic Collection Anselmo. I quite like the blue Moschino, as well, except for the massive gold logo on the side.