sarakingdom

1 hour ago, Kishi said:

My God. This exchange reminds me of my job. Except the stationary's prettier.

You could get stationery with Isaac Newton on it.

15 hours ago, Everstorm said:

That's so interesting that the scent changes over time or even smells different on different people.  I know my sister always loves my perfume on me (always asks what I am wearing) but then she remembers she didn't care for it on herself when I gave her a sample bottle 🤷‍♀️

I've never experienced it first hand. I gather that it's more exaggerated with perfume oils, because alcohol based sprays contain so many volatile molecules that they pretty much immediately do what they're going to do, so you don't get long drydown periods. (And are rumored to be somewhat stabilized by the alcohol, so they don't have such obvious phases.)

In my previous batch, I've just got one that really changes over time. It starts out a nice basic cologne of some sort, but four hours later, it loses the woody, cedary masculine edge and has a softer vanilla undertone. It's a known thing about that one, although I didn't pay attention before I bought it. But I've never had this experience of really hating it when it goes on, and ten or fifteen minutes later thinking it's genuinely great. They say it's not uncommon, even 30-45 minutes with oils.

It may partly be my nose right now. Everything is a bit intense. I'm not liking the chocolate one as much as I usually do.

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

All perfumes react somehow with the skin they're applied to.

Yes, that's that I just said.

15 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

I'd be more inclined to blame this than to blame a fraudulent bottle, by the way. It's not exactly Chanel profit margins here.

I'd agree, but I'm informed there are even cheaper knockoff refills available. I guess every level has its grifters.

On 4/13/2024 at 9:05 PM, Scaly Freak said:

That said, a perfume that is so unstable that the process of shipping it to the paying customer makes it unusable for any amount of time, that's a poorly formulated product that needs to go back to the R&D team.

To hear them, that's the nature of the beast, common to all perfumes. Everything on Fragrantica has someone talking about letting it rest if they didn't like it initially, especially the oils, which don't have alcohol to stabilize it. I'm not convinced, in part because I haven't heard a good reason as to why, and because it's never the majority of reviews that talk about it being an issue. I mean... in theory, I guess. The oils in particular can have a very noticeable dry down period on the skin and also can change a lot on the skin over a few hours, much more than alcohol based ones. Could the constant vibration of shipping do something, maybe. Maybe also part of it is interaction with my body chemistry.

But mostly I think it sucks and no one has any damn taste.

On 4/13/2024 at 9:05 PM, Scaly Freak said:

Poorly sourced... that would certainly explain it, and would be very unfortunate.

I have no particular reason to suspect, but also no real way to tell for sure. Weird to counterfeit an ultra cheap brand, but I gather it happens.

11 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Sara I hope you'll post your review because it's glorious.

Those ingrates don't deserve it. They didn't warn me.

The other four have shown up, no disasters. 

26 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

Is it possible that the one you opened was damaged somehow? Left outside to lean against a metal surface in direct sunlight, or something like that? 

There is a rumor among perfumeheads that some perfumes are fragile flowers that get upset by shipping and need to sit quietly in a closet for a month to calm down their precious delicate feelings. I've never had that experience, so I tend to discount it, but a lot of them swear by it. I might as well try.

There's also a slight possibility it's counterfeit. I wouldn't have thought it was super likely, but given how different what I smell is from what others smell, a site I don't know well, and given how rare the perfume oil is in the US compared to the spray... maybe it was not sourced properly. Not highly likely, but could happen.

But most likely I just have a particular reaction to this smell that others don't. I'm seeing a couple of other people mention the popcorn smell, and there's a wide range in how cheap a coffee people think it's replicating. I just seem to get the worst of every element of this one. I didn't think I would, since Choco Musk was pretty safe.

48 minutes ago, ChrisWithaStick said:

What, the oddly specific eternal mall doesn’t also have a corndog shop and the smell of burnt fryer grease and salty regret?   What 1980s did you live through?

I thought the salty regret was mostly the stale popcorn oil vibe and teen bodies, but it does have that fast food undertone. It's like being around the corner from the worst food court, across from the Yankee Candle, as the smell of the multiplex concession stand wafts down. So much salty regret on offer in a mall.

43 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

That was horrifyingly specific.

I'm so confused by it! Sure, everything gets the odd bad review, but it's rare for something to get broad good reviews, let alone rave reviews, without being at least inoffensive. And most of the critical reviews were saying it was just too realistic, and like wearing a cup of coffee. I was not prepared for this... this abomination.

47 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

And the thank you reaction is because I had not actually placed an order yet... and now I will not have this very upsetting experience. Your sacrifice is appreciated. 

If you lived nearby, I'd give you one on my unopened ones. I need to figure out a way to offload these that isn't too wasteful or morally suspect.

The green tea is okay, at least. It spends about fifteen minutes being worryingly A Lot with hints of citronella, then settles down into a pleasantly clean citrusy-soapy-grassy smell, quite a reasonable entrant in the green tea family. Not blowing me away, which green teas never do, but clearly nice and professional and clean, and probably will be very nice in summer, when light and clean and full of chlorophyll is what you really want. And for adding green to other perfumes.

On 4/12/2024 at 3:31 PM, sarakingdom said:

one is the absolute worst thing I've ever smelled in my life.

Until, that is, the utter betrayal of French Coffee. The internet has lied. It has lied egregiously. That's not the smell of cappuccino. That's not the smell of instant coffee or sweet Starbucks drinks. It's not even the smell of those awesome Asian coffee candies. I like all of those things.

It is the smell of a decaying mall that died in 1982. It's stale fake movie popcorn butter and the sweet yet acrid smell of fake coffee that drifts out of a Yankee Candle shop into the linoleum hallways and mingles with teen body odor, plastic, and hairspray. A cheerleader named Tiffany is complaining about how grody her mom's car is. She's 57, but caught in an eternal time loop of being 15 and cruising the mall with her friends, three of whom she can't stand, but they're cooler than she is. She's seen all the movies at the AMC at least 4,726 times each, until even looking at a milk dud makes her want to vomit. She's been dreaming of death since 1998. And this smell... this smell permeates the air around her. She can't escape it. It's the smell of her eternal purgatory, trapped in a zombie mall that can't live but won't die, and won't release her or her fellow inmates from their shared torment. It is coffee from the feverish dreamed of by an ancient, twisted mind in throes of agony, a suburban mall that will never be released from its suffering, and will never know peace, even as its concrete crumbles and leaky roof collapses. It will only know the eternal 1982, the chatter, the hollow consumerism, the endless teen drama, the resentment, the bottomless suburban small-mindedness and paranoia,, and always, always, the smell of stale artificial popcorn, plastic, and artificial coffee flavoring, keeping the trapped humans just nourished enough to be, like it, not living but not dying.

19 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Have you tried any of their non-beverage fragrances?

I have. They do French (Western) style, Arabian style (usually that means oud, spices, amber, rose, and generally unisex), and a fair number of supposedly decent dupes of popular 80s and 90s fragrances. (The general sense is, usually a bit less complex than the originals, but excellent for the price.)

18 minutes ago, Sovalis said:

There's a thread promising salacious improvement in the Daily Battle Logs area of the forums. Not sure how to report that other than this way?

In the top right corner of all posts/comments, there are three dots in a row. They drop down a menu, where the first option is "report". That'll send an email to everyone who can moderate posts with a link to the problem child, and whatever context you want to add.

(This thread needed a little Salacious improvement.)

14 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

I have not, but I am running low, and now I am mildly concerned.

I know! Actually managing to use up a whole rollerball of it, and in only a few months, was a shock. Those things last forever. I had one left over from Christmas which I yoinked as mine, but I'm aware it's on borrowed time. It's still on Amazon for quite a decent price. But specialty sites will do a set of six for $13, which is hard to beat, even with shipping. And I consider shipping an excuse to get other things.

Oh, I bet I know why all those sites have so much out of stock right now - it's probably because of Ramadan. I bet the stocking issues sort out after that.

4 hours ago, Mistr said:

If you want to buy in bulk, why not contact the manufacturer directly? I'm sure they would be thrilled to get a letter saying that you love their perfume and want to secure a supply of it.

The answer is basically "not speaking Arabic and not being a high volume wholesaler". I think that's how small imported specialty goods stores are managing to get it into Western countries for distribution, and one or two of them has a good online presence where people are going directly. Nowhere in the world, even in the Middle East, is this brand in actual retail perfume stores. It just somehow finds its way into obscure mom and pop Arab marts and Islamic centers via, like, connections with importers and wholesalers. The steep bulk pricing schemes at the online stores seem to make them the import route for everyone.  They sell to consumers at a retail price, and to little mosque shops and grocery stores at a near wholesale price, some of whom then sell it via Amazon marketplace storefronts at the store markup, which is how Amazon gets it.

(An individual bottle is $5-6 online. A bulk package of six for about $2-3 per bottle. For a dedicated user or someone planning to give a few away, six is pretty reasonable. Someone who's pretty sure they can shift 36+ bottles can get that down to just over $1 per bottle, which is plenty of room for a store to mark it back up to $3-5 on the shelves. But if that's what the importer is making a profit off of, the actual company is only talking to distributors who can move thousands of units, and in Arabic. They're not purely Saudi-headquartered anymore, which I suspect makes Western distribution easier, but still not very easy.)

5 hours ago, Mistr said:

At this point I think you need to get a cat that is good at sending out snoozon radiation. Several of our cats have been more than happy to help with naps and going to sleep. It is a moderate-cost, drug-free, treatment option. 🐱

I definitely need a cat. The bigger, the better. For bigger snoozon doses.

2 hours ago, Jarric said:

Now I'm wondering if there's enough Spike gifs or there to theme a whole challenge...

Do it do it do it do it.

(I really want to do a rewatch of the series, but I'm not sure my sanity can take confronting the fact that Giles is now way too young instead of way too old.)

My deficit is 25 hours. I'm not gonna be unsuspended tomorrow.

Okay, guys, fess up - who  here has been buying up all the hot chocolate marshmallow perfume? Every site is out of stock. (Okay, technically Amazon has it, but I fully intend to buy it in bulk, so paying full price grates.) Fortunately, one of those sites had the difficult to source French coffee perfume, so that should fill the same niche for a while and help me ration my last roller of hot chocolate.

1 hour ago, Jarric said:

Ok, I guess it depends who's doing the biting...

  

Honestly, excellent choice.

43 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Good to know, thank you. Being bitten to death really puts a downer on a holiday!