Chanel Cristalle and L'Eau d'Issey

I tried Cristalle twice and can officially say that I don't really care for it. For some reason it reminds me of my old Barbie dolls. It smells familiar, as in a scent I remember identifying as perfume but not particularly liking. *shrugs*

I do like L'Eau d'Issey though. It's light and sweet; maybe a little too sweet for my taste. But it's a pretty, fresh scent. I don't think it suits me particularly well, but I like the fragrance.

I don't know if I dare try out Beyond Paradise once more.

As it stands, I like Anna Sui Secret Wish, Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey, and The Body Shop Indian Gardenia, but nothing particularly fits me. I love Escentuals of Portland's Grapefruit essential oil, but I need a perfume oil scented with it! Mujirushi has this yummy grapefruit and orange refreshing water, but it only lasts for an instant. They need to make a perfume out of it.

Some people might be interested to know that I plan to visit the Shiseido shop in Ginza this Saturday. I wonder if we'll be able to smell the famous White Rose, or if we will be stymied by zealous guardians. Frankly, I think we'll be fended off. I also wonder if I'll be able to appreciate its reputed beauty. Perhaps I ought to go sniff Yves Saint Laurent Paris before I set off for Ginza. Anyway, it ought to be interesting.

Update: I tried on Beyond Paradise, and I must have confused it with something else. It's very nice and feels rather elegant, except for the fact that it seems very familar and normal. And I sniffed Indian Gardenia again and was smitten once more. It's delicious in this cold weather.

budget, organizing

Ooh, I am over budget this month. Oh well, it cannot be helped. It's a reaction to being free(er) from Japanese studying. It's so liberating to not feel obligated to study every day after work. I really ought to be studying all the time, but it's nice not to have immediate pressure to do so. This week I've been doing a bit of vocabulary studying.

I just picked up an issue of a magazine called Real Simple, the Japanese edition. It's apparently under the Time Magazine umbrella. I find the name a little odd and patronizing. Simple would have worked better, but perhaps that is too generic.

Some of the ideas for organization are pretty interesting. One lady recommended not buying any new storage and just getting rid of stuff you already have. Storage apparently encourages new purchases, as it provides more space for it all. For stuff that you can't throw away because it might come in handy someday, I like the idea of putting it away into boxes. If you don't use the stuff for a year, dispose of the box unopened. I think it'd be good to label the contents of the boxes so that I can find everything though.

my hair looks horrible!

I give up. It's simply impossible to communicate with hair stylists. Even having a picture doesn't help. I should just let them do whatever they want.

Maybe my hair stylist is just bad at cutting hair. I'll have to try some other places.

If I don't like it in a week, I'm getting my hair cut again.

waaant it all

The Complete Calvin & Hobbes.

Because Bill Watterson is a genius. The only problem is, I don't really have any place to put it. :|

I think I have to start a Someday-I-WILL-Buy list:
* The Complete Calvin & Hobbes
* All DVDs of Hayao Miyazaki's work
* Slam Dunk books in English (or maybe I'll buy it now)
* Slam Dunk The Perfect Collection (Japanese comic books)
* All the Slam Dunk tv anime and movie DVDs

Calvin Klein Eternity Summer

After my Japanese test on Sunday, I got a haircut (after 4 1/2 months!) and did a little shopping. I stopped by a little perfume store and inquired after gardenia fragrances. Eternity Summer smelled lovely and fresh and summery out of the bottle so I got a little 1 cc sample to try out, and added a little sample of the store's original green tea perfume.

Unfortunately, Eternity Summer smelled a little musty and boring on my skin, so I'll be giving the sample away. The green tea scent was a little closer to expectations. It actually smelled like English tea (of some sort) in the bottle, but on my skin turned into green tea! I felt like green tea ice cream, so I don't think I'll be using this much.

I still have a couple more samples to try out; L'eau d'Issey and Chanel Cristalle. After that, I think I should just visit department stores and try stuff there first. These samples are adding up! But dept. store fragrance areas are a little intimidating when visiting by oneself. I'll have to recruit some friends.

I didn't particularly like Estee Lauder's Beyond Paradise either. It was okay on me.

I don't know if I mentioned it but Chanel Chance and Givenchy Love in Paris are nice but not so exciting to me.

So far, I still like The Body Shop's Indian Gardenia the best, but I'd like to find a more light-hearted fragrance.

sarcasm is healthy

And I enjoy reading Eyeshadow Government.

Current favorite quote:

They also make some Strawberry thing but I don't fuck around with that kind of shit.

Found through The Beauty Addict.

how do you convince someone to accept a gift?

I occasionally see items that I think my mother would enjoy. However, my mother doesn't like it when I spend money on stuff for her. It's a knee-jerk reaction that seems to prevent any enjoyment of said gifts. I was hoping that we could get past this behavior, but I don't think it is possible.

For example, she adores Chanel No. 5. She has been hoarding a bottle of it for decades now. I think I was 8 the last time she actually wore it. For all she knows, the perfume has actually gone bad. I told her that she should wear it just for fun, since she can always buy another bottle if she uses it up. And life is short, why not enjoy it? However, I don't think she can get past that need to hoard the things that she likes.

It's such a pity, because there are so many fun perfumes that I think she'd like to try, if she were open to trying them. But at this point, a present just means more clutter for her, so it's probably better for her peace of mind if I don't give her presents.

So, I will just have to give up.

must. give. in. gracefully... as if.

Still, from this lesson I have distilled a new rule of life. If I'm not going to use it, I don't need it. (Yes, I don't need those adorable and fluffy Totoro catbus stuffed animals, or those collectible Totoro key chains. Really, I don't. Even though I waaant them. And Studio Ghibli isn't evil like the Disney Company...)

I need to go frame my SlamDunk Io card. If it's art it's useful. Haha.

Canadian Online DVD shop?

Is there an alternative to Amazon? I'm looking for a specific dvd, but Amazon (and HMV) doesn't directly have a copy. And all the online stores I know are American ones, and tend to be annoying about shipping to Canada. I tried chapters.ca and some other sites, but they don't carry the title either. How annoying.