use up my perfume

Having a surfeit of perfume, I've resolved to put on perfume everyday (at night, as I never seem to remember in the morning) and give away the perfume that I don't particularly like.

* A little square pendant of stuff - definitely a candidate to give away. Don't particularly like it. It's either Calvin Klein Eternity Summer or the local perfume shop's homemade Green Tea fragrance.
* A sample of Curve; definitely, as I already have a bottle thanks to Brooke.
* Lanvin Eclat d'Arpege - nice but I just don't reach for it. I'll keep a little sample but give away the rest.
* debating about Crazylibellule and the Poppies Tout Oublier solid perfume. It's nice, and I haven't gotten sick of it like other perfumes I own. But it's not really me. It's rather colder than I'm usually in the mood for, although I quite like it. It's very easy to wear though. We'll see. It's handy to carry around so I am using it quite a bit.

Everything else I'll rotate through. I should only own 5 ml or less of any particular perfume. Anything more is really excessive considering how much I use it. I have yet to open my Chanel No. 5 or Le Feu d'Issey light. I might open Le Feu as a treat after taking my Java exam. I'm going to wait till my nose progresses a bit more before opening No. 5. Have to be able to appreciate it fully, although I'm making progress on that front.

That mystery perfume that Amy gave me is quite nice, I have to ask her what it is. I may be Michael Kors.

You know you have too much stuff when the thought of getting rid of it is exciting. I like a lot of the stuff, but I just want to focus on the stuff I love. I'm planning to do the same thing with my clothing. At least only 2 items in my closet are unworn.

Because making lists is fun, I will list my collection (minus that little square pendant of perfume):

1. agnes b. le petit b.b.
2. Amy's mystery perfume
3. Bvlgari Omnia Amethyste
4. Caron Farnesiana
5. Chanel No. 5
6. Crazylibellule and the Poppies Tout Oublier solid perfume
7. Givenchy Oblique
8. Emanuel Ungaro Desnuda
9. Etude House Bijou Pure White solid perfume
10. Fragonard Eau du Bonheur solid perfume
11. Hermes Eau de Cologne (wonder if I'll grow to like this)
12. Issey Miyake L'eau d'Issey
13. Issey Miyake Le Feu d'Issey light
14. Jean Patou Sublime
15. Lanvin Eclat d'Arpege
16. Laura Biagiotti Roma (wonder if I'll grow to like this)
17. Laurent Le Guernec's perfume mod
18. Les Parfums de Rosine Un Zest de Rose
19. Liz Clairborne Curve
20. Missha
21. Muelhens 4711 original cologne
22. The Body Shop Indian Gardenia
23. Yves Saint Laurent With Love

Gee, seems like I have a ton of stuff. Most of these are little sample vials though. Quite a random collection, don't you think?

In other perfume "news," I finally got a chance to try ElisabethW's perfumes in Kichijoji a while back. Everything was really nice, but the Sweet Tea was too sweet (imagine that). A pity. Very nice fragrances though. I need to go back and sniff again. They appear to have discontinued 6 of their scents though; what a pity. Violet, Woods, Redwoods, and Blue Sage sounded very nice.

I am not my hair

Loving India.Arie's song "I Am Not My Hair"! I also caught a bit of her duet with Anthony David called "Words." That is music. Great duet. Yes, yes, I am way behind on music news, but some of this stuff just doesn't come here. We get Beyonce and Paris Hilton and Posh Spice.

cooking

I'm shifting my energy from makeup to being healthy; exercising and eating well. Real Simple has some excellent suggestions for alternative cooking with one's rice cooker; I'm going to try the risotto tomorrow.

These recipes look scrumptious too:
Barley Risotto with Asparagas
Corn Risotto
Sweet Pea Risotto

Marina's new fragrance mods are out!

The newest versions of Marina's Holy Grail fragrance are out! Marina has posted on Made By Blog about her impressions of the two versions created by perfumer Clement Gavarry of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.

I made a comment about my impressions too.

In other news, Scentzilla has an extremely well-written post about blogging and ethics.

About me, I am cleaning house! I won't be buying any more makeup or perfume for myself for the rest of the year. Other than one good concealer. I'm just going to run around sampling fragrances for the rest of 2007. Maybe I'll finally get through my list of fragrances-to-sniff. Isetan department store is going to be sick of me soon, haha.

skincare and sunscreen

Since my skin has been freaking out lately, I haven't been using much on my face. It's down to salicylic acid for the breakouts, a bit of Avene thermal water as moisturizer, lip balm, and sunscreen. Unfortunately the sunscreen has been one of the reasons I've been breaking out, so I've been scrambling for other sunscreens to try.

It's kind of a pain. I think the DHC and Fancl cleansing oils leave my skin sensitive to other products. Perhaps they're just too harsh. I've been using them everyday as a makeup remover, but I will try getting a separate makeup remover and using the oils two or three times a week.