AQABA - Miriam Mirani

I got my samples from Miriam this week for her Aqaba (the original) Spring Aqaba and the Jewels of Aqaba. I’ll eventually review all of the scents, but I’ll start with the one my husband went a little dotty over, Sands of Aqaba.

Top Notes: Florentine Iris, Roman Chamomile, Algerian Geranium

Middle Notes: Coriander, Cardamom

Bottom Notes: Vetivert, Frankincense, Tuberose.

This one starts fresh and sharp and then just settles into a very exotic, warm scent. I put it on my shoulder, which seems to be my best testing place, and I kept sniffing all day just to see what it was doing next. It seems to change through the day, hour by hour, but als changes while you are inhaling it.

I had my husband check this out as he has a very discriminating nose. Most things he thinks smells the same or dismisses with “oh, floral,” (I was just horrified when he said it about my beloved Le Parfum de Therese) or “baby powder.” This one he liked, for the same reasons I did, because it is complicated, but not annoyingly so. It draws you into its aroma, and just when you think you know what it smells like, you smell something else even more wonderful.

This is a lovely fragrance — complex, rich and warm, not like anything else. Considering my current fragrance wardrobe and the number of scents I have had and given away after I find out they smell alike, it is a hard thing to find one that is unique, but Miriam has delivered with this one.

She will happily send generous samples at $2.50 each, which I always recommend that anyone sample first. I have regretted every perfume purchase I have made that I did not sniff before buying.

MTV.com - Music - Video Premiere - Madonna

Can I just say how much I hate this? Hate the music, hate the video, hate the hypocrisy from this material girl who won’t let her children watch TV but puts out a video that looks a wee bit tartish and full of bad ’80s disco crap, including her horrible hairdo. Lived through the swept-over bangs, it looked bad on everyone but Farrah (well, it looked really good on me when I was a senior in high school and wore it for about two weeks, but I was fortunate), and it hasn’t aged well. I did see the thing on MTV, and I was really kind of hoping she’d pull this off, but it is just explodingly craporrific.

Madonna, go home to your estate in Europe and raise your kids and Kabbalah your brains out, you’re over.

Here’s the things that are making my heart bit just a tich faster this week:

Tarte double-ended lipgloss — There isn’t a color here that you can go wrong with. Every girl should have Rhett and Scarlett at their fingertips. A beautfiful red rose for the Rhett end and a golden peach for the Scarlett end. I normally don’t like red colors for my lips, but this goes on soft and sheer, and I love knowing I have Rhett and Scarlett in my teeny little Brighton bag.

Kerastase hair produts (Chroma Reflect line) — No link for this because even Diamond Beauty or any other online merchant cannot get you the price that you can get on eBay. This crap is expensive to begin with, but the eBay’ers who sell it at auction at least get you a little help on the price. I’m an old woman (45 or 46, can’t remember) with hair that just doesn’t shine like it used to, and I highlight my hair. I’ve been using the pink Chroma Reflect line from Kerastase for about three months, and I’ve got the shiniest, unbelievable hair again, and that hasn’t been true for about seven years, so I’m very, very happy. Get the shampoo, the conditioner and the masquintense.

eBay — So what in the hell was wrong with me that I hadn’t used eBay until a month ago? I think eBay just improved a lot since I last looked at it, and it was time to give it another chance, not that I was being a stubborn hag.

I got back to eBay looking for fragrances, some of the older ones that are hard to find, and I found that these absolutely wonderful people, like Dragonfly Scent Me sell some hard to find and much lemminged for perfumes in 1/3 and 1/6 or 1/5 oz decants, which is a delightful way to try a fragrance for a month or more (nice big decants, not the teeny samples where you can try it maybe twice) and really find out if you like something or not. It’s also a way to get a very diverse selection of perfumes without spending the $70-160 per bottle you’d normally have to pay. I even started selling a couple of decants recently, just of ‘fumes that aren’t completely me or have one note that isn’t a favorite, but are delightful and lots of other people love, and I just can never hope to use the whole bottle. But go see Dragonfly, she has a great selection at great prices and the best service in the world.

Frederic Malle perfumes — Nobody should be allowed to charge what he does for perfumes, except if you’re buying L’Eau d’Hiver and Le Parfum de Therese, truly two of the most gorgeous scents that have ever existed on the face of the planet — no, nay, the universe. If you’ve never heard of Frederic Malle, he does things a little differently. He has the best noses create his perfume, then he puts their name on the bottle as the creator. He winds up with scents that smell like nothing else and everything else. If you don’t want to spring the 80-160 Euro clams, go to Dragonfly (see eBay above) and she can set you up with a couple of them. Search the rest of eBay to get a decant to try of the rest of them. Also highly recommend En Passant. I just love the other two more, but that should in no way diminish my affection for En Passant. Remember, these are the only three I have tried in this line, and I love all three. I’m thinking with enough time and Euros and/or credit cards, I can get ALL the bottles. I will review these in some detail coming up this week.

Okay, that covers Frederic Malle, but I haven’t even got to the other new perfume infatuations I have, so that will have to wait until next week.

Cle de Peau cleansing cream — Nobody has to explain to me how ridiculous it is to spend $59 on a cleansing cream (I did get this cheaper on eBay, so don’t laugh at me yet), but that’s about the cheapest thing in this line, and it is also amazing. Silky smooth, it really does feel like silk. I never thought I’d even care about a cleansing cream, but it’s sorta like all the best things of Noxema without the nasty menthol smell and destruction to your face. I’m afraid to try other things in this line. I’m normally pretty happy with a decent moisturizer, it doesn’t have to be the most expensive, but I’m starting to come to the conclusion that my long-held belief that paying more doesn’t always get you something better, some of the products that are charging those prices may actually be pretty darn good, but not always!!!

Speaking of high prices — La Mer Hand Treatment (can’t find a link to it, I got it on eBay) is the best. I had been using Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream for the last couple of years and thought it was the stuff, but the La Mer is way better and longer lasting. My hands used to be one of my best features (smooth and super-pretty), so getting-old-hands (think ge spots and alligator skin just starting to creep up onto my hands) just isn’t making me very happy, so a lotion to keep them smooth and pretty and younger looking has gone to the top of my list of “Things that are Important to Me.” Add to that the Bliss hand gloves and cream, and I’m thinking I’ll shave some years off my hands.

Civilization IV — I’ve been playing Civilization since the first one, as has my husband. It’s one of the things that has kept this marriage going. This latest one is visually stunning, with more depth of play, but faster play. We’ve just gotten started with it, and it’s still too early to know if the AI is better. All I want is to ensure that peace-loving Ghandi stays true to his historical nature and does not launch an unprovoked attack because I accidentally bumped into one of his flippin’ elephants.

I just don’t want to give up this blog, so I’m thinking I’ll just go in a different direction.

It’s not that I’m uninterested in things political, world events at all, but I find I don’t have anything of value to add to that discussion beyond the excellent writing already being done.

So I’m thinking I’m completely moving on to an area that has my full and undivided attention and that I’m also learning about while also an expert….

Perfume, hair care and makeup

That’s right, I am an unsubstantial person who cares deeply about this girlie frippery. I’ll likely throw in some commentary about other things as well — pop culture, religion — as it occurs to me and when I have a strong opinion.

Why this shift? My interest in perfume has been long-standing, but not on a technical level. Recently I’ve bcome very interested in the process of creating scents and will be enrolling in a course. I had no idea how complicated it was, but I find it fascinating.

So while I think that I’m an expert on perfumes that I like, I find that I don’t know very much about the different notes and how they go together and why, and that’s the part I want to know.

Make-up, skin care and hair care, that’s just all lumped together and will probably result in just some reviews of things I like, hopefully at least a weekly writing of what I found and liked this week.

I have a feeling my blog roll will change and those who blogroll me will change, but who knows, stick around, and maybe some of you guys will learn about some things your wives and girlfriends would like you to give her!