Hi there Perfume Posse! Portia from AustralianPerfumeJunkie. St Valentine’s Day is upon us AGAIN! Of all the holidays this is the one I feel most bittersweet about. On one hand it is a huge money making scam where card, chocolate, flower, food outlets have a screaming field day. It makes anyone self sufficient enough to maintain a happy single life question themselves, lonely people feel like shit and anyone with depression issues is thrown into a swirling vortex of self hate. On the other hand there are the smug few who blithely float through St. Valentines Day with a few cards, lunch, dinner, a bunch of roses and a disdainful smirk at the other 97%. I’ve been all of these.
St Valentine’s Gifts for YOURSELF!
This year whether you are single or partnered, let’s keep it simple. I’m getting Jin a card and some undies in his favourite colour: ORANGE. If he doesn’t know how much I love him then he is a damn fool.
I will though be buying MYSELF a lovely St Valentines Day gift. Here is the short list.
Photo Stolen Beauty Encounter
Amouage Gold 10oz Body Lotion: I just ran out of this glorious lotion and am missing it terribly. So rich yet soft and silky and my skin drinks it up within a minute. The smell? Imagine Amouage Gold with a hint of Shea Butter and all the raunch of bygone days. It’s an excellent lotion to layer your favourite vintage frags over too, and also really good for adding some growl to poor reformulations.
Beauty Encounter has $70 before discount!
Surrender To Chance Caron Urn Parfums Sample Pack: OMG! I didn’t even know such a thing existed as this pack till a couple of nights ago, now I am completely obsessing over it. A chance to test 9 of Caron’s incredible parfums at a very reasonable price. I am DEFINITELY thinking hard about this one, I may even go completely overboard and buy the 2ml spritz set…. It’s St Valentine’s Day for goodness sake
Surrender To Chance starts at $26/9 x .25ml samples
Photo Stolen Luckyscent
Anat Fritz Classical EdP: This has been on my radar for a while. I have finished off two decants and am wishing it was still in my collection. The fabulous knitted bottle, that cool, fresh blast a joyful wafting woodsy lavender and the smile it brings to my face even remembering how it smells makes Classical a contender this St. V Day
Luckyscent has $155/100ml
I think I’ll probably grab myself a box of chocolates and some peanut M&Ms, a bottle of bubbly and some nice cheeses and biscuits. If Jin is REALLY lucky I might even share them with him. Maybe….
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
What are you going to splurge on for yourself for St Valentine’s Day?
Whatever you do, treat yourself nice.
Portia xx
I buy myself far too many gifts already (lately Tauer PHI Rose de Kandahar) so the hubby and I will be just exchanging cards and cooking ourselves a romantic supper at home and sit by the fire with the dogs.
Sounds pretty darn romantic to me TaraC.
Enjoy every moment.
Portia xx
Happy Valentine, Valentine! I treated myself to a jar of Gold cream (you know I lubs me some Gold) and…….I have a few days to myself! El O is off to see his ma! Bliss. Lubs him dearly – but 3 days to myself? I don’t know whether to sh!t or go blind, as my daddy would say!
His gift to me, other than that, is to get the quotes for the 2nd floor frame/roof, so my OCD self can budget for it. Sounds weird but..c’mon. I don’t need any more chocolate, I have enough perfume to stun a rhino…but we need to get the damn roof done. JUST GET THE QUOTE!!!! xoxoxoA
Yes, I can hear you Musette,
It’s easier if they just do it the first time.
How lovely to have some quiet time, an excellent St V Day gift. Bravo to El O.
Portia xx
I’m treating myself to Love, Chloe eau Florale and hubby’s getting a little issey miyake yuzu. We don’t usually do cards etc but he sprung the old “what! you didn’t get me a card!!??” wounded-puppy dog-look last night. So it’s off to the all-night supermarket on the way home tonight for me…oops!
Yes, I’m pretty much the same. Hate it but still want my card. Jin bought me lunch today at his work as a surprise, it was nice. I feel loved.
It IS the little things.
Portia xx
Valentine’s day makes me anxious lol. We’re on a ” self imposed no gifts” thing this year anyway, so…cards it will be! But I would jump all over that Caron sampler!! Parfum Sacre has been on my bottle list and I do love Nuit deNoel.
Excellent idea, who needs anything MORE anyway.
The Caron sampler will be winging its way here any moment now JulieL.
Portia xx
In my city, one of the local weekly newspapers puts on an anti-v day bash where folks are invited to bring mementos from love affairs gone wrong and destroy them onstage. Fire, water, nail guns, etc are deployed. You get a sticker at the door that says “single” or “taken.” A very fun night.
WOW Ertmeert. That sounds like SUPER FUN.
Portia xx
Hiya, Portia! Seems I’m always “treating” myself to some little thing or other, but on V Day, DH oftentimes gives me $$$ for a mani or pedi, which I love (and can’t easily do myself). Hope you guys have a fun day together!
Aha! One of my favourite indulgences a PEDICURE! We go as a group. Usually there are three or four but sometimes we have to book the whole store because there’s 10 of us. Then we go for Sushi Train.
Of all the things we do as a crew it’s the easiest and least complicated.
Portia xx
I did get myself the original Lolita Lempicka because it was cheap on Fragrance net but now that you mention Amouage, I think I might splurge on a body butter. Or Vanille Absolutement.
Hi Eldarwen22,
YAY! I love that original Lolita Lempicka. Why don’t you splurge on the Body Wash and Body Lotion for that, I love their packaging and it does add loads of longevity to a fragrance that usually needs some respritzing for me. I love Vanille Absolument too.
Portia x
I don’t mind the commercial aspects of the day, because I have such find memories of grade school, when we brought a shoebox to school and got to decorate it all up. Was that just a Southern thing? Do they still do it anywhere?
My husband and I have never really gone all out to celebrate and it’s the one day of the year I do NOT want flowers …the insanely jacked up prices are the one thing that irks me about Valentine’s Day!
I like to do some simple, sweet, silly thing…undies are perfect, and I thought the idea on this blog was, too.She bought a cheap wooden spoon set for her husband, the used a wood burning tool to carve a heart with their initials in it:
http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/2015/02/wood-spoon-valentine.html
(NO affiliation, I just thought it was darling!)
I am thinking I might buy myself a Chanel Lipstick…La Romanesque from the Spring collection, to be exact. I don’t like mattes, but this is supposed to be creamy and non-drying. Can anyone confirm that for me?? I am 6 hours from the nearest Chanel counter, so it has to be a blind buy.
Howdy, Tammy! Thanks for sharing the very cool wooden spoon gift. BTW, I have a Chanel matte (La Sensuelle) and find it quite nice. Not super-super moisturizing, of course, but fairly comfy on lips and nowhere near as drying as some mattes I’ve tried. BTW, I love the swatches I’ve seen online of La Romanesque and can’t wait to try it myself. If you can wait a few days, I’ll be heading into the big city and maybe one of the sweet SAs I know might shave a bit of the lipstick off the side, put it in a little jar or baggie and I could send it to you. That way you could see the color and feel the texture in person before you make a special trip. (Or if you liked it, just order it online and save the drive). LMK.
Ann, that would be lovely IF you really are already going to go. Please don’t make a special trip, and if something comes up, please do not feel like you still haveto go!
Isn’t that spoon idea so clever and sweet?! I was thinking a heart with initials might also be cute embroidered on Jin’s undies…. 😉
Tammy, did this also involve bringing valentines for your classmates and popping them in their boxes? Sounds familiar…
Yes, we did that, too! Such fun, if a bit nerve-wracking.
Oh, we did that when I was in grade school. 🙂 And you were required to give one to everyone, so no one got left out. 🙂
Hi Tammy,
What a supercute idea. I’m too lazy to go embroidering stuff for Jin. There I’ve said it.
When we were kids we used to go on camps and do woodburning with those things, that was fun. I haven’t thought about it in YEARS. Thanks for the reminder.
Yes, the prices are stupid, for everything love linked on St V Day.
Portia xx
I love the idea of buying myself a Valentine’s gift! I already kind of bought myself a scented candle (or two, depending on how generous I am feeling to other people…), and I might buy myself a couple bars of nice chocolate…OR I might just go crazy the day after Valentine’s day when everything goes on sale 🙂
I’m with you. I’m headed to Target now and was thinking of buying myself a few chocolates, but waiting until next week is a better idea! When it’s 50% off, there is less guilt!
AHHHHHHH! I’ve never thought to do that. 50% off CHOCOLATE you say. Awesome, I think I’ll take a truck.
Portia xx
Bought s 5 ml roll-on of Jacinthe & Rose/E. Coudray from Lisa/StC – and she placed the tiny order in a semi-sheer white pouch sprinkled w/ fine red confetti and hearts! plus the candy 🙂 We all know that this, for most merchants, would have simply shipped insulated, period, for such a small priced purchase. Lisa made my Valentine`s instead w/ Xtra nice wrappings 🙂 🙂
Hey there Hotlanta,
That is a great story. The Surrender To Chance crew get my vote every time. You’ll be happy with the post later today too.
Portia xx
My husband HATES the commercial love holiday and is terribly offended that we have to have a special day to be nice to people we love. He does, though, always ask what I want to do, just in case 😉 This year we’re celebrating the day before, because he proposed to me on a Fri. the 13th of February (he was going to do it on V-Day so I would be surprised but couldn’t wait) and that is more fun to celebrate.
I’m being good and not buying myself anything (probably, unless I cave and use my Atelier Cologne coupon for some Trefle Pur) so he can have a new planer which we really need. Or a new band saw, which is much pricier, which we both need.
hiya MikasMinion,
I think I love your husband. That is the cutest story and it also makes him a double delight because he hates St V Day.
I think it’s great you are thinking of a gift fort the team, that’s what love is about. Sounds unromantic but if you’ll both use the band saw and EVERY time you use it you’ll both think of your silly/sensible St V Day gift. Just a superstition but make sure to tie it with a red ribbon and to have it cut through the ribbon.
Portia xx
“If he doesn’t know how much I love him then he is a damn fool.” What a perfect sentence! And one that pretty much summarizes my husband and me, not just Valentine’s Day but every day. Cheers Portia!
Hey there Alison,
How lucky we are. I hope your St V Day is lovely, and fragrant.
Portia xx
ORANGE, eh? I didn’t know Hermes made underwear. 😉 I’ll have to be buying for myself this year — going to check out some vintage and niche scents at an estate seller’s store. Much healthier for me than overindulging in chocolate.
HA! Hermes makes socks, I’m pretty sure they do undies too.
Ooooh Lindaloo, love the vintage. Good luck at the sale.
Portia xx