Scents and Sensibilities

Bath or Shower?

I love these little soaps from L'Occitane

I bought a couple of the box sets at Christmas and just recently ran out.  During the holiday season the special was buy 2 boxes get one box free. Great deal! Today they were displayed in box sets again, this time for Mother's Day.  The soaps sell individually for $8 each. While I was deciding which scents I wanted to buy, the sales lady approached me and explained that I should buy the box set of 3 because they were only $24. So I grabbed a box, and thinking that I was getting a special 'deal' I quickly added an additional bar.

Deal? Duh, It didn't occur to me until later that 3 X 8 = 24!

Next to clothes, my next most favorite thing is PERFUME and OILS

This ain't your grandma's old toilette water!

This photo shows only a portion of my perfume collection!

I am wild about fragrance!!

The reason I have so many different perfumes is because I layer them. 

My secret is....
I don't layer a couple of fragrances like normal people
Nope
I sometimes layer as many as 4 or 5
(small amounts mixed together in the palm of my hand and then dabbed onto the pulse points)
I am used to the gentle tap on the shoulder by a stranger,
followed by "uh Ms, excuse me but, what fragrance are you wearing?"
tee hee

 No one can ever figure out what I'm wearing.  So confusing.

And I like it like that!

I love candles and burn them often.
I used to make all of my own beeswax candles, to which I would add essential oils. 

If any of you are partial to the scents from Mr Ford, he expanded his fragrance line last year to include about 12-15 new fragrances. The prices range from $212 to $495 (typical TF prices) and are only sold in exclusive stores.
I only have one of the new fragrances but was fortunate enough to have received
samples of a few of the others which I liked as well.
I just don't have the funds to make another TF perfume splurge right now.
but....doesn't mean I won't in the future.

I am a Tom Ford fragrance lover

But my FAVORITE, FAVORITE is Esteban parfums from Paris. Esteban has a number of very exotic scents. You know they know how to make perfume in Paris! I fell in love with Esteban when I was in Paris. I stock up whenever I go over.  If you like perfume take a minute and explore their site. So far I have not seen Esteban carried in any stores but I have been able to order it online from Beauty Encounter (btw - Beauty Encounter has great prices and a wide variety of cosmetic brands - you can even buy the 'tester' size of some fragrance. My tip - buy it if it's available - it comes without the top but tester fragrances are stronger than what they sell you in the stores).

 This is their shop in Le Marais.  I'm inside. There is also one in Saint-Germain-des-Pres

So far at 64, I have not had any use for the mountain of creams, moisturizers, collagen, retinol and eye creams that so many women spend tons of money on. I don't even get facials. But...as of late, I have noticed that my face is beginning to show some signs of aging.  I guess it had to happen sometime.  So I am beginning to investigate new products.

The cosmetics we buy at the stores can be very expensive and have way too many harmful ingredients in them.  In an effort to keep my facial products as natural as possible, I recently began using aloe vera gel as my daily moisturizer.

I use shea butter from Ghana (the one I get is scented with verbena) all over my body and on my face at night as a night cream. It has a bit of an oily feeling but that has not been a problem for me. I also use black soap from Africa.

So far that's all I use for cleansing and moisturizing, however the same problem exists in our make up products. I have to admit, I haven't gone all natural on make up yet as it is more difficult to find the shades I need for my skin tone, but I am looking. I have more make up  n my collection than facial products but not really that much make up if I compare it to what I have seen other women use.  I'm pretty basic. Need to have it all on my face and out the door in less than 10 minutes.  I'll do a post on make up soon.

And maybe even a tutorial. Ooooh

Stay tuned!

What perfume and facial products and make up do you like?

Any secrets to share?