2014 Christmas Hauls for a Happy New Year :)

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season!  Mine has been festive, blessed and lovely - filled with good food, friends and family. Everyone is healthy and happy, and my baby gifts me with smiles and giggles daily. There is truly nothing else I could ask for. But, it just so happens that we are a gift giving family, so I had to come up with a list! :)

This year I had a really fun Christmas, for two reasons. It was my first Christmas as a mother and my first Christmas as a lover of perfume! It was super fun to watch Walden rip through wrapping paper (he's too young to be excited about the presents, but he sure loved tearing up the paper) and it was also really exciting to unwrap my gifts! Everything on my list (except for 1 scarf) was scented - 2 candles, one FB and a slew of samples to keep me going for a long time. I can't remember the last time I exhibited childhood glee at opening gifts! Here's a breakdown of my haul, thanks to the warm generosity of my family.

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Every year we draw names for our gift-giving and we provide fairly specific lists (often times a list of links!) - so in many ways we have a pretty clear idea of what we're getting before Christmas comes. However, one thing that made opening gifts this year so fun was the special surprise element - promotions with purchase and samples! For instance, I ended up getting 4 mini diptyque candles (Noisetier, Myrrh x2, Feu de Bois) thanks to holiday promotions by luckyscent and diptyque.

My biggest gift was the full bottle of Do Son, EDP - my love. YAY!! So amaaaazing. My MIL also took advantage of the luckyscent diptyque promotion, which scored 4 official samples plus one of the above duos of candle minis. The *only* thing I could possibly be disappointed about was the samples (NOT that I have any room to complain about free samples!!!). There are so many diptyque scents I want to try, but this time around I didn't get samples for any of them. The 4 official samples I got were Do Son EDT, L'Ombre dans l'Eau, Tam Dao and L'Eau de Neroli. I'm not super interested in the Do Son EDT (as I just got a FB of the EDP), and I already have samples of L'ombre EDP and EDT as well. 

Nicely, luckyscent also threw in 4 *more* diptyque samples, but they gave me another Do Son EDT and L'Ombre dans l'Eau EDT - so I guess they really want me to try those! Haha. They also gave me Oyedo and L'Eau des Hesperides. Sadly I already have a sample of Oyedo, so despite getting 8(!!) diptyque samples, only 3 are actually new for me. Oh well! I did give one of the Do Son samples to my sister-in-law since she seemed to really like the EDP on me. Perhaps it'll spark a love.

luckyscent pack

I was lucky enough to receive two diptyque candles - Santal and Violette. Santal smells heavenly!! Warm and rich and woody and sophisticated. Violette also smells really good, but it smells a little different than what I remembered from my trip to Nordstrom. That was a little disappointing, but I probably built up the memory too much in my head. It still smells really nice and I'm excited to burn it. I think the scent might also fit the new style of our DIY bathroom renovation. Needless to say, I'm in candle heaven!

I'm also in sample heaven - who knows when I'll even get to wearing my bottle of Do Son! I got the ridiculously cute Ineke Scent Library featuring Angel's Trumpet, Poet's Jasmine, Scarlet Larkspur, Sweet William and Briar Rose. It came in what I consider basically the best packaging ever. I love love love the old book design and the descriptive postcards tucked within. It completely fits the style of our 1911 farmhouse, and I'll probably display it somewhere. I accidentally ended up with 2 of these (I had also asked for the Ineke Deluxe Sample Collection vol 5).  I'm hoping I'll be able to exchange one for the other sampler for more Ineke fun!

is this not the cutest perfume 'book' ever?

Continuing with the sampler packs, I also received the full set of 17 Atelier samples - which was also packaged oh so nicely. I love the gorgeous postcards and can't wait to try them all.

My hubby got me a short subscription to Olfactif, which will keep the samples coming for a few months. The set looks really nice, and December's package was Vanilla themed. Included this month were Dame Perfumery Scottsdale's Black Flower Mexican Vanilla, Xerjoff's Lira, DSH Perfumes' Vanille. It was perfect timing because I've been on the hunt for some more great vanilla scents!

He also ordered me a lone sample of Hiram Green Moon Bloom. I am dying to experience it for myself!

Lastly, there were a slew of free samples that came with the gift purchases. I awesomely scored the following:

Requested: 

Annick Goutal - La Violette

Serge Lutens - Bois de Violette

Serge Lutens - Feminite du Bois

Frederick Malle - Lipstick Rose

Frederick Malle - Carnal Flower

Jul et Mad - Stilettos on Lex

Byredo - Bal d'Afrique

(side note - Aedes's 7 samples with purchase policy is the best!)

Random:

Von Eusersdorff - Classic Vetiver

Atelier de Geste - Blood, Sweat and Tears

Atelier de Geste - Wild is the Wind

Dasein Fragrances - Winter

Ramon Monegal - Mon Cuir

Whew! What a blast! I am so thankful for the beautiful scarf and the load of scented goodies! I am looking forward to trying and reviewing every single thing on this list.  :)  Maybe I can find another FB worthy scent in time for my birthday, hehe.

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I hope you all have been enjoying your holidays. Did you get everything on your Christmas list this year? What were some of your most cherished gifts and memories?

Monday Funday! Samples, candles and the ever-expanding Christmas list...

A couple of months ago when my casual love of candles turned serious (and *just* before it morphed into a full-blown perfume obsession), I ventured to Blue Mercury to sniff some of the Diptyque candles. At the time, none of the 5 or 6 stocked candles smelled particularly good to me, but I did walk away surprisingly smitten with Eau Duelle and lusting after Eau Rose after testing them on paper strips. I'd been toying with using my Nordstrom gift card to buy the roll-on version of Eau Rose and decided last night that the light and effervescent rose would be perfect to wear during my upcoming trip to St. Lucia. Determined to get this scent before the trip, baby Walden and I ventured very very far to Tyson's Corner Center since their Nordstrom recently began stocking Diptyque products. (The Bloomingdales at Tyson's Corner also carries Diptyque, but their selection was FAR more limited.)

Ah, what an exquisite Nordstrom! The fragrance and beauty section was so much larger than at my home mall, and the SA that helped me was incredibly sweet and friendly and completely in love with my son. In the end, I eventually purchased the roll-on version of Philosykos instead of Eau Rose, as I prefered it's milky sweet drydown to the flatter floral drydown of Eau Rose. I guess on my skin Eau Rose didn't live up to the tester I coveted. :(

I also smelled each and every Diptyque candle they carried (which had to be ~20) and was shocked to love nearly ALL of them this time. After much debate, I ended up coming home with the Pomander - which felt like the quintessential fall/winter scent. It was absurdly expensive but !!LOVE!! Oh my it smells delicious, even in the box. 

Runners-up included Santal, Violette and Vetyver, at least 2 of which will end up on my Christmas list. I also sniffed out some of their reed diffusers and the Antica Farmacista - Prosecco reed diffuser will also be on my Christmas list. :)

While Philosykos probably isn't my dream tropical island getaway scent, I was fortunate to come away with several samples, some of which should fit the bill just fine! When all was said and done, my lovely SA sent me home with samples of:




(prepackaged by Diptyque - 2ml)
Diptyque - Do Son EdP 
Diptyque - L'Ombre dans l'Eau  EdP
Diptyque - Oyedo EdT

(prepared in store)
B Balenciaga EdP
Tom Ford - Mandarino di Amalfi
Tom Ford - Neroli Portofino
Chanel - Chance Eau Tendre
Carven - L'eau de Toilette

Wow!!!! Is this normal??




I wasn't super excited about the B Balenciaga, but the SA generously spritzed herself after preparing my sample, and I have to admit she smelled lovely! So my mind is open. I also think that the 2 Tom Fords, the Carven and Oyedo will be really lovely to try in the warm weather of St. Lucia.

When I finished at Nordstrom, I went to Sephora to try the new Scent IQ finder thingy to keep the fun alive. I'm not really sure how great of a job the scent finder did but I did end up with 3 more samples:

Nest - Midnight Fleur
Replica - Funfair Evening
Replica - Jazz Club

I haven't heard much about the Replica fragrances, but their bottles were really cute and I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

I'm extremely excited to try (and do my best to document/review) all of these samples! These should help tide me over until my next sample purchase, which I'll probably make soon after the trip.

Have you tried any of these fragrances? Which are your favorites? Do any of them strike you as amazing tropical fragrances?