Parfums de Marly: Oajan, Lippizan, Kuhuyan reviews!

Parfums de Marly is another one of those fun contemporary fragrance houses that liken to old traditions; as far back as Louis XV’s prestigious horse races, and as front-facing as the MySpace-esque format and music on their web page. But that’s not a knock; the page has a clean, intuitive look, and I appreciate it over the many companies who believe it should be as difficult and stylistic as possible to learn any information on their pages. I do wish the waltz they’re playing didn’t stop so abruptly before starting over.

Anyway, I have heard good things about this brand, and hope to one day also try Herod and Habdan, as well as see their take on women’s fragrances!

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Pokemon’s 20th Anniversary coming up!

On February 27th, Pokemon will be celebrating their 20th anniversary with a release of a new 3DS bundle, as well as a re-release of Red, Blue, and Yellow for 3DS, making popular amiibos (Charizard, Jigglypuff, Greninja, Lucario and Pikachu) available at select retailers, special trading card expansions, digitally remastered Pokemon movies, and a bunch of other stuff we might not have learned about yet.

There will also be several distribution events for Pokemon X/Y and Pokemon Omega Ruby/Sapphire at Gamestop this year; Pokemon include Mew, Celebi, and Genesect!

They also have this amazing Super Bowl ad that they released.

To the kids telling themselves affirmations to the pyrotechnics and crowds cheering, this ad is making me tear up and get excited about the biggest franchise that ruled my childhood next to Legos and Hello Kitty.

Good night, Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman has died at the age of 69 from cancer.

I wanted to write a little something to remember him by for myself, as well as include some bits of his talent just in case anyone’s forgotten about how amazing this man was because I am just incredibly sad and I don’t really know what else to do.

As a child of the Harry Potter era, reading and watching it fervently, going through as many ups and downs as the characters and the actors that I could know about, the most important of Alan Rickman’s roles to me was Professor Snape. He made Snape accessible, funny, steely but gentle, and his motivations complex and understandable to the point where even JK Rowling changed her perception of the character after watching Rickman’s interpretation. Fanfic after fanfic about the softer side of Snape, and the possible misunderstood an maligned nature of the Slytherin house in general, came out full force after his portrayal because of his portrayal.

We all fell in love. I know I did.

He is missed by that cast and Rowling herself.

Good night Mr. Rickman. You will be sorely missed.

Imaginary Authors: Stories III (Every Storm a Serenade)

IA-logoI’ll preface this to say that when Mr. Chokkattu got Every Storm a Serenade in the mail, it also came with Cape Heartache and Yesterday Haze and Yesterday Haze had leaked all over everything. Mr. Chokkattu, who is not a big fan of fig, was not pleased and we tried to scrub it off our hands and off the other bottles and were unable. The other samples still smelled ostensibly like Yesterday Haze for a whole week, and it stuck to our hands for hours afterwards. Mr. Chokkattu also reported his clothes smelling like it the next day. So for all of you that really like fig and woods, but were concerned about longevity, don’t be. Yesterday Haze is a great fig. Get a bottle, have fun.

I have a lot to say about this one. Every Storm a Serenade is Imaginary Author’s “traveling by ocean” aquatic scent (read: woody) in comparison with their Falling Into the Sea aquatic scent, which is more “at the beach” and not a little soapy in execution. And Falling Into the Sea lasts an awful lot longer, which is unfortunate because I’m not that fond of Falling Into the Sea at this temperature, and like Every Storm much better.

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Tocca Reviews: Graciella & Cleopatra

The last of the reviews! They might get a little preachy, just a warning, and I paired these last ones because they are both meant to represent real people (and out of the ones I got are the only ones that are; Giulietta is named after a real woman, but is based on her and her husband’s relationship.)

Gonna say this right now, but Florence and Cleopatra are probably my favorites of the bunch! No surprise there.

Reviews a go!

Graciella (fruity floral)
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Tocca Reviews: Stella & Florence

I just have to say that the samples I got from Tocca are just so, so clean. I know I mentioned it earlier, but I just wanted to drive that point in.

Tocca is great for people who aren’t really into perfume per say, but enjoy their hand soaps and shampoos (as opposed to Philosophy users who aren’t really into perfume but enjoy their hand creams and desserts.)

And on continues the reviews!


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Tocca Reviews: Giulietta & Violette

Tocca is a brand that tries to embody an old world aesthetic and feminine sensibility. With its simple round bottle and traditional “perfume-y” notes, I can see its point, though it lacks some of the dirtiness I associate with a lot of old world perfume.

At their price point, this would be a great gift for someone starting out in fragrance who is perhaps a little too old for Bath & Bodyworks, cringes at the department store stuff, and values light and dainty things. The packaging, and the whole sweet and ethereal floral and fruity deal, is obviously staunchly on the girly-feminine side of things, but if that’s what you prefer, go for it!

These will be in installments of 3 so that my posts don’t stretch on.

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