In the past few weeks, if something could go wrong, it has gone wrong. Lines of communication have been crossed, tempers have flared, orders have been mishandled. Not one to believe in horoscopes necessarily, I do believe that things going on in our universe affect us, and one of those things is Mercury retrograde. Every quarter or so, Mercury goes retrograde for approximately three weeks, and these are the times when your computer crashes for no reason, legal contracts fall through, or you end up waiting alone in the rain for a date who's waiting across town (also in the rain) for you.It's Mercury I blame for screwing up my order with La Creme Beauty. I had orginally ordered Majenty's Embrace the Day, a base of gardenia oil infused with notes of jasmine, tuberose, and plumeria. Of course, Mercury presiding the way it is, I didn't immediately notice that what I got in the mail wasn't what I ordered. Like the true perfume fiend I've become in the last few months, I simply whipped that little sucker out of the box and started to apply the yummy oil.
And yummy it was indeed, only it was not at all what I expected. In the first place, I distinctly smelled coconut. I didn't remember coconut listed in the notes, so I looked them up again, and sure enough, no coconut. I considered how interesting it was that these notes all together could smell so beachy and tropical. And I wasn't really getting much gardenia. Uh, any gardenia. I thought maybe it was my nose.
And so a few days later, I wore it again. Beachy. Hot. Floral. Was it the humidity? Was it my soap, my shampoo, my body lotion? What was making it change?
Ahem. It took me a week to figure it out. Yes, I'm ashamed, but I was sitting in a meeting (obviously with rapt attention) last week when it dawned on me that perhaps they had sent me the wrong item. And sure enough, when I got home that day, I checked the box, which looks just like the picture here and very plainly says "After Hours."
I thought about sending it back, but I liked it too much to do that! My vanilla reviews were few and far between (sort of) because I kept wearing this stuff instead. After Hours has a coconut oil base (hence the beachy tropical yumminess) infused with notes of tuberose, hyacinth, and jasmine. Some perfumes cut the heat, and others embrace it, as this one does. This floral has a pulse. It swelters. It's a dark, hot, close night just before rain. In the humidity, it's warm and sexy. In the chill of air conditioning, it's warm and sexy. Some people who are easily overpowered by white florals may have a tough time with it, especially after first putting it on. It's quite heady and intoxicating, but as it warms to the skin and the coconut comes through, the floral softens.
I've not had a chance to smell the NARS oils, and there is nary a bottle of Azuree to be found anywhere in the "greater" Atlanta area, so I cannot compare. This is a true perfume oil, not a body oil, and thereby may also be more concentrated than the other two. But if you're looking for that beachy, tropical feeling, After Hours will do it for you. And it has wonderful staying power. I can't wait to try Embrace the Day...someday.
*photo from Majenty
