Scents of a (Money Conscious) Woman

Hello, gorgeous!

On my birthday, one of my cousins wrote this on my Facebook wall:

“Happy Birthday to you! You live in a zoo…you look like a monkey…and smell like one too!”

Of course, this new verse of the “Happy Birthday” song came from the movie Madagascar. (And my cousin didn’t mean any harm.) While it’s all good, the song brought to my attention what I actually use to perfume myself. I own a lot of perfumes through the years. Each year, I usually get two to three bottles of perfumes – the real stuff, not those cheap body sprays. Yet, I don’t use the real stuff as much. While I don’t have skin allergy to perfumes, they do make me feel nauseated after 3 days of consecutive use of the same scent. And I want to smell good!

And you’ll be really surprise of what I use. They are really cheap and may not last as long as EDT or EDP. But whenever I wear them, I smell good!

Scent #1: Body Fantasies Vanilla Fantasy Fragrance Body Spray

Body Fantasies body sprays are like candied crack. They are cheap, they smell good, but they don’t last long. I think they are the drugstore Demeter but you get more volume with the same amount of money. These sprays smell surprisingly good and the lasting power is not too shabby. I was exposed to Body Fantasies through a scent called Fresh White Musk. To this very day, it’s the only musk scent that does not smell dirty on me.

As far as vanilla scents go, most of them tend to smell dirty after half an hour wear. At first, they would go really nice and cheery to make me feel like a cheerleader. But as soon as I start to sweat, the vanilla scent would go rancid like old leftover cookies nobody wants.


But Vanilla Fantasy is different. It goes out smooth and sweet, and stays the same until the very end. And I do feel like a cheerleader when wearing it! As far as aromatherapy goes, vanilla makes people feel comfortable and open. It can be sensual when pairing with ylang-ylang.

A big bottle of Vanilla Fantasy costs around 6 dollars but I got it for a buck during Wal-Mart clearance sale! If you wait until Christmas, you can get 3 mini bottles of Body Fantasies sprays for 4-6 dollars! And if you wait ‘til the day after Christmas, it can be really really cheap! I’m just sayin’…if you can wait that long :)

Scent #2: Old Spice Classic Aftershave

That's a bottle of Old Spice sitting on top of a Q- Tips cube :)

Ok, please don’t weird out! I know what I’m doing; this scent is an accidental finding to me. As you know, I love the smell of Aveda Brilliant shampoo and conditioner. I love it so much that I wanted to buy the bottled scent to use. But after asking and sniffing around the display area of Aveda Institute, I gave up! So far, Aveda does not bottle this scent of Brilliant to sell to the public. I know my nose is good but to mix ylang-ylang, rose, jasmine, and God-know-what essential oils together to create the scent of Brilliant is not a brilliant idea. I prefer to buy and use it instead.

Then, one day I wandered around Target and saw some bottles of Old Spice on sale. Now, one of my cousins used to wear Old Spice aftershave and I remember to love the glass bottle very much. Yet, I did not recall the scent. Over the time, Old Spice came up with different variations of the scents and all of the sudden, aftershaves all smell the same to me: cloying and tacky. But curiosity got a better part of me and I found myself opening that bottle of Old Spice and rubbing a bit of it to my wrist.

Ka-bam!

It smells really lovely and familiar. But my famished self could not put one and one together. I left the bottle behind and went to find some food. Then the scent hit me in the head: Old Spice Classic is Aveda Brilliant! So I bought it, happy as a clam!

To be honest, these two scents are very close: Old Spice Classic has more spice in it (duh!) while Aveda Brilliant is more flowery (double duh!) When Old Spice dies down a bit, the familiarity is astounding. I don’t know who moonlighted whom but I was happy to spend those three dollars plus some change for my Old Spice Classic.

The lasting power is short, as it is an aftershave. I do feel good when wearing it and have no skin irritation whatsoever. While it remains a puzzle, I wear some spicy-woody male fragrances well. If I don’t tell you, you would not know they are male perfumes at all. I guess my body chemistry makes them smell sweeter and more feminine.

Honorary Mention:Avon Sweet Honesty

Image courtesy Avon.com

Although this scent is not really cheap like the others, you can always find deals at Avon website to offset the cost. It smells like baby powder but not in a premature way (or an old-fashioned way either!) I find Sweet Honesty to be quite endearing and like the other two, I don't get tired of it.

How about you? What are your budget-friendly scents? Please tell me, I'd love to hear about them!



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