Packing for the World's Lamest Vacation

Tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to the hospital for a routine surgical procedure-- I'm having my gallbladder removed. It's given me so much trouble recently and made me so sick, that I'll be relieved to get it out of me. My surgeon and surgical team are super cool, I like the hospital where I'll be, and I have full confidence in the staff. But I'm still nervous. All I can think about is what perfume and skin care products I'm going to bring with me. Distracting myself with such thoughts is certainly my self-preservation kicking in.

Just hold still... this won't hurt a bit

Since I can't bring my cat Troutie (the perfect creature comfort creature), I'm going to bring a small variety of perfumes most of which are made by hand, by people I care about and who care about me. It's all about good vibes-- bottled.
Here's the short list:

Aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge: it's in a roll-on bottle so travels well, has maximum impact with minimal sillage, and it acts as a cashmere blanket for my soul. Prediction: When the nurses get close enough to me, they will want to know what I'm wearing and where they can buy it.

Aftelier Oud Luban: It's in solid form, another great traveller. It's warm and cozy but also edgy and smoky. It reminds me of the best parts of myself, and it feels like an extension of Mandy. It's the best of both worlds. Prediction: My husband will comment on how amazing it smells. He always does, and it's gratifying when he notices and comments on whatever scent I'm wearing.

Opus Oils Giggle Water: Another roll-on bottle, this time filled with a cheerful orange blossom scent spiked with Kedra Hart's signature. a long-lingering soft musk. It makes me feel like the sun is out and I'm being warmed by its rays. A perfect reflection of Kedra's personality-- playful and engaging with a bit of the animal thrown in for good measure. Prediction: Men comment on this one. If I were single, I think I could feasibly get myself a surgeon  or anesthesiologist boyfriend.

Now, on to the skin care oils or balms. I said I'd bring two- one for face, one for body, but I don't think I can stick to two. Here are my must-haves:

Decleor Angelique Night Balm: I use it over retinol cream every night, and when I wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, I am very, very happy with what I see. Hydrates and protects to the max. Superb!

Aftelier Wild Orange Face Elixir: A perfect light to medium weight oil that my skin adores, and the fragrance makes me swoon. Patchouli and Cedarwood join the Wild Orange to facilitate the ideal indulgent skin care ritual. I use what's leftover on my hands to massage into my cuticles. It works even better than my expensive Decleor cuticle oil.

Red Flower Essential Omega Fresh Berry Oil: I can use this to soothe irritations and moisturize my face and body. I love the scent, which smells like pulverized berry seeds, a tiny bit of mint and a little bit of brightness from bergamot. It's a truly elegant multi-use oil that I've come to rely heavily on.

Ole Henriksen Lavender Body Oil: Since my pal Nav was so nice to send me a giant vat of this gorgeous stuff, I'm partying like it's 1999. I can only imagine the dry air in the hospital, and what sort of odors it will carry, and lavender is the perfect bodily spell to cast in order to protect my poor nose from any unwanted odors. Lavender: it's not just for dinner anymore.

I'm skipping the retinol, so that leaves room for one more thing... more perfume!

Amouage Library Collection Opus VI has been gobbling up all my stress and anxiety lately. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I might love it more than Opus V. Did you hear that, Mr. Chong? It's big, it's magnificent and it has unexpected facets that keep me interested. Full review to come soon. Prediction: If I'm feeling well enough, I will wear this, and others may be lucky enough to smell it because it does have some throw.

Bringing all these scented treasures with me is my way of protecting my state of mind in an unpredictable environment. They are my instruments to create balance and harmony-- it's the only healthy way to self-medicate that I know of, what about you?

EDIT 3/11/12: In the wake of The Great Hospital Fiasco of 2012, my skin went haywire. Within hours of entering the hospital, my cheeks and chest started reddening, and it only got worse from there. I have no idea what it is that made my skin freak, but I'm pretty sure it's airborne. I had my elite arsenal of skin care products at hand that temporarily soothed and hydrated for the longer term, but I've still got rosacea-like blotchiness on my face. I've never had rosacea before, but it wouldn't surprise me if I start getting it regularly now. Did I say that I loved that hospital and had faith in the staff? I retract all such complimentary statements. My surgeon is a badass and I like him quite a bit. Pretty much everyone else can go jump in the lake.
*CURTSY*

Current Obsessions: end of February

Once in awhile, I like to dish on what I'm currently obsessing over, and many of my fellow bloggers mercifully do the same thing. I love to know what everyone can't possibly live without. This is often how I find out about small brands and obscure products or fragrances. I am a cheerful voyeur, but instead of peeping you getting out of the shower, I'm looking to see what products you've got in there. I also want to ogle your cats.

H.P. Lovecraft with his kitty

Zoe Organics Love My Body Oil 2.5 oz, $20
This small but mighty outfit focuses on pregnancy and baby natural and organic skin care products, but don't let that fact lead you astray. This body oil can and should be used by everyone. It contains many good-for-skin ingredients and goes on satiny smooth. The recipe has very recently been tweaked for the better to include such things as vanilla plantifolia, pumpkin seed oil and tamanu oil. The fragrance is soft and lingering, enticingly natural, relaxing and puts me in a great mood every time I use it. It makes quick work of little dry patches on my arms, softens the dense scar tissue from my tattoos and soothes my post-shave legs. I've nudged Zoe Organics' owner Heather Hamilton to see if there's a larger size of this gorgeous oil on the horizon, and she's assured me there is.  Heather, if you're reading this, I'll take a 64 oz Big Gulp size, please.

Red Flower NYC Ocean Cleansing Hair Wash & Softening Conditioner 8 oz, $28/$32
I did not realize how dull and flat my hair has been acting until I used this amazing clarifying duo. The scent is refreshing, and the products are loaded with natural ingredients to soothe the scalp and perfectly cleanse and condition hair. A dash of vinegar in the Hair Wash delivers incredible shine, and the Softening Conditioner is aptly named, perhaps even modestly so. This duo puts my hair and scalp in such a state of perfect balance that I don't need to wash my hair as often as I used to. I've got my eye on French Lavender or Italian Blood Orange for next time. I'm smitten with everything Red Flower right now-- there are so many happiness-generating products, and so little time.

Zoya Feel Collection- Winter 2011 Six bottles in the set, $48
Oh, lord. I couldn't even begin to choose one or two shades from this collection, I had to have them all. Each pastel creme color can work as a neutral and are all terribly chic and eye-catching.  This is a sophisticated option for gals with cool or neutral skin tones who look at a line-up of such nail polish bottles and think, "Ooh, candy!".

NEST Fragrances Sir Elton John's Woodside Garden 8.1 oz (60 hrs burn time) $38
Ah, Spring. This has been an incredibly mild Winter, and today it's in the 50s and it almost feels like Winter never happened. Woodside Garden is the perfect Spring floral scent to inspire such delusions. It has notes of hyacinth, freesia, rose and jasmine and is meant to mimic the flora that Elton loves best in his garden in Old Windsor. As per usual for NEST, the glass vessel is outrageously pleasing to the eye.

Aftelier Wild Orange Face Elixir with Cedarwood & Patchouli  7ml, $40

This beautifully lightweight and deliciously fragranced facial oil goes with me everywhere. Oils have all but replaced creams for face and body in my daily regimen, and this is a very special one. The scent is simple, yet bizarrely effective at calming me down (and I've had a lot of chances to put it to use lately). The wild orange and patchouli are dominant, with the cedarwood lending that little touch of sharpness the blend needs to attain balance. The fragrance lasts for a few hours on my skin, and nobody can smell it but me. It's my secret rescue remedy with lots of impressive skin care benefits. And look at that bottle for a moment. It's precious.

Okay, folks, so now that I've spilled my obsessions, how about sharing some of yours? Inquiring minds have no shame and yes, we want to know. 

[all products were purchased by me for my personal collection except for the NEST candle, which was sent to me by the company for my consideration]

A Perfect Day with Red Flower

Lately, my distinguished and well-loved fellow blogger Nav of Beauty Huile has stoked an intense and inextinguishable passion inside me for oils. I'm discovering how useful and pleasurable a wardrobe of oils for the face, body and hair can be, and how fragrance ties very neatly into it as well. I never thought I'd say this, but creams sort of bore me now.

One of my most recent discoveries via Nav is Red Flower Essential Omega Fresh Berry-Oil Serum. It contains oils of the seeds of lingonberry, cranberry, raspberry and strawberry, along with lots of other goodies that have anti-aging and hydrating properties. *For the absolute best in-depth and poetic review of this product's benefits, I highly suggest heading over to Beauty Huile.* Since I'm a relatively new huilophile, I am mostly interested in sharing my sensory perceptions of this product. Then, I will wax poetic (pun fully intended) about a new addition to my family of luxury candles. 

A few of the (very soft and light) scent elements of the Essential Omega Fresh Berry-Oil Serum are: copaiba balsam, fir, juniper berry, garden mint, guaiac wood, lavender and rosemary. Add to this the faint tartness of berry seed extracts, a fleeting sense of the ocean's mutable presence along with the rich ripeness of the forest floor, and you are well on your way to forming the olfactory picture I have in my mind. The fragrance gives me the same strange but thrilling feeling I get when I sniff Aftelier Shiso, in that it's somewhat familiar, but in many ways, not of this earth. I thought about it some more, and realized that both scents contain mint. Is it mint that is so bewitching to my senses that it practically scrambles my brains with pleasure? Maybe so. Without regard to the solution of the riddle, I plunge ahead, because all of the fun is in the shadowy journey. The beauty truly lies in its many natural subtleties and slight variations, and I wonder if I'd have missed them if I were the Carrie of 5 or 10 years ago, before my obsession with perfume really took root.

It's difficult for me to describe the fragrance without connecting it to the act of using the oil-serum on my skin-  the sensory experiences are inextricably linked. This is how I began to understand what Red Flower is all about. It's not just a bottle of oil, it's a verdant and charmingly overgrown pathway to self-love. You get to smell this unique scent only when you massage the elegant mossy green tinted oil into your skin (face and/or body). When you use it on your skin, you are protecting, hydrating and beautifying yourself;  healing past damage, catering to the senses in the present, and protecting your skin for the future. I don't profess to know much about the company's spiritual ethos (but they do have one, or several), but I am really enjoying drawing my own conclusions experientially. 

This is my first foray into trying Red Flower products, but the overwhelming message I'm getting from the smattering of things I've tried so far is "love yourself first, then broadcast that love to those around you who need it". If that sounds too granola for you, then you should know that I'm actually that kind of person deep down. I'm not closed off to hidden messages or subliminal tidings of good will. I know positive energy when I slather it all over myself or smell it in the air. That brings me to my next delightful ambient find: Red Flower's French Lavender Petal-Topped Candle. 

It comes with the top filled with dried lavender, which is so potent and lovely, I immediately transferred it to a mason jar like I do all my other plant and floral treasures (they do tell you to remove the dried flowers before burning the candle). It's a beautiful touch that makes any of the Red Flower candles a stunning gift for any occasion, but especially Valentine's Day or anniversaries. The wax is very soft and highly fragrant. The candle burns evenly and the color is a delicious deep, inky violet that looks particularly fetching when pooled into liquid. It reminds me of the perfect nail polish color that I don't have yet (but if Jessica/LipstickRose from Now Smell This gets enough votes, her violet-centric mood board may dictate a suitably stylish palette of Zoya Nail Polish shades... vote HERE!) This candle looks sexy, it smells transcendentally beautiful, and earns extra points for presentation-- when you give this to someone as a gift, you're telling them that you're like a Transformer. There's more than meets the eye.

The fragrance is a true French Lavender which proves its natural potency with a slightly metallic twinge in the overall impression. The scent fills a room (or an entire moderately sized apartment) quickly and continues to throw long after it's been extinguished. When I compare this Red Flower candle to other luxury candles I love dearly, it ranks very highly. In fact, I'm already plotting to obtain the Italian Blood Orange, Indian Jasmine and Icelandic Moonflower candles next. True confession time: I've no idea what a moonflower smells like, do you? I hope to find out soon. One day I would love to lose myself in Red Flower's NYC urban oasis for a couple of hours. It's now become a mandatory stop on my next trip up there.

[Red Flower Essential Omega Fresh Berry Oil-Serum available from redflower.com and barneys.com among other places: 2.5 oz for $48. It's a large bottle, so this is what I'd consider a great value for a really fabulous product. The Lavender Petal-Topped Candle is available for $34 at Candles Off Main (my very favorite candle shop) as well as redflower.com, beauty.com and others.]

[products were purchased by me for my own use]