P.S. They will never send me free products to review at this rate. But I figure an honest review is more important than a pandering one.
Friday, April 29, 2022
Perfume Ranking - House of Sillage Whispers in the Garden Noir
Monday, April 18, 2022
House of Sillage - Whispers in the Garden Ranking
That's the video. I did two rankings on each fragrance, first on paper and then on my skin. I'll post the ranking below as skin/paper, because I ultimately ordered them in the skin order. If you don't want to watch it, here's a rundown of what it says:
In last place, 7/7: Whispers of Strength. This is the perfume in the purple bottle. It is a white floral and isn't for me mainly because it has tuberose in it, which smells rotten on my skin. Very sweet and floral.
6/5: Whispers of Innocence. This perfume comes in a white bottle. This is another white floral and even though it doesn't have gardenia in it, the overall effect is gardenia to me. It is very strong and really makes a statement. That statement is, "I'm wearing perfume!!!!" If that's the statement you want to make, then this is a good choice for you.
5/6: Whispers of Truth. This perfume comes in an opaque white bottle with multi-colored crystals on the cap. It is the most expensive perfume in the line. At $495/bottle, you might not be surprised when I tell you I bought the travel version, which is much less expensive. The overall scent is very powdery to me. It has a sweet/bitter scent which competes for your attention.
4/3: Whispers of Enlightenment. This perfume comes in a peach bottle. It has a clean scent and is much more fruity than the others in this collection, which tend to be more floral. I think it might not have had a lot of staying power on my skin.
3/1: Whispers of Guidance. This perfume comes in a green bottle. It has something called "green notes" in it and even though I liked this one on paper the best, when I put it on, it smelled like tomato plants on me. I'm not sure if I would ever want to smell like a tomato plant or not. It was clean and green, but just not an ideal match for me.
2/4: Whispers of Time. This perfume comes in a blue bottle. I wonder if the color of the bottle influenced how much I liked this one. I really wanted it to be the best one, because the bottle is blue. It has ginger in it and that's the main thing I could detect. On paper, the ginger was sharp. On skin, it was softer.
1/2: Whispers of Admiration. This perfume comes in a pink bottle. It is sugary and reminds me of cotton candy. So again, not very floral, but I liked it the best. I didn't buy a full bottle only because it seems to either be sold out or never on sale. To me, that means it is the favorite one by everyone. Why put it on sale when they can't even keep it in stock? I only have a travel size of it because I'm not going to spend full price on any of these bottles without there being an amazing gift with purchase on offer.
There you go. The bottles are very pretty. I didn't hate any of these perfumes and ranking them was a little bit difficult because none of them were really horrible.
Whispers in the Garden Noir collection ranking is coming soon...
Friday, April 8, 2022
I Watched Three Versions of Death on the Nile so You Don't Have to!
I’m going to do some comparisons between the three different
adaptations of Death on the Nile. I will assume you’ve seen at least one or
read the book, otherwise this is meaningless and spoiler alter - filled with
spoilers.
Characters and
key plot: |
1978 Version |
2004 Version |
2022 Version |
Hercule
Poirot |
Peter Ustinov
|
David Suchet |
Kenneth
Branagh |
Colonel Race |
David Niven |
James Fox |
Omitted |
Linnet Doyle
née Ridgeway |
Lois Chiles |
Emily Blunt,
playing American |
Gal Gadot, no
longer American |
Jacqueline de
Bellefort |
Mia Farrow |
Emma
Griffiths Malin |
Emma Mackey,
no longer American |
Simon Doyle |
Simon
MacCorkindale |
JJ Feild |
Armie Hammer,
playing English |
Linnet's maid
Louise Bourget |
Jane Birkin |
Félicité Du
Jeu |
Rose Leslie |
trustee
Andrew Pennington |
George
Kennedy |
David Soul |
Ali Fazal
swapped in as Andrew Katchadourian |
Salome
Otterbourne, romance novelist |
Angela
Lansbury |
Frances de la
Tour |
Sophie
Okonedo, now an American jazz singer |
Rosalie,
Salome’s daughter |
Olivia Hussey,
becomes engaged to Mr. Ferguson |
Zoe Telford, propositions
Tim, but he is a homosexual and turns her down |
Letitia
Wright, Salome’s daughter and business manager, in a secret relationship with
Bouc |
Tim Allerton |
Omitted, so
the pearls are not counterfeited |
Daniel
Lapaine |
Tom Bateman
swapped in as Bouc, he steals the necklace and hides it in Euphemia’s luggage
where it is found |
Tim’s Mother |
Omitted |
Barbara Flynn
|
Annette
Bening swapped in as Euphemia |
Marie Van Schuyler, socialite kleptomaniac |
Bette Davis,
steals and returns the pearls |
Judy Parfitt,
steals the fake pearls and Cornelia returns them (I think - I’ve forgotten already)
|
Jennifer
Saunders, no longer a socialite or kleptomaniac, now a closeted lesbian with
her “nurse.” |
Cornelia
Robson, cousin of Marie |
Omitted |
Daisy Donovan,
agrees to marry Dr. Bressner after turning down Mr. Ferguson |
Omitted |
Miss Bowers,
nurse to Marie |
Maggie Smith |
Omitted |
Dawn French, closeted
lesbian companion of Marie. |
Mr. Ferguson,
communist, witnesses first shot |
Jon Finch |
Alastair
Mackenzie |
Combined with
below. |
Dr. Bessner,
Austrian |
Jack Warden |
Steve
Pemberton |
Russell Brand
swapped in to replace Dr. Bessner and Mr. Ferguson as Linus Windlesham |
Guido
Richetti, archeologist |
Omitted |
Omitted |
Omitted |
Jim Fanthorp,
lawyer/solicitor |
Omitted |
Omitted |
Omitted |
|
|
|
Susannah
Fielding, Poirot’s former fiancée, not a character from the source material |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1st
murder victim |
Linnet |
Linnet |
Linnet |
2nd
murder victim |
Louise |
Louise |
Louise |
3rd
murder victim |
Salome |
Salome |
Bouc* New
character in this version. |
4th
murder victim |
Simon |
Simon |
Simon |
5th
body |
Jacqueline |
Jacqueline |
Jacqueline |
|
|
|
|
Pearl
Necklace |
Still pearls,
stolen by Marie |
Still pearls,
stolen by Marie, counterfeited by Tim |
Changed to
diamond necklace |
Nail Polish
Bottle |
Filled with
unexplained paint |
Filled with
unexplained paint |
Filled with
red paint from new character Euphemia’s paint supplies. |
This proves what? Nothing. Just noting the differences to
keep track of them. One difference in the 2022 movie which I think was a
problem was Linnet saying she rented out the entire riverboat for her guests.
All of the characters, including Poirot, are on the cruise by Linnet’s invitation
and yet Jacqueline still manages to get a room despite Linnet renting the whole
boat. Doesn’t make sense. And why change it? It was fine that Poirot just
happened to book himself onto the cruise. And that the other people had some
connection with Linnet. She was rich and owned a lot of properties or companies
or something. Everyone didn’t need to be on the boat at her request.
I also didn’t think the changing of Salome and Rosalie’s
characters in the 2022 version worked. Salome was such a great character in the
other 2 versions that the changes just didn’t work in 2022.
2022 wide shots of the Nile looked like CGI and did nothing
to entice me to want to visit Egypt. 1978’s shots of the Nile and Egypt were better.
Which is good because it was filmed on location.
Anyway, what are my thoughts? 1978 was the best as a movie.
2004 seems most faithful to the book and is the shortest one, so that’s a
bonus. 2022 was embarrassing and cringe in so many ways. Just search on YouTube
for the opening dances between Simon and Jacqueline and Simon and Linnet and
see if it doesn’t make you incredibly uncomfortable.