Fragrance Friday

Yep, it's back! I've got a big jar of perfume samples that I've decided to try and make my way through*. Rather than try and write complete summaries of them, I'm going to restrict myself to no more than a haiku-length review (17 syllables); this may sometimes result in some unusual formatting. I'll also include whether I'll keep the sample or not. It's an exercise in literary restraint! (This is not my forte, nor does it lead to the most informative reviews, but it's a fun new challenge for me, and hopefully entertaining for you to read.)
*yep, ending with a preposition, don't even try to sue me because I will linguistics the shit out of you.

Bond No 9 Hudson Yards

via

Hairsprayed fruit bouquet.

(And that bottle is hi-de-

ous. Two hundred bucks?!)

Judgment: Throw it out.

Tocca Giulietta

via

Another gener-

ic fruity floral, but at

least less synthetic.

Judgment: Pass it on.

On Medical Leave, Chronic Illnesses, and Guilt

I cross-posted this on FB, with minor differences, so if you're friends with me there, you may have already seen this. If you're not, you should friend me! Email me (beyondjustbeauty at gmail dot com) for my full name, if you don't have it.

Some of you already know this, but: I'm taking medical leave from grad school for part of next year. I have lots of feelings about it, and because I am ultimately an extremely verbal person (a linguist, verbal? say it ain't so), I decided to write about them. If you don't care about the minutiae of my experiences with chronic illness(es), this is not the post for you (and if you wonder what I'm doing posting about something so clearly non-beauty-related, *points to title* *and {personal} tag*). But email me! Or comment? We should do a package exchange (! because getting mail is GREAT, though as my friends can attest, I am absolute shit at getting things sent out promptly; I currently have two packages for friends that I meant to send before I left for the south in June, but...they're still works in progress. Sigh. Definitely don't message me unless you're willing to put up with my lackadaisical pace, that's for sure).