Pop Culture Fun: Rebecca Bunch and Valencia Perez of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

I'm not even half way through Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and I am seriously in love. It's insane, absurdly smart, creative, funny, heartbreaking, cringe inducing, and showcases some obscene talent. It's good.

Rebecca Bunch is about five million contradictions, she is probably best thought out portrait of someone with some serious issues, who is very smart, but also makes so many terrible terrible choices. She is the best example of I can think of right now on television of hilarious and heartbreaking. Can mental illness be funny, yes, but nuance is rarely applied with social commentary in a combination with s much biting madcap humor as depicted in the character of Rebecca Bunch.

Rebecca has the fatal flaw of deeply deeply wanting to impress and please everyone she wants in her life, except for the very few that get her aka Paula or Heather. Her intense desire to be wanted frequently involves her being willing to use all of her advantages to various extremes. So the first scent pick for Rebecca is Lancome's La Vie Est Belle, if there ever was a scent trying so damn hard and trying to have it all this is it. This scent is Rebecca to the ninth, when she is at her most manic in competition and trying to win Josh Chan's heart.

If Rebecca was more honest with herself she might choose something that is not La Vie Est Belle because she might have to admit certain qualities about herself. I rather think she would be far better in the more eccentric gourmand of Carner Barcelona's Tardes.  Tardes, a strange concoction of almond, cream, fresh watery celery, and fluffy musk. The scent is intelligent but charming and has a certain edge of rambunctious just like Rebecca when she isn't flying all over the place trying to be so damn pleasing. I think Rebecca is a gourmand wearer, she need a comforting scent but she doesn't quite get that about herself.

At the other end of the spectrum and Rebecca's nemesis, is Valencia, Josh's girlfriend. Valencia is played as the classic pretty mean girl but is able to be shown as having her own needs and desires that are not to be considered foolish. She does have all the right reasons to be wary of Rebecca and her overtures
towards Josh.

What is perhaps the most amusing thing is that like Rebecca, Valencia has a vision of herself that is not quite reality. In her head she is a zen yoga instructor who is peaceful. Her obvious choice of perfume is Sage Machado's Onyx a "spiritual" mix of tobacco, coconut, and musk. It is the obvious choice of hot chicks who love "spirituality" it is very Southern California. Valencia represents the classic Southern California "hottie" the woman who loves yoga, pilates, juice cleanses, and chia seeds and is perfectly in control of her super-toned body. She is supposed to be easygoing and sweet with hints of health food store.

Valencia is sharper than her scent of choice, she might not be as bookish as Rebecca, but this woman has aspirations and has started her own yoga studio. She also can see through Rebecca's delusions and overtures. Valencia should be wearing Lucy B's Royal Green Fig and Vanilla Woods. Royal Green Fig and Vanilla Woods is a simple but attractive sharp green fig scent, it is bohemian enough to fit Valencia's ideas about herself but sharp enough to show the intelligence beneath her choices.






First image from hulu.com
Second image from Herald Review
Third image from Fragrantica.com
Fourth image from Fragrantica.com
Fifth image from Cxg.wikia.com
Sixth image from Luckyscent.com
Seventh image from Beautycollection.com

Smell-a-likes in the Cheap Perfume Oil section

Sometimes I am amazed by what gets really marked-up and was essentially copied from the cheap perfume oils section of the Health Food Store/Hippie section of your local drugstore, on the other hand I get it, because sometimes there are really good smelling things there.

So I finally got my hands on One N' Only Argan Oil Treatment, and as I put it on I realized it smelled really good, and that I recognized the scent, but it took a few days for me to finally realize what I was smelling. It smells like Night Queen oil. An oil that I frequently wonder why the scent is more popular considering how popular other scents of the perfume oil variety have become, it is one of those clean florals in the Kai/Child category, although more rose based and tad muskier, with spices but most definitely a clean floral. Auric Blends Night Queen a good place to go for this fragrance.

Then the dupe known has the Jennifer Aniston fragrance and yes I fell for it, I admit at the time I was in a bit of fragrance funk at the time and wandering the local Sephora it was a distinct scent out of all the fruity florals at the time. It was clean and easy, which sometimes I really need, but a year later wandering around the local Sunflowers Market I see a Kuumba Made display and decided to try Pikake Lei, and immediately I knew I was smelling the Jennifer Aniston fragrance except more depth and longevity.

Another very duped fragrance by Kuumba Made is Vanilla Musk which smells essentially like the much pricier Pearl by Sage Machado.

image provided by museumsyndicate.com, image: An Offering to Venus by John William Godward

SOTD: Pearl by Sage Machado

Wearing something I have not worn in ages, Sage Machado's Pearl, the weather remains coolish and this well seemed perfect to go with it.
Quote of the Day: What's on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement?-- Fred Allen

image provided by artmagick.com

Pack Clouds Away and Welcome Days by Edward Robert Hughes

Sweet For Spring

Now as lovely as flowers and greenery are in spring fragrances, there is the reality that I lean towards fragrances on the oriental side which usually have some sort of sweet undercurrent. Now of late I have been thinking about sweet fragrances that work in spring, because as it turns out spring seems to be a hard time to wear sweet fragrances (some how summer is easier even if the weather is warmer). So I have come up with a list of three fragrances that work in spring weather that lean on the sweet side yet complement the weather:

1. With Love by Hilary Duff : There is something perfect about this lovely creamy milky amber to go with cooler spring days. The scent contains enough oriental elements to fulfill the need for this type of scent, yet is light enough to never over power. It has a lovely cafe au lait quality with just a hint of zesty fruit to keep it from becoming to sweet.

2. Pearl by Sage Machado : This scent has always reminded me of petals on the ground, clouds, and scent of steam and incense intermixed. It brings about a meditative quality with the use of clean musk and sandalwood, but remains wonderfully comforting with a lovely vanilla that is not gourmand.

3. Kuumba Made Vanilla Musk : There is something rather pink and opalescent about this scent. It is wonderfully feminine but at the same time very relaxed, I will admit it reminds of pastries filled with almond but decorated with floral designs, but I will say this now it is not a gourmand scent.


image provided http://www.nigella.com/recipes/recipe.asp?article=170

SOTD: Sage Machado Pearl

Sadly I have to work the whole entire weekend so I am choosing to go with a comforting scent, Sage Machado's Pearl. What is wonderful about this scent is that it is one of the few non-gourmand vanilla's out there, the sandalwood and musk perfectly balance it, making it a perfectly fluffy white cloud of scent.

Quote of the Day: It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

image provided by artnet.com

Twilight by Yoshimasa Tsuchiya 2005