Intro!

Well, first of all, my name is Betsy Woolbright. I'm the mom of a 6½ year old daughter, Andrea, and we are perfume fans.

I want to chronicle some of our adventures, together and individually, as we collect, wear and enjoy our perfumes. Some people may say that perfume isn't appropriate for children, but I disagree, because perfume isn't sexualizing like makeup and revealing clothes can be (and which little girls begin using way too young, in my own opinion).

Andrea is a tried-and-true gourmand girl, loving caramel, vanilla, chocolate, and fruity scents; I prefer those with amber, spice, and woods most often. She likes almost all the perfumes I let her smell. I'll take the lid off and say, "Andrea, do you like this one?" Usually she'll say something like, "I don't like it...I LOVE IT!" But if she isn't fond of it, she'll reply, "I like it a little bit."

Recently, I purchased Kenzo's Amour, which was said to be a vanilla/incense/tea/rice/floral perfume, inspired by a journey through different parts of Asia. Due to its name―Amour―I envisioned it as a honeymoon cruise around the Asian coastline. I pictured a loving, happy couple on the deck at sunset with the sun shining into the sea. I'd been curious about it for some time, but had never seen it priced for a total I was willing to pay, so I'd pretty much given up on ever trying or owning it, and had moved it to the bottom portion of my Want List. A month ago or so, I found an ebay seller who had it in his other items―I'd found him while searching out a different perfume.

It is indeed a vanilla scent, kind of dusty (I've noticed this in other Kenzo perfumes) with sweet aspects from the tea and flowers, and a not unpleasant "Playdoh" vibe for the first few minutes. The rice note is noticeable and lovely. It comes in a magenta "pitcher" shaped bottle. (Sometime I might figure out how to post pictures, but not tonight.)

Of course Andrea stole it immediately, because it's pink and sweet. I wore it once and set it on a small table in our bedroom. I sprayed it on Andrea's wrist. That night, we lay on our backs together on the bed while I read to her. She held the bottle in one hand and the lid in her other hand as I read. The next day she took it out onto the porch where she plays. I noted wafts of it periodically, but for whatever reason I didn’t care. Probably because I told her to take it back into the bedroom where she found it, and assumed she'd do it―then I left for work.

That night or the next morning, I don't see Amour on the bedroom table. I asked Andrea where it was, and why she hadn't put it back as I'd told her to do. She can't find it anywhere. I asked my fiancée, Andy, if he's seen it, and even showed him a picture of it online, both with and without its lid, so he'd recognize it even if it had gotten separated from its distinctive lid. Nope. He's utterly uninterested in perfume but agreed to let me know if he happened upon it.

I went back to ebay to see if the seller had another Kenzo Amour for sale (because it's been missing for about a week by this time). Nope.

So I keep pestering Andrea to keep looking for it. She said she'd been playing with it near this suitcase kept on the porch. I told her to look in it again. Meanwhile, I go under the porch (an elevated deck, really) and look down there in case it rolled or was thrown off. Nope.

So I take matters into my own hands and look into the suitcase myself, although I had several times already. Finally I found a flap that I'd missed before, and it had rolled into the flap.

Andy said I shouldn't let Andrea touch my perfume anymore. I know he's right, but perfume is something Andrea and I enjoy together and bond over, and so I compromised by hiding Amour and continuing to allow Andrea access to some of my cheapies that had already been out in the open for her to touch and play with and use.