...I believe there are some people here who own the Collection version of Cuir de Lancome.Please, what does the batch code on the bottom of the box look like? Would be even better if you could attach a picture of the bottom of your box.

...Thanks, Epimedes!

...Wow, thanks for the warning, Gold!

...So I was thinkin' what to give myself for birthday, browsing perfume shops etc, and I stumbled upon an individual selling 2nd hand vintage fragrances. Her wares look legit as far as I can tell, and the five bottles she's apparently sold to date all garnered 5* ratings from buyers. Now to the point. She has a bottle of Bandit there, allegedly 95% full and not exactly in mint condition. The version she's selling would've looked like the one in the pic, had it not been missing half of its front label. She claims it's the vintage EdT. Three things look suspicious to me. First, she only wants about USD 75 for the 3.3 oz, whereas I saw the same bottle priced three times as much elsewhere(that other one is NIB though). Secondly, the spray nozzle looks dodgy. The seller specifies it as one of the flaws in her ad, but it still looks like it's been ripped out and then slapped back on (see pic with windowsill). And three... well, this is China after all, and sorry as I am for putting this so bluntly, fakes galore await at every corner. On the bright side - and this is where my husband laughed out loud as if it weren't a sign of a true perfumista, this seller very cutely admits to loving Jolie Madame best of the green leather genre and wanting to just find a good home for her Bandit. Me, I've only ever seen and smelled the modern EdP of Bandit. How does this EdT compare to it? Is it even vintage? Does 75 bucks for 3.3 oz look too good to be true or is 200 on the other site a rip-off? Also, please look closely at the pic with the windowsill, it's possible to make out the level of liquid inside, are Bandit bottles normally filled all the way (there's supposedly about 95 ml in this bottle)? Or does it look a bit too full? And finally, what do you think of the sprayer? Is it possible that it had been removed at some point or are these bottles prone to crooked sprays?Any and every comment will be greatly appreciated :)

...I'm enjoying the cooler days immensely. Pulled out of summer hiatus are:31 Rue CambonOpium (vintage EdT)and all my precious leather chypres! Ohhh the marvel and adoration!! I think I'm going to wear Bandit tomorrow.

...Flaconneur:ChapeauClack:I get the feeling we'll soon hear about many discontinuations.This never worried me since all the L'Artisan fragrances I tend to become attached to are limited editions. Once they're gone, they're really gone.Bittersweet, isn't it. But good for you to be so rational about your fragrances. As for the sale, that took place about two weeks ago on their main site, so it wasn't a regional thing. Right now on their French site they have only about a dozen fragrances available and apparently have trouble shipping even those. Doesn't look good...

...I suppose I could write to them and ask them directly. Chances are they'll never tell the truth though, you know how Perfume Houses are!I looked over their website and the new collection is there alright, but what's left of the old stuff isn't very convincing, half the fragrances are not there and some are marked "unavailable".Also, a friend of mine tried to order some of their older perfumes directly from the website and got a letter from them where they said they couldn't fill her order "due to the many difficulties". According to the letter one particular perfume she had wanted was "all sold out during the recent big sale".I get the feeling we'll soon hear about many discontinuations.

...A friend just alerted me to a disturbing tendency. First L'Artisan had a huge sale on their site, then it turns out many upscale department stores are running out of their fragrances and not restocking, and finally at least one of the big wholesale suppliers to online retailers "stopped carrying the brand".Does anyone know what's going on? Is there a mass reformulation in order, or maybe a corporation takeover, or are they just folding?I'm in panic, I have so many of their frags on my wish list and even more that I haven't tried!

...Cincy, walking is the best workout ever, or at least the only kind that I honestly enjoy. Deb... that´s just hilarious, sorry! I can´t stop laughing. (My dog used to roll in little dead things in the woods, so I feel for you. It's still too damn funny though.)

...Naaah, I wouldn't even get into it with my hubby, he's one of those geeks with a scientifically based gym routine :shock:I could use a good enabling workout buddy though.

...Isn't this the friendly bot that announces a 404 error? Adorable :)

...I thought somethin' wasn't right that French...

...I like a good negative review too. In some ways they are more helpful than accolades. We're lucky it's impossible to thumb a negative review down into nonexistence here on Parfumo, heh :wink:

...Hayven! Congratulations on landing that job! Oooo cinnamon rolls, have mercy ladies, those are about the only thing that can make me fall of the healthy eating wagon. The night hubby made them for our bakers' battle, I ate THREE big ones and didn't even flinch! They just hypnotize me. Yeah, I've been wanting to call it quits with the battle since it's jeopardizing my efforts to get in shape.

...Madamig is actually as scrumptious a word as they get. I can see it being popularized on Parfumo :)"Old-lady perfume" on the other hand, in most cases tells much more about the reviewer's intellectual impotency than about the perfume.

...Dlane, the battle's still on. So far I've been winning 2:1. I wonder what he comes up with next!Does Finn ever blow off enough steam? he looks like he's one of those dogs with an endless resource :lol:

...Aromi, congratulations on taking a such a bold step! Good for you. The job is where we spend most of our time, it should at least be tolerable! Pipette, what a feat! Your grandchild is lucky to have such a devoted grandma :)I've been careless enough to challenge my husband to a bakers' battle. Now there's no escape from cinnamon rolls. Ugh!

...Awww, the first Holiday topic of the year! Sweet!I find that perfumes decanted into cute decorative vessels make perfect stocking stuffers and party favors. I'm going to get a bunch of colorful roll-on vials and decant away come December. The only trick is to know the general direction in which everyone's fragrance preferences lean, but that's easy: I'm the Master Perfume Spy.

...Bacon jam sounds awful, but the scary truth is that it probably tastes wonderful, what with the caramelized onions and all. Bookmarked and will definitely try out. Bye-bye, Diet!Me, I've been baking Apple Charlotte. Used to make it all the time in high school and the Uni, and it always seemed a bit lackluster. Now that I'm a matron (cackle cackle), I figured out how to make it fabulous. Will attempt another one with bananas tomorrow :)I've also been cautiously trying on Molinard de Molinard which struck me as an extremely mumsy floral in summer. Cool weather does it good, it's finally the slightly poisonous green chypre that it deserves to be.

...OK, not slowpokes then.Amazing stuff really.