My local Marshall’s has been popping off with some great finds. Tonight they had South Slope, a bunch of Tumi Awaken and Kinetic bottles, several of the Ferragamo leather flankers, and Given by Reserve Privee. But the find of the night for me was Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning. It’s been on my wish list for a long time. I used up the sample over a year ago, and love the easy, clean linen fragrance for casual days and mornings at home. It retails for $170 and usually falls around 85-100 at discounters. They had it on clearance with a red label for $79 which is a pretty decent price, so it came home with me.

I can't remember the last time that I picked up more than a couple of bottles, but this seems to be one of the consequences of becoming more active in the group. All winners.

Well, my birthday is Saturday, and I originally didn't have anything planned, but then my really good friend told me that Nordstrom's is having one of their fashion shows as part of their Month of Beauty program. Lot's of store discounts, showcases, tips, presenters, raffles. it's going to be a blast. If you're in Austin or the surrounding area, I'm going to go from 9 to about 11am or so to see what they have and maybe take advantage of the sale. I have yet to spend my birthday perfume budget, so I may try to pick up something nice if they have a good discount. Hit me up if you're in the area and planning to attend. They're doing a similar one at the Nordstrom's in the Domain Friday night, but I have a wedding and can't make that one.

One of my drivers was heading to Vietnam for a month to visit his fiancée, and since he knows I’m into fragrances, he gave me a call before he left and asked if there was anything I wanted him to look for. Of course, that sent me straight down the rabbit hole. I immediately started researching niche fragrance houses in Vietnam and came across one that really caught my attention. I even found the perfume shop that carried the line. The problem? They don’t ship to the United States. Well, problem solved. I had somebody going to Vietnam. I sent him the information, and he actually went looking for the store. He told me it was tucked away on a small street toward the back, but once he walked inside, the shop itself was absolutely beautiful. He also noticed that most of the other people coming in were foreigners, which told me right away that people are starting to discover what is happening with fragrance over there. Before sending him, I started digging through reviews and decided to have him pick up three of their most popular fragrances: CO CUNG DA YEN HOANG TRA When he got back, I came home and immediately started smelling all three. First impressions? I really like them. These aren’t fragrances that smell like somebody simply copied what is already popular in Europe or the Middle East. They have their own personality. They’re unique, interesting, and all three smell extremely good to me on the first sniff. And the presentation? That was another surprise. Absolutely beautiful. The bottles and overall packaging make the whole experience feel much more special than I was expecting. This is exactly why I keep saying that Asia is going to become a much bigger part of the fragrance conversation. There are houses coming out of Vietnam and other parts of Asia doing things that a lot of fragrance enthusiasts in the United States haven’t even discovered yet. That is one of the things I still love about collecting fragrance. Even with all the bottles I’ve smelled and owned, there are still entire parts of the world producing perfumes that can completely surprise me.

For those of you with not only a decent collection of bottles, but also a lot of samples or travel sprays, which do you prioritize when choosing what to wear each day? I don't have many mini-samples, but I have close to 60 travel sprays now, and I can't decide whether to try to work through them and reduce that number, or focus more on the full bottles.