What do you do to motivate yourself through a Master’s course where you are composing the first parts of your thesis in education? What do you do to motivate yourself through a course that has caused you to miss two awesome birthday parties (one with a 1920s-40s theme … I can’t even think about it, I had my outfit all planned out and everything), as well as spend countless hours frying your brain in front of a computer screen doing …… research?

You employ the rewards system, of course!

When I’ve got such a task ahead of me, I’ve found that the easiest way to help myself through it is to put a little something at the finish line so that it’s waiting for me when I, um, finish. It could be anything. Sometimes it’s not even a thing, sometimes it’s just an event to look forward to. However, in this case my reward at the end of the finish line came in the form of the newest Lancome fragrance- La vie est belle

I bought this baby a couple months ago in a manner not unlike how most of my fragrance purchases go down. I smelled it at Ulta one day and I literally could not … get it … out of … my brain. It was just so warm and sweet, like a delicious vanilla musk. I instantly knew that this would be my scent of Fall 2012. “But so soon?!” I asked myself, in the sweltering heat of early August. It just seemed like a little too much instant gratification to have it right then, and I had two perfumes that I was trying to get through anyhow! So I made a deal with myself- finish your next course for your MA (by October), and then you can open it. And in the meantime, finish one of your other perfumes.

Well, the coursework is finished as of tonight (finished early!) and I’m aaaaalllmost done with my Givenchy Ange’ ou Demon Le Secret. So, I’m not quite ready for it yet, but the plan is to unleash The Beautiful Life at the commencement of October. So be warned- if you’re around me at all this week I’m likely to be drenched in Ange’. I gotta make room!

For now, here is the most extravagant, hilarious fragrance commercial ever created, just for this “groundbreaking” perfume I’m about to bathe in. Man, is there anything better than a ten-trillion-dollar fragrance commercial? Well, maybe this.

xo, MR