My better half always has a work related trip in New York City right after Thanksgiving every year. Lucky for me, I tag along and we end up having a wonderful time with friends and just generally running around the city. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and after getting checked in the hotel (we stayed at the Sanctuary right between Times Square and Rockefeller Center…the perfect location) we had our cocktails and went to go see “The Heiress” starring Jessica Chastain and Dan Stevens (from Downton Abbey fame). The show was excellent and as we had 2nd row seats we felt like we were intimately involved in the show. From a celebrity standpoint, I always wonder if the stars look like what you think they look like or if they are different from what you expect (short, tall, etc.). Both Jessica and Dan were exactly what you would expect…Jessica was playing dowdy so it was hard to see if she was really pretty.. but Dan was handsome, but not overly so. End of Day 1.
Day 2 was reserved for shopping. So off to Soho we went in pursuit of perfume. My hubby is incredibly supportive and had no problem dragging him along store to store. After a little lunch, we headed to Lafco, the official boutique for Santa Maria Novella. Beautiful store, full of wonderful SMN products from fragrance to liquor. This was the perfect place to find gift baskets for anyone of either sex. Of course, I was eyeing the colognes and was all about the Patchouli until I put some on my skin and was told by my better half that it smelled of tar and cleaning product. I had to agree. So off we toddled to MiN NY only a block away.
So what I had been hoping for was to get my hands on the new Parfum d’Empire limited edition Musc Tonkin, only to be told that they weren’t supposed to be receiving any until next week! OK next… then I wanted to check out the new Frapin Speakeasy fragrance by Marc-Antoine Corticchiato since I seem to love all his work, thus my interest in Musc Tonkin as well. Strike 2..they said they wouldn’t have that in until next week as well. What I was introduced to was Terrasse a St.-Germain by Jul et Mad which went on light and green, only to turn into a wonderfully warm and beautiful sandalwood and patchouli scent (I hope to have a review on it soon). So after doing some more sniffing, we once again toddled off down the road to go check out the new Osswald store. In the meantime, after popping into other stores….
CELEBRITY SIGHTING: In some obscure Japanese clothing/container store we ran into Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake is exactly what you would expect… tall, bushy beard, pretty eyes and was dressed semi grungy. This was a good celebrity sighting!
On to Osswald, only to find that they were closed on Sunday! What store is closed on the busiest shopping weekend of the year??!!!
Now the great thing about NY is that you can walk for miles and it never feels like you are walking for miles…so we left Soho and decided to walk over the Village and check out Aedes De Venustas, which is a surprisingly wonderfully small and intimate store. They did have another one of my “must check out” fragrances in stock, the new Arquiste Boutonnneire gardenia fragrance for men. Unfortunately, it was much too gardenia for this guy, but given the right temperature (summer temps), it may be a bit more appealing. I made the decision that Serge Luten’s Chergui was too my liking, but if I was going to spend money, I decided that it was going to have to be for something less readily available. I even checked out the new non-art bottled Agonist “Black Amber” and if you are looking for an amber with a serious punch, you need to check it out. In the end, I was drawn to something that I had already reviewed and loved and bought my self my first Frederic Malle…Portrait of a Lady. By this time my nose was tired from the day’s olfactory overload. In the end, we went out for a lovely dinner and called it a night.
Next post…Bergdorfs, Barneys, more shows and another celebrity sighting! Oh..and my visit to the Art of Scent at the Museum of Art and Design!
November 28, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Yummy!! Jake Gyllenhaal did you run over grab his arms and hold him down while your partner pashed him? that would have been my response
Portia xx
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November 28, 2012 at 9:32 pm
LOL… we were a bit more subtle than that…but he was in a hurry to get out of the shop and practically ran me over as he left the store.
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November 29, 2012 at 5:29 am
I’m never good with celebrity sightings. I never notice anyone unless they are super famous. Hubby, on the other hand, always picks them out of a crowd. I was mistaken for a celebrity once. That was funny especially because I can’t see any resemblance to the person they were convinced I was.
You sound like you had some fun sniffing even though they didn’t have what you were looking for. Portrait of a lady is a nice souvenir.
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November 29, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Poodle – I want to know who you were mistaken for??!
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November 29, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Lol. We were on Martha’s Vineyard which is a good place for celebrity sightings and two women were convinced I was, get this, Julia Roberts. Honestly I think anyone with sunglasses, red hair in a ponytail, and wearing a baseball cap would have been her in their minds because I don’t think I look at all like her. Unfortunately. They were very discreet and told the person I was with that they wouldn’t dream of bothering me. He went along with them and never told them I wasn’t her and then told me why they were all smiles and friendly after we left the store. I guess that was my 15 minutes of fame.
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November 29, 2012 at 8:39 pm
That’s awesome. Julia Roberts is the way to go…someone once told me I looked like Woody Allen. Julia Roberts vs. Woody Allen…you choose!
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November 29, 2012 at 8:56 pm
🙂
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November 29, 2012 at 8:12 am
Nice travel, sounds exciting! If you have problems with getting Speakeasy sample I could eventually help you and order you one here, then send it to the US.
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November 29, 2012 at 7:03 pm
That’s sweet Lucas. Thanks, but I’ll get me a sample no problem.
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November 30, 2012 at 3:20 am
Great. Hope tohear your impressions soon!
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November 29, 2012 at 11:26 am
Looks like you had a good time and what a beautiful hotel!
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November 29, 2012 at 7:04 pm
We had a great time and it was a nice hotel. Very boutique and a great location near everything.
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November 29, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Lovely sniffin’ trip and happy new buy.
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November 29, 2012 at 7:05 pm
🙂
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December 1, 2012 at 4:27 am
It sounds like a very pleasant trip! And congratulation on your new bottle! I’ll wear PoaL this weekend to the company party.
Osswald was closed on Sunday? Interesting. It was closed on Tuesday as well (when I planned to go there). Oh well…
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December 1, 2012 at 7:53 am
Tuesday? now that makes no sense at all!
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December 1, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Congrats on the Malle! Wonderful purchase – but I pretty much just creamed my pants when you said you bumped into Jake Gyllenhall – he’s my major crush (back in the Donnie Darko days mainly!) – holy smokes I’m jealous.
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December 1, 2012 at 4:38 pm
You and my hubby!
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December 1, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Loving your NY adventure!
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December 1, 2012 at 5:56 pm
It was so fun…I think that you would have really liked Chaplin too. For a musical it was very melancholy and atmospheric.
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December 1, 2012 at 10:39 pm
New York New York it’s a wonderful town. The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.
I am so enjoying your trip.
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December 1, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Sounds like a wonderful first day. Portrait of a Lady is lovely. What a great first Malle!
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December 3, 2012 at 10:43 pm
Sounds like you had a good time. It always takes a “non-native” describing NYC for me to realize what I have been missing despite working in NYC for many years than I care to count!
Hee, I got my Portrait of a Lady this past weekend at Barneys. I got the 3 x 10mLs…I know it’s quite a bit more / mL than the FB but the travel sprays (and no need to decant) are just so convenient. My only celebrity sighting was a good 17 to 18 or so years ago when Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger were still married. I was at a diner on Madison Ave. (I think it was in the mid- to- high 70s street) and in walked the uberly beautiful woman with luminous skin and a scruffy guy trailing after her.
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December 4, 2012 at 7:25 pm
Congrats on the POAL…we both have such good taste. I used to live in Georgia years past and I once saw Kim Basinger as well. She was incredibly beautiful…but back then so was Alec Baldwin!!
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