Last weekend, during my most recent trip to New York, I made my first visit to Barneys. Despite my having been to New York many many times, I had never actually made the trip to the flagship store on Madison Avenue. I have to say I have never had such a pleasant shopping experience. Barneys makes Saks and Neiman Marcus look like JCPenny. It's a beautiful store with the best customer service I've ever had. The fragrance counters are especially great. The SA's are awesome and very helpful (My favorites were Lawrence Applebaum at the L'Artisan counter and Tyler Mayo. I'm sure many of you know of the great lines that Barneys carries, but for those of you who don't I'll list just a few: all of L'Artisan, Parfums de Rosine, i Profumi di Firenze, Frédéric Malle, Serge Lutens, Comme des Garcons, Carthusia; not to mention a full Le Labo boutique. All in all, it makes other department stores look dull and uninteresting and I'm finding myself wanting to move to NYC just to be near it.
While at Barneys I did manage to snag two fragrances for my collection and add two others that I plan to get (when I can afford them):
L'Été en Douce: First, I bought L'Été en Douce by L'Artisan Parfumeur. It used to be called Extrait de Songes, but was pulled from the market after a trademark dispute with Annick Goutal (who first released Songes). It has been relaunched in the classic L'Artisan bottle and is currently only available at Barneys in New York under the new name "L'Été en Douce". It is available in a 3.4 oz bottle only for $125.
I have to admit that this fragrance is quite out of my normal preferences for
fragrances, but I am wholly in love with it. Literally translated from French it means "the summer in soft", but the idea of it is that it is meant to portray that soft fragrant smell of early summer. This it certainly does. Upon applying to the skin, first one notices the vibrant top notes of rose essence and mint leaves much like the crisp fresh, but fragrant scent of the morning mist in early summer. The top notes fade into the heart notes of orange blossom water, linden, and fresh hay and eventually the memorable base of white woods and musks emerges. The combination is magical and although I often think orange blossom and rose are used far too often, it is not overtly floral. The floral notes are well-balanced with the hay, linden, and base notes. When wearing the fragrance I can't help but picture fields of Provence in June. The image is so strong you can smell the lavender, even though I'm not sure it's even a true note in the fragrance (it's not listed as one). Perhaps, it's the combination of mint (both in the Lamiaceae family) and some of the other notes. Nonetheless, next time you want to imagine you are basking in the sunlight in the south of France, just spritz yourself a few times with L'Été en Douce. (More info and reviews: Now Smell This, osMoz)Reviews of others are soon to follow!