New at anthropologie: DS & Durga, Histoires de Parfums & Susanne Lang lines.
Deal at b-glowing: take 20% off everything with coupon code Nov2, good through 11/2.
New at loccitane: Labdanum de Seville & Mimosa de L'Esterel (full-size and miniatures).
New at nordstrom: Prada L'Eau Ambree.
Today we’re helping Susan, who has been wearing the same two fragrances, Cacharel Anaïs Anaïs and Dolce & Gabbana The One, for some time and needs a change. Anaïs Anaïs was a favorite of a friend of hers who died young, and Susan been wearing it for years. Lately she has been finding The One too cloying, and sometimes she washes it off after a few hours.
Susan wants a daytime fragrance, something distinctive but not overpowering, that would be suitable for work, lunch with friends, shopping, etc etc. She has good access to department stores, and she’s willing to shop online, but she’d like to keep the cost below $100. Here is what we know about Susan:
She works in a creative field, and says her lifestyle is “very simple and casual”…
The Malin + Goetz storefront in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood originally served as the company’s all-inclusive headquarters: boutique, offices, showroom, and e-commerce shipping center. Last year, staff operations relocated to a nearby address, and the shop itself expanded to fill the rear area of the interior. (Malin + Goetz also recently opened a second Manhattan location at 455 Amsterdam Avenue, spreading its influence to the Upper West Side.)
When you enter Malin + Goetz, you may find yourself happily dazed by the gleaming white interior of the company’s “apothecary” area, where precisely arranged rows of products for skin, hair, and body are displayed in open shelves. Testers are available, and a friendly young sales assistant will be able to help you in selecting a few items. You’ll also notice a few imaginative touches placed amongst the merchandise, like antique apothecary jars and dog figurines — as well as the owners’ two real dogs, who often spend time in the shop…
In two separate experiments, researchers were able to influence participants' behavior by exposing them to "cleanliness" in the form of a common cleaning agent's odor — in this case, citrus-scented Windex. It turned out that people who sat in a room spritzed with Windex were more likely to act fairly and charitably than those sniffing unscented air.
— From Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior? at Time, where you'll also find a series of short articles about fragrance, The World of Smell.
As it is for many people, fall is my favorite time of year. Perhaps this is because around here it is the most fragrant season: the cool, damp leaves send up a sweet, cidery rot, I could swear there is always a tinge of woodsmoke in the air, and the evergreens seem sharper and straighter as the deciduous competition flames out. Early every morning, after bumping around and out of my pitch-dark apartment, I take a deep draw of cool air and wonder if this smell is a regular olfactory hallucination, since I live in an urban neighborhood with bylaws against bonfires and no apple orchards for miles. Whether I am susceptible to seasonal scent suggestion disorder or not, I love the colors and skies of autumn, and the weather is often invigorating enough for me to look fondly upon the hooting, rowdy herds of schoolkids that suddenly appear on every sidewalk. Even if fall doesn’t make you feel this disgustingly cheerful, you can still spend your season of mists and mellow fruitfulness in gorgeous perfumes. Please comment with your own fall favorites and let me know if you’ve sampled the new Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles. I haven’t tried it yet, and am wondering whether it will be added to my current autumn Lutens rotation of Chêne, Santal Blanc and El Attarine.
Etro Shaal Nur: Rather like a more contemplative, citrus-tinged Habanita, this is an airy, incense-smoke version of Molinard’s classic vetiver-vanilla. While not being particularly strong — it’s better sprayed than dabbed — Shaal Nur has impressive projection…