Last month, four friends were in Paris — almost at the same time. All I wanted from one of them was a bottle of Serge Lutens Rahät Loukoum from the Jardins du Palais Royal shop. These days you can buy a bell jar of Rahät Loukoum for $300 at Barneys New York, but the same bottle can be had in Paris for around $160 (and honestly, that’s all Rahät Loukoum is worth to me). Well, my first set of friends left Paris Rahät Loukoum-less, and by the time I was aware of their failure, the second pair of friends were on their way to Nice and other points south. (Note to self: “I’d love to see the Serge Lutens shop and buy your perfume!” trumps “Well…I’ll try….”) So, now it’s back to monitoring all my friends’ travel plans (since my next trips are nowhere near Paris).

Without Rahät Loukoum, I’m currently searching for a candy scent (I can’t believe I’m writing that, but it’s true). I used to hate food-y perfumes, especially sweet ones full of sugar and vanilla. Now, I have a craving…but I only need one such perfume in my collection. I’m in the process of auditioning some candy-shop fragrances and that search brings me to Agonist Vanilla Marble…

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