A first visit to the Caron boutique in Manhattan can feel something like a treasure hunt. Although the shop’s address is 715 Lexington Avenue, you must enter at the side of the building, around the corner on 58th Street. The door is marked with a sign for PhytoUniverse, the botanical haircare salon that shares its quarters with Caron (they are owned by the same company, the Alès Group), but you might spy a few Caron bottles on display in the small entrance lobby. The receptionist will direct you into an elevator, which you ride to the third floor. There, Caron is ensconced in two elegantly appointed alcoves off the main waiting area of the Phyto salon.
Since it first opened its doors in Paris in 1904, Caron has specialized in floral fragrances of all persuasions, from the lush orange blossom of Narcisse Noir (memorably worn by femme fatale Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard) to the light, fresh lilies of the valley of Muguet de Bonheur…
Liberty has to be the prettiest store in London. The first time you turn off Regent Street and see that mad Tudor frontage, it’s almost impossible not to laugh out loud. In the midst of all the stately Georgian architecture in this part of central London, Liberty looks like a joke played on the city by the Disney Corporation.
For years, the fragrance department at Henri Bendel was a tempting but awkwardly placed niche at the rear of the crowded main floor. Now it occupies a prime spot on the second level: ascend the curving staircase, and you’ll find its expanded, highly browsable selection. The department is intimate enough to feel comfortable, but large enough to offer a rich variety, balancing classic houses Caron and Chanel, the established niche line L’Artisan Parfumeur (which occupies an entire in-house boutique at Bendel), and small, local company Aroma M Perfumes, to name just a few examples.
