Cute martini-shaker packaging for the new-ish Shower Cocktails from Yes To, in Revitalizing ("boosting your skin with grapefruit, mandarin orange and kiwi"), Hydrating ("a tropical paradise...with coconut, mango and papaya") and Detoxifying ("a healthy cleanse with lemon, ginger and epsom salt"). $7.99 each for 473 ml at Target (and as of this writing, two of the three can be found on Amazon Prime for the same price). If anyone has smelled or used these, do comment!
A rare cheap thrill + charity + cute packaging mashup lemming — L'Occitane's Shea Butter Violet Solidarity Balm: "Enriched with shea butter, this violet fragranced balm helps nourish, soften and protect the lips, body and hair. In partnership with the UN Women, 100% of the profits from the sale of this balm will finance NGOs projects to promote women’s leadership in the world, with the support of the L'OCCITANE Foundation." $6 (how can you refuse?) for 20g.
I need your help. I’m sampling J’ai Osé, and I can find barely anything about it in my books and on the internet. NST’s readership is a robust brain trust. Between all of us, we should be able to unearth the story behind J’ai Osé, including who created it and the differences between the original and current formulas.
This is what I know: J’ai Osé launched in 1977, and its notes include peach, coriander, citrus, jasmine, patchouli, rose, orris, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, amber, olibanum, oakmoss, musk and benzoin. It used to be part of the Guy Laroche perfume house but now is sold under the name “J’ai Osé” alone. (Guy Laroche lists only Fidji and Drakkar Noir on its website now.)
Another thing I know about J’ai Osé is that I adore it…
Some fragrances smell expensive. Why is that? Conversely, some perfume simply smells cheap. What’s that about? My expertise is in buying perfume — not making it — so I don’t have a professional’s response to these questions. I asked a few friends about what they thought expensive versus cheap perfume smelled like, and I got a few answers.
One friend said that cheap perfume smells synthetic. Although this friend probably assumed that cheap perfume contains a lot of synthetic materials, I don’t believe that necessarily to be true. But I can certainly see how a perfume that smells like a chemical concoction might smell cheap, no matter what it’s made of or how much it costs.1
Another friend correlated headaches with cheap perfume. Smell it, get a headache, it’s cheap…
As long as they’ve been around, Lush have excelled at rethinking everyday bath and body products as novelties. Bubble bath in a solid orb? Body scrub molded into a palm-sized square? A heart-shaped bar of lotion? Check. Now they’ve transformed the most basic self-care ritual of all with a “solid toothpaste alternative” called Toothy Tabs.
Toothy Tabs are small pellets about the size of aspirin tablets, packaged in a container not unlike an actual aspirin bottle. You pop one “tab” into your mouth, chew it lightly so that it breaks up a bit (don’t swallow!), and then start pushing it around with a wet toothbrush. The tab will dissolve into a gently abrasive foam that really does an effective job…