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Browsing by tag: cheap thrills

Aura Cacia Relaxing Lavender Aromatherapy Shower Tablets ~ scented body products

Posted by Pia on 15 August 2009 32 Comments

Aura Cacia Relaxing Lavender Aromatherapy Shower Tablets

When I get stressed, I remember why I fell in love with home fragrances to begin with — a gorgeous floral candle, a cleansing sea salt bath soak, or a refreshing citrus or woodsy room diffuser can serve to lift my spirits and help me regain perspective when I return to my apartment after a long and dispiriting day. In fact, I barely consider these items extravagant as they cost less, and last far longer than, say, a massage or a visit to an aromatherapist. This is especially true when you come across a neat little product like Aura Cacia’s Aromatherapy shower tablets.

I stumbled across this product in the local organic supermarket the other day. Available in lavender, eucalyptus and peppermint, the idea is simple: to put a little water-soluble tablet on the shower floor which will release its essential oils when hit by the warm water, thereby giving you an aromatherapeutic shower. If, like me, you have tried to accomplish this yourself by dropping neat oils onto the shower floor while showering, you already know that the effect doesn’t last as the oils wash down the drain almost immediately. This tablet solves that problem by dissolving slowly throughout the duration of your shower…

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Cheap Thrills from Possets Perfume, Pacifica and Speziali Fiorentini

Posted by Kevin on 11 August 2009 86 Comments

Dollar bill/flower/bottle

Some days I retreat to a quiet room and read George Sand’s Histoire de ma vie; other days I kick back with a two-pound Italian Vogue and look at the pictures. Some days I turn out the lights and get wrapped up in a Mahler symphony. Other days I get just as excited listening to Mama Cass sing Make Your Own Kind of Music. Some days I dress up: suit, tie, cufflinks, the works. Other days, shorts and sandals suffice. This post is dedicated to “other days” — days when you want to ignore the landmarks (Guerlain Mitsouko), avoid the trouble-makers (Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khan, Caron Yatagan), shun the ‘high end’ (Amouage Jubilation XXV) and wear a perfume that’s SIMPLE, casual, “quaint” even, a perfume that doesn’t cost a fortune.

Possets Perfume Lamp Black & Adamus

Recently, when I lamented the lack of black tea fragrances on the market, a Now Smell This commenter recommended Possets Perfume High Tea. I hadn’t tried ANY Possets perfumes so I placed a large sample order. High Tea is a nice “black-tea-with-lemon-and-sugar” cologne (it gets an ‘honorable mention’ here; I’d love to have a candle scented with this perfume) but two other Possets fragrances caught my “nose”: Lamp Black and Adamus…

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Gap Close ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 7 August 2009 122 Comments

Gap Close perfume for women

We’ve come to the close of Mall Week at Now Smell This. Our last stop is at the Gap. Before I delve into The Gap’s newest fragrance, Close, I want to look back at the week and at what I’ve learned.

First, it seems that fragrances labeled “Cherry Blossom” are popular. Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, and L’Occitane all carry popular scents with some variation of cherry blossom in their titles. Why they’re so popular, I can only guess, especially since cherry blossoms don’t have a lot of scent on their own. It must be a conceptual thing…

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L’Occitane Rose 4 Reines and Neroli ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 6 August 2009 189 Comments

L'Occitane Rose 4 ReinesL'Occitane Neroli Eau de Parfum

I suppose we all have our own forms of snobbery. For me, I either want something to be lushly, genuinely luxurious or to be blatantly cheap. Give me either the baguette-cut emerald in a one-of-a-kind setting, or the sparkling 1950s necklace in aqua plastic. It’s the real thing or a showy fake. Nothing in between. Alas, L’Occitane falls in between.

As I’m rediscovering the world of the mall, I see that every store is its own focus-grouped world. The Betsey Johnson store is all pink mini skirts and nineteen-year olds. The Chicos store is loose, putty-colored cotton and menopausal women. The Godiva store displays in its window what they deem to be sumptuous: a tray of flavorless Driscoll strawberries dunked in chocolate. The Apple store, packed with customers, is a clean white laboratory of sales.

L’Occitane’s gig is that it’s a French country pharmacy full of European products replete with natural essences possibly gathered by Provençal peasants at dawn. Instead of Bath and Body Works’ generic plastic containers, a L’Occitane product comes in a vaguely nineteenth-century glass bottle with a paper label. Some are classy glass cubes, others are rectangular with the shape of a plant molded into the bottle, and still others have tactile ridges running down them. They feel good to hold and imagine on your dresser. But they’re pretending to be something that they aren’t, and that bothers me…

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The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom and White Musk ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 5 August 2009 110 Comments

The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom and White Musk

At my mall, The Body Shop is down just a few storefronts from Bath and Body Works. The store is much smaller than the Bath and Body Works and focuses more on cosmetics and skin care. Once in the store I saw a row of perfume oils that reminded me of my college days, but around the corner was a small display of Eaux de Toilette.

The sales associate who helped me said that Japanese Cherry Blossom — cherry blossom again! — and White Musk were their two biggest sellers. She quickly told me that their musk was “cruelty free” and not from real deer musk. I smiled as if this were news.

The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom (The Body Shop website cites top notes of Fuji apple, Chinese magnolia, and osmanthus flower; heart of star jasmine, Japanese cherry blossom, and Japanese persimmon; base notes of sandalwood, hinoki wood, and fruity musk) is a good deal lighter than the Bath and Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom. It takes cold flowers, a pinch of powder, and a hint of fruit, and creates an apple-tinged floral with a sweet wood base…

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