bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

The Lotion That Lasts: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

So I also would love to smell good all the time, but I've been thinking that maybe some sort of lotion or conditioner would work better, and I'd be more likely to actually use it. Your thoughts? Do you know a wonderful-smelling lotion or shampoo of some sort that might fit the bill? Does the scent fade more quickly? I've been eyeballing some of the Fresh products, but I've never actually tried them.

This was in response to our A+ review, last week, of Chanel Chance eau de fraiche. This may be the first reader mail question in a week we've had an answer to, and it is: Kiehl's musk body lotion. Our only complaint is that we can't get it to last for long at all, which is incredibly annoying. Does anyone have a suggestion for one that does have staying power?

Above: Kiehl's musk body lotion, $19.50

Today's Perfume Review: Chanel Chance

Because we have been thinking: "Smelling nice is good!"

Today's Perfume: Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche, $82

What Sephora says: "Chance Eau Fraîche, the newest incarnation of the unexpected fragrance, now takes on a sparkling freshness. The unexpected floral bursts with a lightness and zest as notes of citrus, Water Hyacinth and Jasmine Absolute are highlighted and energized with woody notes of Amber of Patchouli and Fresh Vetiver."

The packaging: Tres adorable! Totally classic Chanel but we actually like the green, Palmolive-y tone for the eau fraiche. And we could look at that iconic Chanel logo all day long. A+

The smell: We had been complaining about Marc Jacob's Daisy lately—how it's all young and light, or at least marketed that way, but we find it totally annoying and cloying and an aggravating attempt at getting 14-year-olds to spend $60 on fragrance. This, we feel, tries to do all those same things but totally succeeds: It just says light and fresh and new. We still don't feel mature enough to pull off No. 5, but we can totally get behind this. A day scent, for sure, but perfect for that.   

Our grade: A

Today's Perfume Review: Marc Jacobs Daisy

Because we have been thinking: "Smelling nice is good!"

Today's Perfume: Marc Jacobs Daisy, $55 and up

What Sephora says: "Enter the world of Daisy: fresh and feminine, with a playful innocence. At the heart of Daisy is a floral with vintage edge: violet. Sophisticated, with a touch of whimsy, violet captures the eclectic, vintage flavor of Marc Jacobs' feminine, edgy designs. Always elegant, always enchanting - but not too serious - Daisy is a sparkling floral bouquet, spirited and fresh, wrapped in comfort and warmth."

The packaging: We love it. The daisies are a bit super-suburb-cheese, but ... we're from the suburbs. We love it. The Marc Jacobs font. It's not exactly ... rustic French chic. Or elegant. Or a lot of other things. Sometimes adorability is the way to go. A+

The smell: We put it on and were all like, 'Why do we smell like high school?' We're going with the term "entry-level" to describe Daisy: It's not, like, challenging, or layered, or witty. It's like: 'Hey, you! Yeah, you, middle-schooler, looking for something to wear to your first dance! You want to wear this because it's all fruity and sweet and comes in a super-cute bottle with plastic daisies!' They use the word "edgy\edge" twice in that description above. We wouldn't quite go there. But as a starter-perfume, why not?

Our grade: B-

Atlanta and Fragonard: Reader Mail

In our next Reader Mail:

Dear BS,

I'm moving to Atlanta within the next few weeks. And I just love fragrance but can't seem to find any fragrance boutiques or anything of the sort down there. I know you're not in Atlanta or may not have any knowledge of the city but I was wondering if you or any of your readers knew of any cool fragrance shops in the Atlanta-Metro area?

Thank you,

V. N. T.

Oh! We have absolutely no idea. Atlanta's one of those cities we haven't been to since we were a kid, and it was like all Stone Mountain, all the time. Anyone out there able to help?

Of course, if it comes to mail order ("mail order"! er, Internet shopping) we're totally all over Fragonard at the moment: classic French fragrance house. We just visited their factory in Eze, near Nice, and we honestly thought our head might explode. The scents are actually a bit grandmotherly (no offense) but we're sort of into these: fleur d'oranger 100 ml, $30

Spring Fragrance: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear BS:

I'm just wondering—what's your spring fragrance? Please survey.

Love, J.

Short answer: Acqua di Parma Colonia Assoluta. "A celebration of Italian freshness with a contemporary signature," says Sephora. "Awesome packaging," says us. "Plus smells nice."

Who else has an answer? Is J. the only reader out there who believes in the concept of seasonal fragrances?

Acqua di Parma perfume, $71

Cool Birthday Presents: Le Labo "Discovery Set"

We're big believers in the fact that every birthday present should be carefully selected with the recipient in mind. However, our position has recently come under attack, from ourselves, because we are realizing that we infrequently have sufficient time to carefully select anything, including but not limited to our health insurance policy. And so: our occasional suggestion for birthday presents that we, anyway, would be quite pleased to receive.

This is a "discovery set" from Le Labo, one of our favorite perfume brands out there. They have a store at 233 Elizabeth in Manhattan and what we imagine to be a very streamlined facility in Grasse, France, the perfume-making capital du monde. (We once tried so hard to get to Grasse that we took a totally of six hours of trains only to find out that there was a bus strike and no way to get the last 50 miles.)

Anyway: discovery set. Three perfumes, your choice, all in cute little glass things, $52

And of course, if you're rich, there's always the Olfactionary: "a box with the 40 fundamental natural essences used in perfumery. This remarkable tool has served as a guide to perfume-makers around the world." Hedge fund assistant managers have to spend their money on something. The Olfactionary, $520

The Winner of the American Style Icon Contest!

We hope you got to take a look through the American Style Icon Contest! We actually had a sponsor for this one, and a celebrity judge: Amanda Charlwood, the face, as they say, of the fragrance:

Ralph Wild fragrance, $45

And now for the winner—and can we say, we think Amanda's pick was an excellent one. Click here!

OMG!

We may have a celebrity judge for our Ralph Wild \\ American icon contest! In short: tell us all about your favorite American style icon, and whoever makes the most convincing case will win a brand-new bottle of the equally brand-new fragrance. We are very excited!

There have been some super-excellent entries already. We originally said our choice was Grace Kelly, but we may be segueing to Chloe Sevigny. Er, we are not eligible to win, so whatev on that, but: enter by commenting, and we'll have a winner soon!

If you would prefer to just bypass the entire contest thing: above, Ralph Wild fragrance, $59.50

Our Ralph Wild \ American Style Icon Contest Continues!

We are just wondering if you had a chance to enter our American style icon contest? Tell us your fave—good God, we can't believe we've started to use that word—and the winner gets one fabulous sample of the new Ralph Wild fragrance. Also! Go here, they're telling us, and you can enter to win a new Vespa. It's contest madness! But it all ends on Sunday, so hop to it, if you'll excuse the late-in-the-season Easter reference.

Following Up On Fresh

Following a reader's concern that Fresh was changing the formula of its delightful Sugar perfume....

I emailed Fresh to ask about whether they changed the formula of their Sugar perfume. Here's their response, which sounds like good news.

We will say here, cloaking all of our bitterness, that Fresh seriously never emails us back. We hate that. The response from Fresh:

Thank you for your email.  We recently discontinued the smaller, frosted bottle of Sugar EDP, however the formula of the product itself has not changed.  According to our Product Development department, the fragrance in the clear 100ml bottle is still the same product that was previously offered in the 50ml size, as well.

We're reserving judgment until we can actually go sniffing around Sephora, but until then, we are thinking: yay! We've only gotten like halfway through one bottle in three years, so the stockpiling thing was like seriously not going to work. Thanks to A. for the detective work!

Above: Sugar eau de parfum, $75

Disturbing Beauty News!

In today's Reader Mail:

Hi there!

I've been reading Bunnyshop long enough to know how much we both love Fresh's Sugar perfume. So I went to the Fresh store the other day to buy more, and I noticed the packaging had changed. I didn't think anything of it, but when I got it home, I realized that it didn't smell the same, it was more perfumey-flowery, and I thought, "Uh-oh."

So then a couple of days later, I went to my local beauty supply store, and I noticed that they had all their Fresh products marked 50% off. I asked them why, and they said, "We just got our new shipment of Fresh supplies, but when we opened the box, we realized that there were differences in the new stock, so we sent it all back and discounted our current stock. We're not going to carry Fresh anymore."

It turns out that the Fresh company recently moved from France to New York, and that they've changed some of the formula of their products....including Sugar perfume! No!

Luckily, the salesgirl was supersweet and helpful (it turns out she was a Sugar fan, too), and she told me to try L'Occitane's Honey & Lemon perfume. It's not the same as Fresh—it smells more sweet & honey-ish—but I really like it.

Anyway, I was just wondering if you've heard anything about this, or if you had tried the new Sugar and noticed the difference.

Thanks!
RB

We investigate! All future Christiane Amanpours must begin somewhere, we feel. Though perhaps in an actual war zone. Anyhoo, we did find this very recent story about the Fresh founders and a new shop in Boston—maybe just the production has moved from France to New York? In any case, we certainly share the reader's concern, as Fresh is a longtime favorite of ours, especially the lovely (if pricey) Sugar perfume. Our initial response: stockpiling!

Above: L'Occitane's Honey and Lemon perfume, $44

One New Website: Heliotrope

Like incense for the fancy people!

This is not necessarily an endorsement of fancy people. Or of incense, for that matter. Though we do quite like it when everything smells all nice and magnolia-ish. Archipelago Botanicals home diffuser in magnolia, $59

A Reader Review! CB

Hurrah! A review from a reader, about one of our favorite things, CB etc Perfume:

Hey, I ordered a couple of those cbIhateperfume samples that you talked about last week or so. I got the "at the beach 1966" which smells exactly, exactly like old fashioned coppertone plus this salty tang of beach air. It's delicious. The other one I got was the Mr Hulots Holiday, which is very similiar, except
minus the tangy salt. Maybe a little more herby.

I LOVE the beach one especially and it has really good staying power. The Hulot fades a little faster but I
still like it a lot and I will definitly order "beach 1966" again. I Heart it. I'm really super fussy about
perfumes, too.

ps: oh, and I used standard ups for shipping (3-5 days) and it came in like a day. Which is nice.

And that is like the best packaging ever. We love everything about it. Visit the online store here.

Reader reviews are officially our favorite thing on the planet, so if you have them, send them over.

Bunnyshop Super-Duper Hearts: CB I Hate Perfume

These have got to be our favorite things in ages. We want all of them. They are our Beanie Babies of 2007. Here is the original recommendation from barret:

you can get the EXACT perfume you are looking for - beach, coppertone, salt air - at cbihateperfume.com/CBperfumeindex.html and check the "at the beach in 1966". i only opted for the small size which gives you not more than a thimble full but it is the exact beach perfume i was looking for and it has yet to fail that when i wear it, someone makes a comment about smelling the beach. i love it.

The other ones we are most excited about trying are:

1. Gathering Apples ("Thousands of Ripe Red Mackintosh Apples and a bit of old weathered wood from the bushel baskets")

2. Under the Arbor ("Grape Leaf is a scent that reminds me of some of the most beautiful places I have visited in California, Italy and France. ... This is the scent of Crushed Grape Leaves, Weathered Wood, Green Moss and Cool Earth.")

3. Mr. Hulot's Holiday ("The salty breath of the breeze off the Mediterranean, driftwood, rocks covered with seaweed and the smell of old leather suitcases")

4. Tea/Rose ("I composed this classic scent with real Tea (Indian Black) and real Moroccan Rose Absolute (Rosa Damascena). What could be more simple or elegant?")

5. CB Musk ("CBMUSK is a deep scent with a rich animal/erotic presence. It seems to fade into the skin causing the natural scent to glow."

It's like poetry + things that smell nice. Honestly, we want all of them.

Two Things About Fragrance

#1: We are thinking it is just us, but we want our perfume to smell exactly like Coppertone suntan lotion, or coconuts. This doesn't (it is described as "a lightly intoxicating blend of sand jasmine, sea spray, and mandarin"), and we were very angry about it, but we will say that we applied it it our arm seven hours ago and it has sort of mellowed out and now we don't mind it quite so much. Still, we want the Coppertone, which is aggravating, since we quite like many Bobbi Brown products and were surprised at being annoyed by this one. High expectations = the key to anti-happiness.

BB Beach perfume, $55

#2: And we were so entranced by the idea of Abercrombie-like fragrance infusion in our apartment that we thought we had had a very genius idea, and sprayed it into our air conditioner. At first it was beautiful, roses everywhere, and we were like: We are unbelievably genius. And then like three hours later—you know that smell that air conditioners sometimes get, in the garage or something? A little musty? It was that smell, plus perfume, like we'd awakened some sort of bizarre mold in our AC with our Jo Malone and then engineered it so that we would spray it all over our room. Next time, we will stick with the fan.

Jo Malone's Red Roses, $55

Our Favorite Packaging in Ages, From Satu

This is just our favorite packaging we have seen in ages.

Above: Satu body butter in gerbera daisy (top) and "vanilla infusion" (above), $28

And we think this may be the prettiest perfume bottle ever. No? Er, actually, we don't love that black top, but the design on the glass is beautiful.

Above: Satu eau de parfum in "fields of freesia" and again with the vanilla infusion, $48

Bunnyshop Hearts: Fragrance Mixing

Fragrance mixing. We generally regard this as a ploy to get us to buy two fragrances, when really one should be enough. We remember going to Jo Malone and being like, 'Could you not just figure it out so I only need to buy one of these $100 bottles of fragrance?' and also being very annoyed when they were, like, 'No. You need two.' (We got one.)

Anyway: We have two perfumes we love at the moment, and we have been wearing them at the same time (we know, living dangerously, etc) and have not thought of this as warranting mention here until we went to a party on Friday night, and our friend Amy, who we have long suspected might have been our best friend if we did not already have one, was like, "I love how you smell! You smell like roses!" (Jo Malone.) And then we were like: "But also ... musk!" It was unbelievably exciting. Maybe this is a post about how the party wasn't very, exciting, that is.

Kiehl's musk (horribly unavailable online, but we have seen it in our local shop), and Jo Malone Red Roses, $55

One New Website: Church Street Apothecary

As we love Doe, we love its sister store, the Church Street Apothecary. Oh, we wish we lived in a world that was all apothecaries and boulangeries and flower shops, instead of Walgreen's and Payless. Sigh.

Here is the product description: "Eau de toilette is a combination of bergamont, plum, rum, leather, dry down of amber, patchouli and milk ... Combine it with Malin+Goetz Lime Tonic for a fresh and warm Mojito like scent." All we are going to say is that if we are going to smell like any alcoholic beverage, it might as well be the mojito, the king of all rum-based drinks, and a personal favorite. Malin+Goetz rum tonic, $45

Anyway: We are always convinced we can make salt scrubs better and more cheaply at home, and inevitably we discover that all we have done is destroyed our kitchen and used up all our salt. Anthony Sea Salt Body Scrub, $25

We will add here that we just ran out of our Korres shower gel and were extremely annoyed about it. We will add as well that we often find Korres half-off at our local Marshall's, which is always nicer than paying full price. Korres Coriander shower gel, $12

Is it clear we are buying all of this for the packaging, and then, if we got it home, would be like, 'We can never use it, it's too nice'? That is the problem with buying quality packaging. La Compagnie de Provence cherry bar soap, $10

One New Website: French Soaps

We found this website while looking around for photos of French style icons. First, whoever did the photography should do the photography for every retail website, in the world, forever, because now all we want to do is buy what they sell.

Even though: We previously had no use for an apothecary jar full of soap flakes! But now! Must! Have! Scented soap flakes! The little Suze Orman who lives in our head is weeping, by the way.

In any case: Soap flakes in jar, $45. We would prefer the lavendar.

While we are at it, we would also quite like the bath salts with flowers, $30. These would make excellent presents for impressionable strangers, such as boyfriends' parents or similar.

NB: The one thing this site does wrong is the frames, or whatever, which deny linking directly to the product. We got as close as we could, and it's not far from the home page.

Jo Malone In London

We are totally obsessed with Jo Malone at the moment. It just all feels so nice and springtime-y. And expensive. We went into the shop today, and for some reason they had decided to staff a girl directly in front of the door, so that it was actually not possible to open the door without sort of half-opening it and then waiting for her to move. This became more curious after she moved to let us in, and then went right back. Bizarre. We once went to dinner with an art school friend, to a nice restaurant in Brooklyn (thereby crossing the streams in a way that had blow-everything-up-Ghostsbusters-style potential) and he said that one of the owners was looking at him meanly the whole time. We thought he was imagining things, and said so, but we are sure this doorguard-shopgirl was giving us the Evil Eye the entire time we were there. Once we'd gotten tired of being stared down, from the doorway of a perfume shop, we made our way out, but not before passing the Fragrance Testing Booth, which looked like a photo booth but with fragrance.

Obviously, we could not pass this up. The doorguard-shopgirl said it was broken. We are not sure we believe her. Tss.

Anyway! Jo Malone. Hopefully Jo herself is not as much of a cranky doorguard as at least one member of her staff. This is the thing we like to do when we go shopping in London: We go out, and find things we like, and we do not bring our credit cards with us, because then we would buy them. Instead, we go back home and find them for sale online in the US and buy them there, and save our money.

We really, really, really love the Red Roses cologne. 30ml = $50. That is so little perfume for so much money. However. We also quite like the honeysuckle and jasmine.

And: this is totally about to become our late-self-xmas-present. If we can somehow justify spending sixty-five dollars on a candle. Er, maybe not. Grapefruit home candle, $65

Unbelievable

TO OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN PHILADELPHIA, QUITE POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST FRAGRANCE\ROCK 'N' ROLL EVENT OF A LIFETIME:

GENE SIMMONS IS COMING TO BOSCOV'S (As above.)

The WWD article about the new Kiss "fragrance" is so amazing we must quote from it here:

"We thought about doing makeup," band co-founder Paul Stanley, the group's guitarist, joked in an interview. "But we weren't sure how many women would want to walk around with white-painted faces."

What could we add that would be funnier than that? Absolutely nothing.

"Everything is so expected in fragrances these days," Neil Katz, president and chief executive of Gemini Cosmetics, said in an interview. "We wanted to do something completely unexpected and create some excitement in department stores. We wanted a recognizable name, but not an expected one."

Other potential names: Henry Kissinger, Mario Batali, Vladimir Putin.

While the band is, well, flamboyant, Katz said its fragrances won't be. "They are going to be very elegant, which will probably shock a lot of people," he said. "It's somewhat in juxtaposition to what KISS' image is, given their wildly painted faces and rowdy shows. But [the band members] love the idea that we are going to use their logo and makeup icons, rather than plastering their faces on the bottles." Katz also is planning offbeat in-store events for the scent launch. "The promotional possibilities are great," he said with a laugh.

And you, our lucky friends in Philadelphia, have the opportunity to partake in these promotional possibilities:

Gene Simmons will be appearing in PHILADELPHIA Thursday, October 12, 2006 at BOSCOV'S Oxford Valley Mall, 2300 East Lincoln Highway, Langhorne, PA from 5PM - 8PM. Gene will be on hand to promote the new Kiss line of fragrances.

Oh, that we could be there.

Introducing Bunnyshop [Hearts]

So this will be a new thing, and it will be a running list of things we love. We just wrote "we heart" and honestly, we love it with the little symbol, but when people say, "I heart [whatever]", it drives us a little insane. There will be no qualifications, except that it is loved. In fact, this is the place for even non-fashion things, like cinnamon toast with butter, which would definitely get its own separate entry if we were thinking a tiny bit in advance.

Here are some more things. We also love:

- Libraries. Why do we ever buy books?
- Ordering pictures online and then picking them up at Ritz Camera, all matte and white-bordered
- Joey Miles and Laurel Sutherland at Triyoga in London
- Burger Meister on Columbus Avenue in North Beach
- The JetBlue terminal at JFK, and the nice man who let us spend six hours there once while we waited to catch a Virgin flight
- The series finale of Six Feet Under. Keith!
- Bacon or dill flavored potato chips
- Those chocolate truffle things you can get at Whole Foods

Today we're talking about Kiehl's musk. We never thought we were a musk person, until it was sprayed on to us, and then we knew, deep in our hearts, that we were, indeed, a musk person. That sounds funny when you say it like that. Still. We are going to wear it every day, forever and ever. We can't explain it. Yeah, that's some pretty good salesmanship there, eh? We remember on our last day of waitressing, our manager, whom we loved, asked us our favorite meal, which she was going to get for us. We told her. "That's the one I always recommend," we say. "That's the cheapest thing on the menu," she says, in that sort of unconcerned exasperation you use on employees who have already done you the favor of quitting.

Anyway: Kiehl's musk. The official Bunnyshop fragrance of choice!

If anyone has anything they would like to suggest, please do so. All we ask is that you not be pimping your own goods, or at least, if you are, make that clear, because if you don't and we find out, which we totally will because there are no secrets on the Internet, we will be very sad.

Kiehl's musk eau de toilette spray, $37

The Most Summery Summer Fragrances

1. Demeter's Most Summerific Fragrances: Orange Cream Pop, "Summer Vacation," and Sex on the Beach — South Beach
Note: It was ridiculously difficult to find images of our favorite summer ones, like Wet Garden, Sugar Cookie, and Dirt, all of which are $18 and can be found here.
Really smells like: As advertised, unbelievably. For about fifteen minutes, unfortunately.
Ideally worn on: Anyone who doesn't like to spend more than an hour's salary on perfume.
Available at: Sephora, $10-$18

2. Bobbi Brown Beach Body Oil
Note: Okay, it's not strictly a fragrance, but it's a fragranced oil, and that's practically the same thing. Plus: slippery!
Advertised scent: Sand jasmine, sea spray, and mandarin
Really smells like: The interior of a beach house clothes dryer after you just dried all the towels. Plus, an orange
Ideally worn on: The possibly pregnant Jennifer Lopez hiding from the National Enquirer in Saint Tropez
Available at: Gloss, $28

3. Jo Malone's Honeysuckle and Jasmine Cologne
Advertised scent: Honeysuckle, jasmine, and sandalwood
What it really smells like: The inside of an English movie, set in a meadow and with lots of swooning lovers and gardens
Ideally worn on: Keira Knightley before she signed up to play a machine-gun firing American bounty hunter
Available at: Gloss, $80 for 100ml

4. Sugar by Fresh
Note: This is a Bunnyshop absolute favorite
Advertised scent: Bergamot, Brazilian sweet oranges, white lily, caramel and vanilla. As they say, "Flirtatious florals such as white lily give in and give way to the succulent embrace of caramel and vanilla." Question: Why do they have to be such douchebags about? God.
What it really smells like: Heaven (projected)
Ideally worn on: Everyone

5. Sicilian Almond Eau de Toilette from Acqua di Parma
Advertised scent: Star anise, green almond, bergamot, jasmine, and white peach.
What it really smells like: The interior of a housewares store in East Hampton
Ideally worn on: Monica Bellucci, while visiting Dolce and Gabbana's Sicilian island
Available at: Neiman Marcus, $57 for 2 oz.