Beach Baby

by Musette

 

11pm… pushing hard through a rush job, El O has been on his old, busted feet for 14 hours.  Exhausted, he staggers into bed and is lights out! within seconds.   I take a shower, spritz on some perfume like I do every night (which he rarely notices or remarks upon) and climb into bed.  This comatose, beat-down old man snorts, turns over, and says ‘wow.  you smell great!’….before falling back into a serious Snore.

8am…I’m at the Post Office, dropping off a package.  The very staid, quiet, proper man who runs the counter ( and who wouldn’t flirt with his own wife in public) sniffs! and says “um.  your perfume is very nice!”  huh?

11:30am…I’m at the antique store/egg & produce shop/drycleaners.  The guy next to me at the counter, picking up his shirts, sniffs and says “your perfume is nice!  what is it?”  What is it?  Wth?  This is a  very conservative farm town. Men barely talk to women they are not related to.    They. Absolutely.  Do. Not Ask. That. Kind. of. Thing.     Ever.

Huh.

So…what is this Siren Song of Fabulousness:

vintage Mitsouko?  Nah.  Gorgeous as it is, when I put that one on, men tend to recoil, if not RUN! in outright terror.

some new, hawt sexbombalicious oudh?  Naw.  Sultry incense? Sexy niche?  I don’t think so.

How ’bout….Coty Sand and Sable. Yup.    March turned me on to this scent (I quit thinking about Coty in 1975 or so, right after Elan)…  At first spritz I just knew this would be a ‘guy’ perfume (how much of a ‘guy’ perfume was a bit startling, though.  I didn’t expect all these ‘old’ dudes to be so affected by it! .   It smells exactly like 1961 at the beach.  Breck Girls.  Early Beach Boys, before the Wilsons lost their minds…..a time of sexy innocence.  I don’t know how a younger guy would respond to this scent because a) I’m old enough to be their mother so it’s a moot point and b) the thought of asking just skeeves me out.  But all 3 of the guys who went bonkers were of A Certain Age – and I have a feeling what they were smelling was that time of our lives, when nothing Truly Awful had happened yet and the world was ours to enjoy.

Billed as a tropical floral, it has that Suntan Lotion accord that one either loves or hates.  The floral notes include gardenia,tuberose,jasmine and rose…but what really attracts is the undercurrent of banana and coconut, with that sexy suntan vibe.  It was released in the early 80s but I don’t get an 80s feel from it, even though it’s a Big Ol’ Thang.  Instead,  whenever I spritz this, I am reading seventeen again and idolizing Colleen Corby, in a killah 2-piece swimsuit with matching headband.

 

Be warned, though:  this stuff is tenacious.  I have spritzed 3 variations – the two I got for 50cents at a flea market and one at Walgreens.  They all smell the same (hey, doesn’t Coppertone still smell like Coppertone?) and you want to be careful how much you spritz.  Just a hit will subtly seduce anybody over the age of 50 within a good-sized restaurant or office space.  Any more than that and you might trigger a Hazmat Alert.  And don’t spray it on anything you can’t wash with bleach.  It’s like Tiger Balm – get it on a wool sweater and you’ll be smelling it for years to come.

 

Who else has tried this one?  What about the younger crowd?  I’m too old to be asking some 25 yr old what he thinks – but I’d love to know if younger men find it as intriguing as my generation does.  Is there a contemporary version of Sand and Sable?  I’ve not tried Bronze Goddess but S&S does remind me, vaguely, of Azuree (and, to a tiny extent, Youth Dew.  Yes.  I’m serious. Maybe it’s all that brown.)

 

photo:  seventeen magazine 1967 Colleen Corby

perfume sources: mine and a spritz at Walgreens

 

 

 

 

 

  • LindaB says:

    Ok, I LOVED Sand & Sable way back in the 80’s and haven’t thought of it in a while when suddenly…I saw it in ACME!!!! On clearance!! Holy moly, I had to buy it. Wore it once and my husband, who like the men in your post, DOES NOT comment on any perfume, couldn’t stop smelling me and saying how good it smelled. :-) It’s been stashed in my purse ever since so I can discreetly spritz a bit when we’re alone (ummm, very rarely as we have a 5 and 2 yr old) – but still, it’s nice knowing it’s in there and that it evokes a response from Mr. Macho Man.

  • LaMaroc says:

    I tried Jennifer Aniston’s fragrance the other day at Ulta and the moment I sprayed it, I thought: “This is Sand & Sable!” I decided to compare it to my S&S edt once I got home but before I even left the store (I was there maybe 5 minutes) I could barely smell it where I had sprayed it on the crook of my arm. I sprayed it one more time before I left. When I got home, I sprayed S&S in the crook of my other arm. S&S completely annihilated JA. lol I could barely smell anything but a whimper of pale musk from JA. I just find this hilarious since this is suppose to be a clean, beachy fragrance geared toward perfume haters. It’s basically S&S without any guts.

    • Ann says:

      Oh, that’s too funny! Sand & Sable Lite, half the fat AND half the taste …

      • LaMaroc says:

        ..and half the fun! If there is one thing about which to pity those celebrities like JA is the no-fat, no-taste diets they’re forced to be on to be on-screen skinny. Nooooo thank you!

  • Jennifer says:

    :-? Sand and Sable like Azuree? Maybe you mean the newwer Tom Ford reformulation flanker stuff. The original Azuree is a Gardinia-Leather closer to Cabochard or Aramis.(Definitely could work as a unisex although it isn’t marketed as such).
    To my nose S&S is a closer relative to Estee super cologne(another with a plutonium half life).
    I don’t mean to be nit picky but if someone reading gets a lemming to try Azuree I would want them to get the right one.After all if you are trying to work on your tan at the beach you would want your coppertone not full english riding togs with over the knee boots and a gardinia in your red jacket lapel.

    • Julie says:

      I think you are right – she is probably referring to the Azuree Soleil, which is totally different from Azuree!

  • Lisa D says:

    I’ve never tried Sand and Sable, but I’m all for great juice at $4 a bottle! Can we tack a Best Bargain Basement addendum to the upcoming Back of the Closet post?

  • rosarita says:

    Oh, I have loved this post and all the comments! It’s kinda like driving back roads through the midwest…..

    Am also loving the word *tubey*. Yeah, she hates me in S&S just as much as in Fracas….but I smelled a fabulous scent on a workmate a couple years ago and Sand & Sable was the culprit. Thanks to all for all the smiles & laughs contained herein!

    • Musette says:

      Here’s hoping you find The Tuberose! It is such a pretty note.

      I think of you and your farmers’ draft horses, every time I’m at a farmer’s market! The smell of sweating drafts…:x

      xoxo >-)

  • Flora says:

    Well, you KNOW what I’m gonna say about Sand & Sable – Lovelovelove it! In fact I recently bought bottle of the vintage on Evilbay because I missed having it, and the current juice is more chemical than the original. I don’t get a lot of Coppertone; this White Floral Queen amps up the jasmine and tubey to an alarming degree – on me it’s like the trailer-trashy but still very pretty sister of A La Nuit, and I adore it.

    Verrrry intersting, your experience with men of “a certain age” actually noticing it – now I know what to wear to the hardware store to get decent service. :-D

    • Musette says:

      There ya go! I ‘spec my bottles are older – one is a frosted bottle and the other is a notched/swirled glass (I think). But for 50cents (NO! now I remember – Flora, I GOT BOTH OF THESE FOR 10CENTS EACH!!!!!:o =))

      who gets perfume for a dime?

      xo >-)

  • karin says:

    I love this, M! I’ve never tried S&S, but now I’ll need to test it out.

    The one that always got the most compliments for me was Coty Wild Musk. In the late 90’s, I had a bunch of perfumes (surprise, surprise). Wild Musk was the bargain of the lot. I swear, every time I wore the thing, I’d get compliments. My boyfriend at the time would go wild. It even surprised him how much he liked it. I just couldn’t believe that the $6 drugstore scent was the one he liked most!!!

    • Musette says:

      Isn’t that always the way? /:) El O couldn’t care less about my vintage Mits, Parure, Coty Chypre, my Brillante….but break out a 50cent bottle of an already-cheap buy and 😮

      It’s just strange! ;))

      xo >-)

      ps. you know how I’m always crabbing about the downward spiral of Coty….well….:-?..maybe they’re onto something.

  • grizzlesnort says:

    great review.

  • Bevfred says:

    OMG, I too loved Colleen Corby. The next model I wanted to emulate was Jean Shrimpton. But I never did try Sand and Sable.
    At that point in my life I was a Geurlain Girl.
    Ah, the memories!

    • Musette says:

      wow! You were? I was just beginning to know that Guerlain existed! My mother wore Shalimar and I was overwhelmed by it (not in a good way) but fascinated by the bottle, with the beguiling blue top. Then she got the edt spray in the vaguely Arabic blue/white canister…again, the vessel more intriguing than the juice. But I was 14-15. Into Heaven Scent, stinkin’ up the whole house from stem to stern.

      xo >-)

  • maggiecat says:

    I’m curious to try this now, though tuberose and i famously do not get along at all. The scent that I’ve found men respond to most is SJP’s Lovely. Except my DH, who’s apparently immune to it. One of these days I’ll find a scent he likes – but until then I’m having fun “looking.”

  • Fernando says:

    Love the post, Musette. I am a “man of a certain age” myself, I guess, but my beach memories are all from another country, so I don’t know if I’d react the same way to this one. But you did make me curious.

    • Musette says:

      Fernando,

      Something tells me that suntan lotion and pretty teens in swimsuits are pretty much the same everywhere. I’ve been on beaches all over the world – and while they have their individual charms – the quintessential ‘beach’ vibe is pretty much the same. If you get a chance to sniff S&S do report back – I’d love to know if it evokes any memories for you!

      xoxo >-)

  • Teri says:

    :(( I’m homesickkkkkkk.

    Ok, I got that out.

    Oh to be back about 40 years lying on the beach at Ludington, MI, slathered with Coppertone, pouring over the August (huge, back-to-school edition) Seventeen magazine, eating cherries and peaches from a paper bag that we’d picked up at a roadside stand as we biked to the beach. Fending off the late-summer wasps was a well-remembered pain, but the fruit…oh that luscious fruit.

    What a lovely memory. If I close my eyes, I can see, hear, taste and smell it all.

    And Colleen Corby…OMG. Although I hadn’t seen or heard of that name in at least the last 35 years, I recognized her immediately in that picture. Didn’t we all yearn to be her?

    • Musette says:

      She was the Holy Goddess of Teenhood. ^:)^

      Ludington! When I was a younger adult I always wanted to take the ferry over from WI to Ludington but could never find the time or reason to take the time…dumb, I know.

      There is nothing quite like a Red Haven peach, is there? I remember having an allergic reaction to the fuzz, once. Lips blew UP! =))

      xo >-)

  • Rappleyea says:

    Great review! The smell of Coppertone is the smell of my youth – although it never prevented my uber-pale skin from burning. But living in central Ky., the only beach I knew was a looonnnnggg way down I-75 to Daytona Beach. I think CB I Hate Perfume has a beachy one too – 1966 maybe? One of those years.

    That picture of CC could be from *this* summer’s Seventeen!

    • Musette says:

      really? oh, thank you for that. I’m tired of looking at thongs! And….this is sad but it’s been at least 25 years since I even looked at seventeen. I’m on my way to the grocery – will check it out for old times’ sake!

      xo >-)

      • Ann says:

        Great post, Musette! Sorry to be commenting so late but today was the big 11th birthday, so very busy. Haven’t sniffed S&S in years but will now need to revisit.
        BTW, you guys mentioning Seventeen magazine reminded me of something from my youth. My elderly grandparents raised me, so you can imagine that I was not a very fashionably dressed girl. Well, one day in September when I was sick at home in bed, I asked my grandmother if she would please buy me a 16 magazine at the store (had to have my David Cassidy fix, don’tcha know!). Well, bless her heart if she didn’t come home instead with — you guessed it — a Seventeen magazine by accident. At first I was a quite disappointed, but once I started going through that back-to-school issue, man, I wore that thing out looking at all the fall fashions (plaid skirts, sweaters, etc.) that I’d rarely ever need in rural Florida. I could tell you every major department store in the U.S. and where it was. After that, there was no turning back.

        • Musette says:

          Happy Birthday, C!!! from your EvilAuntieAnita!

          and ho, yus! on seventeen’s back to school issue, with the plaid skirts (remember those HUGE chrome safety pins on the fake kilts? ) Like so many silly girls, I insisted on wearing the New Wool Sweater and Skirt set on the first day of school – in large part because I went to Catholic school and you only had a few days before they slapped you into those awful uniforms.

          Alas, it was always, ALWAYS a chilly 89degrees on those first days – but we wore them anyway, fashion morons that we were…:”>

          xo >-)

          • Ann says:

            Yep, you’ve got it exactly right! Sweltering away in that heavy wool, we suffered mightily to be in style!

  • Joanna says:

    I like Sand and Sable. Remember when I mentioned the scents we have hidden in the back of the closet? I think it was in reference to Ed Hardy. Well I have Sand and Sable back there, (Along with several other scents that just don’t look right next to my bottle of vintage Mitsouko which is still in it’s original box.)By the way, thanks for turning me onto that expensive little habit Posse!
    Sand and Sable reminds me of my best friend while I was growing up. I think she still wears it too, I had drinks with her last month and loved how she still smelled just how I remembered.

    Musette are you in Iowa? You mentioned Casey’s which is the center of every small Iowa town. I’m in southern MN, right by the border. On my way to Iowa right now to buy some produce and baked goods from the Amish. For some reason I always have to really think about which scent to wear when I’m going to buy stuff from the Amish. Maybe I’ll break out the Sand and Sable? I don’t know, that may be too much for them.

    • Musette says:

      Naw, I’m not in IA, alas – central IL, about 45 mins or so from the IL/IA border. Much prefer IA. way better climate for small business and you have better draft horses. I drag my household up to Britt every Labor Day for the Draft Show. Poor El O. 8-| The dogs love it, though!

      Casey’s stops its attempts at world domination just east of here – once you get past Princeton IL, I don’t think there are many (if any) Casey’s – but down here they are thick on the ground, indeed.

      The Amish and perfume…now there’s an intriguing subject….you’ve just given me an idea for a post – hope it’s okay I mention your comment?

      We’re still going to do ‘back of the closet scents’, I hope. I’ll yark at Nava about that. I have a few meself….

      :”>

      xo >-)

      • Joanna says:

        LOL Sure you can use my comment. I actually waited until after I had visited with the amish before I spritzed anything on today, (Ysatis which I got from Swapmania! Thanks swap partner!) I’m not sure why I’m always so afraid of offending them with fragrance?

        The fact that you have been to Britt, IA makes me giggle. Small world. I’ve been there often as I dated a farm boy from that area of IA for many years.

        • Musette says:

          That is hysterical! (not the ‘dating’ part – the Britt part). As we both know, Britt is about as big as my behind and except for the Hobo Convention and the Draft Horse Show….:-?

          Hey! that brings to mind Clear Lake which evokes the whole Colleen Corby memory, too – that Perfect Summer Place!

          xo >-)

  • KirstenMarie says:

    OK, on my list to try! I was into beach scents this past Spring – it came VERY late to Colorado, ask Patty – and I fell for Heeley’s Sel Marin. Perfect beach – salt air, warm skin, ocean. No Coppertone, just fresh. The guys at work love it.

  • mals86 says:

    Oh, Sand & Sable… one of my friends on the marching band drill squad wore it, and I. Wanted. It. When I was 18, I went to the drugstore and spritzed some on from the tester (yes, the drugstore had testers in the 80s) and bought a small bottle with my babysitting-n-birthday money. I took it home.

    My mother MADE ME TAKE IT BACK. She insisted. She said it was far too mature for me.

    ??

    Really?

    Maybe it was more that Mom has never liked BWFs. Anyway, I bought a bottle a few years ago, 15ml for $5, no lie. To be honest, it does smell better on my teen daughter than it does on me. There’s a slight chemical tinge on me that she doesn’t get, so I gave her my bottle. Other than that, it’s a big friendly tubey-jasmine with a coconut-oil suntan-lotion angle, all “Come up and see me sometime,” and I’m not surprised you got compliments on it. I did too. I think the sheer affability of it, the friendly flirtiness, is what makes men smile.

    (Youth Dew?? Now, I absolutely hate Youth Dew… not getting the similarity there. Huh.)

    • Musette says:

      Like I said, I think it’s the ‘brown’. ;))

      Your mom was nobody’s fool, baby – read your second paragraph. In your normal, fabulous way you just described a prescription for making out in the back seat of a Mustang! =))

      xo >-)

      • Rappleyea says:

        I have fond memories of a 1967 Mustang. ;-)

      • mals86 says:

        Huh. Never dated a Mustang man… my boyfriend, ca. 1986, drove a 1967 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500, the “sport” model, navy with a white hardtop and only lap belts.

        And I didn’t get into the backseat with him. That waited for a college dorm room, S&S or not. But don’t tell my mom.

        (Sidenote: my baby girl, age 16, has finally gotten an admirer she admires back. Squee! He’s cute. Plays in the band with her. Even better, he is one of the sweetest kids I have ever, ever met – not a superficial nice, either, he’s nice right down to the bone. I can’t tease her about it and I can’t talk about it at home, so I bring it up, very off-topic, here: I am Dying For Brock to Make His Move. Maybe I’ll encourage Bookworm to bust out the S&S… though I don’t know that it would have the same effect on the Class of 2013. Maybe her Hanae Mori instead?)

        • Meg says:

          ahaha, this makes me smile. Do keep us updated!! Will he make his move?? and how? hmmm…

          • Musette says:

            she would be mortified but what the heck: TOO CUTE!

            I dunno….Sand and Sable probably would transcend …..

            Here’s hoping for a charming, happy romance! 😡

            xo >-)

          • Ann says:

            Yes, Mals, seconding Musette — let’s hope a sweet romance is brewing!

  • pam says:

    Love this post, Musette. I remember the NAME S&S but can’t remember what it smells like. Will definitely have to track it down and try it. Not a fan of tuberose, but this sounds intriguing. When I re-tried Youth Dew a couple of years ago, it bought back so many memories that I had to have a bottle. Now maybe I should just break down and buy a bottle of Fidji,,,

    • Musette says:

      If you get more than a whiff of tuberose under all that banana and coconut, you let me know (though 😕 in the older, slightly degraded bottles (kind of like degraded plutonium – still VERY impressive)…the tuberose comes out much more pronounced, like that lovely Autumn Tuberose from I Profumi di Firenzi

      xo >-)

  • Mrs.Honey says:

    My best friend and I wore Sand & Sables in the 1980s. Of course, I also wore Love’s Baby Soft back then. I;m not sure how I would feel about wearing it now.

    • Musette says:

      In 1974 I was a freshman at a funky fine-arts daycare – erm, college. Everyone considered themselves extremely avant-garde…and to a gal, everyone bathed in Love’s Baby Soft. You could choke on the fumes, from the moment you stepped on campus. It was GLORIOUS! :d

      xo >-)

  • Daniela says:

    Oooh I’ve never smelled this one, but it sounds right up my alley. Anything to remind me of the beach gets a thumbs up, and a side of seduction doesn’t hurt either! Is it similar to 7:15am in Bali? I have that one, and also Bronze Goddess.

    • Musette says:

      I missed Bali! I will have to check it out. Also BGoddess. I have a feeling it’s similar to BG – I know BG exists for those who miss Azuree and Azuree is in that same beachy family…:-?

      xo >-)

  • tania says:

    I’ve got S & S edt and also the perfume. But given that the edt has a half-life of a few billion years, I’ve never dared to wear the perfume!
    Actually, I’ve never worn the edt out of the house, either. So maybe I need to experiment, see if I get followed down the road by any silver foxes….

    • Musette says:

      …with their noses in the air, snuffling! ;))

      Go ‘head! Live a little!

      xo >-)

      • tania says:

        :-) Well, I wore it to work today, but nobody said a thing. Maybe my ‘certain age’ invisibility overrides S & S’ power to enchant!

        There WAS a fox this morning but sadly, it was the real deal, sniffing around the garbage…. ;-)

        • Musette says:

          they are so pretty, aren’t they? I love the pups. Of course, I am not a ~:> farmer so I can afford the luxury of a fox in my yard.

          xo >-)

          and you are just silly – I am sure your ‘certain age’ is just fine. This was an age-specific group of men. 50+. Nobody else said a thing.

          • tania says:

            They can be pretty, & the dog foxes are handsome. But we have so many urban foxes now they are a pest, with no fear of people at all.

            Thanks :-) I have a feeling it might be limited to men 50+ with youthful experience of long hot beach summers. Not a British thing, really! Now if it reminded them of National Service….:d

  • Kathryn says:

    Oh Lord, Musette!. Of all the things I didn’t remember I remembered, Colleen Corby modeling for Seventeen Magazine! It really takes me back, though not as far back as 1961. Evidently I was as fashion backward then as I am now because toward the end of that decade, that’s the kind of swimsuit, hair and makeup I wore in my largely unsuccessful attempts to look like CC. Back then aspiring to a Colleen Corby look was at least in the realm of the remotely possible. Even at the most deluded phase of my adolescence, I knew that looking like Twiggy was not.

    I’ve never knowingly smelled Sand & Sable, but I bet it will trigger some scent memories when I do. After reading this post, what I really want to smell now is Heeley’s Hippie Rose, hoping to find a touch of old time patchouli. I’m wondering whether that would ring a chime for those old guys who still notice how I look and what perfume I’m wearing.

    • Musette says:

      CC was DA BOMB! Oprah talks about how CC was her teen-age aspiration – back in those days, of course, there were NO black models but Colleen’s lush beauty resonated with a lot of ethnic girls.

      And fashion is fashion, after all, especially in the rather rigid 50s and 60s (even during the Hippie movement there were fashion ‘rules’ – Hippie rules v. Establishment rules – but fashion rules nonetheless)

      What was funny was, not ONE of those guys could pick me out of a lineup (prolly not even El O! ;)) – I might as well not have even been there – I was merely the vehicle for the scent-memory.

      xo >-)

  • dinazad says:

    Sand and what? Oh, one of those ‘Murrican things. We don’t have them here….. Anyhow – I know just what you mean. I get compliments when I wear Schiaparelli’s “Zut” (reformulated out of its mind) which I’m not even sure I like….. (I do like letting my sentences trail out with lots and lots of periods/dots, though!)

    • Musette says:

      me, too!……ellipses are indicative of my trailing thoughts….:-?

      fwiw, I think the ‘sable’ is more an alliterative play, perhaps meant to evoke the feeling of softness or sun-browned skin (we don’t have sables, either, in the way you might think – most people only ever see a sable on a rack at Bergdorf)…also, sable’ means ‘sandy’ in French..(right? lord knows I eat enough of ’em so I orta know this one)…maybe it’s a nod to Coty’s French roots – who knows…

      it’s weird what we would like to get complimented on (Mitsouko) and don’t – and what we do get complimented on (Calyx) and wonder at…

      Ellipses Rule!

      Ginkgo forthcoming! ;))

      xo >-)

      • dinazad says:

        Maybe it wants to evoke associations of beach AND Luxury. Or maybe the name just sounds nice…. I’ve given up trying to fathom the logic behind fragrance names (Louve, Sarrasins, I’m looking at both of you!)

  • Olfacta says:

    Hmmm. I’ve never smelled it. Sounds like Panama City Beach in a bottle. Will keep eyes open.

    • Musette says:

      PCB is one of El O’s favorite places to ride to in early spring (there’s a rally (Thunder Beach?)……..he loves the easygoing vibe there.

      xo >-)

  • FragrantWitch says:

    Well, I am 36 and men still comment on Sand & Sable! I first bought a bottle when I was 19 ish and the boys loved it then too. I think it is the whole beach, suntan oil, warm skin, coconut rum thing… Inextricably linked with scantily clad women and free rein to ogle. :d
    It is the only tuberose I can wear and fortunately I don’t get the banana ( shudder ). Perfect for an easy summers day!

  • Joe says:

    Well, hello, gorgeous!

    I’ve never smelled this cheap-o thang. But now, you can be sure I want to. My beach summer memories actually took place in the 80s, but they’re all wrapped up with the Beach Boys comebacks that were hitting the charts at that time, as well as their greatest hits and the classic Pet Sounds that I was smitten with at the time. Oh yeah… my daydreamy summers at the beach. Lived about a half-hour from the coast and the grandparents had a beach bungalow (still go there most every summer) and those summer vacations still glow gold in the memory banks.

    If this cheap-o thang can bring even a smidge of those feelings back, you can bet it’ll be worth every penny (and I mean penny) that I spend on it if I see it in CVS or the Walgreens soon.

    …from July to the end of September… Oh, yeah.

    • Musette says:

      My dearest! 😡 SO glad to have you back with us!

      The only beach we saw, most summers, were the beaches on the Lake Michigan shores – but let’s face it – while it might not be the ocean, any body of water that can be seen from space is pretty decent. Best were (and still are) the beaches up the Michigan coast – from the Dunes Highway all the way to Traverse City, all the fun beach towns with their summer cottages and Summer People….cherries, Red Haven peaches….total mindlessness and such a feeling of peace and relaxation…

      Honeypie, you can get this stuff for $4. That’s cheaper than a bar of soap!

      xo >-)

  • jen says:

    I like the Sand and Sable, but the one people compliment me on is, like you, not my prized Mitsouko. That’s jut for me. The general public(mailman, clerk, hubby), they like Va Va Voom, which I spritz on to cool off in AZ summers. Go figure.

  • Madea says:

    I’ve tried it, and it didn’t work for me, but a friend of mine adored it, so I gave it to her.

    I didn’t get suntan lotion or summer–I got tuberose(which is way too Big for me–I feel like I’m walking around in a showgirl costume in it)banana, and gardenia, which, as I’ve mentioned, smells like (literal) death on me, so I smelled like a zombie RuPaul.

    In general, I think the younger generation is way more open to different perfumes than most people assume. It’s just that most of the good stuff isn’t out there–someone could love caviar, but if all they ever eat is McDonald’s, how will they know?

    I grew up in a town just like the one you described. It’s almost impossible to explain to someone who’s never lived in a place like this what it’s like, isn’t it?

    • Musette says:

      Madea, I moved here from Chicago (as in Downtown Chicago) about 4.5 years ago. This has been HUGE in terms of adjustment – but it has its loveliness as well. The shop I described has antiques, she does upholstery and alterations (come prom, the place looks like Loretta Young threw up in there), her son is the local truck farmer and she sells organic eggs (the best eggs in the county)…next to the gas station it’s THE place to be! LOL! My friends are aghast! From nights at Lyric Opera to nights at Casey’s gas station. 8-|

      I got some tubey but mostly suntan lotion. I like it fine but don’t swoon like these guys were doing. That was just…weird.

      Why don’t they swoon over vintage Mitsouko? 😕 :-w

      xo >-)

      • Joe says:

        Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I LOVE that you have a “antique store/egg & produce shop/drycleaners”. I want one! But not enough to move out there!

        • Musette says:

          You silly! ;))

          The place is weirdly charming – this rather large, cavernous space, with great antique jewelry, trunks, etc (if I didn’t already own a store’s worth of antiques I would go stone mad in this little shop). Behind the counter is where they do sewing and embroidering and upholstering (they have a rather sophisticated range of fabrics, etc), then there are these little refrigerators for the eggs…outside are the farmer’s market produce and flowers…it’s very cute!

          xo >-)

          • maggiecat says:

            I think I want to move there….Big City life is rapidly losing it’s charm for me. Except for the symphony, of course. And maybe the mall…

          • tammy says:

            No live bait? ;o)

          • Musette says:

            naw – we’re not at a fishing point – the river is very shallow right here. Kids fish for tadpoles, etc (or whatever it is kids fish for when they’re just playing around) But in other parts of the area, fo’ sho’ on the bait. But it’s at the gas station, of course. Everybody knows that! 😉

            xo >-)