Perfume Posse in New York

It was last-minute, very little planning, but way fun. I had a potential thing I had to do in New York, once I found out for sure I was going a few days before I went, I thought, hey, maybe Miss March can bus it up. She did, and the adventure was on.

I texted her something about not being sure about my footwear choices when I got on the plane, so we ducked off to shoe shop first. It is a burden.  Shoes all fixed, we found this weird place for a Japanese restaurant – the second floor behind a hair salon. As soon as we walked in, we could have been anywhere in Japan. It felt so real, and we were the only ones speaking English in the place. Delicious food.  I’ll never remember the name of it, but it was in on 32nd and about 5th, second floor behind the hair salon.

Friday was the big day. We had lots of places to go by.  Osswald first.  Put address in phone app, plotted subway ride. Had delicious pita hummus concoction before bitchery got real.  Got to address, looks like apartment. I’ve been to Osswald before, I know they are not in an apartment.  Double-check address.  Oops, 331 Broadway is really 331 West Broadway (making up the number, but something like that).  Okay, easy six-block walk, right?  I know all of you native New Yorkers are giggling at this point.  It takes about 10 blocks in the windy cold to make a dent in getting to the 200s.

the.struggle.is.real.

We find subway, replot, land closer to the 300 block of West Broadway.  Osswald, as always, is a delight.  March will cover all of her fun finds on Wednesday this week as she caught up on some releases she’d missed the last year or so.  The smart, fun and knowledgeable Josie was just a joy to spend time with. If you are in Osswald and fall into Josie’s hands, you will be happy. Turns out she reads The Posse, so this is kindred spirit day for all three of us.

We reluctantly leave Osswald and head – oh, cheesecake at Eileen’s!  Holy rap traps, batman, that was amazing cheesecake in a weekend all about cheesecake.  As a Denverite used to cheesecake being disappointing and mostly tragic here, I’d almost forgotten how delicious cheesecake can be. Now I remember.

Leave Eileen’s and head for Greenwich to see Enfleurage, then walk down to Frederic Malle.  I wanted to smell the new Cologne Indelible and see if they had The Night tucked behind a dark counter somewhere.  Cologne Indelible is a gorgeous orange blossom, and it has that greenish note feel like Frederic Malle Carnal Flower.  A cologne in all the best sense, but also very posh. Timing for spring/summer is perfect.  I’ll have more to say about it in a later review, but as with all things Ropion, I love it.

Josie had already told us that the Malle boutique did have The Night  – their very middle eastern scent available in Dubai for a hefty price tag.  We asked, and I felt like when I said the words, “do you have The Night” it was like some curtain had descended blocking out all leaks as she reached under the counter for the small vial and put a drop on each of us.  Yup, oud, rose, amber.  Rich, medicinal, pungent, and then it takes a very posh Ropion turn into that something extra.  Yes, it is traditional, it is clearly full of great materials. I’m not even going to get into cost anymore.  If you’re willing to cough up the cash for it because you can and because you love it enough, then it’s worth it.  There is nothing lacking in this at all for an oud scent.  There is nothing lacking in this at all for a Ropion via Frederic Malle scent.  Malle didn’t screw it up, nor did Ropion, that’s all I’ll say.

I think there might have been more cheesecake involved that day. Oh, yeah!  Annick Goutal. March will have more to say about that because it was her insistence that she had to just step in and whiff the collective AG smell that got us there.  They were great, the shop was great, the new L’Ile au Thé green tea scent is great, and I’m working on some combinations with other Goutal scents, it has some versatility.

We minced – listen, when I say minced, March asked me if I was trying to find a way to walk without using my feet. I said yes, that was it exactly.  Owwwwww.

Long day, my feet were glad to get a rest.

Saturday was going to be High Line/Chelsea Market day.  We sub over to Chelsea Market, and that place is great.  We eat little baby angel donuts, buy a great gardening hat, buy a Fat Bitch or Fat Witch brownie for later, then climb up to the High Line.  The High Line, for those of you that don’t know, is a rail line that was converted into an elevated garden in the Chelsea area of New York.  It is beautiful and well worth the time to go walk it.

Is it cheesecake time yet?  Yes, yes, it is!  Off to the upper east side to visit Two Little Red Hens and have some of their cheesecake. Subway is all screwed up, so we have to backtrack a couple of times to get a train that will get us the 86th. Ah, the land of milk and cheesecake is open.  And it is deeelicious, the perfect cheesecake in existence.

You know, we ARE on the upper east side, not that far away from Bergdorf, which we hadn’t planned to visit, but, well, because, there.  Bergdorf beauty counter, here we come.  We go and plop down in JAR and revisit some faves, March catches up on all the 17,000 Piguet releases that have happened in the last two years.  We meander by Tom Ford, and they of course are pushing the latest Tom Ford Noir Extreme under our noses, which is annoying, but then not at all.  I didn’t really care one way or the other for Tom Ford Noir, but this Tom Ford Noir Extreme is something else,  OMG, yum!!!  March does not love Dior Feve Delicieuse like I do.  How can this be?!?!  We both find the perfect shade of Tom Ford Lipstick.

I probably missed a thousand things, but I’ll give more detail on some of the things I ran across in another review.  Sunday was time to go home, but my flight was canceled.  I wasn’t completely on board for the only option of United paying for a 1.5-2 hour taxi rid to Newark to catch a flight, so I spent the night in lovely Flushing and came home Monday morning.

Exhausting and fun and sad we didn’t have enough time ahead of time to catch up with anyone in the area, but I wasn’t even sure it was going to happen until way late in the game.

Which one of my finds are you the most interested in?  I’ll do a drawing and the winners will get the sample they mention in the comment!