This is brief, because even though I have a ton of perfume samples to try, I keep forgetting to actually apply them. The only one I've managed to wear was Lanvin Me (mandarin, blueberry, rose, tuberose, licorice, sandalwood), which initially made me recoil with its super-sweet berry-full fruitiness, but settled down into an uninspiring pallid synthetic floral and was gone within a few hours. It was a rather unpleasant experience, overall, but it might be a good perfume for a young teenager. Really, though, you could buy something close enough at Bath and Body Works for a quarter the price.
Before I flew out to Turkey, I stopped off for a few days in New York and visited friends. L and I made our way to the Atelier Cologne boutique downtown, where we tried the new perfumes (Gold Leather and Silver Iris, neither of which was quite my cup of tea), received some free samples, and I picked up a bar of Orange Sanguine soap.
That bar lived in the bottom of my suitcase for the next month, and I finally opened it when I got back home, slightly worse for the wear. It's really, really nice––it smells exactly like the perfume (discussed here), lightly perfumes my whole bathroom, and, as L imagined, is an excellently invigorating morning-shower olfactory experience. It's extremely smooth and silky and cleans without drying (in fact, I find it lightly moisturizing, though if you have perpetually dry skin, it probably wouldn't be enough). The scent, while noticeable, is not overwhelming, and it does not linger or interfere with subsequent perfumes. It's $18 for a 200 g bar and it looks like it will last me about 2.5 months, which isn't terrible, but is still more than I'd like to spend on shower soap regularly, no matter how beautifully scented. Still, I'm glad I bought it, and have thoroughly enjoyed using it! I'll just have to keep my eyes out for a cheaper version, though I don't have much hope: Orange Sanguine is a uniquely cheerful citrus, in my experience, and I may very well eat my words and buy it again when my mood next falls into a funk.
What do you look for in a body cleanser? Have you ever paid $18 for a bar of soap? (In my defense, I also got 4 very generous sample spray vials...) Have you tried Lanvin Me, and if so, what did you think?
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| via Neiman Marcus |
That bar lived in the bottom of my suitcase for the next month, and I finally opened it when I got back home, slightly worse for the wear. It's really, really nice––it smells exactly like the perfume (discussed here), lightly perfumes my whole bathroom, and, as L imagined, is an excellently invigorating morning-shower olfactory experience. It's extremely smooth and silky and cleans without drying (in fact, I find it lightly moisturizing, though if you have perpetually dry skin, it probably wouldn't be enough). The scent, while noticeable, is not overwhelming, and it does not linger or interfere with subsequent perfumes. It's $18 for a 200 g bar and it looks like it will last me about 2.5 months, which isn't terrible, but is still more than I'd like to spend on shower soap regularly, no matter how beautifully scented. Still, I'm glad I bought it, and have thoroughly enjoyed using it! I'll just have to keep my eyes out for a cheaper version, though I don't have much hope: Orange Sanguine is a uniquely cheerful citrus, in my experience, and I may very well eat my words and buy it again when my mood next falls into a funk.
What do you look for in a body cleanser? Have you ever paid $18 for a bar of soap? (In my defense, I also got 4 very generous sample spray vials...) Have you tried Lanvin Me, and if so, what did you think?
