New York finds!

I have returned from New York and the shopping was great!

First things first, I did manage to make my way to both the Bond boutique (on Bond Street! with the Bond car parked out in front!) and to Barneys on Madison Avenue, just as I'd planned. I picked up two fragrances from Bond, where I was helped by Blogdorf Goodman's favorite, Shawn. I picked out Eau de New York (neroli, white lily, vetiver), as it reminds me of a grown-up version of Demeter's Tomato. Shawn also helped me pick out So New York (mirabelle plum, chocolate, espresso). I came away with two one-ounce bottles, instead of the big fancy Bond bottles, because I needed the space in my suitcase, after all!

Then it was on to Barneys on a drizzly day, where I went to the Frederic Malle counter first -- it's hard to miss it with those red-trimmed air tubes running from floor to ceiling. I was helped by a very kind store assistant (very kind -- I was wet from the rain and running around in my snazzy-yet-not-New-York-snazzy Converse) who shared several scents with me, but Bigarade Concentree is the one I came home with -- bitter orange with some additional notes of cedar and rose. It's a very interesting, just-on-the-femme-side of unisex, scent that stays close to the skin. I like it quite a lot -- not enough to get the matching shower gel and body lotion, but I do like it. On thinking about it, it's like a lighter, more feminine version of Terre D'Hermes, which I gave my brother for Christmas. (Edited to add: As well it should -- both were created by Jean-Claude Ellena! Which, silly me, I didn't realize until I googled "Jean-Claude Ellena" and realized he's the man behind Hermes' fragrances.)

Then I went to the Lipstick Queen/Fresh counter, where the darling Sheryl helped me pick out the right shade of lipstick. Lipstick Queen is a very small collection of twenty lipsticks: ten shades, two formulas. The "Saint" formula is 10% pigment, while the "Sinner" formula is 90% pigment. I bought Saint Natural, which is the perfect "my lips but better" lipstick for wearing to work. The lipstick is great and moisturizing (I wore it when running around on Canal Street on Saturday in the slush!), and the packaging is lovely too. Sheryl also introduced me to Fresh's face wash (and I'm a sucker for a good face wash) and Supernova mascara (and a sucker for a great mascara), so, while they're not New York exclusives, I'm glad to know I can pick those up at my local Sephora.

I will say this, though: I'm absolutely thrilled that they're going to be opening up a Barneys in San Francisco. I can't wait until September!

But what about the fashion? Sure, of course I went for perfume, but what about the clothes? While I did spend a lot of time in Noho/Soho/Nolita and did a little boutique shopping in both Nolita and the East Village, my greatest triumph has to be the KingFisher trenchcoat from Brooklyn Industries. I have been searching for the perfect trenchcoat, and this very well may be it. I was close to buying the Viktor and Rolf trenchcoat when they released their H&M collection this past fall, but I just didn't love it. This coat? I love it. I absolutely love it.

I love it so much, in fact, that I'm fairly disappointed that the weather on returning to California has been so nice, and I don't really have any excuse to wear this fantastic coat. Needless to say, this is the first thing that's getting packed when I jet off to Europe in four weeks. Ooh la la!

images from barneys.com and brooklynindustries.com