Perfume

An incredible shopping experience was had yesterday afternoon in Copley Place Boston with friends. We covered Sephora, Neiman Marcus, Barneys and Saks Fifth Avenue, and by the end of the day I felt like a child in need of some major nap time. My most favorite stop of the day was at CPK for food (I'm kidding, I'm kidding,) all jokes aside it was definitely Saks Fifth Avenue. How fortunate were we that Saks was offering a family discount yesterday, which included 15% off any purchase in the store - score!! So I visited my intended fragrance counter, Bond No. 9, did a lot of sniffing and then BANG, it was love at first sniff! "Hello Nuits de Noho, I'm Nicole, so very very pleased to meet you!"

Bond No. 9 is a sophisticated and alluring niche brand, which is an homage to New York City. The line created Downtown, Midtown and Uptown scents, as well as candles and body creme, which mark NYC's neighborhoods with scents of their very own. Nuits de Noho, my downtown love affair, has notes of Jasmine, Creamy Vanilla and Sheer Patchouli, which is a "nighttime femininity; irreverent and unapologetic". Pretty tasty right?! The description on bondno9.com also reads, Nuits de Noho "has the impact of a shot of icy vodka" ha ha, now that sounds more like it (ME)!! "Impact" is what I've been searching for in a fragrance though and I have to say I am completely sold - it is evident that the brand only uses high 18-22 percent concentrations of pure eaux de parfums, which offers "longlasting concentrations of the legendary scents of the 1920s and 1930s."

The other two scents I love are New Haarlem, which is a bit androgynous and smells mostly of vanilla and coffee, with notes of bergamot, cedarwood, patchouli and lavender, and Little Italy, a citrus scent of mandarin and grapefruit with notes of jasmine and a bit of sheer musk. New Haarlem smells warm and cozy, Little Italy fresh, but not too sweet. Both absolutely delightful.

Bond No. 9's website is gorgeous so if you have a minute check it out at http://bondno9.com. You can purchase this brand at Bond's four shops in NYC, on their website, or at Saks Fifth Avenue www.saksfifthavenue.com. Be aware this is no inexpensive love affair (but well worth every penny) 1.7 fl oz goes for $125 and the 3.4 fl oz for $185. The candles range from $75-100 (which includes 16-20 percent perfume concentration and they burn for 60 hours) and the body creme 6.8 oz for $105.