I bent my head to the side and pointed to my neck, “Take a whiff, Honey,” I said to my husband. “I smell like San Francisco!”
My Sweet Spousal Unit shrugged and said, “As long as you don’t smell like a BART station.”
I glared at him with my most evil eye!
[Note: For those of you who have never experienced the pleasure of riding the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, let me explain: You do NOT want to take an elevator or step into an enclosed stairway if you can help it! It stinks to High Heaven ... think "urinal!" That's what the street dwellers think those are, anyway.]
Laughing, he bent to smell my neck and exclaimed, “Mmmmm. LUSH-ous!” And, he was right. I was wearing my “Karma” perfume from LUSH in San Francisco. It doesn’t really smell like San Francisco … Karma smells like lemon grass, oranges, and patchouli … but that’s good enough for me. Unfortunately, that wonderful solid perfume I love is being discontinued! Just my luck.
LUSH is the only store that is a requirement of visiting The City. The one I patronize is on Powell Street, just off of Union Square; a tiny shop packed with fresh products for your body and bath (for both men and women) that smell much better than the BART station. I don’t have to tell you the address; just follow your nose!
In fact, I wish this was a scratch and sniff blog! These bath soaps look good enough to eat, but they smell even better.
Sure, I can go on-line and buy the products, and there are other LUSH stores around the country. But, this store was the first LUSH in the United States, it’s the first one that I visited, and it remains my first stop when I get to San Francisco. It may not smell like San Francisco, but it’s the way San Francisco ought to smell. At least it ought to smell like Karma!
I don’t wear a lot of perfume, because my olfactory system seems to be in constant overdrive. When I do, I’m drawn to scents like patchouli, musk, and sandalwood. I was told long ago that men like the smell of vanilla on a woman. Supposedly scientists did tests to prove that, but Momma always said, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Vanilla smells like baked goods, so I guess she was right.
Do you wear perfume or cologne? What scents are your favorite?
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{ 12 comments }
You like the smell of LUSH?
They are in almost every mall in Canada and I cannot walk by one without feeling sick to my stomach and holding my breath – definitely cannot walk in to one. I always wondered how they stay in business. The worst was in Saskatoon when the store was beside the food court.
Appetite lost.
Funny, the Body Shop and other similar stores are not so olfactorily offensive to me and I’m not as fragrance sensitive as many people I know.
Well sorry to make such a negative comment. I guess, I was so surprised (shocked) to hear such an opposite point of view!
Don’t know what they cost, but look what I found: Recreate discontinued scents
http://www.scentmatchers.com/home.html
Worth looking, anyway
. Thanks!
My fave scent is called “Warm Cotton” by a scent,aker called Clean. it just smells “clean”. I get a lot of compliments on it. Kind of ironic that it’s my favorite scent considering my whole “cotton ball thing”. Haha!
I remember that one! And yes, with your fear of cotton balls that seems odd
I’m very open minded and strongly believe every one has a right to their own opinion. However I had to go for a lie down after reading Eva’s comment until the feeling passed that I was wrong and it should be made mandatory that everyone have a good opinion of Lush! I now reluctantly agree that not everyone does an impression of the child catcher out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when encountering the aroma of Lush in the high street! As a little aside, I once bought a friend some Lush bath ballistics (this was when they were less well known) and years later she confessed that she thought as air freshners they weren’t much cop! They had sat on her bathroom window ledge for months until she *gulp* threw them away as they couldn’t compete sufficiently with the other aromas and were very hard to dust!
OK, I take awhile to respond sometimes. I do have to say that I agree that it took my breath away for Eva not to like Lush. Your story about the bath ballistics is funny. Next time you give them, write a note of explanation. Threw them away … what a tragedy!
I have to watch what I wear. A lot of scents turn kind of “off” when they get in contact with my skin. Doesn’t seem to matter if they’re expensive or more affordable–there’s a whole list of beautiful scents that I can’t wear. When I’m stepping out, it’s “Dune” all the way. I just love it. For every day, I kind of like smelling like lavender, so I use a lavender shower goop and some powder. Last year, while packing up some of Aged Mum’s things for charity, I caught a whiff of her scent, which was “Arpege.” That set me off on an Internet hunt, and I found a whole lot of blogs and websites devoted to scent and perfume enthusiasts. Fascinating stuff, especially the old, classic perfumes. I found mention of scents I hadn’t thought of in years. Most of them were worn by grown-ups I admired as a child. A few (notably “Tabu”) were absolutely forbidden by Aged Mum. “It will cheapen you” she would say. I had a lot of fun and decided to stick with my Dune.
I like Dune, too. Usually, I get stuck on one scent for quite awhile, then switch unpredictably. Oh, I do remember those old perfumes. My Momma wore “My Sin,” and I did once I got grown up. Made me feel naughty
I love Lush, and buy the Karma soap when I find myself near one. Their foot creams are great, and lip balms are wonderful. I do like and wear a lot of different scents. I guess a lot of people are not so fortunate as to be able to wear whatever they like.
I need to get the Karma soap, although right now I have a sandalwood soap that I bought at Whole Foods that is heavenly.
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