Vetiver Extraordinaire Shower Gel- Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums

I have all these girly, feminine shower gels and creams- vanilla, lavender-vanilla, citrus-vanilla, cinnamon-vanilla...You get the picture. Then there are the figs, roses and honey. But the one I find myself loving the most lately is the husband's Vetiver Extraordinaire Shower Gel from Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums, based on the Dominique Ropion perfume by the same name.

It's sharp, bitter, has no frilly notes and yet feels utterly luxurious. There's a moment the peppery opening blooms in the hot shower air and transforms it into a spa (if spas had a cat or two perching between the shower curtain and liner, and another one keeping your towels warm). The ozonic note is perfect here, contributing to that clean, airy feeling and probably keeping the earthiness of vetiver at bay- this is a shower gel, after all.

While only a whiff is left on skin 10 minutes after toweling off, the best part of this Frederic Malle product is how it makes my skin feel: normal. No tightness or dryness at all, which as far as I'm concerned is pure magic. The husband (let's not forget the rightful owner of the bottle) is perfectly happy with the cleaning performance (antiperspirant removal), so everyone is happy.

Bottom line: I wish they sold it in gallons. I need to try the one in Bigarade Concentree.

Vetiver Extraordinaire Shower Gel by Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums ($75, 200 ml) is available from Barneys and Freceric Malle boutiques. Speaking of Barneys, they have a typo on their web site "Vetiver Extraodinaire"- an R is missing there. The funny thing is that other websites (shopping aggregators, mostly) have picked this typo and copied it all over the net.

shower gel mage: editionsdeparfums.com
screen captures: Barneys

Diptyque Tam Dao Shower Gel

The Blond has discovered the joy of luxury bath products. It started when I got him the Guerlain Vetiver body wash (I think I bought every tube I could find before they disappeared from the market), the upgraded for the Frederic Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire shower gel (dreamy. Review coming soon). Now I got a bottle of Diptyque Tam Dao shower gel which he believes is his, but just like the perfume- I beg to differ.

Tam Dao is a wonderful sandalwood in any form, and the creaminess of the scent works beautifully in a bathing product. It feels and smells luxurious, lathers lightly and is gentle on my sensitive skin. The Blond approves the cleansing level and likes the way it feels.

I find that the scent lingers on my skin longer than on his, though you can't skip the perfume. Speaking of which, the shower gel has a drier scent than the EDT and is less spicy. Next on my list to explore are the Diptyque Philosykos body products. It's fig, after all, and there's a rich body cream. Stay tuned.

Diptyque Tam Dao Shower Gel ($44, 6.8 oz) is available from Barneys, Aedes, BeautyHabit and most other stores that sell the Diptyque range.

Photo of sandalwood elephants (there's an elephant on the pretty Tam Dao box) by RottieLover♥ on Flickr.

My Little Guilty Pleasure- Sephora Vanilla Cupcake

A recent Sephora order made last month has arrived with something extra: A birthday gift in the form of a mini (2.5 oz) Vanilla Cupcake bath & shower bubbles.

It's cute. It's shimmery. It smells like dreamy buttercream. Not exactly the stuff one is supposed to pursue after a certain age. But I could not help myself and ended up wishing the hot water would never end so I could keep playing with the sugary bubbles.

Vanilla Cupcake is shamelessly foody (I swear I could also smell coconut in the almond-butter-sugar-vanilla mix). It's also addictive for those of us not opposed to the genre, and I had to stop myself from ordering the entire product line. It's a fun scent, but I don't really want to smell like that, and eventually I was happy it didn't linger on my skin once I was all dried up.

Speaking of dry, the fun ends once I'm out of the water. Despite the promises of hydrating ingredients like aloe and jojoba oil, my skin ends up feeling like it has been washed in regular (drying) soap. The gel's strength is not in pampering, that's for sure, but it doesn't stop me from using it again and again (and slathering myself silly with creams and oils once I'm out of the shower and back to my senses after the sugar high).

Bottom line: It's not something I'd buy for myself, but this product is addictive in a guilty pleasure kind of way. It's like wearing a plaid miniskirt and knee high boots. Not very appropriate but a lot of fun.

Sephora Vanilla Cupcake Body Collection ($12-$16) is available online and in store. The one I got was a Beauty Insider perk that came as a GWP during the month of my birthday.

Image: http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/ (it was the most fun image search ever)

Suave Body Wash

The good news is that your drugstore has body washes that are actually kind to your skin. The bad news is that the scents still leave a lot to be desired.

I had some hope for Suave Exhale body wash in lavender-vanilla. The packaging reminded me of the lavender vanilla laundry detergent and softener I use for my bed sheets (they make the cats smell great after a snuggling session). It's not a high achievement of perfumery, but I still enjoy it. I hoped the body wash would be similar. It isn't. In fact, the lavender is faint, the vanilla is very synthetic, and you need to use quite a bit of the product to even smell it. It's harmless, but definitely not aromatherapy-worthy.

Still, the body wash is very mild and doesn't dry out my skin. I like the way it produces a gentle foam that just glides off. My husband, though, reports that its cleaning power is questionable. While my requirements from a shower product is that it leaves my skin soft and not itchy, a man with underarm hair needs something that washes deodorant leftovers out (apologies for the mental image). Exhale didn't perform on that front.

The other Suave product I received was the Daily Exfoliating body wash. This one did an impressive job reviving and moisturizing my skin, but the (strong) scent can only be described as tropical hell. It's really a shame, because it feels wonderfully luxurious and my skin only needed the lightest lotion afterwards. It's just the fragrance that ruins the experience.

Both body washes were a PR freebie. You can find them at your local drugstore and online for $3.49 each.

Cherry Ice Cream Smile I Suppose It's Very Nice- Caress Brazilian Exotic Oil Infusion Body Wash

As far as my skin is concerned, testing mass market bath products is like playing a Russian Roulette. I'm allergic to several of them, as well as to some of the most popular shampoos, and have stories to tell that are only funny in retrospect. And if you're not me.

The reason I even agreed to try Caress Brazilian Exotic Oil Infusion body wash was the promise of a unique cream and oil formula, and the mental image of sleek Brazilian bodies (stop laughing). What didn't take into account were a) that they promote this product using Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls who sings butchers a staple of my long lost youth, Duran Duran's Rio (you're still laughing. Stop it), and b) that people's idea of a tropical Brazilian scent is death by mango.

Now, I can try and forget that I've ever heard this version. But getting over the initial fruity blast (plastic passion flower) I got when opening the lid was harder, and the bottle was put aside until I got braver. The good news is that when actually pouring some out onto my loofah it was less sugary juice and more of a Piña Colada. And I'm marginally fond of Piña Colada, even if I'm not sure I need to smell like it.

The good news continue: The scent is much more subtle when confronted with hot water and it doesn't linger. By the time I'm out of my bathrobe and ready for body butter, all I can smell is "clean". The even better news is that the formula is quite nice. The texture is lotiony-creamy, it glides smoothly and doesn't dry the skin even one bit. The foaming is minimal and people who don't suffer from a Cuir de Crocodile might have a problem with a bathing product that feels almost oily, but for me it's quite pleasant.

There are two other scents: Japanese (white lotus cream and kukui nut oil) and Moroccan (cassis cream and starflower oil). I'm curious to know if any of you tried them and have any insight. I understand that it's not realistic to hope for a lovely wood-incense scent of a drugstore product that sells for $4.29, but one can dream.

I don't like the scent enough to buy a replacement bottle, but it's a very decent body wash and would probably be a big success with those too young to have had fantasies about John Taylor.





Ingredients (yay for no parabens):
Water, Glycine Soja Oil or Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl, Betaine, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Lauric Acid, Cocamide MEA, Polybutene or Polyisobutylene, Fragrance, PEG-5 Cocamide, Euterpe Oleracea Fruit Oil, Passiflora Incarnata Flower Extract, Acrylates/Beheneth-25 Methacrylate Copolymer, PEG-30 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, Isostearic Acid, DMDM Hydantion, Propylene Glycol, Tetrasodium EDTA, Etidronic Acid, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Titanium Dioxide, Yellow 5, Yellow 6.

The bottle was a PR freebie. You can find it everywhere under the sun.

Elegance in the Shower: Molton Brown

While we all know that products that basically go down the drain as you use them are not the best splurge value, there's something to be said for showering in something that feels elegant and luxurious.

While not comparing to a matching body products for one's favorite scents (think Chanel or Guerlain soaps and lotions), Having Molton Brown bottles in your shower gives the place an understated grownup elegance, much like the scents inside them.

I tried the Radiant lili-pili hairwash (that's Molton Bronish for shampoo), which is made for daily use, and is, indeed, gentle enough on the scalp and hair, and leaves a clean feeling. The scent is very faint and doesn't linger which is fine with me, as a heavy user of leave-in conditioners. No bad side effects as far as my scalp and hairline are concerned.

The other product I tested was Enlivening toko-yuzu bath shower. I love the unisex citrus-woody scent, and wouldn't have objected for a better lasting power. I probably need to try the matching lotion. The shower gel is gentle and non-drying, my sensitive skin didn't protest after a full week of use, so it's all good.

Bottom line: At a price range equivalent to L'Occitane, Molton Brown products are another good option. For me personally, since the length of my hair means that I'm going through big shampoo and conditioner bottles at the same rate some people go through milk, the hair products are more of an occasional treat, while the bath and body ones can easily fit into my daily routine.

Art: Le Bain, Alfred Emile Leopold Stevens, 1823 ,Musee d' Orsay, Paris

How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail? Curing Winter Skin

How doth the little crocodile /Lewis Carroll

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

With colder weather (and indoor heating) comes the dreaded crocodile skin, and while we're definitely going to try and improve it, my suggestions are going to be a bit more practical than pouring the waters of the Nile on our scales.

It starts in the shower. The shower caddy and the shelves in my bathroom may resemble a small museum for fine bathing products, but when the weather gets rough nothing beats L'Occitane Almond Shower Oil. The concept of cleansing with oil isn't that new (it's mostly found in face products), though it may seem odd to the uninitiated. I promise you that it works. The amazing part is that unlike any other soap or gel under the sun that all cause my skin to tighten up and cry for immediate relief, this oil is the most gentle product I know (Including baby products. I've tried many).

Don't get me wrong: I still need to thoroughly moisturize to get my legs to a fabulous state, but at least the march from the shower to the bedroom doesn't end with a skin that resembles this Chanel bag:

The oil's subtle fragrance can be described as a cross between baby oil and almond oil, but it's very mild and fades before I even finish rinsing my hair, so it never clashes with any other scented product, and thankfully doesn't have that sharp almondy smell you often find elsewhere. It's so delicate that I don't hesitate to use the entire range under Louve (the latest Serge Lutens perfume, the softest almond note imaginable). The L'Occitanes have no impact or lasting scent at all.

Here's an interesting concept for those of us who are genetically linked to alligators: Showering with a moisturizer. There are several moisturizing gels and body washes on the market, but Crabtree & Evelyn are trying a new angle with their In-Shower Moisturizer. Basically, it's a moisturizing cream that is supposed to be suitable for showering.

It's a good idea, I'm just not sold out on the actual product. It doesn't spread as well as a shower product usually does and it's a bit too slippery under water. I didn't expect it to lather, but I wanted it to feel like it was getting me cleaned, considering the shower scenario.

As far as moisturizing goes, patting it on a wet/damp skin seems to be quite effective, but it's more of a moisture-sealing product than a nourishing one, and my skin requires a little more than that. However, if your skin is less demanding than mine, this might be a very good product (as long as the texture doesn't skeeves you out).

My other issue was scent. I tried the mango butter and cranberry and wasn't impressed with it. It didn't smell like either cranberry or mango, just something synthetic, medicinal and not too pleasant. Not very different than the Lemon & Sage line from Bliss. It's a very non-C&E scent, as they are usually on the girly floral side.

I'm not giving up on the Naturals line just yet. I'm curious about the body butters. They have a potential to be great if they managed to get the scent right, and the same goes for the shower mousse.