You may or may know this, but before heading to BaubleBar, I spent nearly eight years working in the fragrance business. I started my career in buying and then worked in marketing + brand management. It was a fun and exciting industry to work in, but I am insanely jaded. I know the margins on fragrances (and how much money these companies dump into advertising + sales efforts.) So I have a hard time plunking down the cash to splurge on a bottle of perfume… especially after getting it for free for all those years.
All of that aside, Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular times of year to buy fragrance, (mostly because you have to really know some one… and because fragrance makes a romantic gift) and here are some of my favorites!
Designer Classics: Chanel Coco Mademoiselle + Bleu de Chanel
Niche darlings: Creed Love in White (my fave) and Green Irish Tweed (my man’s fave)
The Best Sellers: Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue + Acqua di Gio
Universally appealing: Banana Republic M+ W – clean and fresh
LOVE love in white!
I really want to try the Creed fragrances!
I love Coco Mademoiselle! I’ll have to sniff Bleu de Chanel and maybe get it for my husband — he currently wears John Varvatos Vintage, and that’s so yummy I’m not sure I want him to wear anything else!
I love Coco Mademoiselle, but Chanel Chance is my Fav.
I love that D&G light blue… I actually forgot about it until you posted it! Who could forget Burberry “weekend” though? That really brings me back to my college years…!
I personally love the Light Blue plug! Have you tried Dolce&Gabbana Velvet collection at Saks yet? I think you’d love it!
I love those Dolce smells–both are so yummy! I have to admit, sometimes I love wearing guys cologne more than perfume…it can be too flowery!
You have such a fascinating/awesome professional history! What I know of your story, both with your blog and work experience, was pretty much my plan/goal for myself for the foreseeable future when I was coming of college. Obviously, things changed for me when I didn’t end up making my planned move to New York and instead started working at a tech company in Oregon. Sometimes life doesn’t happen the way you envisioned it… Oh well.
At any rate, I think the perfume industry would be really fascinating! I can imagine how hard it is to buy expensive fragrances after that. I think it’s really a testament to what you do now that you still spend some of your own money on jewelry, even though you work for a jewelry company. The way I read that is that you believe the products are worth their cost. (Whereas with perfume, you’re skeptical.) Very cool!
I read The Perfect Scent a few years ago by Chandler Burr, (former?) scent critic at the NYT, and found it so fascinating!
But I hear ya on the being jaded about paying the ridiculous mark ups – I used to work in a NYC showroom and an Austin boutique. Listening to people making up crazy prices was so frustrating. I hardly ever buy something nowadays unless it’s on “sale,” i.e. closer to how much it should actually cost.