I took an afternoon off from my conference in Oakland and headed to my beloved San Francisco to revive pleasant memories of previous visits. For example, every time I'm there I visit the St. Francis hotel and ride the glass elevator up to the top floor for the great view.
But I also checked out a few fragrance places, although I missed fragrance week by a couple of days. Tried some stuff at Nordstrom's, IO Capri was interesting, but not enough to buy. At Sephora I liked John Varvatos Vintage (not available in Germany, I believe). I was shocked at the incompetence of the staff at Neiman Marcus, who hadn't the first idea of what perfume is all about. Their Creed samples were all in a mess as well, so I didn't get to take any Epicea home, which I liked best of all the Creeds tried there, just some Erolfa. Green Valley is quite nice and I find Vintage Tabarome superior to Millésime. What else they had on display I knew. Of Lutens I tried Santal blanc, which is beautiful but too feminine for me to enjoy wearing. Cedre is kind of boring really and Datura noir did not captivate me either, but my nose may have been tiring. However, a bit later at the diptyque boutique I smelled Philosykos and that was the best of the whole day. Le Trois was nice, but no more than that. The SA at Diptyque was a very friendly young French woman, who had worked in Emden (Ostfriesland) for a while and spoke some German. What I didn't like was that her colleague was telling a customer who asked her about this, that Diptyque perfums were all natural, no synthetics. I understand it's hard to explain to people that synthetic may not necessarily mean cheap/low quality/unhealthy etc. but I would not feel good about lying. I wasn't keen on getting into an argument however. I then went up Sutter to visit "Rare Essences," but only discovered a Brazilian Beauty Salon at the address listed online. Is the place gone, or just moved?
Needless to say I had Espresso in North Beach and loaded up on XOX truffles, but that belongs in the chocoholic forum
. Please do let me know about academic job opportunities in the bay area
But I also checked out a few fragrance places, although I missed fragrance week by a couple of days. Tried some stuff at Nordstrom's, IO Capri was interesting, but not enough to buy. At Sephora I liked John Varvatos Vintage (not available in Germany, I believe). I was shocked at the incompetence of the staff at Neiman Marcus, who hadn't the first idea of what perfume is all about. Their Creed samples were all in a mess as well, so I didn't get to take any Epicea home, which I liked best of all the Creeds tried there, just some Erolfa. Green Valley is quite nice and I find Vintage Tabarome superior to Millésime. What else they had on display I knew. Of Lutens I tried Santal blanc, which is beautiful but too feminine for me to enjoy wearing. Cedre is kind of boring really and Datura noir did not captivate me either, but my nose may have been tiring. However, a bit later at the diptyque boutique I smelled Philosykos and that was the best of the whole day. Le Trois was nice, but no more than that. The SA at Diptyque was a very friendly young French woman, who had worked in Emden (Ostfriesland) for a while and spoke some German. What I didn't like was that her colleague was telling a customer who asked her about this, that Diptyque perfums were all natural, no synthetics. I understand it's hard to explain to people that synthetic may not necessarily mean cheap/low quality/unhealthy etc. but I would not feel good about lying. I wasn't keen on getting into an argument however. I then went up Sutter to visit "Rare Essences," but only discovered a Brazilian Beauty Salon at the address listed online. Is the place gone, or just moved?
Needless to say I had Espresso in North Beach and loaded up on XOX truffles, but that belongs in the chocoholic forum
. Please do let me know about academic job opportunities in the bay area 
