Boston Meet-Up Wrap-Up

What began with champagne ended with champagne. In between was a lot of sniffing, hugging, laughing and cologne-scented cameraderie.
Seven of us started the morning, me, Pomander, ComDiva, chayaruchama, nvrlnd, poodlegirl, and Lefay.
We entered Neiman-Marcus and were greeted warmly by Ann and Annette who introduced us to the various reps there. They had pastries and mini quiches along with champagne and orange juice. The Tom Ford White Musk colection was there for preview. Urban Musk and White Suede were the stand-outs. Next up was Barney's and we tried the new Serge Lutens Fille en Anguilles and the big surprise was they had the new Parfums DelRae Mythique which was incredble. A deep iris that was great on me.
We headed to Sak's and the Guerlain boutique there. Christopher was there to take care of us. As a bonus Mary Line Patry the US head of Guerlain cometics was there and she took most of our group and by looking at their skin made suggestions for all of us. We also go to sniff the new Bois Torride from a pre-release tester. It was much better on the people who wore it on their skin than it was on the strip. We then headed down to the fine fragrance area where they had Tom Ford Grey Vetiver for sale. They also had the new Narciso Rodriguez Essence, Idole D'Armani., and the new Jo Malone Vanilla & Anise.
We took a break for lunch but we lost poodlegirl as she had to go home and take care of her poodle who was home all alone.
During lunch we got to talk about things beyond perfume, imagine that.
Unfortunately we lost nvrlnd to work but we picked up Jarvis.
Refueled we headed over to Chanel and dodged the ravages of Tropical Storm Danny. Like the best smelling drowned cats you ever saw Fiona let us exclaim and ooh over the Les Exclusifs and Cristalle Eau Vert among the rest of the offerings.
Next up was Hermes and Joan took us through the Heremessence lines as well as the extrait version of Kelly Caleche and Terre D'Hermes.
The final stop was Neil Morris' business partner's beautiful house in Boston's South End. There Neil exposed us to the latest ten Vault scents and eight new ones that, I think we were the first to smell! Neil and David were so gracious and generous and they are wonderful. David poured champagne for us and we all smelled so many of Neil's amazing creations. We were all fans and so it was special for us to ooh and aah over something new.
After a full day we all went to our mode of train or automobile and headed home.
This was a great time with a great group of Basenoters.
I can't tell you how much the people we met at each store loved working with people who knew their stuff. They were as interested in what we thought of the new things we were trying as we were.
We had a great time and I look forward to the next time that we can all get together to laugh, sniff and hug.
Pictures to come.
A big thank you to all of the stores and Neil Morris and David for making this as special a day as it could've been.

I've got pictures of the Neil morris part of our day.
after we left Hermes we headed over to David's, Neil's business partner, to meet Neil Morris.
David was waiting for us on his front steps and told us to head upstairs to meet Neil.
We had to put our bags down.


Neil had the 10 most recent Vault scents on display plus seven new scents to be added to the Vault. I think we were the first people to get a chance to sniff these. here is what the sniffing looked like.


We may have started out with 17 testers but like a magician pulling a chain of neverending scarves Neil and David kept producing more and more as we were exclaiming over other scents. By the time we were done there was a litter of testing strips and testers.


Neil's perfumes just hit me in the right place and it is so funny I walked into the meeting telling myself that I was buying Burnt Amber and something else "to be determined". Then i smelled his new Regal Amber and was completely torn between the two. Thankfully ComDiva who shares my adoration of all things amber had a solution. I would buy Regal Amber and split it and we would split her bottle of Burnt Amber this way we could both scratch our amber itch. Then I had to make a decision on another one. since they were offering us 15% off I couldn't stop at just one, could I?
In the end I settled on Red Sky I have really enjoyed Neil's Earthtones Series and Redneck_Perfumisto has waxed rhapsodiacally about this one and he is right. Red Sky is a day outdoors in red rocks country on a clear blue sky where you can smell the wind and the earth.
Now that I was done with my purchases it was time for me to enable the other members of the group by telling them how good they smelled in the things they were wearing.
If I was going down I wasn't going by myself darn it.
Unfortunately it all had to end as our orders were placed, our champagne was drunk and we finally had exhausted every last sensory input in our poor noses.
All that was left was to say thank you to David and Neil hug each other and head home.
One last thing, now with pictorial evidence. As I go about my time in Boston I have been mistaken for Neil four times. The most recent time was earlier in the afternoon when we were at the Guerlain counter in Sak's and a young woman came up and told me she had met me and heard me talking about my perfumes. I smiled and told her that I am not who you think I am. I am not Neil Morris. Despite being aware of each other for the past eighteen months this is the first time we've actually met. So I ask you dear reader are we twin sons of different mothers?


Finally, here is the glory shot of the day's booty for me

David took some pictures of the group with Neil Morris including one of the group as a whole:


The group is in order from l. to r.: pomander, Lefay, Somerville Metro Man, Neil Morris, jarvis, ComDiva, chayaruchama

One final picture of most of us sniffing:


nvrland should have some pictures of us from the first part of the day and hopefully he will post them.

You know how to find me plus I think you visit MIT and that means you're shouting distance from work so we could definitely squeeze in an after-work rendezvous.

If it will get you to come. I'll take care of getting the tickets.

You know if you come here the two of us, who share so many obsessions, are going to get into sooooo much trouble.
That's supposed to be a good thing.

I am pretty sure Neil would love to hold court with a number of Basenoters and we could definitely do that, I think, with enough lead time. I know the stores would love a bigger group and seemed up for it this time.
The more lead time we have the more I think we can accomplish.
I'm just envisioning being in the same place with my two geek perfume goddesses Nukapai and Quarry. I might even try and schedule an evening showing of Serenity and Dr. Horrible for the group.
Wouldn't that be special?