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E-Tour Preview of Colonial Drug's Perfume Counter

post #1 of 7
9/16/12 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
I'm off to Boston in October and while planning potential fragrance shopping found this online preview of the famous Colonial Drug Hard to Find fragrance shop. Most striking was this display of vintage and recent perfume bottles of interest and some of the iconic factices displayed in the higher up shelves. If you click on the link you can follow arrows and zoom in and out to see the stock if you've never been to Colonial Drug. Excitement!

Anyone have any experiences shopping at Colonial Drug in person? I've seen some feedback on the shop from the men's side but less from the ladies (they're known for stocking Knize Ten, Creed, and classic men's shaving accessories). The "women's" (fragrance should have no gender!) side looks even better.

https://www.google.com/maps?q=coloni...71.121564&z=17

And a main reason why I posted this here instead of in shopping specific topics or in a more general forum is that special display of women's fragrances framed as the starting point to the tour. Interesting selection of perfumes: Ivoire, Tocade, Byzance, ... What to make of it?
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post #2 of 7
9/16/12 at 11:52pm
OMG (to quote the classics) anomie, perfume porn... aaaaaahhhh...
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post #3 of 7
9/17/12 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
Absolutely! I actually swooned at the sight of the counter's image. A full on fainting episode is sure to transpire in person. Maybe Justin Bieber fangirl type crying! At the rate of hoarding I'm currently running, the above-counter shelving is an exact picture of my house in 5-10 years (I secretly hope so, oh the shameless longing!).

Yes, and on the classics, was it Madame Spears or was it Buster Rhymes who first said that 'OMG' along with 'oops tu, Brute' if we may enshrine these bon mots. Ah, but I'm just an apathetic American not well versed in these matters of refinement.

And there's already a great perfume blog/youtube reviewer called EauMG but why doesn't a perfume house use the title for a scent? Too obvious? Obvious like a fox. "Not that innocent!"
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post #4 of 7
9/17/12 at 1:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie et ivoire View Post

Absolutely! I actually swooned at the sight of the counter's image. A full on fainting episode is sure to transpire in person. Maybe Justin Bieber fangirl type crying! At the rate of hoarding I'm currently running, the above-counter shelving is an exact picture of my house in 5-10 years (I secretly hope so, oh the shameless longing!).

Yes, and on the classics, was it Madame Spears or was it Buster Rhymes who first said that 'OMG' along with 'oops tu, Brute' if we may enshrine these bon mots. Ah, but I'm just an apathetic American not well versed in these matters of refinement.

And there's already a great perfume blog/youtube reviewer called EauMG but why doesn't a perfume house use the title for a scent? Too obvious? Obvious like a fox. "Not that innocent!"

i love you! made me smile (i would've said laugh but i was sipping from my tripple espresso, careful not to back snort it through my nose) first thing on monday morning!
it was my 1000th post and i'm glad it was in response to one of your humorous and intelligent threads (and response).

ps disclaimer: the above does not imply any stalking or freak outbursts of emotion.
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post #5 of 7
9/17/12 at 5:29am
Oh gosh a&i, I love this place - it's my Mecca!! I lived in Boston in the 90s and I spent so much time (and money!) in Colonial Drug. They've apparently raised their prices a bit now that they're famous and all, but they had some really great buys, especially on gift sets and hard-to-find bath and body items, in addition to more hard-to-find or discontinued perfumes than any store I've ever been in. I'd estimate that it's responsible for a quarter of my vintage collection, and most of my new-old-stock finds and back-ups ...Tuxedo, Lauren, Vent Vert, Flora Danica, Babe, Calvin Klein for women, Gucci I and Gucci III, among many others - I found them all right there.

Every time I mention n-o-s I'm thinking "Colonial Drug", but you can still find these great old drug stores with the nice gift shops in them in almost every city, and in my experience, these are the very best places to find discontinued perfumes in pristine shape ...the chains have replaced most of them now, but I always keep my eyes open for these old ones ...and keep my fingers crossed that they have Charles of the Ritz!
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post #6 of 7
9/17/12 at 8:28am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the exciting info, Evangeline. How amazing to have such memories of the place! Flora Danica: that's a true unsung rare gem (as far as I know?). An excellent tip on the local gift shop type drugstores. I've also heard that hotel gift shops yield similar results. Now I just want to travel more often in order to buy perfumes; not even for the traveling. Too strange! But surely many here can relate?

danny- "Love is all around, no need to waste it, you can have the town why don't you take it? You're gonna make it after all!" (*throwing hat up in the air*) Thanks for the warm welcome back. You have the power to stop a painful espresso attack laugh? I must learn this fine art of control.
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post #7 of 7
9/17/12 at 8:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by anomie et ivoire View Post

danny- "Love is all around, no need to waste it, you can have the town why don't you take it? You're gonna make it after all!" (*throwing hat up in the air*) Thanks for the warm welcome back. You have the power to stop a painful espresso attack laugh? I must learn this fine art of control.

for a second i thought you were quoting wet wet wet 'love is all around', LOL! (from the 'notting hill' soundtrack, i'm a huge fan of richard curtis)
then i had to google it and came up with paul williams (who?) and mary tyler moore (kind of who? as i've heard about her before). please don't kill me!!..
you have to understand, in the 70's i was growing up with 'blake's 7', 'doctor who' and 'the tomorrow people' or no tv at all (and you must've guessed by now i was/am a sci-fi freak).
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