On a Scale of One to Ten: Random Choices

By Tom Well, today I did the Mall. It's the weekend after Black Friday so I thought it wouldn't be too crazy, and since Judith Brockless at Basenotes wrote a fun piece about pink perfumes in general and Givenchy Play in particular I thought I would drop into the Sephora at the Beverly Center to see how bad it could be. Pretty bad. It's not just that it's another too sweet juice-by-committee. It's not just the pink faux iPod-looking packaging manages to look cheap, stupid and yet severely dated, like a balding 45 year old trying to rock 7 jeans, Uggs and an Ed Hardy trucker cap. It's not even that there's an even worse version called "Play Intense for Her" that dials it up to 12. It's the degradation of the Givenchy name. This crap takes the whole Givenchy ethos, sets it on fire then pees on the ashes. Sad. ScentBar had the newest Montale, Aoud Musk, which manages to smell shockingly close to Nasomatto Duro. Really, it's almost a clone. This would be a scandal were it not for the fact that Aoud Musk is both cheaper and readily available (Duro isn't on the website anymore). I suppose the big news is that Knize Ten is now available and selling very well. I already have a bottle and could compare the old and the new, and there's no difference at all. Which is a great thing: the plummy leather Marina wrote of as "her favorite leather scent in general" and I concur. It's one of my favorites as well: it's a butt-kicking leather with a hint of stewed fruits, tangy citrus opening and vanilla finish. For those of you in mourning over the reformulation Tabac Blonde went through, this one should be on your list. The Givenchys are $68 for 1.7 oz at Sephora. Aoud Musk is $120 for 50 ML, Nasomatto Duro is $130 for 30 ML, Knize Ten is $65 for 30ML and $125 for 120 ML at ScentBar. My Knize Ten tester was mine

Weekend Beauty: Givenchy Phenomen'Eyes Mascara

This week I found myself at Sephora, idly contemplating whether I should cheat on my mascara, Chanel Inimitable, with something new, because while it works wonders on my rather non-spectacular, not very long, not very thick eyelashes, we've been going steady for almost too years, and I am a little bored with it... or should I be loyal and reasonable and just stick with what's been so good for me. Reader, I cheated on it. Stumbling upon Givenchy counter and having a vague recollection of reading good things about their new mascara, I bought Phenomen'Eyes. Without trying it on or even opening it first. Because that is how I shop. So imagine my surprise, when, upon unscrewing the tube at home the next morning, instead of the usual brush, I found this: ...something that looks like Rosemary's baby's bottle cleaner. Surely, this "high-tech, patented round sphere at the tip of the precision wand that reaches every lash and adapts to all eye shapes" will poke my eye out, thought I and proceeded to apply anyway. Apparently Givenchy's promise that you don't need a steady hand to use this mascara is true, as my eye survived intact and I made no mess on my upper or lower lids, whilst succesfully covering lashes from tips to the very roots. It is also true that the mascara curls lashes. I loved the fact that it applied very thick but separated lashes at the same time; the result was fairly dramatic: long (-ish, anyway, they would only stretch this far), thick, curled eyelashes. What's more - no panda eye problem (which was one flaw of my otherwise spectacular last mascara fling - Guerlain Le 2); the color stayed intact all day, and it was a very warm day. What's more- and very important for lazy moi- it washed off easily. Add to that the persistent and not unplesant suspicion that the formula contains snips, snails, puppy dog's tails and tannis root...Sorry, Inimitable. I am not sure we have split up for good, I do seem to always come back to you after playing around with other mascaras, but for now, it's all about Phenomen'Eyes. Available at Sephora, in black and brown, $28.00.