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Beauty Incognito: Spring Scents
Looking for Mother's Day scents in Shanghai
From WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY (WWD) May 12, 2010, Print & Web Edition
www.wwd.com
By Mina Choi
SHANGHAI, CHINA:
A little fragrance shopping session for upcoming Mother’s Day
sounded easy because, in truth, every day is a Mother’s Day in
Shanghai, a city ruled by perfectly dressed ladies with serious spending
power. I coaxed my local girlfriend to come along for the expedition
because she speaks Shanghainese and knows all the top shopping locations
like the back of her hand. We drove up in her SUV and glided into Shanghai’s
top luxury destination—the Meilongzhen Isetan on Nanjing East
Road—for a little look-see.
Isetan Department Store
Nanjing East Road
We stepped outside the elevator entrance into Isetan, where a small
fragrance counter in the entryway showed off nearly a hundred different
fragrances. Kenzo, Burberry, Bulgari, Ferragamo, Nina Ricci—you
name it, they were there, neatly spaced out one by one in a three-tiered
display. The very well-groomed girl behind the counter wore a nicely
knotted silk scarf around her neck and politely sprayed little paper
strips with scents as we pointed to the ones we liked the look of.
When we asked her to suggest a few that my mother might like, she immediately
mentioned Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps and noted, “It’s
a classic.” My friend pointed to Guerlain’s pretty crystal
bottle containing Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic, and she told us
that it’s a fresh, clean scent. We were dazzled by the array and
didn’t know which to choose. The young woman said her own favorite
was a men’s cologne, Bulgari Pour Homme Soir. We then noticed
a sleek purple vinyl bag on display, which was a gift-with-purchase
from Kenzo, and were seriously tempted—however, Isetan has many
more counters inside, so we bid the delightful girl adieu and told her
we’d come back.
Inside, we passed by Kiehl’s, which only has one fragrance, but
we did sign up for the member card so that we might get an announcement
for members-only special offers. My friend noticed that the brand’s
prices here were not much higher than the prices at the Hong Kong duty
free and immediately bought an acne cream for her son.
We moved on to a dashing display of Guerlain, which was heavily promoting
the youthful Idylle. We got confused by all the prices, however, because
the store’s staff hadn’t put the correct bottles on display.
When we asked about the difference between perfume, eau de toilette
and eau de perfume, the sales associates couldn’t tell us that,
either. The younger woman apologized, and said that she hadn’t
finished her training yet, while her older counterpart just snubbed
us. My friend told her off for being rude and away we went.
We passed an Estée Lauder display, where Pure White Linen Light
Breeze and Pleasures Intense were very attractively displayed, but the
sales clerk couldn’t be bothered to take her time with us. We
then paused at the dramatic Giorgio Armani counter staffed by two men
in suits who were promoting Armani Code. We were put off by the male
salesclerks, however, and headed out.
Just as we were leaving, a very cheerful stand of Fruits & Passion
attracted our attention. The sales associates explained it’s Canadian
and showed us a special box on offer for the week that included a shower
gel and a lotion. The set was very fetching, and the sales staff was
extremely effusive—even offering to throw in a mango scent for
free—but we decided to head elsewhere.
Sephora
Huai Hai Road
After interfacing with too many sales people at Isetan, we were happy
to hit the nonpressure, funky ambience of Sephora. A saleswoman came
over right away offering to help. When told of our Mother’s Day
mission, she led us directly to the boxed value sets on offer. Unfortunately,
everything seemed geared more toward a young consumer, like the boxed
set of Harajuku Lovers, over which a 20-year-old female customer next
to us was agog.
All of the classic scents for older ladies were on the upper shelf and
languishing away. A cheerful male salesclerk in his 20s greeted us in
English and politely showed us his favorites, including Tous and Lola
Marc Jacobs, noting his favorite choice for mothers is Guerlain’s
Aqua Allegoria. He also told us that if we purchased 1,500 yuan, or
about $220 at current exchange, worth of products, we would get a VIP
card that offered a 10 percent discount during the store’s special
happy hours. We left feeling well looked after.
Watsons
Huai Hai Road
A few blocks down, we peeked into Watsons, our favorite drug store, to ask about fragrances, but learned that they don’t sell any. The only scent they sell is for men—Adidas. Both my friend and I bought some wet wipes (on sale for two for one) and called it a day.
For a complete list of Business Articles by Mina Choi click HERE