More Paris Perfume Shopping: Colette and By Terry (!)

Colette was an obvious stop during our Paris adventure. The loud and chaotic concept store might not be 100% my thing, but they have a reasonably interesting perfume section, and you can count on their buyers/creative directors/powers-that-be to find interesting items to keep you amused. Such as the Paris vs. New York exhibition by Vahram Muratyan that occupied Colette's walls:

A friendly visual match between two cities told by a lover of Paris wandering through NewYork. Details, clichés, contradictions.

The one above was my favorite (I'm considering getting a print for my dressing room), but there are many other amusing ones, such as this:

And you can see all of them on the artist's blog.

But back to perfume. The main attraction Colette offers for those of us with access to just about everything else is Le Labo Vanille 44, the Paris exclusive. Of course, there are the rest of the Le Labo perfume range and that's well worth the visit for anyone who doesn't live near Barneys or any of their other points of sale. There are many other great lines at Colette, such as Diptyque (including the body and home products), Byerdo, Juliette Has A Gun, Heeley (not everything was stocked), Eau d'Italie (only the two newest perfumes), Ineke, CdG (not the entire line), Odin, Six Scents, Escentric Molecules and Honore de Pres. As you can see, the selection is very unisex with a modern minimalistic edge. It doesn't exactly explain the presence of some Marc Jacobs perfumes, Chloe and Balmain Ambre Gris, but- hey, whatever sells, I guess.

A brand new line that's worth exploring is Type, by Danish fashion designer Henrik Vibskov. There are three perfumes in this series, dedicated to three cities: Type B (Berlin, a smoky wood scent), Type C (Copenhagen, an aquatic) and Type D (Damascus, a floriental). They're interesting, though not as long-lasting as I would have liked and somewhat pale in comparison to robust stuff like Le Labo, but I plan to explore a bit further, since Type perfumes are also available at Henrik Vibskov NYC boutique (456 Broome Street).

Before we left Colette I had to browse the Famous Faces book by Takkoda and various related  merchandising. I have no idea how I managed not to buy several items with this face:

I had a nice surprise at the By Terry boutique (36 Passage Véro-Dodat, not far from the Palais Royal). I went in to play with the fall makeup but discovered they also had a nice selection of excellent perfumes. The entire Memo line, Eau d'Italie, Juliette Has a Gun and best of all: Mona di Orio. As I was busy testing eyeliners, the husband tried to talk perfume with the SA, but unfortunately he was the more knowledgeable one by far regarding those brands. Still, between the gorgeous makeup and the hard-to-find perfumes, it's well-worth the visit.

Images:
Paris vs. New York by Vahram Muratyan
Karl Lagerfeld's pug face by Takkoda
Type Perfumes from  Henrik Vibskov's Facebook page
By Terry boutique by The Blond.