The good news and the bad
I’ve never been the trendsetter amongst my friends. I’m never the first one to find the great new jeans or the hot new restaurant. Although I’m no lemming, I’m no leader of the pack either. So when I landed in Sabon by accident, and quickly became obsessed with their products, I liked to think that I ‘discovered’ them. That was about five years ago, when, I believe, they were only on 6th avenue in the West Village and in the hinterlands of Tel Aviv. I consider myself a Sabon veteran after hiking down Shenken Street in the boiling Israeli summer heat to find their exact location. In my younger years, the hebrew packaging was enough to keep me moving but now I just pop into one of their many Manhattan outposts around town.
I still love Sabon and rarely stray from lavender, vanilla, patchouli (which i believe makes men melt) though I recently ventured into the orange ginger territory. While I could write on about all their products that make me feel pretty even on a chilly bloated Monday I actually must be a little critical of my Israeli brethren.
Do these people work on commission? As I mentioned, I run into any of their stores that are convenient when I need to re-stock. And by run, I wish I meant that I simply grab necessary product from shelf, remove credit card from wallet and execute transaction. Impossible. why? Because one is bombarded by cute, Israeli girls prostituting their products. Hounding. Begging customers to wash their hands in lovely hand soaps, inquiring as to customer familiarity with their products, drowning our senses in jars of deliciously smelling salt scrubs and luxurious lotions. Yes, it’s all very lovely, very exotic, very romantic in there. But sometimes, I just want to go home at the end of the day. Most recently, I found myself cutting a visit short so as to avoid the barrage. This routine may work for boyfriends buying gifts, but as for me, I’m thinking about shopping online.
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You are fab, fab, fab. This is such an interesting site. And, it is oh so very Rita Ross.
Oh I know this store, there’s one on Lexington Ave near Hunter College. I only discovered them when they gave me a free sample, nice stuff. Did u know that sabon is very similar to how you say soap in bengali, that’s why i liked the store 🙂
This is a very cute website.
Okay, I was out and about and jaunted past the one near Hunter today, and I remembered you had written about their lovely products, but forgot about what you said about the handwash pimping sales staff. I stopped in and was chatting away with my salesgirl as she plopped a dollop of lavender handscrub from the Dead Sea into my palm, and announced littlepinkslip.com to her and anyone who would listen (I was in no great rush) as I rinsed away under their beautiful stone foot pump operated sink. She even wrote down the URL. So they may have your name listed behind the counters now. I wouldn’t give your credit card – pay cash.