I'm shallow like that

One reason why I visit New York is, of course, to shop. Last time I went up specifically to get new gloves at Sermoneta, and to show my cousin the perfume shop. This time all I really needed was to stop at Ricky's to buy Special Effects hair dye in Atomic Pink, and to go to the perfume shop.

So here's where we went:

Ricky's. I had to go to two different Ricky's to find Atomic Pink, but I managed it, plus a hairbrush for Bob so he'd stop using mine (ew), Miso Pretty temporary tattoos, some kind of color-safe conditioner that smells like clove oil, and dye for the kids - Big Man picked red and Mr. Four wanted green. He's going to look awful with green hair, but it won't last more than a week or so anyway.

The perfume shop. Aka Aedes de Venustas. The kids came in with me, and you know, you might think that in a tiny little shop packed with bottles of perfume and Belle Epoque frou-frou, kids would not be welcome... but the two proprietors, Rob and The Guy Whose Name I Never Catch, have always been genuinely welcoming of my kids. They accord them the same respect I do (actually, more), giving them sniffs of whatever divine concoction they've spritzed on a card for me, letting them crawl around and play with the two tiny Pekingeses that live in the shop, and loading them up with samples when we leave.

I love perfume. But it's not like I snatch up every new thing that comes out - I own a grand total of 5 bottles of perfume, most of which came from Aedes de Venustas, three of which I will never be without. I gravitate to frankincense, but I've been hoping to find something a little lighter, a little fresher, something that doesn't smell like I put the Catholic church in a blender and then spritzed it on my neck. So when I explained this to The Guy Whose Name I Never Catch, he auditioned 7 or 8 scents for us, and I settled on green, green, green and green by Miller et Bertaux.

kidrobot. After behaving themselves so beautifully for two days, did my kids deserve to pick out whatever they wanted at kidrobot? Well, Mr. Four wanted one of the Jim Woodring figures, and he wasn't getting that... and I would have said no to the labbit too, but they were super happy with the Peecol that they got.
Evolution. Here are the things that entranced my kids at Evolution: real zebra skins, bugs encased in plastic, skull beads carved from water buffalo horn, steer horns, little bits of Baltic amber, an articulated skeleton of a cat eating an articulated skeleton of a fish. Here is what they got: a button with the name of the shop on it, and they were happy about it too. I got a tiny trilobite for my charm bracelet.

Moss. No trip through SoHo is complete without a wander through this most precious of stores. Last time I was there I saw a $60,000 Murano glass chandelier, 9' in diameter, twisty and brilliant, installed at eye level because people like me are never ever going to get that close to that thing ever again. Bob had ahold of Mr. Four, who liked the chair made of plush pandas, and I walked with Big Man, who liked a columnar peridot chandelier and the carbon-fiber chairs.

The guy in the front room actually came out from behind his counter and suggested that my six year old son pick up one of those chairs. New Yorkers: they'll surprise you.