I got bitten by the perfume bug again and wanted to hit up Shoppers Drug Mart for some sniffing. For those who don’t know, Shoppers is a Canadian drugstore chain with a fantastic selection of higher-end beauty products sold at locations with a BeautyBoutique. Unfortunately, I went on Labour Day yesterday, and I was greeted by a cordoned-off prestige fragrance section!
I asked a sales associate about it, and it turns out that Ontario has a Retail Business Holidays Act which states that only pharmacies under a certain square footage may open on holidays like Labour Day. So, this Shoppers Drug Mart location, being over the allotted size, cordoned off certain areas to circumvent the by-law. I noticed that other sections blocked off were the prestige skincare section (Vichy, Nuxe, La Roche-Posay, etc.) and, bizarrely, the shampoo aisle. The SA said she’d be happy to help me out if I wanted to try any of the fragrance testers, but I didn’t want to bother her since my plan was to try out quite a lot of perfumes.
The fragrances on my shortlist were:
- Balenciaga – Florabotanica & Rosabotanica (re-test)
- Burberry – Body
- Burberry – My Burberry Black
- Givenchy – Hot Couture (EDP & EDT, re-test)
- Gucci – Rush (for some reason, I’ve never tested this)
- Jean-Paul Gaultier – Classique & Classique X (re-test)
- Jean-Paul Gaultier – Ma Dame
- Lolita Lempicka – Elle L’aime (re-test)
- Lolita Lempicka – Sweet
- Marc Jacobs – Divine Decadence
- Miu Miu
- Oscar de la Renta – Live in Love
- Paco Rabanne – Olympéa
- Rihanna – Nude & Rogue (re-test)
- Salvatore Ferragamo – Signorina (EDP & EDT)
I wasn’t sure whether all of these were available at one location—but now, with most of the “prestige fragrances” blocked off, I’d probably only get to try some of the less expensive items on my list.
In the end, here’s what I got to test:Read More »
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