the story of how i met PQJ, and the adventures of the bee bottle.

i have an addiction problem.
i am addicted to perfumes.

this is a pretty problem, since i don't usually fall in love with the cheaper kinds - or even the mid-range Sephora perfumes, even though a lot of them are very nice. no, i have to fall desperately in love with high end, scour-your-wallet-and-empty-the-lint kinds of fragrances instead, rendering my financial planning a bit irrelevant.

today i tried to pick up an investment perfume (Apres L'Ondee) from the Guerlain counter at Bergdorf Goodman; i spent the money to get this well-regarded discontinued fragrance at quantity, knowing that i could make quite a bit on it on eBay. however, i made the cardinal mistake. i let the sales assistant talk to me about the new perfume. her face registered intense pleasure when she talked about it, and at first i thought it was a gimmick to get me to buy. silly me; i let her spray the potion on me anyway.

...oh my.
a woodsy warmth, a slightly powdery comforting smell, wafts of blue flowers, a mystical spicy afterscent that lingers in the back of the nose, like cinnamon and nutmeg in chocolate. this perfume was a hug from an adored relative when you were 7, or a caress on the cheek from a beloved partner. i fell hard for this fragrance.

Guerlain's Plus Que Jamais. evil, evil, EVIL sales assistant.

* * *

i do have a fun sequel to this story.
i thought i'd gotten my bottle of above-mentioned investment fragrance and that was the end of the story, but more was to come. this discontinued fragrance only came in a large version of Guerlain's bee bottle, which came with engraving of one to three initials. i wanted to get this fragrance in a smaller container, but this was the only way they were releasing it in this country. i could have gone to Europe for it, but... well, i'm insane, but not that insane.

when i picked it up, it was in a white textured-paper box, with Guerlain's logo in tasteful gold print. the box was wrapped in plastic, and for a while i was trying to wait until i got home before admiring it. however, i couldn't resist it, so i unwrapped the box while at work. the sheer size of the bottle took my breath away, and i pulled it out to reveal --

the wrong initials engraved on the bottle.

i'd chosen a single script R, and this had SH engraved on it. i looked at it blankly for a while, then put it back in the box and called the Guerlain counter immediately. Hina (the evil/wonderful/evil SA) and i worked out that i would drop it off that night and she would figure it out with her boss.

a few hours later, i went back and delivered the precious box. that was when Hina informed me that she'd done some research since i had called her, and the person who had gotten the other incorrect bottle was none other than the Crown Princess of Jordan. my eyes almost bugged out of my head when she described how, in order to satisfy both of us (i know it's actually to satisfy her, not me), they were hiring a courier at their own expense to deliver this box to her, and return my box to me.

what a shock! i've been here, waiting patiently for my precious Apres L'Ondee since late April, and it's off cavorting with Royalty! not only royalty, mind you, but a woman who has won a 'Women of Peace' award! i've half a notion to give it a piece of my mind when it comes home. i waited up for it, worried half out of my wits... *sob*

;) i'm highly amused by this whole thing. i admit to being really disappointed when i discovered i had the wrong bottle, but now this will make a fun story for later.