Good Things Come In Good Packages

 

 

 

We were just meandering around the beauty counters of Jenners (the store  hyperbolically known as the Harrods of the North) when I caught sight of a product on the Guerlain counter. “Oh I remember this,” I said to my ever attentive daughter( i.e. where beauty products, jewellery or fashion is concerned) .”This gives you a fantastic real looking tanned tone without having to go through all the false tan anxiety, and I was recommended it years ago by that lovely make-up artist in Fenwick’s. ” I have waxed lyrical about Marc Simpson over the years so my daughter was very aware to whom I was referring.  At this very juncture, a personage shot out from behind the stacked tower of Guerlain goodies and proceeded to entrance us with the historical glory which lies behind the House that is Guerlain.

 

 

 

An hour later, and having felt we had found our new make-up guru in the guise of Calum, we happily left feeling we had discovered yet another of life’s myriad treasures.Yes, the superficial is not always superficial.

 

The Orchidee Imperiale face cream” is the product of over 10 years’ research on one of nature’s wonders, a flower of lasting beauty: the Orchid.” There is an experimental garden in Geneva where a collection of Guerlain’s orchids is based and the Research laboratory at  Strasbourg carries out the research work on the longevity molecules of said magical flower.To complete this mesmerising tale, there is also  The Exploratory Nature Reserve at Tian Zi (Yunnan, China) where wild orchids are protected and reintroduced into their natural environment. I am already feeling very special before I have even applied any of this precious cream, although the unpacking of the item also suggests that something very elevated is being unveiled.

 

 

 

I also succumbed to a Guerlain lipstick, more because of the way the lipstick rises up out of its container, like the launching of a ship. However it has turned out to be a particularly nice lipstick after all.

 

 

Lastly, since we are talking about beautiful things being lovingly packaged, I have to show you a scent my husband bought me recently (from Liberty). It is called “En Passant” by Olivia Giacobetti, who trained as a perfumer with Robertet. When I read the piece on the package I couldn’t throw it away as it was so poetic and now I can see it for ever on my post.

 

“Pause at the edge of a garden in springtime and breathe in fragrant lilac whipped by the wind and you get….EN PASSANT………this scent from nature marries to watery notes, orange tree leaves, cucumber and wheat. It is radiant and serene.”

 

Imagine writing about any piece of work you do in that idiom? Well, the scent is exactly what the description says; in fact I would say that the description educates you to recognise what you are inhaling.But it is all packaged in such a way as to alert you to an awareness that you have received something which has been carefully thought about ; you don’t just open up a packet, but slide a box out of the red sleeve and then you slide open a drawer where you pick the bottle out of a shaped indentation which is lined in silver. The shape which is revealed after lifting out the bottle looks distinctly like an Aztec design so you feel you have something of ancient worth in your possession.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately, these pieces of packaging will be thrown away and go off to be recycled but, like art, they can add to your experience of your world. There is no time frame on awareness.