So Blue But Not Sad

There used to a magical old drugstore on the upper east side of Manhattan called Boyd's NYC. It was a New York institution and the owner claimed to have invented the in-store makeover as a way to sell cosmetics. The store carried all sorts of wonderful, hard-to-find cosmetics and beauty products. In this era of everpresent CVS's and Walgreens, and even, dare I say, Sephora's, it was a treat to wander their cramped aisles and discover an amazing  grooming product (since men aren't allowed to purchase beauty products) that I'd never seen or even heard of. Alas, the original Boyd's is gone although there is a showroom on 36th street and a far-from-magical website, boydsnyc.com. 

One of my favorite discoveries at Boyd's was a German bath product,

Algemarin. To this day, however, they have virtually no retail presence in the US and, as far as I can tell, not much in Europe, either. But you can find it at Smallflower and a few other webtailers although it isn't always in stock.

Algemarin claims to contain sea algae and other nutrients gathered from sea. But beyond the long list of ingredients, the product is amazing. Pouring a capful into a running bath turns the water an amazing Agean blue color that instantly transports me to the Greek island, Santorini. The bath is imbued with a scent that is at once complex, organic and ocean fresh. Truly beautiful. Oh, and it makes lots and lots of fun bubbles, too!

Now Read This!

It's only appropriate that the very first post in this blog is about reading. A few years ago, I woke up to discover that my heretofore razor-sharp, LASIK-enhanced vision had gone a bit fuzzy whenever I tried to read. One big gulp later, I was standing in the aisle of my local drugstore perusing a selection of reading glasses that, stylistically, left a lot to be desired.

I fled to a nearby optical boutique and purchased a lovely pair of Prada frames that cost a small fortune and got fitted for a pair of low-magnification lenses. Vision restored, this would have been the end of the story except that more often than not, those Prada reading glasses were always somewhere where I wasn't when I needed them. If I needed them at the office, my reading glasses were inevitably at home. If I was in the car, the reading glasses were in the office. If I was in the living room, the reading glasses were in the bedroom. Purchasing multiple pairs of those chic Prada frames just wasn't financially practical. I relented and purchased a small handful of those well-priced but stylistically tragic drugstore readers and strategically deposited them throughout the dimly-lit reading nooks of my life.

Many pairs of reading glasses later I discovered the fantastic A. J. Morgan collection of readers. Stylish, creative, colorful and very well-priced at between $20 and $30. Frankly, I own as many pairs from their Women's collection as from the Men's. If you've got to wear reading glasses, have fun with them.