That time Sarah Jessica Parker DM'd me...
The marvellous SJP has been pictured at NY Fashion Week, sitting front row at Fendi to celebrate a true fashion icon. No, not Kim K…the Fendi Baguette of course.
To mark 25 years since the bag of dreams was first born, the label asked Sarah Jessica to design her own incarnation - a match made in heaven, given a certain Ms Bradshaw's penchant for the perfectly proportioned purse.
This latest collaboration had me reflecting on just how great SJP is making stuff. There’s the shoes, the wine, and my favourite - the perfume. Which leads me to why I decided to slide into her Instagram DMs a few years ago…
I’m pretty sure I’d had a few glasses of wine that evening. I’d recently bought her new-at-the-time perfume, Stash, and fallen in love with it. I couldn't believe this reasonably priced 'celebrity scent' smelt and felt so expensive and niche, that I thought it was imperative I tell SJ personally. I proceeded to completely forget about it until the following day, when a message popped up on my screen...from Sarah Jessica Parker. It was a short, kind, sweet message thanking me for making her day with my feedback. She hadn't long joined the platform so didn't yet have millions of followers and would often reply to people in the comments. So, while a cynic might conclude the message was sent by a PR or assistant, I refuse to believe it wasn't her own fair hands that replied to me and made my year.
Stash has remained one of my all-time favourite perfumes ever since, and not just because I'm now best friends with SJP. Have you ever had a scent that just vibes with you and your skin? There are plenty of fragrances I like on others, or spritzed on a tester card, but that do nothing for me personally when applied. Stash just seems to get me. It's more of an autumn-winter, evening scent, so I tend to save it for those occasions despite how cheap it is, so it always feels special. Pretty much every time I wear it, people compliment it. Once while on holiday in Venice, a German woman grabbed my arm as I got up to leave my table at a restaurant to ask what it was. I had to show her on Google because my Scottish accent shouting 'STASH' over the clatter of pizza plates being cleared proved tricky.
I suppose I better try to describe it properly. Scent is so personal, but for me, Stash is heady, warm, sweet and woody. But there’s a spike of pepper and grapefruit which pulls it back from being sickly in any way.
Here are the actual notes, as listed on fragrantica.com. It’s one of my favourite websites to scroll through at 2am.
I’ve also tried a couple of her other scents, namely Lovely and Covet. Both of which also smell far more expensive than they actually cost. In fact, I’ll do a full newsletter on low-priced but impressive perfumes soon as I’ve discovered quite a few gems over the years.
What’s your favourite celeb perfume? Share below!