I Love New York for All Bond No 9

You know that perfume that makes you stop looking for another? Well at least for that particular note. These showstoppers have saved me quite a bit of money, whenever I meet a possible contender for their pedestals, I have a Confessions of a Shopaholic moment where I search inwardly, "Do I neeeeeeeed this?"-answer NO. These lofty gods in my collection are Serge Lutens' Ambre Sultan for amber, A La Nuit from the same house for jasmine, Hilde Soliani's Cristina for an all-rounder patchouli, Diptyque's Philosykos for fig and Bond No. 9's I Love New York for All's sweet coffee note ended my search for coffee.

Source:sephora.com

Before I went to NYC, Paris was my favourite travel destination in the world, never mind the jostling hordes of tourists buying up everything in sight, never mind that a meal in one of the charming roadside cafes costs a small fortune, the city is my kind of romantic and I'm not talking about the Frenchmen. I'm talking about the endless twisting cobblestone streets to get lost in, the beautiful old apartments along the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, the bridges, the food, the language...anyway you get my drift, I love Paris. Then I met NYC. Where Paris is dreamy, romantic and all La Vie En Rose, NYC is ballsy, vibrant and freaking noisy, all the time, you can't help but get swept up in the human tide and move to the rhythm of the city. Bond No. 9's I Love New York for All encompasses the city and its energy for me.

In NYC, there are coffee shops at literally every corner, this I know for sure as I was leaching Wifi at many of them. Whatever time of the day, I see them packed with customers waiting for their coffee fix. Likewise, I Love New York for All is packed with sweet, strong coffee and it's not one but two pumps of vanilla syrup to get you smiling from the first sniff. For my first trip, I was lucky to visit the city in fall and got to see the changing colours of Nature before the snow storms hit a week after. Central Park had little cart vendors at every few metres, selling hot dogs/bagels/pretzels/churros and roasted chestnuts, you could smell the burnt sugar aroma a mile away. While the chestnut in I Love New York for All is more of a candied marron glacé than roasted, it's still a creamy and delicious nutty flavour, the definition of comfort food. Lastly during my pilgrimage to the perfume stores, I stopped for sustenance along the way in a variety of chocolate stores, my loves being the Godiva chocolate-dipped strawberries and Neuhaus' Orangettes, scrumptious candied orange peel covered in dark chocolate. 

So put copious amounts of sweet, dark coffee, syrupy marron glacé and milk chocolate together and you have a gourmand fest...I Love New York for All. Vivacious, loud and potent, the scent never seems to wane, like the city that never sleeps. No need for top-ups and a little goes a very long way.