Friday, January 22, 2010

It's Harvey Nichols I'm talking about...

I have been to the mountain ( and I am gong back.)   Actually I have been there before and had a truly religious experience but David, due to his ridiculous level of Scottish frugality, has managed to steer me away since we arrived in Edinburgh this time.

I am talking about Harvey Nichols.



Harvey Nicks can put even Neiman-Marcus to shame.  This is shopping heaven - or hell if you are someone like me who has committed to living with only 100 things.

Just to walk into the place is bliss.  Need a personal shopper?  Want to have a facial?  How about a five-star lunch on the fourth floor?  I am convinced that if you can ask for it, they can make it happen.

I first visited here just after they opened in Scotland.  I am a true devotee of Trish McEvoy cosmetics and when we were living in Aberdeen in 2002-2003 she was not represented in Scotland anywhere.  When Harvey Nichols opened, with the Trish counter just inside on the right as you come in the door, I planned a trip.  Good ol’ Scottish Dr. Dave almost choked at the damage.  I loved it!!

I looked at every sample, tried all the new colors and checked out the new packaging.  I sat for a full makeover - a level of beauty I have never been able to recreate -and I bought lots of new goodies to put in my planner.

If you have never had the Trish experience I highly recommend that you throw out all your current cosmetics, put at least $300 in your wallet and hurry to the nearest Saks, Nordstrom, Neimans or Harvey Nicks and get your fix.  (In Charlotte, the best source used to be Coplon’s) Every woman I have ever introduced to her has been transfixed.

I first learned of Trish McEvoy in Phoenix when my BFF Tina took me and her soon to be 8th grade graduate, Cate, to Sax for a makeover just a few hours before the graduation ceremony.  The sales person was an artist, as they all are, trained by Trish in NY to use the stuff she makes and sells to best advantage.  Here we were, a teen, and two 40-somethings on different ends of the decade and we each came out looking right on the mark, not too much, not too little.

I was a  Trish virgin at the time.   It was here that I learned the secret of the “windshield wiper brush” ( and bought my first.) I learned how to apply eyeliner in a touch, move, touch manner that looks so natural I was amazed. ( It is a little difficult when my hands have the MS shake, but I am working on getting David to learn how to do it!  Hey, he gives me a weekly shot, why not learn to line my eyes?  No matter how infirm, I will never go out without eyeliner, lipstick and perfume!)

 I bought my  first planner and filled it up at Coplon’s the next week after an internet search  to find out where I could buy Trish in the hinterlands of NC ( It really was the hinterlands back then - no Nordstrom)

And so I have been looking forward to Harvey Nichol’s  ever since we crossed the pond.
After making your way through cosmetics heaven, just travel to any of the floors above for a fashion experience par excellance.  You can browse, try and compare. The salespeople seem to care less if you are buying than that you are having a good experience. (I am! Iam!) I never buy at retail so I even take notes and no one questions me.  But it’s January, and EVERYTHING is on sale.  Like a Marc Jacobs skirt that fits perfectly for, are you sitting down, $20 on the last chance rack!  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective or in my case the time of day as I change my mind hourly about keeping more than 100 things ,there are equivalent bargains all around.   And if you are shopping till you drop, you can always take out a loan from the strategically placed Bank of Scotland next door.


2 comments:

  1. I LOVE Harvey Nics!!!! It's like Neimans on stereoids.

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  2. It seems like a great time to share the words of Elise Boulding, who said, "Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”

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