A Trek For My Boyfriend, Tom Ford.

For a few weeks I had been meaning to head to the one place in San Diego where I can scope out one of my favorite things in person...

Tom Ford.

Not THE guy - who while gay does not realize he is in fact my boyfriend - but his line of beauty products.

I was craving a new lipstick and a new scent.

I tried on a half dozen different colors...

There were many that I liked. But two stood out...

Flame (on the left) and Negligee (on the right.) 

Flame is in the same orange-coral colors I'd grown comfortable with over the past few years. Negligee was a more plumy neutral.  

The one thing I was unsure of trying out were the scents.

Tom Ford scents are exotic and powerful. Very sophisticated. Not at all whom I am.  I typically wear Jo Malone's collection... Mostly Wild Bluebell, Vintage Gardenia, and Vanilla & Anise.

Sometimes I wear all three at once, layered.

They're colognes. So they don't last very long, making it necessary to reapply.  But Tom Ford scents were eau de parfums.  Meaning they have a little more longevity to them.

"They wear a while throughout the day," the counter woman was telling me. "The bottle will last you a long time."

I told her which of the Jo Malone scents I liked best, inquiring if there was anything comparable on the Tom Ford side.

"You're one of the few people in this area that knows about Vanilla & Anise," she said. "We don't carry it here. I wish we did.  It smells like root beer!"

"I liken it to Dr, Pepper," I confessed.

"Well, I have the perfect scent to transition to," she said.  

"Tobacco Vanille."

It was the same scent my stylist had told me about the day before when she colored my hair.

She spritzed some on my wrist.

"Give it a few minutes. It will settle into your skin and the scent will pick up."

A few minutes later, I inhaled at my wrist. I was in love.

It smelled like Winter to me... A mixture of sweetness and a fire crackling.

And a little like Dr. Pepper.  :)

I walked away with the small bottle they sell, to accompany my two lipsticks.

It's always worth the trek to Mission Valley to see my boyfriend.