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Mrs. Rapid Traveler gets to sample the creme of luxury hotels in her business travel and occasionally The Rapid Traveler is allowed to join as long as he behaves. He is generally indifferent to hotels and their amenities, but Hyatt’s departing white ginger line from Portico is to him particularly loathsome. Rubbing ginger on sunburn or razor burn is about as pleasant as rubbing on chilies.
The Alvear Palace in Buenos Aires outdoes white ginger with its Hermes Eau d’Orange Verte, which makes people smell like they rolled around in a pile of sample sticks at Sephora. To the eternal embarrassment of Mrs. Rapid Traveler, The Rapid Traveler used the plebeian soap disdainfully reserved for use with a French-named bathroom apparatus. The maid must have been quite surprised at the volume of that soap consumed during the stay.
Elegant yet toxic
The worst part of it all, though, was that no matter what The Rapid Traveler did, the hotel kept generously restocking the Hermes and now he fears opening a drawer at home for it might knock him on his back.
Readers, what hotel toiletries make you run for the convenience store for alternatives?
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Recent stay at Park Hyatt Vendome had toiletries designed by Blaise Mautin, a Parisian ‘parfumeur’. The entire set had a strong alcohol smell 🙁 did not really smell the fragrance.
Rome Cavalieri had Hermes as their soap a few years ago. I thought the smell was beyond awful but I must be in the minority. Packaging was quite nice though. I quickly found some soap at a nearby market. (Fantastic stay, possibly the best use of Hilton points, in my opinion. Our room was the size of a small home. And don’t even get me started on the selections in the lounge – wow! And the spa! And view! )
I actually don’t mind Eau d’Orange Verte — and at the very least White GInger is orders of magnitude worse. 😉
I happen to love the Hermes d’Orange Verte, one of the best fragrance I ever encountered. I will everyone is different eh.
I never really minded White Ginger. It smelled nice, if a bit strong. But I never had to put up with it for more than a day or two. After a recent week-long stay, I can say it was starting to get on my nerves. Hopefully the replacement is a good compromise, because most hotel soaps don’t particularly impress me. At least White Ginger was different.
Hilton’s Evelyn & Crabtree amenities are highly toxic according to a consumer protection website, as are many other scented bath amenities. It’s a shame that high class hotel chains semm to be unable or unwilling to provide the traveler with something better.