Paris Shopping Haul

I didn't go too crazy shopping in Paris because I wanted to stick to a budget, we were traveling with carry-on only, and some of our luggage space was devoted to gifts for friends and family. What's photographed above represents the remaining 75-80% of my purchases, 6 months after our trip. The gourmet treats have been consumed and a lot of my Saeve purchases have been used up, but I still wanted to do a shopping haul post. Better late than never, right?

Not to brag or anything, but I'm immensely proud of how much skincare I brought back in carry-on only. My strategy for getting through customs was to only buy products 100 ml and under, and take all the tubes and jars out of their boxes and cram them into the requisite quart-sized Ziploc bag.

Aside from my Saeve haul, Caudalie comprised the majority of my beauty purchases. If you're unsure of what works best for your skin type, go to a flagship store like the one in Le Marais and have the sales consultants recommend products. That was where I picked up Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Moisturizer Broad Spectrum SPF20 and Caudalie VineActiv Eye Cream. However, if you're just stocking up on faves you're more likely to find a good deal at a pharmacy or Monoprix. I picked up a VineActiv gift set with a full-size moisturizer and travel sizes of the serum and eye cream on sale at the Monoprix closest to our Airbnb. But my best score occurred halfway through our trip, when I stumbled on a beauty-only Monoprix store in Montmartre that was closing for renovations with 50% off the entire store. I snagged another SPF 20 moisturizer (tinted this time) and a tube of Caudalie Reseveratrol Lift Eye Lifting Balm (previously reviewed here) for a song.

I also kept my eyes peeled for products from familiar brands that aren't available in Canada, like these Avene Couvrance green and yellow concealer sticks with SPF 20. Love how convenient they are for on-the-go application and travel.

And I stocked up on tried-and-true faves Avene Couvrance mascara (previously featured here) and Diorshow Brow Styler.

These rose quartz and gold vermeil earrings come from Bernard Sylvain, a jeweller just off of Place des Vosges with a bright yellow storefront. It's a tiny gem of a shop that you have to be buzzed into, with one-of-a-kind designs that ranged from semiprecious gemstone jewelry (under 100 euros) to luxury watches (5,000+ euros). Lawrence wanted to have a closer look at a watch but didn't want to disturb the jeweller to see something he had no intention of buying. "Well, I'm going in because I want a closer look at the earrings," I said to him and rang the doorbell.

When M. Sylvain greeted us, the first thing he said to us in English was "I speak no English, just French and German." I replied, "C'est d'accord parce que je peux parler un petit peu." We walked past a vintage photograph on the wall that looked vaguely like him and I asked in French if that was him as a young man. He said yes. Over the next hour we cobbled together a conversation between his rudimentary English, my high school French, and a lot of hand gestures and smiles, all while I tried on earrings and Lawrence and I admired the contents of the glass cases around us. As it turns out, Sylvain had been a jewelry designer for decades and had worked for every luxury jeweller under the sun before opening his eponymous shop. Our entire visit to this jewelry shop was an amazing, unforgettable experience, one I never would have had if I'd let the language barrier deter me. Ultimately I walked away with just the earrings, but I'll treasure them always because of their provenance.

Fashion-wise, I was most drawn to the French contemporary brands that you rarely see in North America. Case in point? Tila March handbags, which I first spotted while browsing Galeries Lafayette. I ended up buying the Gigi mini leather bag from one of their two flagship stores. The size and shape, the cognac-coloured leather, and the adjustable strap (which allows the bag to be worn crossbody, high or low on the shoulder, or even as a fanny pack) make this bag the ultimate in versatility. I was using it non-stop during the spring and summer.

As much as I enjoyed browsing the contemporary brands, I didn't buy any clothes except for this blue-patterned faux wrap dress by SUNCOO. There just wasn't room in my suitcase, and with the unfavourable Canadian-dollar-to-euro exchange rate I didn't want to blow my shopping budget on high street clothes. There was a SUNCOO store right near our Airbnb in the Bastille district though, and every day we'd walk past it going to and from the metro or our favourite bakery. Their dresses always caught my eye. One day I decided to go in and try on a few. Lawrence's face lit up when I walked out of the dressing room wearing this one. Returning from Paris with a feminine, flirty spring dress just seems so quintessentially Parisian, no?

P.S. For more from our trip, check out my photo-heavy Paris travel diary and fave food highlights.