Alright, so the other day I got this wild hair up my butt to take a trip down memory lane. You know how it is, scrolling through old photos, and BAM! There it was – a picture of me slathered in Bain de Soleil, circa 1970-something. That got me thinking, whatever happened to that stuff?
First things first, I hit up *. I mean, they have everything, right? Typed in “Bain de Soleil,” and… nothing. Nada. Zip. Disappeared like a fart in the wind.
So then I got all nostalgic. Remember those commercials? “Bain de Soleil, for the San Tropez taaaaaan…” They made you feel like you were some fancy socialite lounging on a yacht. My pasty self sure bought into it, I’ll tell you that. I was determined to get that San Tropez tan. slathered that orange gel all over and baked in the sun like a potato.
Naturally, I started digging deeper. I had to know what the deal was. Turns out, this company, Bayer, bought Bain de Soleil back in 2014. And guess what? They stopped making it in 2019! Can you believe it? That signature orange gel that used to be, like, 10 bucks was gone.
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The Hunt Begins
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The Scent of Memory
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The Modern Solution
I wasn’t giving up that easy. I scoured the internet, forums, and whatnot, hoping to find some secret stash. This one forum I found was full of people just as desperate as me. Some were even talking about finding old bottles selling for crazy amounts of money.
In the midst of my online adventure, I found some comments about the notes of Bain de Soleil. Apparently, it had top notes of orange blossom and caramel, middle notes of woodsy stuff and marshmallow, and base notes of milk, vanilla, and sugar cane. Sounds more like a fancy dessert than a tanning gel, but hey, it did smell good. This was back in the 70s, man. Tanning was everything. Then, you know, people started realizing it wasn’t so great for you. Punks came along, and suddenly being pale was cool. But still, that smell… it takes me right back.
After all that searching, I found out that there’s a new version made by a company called Vacation. I ordered two bottles right away. And let me tell you, it’s like they bottled up my memories. The smell is almost exactly the same, although I don’t think I’ll be baking in the sun for hours on end like I used to. It’s good to see, though, that the spirit of Bain de Soleil is still alive and kicking, even if it’s in a slightly different form.
So there you have it, my little adventure with Bain de Soleil. Just goes to show, you never know what memories are gonna pop up and send you on a wild goose chase. It’s all good, though. Makes life interesting, right?