How to Handwash Lingerie

Hand wash always, even when on the go.

My bathroom currently smells all sorts of gorgeous right now.

I’d go so far as to say it smells like the Journelle flagship—rumors say that you could smell the store from a block away—but truth be told, I haven’t actually been to that lingerie mecca…yet. Quelle horreur! I know, I know. Berate me later, let me tell you about their signature lingerie wash first. Priorities, babes. Priorities.

Most people characterize their twenties by the numbers of corks popped or vodka shots downed. I, however, am the 21-year-old anomaly who has taken to lingerie consumption instead of alcohol (because trust, I don’t need the liquid courage) to mark all my best second-decade-memories. With a growing collection of pretty underthings, however, I’ve come to realize that tossing them in some mesh bag with the rest of my laundry just wasn’t cutting it. These are delicate, Chantilly lace and silk underpinnings! I wasn’t doing myself or my new-found investments justice.

Enter Journelle’s Linden lingerie wash, fragranced with a beautiful blend of fresh linden blossom, cedar, violet, and velvety gardenia. I’m usually not one for florals—I’m more of a Tom Ford Black Orchid, Hermès Ambre Narguile, Tocca Brigitte kind of girl—but somehow Linden smells like Paris in the spring, like an airy studio apartment overlooking a cobblestone alley somewhere on the outskirts of Paris, where windows are left open and gauzy chiffon drapes rippling with the wind. I’d be padding around barefoot, air-drying matching sexy little things wherever there’s free space: the bookshelves, the coffee table, the standing lamp… but alas, I’m in my washroom, somewhere in New Jersey suburbia.

I add three capfuls (the directions suggest 2-3, but I think 3-4 works better) in my sink under running, lukewarm water. I let the delicates soak for about a minute or two before I get scrubbing, rinsing, and laying them flat to dry. The bathroom—and now my bedroom too, where said lacy bits have been laid out to dry—smell lovely. Even after my lingerie dries, the fragrance still lingers; it’s quite beautiful to be honest. Linden is soft, subtle, and demure but unapologetically feminine. It’s one of those pretty scents that a woman buys for herself because she can, and not because she’s in want of something that smells musky and desirous to her partner. Isn’t that the essence of lingerie? That it’s sometimes for your lover, but it’s mostly for you? I love it so much that I’ve purchased the travel-sized bottle to take with me for weekend getaways.

Hand wash in Linden, always. Even when on the go.

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