Battle of the Hotel Shampoos Continues

Gilchrist & Soames just doesn’t cut it anymore. We’ve watched with delight the hotel industry’s dogged game of oneupsmanship in the toiletries department. “French-milled soap” and no-name shampoo were long ago replaced by tiny, shimmering, conspicuously branded bottles from Bulgari (Ritz-Carlton), Remede (St. Regis), and even Acqua di Parma (although for those, you’ll have to go to Milan’s Principe di Savoia). In yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, Valli Herman examined the trend, leading with the Hotel Bel-Air’s exclusive U.S.