A LITTLE BYRDIE TOLD ME

I'm assuming y'all have heard of a little site called Who, What, Wear. Anyway, after having a beauty spin-off with its own dedicated email for awhile now, just today they launched a whole new beauty-focused site called BYRDIE.  The site - and the daily email - has everything you ever wanted to know and more about the latest in hair, makeup, skin, etc. products and styles and things I don't even know about yet.  I highly recommend signing up for it, even if you're like me and don't even know how to work your curling iron, much less create perfect mermaid waves in less than ten minutes.

And even better, as I clicked though to the site today I saw their post on Carven's new perfume.  Remember this post about the weekend my parents and I visited Paris while I was abroad? And how I stopped into Colette and they had this lovely little perfume on display, in such a chic bottle and with such a florally, decidedly French scent that I picked it up as my Paris souvenir of choice?

Well, lo and behold, it was this same Carven perfume. So imagine my surprise when I was reading on Byrdie that it was going to be available this month. But wait! I thought. I bought this months ago.  Yes, I did - in Paris, where it was apparently launched before it was in the U.S.  

Sometimes I'm so cool it hurts.

Anyway, besides me being all Parisian and ahead of the times, this perfume is lovely and floral and light and girly and French, and I highly second Byrdie's recommendation. And even if you don't snatch it up now, definitely sign up for Byrdie's emails - how else will you discover you've been wearing a cool new French perfume before anyone else?

both images via byrdie.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

I had such a wonderful time in Paris this past weekend! It was my first time in the City of Lights, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it.  I feel like there was so much hype about Paree that it would be a letdown, but I loved the city!

We stayed in the Hotel Du Crillon, which made me feel like a princess.  I had a big bed and a thick fluffy robe and pretended that I was there for the Ball du Crillon and was wearing a haute couture gown.  Since I had never been before, we hit all the big sights - the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, etc.  It was gorgeous on Saturday and not-so-much on Sunday, but it worked out.   I ate crepes and frogs' legs and macarons and drank lots of champagne and loved every minute of it.

My only two requests for the weekend were Laduree and Colette.  Laduree was easy enough - there was one right by our hotel, and my Mom and I stood in line for about 20 minutes to get a box, but they were worth it. I then dragged them to Colette, where I felt infinitely uncool.  My Dad felt very out of place.  Luckily, I couldn't feel too out of place because the store was less Parisians-actually-shopping and more people-from-out-of-town-who-were-dying-to-see-it.  Plus, my mom was feeling generous and bought me Carven's new perfume.  It's light and flowery and makes me feel graceful and French - an excellent souvenir, if I do say so!  Paris has definitely been the most fashionable city that I've been in.  Walking down the streets, especially on the Rue Saint-Honoré where all the shops are, was like a fashion show of tall skinny girls in cool outfits.  I felt inadequate.

But it was a fabulous weekend trip and so nice to do it with my parents.  

My new goal in life: become a chic skinny French girl. ( I'll let you know how that one goes.)

louvre + lauduree by me; colette image via; carven le parfum