And the Winner of the Bottle of SJP NYC Is....

Deanna G! You've won a bottle of SJP NYC coming directly to your house! I'll be in touch to get your mailing address from you so we can send it out but it's all yours. Feel free to spritz a little Carrie Bradshaw-inspired goodness everywhere in honor of our girls coming back to the big screen this past weekend!

There are MANY giveaways coming this month and lots of new fun things coming. We're relaunching the site and there's a LOT going on. Stay tuned!

Beauty Must-Have: Smell Like Carrie Bradshaw with SJP NYC (Includes Giveaway!)

Back in February, our beloved Sarah Jessica Parker developed a light, fun fragrance inspired by her favorite character, Carrie Bradshaw. The scent, SJP NYC, captures the essence of Carrie: frivolity, freedom, New York, and fabulous style. The scent is impossibly girly, an addictive fruity floral with top notes including Italian mandarin and wild strawberries, heart notes like gardenia and honeysuckle and base notes such as sandalwood and rum mixed with vanilla and musk.  It's complex, sweet, wild at heart and very Carrie Bradshaw.

I'm personally a fan of the fun packaging, which looks like a mixture of the patterns and bold colors one might find in the character's legendary closet. I also love that the scent is small enough to fit into your favorite handbag, a necessity for the girl on the go (which most of us are.)

 Behind the scenes of the advertising shoot for SJP NYC

I also love the ad campaign, featured my beloved SJP in a one-of-a-kind Oscar de la Renta original, evoking the wild, untamed spirit of our beloved fashion-forward tv and movie character. One smell and you'll see what I mean: it's very Carrie.

You can pick SJP NYC up at your local department store in a variety of sizes and scents, but since it's Memorial Day and I haven't done a giveaway in a long time, I'd like to give this to one lucky reader of FSB. That's right, I'm giving away a 30ml eau de toilette spray of SJP NYC to one lucky reader.

How do you win? Leave a comment below and tell me who your favorite SATC character is and why. I'll pick one lucky gal on Tuesday morning and we'll get it shipped right out to you.

After all, since you're going to see the movie this weekend, you might as well have some fabulous perfume to commemorate your viewing of Sex and the City 2. Get Carried away and enter to win now!

Obsession of the Day: Atelier Cologne

Spring is springing and we all know that it's time to show more skin in order to ensnare a summer fling. In a season where everyone is waking up from their long winter slumber to mix, mingle and seduce, you've got to pull out all the stops when attracting a potential mate. This is why I've been hoarding a bottle of Atelier Cologne as my new (not-so-secret) weapon.

The lovely master perfumers at Atelier decided to take scent into an emotional direction, blending unexpected notes and rare extracts with fresh citrus scents to create Colognes Absolues: highly-concentrated formulas with distinctive and long-lasting potency. Each unique scent has been created to capture treasured memories from our lives, sending those who experience the fragrance into an emotional trance. Scent is one of the most powerful senses we have, ladies and gentlemen: why not seduce and entice using the power of emotion and memory?

Each one comes with a poetic description of the fragrance that reads like treasured literature. My current favorite, Orange Sanguine, smells like the French Riviera with its crush of sweet blood orange juice against bitter orange peel and luxurious notes of geranium. Its accompanying literature reads:

"It was the kind of moment you would want to revisit. Everyone was here, gathered on the terrace for breakfast, and the scent of fresh oranges was diffusing in the yellow heat. A symphony of their laughter and waves hitting the cliffs played in the air."

If that doesn't make you want to throw a monogrammed tote into a Ferrari Dino with a scarf and cat-eye sunglasses to drive down the coast a la Grace Kelly, I don't really know what will. Other scents in the collection are Grand Neroli (orange blossom flower around layers of clean herbal notes, warm musk and vanilla), Bois Blonds (woods and incense with sensual orange flower and vetiver), Trefle Pur (violet leaves and green woods mixed with freshly-cut grass and wet earth notes), and Ooland Infini (a full-bodied mixture of blue tea, bergamot, smoke and leather.) They're perfect for men and women because each scent mixes with your own body chemistry to create something uniquely sexy while maintaining the spirit of the original creation.

Let's face it: there's a whole world out there waiting to be enticed and we deserve to use every tool at our disposal. Consider these scents your personal Weapons of Mass Seduction.

Atelier Colognes ($155-$175), available at Bergdorf Goodman online or the Beauty Level

Obsession of the Day: By Killian Rose Oud Eau de Parfum

Every once in a while, I think it's nice to treat yourself to something fabulous. When I mean fabulous, I mean something that every time you look at it, you smile like there's no tomorrow. It doesn't matter what it is: a new pair of jeans, a fabulous ring...or a mind-blowing perfume that will have heads turning everywhere.

Recently, I was introduced to one of the most luxurious fragrances I have ever smelled and I can't stop wearing it: By Killian Rose Oud Eau de Parfum. Created by luxury perfumer Killian Hennessy, the grandson and heir of the legendary Hennessy cognac company (part of the luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, or LVMH), this is the second fragrance in the Arabian Nights collection and the essence of the ultra-sensual Turkish Rose. It's a mysterious fragrance that develops with rich and opulent notes of rose, incense, amber and musk. If anyone gets close enough to your skin to smell it, they won't be backing away anytime soon: it's a seductive fragrance that pulls you in so you'll never want to let go.

You're thinking to yourself, what's "oud," right? Oud is an extremely rare and precious oil found in agarwood from the aquilaria tree in Southeast Asia. The oil itself has a complex, warm, woody scent but it's incredibly animalistic. In many Middle Eastern countries, it's reported to be worth more than its weight in gold.

Exactly. This is seduction in a bottle, people. It's Dynasty relived. It's worth every drop.

The scent comes in a weighty bottle with gold detail and arrives in a similarly-crafted, lined coffret for storage away from the light (and borrowing hands). It's also refillable, which I adore.

Like I said, every once in a while you deserve to treat yourself. If smelling like a goddess is your method of reward, there's nothing like this gorgeous luxury fragrance.

By Killian Rose Oud Eau de Parfum ($395), available at Bergdorf Goodman

FTC disclosure: small tester received for review 

Obsession of the Day: Chloe Eau De Fleurs Parfum Collection

The House of Chloe is bringing their A-game yet again this season. From the design side, we have Hannah MacGibbon with her ingenious designs for the sophisticated-yet-fashion-forward customer of the legendary house. Now from the beauty side, we have an intensely engaging perfume collection that I can only describe as entrancing. Three scents comprise this full perfume wardrobe for the stylish woman this spring, each in substantial glass bottles with a large silver stopper. Each scent holds its own feminine mystery:


Chloe Eau de Fleurs Capucine is a chic olive in hue and has the crisp green notes to match. Perfect for those who love light, natural and crisp scents.

Chloe Eau de Fleurs Neroli is a fresh scent with slightly woodsy notes, comprised of elements such as clary sage and amber.  

Chloe Eau de Fleurs Lavande is a decidedly nighttime fragrance, with a musky aphrodisiacal composition.

Who can choose just one? Not me. I use them interchangeably based on my mood and changing times of day, which is how the perfumers I'm sure intended for them to be used. Impossibly chic, they're just the thing you need to add a spritz of Parisian chic to your scent wardrobe this spring and I, for one, am completely obsessed.

I mean, we're not even there yet but - ahem! - Mother's Day gift, anyone?

Chloe Eau de Fleurs Collection, available at major department stores nationwide


FTC Full Disclosure: samples received for review

The Best Beauty Product You Don't Know About: Aromachology Perfume Bar

Scent is such a personal thing, isn't it? Not only are you particular about the scent of your body, but most of us take it all the way: we want our houses, our laundry, even our cars to smell a certain way. Every woman knows that the quest for the perfect perfume can sometimes seem impossible. We smell a million different scents and always say the same thing: "Is this ME?" Problem is, without jetting to an expensive apothecary and having a scent signature crafted for your (and then waiting for it to be created), we spend our lives having complex relationships with scent. Like Goldilocks, we want the one that's "just right."

Enter my new Favorite Thing On Earth, Aromachology. A small company started by the lovely Kirsten Menkes and Ashlee Firsten (who later became sisters-in-law, funny story), these two combined their respective PR/marketing and engineering backgrounds with their love of beauty into a scent company that is truly unique and a slice of genius for all. When you visit their perfume counter at Henri Bendel's, you fill out a survey that explains aspects of your personality, scents to which you are drawn, and other things that make you uniquely, well, YOU. Based on this survey, you will then have a personality type drawn together which should draw you to one of five base scents (a "fragrance personality) and then you can add up to three separate "attributes" (essential oil blends which act as top and middle notes, of which there are fifteen) based on aspects of your personality to create your own fragrance.

 Jamie Sanders of The Beauty of Life and Eileen Dautruche of Miss Whoever You Are enjoying their custom scents

It's quite genius actually, because the base is a category of scent to which you're already drawn but the attribute really do evoke parts of your own personality. When I attended the launch, I was surrounded by fellow beauty journalists and none of us picked the same bases and, lo and behold, none of us had the same scent. Each of us had a scent that was uniquely our own and ALL of us loved our own fragrance as well as that of our friends. I would tell you what mine is but I don't want to sway you. I'll give you a hint: my base is "Woodsy" and one of my attributes is "Creative." If I told you the rest of it, I'd have to kill you. :)

The small travel sizes retail for $65 and the larger vanity-sized bottles retail for $120. Each finished fragrance comes in a gorgeous container and you can honestly say that no one else has your fragrance. Name it whatever you like, then come back and create another one based on another mood or aspect(s) of your personality.

No more hunting for your own signature scent. You created it all on your own. It's not magic, it's not alchemy....it's Aromachology.

Available at Henri Bendel's in New York City

Unbelievable Beauty: Breakfast at Cartier to Launch Les Heures de Parfum Collection

 Photo Courtesy of Zhenya Minkovich © Cartier

There are few invitations that a girl can receive in life that turn one into an instant Cinderella story. Getting asked to the Prom is the first. Someone asking you to marry them is another. Recently, I received one of my own. Deep red, leather-embossed with card stock in the middle, delivered in a red bag wrapped in tissue paper:

Breakfast at Cartier.

After I picked myself up off the floor (because, let's face it, things like this don't happen every day), I happily said yes and arrived for my first opportunity to have breakfast in the private conference room of the Cartier Mansion on New York's famed Fifth Avenue to have a Skype conference with Mathilde Laurent, the company's master perfumer, in order to discuss the launch of Cartier's new fragrance collection, Heures de Parfum.

Photo Courtesy of Fred Landry © Cartier 2009

The perfume collection is numbered for the hours of a lifetime, not just those of a day. Inspired by Proust's prose that an hour is not an hour but a time filled with sounds, perfume, climate, emotions, etc, the fragrances are numbered I to XIII, and the expertly-crafted formulas are said to highlight the spectrum of human emotions. Each displays its own unique color and identity in luxury glass bottles befitting their Cartier stamp of quality.The first five of the collection, available now, are:

 I - L’HEURE PROMISE - the Hour of Promise, inspired by new beginnings, possibilities and the thoughts of angels and their protective halos of light. The notes are those of iris, sandalwood, herbs and musk. Laurent crafted the fragrance so that one would feel protected wearing it. I got chills smelling the scent.

VI - L’HEURE BRILLANTE - the Hour of Brilliance, which actually caused me to see stars when I inhaled the fragance (and in a good way). Meant to channel the energy of light, neon, stars. She created it so that the wearer felt as if they were surrounded with something effervescent and delightful, like dipping into a glass of champagne. Notes of this fragrance were citrusy, with lemon and gin notes.

V- L’HEURE FOLLE - the Hour of Folly, described as a time when nature cannot be tamed. Designed for the free spirit, of life not yet fully realized, the scent of unripened fruit about to burst is the best description. The scent is an homage to the House of Cartier's relationship with the US and the roaring 20's, when wealthy American women wore Cartier's Tutti Frutti bracelets, a piece cut with gems that looked like fruits. Laurent described the fragrance evoking an urge to "bite into life." Peppercorns and unripened berries are the jazzy notes in this perfume.

XII - L’HEURE MYSTÉRIEUSE - the Hour of Mystery, is described as "a private perfume." Laurent's description during the breakfast was that it's "about the mystery inside of you, a private hour of life, an invitiation to secrecy." A very intimate scent, it's meant to be enjoyed as close to the skin as possible. Voluptuous incense, jasmine and sandalwood capture the mood.

XIII - LA TREIZIÈME HEURE is a personal labor of love for Laurent, who created a thirteenth hour in the "day" to create what Laurent described as the opportunity to unleash everything she had ever wanted to create in a fragrance. Perfume literally means "through smoke" and she attempted to capture the actual scent of smoke like her master perfumers before her. It draws on the scents of smoky teas, birchwood, leather and the most prominent notes is narcissus. Laurent described it as a scent associated with seduction, something "attractive you fall into."

 

Photo Courtesy of Vincent Peters © Cartier 2009

All of the Cartier fragrances are crafted from the finest ingredients and created with top, middle and base notes that evolve on the skin throughout the day. These are perfumes to last a lifetime and evolve with you as a woman (or man, they're actually unisex to a large degree).  Each perfume comes with a unique poem that describes the fragrance and they're the perfect gift for yourself or for someone very, very special. You don't have to have breakfast at Cartier to know that this fragrance collection, much like any item that comes from the storied luxury house, is an item that will last you a lifetime. Each 2.5 oz fragrance is available for $250 and is available at Cartier boutiques and Saks locations below:

Cartier Boutiques
Fifth Avenue
Beverly Hills
Costa Mesa
Chicago
Palm Beach
San Francisco

Saks Fifth Avenue (which carries X exclusively)
NYC
Dadeland
Houston
Tampa
New Orleans
Atlanta
Beverly Hills


FTC Full Disclosure: small sample of one fragrance received for review

Holiday Gift Guide: Presents for Tween and Teen Girls

Ah, the mysterious tween and teen. This part of our species has baffled gift givers for years with mercurial tastes and their insistence that you are the most uncool human that ever lived. What to get these complicated young ladies? Read on...

Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers Snow Bunnies 5-Piece Set with Dollhouse ($99.95) is the uber-cool rock star/designer's fragrance collection reissued in adorable snow clothing. She'll be able to change her scent with her mood with this collection of perfumes inside an adorable dollhouse. Just try to keep from borrowing them.

This is kind of a layup but chances are that you have a Twilight fan in your midst. The Bella Beauty Set ($40) is perfect for your lovelorn young girl and, even better, it doesn't matter if she's Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Unless you've been given very specific instructions, I would avoid purchasing clothing as a gift but if you want to make sure our favorite girl stays warm and looks cute at the same time, I would stick with anything from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's new line for JC Penney's, Olsenboye. This Distressed Flannel Shirt ($24.99) is super cool and way less expensive than your obsession with Elizabeth and James.

Video games are always hilarious fun and I'd recommend either Rock Band or my new fun obsession, the karaoke game, Lips.

Last but not least, you'll need stocking stuffers. This is another layup. iTunes Gift Cards are the best gift you can give them along with a solemn promise to give them one day a week where you won't complain the music is too loud.

They'll love you forever for these super cool gifts...until you make them clean their room. You're on your own at that point.

On The Scene: Inside the YSL Parisienne Launch Masquerade Ball

Last week I crawled off my post-flu recovery bed to don a mask and hang out in style with the Pretty People at the YSL Parisienne Masquerade Ball/ Perfume Launch Party. Held at the Angel Orensanz Foundation on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the venue was sexy sweet, complete with blush pink backlighting, antique-looking chandeliers with glowing candles and hundreds of vases of blush roses.



Models, editors and other industry types (and those who hang with them) came out to dance to Leigh Lezark and The Misshapes throwing down on the turntables while Alexandra Richard played consummate host. The "mask required" mandate on the invite didn't keep anyone from showing up; the line to get in was around the block and security kept some latecomers at bay for what seemed like hours.



My crew was inside right as the party began and amid macaroons, freely flowing champagne and videos of Kate's seductive commercial playing all around the venue, we partied well into the night to celebrate the launch of this seductive fragrance. Have you seen this commercial? The video is below but let's me warn you: it's steamy. Get the kiddies out of the room.





I have to say, it was quite the celebration and the perfume is to die for. Go check it out at your local Sephora. You might be inspired to give someone a little French kiss. Yes, like the party inspired by the fragrance, it's just that sexy.

Morning Beauty Quickie: Sarah Jessica Parker to Release New Scent, SJP NYC

Are you a fan of Sex and the City? How about Sarah Jessica Parker's perfumes? Well, according to WWD, the star and the folks at Coty Prestige are betting the two things you love will go great together: it's been reported that the star will release her newest fragrance, SJP NYC, in conjunction with the sequel to the blockbuster SATC movie next May.

Interestingly enough,after years of trying to convince the world that she and Carrie Bradshaw are not the same person, the actress has decided to let her legendary character become the inspiration for the fragrance as well as the city for which it's named. SJP told WWD:

“A large part of the inspiration was what I now understand to be people’s impressions of seeing Carrie Bradshaw walk down the street and what feelings that evokes for her and for them — a real sense of freedom and possibilities, a love for the city around her and, of course, fashion,” Parker told WWD. “We started with this idea that we wanted to create something fun. We wanted to create a party in a bottle and reflect that in the packaging with a real sense of whimsy, fun and joie de vivre. And then we took it from there. Portability and fashion played key roles in the development of the packaging and overall concept.” - WWD, October 16



The bottle is designed to be quite fashion-forward, as a glass cylinder with multiple prints meant to evoke the feeling of Carrie Bradshaw's legendary (and much envied) closet, while the scent inside reportedly has effervescent notes that evoke the optimism of the character, described by WWD as "top notes of Italian mandarin, white osmanthus and wild red strawberries; a heart of gardenia, honeysuckle, mimosa and red rose damascenia, and a drydown of sandalwood, vanilla absolute, rum flavor and creamy musks." It sounds quite heavenly to me but I'm also a long-time fan of SJP's Lovely, released in 2005 and still one of the top 50 perfumes sold (NPD).

The bottles will no doubt come with packaging and promotional details that will promote the movie due to the timing of their release. They will retail for 15 ml. for $25, 30 ml. for $35 and 60 ml. for $49. A 200-ml. body lotion will retail for $25 and a cuff bracelet with solid perfume will sell for $35.

You've got to hand it to Sarah Jessica and her marketing savvy. After all, it's been proven that Sex sells and with a perfume inspired by her beloved character, looks like Carrie Bradshaw will be selling more than movie tickets come spring 2010.

Beauty Vault: Jaclyn Smith for Epris

Anyone who grew up in the 70’s remembers the launch of glamorous, sexy ads for fragrances as we moved into the “Me” generation of the ‘80s. As a little girl and a huge fan of Charlie’s Angels, Jaclyn Smith has always been one of my favorites and is still a raving beauty to this day. For today’s look into the beauty vault, FSB presents this advertisement featuring Jaclyn in an ad for Max Factor’s Epris perfume, originally shown in 1981. Please do enjoy.