It’s almost summer (and down here in the South it certainly feels like it!), and that means it’s time to start looking for new summer scents! While most of us have our go-to scent that we wear every day, oftentimes they are far too heavy for the summer so it’s time to switch things up.

Looking for something new? Not in the mood to sniff 100+ bottles of perfume at your neighborhood Sephora? I’ve got a ton of delicious recommendations that will compliment that summer dress perfectly! Sure, you can go with your standard floral/fruity perfumes, but I dare you to be a little more bold this summer. You never know what that hottie at the beach will be into…

The holidays are the best time to get great beauty bundles for your best girlies, or – umm – yourself. What could be better than getting the best makeup brands at the best prices? Adding a little shimmer to your holiday look could never hurt, and these beauty kits will help you create the perfect look for the year to come. Even better, you can break them down and give the individual components out to lots of people (now that’s some smart shopping!).

Below are some of the best beauty bundle deals out there right now. I’d just wait until the lines die down at the mall (or stick to online shopping) to get these; you don’t want to end up like that Wal-mart employee.…

The Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster: This amazing kit includes 84 eyesshadow colors (both cream and powder) and 60 lip glosses. Also included in this mega make-up kit are blushes, face powders, and brushes. Customer reviews rate the $50 kit at 4 stars, making it a great deal. While some reviewers complain about poor makeup quality, overall I find it hard to complain about such a diverse kit. While you may not find bright blue to be useful on a daily basis, I assure you it will come in handy one day for an 80s party.

Bare Escentuals: Bare Pleasures Kit- This kit includes 9 Bare Minerals eye shadows in neutral and bright tones. These shadows are blendable and easily layerable. They are also easy to convert into eye-liners with a touch of liner-sealant. If you’re an even bigger Bare Minerals fan, I would suggest checking out Nordstrom’s exclusive Bare Escentuals Ultimate Indulgence Collection. This collection is exclusive to Nordstrom and features 20 eye and face powders. These hues, ranging in color intensity, are a $200 value at only $75! That makes it quite easy to justify picking up one for a friend (and yourself.) Read More »

The other day, a friend of mine started digging on one of her biggest pet peeves. “I HATE products that make you smell like food,” she complained. “I mean, who wants to go around smelling like a chocolate bar? It’s something you eat, not something you wear.”

She made it sound like such a clear-cut issue that I kept nodding and agreeing all through her diatribe—but then, as she reached the end, I realized that my bathroom cabinet is stocked with a lot of products that smell like food. I like those products.

The reason I didn’t voice (or even realize) my disagreement until she had gone on about the subject for several minutes was that I don’t even consider a vanilla-scented lotion or a mango shampoo to be food-like products. They’re made of chemicals, after all, so they don’t smell exactly like real vanilla or real mangoes. Even if they did, though, I still don’t think I would have a problem with them. Read More »

Sure, we’ve all heard of Demeter Fragrances, right? You know the ones I mean. The different perfumes that smell like Dirt, Birthday Cake, or Holy Water?

Well, it turns out that “real life” scents are really creating a buzz and Demeter isn’t the only one cashing in on the trend.

At Brooklyn-based CB I Hate Perfume Gallery, there are over 50 scents that are sure to smell kinda weird on your skin. But who cares about smelling good when you can smell like the following:

Pineapple and Mango: Yum! Smelling like a tropical drink on a tropical island sounds…like you’ll end up smelling like a 10 year old trying perfume for the first time. But what the hell, it’d go for it on vacation!

Lava Rock: Question: Does “Lava Rock” smell like molten magma or like burnt matches? Second question: Why would I want to smell like a natural disaster? Third: Am I normal if I say I kind of want to? It sounds exciting.

Dandelion: Ooooo, I’ve always wanted to smell annoying and ugly! Read More »

I’ve never been a super fan of scented stuff like a lot of other girls. I went through an incense and petrouli oil phase back in high school, when Phish was really popular, but other than that, scented candles, fragrances and room sprays have a tendency to make me sneeze or nauseous. That was, until, I discovered the lovely scents of Pier 1.

The last office I worked in had candles everywhere. There were tons of people coming in and out constantly (it was a sound production studio where actors would “lay down” voice overs and audition for commercials). I’m not exaggerating when I say this – every single female, (and the occasional male more in touch with his feminine side) would comment on how awesome the candles smelled. Each person would walk over to the candle, bend down to the flame, gush over it as if they had never even seen a candle before, and ask where this waxy anomaly came from. These things are chick magnets. Read More »