On Beauty

My love for Garance Doré knows no bounds.  Not only is she an amazing artist (that's her drawing above), but a thoughtful and funny woman.  She had a write-up about the difference between feeling and looking beautiful that I just loved.  The comments were the best, too.

So go over and take a gander.  I'd love to hear your take on the subject!

Little Escape

 

This is the cutest collection of commercials by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola.

I'm in love with Léa Seydoux!

Enjoy.

French Pharmacy Finds

One of the things I am still kicking myself over is not taking any time to explore a few French pharmacies while Shug and I were in Paris.  Yes, yes, we spent our days filled to the brim with fun and red wine, but I love exploring drug stores in different countries to see what beauty products they have to offer!

Luckily, Amazon is making the world smaller in a much better way!  I have a few staples I use religiously now that come straight from the aisles of a French pharmacy.  The first find is the amazingly moisturizing Ducray Ictayne Creme.  It is non-comedogenic and sooooo nice for parched winter skin.  I usually slather this on at night over a serum to wake up to soft and super-moisturized skin.

Emerson Fry

 I have been a longtime fan of Emerson Fry, formerly EmersonMade.  What I love most about them is that they started out making these fabric flowers about 5 or 6 years ago that you could wear in your hair or on your belt.  From those simple flowers grew an entire ready-to-wear line AND shoe line.

I want to take a lesson from Emerson Fry and remember that big dreams can get started with the tiniest little seed of a dream.  Their fabric flowers that Emerson crafted with her own hands is now a booming business that sells out mere days after each season's launch!

I wonder what my fabric flowers will be?

Beauty Bite: Hair

That is all.

Pretty Sure I Belong in the 60s

Oh, and Europe, too.

GIF amazingness here, you won't be able to look away!

Via A Cup of Joe

What the French Girls Are Wearing Right Now

 

1) Shorts over tights.  Add heels for extra points.

(Yes these lovely ladies aren't French, but their style is!)

2) ANY boot by Isabel Marant.

3) Always use an iPod on the Metro.  

If you don't have an iPod, 

a good book you can easily stash in your purse is a great alternative.

4) A scarf.  Always.

 5) Perfume.  

French women not only look amazing, 

but smell amazing, too!

A Breakdown of French Style

I was so very lucky to get to people-watch while strolling the streets of Paris.  I was so enamored with the recurring chic style of the Parisian women.  I was able to distill a few common factors these lovely women all seemed to possess:

1) Slightly messy or imperfect hair.  French women seemed to have lovely hairstyles, but every style I saw also looked touchable and soft.  There wasn't a tight curl or a lacquered 'do in sight.  The "I-couldn't-care-less" hair just added to the overall beauty these women conveyed.

 2) Glowing skin free of foundation or obvious makeup.  Every French women that caught my eye had amazing skin.  It didn't matter what age they were, their skin all was (what appeared to be) make-up and foundation-free.  There wasn't a garish eyeshadow color or severe "contouring" on  a single, lovely Parisian face.  Parisian women's obsession with great skin is apparent in all of the potions for sale in every pharmacy we passed!

3) Aging isn't a beauty-killer.  It's actually a beauty enhancer!  I could not get over how many wrinkles and faces with expression I passed in the streets!  Coming from Utah where everyone is trying to "keep up with the Jones'" when it comes to Botox and cosmetic procedures, it was refreshing to see, well, expression in women's faces!  If Parisian women are getting cosmetic procedures, they seem to be erring on the side of natural-looking, not younger-looking.

4) Hair-tucking!  Fall was just hitting Paris when we were there and letting locks stay warm in scarves was the look to be imitating.

 5) Confidence.  You really didn't get the idea that any of these chic women were wallflowers.  The way these women carried themselves not only conveyed how they thought of themselves, but how the people around them should think of them, as well!