Scent is intensely personal. It has been said that there is no sense more strongly tied to memory than scent. Whether it's your mother's signature perfume, or your father's favorite aftershave, fragrances can be as personal and memorable as a warm embrace or a special milestone in your life. For instance, when you smell a fragrance that reminds you of someone you love, you instantly recall fond memories of that person, or when you smell certain flowers that grew in your grandmother's garden, it brings back intense memories of a certain time and place. Scent has a truly magical way of creating and solidifying memories in our minds. Does your signature fragrance create memorable experiences and the perfect first impressions?

The fragrances we choose to envelop ourselves in say a lot about us. Whether you're a romantic at heart who prefers warm and floral scents, or a bubbly and lively personality who loves fresh, effervescent fragrances, one's fragrance choices are intimately tied to the wearer's moods and personality.



Fragrance is also a great way to incorporate your favorite designers into your everyday ensemble. Whether you live for the fashion-forward designs of Costume National, the sublimely graceful style of Vera Wang, the timeless glamour of Carolina Herrera, or the classic and contemporary Prada, your signature scent speaks volumes about your overall sense of style. Another great thing about fragrance is, even if today's economy doesn't allow you to afford the luxuries of a head-to-toe couture wardrobe, you can still indulge in your favorite designer's signature scents.

What better way to create a lasting impression than to have someone say, "You smell great! What fragrance are you wearing?", and with a knowing grin, you can casually say, "It's Prada."

Come mid-November/early December, depending on where you live in the U.S., you may look at your CVS in a whole new way. The friendly neighborhood drugstore chain is stepping into the beauty big leagues, with the roll out of its new upscale beauty store-within-store concept called Beauty 360. The first such store-within-store will debut in Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle with a second opening later this year in Mission Viejo, California.

The store chain is banking on consumers in this economic uncertainty who are tightening their purse strings, to continue to treat themselves to smaller, less impacting luxuries like lipsticks, eye and face creams. “It may not be a vacation, or it might not be the new dress, but you know what, the $15 lipstick might not have the same pinch to her that the rest of those higher priced ones do,” said Mike Bloom, senior vice president of merchandising at CVS in his November 3 interview with WWD.

Make no mistake though, in the new concept, you will not find the Revlon’s, L’Oreals or the Cover Girl cosmetics, but rather higher price point beauty lines like Borba, Laura Geller and Canyon Ranch products, with price ranges of $15 to $170. Although the concept could make for stand alone stores, currently the company only has plans to expand into existing stores where there is enough room to have the true store-within-store concept, namely about 1,000 of their West Coast locations. I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine walking into CVS or their 360 and spending upwards of $50 for a beauty product, that seems reserved for the high-end department stores where the overall concept is luxury, not just one part of it. But perhaps, that is just me.

Well sort of. The actor/father/activist and New Orleans resident has teamed up with Kiehl’s by loaning his name to their Aloe Vera Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser with the proceeds of the sales benefiting the post-hurricane Katrina charity, Make It Right, which is dedicated to helping rebuild homes in the lower 9th ward of New Orleans. The body wash is a dye and sulfate-free cleanser that is loaded with aloe, glycerin and coconut and packaged in a recycled bottle. So even though brad won’t be there in reality to scrub your back, the suds you create will help many still struggling with the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina. The body wash retails for $16.50 and can be found where Kiehl’s products are sold.

The lovely, talented Francophile Sofia Coppola will be exercising more of her director chops this fall when she shoots the new Dior Beauté Miss Dior Chérie fragrance, as reported in Fashion Week Daily on May 30. The award-winning Ms. Coppola is hardly new to directing — The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation, to name a few, have made her the darling of the industry, so shooting a commercial for Dior should be a breeze. It has been leaked that she will shoot at Versailles in the style of Marie Antoinette. Does that mean pale faces, powdered wigs and lots of blood-red rouge stained lips?

To say the Couture team loves makeup is an understatement. We love the glossimers, the gel mascaras, the Juicy Tubes, the bronzers, the Cargo, the Chantecaille, the Giorgio. Yes, we know makeup well. Doesn't almost every woman? So imagine our pure delight when Zappos.com started selling makeup. As we perused the website one evening to see what we would blog about next, we happened upon Lola Cosmetics. If you are a Sephora girl, then you know of Lola Cosmetics - adorable packaging, not-too-sticky gloss. I'm in love with the fab mini gloss kit, it lets me be a gloss mixologist. Since you're already on Zappos.com, why not sit, click and grab some of the fabulousness for yourself?