Style Want: Terra Azzura by Guerlain + Pucci, and Why I Want It

I am not a beauty blogger. Heck, I can't even manage to wash my face on a regular basis, and I've been known to once-in-a-while (ok, way more often than that, but let's pretend, shall we) not even bother with makeup in the office.

But I do love a product or 3 (see my Sample Pledge, here).

I'm also a sucker for the old French design houses. And for the mad crazy beauty of an Italian great.

Therefore, my stylish friends, when Bloomingdale's nicely sent me an email this morning (just a regular ol' promotional email, not a blogger-y-please-post-pretty-please email) touting the marriage of two of my style icons in a beauty product, well, let's just say that I'm adding it to my Things I'd Like to Have List. Why, you ask, does Guerlain matter to me? Just think Shalimar + my mommy. Even my mother-in-law knows that I love old fashion things, and gives me lovely old French perfumes bought in Paris flea markets.

Ignore the cream sample in the foreground. The Molyneux box in the background contains a lovily-bottled ancient French perfume that, while it probably smells nothing like it originally did, still holds (lord knows how long after) a stunning, old school scent. It was one of my MIL's first gifts to me, after she went to Paris on a relative whim with 2 girlfriends.

And Pucci? Yeah. I'm a scarf-a-holic. And a print-a-holic. Though I've not worn them much lately (pre-#healthyme, I felt like a scarf around my neck was just too much and made my face quite frankly fatter than it was already), but among my prize possessions are scarves of all varieties from my grandmothers, a Schiaparelli scarf (thanks, Malena, for the amazing gift) in a marvelous blue-green print, and an Ali Ro dress that screams "I copied Pucci" in a way that I think is just marvelous. One day, I'll have the real thing.

Original link is long gone, but here's the post in which I first purchased the dress at the Clarendon South Moon Under (and found my Style Mojo again, for what it's worth)

I have no idea if it's worth trying, but I'm thinking that it might just be my next #healthyme goal reward. Anyone with me?

Thank you, Bloomie's, for the image that I not-so-slyly poached from your Terra Azzurra page.

A couple of additional style notes my brain connected from this post but aren't necessarily related:

1) Crazy, ridiculous excited about the "Impossible Conversations" Schiaparelli/Prada exhibit at the Met. As I've mentioned, I'm planning a trip to NYC with The Bean and my mommy (The 2 Elsas + I). Can't wait.

2) Crazy, ridiculous excited that, as the Schiaparelli website now says, "Rendez-Vous en Juillet 2012."

3) Malena's. Yes, DC people, she's in West Chester, PA. But a) she has a rubylane store, and b) she's phenomenal. She's my dealer, and the woman responsible for The Bag.

Cleaning the Style House: My Sample Pledge

I’m getting organized [H busts out laughing in the distance].

I’m cleaning house. Literally and figuratively.

While there are major home organization and cleaning projects (like, say, clearing out the minicrib Bean No. 2 hasn’t slept in for oh, over a year, of all the accumulated crap. It makes for great storage, people), I’m also trying to clean up me. #healthyme was obviously the start of that. Now that I’m feeling physically cleaner, I’m taking baby steps on other fronts.

First up was my 10% weightloss goal reward: my new Clairsonic Mia. I can’t review it yet, as I’ve only used it twice. But it is pretty fun, this “toothbrush for my face” (only way I could describe it to The Beans).

Second, and also a first step [again, H busts out laughing in disbelief] in the Big Projects, was cleaning up my dresser top. It’s a horrible catch all. Our nanny regularly clears it off for me (bless her), but I think she’ll stop soon out of frustration.

So Saturday, after a Big Tar-ZHAY run in which we bought a new lamp for the living room and I found one for my dresser (similar here, I just couldn't find my exact one online), I hauled proverbial ass and cleaned up the dresser. I dusted it, and I even pulled out the Old English Polish like Mommy taught me (if you have wooden furniture, it's really the best).

Isn’t it pretty?

I’m blessed to have a family that pulls things from the trash. Good things, like, oh, this actual dresser and this beautiful enameled tray. It’s graced my dresser or a dining room table in my “grownup homes” for as long as I’ve lived on my own. It was also Grandmom’s. Which means I won’t ever part with it. I found the box that now holds my cosmetics samples at Container Store (similar, but not wood, here) a while back. It’s held various things on and off, but it’s been a clean way to hold my cosmetics for a few years.

The last part of my cleanup pledge to myself is that I have promised myself I will use All of My Samples before I buy anything new. Between birchbox and blogger events, I’m full up. I do love getting them, but I always forget to use them. So between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, I cleared out all of the old swag bags and birchbox shipments and organized them: hair products, body treatments, facial treatments, facial cleansers, and random @#$% like press-on nails (yup. you read that right). And those cute little birchbox boxes? Two of them fit perfectly inside my wooden box to keep things in line. I like lines.

I’ve made it through 2 nights and have used up 4 packets so far: a Kiehl’s Avocado Eye Cream (my regular cream, I got extra samples on my last order for travel. Clearly, I used them that way), Kiehl’s Rosa Arctica cream (creamy and light all at the same time), a Darphin wrinkle serum (I’m totally undecided on whether serums are worth any trouble at all), and a Paul & Joe face moisturizer. I don’t have any particular product reviews; trying samples just doesn’t give enough time for this girl with a sensitive face to test the reaction.

But I am cleaning house.

Curious about what else I use up in my attempts to purge the samples? Follow my #SamplePledge tweets and on Instagram (yes! I'm finally on Instagram @DCCeline).