This week I have a review of a fun new product- Lip Savvy's innovative pout perfecting lip glosses. The people from Lip Savvy sent me their gloss in the shade My First Kiss (a very pretty soft pink) to review.

Lip Savvy glosses are over achieving glosses- they are anti-aging, anti-oxidant boosting lip plumping and moisturizing glosses all in one wildly packaged gloss. I was interested to try the gloss because I wondered how it would be possible to do all of those things and still achieve a pretty and likeable gloss. I say likeable because I have tried so many lip glosses that have been almost perfect, but not quite. Either they have a sticky consistency, or they taste bad, or (if they are lip plumpers) they sting the lips.

I am very pleased to report that Lip Savvy glosses have none of those unpleasant attributes, feel highly nourishing on the lips (and I have a problem with dry lips) and are long lasting. They also give the lips a slight plump without any uncomfortable side effects. What a treat to discover! Below are the different colors they offer:



And a look at the fun packaging:



For a more comprehensive review, please see my video above. If you are unable to see the video, click here, look in the sidebar of this blog, or visit my channel: www.youtube.com/TheDailyConnoisseur

The lip glosses sell for $18 and are available on their website www.belipsavvy.com

And lastly, thank you to everyone for your comments of love and support about the new baby. We are so thrilled and I am so grateful to be a part of this wonderful online community with you. Thank you.

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Hello Everyone,

Today brings a very happy announcement...

We are having another baby!

My husband and I are thrilled as is our daughter and, of course, Gatsby. I am in my second trimester and feeling great (if not somewhat exhausted). The new baby is due at the end of May and we couldn't be happier...

Happily I have not suffered from any nausea, but this pregnancy has had the very curious affect of rendering me totally exhausted at the midpoint of every day. This exhaustion has proven challenging and has tested me in the areas of keeping up the home (cooking dinner every night has been interesting), keeping up my beauty routine (le no makeup look is becoming more and more literal every day) and even keeping up this blog (I didn't shoot any videos for a while because I just didn't feel presentable)...

As I move into the second trimester though I find I have more energy and have even developed a few beauty and homemaking systems that have saved me time and have produced rather illustrious effects (all based on French philosophies, of course). I will divulge those later but for now I just wanted to share with you my happy news. Thanks in advance for your support.

And as for an update on the book... I am just as impatient as you are! I will not bore you with all of the technical issues of its pending publication, but suffice to say I *hope* to have it out before the end of this month. Thanks for all of your support with that matter as well!

I hope you have a wonderful week...

This Thursday I will be doing a post (and video) on a very cool new lip gloss on the market...

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Madame Chic (the Parisian host mother in my study abroad program) ran a very beautiful and efficient home. It was the details that mattered to her. One thing she always used was a tablecloth. The table would be considered naked without one.

Every night after dinner I would help her take the cloth off. We would do this carefully as baguette crumbs and other odds and ends usually gathered on the cloth’s surface. We would then walk to the kitchen window (their Parisian apartment was several floors up) and shake the cloth out the window as a way to remove all of the crumbs. Then if the tablecloth was still looking in top condition the cloth would be taken back to the table, if not it awaited its laundering the next day as fresh linens were ushered in.

It was such a simple activity, shaking the tablecloth out the window, but I remember really enjoying it and feeling rather ‘quaint’ while doing it.

Since I’m back in America I have brought with me Madame Chic’s love of tablecloths and always have my own table adorned. Of course crisp white is perfect for elegant occasions (formal or casual), bright colors are lovely for adding life to a room and seasonal hues are perfect for ushering in the holiday spirit.

I also like to experiment with layering different textures or colors together on the table. Below is the table I set for the Royal Wedding Tea Party I threw last spring. Here I layered a marigold colored linen cloth that I picked up during my travels in Sri Lanka on top of a plain white table cloth purchased from Williams Sonoma.


So that I am not constantly laundering tablecloths after ordinary dinners at home (some how we are a little messier at dinner time than Famille Chic) we generally put place mats on top of the cloth when we have dinner to avoid too many spills.

And because I live in a townhome I still employ Madame Chic’s quaint technique of shaking the cloth out the window after dinner. Although regarding that I do have a word of caution- It is important when shaking the cloth out the window (especially if you live on the second floor or higher) to make sure that a.) no one is underneath the tablecloth when you shake it and b.) that there is nothing valuable like a silver spoon hiding in the folds of the cloth (please learn from my mistakes).

And as a side note, I am not in love with our dining room set. But since it's not in our budget right now to update it with a new one, I find that a tablecloth really dresses it up and makes me forget the set's less desirable qualities...

I would love to know… do you use tablecloths? How do you dress your table?


Madame Chic's beautifully laid table is the first picture featured... Oh the wonderful dinners that were had at that table!

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This week's video shows you my sunglass collection. I laugh when I say 'collection' because I only ever have two pairs of sunglasses. As with my capsule wardrobe and makeup collection- I have a capsule sunglass collection too!

I like to go for classic shapes and avoid anything too trendy. Sunglasses can be expensive so I go for a pair that will last me for years to come.

My favorite sunglass maker are Oliver Peoples- they just produce high quality glasses that are stylish and timeless. Mine are the Zooey wayfarers designed by the actress Zooey Deschanel. I love wayfarers as they add a vintage touch to any outfit. I've had these glasses for about two years and bought them on Robertson Blvd.

The second glasses featured in the video are Michael Kors aviators- another classic American look. These aviators are very lightweight and will never go out of style. If you take good care of your sunglasses they will last you forever. I've had my aviators going on five years now!

If you are unable to see my embedded video above, click here, look in the sidebar of this blog, or visit my channel: www.youtube.com/TheDailyConnoisseur

I would love to know... what are your favorite sunglasses?

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Hello and Happy Halloween to everyone...

I do love this time of year- the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays really put me in a festive mood.

Here are a few seasonal delights I take pleasure in...

Comfy slippers for pottering around the house...


These are my Rococo slippers fashioned after Marie Antoinette's very own bedroom slippers. They are from a company called Goody Goody (www.goodygoodyshoes.com) who make whimsical house slippers for men, women and children. I bought mine at the museum shop at the Getty Center when visiting the Paris Life & Luxury exhibit. They add a certain panache and flair to my ordinary house clothes...

Steaming cups of tea in china cups...





As I am a hopeless romantic, this is my favorite china cup (mug?) commemorating the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their marriage. This was a gift from my husband for my birthday (he knew I'd like this one!) and I drink out of it every day...

Cooking and baking seasonal treats...


I've always looked at the Gooseberry Patch cookbooks and admired their quaint charm. This one is the Quick and Easy Christmas version with over 220 quick recipes that are perfect for the holiday season. Everything from breakfast casseroles, to comforting main courses to decadent holiday treats (like homemade fudge). I just received it and have been busy marking up the recipes I wish to try. I'll give you an update on how they turn out! I bought mine from Amazon.com

I'll be sharing many more of my favorite seasonal delights for the holidays in the weeks and months to come, including my very favorite holiday candle...

I would love to know... what are your seasonal delights this time of year?


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Do you remember my recent post on The Etiquette of Mobile Phones? Well in that post I mentioned an old friend of mine whom I took to tea- who would occasionally take phone calls during our tea. In the post I asked the question – how do you tell a good friend that something they are doing bothers you?

I am certainly not the person to answer that question as I am somewhat of a chicken when it comes to confrontation (OK not somewhat- I am a chicken). You see I am very afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, angering them or getting into an argument. So instead of confronting the issue I just don’t do or say anything at all.

Well I did not have to worry about confronting my tea room friend because she actually read my blog and confronted me! Thankfully she is a kind person with a sense of humor otherwise there might have been a fracas.

That afternoon we actually met for tea and caught up. She explained to me her side of the story (she has to accept calls for work and be on call at all times) and I explained to her mine (when I am with someone that frequently looks at their phone I feel as though they would rather be somewhere else). She said she understood my pet peeve and I apologized for not bringing it up to her immediately. In the end we had a lovely afternoon over steaming cups of tea and an awful lot of cake.

Later that night I began to think about the subject of friendship, etiquette and confrontation. While it was temporarily more comfortable and convenient to say nothing at all and complain about my friend’s behavior in my head, in the long run it would have been more sound if I had confronted the problem head on. After all, letting something so trivial get in the way of a friendship is ridiculous to say the least.

So my etiquette question this week is being turned to you. What do you do when you are bothered by an etiquette issue from someone close to you? Do you ignore it and hope that it goes away? Or do you confront it head on? What is your stance on etiquette, friends and confrontation?


The Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain objects pictured above date back to 1753. They can be found at the Getty Center in Los Angeles...

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I've really enjoyed doing this mini series on The Daily Connoisseur. Over the past few months I have sampled a lot of fragrances and learned a lot about my tastes, preferences and the various phases I go through depending on the season and what mood I am in.

And I am happy to report that I've made the decision on what my new signature scent will be. Drumroll please....





My new signature scent is Bvlgari Rose Essentielle

If you remember this perfume gave me a favorable impression from the very beginning and several of you readers actually recommended it to me. It is heady, aromatic and distinctly rosy (which is my favorite note) and brings me to exotic places every time I wear it. In short, it is simply delightful and for now I am loving it as my signature scent.

I say 'for now' because I have become so entranced with fragrance that I will forever be on the look out for new and sensational scents, and who knows what I may find down the road?

I also have to say that along with purchasing Bvlgari Rose Essentielle on my journey over the last few months I also picked up small vials of Jo Malone Red Roses (I couldn't help it) and Grapefruit. Two delightful scents for summer.

This isn't to say, of course, that I don't still love my beloved Stella. I shall return to her as well every now and then.

So there you have it. Thank you for joining me on this journey and thank you to all of you for your wonderful recommendations through the process...

I would love to know, what is your current signature scent? Let me know in the comment section or if you feel inspired do a video response to my above video and show me your signature scent!

If you are unable to see my video above where I show you Bvlgari Rose Essentielle click here, look in the sidebar of this blog or visit my channel www.youtube.com/TheDailyConnoisseur

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This Thursday I will be announcing the perfume I have chosen as my new signature scent. Before that, however, I wanted to introduce you to the botanical niche perfume company Strange Invisible Perfumes, who I had the pleasure of visiting in their flagship Venice Beach boutique. While there I got to sample several of their all natural, organic botanical fragrances. Keith, the sales associate was extremely knowledgeable and gave me a run down of some of their most prized fragrances.



Strange Invisible Perfumes have no synthetics in them. I am not very familiar with botanical perfumes and it takes a while to get used to these very organic smells but you quickly fall in love with them. Some of the perfumes smell more mainstream like Prima Ballerina and Tahitian Honey. (My favorites of the bunch were Tahitian Honey, L’invisible and Magazine Street) and some are highly unusual like Black Rosette and Essence of IX.

The perfumes are the creation of perfumer Alexandra Balahoutis- truly a master artisan. The Venice boutique is the only one in the world although their fragrances are sold online on their website www.siperfumes.com as well as in certain high end department stores. As a side note, because these perfumes are so unusual I would highly recommend sampling them in person before purchasing online...

If you are a perfume connoisseur into synthetic free organic niche fragrances- this is the place for you!

The bottles are very minimalistic and the fluid of the perfumes are a golden amber color and would look lovely on any vanity. (Apologies I don't have better pictures of the bottles themselves... my camera went amiss that day. Visit their website for vivid pictures and more in depth descriptions)

Here is a very bare bones rundown of the different scents.

Moon Garden- Tuberose and jasmine

Fair Verona- a classic fragrance: citrus, cardamom, Egyptian jasmine and bergamot

Magazine Street- patchouli, magnolia, vanilla, vetiver

L’Invisible- oak moss, ylang ylang, hibiscus, vanilla, red rose

Tribute (limited edition)- a tribute to Coco Chanel: ylang ylang, amber, rose patchouli

Prima Ballerina- Egyptian and Turkish roses, Greek sage, lime botanical musk

Aquarian Roses- wild roses, marjoram, sandalwood

Essense of IX- the scent of a winery- rose, black currant, California lavender

Tahitian Honey (limited edition and my favorite)- temple mandarin and wild honey

Black Rosette- African roses, black tea, spearamint- meant to capture the essence of leather (this one is very unusual- not my cup of tea but could be heavenly for the right person).

Depending on whether you get a EDP or a Pure Perfume vial, or limited edition fragrance, price ranges from $135 to $350

For more information visit their website www.siperfumes.com

And stay tuned for this Thursday's post where I announce the perfume I have (finally) chosen as the search for my signature scent ends!


The image of the Venice boutique featured above is courtesy of futurenatural.com

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