Senior beauty editor Cristina Mueller is newly obsessed with this concentrated essential oil she sampled by L'Occitane. It's supposed to function as a moisture-boosting, repairing serum under your regular face cream, though as Cristina discovered, it's great all over too. She tried it in place of a body cream right before getting on a flight (no worries about FAA security hassles, it comes in a one-ounce bottle) and fell in love: "It sinks in instantly, lasts, and makes your skin feel incredibly smooth and soft." And lest you fear that using it her way means blowing the entire bottle in one go, Cristina is quick to point out that two or three pumps is enough for arms and legs.
If you happen to catch fashion director Hope Greenberg one of these summer weekends, it's likely she'll have on these Dr. Scholl's wood sandals. "They're the perfect combination of right-now chic and throwback 70's," she says, "and I love the sophisticated luggage color."
Our fashion assistant, Nicola Miller, goes crazy for all things Vivienne Westwood, and topping her list of favorites is this striped halter dress. "The mix of cotton fabric and nautical stripes are perfect for the summer," she says, "and it highlights the back and shoulders, which is sexy without being over-the-top."
Senior market editor Lynette Pone is really into this cotton top from Steven Alan. It's got a really straightforward, boxy cut that's just a bit nipped in at the waist to accentuate your shape. The refined box-plaid print is like something you'd find on a men's dress shirt, only updated in a rosy pink. Try it with a denim skirt and gladiator sandals, as Lynette's been doing, or to dress it up for work, pair it with a dark pencil skirt and heels.
Delight.com is a new e-boutique that posts a new product every day at noon. The items that have gone live so far are uniformly tempting and cute: Senior fashion editor Laurie Trott wants this waterproof red floral tote, which is foldable, weighs next to nothing, and is intended as a reusable grocery bag. "I love this print," Laurie says, "it's a little Japanese, and a little '60s psychedelic." It's actually sold as a set of five bags in different-but-equally-appealing colors and patterns, which end up costing about $6 each.
Portland-based company Frazier & Wing produces only two things—pillows and mobiles—but they do them both really, really well. Designer Heather Frazier turns magazine clippings into cheerful, floaty mobiles that from afar look like Technicolor wind chimes. Each piece is handmade, and they range from $75 to $175 depending on size, a steal considering they can take up to eight hours to make.
Her other specialty is handstitched pillows, and they're also pretty great: cream-colored cotton canvas embellished with silk-blend appliqués that form graphic, playfully sophisticated prints.
Some people have a personal aesthetic that's so sharply defined it becomes entirely, exquisitely, predictable. Around our offices, there are more than a few of these people, but my personal favorite is special sections director Liz Kiernan. She sticks to classic, clean-lined, easy-to-layer pieces that are
feminine but never frilly. So her two most recent acquisitions came as no surprise: Vanessa Bruno's leather wedges are versatile and comfortable (two signature Liz mandates) but totally pulled-together. And this delicate gilded floral ring by St. Kilda, which she wears both on its own and stacked with a number of other thin gold bands, and which strikes the perfect balance between girly and modern.
Senior beauty editor Cristina Mueller is perpetually infatuated with the idea of a smoky eye. ("The dark, rocker-y, penciled-in look," she specifies. "I love the slapdash, sexy smudginess of it all.") But slapdash though this look appears, it isn't an easy one to get right: Lots of pencils she experimented with at first tended to smear and then look messy—and not sexy messy, just sloppy. Then she tried Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil and discovered perfection: It comes in a slew of deeply pigmented colors, goes on creamy and soft, doesn't smudge, and true to its name, lasts all day long.
Fashion news editor Jen Ford loves this leather button ring by Yarborough. "Woven leather is always a classic," she says, "but on a button-style ring it looks really fresh and unexpected." The soft tan leather feels coolly '70s and a touch masculine—sort of like you're wearing a cuff link—and makes a statement without being so dramatic it offsets everything else you're wearing.
For summer sandals, creative director Andrea Linett loves the traditional Indian-style thongs from New York boutique Matta, which are handmade and come in both metallic gold and silver, giving them a slightly modern twist. Zoom in on the photo on their site and you'll notice teeny rows of braids and perforated circles that add the perfect amount of embellishment.