ROSE GYM CLOTHES? Exciting New Active Wear Development! Back in the day before supers and regulars, applicators vs none, menstruating women were left without anything discreet or sanitary to absorb their bodies’ discharges. My point here is that we learn to make do with what we have before advancements allow us to wonder how we ever survived without. Look at where we were at technologically, even a year ago, and can you imagine getting through any Wednesday now without your iPhone? But sometimes, as I’m sure those dripping 19th century women thoug...

CELEB HALLOWEEN COSTUME COMMENT WINNER! Congratulations! We’ve got a winner for last week’s Celebrity Halloween Costume Comment Contest! A big congratulations goes out from Kiki D. and Perfume.com to KIMBERLEY D. from NEW HAMPSHIRE! This lovely (and lovely-smelling!) woman and valued member of the Perfume.com community won a $250 shopping gift card to use on any of Perfume.com’s over 12,000 brands of fragrance! —Just in time for the holiday season! The team at Perfume.com wishes Kimberley D. and all our valued customers happ...

TWILIGHT TEARDOWN Nina Ricci Sues The Makers Of Twilight Fragrance I can’t even imagine what it would be like if the fashion world followed the same rules as other industries, including fragrance. Imagine if no one BUT Chanel could make a little black dress? If Dior was still the only designer in the world allowed to send tailored New Looks down the runway? In fashion it seems that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: top looks from couture and ready-to-wear collections clone and morph as they trickle steadily down the retail line into basement barg...

"I'LL TAKE HALF & HALF" Halloween 2009 The Final Costume Call After straight days of turning my wardrobe and makeup drawers upside down, the final Halloween costume inspiration finally struck me mid-afternoon Saturday as I debated options between the lines of good and evil, femininity and masculinity (or rather of costumed sensuality vs. the form of more horror-inspired costumes). It was this line of thought about extremes, and stumbling across an asymmetrical blazer I’d somehow forgotten about, that turned all of my earlier preparations on their heads....

KIKI'S COSTUME PICKS #3 The Vampire I’m back to darker ideas. There are many advantages to choosing a black-themed outfit instead of white—- not just for the shade’s slimming qualities but it’s just much more fun to be bad when you get the chance, isn’t it? Everyone is raving about vampires this year. I’m thinking about it… the Beau was actually slightly enthusiastic examining this costume idea, but possibly only because I threatened to bite him with my fangs after the party. I like the idea because I know I look...

KIKI'S COSTUME PICKS: #2 The Angel This season’s sheer and boudoir-inspired trends mean magic for costuming. The ability to inject a little sensuality and sexuality into Halloween costumes is a longstanding trend with women (and girls much too young to be participating in these types of fashions), but if done tactfully, can be liberating and immensely fun—- all part of the exhilaration of “donning a different mask” on All Hallow’s Eve. Today I’ve flipped from black to white, exploring the angel possibility for my second potent...

KIKI'S COSTUME PICKS: #1 #1: The Witch Perhaps it’s the lazy Sunday morning air, but my first solid thought on a Halloween costume is along the lines of the classics: a witch. Maybe not as exciting as what you’d expect of me but you know, my mother hasn’t worn a drop of anything but Chanel No. 5 since ’63, so there’s a little bit of that tendency toward the tried-and-true in me. There’s a way to do the classics without being sweater set boring, however too. I’ll tell you what I’m thinking for witch, and you’ll have to let ...

HOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN Last night I thought I’d look to the stars for Halloween costume inspiration with a glass of wine, and came across some get-up gems that had me on the floor laughing. I had to share. Heidi Klum as the Hindi god Kali, the goddess of time and change, is outrageous in any time, day or era. Leave it to a supermodel to still look fabulous slathered in blue paint, with bloody hands and miniature heads dangling off of her waist. Truly the high fashion diva of Halloween, Klum has also strut her cos...

COLOGNE CORRUPTION Scandal In The Land Of Perfumery You should know that my love of perfume is not a new affair. Throughout my life, I ALWAYS saved EVERY penny I could for fragrances (ok and shoes). So diligently in fact that my mother, and later my roommates, (and today the Beau) would lecture me on my gravitation toward the day I would have no roof over my head or food in my belly, but still enough in the closet to fill my own department store. (I know they MEAN this to be a bad thing, but…) I have worked hard for every pair of stra...

PASSION FOR SURVIVAL I remember watching television airings of Cleopatra as a child, my mother knitting on the couch, lamenting the perfection of Elizabeth Taylor’s eyebrows while I sat on the floor with my knees under me, enthralled instead by the way her headdress jewels danced around her face. Last week the ever graceful Liz Taylor underwent heart surgery, twittering (honestly, I’m still not used to this as a news forum) to the world late Thursday that she was back at home again already, healthy and re...