Queens of Spring: Layering Combos as Bright and Fresh as You Are

 Spring is a fickle season, we all know that. That's why we have April showers bringing May flowers and what not, but despite the temperamental weather, spring always brings a sense of hope and rejuvenation even when winter tries her best to keep her icy fingers clutched around our ankles. To ring in the new season and brighten our moods, here's a few layering combos to bring us out of hibernation ranging from light and dewy to a trip to the cafe after a downpour.

The Darling Dewdrop:

You’re as fresh as a daisy. Wide eyed and excited for new life and new adventures as the temperature rises inch by inch every day. Spring is your favorite season and you look forward to wearing ballet flats and juicy clear lips in the crisp new air, even if you do need to bring an umbrella just in case, you'll splash in the puddles regardless.

Lotion: Tree Hut Lotus Water is a juicy, refreshing watery scent. Super lightweight it sinks into the skin easily and has a light scent that plays beautifully in crisp air.

Perfume: Miu Miu L’eau Bleue is a crisp aquatic floral that smells like new beginnings. It’s a little sharp with its white florals but that adds to its uplifting nature as it has a nice greenness to round it out and keep it dewy. Perfectly fit for an optimistic young woman, 

The Spring Dream:

The girl waiting for a warm sun to blanket her cool breezes, the Spring Dream is hungry for something lighter to sate their appetite. A subtle sweetness with a calming earthy base, there’s nothing like strawberry mochi and cup of iced green tea on your daily walk.

Lotion: Eos Strawberry Dream brings some coziness and softness to the skin. making for a wonderfully sweet base to build on.

Perfume: D’annam Strawberry Mochi is a gourmand for people whose highest compliment for a dessert is “its not too sweet”. It balances well with the lotion as it avoids becoming a cloying, sugary mess. The strawberry is subtle and the powdery almost savory combo of red bean paste and rice gives it a unique scent.

Perfume Oil: Beyondscents Green Tea oil is subtle and refreshing. Not just a straight green tea scent, it combines bergamot, mandarin, asian peony and musk for the perfect amount of earthiness to tie the whole scent together.

The Earth Sprite:

This girl really thrives during the spring. But not the bright crisp spring days; it’s the April showers she loves. A rolling storm allows her to enjoy the quieter moments: smoking a joint, eating warm soup and dancing to her cd player. Maybe she’ll paint, maybe she’ll create a new avant garde hairstyle, maybe she’ll just enjoy the day.

Lotion: Mill Creek botanicals Lemongrass lotion is a refreshing scent that instantly brightens the mood. It leans more herby and citrusy than sweet but is still a very pleasant scent.

Perfume: D’annam Pho Breakfast is less of an umami broth smell and more of the crisp fresh toppings. The cilantro, the ginger, the spices all combine to make a fresh herbal scent that truly is reminiscent of pho, balancing savory and aromatic with fresh and clean. If you love the way the tips of your fingers smell after garnishing you pho this is for you.

Perfume Oil: Beyondscents Lemon Verbana accomplishes much of what the lotion does being a bright zingy scent that marries everything together.

The Green Goddess

The Earth Sprite’s sister, she’s a little softer. If the former is the thunderstorm then the Green Goddess is the dewy lush earth after. Stretching her limbs in the humid air as the temperature raises enough for a sweet treat or a cold drink. She’s more playful, and a touch sweeter but still grounded.

Lotion: By/Rosie Jane Dulce Body Milk is a creamy sweet lotion that avoids stickiness but is still very rich and to me genuinely smells like sweetened condensed milk which to be fair can be a lot for some people.

Perfume: D'annam Matcha Soft Serve is not a sweet matcha scent, instead being a little more bitter and herbaceous which  think makes it a wonderful pairing for the lotion as it tempers the sweetness down and makes it lean towards more of an earthy and savory gourmands. That's not to say there's no sweetness as there's still milk and waffle cone notes, but the matcha here is more of a matcha powder dusted on top bringing it a great balance.

Perfume Oil: Sugarmilkco Oat Milk is a nutty, kinda powdery lactonic scent that doesn't lean too hard into sweetness but instead gives it a nice depth to create a refreshingly sweet scent.

The Naughty Naiad

As the earth de-thaws so does she. Crawling out of her tree stump coated in moss to bathe in a fresh algae covered pond and run through the forest bare nude with the rest of her sisters.

Lotion: Method Daily zen is bright and refreshing. Perfect to step into the new season with as it brings a sense of calm and peace befitting its name.

Perfume: Alberta Ferreti Femina is a dewy watery green floral that's complex in ways lots of modern florals are not. It's ahead of it's time with it's watermelon It's rich flowers floating on a pond. A young naiad, freshly formed and eager to explore once she grows pasts her lazier aptitude.

Perfume Oil: Beyondscents jasmine oil are the flowers adorning her hair. A headier scent floating around and grounding the waterier florals to give her a more sensual edge that makes you fall in love.

Mississippi Queen

A blooming magnolia in the hazy southern heat. She's sweet, refreshing and intoxicating enough to give you a little buzz. It's just on the edge of gourmand. A cocktail after church, with white flowers still staining your wrists.

Lotion: Native Eucalyptus & Mint is a wakeup call. It's stimulating scent sinks into the skin and seems to awaken all your senses from the inside out.

Perfume: Imaginary Authors Saint Julep is exactly how it sounds. A boozy, crisp mint julep on a hot summer day both refreshing and tempting with its soft hint of sweetness. A little sin at the end of the day.

Perfume Oil: Bourbon French Perfumes' Perfume of Paradise is a lush, heady bouquet of white florals. It truly blooms when the skin is damp with sweat or on an overcast day. Truly intoxicating with its sensual aroma.

Cool for the Summer: Guide to the Goldfish Princess

 With summer around the corner I find myself realizing more and more: I'm not sexy, I'm cute. And that's not a negative! For years I've seen girls my age and younger who seem to be more mature than me, they seem sexier, they seem sultrier while I've always felt like an eternal child with my short stature and neotenous face. But I was still missing this wide eyed innocence associated with styles like Key West Kitten (a name I loathe due to its origin but that's neither here nor there). I've always felt I existed in the middle, not completely womanly and sultry, but not quite juvenile and nostalgic either.

So if you aren't a Key West Kitten but you aren't a Summer Siren either what are you to do?

Well you might just be a Goldfish Princess.

Straddling the line between the two aforementioned looks, you're both bubbly and flirtatious. You won't be partying on someone's yacht or building sandcastles, but you always find your way in someones beach cabana sipping a fruity drink and laughing at a wild story. There's something bright and effervescent about you, like a cold can of orange pop on a hot summer day: sticky sweet and refreshing.

The basic color palette is simple. Pinks, pinky-oranges, lilac and vibrant shades of orange. And you don't want anything flat, oh no it's all about shimmers and iridescence and of course sequins. You want to emulate fish scales, but you don't want to rely on the traditional summer beachy color of blue. Instead you want to shine. And when it comes to patterns keep them big, too many small patterns can come across as too cutesy, and none at all can sometimes be too serious.

Mesh, crochet, organza are the fabrics to go with, anything that leaves a whisper of sensuality like if you ran into the water you'll come out with your clothes clinging to you like a second skin. It's not overtly sexy, but it's flirtatious. That's the key to the whole look: flirty. A sweet smile and a double entendre but you'd still rather hang out with your friends even if you have several numbers in your pocket.

For shoes think platforms, platforms and more platforms! Whether they be cork wedges or sandals, you want something with height but also stability. You're running around in them during the day and dancing in them at night!

Now that you got the basic look down, you may be wondering about accessories and for those I saw keep it simple in design but not necessarily in amount. Stack your bracelets! Wear beaded and gold anklets and get that extra piercing you've been thinking about.

The most fun part just may be the makeup. Sticking to its vintage inspiration (Cleo the Goldfish from Pinocchio), you want that well--golden orange glow. For that you need a good base which is tanned skin. Go with the self tanner or the tanning oil (with caution) for that natural bronze to the skin! A good shimmer body oil is also perfect for this look. Again you want to glimmer in the sun the way fish scales do, and NUXE has beautiful oils in a pinky gold shimmer as well as a classic gold. The plus to this oil is it can be used on your hair, face and body and you truly want to shine all over for this. It's really important to look for things that are pink-orange if you can and not rose gold, which is a completely different kind of finish.

Since orange is the name of the game here, orange blush is a must and thankfully more brands have a true vibrant orange than they used to. Coral is fine too, but orange truly lights deeper skin tones from within. Fenty, Makeup by Mario, About Face and more have many true oranges to look for. Combine this with a bronzer of your choice for a truly sunkissed glow.

What may be the scariest part of this look is an orange lip. People may be afraid to look clownish and I understand! But it's all about picking the right one. You can go for a coral-pink like the Fenty Glow Bomb in C U In Maui & the Maybelline Teddy Tint in Baby Tee. Or if you're brave enough you can shoot for Mac 'Flamingo' and Fashion Fair 'Olè Orange'. Either way, they can both be tampered and tamed by a simple brown liner or a plum (pink if you're fairer) lip liner like Buxom's Power Line Plumping Liner in Powerful Plum or the Colourpop Lippie Pencil in Shot Clock.

And the most important lip product for this look in my opinion is Mac's Lipglass in Nymphette. It's a beautiful orangey-pink with an orange iridescent shimmer and can truly be worn by anyone. Where alone, as a topper or in a lip combo, it's a truly stunning shade that pulls more pink on some and more gold on others.

To balance out the look with some more pink, I recommend the INLP Nail Polish in Yes Please for it's pink holographic shimmer on the hands and toes. No white toes around here!

Alright, the sun's gone down and you've been invited to a beach party. You want your nighttime look to pop. What do you wear? Well Kiko and Half Magic have you covered with their gorgeous shimmer eyeshadows. Kiko's Water Eyeshadows give more of a wet effect, while the Half Magic Eyeshadow Singles emphasize the glitter. Whether its gold, orange, purple or blue, these shimmers will dazzle without a doubt. Just top it with a waterproof mascara for longevity.

When it comes to hair, I imagine the Goldfish Princess to be eternally windswept. The curls are never 100% defined, there's always a little fuzz to them. But I also imagine the hair to be short whether it's a TWA or a pixie. There's something carefree about shorter hair. As for the color, coppers and honey blondes and reddish golds. Like the sun's been caressing your head all your life.

Now we've gone over what the Goldfish Princess looks like, but what does she smell like? Salty, briny aquatics? Juicy tropical fruits? Well. Sorta kinda both! Poesie Perfumes has a perfume of the same name, which a lovely twitter mutual (persephone_girl) reminded me of and I'm 100% sure that's where the name came to me from, just sitting in the back of my subconscious for years until I was directed towards where I got it from. It's a playful scent described as 'sea salt caramel, shimmering golden amber, ocean waves whipped by a cool wind, magic potions'.Unfortunately the scent is seasonal and is currently unavailable for purchase (keep an eye out).

So I scoured for something to supplement it, and I knew realistically, this was a scent profile that could only be conjured by an indie perfume brand. Instead, I figured I make it a combo with two scents that individually fulfilled my two requirements: gourmand and aquatic. And if you know me, you know I view perfume layering as an art It's glamour magic, it's crafting a story and a new persona using the luscious sense of smell.

What I found was something better than I could have dreamed of.

Starting off we have Suspended Water Lily by Syd Botanica

To preface and for full transparency, this is not a scent I've experienced myself, so I am going based on various consumer reviews.

Many describe Suspended Water Lily as a 'mermaid' or 'water nymph' scent. Some get a more freshwater feeling to it, likely due to the algae, but it's still a bright and refreshing aquatic scent with a light ginger note that makes it fizzy and effervescent. It opens with a white floral blast before giving way to the ocean beneath, and some remark that the seashells have an almost briny sea creature smell. But a sweet one.

This to me sounded perfect. It has the exact aquatic qualities I wanted for the Goldfish Princess.

But where would I get the gourmand not? Well, apparently on my beauty shelf!

If you're in the know then you know PrtygrlBeauty. An independent business beloved by all the girls who love to smell good (and apparently Monaleo as well). Her range of body care is no joke, and smells absolutely amazing while lasting forever and actually keeping the skin soft.

Her body nectar 'Brown Sugar Babe' is amazing, smelling sweet and caramelly all day. I truly recommend mixing it with an unscented lotion for this, it's that strong. But it's a testament to it's quality.

Now that you're the shimmering Goldfish Princess from head to toe, I think you're ready to conquer the beach. You don't need to be an ultra sexed up girl or the dolly little beach bunny if it doesn't speak to your heart. Instead you can be something in between, dazzling the beach and after it's all over? The sushi restaurant.

Hey it's not cannibalism! It's the circle of life!

It Girl Series: Cultivating Style One Perfume Combo at a Time

Perfume is more than just another item to own. For me it's a ritual. It's a crucial step in becoming the version of me I know exists deep down, even if my outfit of the day may be bummy. As much as I love fashion styling, I know the right scent will really tip it over the edge and truly create the overall image you want to present.

If you've been following me on Tumblr, you know my it girl series is fairly popular. It focuses on using perfumes not to fulfill an aesthetic per say, but to tie together your personal style. And I've decided to expand that here but not only will it be perfume, I'll also include makeup and fashion as well. I can't take complete credit for this, as I was greatly inspired by Hannahejo on tiktok, but I focused primarly on fragrance while she does a variety of clothing, jewelry, makeup and miscellaneous items. I found her ability to create niche aesthetics to be very inspiring, and very akin to what I've been doing on Polyvore/Shoplook for over a decade. I'm not saying I started this of course not, she's older than me and has no idea what I am, but instead that I felt a connection knowing there was someone in the world who does the same thing i do. A collective consciousness if you will.

Starting soon I will be transferring my it girl posts onto here and expanding them, and in fact, this will be tied into my bombshell guide so I hope you all enjoy and maybe even find something that resonates with you!