Botanical Perfumes for Eco Chic Women

I am so excited about a new perfume launch by my friend Tania Reuben. Tania’s Pure Natural Diva website has taught eco chic women for years how to be eco savvy without trading in Manolos for Birkenstocks, and now Tania launched Pure Natural Diva Botanicals, right on time for the Mother’s Day. The Pure Natural Diva Botanical Perfumes are crafted with 100% natural ingredients. That’s right – no synthetics ingredients and no phthalates, great even for those who suffer from allergies and typically can’t even use perfumes!

Years ago when I stopped buying conventional perfumes, I looked for natural alternatives. What I found was either brown bottle roll-ons that didn’t make me feel at all special, and they were often filled with the same synthetics I was trying to avoid. Or super luxe botanicals that were hundreds of dollars a bottle.

Tania Reuben says about her research for finding botanical perfumes from the market, and why she was determined to get an affordable luxury botanical perfume for the market.

The Pure Natural Diva Botanical Perfumes come in four different varieties: Pure, Natural, Diva and Elixir and all available at the Pure Natural Diva Botanicals website. If purchasing perfumes online worries you – why not take an advantage of getting the sample sets and testing all of the perfumes before ordering a full bottle? I love the mini testers also for traveling.

Pure Natural Diva Botanical Perfumes

Pure is sensually uplifting, like sunny day in a mixed field of lemongrass and Lavender. The notes in the Pure include uplifting cassie, lavender, soothing chamomile, lemon, lime and an Egyptian neroli.

Natural is fresh and inviting, imagine a picnic in a rose bordered citrus grove. Notes in the Natural botanical perfume include a hint of clary sage, exalting pink grapefruit, Moroccan rose, and soothing ylang ylang.

Diva is full of soul, sultry and mysterious. Notes include natural musk derived from Ambrette, a sinfully smooth New Caledonian Sandalwood, blended together in a lusciously robust Vanilla. These three perfumes are $100/bottle and the Elixir is a premium perfume with more exclusive ingredients costing $150/bottle.

Elixir is sensually uplifting as delicious as a lingering morning with an ocean view. Notes include aphrodisiacal vanilla, a hint of oakmoss, exquisite osmanthus, married with rejuvenating pink grapefruit and red mandarin.

You can also sign up to be a VIP Diva and you can sign up for exclusive VIP only offerings, preview beta products, and get free VIP shipping on all purchases over $50 (basically it means free shipping for all perfumes you order).

Tania Reuben – the mastermind behind the Pure Natural Diva

A few years ago I interviewed Tania, make sure to read the interview with Tania and get inspired to live eco chic lifestyle.

This post brought to you by Selfridges & Co. (with video provided by GoViral). All opinions are 100% mine.

Gift ideas from the Best Department Store in the World

Today I'm virtually shopping in the world's best department store, the Selfridges in London. Selfidges contacted me to pick some of my personal favorites from their luxury Holiday Gift Guides. Selfridges was recently voted the "Best Department Store in the World" at the Global Department Store Summit in New York. In my recent trip to London I did some shopping at the Oxford Street, let these pictures take you to London and get the feel of shopping on the Oxford Street, walking towards the Selfridges London store, which is a national institution with the most famous shop windows on Oxford Street. Selfridges is known for opening the world's first ground floor beauty department in 1910, which revolutionized department stores. You might also know Selfridges from one of my personal favorite Christmas movies Love Actually (I just watched it last night!), the shopping scenes were filmed in the Oxford Street store in 2003. Across every single department, from food to fashion, home to beauty, Selfridges sets the standard for up-to-the-minute style, lasting quality and exceptional customer service.

This Holiday season Selfridges created this fun video and created awesome “Not Your Usual Christmas” Holiday Gift Guides to help their customers to find luxurious gifts for anyone in their list. What I love about their Holiday Gift Lists – they have picked classic products that stand the test of time and some very trendy products that are a hit this year to make it easy to pick gifts. The gift guides are named not your usual way, or can you imagine many gift guides for "silver foxes" or "eroticists"? While I found my all time expensive dream gift from the lists (it's been in my dream list for years), the guides also had luxury for less options, so you can get the luxury  feeling of shopping at Selfridges without spending a fortune.

Editor's Picks from Selfridges

Here are my favorite Holiday gift ideas from Selfridges.

1. Mulberry Bayswater This bag has been in my dream list forever… And if I can have one regret it's that I didn't buy it when I still worked for Mulberry and got an employee discount. I know, what was I thinking? Any woman would love the classic Bayswater.

2. NESPRESSO Magimix Gran Maestria coffee machine The most popular thing in coffee in Europe is Nespresso. Nespresso coffee machine is everyday luxury any coffee lover in your life would love.

3. Diptyque candles When you are looking for a luxurious gift for less, you can't go wring with Diptyque candles.

4. Lancôme Christmas cracker gift set. Lancôme gift sets are on my wish list every single year, and if I don't get one – I usually go and gift myself one. This Lancôme gift set it includes six beauty-filled Christmas crackers. Including; Hypnôse Mascara 2ml, Bi-Facil 30ml, Mini Juicy Tube – Fraise 17, Visionnaire 7ml, Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate 7ml, Mini L'Absolu Rouge ßx Lipstick 06.

5. ALEXANDER MCQUEEN skull scarf The Alexander McQueen skull-print modal and cashmere-blend pashmina is a must have for any fashionista. Got a picky teenager? This will impress.

6. MARC BY MARC JACOBS Rock Chrono rose gold-plated watch This year I am really into rose gold-plated watches. The rose gold gives a nice hint of pink to the masculine chrono watch, and I just love it!

7. Loimu glögg by Lignell & Piispanen When in doubt – buy a bottle. Whether it's a good bottle of cognac or whiskey, a bottle is a good gift idea in my book. For wine lovers it's difficult to get a gift especially if you are not a wine expert yourself, although bubbly is always a good idea. My gift pick from Selfridges is Loimu glögi, Scandic mulled wine, mixture of Merlot, the arctic bramble and a touch of cinnamon and cloves, perfect for the Holidays and my Scandinavian Christmas wouldn't be complete without some glögi.

Check out the Holiday Gift Guides at Selfridges and watch the Holiday video by Bruce Weber, shot in the Selfridges Oxford Street store.

Who’s trending: Debbie Sterling

Have you been already waiting for the Just In! scoop this week? I know, you probably expected something about the Breaking Dawn, or more hot guy pictures like David Beckham last week, but this story isn’t about entertainment, fashion, celebrities or design.

This trending topic is about Debbie Sterling, engineering and toys, and it’s not really even new of this week, it hit the news already about two months ago.

Watch the video or continue reading.

Toys that get girls interested in Engineering

Debbie Sterling graduated as an engineer at Stanford and her story is probably pretty typical: she didn’t even know what engineering was until a high school school counselor suggested it might be the right path for her. “Engineering” isn’t one of the things girls are “supposed to” be interested in, and it is not as encouraged on young age, and thus not many girls seek into studying engineering. I can relate to Debbie and what it is to be a rare female in the engineering world, I studied mechanical engineering, majoring in production management, although the internship in an electronics company is my only real work experience in the engineering field. The truth is that 89% of the engineers of the world are men, and Debbie wanted to do something about it and she is now on a mission to get more girls into engineering.

Debbie started her research from the toy aisles, and realized that the “blue aisles” for boys are full of construction sets and building blocks, but the “pink aisles” for girls are filled with dress ups and dolls, and very little toys that get girls into science. Many toy companies manufacturing the toys that promote engineering to boys have made their “girl versions” of the toys by making the boy sets in pink – and many, like LEGO, have also gotten criticized for doing so.

Debbie hit the nerve when she realized that girls are more interested in reading and she wanted to create a scientific toy, which comes with a book and a story that girls are interested in. Goldie Blox was born.

Goldie Blox is a story of Goldie, who solves problems and builds things – and girls can read her story and use the building blocks that come with the book to create objects. The book-toy helps o develop spatial skills and teach basic engineering principles, and the bottom line: to get girls more interested in scientific thinking and engineering.

Goldie Blox has gained an impressive amount of press the last two months and it raised over $280K of kickstart money on Kickstarter to build the first round of 5000 toys, expected to be delivered in February 2013. I have a feeling this is THE next IT TOY for the girls of age 5-9, and you might want to do yourself and your little girl a favor and pre-order a set right now ($29.99). Learn more about the toy on their website.

Debbie looks like she is living life to the fullest and has found her passion to inspire more girls into engineering and we can’t do anything but congratulate and wish her success. I’m sure this isn’t the last time we are covering Goldie Blox here at Skimbaco.

Photos: Goldie Blox

Driving around Italy is like driving inside a Fiat 500 or a Mini Cooper commercial.

The scenery, the tight curves on the roads, the small parking spots, trying to avoid hitting the Vespas and the bicycles… While Fiat is Italian, and Mini isn’t, when it comes to new cars, new Mini Cooper is almost as well represented in the Italian city scene as the new Fiat 500. I’ve been a Mini fan for a long time, but now I’m sold on getting behind one of those Fiats… The Fiat backseat only seats two, so I guess it’s out of question with three kids, but at least I can enjoy my other Italian Fiat souvenirs at home..

Want some Fiat in your life without actually having to trade your car in..? Check out all of these cool vintage looking Fiat products now on sale at Fab.com.

And see some of my car photos from my trip to Italy here…

PS. I was entertained by this picture… when these Italians wanted a fancy wedding car, they opted for a convertible Volvo!

Sofia Vergara looks amazing in the blue sexy Catherine Malandrino off-the-shoulder number she wears in her latest film – “New Year’s Eve.” I happen to know that this New Year’s Eve numerous women will be looking as sexy as Sofia in the exact dress, but they only paid $75 for the dress! The Catherine Malandrino ‘Modern Queen Elizabeth’ dress regularly retails for $525, but you can rent for just $75.00 on Rent The Runway, it’s already rented out for the New Year’s Eve!

But even if this dress is already unavailable to rent for New Year’s Eve, I recommend checking out Rent The Runway for other dresses. You know how it is.. you always want to have a new dress for each special occasion and then the rarely or only once used dresses start taking your closet space and even worse – it just gets ridiculously expensive! I love the idea of renting dresses and always looking top notch and in the latest styles without actually spending the big bucks for each dress.

Rent the Runway isn’t just for dresses… If you truly want to dress to impress, check it out for handbags and other accessories as well, like this Vintage Chanel Classic Black Coco Bag that retails for over $6,000 but is yours to rent for that special party for $400. Of course, all of the bags are not this price point, they have handbag rentals starting as low as $15.

Finally there is a way to eat the cake and have it too when it comes to dressing up in your best for the special events.

I’m happy to announce the Skimbaco Thanksgiving Home Shopping Guide is here! I’ve collected several great products that make it easy for you to do Thanksgiving cooking, set the table pretty, and get the spirit of Thanksgiving in your home.

My approach to enjoying the holidays is that it has to be enjoyable, a little bit fancy, but easy and also stay in the budget. There are many things that I recommend spending money on, because they either last for years to come, or they simply make your cooking or entertaining so much easier that it’s simply worth the money. Then there are some things that I just can’t justify spending a lot of money, like seasonal decorations unless they are heirloom quality and will be passed on in the family. Check out the Thanksgiving Home Shopping Guide for great products, and here are some tips how to make your Thanksgiving easy.

Decorate with Seasonal Flowers or Food

Flowers make the biggest impact when decorating for the Holidays or when entertaining. I think seasonal flowers are one of the most important touchous that truly make your home look dressed for the season. I included a section of beautiful wreaths in my shopping guide, and one of my favorites for Thanksgiving is the Turkey and Pheasant Feather Wreath from 1-800-Flowers, and they have a great deal going on right now, you can save $10 on gifts $59.99, use promotion code TENDOLLARS at checkout.

Another great way to decorate is to create centerpieces or displays out of seasonal fruit like apples, pumpkins and pears. They will look amazing, don’t cost much and you can eat them later on! The cournucopia with fruit pictured above is also from 1-800-Flowers, but you can easily make something like that yourself.

Take Shortcuts in Cooking

I used to be one of those people who did everything themselves, and I mean everything from sewing the tablecloth and baking everything from scratch and canning my own cranberry relish. I adore Martha Stewart, but let’s face it, even she has a full staff, and who has time to do it all. So nowadays, I take shortcuts, and make it easier!

It’s OK if some of the dishes are easier made by using boxed ingredients (I always use boxed cornbread muffin mix for my cornbread stuffing). You can also find many gourmet foods from your local store for your Thanksgiving table. One of my favorites is Stonewall Kitchen’s New England Cranberry Relish that you can also buy online. Just put it in a beautiful dish and nobody has to know this year you didn’t make your own relish. And in case you have been just using the canned cranberry stuff, well, it’s about time to switch to something more sophisticated and tasty!

You can also host the Thanksgiving dinner potluck style, or make some of the food, like pies ahead of time and just freeze them. And honestly, the amount of delicious gourmet food that you can have delivered to your door isn’t lacking these days. My favorite cake shop is We Take The Cake, and you’ll be able to find a perfect cake to end your Thanksgiving meal from them, and you’ll save time and stress not cooking it yourself!

California Wine Club – Wine Delivered to Your Home Monthly

I recently received a test membership to the California Wine Club, and I can’t even describe how excited I am about it!

The entire idea of having wine delivered to your door steps makes me happy, but truth to be told, I’ve always been a little worried about any clubs like this, not just wine, but any club that just sends you stuff on monthly basis. What if you don’t like it?

But after receiving my first shipment of two bottles of wine and tasting them I got the idea immediately: this is not about getting your same old favorite wine delivered to your home every month for the convenience’s sake, but this is about wine adventures.

California Wine Club is all about bringing you something new and exciting every month, never bulk, closeout or private label wines…ever. Each and every wine comes from a real working winery and is backed by their 100% guarantee. The company is owned by Bruce & Pam Boring, a Californian couple who got frustrated in trying to find the best wines, and realized the best way to find great new wines was to get recommendations from friends. 20 years ago they got a business idea of creating a wine club and delivering the wines they could “recommend for friends” and they started the search for great wines from small family-owned wineries from around the world, and this is what the California Wine Club is all about.

Discovery. Adventure. Enjoyment.

This month’s wine selection was a perfect example of tasting something new. The shipment included Perry Creek Winery 2008 “ZINMAN” Zinfandel and Perry Creek Winery 2009 El Dorado Chardonnay, and while I like Chardonnay and usually buy it, I typically never buy Zinfandel, because I’ve always thought it tastes to earthy to me, or I just sort of like Cabernet Sauvignon or even Merlot better. Yet – I loved this Zinfandel!

And the second I tasted the Zinfandel I realized, this is what the California Wine Club is all about. Finding new gems, exploring new wines, and being creative and thinking out of the Kendall-Jackson. Now, don’t take me wrong, my favorite easy everyday to-go dinner wine is Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay 2009, because I don’t have to think about it and it’s easily available. But when it comes to discovering new wines, I’m frustrated because I’ve spent too much money on wines that I simply don’t like, even though I do listen to the recommendations others give and I even read Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World.

California Wine Club is Exactly What This European Needed

And I especially struggle with wines from California. I didn’t grow up with Californian wine, I grew up with French, German, Italian and Spanish wine, and know my Riojas better than anything from Napa Valley. And with “growing up” I don’t mean as a child.. don’t take me wrong, even as European, there was not (much) under age drinking at my home, but as any good European I was well educated on the cognacs, champagnes and wines before I hit the ripe age of 21.

Just with these two wines from California Wine Club, I’m hooked. I want to learn more about Californian wines, and I want to discover more small wineries, and wine that I could (or would) not pick at my local wine store. Oh, by the way, these two wines were perfectly picked for the month of October, because the Perry Creek Winery 2009 El Dorado Chardonnay was a perfect match for German style Jäger Schnitzel, pork cutlets with mushrooms, as we were celebrating Oktoberfest at home. We didn’t need sweet German Gewürztraminer to pair with pork – this Californian Chardonnay worked even better (not as sweet), especially when we topped the dinner with a pear tarte, another perfect pairing.

Speaking of food pairings.. With every wine shipment you will receive California Wine Club’s magazine Uncorked and it includes interviews with the winery owners (where the month’s selection is from) and even recipes what to cook with the month’s selection wines. Every single thing the California Wine Club does is done with heart, caring and genuine interest in being the friend who brings you great new wines to try each month. Now, what’s not to love? Even the price, $49.45 per month (includes shipping and handling) for their most popular club the Premier Club that ships two bottles a month (you can choose red and white or two of either one) is great for high quality wine that is hand picked for you. Do yourself a favor and give it a test drive. I mean, a test drink. Check out the California Wine Club. Use code Skimbaco and receive 10% off any gifts or for joining.

Disclosure: I received a test membership to California Wine Club, but I take my wine seriously and all of my opinions are my own.

Since you are now scared with the all of the facts about using plastic and paper bags, let’s talk more fun things, OK? Like shopping for those reusable shopping bags and other eco-friendly bags. Remember that by buying and using reusable shopping bags you are contributing for the better environment, thus you can justify splurging on these cute bags. Saving the environment is worth it. Like if looking stylish alone wasn’t.

1. Cute Shopping Totes from Europe

Accessorize is one of my new favorite places to shop for fun bags, jewelry and more. The biggest problem with this store is that they have so many cute shopping totes that you will have hard time deciding which one to get. Their bags make you smile and nothing is better than making you smile every time you go to grocery store! Prices range in their canvas shopping bags from $20-38, but they also have lots of other kind of large totes and bags.

Luxury handbags can be eco chic too!

What about handbags? Yes, there are also handbags that are made using eco-friendlier products. For example Evolve45 is a handbags are made with certified vegetable-tanned leathers that are a byproduct of the meat industry and colorful organic cotton linings. The entire message of the company is that if we all evolve our consumption slightly, even forty-five degrees that collectively we can make a huge impact on a cleaner, safer environment. I adore the company and not just because of their message, but honestly – their handbags are so stylish!!

3. Bloomingdales shopping totes are stylish classic!

Bring the big city look to grocery store every time you shop, and get some stylish shopping totes from Bloomingdales. My favorite is the Bloomingdale’s Iconic Storefront Canvas Tote ($30) and of course the very loved replica of their paper bag, the Bloomingdale’s Medium Brown Bag Patent Tote ($35).

4. From candy wrappers to celebrity favorite – Ecoist

Ecoist has come long ways since it first started making bags from candy wrappers and other recycled materials.

Today their collections is vast with so many new products added to their ever-loved candy-wrapper purses. Their 5 grocery shopping bag sets ($38) are popular even among celebrities such a Jennifer Garner. I also like their awesome large totes ($148) and the silver braided totes ($38), also made from recycled candy wrappers.

5. Granola Hermes

I couldn’t help but naming this bag Granola Hermes. It’s actually called Thursday Friday Together Bag, available at Singer22, and it’s available in four different colors for $48. You can pretend you left your real Hermes home and just carry this one to the grocery store.

Shopping Totes

Photos: respective retailers/brands.

I had to write two posts about The Gypsy Wagon, my new shopping destination love, because one post simply wouldn’t do. The Gypsy Wagon is a fun home decorating, apparel, fashion and gift store in the popular North Henderson Avenue of Dallas, Texas. They also have an online store for all of us who don’t live in Dallas. The online store is amazing too, but has only a fraction of the products the store itself has. So if you live close to Dallas, or ever visit there, make sure to add The Gypsy Wagon and Henderson Avenue shopping district in your list of places to see. You can read more what I thought of The Gypsy Wagon store at Skimbaco Home and some cute pictures from their home decorating items.

Thank you for my friend of 12 years, artist & jewelry designer DeAnna Cochran for introducing me to The Gypsy Wagon. You can also find DeAnna’s jewelry at the Dallas store location. Like DeAnna’s hand made artisan jewelry, the other products in The Gypsy Wagon are also from artisans from local area, as well from around the world. In a way it’s like the Etsy had Academy Awards and all the winners are sold in this one store.

On the top of the artist made items, you can find indie clothing brands, accessories, cowboy boots and gift items from stationery to soaps and home decorating items. If you like the hobo chic look, you will have to check out The Gypsy Wagon’s stylist and the head buyer for jewelry & apparel Molly McBride on Polyvore.

So Texas!

The Gypsy Wagon is Texan to the T. You will be able to get the Boho Cowgirl look for yourself and your home and you’ll feel the Southern hospitality the moment you walk in. From cowboy books to cowboy boots, they have it all. Oh, and of course, you can also find Texas must haves like horn club hairs, you know, from longhorn horns and cow hide.

This is a store where you can’t do anything else but smile, and I think even their online store brings that to you.

The Gypsy Wagon
2928 N Henderson Ave, Dallas, TX 75206
Store Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm | Sundays, 1pm-15pm
Phone: 214-370-8010

Zeal Optics SPPX Transcend GPS Enabled Snow Goggle with Spherical Polarized and Photochromic Lens ($399) is the world’s first GPS-enabled ski goggle, featuring a small LCD display inside the goggle with Recon HQ software enabling you to track, report, and display stats in real time. Because of course you will want to know GPS metrics such as location, speed, and distance skied, and how steep the slope is. Transcend goggle is also polarized and the photochromic lens automatically adjusts according the light conditions and like in other Zeal goggles, the lens is double-layered and features Zeal’s proprietary, permanent anti-fog treatment, designed to extend the life of the lens. Another ski product I absolutely do not need, but oh, I want.