Gorgeous Opal Jewelry

As I perused the Web for opal jewelry, I stumbled upon this image of a high-karat gold bib festooned with boulder opals. It took my breath away, so I clicked through to find out more about the designer.

Carolyn Tyler is a native Californian who moved to Indonesia after falling in love with beautiful Bali. Her designs are executed there by skilled Balinese craftsmen, using high-karat gold, sterling silver, and gemstones. My kind of gig, let me tell you! It would be my dream to have a workshop full of talented goldsmiths who would take my drawings and turn them into three-dimensional works of art.

Carolyn's designs are very much within my personal aesthetic, and indeed there are similarities in the materials we prefer to use as well. I love to use fossil ammonites and asymmetrically-shaped boulder opals, stones that, as Carolyn says, have spirit. They are also some of the most beautiful things that nature has to offer.

Whereas the stones she uses in her designs are not precisely-cut or otherwise flawless, her designs are. They are a wonderful, carefully balanced, melange of colorful gemstones set in sunny yellow metal adorned with the ancient technique of applying hundreds of miniscule orbs of gold known as granulation. Her pieces can take weeks or months to complete, and the results are worth every minute.

See more of Ms. Tyler's jewelry by visiting her Web site at carolyntylerjewelry.com. (Her site design is also pretty great, IMHO.)

Scent of the Day 6.2.10 - Hermes Hiris

Another favorite scent to wear when the weather is hot and moist is Hermes Hiris. Originally, I was not a big fan of iris-based scents. To my nose, they were too "rooty" and smelled far too much of soil. If I want to smell like I've just worked in the garden, I'll go work in the garden, thankyouverymuch. But there's something about Hiris that enchanted me completely and has turned me into a fan of the fragrant rhizome.

Hiris has tons of iris in it, some of it quite rooty, but it lacks the metallic buzz of soil and is instead quite refined and elegant with a nice touch of warm vanilla and honey. The musky qualities of ambrette (one of my favorite notes) shine through in the drydown, making this scent a cousin to another favorite of mine, Chanel No. 18.

I wish I hadn't fallen in love with Hiris so completely at Bergdorf's, because when I got home, I found I could purchase it at a much lower price at one of the many online fragrance discounters. Live and learn.

Notes: iris, neroli, carrots, coriander, hay, rose, ambrette seeds, almond wood, cedar, honey, and vanilla

Minx in the Baltimore Sun

Thanks to John-John Williams IV for including us in his Fashion 5 feature recently.

Posted by theminx on Opalescentminx.com
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Annick Goutal Petite Cherie

While wandering through Saks during Sniffapalooza, Andrée and I were lured by the Annick Goutal counter and its absense of a crowd. Finally, a place we could browse quietly. I like to try perfumes at my leisure, a reason I like Sephora so much, but no sooner did I pick up a bottle of Mandragore when it was sniffus interruptus. The snooty SA wanted to know if she could be of assistance. "Yeah, go away," I said inside my at that point quite weary and scent-overloaded brain.

"What are your favorite perfumes?" Snootina asked.

For some reason, despite having been exposed to a gazillion niche and other fancypants perfumes that day, the first scent that popped into my mind was D&G Light Blue. The SA's lip curled in distaste.

"Well," she snooted, "these fragrances are of higher quality, but perhaps you would like Petite Cherie (pronounced with a strong faux French accent). It has a pear note that you might find similar to Light Blue's apple note."

I doubted that, as I still hadn't found an AG scent that I actually liked (and...do pears really smell like apples?), but let her spray some on paper for me. Not bad. I was pretty good about not trying a lot of scents on my skin during the day, and gave her some fresh real estate to spritz. Andrée really liked Petite Cherie on me. Oddly enough, I did too. And when the fey male SA offered to rub some PC body cream on me, I let him (on my hand, although I could have gone for a foot rub at that point). The opening note was definitely pear, a lovely fresh and juicy ripe pear, one with a blushing greenyellow skin. And the drydown was faintly musky with a bit of rose, and a slightly metallic green grassiness. But not too much grass.

I loved it.  But I did not buy it.  Not there at least.  Not until a week later. Why fork over $72 hard-earned dollars to a snooty SA at Saks (one who dissed my favorite summer scent) when I can order it from a discount e-tailer for $40?  I may like the occasional department-store fragrance, but I'm no dummy. :)

Notes: pear, peach, musk rose, vanilla, fresh grass