Attention, one and all! The ladies of ThePerfumedCourt.com have made a royal proclamation that you will no longer have to buy full size bottles of the fragrances you like (or think you might like) if you don’t want to. By combining their individual collections as sellers on eBay, Diane Weissman, Lisa Lawler, Patty Geissler and Nancy Hirshbein created a hand decanting fragrance service distributing hundreds of perfumes from the U.S. and abroad, including easy to get and some incredibly hard to find items, to fickle fragrance wearers, cautious buyers and those in all around need of a good scent for a good price.

What’s decanting? These dames “spray, pour, or use sterile pipettes to take perfume from its original large bottle and repackage it in a smaller bottle.” You can order a perfume of choice bottled in sizes ranging from 1ml. sample vials to a 1 fl. oz. decants. And when we say “of choice,” we mean it. The princesses of The Perfumed Court wrangle in rare, discontinued, vintage and uncommon, in addition to the common, scents from all over world via boutiques in Paris, estate sales and many other venues. They even get new creations straight from perfumers. These people are time and energy saving God-sends.

” make it available for people to try before they start out on the search to get their own bottle, to avoid the disappointment of jumping through a lot of hoops and expense, only to find out it’s a good perfume, but doesn’t suit them very well,” says Geissler. This service is also a great option for those who change fragrances frequently and never use a full bottle, those who want to wear the scent for a little while to test it before investing, those who love having lots of choices or those who want the scent for nostalgic purposes.

“One of our clients wanted some of the perfume her mother wore, she had broken her bottle, and she wanted it in the original formula, which is extrait and discontinued. She didn’t want a bottle of it, and she doesn’t want to wear it, she just wants to smell it occasionally because it smells like her mom. So, she bought a little decant from us that she can smell as she wants without having to spend a lot of money for that comfort.”

If you frequent the site enough, there is the Perfumed Courtier Buyer Rewards Program, where you earn percentage off future purchases depending on how much you spend. So let The Perfumed Court find your next “crown jewel” by visiting them at www.theperfumedcourt.com or off with your head!

There’s a fantastic holiday shopping creed that goes something like this: “One for you, one for me.” On December 4th, New York City’s spa of all spas, Bliss, will make indulging both your gift list AND yourself as simple as can be.

Bliss Soho will be opening its baby blue doors from 6pm-8pm for a (our favorite word) SALE on all Bliss and Remède products. Spend $100 and get 10% off; drop $125 for 15% off; and stock up on $150+ and get 20% off.

Expert Bliss estheticians will be available to recommend the ideal Bliss-scription for your skin, or for a deserving girl friend on your shopping list. Whether you’re stocking up your cabinet or trying a Bliss regime for the first time, this is a great opportunity to do so at a discount.

Raffles for a free Santa Paws Manicure and Mistle Toes Pedicure will be called at the end of the night. These limited-edition treatments feature hot cream massages, paraffin dips, and snowy extras like a hot cup of cider and a free shade of festive Essie nail polish to take home with you.

The best part of the night? The celebratory sweet-tooth goodies, of course. Champagne flutes and Bliss’s signature brownie buffet will be on hand to rev up your shopping engines. Cheese platters and veggies will also be available for those of us who are unfortunate enough to be on a diet.

Now, for our other favorite word: FREE. Yes, admission is free with your RSVP*! And if the other 72 things you have to do today won’t let you make the evening event, there’s good news: there are special sales running all day from 9am to 9pm. So go get your Bliss on!

What: Bliss Spaahhh-liday Shopping Event
When: Tuesday, December 4th, 6pm-8pm
Where: Bliss Soho, 568 Broadway, 2nd Floor

*To RSVP, email: rsvpsoho@blissmail.com

Let’s face it: holiday shopping is a daunting experience. The endless to-do lists, running from store to store, battling the crowds, prioritizing the sales, random perfume samples spritzed in your face at every turn.

Ironic that a season of giving does nothing but taketh away (ta-ta sanity, sayonara savings!) Well – the good folks at Details magazine have answered your yearly shopping SOS. From 12:00pm – 5:00pm on Saturday, December 1, they’re bringing together 70 of the hottest venues that the Meatpacking District has to offer in a one-stop-shopping-style holiday block party. And if you think that discounts of up to 40% off at participating stores, free food and wine tastings and silent auctions sound too good to be true, get this: it’s all to benefit the Meatpacking District Initiative. Plus – Kenneth Cole will feature a production truck stocked with limited edition t-shirts created to benefit World AIDS Day. Giveth, much?

Need more motivation? Participating vendors include Tracy Reese, Banana Republic, Puma, An Earnest Cut & Sew, Calypso, Scoop Men, Rebecca & Drew and many more. In addition, the Hotel Gansevoort will host seven pop-up stores including Le Blanc, Remington, Asics, Dunhill, Hanes and Epson.

Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon, along with noted performers Julianne Moore, Maggie Grace, Vanessa Carleton, Chad Micheal Murray, and Mya, have donated their autographed handprints to support the Curel Skincare Wall of Helping Hands, benefiting the American Red Cross in NYC. Nixon unveiled the wall of handprints November 1st at the Time Warner Center, where it was on public display for three days afterward.

Visitors were invited to leave their own handprint addition when they gave a donation to the Red Cross. Continuing through the end of the month, the celebrity handprints are being auctioned off online (only one day left!). All of the proceeds benefit the American Red Cross. Curel Skin Care has already raised $250,000 to support the American Red Cross in its mission to help prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies, which is particularly timely considering the recent fires in California. Curel has created limited-edition bottles of Targeted Therapy Hand & Cuticle Cream that features the Red Cross symbol in honor of this campaign. Log on the www.curel.com for details.

These days, being a celebrity is all about accessories. Balenciaga Le Dix bags, Chloe boots, Tom Ford sunglasses, Mercedes convertibles, these all accompany starlets everywhere they go. In recent years, more than quilted leather or bold hardware, baby bumps and strollers have dominated the realm of celebrity accessories. Just like Lindsay Lohan wearing a Chanel dress and suddenly it’s all any fashion tv show, gossip magazine or celebrity style blog can talk about, a protruding belly garners quite a bit of attention in Tinsel Town.

Perhaps it is logical that after the rash of over-the-top celebrity weddings of a few years ago that a drove of too-pretty mommies was not far behind. What’s the most interesting about the trend is some of the truly fabulous, multi-million dollar weddings, have no offspring (or chance of reconciliation – in some cases) in sight.

Those leading ladies lucky enough to snag the most popular accessory in Hollywood gain more than just a guesthouse full of adorable onesies and the luxury of actually eating. Naomi Watts, Tori Spelling and Salma Hayak have received more publicity, wanted or not, during these nine months than when they have major projects premiering. Certainly having a child is as big a career boost as an Academy Award.

Nicole Richie is so not used to carrying so much weight around.
Source: Brickandstonegossip.com

Two of the most recent women with child in Hollywood are Christina Aguilera and Nicole Richie. Though both are notoriously tiny, Christina is the only one of this pair showing any real signs of having children. Instead of Paddington bags this year, Ms. Aguilera and Ms. Richie more noticeably spot the ubiquitous Hollywood Baby Bump.

Source: Topix.com
Tori Spelling graces the cover of US Weekly.

The recent explosion of celebrity offspring seems a little off, however. In an industry where women try every which way to appear in the spotlight svelte and sexy, many women have made a media spectacle of – gasp – gaining weight. We wonder if pregnancy isn’t the loophole in the obsessive world of too-thin women hoping to be famous at almost any cost. Tori Spelling, following the highly successful and lucrative line as Brandy several years ago, made her pregnancy into an actual television program. And then, after reaping the benefits of her barely-watched show (seeing as how she was not going to inherit her fortune as expected), she got the cover of Us Weekly and a spread displaying her post-baby body. Smart cookie, this one.

With new celebrity couplings always springing up and a generation of famous ladies looking to settle down, I don’t believe there will be an end to the baby trend anytime soon. My prediction for next season’s star-worthy accessories: metallic bags, round-toe pumps, and twins.

It’s that time of year again. Endless soirées, office holiday festivities, galas–you know the drill around the holidays. So when the fab French café Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club celebrated it’s fifth anniversary, we jumped at the chance to attend an event surrounding something other than turkey, reindeer, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

We were especially excited when we learned the Upper East Side restaurant would be transformed into an art gallery of sorts for the event (you know how we love to get our culture on) featuring famed French Artist Cyrille Margarit whose clients have included Ivana Trump and Madonna. Better than drinking eggnog with Aunt Ida right? Speaking of imbibing, guests were served champagne and wine courtesy of Champagne Paul Goerg and MetroWine respectively. Coupled with hors deoeuvres from Bruno’s eatery, the treats were swell.

So on Tuesday, November 6, hundreds of media, dignitaries, socialites, and event planners were hosted by Bruno Jamais and Katherine M. Rothman, the CEO of KMR Communications. Czech Republic Trade Commissioner Thomas Hart, socialites Annabel Vartanian and Kristian Laliberte, and music impresario Charles Huggins had their party hats on.

And all guests had the opportunity to enter a raffle benefiting RiverKeeper, an organization that was established to safeguard the ecological integrity of the Hudson River, its tributaries and the watershed of New York City by tracking down and stopping polluters. The raffle featured all kinds of luxury prizes including a Suz Andreasen Couture necklace, David Yurman Cufflinks, a Cole Haan handbag, among other things.

All in all, we would say the event was a success as $1,600 was raised through the raffle for RiverKeeper. And all the guests left with goody bags from Parisian skincare company Sothys. So if you ever have a hankering for established contemporary French cuisine, you know where the party’s at.

Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club
24 East 81st Street
212.396.3444
www.brunojamais.com

Everyone knows that dating in New York is supposed to mirror an episode of Sex and the City. We’re supposed to be pursued by gorgeous, fascinating – albeit oddly incompatible – men, who we have exciting adventures with, before deciding that we are oddly incompatible with them. So why does dating so often seem more like a Woody Allen film? Following a few simple tips just might help turn your first date experience from Annie Hall to Carrie Bradshaw.

Source: Gothamist.com

Don’t:

Go straight from the office. Spend some time getting ready for the date, whether that just means a quick clothing change or a more lengthy primping session. Doing so will insure that you not only look your best, but feel your most confident.

Reveal your neurosis right away. Any disconcerting facts about you from “I tend to drool a lot in my sleep” to “I am secretly employed by the Mafia” can wait until at least the third date. At this point, you still don’t know the person quite well enough to reveal everything about yourself. If you embark on a relationship with the person, there will be plenty of time to reveal those facts in the future.

Obsess over the menu. A date should be fun, not an instance to obsess over whether eating a salad will make you seem dull, or ordering dessert will make you seem like a glutton. Order whatever you would order if you were on a great night out with a friend.