Getting Purse-onal: The Perfume Blogger’s Purse

Welcome to another edition of Getting Purse-onal, in which we share the perfumes, cosmetics, and reading materials that have been lurking inside our purses this month. Please divulge the current contents of your purse to us in the comments!

• Estee Lauder Azuree Soleil. Bought it during the Azuree Soleil craze of ’06 (spearheaded by Blogdorf Goodman and The Beauty Addict). The combination of sunscreen and gardenia has been done to death, but Tom Ford’s interpretation was more floral and more elegant (as opposed to more casual sunscreen gardenias like Bond No. 9 Fire Island or Bobbi Brown Beach).

• CoverGirl LashBlast Mascara in Black. Did y’all know that the Harvard bookstore has an entire Clinique counter? Hopkins, however, sees fit to stock one measly shelf of CoverGirl products. Of the CG mascaras, LashExact is my favorite, but the only mascara on our measly shelf is LashBlast. (Well, that’s not fair. There’s also waterproof LashBlast!) Love you too, Hopkins.

• Lush Gorilla Perfumes Dirty. The mintiest perfume on the market. Dirty smells like some ground-up herbs (mint and thyme, mostly) meant for a terribly refreshing summer salad. For some reason it’s marketed towards men, but there’s nothing remotely masculine or feminine about Dirty.

• RAYGUN Notebook. I’m sorry, Stephenie Meyer. I’m sure that you are a very nice person. But your books have an awful lot of spelling errors. Even your name is misspelled!

• Shalimar Eau de Parfum. Drew’s grandmothers have the ultimate hookup on vintage perfumes. I’ve never been much of a Shalimar fan, but I’d also never smelled it in anything other than the modern EDT. The moment I opened the stopper to this tiny treasure, I began to understand what made Shalimar a legend of perfumery.

• Suddenly, A Knock On The Door. Israeli author Etgar Keret writes the best short stories this side of Sandra Cisneros. His work is thrillingly imaginative. Most of his stories are not about Israel, but the ones that are are honest and horrible and perfect. Suddenly, A Knock On The Door is actually not my favorite Keret book. The Girl on the Fridge has a lot more energy.

• Essie Nail Polish in Aruba Blue. I don’t paint my nails. It takes a long time, and I am very bad at it. But I couldn’t pass up such an vibrant color, so I use it to paint picture frames and piggy banks.

• Sunglasses from the Baltimore Visionary Art Museum. Best gift shop ever, y’all. This must be the last place in Baltimore where you can still find Choward’s Violet Mints.

• Chapstick in Classic Original. I used to spend $25 every two months or so on that incredibly buttery-feeling Fresh lip balm. It felt and smelled amazing, but never actually made my lips any less dry. Now I spend $3, and my lips no longer resemble Tatooine. Sometimes classics are classics for a reason. All hail the mighty Chapstick!

By the way, would anyone be interested in submitting their own edition of The Perfume Blogger’s Purse? I know that I can’t be the only nosy nose with an insatiable curiosity about other people’s purses.