Fridays with Felicia: Volume 25…..from Paris, with love!

Fridays with Felicia: An intimate look behind the curtain as I share my favorite style/ beauty discoveries and ThisThatBeauty shenanigans from previous week.

Bon jour! I spent part of last week and this week in Paris working on a very cool beauty project. While there I had the opportunity to take in the Paris beauty scene and experience products and services not available in the US. Yes, exclusive products!…a beauty girl’s dream.

First up on my beauty itinerary was a trip to Clarins Institut Paris for a body treatment and facial. The experience was so life changing that it deserves its own blog post…full deets shortly!

While in Paris I popped into H&M and spied a mother load of Lanvin for H&M Faux Fur…yes, THAT faux fur jacket! The one that had folks in select US cities loosing their ever loving minds.

Well in gay Paree, the faux fur was not flying…there was plenty to go ’round. I took a quick picture and kept it moving…not quite my aesthetic. #justsaying

Given the depressing value of the dollar against the euro, I pretty much had a death grip on my cash….and dug into my pocket infrequently to make purchases.   During my five day trip, I purchased only a handful of memories. For starters, I could not resist this little number….an ivory and black polka dot frock with a vintage feel.

I love the girly allure but decided to rough up the dress a bit by partnering it with:

– Black opaque tights (Target)
– Cognac studded thick leather waist belt (Anthropologie)
– Almost-to-the-knee thick wool socks in navy (Target)
– Black Suede knee boots that slouch below the knee (Tahari)
– Vintage whiskey mink…this was my daily coat…it was 20 degree in Paris!

I wore my new Parisian acquisition to the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the MUSEE D’ART MODERNE. Seeing the Basquiat exhibit of 150 works was by far the cultural highlight of my time in Paris.

If ever in Paris, “Miss Cupcake” is a MUST visit bakery. I highly recommend the lemon cupcake…and the carrot cake cupcake. But not necessarily at the same time like I’m doing here:

This next photo montage is what I like to call “The reason my clothes no longer fit“. I ate the most delicious food ever and I do not regret a single morsel. I’m already back on the running trail and will have wiggle room in my size 4’s very shortly…perhaps in two to three weeks…perhaps! LOL:)

A trip to Paris is incomplete without the purchase of Rouge Baiser lipstick…so all of my beauty girls tell me.

Naturally I copped Rouge Baiser in RED…..and I thought I’d take a walk on the wild side and give ORANGE a try. My dear Beauty Girl girlfriend Paula, of OlderGirl Beauty, wrote a lovely post on the history of Rouge Baiser. Here is the link to the back story on this alluring highly pigmented lipstick with a cult like following.

Here are my pics of Rouge Baiser….Rouge Baiser in Orange

Rouge Baiser in Red

Here I am wearing Rouge Baiser Red (and no other makeup–pls forgive me).

I LOVE! Do you like?

I have been to Paris before but this was my first trip in Winter…the snow was picturesque. Have you ever been to Paris? Do you have a favorite French Beauty product? Please leave a comment and share. I am told I’ll be back in Paris toward the end of March 2011…so I want to hear your thoughts on beauty acquisitions!

More soon! Au revoir for now! xoxoFelicia