i was roaming through one of my favorite san francisco boutiques recently, and stumbled across a new-ish perfumerie i just have to share: elizabethw. to be honest, while i generally like the idea of new fragrances, i almost never switch…the novelty just always seems to wear off quickly. but the moment i started sniffing elizabethw’s fabulous fragrances, i threw caution to the wind, and found myself spritzing samples on my wrist left and right. the scents are all incredibly well thought out – they have this amazing blend of simplicity and sophistication. too often with fragrances, i feel they’re either so simple and light they’re not worth the trouble, or they’re so heavy that they just aren’t practical for everyday wear, but the elizabethw options were, well, not to get too goldilocks about it, but they were all “just right.” their website puts it slightly better: “clean, simple, sophisticated, elegant, and totally original”….my thoughts exactly! plus, i love that they’re a san francisco-based company, and they’re really taking the time to design every fragrance by hand.

of the scents i got a chance to sample, the ones i’m still thinking about are vetiver (a spicy, citrusy scent that reminds me of cinnamon, pine cones and orange peel), leaves (a clean, light, almost grassy scent that had me wishing for spring), and magnolia (a scent i’ve always adored, but never been able to find a perfume to recreate it…until now)…but really, i loved just about all of them. of course, if you want to know the actual contents of each scent, you can always check their official list…i sort of prefer to go with my gut on these things.

as you’ve probably guessed by now, i’m pretty well smitten with everything elizabethw has to offer (i can guarantee you there will be some items from their site on my holiday gift list!), but if you’re not ready to take the fragrance plunge, try starting with one of their fabulous candles ($30), or the body cream ($28), which takes ‘luxurious’ to a whole new level. trust me….one whiff, and you’ll be addicted too!