Seasoned With Sydney

The other day while casually scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, I came across an article from the Boston Globe featuring a pop-up shop event happening soon. I am a person who loves the concept of a pop-up event, but also someone who almost never hears about one in time to visit. This time around though, the event found ME. Hourglass Boston, described on the site as a concept store that is both a boutique and content studio, was started by Project Runway winner, Erin Robertson, and product designer, Nicole Fichera. As explained to me by a nice gentleman in trendy glasses, Hourglass is meant to not only be a retail space but one for Boston artists and creatives to come in and use as their own studio with props, photo backgrounds, and helpful workshops. Hourglass is meant to inspire. And honestly, the moment I walked into the store (just a short walk from Kenmore), I couldn't help BUT feel inspired.

This studio is very millennial-forward, designed specifically to be featured on Instagram. I was tentative at first to take pictures, conditioned by the many times employees in other stores have insisted that pictures were strictly prohibited. But at Hourglass, photos are not only allowed but encouraged. Fun and kitschy props can be found everywhere, and there's even a spectacularly hot pink backdrop for photo shoots.

Since this is also a retail space for both Erin and Nicole's creations, let's take a moment to talk about it. Neither Erin nor Nicole are afraid to work with color; it's absolutely everywhere. Erin's wild, vibrant, fun, and lively clothing design style meshes perfectly with the quirkiness and whimsy of Nicole's chic upcycled pieces. Speaking of Erin and Nicole, both women were around, greeting everyone warmly, explaining their vision for Hourglass and how it came to be, and taking fan pictures in front of their pieces. While everyone was encouraged to try on clothes, there was absolutely no pressure to buy.

Hourglass is a store that sells items celebrating the bubbliness of life. From oversized ruffled crop tops to flowers made of sequins, to geometric, neon-colored plastic earrings, and upcycled porcelain teacups with profanities written on them as colorful as the floral pattern surrounding them, everything featured at Hourglass, while not always conventionally practical, is meant to remind you to incorporate a little fun in your life. My only gripe with the store, and it's a little one, is that I never found anything small but tangible to buy like a postcard or even a small $5 or $10 canvas tote with the Hourglass logo to carry around. Pop-up shops by nature are fleeting, so it would've been cool to have little pieces of memorabilia to keep.

Since I'd just come from admiring the "French Pastels" and "Cassanova's Europe" exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, I was in the perfect head-space to appreciate Hourglass for exactly what it is: an expression of artistry. Erin and Nicole are both artists first, and sellers second. We are part of the Maker Generation, and Hourglass is the perfect product of that.

Hourglass Boston is open now through late September 2018 at 1327 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115, Wednesday-Sunday 11am-7pm.

When I was little and we would go to visit my grandparents in Nashville, I was always excited to play in my grandmother's perfumes. The room I stayed in was the room where she kept her clothes, shoes, and make-up (the perks of being empty-nesters: you can turn a bedroom into a giant closet). She had this mirrored tray that was absolutely crammed with perfume bottles that ranged in age from brand new to what had to have been decades old. Some were sprays, some were roll-on pens, and some even had an atomizer attached. I used to play with them for hours, considering the person I could be based on how I smelled. For me, smelling good was one step to being a real lady, like my mother, like my grandmothers. Scent has always been important to me. As I've grown in age, so too have my tastes.

It feels like just yesterday I was spritzing myself with half a bottle of fruity mists from Bath and Body Works before standing awkwardly in a circle at a middle school dance. Then I became a teenager, right as the height of Paris Hilton's fame, and found myself smelling just like an "Heiress". In college it was cool to smell a little expensive, so I scrounged together the money to smell like the Marc Jacobs and Juicy Couture versions of myself ("Daisy" and "Viva La Juicy" respectively). But nothing has ever really stuck. And maybe nothing really should. I've always thought that the beauty of perfumes is that you can smell whichever way you want, depending on your mood. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. What's not the spice of life? The price of some of these perfumes! A person can easily spend almost $200 dollars on some of today's hottest and most popular scents, and how long do those bottles last? A couple months? I consider myself a woman who is bubbly, but also on a budget.

As if by magic, Target heard my pleas to continue to be the indecisive scented butterfly that I am, and created a perfume line that is so vast, so delicious-smelling, and most importantly, so affordable that my little heart can barely take it. With four collections to choose from, with prices ranging from $9.99 to $24.99, I have not-so-distant plans to try them all. My room's going to be like a department store fragrance counter, only better, because all my books, snacks, and jammies are here, too.

Here's a run-down of what I like about Target's Good Chemistry:

These scents are vegan AND free of parabens, made only from essential oils
The packaging for each bottle is beautiful, and so equally matches the scent. Not only does everything smell good, there was conscious thought behind product design as well.
There's a scent for everyone. Are you a fan of a fruity scent like strawberry or apricot? Covered. Do you often find yourself in need of a floral scent? You got it. Do you consider yourself a "Queen Bee" or "Daydreamer"? Good Chemistry has even created scents based on powerful personalities. And if you're in search of a more masculine smell, you're in luck: the good smell scientists thought of that as well. So much variety! And between you and me, some of the perfumes I tested in the store could be total dupes for some of the industry's most famous perfumes.
And did I mention the affordable price point and ways to apply? You've got your choice of a classic perfume, body spray, or rollerball, depending on your needs. Personally, I NEED all three.

Will I ever completely give up my designer scents? Probably not. But I'll tell you what: Good Chemistry smells good to me!

Find the entire collection here!