Aerin Gardenia Rattan | The Scent That Might Remind You of Your Grandmother (in the best possible way!)

I recently got the chance to try some bits from the Aerin range and one of the products that stood out the most was the Gardenia Rattan Eau de Parfum Spray*.  The bottle is utterly gorgeous with its gold accents and jade top cap, but that wasn't the first thing I noticed about it. Instead I took an initial sniff and immediately had memories of my grandmother as a kid wearing a scent that had similar notes. So much so I called my mother to mention it. Naturally the first time she smelled it she said, "oh yeah, that's her alright!"

My Makeup Story | How It Began

Somewhere along the way I realized my love for makeup was a bit more intense than the average eyeshadow collection. By the time I was 18 I was collecting MAC like it was going out of style, and the idea of only one purple eyeshadow instead of ten seemed absurd to me. A girl needs options.

These were the days before YouTube tutorials when you communicated the love of the craft in makeup chatrooms. There were hours spent stalking the bookstore aisles for Makeup God, Kevyn Aucoin's latest book and entire summer days devoted to turning pages of my Seventeen magazine for makeup tips. I was past the point of 'like' and in full blown 'love' with the power of makeup at an early age.