Tiny Perfection

Sometimes it really is the little things that make me smile. Is there anything more subtlely lovely than a Gift With Purchase at the Lancome counter? (Well, maybe a Gift With Purchase at Manolo Blahnik or United Airlines, but that'll never happen.) Several years ago, my friend, M and I, when we were feeling down (which happened a lot as we were in graduate school in Texas) would comb through the Sunday section of the newspaper desperate for Gift With Purchase sightings, then jump into one of our cars for a quick trip to Austin to hit the malls. I swear, over the course of two years I must have acquired 20 of those little zippered pouches (can a girl ever have too many?) and just as many neutral (why always neutral?) lipsticks and perfume samples.

Here's an almost exact replica of today's treasures (along with a new bottle of Poeme, my favorite perfume).