Foodie Sunday ~ Neighborhood Cocktail Parties & Estee Lauder’s Very Modern Muse!

By Beth Schreibman Gehring  I live in a wonderful neighborhood. It’s filled with little kids , lots of laughter and although my husband and I are a couple of the oldest kids on the block we seem to fit in well.  My wonderful “Over the fence” neighbor Michelle decided at the beginning of the summer that every Friday night we would have a neighborhood happy hour and we’ve all taken turns hosting it.  The food is always fabulous because everyone brings something yummy to share, the cocktails are always perfectly chilled and the camaraderie always goes late into the evening, probably because we all just like each other so much. There are gates between every home so we let all of the dogs and the kids run from yard to yard without worry. Late in the evening the firepits get lit and the Sinatra comes onto the stereo.  It’s always a warm and friendly evening that's fairly close to perfect! Last night was no different and by 7:00 we were relaxed and sipping wonderful wine and enjoying Michelle’s delightful zucchini fritters, homemade eggplant tapenade and spicy green tomato pickles.   In walked my adorable neighbor Nicole who  waved and said  “Come here Beth and smell my neck”, which of course I did.  She was wearing Bronze Goddess, that wonderfully coconut, gardenia, and vanilla  skin oil that completely screams Hurricanes (the rum drenched kind!), sunshine and white sand!  I’d forgotten all about it and found myself at the Estee Lauder counter this afternoon thinking that I might like to try it again. I got into a casual conversation with one of the nicest sales associates that I’ve met in a long while, a lovely young woman named Anna (she's at the Beachwood, Dillards for all of you Clevelanders!) who was thrilled to show me a wonderful new EL launch called “Modern Muse”. I have to note here that it’s been quite  a long while  since I’ve worn any Lauder  perfume with the exception being Private Collection's stellar Tuberose~ Gardenia.  I loved Cinnabar, Aliage and Spellbound in my late teens, but I truly haven’t paid much attention to the line since. That is definitely about to change. Modern Muse is the first serious launch by Lauder in over a decade and it’s pretty fabulous. Modern Muse is an absolutely beautiful perfume dripping with jasmine, lily, mandarin and drenched with tuberose and a thoroughly Southern honeysuckle.  It’s not supposed to have a dry- down  which is one of it’s chief selling points but on me it definitely did. When my husband sniffed my neck a few hours after I’d applied it he practically bit me!  I smelled my wrist and realized why. There’s a delightful layer of sweetness in this scent and my skin really pulled it out. It’s sexy and almost edible…a bit like a wonderful vanilla latte’  but softened with sweet woods and a lovely sheer musk. Modern Muse is going to become an overnight classic for Estee Lauder and it’s a perfume that I would even feel comfortable giving to a young girl.  It’s also quite reasonably priced, which made me pretty happy.  My readers are always asking me for wonderful perfumes that are less expensive than our industry average but that don’t smell cheap.  I feel very comfortable recommending this one. It’s current without being trendy and it’s very very pretty. A little black dress, grandma's pearls and a lovely nude pump is all that it truly needs, but while you’re at it some lovely patterned stockings might wear beautifully with it too! Modern muse is sweet , smart and a trifle naughty in the nicest way,  much  like the sort of woman who inspired it.  It’s glamorous without being pretentious and I really like that in a perfume!  Give  Modern Muse a twirl around the dance floor and let me know what you think.  I think that you’ll love it!