So I’d been lamenting that there’s no Lush in Houston. And I’m out of bath bombs but can’t justify a Lush expenditure right now. Especially since the last time I went into a Lush store I walked out $100 poorer. Ooops.

I also don’t have a current perfume. Smell is very important to me (understatement!!) and after I used up my Green Irish Tweed, I was at a loss. It was spring/summer and I needed something fresh but not sweet. Summery but not fruity. Clean but not medicinal. High quality but not expensive. My, I am hard to please.

I decided to just go to Aveda and get one of their little Personal Blends, a bottle of perfume base that I could add drops of one of their 20 versions of essential oil mixtures to. It’s like $25 and smells decent, so okay.

And then. THEN! Oh, you can’t wait for this, can you? We went to eat lunch at Mi Luna (don’t get their paella, stick to the tapas) since it was freaking beauuuuutiful out yesterday. The Village was of course crowded since it was nice out and Houston does what it does best on a nice day- shop. So we had to park far away in a place I don’t normally park.

Across from a bath+body store called Naked. It sells a lot of items similar to Lush’s, only with more natural ingredients. They also give complimentary foot soaks. And you can blend your own scents into some of their products. And they seriously have like a million oils to choose from. Well, the website shows about 75, but I think there were more in the store. (No, I’m sure of it, I think they had double the scents in the store.)

Forget Aveda and their pretentious “personal” blends! Dave and I stood at the oils for about 20 minutes just creating scent-combinations on little cards. He liked the Silver Mountain Water with Grapefruit. I liked everything. They have an oil called Spicy Lime that I added to every scent concoction I made. Green Clover Aloe with Spicy Lime with Honey. Spicy Lime with Grapefruit and Cucumber Lettuce. I ended up getting a .3oz perfume with blends of these oils: Tomato (for something musky but not sweet), Spicy Lime (because, well, it’s me) and Lychee (sweet but not annoyingly fruity). Dave found the tomato a little overwhelming so we added Cucumber and Lettuce, and then a little more Lychee.

So yes, now I smell like a salad. A delicious, fresh summer salad! In fact, I named it Summer 08, because by the time I’m out of it, I’ll probably want something fall-ish, like Leather with Cinnamon and Clove. (Don’t try that at home, I’m just making things up.)

And since it’s only .3oz, I won’t get tired of it and be like, “Ugh, I made the commitment to this ENTIRE bottle of perfume.” I’m far more fickle than my mom, who has been wearing Estee Lauder’s Beautiful ever since I was aware of perfume’s existence. I can only wear an entire bottle once and that’s it. In my perfume graveyard are CK One (isn’t it in everyone’s from the high school class of ‘96?) Eternity Summer, Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea, Gucci Envy, a little $10 bottle of perfume by Hard Candy I got at Marshall’s that smelled to me like pineapple and I actually liked it, and most recently, Green Irish Tweed. I never got more compliments than when I wore Green Irish Tweed, from strangers even (is THIS why it costs $200? [$50 on eBay]). The good news is that Naked has an oil called Green Irish Tweed so I can go back to it if I like.

So I walked out with a true personal blend for half the price of Aveda’s and 3 bath bombs. All for under $20.

And guess what else? It’s only in Houston! Take THAT, New York, California and London! I know they just felt that and got a little shiver of fear. Actually London didn’t hear me and California paused, then continued her conversation over an organic, vegetarian lunch in a café and New York looked me dead in the eye and said, “We have 26 of those kind of shops AND that wasabi ice cream you loved. Remember? Oh, and don’t forget the goat cheese and mushroom crêpes you were ready to leave Dave for.”

Bitch.

Anyway. Camille, I’m sure you have something similar in Austin, only it’s owned by hippie earth goddesses. And Pam- next time you’re here, man. For reals. They even have Fresh Cut Grass as one of the scents.

In other news, I made Cilantro Lime ice cream and it’s delish.