RI Beauty Expert: Midsummer Style

RI Beauty Expert: Midsummer Style

Even though summer has been well-established for only a few weeks, soon the back-to-school commercials will be served up with your morning coffee and the new fall collections will be hitting the stores. Don't allow yourself to get distracted or think you have to rush our most beautiful and fleeting season. Here's how to lay summer style on thick right here, right now:

A Tisket, A Tasket

There is no better time to finally find the perfect rattan handbag. Totes, as well as more structured bags are available at trendy mall stores and in
beachwear haunts near the sea. Reminiscent of a cherished hand basket, they truly define easy-going summer style. A Summer Place has a collection of charming models embellished with ribbons and sea motifs and lined with luxe fabrics with drawstrings. Watch Hill

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Tutti-Frutti Nails

Brilliant mixes of torrid colors like fuchsia and orange make these tropical shades summery and go-with-everything chic. Try a brazen fruit-punch hue that stops just short of electric. Sally Hanson Nail Color in Flame gives a happy Maraschino cherry effect that looks great with flip-flops and office peep-toes alike. If not now, when? CVS

Midsummer Night and Day Lounging

Ditch the shorts and opt for floaty wide-leggers in linen or silk. Top with a cotton camisole in a sherbet color and you have an elegantly romantic at-home look. Variation of the theme: replace the linen pants with cooling cotton pajama bottoms for easy midsummer nights dreams. Old Navy

Scarves

Don't discount the versatility of scarves in warm weather as they are terrific summer helpers. Wear them as headbands and let the tails flutter off in the sea breeze. Knot the ends of a large square and slip into it as you would a cardigan for an easy cover-up in frigid air conditioning, or fashion a sexy halter top. Look for bright fiesta colors in silk chiffon for breathtaking ease and glamour. Green Ink, Wickford

Whisper It

For extra-sultry days, select a perfume infusion that has a beguiling but not overpowering or sickly scent. These types of fragrances are perfect for summer because they are elusive - every time you think you detect it, it drifts off into another lacy dimension. Prada has several new delicate and understated infusions that are just barely audible - like rustling leaves and whispering pines on joyful sunny days. Nordstrom

The point is, don't get caught up in life's constant push forward. Savor these carefree midsummer days and live in the moment. Personal style is a special way to immerse yourself in the season. And remember....next winter when you're pulling on snow boots, you're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back.

Donna Macdonald is a freelance writer who enjoys covering topics of interest to women, especially fragrance, style, beauty. She has also written marketing material for a women's book that hit the New York Times Bestseller list and netted her an up close and personal discussion on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Donna currently writes her own personal blog, alovelyinconsequence.blogspot.com, where she also writes about issues close to a woman's heart. Donna believes that when a woman finds beauty in the world, she will find beauty in herself.