Category Archives: Shopilly Buzz

5 Ways to Get Glowing this Winter

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Keeping in line with our resolution to look more polished this year, we’re beating the winter blahs this season with goodies from Shopilly’s favorite new bath & beauty line, Not Soap, Radio. With clever names like Liquid Freud body wash and Island Hopping perfume, we can’t get enough of their yummy, (almost) all-natural products. So much so, we’ve partnered up so you can score 20 percent off your next purchase! (Click here for the 411)

We test-drove a few products and picked our top 5 favorite to help you stay shiny and brand new this season. Here’s how…

1. SOAK AWAY STRESS

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Light a few candles, grab a stack of magazines and decompress after a long day with a warm, sudsy bubble bath spiked with Damsel in De-Stress ($12). A blend of calming, sulfate-free ingredients kicks toxic, wrinkle-inducing stress to the curb while leaving skin fresh and squeaky clean.

2. SMELL LIKE A STAR

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You’ll always feel red-carpet ready (even if you’re just going to the gas station) wearing I’m Not Here, I’m Really Walking the Red Carpet solid perfume ($15), a sweet blend of black & red current, Bulgarian rose and fresh jasmine in a stow-and-go fragrance jar. (And guess what? It also doubles as a hair pomade to help keep frizz and flyaways at bay, to boot!)

3. HIT REFERSH ON YOUR MID-DAY MAKEUP

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Beautify between client meetings and cocktail hour by keeping Not Soap Radio’s best-selling Bride’s Face Palette ($8) at your desk or glove compartment for quick & easy touch-ups. It features a compact mirror, 8 single-use glosses & shadows and a warm, universally-flattering bronzer to enhance your natural glow on-the-go.

 4. PUCKER UP

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Get soft, kissable lips with Cherry Cordial lip balm ($10), a moisturizing milk chocolate & black cherry lip duo made with real cocoa and fruit extracts (yum). We love how it made our pout look shiny-yet-totally-natural-looking all afternoon.

5. STAY HYDRATED

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Don’t let the blistery cold air suck all the moisture from your skin. After your morning shower, slather a layer of The Stuff That Cupid Dips His Arrow In body soufflé ($18)—a silky, super-hydrating lotion scented with sweet blackberries and fresh vanilla cream, sure to keep skin soft and supple all day.

 

New Year, New Resolutions

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Now that the ball has dropped, bottles of bubbly popped and we’ve entered into the new year, it’s time to put our 2013 resolutions into action. And it’s easier (and more fun) than ever to keep them, thanks to the cool gadgets, gear and other goodies we’ve found—from stylish workout clothes to veggies delivered to your door. Happy 2013!

RESOLUTION: FIND TIME FOR FITNESS

Lululemon Pace Setter Running Skirt, $58

Lululemon Pace Setter Running Skirt, $58

The best motivation to get your butt to the gym? Investing in workout gear, such as Lululemon’s Pace Setter Running Skirt ($58, enjoy free shipping!) spun of light, moisture-wicking fabric with built-in shorts and an elastic hem so they stay put while jogging on the treadmill.

Gaiam Cardio Burn Yoga DVD, $11.95

On the days you can’t get to the yoga studio, pop in Gaiam’s Cardio Burn Yoga DVD ($11.98, use code 13NEWYEAR for an extra 20% off) with certified instructor Patricia Moreno to get your vinyasa on at home.

Nike+ Fuel Band, $149

Nike+ Fuel Band, $149

Track your workouts with the Nike+ FuelBand ($149 from Nike), which measures everything from the number of steps you take to amount of calories burned. Download the mobile app and wirelessly share your progress with friends, too. (Bonus: it doubles as a cool-looking watch!)

RESOLUTION: LOOK MORE POLISHED

Clarisonic Mia, $119 at Sephora

Clarisonic Mia, $119 

Just a few small tweaks in your daily routine can make you look (and feel) more pulled-together. Get dewy, fresh-from-a-facial looking skin everyday with the Clarisonic Mia ($119 at Sephora, score free shipping) which helps minimize pores and cleanses so thoroughly, moisturizers and serums absorb more effectively. (We got one from Santa and our skin has never looked better!).

Deborah Lippmann Get Nailed Manicure Set, $48

Deborah Lippmann Get Nailed Manicure Set, $49

Clean, perfectly polished nails go a very long way. Treat yourself to a weekly mani-pedi at home with Deborah Lippmann’s Get Nailed manicure set ($49 at Nordstrom, get free shipping) complete with base coat, top, polish remover and two glossy lacquers.

Kenneth Jay Lane earrings, $56

Kenneth Jay Lane earrings, $56

Always keep a pair of glittery earrings in your purse to add an instant dose of glamour on the go. Jeweled button styles, such as this pair by Kenneth Jay Lane ($56 with 30% off at Last Call by Neiman Marcus) lend just-right sparkle to everything from desk-to-dinner getups to your weekend uniform of skinnies and a tee.

RESOLUTION:  EAT MORE VEGGIES

Chef's Table, $89.95

Chef’s Garden Seasonal Vegetable & Herb Box, $89.95

No time to hit the farmer’s market? Get a bounty of farm-fresh veggies delivered to your doorstep with Chef’s Garden Seasonal Vegetable and Herb box ($89.95 per order, available at Gilt Taste), packed with peak-of-season produce, such as squash blossoms and baby cauliflower.

Breville Juicer, $149

Breville Juice Fountain Plus, $149.95

Save yourself $10 a day on green juice with Breville’s Juice Fountain Plus (on sale for $149.95 at Williams-Sonoma), considered the Bentley of at-home juicers for its powerful, 850-watt motor and easy-to-clean micromesh filter.

The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Ella, $

The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Ella, $15

Dust off your pots and pans and get cooking with Maria Ella’s delicious new cookbook, The Modern Vegetarian ($15.30 on Amazon.com), packed with 120 mouthwatering meatless recipes, such as watermelon panzanella and lemongrass & sweet corn soup.

RESOLUTION: GET ORGANIZED!

Kate Spade New York 2013 Desk Agenda, $38

Kate Spade New York 2013 Desk Agenda, $38

Stay on top of meetings, dinner dates and social soirees with Kate Spade New York’s 2013 daily agenda notebook ($38, take an extra 25% off sale items with code 25SALE). It also comes with extra sheets for jotting birthdays, restaurants and important addresses.

Container Store Shoe Boxes, $1.89 each

Container Store Shoe Boxes, $1.89 each

If your bathroom cabinets overflow with a messy mix of toiletries, here’s how to get organized: dump everything onto the floor and divide into categories (nail polishes, travel sizes, eye makeup, etc). Stow in the Container Store’s stackable plastic shoe boxes ($1.89 each), tuck away underneath the sink or linen closet and—voila!

Palm Beach Chic's Elle Jewelry Box, $79

Palm Beach Chic’s Elle Jewelry Box, $79

Avoid making a jumbled mess of your jewelry using Palm Beach Chic’s Elle lacquer jewelry box ($79 at One King’s Lane), complete with special compartments to keep necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings in pristine condition.

 

 

Shopilly: a (short) retrospective

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Shopilly

It’s hard to believe it, but a new year is upon us. Before we close the door on 2012 and leap into 2013, we want to take a moment to look back and reflect on what we’ve accomplished at Shopilly in the past few months.

Shopilly officially launched in October to good press reviews from NBC News, San Francisco Chronicle and Fast Company. NBC singled us out as “the most-promising and spiffiest” of online services designed for the brand communications experience. Netted by the Webbys captured our essence well with its headline “Outside the Inbox – Turn Marketing Emails into an E-Boutique with Shopilly.”

That was great since Founder and CEO Anirban Datta has focused on visuals and design to create a better shopping experience for consumers. But his vision goes far beyond a better type of email to allow people to create their own personalized brand network for discovering and accessing the latest offers, promotions and new arrivals in a beautifully designed interface.

He also takes inspiration from the way we all create and share personalized music and TV show playlists:

“Like music and TV shows, there is something innately personal about shopping, and there is also a lot to discover out there based on our interests, social influences and editorial curations,” he said.

And so – Shopilly brings these capabilities to the world of shopping.

Shopilly is still developing and improving, but we’re pretty excited about the features we’ve released so far:

  • Visual inbox: View promotional emails from the retailers you’ve given your email address to in an organized visual inbox. Promotional emails never looked so beautiful.
  • Window shopping: That’s right, we took window shopping virtual. Shopilly allows you to browse deals and offers from retailers in a variety of categories, including Shoes & Bags, Sports & Outdoors and Home & Décor.
  • Follow: Not the leader, but your favorite brands. Shopilly collects and saves the latest offers, promotions and new arrivals of your favorite brands on Brand Pages so that you don’t have to do the hunting yourself. That means that you can streamline your shopping by checking a specific Brand Page before you shop online or visit its store.
  • Editorial Picks: Every day, the Shopilly editors are hard at work hand-selecting deals for you. Keep up with their editorial picks in the Home tab of your Shopilly account.

But that’s not all! We’re working on mobile apps that allow you to access your favorite Shopilly features – the latest brand offers, promotions and your shopping receipts – on the go.

We welcome any and all feedback from you as you test out our service. Building Shopilly is all about providing you with the best possible shopping experience – offline and on, so please let us know how we are doing.

As 2013 rolls in, we look forward to another great year with you!

-The Shopilly Team

Cheers, Prost, Saúde!

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Ah, the holidays. Never is there a time of year with more to toast to: family, friends, gifts, never-ending holiday treats and the promise of a fresh start with the coming of a new year.

As you gear up to celebrate Christmas tomorrow and the New Year in just another week, we’ve compiled a mini guide on “toasting etiquette.” Read on to learn how to properly cheer in the holidays:

Use Proper Stemware

While we think (and we’re betting most people will agree) that sparkling wine is tasty whether served in a glass, mug or jar, the proper way to serve it is in a slender, flute-shaped glass. Schott Zwiesel Pure Champagne Flutes will do the job; for a less traditional look, the flared Zwiesel 1872 Enoteca Champagne Toasting Glass is a fun choice. Both are available at Sur La Table.

White wine should be served in a U-shaped wine glass like the Riedel Vinum Chardonnay Glass. An alternative is the DuraClear Osteria Stemless White Wineglass, which is great for butterfingers – it won’t crack, shatter, break, cloud or discolor. Both are available at Williams-Sonoma.

Red wine has more complex aromas and flavors than white wine, so it should be served in a glass with a larger surface area so that the wine can come into contact with more air.  If you’re toasting with red wine, serve it in a round wine glass that has a large opening – try Anthropologie’s Frosted Panes Red Wine Glass or Frosted Panes Tumbler, both of which feature beautiful etched patterns.

Serve Wine at the Correct Temperature
Most people know better than to put ice in their white wine (at least in public), but how much do you actually know about the temperatures at which different types of wine should be served?

Sparkling wine should be served well chilled. Put a bottle in the fridge 3 hours prior to serving, or a minimum of 30 minutes in ice water, if you’re running short on time.

White wines should also be served chilled, but not to the degree of sparkling wines. As a rule of thumb, refreshing white wines like Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio should be chilled to 35 or 40 degrees before serving, while richer white wines like Chardonnay should be chilled slightly less, to about 55 degrees, before serving.

Lastly, red wines should be served at a cool 65 degrees. If you keep your reds in a cool, dry environment like a cellar or basement, you may be able to serve them immediately. If not, you can chill them in the fridge for about 20 minutes before serving.

Don’t Overfill Glasses
…at least not during the first round. This will help prevent spillage as everyone clinks glasses and, as a bonus, you’ll look like a true wine expert. Joanna Goddard, who blogs over at A Cup of Jo, wrote a great wine etiquette post (complete with illustrations!) to help clarify the do’s and don’ts of drinking wine. She writes that red wine glasses should be filled 1/3 full, white wine glasses ½ full, and sparkling wine glasses ¾ full.

Now that we’ve filled your mind with wine knowledge, we’re going to give you one last piece of contradictory advice – if all else fails, throw all etiquette out the window and just enjoy toasting with your loved ones this holiday. We promise we won’t judge.

Happy Holidays,
The Shopilly Team

Photo credits: surlatable.com, williams-sonoma.com, anthropologie.com

A New Look for Shopilly

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As the seasons change, so do we. Log into your account, and you’ll notice that we’ve given Shopilly a bit of a makeover to provide you with an even more visual, seamless shopping experience this holiday season. Take a look at some of the changes we’ve made:

Navigation

Now you can access Window Shop, Inbox, Brands and My Stuff from the top bar on any Shopilly page. The top bar is also where you can navigate to the Settings, provide us with feedback, read up on some FAQs or log out. Just look for your Shopilly ID on the right side of the bar and click on it to view your navigation options.

Include Your Friends
Can’t wait to tell someone when you find a great deal? Invite your friends to discover your best-kept shopping secret by clicking on “Invite Friends” in the top bar.

And, when you’re window-shopping and find a deal you like or you think a friend will like, you can easily share it via Facebook or Twitter. Just mouse over the deal to reveal the sharing buttons. How’s that for being a good friend?

Customized Editor’s Picks

That’s right, the Shopilly editors are hard at work hand-selecting deals for you. You’ll find the Editor’s Picks in Window Shop, next to My Brands and Other Brands. The picks are updated daily, so check back every day!

Link More Email Addresses
You told us that you love the email import feature so much that you want to be able to link more email addresses. Well, we’ve listened – introducing: the ability to link more email addresses to your Shopilly ID! Simply visit the Settings and click on Email Import to link additional email addresses.

Contact Us
Tell us, how did we do? We’d love to hear your feedback about these recent changes. And, as always, stay tuned for even more Shopilly updates and improvements.

Happy shopping!

A Look at Maison Martin Margiela for H&M

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It’s finally here…well not exactly, but today we got to take a look at the Marison Martin Margiela collaboration with H&M.  Here’s a glimpse at some of the amazing pieces.  In Stores Nov 13th.

You can see the entire lookbook here.  And pics of who wore what to the fabulous launch party here.

Don’t forget to sign-up for the Sweepstakes to Win a Trip to New York and go to an exclusive Maison Martin Margiela for H&M event on November 14th!  Click here for details!

Kate Spade Saturday

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Kate Spade, one of my favorite brands, will be launching a new line called Saturday. I’m so curious to see what this ‘Saturday’ is all about. I’m guessing it will be super chic, casual weekend garb and I can’t wait to see it.  Then I read the small print, it won’t be available until SPRING 2013!?  After a tiny pause, I signed up at Saturday.com to be in the know (6 months in advance!) realizing that using my Shopilly email makes this stuff a no brainer.

A New Way to Window Shop

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For me, the phrase “window shopping” conjures up thoughts of snowy sidewalks and the famed holiday window displays of New York City.

Though I’ve never lived in New York, I’ve always loved to window shop, even if these days, my increasingly busy life makes it difficult to actually do so.

Luckily, just as we’re rounding the corner to the holiday season, Shopilly now makes it easy for me to indulge in an exciting new form of window-shopping. Whenever I have a free moment, I find myself going back to the site to browse through my favorite brands.

You can think of Shopilly as your visual inbox for everything shopping-related – great deals from your favorite brands, a history of your past purchases, receipts that you might otherwise easily misplace and – of course – a little virtual window shopping on the side.

Here’s a short guide to getting started on Shopilly:

  1. Sign up for an account. You’ll get to choose your Shopilly email address, which you can…
  2. …give out whenever you are asked for an email address while shopping online or in stores. By doing this, you’ll reduce the clutter in your personal email inbox.
  3. You can also clean up your personal email inbox retroactively – simply let Shopilly automatically import emails from your other accounts into Shopilly, and you’ll see them in your Visual Inbox.
  4. Now that your inboxes are organized, begin shopping with a clean slate. Visit the Shopilly Brands tab to explore brands in categories such as Travel, Home and Beauty, just to name a few. You can bookmark your favorite brands by following them.
  5. Then comes my favorite part of Shopilly – visit the Window Shop tab to view offers from your favorite brands. It’s as if you had a personal shopper bringing sales from your favorite stores right to your door! You can do all of your shopping directly from your Shopilly account, and once you’ve checked out using your Shopilly email address, your purchase(s) will appear in the My Purchases tab.

There you have it – your entire shopping life transformed. But I do worry a bit – is there such a thing as a window shopaholic?

What else would you like to be able to do with Shopilly? Tell us at feedback@shopilly.com.