Call it "Shoe Sophie’s Choice," or "High(heel)lander": You can pick only one of the menswear-inspired pumps above (both from ShoeMall.com). The tweed d’Orsay "Lejune" by Steve Madden at left (3.5-inch heel) and the two-tone leather "Torie" by AK Anne Klein at right (3-inch heel) are both peep-toe pumps and both cost $79.95.So, which will it be — which is your favorite shoe? (Or do neither of them float your boat?) Leave your comment below.(Need an incentive? Each week I pick one commenter at random to win stuff out of my goodie drawer. Whoever gets drawn this time will receive fragrances by Sula — a full-size bottle of Lily Lotus and a fun-size bottle of Vanilla Blossom. All commenters who leave a post by Aug. 27 will be eligible.)

Humid summer days make strong fragrances seem heavy, oppressive … and unappealing. These new versions weigh in on the light, fresh side.Suzanne Lang’s Sula fragrances were designed to be intermingled: She’s even created layering sets ($30), pairs of scents that work particularly well together. I’m not sure how grapefruity Sun-Kissed Citrus and sugary Vanilla Blossom combine to make Beach Beauty … but once on the skin, the result evokes a San Diego afternoon. I also like the citrus scent by itself; luckily (larger) bottles of individual scents are $32. The line is sold at Ulta stores.Without telling my office mates what the theme of this week’s column was, I asked them to sample Nina eau de toilette by Nina Ricci ($50-$67). They described its fruity, sweet scent — without even seeing the bottle was shaped like an apple! — and one decreed: "It’s a light fragrance that you could still wear at night." It makes its debut this month exclusively at Macy’s stores.Victoria’s Secret Beauty has given its Secret Garden fragrance collection a packaging makeover and added new products, so now the 11 scents grace everything from hand and body cream to body scrub. Refreshing Body Mists ($9) include aloe vera and chamomile to soothe and calm skin as well as perfume it. Scents to sample: Top-selling Love Spell, with peach and jasmine, and Pear Glace, pictured, with violet undertones. All are sold at Victoria’s Secret stores.

A few lessons learned on last week’s trip to the Virgin Islands:(1) Women get very excited if you text them and ask their ring size. I found these "Anellobomb" Murano glass rings at a store on St. John called Into the Blue, and grabbed one in gold for my sister and one in a garnet color for my friend Sharyn. (I wanted the lime green, but they didn’t have it in either of the sizes I needed.) My friend Heather bought herself an Argento pendant in white. Shoppers in the Virgin Islands don’t pay sales tax! If you’re stuck in the States, the store also sells via e-mail or phone. (1a) If you are in doubt, buy one or two extra. You can always hold onto it for an awesome last-minute birthday or holiday gift.(2) If you get something that called a Marine Algae Body Wrap at the spa, there is a good chance that you will smell like leftover sushi for at least part of the treatment, thanks to the seaweed they paint you with. (Luckily, you get to rinse it off.) (2a) Do all the other stuff — steam room, exercise, sauna, shower — before most treatments, since they’ll lotion you up good and you don’t want to sweat it out.(3) Don’t wear brightly colored toenail polish around iguanas, since they’re attracted to it (probably because the toes resemble little berries or flowers, which they would like to eat.) (3a) The day to learn this would be *before* you go down to feed the iguanas with your toenails painted an "I’m on vacation! Who cares?!" metallic orange.(4) Satin is a good material for a dress only if you plan to never, ever sit down in it. (4a) Shrugs draw a horizontal line right across your rib cage, which is not a great idea if you are not a size 4. (4b) This is why you should take a look at, or ask your friend to tell you, what you look like from the back before you go out.(5) And in a final, non-style-related note, if this is the view from your hotel room, the fact the air conditioning is out for a day and a half is not that much of a bother. Bring hats and don’t forget your SPF — 15 or higher!

Brass Heart
Village Square at Dana Park, 3426 E. Baseline Road, Suite 110, Mesa
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Information: (480) 558-4391 or shopbrassheart.com

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Upscale, exclusive skin care is no longer the sole purview of department stores: Now even drugstores have the lock on certain "masstige" brands you won’t find anywhere else. Find three after the jump.Want to make sure your skin stays moisturized all day? Skin Quenching Daily Mask ($19.99), part of dermatologist Jeffrey Dover’s line Skin Effects, stays on for a full 24 hours — even if you wash your face. In fact, if you apply in the morning, rinsing after 5 minutes is part of the routine. (Worried more about tone? Firming Face & Neck Cream [also $19.99] is designed to give skin a lift and return facial definition.) The Skin Effects line is sold only at CVS stores.CVS has also added a more expensive cosmeceutical line, Lierac Paris, with prices that range between $23 (for cleansing water) and $65 (for a neck-firming cream that’s supposed to stimulate the natural synthesis of collagen). A good first step: The oil-free Hydra-Chrono Refreshing Fluid ($45), a lightweight mattifying moisturizer for normal to combination skin. There also are Hydra-Chrono products for dry, very dry and "dehydrated" skin. Only certain CVS stores carry the line; your best bet is to order online on the CVS web site.Sometimes it’s not about what you’re putting into your skin, it’s what you’re taking out — specifically, sebum, a combination of fat and the debris of dead cells that sometimes blocks pores. La Fleur Organique Purifying Mask ($20) not only absorbs excess sebum with kaolin ("clay"), it moisturizes with borage, jojoba and macadamia nut oils. It’s part of the European Beauty Collection, seven high-end brands available only at certain Walgreens stores. Again, rather than trucking around town trying to find a store that stocks it, your best bet is buying online.

Get Dressed boutique will sponsor a trunk show Aug. 11 with local designers including Stephanie Edge, Debbie Frank of D. Frank Designs and Elisa Lane. Part of the proceeds from sales will go to Girls Ranch of Arizona, which helps troubled teens transition into responsible adulthood. Plus, Get Dressed will have a large collection of sale merchandise — up to 75% off.The event is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Scottsdale Ranch Community Center, 10585 N. 100th St., Scottsdale. Information: (480) 247-6614 or the Get Dressed web site.

Cosmetology students at the International Academy of Hair Design will offer $5 haircuts 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 12 to raise money so they can attend a cutting-edge (yay, puns!) educational hair forum in Dallas.The academy is at 3350 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler — on the northwest corner of Arizona Avenue and Chilton Drive. Information: (480) 820-9422 or the IAHD web site.

OK, they’re not really diamonds — they’re crystals. But it’s a very special occasion indeed: At last, a shoe that pleases even the most finicky of posters — one of our page designers, Amy (she of the "it’s a nice sandal … for JESUS" fame last week). I let her pick this week’s Shoe Hot or Not contender — these black suede Nobel ankle-strap pumps with Swarovski crystal "bamboo" detail on the heel, from the Gucci fall/winter 2007 collection.The ultimate sexy shoe? Leave your comments below — and remember, each week I pick one commenter to receive free products out of my big drawer of style swag!

Feel like guessing how much they cost? Come up with your estimate, then click and drag to highlight the rest of this paragraph and learn how much they’d set you back: $650.

I’ve spent weekends wandering the construction zone at Tempe Marketplace (and, once, being shooed off by security guards) to watch the stores slot into the spaces at Tempe Marketplace, and here’s my conclusion:There is no room for H&M at the shopping center — at least there’s no suitably sizeable space that the retailer should consider for its first-in-the-market location.Despite all the talk about H&M having signed a letter of intent, the only store location at Tempe Marketplace that appears large enough to house both women’s and men’s collections is a two-story spot across from the recently opened California Pizza Kitchen. And the signs recently went up that (at least) the bottom floor is going to be a Victoria’s Secret store.There’s no open spot at the shopping center with the size and high-profile visibility that I would require if I were H&M, especially since it would be my first store in the region. (Every store I’ve been to has been two — if not three! — stories.) Plus, fellow tenants like JCPenney and PetsMart don’t exactly that have young urban chic I’d want in my neighbors.I’ll be happy to eat my words if I’m wrong — I’ve based whole vacations about their proximity to an H&M store! But from what I’ve seen, there’s no way one’s going in at Tempe Marketplace.

I found these videos on YouTube awhile back and as a lark posted them to some of my friends’ MySpace pages. Is it wrong that I keep going back and watching them? Soap star Brenda Dickson did a video called "Welcome to My Home," and it’s a lovely time capsule of everything that was incredibly wrong about the ’80s. It includes some tidbits of wisdom as: "Fashion is something that is acquired by looking at a lot of different fashions" and "In shopping, you’ll find your eye will be drawn to the things you like." Also, wait until you see the outfit she describes as "a very beautiful, simple dress."Part two — and the parody voiceover videos, which I like even more! — are after the jump.In Part Two, we learn about exercise and diet. Some of the things Dickson suggests are actually still valid today — check out her smoothie recipe! — but others are silly, like women should cut out milk products (to prevent cellulite, natch). But you’ll be so distracted by her dazzling outfits you probably won’t remember what she’s saying.And now the parodies … I love them even more than the originals. I’ve embedded the first parody above; the second one starts out with a great many synonyms for (ahem) ladyparts and ends with "When you eat, you’re just a vacuum with nipples," so I’ll let you find your way to that one on your own. (Hint: Click on "menu" on the first parody video to find the related videos.)