Amber Hodgson

Amber Hodgson is an intuitive hair stylist and craft perfumer. She's also a sweet mamma to a dreamy 2 year old, Lowe, a Francophile, a font of product knowledge (she is a hair stylist after all!) and has a coffee addiction serious enough to rival mine.

We met on a grey morning in her gorgeous 19th c. home tucked away on a quiet street in East Austin. After introducing me to her loving Beagle, Miette (it means crumb in French!) and wild kitten Kikko, we explored her vast collection of A Détacher shoes, played games with Lowe (ring around the rosy, vet, makeup, kitchen - you name it), poked through her heaping stacks of fashion magazines from around the world and sniffed some of her latest fragrance creations. I went home wearing a blend of neroli, hay and other delicious scents I couldn't quite place but they stuck with me the rest of the day.

My personal style is... comfortable and casual. I will wear the same thing everyday until it falls apart. Any piece or shoe in cream, white, or nude.

My style icon is... I have 3: Bilinda Butcher from My Bloody Valentine, designer Adam Selman -- he has it all figured out, and my biggest inspiration is Mona Kowalska, designer of A Détacher. She designs clothes that hit me on a different level. Her personal style embodies everything I love and it seems that comfort is a top priority for her. 

I am inspired by...my daughter, Lowe and scent. Not just perfumes, but in my every day life.  Lowe happens to smell pretty incredible, too -- if only you could bottle the smell of "soft innocence." If you love perfume you should read about Sissel Tolaas, Yosh Han, Dawn Goldworm, Luca Turin, and Jean Claude Ellena. 

If I lived in another era I'd choose... The Age of Revolution... definitely in France.

The last book I read was.... Last Night I Swam with a Mermaid by Kimberly Muller.

Right now I am obsessed with... obsession is my middle name! 

Acupuncurist Peggy Ghorbani -- she is a magical woman. I recommend her to everyone that I know. She has changed my life. Regarding Head Shape: Acknowledgment of the Haircut as Form -- a book by Ryann Bosetti, Cecile Daladier ceramic pieces, my Hadley Johnson sheer dress...

Lately I've been listening to... Wild Nothing is usually playing at my house, but I regularly listen to the freundevonfreunden mix tapes.

When I'm at home I love to... lounge around, watch movies, and play with Lowe.

If I were in a movie I'd be in... of course I'd be Angela in Une femme est une femme. NO! Oona in Legend. It's a tie. I have 2 personalities. 

When I walk up to the bar I order... a super girly drink like a mojito or a margarita.

My go-to beauty products are… Rodin Olio Lusso, Living Clay, David Mallett, Leonor Greyl, Ellis Faas and Giorgio Armani.

I’m crushing on… my husband. He's my sweetheart.... and this Ryan Roche cashmere vest.

On a sunny afternoon I love to... play with Lowe outside at a playground -- there's nothing sweeter.

When I’ve got money to burn I head to... the Internet. I head there even when I don't have money to burn. Here are some places I go: mnzstore.com, lagraconne.com, no6store.com, scoutla.net, mohawkgeneralstore.net, frenchgarmentcleaners.com, shopanaise.com.

The last time I surprised myself I… started watching and reading Game of Thrones. I don't get into too many TV shows. I feel like a weird, anxious teenage boy every time the opening credits roll. 

Five things I can’t live without are…

1. Perfume 

2. Let's be real: the Internet -- when you have a young one, some days it's all you have to connect to the "outside world."

3. Magazines

4. My friendships with my closest girlfriends. They live far away, so thank goodness we have text messaging and instagram. 

5. My Shino Takeda ceramic mug- it looks like neapolitan ice cream.

I feel most myself when I am… in my pjs at my parents' house when all of my family is in town.