If you’ve been reading this site since last July, well, first of all— thanks! Let’s go for a drink—and secondly, you may remember my shout-out to Guerlain’s Terracotta Light bronzing compact (in “Brunettes 02”) as one of my summer essentials. (And if you've been reading this site since yesterday, you know that it's beloved by the chicest of French women.) “It’s like the diet version of the real thing,” I mused, loving that it takes a lot of work to deposit more than a smidgen of color, which I prefer to the more concentrated blushers, illuminators, what-have-you. It’s foolproof. This season, Guerlain upped the ante and added a few more items to the infamous bronzing range—a double-sized pressed powder in pure gold, liquid blush, and amplified “ Sun Brunettes” and “ Sun Blondes” Terracotta Light compacts—and dubbed the campaign Sun in the City. “Can you shoot some imagery tied into ‘sun in the city,’” they asked me? Indeed I can, I said, accepting the commission, because there is truly nothing I love more than a sunny, spring-timey day in New York, except perhaps, a sunny, spring-timey day in New York playing dress up with my pal Alessandra, eating ice cream and snapping photos.

At her place on the Bowery, there were six pairs of short shorts and hot pants laid out on the bed— six—which seems like an appropriate number for someone who, at just over 5’10, can wear that sort of thing with flats and still look good. She threw on her mom’s Sonia Rykiel “Cote D’Azur” sweatshirt from the ‘80’s, slipped into Proenza flats and sidled up to the kitchen table to check out the makeup. The Sun Brunettes 05 has a touch more coral to it than my tried-and-true Brunettes 03—it’s a little warmer and works really well with a preexisting glow…which Alessandra has pretty much year-round. I swept it where the sun would hit, and dusted the sheer, shimmery Golden Glimmer Palette across the tops of her cheekbones, down the bridge of her nose and pressed it onto her eyelids with my finger. Wanting a bit of a dewy sheen, I grabbed a tube of Homeoplasmine (aka the French Aquaphor) from my purse and dabbed it on top so the look felt more lived-in.

Now—all dressed up and where to go? When the weather is this nice, it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy—sitting at a café table outside and having margaritas with friends will pretty much do the trick. But since that makes for a rather boring adventure, we opted for a trip across the river. The Brooklyn Bridge Park is now at the top of my list for lazy Saturdays spent outside—that, and the far Rockaways, or the “anti-Hamptons” as the New York Times dubbed it last year. Alessandra and I were going to make the trek out there until we realized it’d be at least an hour on the train, and I wasn’t sure of the food situation at the other end, so, to Brooklyn we went. The Dumbo waterfront has a refurbished 1920’s carousel offering $2 rides, a small stretch of “beachfront”, and an “ Ice Cream Factory.” We put on our best “city girls trying to be active” faces and scaled the rocks down to the water for a little hike. After a spin on Jane’s carousel with a spirited bunch of five-year-olds, we set out in search of the Ice Cream Factory. And oh, the line for ice cream…think wraparound, think Six Flags. We were in line outside for forty minutes. And somehow, four hours later, in that five o’clock light, her makeup looked better than when we started—the little bit of glow where the light hits; the bits of glimmer that fall down under your eye...and make you look like you’ve been having loads of fun.

Visit Guerlain's Facebook page to enter their Terracotta “Sun in the City' contest. Trip to Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory not included, but tell me when you’re going and I’ll try to make it.