When I'm in the NY office, downtown, I take an express bus home (which is wonderful, by the way, a major upgrade from the subway and regular city buses...and it had better be, since it costs $5). Across the street from the bus stop is an evil, evil Sephora.

Why is it evil? Because when it's drizzling and I've forgotten my umbrella (which happens 95% of the time it rains), I can't help but give in to its siren song and wait out the rain amidst the aisles of Philosophy, Stila and Smashbox.

I was in there tonight.

Among the new items I spotted were two new sets from Korres. The Vanilla Plum Collection Set ($19.5o) includes Vanilla Plum Showergel, Vanilla Plum Body Butter, and Plum Lip Butter. I was immediately entranced by the pretty purple bag packaging, which looks a little space-age...like beauty products that would belong to aliens. And I'm LOVING the Vanilla Plum scent, which gets the message across without being overly sweet. The Plum Lip Butter smells like straight plum, has a creamy but not goopy texture, and leaves your lips with a berry mauve tint. All around, a solid bet!

Vanilla Plum is also available in a full size Body Butter ($21).

But as delicious as Vanilla Plum is, the other Korres set I checked out tonight just didn't measure up. The Sugar & Spice Set ($12) sounded so promising! With three mini shower gels in festive scents -- Hot Spiced Chocolate, Honey Spice, and Sugar Glazed Clementine --this seemed like a slam dunk for a holiday stocking stuffer. Hot Spiced Chocolate was delish, but Sugar Glazed Clementine had an odd, metallic/chemical-y undertone to it (very strange for Korres) and Honey Spice was just forgettable. It's official; no one can beat Philosophy in replicating cookie and dessert scents for your shower.