Cheryl Shops

Pinterest has spawned so many social-shopping sites, my head spins when I think about it. I try to keep up on these sorts of things—after all, it's kind of my job—but I've found that with so many of these imitators and derivatives, I sign up for them...and then never use them again. (I'm looking at you, Styl.Mx.) After all, there can only be one Pinterest.

That said, I've found one such site that has a lot of potential, and in fact I think it's so cool, you can expect to see a lot more of it here on Cheryl Shops. The site is Lyst, and I first heard about it because—wait for it—you can link it to your Pinterest account, and it will send you alerts when your pinned items go on sale. That alone is worth signing up for, no? But another cool thing about Lyst is that there are a ton of major retailers and designers on the site—you can follow them, which is a great way to find out about new products without having to go to all their individual sites and browse. Of course, being a social site, you can also follow your friends, which is kind of the main point (although what's interesting is that there's not a lot of distinction between designers or retailers and one's friends). It's really great for bloggers, however—one of my favorite features is that Lyst automatically generates collections based on my posts, so if you like what you see here, you can shop the items directly from my Lyst page. See something you like? Roll over it and click "add to my Lyst." You can then sort your items by type, price, color, and so on. It's a big time-suck, really, but if you're anything like me, I bet you're always looking for new ways to shop—and Lyst is pretty awesome.

So, please, join Lyst, follow me, and shop my picks—it'll be like we're shopping together for real!