smart salvage

i think we all have at least one eyeshadow or blush that has dropped or just generally degraded to where what was once a solid is now not so solid anymore. it gets messy, dusty and doesn't go on right anymore. so i love this glamour mag recession-friendly beauty tip on salvaging those downtrodden faves. for containers for this project, i love these.

so easy that it's kind of like, why have we not been doing this since the beginning of time? or at least since the beginning of middle school...

a chic coupling

what do you think of blake's braided updo? i think it's so beautiful and chic, and i love how it's undone and polished in the same instant. here are instructions...

this look reminds me of another of my recent obsessions and you wouldn't normally make the association. a new colleague of mine has introduced me to the wonderfulness of these pencils, and i'm a total devotee now. she sticks them in her pulled-back hair. it's so effortless and bookish seeming - i wish i could do it without seeming like i'm single-white-femaling her, which i would be...

oh yeah, and she tops the pencils with these old schoolerasers. well maybe i'll get my own old school eraser like this pretty white one which i've often admired as i stock up on office supplies each time i get bored of my highlighter and post-it selections. 

...although i don't think these erasers would look as chic in my hair, even with the chicest of braids.

beauty top five

do you have any favorite beauty products to tell us about? i find that there are always a standout few in everyone's arsenal, and i have five i'm really enjoying right now, and i thought i'd share...i'm talking about those gems that make you happy you have them in your back pocket (or your makeup bag).

in the scent world, i'm excited about angel oil from jean turmo in woodstock. to most people, it smells like the thierry mugler oldie but goodie angel, but to me it smells like patchouli, so its a great compromise since my patchouli-wearing has been negged, and fragrance is one of those things where you sort of have to take into account the feelings of the noses around you. the other fragrance i just love is - get this - jessica simpson's fancy love. i never get stopped more than when i wear this scent - it smells a.ma.zing.

i've gotten back into blowing my hair straight and i'm loving john frieda's straight fixation, very simply because it makes - and keeps - my curly hair straight. it's the kind of paranoid, jealous love that makes me worry about the day they might carelessly discontinue it. i'm getting upset thinking about it - definitely need to buy a few tubes for safe keeping.

for eyes, i'm so loving this l'oreal shadow called satin tutu...the perfect shimmery but not too shimmery, shell-like pink shadow. looks great with brown liner, expertly toeing the line of being noticeable but invisible. so vague, i know, but i have a feeling you know what i mean.

and lastly, these makeup eraser sticks from almay are the best thing since...the always perfect almay eye makeup remover pads. it's as if i invented this stick situation myself, and i have to say, in a way i did. when needing to clean up a stray mark, i would often fold one of the pads over a q-tip to get precision and aim. until now, because that's exactly what these sticks are for! here's a really weird use for them i've found and become totally dependent on - i have a beauty mark on my face and when i wear makeup, i don't like how light it gets - like, i don't look like me. so i use one of the sticks to remove the makeup from just that spot. done.

what's in your top five right now? i'd love to know what they are!

top image

essie 's carry-on collection for fall

what are your thoughts? i love that the fall collection is bag themed and i like how this year's fall collection lines up with last year's, seen together below (last year's, then this year's). it looks like neither a copy nor a departure, but an evolution, and don't we all love evolution where we can get it?

i'm interested in each of this year's colors, i suppose, especially very structured, case study and glamour purse. i'm confused by power cluctch which appears greenish above, though gray in a different image i've seen, and is described as a gray-green. i guess i'll HAVE to get a mani to get some clarity.

top image, other images

a quick coat

so you know how i sometimes do a single coat of light nail polish in between manis? well now it's perfected - i've found the perfect polish for it...it's revlon top speed in sheer cotton or sheer pearl and it dries in one minute. literally.

done and done. they also have tons of other colors to choose from, but for me, the sheer light color is the one to go with since i'm utterly untalented at polishing my own nails.

too hot for hair

i think it's too hot today even to write, and way too hot for hair on your neck. let's all wear our hair up in loose, casual buns all weekend, okay? here are some particularly charming ones.

uncomplicated, unfussy and a built in air conditioner for your neck...and awfully lovely looking, don't you think?

images from here, here, here, here

fishtail

do you love the fishtail braids we're seeing everywhere? i think they're sweet like all braids, but even a little cooler. i might have to ask my always ahead of the curve sister for a tutorial. she probably had it figured out long before it graced any glossy pages or blogs.

image, image, image, image

meet me at sunset

especially if sunset looks like this! i know what my next pedi color is going to be. doesn't essie's new meet me at sunset look like the perfect summer corange? yup, corange - just made that up. coral and orange. beach ready. city ready. everything ready.

why pedi and not mani, you might wonder? because i can't stop getting long stem roses on my hands...it's my favorite color ever. EVER. i want to marry it.

label whore

do product labels or packaging make you want to buy them? right now, my label crush is tammy fender's line which has caught my eye in a few mags and then this morning on goop. it's the opposite feeling i have when i want to peel off the labels (also a great visual effect).

the packaging itself is very simple...whiskey-bottle style vessels, clean white labels and a kick-ass typestyle.

 

some other favorites at the moment are my precious mrs. meyers labels...

and the vintagey feel of the organic lemon label at trader joe's.

it pays to notice the little things, don't you think? they're all around us!

image, image, image

a squeeze of lemon

one of my favorite parts of getting a manicure or pedicure is when they bust out the steamed towels...i find it exhilarating, and the hotter the better. i particularly love when the towels are faintly scented with lemon and ginger. similarly, i love to breathe deeply when towels like that are passed around at asian restaurants, and i fondly remember the chilled towels in the gym at this resort being scented that way as well. i just love multi-sensory experiences like that, don't you?

i've often considered buying a towel warmer for my own home...i've come shockingly close to doing it more than once. maybe one day...for now, though, i might just take a page from the resort gym and chill some lemon towels this summer...want to join me?

nailing it for spring

what nail colors are you loving right now? the above combination is what i've been doing myself in an effort to skip manis for a few weeks to save some money. i do one coat of ladies choir from sinful colors ($1.99) and then a top coat of starry silver glitter from NYC color (.99 cents)which is high impact silver with little blue flecks. i might be easing into blue nail polish. p.s. there are coupons for NYC color for $1 off (which i can't find online right now), and if you use them at cvs and get the older bottle style seen above, they're free with the coupon. don't tell NYC i'm spreadin' the news.

some of my recent mani faves are from opi's texas collection, specifically suzi loves cowboys, a true dark brown, though i'm a little out of the dark mood now. are you?

then there's essie's spring collection, which is rather lovely across the board. i'm having that how-will-i-decide anxiety...they're all so pretty. have you tried any yet?

tiny treasures...baby it's cold outside

i had a really hard time deciding on just one tiny treasure this week, because i have a few that i want to share. so i chose two since they could also come in handy as stocking stuffers and yankee swaps, and i'll save the rest for next week. gotta ration, you know?

the first is a blanket-soft scarf from old navy. given my obsession with yellow this year, i got it in the punchy yellow which doesn't seem to be online but was in abundance in-store. warm but not too warm, long but not bulky, i think it's the perfect foil for a black or brown coat, especially in the solid colors it comes in.

and then...lots of people i know grew up on carmex, but i wasn't one of them. for those people, "carmex" is like the generic term for lip balm, like pampers for diapers or kleenex for tissues. now i get why. i bought this three-pack and stashed one in my makeup bag, one on my nightstand and one on the ottoman in my living room, so i'm never far from chap relief. in this season, it's crucial. the unexpected bonus is that the sheer shine looks really pretty, and of course natural.

bundle up and soothe your lips girlies...it's cold!

images: top, scarf, carmex

at our fingertips

i'm loving the essie winter collection - such an improvement on last year's winter collection to my mind.

one of the things i like is that some of the shades are sort of evolutions of some of the essie fall collection. take for example these:

going incognito, above, is a jewelier play on fall's army-chic sew psyched, while hot coco, below, seems to a cross between between a moodier take on fall's little brown dress, which i have fully enjoyed, and the slightly older mink muffs.

luxedo, below, seems a lot like fall's velvet voyeur, which i'm wearing at this very moment and loving, deeply (it's so shiny!!). i'm interested to see how luxedo differs.

i'm also really excited about masquerade belle, below, described as black ruby (yes please!) which bodes well, since the aforementioned velvet voyeur (indeed the holy grail of fall manis, like i thought it would be) is described as "intense chocolate amethyst"...they seem to share some DNA in being really dark black/brown with a hint of a deep, jewely color.

not sure how silken cord differs from the bounty of great reds, long stem roses being my personal pick, so we'll see when these hit nail salons (should be soon, but shoppable now here and in abbreviated form here).

and then there's smokin' hot, below, described as a stone-cold fox gray. while the slightly older chinchilly doesn't work for me, i'm hopeful that this deeper, darker, browner gray will fit the bill.



any early favorites?

vintage HL: scent of a season

next up on my fall already-have list is my cooler weather fragrance wardrobe, with one great new addition. over the summer, i love to use light fragrances, most specifically coconut, as you might remember. but as cooler temps prevail, i prefer something a little heavier, with musky and spicy flavors. throw in a dash of sweetness and i'm happy.

i love having different scents that i wear in different seasons, but also different scents within the same season - i used to be of the idea that a signature scent was essential to one's personal style, but i fully reject that notion now. i think it's the same as with clothes, jewelry, makeup and any other style detail - should be easy to change and adjust based on mood, event, and any other number of factors that dictate our style choices.

some of my favorite fall and winter standbys are straight patchouli oil, which i get at jean tourmo in woodstock, valentino, which i wore on my wedding day, and bulgari notte which i got on my honeymoon in the bahamas. in addition to loving the scents, i love the memories they evoke for me and the way they transport me in time for just a split second, as only true sensory experiences can.
my favorite new cool weather fragrance is neroli from l'occitane. over the summer, i wandered in there and was very pleasantly reminded of the loveliness of that store - delicate, feminine and of course, tres provencale.





i also fell in love with one of their rose scents (they have two - the one i loved was the nuit de mai) but i figured when i need a new spring fragrance, i could explore that one. but i digress....neroli is an oil used in many, many fragrances, and is often compared to bergamot, and in this perfume is also mixed with orange blossoms. the scent is deep and spicy and sweet.to be sure, i purchased a gift set which was on sale for $20 - it's a very gold, very 90's looking "compass" purse atomizer with three small vials that slide right in. not only do i seriously adore the smell, but apparently, everyone adores it on me. you know when that happens, a scent just really works on you? i have never gotten so many compliments and have never enjoyed deeply inhaling more, with my nose to my wrist, my hair, my clothes...it gets everywhere and it lasts forever. LOVE.

i'm actually thinking about, later in the season maybe, experimenting with mixing the neroli and patchouli. the patchouli is SO strong - i love it, but people smell me from a few blocks away and it gets on everything - like, as in, baby gifts i give smell like patchouli. and kelly and cory's cat smelled like patchouli for a month after sitting on the same chair as my bag. yeah.

other items on the fall already-have list:

darkness falls

all wrapped up

originally posted 9/16/09

bulgari notte photo from http://www.mega-shops.com/; neroli photo from http://www.loccitane.com/; valentino photo from http://www.fragrancescompared.co.uk/