Newsletter: May 2008

Happy Memorial Day weekend to all my US readers! It's the first unofficial beach weekend of the season, but the temp's barely going to crack 70 today. What's up with that? But really, all I care about is the 3-day weekend. I need a break!

Spring was a whirlwind of work busy-ness, an amazing vacation to Key West and the Caymans, my friend T's wedding, and then...the stomach virus followed by a neverending cough and cold.

Being sick gave me lots of time to obsess over LOST, Dancing With the Stars and American Idol (COOK!!), but not much energy to blog. Several bottles of Robitussin later, things are finally starting to get back to normal with both work & play.

Look forward to lots of great stuff at Beauty Addict over the coming months, from reviews of the much-buzzed-about no!no! hair removal system, the 5 best mascaras in the history of mankind, a full breakdown of my maid-of-honor makeup (by reader request!), and my adventures with a certain infomercial pedicure tool. In September we'll celebrate our 3-year anniversary with the Beauty Addict Hall of Fame - the best of the best of the best!

In other news, May brought that special annual event...my birthday! I wasn't feeling particularly celebratory this year, but it was impossible to stay miserable for long considering the amazing b-day gifts I received...including a Bose Wave radio, a tanzanite pendant, this massive black tote, some Kenneth Jay Lane animal bangles, and a batch of Fat Witch brownies. Yum.

More happy news...A big thank you to the editors at Glam.com, for choosing Beauty Addict as "Best Voice" in the 2008 Glam Network Awards! And I'm SO happy to report that my lovely beauty colleague, Afrobella, took the award for Best in Beauty this year. She also won a Fabbie award in the beauty category. Congratulations, Patrice! You deserve it!

One last thing...I read a really disturbing article this week about the effects of a common chemical on your hair. Click here to get educated on the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide.

Have a great long weekend, my lovelies!

Get Ready For Summer!

I can't believe it's Memorial Day weekend already! And you know what that means...the official start of beach season. My friend B and I will be spending our weekends lounging in the Hamptons, natch. And here's what I'll be taking along:

Neutrogena Fresh Cooling Body Mist Sunblock: this has got to be one of the BEST innovations in suncare. It feels amazing going on, smells fresh and clean, easily coats your bod, and provides broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection with Helioplex, a blend of 5 sun protection agents. The waterproof, sweatproof mist sprays at any angle, and it feels lightweight - never greasy or goopy.

Korres Yoghurt Cooling Gel: Just in case I get a bit of a burn (it usually happens to my poor feet), I keep this gel-cream on hand for after-sun relief. It's hydrating, cooling, and incredibly soothing - way better than that sticky green aloe gel from the drugstore. Keep it in the fridge for an extra cooling kick.

Creed Virgin Island Water: This coconut-and-lime cocktail is one of my favorite summer scents. It's tropical and creamy but still light and fresh - perfect for hot weather. For an extra boost, layer it with Coconut Lime Verbena products from Bath & Body Works (they go quite well together!). For a few more summer scent ideas, click here.

~H2O+ Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment: I hadn't used any ~H2O+ products in years, but this gel moisturizer turned me on to the brand again. It's similar to Clinique Moisture Surge - light and non-greasy - and has a hint of a fresh, aquatic scent. Plus, you have to admit...the frosted jar with the ocean blue moisturizer inside is just really, really pretty.

MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner Stick SPF 15 with Strobe Pearl: the perfect combination of sun protection and sheer, beachy color. I'm loving the honey-colored Strobe Rays and the sheer plum Strobe Current. For 4 more fab lippies with SPF, click here.

Bumble and bumble Surf Spray: When the humidity is high and the air is salty, might as well give in to it and ditch the flat iron. I like to give my natural waves some texture with Surf Spray or one of its friends - Nexxus Phyto Organics Sea Swell Texture Mist is also an excellent choice, and may be easier to find.

Michael Kors Island Capri Refreshing Body Gelee: I actually prefer the scent of this light, cooling body moisturizer to that of its eau de parfum counterpart, which was far too aquatic for me. The body gelee smells more like an orange grove than an aquatic floral, and for that it earns a permanent spot in my weekend bag. The light formula is perfect for warm weather - not too heavy, just enough to keep your skin soft and supple.

For days at the beach, an armload of cute bikinis is certainly in order! The one shown is from Old Navy, of all places - I love picking up cheap basic bikinis there and then accessorizing them with fun earrings, sandals and beach bags. They're on sale now for $30, so grab a few in basic colors like brown, black and pink - if they're ruined by pool water and the sun by the end of the summer, you won't care.

Speaking of cute beach bags, this one is by Milly, exclusive to Net-a-porter. I ordered it before my spring cruise and fell in love with it - the print is bold and fun (perfect with that brown bikini!), it's lined in terry, and it holds EVERYTHING. I'm sorry to report that it's no longer available - check out this metallic straw beach bag from J. Crew, instead.

New Bobbi Brown: Who Said Almost Doesn't Count?

Whether you love it or hate it, you have to admit that Bobbi Brown does minimalist fragrance very well; no bizarre notes of crystallized frozen lychee, or exotic gilded mandarin leaf, or cupcake accord, for that matter. Beach, Bath and Baby were simple, clean, and pretty much self-explanatory.

Almost Bare ($60) is Bobbi's latest, and it fits in quite nicely with its sister scents. It's a delicate, slightly green floral with notes of bergamot, violet leaves, muguet, jasmine, cedar and amber. It's clean without smelling like an actual cleaning product, which is a nice change from the ploddingly literal "Clean" line, which seems to pop out another soapy scent about every 3 months.

Almost Bare is strikingly similar to a niche fragrance I tested out last year, Privet Bloom by Hampton Sun. The listed notes are completely different, but the two scents are certainly reminiscent of each other. If you own one, you really don't need the other - but I doubt too many of you out there wear the Privet Bloom, it pretty much flies below the radar (I tagged it as a sleeper hit in spring fragrance).

The lasting power of Almost Bare is surprisingly good for a fragrance this delicate; I sprayed some on before bed and it was still going strong when I woke up the following morning. However, it's not overpowering; Almost Bare stays close to the skin and won't offend anyone in an elevator, or your office.

And it'll be lovely in the hot weather...if we ever get any!

Little Shop of Hair Horrors

Let's talk about my hair for a minute. This is just a story, a mystery, really - no product review or beauty lesson learned.

Lately I've been thinking of giving my hair a name, something like Hamburglar or Audrey II, the plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

Why? Well, my hair...it eats things. It's hungry, hungry hair. At this point I totally think my hair could win the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

But I suspect hot dogs aren't really its style. It prefers to eat things like shampoo, dye, and hairspray. And its appetite will not be curbed!

You should see how quickly I go through a bottle of shampoo. A quarter-sized dollop doesn't even produce any lather in my hair...it just seems to sink in and disappear. Two quarter-sized dollops? Still nothing. A palmful? Now we're getting somewhere.

I used to attribute this to crappy shampoo formulas, but then when I started getting my hair highlighted, my stylist and I discovered that my hair also likes to eat dye. About 3 weeks after getting (permanent) highlights, they'd be gone. I never saw them wash down the drain or come off on my clothes, they just seemed to disappear into the night, leaving my hair exactly as it was before.

After quite a bit of money and time eaten up by my hungry little head, we switched to bleach, which finally worked, and remains the preferred solution to this day. My hair's inability to hold color was chalked up to its redhead roots (well, it may have been strawberry blonde as a child, and chestnut as a teen, but now it's just brown underneath all my bleachy highlights). I remember reading something similar about Lindsay Lohan, where her stylist said it took something like 6 visits to get her to platinum blonde.

So maybe the redhead gene explains the color problem, but what about the shampoo? And what about the hairspray? The day of my friend's wedding, my stylist Kristen ended up using nearly an entire can of Sebastian Shaper on my head, to the point that it coated everything from my cell phone to my ears to my shirt...but not my hair. It started out as a quick mist to set the style, but my hair stayed limp and floppy. More and more was added until we were finally confident that everything would stay in place. Kristen joked that on anyone else, that amount of hairspray would have produced a serious case of helmet head.

Now, you saw that hairstyle. By all accounts it did not look shellacked. But I am telling you, a WHOLE CAN of hairspray was in there. And at the end of the night when I took it out, it fell into loose, soft curls, as if no hairspray had ever been there.

It's getting hungrier, friends. Soon I fear it will be on par with Amy Winehouse's hive, which is rumored to be the final destination of all the world's orphan socks. Feed me, Seymour!

The Beauty Addict Interview: Daria Werbowy

A couple of months ago I had the chance to sit down with Daria Werbowy to talk about her upcoming collection for Lancome. Our small group - Carolyn from The Daily Obsession, Susan from My Beautyberry, and myself - had a great time chatting Daria up on the new colors, the charity connection, and what it's like to play around in the Lancome lab.

First off, Daria is incredibly down to earth, super-friendly, and totally gorgeous. And guess what, girls? She does her own makeup! (It looked fab, by the way.)

Beauty For A Cause

The Brazilian Earth Color Collection was created by Lancome and Daria to benefit Centro Espacial Vik Muniz, a non-profit program for at-risk teens in Rio de Janeiro, focusing on art programs, education and training.

Daria traveled to Brazil to visit the center and was inspired by the work being done there to keep kids off the streets, out of gangs, and away from drugs. "High schoolers are such an important age group," she said. "These kids are all from different favelas [shanty towns]; they'd probably be rivals if they weren't at the center."

The Color Story

The neutral, earthy tones of the Brazilian Earth collection were inspired by "fabrics, textures, landscapes, the natural beauty of Brazil in general...and of the kids," said Daria.

The Carnet de Velours palette is an eyeshadow quad stocked with "great everyday shades, something everyone would want to wear." Indeed, this palette is perfect for creating looks ranging from an everyday wash of neutral color to a deep chocolate smokey eye.

Beige Caracai lipstick is a neutral beige toffee, and Nude Prainha lip gloss is a light, sheer neutral beige with no shimmer. The gloss is excellent for a soft nude pout since there's "no washout," said Daria. "It lets your own lip color come through."

All 3 products are housed in limited edition packaging (the palette is especially lovely) with Daria's signature.

Weird Science

So, what's it like to set foot in a cosmetics lab? "I was expecting it to be like a Tim Burton movie, with things exploding," she said. "But it was really calm, relaxed and clean."

"It was really hard to come down to four shades" for the quad, she said, noting that "the actual pigments they start with are incredible. They're unearthly."

The Brazilian Earth Color Collection is available at Sephora and www.lancome-usa.com.