December 2007

Humidifier Update

I think this is working well for me!

It’s only been two nights so there have been no major changes to skin tone but the most important thing is that there no longer any moisture lost in my skin, even though there may not be any moisture added. The humidifier with my usual daily regiment of a gentle body wash (Fresh Lychee) and body lotion is enough to keep my skin moist through the night and prevent cracking in the morning.

I definitely feel a lot better waking up — no more dry nasal passages, dry throat or itchy eyes. I have found the perfect balance in thermostat and humidity level that keeps my bed warm, sheets dry and me sleeping comfortably. I only turn the humidifier on when I’m in the room, keeping it at a desired 55% humidity level throughout the evening and overnight. I’m glad I chose one where I can view the current humidity level and adjust the desired level of output — very important.

The filter on my humidifier needs to be changed every 3 months but that is probably when I’m going to retire it for the spring unless I start to see some long term effects on my skin. So I’ll really only need a new filter once a year.

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Source: Humidifier Update

S’Ei-ffel on the shoe….

If you pronounce the Eiffel the way it’s supposed to be pronounced in French, the title should make more sense than when you first look at it.  Gimmick shapes in bags or shoes are not something that I’m particularly taken with.  I can only grimace when the sentance ‘Influenced by the Eiffel Tower’ is used.  Take the supposed ‘IT bag of 2008 aka Timmy Woods’ Eiffel Tower bag which happens to be featured in the forthcoming Sex and the City Movie, as carried (doh…) by Carrie Bradshaw.  I can only express repugnance for this Swarovski encrusted bit of cheese. 

But Gustave Eiffel’s 1889 Parisian iconic landmark need not be used this way in fashion.  Anne Valérie Hash has created the Eiffel shoe for her spring summer 2008 collection and by picking out the shape of the Tour Eiffel subtly, nobody is going to be accused of wearing a tourist gimmick.  The shoe will be available in iced brown (the colour of the iron it has rusted to), metallic pink and electric yellow (the vibrancy of light seen at night…) at EUR465.  I can only breathe a sigh of relief that a shoe named after the Eiffel Tower came out unscathed and actually looks rather lovely with a sturdy chunky heel (reflective of the strong foundations of the landmark?) contrasting with the thin straps.

Speaking of Anne Valérie Hash, one of my favourite things in the world is to go into Dover Street Market and Liberty and have a good old feel of her softest of soft washed leather sacks that invariably have ruffled leather details….  the saving mission for an AVH bag goes on… 

Source: S’Ei-ffel on the shoe….

Not my kind of Bubble…

You would think that a dress named ‘Bubelle’ (pronounced ‘Bubble’ should be right up my street.  However, I think Philips might have got it wrong when they named this prototype dress that can pick up the emotions of the wearer.  Afterall, you construct a bubble around you to shield people from seeing your emotions, not vice versa!    

The Bubelle Dress is made up of two layers, the inner layer contains biometric sensors that pick up a person’s emotions and projects them in colors onto the second layer, the outer textile.  It changes in colour according to our emotional state.  Philips apparently thinks that future garments should be more ’sensitive’ as opposed to ‘intelligent’.  They figured that we wear variations on colour, fabrics, finishes etc in our outfits because we want to show our personality and emotions and so they have taken emotive dressing to a new level with the Bubelle dress.  Lucy McRae, the project manager says “A garment can be a highly complex interactive electronic or biochemical device that is more responsive to subtle triggers like sensuality, affection and sensation.”

I haven’t really contemplated the lightyears ahead-future of fashion (as opposed to two seasons ahead…) but I’m not sure I really want my dresses to have so many bells and whistles.  Wires?  Computer chips?  Biometric-sensors?  I remember an episode of Grey’s Anatomy where a girl had some sort of compulsive blushing disorder whereby she would go absolutely red in the face whenever she felt the slightest bit of embarrassment.  Surely this dress is the technology-ridden, artificial version of that disease?  Do I want everybody in the world watching me feel either elation, embarrassment, anger or attraction as I swan around in this Bubelle dress on the streets….

Philips is right - of course the way we dress can be attributed to our emotional state and our moods.  But it’s under our control and manipulation how MUCH of our emotional state we wish to reveal to the world.  I may be wearing a wallflower outfit of dusky colours because I feel a bit wee and bit rubbish.  The point is though I can hide my wee and rubbish feeling away and in fact I can utilise my outfit to pick up the way I feel too (wee and rubbish days definitely call for my clicky clacky Jenne O silver brogue heels…).   

Thankfully though the dress itself is not a monstrosity…. but the function behind it will never take the place of my daily routine of selecting an outfit that is at the whim of my emotions…       

Source: Not my kind of Bubble…

Reader Mail: The Drugstore Challenge

In today’s Reader Mail:

Dear BS: You are always talking about super-expensive beauty products I can’t afford. Tell me five things I can get from drugstore.com that are less than $8. Just the basics—shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, etc.

I still love you.
XO
N.

Now, we know, and we totally hear this. Of course most of the things we use every day are well under this budget as well. Our whole philosophy here is that no one really needs to chat about things that are not super expensive, because they’re, you know, not super expensive—risk is mitigated, and everyone probably has their favorites already. What we always found was that we really wanted to chat about things that were super expensive, just because we didn’t want to fuck it up. We don’t want anybody thinking we’re trust funders. Trust us, and our landlord, who is remarkably patient about always getting out rent a month late. We’re not.

So all that aside, our picks.

We swear we have bought this conditioner on every continent on earth. We will say though that we absolutely just go through it, and we’re convinced that our Kiehl’s works out to be cheaper and is also a better conditioner. Pantene conditioner (24 oz.), $7.19

We feel that sometimes a product will have a crap design, and then you’re like, oh! Ugly, but cheap, and possibly effective! That is how we feel about this. Green Canyon Spa exfoliator, $7.69

For the extremely dry things, like heels or elbows or whathaveyou. The whole cow thing freaks us out a bit, but okay. Bag Balm, $6.89

Again: crap packaging. So: cheaper! And this is also—well, we’ll just let them say it: “Organic Essential Oils Promote a Healthy Scalp & Strengthen and Protect Each Hair Strand. Made with Oshadhi Organic Essential Oils”. Fair enough. Beauty Without Cruelty Shampoo with Rosemary Mint and Tea Tree Oil, $5.59

And finally: this is our go-to deodorant whenever we can’t get our hands on our Nivea. Dove deodorant, $3.13

Now: everybody else! Your favorite, under $8, bathroom must-have?

Source: Reader Mail: The Drugstore Challenge

Carrie Bradshaw’s Wardrobe To Be Both Sexy & Subsidized [Sux In The City]

Next spring’s Sex and the City movie has a big-girl budget, a built-in audience of young women often found flitting about lower Park Avenue and, of course, lots of ridiculous clothes. The funny thing about all those clothes, however, is while many of them were no doubt requested by costume designer/fun drunk lesbian Patricia Field, just as many were conveniently “placed into the film by PR firms and fashion labels themselves, with just a wee bit of cash changing hands between the fashion houses and the film’s producers! Reports the Daily Mail:

Major brands and designers around the world spent months jockeying for prominent placement on this high-profile movie runway. Money was offered, calls made, favours called in and publicists begged to get their brands on the backs of this glamorous quartet of women.

Brand strategist agencies work as corporate matchmakers and are involved in the movie-making process from the very beginning. They are given advance copies of scripts in order to analyse whether there are opportunities for a partnership, giving money to the studio in exchange for promotion.

The Daily Mail goes onto explain that Sex and the City producers were offered almost a million dollars by Campari for a little bar-based product placement, and that they almost went for it. Says executive producer Michael Patrick King: “The first thing that came to me was to go ahead with it. Then I thought: ‘Hang on, Carrie would never order that’.” (This from the man who insists that NYC’s Meatpacking district is still cool.)

Forget the fact that the large majority of writers can’t afford head-to-toe designer wardrobes (trust us on this one), Carrie Bradshaw’s wardrobe is unrealistic because it isn’t even comprised of what a writer would want to wear even if she could afford to. But hell, who cares? After all, what is narrative integrity compared to cold, hard cash?

Cash and Carrie: How Top Designers Have Spent Millions To Get Their Outfits in the SATC Movie [Daily Mail]

Earlier: OMG It’s The Sex And The City Movie Trailer
Patricia Field + Barbie = A Drag Queen’s Wet Dream

Source: Carrie Bradshaw’s Wardrobe To Be Both Sexy & Subsidized [Sux In The City]

Marla Boehr by Rad Hourani for Mode20 VidArt Expo

modemodels celebrates 20 years 1987 - 2007

Source: Marla Boehr by Rad Hourani for Mode20 VidArt Expo

L’Occitane Hand’s Best Friend Hand Cream Trio

Talking Makeup is a big fan of L’Occitane body lotions and hand creams.  L’Occitane products main ingredient is a high level of shea butter, and this stuff works! 

 

Try L’Occitane’s Limited Edition Hand’s Best Friend Hand Cream Trio which includes 1 oz of each Honey and Lemon Hand Cream, Shea Butter Hand Cream, and Cherry Blossom Hand Cream, $25.   

Skincare, L’Occitane. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Source: L’Occitane Hand’s Best Friend Hand Cream Trio

Who Is Worse? Paul Janka Or Mitt Romney? [Jankonomics]

I’m revising my policy on Paul Janka. When I saw him on the Today show the other day I thought he was merely the latest incarnation of a stock character, a product of current society’s insatiable need to have a new unabashed asshole - douche jour — to crucify publicly for all the sins committed by the sundry assholes in our past. Oh, but there is something very special about him, as we begin to see from some Radar procured excerpts of his book proposal:

Tell the bartender how it is– she works for you for the two hours or so you’ll be there. I tell them I don’t drink but that I am meeting a lady, and that I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable so could they please bring me seltzer waters, in a high-ball glass, with a lime. And call it a Tom Collins. Or a Gin and Tonic if you prefer. Never leave your drink, and don’t let the girl sip it– she will freak out, I guarantee you. If you go to the bathroom, take it with you.

Strategic! So anyway, here’s where it gets interesting. Doesn’t he kind of remind you of Mitt Romney? The spookily war-ravaged looking eyes, the strong jawline, the Harvard degree, the obsession with data, the suspicious teetotaling.

Both dudes are the same, it’s just the generation and geopolitical situation that have changed. Romney’s a typical psychocapitalist Boomer hawk, and Janka is one of those predators whose victims don’t really care because he’s just sort of an autistic version of all the other date rapists they’ve fallen for. One wants to conquer the world, the other will settle for the world of pussy…

But it’s only really depressing if either one wins.

The six-minute ride from my favorite lounge to my apartment is a crucial testing period. If I have my hand in her panties and her mouth is around my cock, she passes the test. Everyone’s happy. That isn’t often the case. More usually, they’re coming back to your place, a bit tipsy, and now would be a good time to test the physical boundaries a bit. Kissing, breast and crotch action is explored. Also, their willingness to put their hands on my alerted member is usually telling.

Is Paul Janka A Wee Bit Rapey? [Radar]

Source: Who Is Worse? Paul Janka Or Mitt Romney? [Jankonomics]