February 2008

5 New Ways to Have a Delicious Night

I remember when DKNY Be Delicious launched, I wanted so much to love it. My friend Ann Marie wore it and it smelled incredible on her - but on me, it was Eau de Cheap Apple Shampoo. I was steamed, with nothing left to do but look enviously at the the itty bitty green apple bottles in their little crate, the matching lip glosses, the twee apple stickers. Be Delicious would never work for me. Skin chemistry is so fickle that way.

I’m having slightly better luck with DKNY Delicious Night, a combination of pomelo, blackberry martini, blooming night florals, amber, and black incense. I don’t know what makes a “blackberry martini” note different from plain blackberry, but I will tell you that there is something dry and vodka-ish about the opening of this fragrance. At first spritz it reminds me of Apothia Velvet Rope which, incidentally, was inspired by “an icy, dry vanilla martini.” So maybe there’s something to be said for that martini note after all.

After the ‘tini has died down, Delicious Night is all fruit to me, and it’s way too sweet - but then it settles down into a nice, warm drydown thanks to the amber and incense. See, slightly better luck with this one.

Five new items have just been added to the collection, and if it were one of those “this just doesn’t work for me” situations, like original Be Delicious, I’d be mighty pissed. Why? Because these five new items aren’t your usual shower gel and lotion type things. Read on:

• Delicious Night Eau de Parfum Rollerball: Rollerballs are my new obsession, so whenever I see one in a fragrance I like even remotely, I’m all over it. They’re portable, tiny, and they never spill. $34, available February 2008.

• Delicious Night Lip/Cheek Stain: This is one I haven’t seen before in a fragrance range. It’s also the only one of the five that I haven’t tested. I’m assuming it’s scented, but I can’t tell you for sure yet. Have you seen it at Sephora? Report back! $25, Sephora exclusive, available February 2008.

• Delicious Night Candle: Matching candles are another obsession of mine. I love the ones from Bond No. 9 and Monyette Paris. This one is housed in a deep purple hued glass jar which, while rather small, is tres sexy. $25, Sephora exclusive, available February 2008.

• Delicious Night Eau de Parfum Spray, 1.0 oz: The iconic apple bottle in a petite size small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Not the most innovative of the five, but there’s something about holding this bottle that reminds me of David Bowie’s orb in Labyrinth. I also feel that I can’t end this blurb without telling you that it would make a very cool paperweight. $38, available February 2008.

• Delicious Night Limited Edition EDP: This gorgeous bottle comes with 25 faceted stones knocking around the inside, with a clear gradation at the base of the bottle so you can enjoy all the sparkle. I’m a sucker for these embellished bottles, I know. $75, exclusive to Bloomingdale’s available April 2008.

While not a new item, there’s also a matching lip gloss that I find myself reaching for quite a bit lately (this scented lip gloss thing seems to be a trend these days). It’s a deep grape shimmer that’s sheer but still pigmented enough to be noticeable, giving you a shiny berry pout. The fragrance itself was a little on the fruity side for me (what do you expect from a fruit-shaped bottle?), but fruit in a lip gloss is just fine.

It’s interesting to see how fragrance lines are expanding this way. We’ve seen scented candles for a while, but the lip glosses are pretty new, and we’ve also seen items like scented hair mists, gel moisturizers, and now cheek stains. What do you think of this trend - do you just want to wear your perfume on your neck and wrists, or are you all about the layering, even on your lips?

Source: 5 New Ways to Have a Delicious Night

Shop Find: S^CRED Clothesline [Tops 2 Bottoms]

SHOP: S^CRED Clothesline

For all the guys who are basketball fanatics, this shop is worth a look. Philippine Basketball, I might add. They design tees and hoodies inspired by basketball icons and/or stars of our country. It’s very Filipino of them, me thinks. This is a great option for guys are constantly on the hunt for unique shirts that’s Philippine-made. Occasionally, they even offer limited designs like a Miami Ink shirt.

As featured above, one of their tees is the Jaworski Tee (Go Ginebra!) and, of course, the urbanites who love the hoodies, with has that Jordan-esque image print, this one’s called DUNKMAN hoodie.

Their prices are pretty reasonable and they do have a few more items on their product page that’s worth a look.

Happy shopping!

Tags: DUNKMAN Hoodie, Hoodies, Jaworski, Jaworski Tee, Miami Ink shirt, online-shop, Philippine Basketball, Philippines, shirt, shopping, S^CRED, S^CRED Clothesline, t-shirt, tees

Source: Shop Find: S^CRED Clothesline [Tops 2 Bottoms]

Mineral Makeup Review : Lumiere Cashmere Foundation

I have tried the Lumiere foundations before in the Veena Velvet formula. I liked its coverage being medium to heavy and long-lasting. It just made me breakout from the oat content after I’ve sampled and found my match. I thought that was the end of my love-affair with Lumiere foundations (I still love their blushes and eye shadows though).

Recently I got to try out the sample of the newest formula in Cashmere which came with my pre-buy brushes. This new formula was formulated with no oat content for ladies who did not do well with oats in their foundation. Picking out a shade was easy because they run the same in depth and intensity with the other Lumiere formulas except for Luminesse which runs darker.

Ingredients:
silk powder, serecite (colorless mica), titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, boron nitride, iron oxides

I got my perfect match in just one try with Medium Warm which was also my match in the Veena Velvet formula. Applying made it all the more easy with the superb and I-can’t-live-without synthetic Large Flat-Top brush also from Lumiere. It still had the same medium to heavy coverage which I liked and it covered my breakouts well without me having to apply too much concealer after. It wasn’t cakey and most important, I did not breakout after using it for a few days.

I put it to the test when I went to the zoo with my family. It was a hot and humid day and even if I sweated and blotted my face the foundation was still intact. My face didn’t itch and wasn’t so oily either.

Definitely HG material for me since Silk containing products does well on my face.

Nikki the Mineral Makeup Addict

Source: Mineral Makeup Review : Lumiere Cashmere Foundation

BS Hearts: Buying New Glasses

Saw this on the Sartorialist (so brilliant!) and then on the Fashion Spot. When we were in Utah our Nylon editor noticed that we wear our contacts morning ’til night, and we had to tell this whole story about how we left our glasses in China, etc etc, which didn’t even matter because we’d bent the fuck out of them. These and all the other cute classes out there are somehow encouraging us to go back to the glasses shop, once all this Fashion Week madness is over. So many times when glasses are better! On airplanes, late at night … okay, those are our best two. But still.

Source: BS Hearts: Buying New Glasses

Leona Lewis More Popular than American Idols

American Idol winners can’t hold a candle to December 2006 The X Factor winner Leona Lewis. The UK artist is selling more records than some of her American Idol counterparts combined.

Her debut single was downloaded 50,000 times in just 30 minutes, making her the fastest-selling female artist ever. Her debut album, Spirit, is outselling the Spice Girls’ Greatest Hits album by four to one, making it a certified 5x platinum in the UK.

Source: Leona Lewis More Popular than American Idols

Beauty News: Beauty Bloggers Exploited!

While reading one of my fave beauty sites, Temptalia, I came across her post about The New York Times article “Beauty Blogs Come Of Age: Swag Please!”. The article was ridiculous and appalling. It exploited beauty bloggers as being grubby, greedy, beauty whores - at least that’s the picture that was painted in my mind. As wretched as this article was, I’m really not surprised by it. I saw it coming and knew it was only a matter of time “official” media outlets would turn on us. Receiving free swag, which was once privileged to beauty insiders and magazine editors, is no longer the case now that beauty blogs have increased in popularity. Not all blogs receive free products and invitations to glamourous beauty events. There are a select few that get to enjoy these perks. Yes, there are some people that have started blogs solely to receive free product but that’s not why we all do it. I won’t lie, I love to receive anything free - who doesn’t? But I work damn hard at updating my blog, providing inside beauty information and helping other women with their beauty woes!

When I started this blog, I thought this would be a great way to combine my two loves: writing and makeup! Through my blog I’ve had the opportunity to meet and connect with some pretty amazing people that otherwise would not have happened. Many makeup career opportunities that have boosted my career have all been through my blog. I love helping women, giving them professional beauty tips, doing tutorials and step-by-step guides because I just think it’s my duty lol. I make very little money from my blog which takes up the majority of my time these days. I think it’s great to receive free product and review them, but a lot of my reviews have been all out of my own pocket. I’m very grateful when I do receive free things because I get the chance to try something new and share it with the readers but let’s face it - it’s not cheap! I thank all my readers for letting me inside their world!!

Check out some responses to the article from Christine, BonBons In The Bath and Spoiled Pretty. Well said ladies! Beauty blogs are here to stay! If you want honest reviews and opinions, beauty blogs are where it’s at. Don’t you agree? I’d love to hear what you, the readers, think about all of this. Why do you read beauty blogs and how do you view us?

Source: Beauty News: Beauty Bloggers Exploited!

Mischa Barton for Iceberg [Tops 2 Bottoms]

Mischa Barton definitely looked smokin’ in the new Iceberg ads.

ICEBERG, est. 1962 — Giuliana Marchini Gerani discovered her love for knitwear and arrived in 1974 at the revolutionary idea of brightly coloured knitwear which was both sporty and trendy. Today Iceberg is a defining force in this colourful world with sporty, refined and cosmopolitan, products that are full of personality.

Mischa certainly translated that personality and somewhat made it her own. At least, in her photos. Iceberg made a good choice. I love how everything didn’t revolve around her celebrity status.

More samples at Style Crunch.

Tags: ads, Iceberg, Mischa-Barton

Source: Mischa Barton for Iceberg [Tops 2 Bottoms]

Fashion Week Begins!

   

So! We have to say: We were feeling very down about the whole fashion week thing: so much work, so little time for yoga, and sleep, and eating, and reading magazines. But then, sort of bizarrely, all of Lower Manhattan seemed to break out in Fashion Week, and it was all really quite lovely. There was a sign in the building next to us where the Y-3 fitting was going on, and slightly less fashionably, Aldo had a big sign in the window about NY Fashion Week. So were in a bit of a better mood about it.

We’ll say this: This is our first Fashion Week as a, like, behind-the-scenes worker-bee rather than an observer. And we were feeling a bit meh about the whole thing. But then we saw the venue for the first show we worked (YouTube’d above!) and it was beautiful, and the whole thing was quite amazing, even if we weren’t very excited about most of the the clothes. (Though the first two dresses you’ll see here, the second by Rodarte, were really nice, and we got to see Stam up close.) And we thought: It’s so amazing that journalists, which is what we are when we’re not reading names off a list, get to see all this stuff, and for free. The pay sucks, the hours suck, and the job security is non-existent. But stuff like this, we think, makes it pretty much worthwhile. For a while now we wouldn’t be sure if we’d recommend it. We have decided that we would, and we do.

Source: Fashion Week Begins!

Sale Item of the Day: Lux Minidress

All we can say is that for $14.99, this is a risk worth taking. Sheer sequin mini-dress, was $78, now $14.99

Source: Sale Item of the Day: Lux Minidress

Jacketed Memories

Everyone knows that there are answers that you think you should say and the truthful answers that you want to hide away.  In the numerous interviews that I’ve done, when people ask me what is my most treasured item in my closet, I don’t really have one particular thing that I treasure the most but I flimsily say something like 1920’s chinese kimono or my vintage Balenciaga coat.  These answers have some element of truth in them but I don’t think I will ever treasure an item as much as I did with my Levi’s denim jacket which my dad bought for me in a vintage shop.  Except if I said that now, people would be guffawing over the fact I said ‘Denim Jacket’.  But the truth is, when I was 13, I loved that jacket to bits and wore it to death.  I’d layer it with lots of sweaters and scarves in the cold even though I should have been wearing a bulkier coat.  I’d wear it inappropriately when the occasion called for smarter things.  Being vintage, it was actually two sizes too big for me yet for some inexplicable reason, I loved loved loved it.  Don’t ask me why I felt a natty Levi’s jacket was so empowering but for a 13 year old, I felt awesome so much so that I’d be bouncing around thinking ‘Awesome’ in my head in that ‘Cecile from Cruel Intentions’ chirpy bouncy way.  Can anyone say sad?  Sadly (or fortunately depending on your opinion on medium wash blue denim jackets…) the whereabouts of this jacket, I can’t even tell you what with all the uni-moving etc.

Denim jacket memories were deeply buried and in any case, I never came across ones that made me feel that way ever since.  The Topshop Moto ones which everyone bought for a while?  Nah…  Seeking out a similar vintage one?  Too light and too tight (as hipster uniform dictates the way denim jackets should be….).  Until the lovely Dree at Urban Collection sourced me a vintage Jordache jacket which was exactly the right shade and in addition has a few more bits and bobs to it - a belt assymetric front zips and zips on the sleeves which I promptly had to snap because at that very moment, waves of 13 year old me bouncing along with a high ponytail and listening to Blur on my discman washed over me.

Some denim jacket cliches which I love…

Using patterned tights to detract away from the supposed ‘boring’ stereotype of a denim jacket // A short flirty skirt with a denim jacket that says ‘I’m casual but not a slob…’. 

Ah… the lumberjack shirt and the denim jacket….’nuff said // Florals and denim jacket that a lot of Aaron Spelling TV show characters adopted for a while…

Source: Jacketed Memories