MASCARA

The newest object of my adoration is the lights, camera, lashes! mascara by tarte™. This mascara is revolutionary not only because, as proclaimed by the label, it “increases lash volume by 424%,” but because it is an eco-friendly mascara. This mascara is as green as they come with our current production technologies that can be made; and as green as it is, it simply turns your lashes longer and darker! When you purchase this mascara, let me be the first to warn you: its wand is not lengthily bristled and the bristles aren’t carefully spread out to “grab each eyelash individually”. I did have a little bit of a freak out when I saw this, but not to worry! Their wand approach is as new as their green beauty products idea, and they are both successful.

This mascara is natural mascara, and clinically proven to be effective and safe for your body. While the list of qualities it does have are quite admirable—it lengthens, emphasizes, darkens, and is au naturel—its résumé of things it lacks is even more impressive. This is an excerpt from the box:

Formulated without: parabens  *  mineral oil  *  petrolatum  *  phthalates  *  sodium lauryl sulfate  *  synthetic fragrance

There’s also an adorable little doodle of bunny ears that’s captioned with a “cruelty free” promise. So now you can see for yourself that tarte’s new mascara isn’t just an awesome, fun type of eco-friendly and animal-friendly mascara, it’s also a successful pioneer in a new race of cosmetics: cosmetics that make you feel prettier, perform as advertised, protect your body from harmful and corruptive substances/ chemicals, and refrains from harming animals and our environment. Wearing this mascara is not just a fashion statement; if you wear this mascara, you are telling people that you care about animal cruelty, your role in protecting our world, and finding a way to do what you want without causing harm to others. Tarte’s new mascara doesn’t just make your eyes pop and lengthen those lashes; it reflects that you’re beautiful inside, too!

While tarte is doing the best job advertising their new strategy and collections (there's a rumor going around that they're launching an entire green line soon!!!), they aren’t the only ones making products that beautify you and amend to the world at the same time. Others are following their lead—and it’s about time! For example, Lady Gaga teamed up with Barney’s in Madison Square and top fashion designers to design Gaga’s Workshop, a holiday-time special in Barney’s that features special and limited-edition Gaga designed and inspired cosmetics, crafts, clothes, and accessories. In her beauty products, she has an “Extreme Sheen Lip Kit” of three (rather pricey) lip-glosses that are, of course, in excellent colors. Aside from the typical alibi of making your lips shiny and glossy (no duh), the description also includes this: “no parabens, no sulfates, no phthalates”. Lady Gaga’s in on the trend, too, and we all know that she’s nothing if not a trend setting fashion statement (if you have the nerve not to believe me, check out her houndstooth outfit she wore for a TV interview—it’s all over the place, now!). Lady Gaga has a very similar mission with these lip-glosses as tarte: to make you prettier by accentuating your lips, and to make you feel prettier by helping the planet. Lady Gaga believes in her little monsters, but she doesn’t believe we should be monsters to the Earth and to our bodies. Tarte also knows that there are innumerable ways to make good green cosmetics that are effective, and that’s why you should try this new mascara.

So go ahead! Be a green, clean, beauty queen!

With a case like this, who wouldn't follow your fashion lead?

Eyebrows: A Cautionary Tale

I consider myself extremely understanding in accepting new fashion trends. Even if the trend is totally different than anything I’ve ever seen before, or if it’s not exactly commonly worn, I am usually a very good audience member for a new trend. However, the newest W Magazine exhibits a fashion trend that I simply cannot tolerate: THE EYEBROWS. The Neiman Marcus advertisements in this magazine are completely ridiculous; not only is the jewelry not my favorite, but the eyebrows are distracting and definitely not attractive. And, to add to my fears of the terrible eyebrows, once I saw these pictures, every other model in the magazine seemed to have furry ones as well!

            If this trend is to establish itself—which, due to basic fashion-Darwinism, it shouldn’t—I must proclaim a forthcoming doom of all shapely, clean, neat, and sophisticated eyebrows.

            It will be, in a sense, the invasion of the eyebrows. The shaggy, furry, messy, upswept eyebrows. I shall do you the liberty of not adding a picture of said eyebrows, but I shall paint their accuracy to you in words, so that we all understand the danger and threat to good fashion that this trend poses! While this trend could be convenient for people like me, who have full eyebrows that, according to a make-up artist, should occasionally be brushed to keep them looking their best (brushing eyebrows! There are no limits…), it’s also unforgivably sloppy. While the models who were in the adds obviously had perfectly trimmed, waxed, and shaped eyebrows, each brow was carefully slung upward so that scraggly, uneven, and clumpy lines redefined the top of each brow. In all honesty I’m sure it must have been quite uncomfortable!

            I understand that this eyebrow binge is probably a reaction to the trend of perfectly manicured brows that’s been growing for years, but honestly, I think it’s a terrible trend (and not only because it’s the antithesis of eyebrow styles of the past few decades). Please, spare yourselves the eyebrow pain that harassing your eyebrows like this will give you! And spare me the pain of seeing it!

Yummy... When Dessert's Healthy!

Don't you love it when you find something that delicious and healthy at the same time? If you answered 'yes', then I have the dessert for you! Recently, my mom and I discovered the perfect tasty treat that, remarkably, doesn't leave you feeling guilty at all about enjoying it. It is, in short, a healthy banana split.
Want to know the secret? Read closely!

Your Arsenal:
Two Bananas
A Lot of Chocolate Chips
Almonds
Milk
Sticks

Your Plan of Attack:
Chop up some almonds and then put them in foil and toast them in a toaster oven.
Cut the bananas in halves, or leave them whole and poke them with sticks.
Melt the chocolate chips on the stove, and thin it out by adding some milk.
Dip the bananas in the chocolate, and while they're still wet, roll them in the chopped nuts.
Freeze and enjoy a few hours later!

The Time Allotted You to Complete This Task:
Twenty minutes to prepare it.
Three or so hours to freeze it.
Ten minutes to eat it!

Enjoy!

(A sneak peek picture)

Dear Diary, of Cleaning

The Diary of the Lady Who Cleans Your Hotel Room When You Are Not There

Dear Diary,

      Today I cleaned many hotel rooms. I love my job so very much, because it gives me the right to snoop around peoples' things, rummage through toiletry kits, and touch things. The best thing about my job, aside from the chocolates I carry around in my cart and the shampoos, is that I can rearrange absolutely everything--and even sometimes get tipped for it. I don't know if I just like to be super organized and a control freak when people can't argue with me, but I simply love straightening rooms. Today, I went into Jordan's hotel room and took the liberty of rearranging her toothbrush for her! I'm certain that she appreciates that I combed every bristle of the toothbrush with my dirty fingers, and that I tipped her contact case the wrong way and folded the toilet paper so nicely that she feels guilty ripping it off. I was also so polite as to carefully place her dirty tennis clothes, which she'd left in a tidy heap on the floor, on top of her even-more-dirty suitcase, with her intimate apparel meticulously spread out on top of the entire display. I can only imagine--being shocked at it, of course--her horror at the arrangement of her clothing, upon a traveler's pedestal in the center of the room. I also have a fascination with the contents of peoples’ toiletry bags. Today, I removed all the contents of Jordan’s mother’s toiletry bag and vigilantly put each item upon a white washcloth, so that she might thank me for arranging her toilette in such an original way; I put her tooth brush side-by-side with her hairbrush (I always love it when the bristles are on top of each other—it’s so much more sanitary!), I put her lotion samples upside down so they’d only leak a little bit, I hid her make-up brushes behind the Kleenex box, I stowed her lipsticks beside the toothpaste and shampoo bottle, and I successfully covered the entire counter until it looked like a cornucopia of beauty and skin products. Of course, I didn’t stop there—I would never! I proceeded to bury all of Jordan’s schoolwork beneath the crappy local newspaper, and I left a thoughtful generic note of “do you really want to feel like a tree-murderer and environment-slayer? You shouldn’t be such a wasteful, slimeballing pig who requires their towels to be exchanged—at the expense of drinking water for the rare Coloradan River blond-hare—a whopping two times a week. Also, if your selfish consumer self would think for once of this hotel and the money we would save by only washing your towels once a week, you wouldn’t mind this note at all… Hope you enjoy your stay here with us!”

Sincerely,

The Lady Who Comes To Your Room Twenty Minutes After You Call Housekeeping

Footloose Feet!

Footloose Feet!

Footloose!

Loose, cut loose, everybody cut footloose...
For anyone who likes to cut loose every once in a while, or who enjoys smiling, friends, or dancing, I bear excellent news: There is now a pair of Footloose movies! In the original Footloose, stars Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer dance it up in the small town of Bomont with Sarah Jessica Parker as a supporting actress (no, it wasn't that long ago); in the remake, Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough--both excellent (and previously professional) dancers-- take on the new responsibility of legalizing public dancing for the town. And the best news? Even for a remake, both Footlooses are good! 
The new one stays remarkably consistent with the original story, with the same characters, names, and plot; all that's new are the clothes and the people. 
Footloose the New (as I shall call it) snatches your attention from the first moment. It's a teaser, really. The first few minutes of the movie show, in (approximate) statistics:
People: 15
Arms: 2
Faces: 0
Feet: 30
The movie intros at a party that took place three years before the Footloose main storyline starts--and does it all with feet. Footage of dancing is taken from the knees down for at least 15 different dancers--all in different shoes, boots, sneakers, jeans, jean shorts, skirts, cow boy attire, etc.... From a fashion point of view, it's a great way to kick off the movie, show some cute country styles, and get the viewer interested, because those feet know how to move!!!! It's incredible how quickly, perfectly, precisely, and seemingly effortlessly the dancers move their feet, tap their toes, click their heels, get it moving! 
Footloose the New has an extremely talented cast of excellent dancers, a good wardrobe department, energetic music, creative cotton mill renovations, and a good message to all: Go Footloose and Dance!
I definitely recommend both the original Footloose and the new one. And if you don't care for them particularly, I can still assure you that they will inspire you to dance.

The Perfect Parking Job

It's amazing how happy little things can make us. Big things can make us happy, too, but the little things--as I mentioned in my post The Pink Poodle-- can make us happy as well. It's important that we don't forget all the little ways and little things that make us happy--not only are they easier than the big things, but they're simply more fun, as well! Plus, they usually don't take much effort (Key word: usually).
The other day I discovered a new such little thing. I got my license in September, and parking has been...well...interesting. However, something amazing happened! I parked PERFECTLY!!! It was so exciting I took a picture, and made my friends look at it, and texted it to my parents.... Yes, you get the picture; it was a very big, very exciting, very happy event! And it reminded me of something very important: even if you go to a dance or a party or some long-planned event or elite social and have fun there, almost nothing can compare to the feeling of spontaneously doing something just right. You can't plan something to be perfect, just as I can't park perfectly on demand (or nearly ever, really). But when it goes just perfectly (when you're with friends and just have the time of your life without even doing anything--we've all had that moment) without planning, motive, or stress, it's one of the most wonderful things in the world.
Maybe I'm just being dramatic because I'm still super-excited about driving and having a car--Who knows?! But I do know that it's true, and that even if I'm reacting out of some innate aspiration to be a perfect driver, parking perfectly that one time was the best thing that could have happened at that moment. And it never hurts to be reminded of the amazing things that happen by accident.
After all, I believe it is well debated if good things always happen on purpose (no, don't feel guilty :P ).