Exclusive discount from the Soap Box Company

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The Soap Box Company is offering a 20% discount off the entire purchase for total purchases of $15.00 or more. This is an exclusive offer for readers of The Style Page.

The Soap Box Company offers natural, organic, handmade bath products from several indie brands. Select bath products from boutique brands including Bath Essence, Bella Lucce, Crazy Rumors, Just Soap, Khushi, Little Twig, MadGabs, Pompeii Street Soap Co., Sweet Petula, Whimsy, and WoodSprite.

To take advantage of this offer, enter “thestylepage20” in the promotion code box. This offer is good between August 1 and September 30, 2005.

The Soap Box Company is now listed on the Shopping page of The Style Page.

August 1, 2005: What’s New in Beauty

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Crabtree wins Hilton toiletries contract – Crabtree & Evelyn wins contract to supply Hilton Hotels with La Source spa products. The collection will include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion, mouthwash, shower cap, sewing kit, vanity kit, aqua brush with pumice, shoe mitt and shoe horn.

Elle McPherson to launch New Cosmetics Line – the Australian model will launch a line of cosmetics to be called “The Body” after her nickname.

Estee Lauder mulls YSL buy – Estee Lauder is contemplating the purchase of YSL Beauty from France’s Pinault Printemps Redoute retail group (PPR owns La Redoute and the Printemps department store in Paris).

Japan’s KAO to buy Molton Brown – Japan’s top household products maker is buying British luxury consumer products maker Molton Brown. Molton Brown’s products include bath, body, skin and hair care products, and cosmetics.

Gap to re-launch personal care range
– Gap will work with Inter Parfums to relaunch its fragrance and personal care products.  Inter Parfums markets a number of prestige fragrance and Diane von Furstenburg Beauty in addition to Aziza II and Intimate mass-market brands of cosmetics.

New Cosmetics Stores Open in the U.S. – Sweden’s Make Up Store opens in Miami, while Korea’s Missha opens in New York City.

Bookstand pages now updated

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I’m back from vacation, and have updated the Bookstand pages. Check out the many new links for Books, Media, and Stationery. Notable sites include the Complete Review (for books) and ZOOZOOM “the original online glossy,” both of which were selected for Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites for 2005. Also of interest is ConnectViaBooks, a website that enables readers to find other readers who share their particular interests.

VOV: The Style Page seeks your help!

Here are two inquiries about VOV, an Asian makeup line, which I have received via Email :

from India:

“…just heard about VOV Cosmetics
from a Friend of mine and had a search about
vov.cosmetics.co.kr.

The website is completely in Chinese/Japanese/Korean
language which i don’t know.

I wanted to know about the VOV Cosmetics Outlets,
particulary in India if so.

Please do help me out.

Waiting for the reply

Bye
Take care”

from Australia:

“Hi, I am searching for a VOV hi tech lip gloss that I purchased a little while ago and the shop has since closed down the colour is a beige honey colour and the bottom of the gloss has a number BE3 which I assume is the colour”

If you can provide answers, please respond by adding your comments to the blog, and I will respond by Email.

(Web site) Housekeeping and Updates for Home and Design

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Greetings – I have just updated the Home and Design pages on The Style Page, using the new web page design provided by Tamara Parisio of SandDollar Cosmetics. Next, I will update the Bookstand pages using the new design – then, all pages will have a consistent look.

I’ve created a new subdirectory Home for all the Home and Design pages, but that created some challenges. Existing pages on the main directory have already been indexed by search engines, so I couldn’t merely blow them away – I replaced content with a short message redirecting users to the related page on the subdirectory: at the same time, I sent a request to Google to crawl the subdirectory. Also, I had to upload all pages on the web site, as the web site navigation bar in the left column is automatically generated through the navigation structure I set up in Microsoft FrontPage 2002: if I left the navigation bar “as is” for other pages, users would not be directed to the new subdirectory.

Lastly, I’ve created a RSS news feed just for the home:
http://thestylepage.com/Home/home.xml

Converting trash into bags

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In this post, The Style Page highlights three companies that recycle unusual materials to create handbags.


John of The Candy Blog told me about Ecoist, which recycles candy wrappers, food packages, and soft drink labels to make coin purses, clutches, and totes. Above is the Small Tote. For every bag sold, Ecoist plants a tree in partnership with Global Releaf.


Through Breathe magazine’s e-newsletter, I learned about Escama, which has partnered with women’s cooperatives in Brazil to create bags crocheted from nylon thread and recycled aluminum tabs. Above is the Chica Rosa bag.


Vy&Elle create handbags from recycled billboard vinyl. Above is the Town Traveler bag.

Other companies that use novel materials for bags include Freitag (recycled truck tarpaulins), G3 Relative Art (dried gourds), and Stewart+Brown (surplus materials from Patagonia). Find these labels and many more on our Bags and Luggage page.

Check out the new Fashion pages

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Greetings all,

After a loooooooooooong hiatus, I finally got around to updating the Fashion pages on The Style Page.


The Style Page’s long hiatus – Chia keyboard

By clicking on Fashion, you’ll see the new web page design, courtesy of Tamara Parisio of SandDollar Cosmeticsgrooming, pampering and primping products designed with legend-inspiring ingredients and properties to spread peace and goodwill in your world. The new web page design more closely resembles The Style Page blog. Eventually, all pages on the site will have the same look. You’ll also see that I created a RSS feed just for Fashion that includes news on Fashion and new links on the fashion pages – 25 new links for Bags and Luggage alone!

Many stores and mail order catalogues are now holding sales on summer merchandise. Check out the 150 merchants and 1,500 brands represented on amazon.com, shop your favorites, and then track your packages through Bloglines – find out how through the Fashion home page!

Coming soon – novel materials for handbags

What’s New in Beauty: June 10, 2005 – Mary Kay, Estee Lauder, reflect.com, Sephora, Maybelline

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Mary Kay vetoes ads on Desparate Housewives – A Christian group successfully lobbies Mary Kay to pull ads for ABC’s Desparate Housewives. May we expect TV ads featuring Nicolette Sheridan (NuGlow), Eva Longoria (signed with L’Oreal), and Teri Hatcher (who has a deal of her own) to pepper Desparate Housewives? Talk about cross-promotion!

Gwyneth Paltrow signs with Estee Lauder – The favorite of celebrity magazines, who named her daughter Apple, has signed a contract to appear in ads for Estee Lauder cosmetics and fragrances. As with the signing of Tom Ford, this appears to be another effort on the part of Estee Lauder Companies to boost sales of its flagship brand as consumer buying trends change.

P&G to close reflect.com – The master marketers (and innovators) at Proctor & Gamble haven’t always been successful when it comes to cosmetics. P&G had a big rollout of Olay color cosmetics in supermarkets, drugstores, and other mass merchandisers, only to discontinue the line a couple of years later. Now comes news that P&G will close reflect.com, the customized cosmetics web site. Last day for order is Monday, June 13, so hurry!

reflect developed a color palette called the California Beauty Kit for Chico’s, the women’s clothing and accessories chain. This warm color palette features matte eyeshadows for day and shimmer eyeshadows for evening, along with a blusher, bronzer, and two lip colors. The price was cut from $55 to $29. While not available through Chico’s web site, you might yet be able to find it in stores.

Sephora announces the winners of its 2005 Best of Sephora vote. 87,000 fans voted. Winners includes Nars blush in Orgasm, DuWop Lip Venom, Stila Lip Glaze, and more. Go to Sephora.com to shop the winners.

Maybelline goes upscale with signing of Kevyn Aucoin protege – I still have a problem calling Maybelline “Maybelline New York,” as its corporate parent L’Oreal would have us call it. No doubt it has to do with the fact that I remember Maybelline as a child putzing around Kresge’s dime store (and the reference to Kresge’s alone betrays my age!), but the name “Maybelline” also conjures up Chuck Berry’s song of the same name and Mother Maybelline Carter of country music’s pioneering Carter Family – not exactly the image of urban sophistication that L’Oreal would like to convey. Still Volum’Express is my favorite mascara and I like its Dream Mousse Matte Foundation.

In another effort to go upscale, Maybelline has signed Troy Surratt, protege of the late, great makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, as its star makeup artist and has already rolled out a new ad campaign featuring him. Previously, Surratt succeeded his mentor as beauty advisor at Beauty.com.

Turmeric, to fight cancer?

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In January 2005, I posted on how research sponsored by the Kingdom of Thailand is looking into uses of turmeric as a cosmetic ingredient. Turmeric is the spice that gives curry its yellow color.

Now comes news that turmeric might control the growth of cancer cells:

“Tests in mice showed that curcumin, an active compound found in turmeric, helped stop the spread of breast cancer tumor cells to the lungs.

Tests have already started in people, too, said Bharat Aggarwal of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who led the study.”