Category: Allure

TouchBack – Allure Best of Beauty Award Winner

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TouchBack by ColorMark

TouchBack by ColorMark received a Best of Beauty award from Allure. It is a marker that deposits temporary hair color to cover white roots.

I got my first gray hairs at 16. By the time I was 30, most of my hair was gray, but I was reluctant to take the plunge and completely cover my gray. I actually had reverse highlighting, in which strands of my hair were pulled through a perforated cap and dyed brown. Finally, my hairdresser persuaded me to get all over color.

My white roots become obvious 4 weeks after I get my hair colored. I decided to try out TouchBack to see how well it works. I color my hair dark brown. As the hair for the models with dark brown hair on the web site looked darker than mine, I tried TouchBack in Medium Brown. The web site recommends that if you are between colors, choose the lighter color. Maybe Dark Brown would have been the better choice: the changeover from TouchBack in Medium Brown to my permanent hair color was not seamless.

TouchBack comes with a fine-tooth comb that can be used as a skin shield at the temples and hairline; however, to make it work, you need to have significant regrowth. Given the small amount of regrowth (between 1/4″ and 1/2″) I had, it was difficult to cover the white hairs at the hairline without smudging. I used a rattail comb to lift a section of my hair (on the part) and apply TouchBack just shy of the scalp to prevent smudging. It minimized the appearance of white roots, and is a temporary fix until you apply permanent color.

TouchBack is easier to use than Joan Rivers Beauty Great Hair Day™, which I reviewed in 2009. A makeup artist at Soft Surroundings in St. Louis did an excellent job of applying Joan Rivers Beauty Great Hair Day™ to mask the white roots and thin spots on my head, but it is too much effort to do at home.

You may purchase TouchBack through its website, Sally Beauty Supply, or Beauty.com.

The fine print: The PR firm representing TouchBack provided me with a sample of  TouchBack in Medium Brown.

Missing IsaDora? Found.

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Cover of February 2009 Allure

I was surprised to see a reference to IsaDora eyeshadow in the “Black and Blue” photo spread that appears in the February 2009 issue of Allure. Over a year ago, beauty advisors at Walgreen’s (which had been the exclusive distributor for IsaDora in the U.S.) told me that IsaDora decided against shipping to the U.S.

I checked the credits in the back of the magazine, which indicated that IsaDora was available through walgreens.com. A search of walgreens.com did not yield any results for IsaDora.

The good news is that IsaDora is now being sold through Cosmeticmall.com and Amazon.com!

What gives?

Cold Cream 'n' Roses1 Comment

For me, sitting around at the hair salon is an opportunity for me to catch up on magazines. I was waiting as my husband got his hair cut, and picked up the current issue of Allure, with Britney Spears on the cover. It was surreal. The photo spread, which featured a topless Spears (with her breasts discreetly covered by her hands or arms), was accompanied by Judith Newman’s article about her unsuccessful efforts to get an interview with Spears. Then, there was Editor-in-chief Linda Wells’s tortured (and ultimately lame) justification for putting Spears on the cover. What gives?

Just go to the Allure web site – it’s all about boosting magazine sales.

PS I didn’t watch MTV’s Video Music Awards, but by all accounts, Spears’ headliner performance was a disaster. While Kanye West’s insistence that he should have been headliner is proof of his overweaning ego, he was probably right when he said that MTV “exploited” Spears for TV ratings.

Does this woman (Spears) have anything else to offer than exposing her body? Are Allure and MTV so deficient in imagination that they must exploit this woman’s tabloid-worthy escapades and problems to promote themselves?

Miracle cream

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Miracle cream – LMX5™

The hair on my chin and jaw became unmanageable, so it was time for me to look beyond tweezing and snipping hairs with a manicure scissors. A dermatologist’s office tried to sell me on a package of laser treatments, but I balked at the price. Moreover, I’ve read that the effectiveness of laser hair removal depends on the contrast between the hair and the skin. As many of my hairs were light in color, I decided that I was not a good candidate for laser hair removal and went back to electolysis.

Now, I am a baby when it comes to electrolysis. My eyes tear up and I wince and twitch like crazy. This time, however, I quietly lied on the table while the electrologist deftly removed hairs. It didn’t hurt even when she removed hairs near the lips, where there are a lot of nerve endings. The difference? LMX5™ numbing cream, a topical anesthetic.

LMX5™ doesn’t require a prescription, but I had to special order it through CVS. drugstore.com doesn’t even carry it – it carries only the 4%, which, according to what my electrologist heard from her other clients is not as effective as LMX5™. However, Amazon.com does carry LMX5™.

Don’t be turned off by the fact that LMX5™ is marketed as an anorectal cream. After all, if beauty contestants can use Preparation H to treat puffy eyes, why can’t you use LMX5™? It’s also supposed to be good for undergoing treatments such as Botox.


Liv Tyler, as featured on the cover of the July 2007 issue of Allure

NEW The July 2007 issue of Allure (which features Liv Tyler on the cover) also recommends numbing creme when doing a bikini wax.