Category: celebrities

The Naomi Diaries

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OK, so Naomi Campbell has an anger management problem and might not be a very nice person, but she’s so amazing looking and she’s the only one of the so-called Trinity of 90s supermodels (the other two being Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington) who still actively works the runway.

The Naomi Diaries is her first person account of her week in community service, after she was found guilty in January for throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper. Read what she ate at her midday meals and what she did after hours, when she rejoined all her partying friends. The full story is found in the June 2007 issue of W magazine.

Want more Naomi? Visit her official web site and browse her photo galleries to see Naomi in all her lithesome, feline glory (Advisory: nudity, sexual situations).

Kate Moss, marketing juggernaut

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In the 90s, she was the target for criticism about the fashion industry promoting unhealthy body images. In this decade, she’s a marketing juggernaut. Although the notorious tabloid picture of her allegedly snorting cocaine (below) cost her several contracts, most notably a campaign for Stella McCartney’s limited edition collection for H+M, ads featuring her were never absent from the fashion magazines. Now Kate Moss is bigger than ever before.


Kate allegedly snorting cocaine

Her collection Kate Moss Topshop for UK high street retailer Topshop (“high street” is Britspeak for “chain store” for example, H+M, Forever 21, Gap, Banana Republic) was sold in US, incongruously, through Barneys. Barneys featured a countdown clock on its web site for Kate Moss Topshop on its website: orders could be placed beginning midnight. By the morning, however, the collection was sold out.

For all those who went away disappointed that they missed out on shopping Kate Moss Topshop, Barneys helpfully (or maybe not so helpfully) covered the launch party after the collection sold out. Check out Kate’s outfit that featured a sheer muumuu, cinched with a belt, which plainly shows the black bikini bottom underneath.

Kate’s latest endeavors include the projected launch of a skin care line and a partnering with hair stylist James Brown on a new line of hair care products.

Great drugstore finds

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As the interview with Aunt Beep for ThisNext showed, I’m an inveterate roamer at CVS, particularly its cosmetics aisles, which not only have the usual mass-market brands, but also Lumene, a cosmetics brand from Finland exclusive to CVS and the French skin care brands Avene and LaRoche-Posay.

Here are some drugstore finds that I’d like to share with my readers:

Maybelline Dream Mousse Shadows in Rose Kiss and Black Spice from their limited edition Sugar and Spice collection for Valentine’s Day (the collection even featured nail polish with heart-shaped sparkles!) . Rose Kiss is a beatiful shade for the lid, while Black Spice is great for the outer corner of the eye for the class smoky eye look. If only Maybelline would add these shades to its regular collection!

L’Oreal has now added liquid bronzer to its popular True Match™ collection of foundations, powders, concealers, and blushes designed to flatter a wide variety of skin tones. I am very fond of True Match™ liquid makeup in N3 – see my review at ThisNext, so I picked up the liquid bronzer in N1-2-3. This liquid bronzer may be blended with your foundation or be used alone.

UPDATE: The May 2007 of Lucky has a good tip: apply liquid bronzer before foundation to even skin tones. It worked for my skin, which has a tendency towards ruddiness


Physicians Formula Mineral Wear™ Talc-Free Mineral Eye Shadow Quad

Finally, Physicians Formula has released six different talc-free Mineral Eye Shadow Quads, all in beautiful shades. My complaint is about the packaging – you have to flip the compact over to use the mirror, so it’s a clumsy way of applying the eyesahdow.

You can find Maybelline, L’Oreal, and Physicians Formula at major drugstores, mass-market retailers, supermarkets, and drugstore.com. Lumene is exclusive to CVS, and you can also find Avene and LaRoche-Posay at select CVS stores. Stores carrying Vital Radiance are now trying clear their inventory, so now is the time to snap up these products (which were good, although the line was badly marketed) at the right price – I was fond of Vital Radiance’s Smoothing Eye Primer mousse, so I bought two at half-price. Paula’s Choice may be purchased through the web site for Paula Begoun.

UPDATE: I have since found out that drugstore.com and Amazon.com carry a wide variety of Vital Radiance products.

Let’s set the record straight!

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The April 23, 2007 issue of People has a cover story about Marcia Cross and her two infant girls – “The Desparate Housewives star opens up about fertility, her difficult pregnancy, and her ‘yummy’ baby girls.”

While Cross admitted to undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF), it was treated very casually: all that was said about her IVF was “Let’s stay put and if we can’t give this baby a chance.”

Here are facts about IVF that women should know:

Five years ago, IVF cost $10,000 to $15,000 per cycle – I do not know the cost today. Certainly, money is no object for Cross as an actress on a top-rated TV show. For the ordinary woman, meeting these expenses would means taking out loans or taking out a second mortgage on their home. Nothing was said about – not even in the sidebar – about the time that processes such as egg harvesting requires. For the working woman, it might require that she take leave from her job or even force her to quit her job.

Cross is lucky that she conceived on her first try. If I remember correctly, Brooke Shields underwent 5 cycles before she conceived her first daughter. Other women go bankrupt in repeated tries to realize their dream of having a baby.

Fertility clinics are required by law to report pregnancy success rates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); to find reports for the years 1995-2004, visit Assisted Reproductive Technology from the CDC.

In fairness to People, the article did mention that Cross suffered from pre-eclampsia, or pregnancy-induced hypertension, a condition that afflicts many women, especially those who are pregnant past 40. Articles about celebrities (not only Cross, but also Jane Seymour and Geena Davis) having children at advanced ages betray women into thinking that they can postpone having children to well into their 40s.

Demystifying eye makeup

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Perhaps I was a bit critical of Stila’s Smoky Eye Palette – I’m not adverse to pricey brands (particularly if they provide something I can’t find in less pricier brands) and some folks seem to like the palette. Still, I think it was nervy to insert an audio commercial advertising other Stila products on a $40 item.

That said, eye makeup is the trickiest part of makeup application, and it’s to a makeup company’s advntage to provide guidance on applying makeup to sell product. Here’s a rundown on products with accompanying guidance:


Bare Escentuals Get Started Eyes

Bare Escentuals Get Started Eyes and Bare Escentuals Tutorials – Lesson 1: Smoky Eye provide guidance with the set. I think that the lid and eyeliner shades on the model are great, but I’m not smitten with the pale pink highlighter, especially with deep-set eyes like mine (and the model’s). I wish the Chocolate Raisin liner was sold individually – it sounds like the dark-dark brown-plum I love (see also Constant Color Gel Eyeliner)

Jemma Kid Eye Wardrobe Eye Shadow Quartet
Jemma Kidd is a London-based makeup artist. She’s also the sister of model, champion polo player, and race car driver Jodie Kidd; great-granddaughter of press magnate Lord Beaverbrook; and wife of the grandson of the current Duke of Wellington – whew! Advice on application may be downloaded from Jemma Kidd’s website, as well as her columns for The Mail on Sunday (UK).


Mally Beauty City Chick Smokey Eye Kit

Mally Beauty is a makeup line from celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal (she’s the one who makes Beyoncé always look fabulous). Originally available through QVC, Mally Beauty is available at Amazon.com. Mally Beauty City Chick Smokey Eye Kit comes in five different color themes: Brownstone (browns), Skyscraper (slate/gray), Central Park (greens), Nolita Navy (blues), and Plum Chelsea (guess). Each palette comes with eye shadow base and eye liner pencil.

Pop Beauty Eye Class – Smokey Eyes is the most diversified palette of the lot, and features these shades: jet black, smokey steel gray, sapphire blue, silver, deep plum, deep violet, burnished bronze, emerald green, olive gold, nude glow, opal gold, and sparkling white. Examples of application are provided with the palette.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban

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I haven’t been one to dish on celebrities in this blog. I think that Nicole Kidman is a class act for her dignity as her marriage to Tom Cruise collapsed, her unwillingness to badmouth him afterwards no matter how nutty he got, and her bucking leftist politics in Hollywood to sign a petition condemning terrorism caused by Hamas and Hezbollah. I’ve read that she retains, in addition to her stylists and everyone else who makes her look good, a UCLA professor to teach her about the Old Testament. A mix of beauty and intellectuality – now that’s the life I’d like to have!

I was happy to learn that she remarried, and today I was disappointed to learn about her new husband Keith Urban’s substance abuse. He has checked himself into rehab. My best wishes to Nicole Kidman as Keith Urban goes through rehab.

Intentional irony

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How’s this for intentional irony? This chair, made of recycled paperboard, features the famous photograph of a nude Christine Keeler straddling a chair. Christine Keeler was the call girl whose brief affair with UK Secretary of State for War John Profumo (while she also slept with a Soviet spy) led to the collapse of the goverment of PM Harold Macmillian in the 1960s.

For more information about this famous photograph, visit Wikipedia. This picture has been much imitated: see the picture of the Spice Girls (one phenomenon of the 1990s that many would like to forget) on Wikipedia. Also, Joanne Whalley recreated this image when she played Keeler in Scandal (1989). More recently, Sharon Stone copied the pose for her flopperoo Basic Instinct II:

Treehugger used other styles to illustrate its post Flat-Pack for the Flat. Apparently, the irony was lost on them.

National Library Week, April 2-8

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Ok, I know that my articles on books and readings don’t draw readers in the way that my articles on Top Picks for ’06 or L’Oreal HIP High Intensity Pigments or Vital Radiance have done, but I’d like to draw your attention to National Library Week, which is April 2-8, 2006. National Library Week celebrates “the contributions of U.S. libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support” and encourages reading.

The American Library Association has more about National Library Week on its site. You can even buy posters such as this one featuring the babe-lish Aishwarya Rai through the ALA bookstore.

For more inspiration, see The Style Page > Bookstand > Books.

Guess Who …

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Forty-four years after her death, Marilyn Monroe continues to inspire. Her sex kitten appeal (expressed by blonde hair, black eyeliner, and accentuated lashes) has shaped the look of entertainers from Nancy Sinatra to Deborah Harry (whose band Blondie was just inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame) to most famously, Madonna. However, this is an amazing transformation of one of the most famous models in the world. Who is portraying Marilyn?

Hint: She recently came out of a drug rehabilitation program after a picture of her allegedly snorting cocaine was emblazened on a cover of a British tabloid. Allegations of drug abuse led to the loss of several modeling contracts, but she’s never been absent from either advertising or editorial content.

To see more, visit the W Feature Story on Style.com.

CG Queen Collection – Cover Girl launches collection for women of color

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I have never been a fan of Cover Girl. I resent Cover Girl for upholding the beauty ideal of the blue-eyed blonde for so long: Cybill Shepherd, Cheryl Tiegs, and most enduringly, Christie Brinkley have all been the faces of Cover Girl.


Christie Brinkley for Cover Girl, 1984

In the last ten years, however, Cover Girl has used models of color such as Lana Ogilvie and Tyra Banks (no, I won’t dish about Tyra’s talk show). Now it’s launched the CG Queen Collection, a line of powder foundations, lipsticks, lip glosses, mascara, eye and lip pencils, nail polishes, and eye shadow quads for women of color, named for its spokesmodel Queen Latifah.

The particular strengths of this line appear to be the shades of powder foundation and the variety of lip colors.

The CG Queen Collection is not widely available – consult the web site for store locations or shop online at Cover Girl’s eStore. Mostly, retail outlets are confined to those areas where there are high concentrations of potential customers – I browsed the collection at a KMart located in an area with a high concentration of Hispanic residents.