Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Consequences of Insomnia

What do people do when they can't sleep and watch TV late at night? They end up watching infomercials.

And for some reason, the 12 AM - 3 AM time slot is full of nothing but infomercials about fitness products. Have marketers determined there is some direct correlation between overweight people and late night TV watching?

I don't know for sure, all I do know is that I was one of them last night. And I ended up buying this.

I hope I don't regret it like the other 10 products collecting dust in my basement.



cartoon via stumptuous.com

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Meet the iLover

What more could you ask from Steve Jobs after getting an iMac, iPod, and iPhone?


Why, an iLover of course.




I like how he says, "The battery lasts 8 hours....for all you freaks." :) LOL!



Oh and uh, one more thing: In case you didn't know, that's not really Steve Jobs, it's the guy who plays "Office Jesus" on Attack of the Show . iLove that show!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Clinique's New Lip Glosses are Like Botox in a Tube


I first heard about Clinique Full Potential Plump and Shine lip gloss over at Beauty Marked, a super site for beauty news. According to Clinique, these glosses not only make your lips look plumper, but also, if you use the gloss consistently over a period of a couple months, your lips will actually become (or appear) more smooth and plump on their own, with or without the gloss on. It's like getting the effects of Botox without the cost and painful injections.

It's all the rage in Hollywood right now, and every celeb has a favorite shade picked out. Nicky Hilton and Rosario Dawson have nabbed Cherry Bomb, a golden pink, as their favorite shade, while Michelle Trachtenberg (a.k.a "The Key") went for a deeper shade with Voluptuous Violet. New mom of twins Marcia Cross picked Glamour-Full, a gingersnap shade to complement her red hair.

After seeing all these celebrities endorse these glosses, of course I had to check these out for myself. The colors are all made to suit any skin tone , you can't really pick a wrong shade here. My favorite of the bunch is Braisin, a gorgeous blend of bronze and raisin colors. It's perfect for summer and I love how easily it makes me look awake (which by itself, is a difficult task these days). I don't even need a lipliner or any other lipstick underneath it, I just swipe it on, put on blush and mascara, and I'm ready in two minutes. If you're a fan of plum lip colors, you've got to try this shade.

Now, the test. Does it really make your lips look plumper? Well, for the first 10 mintues, it feels like you're wearing Blistex or Burt's Bees balm on your lips, there's a light tingling feeling you get from it. To be more accurate, it's the feeling you get after eating really spicy chili peppers (been there, done that, the food was so worth the pain). Then the tingling disappears and your lips swell up, making you look like a smooth lip gloss diva.

The magic is over once you wash it off with soap and water. So far, I haven't used it long enough to see if it will make my natural lips look like Angelina Jolie's, but for the time you wear it, it does make your lips appear to be big and glossy. Check it out at Nordstrom for $17.50.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

He's All Growed Up


My son graduated from preschool last week. It was a cute, and very informal ceremony. The children made their own hats out of construction paper and prepared a few songs and dances for us to hear before the main event began, the handing out of diplomas.

One by one, each child walked up to the teacher to receive their diploma, and then posed with the teacher so their parents could get a picture of this momentous occasion. Everything was going fine until I saw Johnny's mom turn around after she snapped a picture of her little darling. Her eyes were all red, and she was in tears!

Gosh, I thought, why is she crying? It's just a preschool graduation. It's not like, his wedding.

Then it hit me.

My BABY is graduating from PRESCHOOL!

The same baby I brought home five years ago. The one I had no clue how to take care of, how to feed, how to change. Scared of the responsibility that was suddenly thrust upon me because I didn't think I was competent enough to even raise a plant. And now, there he was, wearing a graduation cap he made himself out of construction paper, happy, smiling, and singing a song about growing up and going to kindergarten. Part of me was patting myself on the back for having made it this far without screwing him up, and the other half was wondering, where did the time go?

Suddenly, I saw all of my son's next big graduations flash before my eyes. Kindergarten, Grade School, High School, then College....this preschool graduation really WAS a big deal. It marked the beginning of my son growing up and eventually leaving home.

I looked around the room and realized not only was I holding back the tears, all the other moms (and a few dads too) started sniffling and dabbing their eyes too. Johnny's mom, why did you have to remind us how important this day was??? And when did my colicky baby grow up to be a happy little boy? Is there a "pause", "rewind", and "slow motion" button I can press somewhere to remember how this happened?

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Angelina Jolie Wore a $26 Dress to a Movie Premiere


Check this out. Angelina Jolie wore a $26 dollar dress to the premiere of "A Mighty Heart". I've nabbed a few good shopping deals in the past, but never one this good. How lucky is this hot mama? She gets the perfect man and the perfect bargains.



photo via Just Jared

Pretty in Pinks



Rosario's not wearing a lot of makeup here, but still manages to look party perfect with light shades of pink. Steal the look by using the following colors:


MAC Pink Apertif lipstick topped with MAC's Lusterglass in Little Vi.

MAC Breath of Plum blush

MAC Jest and Vanilla eyeshadows

photo via

Katie Leads With a New Do



It's nice seeing Katie lead Tom for a change. Usually it's the other way around.


photo via US Weekly

Steal Katrina Kaif's Look


Okay Saniya, this one's especially for you. After looking through several photos of Bollywood stars, this one popped out as a well polished look for a night out. And it helped that I could also find a close-up of the look.




Eyes
All eyeshadows are by MAC. Use Electra all over lids, and Scene in the crease. Vanilla to highlight. It looks like she's got liquid liner going on the top lashline too, but honestly, I've found it easier to use Smashbox Creme Liner in Caviar. Once you've drawn the line on top, you tap it into the lower lashes as well to balance out the eyes. If you want, once you've lined with the creme liner, you can trace over the line on the upper lashes with a liquid liner. The one I like the best is Lancome's Precision Point ARTLINER ($27.00). It's like using a fine point Sharpie to line your eyes, and it's much easier to use than those feathery wand type things you have to dip in a tube and carefully draw over your lashes. I hated those things. I always ended up drawing the line too big or too crooked. Oh, and top ONLY the upper lashes with MAC Prolash Mascara, the best hands down mascara I've ever used. Putting mascara on lower lashes is unnecessary if you've already lined them with eyeliner.




Lips
MAC Taupe Lipstick (this is a staple shade among Bollywood actresses), topped with Luxuriate Tinted Lipglass. Lipliner is optional, depending on how pigmented your lips are, but I think it's nice to use one just to seal in the color and get that creamy-glossy look you see here. If you're on the fair side, use MAC Spice Lipliner, if you have a little more tan and color to your skin, use MAC Half-Red Lipliner.

Cheeks
MAC Blush in Pinch Me. In addition to a blush, add a luminizer to highlight the apples of the cheeks. Try the "Icy" shade from the Laura Gellar Beauty Dews ($21.50) face palette (this is a good buy, because it gives you three color options in one kit, all for around $20 bucks).



Katrina pics via SantaBanta.com

Abhishek Needs to Drop the Lip Biting

Aishwarya's new husband, Abhishek Bachchan, has a terrible habit of biting his lip when he dances or grooves to music. It drives me nuts. Even Will Smith in the movie Hitch said doing the lip biting thing is just not cool.

Here's Abhisheks's most recent offense at the 2007 IIFA awards.



Oh no!



....and again!


Who knows how many more times he did it, I didn't watch the show and this is all I could gather from the pictures. But if you really want to see how unnerving it is, take a look at what he does in this Motorola commercial. Focus on his face near the end, ewww....please, somebody make him stop!





photos via santabanta.com

Celina Jaitley Scares Me


Her message is serious, and her outfit is fierce. And if you stare at her face long enough, she just may possess you. Right through your computer screen. No really, it's been known to happen.

photo via santabanta.com

Thursday, June 07, 2007

I See Myself in.....Black Leather

I've been wanting to color my hair jet black like Salma Hayek's for a long time. For years, every time I've gotten my hair colored or highlighted, it's been for a shade lighter than my natural dark brown hair. I've had caramel highlights, red highlights, I even had it colored J.Lo blonde once with disastrous results. I don't know how the Beyonces and J.Lo's pull the "tan skin with blonde hair" look off, I can't do it.

But black I can do. I asked my hair stylist just how much it would cost to get a pro dye job to match Salma's jet black hue, and nearly fainted hearing the cost. It was way over my budget. Then she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "But you could get the same results for $9.99 using a box of Loreal Feria in Black Leather." This is why I love my stylist, she's always got a cheap style tip up her sleeve.



So $9.99 later, I got my hair color from CVS. The application was a little drippy, and I permanently stained my bath mats with spots of black dye, but after two days, the color finally came through in my hair. This stuff really works, and most of all, it's made my hair less dull and more shiny in appearance.





I'm still a little fascinated with playing around with different shades of brown though. I think once this color wears off, I'm going to try the shade Keri Washington wears, Espresso. For under $10 bucks, it's cheap enough to try without breaking the bank. Although next time, I'm going to remember to cover my bath mats with some newspaper. The dye may be cheap, but the mats, not so much.


photo via