how well do you smell?

I am currently writing a story about fragrances for a magazine and I stumbled across this fact: The top selling fragrance in Farmers Department store is non other than Elizabeth Arden's Red Door!

I've interviewed fragrance buyers, brand managers and even the fragrance guru Michael Edwards himself! It's been quite an enlightening experience. It's made me think about how we choose our fragrances.

There are sooo many new fragrances launched every year. I think the number has gone from something like a couple of hundred new releases per annum five or so years ago to 1000 this year! It's a highly competitive market with so many options vying for our hard earned dollars. What's added to this trend significantly is the rise of the celebrity scent. The Britney Spears, J Lo, Hilary Duff, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kate Moss, David Beckham, Sean John... the list is endless.

So how do you choose your fragrance? Does a celebrity spike your interest and you'll purchase it if the juice smells good on you? Do you only choose designer fragrances? Will you buy because a friend has it? Or will you utilise the expertise of the shop assistant and discover a fragrance that works with what you like?

M.A.C attack

Forgive me dear readers for I have sinned, it has been six days since my last beauty obsession, ah confession. It's been a busy week as I catch up on work after being sick!

I did have time to scope out what's coming up on style.com and spied this gorgeous runway look from Tuleh featured as a backstage confidential! Even better - we get all the details and I mean ALL the details. Makeup artist Polly Osmond created these divine metallic lids using a combination of two matte M.A.C eyeshadows and three sparkling pigment shades. The key to her success - blend, blend, blend with a round fluffy brush! (They always say it like it's so easy but fear not if you don't have luck the first time trying - it does take a while to master).

I cruised into the M.A.C store in Chancery Lane, Auckland, to see what new products they've got and I fell in love with the colours in the StarFlash collection. What makes this range so divine is the creamy formulation of the shadows - it's a cinch to apply and doesn't leave pesky fallout on the checks. It will literally stick to your skin and stay there - mine stayed put from 7am-evening. No creasing, no fading. In the pot the colours could be a little overwhelming - purple, aqua, lilac, pink, beautiful bronzes and gold but you choose how bright you want to wear them by how much you apply. Build for an intense pop of colour or use sparingly for a gorgeous sheen. The worst thing about this range? It's limited edition - so get in quick. I reckon these beauties will be a must-have over our humid summer!

are you in a beauty rut?

It's so easy to do - start with a look, develop it, master it and then stick with it because really, we're way too busy to be messing about with makeup. When you've only got 15 minutes to be out the door, it goes without saying that the liner-shadow-blusher and gloss combination you've been doing for a while (and can do without thinking) is what your fingers will be doing while you contemplate the quickest driving route to said event.

But is it time for an update? Are you using a colour palette from three seasons ago - (does it really matter as long as it suits)?

Well we're in August now, which means that the spring/summer clothes and makeup are about to hit the stores. There's a bevy of new lipstick colours just waiting to be sampled and added to your bulging makeup bag. And when it comes to a quick look update - nothing does it better than a new lippie. It's a quick, cheap and safe way to add a new dimension to your beauty routine. Stay tuned as I preview the colour collections as they hit the shelves in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, consider these celebs with their tried and tested style signatures. Gwen Stefani has mastered the platinum blonde, red lips looks for sometime now; Angelina Jolie does the perfect cat-eye and nude lip; whereas Victoria Beckham has her 'pob' and razor sharp cheekbones. What do you think? Time for these girls to get a beauty update?

Do you have a signature style? A certain way you always do your hair and makeup that you know works? What is it and how did you end up with it?

crowning glory

To be the best, is to be supreme - Caleb Alex from Servilles Newmarket won the prestigious Supreme Award on Saturday night at the L'Oreal Color Trophy Awards.

His winning style is a short, textured cut that is somehow both pretty and edgy. It clearly suits his gorgeous model (who would probably look hot in any hairstyle), with length at the front and a cropped finish at the back. The colour is modern, wearable and more than a mere nod to the blonde trends we'll see as we head towards summer (go blonder and lighter is the mantra).

Caleb has been in the industry since graduating from the Servilles Academy in 1999 and enjoys challenging the status quo. What does he see in the future for hairdressing?

"I think hair styles will be more technical, structured and strong, while colour will become bolder," he says.

What do you think of his winning style? Have you or would you chop off all your hair or go lighter?

home or salon?

One of the more unfortunate side effects of being laid up on the couch in a near vegetative state while battling the flu is exposure to the drivel that is daytime television - particularly infomercials.

For the majority of last week, as I battled the bug within, I found a whole new world of possibilities. Shiny faced, glossy haired, robotic women with glowing white teeth extolled the virtues of various products that will not only eliminate wrinkles but add much needed happiness to my life, simply by using their products. I'm talking about Youthful Essence by Susan Luci. Have you seen this?

It's an at-home microdermabrasion kit consisting of a tool that mimics the apparatus a beauty therapist would use to slough away the dead skin cells sitting on the top layer of skin. Of course the tool is not enough - there's a bevy of products that go with it - cleanser, toner, moisturiser and so on. All for only $49.95 (I think, if my memory serves me correctly). Which is a tempting offer. Especially considering that in-salon microdermabrasion treatments cost upwards of $100 and more than one is necessary to achieve the desired results (smooth, trouble free skin that glows). And when you're faced with half an hour of happy, shiney women claiming their amazing skin is the result of this product, it's almost irresistible. Almost.

The problem with these at-home treatments is that they are NEVER the same as what you receive at the salon. The active ingredients are not as high. It has to be so much safer to reduce the risk of the user harming themselves. Microdermabrasion is a pretty non-invasive procedure - it's all done on the surface of the skin. Diamond-like crystals are swished around performing the ultimate exfoliation and sucked away with useless, dead, pore-clogging skin cells. The Youthful Essence machine swirls beads in a circular motion to perform the same task. It definitely has it's place - more of us should exfoliate more often. But it's still not the same as what a trained beautician will do.

It got me thinking about what beauty treatments I would forgo having done at the salon to do at home. I very quickly concluded not many. I definitely wouldn't dare try waxing my own bikini line. I like going to my little Indian lady to have my eyebrows threaded (a mere $4). I certainly love the experience of receiving a facial, even though I have reduced my visits lately - it just seems like such a luxury in such hardened times.

Have you ever bought an at-home treatment from an infomercial? Did it work? Do you still use it? What beauty treatments have you given up lately to save a bit of cash?

fresh look for spring

There's something decidely refreshing about the August cover of British Vogue. Perhaps it's the gold and blue hues which immediately evoke images of the beach, or the sunkissed colour of both skin and hair.

I love Lily Donaldson's caramel coloured locks, loosely curled with honey highlights. I also love her makeup by L'Oreal, it's natural yet modern without being too trend driven. It just looks so easy and unfussy.

What I'm particularly taken with is the colour of her nails. I have a penchant for nabbing the newest colour and was quick off the mark to dip my talons in Chanel's navy nailpolish 'Blue Satin'. My only complaint (apart from the fact it chips too easily) is that it is perhaps a little too dark and closely resembles black. This is a lighter shade of blue and looks really pretty. According to the credits it is 'Resist and Shine UV Nail Varnish' in Meteorite Black. I hope it's available in NZ!

It's hard to even contemplate getting excited about spring or summer while the country is being pelted with gale force winds and rain, but this cover shines like a little beacon of warm weather hope!

red or dead

The debate rages on. Should cosmetic companies remove lead from lipstick?
Posed as a simple question like that it seems the answer should be yes - we no longer have lead in our household paints, pencils (I hate to think how much I ingested as a child learning to write and gnawing on my pencil), or on children's toys, so why is it in our lippie? However it's not as simple as that.
In America a lobby group called, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, has filed a class action suit against luxury goods maker LVMH who make Christian Dior cosmetics. They found, through their own independent testing, that Dior Addict Positive Red had higher than most amounts of lead. The group first filed the suit in November and LVMH retailated with a request to not proceed. A judge in Chicago has just rejected this request and the action shall go ahead.
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics also campaigned the Californian senate for a new bill 'Senate Bill 1712' which would require that all cosmetic companies make lipstick with the lowest amount of lead possible. They claim the bill was heavily lobbied by leading cosmetic companies resulting in its defeat. You can read more about both cases on their website
The amounts of lead in lipstick varies. Ranging from .07ppm to .84ppm (with one registering 6.7ppm). PPM stands for parts per million.
Sure lead is a proven toxin that accumulates in the body and can cause learning problems, infertility and even miscarriage in pregnant women, but does it lead to cancer as some claim? How many people have been reported as dying from ingesting lead through their lipstick? None.
Another website reports that a FDA compliance officer told them that the amount of lead in lipstick was so small there are no adverse effects for consumers. All dyes used in food and cosmetics must be approved by the FDA for safety and products sold in the USA must only be made with FDA certifiable colours, otherwise they will not be allowed at all. So stringent is the FDA that it often leads the rest of the world - some products sold in Europe and Asia are not allowed in the US. While the FDA currently do not have any guidelines on the amount of lead used in cosmetics, it has said the current amounts are non-threatening.
Something else to consider - lead is also in candy. The FDA limit of lead in candy is 0.1ppm - apparently it was five times higher until only recently.
The biggest problem is knowing which lippie contains lead as there are many that don't - even fire engine red ones. And I guess that's where the lobbyists come in handy - by making all cosmetic companies follow the same guidelines and rules we can be assured in knowing that ANY red lipstick is lead free. It will be interesting to see the results of the class action suit.
Incidentally - John Campbell recently discussed this on his show Campbell Live, he said he asked a number of cosmetic companies and they said there's no lead in their products.
What do you think? Does this make you think twice about applying red lipstick? Or do you think it's a whole lot of scaremongering?

botoxed bridal parties

Girlfriends there's a new form of Bridezilla behaviour happening overseas and beware - it could be coming to our shores.
A recent article in the International Herald Tribune, 'It's Botox for you, dear bridesmaids' sheds light on a new trend happening in America, particularly for those over 30. Instead of gifting their beloved brideslaves with jewellery, brides are encouraging, if not demanding, their entourage indulge in a little cosmetic enhancement for the big day. And I don't mean just a manicure, facial, makeup or hair session. These brides are insisting on botox, teeth whitening, chemical peels or for a bridesmaid with age spots a course of Fraxel laser treatments. And they're planning these treatments in advance - months in advance.
As one bride-to-be put it, if she were ten years younger and tying the knot, a bracelet, necklace or matching earrings would suffice as a gift to her friends-in-waiting. But at 35 she felt an evening together at a medi spa was more special, particularly as in that decade most of her friends are aware of the effects of getting older.
But do bridesmaids agree? Some quite willingly will go along for the ride, others are more reluctant. One bridesmaid who was asked to have her breasts enlarged declined and chose to wear a push up bra instead (rightly so I think, there's quite a difference between a jab between the eyes and breast implants!). And these generous offers extend beyond the girls in matching dresses to the mother of the bride and mother-in-law. You'd need to have a good relationship with her to feel comfortable asking!
Part of this trend is attributed to the distribution of photos on social networking sites like Facebook. It's now possible to view wedding photos of people you'd never normally have the luxury of viewing. And no one wants to look like the ugly bridesmaid. If the brides doing it, and her best friend, you can bet the others will follow suit.
Another factor is a marketing push by cosmetic surgeons and medi-spa places at Bridal Fairs around the US. With enticing offerings such as Bridal Beauty Buffets, package treatments have been whipped up and are attractive offerings. Brides are now factoring in the course of treatments into her budget, perhaps forgoing other things to make up for it (although no one in their right mind would forgo the dream dress). For many, the bridesmaids are coming to the party and assisting with the cost (rather happily compared with buying a frock they may never wear again).
So is this trend happening here?
I conducted an unofficial survey and phoned Auckland based The Face Place to ask if they often saw bridal parties coming in for a group session. They said that while they see a lot of brides, they haven't as yet, seen any bridal parties en masse. Mostly because of the nature of consultations, each client is assessed individually by a doctor and there are many forms to fill. It's taken very seriously here and not viewed as 'party' type treatment.
I also phoned Birkenhead's The Elements Spa. On their website they list SPArties for any occasion. The menu includes massage, reflexology, mini manicure, mini pedicure, eyelash and eyebrow tint and tidy and a spray tan. Not quite the needle jabbing treatments that are currently en vogue. However Elements does offer these services and they could accommodate requests should they be asked.
I haven't been to a bride fair in a couple of years (since my own big day where incidentally I lavished Karen Walker necklaces on my bridesmaids and none of them had any cosmetic treatments - as you can see in the photo above they don't need it!), so i don't know if these are being marketed to brides-to-be here like they are in the States. But surely that is just a matter of time?
Perhaps it's a matter of cost? Maybe treatments in America are cheaper than here? Maybe, in a society that laps up the plastic fantastic look at a galloping rate, it's just a matter of another necessity being added to the bulging wedding details list. Perhaps we're a bit more down-to-earth here?
What do you think? Would you, or did you, insist on your bridal party undergoing appearance medicine for your big day? If you were a bridesmaid, and asked to have dermal fillers and botox, teeth whitening and so on - would you? Where would you draw the line at looking good for someone else's big day?