Fashionista

Wine In My Lipstick

If you’re a cosmetics junkie and wine lover like me, no doubt you’ve heard about skincare products and makeup that contain some form of beneficial ingredients from wine grapes.  Polyphenols in grapes and resveratrol are powerful antioxidants.  Grape seed oil extract helps protect skin from free radicals and hydrates at the same time.  You’ll find these anti-aging ingredients in many products including the French skincare line Caudalie to 29 Cosmetics, created by Lydia Mondavi, which uses grape seed extract in its skincare and color cosmetics.

Blending all this grapey goodness into beauty products is not groundbreaking.  But two newcomers are focusing on what you put on your lips, especially since we all end up ingesting our creamy lipsticks and shiny glosses.

Cut From the Same Cloth? An Impossible Conversation between Prada and Schiaparelli on Fashion

The first thing you see when you enter the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibit “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations” is a large screen.  On it, a scene with a dinner table and a crystal chandelier against a black backdrop.  There are two women sitting at opposite each other, engaging in conversation.  Miuccia Prada is played by herself, and Elsa Schiaparelli, who died in 1973, is played brilliantly by Judy Davis.  Schiap’s words are taken from her autobiography Shocking Life.  This first film clip sets the scene; the two designers talk about how it was not their plan to be a fashion designer.

As you work your way through the “Impossible Conversations” exhibit, now open through August 19, 2012, you can’t help but thinking lucky for us they became not just designers but iconic figures in the fashion world.  It seems hard to believe that Prada was, as she says, never influenced by Schiaparelli.  In the “Waist Up / Waist Down” section, the ornate Schiap jackets pair so well with the embellished Prada skirts that you have a hard time believing that they were made some 60 to 70 years apart.  They seem to be cut so to speak, from the same cloth.  And so it goes throughout the exhibit.

An Ultimate Girls Summer Weekend in Wine Country

I’ve been on at least a dozen girls weekends. The destinations are always great: New York, Palm Springs, Chicago, Miami, the North Carolina mountains. But I’d not done a girls trip to Napa Valley wine country. I’m not talking over the top 5-star accommodations and 3 star Michelin restaurants; we were more budget minded (we’d rather have money for shopping). We ate and drank well, and even found a nice place to stay that was less than $200 per night (thanks Priceline!)

You probably don’t think of downtown Napa as a destination for style or shopping. People used to bypass Napa on their way to winery tasting rooms and St. Helena. Well things have changed. Now Napa is a must stop for great dining, wine tasting and shopping. Read more

Do you know any woman who has just 17 pairs of shoes?

A poll about women and shoes is making its way around the internet. Conducted by ShopSmart (published by Consumer Reports), it finds that the average woman owns 17 pairs of shoes. Just 17?? They didn’t talk to me or most of the women I know. The survey also goes on to say that on average women buy only three pairs of shoes a year and spend about $49 per pair. Guess they didn’t poll any Carrie Bradshaws.

Tell Derek Lam which dress you want him to make

Derek Lam is showing us the future of fashion. But it’s not on the runway, it’s on your computer screen. This rising star designer is teaming up with eBay on an exclusive collection that you get to vote on.

This is the future of fashion, crowd-sourced design. It’s a virtual relationship between designer and customer. By voting for your favorite dresses, Lam gets instant feedback on what designs are working and which ones aren’t. He’ll only produce the dresses that get the most votes.

SHOP – More about the mystery perfume

I’ve had mystery perfume #346 for a few weeks now. I’m giving it a test run for the Fragrance Advisory Board. Haven’t worn it lately, although it is hard to compete with all the fragrances I have to choose from. I gave it a good go for one week.  It started growing on me, not seeming as sweet and fruity as it did from the first spray.  In fact, it reminds me of a perfume I have, called “Bendelirious” from Etat Libre D’Orange.   Bendelirious is a delicious blend of Champagne, cherry and grapefruit, followed by iris, violet, leather, musk and tonka bean. Perfume #346 has a few of these notes, especially the cherry accord.  But it has much more green to it, which I am not crazy about.  It also develops a somewhat powdery note Bendelious doesn’t have.  I even wore both fragrances at the same time, just to…

SHOP DRINK – A shoe-in for wine – my favorite holiday gift

Happy new year! Like me, I’m sure you are recovering from the holiday 2010 season, and trying to get back into the swing of things. This post is a bit overdue, but I just had to share my most favorite holiday gift. It is from my brother, and he wanted to be on the phone when I opened it. Voila, the coolest shoe ever. It’s a shoe wine bottle holder – a total wine fashionista must! Gotta love the leopard print and the rhinestone embellishment. I can’t believe I’ve never seen this; my brother gets major kudos for finding it!

SHOP – Mystery perfume arrives

I just got a box with the fragrance that I’m going to be test driving for the Fragrance Advisory Board.  The letter enclosed with it instructs me not to open it yet!  First, I have to start the online survey.  My mystery perfume is labeled “346,” and it looks like it has a pale lilac color, but that means nothing.  Ok, here we go! First, they want me to open the bottle and spray just ONCE on my wrist. Easy enough…can I sniff yet?? No, I have to click the “start exercise” button and wait 60 sec.  (Ok I cheated, the fragrance is kind of floral and fruity). Time’s up.  Now I answer a series of questions.  Do I love it or hate it?  Like it so far…but not crazy about it  yet.  A little sweet to me, some rose, and a big fruity note. Cherry? What is my initial…

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