Your Allure Easy-Reader

We’re big enough and grown-up enough to agree the Allure girls kicked some serious beauty butt in their selections of the best nail products.  They treated the category more comprehensively and more liberally than we probably would, so we think you should check-out their selections and recommendations—after you read our stuff, of course. 

Allure tested and rated base coats, top coats, and cuticle creams.  They also had the good sense, maybe even the good taste to rate dark nail polishes as well as brighter “fun” colors.  Although I understand—even empathize with—dark nail polish’s association either with elegance and glamour or with assorted rock and roll genres, I unfortunately am just too sunshiny to pull it off.  The problem has nothing to do with my tastes; it has everything to with how wrong dark nail polishes look on me.  Therefore, good for Allure for doing the testing and rating we could not.  I also confess to a little cognitive dissonance between my personal preferences and my journalistic objectivity, but I promise I have done my best to keep an open mind.  I love bright and sexy colors for toes; for fingers I prefer the hard-core dignity of French.  The Allure girls did not get stuck there as I might have.

Our Choice: Nars Nail Polish in Schiap

According to the Allure girls, Nars Nail Polish in Schiap “is a bold fuchsia that’s especially sexy on toes, but the shimmer-free finish manages to look sophisticated on fingers, too.”

The Good

Nars Nail Polish in Schiap features the brand’s new formula, developed specifically for long wear and chip-resistance.  The new formula shows the brand’s respect for women and Mother Earth: it contains no formaldehyde, toluene, or DHP.  It does contain UV protection, which does very little for our nails, but which does a whole lot to keep the colors from fading. Done right, Nars nail polish in Schiap is the best and sexiest summer color ever.

The Not-So-Good

Women either love the Nars line, or they despise it with all the vigor, virulence, and venom they can conjure.  Even the Nars-haters unwillingly admit all the colors are gorgeous, and “Orgasm” stands out as by far the most popular.  But they generally complain that Nars polishes do not apply easily, and they chip—easily and a lot—despite the labels’ insistence that they resist chipping.

Of course, in our serious road-testing, we wanted to find out about the Nars-haters’ claims.  Great little beauty investigator that I have become, I suspected that application seriously affected results.  Doesn’t that make sense to you, too?  More specifically, I suspected that women who applied Nars themselves were more prone to complaint and disappointment than women who let the professionals do the hard work.  Our testing confirmed my suspicions: the two carpool moms who took the DIY option had trouble managing both the brush and the polish, and their lacquers chipped like Wedgewood at a toddlers’ tea party.  Those of us who got the salon treatment agreed with the Allure girls.  Did we mention that, done right, Nars nail polish in Schiap is the coolest and sexiest summer color ever?

If you elect to use Nars products at home, we insist—not just strongly recommend, but absolutely insist!—you must use good base coat and equally good top coat.  Nars’s own base coat gets its strength from resins and cellulose–Butyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Polyester Resin, Styreneacrylates/Acrylonitrile Copolymer, and Acrylates Copolymer—all of which sound scary but are (almost) benign.  Just as importantly, do-it-yourselfers should not apply more than two color coats.  The stuff is formulated for two coats; stop at two coats.

Our Conclusion?

We might have mentioned that, done right, Nars Nail Polish in Schiap is the coolest and sexiest summer color ever.

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NARS Nail Polish-ORGASM US $3.00 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Friday Nov-13-2009 17:02:35 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

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Five College Freshman Essentials

Remember going to kindergarten for the first time?  This is way tougher than that.  Remember your first day of middle school?  Way-way tougher than that.  Still have vivid recollections and occasional nightmares about your first day in high school?  That day was frighteningly simple compared to your first day of college. 

But we have your back.  We will do our best to make you, despite your freshman mistakes and woes, an almost instant sophomore.  You know, at every major college and university, half of the first year students do not return for a second year.  Discouraged, alienated, and deep in debt, victims of acute “freshman blues” burn out, flunk out, or bail out.   We plan  just to fast forward you right past all the drama and heartache.  We will get you styled-up and down to business. We know what we’re doing.

During your freshman year, all around you, everything that can happen in life will happen.  Birth, death, and everything in between.  No hyperbole.  Just fact.  We suggest you let these major life events happen without you.  You will endure your own smaller tragedies; you will break a nail, and your mascara will run.  You will flat-out fail a midterm. Welcome to college, sweetie..

“You Must Be A Freshman”

Just like you never want to hear your doctor say, “oops,” you do not really want to hear any of your classmates remark, “Oh, you must be a freshman.”  You quickly want to rise above all that.  We carefully have chosen five freshman essentials guaranteed to help you find protective camouflage among the upper-classmen.  You absolutely must have…

·          Very well “deconstructed” Levi’s from your favorite thrift store—Of course, you destroyed them with all those long, arduous nights in the library.  Research, research, and more research.  We recommend Levi’s for classroom wear, because they have the right balance of comfort and fit.  Save the really good and very expensive designer jeans for occasions and places where you can work them to their full advantage.  You may engineer a promising classmate hook-up while you actually are in class, but you will not close the deal until…well, you get the idea.

·          “Varick” Nylon Nessenger Bag from Coach Leather—perfectly sized for your laptop and the few other items you need to carry along to class.  You never-ever will take your textbooks to class—”Ugh. You must be a freshman!”  But you may occasionally need a spiral notebook, pens, and pencils.  Varick conveniently and comfortably will hold them.  Varick is spendy in the extreme, but this exceptionally well-designed and durable messenger bag will be with you all the way through law school and on to your first job at the firm.  Consider—and rationalize—the purchase as an investment.

·          “Sasha” blouse from Abercrombie and Fitch—Get all three pretty plaids, and make sure you get color-coordinated tanks or camisoles.  “Color coordinated” here means “matched to the accent color in the plaid.”  You only can coordinate Abercrombie colors with other Abercrombie colors; do not commit a fatal fashion faux pas in the acquisition stages.  “Ugh, you must be a freshman!”

·          Salon manicure, pedicure, and wax—May be the first, last, and only time you can do the full spa treatment from now until graduation, but you must set the right tone as you begin.  You must indicate you know what is right and proper.  Later, you may plead too much study and too much work.  Now, though, you must promote the illusion that you “summered”—as a verb—in the Hamptons or Coronado.

·          Nothing, absolutely nothing! imprinted with the school’s logo—You wear that stuff when you go home for Thanksgiving, reminding all your friends how you got accepted at your college of choice.  On campus, your classmates clearly can see where you go to school; you do not need to show your school spirit so much as you need to show your exquisite sense of style and your precociously mature prudence.

LATISSSE™ Prescription Eyelash Enhancer (bimatoprost ophthalmic solution 0.03%)

Late in December, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration approved Allergan’s unique Latisse™  for treatment of “hypotrichosis.”  Available only with an ophthalmologist’s prescription,  Latisse™ is the first “science-based” treatment for inadequate eyelashes.  All previous remedies technically have qualified as cosmetics instead of medications.

Announcing the FDA’s decision, Scott Whitcup, MD, Executive Vice-President for Research and Development at Allergan Laboratories, asserted, “Latisse™ fulfills a significant and previously unmet need in the medical aesthetic marketplace.”  Whitcup continued, “As the global leader in medical aesthetics, Latisse™ exemplifies our continuing commitment to developing innovative treatments.”  Whitcup overlooked mention of the FDA’s previous approval of Latisse™ as treatment for glaucoma and ocular hyper-tension; eyelash growth originally counted as one of Latisse’s™ side effects.  Allergan executives have complete confidence in the medication’s safety and effectiveness, both of which were proven in more than thirty very strict;y controlled clinical studies.

Meanwhile, American girls want  their lashes to look as thick, long, and luxuorious as Brooke Shields’.  Shields, Allergan’s celebrity spokesmodel, stars in a series of thirty- and sixty-second commercials, which began airing  in March, 2009.  The commercials include statements about “continued use” only in their fast talking, fade-to-black disclaimers.  Eager consumers may not hear that the product’s benefits persist only as long as the “patient” continues once-daily use of the medication.

The Good

It works.  Thousands of glaucoma and ocular hypertension patients will testify to how well it works; participants in the clinical trials will offer similar testimony, and you have Brooke Shields’ word and pictures as proof.  You must have an ophthalmologist’s prescription to purchase Latisse™, but you need an annual eye exam anyway.

The Not-So-Good

The little disclaimer belies the seriousness of Latisse’s™ requirement that you continue daily application in order to maintain the prescription’s benefits.  Allergan’s financial motives registered on Wall Street as its shares went up sharply after Latisse™ debuted on the market.  Most prescription drug plans do not cover medication for hypotrichosis, categorizing it and all “medical aesthetics” as elective, not essential to life and health.  Therefore, maintaining natural eyelashes becomes a lifelong commitment and a substantial investment.  We have to wonder how many L’Oreal or Maybelline tubes you could buy for the price of filling the prescription even once.  How many sets of $6 “supplemental” eyelashes could you buy for special occasions.  We checked prices, and we found “if you must ask, you cannot afford it.”

Our Conclusion?

We cannot help thinking investment in Latisse™ seems exceptionally self-indulgent.  We generally have no problem with guilty pleasures and little indulgences that build self-esteem or reward us for our accomplishments.  But Latisse™ seems like such flagrant investment in vanity we struggle to accept it.  How many better ways could you invest that money?

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When responsible, bill-paying, future-building grown-up life attacks, requiring you to put away your flip-flops and wear real shoes to work, painfully demanding you give up your sand-and-surf habits, you face only two apparently grim tanning alternatives. 

You will not give-up your precious tan.  What will you do?

You consider the possibility of “fake baking,” reasoning that…well, actually not reasoning at all; instead, blocking out all consideration of UVA/UVB and all words that begin with “C” or end in “…ancer.”  You render fake baking a time management issue: twenty minutes in the tanning bed equals a whole day at the beach, so you actually gain seven hours and forty minutes of productive work time.  How could anyone assail such air-tight logic?

But, naturally, you consider self-tanning products either at home or at the tanning salon.  You saw women getting airbrush tans on “Real Housewives of Orange County,” and it seemed to work okay.  Even the fairest skinned blondes looked tan after a good professional airbrushing.  Still, you remember all the high school horror stories about self-tanners of all descriptions, and you continue living in mortal fear of turning safety-cone orange instead of golden tan.

Clear, Simple Facts about Self-Tanners

Do not ever even think of fake baking.  Not ever again.  Never.  Totally dangerous and probably deadly.  Swear a secret and sacred oath with yourself, sign a pact with your spirit and soul: You never in this lifetime or the next will lay your tender self on an illuminated tanning bed. Not ever again.  For all eternity.  Similarly, although you will continue visitng your beloved beach as often as possible, adoring surf, sand, and sky more than ever because you see them so seldom, you now will gear-up with Personal Protective Equipment.  You regularly, judiciously, almost religiously will apply your SPF’s, and you will nourish and replenish your skin after every beach trip.  You promise.  You will.

Meanwhile, you still desperately want to tan.  You know you feel and perform better when you’re tanned.  Tanning is not a fashion option; in your world, tanning is a psychological necessity.  Rejoice, girlfriend, because the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration agree self-tanning is perfectly safe.  Do it as often as your self-esteem demands and do not worry about side-effects or health consequences.  There are none. 

Just as importantly, self-tanners have evolved out of the Neanderthal Orange Age and into the new millennium.  Now, you will actually tan with a self-tanner.  You may do it at home, but we seriously recommend you have a professional do it for you.  A professional understands where and how to aim, and she has perfected the delicate art of thinly and evenly applying your miracle tanning elixir..  After one or two visits to your local tanning professional, you easily can maintain your DHA tan by using “radiance” daily moisturizers.

At last!  All the tan you want and need with none of the risks to skin and health.

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30 SAMPLE PACKETS GUILTY PLEASURE STEP 2 TANNING LOTION US $9.00 (8 Bids) Auction Ends: Wednesday Nov-11-2009 19:13:20 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

That is the question.  Nearly 90% of American and European women complain about cellulite.  Evil, disgusting, villainous cottage cheese around thighs and butts resists diets, exercise, prayer, and nuclear weapons. 

Contrary to popular belief and a great deal of self-reproach, cellulite does not show a marked lack of character or will-power.  Cellulite, does, however, show a genetic pre-disposition.  If the genome says you will have cottage-cheese thighs, you will live with and fight against cellulite your whole life—no matter how fanatically you diet and work out.  As you grow older, your skin naturally thins, making cellulite even more conspicuous.  Cold, hard medical fact: No one can “cure” cellulite.  Believe me, cosmetic surgeons have experimented with all kinds of procedures and techniques, because they see the motherlode ready for mining.  They got nothin’.  No lasers, no liposuctions, no hammers and chisels.  Nothin’.  The medical answer: You can cope with and reduce cellulite, but you never entirely can eliminate it.

So what about Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite Gel Cream?  The cute blonde in the commercial makes it look so easy and joyful.  What about that?

Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite Gel-Cream

Using L-carnitine, a naturally occurring chemical linked to the body’s metabolism of fat, Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite Gel Cream visibly firms and tones skin in just one week.  Easy to apply and completely absorbing, Good-Bye Cellulite measurably diminishes cellulite in approximately four weeks.  Excellent results last as long as you continue using Good-Bye Cellulite.

The Good

It seems the whole world has seen the Tyra Banks show featuring Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite Gel-Cream, and everyone wants the same results Tyra’s test-mdoels achieved.  In real world testing about 90% of women do get visible results, and the good results remain as long as women continue the treatments.  Results vary, but women generally are satisfied.  The commercial may exaggerate, but only a little.  Because the product costs so little, first-time users have little to lose but floppy thighs.

The Not-So-Good

About 80% of consumers feel satisfied with Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite Gel-Cream.  Most of that 80%, in fact, feel “extremely” satisfied, because they see visible results after just one week of disciplined use.  They see “dramatic” results after four weeks of regular use.  The caution?  Consumers who tried Good-Bye Cellulite patches generally were extremely dis-satisfied, seeing no result whatsoever.  The comparison matters, because it casts some suspicion on the benefits of L-carnitine.  

Nivea is the only major cellulite reducer which relies extensively on L-carnitine.  The clinically tested and proven cellulite treatments combine caffeine, alpha-hydroxy acids, aminophylline, and retinoal, each of which targets a specific cellulite symptom.  Given the contrast between Nivea cream-gel and Nivea patches, tough testers attribute the cream’s benefits to regular massage and stimulation.

Our Conclusion?

Our jury is still out.  Despite some skepticism, we keep our minds open and step-up our road tests.  We do agree, though, it cannot hurt to try, and we will feel grateful if you will let us know.

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Nivea Body. Good Bye Cellulite Gel Cream with 2 Bonus. US $5.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Thursday Nov-12-2009 19:36:38 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Nivea Body Good-bye Cellulite Gel Cream 6.7oz FREE Ship US $11.95 Auction Ends: Friday Nov-13-2009 23:05:00 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Summer Essential

TruKid Sunny Days Sunscreen

Specially formulated for busy beach kids, TruKid Sunny Days Sunscreen protects them through a whole day of sand-castles wave-jumping, and PB&J with sand.  The Environmental Working Group rated TruKid Sunny Days Sunscreen as a stand-out product.  Zinc and titanium oxides deliver SPF 30+ .  Aloe, Tea Tree, Coconut, and Sweet Orange oils condition kids’ tender skins.  Not thick, gooey or waxy; goes on clear and absorbs completely.

The Good

TruKid Sunny Days sunscreen, one of a whole line of award-winning products, contains everything safe, healthy, and nourishing, and not one thing that’s even vaguely harsh or nasty.  SPF 30+ with no petro-chemicals or waxes?  Excellent.  Enviornmental Working Group’s number 1 ranking, and a rating of zero environmental health or environmental hazards? Better still!  Reasonably priced, a little goes a long way, and TruKid sunscreen actually last for more than two minutes and twenty-seven seconds?!  We’re buyin’!

The Not-So-Good

Where was this stuff when the girls, “Hey, we’re Juniors!” still were pre-schoolers?  The entire line of TruKid products comes in kid-friendly packages, has kid-friendly fragrances, and works spectacularly. If big girls like it, little girls must love it.   We’re just mad that we had our children too soon.  We do have one caution: make sure you apply TruKids Sunny Days evenly and re-apply at least every 80 minutes, because uneven application leaves a kid sorta striped—the difference between protected and unprotected skin.  Use specially formulated face protection on kids’ tender faces, and apply extra layers on super-exposed little shoulders.

Our Conclusion?

The “Hey, we’re juniors!” road-tested TruKid Sunny Days Sunscreen for a full day at the beach, saying they didn’t care if it was for kids.  If it worked, they were all over it.  Result: no sweat-offs even after fiercely contested paddle ball and volleyball.  Only limited wash-off after body surfing.  Zero sunburns through eight hours.  Definitely a win.  No, we will not revert to childhood, but we will wholeheartedly recommend TruKid Sunny Days Sunscreen for the baby beauty at your house.  We think the whole happy line of TruKid products looks spectacular.

Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo

At the beach or in the pool, if you enjoy the double-good double-dip—blonde and swimming every day—you may be going green in a way that does nothing to fight global warming.  In chlorine and salt water, a natural chemical reaction turns once-golden locks gradually green.  Eew!  Same with gray hair, but we don’t talk about that.  Specially formulated for frequent swimmers, Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo gently, effectively washes away green, restoring and conditioning your naturally sun-drenched golden (or gray) tresses.   Glycerine does the heavy-duty chlorine cutting and gentle skin-conditioning.  Wheat protein and vitamin C nourish your hair, and popular conditioners protect your hair against further damage.

The Good

Great cleansing.  Excellent conditioning.  Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo is the real deal.  If you’re not a genuinely hard-core swimmer, you don’t need it. But if you swim at least two or three times each week, or if you have dedicated your life to the beach, it will help…a lot.

The Not-So-Good

We like, believe in, and trust Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo.  But using it comes with a couple of caveats and quid pro quos.  In other words, we cannot give it unqualified praise and rave reviews.  In order to do what it must do, Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo includes some chemicals and waxes that don’t quite thrill us.  Both shampoo and conditioner contain panthenol, a silicone, petro-chemicals, and waxes.  Swimming everyday, you must cope with chlorine’s ravages, so you compromise with the chemicals, but we strongly recommend you use your official swimmer’s shampoo every two or three days, using a pure glycerine shampoo for everyday.  If you have promised yourself to go Phelps by summer’s end, you should invest in a good bar of glycerine soap as well as anti-chlorine shampoo and conditioner.

Our Conclusion?

If you own a Speedo, Nike, or Tyr racer-back tank, you take your swimming seriously enough that you should invest in Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo.  If your job requires daily wear of bright red boardshorts, you need Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo.  If you know that “IM” here does not stand for “instant message” and you know how many times you may dolphin kick underwater, you must have Ion Anti-Chlorine Swimmer’s Shampoo.  Brunettes and elementary back-strokers need not apply.

Soleo/Atlantis Resort Soleo/Atlantis Organics All Natural Sunscreen, Spf 30+

Sunscreen 4-1-1

We’re not giving-up the glam and going all “green,” but you probably have noticed we try to look out for your health as well as your general and overall gorgeousness.  We find it just about impossible to separate them, and we would die before we would say, “Oh, yeah, be beautiful and forget all that health nonsense.”  Even the drug store puts health and beauty together.  Although we do advocate full-fat full-everything in ice cream, chocolate, and every other guilty pleasure, we also require compensatory time in the pool, on the dog-walk, or wherever you attempting burning-off more calories than you consume.  Still, we ask the rhetorical question: How could you possibly be drop-dead gorgeous if you were about to drop dead? 

I don’t think any of us ever expected that my writing about beauty products ultimately would reveal our dedication to saving the planet, but we believe in fortunate accidents and total serendipity.  We’ll deal with it.

All of which leads us—conveniently, inevitably, naturally—to sunscreen.  Women, ladies, girls, friends, sisters, our sunscreens have betrayed us. 

The facts speak for themselves: More than 75% of sunscreen products on your favorite retailer’s shelves will not perform as their packages promise.  According the Environmental Working Group, people who have time to go out test these products while we slave-away in our cubicles, three-out-of-five (aka 60%) of commercial sunscreen products fail to deliver “adequate” sun protection.  Translation: you slather them on, and you get fried anyway.  Yes, our products are improving.  70% of your drugstore brands have powerful UVA protection–up from about 40% just a year ago.  Sadly, most of them still have potentially toxic or carcinogenic chemicals which absorb quickly and completely through your skin.

Therefore, of course, your intrepid investigator—that would be me—has strapped on the K-Swiss and gone in search of sunscreens we can trust.  So far, I have found at least one.

Soleo Atlantis Organics All Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+

You need some unprotected sun exposure every day.  Sunlight helps your body synthesize vitamin D, and sunlight revitalizes other natural processes, too.  “Some” is a word which here means “ten to twenty minutes, depending on your skin tone and how much exposure you already have had.”  Once you hit the limit, you must lotion-up.  You must.  Not negotiable.  Whatever you missed, bronzer can fix.

Soleo Atlantis Organics All Natural Sunscreen tops the experts’ lists of safe and effective sunscreens—good for you, good for your kids, and good for the planet.  It contains super-powered UVA and UVB blockers, and zinc oxide does the heavy duty sun-screening work.  Remember your lifeguard’s nose-coat?  That zinc oxide.  You do not see a lot of drug store sunscreens that say “coral reef safe”; Soleo says it and is it.  Better still, this sunscreen has more essential botanicals than the majority of moisturizers.  It lives up to the commercial cliché “beautifies as it protects.”  Check this list of ingredients: Grapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, vegetable oils, beeswax, Capric/caprylic triglyceride, Candelilla Cera, Macadamia seed oil, Lecithin, Theobroma grandiflorum seed butter, Green tea leaf extract, Roman Chamomile flower extract, Safflower seed oil, Cucumber extract.  If you ask a naturopath or an aromatherapist what she would prescribe, you get pretty much that same list.

Soleo is the safest, healthiest, most earth-friendly sunscreen you can buy.

The Good

This is a case where you can judge the product’s awesomeness by all that it does not contain.  Soleo does not have chemical UV absorbers,  Titanium Dioxide, petroleum by-products, Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT),  Diazolidinylurea,  Octyl Methoxycinnamate, or Oxybenzone.  Most drugstore sunscreens have fairly high levels of Oxybenzone, which ranks high on oncologists’ lists of suspected carcinogens, which means they see a link between the chemical and cancer, but they do not—yet—have enough data to prove it.  The list of excellent does-not-haves could go on for about a dozen more items, but you get the idea.

The Not-So-Good

Where was this suff when I was a local and regular at South Mission Beach?

Our Conclusion?

You want it.  You need it.  If you plan ever on going outdoors again, you gotta have it.  Order it, please.

First in a series on true beauty, our self-images, and our expectations for our daughters and ourselves

Conscience and fundamental fairness demand we pay as much attention to our own misconceptions and flat-out mistakes as we pay to those our men harbor and commit.  Moreover, we owe it to our daughters to deal with fundamental women’s issues as openly and forthrightly as we can. 

Analyzing and evaluating our beauty-shoulds and our beauty-should-nots, we can draw courage and inspiration from a recent economic report: During the economic meltdown, twice as many women have kept their jobs as men have.  Some analysts claim that women will power the world’s economic recovery.  I happily will jump on that bandwagon!  But industrial psychologists found one of the most important reasons for our persistence in the workforce, and this provides the source of my hope: We are far more willing to analyze our failures and build on our successes than our male colleagues, counterparts, and companions. 

We have women’s natural introspection and resilience on our side.  I wholeheartedly believe that, if we can use them to save our jobs, surely we can use them to make ourselves beautiful.

We will take it as given beauty radiates from the inside out, and we similarly will take it as given that loving yourself helps everyone else love you, too. That might be enough, but I think we still have a few issues to explore.

Women: Change Your Self-Image| Focus on What Your Body Can Do!

Can you walk a mile?  Can you walk a mile in 9 minutes?  Can you swim 100 yards?  Can you swim 100 yards in under a minute?  Can you still throw your “rise ball”?  Can you hit your daughter’s rise ball; or, more reasonably, can you lay off the rise ball and hit her change-up?  We tend to set our priorities in reverse of common sense’s dictates.  Instead of focusing on how our bodies look, we ought to focus on what they can do! 

We set our goals and measure our successes in pounds and inches, dress sizes and the requirements of big occasions.  As a high school reunion approaches, we suddenly want to reduce to our high school weight.  As our nieces, nephews, and sometimes our own daughters celebrate the sacrament of marriage, we try to slim down to the bride’s ideal weight.  Preparing for a big meeting or major presentation, we pay at least as much attention to our wardrobes and make-up as we pay to the substance of our remarks.  Spanx matter as much as our PowerPoints.  We conveniently forget that, if we focus on performance, our looks will take care of themselves.  When you perform at your peak, when you shatter your own personal records, you inevitably look beautiful.

Dara Torres dazzled us last summer as she swam circles around girls half her age.  What could be more beautiful?

Pay attention to your genuine desires, and set your goals according to authentic measures of accomplishment.  Face the facts: You can “lemonade fast” your way back down to size 4, putting your health at-risk in about 100 different ways.  Or you can work your way down to your ideal weight with exercise and a healthy diet—remember them?  One is expedient and effective.  The other is just plain right.

Do not, however, discount or discard the fun factor.  As a matter of fact, elevate the fun factor to the status of the third “given.”  Remember that beauty radiates from inside out, love yourself so that others will, and if it you’re not having fun, then stop doing it.  Calibrate your performance goals according to the fun factor, restoring cherished pieces of childhood in the process.  Between seventh and eighth grades, I rode my beloved Schwinn Varsity 10-speed up and down the Mission Beach boardwalk all day every day, growing fit and tan without even thinking about it.  I was just having fun.  If I took my own advice—and you have my word that I will—I would drag the old Varsity out of my mother’s garage and retrace the old routes to the best spots.

What do you want your body to do?  How do you want it to perform?  If you grew more fluent in the language of action and gesture, what would you want to express?  Focus on your most honest answers to those questions, and watch beauty fire the gleam in your eyes.

All that and a new pair of Nikes, maybe some cute shorts, definitely some all-natural sunscreen, and you’re good to go.

This fall, every girl must take a good lashing and enjoy every dramatic minute of it.  In other words, this fall’s fashion focus remains locked on eyes—not shadows or liners, but lashes.  Arguably the most dramatic eye effect you can achieve, long and fat, flutterworthy and butterfly kissable lashes come from patient, precise application of the best lash-boosting products.  We are determined to help you find good products, and we give our word that we will offer our best advice.  Your drama may vary.  You absolutely must remember, though, you may do as you please with the rest of your make-up and beauty regime, but you must lavish lots of love and affection on your lashes.

 REVLON® Fantasy Lengths™ Maximum Wear Lashes

 A bold but relatively easy way to go for the glam: Revlon Fantasy Lengths™ Maximum Wear Lashes put patented, proprietary adhesive technology to work for you.  In other words, these self-adhesive lashes go on and stay on, even in water—both swimming pools and tears.  “Fantasy” characterizes these lashes well, and we refuse to call them fake, because they look absolutely natural.  Thick and long lashes go on in…well, the blink of an eyelash.  Like all Revlon eye products, Fantasy Lengths™ Maximum Wear Lashes carry ophthalmologists’  approval, and they contain neither latex nor allergens.  Yes, removing them requires a little effort, but it does not hurt.

The Good

None of the carpool moms could remember wearing “false”—we now will call them “supplemental”—eyelashes since our senior proms or wedding days.  When the backseat posse wondered about our reluctance, we could not account for it.  If it really is this easy and this inexpensive to go for the glam, then carpe diem—a Latin expression, which here means, “You got ‘em.  You flutter ‘em.”  Why were we not alerted to these technological advances much sooner?  Our attorney mom, however, remained skeptical.  “Even in water?” she wondered.  She swims every day, so she volunteered for the make-or-break pool test, admitting in advance that not even her own lashes always stayed on for the full 5000 yards.  “Yup,” she reported the next morning, “they stayed on through the entire 100 yard individual medley.”

The Not-So-Good

Not yet available on Amazon.com, but readily available at nationwide retailers and other discount cosmetics websites.  For $5.99, a little fantasy never hurt anyone; and $5.99 does not buy the privilege of complaint.

Our Conclusion?

Go for it.  As always, though, you must promise to use this potent flirt-power only for good.

Lot of 8 Pair Revlon Fantasy Lengths Adhesive Eyelashes US $12.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Nov-16-2009 19:41:16 PST Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

Revlon Fantasy Lengths Self Adhesive Eyelashes intensif US $6.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Dec-03-2009 11:27:51 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Revlon Fantasy Lengths Self Adhesive GLITTER Eyelashes US $6.99 Auction Ends: Thursday Dec-03-2009 11:29:20 PST Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item