I stopped by Haven Spa, located on 150 Mercer Street in Soho, to undo some damage I’d incurred on my feet and try out the spa’s seasonal pedicure treatment, The Pediterranean. Inspired by summertime in Sicily, this foot savior starts off with what every Manhattanite (or bustling lady) needs after hurrying through sweaty subway stations: a refreshing glass of iced grapefruit soda that you can opt to have spiked with a hint of Solemo Blood Orange Liquor—just to take the edge off of your pained feet.

From there I was invited to select my polish—but not just any polish. For this particular treatment, Haven Spa buddied with Dolce & Gabbana (which, it should be noted, isn’t carried in salons or spas—so this is something special) to carry the Italian brand’s Spring/Summer 2012 Bouquet Collection of Nail Lacquers, specifically for The Pediterranean. I chose Mint, a stunningly bright opaque mint color—a perfect complement to springtime sandals.

The Pediterranean begins with a foot bath infused with faint notes of orange, lemon and tomato. Rather than overpower the nose, this subtle scent infusion worked to simply exemplify the refreshing aspect of the service. My tech then scrubbed my (sadly prickly) legs and feet with an oil-infused salt scrub that was not in the least bit rough. Before polishing my tootsies, she massaged a shea and cocoa body butter pumped with Neroli, Bergamont and Citrus scents, and, let me tell you, my skin felt silky-soft well into the night.

After 45 minutes of pampering that refreshed and relaxed me, I wasn’t quite ready to pound the pavement again—but my feet were.

Haven Spa’s The Pediterranean ($45) will run for a limited time this summer. Find your way to the 150 Mercer Street locale before it’s gone.

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Apparently, 1917 was a good year for Shiseido innovation—that year also saw the introduction of Rainbow Face Powder. At the time, Japanese women only wore white face powder. But with the advent of Rainbow Face Powder, launched in seven different shades, women were able to match their powder to their skin tone. Can you imagine if we only had one face powder hue from which to choose today? Yikes.

My other favorite part of Shiseido’s history: In 1937, the brand launched Hanatsubaki Magazine, a complimentary lifestyle, beauty and fashion magazine that was distributed to Carmellia Club members (this was an exclusive club for loyal Shiseido customers). It’s hard these days to come across a savvy beauty brand that doesn’t publish some sort of comprehensive magazine or website to complement their products, but when Shiseido came up with the magazine, it was a fairly new idea. And, not surprisingly for a beauty brand that has remained modern despite it’s age, the magazine is still going strong today!

To further celebrate 140 years, Shiseido is re-releasing its very first ever-ever cosmetic product, Eudermine Revitalizing Essence softening lotion, in a limited edition bottle that mimics the original packaging and a box that I’m convinced is meant for display. A little bit about Eudermine: The word means “good skin,” and the product delivers on its name by way of providing immediate moisturization while improving skin’s ability to retain hydration over the long term. Since its launch in 1897, little has changed in the formulation: Amino acids and TMG help gently exfoliate, removing dead skin cells to uncover more even tone and texture, and bio-hyaluronic hyper complex protects skin from environmental stressors while helping skin retain moisture. And it smells like a bouquet of peonies—light and romantic. (P.S.: With this limited edition bottle, you’ll also receive Oil-Control Blotting Papers, which are only available in Japan!)

At the Shiseido celebration, the company’s future was also on display. Several new launches for makeup are on the horizon (the brand’s creative director, Dick Page, was on hand to chat about the future of makeup), as well as a great one for skin—but I can’t divulge anything just yet! What I can tell you about: Shiseido’s embrace of social media has led to a fanciful Facebook app for its “Wishes for the World” campaign in honor of its birthday. From May until the end of 2012, the company invites you to visit its Facebook page and engage the “Wishes for the World” app, where you can express a personal wish for the world that will hang from a branch on a virtual cherry blossom tree. For every 140 wishes made, Shiseido will plant a Cherry Blossom tree in New York City in collaboration with the New York Restoration Project. At the gallery, a wall lined with hanging traditional wishing wooden plates from Japan boasted the virtual wishing tree—when I got home, I made my wish as soon as I could. Cherry Blossom trees in NYC? Want!

More limited edition goodies will be released later in the year, but for now, visit Shiseido for the limited edition Eudermine Revitalizing Essence while supplies last.

Happy 140th, Shiseido!

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Then, I met Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen. Now, if you don’t know Living Proof, let me give you a 10-second background. MIT scientists set out to solve that damning issue all women endure: frizz. In fighting the good fight against frizz, they uncovered the idea that humidity is a main stressor of hair. This is because, as we age, we inevitably subject our hair to certain aggravators—mainly, chemical processes (dye or straighteners) or heat-styling (we all do this). With each aggressive act against our hair, we break down the protective layer around the hair shaft, creating tiny holes and rips. This is what we mean when we say our hair is “porous.” If you’re a bleached-blonde, you know this term all too well. Porous hair is unable to seal in moisture, and because of this, becomes dull, rough, stiff, brittle and defenseless against future damage.

I also met Dr. David Puerta, the brains behind the company’s breakthrough PolyfluoroEster (and, who, I might add, had faded red hair—he’s been testing out haircolor formulas for a possible Living Proof haircolor line!). He explains that humidity is more than a frizz curse; it causes hair to shrink and expand (which he terms “vapor flux”), which ultimately weakens hair. Think about it: We sit in our office, where the air is dry and stagnate, but mostly dry (and Sally, bless her heart, won’t stop turning up the air conditioner to sub-Sahara temperatures, which is super-annoying, so we have to run our moisture-stripping space heater when it’s 80 degrees outside…sigh). Our hair in our office is normal. Then, we go outside to grab a latte; the air outside could be humid—but what we can all agree on is that it is most likely different than the environment of our office—and our hair expands with all the moisture. Then back to our office we go, latte in hand; and back to that normal state our hair goes, shrinking. This can happen multiple times a day—and each time it happens, it weakens the hair. The message: That porous problem? It’s more than a frizz-inducer; it’s a breakage maker. This is news to me—and not good news.

The ends of my hair: POROUS. So how do we fix this problem if we don’t feel like lobbing off a good four inches of our hair? In steps Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen. Rather than coat the hair with silicones—a common approach to fighting frizz that unfortunately can weigh down the hair, making it limp and sometimes greasy-looking—Dr. Puerta’s PolyfluoroEster molecule does all the work. It’s a weightless, moisture-controlling molecule—and the Restore Recovery Regimen is flooded with the good stuff. Used once a week, the formula works to restore hair back to its virgin state by tackling the problem two-fold: It penetrates inside the hair’s cortex and infuses it with keratin protein (hair is made of keratin, so it’s simply reinforcing any weak spots). Then, it weightlessly conditions, reinforces and smooths the outer cuticle. By blocking those pores, rips and tears on the cuticle, humidity is less likely to penetrate the hair and wreak havoc leading to expansion, contraction and eventual breakage. Hallelujah!

Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen comes as a five-pack of ampoules, each ampoule being a “single dose” that you can apply from roots to ends. I, however, concentrated my application on my bad bits—those last four to five inches of hair that have been blasted by bleach. Now, even though I don’t have a fancy robot like Dr. Puerta does that tests hair strand strength, I could tell my hair was stronger after the first two uses. The company claims that after four weeks of weekly applications, hair is 24x stronger than its compromised self and 96% less prone to breakage—even on triple-processed (super-platinum blondes) hair. I have blown through my five ampoules, and though I can’t say for sure that my hair is breaking 96% less than it previously was, I do notice that when I brush it, little bits don’t fall all over my lap like they did before. That’s progress. And that straw feeling has all but dissipated—which, I have to say, is the biggest bonus in my book.

Living Proof Restore Recovery Regimen is available exclusively at Sephora through July 2012; then you can also find it at Ulta.

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As soon as Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week wrapped in February, I hunkered down and pulled together the Nailpro story, “Nails of New York Fashion Week,” chronicling the tipity-top nail stylings I encountered from the biggest brands to do catwalk digits: CND, Essie Cosmetics, Zoya, Minx, OPI, China Glaze, Butter London, Deborah Lippmann, Dashing Diva, Color Club and Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics. Amongst the numerous nail designs covered in this story, you’ll also find what I forecast to be the top nail trends for Fall 2012. (And let me tell you: I am making it my mission to try out each and every one—as should you!)

Which of the Fall 2012 nail trends that I forecasted will you be rocking this fall: Fine Edges, Pale Matte-rimony, Matchy-Matchy or Layered Dimension?

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This year, the risk-taking came in the expected form of fashion—after all, this event is considered “Fashion’s Oscars,” as I was reminded dutifully—over and over, I might add—on the E! Channel this past Mother’s Day weekend. But the sartorial set also struck a fearless note with their beauty, and the biggest fear no beauty trend to emerge was the vampy burgundy lip. What rang true for this trend: A spectrum of gorgeous gals wore it, and their skin tones ran the gamut from light olive (Camilla Belle and Jessica Alba) to fairest of the fair (Jessica Chastain and Lana Del Rey). This inky lip looked it’s best when paired with a gold dress, and most of its wearers kept the rest of their faces pared down to allow that stand-out pucker to do all the glam talking.

All that you need for a toasted maroon mouth: A golden or rosy cheek; loads of lashes; and perhaps a smidgen of definition along the lash line in the form of eye liner, or in the crease via some sparkly mauve-gray or coppery-brown eye shadow. Voila! You are Met Gala-ready.

Now, which burgundy lipstick should you be setting your sights on? Stunner Kate Bosworth donned NARS Volga Pure Matte Lipstick, expertly applied by makeup artist Pati Dubroff. “We created really glowing skin with a strong matte brow, and matte lip,” says Pati about the red carpet look she created for Bosworth, who attended the gala as a guest of Prada. “It’s all about the lip!”

For fair-skinned Jessica Chastain, mark Celebrity Makeup Artist Mai Quynh stresses that she kept Jessica’s eye minimal to craft her “bold, stunning lip” using mark Lipclick Full Color Lipstick in Hot & Spicy.

Olive lovely Camilla Belle forewent the typical porcelain skin that’s a favored supporting star to the vampy lip and instead took a bronzed tan to her forehead and cheeks. CK One Color Cosmetics makeup artist Hung Vanngo says of the custom-mixed brown-y plum he crafted with CK One Gossip Soft Defining Lip Pencil, Smooch Lipstick and a final app of Mad Lipgloss: “We decided to create a look that was both strong and sexy, with a sophisticated style for the hair and makeup, beautiful skin, shimmering eyes and dark sexy lips.” Emphasis for ALL on the “sexy.”

So which inky maroon mouth tops your list? Would you rock this look?

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(Celebrity images via Celebutopia.net)

NARS has just released a teaser video for the hugely anticipated NARS Andy Warhol collaboration, set to launch this October. Which is a whole summer away! But, who doesn’t like to speculate about this, that and the other? The video replicates one of Warhol’s art installations, Silver Clouds, in which 70 large silver mylar balloons floated around the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art in St. Louis, Missouri.

So, the brand invites you to start dreaming about which Warhol character you think will make an appearance in the collection. (I’m thinking Edie Sedgwick, but is that too obvious?) Will the colors vaguely resemble Campbell soup cans? Will a Mylar balloon pop out of your lipstick tube? Will there be a nail polish hue that mimics Andy’s silvery white mop? The suspense!

PS: The NARS Duo Eyeshadow pictured above is Marie-Galante from the brand’s Summer 2012 collection, which launched April 15. I just wanted to add a touch of pretty to the post!

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Hopefully, your gift-giving practices are more timely than your card-selection customs; and if they aren’t, I took some of the time-consuming guesswork out of selecting a gift—I rounded up a bunch of cool beauty buys that you can gift to your mummsie so you don’t have to do the thinking. You’ll find this Mother’s Day beauty gift guide at Makeup.com. Now hustle on over there to check our the five fun beauty favors built for all types of moms; before you know it, it will be Sunday, and you don’t want to show up empty handed, do you?

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Despite all of this, when I pulled together the myriad summer polish collections for Nailpro‘s Summer Polish Feature (out in June), the amount of “brights”—which could certainly be considered “neons” but may very well not contain neon colorants (FYI)—was overwhelming. I plucked some of my faves for your retina-searing pleasure…

Why You Too Should Have No Fear: What do we do when we feel a color is too eye-poppingly bold for our fingernails? We put it on our toes! Yes, neons are perfect for the tootsies come summertime, and you needn’t feel scared to break out the brightest to dress up your feet. But personally, I think neons are perfect for decorating digits (but of course I do!), and the best way to wear them is actually—in my eyes—a quite conservative way: Paint your nails in an opaque neutral, such as a tan or dove gray, and then edge the tips with a strip of neon. If you’re feeling bold, change up the neon strip from nail to nail—pink, orange, yellow, green, etc.—and if you’re feeling even bolder (is that even possible???), do two strips of neon on each nail. I rocked a beige nail with a strip of neon green at the very edge, and a line of yellow just below it; the amount of compliments I logged for that little “pop ‘o’ color” was so immense, I had the hardest time changing my mani because I just loved the design—and the attention!—so much. And I can assure you: Try a design like this on for size, and you won’t want to touch that polish remover either.

Will you be rocking a neon nail—or toenail—this summer?

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(Neon info via BeautyHigh.com, Daily Mail and More)

One of my all-time favorite grays is Zoya Dove. It’s subtle and neutral; I feel like it doesn’t make my hands look dead—an unfortunate side effect of some gray polishes. It applies evenly and opaque, and makes for a perfect background to nail art designs. So I decided to merge my love of Zoya Dove with the ombré craze by crafting a polka-dot fade that goes from soft pistachio to vivid turquoise to true teal—all set on a dove gray base.

I used a nail tool known as a “dotter“—this essentially has a small metal ball on both ends that you dip into polish and then “dot” on your nail. Using Butter London Slapper, I tried to follow the arc of my cuticle line from nail to nail. I followed with a rounding row of China Glaze Aquadelic, and then switched to my final row of dots done in Butter London Bossy Boots.

I’m typically a perfectionist, so I went in thinking my rows would be perfectly lined up and rounded—but after two nails, I realized perfection is something I can save for my editing career, not my nail art hobby. And as I went along, I eventually didn’t mind the disparity from nail to nail. I’m a little sad that when I hit the sheets that night, my mani was still a little wet; hence, the striation marks in the finished results. Sigh.

So, what do you think? Are you a fan of my gray-green-teal ombré polka-dotted manicure?

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From that day forward, I worshiped the sun—but it was not so kind to me back. (PS: I was horrid about sunscreen, too—a double-whammy of dumbness.) The moles and freckles I had multiplied, and by the end of college, my chest looked like a dirtied constellation chart. But I still paid no mind. I was 22—nothing could hurt me! And then, five years later, I started reading Glamour magazine, which does a phenomenal job of scaring the bejesus out of me when it comes to skin cancer. The magazine included photos of moles that could be pre-cancerous, and of those that most definitely are cancerous. I frantically checked my chest, my legs, my tummy as I held the magazine up against my skin; I asked my husband to check my back, my stomach sick with worry. We both concluded that my “body map” of mottled dots needed a professional’s eye—our own four eyes seemed to think every single edge of every single mole looked funky. Off to the dermatologist I went.

And good thing: I had a suspicious mole removed. Thankfully, the biopsy of the tissue came back negative, but I do have a scar on my chest where that irregular mole once was. I look at the scar, and I think, “Phew.” But…why do I think this when I don’t go dutifully to get my annual check ups? And I am not proud to admit that. Not one bit.

This year I’m going, and let me tell you why: It’s downright ridiculous that I don’t go. First, I have a family history of skin cancer. Second, the month of May is all about skin cancer awareness, and several dermatologists out there will open their doors to me and everyone else to offer free skin cancer screenings.

Today, May 7, is Melanoma Monday and the official launch of Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) is launching SPOT Skin Cancer, a public awareness initiative that focuses on the positive actions people can take to protect themselves from skin cancer, including seeing a dermatologist when appropriate. To help carry the program’s message, “Prevent. Detect. Live.”, the AAD has made live www.SpotSkinCancer.org, where visitors can learn how to perform a skin self-exam, download a body mole map for tracking changes in your skin, and find free skin cancer screenings in their area. Those affected by skin cancer also will be able to share their story via the website and download free materials to educate others in their community.

“Unlike other types of cancer that can’t be seen by the naked eye, skin cancer shows obvious signs on the surface of the skin that can be easily detected by properly examining it,” says board-certified dermatologist Daniel M. Siegel, MD, FAAD, AAD president. “The goal of SPOT Skin Cancer is to help save lives by educating the public on how to protect themselves from the sun and how to examine their skin for suspicious spots.”

The AAD also released some startling statistics that are worth sharing and knowing:

++ Almost three-quarters of adults polled (74%) did not know that skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S.

++ Only half (53%) of respondents knew how to examine their skin for signs of skin cancer.

++ Thirty percent of respondents were either unsure or did not know that skin cancer can be easily treated when caught early.

“When it comes to skin cancer, our survey demonstrates that knowledge is power,” says Dr. Siegel. “For example, respondents who know how to examine their skin for signs of skin cancer were more than twice as likely to have shown suspicious moles or spots to a medical professional as those who did not know how to spot the warning signs of skin cancer on their skin. In some instances, this knowledge can mean the difference between life and death, which is why it is so important to see a dermatologist if you notice a spot on your skin that is changing, itching or bleeding.”

And, then of course, there are the facts that simply can’t be ignored:

SKIN CANCER FACTS:

++ More than 3.5 million skin cancer cases affecting 2 million people are diagnosed annually.

++ Current estimates are that one in five Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime.

++ The five-year survival rate for people whose melanoma (the deadliest form of skin cancer) is detected and treated before it spreads to the lymph nodes is 98 percent.

So, visit www.SpotSkinCancer.org. Here at Fear No Beauty, I always say to “fear no this” and “fear no that.” With skin cancer, there is plenty to fear. Stay on top of it, get yourself mapped, do those annual check ups. Prevent. Detect. Live.

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