I think my favorite Urban Expressions bag this year is the Jessie Bag. It's got great hardwear and looks like a real grown up bag. I don't know about you, but I definitely need a grown up bag this year. 43 seems suddenly way closer to 45 than to 40, and alas, I must admit that the time has come for me to give away the cutsey embroidery clutches and the fringe crossovers. At the same time, a quick trip to the department store has me in the moral dilemma of carrying animal skins over my shoulder. Luckily, Urban Expressions exists.  U.E. creates luxury vegan leather goods with an eco-friendly attitude. All of their products are 100% certified vegan and cross-promoted through PETA. (They were also one of the first companies in their industry to comply with California’s Prop. 65, producing lead compliant handbags).  I know I'm not the only one who feels guilty wearing leather. Luckily I can now stay fashion forward without the guilt. Now my only question is do I get the bag in black or taupe? www.insideoutbeautybar.com Vegan Certified (www.vegan.org) PETA (www.peta.org & www.petabusinessfriends.com)

My only problem with our new collection of Diana Warner jewelry at the store is that I feel narcissistic buying one of these fabulous necklaces for myself! My favorite reads: "I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK." 

But whose ego couldn't use a little boost now and then? Diana Warner jewelry has that incredible vibe that speaks of art and craft. Her two tone, hand hammered necklace on 30 inch gunmetal chain is simply cool and understated. Discs are finished in antique rose gold and with 18kt antique gold plate.

About Diana Warner ...

Artist and jewelry designer Diana Warner has been creating art since her childhood in Tennessee. After finishing her degree in fine arts in 2005, Diana launched an accessories brand called Diana Warner Studio. Now located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, Diana Warner's accessories brand in carried in over 700 stores worldwide. Diana's designs have been gracing the red carpet and showing up on stars at nearly every awards show and many movie premieres for years now. Her custom work is widely recognized for it's attention to detail and it's reference to American fine arts and architecture. Her long client list and many appearances on hit TV shows have made Diana's designs highly sought after. Each piece of Diana Warner's jewelry and accessories is handcrafted with passion in the heart of New York City.

To purchase the necklace above, visit our website: www.insideoutbeautybar.com

I am loving my new deodorant, "Pit Putty" I got from our store, (www.insideoutbeautybar.com) by a homegrown company called Bubble & Bee.  It smells minty, works great, and best of all, has NO harmful ingredients in it, so I don't have to fret over controversial ingredients like "aluminum." There are a handful of good, natural deodorants on the market from Burt's Bee's to Zion Health (they make a good clay-based deodorant that absorbs smells) to Kiss My Face. Bubble & Bee's is so far, my favorite, however. I love the simple, effective ingredients of their Spearmint Pit Putty in particular:  Organic arrowroot powder, organic coconut oil, aluminum-free baking soda, organic spearmint essential oil, organic tea tree essential oil. That's it. "No Bad Stuff," as they say in their tagline, and all ingredients are USDA Certified Organic by UDAF.

The benefits of this deodorant starts with the key ingredient of baking soda. Baking soda blocks odor and prevents bacterial growth; it also raises the pH of the underarm so it's less hospitable to odor-causing bacteria. Arrowroot powder helps absorb perspiration. The product provides all-day protection, is vegan, not tested on animals, gluten-free, contains no synthetic chemicals or estrogen mimickers, and can last up to 2 to 4 months depending on use. 

"The Bubble and Bee Story

Stephanie Greenwood began working in a Biology lab at 14, and started taking advanced Chemistry classes at the University of Utah at 16. But it wasn’t until she was 26 that she learned that the thousands of chemicals around her in personal care products like parabens, phlalates, and artificial fragrance could be causing some of her health problems, like hormonal imbalances and asthma. She diligently sought safer alternatives, but none of them lived up to her standards of purity. She found out that many products had hidden ingredients. So, she decided to make her own products using simple, organic ingredients.

It was slow-going at first. She drew upon her own chemistry background and tested the recipes she had come across. A lot of the formulas out there didn't work very well, some with terrible results. (She still remembers the conditioner that didn't rinse out for a week!) By reading labels on her favorite organic products, taking a little bit here and there from recipes that did work, she got a good start. She enlisted the help of a chemist friend in California to help her refine her formulas, and soon she had a vast repertoire of her own products. Her friends and family caught wind of her experimenting and asked her to share her discoveries. Soon she was making soaps, shampoos, lip balms and deodorants for the entire family. They absolutely loved her products, and she realized that this could be a bigger endeavor than she had ever thought.

A year and a half later she enlisted the help of her long-time friend and business partner, Steve Thomas. Steve took some convincing--he had never used organic anything before! She persisted and it paid off. With much deliberation and creative planning, Bubble & Bee Organic was born. Bringing his business marketing and product design prowess to the table, Steve was able to make dynamic packaging for Stephanie's products. “I really wanted these products to be fun. I was hooked the first time I made my own deodorant. I knew exactly what was in it. How cool.” They soon grew the business from a simple table at a farmer's market to a company that's created much "buzz" and is poised to gain the attention of the media and sell organic goodies to people all around the country."

Bubble & Bee Deodorant, body butters and lotions are available at www.insideoutbeautybar.com

  

Bronzers for Summer

Summer is the perfect time for bronzer to get that sun-kissed glow without the  harmful rays. There are so many options for bronzers, but how do you pick the one for you?

Jane Iredale is our go-to make up line at Inside Out. And their So-Bronze  is a fantastic pressed mineral powder bronzer that comes in three shades. So-Bronze 1 is a classic terra-cotta color with tiny specks of gold mica that add glow. So-Bronze 2 is slightly darker, it also has a quarter moon of pressed gold powder that is great for added glow or to highlight your cheek bones. So-Bronze 3 is a lovely mix of So-Bronze 1 and 2, it works great on all complexions and you can mix the two colors for glow and color or use separately to contour your face and add shimmer to your lips and eyes. We apply the darker shade to the areas of the face that would naturally receive a bronzed look, such as the forehead along the hairline, my cheekbones, and the top of the nose. A lighter shimmer shade can then be applied to the top of the cheek bones.

Quad Bronzers are a great option if you are looking for a multipurpose product. These pressed mineral powder bronzers come in three shades, Moonglow, Rose Dawn and Sunbeam. Moonglow is a golden bronzer that includes 24K gold dust flakes. It is lovely for a glowing bronze look and the colors work wonderfully as eye shadows. All three of these bronzers are truly multipurpose and can be used on your face, eyes, lips and cheeks.

Tantasia Self-Tanner & Bronzer is another great option if you are looking for a full body bronze look. The bronzer in Tantasia provides an instant sun-kissed look, while the self-tanner develops gradually for a natural looking tan. The best part about Tantasia is that it works with your skin tone and self adjusts, so you will never look orange, plus it doesn’t streak.  Here is a great video showing how to apply Tantasia.

The most important thing to remember about bronzing is not to forget that your neck and face are connected. Always be sure to bring your bronzer down onto your neck for a more natural look. Lastly, always practice safe sun!

Parts of this blog have been reposted from the Jane Iredale blog.

Beauty From The Inside Out

We recently had a fun visit from Liana Werner Grey, founder of The Earth Diet, to swap tips on beauty from the Inside Out. To prep for the Liana for the video, we framed her naturally beautiful blonde hair with some soft highlights and rejuvenated her skin with a Beauty Bar Signature Facial. Following this, we applied Jane Iredale makeup to not only enhance her pretty features, but to protect her skin with natural minerals. She looks great! Click on the video below to hear about the tips we swapped...  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqtsHqvqF4k&feature=youtube_gdata_player 

Anti-Aging Eyes

Just because everyone tells me I should learn to grow old gracefully doesn’t mean I can actually do it. Aging sucks-- on the outside. On the inside, in those beautiful fatty tissue-folds of the mind, aging is sheer pleasure—one of the greatest pleasures I’ve ever known. To accumulate knowledge, to experience the Aha moments-- like when you really get what your girlfriend is saying-- is like getting a beautifully wrapped gift. If only our skin grew more beautiful as we

evolved into our higher selves.

Appearing tired, even when I am wide awake is what annoys me. To have someone say, “You look tired, everything ok?” when I am feeling happy and revved up for the day, is something I have begun to experience in my forties. Ma’am too, is fairly new, though in truth, I don’t mind this as much. I want to have a presence that is age appropriate. I wouldn’t be doing the world, let alone myself, any favors, to don hot shorts with scrunchy boots to the Parent’s Council Meeting. My uniform of jeans (not hip huggers, but not Mom jeans either), cute tops and ballet flats works for me. Looking good for the age I’m at, not trying to look another age is what I’m after—being the best me on the outside to reflect my fatty tissue folds.

Using the proper skin care is of course, helpful. Getting regular facials. Exercising. Staying off the grains and sugar. Recently I’ve tried facial rejuvenation through acupuncture at our store. I’m on my sixth treatment (the acupuncturist recommends 12 treatments to achieve results that are supposed to last for years). And I have to say something is different—people have been asking me if I’ve lost weight. The lines around my eyes also seem less apparent. For a year or so I went down the facial injection road, which certainly works to reduce lines. My problem is that I usually end up looking like someone else—do most women? Courtney Cox looks beautiful, for example, but am I the only one who thinks she doesn’t look like Courtney Cox anymore? 

My newest discovery is utilizing anti-aging eye-makeup tricks.

Following the proper hydration, foundation and concealer, use a non-shimmer shadow in a neutral color a few shades darker than your eye skin (neutrals highlight the eyes not the skin) to recess the socket line. This can create depth and combat the loss of fat that we experience as we get older. Make sure the shadow is not chalky. A soft matte is a good choice, or a low-level pearl with a subtle luminosity. Investing in the right, neutral eye palette can make all the difference.

Next, curl your eyelashes; you will be amazed at the difference curled eyelashes can make to lift the eye. For eyeliner, massage the tip of your soft eye pencil into the lash line to create the illusion of thicker lashes. Mascara, too, should be applied heavier at the base of the lash line. For this, hold the mascara wand at the root and rock the brush gently to the left and right.

Filling in your eyebrows is an art form unto itself. Be sure to use the right color—something natural like ashy, brown or blonde. Once you have your eyebrows professionally shaped, you can follow the structure and fill in the “hairs” as necessary by feathering and stippling—never “drawing.”

    

And voila,’ a soft, natural look for the eye that compliments a gorgeous brain.

Eye Of Horus

My colleagues and I are always on the hunt for those rare luxury products that fit our criteria at the store. They have to be safe to use, beautiful, luxurious, cruelty-free, and like a first love, make us wonder how we ever existed without them. It hasn’t been easy. Like an online dating site, the market is flooded with false promises and hyped-up stories.

So when my requested “Eye of Horus” eyeliners and mascaras arrived, I opened the beautiful gold and black boxes much like a jaded lover who has been around the block a few times.

What did the website promise? Pretty much the universe as far as mascaras and eyeliners are concerned:  Lengthening, volumizing, smudge-proof formulas that are non-clumping and non-sensitizing and wear all day but wash off easily—all from natural ingredients like beeswax, ricebran wax, canauba wax, candellia and jojoba waxes, and natural oils like almond, moringa and sesame. I don’t know about you, but I have long lost my desire to coat my fine lashes with petroleum-based, paraben-riddled products, and so these ingredients appealed to me—if they worked.

Eye of Horus products not only lived up to its claims, but went beyond my expectations. The eye pencils, in a simple palate of teal, bronze and charcoal glided onto my delicate eyelids; the liquid liner, with a reversible tip to get the most out of the product, offered incredible precision, and the mascara indeed thickened and lengthened—I actually wondered if my lashes looked too long! All the products also wore well throughout the day with zero smudging. That night, I used my favorite Osea Ocean Cleanser, and like magic, the product washed off perfectly.

So I handed the sample box to my colleagues for round two of testing. That the sample box came back empty tells you that we were in agreement.

I am proud to say that this unique find is now available at our store, Inside Out Beauty Bar, and even prouder to tell you that we are the very first U.S. retailer carrying the line. Currently, Eye of Horus can be found in retailers across New Zealand and Australia. So if you’re in the area, treat yourself with a pitstop to Bellmore, N.Y. to sample the product!

  

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. It is also the company name of some incredible mascara and eyeliner.

Our Loveable Lisa sampling out the product. She texted me an hour after the products came in. "Not trying to be creepy with this picture but I'm showing you how amazing Eye of Horus Mascara is!!"

Suntegrity

After spending yesterday afternoon whizzing down a snowy hilltop with my almost-six-year-old daughter and coaching her to trek back up-- the two of us sweating under layers of thermals in the warm sun-- I am reminded that it is never too early in the season for sunscreen. And for this season, our team at IOBB has found THE BEST sunscreen!

I am obsessed with Suntegrity Sunscreen. First, it is a tinted sunscreen, which comes simply in “light” or “medium,” taking the guesswork out of choosing a color. Second, it feels like creamy silk on the skin. I used it over the weekend, loving its uplifting citrusy scent, and found that it made my skin not only feel amazingly hydrated and smooth, but made it look amazingly hydrated and smooth—without any other products needed. A little Suntegrity, a little mascara, a little lip gloss, and I was off to the slopes, feeling fresh and fully protected, even against my daughter’s resistance, “it’s too hard!”

Of course, I love the integrity of the product as well. Suntegrity, a non-toxic, mineral-based sunscreen, was founded by Tricia Trimble in memory of her mother who lost her life to cancer:

“…Using my mom’s experience as a positive catalyst for change, I created a holistic, mineral sun care line to help people avoid skin cancer. After losing my mom to melanoma skin cancer, I became a big advocate of wearing sunscreen. However, most of the sunscreens on the market use chemical UV blockers and contain a lot of toxic ingredients. It didn’t make sense to me to use these types of sunscreens to prevent skin cancer only to get another kind of cancer. After several years of research and investigation, I decided to develop my own sun care line that works from both the inside-out and the outside-in. With a heartfelt mission and the help of an extremely knowledgeable formulator and chemist, Suntegrity Skincare was born. Suntegrity Face and Body SPF 30 products use only the best known physical block ingredient (non-nano size zinc oxide) to provide broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection and super anti-oxidants and amino acids to enhance that protection and help with skin repair. Our products use non-toxic preservatives to maintain their integrity without sacrificing safety or health. Our company was awarded “Champion” Status by the EWG/Compact for Safe Cosmetics.”

In Suntegrity, you will not find: Chemical UV absorbers, nano-particles (under 100 nanometers), parabens, phenoxyethanol, phthalates, propylene glycol, mineral oils, synthetic dyes, and sulfates.

A great sunscreen that makes my skin look and feel fabulous—and is safe? I may have to spend some more time outdoors.

Suntegrity is available beginning this week at Inside Out Beauty Bar in Bellmore. (516) 221-0600.

www.insideoutbeautybar.com

Sisterhood

Sisterhood is on my mind. Sisterhood of biology, and sisterhood of friendship. There are the the sisters we are born with and the sisters we choose, and in some cases, the blurring of boundaries as we come to understand that the very sisters we are born with are likely the sisters we would choose if given an opportunity; or as we learn that the sisters we think we've chosen have actually chosen us. 

I feel grateful today that I have great sisters. Even more grateful that I am in business with two particular sisters that I would choose any day of the week. The number three can be challenging for women-- one can feel left out, one can feel unappreciated or misunderstood- but it can also be a powerful trine. Three wishes. The holy trinity. Three witches concocting an alchemic potion of beauty. Three is not exclusive; it is inclusive. Three is a democracy. 

We women need our sisterhood, in twos or threes. Behind every good man is a great woman. And behind every great woman are her sisters.