I am so excited about this home-waxing kit, I am sitting here still in my panties, five minutes post-wax. A little history: I am part Greek, part Italian, which means, I’m hairy. (Joke: Why do Greek men grow mustaches? To look like their mothers.) So hairy that shaving my legs is futile; wilean a day, I have stubble so coarse and tough, rubbing my legs together in the night wakes me up. Since age 17, I’ve waxed, waxed the bikini and the thighs and the calves. It’s the one beauty indulgence I will not give up, to the point that when my daughter was little and we had a month so financially lean we were eating little but peanut butter on bread, I put aside the money to get waxed. So sue me.

That money, in Los Angeles, was about $40 for the entire shebang. Here in Portland, it’s north of $100, and while I adore my waxer, it’s a chunk of change, but more, there’s the waiting four-to-six weeks for all the hair to be long enough to justify the waxing. I’ve twice tried home waxing kits; both times, they wound up in the trash, though only after I’d managed to ruin towels and a cordless phone and to raise welts the size of night crawlers on my inner thighs.

Perhaps because the weather is nice, or perhaps because we’ve having a party tonight, I decided, my hair being at the in-between growth stage, to again attempt home-waxing. I stopped at Walgreen’s to see if there was anything new on the market, and saw that Sally Hansen has a slew of new waxing products, including Lavender Spa Wax. And boy, was this stuff easy: pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds, spread on with the wooden tongue depressor (they supply 8), affix the cloth (they supply 20), and pull. Incredible — it worked! No drips, no pain, no half-the-hair-gone-but-what-about-the-other-half? I did wind up re-nuking the wax to keep it runny, and found you can (just as my waxer does) use each cloth three or four times and still get the hair. Total time for both legs: 40 minutes. Total cost: $9. The only drawback: I wasn’t able to do the bikini area as, shall we say, deeply as my waxer, but hey, I’m spruce.

They also make a "special white chocolate recipe" Express Wax I’m going to attempt next time. The box says, "water rinsable." I’m not sure what that means, as to remove any little bits of leftover wax, you need to use an oil, which the Lavender wax kit provided, thereby assuring I did not, as per usual, adhere to the toilet seat.

Original post by Nancy Rommelmann

Tumbling out of bed on a Saturday and heading to the farmer’s market seemed like a good time to sample Lise Watier’s Toscana Gloss Stick–there’s something inherently Tuscan about going to the market to purchase fruits and vegetables. It’s the time to wear a strappy little "market" dress and flip flops, and a faint smear of last night’s mascara under the eyes is not entirely out of place. A good lipgloss is all the makeup you probably need.

The Toscana colors are grown up, flattering and subtle (this is Ambre), and it has a faint summery suntan oil scent that I find quite pleasing. The reason to purchase this gloss stick, however, would be the texture. With an olive oil base, it’s yummily unctuous but not sticky or tacky and feels very refined on the lips. A notch or two more elegant than the tinted chapadhere products that also serve this casual lip niche. Really lovely. If you don’t tolerate lip glosses well because the texture squicks you, then this is a good one to try.

Original post by Hillary Johnson

I have resolved to eat more vegetables, particularly the raw kind. I had a really spectacular kale salad at a raw restaurant a few weeks back, and my iterative attempts to recreate it started this trend. I noticed that I felt more sanguine with a good measure of raw green things in my diet, so now have started mixing up a green smoothie every morning. Interestingly, wilean a week of instituting this daily habit, I noticed a beautiful dramatic improvement in my skin’s texture. The coarse, grainy texture my skin gets under stress vanished completely, and my cheeks are now smooth again. This can only be the result of the increased fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, as I’ve changed nothing else in my life.

The recipe goes like this: tear up a couple of dark green leaves (eg, kale, spinach, romaine), and pack into the blender with a bit of water. You have to puree the greens before adding anything else, or they won’t get gcircular up to a drinkable consistency. Then add banana, apple, etc. I like the sharpness of the greens, so keep the ratio of green to fruit at about 50/50. Sometimes I add some ginger paste, and/or mint. Once I accidentally bought mustard greens instead of kale, which resulted in an undrinkable neon green mess.

Original post by Hillary Johnson

My four-word review of this surprisingly not totally disgusting scent: Poor woman’s Hard Candy.

I got a free sample of Hard Candy from Sephora last year and fell hard for it. That surprised me, since I don’t generally go for sweeter scents, but it’s got just enough cashmere musk to avoid being cloying.

Now Smell This notes a similarity between Can Can and Britney Spears Fantasy, on which I have alalert blogged favorably. If this trend of halfway decent celebrity fragrances continues, there’s no telling whose scent I’ll end up wearing. Where’s Heidi Montag when you need her?

Original post by Jackie Danicki