Think Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

October is breast cancer awareness month. This past year, two scares in my family have made me aware of how crucial it is to get yearly mammograms, and to do monthly breast self examinations. A year ago this month, with my very first mammogram at the recommended age of 40, the x-ray revealed a lump in my breast. The subsequent biopsy showed that it was a benign lump, called a fibroadenoma, and was not cancerous. Two months later, however, my mother's yearly mammogram revealed a lump that turned out to be cancerous. Thankfully, they caught it in the very early stages, removed it, and with follow-up radiation treatments, she was declared cancer-free.

During October, many retailers and manufacturers donate money to breast cancer research, either through direct donations, or through the sale of special products from which part or all of the proceeds go towards breast cancer research. From Kitchen Aid mixers, to Papermate ball point pens, to lingerie and t-shirts, there are a variety of pink products to choose from. Many cosmetic companies offer special versions of their most popular products in October, in pink shades or special pink packaging, with proceeds going towards breast cancer research. Here is just a small sampling of the countless special cosmetic offerings for Breast Cancer Awareness month:



Philosophy offers a special version of their popular three-in-one shower gel. Shower for the Cure ($20.00) is a shower gel, bubble bath and shampoo in a special bottle adorned with the breast cancer pink ribbon logo. 100% of the Philosophy net proceeds from the Shower for the Cure is donated to the Women's Cancer Research Fund.



Estee Lauder's Pink Ribbon Collection 2007 features five products in special pink packaging. Estee Lauder offers a special Jeweled Pink Ribbon Compact and Brush Set. The compact is adorned with a pink rhinestone ribbon and contains Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer, with a retractable brush for flawless application. The Jeweled Pink Ribbon Pin is a simple way to show your support for Breast Cancer Awareness. For lips, Estee Lauder has developed three special shades of pink. Pure Color Crystal Gloss is available in Evelyn Pink, while Pure Color Crystal Lipstick comes in Elizabeth Pink, and High Gloss lip gloss is available in Pink Ribbon Pink. The purchase of any Estee Lauder Pink Ribbon Collection product will help Estee Lauder in North America donate $500,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. But the Pink Ribbon Collection 2007 is almost completely sold out online, so check your local department store (soon!) if you want to get these items.



If you're unable to obtain these special Estee Lauder pink lip colors, there is another way to spread pink kisses in October. Hershey's Kisses offers special chocolate kisses in pink foil for Breast Cancer Awareness. Hershey's Pledge is the chocolate manufacturer's way of donating $300,000 to breast cancer research. You can go online to donate to the cause.



Fight unruly brows while fighting breast cancer. Tweezerman, the tweezer of choice among makeup artists and beauty pundits, has created a special pink petite tweezer case in support of breast cancer awareness. A pink ribbon emblazons the leather case, which contains smaller sizes of the Tweezerman trademarked Slant (TM) and Point (TM) tweezers. It's available for $25 at drugstore.com.



And for information on breast cancer, visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation. For instructions on performing breast self examinations, visit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website. Their Promise Shop sells a wide range of breast cancer awareness merchandise, including Keep the Promise Rings and pink Cure (TM) The Bear Beanie Babies, and you can order a free BSE (Breast Self Examination) shower card, for quick and easy referral when performing a breast self examination.

Please, I urge everyone to be diligent about doing monthly breast self examinations and getting yearly mammograms. Share this information with your mothers, daughters, sisters, and girlfriends. Early detection is the key to beating breast cancer.

Bag Hag

Dancing in clubs. Shopping at Barney's. Lunching in trendy eateries. We go everywhere together. Of course, I'm talking about my makeup bag. We're inseparable.

Makeup and travel bags from Stephanie Johnson will enable you to tote your most essential beauty items in style. I just purchased my first of what will likely be many. The Stephanie Johnson line features twenty-seven different shapes of bags, from small cosmetic cases, to travel bags, to satchels, to tote bags, in over eighteen different patterns of fabric to choose from. Many can double as stylish handbags. And the website's Vintage section offers visitors a second chance to obtain older, discontinued styles.

Most bags range in price from $20 for a small clamshell-shaped coin purse to $79 for a large trifold hanging travel bag. And the company's Steph & Co. line offers a more affordable alternative, featuring the same great shapes as the Stephanie Johnson line, done in fun graphic vinyl prints like the safari-inspired Kenya Brown (above) and the cherry-blossom-chic of Georgetown (below). And like all Stephanie Johnson bags, the Steph & Co. line also features Stephanie Johnson's signature stylish zipper pulls, like a piece of faux bamboo for the Kenya Brown bags. Steph & Co. prices range from $18-$36 dollars.



With twenty-seven shapes and eighteen different patterns, you're sure to find a bag that's most compatible with you. Of course, it can't tell you if that skirt makes your butt look big, or hold your hand while you sob into your Cranberry Cosmopolitan because that guy you met last night didn't call. But isn't that what our gay male best friends are for?

Three Steps to Fabulous Lips

Today is the first day of fall, which means cooler weather is on its way. Personally, fall is my favorite season, but with the colder weather, I find my lips get drier and more chapped. But this fall, I'm ready to do battle with three (relatively) new products at my disposal. By following this three-step lip care routine, your lips will be smooth, soft, and full.

Step One: Exfoliate

The Lip Scrub by Sara Happ ($20) is an exfoliator that smooths and softens lips. Sugar gently buffs away dead skin, while petrolatum softens lips. You apply a small amount to lips, gently rub in a circular motion, and then tissue off. If a little of the scrub remains behind, I splash my lips with a little water and then wipe them off. My lips feel soft and smooth after using it. The Lip Scrub comes in six delicious flavors: Cocoa, Cinnamon Sugar, Brown Sugar, Vanilla Bean, Almond Creme, and Peppermint. My faves are Cocoa, Brown Sugar, and Cinnamon Sugar.

Step Two: Hydrate



Black Currant Lip Balm by Talulah Natural Skincare ($13) is a completely all-natural lip balm with pure shea butter and African chamomile to moisturize and soothe lips. It penetrates instantly to soften lips without feeling greasy or slick like so many tube lip balms do. And its light, clean taste isn't artificial. It's the perfect canvas to apply lip color (see step three).

Step Three: Plump



Buxom Big and Healthy Lip Polishes by Bare Escentuals ($18) is a collection of lip-plumping glosses that add fullness, color, and shine to lips. It comes in six colors, all named after, um, strippers. Dolly is a sultry mauve luster, Bambi is a blushed pink luster, Candi is a juicy strawberry luster, and Amber is a soft peach luster. Bare Escentuals recently added two new shades for fall: Ginger is a cognac shimmer, and Brandi is a candied plum luster. Buxom lip polishes look deeper in the tube, but on the lips, they add shine and color without looking garish or unnatural. And the cheeky packaging (no pun intended) is irresistible.

I use this liptastic trio every morning to ensure that my pucker is ship-shape, or should I say lip-shape (sorry!). If I feel my lips need even more help now that the weather is getting cooler, I repeat steps one and two at night before bed. Why not tweak your beauty regimen for fall and take extra care of your lips.

Down with Hollywood Hair!

I've always been a fan of Dove products. Seeing that white beauty bar featuring one-quarter moisturizing cream takes me back to my childhood, when my mother used it. Dove's beauty bar is the only drugstore-brand bar cleanser that my skin can tolerate. But Dove has come a long way (baby) since I was a child (and I'm not telling you how long ago that was). Their line has expanded to include facial cleansers, moisturizers, deodorants, body care products, and haircare products. In addition to the beauty bar, I also use their facial moisturizers, deodorants, and liquid hand soap. But I had never tried their hair care products, so when Dove sent me samples of their new shampoo and conditioner to review, I was more than happy to try them.

Dove has reformulated their haircare line to cleanse your hair without stripping it of its much-needed natural oils. They recently introduced Dove Cool Moisture (TM) shampoo and conditioner with a touch of cucumber and green tea fragrance. They feature Dove's Weightless Moisturizers (R), which the company describes as "a unique combination of low-molecular weight ingredients" to help condition hair.

I'm just as impressed with Dove's haircare products as I am with their skincare and body products. The shampoo and conditioner are rich and creamy, and left my hair just as clean, soft, and healthy-looking as more expensive haircare products I've tried. And I love how effective yet affordable Dove products are. Dove Cool Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner each retails for about $4.00, and can be found in drugstores nationwide. I'm so finished with being talked into buying expensive shampoos and conditioners from my salon every time I get my hair done. I'm sticking with Dove.

As much as I love Dove's products, what I love most about them is the risk they take in departing from the usual beauty industry advertising standards. Dove's innovative Campaign for Real Beauty (you've all seen the commercials) celebrates women of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and ages, and encourages women to reject the unachievable standards of beauty that most of the beauty industry perpetuates and instead embrace their natural beauty.

Right now you can go to doveloveyourhair.com to check out their video exposing the "secrets" behind the seemingly effortless Hollywood Hair, as well as one Hollywood star's backlash against Hollywood Hair. "Heroes" star Ali Larter took up the gauntlet and challenged Hollywood Hair by going real on the Red Carpet, using nothing but Dove haircare products, and styling her own hair, for the Emmy Awards. And while you're there, enter Dove's Love Your Hair Ad Contest. Create your own Dove hair care ad and enter for a chance to win a trip to New York City and be featured in a Dove commercial. When it comes to haircare, if Ali Larter can keep it real, we all can.

In Memoriam

Dame Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop and champion of social causes, died suddenly this past Monday of a brain hemmorage. She was 64 years old.

Roddick opened the first Body Shop in Brighton in 1976 as a small, independent beauty shop devoted to making and selling natural skincare products. No one then could have imagined that her small shop would one day turn into almost 2000 worldwide. Under Ms. Roddick's leadership, The Body Shop earned a reputation for promoting ethical commerce and social practices. They pioneered the practice of fair trade, in which ingredients were sourced from indiginous communities (often poor) worldwide, thus earning the communities a source of income without taking advantage of the people or their resources. They were among the first to campaign against animal testing and the use of animal products in their cosmetics. The Body Shop also promoted many social causes, like Greenpeace, and Children on the Edge (which helped Romanian orphans), as well as causes to increase awareness about domestic violence, AIDS, and Hepatitis C, which Roddick had revealed this past February she had been carrying since 1971 when she had a blood transfusion during the birth of her daughter, although she didn't learn she had the disease until 2004. Most notably, The Body Shop was among the earliest opponents of animal testing in the cosmetics industry, thereby raising awareness among consumers about the practice.

In 2003, Queen Elizabeth II made Roddick a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which entitled her to be called Dame Anita. When she sold The Body Shop to French cosmetics giant L'Oreal last year, critics accused her of selling out. In her view, however, she did it to teach the major cosmetics manufacturer about fair trade and more ethical practices. And although L'Oreal owned The Body Shop, the Body Shop continued to be run independently of L'Oreal.

Ms. Roddick's legacy is not merely the many Body Shops worldwide that continue to bring the over 300 fair-trade-sourced products to consumers. It is also her committment to social causes, a committment that The Body Shop will hopefully carry on in her name.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

The Make-up Scoop from the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards

MTV’s 2007 Video Music Awards had an abundance of fresh, glowing complexions paired with natural eye shadow shades that brought out the beautiful tones of apricot and nude lips many celebs were sporting this year.

Celebrity make-up artist Matin, who created Hayden Panettiere's flawless face at this year’s VMAs, gave Hayden a soft, natural make-up look that showed off her radiant skin and fantastic smile. Hayden’s natural look can be achieved with just a few key make-up items! To get Hayden Panettiere’s fresh look, try the following Neutrogena products:

v Healthy Skin Glow Sheers in Fair to Light
v Mineral Sheers Blush in Illuminator
v Mineral Sheers for Eyes in Clay
v Full Volume Mascara in Rich Black
v Lip Sheers in Pink Splash
v MoistureShine Lip Soother in Shimmer
v Shine-Control Blotting Sheets


About Matin:
Matin has worked with the who’s who of the entertainment industry and has been featured in magazines such as Allure, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Vogue. His personal client list includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler, Rachel Weisz, Sheryl Crow