The Best of The Emmy's 2010: My Favorite Hair Styles and How to Get Them

I have to admit that I was largely uninspired by this year's Emmy Awards. More ugly dresses than usual (from Anna Paquin, January Jones, Heidi Klum and what on earth happened to Mindy Kaling on her way to the Red Carpet??) and definitely not as many of the great looks as usual. (My faves were Keri Russell, Lea Michelle, Kyra Sedgewick and Julie Benz).

For me, the real standouts on The Red Carpet weren't dresses, accessories or even the makeup looks. It was all about hair for me! I definitely had my favorite hair styles, and lucky for me, the people over at Rusk sent an email with the looks I was loving. Read on to see which were my favorite and how to create them yourself!

The Perfect Shower Fogless Mirror

Yes, I know there is a man shaving in the mirror pictured above. But, you know what? While this might be a product that your husband will love, it's also great for women. Plus, it's definitely the best shower mirror I've ever seen.

First, let's start with the obvious. Yes, I tried it out in the shower, and it really does not fog up. The secret is that there is a hidden water compartment behind the mirror. Fill it up, and it helps equilibrate the mirror's temperature- no more fog!

Second cool thing- The way it attaches to the wall. I have to be honest- we weren't sure we wanted a mirror in our shower, so I didn't attach it to the tile at my house, I just put it in my shower to test it out. But the mirror does come with a great frame. This frame uses a special silicone to attach to pretty much any surface securely, and the company promises that it is easy to remove if you wish. The mirror easily detaches from the frame (to ease filling and emptying that water reservoir), and it tilts up and down. The frame even features a little shelf (perfect for a razor).

Finally, I love the size of the mirror! Most shower mirrors are tiny 5 inch round things that don't let you see anything. At 6x8 inches this mirror is definitely a good size.

Toilet Tree Fogless Mirror

Lisa Hoffman: Her Fragrance Oils and a Contest!

I've written about Lisa Hoffman before, and I am especially a huge fan of her Spa Facial Kit.

I've been secretly using her Japanese Agarwood Fragrance Oil Set and have to admit to loving it. Seriously, really, really loving it. It comes in a little leather wallet, with 4 different oil vials. The idea is that each vial corresponds to a different time of day, and you can roll on the oils throughout the day. They all complement each other very well (they have the same notes, but do smell slightly different), and as the day progresses your fragrance will help set the mood. I really love the set, the oils do last most of the day (even without reuse), and I have been really impressed with the complexity of the notes. I especially love to use a little of the oil on my palms and then run my hands through my hair (just a little!). This way I smell the scent whenever I move my head!

While I have the Japanese Agarwood set, sometimes I do wish I had the Madagascar Orchid set instead. This scent is a bit lighter with more white floral scents.

Lisa will be appearing on QVC on August 27th at 9am EST to feature her fragrance oils, especially the Madagascar Orchid. It will be in a 2 vial set (a cheaper option than the full 4 vial set) and 20% of sales go to the Rainforest Foundation!


To help celebrate the appearance, Lisa Hoffman Skincare has offered to sponsor an amazing contest on 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic!

The winner will get:
Spa Bath Soak $37
Spa Body Wash $27.50
Spa Body Polisher $34.95
Spa Body Crème $39.95
Spa Bath Hand & Foot Butter $35.50
Spa Bath Packette $9.95
Madagascar Orchid Fragrance Oil $95

The contest is open to those in the United States. Good luck!



Tune in to QVC August 27th at 9am EST to buy Lisa Hoffman’s Madagascar Orchid Day and Evening Fragrance Oils
Lisa Hoffman Skincare

Prizes will be supplied by Lisa Hoffman

A Blast from the Past: Borghese Fango Active Mask

One of my favorite activities in high school was roaming the beauty section (ok, 2 aisles) at my local Meijer. If you're not from the midwest, Meijer is basically similar to a Super Walmart, but with better grocery. So, you could buy bulk gummy bears, get new tires for your car (really), a goldfish or you could obsess over the 10 different types of Noxema, which is what I usually did.

One day, I struck gold. Stuck on the top shelf of an end cap (super high up, where I could see it because I'm pretty tall, but I know the other trolling high school girls were too short to see it), hidden somewhat behind a tacky display of Designer Imposters, was a little bag of Borghese travel products. How this ended up at Meijer, I do not know. At the time, I could only find Borghese at my local Hudson's Department Store (truly dating myself here, they later merged with a few other department stores and are now part of Macy's.)

Anyways, I knew of the fabled Borghese Fango mask, I visited it at Hudson's and lusted after it, but alas, I could not afford it with my baby sitting and fudge maker budget. (True story, in high school I spent summers making fudge. I was the girl with the big marble slab. I could make good swirls and dip pretzels into chocolate with the best of them.) So, I found this little travel pack. I forget what else was in it, but it had a little tube of Fango. This beauty find made my month! I was so excited! For the bargain price of about $15, I could try Fango.

This little tube was treated with great reverence. I used a small amount of it on my t-zone, and only before special events. Dances qualified, and usually opening night of a play (I was in a lot of plays in high school, it was my way of torturing myself out of my shyness. It somewhat worked, though I'm still very shy in big groups to this day). My tube of Fango was my pride and joy. I used the last bit of it right before I left for college.

Links to Check Out

So, during my week long absence recently (did you notice that? I was pretty much stuck in the hospital most of the weekend and then my pregnant self was too tired to do much except nap for a day or two afterwards while I recovered), I accumulated a ton of great things for you guys to check out. Posts to read... Contests to enter... And of course, shopping newsletters to sign up for!


First, I have to share my new favorite shopping resource! Shopafrolic is a great new site by Liz Lange (yes, she of the amazing maternity clothes) and her sister Jane Wagman (an equally shopping obsessed graphic designer). On their site they feature their latest and greatest finds in fashion, accessories and beauty products. They have amazing guest editors like Tory Burch and Lucy Sykes. You can even mail in your fashion questions to be answered!

I signed up for their daily email, and I have to say it must be evil. Everyday there's at least one item featured (and it's usually more) that becomes a bit of an obsession. Like the Design Your Own Jewelry at Kendra Scott, a tote from Barneys or a Tweed Weave Jacket at Talbots. Yes, Talbots. Everyday I want to spend a lot of money because of these two. You definitely need to check it out!

Reviva Labs EFAs Cream: Saving my Skin, One Irritation at a Time

Have you noticed that essential fatty acids seem to be popping up in skin care items lately?

What exactly is an essential fatty acid (EFA)? Basically, the human body does not have the necessary enzymes to string things together and create them on our own, but since our body needs them we are forced to ingest them. There are only 2 essential fatty acids, alpha-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fatty acid) and linoleic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid). They're found in fish, different nuts and other dietary sources.

White Sands' Porosity The Fix: Makeup for Hair that Protects and Creates Shine

Recently I shared a product that helped to protect your hair from the heat damage brought on by styling. This was very recently. I like that product. This product also does that, but I like this product more. Why? It's more versatile (works on both wet and dry hair), makes my hair softer and I love the scent.

A Poppy Update...

So, somehow, I'm not sure how this happened, this morning I was the #15 site in all of this Coach poppy madness! Some 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic readers have won, I have a cute poppy design on my blog... and now I have visions of the Coach shopping spree running through my head. Is this likely to happen? Um... no, not really. I'm up against mommy blogs and fashion blogs (which get a LOT more traffic than me).

How can you help out?
• Tweet about the poppies, using the hashtags #CoachPoppy and #15minbeauty If you click on a black poppy it will help you tweet this automatically.
• Use the poppies to head to other participating sites.
• Hit the "like" button to like the poppies over on Facebook
• Keep an eye on the pattern, if you spot a Coach Poppy bag, click it! You've won a $100 Gift Card!

So, please keep making my poppies grow. I promise if I win there will be a great Coach contest in it for you, my readers! And I will buy the avocado (which has now progressed to an onion this week!) a really cool Coach diaper bag. That isn't black. It will be fun and colorful!

The Kardashian Secret to Great Hair? Elnett!

Recently I was sent these pics of Kourtney Kardashian seriously stocking up on something in her local Walgreen's. Can you see what is inside that little basket?

(Don't worry about her amazing hair, it's pulled back into a pony tail and then braided. In the other pics of this Walgreen's run it is quite cute and obviously there, she has not pulled a Britney on us. Though Scott would drive me bananas with his crazy shirts and attitude, so I might consider something drastic if he was my baby daddy. Though, if Mama Kris says he's growing up, I'm feeling a bit better for Kourt. Kris is pretty hard on Scott (like all good moms should be), so obviously he must be behaving himself in the last few months.)

I digress. That's a lot of discussion about a show I don't really watch. I've seen about 5 episodes. I would watch way more if there was no Scott, if only to check out the Dash sisters hair and makeup changes. I do think the Kardashian sisters have style and amazing hair. I love it.

Move on to see what's in the basket.

Save Your Hair the Stress of Styling: Yuko's Repair Through

I put my hair through quite a bit each day. Inevitably, I will dry my hair (with high heat, everywhere, even the ends), frequently I'll use my flat iron (set at 410 degrees, yes I'm a bad girl because I'm impatient), and if I'm not using the iron I'm most likely using a curling iron or even hot rollers (don't judge, I love them!). So, that's a lot of heat for my colored hair to take. The result is damage, and you can tell about every 3 months when my hair suddenly devolves into a mass of split ends.

To help my combat this, the folks at Yuko (who some how knew about my over use of the flat iron) sent me a bottle of their Repair Through leave in conditioner. It contains something called Aqua-Gold, it does something with delivery of nutrients to the hair. The formula also contains amino acids and silicone (good for smoothing). You can apply it to your hair when wet or dry, and it will help to repair damage, prevent split ends, add shine and protect your hair from all of that heat.

About 2 days after the company sent me this, my hair underwent one of my spontaneous splittings (not the fault of the Repair Through, it had not yet touched my hair), so I had to wait a week or so before I started using it so I could cut off all of the offending areas. So, I started using this the day after my hair cut about 2 weeks ago, on freshly trimmed hair.

I find my results are best when I apply it to wet hair. I simply spray throughout, then gently comb through with a wide tooth comb and style as usual. When applied to dry hair (which it says you can do), I found it tended to not spread well and my hair in those areas seemed.... not quite right. It wasn't exactly greasy, but it wouldn't move naturally. So, apply to wet hair. The spray has a light natural smell, and you can't smell it at all once hair is dry.

The product is so weightless it might as well be water. I can't tell at all that it is in my hair. It does make my hair a bit softer though I'm not sure if there is any extra shine. I have no split ends right now, though it is too early to tell if this will banish them.

A leave in conditioner that doesn't weigh down my hair? I'm sold.

Yuko Repair Through

Win It! Conair's Infiniti Pro Hair Dryer

Now that you've heard all about Conair's Infiniti Pro Hair Dryer you can enter to win one of your own!

Contest is open to those in the US only. Good luck!




Prize will be provided by Conair

The Race Wasn't Even Close: Conair's Newest Infiniti Pro Blow Dryer

I've been timing myself during my morning routine quite a bit over the last week or so. Why? This new blow dryer is why.

This orange thing you see before you is Conair's latest Infiniti Pro dryer. I'm sure you are thinking to yourself, "Self, do I care about yet another Conair blow dryer? Don't they just change the color or the controls every few months? Do I care that it is orange now?"

So, the reason that I'm writing about this isn't because the Infiniti Pro is now Orange. I was pretty happy with my previous grey model.

Weekend Weblinks

Tarte's Friends and Family sale ends on Monday! You'll get 40% off sitewide and a free gift with purchase until 11:59 pm EST. Use the code FFAUG

Essence magazine had a great feature on Double Duty Beauty Products this week that you should check out! There were a few listed I hadn't seen yet, they've been added to my "check this out" list!

Cameron Diaz's Color: How to Get It

I was at the store the other day, and a cover caught my eye on the magazine rack. It was Cameron Diaz on the August Harper's Bazaar, and I have to say she looks pretty great. She looks happy and relaxed, and as always I was coveting the hair. It might be just me, but I do think she's a little less honey blonde here, a tad bit lighter. I think it suits her (as does embracing the pale just a bit more).

The new color was created by Tracey Cunningham, Redken Creative Consultant for Color. She's offered up the secret details of how she obtained that great new shade:

• Apply equal parts of Shades EQ 09AA Papaya, 09G Vanilla Crème and ShadesEQ Processing Solution. For added dimension, add highlights with Redken Blonde Icing Ammonia Free Conditioning Crème Lightener. Concentrate the Highlights closer around the face and diminishing in the back. Finish with a glaze of Shades EQ 000 Crystal Clear for extra shine.
• Shades EQ is a demi-permanent color which provides healthy, shiny results, incredible conditioning with an amazing number of mixing possibilities. Shades EQ is used as a glaze, color refresher, and ideal for color correction. Ingredients include acidic pH; no lift, non-ammonia formula; long-lasting colorants; wheat amino acids, and silicone.
• Blonde Icing Conditioning Crème Lightener is ammonia free and lifts hair up to 7 levels while exclusive Lumisilk Technology smoothes and preserves hair’s structure to keep it healthy, shiny and strong.

Obviously, going this light is not something you should attempt at home. I'd head to my salon with these directions.

Redken

What's up with the Poppies?

See those little poppies off to the left? They started popping up all over today in my normal web crawling, and they were so pretty I just had to have some of my own! It's part of their new Poppy collection promotion.

The design is meant to be interactive, and the more you use the design, the more my design will grow!

• Tweet about the poppies, using the hashtags #CoachPoppy and #15minbeauty
If you use different marks like #purple or #star you'll add elements to my pattern.
• Use the poppies to head to other participating sites.
• Hit the "like" button to like the poppies over on Facebook
• Keep an eye on the pattern, if you spot a Coach Poppy bag, click it! You've won a bag! $100 Gift Card! (Congrats to Karen who won and corrected me!)

Nitika Chopra's Morning Routine

Nitika Chopra is one of those amazing people that love life and are just full of creativity. Yes, she is a Certified Professional Life Coach. (I'm not certain still what those do.) She works in a lot of different avenues, from hosting her own television show for a South Asian channel (with that hair she is perfect for television) to commercials and independent films, Nitika is everywhere. In particular, I love her website, Your Bella Life, which has tips on all sorts of topics ranging from cooking to travel and of course, beauty. Just thinking about how much she does makes me tired!

Lucky for us, she's agreed to share some of her morning routine wisdom with us! I hope you enjoy her contribution.


Living in a world where time is money and we often feel like we don’t have enough of either, there are a few things you can do in the morning to allow yourself to be centered and go through your day with ease. See what simple actions I take every morning in order to ensure everyday is my best day!

Still Alive...

I've been a tad quiet on the blogging front for a few reasons. One is I've been working a lot more the last 10 days or so (somehow my working days in July were all bunched at the end with some August bunched at the start). And, when I'm not working, the Avocado has decided that I will sleep. And since I can't seem to help it, I do just what Avocado says. For many hours. Even if I had planned to blog instead. (Yes, the Avocado is demanding, but it's my Avocado, and I love it!)

I'm planning some beauty and Avocado related posts, I have a great guest post from Nitika Chopra over at Your Bella Life, which is highly unusual since I don't usually allow guest posts, and I even have a ton of great hair products (and contests) to share with you! So, I'll be around, just.... It's nap time!