More Products No One Needs

Why oh why can't we learn to accept ourselves flaws and all? Could it be because companies like FlabuLess create products to make us even more insecure than we thought possible?

If neo-girdle manufacturers s like Spanx haven't properly constricted your right to let it all hang out and made you thoroughly insecure about every bump and jiggle, and if celebrities with shell-shocked Botox frozen faces haven't made you despise each and every laugh line, FlabuLess will cause you to lose your last shred of peace of mind. We can't believe it's true, but someone has invented an upper arm girdle. We suggest you shake what your momma gave you and avoid future products that scrape, nip or tuck away your right to flab- because we love you either way.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

VOTE

Because you can.
Because you should.
Because whether or not you're passionate one way or another it's the right thing to do.
(unless it's the left thing to do).
Vote for freedom.
Vote for choice - (whatever choice you make that is!)
Vote and be counted.
Vote because if you don't, you'll have no one to blame to for the next four years but yourself.
Then scoot on over to Ben and Jerry's or Starbucks for free yumminess as a reward for doing your civic duty.

Scoot.
Go.
Get off the computer now and
VOTE!

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Norma + Jeans (make a Marilyn out of me)

Hell froze over. Or close enough: I am actually going to step into a WalMart this week. Who knew that the place to stock up on TP, garden gloves and sensible briefs would attract a fashion following with a nothing-over-$20 line from Norma Kamali? It's like Joe the Plumber showing up in a Vanity Fair Young Hollywood issue.

Here's what's on offer: sassy, stretchy jersey separates in red, black, and leopard print. Cute patent satchels, clutches, and belts.  Iffy-looking "crop-length jog pants" and tunic sweatshirts. Organic cotton graphic tees (yay for the OC, boo for the uninspired graphics). In other words, it's a mixed bag, but one that also contains a pantsuit with jacket for under $40. 

With just a few days to go before election day, I'm voting for the jersey wrap dress and shirtdress -- easy on, easy off, and (next to diamonds, natch) a bouncy wrap dress is a girl's best friend. Just keep away from the subway grates....

To Zirh With Love

Oh there's nothing sexier than a guy fresh from the shower. Zirh's new Warrior collection of shower gels was inspired by strong sexy rulers from centuries past like Alexander the Great one of our favorite ancient Greek kings. (okay, the only ancient Greek king we actually know anything about.) Your guy can learn some world history by reading the bottle. As far as the fragrances go, we've been swooning for Charlemagne - the scent not the ruler of the Franks. This fresh, icy scent conjures up memories of our own ancient past. $22.50 at Zirh.com

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Flutter, flutter...

Hi, I'm Melissa, and I'm a mascara junkie. ("Hi, Melissa!")

Seriously. I've worked my way through department store beauty counters -- I stock up during the free gift with purchase weeks, because I'm also a sucker for makeup freebies. And since mascara is my product without which I refuse to step outside, it makes sense to keep a stash in my bathroom cabinet. And purse. And travel bag. You get the idea. (Hey -- I can stop any time I want, you know.)

So you can imagine the be-still-my-beating-heart moment that happened when I saw this fine, fine promotion. Ten mascaras for $35! It's the best of Sephora, too -- minis of Smashbox, Tarte, Two-Faced, Urban Decay, Cargo, and more. A great way to sample stuff you've never tried. 

And don't blame me if you get hooked.

Glad Hands

A lot of people are going to be shaking a lot of hands over the next few months.

Between job interviews or holiday parties, your mitts are going to go through quite a workout. Prescriptives Intensive Rebuilding Hand Treatment lasts through multiple hand washings and works to combat crepiness, age spots and discolorations. $38.00 at Macys.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

New York [Car Crash] Couture

While we may have perfected the art of snark amongst our nearest and dearest, we generally try to remain kind in all things editorial.

If something makes us break out or barf, we'll generally avoid mentioning it. That said, so mesmerized were we by the cringe-osity of New York Couture, that we couldn't help but comment.

Picture the tackiest of American Apparel crossed with the parts of the '80s that we'd most like to forget. Sprinkle in a liberal dose of tranny hooker chic, with a whiff of Carrie Bradshaw at her Patricia Fields worst and you're scratching the surface of this genuinely awful 'fashion' line.

We weren't exactly surprised to find out that Designer Cassie K. was a self-proclaimed "freak in high-school," or that she has no formal fashion training. It isn't that we don't get her scary need to seem shocking or even interesting, we just can't help but wonder how much money was invested in bringing this line to life (to laugh?). Styling, makeup and hair don't help much either.

Call us old fashioned, but we prefer fashion that flatters or at the very least makes a statement in a good or shocking way, not one that looks most appropriate on Halloween.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Rise and shine (or at least pretend)

Confession: I just joined a fitness bootcamp. With 20 lbs to lose after having my second baby, and the holidays looming ahead, it seemed necessary. The exercise is hard enough, but since my darling, sweet baby still is not sleeping through the night after 8 months, getting up at 5 is torture. Frankly, my beauty routine is less about looking fabulous and more about not looking like an extra in Dawn of the Dead.

I rely on Face Stockholm's Magic Wand to banish my under-eye circles. But check out what could be my new secret weapon: Laura Mercier's Eye Basics. They're sheer primers with a little color to brighten up your eyes. You can use as is or intensify the color with shadow. I'm all excited about Eyebright (shown), a pale blue shade that melts into your skin and makes your eyes brighter by comparison. 

I may be doing pushups, but I'll be pretty doin' it!

Scarier than the economy

Pulling your hair out wondering what's next for your 401k?
Stop and step away from the stock ticker now. Your stocks may be going down faster than your high school best friend, but given enough time it'll all bounce back up again.

To distract ourselves during all of the madness we choose not to focus on the frighteningly awful guitar playing of our inconsiderate new neighbor, but instead to jump in fright at 31 of Moviefone's Scariest Movie Moments ever (and no, the collective facial surgery of the cast of The Women does not count in this fright fest). We're also incredibly relieved not to be the only people who've seen Jacob's Ladder starring a young and dishy Tim Robbins.

So scream a little and laugh a lot, because for now- that's all we've got!

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Give Us Strength

We're resisting another post about the state of our stocks (and stockings) and will instead focus on the bold, the beautiful, the muy coolio new product from B Kamins. The new Bio Maple Eyelash Fortifier is best used overnight and made for fragile thinning lashes, but can be used on overplucked brows as well.

This powerful (and pricy at $90 bucks a pop) eyelash conditioner makes it easy to flatter your flutter and contains a revitalizing complex said to combat lash loss caused by follicle aging. Loaded with peptide (the hot new buzzword in beauty) growth substances, natural plant extracts and multi-vitamins to help boost micro-circulation at the hair follicles, it's said to increase lash growth in 5-8 weeks. So much better than an eyelash perm.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Beauty and the economic beast

Scared of losing your job? Evidently not enough to back away from that department-store makeup and pricey skin treatments. According to this article in Brandweek, women are economizing elsewhere:

Sales of prestige skincare brands at high-end department stores rose 2% to $1 billion in the first half, according to NPD Group. Products costing more than $70 were up 8%; those above $150 gained 21%. Similar increases were seen in fragrances and makeup.

The article goes on to mention that the product development lifecycle of most makeup and skincare lines is about 2 years, so there's always a disconnect between the manufacturer's launch calendar and current economic conditions. (In other words, don't kill the messenger.)

The Lipstick Effect has been around since there was lipstick to buy -- something pretty for your mouth is relatively cheap compared to, say, a massage or spa treatment. But what I found interesting in this article was that people are still buying stuff that I'd put in the very expensive category (over $200), with an almost 20% increase in spending over just last year. And that a $600 Botox injection is seen as an economizing move compared to getting plastic surgery!

I'm sure there's a moral here somewhere -- but I'm guilty as charged (at least on lipstick purchases), so I'll just sit quiet here in my glass house....

Wear and Wash

Now, you know that somewhere Martha Stewart has a little black notebook (bound in the finest leather, with hand-stitched pages tinted a lovely pale eggshell using onion skins harvested from her garden) titled "Signs of the Coming Apocalypse."

So when I ran across this article on a suit you can wear in the shower, I knew I needed to write about it, just so the facts of the matter can be enumerated (suggested heading: "These Degenerate Times"). Here are the down-and-dirty deets: The suit is made to be hosed down in your shower and allowed to drip dry. This takes a few hours, but presto! No ironing needed if you hang it properly. (This will cut severely into the profits of Martha's mangle business, I'm thinking.)

A spokesman called the suit "the ideal solution for busy career men and women who want the convenience of easy-care clothes without the cost and hassle of regular dry cleaning." Evidently the suit is a salaryman's dream: there are almost a quarter-million of the suits in Japan!

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Someday, Subway

The New York City Subway system is famous for getting you where you need to go, but as far as looking great while doing it, not so much. The stations are looking a bit peaked these days with scary moldy looking things and scary rusty looking things and multitudes of scary advertising looking things, but wait- what about the gorgeous subway art? No silly, not the illegal and awful looking graftiti tags of years gone by, but the spectacular posters and public art in the subway cars and stations.

We're jonesing for one of Tim Zeltner's Coney Island prints.

Fancy yourself one of the artsy underground? Then heed this call and apply to become one of the artists displaying their work for the bridging the tunnels crowd. View a current list of subway art here.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Sui Degeneres -- Ellen's the newest Cover Girl

Read all about it! Ellen Degeneres is the new face of Cover Girl. Three reasons why this rocks:

1. Ellen is beautiful. She's also gay, really funny, and a newlywed, but check out that pic. She's gorgeous.
2. Ellen is... FIFTY years old. (That's L in Roman numerals. She actually embodies the L-word! Awesome.)
3. Her contract (a million or more, we hope) means that we'll be buying makeup from a woman we will always be laughing with, not at. (Paris, Linds and company? Take the hint.)

Here's hoping more cosmetics companies line up behind real women with real faces -- and let's toast to more campaigns celebrating an "ordinary" beauty that's so much more captivating than the manufactured, preternaturally-smooth headshots of spreads past.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Seeing red at the polls?

With 2 months to go before the polls open in November, you've got plenty of time to consider the issues, debate with your family, and cast your vote (historic no matter who wins). But there's one issue the pols keep dancing around -- Liptroversy '08.

Yes, it's all fine and dandy to debate the merits of lipstick on a pig or a pitbull. The real question is: what lipstick goes best with red? or blue? And do green-party voters wear lipstick? (Oh, I kid.) It's a cruel world in which our political leanings are defined so sharply, so imagine our relief to find Stila's Rock the Vote Red lipstick, a gorgeous clear red sure to glam up the most strident of party t-shirts, buttons, or flag-waving gear. (An added bonus: a portion of proceeds goes to Rock the Vote.)

Making the world a better place

There isn't much we can write today that won't seem trite, but we're sure going to try. Much like the last post discussed tattoos which leave indelible marks on our skin, 9/11/01 left indelible marks on our souls and psyches. While we can't change the past - we can change the future.

If the memory of what happened 7 years ago hasn't quite inspired you to want to make the world a better place, perhaps the story about Lori Hall Steele will move you in different ways. Lori is a prolific freelance writer and single mom who is battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). While her spirit is vibrant, the disease has eroded her ability to move or work to support her young son. Lori is unable to work and crushing medical debts have left her unable to meet the mortgage payments on her home. Several writers groups nationally have taken up a call to arms to help Lori out. We're asking you to help too.

Give $1.00 or give $1,000.00 but give to help a stranger and know that you're increasing the good in the world on a day that is a sad reminder of just how much evil still exists.

Read more about Lori here: www.savelorishouse.com

Kiss someone you love today.

Tattoo You

I'm not a fan of body art. I'm no prude, it's just that I can barely decide on which socks to wear each day and can't imagine wearing the same socks every day for the rest of my life. When my boyfriend recently came home with a giant outline of something very blue on a part of his body that few people see, I turned green. When his blue outline started turning red and angry looking - I got very, very white, and very very nervous. An inky friend suggested trying Tatoo Goo which is a really clever product that keeps your tat from going flat. I'm still not loving my man's homage to his hometown, but at least I'm not worried that it will get infected.

And if you want street cred even if your skin is as pristine as the day you were born, try carrying a tin around in your purse and looking extremely mysterious when anyone asks what it's for. Tattoo Goo is $5.69 at Drugstore.com


Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Meg Ryan's new old look

Is it just me, or does Meg Ryan look ....fabulous?

I've always loved Meg's looks -- eternally perky, yes, but wonderfully real, from "Top Gun" to a slew of late-nineties flicks like "You've Got Mail." And then she had a period of bad "enhancements," including maximal trout pout, that kept her out of films for the last few years. But check out the AP photo at right -- I do believe she's herself again.

Full confession: I have to say that in my heart of hearts I the original 1939 film, with Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, and Norma Shearer -- whose "Mary Haines" role is taken this go-round by Meg Ryan. But the new Meg -- back to her better self -- just may pull me into the theater to see the remake.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Maybe Baby

So we've been on summer hiatus working on all manner of exciting things. We didn't mean to neglect you and we really missed you too.

So here's something we could happily have done without this past month - the endless brouhaha over the presidential candidates. Though it's just about six weeks away, we don't know how we're going to deal with another month and a half of pleas for donations, mass speculation, overblown adulation, promises of ultimate salvation, campaign promise mutation and overnight sensation - we really need another vacation.

So Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Unlike Jamie Lynne, at least she's free of Britney as an older sister and role model and Lynne Spears as a mom.

Some distractions while you debate the debates and calculate the running mates:

Juno: While the dialogue is a bit too precious, it's infinitely better than the Daily Kos.
Gossip Girl: The new season is on, and at least these rumors don't actually hurt anyone.
Choose your favorite Palin child name: Join this Facebook group and cast your vote (we pick Piper Indy and we're not embarrassed to admit a wholly unsuitable crush on the First Dude, and of giggling uncontrollably when we first read the expression VPILF describing S.P.)
Accessorize the Obamas: Because Michelle's pins are making us a wee bit frightful of her fashion sense.
Election Ties: Hillary's out of the running but you can still invest in a Hillaryscope tie to show the world how much you still care.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)

Scrubs

Speaking of scrubs, we're a bit frightened of Freeze 24.7 Anti-Aging Prep and Polish for our faces, but have found that it works wonders on our decolletage (yes we slathered on the sunscreen- it just didn't seem to help!) and upper arms.

That said there are times when we prefer something more gentle. Beauty vixen Oona B. suggests refreshing summer skin by blending the juice of one lemon along with some lemon rind,
a tablespoon of brown sugar,
a pinch of salt
and one vitamin E capsule (pierce the capsule and squeeze out the contents).

Mix together in the palm of your hand and slather on damp skin. Rinse with lukewarm water for an instantly refreshed, flake and blackhead free face!

Freeze 24.7 scrub is $65.00 at Nordstrom. Oona's scrub can be found in your kitchen.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)