Archive for July, 2010

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Who: Aida and Selma at Salon AKS

What: Natural, glossy highlights and face-framing eyebrow tweezing

Where: Salon AKS 689 Fifth Avenue, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10022, (212) 888-0707

When: Monday-Saturday

Why: Ever since the highlight disaster of 2009, I’ve been wary of anyone touching a hair on my head.  I come into haircut appointments now armed with a swath of pictures, and I haven’t gotten professional color in a year.  Highlight roots were a reality and after hearing someone describe my hair color honestly as “spotty,” I knew that enough was enough: it was time to get over my fear and ditch the two-tone color situation. (more…)

Redefining the idea of books as art are Penguin Deluxe Classics: classic works of literature rebound in French flaps with re-imagined cover designs from artists such as Ruben Toledo, fashion illustrator and husband to a Michelle Obama favorite designer, Isabel Toledo.  The Toledos have been receiving a lot of buzz recently for their recent Target design collaboration of resortwear, which imparts their signature high-fashion gothic design elements.  Check out some more of his trademark design elements with his blend of fanciful, macabre and dreamy covers for some of my favorite books, including Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter and my personal favorite, Wuthering Heights.

The Ruben Toledo Wuthering Heights cover does a fantastic job of conveying the key elements of the story in a single look: the brooding, the tempestuous and impassioned Healthcliff/Cathy romance, and the setting against the dark and stormy English moors, which are a secondary character to the story in and of itself.  I’m also loving the other innovative cover design collaborations that Penguin is doing in honor of its 75th anniversary, such as Penguin Ink, which has some of the world’s best tattoo artists and illustrators creating new covers for classics by David Foster Wallace, Martin Amis, Helen Fielding, and Ian Fleming.

The Ruben Toledo versions are currently sold on Amazon, and reduced from its current list price of $16 to $10.88.  If you know of anyone that is a fan of the gothic-inspired look of Alice in Wonderland and other similar titles, this would make a great gift!

Hmm, are they jeans or leggings? I can’t decide. They’re too thick to be leggings and too thin to be jeans. All I know is that I’ve worn them almost every day for a week and I’m not going to stop anytime soon. From the founders of L.E.I., SOLD Design Lab‘s super-stretchy, pull-on skinny jeans (the “Spanx of jeans,” I’ve been told) are quite possibly the most comfortable piece of skin-tight denim I’ve ever worn. I tried a black pair of Spring Street Skinny Pull-on Jeans, a style recently seen on Cameron Diaz, and while she’s tall and leggy and I’m short and curvy, the jeans truly did conform to our body types. There’s no zipper, just a button; and pulling them on sometimes reminds me of those maternity jeans with the stretch belly on them. But who cares? They feel and look fantastic, and for $98, I can afford to get them in white too. I might even check them out in perforated leather and corduroy!

Great news for fans of the prestige skin care line, Elemis–two of its amazing body and facial spa treatments will be available at Bliss Spas starting in August! I love Elemis products (we’ve featured them several times on TDO) and am so excited that the spa treatments are going to be more accessible now–at all of Bliss’s US locations and internationally in its London and Hong Kong spas. Yay!

Bliss will feature Elemis’ Tri-Enzyme Resurfacing Facial and Exotic Lime and Ginger Salt Glow treatments. The Tri-Enzyme Facial has been clinically shown to resurface the skin by up to 75% after just one treatment by stimulating the natural exfoliation of the top layer of skin. It smooths your skin and reduces fine lines, as well. The Lime and Ginger Salt Glow features a light body brushing, warm oil application, exfoliation, and moisturizing–using great Elemis products, of course.

These Elemis treatments will be launching at Bliss Spas on August 1st. You can find a complete list of Bliss locations at blissworld.com.

Out of all the new fall palettes recently hitting the stores, the one I’d heard the most about online was Urban Decay’s Naked Palette.  I seriously couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and when I finally did, I saw exactly what all the hype was about.  It’s awesome, you guys.  Seriously, seriously awesome. (more…)

Frequent readers of The Daily Obsession know that we heart Shobha and have mentioned them on our site many times, but seriously, this time, I can’t stop raving about their Ingrown Hair Relief Lotion, which has magically erased ALL razor bumps and ingrown hairs.

Forget about the semi-painful solutions you’ve found on google, suggesting warm compresses etc.  Apply the Shobha lotion to dry, clean skin once (with a double dose for a more serious situation), and you will literally wake up the next morning with smooth skin.  I’ve been informed that the lotion performs miracles with its glycolic acid exfoliate, which removes the dead upper layers of skin, the main cause of razor bumps and ingrown hairs.  It also prevents hair follicle clogs that cause the inward redirection of hair growth.

Since it’s a glycolic acid exfoliate, there aren’t any exfoliation beads in the lotion.  The consistency is shaving-cream-like, with a gentle moisturizing and soothing component, with tea tree oil and glycerin, and a gentle soapy scent.  The scent isn’t especially feminine, so it’s not male-repellent, so completely shareable with dads, brothers, and boyfriends.  I plan to pass along one to my younger brother, who recently just started shaving for the first time.

The Shobha Ingrown Hair Relief Lotion retails for $22 and can be bought on the Shobha website.

A good multitasking product, especially in skin care, is hard to find. However, the Miracle Skin Transformer just may be the exception to the rule. It a) moisturizes your skin, b) enhances your skin tone, and c) protects your skin from the sun with SPF 20. The company sent me a 5ml sample to try of the product, and after trying it a few days in a row, I believe it does all 3 things pretty well.

The Miracle Skin Transformer is basically a tinted moisturizer that is packed with SPF and natural active ingredients. It has a naturally derived silicone formulation that smooths out your skin and improves your skin texture and pore size. Though I can’t vouch for the long-term effects of this moisturizer, each time I applied it, it evened my skin tone considerably and my face felt soft and smooth. It’s very lightweight, which is a plus, though I’m not sure how well its moisturizing effects will hold up in the wintertime. To find out out more, check out miracleskintransformer.com, where it is available in 4 different shades (Medium was perfect for me)!