Fine dining on Valentine’s Day is a time-honored tradition — not to mention a good excuse for the recession-weary to splurge a little. But don’t make the holiday a feeding frenzy, save some energy for a romantic stroll or tête-à-tête with these tips from Jenna Bergen, author of Your Big Fat Boyfriend: How to Stay Thin When Dating a Diet Disaster (Quirk Books, 2008).
The last thing we expected to find at the retrospective for 97-year-old sculptor Louise Bourgeois at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art was a reason to go to our abs class. But after several galleries of her haunting and ambiguous work — multibreasted pink marble torsos, phallic vaginas, a guillotine hanging over a replica of her childhood home, two headless black knitted figures (one with a prosthetic leg) making love inside a glass case — we came across a work on paper that Bourgeois created just last year at the age of 96.
As the temperature dips, we turn to gloves, scarves and remedies like Emergen-C. Meanwhile, our skin becomes parched, our lips chapped and our hair a mess of hat-head flyaways. Revolution Organics All-Over Body Balm ($28) can address all these problems. It’s a compact moisturizing stick with almost two dozen uses, from hydrating dry skin and lips to smoothing frizz.
While our feet are treated to pedicures and pampering during summer sandal season, we admit that in the winter, they are occasionally subjected to such indignities as chipped polish, old socks and moisture when encased in cute (but not waterproof) boots. According to James McGuire, D.P.M., a podiatrist at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine in Philadelphia, nerves conduct pain impulses more slowly in cold temperatures, putting wearers of tight shoes or ski boots at risk for nail hemorrhage or loss. Other common winter foot problems include blisters from cold damage and even frostbite.
We’ve gone through tubes and tubs of anti-aging creams, often testing new products before they launch. Though the packaging may change, the crème de la crème almost always contain a key ingredient: retinol. And we’re not the only ones to notice — dermatologists consistently recommend the wrinkle fighter because it’s scientifically proven to work.
Call us old-fashioned, but when it comes to Valentine’s Day gifts, we still love flowers and candy — an excuse to indulge in the latter always is welcome. So we easily became enamored with Theo Chocolate’s Aphrodisiac Confection Collection ($39.60), delectable delights made with organic, fair-trade cacao that are almost too pretty to eat.
Since Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty, the move toward celebrating women as they are and not as Hollywood would re-engineer them is a trend we enthusiastically support. That’s why we were excited to hear about adidas’ new Me, Myself campaign, featuring Women’s National Basketball Association MVP Candace Parker.
We’re still waiting for flying cars and self-cleaning houses, but for now this will do: Estée Lauder’s TurboLash All Effects Motion Mascara ($32). The opening of the cap activates a tiny motor, causing the LashSonic brush to vibrate — a feature that delivers extra lash length, curl, separation and volume.
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