You can always find the beauty department at any big magazine by looking for the orchids, the 'Thank You' gift of choice from grateful publicists and industry friends. Peeking above messy file cabinets, there they'll be—some watered, some not. Doesn't matter—orchids can last for eons.

Frédéric Fekkai didn't send me any orchids this month, but he did me one better: He put orchid extract in his Ageless Crème Luxe Hair Treatment, a weekly deep conditioner. Since orchids can retain their moisture (and consequentially, their beauty) for such a long time, it made perfect sense to infuse its extract into a hair product.

I used it, and once my hair dried, I immediately noticed it felt softer, looked shinier, and even those dead ends I've been meaning to get cut looked a little more lively, and a lot less witchy.

Thanks, Frédéric! An orchid's in the mail.

While browsing the Fresh store the other day, I noticed this fabulous-looking woman racking up over $1,000 in products—she had the most amazing skin. I was fully gawking.

Obviously, I needed to know what she was buying. Turns out she was addicted to the line's Black Tea Collection, which consists of Black Tea Age-Delay Cream and the Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask. I had to have both.

The Black Tea Age-Delay Cream. It has the consistency of butter, but not the greasiness. The formula's namesake ingredient is said to refine skin's texture, and considering that spend-aholic woman was decades older than me and had near baby's cheeks, I'd believe it.

Fresh's co-founder, Lev Glazman, told me he likes to use the cream as an under-eye balm, and I can see why—its texture is ridiculously cushy and protective.

The Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask. It has the feel of whipped potatoes, but thankfully, it smells like cucumber.

What I love is that it's so not a big deal to apply. Unlike other masks, this is actually a pleasure, since it's so comfortable and tidy—it rinses off in seconds, and leaves your skin feeling and looking supple and illuminated all day long. 

If I keep up my regimen, I hope my skin will look half as good at 30 as that woman did at 60.

If there is one thing I will swear to you, it's that I won't say a beauty product is amazing unless I sincerely believe it is amazing. And La...

I have found myself night after night chanting and screaming, "USA! USA! USA!" Staying up way past my bedtime to catch every nanosecond of the Olympics live instead of relying on the DVR (it's just not the same seeing it...

Just great.

I spent quality time in the bathroom this morning, molding my hair into follicular perfection, only to get it wind-whipped into something that looks like a cat’s been chewing on it.

Other people have stay-put hair—how are they doing it? How do beehives, bouffants and the Taj Mahelmet stay put?

One thing is clear: If I want an adult hairdo, it’s time for adult styling products. So Aqua Net, it’s been real. We’ve had good times (who can forget the permed bangs of ’89?). I’ll miss your alcohol-stench and sticky-fingered nozzle.

ghd, hi. My name’s Jenny. I think it’s time you, me, and my hair strands talked….





Photo courtesy of uen.org

We imagine the invitation to Jennifer Klein's 10th Annual Day Of Indulgence in Los Angeles on August 11th read something like this:

THEME:
Pretty spoiled

GUEST LIST:
A-listers, mega-watt celebs, and Hollywood heavy-hitters

FACE PAINTING:
Fresh makeup artists and Sephora Pro Team member Christine Egashira

GOODIE BAGS? Yes
Filled with Fresh treats

DRESS CODE:
Prada sandals you can kick off when it's time for a foot massage

Anybody know how to turn back time so we can all attend this?

Do you ever wonder what CSI would think about you if they came to your house? What if they looked in your fridge? What would it say about the person you are?

On one hand, my fridge would say I'm a bachelor boy—there's always beer, a bottle of ketchup and bag of baby carrots.

On the other hand, it would say I'm a girl obsessed with anti-aging around the eyes. I've got an entire shelf dedicated to plant-based eye creams, copper peptide formulations and a stick-it-in-the-fridge-depuffing eye mask. On that shelf there is also some soothing after sun cream, a bit of an all natural cuticle ointment and some organic bar soap that I heard likes the cold cold Frigidaire.

But now that I'm about to become a wife, I should probably make my poor empty lonely fridge look like it's fit for two. And in addition to adding more fruits and veggies to the sad, lonely soy milk, I've got to give the prods the ole-heave ho. Luckily for me those beauty know it alls at Allure have stumbled upon the Robern mirrored cabinet with a cooling compartment.

A mini-fridge is so designed especially for ladies like me! It's got different temp. selections, the better to fit your specific needs, my pretty. And it is so mini it fits in the smallest of b.rooms. A total plus when you've got a Bklyn apt a la moi. And now when Gil Grissom and that hottie Nick Stokes come a-knocking they'll know exactly what kind of beauty-loving wife I am.
-Jenna Mahoney

FROM: Meredith Kahn Rollins, executive editor
TO: Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director
SUBJECT: Miracle

As I have complained to the beauty department many times, I am one of those people who gets a million mosquito bites the moment I walk out the door. Sunset cocktails are my idea of a perfect hell. But now that I have a baby, I'm less inclined to douse myself with a toxic chemicals in order to keep the bugs away. So when I heard about a perfume from CB called Outside, I made urgent inquiries. It comes in a large, don't-feel-bad-about-spraying-a-lot-of-it bottle, and the scent is really quite nice: botanical, crisp, with a little undercurrent of patchouli—something that is usually way out of my comfort zone (the charms of the Grateful Dead are lost on me), but in this case just gives the whole thing a kind of bohemian, artsy-girl spin. The first time I wore it, everyone told me how great it smelled. And then it happened again. And then, after an extended vacation in the country, I realized that I hadn't gotten one mosquito bite. To say that I'm happy is a vast understatement.

I'm a borderline-insomniac—I frequently have a terrible time getting and staying asleep. While prescription sleep medications work, I've recently started turning to what I feel are safer options. One...

My new haircut looks best when it's piece-y (thank you everyone for your kind comments, I know my picture on this Website makes me look like a sorority girl circa...