January 2011
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Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray Tops Marie Claire's...
I’m a sucker for round-ups. Best grilled cheese sandwiches, best spring accessories — I love them all. This month’s Marie Claire, the one with an angelic Michelle Williams on the cover, includes their picks for the 25 best new beauty products. How they ever whittled it down, I don’t know but they came up with some winners — including one of my personal favorites: Oribe’s...
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Skincare Tips from Well and Good's Melisse Gelula
Photo: Larkin Clark
Wellness guru Melisse Gelula, co-founder of Well and Good NYC, takes her skincare very seriously. When I talked to her for this month’s Birchbox Crush, we spent nearly an hour chatting about different types of cleansers, exfoliators, oils, serums, and moisturizers. The big takeaway? Switch things up. Your skin changes from day to day, season to season. The products...
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Reading List: It's Almost NY Fashion Week!
Photo: BellaSugar.com
Can you believe it’s already the end of January? It seems like Thanksgiving was just last week but we’re already gearing up for NY Fashion Week and dreaming about spring getaways. Since vacation is still a long way off for most of us, here’s a few stories to get you pumped for the weekend. Happy Friday!
FashionEtc and Fashionista both covered the top beauty trends...
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Who Does Olivia Palermo Trust With Her Skincare...
Photo: La Dolce Vita
Whether you love her or hate her, no one can deny that Olivia Palermo is beautiful. Oh, and she has the best style—without the help of a stylist! (Don’t even get me started on her hair. It’s perfection.)
As a drop-dead gorgeous NYC socialite, with tons of dollars to spend on a top-notch beauty arsenal and a Rolodex chock-full of the best people in every...
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What's on the Birchbox Editors' Desks: January 27
Welcome to the third edition of “What’s on the Birchbox Editors’ Desks,” where we give you a little peek into our days at work, and highlight the products we’re testing right now. This week, Birchbox Editor Meredith shows us what she’s loving, including a little lunchtime snack! Check it out below and in case you missed it, here are our first and second posts on...
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Dear Birchbox: Dealing With Winter Hat Hair
Photo: UrbanOutfitters.com
Dear Birchbox,
Winter weather is brutal on my short hair. I have to wear a hat but inevitably end up with flat hair. Is there a cure for hat hair…or morning hair for that matter? What do you do when bed head is NOT sexy?
Love,
Geraldine
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Dear Geraldine,
Flat, un-sexy hair is a problem everyone has dealt with at one point or another. We’ve been guilty of skipping hats...
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The Prettiest Plaits Maybe Ever
Looks from the Alexis Mabille Spring 2011 Haute Couture show. Photo: Stylelist
Couture isn’t just about beautiful ball gowns—it’s about taking everything to that ultimate, showstopping level, including makeup and hair. Yesterday we talked about our fascination with the flame-red uber-dramatic eyebrows that models sported during John Galliano’s Dior show. Today, we’ve...
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French Drugstore Beauty Finds
Historically, I have not been a big GOOP fan. I snicker when I see blog post titles like This Week’s Pile of GOOP and I cheer when ABC points how how much it actually costs to live like Gwyneth (answer: $3606.50 a day). But ever since her amazing and surprising Glee appearance (actually, lets take a minute and revisit that phenomenal Cee Lo performance), I’ve been feeling slightly...
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WatchJohn Galliano’s Flaming Couture
The couture shows are fully underway in Paris now and you can always count on John Galliano to bring the drama at the Dior Couture show. The clothes (and hats!) are gorgeous of course, but the makeup really caught our eyes. Check out the flame eye shadow, bold lips, and even bolder red eyebrows, which - get this- are made of paper, in the video above. The...
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Do You Need A Mascara Just For Your Bottom Lashes?...
Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara, $10, Sephora
Very cool concept alert: Clinique has just released a mascara specifically designed for your lower lashes. Sold at Sephora for $10, the product page says that the “brush was engineered to grasp even the tiniest of bottom lashes; its expert formula resists pesky smears.” I am kind of surprised no one has thought of this before, especially...
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Kate Middleton Gets Polished
Photo left: beautyeditor.ca; Photo right: stylecaster.com
If Kate Middleton was teetering on celebrity status before, now it’s official: the future Queen of England is getting her own nail polish. Butter London, an awesomely cool line of non-toxic nail lacquers founded by Brit Sasha Muir, will be releasing a limited-edition color called No More Waity, Katie available starting the second...
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Do You Mind The Gap?
Even Lauren Hutton, a beauty icon, has had moments of insecurity about her appearance, namely her signature gap teeth. A profile on the legend in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar reveals that as a young model, the bombshell tried to cover up her gap using morticians’ wax (yuck!) and would cut a line in the middle of it. She also experimented using a cap and told the magazine that...
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Brr! Cold Weather Skincare Tips
Photo: toughpenguin.com
It is positively freezing frigid in New York right now, and we can’t seem to put on enough layers. The same goes for our skin — when it comes to extreme cold and wind, you can’t just get away with the same old moisturizer. First things first, you have to exfoliate away the dead skin. Next, think layers: start with a face oil or hyaluronic acid, then add your...
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Birchbox Team - Meet Jenna!
You thought we were done, huh? Nope. We keep growing! We’re lucky to have snagged Jenna, a marketing maven who spent years at Williams Sonoma in California before giving into her New York urges. She’s here now and spearheading our super awesome marketing efforts!
Jenna Lyall, Marketing Manager
Hometown: Brownsville, Vermont
Unofficial title: Master of the Click-Thrus
Fun fact:...
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Skin Expert Rita Csizmadia's Secret Weapon: Sponge...
After putting up an admirable defense against winter, my face is showing signs of fatigue. I’ve got flakiness, redness, puffiness, and all sorts of other un-pretty things. But I have a new plan of attack, thanks to Rita Csizmadia, the go-to facialist for Los Angeles’s A-listers. As we know, I’m already a big fan of face oils, but she turned me on to one that I hadn’t tried:...
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A Week Of Fuchsia Lipstick: The Birchbox Beauty...
The Birchbox Beauty Diaries is a regular feature where one of our staffers tries out a new beauty look every day for one week. Whether it’s lipstick or eyeshadow, different hairstyles or fun makeup techniques, our employees will give you five different ideas for how you can shake up your routine.
Staffer: Mollie
Title: Director of Content
A Week of: Fuchsia lipstick (Nothing scares...
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Banishing Acne Scars: Dr. Dennis Gross Answers
Via our Dr. Dennis Gross Facebook contest, fans submitted their most fervent skincare questions for the guru. Three lucky contestants not only received answers straight from the M.D. himself (see one fan’s query, and Dr. Gross’ advice, below), but they’re also getting free products from his coveted line!
All-In-One Cleansing Foam, $36, dgskincare.com
Q: How can I prevent and get rid of acne...
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Banishing Acne Scars: Dr. Dennis Gross Answers
Via our Dr. Dennis Gross Facebook contest, fans submitted their most fervent skincare questions for the guru. Three lucky contestants not only received answers straight from the M.D. himself (see one fan’s query, and Dr. Gross’ advice, below), but they’re also getting free products from his coveted line!
All-In-One Cleansing Foam, $36, dgskincare.com
Q: How can I prevent and get rid of acne...
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Reading List: Is it Still Winter?
photo from WWD.com
TGIF! Hope everyone has a great weekend planned. We’re off to catch up on sleep, eat too much, and most likely indulge in a little shopping! Before we go, here’s are a few links to help you make it through the afternoon.
WWD covers the “edvertorial” phenomenon, branded editorial content that’s become the norm for many designers and brands. We...
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Kate Somerville Dishes on Her New Products
Skincare guru Kate Somerville.
California-based beauty expert Kate Somerville doesn’t make it out to NYC very often (she keeps pretty busy treating Hollywood starlets like, you know, Nicole Richie and Jessica Alba) so when she does make it to Manhattan, it’s a real treat. In town the other day to promote a suite of new products she is adding to her ever-expanding skincare line, I was...
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Birchbox Test Case: Nail Art
As promised in our previous post about Sally Hansen Nail Polish Strips, we’re putting these to the test to determine wearability and general awesomeness. So far, we’re impressed. The strips are easy to apply and look great right away. If anything, the edges tend to peel a bit if you don’t prep your nails right (which I didn’t) so make sure you’re starting with...
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Dry Winter Skin: Dr. Dennis Gross Answers
Via our Dr. Dennis Gross Facebook contest, fans submitted their most fervent skincare questions for the guru. Three lucky contestants not only received answers straight from the M.D. himself (see one fan’s query, and Dr. Gross’ advice, below), but they’re also getting free products from his coveted line!
Hydra-Pure Oil-Free Moisture, $78, dgskincare.com
Q: In the winter time, my skin gets...
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What's on the Birchbox Editors' Desks: January 20
The editors at Birchbox seem to have continuously messy desks — mostly because we’re always trying out new products, and perhaps because we’re also a bit messier than the rest of our uber-organized office. Either way, it’s fun to share which new (and sometimes old, but classic) products we’re trying on any given day. Here’s what’s happening in my space today:
iPod Nano: Because I...
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Travel and Beauty Writer Jasmine Moy's Top Product...
Every month, we profile a different smart and fabulous woman in our Beauty in Action series. We ask them to share their best beauty and lifestyle tips, and we always get great intel. For example: adorable floral designer Jennifer McGarigle spends most of her day with her hands submerged in water so she uses shea butter to keep her fingers from cracking. Writer and wellness geek Daphne Oz told us...
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WatchWhen Tech Meets Beauty: Nail Art
If you’ve checked out any of our previous posts, you’re probably starting to suspect that we’re obsessed with nail art. You would be correct. Our entire office freaked out when we saw this story on Stylelist last week (okay, really it was just Mollie, Meredith, and me, but it was still really exciting). You may have seen the Barbie Digital Nail Printer last year...
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Preventing Wrinkles Around The Eyes: Dr. Dennis...
Via our Dr. Dennis Gross Facebook contest, fans submitted their most fervent skincare questions for the guru. Three lucky contestants not only received answers straight from the M.D. himself (see one fan’s query, and Dr. Gross’ advice, below), but they’re also getting free products from his coveted line!
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Hydra-Pure Firming Eye Cream, $90,...
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Dream Hair: Gisele in Isabel Marant's Spring 2011...
Gisele stars in Isabel Marant’s spring 2011 ad campaign. Photo: Fashionologie
Sure, every woman has had a moment where she envies Gisele’s perfect supermodel body. But her latest ad campaign for Isabel Marant, one of my all-time favorite designers, has me wishing not that I had her flawless figure, but her hair. I cut my super-long locks back in August after a panic-inducing subway...
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Dream Hair: Gisele in Isabel Marant's Spring 2011...
Gisele stars in Isabel Marant’s spring 2011 ad campaign. Photo: Fashionologie
Sure, every woman has had a moment where she envies Gisele’s perfect supermodel body. But her latest ad campaign for Isabel Marant, one of my all-time favorite designers, has me wishing not that I had her flawless figure, but her hair. I cut my super-long locks back in August after a panic-inducing subway...
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Brighten Undereye Circles with YSL's Touche Eclat...
At yesterday’s video shoot, we talked a lot about undereye darkness. The best defense against undereye circles and bags is tons of sleep. Since that isn’t always an option we turn to the next best thing: magic highlighters. In my option, and I’ve had plenty of experience with camouflaging tiredness, a great brightener trumps a great concealer. I love YSL’s Touche Eclat, a...
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How To: Rosy Cheeks
Nam and her lovely assistant, Renee.
We’re shooting videos in our fab new studio today. Nam Vo, our favorite makeup artist, is here, and as always, she’s full of fun tricks. Best of all, she leans toward simple, pretty makeup looks. Today’s highlight: how to get a fresh rosy cheek. Nam uses two products: first, a cream tint by Jouer that stains the cheek, and second, a powder...
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Keep Blonde Hair Bright With Purple Shampoo
L’Oréal Professional White Violet shampoo, $19.55, and conditioner, $17.99.
Like most blondes, my color is not all natural—I get a little help. No shock there, but I’m really bad about upkeep and go for prolonged periods between hair appointments. Given that I sometimes wait five or six months before getting a touch up, it’s interesting that my biggest complaint is never my...
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Keep Blonde Hair Bright With Purple Shampoo
L’Oréal Professional White Violet shampoo, $19.55, and conditioner, $17.99.
Like most blondes, my color is not all natural—I get a little help. No shock there, but I’m really bad about upkeep and go for prolonged periods between hair appointments. Given that I sometimes wait five or six months before getting a touch up, it’s interesting that my biggest complaint is never my...
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Golden Globes Superlatives
Now that we’ve had a little time to digest last night’s Golden Globes Awards, we’re ready to announce our own personal awards. There were plenty of highs and lows but here are our personal picks and pans.
Most Likely to Hate Their Stylist Now: Natalie Portman. Now, don’t get us wrong: we love Nat and she did look positively glowy (we want that pink lipstick!). But...
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Sandra Bullock Bangs It Out At the Golden Globes
Sandra Bullock sporting a new haircut at last night’s Golden Globes. Photo: The Huffington Post.
There were a lot of surprising red carpet moments at last night’s 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards (more on that later), but certainly one of the biggest shocks of the evening was Sandra Bullock’s new hair. We’re on the fence about it: We can’t decide if it’s...
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Sandra Bullock Bangs It Out At the Golden Globes
Sandra Bullock sporting a new haircut at last night’s Golden Globes. Photo: The Huffington Post.
There were a lot of surprising red carpet moments at last night’s 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards (more on that later), but certainly one of the biggest shocks of the evening was Sandra Bullock’s new hair. We’re on the fence about it: We can’t decide if it’s...
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Give that Black Eyeliner a Rest
After watching the Golden Globes last night, we can’t help but get inspired to shake up our usual Monday routine (tinted moisturizer, NARS Multiple, mascara). Earlier this year we asked Stila’s pro makeup artist Sarah Lucero to give us ideas on how to quickly take makeup from ho-hum daytime to rah rah nighttime. She had some amazing tips and totally got us geeking out about...
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Worth Scoping Out: Designer Fragrance Discount On...
For all the perfume fanatics out there, this one is for you: Online designer discount retailer Bluefly has branched out into fragrance. Starting today, customers can shop hundreds of designer scents — some are up to 40 percent off the retail price. From classics like Chanel No. 5 to more recent hits like Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely, the selection is totally worth a look. The one thing I...
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Worth Scoping Out: Designer Fragrance Discount On...
For all the perfume fanatics out there, this one is for you: Online designer discount retailer Bluefly has branched out into fragrance. Starting today, customers can shop hundreds of designer scents — some are up to 40 percent off the retail price. From classics like Chanel No. 5 to more recent hits like Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely, the selection is totally worth a look. The one thing I...
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Give that Black Eyeliner a Rest
After watching the Golden Globes last night, we can’t help but get inspired to shake up our usual Monday routine (tinted moisturizer, NARS Multiple, mascara). Earlier this year we asked Stila’s pro makeup artist Sarah Lucero to give us ideas on how to quickly take makeup from ho-hum daytime to rah rah nighttime. She had some amazing tips and totally got us geeking out about...
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Reading List: Happy Three-Day Weekend!
Courtesy of Vogue Italia
Happy Friday, Birchboxers! Before we jet off on our three-day weekend (woohoo!) here are some of the stories that have caught our eye this week.
Refinery29 opened our eyes to the possibility of feather hair extensions, a trend we’ll be trying ASAP, along with some super fun nail strips.
Style.com compared the Clarisonic Mia skin brush to the new, much more...
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Reading List: Happy Three-Day Weekend!
Courtesy of Vogue Italia
Happy Friday, Birchboxers! Before we jet off on our three-day weekend (woohoo!) here are some of the stories that have caught our eye this week.
Refinery29 opened our eyes to the possibility of feather hair extensions, a trend we’ll be trying ASAP, along with some super fun nail strips.
Style.com compared the Clarisonic Mia skin brush to the new, much more...
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Obsession: Dr. Gross Alpha Beta Peel
When I was in high school I once had a professional peel that took off half my face and left me patchy, tomato red, and very very sad. It was a decade before I tried another peel. I was happy to find that during my peel hiatus the technology had gotten light years better. Though they sound incredibly intense, peels are actually just chemical exfoliation treatments that dissolve the layer of dead...
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An Ode To The Push-Up (Makeup That Is)
Stila’s discontinued push-up in Fuchsia Flash.
I have a serious love for double-duty products. I mean, one product that works in two ways is so efficient. Since I am usually in a rush, whether I am running out the door for work in the morning or hurrying to meet friends for a night out, I am always looking for easy ways to save time. For that very reason, I have been a longtime devotee...
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An Ode To The Push-Up (Makeup That Is)
Stila’s discontinued push-up in Fuchsia Flash.
I have a serious love for double-duty products. I mean, one product that works in two ways is so efficient. Since I am usually in a rush, whether I am running out the door for work in the morning or hurrying to meet friends for a night out, I am always looking for easy ways to save time. For that very reason, I have been a longtime devotee...
