Traveling Monkey

I will be traveling for the next few days for work.

I will keep my eyes peeled for all things new and posh.

I will report when I get back.

Have a great weekend!

Searching for the perfect nude.....lip

I am always searching for, perusing aisles to find , and trying to root out the perfect shades of nude for my lips. I find this extemely difficult because everything turns out looking either too brown, or too peach.

I love the way Barbara Streisand always had the perfect nude lip back in the 70's. Shiny, but not obnoxiously so. Very subtle, very lovely.

On my quest over the past couple of years I have come up with some wonderful, sheer, pouty, glossy, shiny, and not so shiny nude lip wear.



Say what you want about J-Lo, but the girl can work a nude lip. I think the Restylane might help the look along...but none the less- her lips are adorned in nude colors, and I think they work for her.

I will share some of my favorite nudie finds with you.



I will start with liners. I am not a huge fan of lipliners. So many people put them on too dark and they look weird. However I have found that some neutral/nude lipliners applied correctly add just enough oomph to your lips to make them look plump and succulent.
Chanel makes a lipliner simply called Nude that is fabulous. Not dark, not brown, not pink...just a neutral shade that blends well. It comes with a blending brush on one end and it is beautiful.

YSL makes a nude lipliner in a shade that is simply known as #13 it is a great, soft neutral shade of nude. YLS also has a beautiful lip liner called Nude Beige. Both these lip liners are gorgeous.

MAC - Spice. Hall of fame lipliner. This is a darling to most makeup artists. It goes great with many shades of lipstick...the hallmark of a true neutral. It has been very popular for years.

I am very picky with lipsticks, so this was a tough one, but my favorites thus far in my nude search are listed below.

Lipsticks

Cle De Peau- Beaute Rouge a Levries in #57. It is moisturizing, soft, shiny and neutral. I love it!

MAC- Half Baked. This one has a little more pigment. It is a soft, sandy colored nude with some gold--but it is still a lovely neutral shade. Half Baked lipstick looks beautiful with MAC C-Thru lip glass on top.

MAC - High Tea. Shimmery, pinky, shiny, nude. One of my faves. Looks beautiful with MAC Spice liner.

Shiseido - Shimmering Lipstick in SL1. As the name would indicate it is shimmery, but not overly so. It is a beautiful nude lipstick.

And for my gloss picks.

Delux Beauty -Marshall. Marshall is a beautiful nude gloss with a little shimmer and just a touch of pink. I usually wear it over the Cle de Peau or the Shiseido lipsticks.


Vincent Longo -Dolce. This is simply stunning. It has some opalesence mixed it to give it a pearly look. Stunning.

MAC -C-Thru. Very sheer, almost milky in color, but goes on sheer and nude. C-Thru has been a staple in my cosmetic wardrobe for years.


YSL Baume D'ete Tinted lip balm SPF 10 shade 15m -This one is a little bronze with some shimmer. Perfect to use in the summer, on the beach in Rio De Janeiro, or just at Taco Bell in St. Louis. What I am saying is it is versatile, wearable, and neutral.


Stila Lip Glaze-Vanilla. All Stila glazes are sheer and beautiful. The Vanilla is a bronzey sheer neutral with a hint of glimmer.

There are some drugstore finds that I love as well. These can be much easier to find than the department store ones. Honestly I find their quality quite good too.

Milani - Crystal Lip Gloss Secret #12. Milani is marketed primarily to women of color, but I find a lot of their colors look fabulous on me, and I am a fair skinned redhead. This particular shade of gloss is soft, milky, the color of coffee with cream....only a little lighter. Beautiful.

Rimmel Vinyl Lip - EastEnd Snob. This color has a little bit of a peachy/pinky tint to it, but it is still beautifully nude. It is very shiny and long lasting.

Loreal Color Juice - Butterscotch Drop #850. This gloss would look great on tan or olive skin. It is creamy and dewy and like the name says, butterscotchy.

Loreal Color Juice - Twilight Pink #112. This one is a summery, shimmery nude. It has the slightest bit of pink, but on me it wears very nude. This one is light so if you are so inclined to wear lipliner I would suggest wearing one with this.

Honorable mention goes to Wet-n-Wild #666 Lipliner. When I lived in the Bible Belt of the United States I was scared of this lip liner. It was the devil's liner. I have since realized that if this is the devil's lip liner then the devil has some stylin' lips. Just kidding, but this lip liner is beautiful, neutral, and CHEAP!



I will keep looking for the ever elusive perfect nude lip colors. I will share more of my excellent finds as my journey continues.

Can you share with me some of your favorite nude or neutral lip colors? Thanks, I look forward to some other beautiful nudes--for lipsticks and glosses--oh get your heads out of the gutter-HA!

Things that creep a monkey out.....Marc Jacobs Shoes

Varment Footwear.
Critter Couture.
Rodent Shoes.
Marc Jacobs-what gives?

I am sorry, but this is just creepy. To my eye, this is a shoe fashioned to look like a mouse. Am I wrong? Is it a guinea pig? That is still a rodent right? Are these supposed to be cute and I just do not get it? Have designers used up all their creativity and now we can expect a trend of rodent inspired designs? I can see it now in the New York Times....
"RODENT IS THE NEW BLACK"!

If you do decide to wear these shoes this season, then I must warn you of a few things.

First, if I happen to see you traipsing around in these shoes be warned-- I will laugh and point, then laugh some more. Then, I will probably get on my cell phone and call all my friends and be like "You 'member those shoes I blogged about? Yes, the varment ones? Someone is actually wearing them!!!" Then I will probably ask you if you will let me take a photo of you wearing the shoes, so I can post it here on my blog.... so I can laugh yet some more.

The second thing I feel it is my duty to warn you about is this:

Please for the love of all things holy --WATCH YOUR STEP!



(shoe photo is from NeimanMarcus.com)
*disclaimer-I love Marc Jacobs, but I cannot let these shoes slip by without a comment--albeit a snarky comment.

Viva la House of Ungaro! Peter Dundas Rules!

Lately I have been a little bored with most fashion shows. The shows just cannot keep my attention. Maybe I have been so interested in fashion for so long that I have become jaded. Do not get me wrong, there are some things that have knocked my socks off....but very few things. However--Peter Dundas is rocking my world lately. Norwegian born Peter Dundas took over designs at Emanuel Ungaro when Asim Abdullah bought the house a while back. Vincent Darre was Dundas's predecessor and his designs did not wow the fashion critics. But then again they can be a hard nut to crack--if you know what I mean.

I have always had a fond place in my heart for Emanuel Ungaro because I went to middle school with a boy named Robby Ungaro and I always wondered if he was related to Sir Emanuel. I was talking to some friends one day when I was in the 7th grade and I was saying it would be so cool if Robby was related to Emanuel, and they looked at me like I was crazy. Noone in the state of Oklahoma at the age of 12 knew who Emanuel Ungaro was --but me. I was a very odd kid. Instead of Teen Beat, I was reading British Vogue. Instead of Seventeen, I was reading Cosmopolitan.
Ungaro's fashion through the years has been a little " loud" for me until recently. I loved their most recent runway shows, especially the stunning red dress above. Now I cannot get enough. I am especially impressed with his shoes this season.

This would have to be my very favorite shoe this spring. These are stunning...I mean really. They take my breath away. I saw them in a French fashion magazine a couple of months ago and I have been wanting to post about them ever since. Peter Dundas, I think I love you.

These shoes are also to die for. The camel leather and the purple satin are just gorgeous together. I am swooning!

These are beautiful too and seem much more "wearable". These are not too fancy to wear to dinner sometime. The others are not too fancy to wear to dinner in some places....but in my place I would get some weird looks from the soccer moms in thier Old Navy flip flops. (no offense to soccer moms who wear old navy flip flops--I LOVE old navy flip flops) AHEM.

I love this purse, but I honestly feel it looks too much like a Mulberry bag. I love the Mulberry line, but hey it has already been done....by Mulberry. The color of blue is lovely, and the bag is great....but like I said.....Mulberry.

This clutch is simply stunning. To me, it looks like art. It would go beautifully with the camel and purple shoes above. I think I must try to get this bag for summer. It is so unique, and for some strange reason I am obsessed with jewel toned purple this season.

I am very excited to see more from Peter Dundas. I liked what he did for Cavalli, and I am in love with what he is doing at Ungaro. Go on witchyour bad self Peter!

(all photos from EmanuelUngaro.com)

Has anyone ever told you that you look just like......

People tell me I look like famous people ALL THE TIME. I swear. It is really very strange. I guess I should be flattered, but for the most part I am not. I must have a familiar look to people. The 2 people I am told I look most like just happen to both be on the cover of W Magazine this month. I have ALWAYS been told I resemble Meryl Streep, and in the past couple of years people have been telling me I resemble La Lohan--NOT skinny crackhead blonde (with this OOMPAH LOOMPAH self tanner in the picture -YIKES) La Lohan. No, I look more like the robust red headed La Lohan. I gotta say Meryl looks STUNNING on this cover...so much lovlier than La Lohan.

I am also told a lot that I look like Giada di Laurentiis. I am told this more and more as she becomes more well known. My whole family says I look just like her. This is a total compliment to me because I think she is cute as a button!

Jo Dee Messina (country music singer) is another redhead I am told I look just like. One time a person in the country music industry who had worked with Jo Dee before walked right up to me and started talking to me because she thought I WAS Jo Dee Messina...that was funny.

One evening a drunk, homeless man in downtown Chicago kept calling me Madonna. He was like "Madonna, I know that is you YOU BITCH!. My Cousin Lenny stays on the sidewalk over at the United Center and we know you had a show there tonight. Do not even lie Madonna." I was all "Sir, I am not Madonna." Then he was all "Bitch you know you the Material Bitch, quit playing like you aint. "He was saying how there could not be 2 women on the planet who looked like Madonna so he knew I was her because I looked just like her. Arguing with a drunk man is painfully futile, so finally I gave in and sang Like a Virgin to him then I gave him an apple. I still need to call up his cousin Lenny. A party on the sidewalk outside the United Center sounds fab--ah yes...good times.

I have been told a few times that I look like the gorgeous Angie Everheart--all I can say about that is I FREAKIN WISH! The ONLY thing about me that looks like Angie is we both have long red hair. She is hot--SERIOUSLY HOT! Too bad I look nothing like her.

People (mostly women) tell me ALL THE TIME that I remind them of Carrie Bradshaw/Sarah Jessica Parker. Most of them say my style and demeanor more than my looks, which makes me happy because my husband thinks she is ugly. However, I do resemble her. I get told this all the time. That is OK because I love her. I am honored anyone thinks I have her style.

This is a photo of me and my beautiful friend "M" in Vegas. I am on the left with the red hair. Which celeb do YOU think I look like? If you say Ernest Borgnine I will have to kick your ass, so be kind! HA

What famous people have you been told you resemble?

My friend Kelly looks like Tracy Ullman and my friend Annie looks like Nigella Lawson! Oh and my friend Mike looks like Tom Cruise (normal cute Top Gun Tom Cruise, NOT crazy Scientologist Tom Cruise) and my friend Curtis looks like Christopher Reeve (RIP).

Top 5 Reasons I adore Trader Joe's

I Love Trader Joe's. Just walking into their store makes me feel healthier. Since one opened near me, I find myself shopping there more and more. Here is a list of my top 5 favorite things I love at Trader Joe's.

#1. Would have to be their Lobster Bisque. I happen to love Lobster Bisque and I am always trying it at restaurants, and more often than not, I am disappointed. This one at Trader Joe's though is EXCELLENT. I would eat it every day if I could. You just heat and eat. I sometimes add a little milk so it will not be so thick. Delicious! This just makes me happy!



# 2. Is TWO BUCK CHUCK!! I love the $2 buck Chuck aka Charles Shaw wine. Where I live it is actually 3 bucks, but in California it is still 2 bucks. Is it classy? no--but it is a very nice wine for the price, and it does not give me that "cheap wine headache" that so many other cheap wines do. Charles Shaw for Pres!

#3. Is their Sesame Honey Cashews. I love nuts, and when I am on a healthy eating kick, I eat LOTS of nuts. These are so delicious. I love the way the sesame, honey and cashew flavors blend together. MMMMMM. They are just sweet enough that you think you are getting a real treat.

#4. On my list would be their soups in a box. I have creamy tomato in the photo, but I also love thier butternut squash soup. You can just heat them up, but I always embellish the soups a little to make them unique. With the tomato I add a little chorizo ( mexican sausage), and top with some cheese, sour cream and my favorite hot sauce. With the butternut squash, I get some purple pepper (in season from the farmers market) a little butter, salt and pepper and it is delicious--especially with a toasted piece of crispy bread.

#5. Is Charlee Bear organic dog treats. My dogs love these treats. They are especially great for small dogs because they are little bites of joy. I usually get 3 bags at a time of these because they are a healthy treat for my boys.

I love the whole whimsical feel of Trader Joe's. The way they package their ethnic foods cracks me up--like a Spanish item will be labeled "Trader Jose's" -that makes me laugh.

There are a whole litany of other things I love at Trader Joe's and I may compile another list soon. Support your local health food /organic stores. It is really hard for them to compete with the huge Jewel Osco /Meijer type stores---and besides it could do us all good to eat healthier!

Thank You Easter Bunny!

Happy Easter!!!!!





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVdjryXC0U




Click the link for some Easter fun from days of yore.
Have a wonderful day everyone!

Go Cubs!

This past Friday, I was lucky enough to get to go to the opening home game for the Chicago Cubs. I went with a crazy group of girls who are Cubs game pros. We started out at Murphey's Bleachers for some pregame festivities, then we headed to the game.

It was FREEZING cold...like literally FREEZING. There was no trying to look cute at this game, unless you think looking like Nanuck of the North is cute. We had on gloves, hats, hoods, vests, coats etc. Fred Armison from Saturday Night Live was on hand to serve us beer though.

He looks just like Fred Armison--I know, right?

The Cubs won against the St. Louis Cardinals 5 to zip. I was happy we won, but I have to give a shout out to one of the Cardinals who is from my hometown of OKC and used to play baseball with some folks I went to high school with--Junior Spivey.

The picture is from when Junior still played for the Milwaukee Brewers--Go Junebug!

After the game we warmed up at Bernie's, it was crowded, and smokey and all things that make Cubs games (and after the games) so much fun.

Hugs to my friends--they are so (ass) crazy--which is all together different than average every day crazy!

Old School Style

Lately I have been struck at how a lot of my old favorite things (and some things I did not care for) from junior high, aka middle school are coming back into style. I guess the old saying is true that everything old is new again. Things once thought "totally like lame" are now very vogue. Things that were once very out of style, are now labeled vintage and today, they are hotter than ever.

I grew up in Oklahoma where lots of cowboys and or hicks wore Wranglers. In Oklahoma they are a common sighting, albeit not really stylish. In Chicago I have NEVER seen anyone in a pair of Wranglers. HOWEVER, I was at Nordstrom the other day and in the women's department mixed in with the Hudsons, Miss Sixtys, Sevens and the True Religions were WRANGLERS. They were priced like their stylish city cousins and I was shocked. Farmer jeans for over $100.00 at Nordies? In Chicago? What is this world coming to?

What about Vans? They are back too. I saw Candice Bushnell wearing the classic black and white checkered ones in a photo about a year ago and decided I HAD to have them. Now they are everywhere. I have 2 pair that I love.
This is one pair I purchased while in vacation recently.

They are a little scary with the skull that looks like a butterfly, but they are pink, so that evens them out and gives them the whole Mariah Carey butterfly feel (HA). When I think of Vans, I think of a boy in 8th grade named Lyndall with a long blonde mullet, wearing parachute pants. I think that is cool. I wonder where Lyndall is now? Does he still wear Vans? He probably drives a Van.....I digress.....

Leggings--seems like just yesterday www.gofugyourself.com was making fun of them for being so 80's, now they are all the rage. Everyone is sporting the leggings. Not everyone looks good in them, but they are sporting them none the less. Not everyone is built like Sienna Miller people!

Remember perfume from the 80's? Most of my perfume when I was in junior high was from Wal Mart or Avon as I did not have a large perfume budget when I was 14 years old. I remember loving Le Jardin, Loves Baby Soft, Sweet Honesty, Giorgio (shudder) and Babe. I cannot find Babe anywhere now. I saw an old bottle of Babe on line for $90.00. Can you believe that? The same fragrance that used to be $2.00 at Wal Mart in 1984 is now selling for almost $100.00 dollars. I had a friend in high school named Wanda who had the coolest perfume. She had a Phantom of the Opera perfume and a Mikhail Baryshnikov perfume. I remember being so impressed by these fragrances. I see them sometimes on various fragrance websites. Maybe someday I will cave and purchase them in rememberance of Wanda. In college I had a friend who wore K de Krizia. I had not smelled it in years, but while perusing a beauty website the other day I found myself ordering it. It arrived at my abode yesterday and I love it. I have always been and continue to be weirdly connected to perfume and fragrance. Certain fragrances always take me back to my youth.

Makeup and hairstyles from days of yore are also creeping back. The "Farrah" is a hot hairlstyle now. Jessica Simpson made the blonde feathery thing hot again. Blue mascara and lavender shimmery eyeshadow has also become mainstream again.

There are some things considered classic that have always been in style--Chanel, Pucci, Hermes just to name a few. These things never had a season--they have been vogue for years and years and years. Does that define a classic? Something that has been in style from the moment it hit the scene?

Do we always long for our days of youth? Is it just the natural order of things to recirculate? With all the new styles, why do we always go back to the oldies?

I think I will wear Love's Baby Soft today......and a banana clip-HA!

(photos from zappos.com and perfumex.com)

Spring is in the air, and on the face and feet

The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, everyone is in a better mood. When spring hits this cold and depressing part of the world, it seems as though everyone comes alive. Thoughts turn to fun and frivolity, short sleeved shirts, mojitos on the pati0, hot new sandals to show off our painted toenails, and of course new makeup colors. The nudes and monotone colors of winter morph into the pastel, light shimmers of something fresh and hopeful.

One of the most beautiful new spring makeup items I have seen this season is this beautiful palette by Bobbi Brown. I stumbled upon it while looking at Gloss.com.

I orderd this because I do believe it is going to be limited edition, and I just could not let this beauty slip by. The colors are amazing. It looks like a piece of art.

Another beautiful thing I stumbled upon ( and will probably stumble in) are these lovely Prada sandals. I adore them. I have been looking for a perfect, bubble gum pink, peep toe pump. The heel on this may be a little too high for the Suburbs--but maybe I can work them on vacation somewhere.
What are some of your fashion/makeup wishes for Spring?

(photos are from Gloss.com and Saks.com)