Can Honest-Tea Quench Obama's Thirst

We are not choosing sides. We are merely making an observation. And since inauguration day is fast approaching next Tuesday, January 20th, we thought it would be fun, to dig a little deeper into lifestyle habits.

Our new President-elect, Barack Obama, is allegedly still hooked on cigarettes, and something else that is actually good and nutritious:

Bottled Organic Tea. Namely, Honest Tea. And luckily, the popular, bottled organic tea company is based in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

The organic tea, in his favorite blend, called Black Forest Berry, hasn't always been the easiest flavor to hunt down for the about-to-be-sworn-in-President of the United States.

According to an item in the Washinton Post, once Obama had hit the campaign trail full time, "getting Honest Tea into his hands became more difficult." The matter really escalated, when after the South Carolina primary, an Obama aide, had just driven two hours to procure the goods for her boss. And she phoned the CEO of Honest Tea to try and find an easier way to get their hands on Black Forect Berry for Barack Obama.

Oh, my, Mr. President-elect!!

So, what's really in a bottle of organic Honest Tea?! And is this is a beauty tip?

Yes. Tea is truly wonderful for your skin and health. Fans of the beverage, like actress Sharon Stone, drink it all the time. Ms. Stone, by the way, prefers her own brand:

"I am a tea fanatic. I like Sunrider Calli tea, an herbal cleansing tea."

Getting back to the President-to-be, here's the low-down on Black Forest Berry.

An Herbal Fruit Infusion.
A fruit infusion made with organic cane sugar, organic hibiscus, organic blackberry leaves, organic berry flavor, organic blueberries, and organic raspberries.
Certified organic by the USDA.

There are 60 Calories in a bottle of Black Forest Berry (2 servings per bottle). That's pretty low in Calories.

According to their website--www.honesttea.com, there are health benefits:

"The curative properties of brewed tea have been known for thousands of years. Because Honest Tea is brewed from genuine tea leaves it imparts many health benefits not found in other bottled teas.

Tea serves as a digestive aid and has powerful antioxidants. The antioxidants in green tea are believed to be at least 100 times more effective than Vitamin C and twenty-five times better than Vitamin E at protecting cells and DNA from damage believed to be linked to cancer, heart disease and other potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Brewed tea is also believed to fight off dental plaque, inactivate the influenza virus, reduce blood glucose levels, lower cholesterol, and act as an antibacterial agent."

So there you have it. Honest-ty. Something we all strive for, especially in our commander-in-chief.

L'Oreal Bare Naturale Lip Conditioner For Nude Mouth

Miss the nude lip and almost nude lip colors?

For a while now, lipsticks and glosses have featured color, pizazz, and punch!! But many of you really prefer a softer, gentler lip color. You know, a low maintenance nude mouth. Penelope Cruz, one of L'Oreal's glamorous cover girls, often wears a nude or sheer lip with a strong, smokey eye, and she does it so beautifully.

Nudes are back in a big way for 2009, and yes, so are bold red lips to the extreme. Take your choice, ladies. Plenty of pretty lip shades to choose from.

Today, we are looking at L'Oreal's $9 Bare Naturale Gentle Lip Conditioner.

It's formulated with 96% natural-origin ingredients. Full of soothing stuff like Vitamin E and sweet almond oil. Gives off soft, luminous shine with sheer color. Really keeps your pucker soft.

It comes in 10 sheer shades. Penelope likes to wear Soft Petal (105).

It's the makeup giant's most 'natural lipcare and mineral color in one.'

Winter is a brutal season for many of us. Our lips really pay the price in the wind, snow, sleet, ice, and dry air. Lips don't have much defense against the elements. We have to step up and nourish them kindly.

It was 13 below zero for us early this morning. Our lips could seriously use some TLC. How about yours?

New Bottled Beauty Water From UK Gets Rid Of Acne?!

You read the above title correctly:

A new bottled beauty water that wipes bad skin away. Acne. Pimples. Blemishes. And it is clinically proven to clear up your zits. The magic ingredient being Praventin.

The one tiny problem to iron out.......Beauty Spring Water is only available to our friends in the United Kingdom at the moment. It's being distributed by Works With Water, a British nutraceuticals company.

Don't worry. You can't keep the good beauty train idle. Great products do make their way here to the United States and beyond, very quickly. Online shopping for Beauty Spring Water is just a few sips away.

We are just excited that the very smart beauty scientists are constantly trying to make our lives a little simpler, and yes, prettier.

If you've ever suffered with acne, then you know how low your self-esteem can go. Clear, smooth skin doesn't always come easy. Some of us have to deal with blemishes for several decades. And there's nothing more embarrassing than a huge zit on your face.

Beauty Spring Water has the clinical stats to show it works. That's if you can consume 2 bottles daily:

71 percent of pimples teens saw an improvement after a month of taking it, and after two months, that number went up to 95 percent.

In case you're curious, praventin is a bioactive protein full of acne-blasting lactoferrin. Lactoferrin halts the growth of propionibacterium, a bacteria responsible for skin impurities and blemishes.

The new beauty water costs about $2 a bottle. So for about $4 a day, you can have clear, glowing skin.

You have to admit---a bottle of Beauty Spring Water is so pleasing to the eye. Look at it. Butterflies. Colorful flowers and greenery.

Beauty Tips For Rockin' Red Lips In 2009

Kim Kardashian. Gwen Stefani. Christina Aguilera.

Talk about Hollywood glam. And check out their red lips in 2009!!!

For Gwen and Christina, red lipstick is their signature look. It's bold, and sexy, and confident. Wherever you see these Hollywood 'it' girls, their trademark pout is not far behind. Which brings us to raven-haired beauty Kim Kardashian.

Kim is always on the red carpet. And her signature look includes a very strong, smokey eye and natural brow, along with a paler lip. But now she's been kicking it up a few notches, by playing around with beautiful red lips, and toning down the eye makeup.

Kim is naming brands, and we all love that about her. We visited her website and picked up this little beauty tip nugget:

"Well, I love red lips, and I should wear them more often! It's so bold! I love how Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani wear red lips all the time. This color is by MAC and it's called Russian Red, with Russian Red lip gloss on top."



Here are a few tips when putting on a red mouth:

1. Use a lip liner in a tone that matches your natural lip color, before applying red lipstick. This will prevent the strong color from bleeding over into any fine lines around your mouth.

2. Simple is better. With a bright lip, you can be a bit more natural with your makeup, because red lips alone, are elegant enough. Forget the smokey eye.

3. Check your teeth every time you re-apply your red lipstick. You don't want any extra color ending up there.

4. Don't put on red lipstick in the back of a cab, as one makeup artist quipped. You need a mirror to carefully apply this bold shade.

We like the look of red lips. Our moms, grandmoms, and even great-grand-moms, often wore the shade proudly back in their time. Check out those vintage, black and white photographs and you will often see the bold and confident lips of our loved ones.

It's definitely a high maintenance look for us. We always end up with the smokier eyes and lighter lips. That's a bit easier. Now, if we had a professional makeup artist to call on 24/7 and a red carpet to walk by on, we would surely try and rock the red lips.

Is It Us? Or Did 2009 Golden Globes Feature Smaller Breasts??!!

No. This surely is not a scientific survey. But are we the only ones who noticed, that the red carpet at the 2009 Golden Globes Awards show featured gorgeous Hollywood actresses with smaller breasts? All with the exception of sexy Salma Hayek in her clingy Dior gown.

Usually red carpet affairs bring out the er, big cleavage--- either through carefully engineered and padded bras or through good old breast implants.

But last Sunday evening, Hollywood's finest looked, well, almost flat. And we loved it!! From Drew Barrymoore to Jennifer Lopez to Eva Mendes to Rachel Evan Woods to Debra Messing, all attractively pictured here. All with what appear to be small to average-looking breasts.

We also tried to figure out if these beauties were either skinnier than in past years, and therefore, appeared to be small-busted. Or whether these actresses all opted for a more demure look and minus the cleavage, with gowns that covered up their assets.

Whatever the case, we found the look refreshing, and assuring to those of us without the curvier silhouettes, that it's really okay to have smaller breasts.



Meantime, we investigated the so-called 'smaller breasts' look in a beautytiptoday article last September-www.beautytiptoday.com/2008/09/big-breasts-are-so-out-says-90210s-dr.html.

Look at what Dr. Robert Rey of the popular plastic surgery reality television E! show, Dr. 90210 had to say about big breasts.

But let's be honest here. Dr. Rey does see the trends in female beauty at his booming practice.

According to the good and handsome Dr. Rey, a woman's body should look as natural as possible. Dr. Rey spoke to the newspaper Primera Hora in Puerto Rico, where he recently visited, to promote his Shapewear line.

Dr. Rey commented that big, fake breasts, such as those of Pamela Anderson, ruin a woman's appearance. Ouch! Size D and DD, are so 1990's, he explained.

The star of Dr. 90210, says that women prefer curves, but of a more natural beauty trend, such as the bodies of Jennifer Aniston and Carmen Electra. That doesn't mean a woman shouldn't have breast implants, but Dr. Rey emphasizes that the proportions should not be unbalanced. A size B or C is enough, he adds.

We can't prove anything about the smaller or bigger curves of our Hollywood's beauties, and we won't even try. It was merely an observation, as we sat glued to our television sets, like so many many fans across the globe.

And we can say that Hollywood rarely disappoints us, especially this time around.

Clinique/Allergan Hook Up To Introduce New Post Procedure Formulas

If you've ever undergone a laser procedure or chemical peel on your face and neck, well, your skin can feel quite raw afterwards. Red. Sensitive. Swollen. Itchy. Peeling. Etc.

It would be nice to have a skin care line that targets before, during, and after non-surgical procedures. Beauty treatments that take away discomfort and keep skin primed for best results.

Look no more----Clinique and Allergan have hooked up to develop a new line of treatments that zero in on skin undergoing such non-invasive procedures. Recently introduced, the line is called, Clinique Medical.

It is by prescription only, and you can find it at your favorite dermatologist's office.

These treatments by Clinique Medical are superb for prepping skin. Clinique Medical offers a daily-use, pre, post and ongoing regimen created to optimize the results of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. The line also includes a treatment for the drying effects of certain prescription medications.

We checked out the website www.cliniquemedical.com, and found a list of treatments:

Meet the Clinique Medical lineup:
To reduce the chance of irritation, every formula is allergy tested, 100% fragrance free, and formulated without preservatives.

Pre Procedure
Probiotic Cleanser
Skin Conditioning Treatment
Optimizing Treatment Cream
Daily SPF 38
Post Procedure
Probiotic Cleanser
Recovery Week Complex
Daily SPF 38
Ongoing Care
Probiotic Cleanser
Optimizing Treatment Cream
Daily SPF 38
Further Skin Support
Dry Spot Balm

We are happy to see two skin care giants like Clinique and Allergan join great scientific minds, and develop a valuable line of beauty treatments for those of you undergoing non-invasive skin procedures.

Most times, women undergo serious skin-saving procedures and are left to recuperate at home with few, if any, after treatments. Clinique Medical is trying to change that and offer women and men a regimen to maintain that beautiful glow.

Amazing Aussie Naomi Watts' Beauty Tips

Can you believe Australian actress Naomi Watts is really 40-years-old?!

She is the proud mom of two little boys. She gave birth recently to her second.

Naomi Watts is a fresh-faced beauty. Very low maintenance. And she also has the type of facial canvas where you can create tons of different, attractive looks. Makeup artists love her features. You can build her look from girl-next-door to screen siren with just a little of this and that.

Maybe that's why Naomi is the new face of Thierry Mugler Angel. The fragrance is one with power and presence, and she loves dabbing it on in the evenings. Angel Eau de Parfum is available at fine department stores like Saks 5th Avenue ($177, 2.6 oz.).

Speaking of Mugler, he's also got a super mascara formula that Naomi Watts also adores wearing to special events at night. Thierry Mugler Flash on Lash Mascara ($28). "You get major length using this," she says.

We also learned from InStyle magazine recently, that Naomi doesn't go anywhere without applying sunscreen first. Her fav is Coppertone Water Babies Sunscreen Lotion ($18). This is the strong one with an SPF at 50.

"If it's sensitive enough for a baby, it's good enough for me," Naomi Watts told the magazine.

And running around with a new baby and an active one-year-old also means that the cinema star prefers the natural, pretty look for daytime. And Naomi adds warmth and a punch of soft color with Stila Cherry Crush Lip & Cheek Stain ($24, sephora.com).

"Gives a nice berry tint to lips and cheeks," she says.

Thanks for the beauty tips, Naomi.