R. writes:

I have a question because my mother has eczema on her heels and it’s really itching and the skin keeps coming off. She also has splits in her heels and its driving her crazy. The doctors tried a lot of stuff like tar and other things but nothing seems to be working! Have you ever heard of such a thing or do you have advice what we can do about it? Take care!

Hi!
Your poor mother!  Trying to manage eczema can be extremely frustrating.  If you’ve been to a doctor and nothing’s working for her, then there are several things I’d suggest. 

1) It might sound crazy…but try moisturizing with Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening.  It’s not glamorous and is more than a bit messy, but it really does work to soothe and hydrate painfully cracked skin! 

2) Suggest she modify her diet to elimate acidic foods, especially colas, coffee, alcohol and processed foods.  (You can see a chart here.  Some studies have suggested a correlation between an acidic body and eczema. 

3) Soak in dead-sea salts, which many people have found to provide relief (it has something to do with the high mineral content).  In fact, all dead-sea-based products will possibly help.

4) Finally, send her to a naturopath - they’ll try to identify the problem at the source and change whatever patterns she may be doing to cause it, rather than providing a temporary fix.  Some people don’t believe in naturopaths…but I think that’s a close-minded view, seeing as (once again!) many of my eczema-ridden friends have found more-permanent relief through them.  Good luck!

When I was at Ladies’ Home Journal, our beauty director was obsessed with Chandler Burr, and for good reason.  He’s the author of two books (The Perfect Scent and The Emperor of Scent) and has penned fascinating, loving, in-depth articles about fragrance for The New York Times, focusing not just on the technical aspects that make a scent sing, but on the ephemeral characteristics that transform it from good to divine.  Through Chandler’s articles, I discovered Hermes Un Jardin Sur Nil, finally gave Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely a much-deserved chance, and was vindicated in my adoration for Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (which he calls “a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old in a summer dress”).  (I’ve still yet to sniff Versace The Dreamer, but his description is mesmerizing!)  Check out Bella Sugar’s interview with Chandler here, and if you’re a perfume junkie, be sure to visit his website, as well. 

As a “beauty expert”, you might think I know absolutely everything in the world relating to beauty.  You would, in fact, be wrong.  I am all-too-frequently surprised, enlightened, guided and chastised by readers who take their beauty very seriously.  There are simply too many products in this world for one gal to be familiar with every…single…one, and even beauty editors (or former beauty editors, or whatever the hell you want to call me) play favorites, which leads to occasional laziness on my part.  (”Hmm…should I try this shiny, brand-spanking-new product?  Or should I use the same damn thing I do every other day of my life?  Not because I am a sloth–oh, no!  Because it is the best!  And I am too busy to use anything but the best!  Yeah, that’s it.  Er….anyhow, I’ll try the new thing tomorrow…I swear.”)  There’s a debate raging on the Jolie Facebook page about the best mascara, and several readers have piped up in favorite of Maybelline Full ‘n Soft…which I’ve never tried.  (Egads!  And, seeing as how often I’ve ragged on poor Great Lash, something makes me think the Maybelline publicists will not be sending me a free tube.  To CVS I shall go!)  With magazines dominated by advertiser concerns, I find that the best way to discover a great new (or old) product is by word-of-mouth, which is why I love hearing from you all, and why it tickles me pink when you email in or comment about your own favorite discoveries.  So, what are you waiting for?  Hit me up!

Join the Jolie NYC Facebook Group!

MAC makeup, in general, isn’t known for its subtlety.  You want nude…quietly chic…effortly tasteful?  Go Bobbi Brown.  Raucous color, wild shine, anything-goes fun?  It’s all MAC, baby!  A collection with fashion house Heatherette (they of the glitter and sequins and hot pink everything) was inevitable; I went to the launch party at the MAC store on Robertson Boulevard Thursday night, where I interviewed designers Traver Rains and Richie Rich–before they attacked me with a makeup brush and plied me with cocktails!

 Jolie: How do you sum up the line?    

Richie:  It’s paint-by-numbers–    

Travers: But you don’t have to stay within the lines!   

Richie:  We were going for a Kabuki-feel.  We think Halloween is the best holiday, and we wanted to capture that, like a drag-queen stumbling home at 4am.    

Travers: It’s fun and bright, but nothing that makes you look like a clown!   

Jolie: Which products are your favorites?   

Richie: I love Phone Me Text Me.  It’s a double-ended eyeliner (in Charcoal Gray and Metallic Silver), that’s both creamy and hard.   

Travers: Alpha Girl! (This is a coral-colored blush that Richie proceeds to spread all over my face–very brightening and flattering!)   

Jolie: Before you get stolen away (at this point, a woman in a Heatherette creation starts hanging on Travers), tell me quickly, who’s your style insipration?   

Richie: Madonna, circa 1987–love that! 

And then we snapped a quick picture (for a photographer, not for my personal collection alas!) and I was whisked away, a fruity martini presented to me.   Apparently Kim Kardashian and other Q-list celebrities (including The Blogger Who Shall Not Be Named) showed up later, but I was quickly off.  

My personal favorite products: The Eyeshadow Trios (Trio 1 is peach, turquoise and army green; Trio 2 is light pink, hot pink and dusky violet); Beauty Powder in Alpha Girl; And $$$$$ Yes nail polish in attention-grabbing silver (a shade that will soon be everywhere!)

Trio 1 

While K. was here, two things were tops on her list: spotting a celebrity (check!) and going makeup shopping at Sephora, a place not yet open in London.  She has a typical English-rose complexion, which is to say she’s fair, sensitive, dry and has a slight case of rosacea.  To further complicate matters (pesky Brit!), she wanted something luxurious…but not too expensive…and she’s gone organic—so no parabens, pesticides, or third-eye-growing ingredients allowed.   “What to do?” I fretted as we wandered through Sephora, me half-heartedly pointing toward lines here (too expensive!) and there (not organic!) and everywhere (gross packaging!) as K. frowned and rejected and denied.  Suddenly, the clouds parted, the birds chirped, and Amy Adams began running around the store screeching—we spotted Juice Beauty!  Organic?  Yes, siree.  Luxurious?  Like buttah.  And the price…very nice (especially for K.’s exchange rate).  Our purchases (which I sampled like mad back at the ranch): Antioxidant Serum, Cleansing Milk, and Nutrient Moisturizer.  I’m also currently coveting the Green Apple Cleansing Gel and Green Apple Peel, but unless the magic beauty fairies drop them off on my doorstep in the middle of the night, will have to content myself with my trusty standbys for now!

Living out in the Land of La means many things: an increased reliance on sunscreen, an inexplicable desire to pump my face full of collagen, the bizarre reality that Fabio is my gym buddy.  Sadly, it also means that I can’t attend most beauty events in New York City, since (wouldn’t you know it?) my private jet is broken.  Damn it all!  So, like a ray of sunshine, my New York City-dwelling, beauty-obsessing former roommate Deenie is stepping up to the plate, ready to report from the trenches.  She’ll be my gal Friday at New York desksides and events, passing along the honest, tell-it-like-it-is beauty scoop you’ve come to expect!

Direct from Deenie herself:  

“Hey Y’all!  There’s a new addition to the Jolie family…a big-grinning, beauty-loving, hair-dying addict–no, it’s not Nadine’s doppelganger.  It’s me, Deenie: Southern girl and beauty-lover extraordinaire!  I grew up with a mother who would stop me on my way out the door to make sure I had on my “lips” and “ears.”  (A Southern lady is always checking her assets from head to toe.)  To make matters worse (or better) my mother is Lebanese.  Maybe you don’t know any old Lebanese women…but my 80-year-old relatives look more like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra than someone’s grandma!  At the tender age of 15, I was already well-versed in night creams, thick and luscious body butters, oils for post-shower and—of course—sunscreen for daytime.  Thus began my love of and obsession with true beauty. 

After living with Nadine in New York for a year, I had been properly schooled on all the “need to knows” of beauty.  The day before she left, she handed me a luminous, brimming trash bag of delectable, new-and-barely-used products (do the words “trash bag,” “delectable” and “barely used” belong in the same sentence?!)  But to me it was a plethora of golden freebies, there to transform me into a goddess.  As a former dancer, I’m accustomed to witnessing beauty from both up-close and far-away, inside and out…so, if you’re willing, please allow me to contribute my thoughts and opinions from the ever-evolving world of New York beauty!”  

Deenie!

Presumably as a thank you to beauty bloggers for their support of the Lancome Christopher Kane Juice Tube collection, Lancome has sent a tube of our very own.  (The glosses, of course, were sold out everywhere, and in fact the gloss I received–NYC Cinnamon Soho–is the European version of Red Hot New York.  So, even Lancome public relations can’t get ahold of the coveted American version?!)  Juicy Tubes are beloved for a variety of reasons—the shine, the just-the-right-level stickiness, the sexy array of colors—but I suspect that it’s mostly to do with the adorable packaging, which the Christopher Kane collection has in spades.  (After all, despite my love for Lancome, it must be said that the Juice Tubes are awfully similar to the L’Oreal Colour Juice glosses, which are obviously cheaper at about $7.50 than the $18 a Juicy Tube will set you back.)  And now the agony begins….holding true to my promise of a few weeks back, I will not be keeping the gifted gloss for myself, but will instead include it in the beauty sale D. and I are having in a few weeks (more on this soon!)  I admit that I dabbed it on my lips and am today wearing it happily…but to the sale bin it shall indeed go.  Sigh.

Of all my traveling partners, K. has been my busiest and best frequent-flier-in-crime.  She flew in from London on Thursday for a long-weekend of socializing and reminiscing, and as we recounted for my new friends the list of places we’ve been together, even we were impressed.  (After meeting and living in Paris, we’ve torn a swath through London, Madrid, Toledo, Hamburg, Edinburgh, New York, Palm Beach, Miami, Panama, Las Vegas, and now Los Angeles.  Not too shabby!)  Sadly, we’re not as young as we used to be, and the only real mischief we managed was on Saturday, when we lunched at the Chateau Marmont (with Max Azria, by the by…Marc Jacobs seated at the table next to us) then went out dancing at Area and to a late-night party in the Hollywood Hills.  K. left this afternoon, tired, happy, and with makeup bags filled, and now I feel—to use her Queen’s English parlance—positively gutted.  I will have to rely on crappy new episodes of the latest Bachelor (British!) to get me through the pain.