Check out Allure.com Daily Beauty Reporter Jessica Matlin’s take on her five current favorite volumizing mascaras.  Her picks include Avon Supershock Mascara, which she compares to DiorShow in terms of brush chubbiness. 

Ahh, DiorShow. 

Can I confess something here?  I might be the only beauty editor and makeup aficionado on the planet who doesn’t have spontaneous orgasms because of DiorShow’s so-called fabulosity.  Now, I like DiorShow.  I name check it in Beauty Confidential (page 110), and it is, indeed, very, very good.  But I always feel like I’m missing something when I read flowery, gushing, OTT reviews proclaiming it as The Best Ever!  Really?  Ever?  For me, the brush is just a bit too fat, and I can’t reach those tiny hidden corner lashes that you don’t notice until they’re defined (and then it’s, like, Wow!), and I find it awfully prone to clumping, and I simply can’t stand that rose scent.  I feel like I’m using my great-grandmother’s mascara from 1893.  Don’t get me wrong: I don’t stabby-hate it.  There will just be no babies made with it.  Et tu, beautés?

So, remember how I said I went to Miami this weekend for a day?  It all happened so quickly that I barely remember the actual trip!  Note to self…flying across the country for less than 24 hours is not reeeally worth it, unless Eddie Vedder will be waiting for you when you disembark.  I was invited by Nivea to attend the Shay Todd fashion show, and stayed at the Hotel de Soleil on Ocean Drive.  After the show, I went to the after party at Mokai, and then (randomly!) encountered a dear old friend at Set.  I’m working with Nivea to have a giveaway for you, so I should have those details Friday…stay tuned!

The Shay Todd fashion show at the Setai Hotel, sponsored by Nivea and (my favorite antioxidant cocktail!) VeeV

My room at the Hotel de Soleil

Another view of my sadly underenjoyed room at the Hotel de Soleil

Hotel balcony - with private jacuzzi!  No time to enjoy it, alas

Me, at the Shay Todd show.  I started off the evening with sleek, straight hair.  Five minutes later, I kid you not, I ran back to my hotel room to find a rubber band and put it in a ponytail.  How I ever survived south Florida summers, I shall never know.  (Oh, right, because I fled!)

Friends at Set

I’ll be radio-silent tomorrow since I (and all of my anti-frizz products) am flying to Miami as Nivea’s guest to attend the Shay Todd fashion show.  Never fear, my dears, as I promise to bring back some swag for you in the form of a product giveaway!  The whole trip is bound to wreck havoc on my skin–I’ll be in Miami for, literally, 15 hours, with barely even enough daylight time to visit the beach or dip in the pool–and part of me is like, “Um…why did I agree to fly across the country for drinks and a party?”  Sigh.  I can never turn down a free cocktail.

For once, Chris Harrison wasn’t kidding.  Last night, Bachelorette DeAnna Pappas chose snowboarder Jesse over puppy-dog-eyed dad Jason in the finale that I don’t think anybody saw coming.  (Um, except for me!; D. you totally owe me seventy-five cents.)  I guessed correctly that DeAnna would choose excitement and somebody her own age who could (theoretically) give her all his attention instead of going with the safe choice of a family she allegedly wanted with a man who’d always put her number two.  Don’t cry for him, Jason-lovers; I’m putting down money (D.? Anybody?) that, by this time next year, he’ll be engaged to a woman who fell in love with him through her television. 

I found Jesse extremely sexy and liked him and DeAnna as a couple more than I liked her and Jason; I think Jason is too good for DeAnna and that there’s somebody better suited for him out there.  Still, was it just me, or did DeAnna and Jesse seem insanely fake during the After the Rose?  (And Shayne and Matt didn’t seem too solid, either.)  Bachelor couples squeezing every last drop out of their “relationship” for the camera?  Well, I never!

The August issue of Vanity Fair features the fresh faces that are destined to become household names: Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Emma Roberts and Amanda Seyfried grace the cover, and inside are more beautiful kids that may become the next Julia Roberts (like, hey, her niece Emma!)…or become the next Gretchen Mol.  Tear!

Hooray for tooth whitening and airbrushing!

These kids star on a little show called Gossip Girl.  Maybe you’ve heard of it? 

More pictures from Vanity Fair after the jump!

(more…)

Last night, I attended an LA Film Festival screening of American Teen, the Breakfast Club-like documentary that everybody was raving about at Sundance.  Not only was it one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last year (second only, perhaps, to There Will Be Blood in terms of movies I loved so much I wanted to eat them) but I predict that the cast are all going to be huge stars.  My amigo Eli Gonda produced it, so I scored an invite to the pre-party on the Paramount lot.  As I walked up, I spotted a blond Adonis…a guy so gorgeous that I thought, “He must be a model.  An actor.  A greek God.”  Close enough: his name is Mitch Reinholt, and he was literally the prettiest man I have ever seen in person.  Ever.  (He’s photogenic enough, but in the flesh, I’m talking Brad Pitt handsome.  I cannot overstate this!)  The star of the movie, meanwhile, is Hannah Bailey, an intelligent, vulnerable, ambitious gem of a human being (she’s like The Hills‘  anti-matter) who will rocket into a major, well-deserved career if there is any justice in this world.  By the end of the movie, the entire crowd was cheering and clapping, so invested were we in the compelling lives of these kids.  (The story of “geeky”–yet adorable–Jake Tusing is particularly touching.)

After the screening, everybody headed to Delancey for the after-party, and I made my way for about five seconds before having (annoyingly, and unexpectedly) to leave.  It was Mitch’s 21st birthday, too.  Sigh. Oh, well.

Mitch Reinholt and Hannah Bailey.  Young love gone awry…sob!

I can summon absolutely no excitement for this cover, even after two cups of coffee.  I’ve just realized that it’s been months (nay…years?) since I’ve even cracked open a Vogue, which used to be one of my favorite magazines.  Why the magazine fatigue?  Honestly, it extends across the board nowadays.  I feel like I’ve read the same article over and over and over, and the images rarely excite.  Alas.  At least the movie Australia does look pretty cool (the trailer gave me goose bumps in the theater!).

Daria Werbowy, Kate Moss and some other hot chick (okay, Lara Stone) naked in a bed together…with fabulous hair to boot?  A fantasy that both men and women can get behind!  I cannot express to you how much I covet Kate Moss’s bangs and casual waves here.  Coaxing my cowlick-y frizz into beach babe perfection is something of a Jolie obsession, and considering how messy this style looks (and is supposed to look!) you wouldn’t believe how much flipping effort it takes.  My best method for waves after the jump:

  (more…)

I found out this weekend that TotalBeauty.com is sending me to Paris in October!  Apparently, more Jolie readers visited the TotalBeauty.com “Totally Green Sweepstakes” link than those from any other blog…so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!  (I hope it will make you proud to know that your clicks were more than double those of the number two blog!)  I’ll be attending the Beyond Beauty conference in the City of Lights and will report back to all of you on the latest, greatest and oh-so-chic in beauty. 

Your new mission, should you choose to accept it, is to click on the button below to visit the Spas of America website.  The blogger which sends the most traffic via link clicks will visit a spa and write an article for Spas of America/Total Beauty.  Can we prove, once again, that Jolie readers are far and away the most awesome?  Methinks we can!

By the by, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a few really spectacular spas in my day, so I’ll post all month on my favorites.  Stay tuned…

Billie Piper has been a huge star in the UK for years, as much for her personal life (at 18 years old, she proposed to and married then 35-year-old English millionaire Chris Evans, who she divorced six years later…without taking a penny…then invited to her second wedding) as for her acting career (not only did she star with David Tennant on Doctor Who, but she released a chart topping pop single called “Because We Want To”, becoming the youngest person ever to have a number one UK hit.)  Her new Showtime series Secret Diary of a Call Girl—based on the popular Belle de Jour blog about a secretary named Hannah who secretly moonlights as a prostitute—all but guarantees she’ll hit household name status over here soon, too.  I’ve always found Billie interesting because, while doubtlessly gorgeous, she’s not a conventional Hollywood-standard beauty: she has thick brows, strong features, a generous mouth, isn’t a size 0 and often is photographed in nerdy Buddy Holly-style glasses.  (Plus, she lives in Midhurst, England, my old stomping grounds.)  The more I’ve learned about her over the years, the more I like her. 

The raunchy, sexy UK ad..

And the cheerful American one for Showtime, which seems to say: “Yay, prostitution!  Isn’t it fun?”