More Retro Beauty Ads - When One Girl Is Not Enough

If one Veruschka-clone is not enough bring in a couple of girls and make it a trio or a four-way or an orgy of wild manes and fierce looking pouts for maximum effect. A few more images of retro glamour for your enjoyment...

Retro Beauty Ads

I am such a sucker for nostalgia that I just spent the last 15 minutes of my life browsing though hundreds of really cool vintage beauty ads on Flicker. It's so amazing to see what women really went through to keep up with beauty trends through the past 30 plus years and some of these fashions were pretty scary in retrospect. How long did one take to ready? Geez, some of those hair styles are sculptural to say the least! I am sure that in 3o years from now people will be saying the same things about our current beauty looks but nothing beats the late 60's-early 70's in out-there maquillage and funky hairdos. Love it!

Via C-Monster / Flicker

The Women Of Star Trek

These gorgeous 1960's space kittens were all featured on the Star Trek TV series and it's a time capsule for the beauty standards of the time. Great looks and expressions on their cat-eyed faces and bouffant hairdos. Love it!

Images

Via Flicker

500 Years Of Women Portraits

This video is an amazing compilation of 500 years of women's portraits, a hypnotizing ensemble of female beauty through the centuries, encompassing dozens of artistic styles. The music is a bit somber but you will disregard that as soon as you focus on all those enigmatic eyes staring at you with such beauty and grace. Definitely worth watching!

Dita Von Teese @ British Fashion Awards

Love-of-my-life Goddess Dita Von Teese arriving at London's British Fashion Awards earlier this month. Always a picture of perfection, Ms Von Teese does not disappoint with her flawless sense of style and elegance. I never get tired of posting pictures of this gorgeous creature as her beauty and grace should be celebrated and emulated. Click images to enlarge!

Via Celebrity Snap

Flavored Lip Balms @ Smackers

Humm...I am hungry already! These flavored lip balms from Smackers are surely delicious and I can vouch for that. It comes in an array of very realistic flavors and scents that make your mouth water as soon as you try it. Their yummy-wacky flavors include Dr. Pepper, Coca Cola, Orange & Grape Crush, 7Up, Skittles, Fanta and even Jell-O. My favorite is the M&M lip balm that tastes just like chocolate, even the texture will remind you of the creamy treat. Well, it will be creamy if you keep it in your pant pocket like I did. Price ranges from US$1.60 for a single, US$4.15 for a 3-pack and US$8.95 for a 8-piece variety pack.

To top it off they now offer scented bath products like shampoos, conditioners and shower gels in Skittles and Starburst, starting at around US$3.95 for a single. They also have some cool gift-packs with moisturizers, etc. Good for a stocking stuffer or that dreaded Secret Santa at work. Great last minute "cheapo" gift idea, no?

Available to order from Smacker's Color&Flavor site

Lip Print Art

DNA 11, an online company that creates personalized oil paintings from the buyer's DNA or fingerprint, introduced a new way for people to buy art--by puckering up. In partnership with cosmetics company MAC, DNA 11 now lets people buy a personalized painting by sending in a print of their lips, or what are called Kiss Portraits. DNA 11 has been selling on-demand paintings of people's genetic code for years. Its art work has even appeared on the crime show CSI as a fictional way to trace a killer, but technically that's not possible. To create a work, DNA 11 collects a sample of the buyer's DNA, which is immediately sent to a special lab. And then only a partial picture of the code is used to create an individual's painting--which typically looks like computer code on canvas.
Similarly with its new product, DNA 11 will send the customer a collection kit so it can create a high-resolution image of the lip print. The process begins with a Kiss collection kit that includes M.A.C. Viva Glam lipstick. The buyer can customize the color and size of paintings, which start at $290 and go up in price depending on size or framing. DNA 11 sells its art in museum stores such as New York's Museum of Modern Art and also online. With the Kiss Portraits, it's hoping to appeal to more women shoppers and a portion of every Kiss portrait goes toward the towards the M·A·C Aids fund.

Via News.Com

Comme des Garçons Builds Niche Perfume Empire

What do Daphne Guinness and Stephen Jones have in common - apart from their English eccentric style? They are both launching first fragrances under the auspices of Adrian Joffe, who heads up the company of his partner Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and has developed for her a fragrance empire.
The idea of Joffe as the beauty industry's new prince of perfume sounds unlikely. But, as Joffe says, there is an increasing demand for niche marketing in this area where big does not always seem so beautiful.
The proof is in the steady development of Comme des Garçons fragrances since the early beginnings in 1993. When its Eau de Parfum was launched around the swimming pool at the Ritz, it seemed more like a medicinal congress than a beauty event, as bags of yellow liquid were the decoration of choice.

Instead of the standard $50,000 launch parties that reverberated through the 1990s, Comme des Garçons brought out a different concept each year, with the 1999 series of "Leaves" a hit with customers.
But Comme des Garçons Parfum has remained an individualist and a family affair.
Jones explains that he worked closely with Kawakubo herself on his concept, saying "she's not a perfume person," but that "she is a very good editor."
While Kawakubo has always been labeled an iconoclast, Joffe has broken the mold in a more nuanced way. The Dover Street Market, set up as a London multi-brand store, was dismissed as an aberration in the era of brand retail flagships. But now, with its mix of cool and traditional fashion and accessories - not least from Comme des Garçons' own labels, the store is looking increasingly visionary.

The financial side is also moving ahead, with wholesale figures up 32 percent to $3.5 million for year end to May 2007 and profits rising by 50 percent. The new phase of development will see Comme des Garçons managing its independent names and paying them a royalty. "Our role is like a producer in a movie," says Joffe. "And like a producer, we have to be satisfied with the plot and the text."

Text by Suzy Menkes

Via International Herald Tribune

Kate Moss Rimmel Ads Banned

Rimmel Magnif’eyes Mascara ads featuring Kate Moss have been banned after complaints that the supermodel’s lashes were false. Ads for Rimmel said that the ‘Magnif’eyes mascara’ produced 70 per cent more lift, with a ‘unique vertical life brush’ helping wearers ‘get the London look.’
A spokesman for Broadcast Advertising Clearance Center in Britain says:

“Because we had not received documentary evidence that Kate Moss was not wearing false lashes in the ads we concluded that the images of the eye lashes in the press and TV ads may have exaggerated the benefits of the product, and were likely to mislead consumers. “
“We told Rimmel not to repeat the ad in its present form. We advised them to include a disclaimer in future ads where post production techniques had been used to increase the effects of a product, or where false lashes had been used. “

Gee, what about every single beauty ad these days, that are Photoshoped to death, promising miraculous results? Does anyone really believe that crap? TV ads are of the worse offenders too. Those shampoo commercials with the glowing hair, cascading in waves, can only be attained in an editing room. It sounds like plain hypocrisy to me.

Via Style Crunch

Yamamba!

Yamamba is a fashion trend among young Japanese women that always fascinated me. Whenever I see images of these over-tanned "slutty" chicks I wondered what make them tick. Starting with the bleached white hair and heavy tan of the "ganguro" girl, the yamamba adds white lipstick, white eye makeup, and sometimes brightly colored contacts, plastic clothing, and eye-catching accessories. Being a yamanba is to be an extreme practitioner of the ganguro fashion. Some yamanba wear stuffed animals as decorations, talk with a slurred speech, and enjoy shiny neon or day-glo colors. The term yamamba comes from a mountain hag, known as Yama-uba, whom the fashion is thought to resemble. Ganguro comes from "black face" or gangankuro that is "exceptionally dark". The deep ganguro tan is in direct conflict with traditional Japanese ideas of feminine beauty, that of the palest skin. They also speak with slang terms and use fashion in an unconventional way, being regarded as the "bad girls" of Japan. Their shorts skirts and platform shoes surely do not help their cause.

If Mariah Carey and Bozo had a baby girl in Japan she would grow up to be a yamamba.

The Shecky's Girls - NYC

I bumped into the Shecky's Girls the other day while walking down on Broadway towards Soho, in NYC, and couldn't resist their charm. They were promoting Shecky's girl's-night-out, "a 5½-hour DREAM evening—deliciously filled with endless fashion, glamour, beauty, shopping, cocktails, freebies, and fun", that is held throughout the country. The event is sponsored by Shecky's, a fashion & beauty web site that is quite popular with the ladies. They will be at the Puck Building in Soho, NYC, from the 8-12 of October.

For a list of all cities and date events click here