Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York

Diamond Cuffs - just some of the luxury hip bling to go on display

Lord have mercy - is this a trade show that Pierce Mattians would actually enjoy attending? Oh come on! You and I both know that trade shows have hit rock bottom. The days of mass expo display are OVER. It's all about your niche beat and serving the buyer. And yes - a show on luxury bling has arrived in Los Angeles. Edy, Maryam and Pierce - well... we will see you there at L.A.'s Envy Expo, are you jealous?

The Envy Expo is billed as ‘The biggest show to hit L.A.’ A ‘one of a kind’ lifestyle showcase.

Celebrities from the worlds of film, TV, music and sport will be in attendance with ‘meet and greet’ autograph sessions, allowing the public to see their favourite stars amongst the spectacular multimillion dollar showcase areas of pimped out rides, jewelry, electronics, fashion, Playboy models and live music performances including the first live performance in Los Angeles this year by legendary rapper ‘The Game.’

Airing on MTV and ABC, the Envy Expo is being hosted by DJ Skee of L.A’s Hype Radio and includes live broadcasts from the show.

“Its gonna be crazy” said DJ Skee “Just stay tuned and rock with me. Its about to get real major”

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Multimillion dollar Jewelry Expo presented by Ballin’ magazine.
• Mister Cartoon will be there along with his personal collection of lowriders and luxury cars.
• DJ Ben Baller and the Air Macks Crew will shut down the event with a shoe collection beyond compare.
• Live celebrity appearances throughout the day.
• $160,000 Scarface Sand Rail
• Over $3 million dollars worth of vehicles including Phantoms, Bentleys, Lamborghini’s and more!
• Women’s Expo: See the latest in high-priced fashion and accessories.
• Much, much more…..

Tickets are available online for $20.00 and will also be available at the door for $30.00 the day of the show. The Envy Expo has been put together by Next Level Media – the innovators and originators of the world’s most intense productions.

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Like many women, shopping is my cardio. I feel a personal connection to every item I purchase and a pain in my heart anytime I happen to pass by a boutique or shoe store that has closed its doors forever. That said, imagine the agony I felt this morning as reports of Shop, Etc.’s closing rolled in. Apparently, an adoring readership and praise in focus groups isn’t enough. Advertisers are the lifeblood of most publications, and a circulation of 675,000 simply wasn’t impressive enough to the advertisers that would have kept them afloat.

For me, this closing is a double-pronged stab. First, as a shopper and confessed shoe-holic, the pages of Shop, Etc. provided me with eye candy even when I couldn’t leave my desk to go on a shoe binge. Secondly, as a beauty publicist who has to compete with advertisers for page space, the more mag pages out there, the better. Every time a publication shuts its doors, it lessens the opportunities for placements. I know what you’re thinking… how dare I lament the loss of placement space when there are people losing office space and very likely gaining more empty space in their bank accounts? My response: the space I occupy in my office is directly related to the amount page space I am able to acquire. Plus, the staff at Shop is so talented that I’m sure it won’t be long until I’m calling and bugging all the beauty girls at some other publication.

We already use bacteria to inject under the skin to get rid of laff-lines. Why do we love these wrinkel creating viral videos so much? "Ugly" men get "hot chicks" when they have a good sense of humor. The message, subliminal or viral, does seem to go down easyer with humor as a chaser. Viral videos are everywhere. It’s hard to escape the swarm of links I get from friends, family and colleges. These free, interesting and sometimes amusing videos spread over the Internet in almost pandemic speed. I have to admit, I've been guilty of forwarding them on to others when the clip makes me giggle (like a school girl) or those I find clever enough. Not all videos are truly viral marketing. In fact, most clips are just creative expressions, which entertain. Obviosly where ever you have an audience and peer-to-peer networks your going to find marketers trying to relate and persuade and advertise.

Here are a few videos, can you spot which one is viral and which are just entertaining?

Treadmill Fitness Equiptment Viral Or Music Video?

Questions asked by Media Orchard:

Q: How do you think the the emergence of blogs has affected PR Week in terms of readership and revenues?

Q: PR Week is New York-centric in its coverage. Is this a valid complaint? If so, what are you doing to address it, and if not, where do you think this misperception comes from?

Q: How has PR Week changed over the past couple of years -- both in its print and online editions -- and what if any of these changes can be attributed to blogs and Web 2.0?

Q: Some blog commentators have suggested that blogs will ultimately make the traditional trade media -- across virtually all industries -- obsolete. What do you think of this point of view?

Q: How does PR Week set itself apart from other trades such as O'Dwyer's, the Holmes Report, the Bulldog Reporter, and the rest? Have your points of differentiation evolved at all over time?

Something about these projects (I've seen a few over the years) that always grabs me. I know, many people think it's lame. Perhaps it's the voyeur in me. Here is your unique advertising opportunity Baxter Of California! How about a travel site? I want to see him on a beach, or visiting famous places around the world, it’s a little melancholy that all his recorded images are inside- he needs a tan, (product placement opportunity) how about some new threads? He obviously gets around as a photographer. I can see the big budget version of this. A big name beauty product. Ten year time laps and the female talent actually looks better at the end, because of the product of course! Would work best for a mid-sized privately owned cosmetic line like Jane Iredale. That way the owner could do the real time laps "herself". Definitely a back burner concept.

The Simulated Lifestyle Game Is Almoste Here! Desperate Housewives, hitting stores October 5th (Nationwide), players can take on the role of the newest housewife and cheat, spy, sneak, and flirt their way through Wisteria Lane's seemingly perfect neighborhood.

"Unlike other "Sims Style" games -this game is compleatly different"

The Sims meets every woman's "guilty pleasure" in what looks to be a promising title.

For more on screen action view our Desperate Housewives Playlist with clips about how it is different from other SIMulation games and get a sneak peak about the new games shocking ending!

The game will give players control over their in-game persona and early reports suggest the title will resemble the hugely popular Sims series of games.

As another desperate housewife, players will be able to expose or engage in the domestic scandals that are the show's signature.

"You can be as nice or as mean as you'd like to be," said Mary Schuyler, lead producer for the game.

Buena Vista Games, which will distribute the title, said it was negotiating with other members over their appearance in the game.

The company said it hoped the game would prove popular with fans of the TV show and convert some of them into regular players.

The game is being made by Liquid Entertainment which is better known for its real-time fantasy strategy titles.

It's been a few weeks since Good magazine launched. For those who are not in the know, Good magazine encourages and inspires conscious global citizens to band together and "give a damn." I was following up on the LA and NY launch parties via posts on GOOD magazines own blog (the site is integrated into a blog) and ran head first into a truckload of published spam comments.

I'm not talking about Astroturfing, or shameless plugs that help the cause. The really offensive stuff! It's like nobody has been on watch at Good for the last 15 days, and that isn't so Good after all. On September 25th Good's blog spambot sold out to the bankers, sex industry and drug companies! They all should make a large contibution todoy.

The Goods on Good Magazine: Clean website design, nice magazine layout. Both are easy to navigate/read –stimulating mix of content that will reach several demographics. Good Magazine Departments:

Cover, an arresting visual and verbal statement that presents insight and/or commentary on a current focal point of our culture.

Graphic Statement, a visual interpretation of the issue theme

Look, A bold visual tour of creative ideas around the world

Last week I was out for cocktails with a few other business owners in the service industry. One was a skin care manufacturer, the second was a clothing line designer and the third was the owner of a large fitness chain of health clubs.

We got into an in depth discussion about managing client relationships

We were discussing how to repair a client relationship where things have gone wrong, for example clients whose expectations are unrealistic, clients who are abusive towards the staff and those clients who for whatever reason have become dissatisfied with their service.

The Wall Street Journal had run an article on entrepreneurs a few years back where I was quoted by saying “My New Year’s resolution as a business owner is to only work with people, places and things I really care about and that respect my team, work and over-all business ethics.”

1. Choose clients carefully

4. Live Up To Your Own Standards. Give What You Expect, Set The Example.

If you have done all your work working with your clients and have defined what you can achieve and there are still insurmountable problems, then it is time to re-evaluate whether that client is appropriate to have.

About a month ago we had a client call the office and demand that I get on a conference call. The brand was new to the market, had very little distribution (only one salon in New York) and the consumer awareness was simply not there (she refused to do salon events with us). The owner had worked with two other PR firms before us (our biggest competitors) for about two years who both did not secure the regional and national glossy press that the client was looking for. We were given about 3 months to change her entire media platform and correct the damage that the other PR firms had done during the course of two years. Naturally I slipped off my dress shoes, undid my tie, sat back in my chair practiced my breathing exercises and then took her call.

It seems these days that celebs across all industries are teaming up for a good cause. Whether they’re simply donating massive amounts of excess income or using their celebrity status to draw attention to a cause, a large number of celebrities are reaching out to the public in hopes of making a difference. Recently, some have even gone so far as to adopt children in incredibly impoverished countries (Madonna in Malawi, Angelina in Cambodia and Ethiopia).

In recent news, two of the biggest household names have teamed up to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa. Bono, the U2 frontman and ultimate philanthropist (it seems like his name is somehow connected to every charity in this country), and Oprah, the talk show host we all know and love, have combined forces to promote the Product Red campaign. As part of the effort, proceeds from products sold at various retailers, including The Gap, Apple, Converse, Armani, and Motorola, will go to The Global Fund, an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The Gap will be debuting their Red Line of clothing this week, where half of the profits will go to The Global Fund. Apple has created a new red-colored iPod nano, and will donate $10 from the sale of each item to the cause. The effort has attracted the attention of many other celebrities (several of them posing in Gap ads) hoping to make a difference, including Kanye West and Penelope Cruz.

In explaining the idea of getting consumers involved, Bono posted on his blog: “‘Product Red’ is the consumer battalion gathering in the shopping malls. You buy the jeans, phones, iPods, shoes, sunglasses, and someone - somebody's mother, father, daughter or son - will live instead of dying in the poorest part of the world. It's a different kind of fashion statement.” Good job, Bono- the Product Red Campaign began last spring in the UK and has already raised more than $12 million for African AIDS programs.

Beauty Bloggers are welcome, space is limited! Bloggers outside of of the NYC area can register for advanced media kit to be sent day after the event.

In honor of the launch, Pierce Mattie Public Relations is hosting a cocktail party in her honor. In a true celebration of beauty, grace and style, Jane Iredale's GLOBAL BEAUTY event will highlight style influences from Cleopatra to Beyonce in the event of the year! We invite you to share in this iconic celebration. To RSVP, please contact Lauren Branche or Ivy Cartagena at 212/243.1431

Pop!Tech’s mission is to inspire people everywhere to change the world by fostering visionary conversations about science, technology and the future of ideas. Held annually since 1997 in the seaside village of Camden, Maine, the Pop!Tech conference unites the world's most prominent thought leaders to network, share ideas, and discuss the effects of technology on society. The conference's roster of speakers and its unique format have earned international acclaim. For more information, visit http://www.poptech.org.

It's always hard when a client leaves your agency, especially ones that have been with you for a very long time. For those of you who have felt the hit this year as budgets get crunched in the fourth quarter, keep in mind that nothing - and I mean nothing is as bad as having a client of 20 years say "good-bye" - especially if that client is Wal-Mart and your name is Omnicom. I do wonder though with all of the changes going on at the low cost leader - if PR is something that they are tossing around? Not just any kind of PR, I am talking market placement editorial PR. Could they also be on the search for a new PR firm? Rumors that Metro 7 - their new fashion line was being cutand its distribution dropped have sent Wal-Mart watchers into a state of 'what's next?'

Did they really think the 'get skinny pant' would sell to their customers? I doubt the Barney's customer can barely fit into them. Seriously though, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is severing ties with another longtime ad agency as it struggles to communicate its new image of being both a trend purveyor and a low-price operator.

We all hear about the richest and most powerful people in the country, but one of them always seems to stand out. Not only is Oprah Winfrey one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry, but she’s also one of the most generous. Always finding a way to share her wealth with others, she has just given away over $300,000 to her audience in what she calls her “favorite giveaway ever.”

Every year around Christmas, Oprah does a “favorite things” show in which she gives her lucky audience members hundreds of dollars worth of items that she’s fond of at the moment- goodies from last year’s show included Burberry coats and purses, iPods, UGG boots, Ralph Lauren sweaters, watches, and blackberries, as well as her favorite croissants, popcorn and cookie dough. In other shows, Oprah has given away cars, homes, vacations, eliminated debt, and paid medical bills for those who are less fortunate.

However, this most recent giveaway is unlike anything she’s done before. On Monday’s show, Oprah gave more than 300 audience members $1,000 debit cards sponsored by Bank of America for them to donate to a charitable cause of their choice. The surprised recipients have the choice of either giving the entire sum to one person (relatives not included) or splitting the money amongst several charitable causes.

On the show, Oprah said “You're going to open your hearts, you're going to be really creative, and you're going to spend it all at once on one stranger or spend a dollar on every person. Imagine the love and kindness you can spread with $1,000”. What a great message to spread, Oprah- using your wealth and influence to help others in need is one of the kindest things you can do.

I have been in the beauty industry for about 12 years and doing beauty pr for about 7 years. And in all of my years of experience with press releases especially those that that go out on the wire I have never ever seen one as damaging as the one that Russ Fons PR in Las Vegas ran today about their client; National Toxic Encephalopathy Foundation (NTEF) and their opinion on Clarins Cosmetics. You can view the horrific release here.

In this release the NTEF states in great detail on the extensive damage and misleading labels of the Clarins brand, so they claim.

What’s odd though is that John Sheppard the director of the foundation states that you are putting your health at risk if you use these products. I don’t know about you but I see a huge lawsuit taking place from Clarins. I am sure executives at Clairns are beyond miffed about this release. What’s even odder is that all of the ingredients used by Clarins are found in most other top selling brands. One would assume that NTEF is crucifying Clarins based on a personal agenda and not on logic.

However was John Sheppard not aware that Clarins recently acquired Kibio an organic skin care manufacture who has gone into negotiations on creating new products together? I posted about this on my other blog a few weeks back. You can view that post here.

Life Clever (tips fro design & life) by Chanpory Rith: 5 Writing Tips That Don't Suck (via) Copyblogger

A PR Guru's Musings: Q&A on innovations in public relations

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing "Longs for a good publicity stunt"

BusinessWeek.com: Wal-Mart: A "Reputation Crises" The giant retailer has been trying hard to improve its image and reignite sales

Idea Grove: Introducing Spin Thicket: Media Orchard "Easier way to keep up with the news"

Eric Eggertson:
Mutually Inclusive PR and Strumpette: Backlash Against Crayon's Second Life Launch

For a long while celebrities have been pretty vocal about their political beliefs. They are not strangers to being used by both political parties to taunt their positions or to help in raising money for their party through their celebrity clout.

Some say that celebrities and politics don’t mix. After reading a recent article by Jeff Davidson on TMZ.com, 90% of me agrees. Many celebrities put their faces in commercials or join a campaign to tell people to vote. Yet, one celebrity in the 2004 Vote or Die campaign turned out to be all lip service. Or there are those who threaten leaving the country if a political figure is re-elected; remember Alec Baldwin? That is what bothers me the most. Celebrities who talk and talk and won’t shut up (and then make money off of their chattering) or those who take a punch during a concert, but quite honestly don’t do a darn thing to help foster change. Am I alone in this annoyance?

Still warming up to Second Life? I am asked about it almost daily and wanted to get some basic info posted for those friends who read our blog consistently. Backstory is here. Follow the links.

New World Notes

From April 2003 to February 2006, I was a contract writer for Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, primarily hired by the company to cover SL as an embedded journalist in an emerging society-- its controversies, its personalities, its innovations and ambitions, along with larger themes of identity, social norms and organization, and cultural expression important to online worlds in general.

That contractual relationship has ended, but the story continues here. -Wagner James Au

Second Thoughts Do's and Dont's for Big Business.

"Every human being is interested in two kinds of worlds: the Primary, everyday world which he knows through his senses, and a Secondary world or worlds which he not only can create in his imagination, but which he cannot stop himself creating." W.H. Auden

Second Life Herald The Second Life Herald was founded on October 23, 2003, by philosophy professor Peter Ludlow. Its mission, as described the next day, was to observe, record and study "the legal, social, and economic implications" of life in the virtual world. Originally established as the Alphaville Herald and reporting for the most part on life on the Alphaville server of The Sims Online, the Herald soon branched out into coverage of other massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds -- helped along by the murder of Herald publisher Urizenus (Ludlow's avatar) after Electronic Arts got wind of the stories the newspaper was printing about the scams and cyber-prostitution that were taking place within its game, and the company's indifference to reports of real-world violence.

I know this isn't exactly breaking news for everyone. However, for those who have lives and don't live and shop online exclusively, this may be news to you, it was to me. Many "recommendation" sites are popping up all over the Internet, yesterday a Fashion blogger referred me to one that is getting kudos in the New York Times; ThisNext.com. I was impressed just how organized this site was and even more impressed to find fashion and beauty bloggers I know doing Shopcasts there, such as Kristopher Dukes, The Jewelry Weblog, and Lola is Beauty.

What's a Shopcast? It's basically shopping and broadcasting combined. It's a playlist of products you recommend and you run them on a badge on your site and they also run on the ThisNext site, as well. You can create wishlists and also make recommendations by downloading a few buttons for your browser.

There are some really great recommendations just waiting for you to discover them, or if you feel so inclined, for you to make them at ThisNext.com

Two years ago, by chance, I came across Elke von Freudenberg on a group that we both happened to be apart of. Without knowing too much about her, beyond her love for cosmetics, we began a friendship. One that I cherish deeply.

So when Elke told me she was asked to be the Makeup Artist for Harper's Bazaar China, I knew that when the November edition came out, I wanted to be the first to proudly boast about it to the world.

Today I had the chance to briefly interview Elke:

• Communication Arts: This year’s interactive design winners were selected by our distinguished jury from a group of entries including Web sites, Kiosks, CD-ROM projects and PDA's.

• Strategic Public Relations: PR Industry: Improve Your Writing -Kevin Dugan

• Salon.com: Fake News, Fake Reporter: Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated access to daily White House press briefings? -By Eric Boehlert

• Online Media Daily: Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Puts Edelman Public Relations on probation for creating fake Blogs (flogs) for client Walmart

• Customer Listening Blog: WOMMA Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines: 10 Principles

Do you seem to be losing customers lately? Is your customer base and sales simply not increasing? Consumers are telling you all of the time what they want, but are you paying attention? Do you genuinely listen to what they want? Or do you feel comfortable with the way things are?

Here are five things that consumers want from a business both online and offline:

Funny when I was in Las Vegas this week for the ISPA show the taxi driver that picked me up was complaining on how the town was blowing things up. Little did I realize that it was the famous Stardust. The home of my favorite cheesy movie; Showgirls! As most hotels turn into resorts and expand their spas like Caesars Palace did this month with their new spa tower, the old players cannot keep up.

The Stardust, the neon-wrapped casino with a mobbed-up past whose 1,065 rooms once set the standard for size on the Las Vegas Strip, witnessed its last roll of the dice Wednesday.

Wistful longtime employees and loyal gamblers gathered for a last farewell to the iconic 48-year-old institution, which is to be razed early next year to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s planned $4 billion Echelon Place resort.

The Stardust opened July 2, 1958, as the world's largest hotel and catered to middle America with $6-a-night rooms and low-minimum stakes gambling.

But as bigger, classier casinos sprung up around it in the late 1980s and '90s and patrons began shelling out more for rooms, food and drinks, its luster began to fade.

"I'm really going to miss this place," said Jimmy Kunihiro, a 60-year-old Honolulu resident, as he took a last pass at the craps table. "It's a home away from home."

MenEssentials President, James Whittall has some helpful advice for hairy men who want to be smooth all over and shave like a man: This may surprise you, but at least one-sixth of the search engine referrals we receive each month are for men — ordinary guys, like you and me — who want information on how to shave their privates.

Squirm all you like. There's an immense subculture of eroticists who claim a bald bag makes for better sex. Indeed, when I went online to research this subject, I counted no less than a dozen serious human sexuality web sites with entire sections devoted to the art of sensual shaving.

Unfortunately, few of these resources offers tips on how to safely and hygienically perform this most delicate of procedures. Never one to shrink (pun intended) from the outrageous, I hereby offer my thoughts on the subject.

A Disclaimer
Personally, I think genital shaving is ill advised. A botched job can lead to intense irritation or, worse, permanent falsetto. Don't say I didn't warn you.

And a Warning
If you have sensitive skin that ordinarily reacts to shave creams or gels, then do not ever shave your pubic area or testicles. This region is much more sensitive than your face. Your allergic reaction could be spectacular.

What is Beauty? Many great visionaries, writers, poets, philosophers, and artists have tried to express in words or in images the meaning of beauty. These thoughts are rich in the wisdom they express and they resonate with each of us differently.

Man makes holy what he believes, as he makes beautiful what he loves. -Ernest Renan

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart. -Helen Keller

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. -John Keats

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. -Khalil Gibran

Beauty is not real. Beauty only exists in perception. -Unknown

Working in the beauty industry, our attention can be so focused on making the external beautiful - skin creams, lotions, lipsticks, mascara, hair extensions, serums, masks, gels, and the list can go on and on. These are products that help us feel beautiful, improve our looks, accentuate the positive, and give us confidence.

Women frequently struggle with how to integrate their external and internal beauty, and with all of the mass market imaging and airbrushed celebrity role models, it hasn’t been easy. But the times they are a changin’ and one of the foremost trends today is beauty integration. What does this mean? It means that women are more comfortable than ever with themselves and their looks. It means that when they purchase beauty products, they want them to look, taste, sound, and smell good - and the products must feel great on both the outside and the inside. External beauty has become experiential, it has become customized, it has become inclusive, and it has become multi-dimensional.

Being that as a nation we are about to celebrate Thanksgiving, a truly national holiday, meant for everyone, also integrative and inclusive, I suggest that we be thankful for how the meaning of beauty is growing to include what makes us feel good on the inside. Internal and authentic beauty will always remain rooted in our hearts, in our spirits, and in our ability to share ourselves with others unselfishly. Happy Holidays!

• Personal Care Appliances - Global Strategic Business Report : This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Personal Care Appliances in Thousands of Units.

• Spinduggery, The Flack: Peter Himler posts about Jeff Jarvis' snarky comment insinuating PR professionals have dishonesty in their DNA. Jeff Jarvis, being the 'spin'-ster he is, should love the quote "you can’t polish a turd."

• KFC Logo Relaunch - From Space, Near Area 51: I know all of you are saying "I thought of that months ago." Ever since Google launched satellite imagery on its maps, I've wanted to pitch this idea to a client. While not the first, KFC is doing it on a grand scale; a nice publicity stunt. For those of you who know my New York address, you can see me on the roof of my apartment building with my dogs, frozen in time from space.

• Loyalty VS. Advocacy CRM Lowdown: Most companies think that their job is done when they manage to convert a regular customer into a loyal customer. They tend to forget the guy because now ‘he can take care of himself.' Wrong! Once you’ve converted a customer, your job becomes even more difficult.

• Link Karma From The Copyblogger: 21 Surefire tips for a successful blog launch, 10 things to consider when choosing a site meter, and the five W's of great content.

• Hotels offer lots of freebies during winter (just not in New York City), The Mercury News: Winter travelers can take advantage of a number of hotel deals. Properties are offering free nights, free gift cards, special rates and other perks.

• How To Stop Comment Spam Without Lifting a Finger, Tubetorial: If you're a wordpress user, you have to visit tubetorial. Quick, easy-to-understand flash video - enjoy.

• The European Newspaper Design & Concept Awards Europe‘s most innovative newspaper 2006: Look and learn. This year, Europe’s best designed newspapers come from Belgium, Norway, Finland, Portugal and Spain. 287 newspapers from 26 countries participated in the eighth European Newspaper Award.

We'll return to posting about luxury, lifestyle and wellness on Friday. Enjoy the cartoon and whether it's a extra long walk around the park with your dogs, raking leaves, a jog, turkey-ball in the backyard or shopping – physical activity over the holiday need not be strenuous to be good for you. Remember that short bursts of activity, three times a day, can pave the way to better health.

Here is our first public service announcement. Car owners be advised, static charge or a "shock" can set off an explosion at the gas pump! I thought Mythbusters busted this myth a long time ago? However the Los Angele's Fire Department asks you to be aware of the danger. They posted this gas station footage on it's blog. Poor girl gets the shock, then slight explosion of her life at the filling station. Perhaps someone should design grounded gas pumps or at least a metal poll shoved in the cement (grounded) next to each pump that's says "touch me, I might save your life." Perhaps a car company could pay for it and capitalize on the issue, in exchange for a little positive press?

We're reviewing a few of the new game councils out on the market. We love our computer-platform lifestyle games, (Desperate Housewives, the game) but knew we were missing out on HD (1080i), surround sound, game-matching, leader-board enhanced experiences that the new counsels offer. So we've decided to fully immerse ourselves in the gaming lifestyle and it's become very serious (fun) research. I happen to have received one of the Xbox360 platforms so your probably going to hear more about it in the future then the Sony PlayStation 3 as I blog more then the other participating game platform "researchers." Look for some posts on our discoveries in the near future.

Above you can see my gamertag. Please comment here if you have an Xbox360 gamertag. I wanted to offer an invitation to add me as a friend or email me your gamertag if you don't want your tag to be posted publicly. Steve Rubel, I know you have one...how about a little friendly competition?

Joanna Roche is the Senior Managing VP of Pierce Mattie Public Relations. She has a proven track record of success and corporate experience. She is high energy and passionate about her work, which makes her direct, up front, realistic approach with Pierce Mattie PR clients what makes her a true asset.

Joanna is a married mother of a 2-year-old son, who loves to run, cook and travel. The best way to describe her is balanced. She loves to dive into her work, yet still maintain the proper balance of her hobbies and family life. Joanna is goal oriented and believes that nothing is impossible.

Tell readers about a typical day as VP of Pierce Mattie.

There is nothing typical about being a VP at Pierce Mattie PR! Every day is different and it is one of the things I love about my job. Most days include working on new business, coming up with creative ideas to promote our brands, meeting with clients, nurturing the staff and helping them develop pitches and reach editors, and keeping abreast of trends and happenings in the PR world.

In our continued effort to support bloggers and citizen journalists we are opening up our vote for Publicist of the Year to you. In the past we have only asked the media and producers to participate. If you've worked with any of our publicists, please vote today.

Microdermabrasion is a nonsurgical cosmetic procedure that has been increasing in popularity in recent years. While many over the counter brands are now offering their products for the purpose of Microdermabrasion, it is still best to have the treatment done by a skincare professional and/or using the products developed by one.

While simply exfoliating your skin is something you should be doing on a weekly basis, Microdermabrasion is a more effective treatment to treat fine lines, crow’s feet and acne scars. It’s use of a polishing your skin with crystals to resurface your skin is a safe alternative to chemical procedures and can be successfully done on all skin types. This resurfacing of the top layer of skin removes the dead skin cells and helps with the regenerating of new skin cells. With this top layer of dead skin cells removed, application of lotions and creams are more effective at moisturizing your skin. Most treatments can be done in 30-60 minutes and do require several follow up treatments. To maintain that healthy glow, maintenance treatments should also be done.

Dermalogica on Montana offers exfoliating treatments like Microdermabrasion. As with any skin treatment you are considering, you should first be seen by a skin care professional to ensure that this is the correct treatment for you. Dermalogica offers Face Mapping in which licensed Dermalogica skin therapists analyze your skin from forehead to collarbone, identifying potential problems, unique needs, and how to treat them professionally. Face Mapping only takes 10 minutes and is free.

Take an inside look into a Skin Treatment Pod at Dermalogica on Montana (the brands flagship store):

Glam Media, a widely popular beauty, fashion and lifestyle network, has acquired $18.5M in Venture Capital led by Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures, with participation from Accel Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, WaldenVC, and Information Capital. As part of the financing, CNET chairman and E. W. Scripps board member Jarl Mohn is joining the board of Glam Media. Glam Media’s website boasts a robust 8 million visitors per month.

Glam will be using some of these funds to purchase other companies that are either Web 2.0 technology companies or those with a very secure vertical platform with a highly engaged and targeted audience. As you might remember from my interview with Jeremy Wright of b5media, he really felt that vertical companies were the way to go.

Glam intends to spread its wings and expand internationally and add to its sales and editorial team. Glam has also announced that it has signed on with Hearst Magazines to distribute content from Marie Claire on their websites, as well as linking to and promoting other Hearst Magazines for subscription.

Glam Media became an idea in late 2002 and was launched at Fashion Week in September of 2005; the Glam Network soon came to life in December of 2005. Considering the fact that it has only been a little over a year that Glam Media has been on the web, I would have to say that their ambitious goals and the hardworking behind-the-scenes individuals are what make Glam Media the mega-success they are today. As a beauty Blogger about to have her blog join the Glam Network, I am more than excited to see such growth and focus in this company.

My skin and I have been at odds with each other for the longest time. I don’t necessarily have normal to oily skin, but dry to oily skin. It’s really been a quagmire to find a product that won’t further dry out the dry areas, but won’t also moisturize too much in the oily areas either.

Several weeks ago I began using Epionce’s Lytic Gel Cleanser and Purifying Lytic Toner, both are geared towards problem skin types. Both products are fragrance free and non-comedogenic. I was, of course, skeptical that this would be the product to reduce that shine, yet still keep the dry sections of my face from further damage.

Before I even get into how the product worked, I liked right away how the Lytic Gel Cleanser’s top had an open/close twist to it. This is perfect for when you have to travel and pack it away, so that it is not leaking all over your clothes. Furthermore, as a parent, it means little fingers cannot get a hold of it and pump away my precious product.

So you made a New Year’s resolution to get in shape and be healthier, but you are overly addicted to grabbing that muffin when you buy your Starbucks coffee. Well no need to worry about your Starbucks addiction any longer, eating their treats such as muffins and doughnuts now became healthier on January 3rd, minus the trans fats.

While those in New York City are aware of the ban on artificial trans fats and their transition out of the food industry, Starbucks has decided to begin removing trans fats from their food menu across the country. It will begin in a few select cities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Philadelphia and then eventually have all 5,600 coffeehouses throughout the U.S. at zero trans fats. Trans fats are believed to be harmful and thought to be the reason cholesterol levels continue to elevate.

So will this draw an even larger appeal to Starbucks in the coffee wars? It seems logical, more so in these first few months of the year when New Year’s fitness goals are in full swing and possibly again when we jump into getting ready for bathing suit season. Certainly it is more alluring to buy a “healthier” muffin with that delicious Starbucks coffee than it is to drink a McDonald’s Green Mountain coffee and an egg mcmuffin.

The area in which I live is known to have character. Each house is different, or has historic presence, and stands out among other places nearby. There really is no “big business” in our area overcrowding every street corner and making their over domineering corporate-America presence known. This is a place that embraces entrepreneurs.

So when driving down a road I haven’t traveled in a while, I noticed something out of the ordinary; cookie cutter houses. A new development was being built and each house looked exactly the same. Their yards were the same, with the same tree in the same spot, and the grass all the same length. Nothing about these houses or this development had anything exceptional to them. They lacked character.

I decided to share what the topic was at "show and tell" time in our weekly management meetings in the New York Office. This weeks discussion was a review of Liz Wilson's Telling It Straight article. I will post the article here, then invite Pierce Mattie members to comment along with any comments you may have.

What quality do employees most want from business leaders?

A clear vision of the way ahead, perhaps? A charismatic leadership style? Political or business acumen?

Of course, we demand all those qualities in leaders. But a recent piece of research points to a different quality as being the top priority for many employees.

A survey of over 1,000 employees found that what they most want from their leaders is authenticity, honesty and clear communication. In other words, straight talk.

Many professional communicators already sense this and are counselling business leaders to adopt more open communication measures. But this message isn't always getting through. "Too much value is placed on charismatic leadership: Boards select leaders for their dazzle and the biggest plaudits are saved for those whose profile is often bigger than that of their organization," notes CHA, the consultancy that commissioned the research.

The straight talking survey identified four communication styles among business leaders:

Controlling
Understated
Charismatic
Considerate

Controlling Communicators don't really communicate at all. They are perceived as arrogant, cold and insincere. In the workplace environment, they are seen as strong on business acumen but failing to provide staff with enough information. Rupert Murdoch, boss of News Corporation, is cited as an example.

Yes, I know it's not a scoop, but I wanted to post about Clive Owen, a 41-year-old British actor, has been hired to be the latest celebrity to market products for the L'Oreal owned beauty company, Lancome. Previous celebrities that touted the brand are Uma Therman and Mena Suvari, among others. Lancome's hope is that his charming and rugged look will attract more men to feel comfortable purchasing skincare products.

"The way he has built his career so far, privileging the quality of the director rather than the high-profile nature of a role, makes us feel very confident in the fact that if he chose to accept this collaboration with Lancome, then it truly means our partnership was meant to be,"

Owen is reported to be getting $2.5 million pounds (you do the math to convert that to US$) for the advertising campaign. Owen will be appearing in ads for Lancome's new men's grooming line, called Lancome Men, which includes fragrance and anti-aging products. The ad campaign and products will launch this Spring in the US. However, you can see the products now on Lancome's international website.

If you want to read more about what's going on in the Beauty Industry, be sure to check out our Beauty PR blog.

It was announced last week that David Beckham would be an ex-Real Madrid player come June and soon to become part of the Los Angeles Galaxy thereafter. David Beckham is quite the stellar star in the UK, but can his star continue to shine in a country whose favorite national past time is baseball?

He may have given his kids strange names, but David Beckham is 100% committed to sons, Brooklyn and Romeo.

David Beckham is multi-talented and has capitalized upon those talents well, as has his wife Victoria. He is also a lifestyle brand in and of himself. Steve listed a while back some of the many ad campaigns that Beckham has been involved in. Since then he has come out with a His and Her fragrance with his wife and now the $250 million dollar contract to play soccer here in the US. That means $50 million per year to play a sport that many in the US don’t care much about. Ok, I actually love Soccer second to Football, however I know I am in the minority.

I decided to ask a few Sports Bloggers what their thoughts were on Beckham coming to the US and the very enticing price tag. Geoff Young at Knuckle Curve made a good point regarding David Beckham’s contract at $50 million per year. Baseball is considered America’s pastime with the highest paid player, Alex Rodriguez, being paid $25.2 million a year. When I heard this, I also decided to look into who the highest paid NFL player was and his salary. Michael Vick gets $23,102,750 million each year for his contract with the Atlanta Falcons, while Donovan McNabb signed a long term contract for $105 million over 10 years, however in Football there are no guaranteed contracts.

I’m not going to pretend to be a New York City princess, heck I don’t even live in NYC, but I do still have a sense of style and a taste for the finer things in life. However, one such luxurious palette pleaser that many New Yorker’s seem to love is Foie Gras. I’ll be honest and tell you that I have never eaten Foie Gras; in fact, I am not really a fan of liver at all. Granted, Steve and Pierce enjoy it, so it intrigued me to find out more (or why for that matter).

Foie Gras, as I am sure you are aware, is banned in Chicago (although many restaurants have ignored the ban or found ways around it) and it is being looked into being banned in NYC as well. The controversy surrounds how the ducks and geese are fed 12-18 days leading up to processing. I’ve looked at both sides and no one can seem to come to some conclusive finding about whether or not the animals suffer during this process. So I am not even going to entertain that controversy any further until someone can conclusively show evidence one way or another.

It’s my goal to try to make it to the city one more time before my son is born and Pierce insists I will love his caviar, champagne (I cant drink, making a baby-it's fashionable!) and chocolate tour (yes please!) as he is a connoisseur of such fine foods. This “tour” includes trying Foie Gras, most likely at his favorite bistro close by to Pierce Mattie PR. He’s told me that Daniel at DB Bistro located in Jeff Kleins City Club Hotel is famous for his Foie Gras and it’s where he does all of his editor and new business lunches.

I hear that Foie Gras is very different in taste and texture than typical liver. Foie Gras is said to have a very rich buttery taste and can be served a variety of ways, such as mousse, pate' or parfait. Many times it is not the main meal, but an accompaniment to a part of your meal. More people appear to be eating Foie Gras and the most popular version is pate'.

Many places offer Foie Gras throughout NYC, although Pierce assures me that DB Bistro really is the best. Fresh Direct also offers Foie Gras. If you are on the West Coast, I hear that La Cachette is a wonderful dining experience offering Foie Gras, as well.

Have you tried Foie Gras? Tell me what you think of it.

Decleor Paris is a luxurious face, body and suncare line for both men and women. Decleor was founded by a team of aromatherapy experts who use their knowledge of active plant extracts to create a comprehensive line of products that are both preventative and on going natural skin care. Decleor is also partnered by Shiseido, known for their wonderful beauty products, and are also the 4th largest beauty group in the industry.

Essential oils have wonderful healing properties with aromatic fragrances that, depending on which oil is used or combined with another, promotes such things as well being, calm, relaxation and so on, therefore promoting balance of both body and mind.

While Decleor’s packaging makes you feel like you just bought a diamond necklace at Tiffany’s, don’t be fooled that the luxury ends there. It’s what is inside the package that is luxurious, making your skin look and feel like you just spent hours at the spa. In fact, Decleor also offers Salon and Spa treatments at select locations. Within the US, it is at Hotel Sofitel in Los Angeles where you can receive their Aroma Mosaic treatments that focuses on care of your face, body and the effects of the sun. Each focused treatment is broken down to be tailor made based on the needs of each individual.

You can find Decleor products in various cities throughout the country or locate one close to you with your zip code through their website: www.decleor-us.com

Parabens. (Que the horror music sound effect) Just say the word to anyone on the street and you will get a variety of responses. Many believe what they have heard and warn you against using any products that contain them and many just want to wait until science proves that parabens are really harmful to you, as that is not proven yet. It just seems that these days the words parabens and cancer go hand in hand without any conclusive evidence that they actually do. I like to make sure I'm not subscribing to a lobbyist who has ulterior motives for financial gain, and no I'm not a conspiracy freak, (ok maybe just a tad) I was recently told (by my therapist) that that quality is at the heart of all good journalists... a desire to dig for the real truth... or conspiracy!

I’m certainly not a scientist, but I am pretty educated and try to always read both sides to a story. Just like when everyone screamed that mineral oil was bad for you, it eventually was proven that it was not. However, you still find many companies today touting how awful mineral oil is for your skin while offering you their version of something safer. I have yet to find a website stating that mineral oil is harmful while not trying to also sell you something in the process. I had been skeptical myself, but after some researching of my own and contacting my friends at The Beauty Brains blog (who happen to be both cosmetic chemists with 30 years experience), they insisted it was all hype and that mineral oil was indeed the best moisturizing product for your skin. So I have learned to look deeper into an issue than to be frightened by scare tactics.

Unfortunately, scare tactics are the route that Dr. Epstein of the Cancer Prevention Coalition is taking when going after Origins, an Estee Lauder company. They try pointing out that Origins cannot be taking, "A totally integrative approach to skin care ... to help your skin be as healthy as possible, (and) optimize its defenses against age accelerators" claiming that Origins uses parabens (among other ingredients) in their products. They site that parabens are known to cause “endocrine disruptive.” However, there has not yet been one study that has conclusively, 100% proven this.

And another beauty, Jessica Biel, was a standout at the Golden Globes red carpet this week, not only for her rockin' body and her beautiful dress, but her skin was amazing! Now we are going to show you how she got that golden glow. Everyone from desperate moms-to-be to "dreamgirls" know that perfect skin is the key to looking good in hollywood. and when Jennifer, Marcia, Jessica biel, and even Elijah Woods want baby-smooth amazing skin, they start at Dermalogica.

Cut to Dermalogica On Montana Pod: they're doing what is called the microzone where they're zoning in on a specific area. it's about 20 minutes. this is the process that you would be doing four weeks prior to your event. what i'm doing here is a rapid result treatment. the ultrasound actually gives a deeper cleanse, and while it's giving a deeper cleanse, it's actually exfoliating. it gets down into the deeper epidermis, so it's giving a really good effect on the skin. what i'm doing is called a high frequency. it's great for any sort of blemish or acne. this is also great for oily skin. so it isn't just for actresses and actors in the business. you can be a celebrity, too. >> now that's what i call equal opportunity beauty. Watch More

Karen A. Newman is Editor in Chief of Global Cosmetic Industry magazine. Global Cosmetic Industry magazine is the business and marketing magazine read by cosmetic, fragrance and personal care product manufacturers and brand owners who look to the publication for the strategies behind the industry success stories. Karen also writes GCI's blog called Beauty Union.

Where do you see cosmetic packaging trends in color cosmetics going in 2007?
One interesting trend we see is in making it easier to apply makeup. Applicators are being refined to meet a very specific purpose for everything from foundation to eyeliner. The new lipstick packaging from Cargo is a hint of what’s to come in recyclable packaging.

What popular scents are being used in fragrances for 2007?
Among recent releases, a broad range of floral and citrus scents are represented, as are musk, sandalwood and patchouli.

Which brands do you seem to get the most press releases about?
We get a lot of press releases from professional beauty brands – and mostly hair care. We hear regularly from Pureology and Thermafuse as well as Graham Webb International, ISO and Joico, but we hear from a wonderfully broad selection of marketers in every category – and we never get tired of hearing about the new things companies are doing. There’s a lot of passion in the beauty industry.

What do you think was the best product launch of 2006?
There were a few that I especially liked. The Yves Saint Laurent Perfect Touch Radiant Brush Foundation offers a built in brush, which speaks to the packaging trend question. Freeze 24/7’s Ice Shield Facial Cleanser with SPF 15 is interesting because it is the first product to commercialize a new delivery system that helps ingredients such as sunscreens bond with the skin so they can be left behind after cleansing. John Frieda’s Luminous Color Glaze puts a salon treatment into at-home use at a mass price.

Any changes taking place for GCI in 2007, editorial content, advisory board, etc.?
We introduced a new editorial advisory board at the end of 2006. This is exciting for us as it is a great group of industry professionals who are going to help us create content that is smart and spot on for our readers. The group includes: Roger Caracappa, The Estee Lauder Companies; Beth Ann Catalano, twist.new.brand.venture; Peter Gallagher, Unilever; Liz Grubow, LPK; Tina Hedges, twist.new.brand.venture; Camille McDonald, Bath & Body Works; Debbie Murtha, Macy’s Merchandising Group; Art Rich, A. Rich Development; Marc Rosen, Marc Rosen Associates; and Laura Setzfand, The Hain Celectial Group Personal Care Division. We’re really excited to be working with this stellar group!

Do you see the faux botox craze stopping?
I don’t see it stopping as long as consumers can find products that give them the temporary smoothing they are looking for.

Chances are, if you are a lover of celebrity gossip or fashion, you are familiar with Popsugar and Fabsugar (my personal favorite), but did you know that there are many other facets to the Sugar Network? There are, in fact, 6 more Sugar blogs (with another 5 soon to be launching) and 1 Social Networking and Community site.

Lisa and Brian Sugar started the Sugar Network with $250k of their own money last year moving full speed ahead to find venture capital to cover the remaining costs to launch additional sites, which will feature a variety of videocasts and podcasts. Their network targets "trendsetting, passionate, smart women between the ages of 18 and 35." The Sugar Network is definitely one to be watching this year.

An overview of each site:

* PopSugar- The insanely popular (and addictive) celebrity news and gossip site. It’s choc full of video comments, candid pictures, interviews and everything else you can possibly imagine to learn the dirt on your favorite celebrity.

* FabSugar- A fashion, beauty and accessory guide. Beauty and fashion mavens can hear all about the latest trends, style tips, must-haves and where to buy them.

* TeamSugar- This is the community hub and Social Network where all Sugar members can post comments, discuss what is being written about on the other Sugar sites, post pages of their own and share in all things Sugar.

Well frankly, I hope she has more than one thing to say on her show today, when she confronts her critics wearing the same swimsuit that has been plastered all over the tabloids with the title, “America’s next top waddle.” It takes courage to stand in front of millions of viewers with just your swimsuit and the body people have been making a mockery of.

I decided to pick up People Magazine last night to read her interview to hear how she felt about the constant pummeling of insults being thrown her way about her weight. Before even reading the article, I in a sense, knew how she must be feeling. In my own youth many people often told me I was fat, even when I was only 5 lbs over what I should’ve been for my height. In fact, one day my dance teacher announced to the class that we couldn’t wear a certain costume for our dance recital because I was too fat. When I looked at my size 8 body in the mirror I felt ashamed and sad that I wasn’t good enough. I can only imagine how magnified that is for a Supermodel who made her living off her body and then has the world zone in on her weight gain. See more posts like this on our Buzzed Industry Dirt Blog

Joanna Roche, NYC Let’s file this under “keeping up with the Jones’” - and for the record I feel compelled to participate. It’s like getting a chain letter and not sending it when you can really use the good karma.

1. Even though my work life is centered on the beauty and spa world, I have a rugged side. I go camping and hiking, I am proficient with a hammer, I have a pistol permit, and I can ride a horse. I plan on sharing all these experiences with my son Luke when he gets a bit older.

2. I love Karaoke! Even though I am not a good singer, it has always been my ultimate fantasy to be a rock star.

3. I made it to the final round of tryouts for College Jeopardy and missed the last question to which the answer was Guy Fawkes. And I still love trivia and pop culture!

4. One of my proudest moments was when my team won first prize in the Lee Fireman’s Muster – I was captain of the Lenox Dale ladies team and we competed in the wet hose event and beat many of the men’s teams and made the front page of our local paper.

5. I am an avid reader – I read all 64 Nancy Drew books by the time I was in second grade and have been reading obsessively ever since. It is my ultimate goal in life to write a book, and I have several ideas I am working on right now.

Find out more about Joanna in her industry profile

As I’ve been gathering stories to write for both of our Beauty and Fashion blogs, I’ve been noticing something become more and more prominent in the news headlines: more companies are going green or collaborating with a green initiative. In 2006, we began to see this trend emerge, but it looked uncertain whether it would take off with the American public or not. Now as I try to write more diversified posts, it seems I can’t get away from writing about who is the next brand marketing green, therefore proving that this topic is not going away anytime soon.

Dave Morgan, at Media Post’s Online Spin, echoed my thoughts exactly today in an article he wrote, “Is Green The New Red, White And Blue?” He too wonders if green is just the “flavor of the month” or a defining element for US brands for years to come. Some of the recent brands I have been Blogging about have been Lancome and their collaboration with Carbonfund.org to reduce carbon foot printing, Diesel’s ad campaign that shows fashion in a post-Global Warming world and whose website encourages becoming involved in StopGlobalWarming.org and watching Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” as well as, H&M expanding upon their use of Organic Cotton in more of their clothing lines. I predict these will not be the only companies, or industries for that matter, that incorporate green into part of their branding.

In the age of Tivo, marketers have had to think long and hard about unique ways to deliver their brand’s message to consumers. Although Tivo did come up with a way to annoy its users by adding fast forward banner ads when they try to skip commercials, they can still be skipped nonetheless and the marketer's message lost. However, PumpMedia, an outdoor media company, has found a way to reach a captive audience: at the gas pump.

This idea of marketing at the gas pump has been creeping in slowly, as it is something I have seen here at my local Sheetz. While I pump my gas, a no-sound commercial plays showing me all of the sandwich and coffee selections in their mini-mart, there is even a screen where a customer can order one of those sandwiches right at the pump and have it ready and waiting for them when they go inside to the counter.

In a time when most gas stations have taken the “hold pump” mechanism off its pump handles, forcing you to remain at your vehicle while pumping gas, there is nothing much to do besides watching how much the pump will drain you for this time. PumpMedia found this a prime opportunity to reach consumers at a time when they are bored doing the mundane. PumpMedia says it will offer entertaining and informative content while refueling and also offer a new advertising medium for the auto industry. While it is unclear just which types of brands will take advantage of this new way to market to consumers, I’m sure it can be safely assumed it will involve auto makers.

What do you think of this new way to market to consumers?

As was the case with high-end retailer, Lord & Taylor, JC Penney is giving itself a makeover. The difference between the two is that Lord & Taylor is rebranding from head to toe, which includes physical face lifts to their stores, as well as their merchandise and marketing campaigns, and JC Penney is simply shifting their focus to the middle-income consumer through a new set of marketing campaigns.

JC Penney’s new slogan is “Every Day Matters” and while its rebranding shifts their focus to a new demographic of consumer, they will remain a promotional department store with weekly circulars and direct mailings, something that has proven successful for the store into the present.

When consumer confidence seems lacking, brands are trying to recapture that essence of the excitement of shopping within their stores by listening to what their customers want and desire. JC Penney no longer wants to be looked at as the dated and drab department store, but wants to establish an emotional repore with its consumers and become a relevant part of their lives.

What most people don't realize about big glossy magazines is that advertisers in the magazine also get favored additional product placement in the form of mentions in product line ups and other "advertorial" mentions. Nothing wrong with that, it's just how it's always been. A good publicist can help non-advertising brands get more exposure in the same magazine, however those that can afford integrated advertising and publicity often get the best exposure in print and television, of course all this comes at a cost.

Some beauty brands or fashion brands may not have the funding or budget for a large media buy. This post is to address those brands. While selling ad space is not a new idea, finding the appropriate space that is the most effective is critical. If you can't afford the premium ad space in beauty magazines and the top fashion books perhaps you should investigate non-traditional advertising in addition to your PR plan.

Today you can buy ad space on everything from urinal pucks, coffee cups, pizza boxes, shopping bags and now a new and innovative way to reach more people, especially business professionals. Do it through dry cleaning, most specifically, the hangers that go home with each suit and dress and tend to stay in your target customer’s closet for future use.

With 3.5 billion wire hangers ending up in landfills each year, The Hanger Network has designed coat hangers made completely out of paper. The paper is thick and laminated and perfectly acceptable to toss into your recycle bin. It’s strong enough to hold your clothes without falling apart while remaining flexible at the same time. The Hanger Network is hoping that dry cleaners will begin using their EcoHanger because it is free. That saves dry cleaning businesses approximately 8 cents a hanger, meanwhile helping to lessen the burden on the environment.

The Hanger Network is able to give their hangers for free to dry cleaners because it is the advertisers who pay the Hanger Network to place a color advertisement for their product/service on each hanger. These advertisements target both men and women such as ads from Van Heusen and L’Oreal. It’s amazing to me that no one has thought of this idea before. While I would have never dreamed of a sturdy paper hanger, my dry cleaned clothes always come back with white paper wrapping the wire hanger, most times simply stating the name of the place I was just serviced at. Since hangers are reused time and again, this is the perfect opportunity to have your product seen virtually every time a person opens their closet doors. It is unobtrusive, yet subliminal, and done in a way that is functional and serves a purpose.

Presently the EcoHangers are being distributed by Cleaners Supply, the largest distributor of dry cleaning products in the U.S. Currently you can find these hangers at dry cleaners throughout New York City, but with 8 million dollars in venture capital obtained, the Hanger Network will soon be expanding into other cities across the country.

With so many social networking sites beginning to dominate the internet, it’s about time there was one that had one main focus to bring people with the same interest together to connect and network. IQONS is to fashion what MySpace is to music. Created by Rafael Jimenez and Suran Goonatilake with co-mentor Diane Pernet, they bring experience to the table that will see this new social networking site blossom.

IQONS is the global social network where designers, fashion labels, magazine editors, models, stylists, fashion PR professionals, fashion enthusiasts and the like can connect and network with each other. IQONS only launched last month, but it is already building a presence online with 820 designers with an online profile. Through their profile you can get a more in depth look into who they are and browse through their “showcase.” A showcase is where you can upload your work for the rest of the network to see.

IQONS has a few ways that members can connect and promote their work through the site. Influential and highly respected fashion industry professionals, referred to as Iqons, review and comment on work showcased by members on the site; IQONS features one Iqon each month; they also give members 15 minutes of fame by spotlighting a member profile every hour on the hour. IQONS also creates projects with influential fashion industry professionals for members to take part in. The first one is with online fashion retailer Yoox.com for a design competition.

I think this a great way to network with others in the industry and I’ve already started to create a profile, or “Portrait” as they call it, there myself. If you are already on IQONS, tell us what you think of the site.

With all of the excitement over the Academy Awards this weekend everyone is getting ready for the big night with pre-Oscar parties. One pre-Oscar party, in its 3rd year, is the Global Green Pre-Oscar Party. While the Oscars are associated with being an elaborate extravaganza with ornate gowns from the creme de la creme of the fashion industry and the most expensive pieces of jewelry, I loved the idea of the glitz and glam being turned into a good cause.

The Global Green Pre-Oscar party was held last night at Avalon in Hollywood and was co-chaired by top celebrities like Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Edward Norton. The Pre-Oscar party was to benefit Global Green USA’s global warming initiative and the rebuilding of a green New Orleans and Gulf Coast. Guests were served organic wine, beer and cocktails and the group showcased smart solutions to global warming climate change. The party wasn’t focused on who will win Best Actress, but instead it was for the purpose of raising awareness to the cause and raise funds in the process.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this is an incredibly wonderful idea. During a week when we are so focused on who is throwing the most elaborate Oscar parties or wondering who will be wearing the most expensive piece of jewelry around their neck, it’s nice to see an Oscar party that in the end, will be beneficial to us all.

For updates on the Oscars, check out the offical Microsite by Ask Men.

There really are so many weight loss “pills” on the market today. You can find them, unregulated by the FDA, on shelves at places such as your local CVS and GNC. Then there are weight loss “drugs,” which are regulated by the FDA and can only be prescribed by your doctor. Now there is a weight loss drug made by Glaxo-Smith Kline called Alli (said Al-eye) that is FDA approved, but will be sold as an OTC drug.

How the Alli program works:

* You take a capsule with every meal.
* You register online to gain access to an individualized action plan.
* You check in weekly through the Alli site.
* Through the action plan you learn lessons about meal planning, managing hunger, dealing with setbacks, and making the food and lifestyle changes to help you succeed.
* Access to menu’s and how to shop for low-fat meals.
* Connect with other Alli users.

Alli is not only the first FDA approved weight loss drug OTC, it is the only FDA OTC that is both a weight loss drug and a weight loss treatment plan with support. Alli is Orlistat 60mg. Xenical is a good comparison, as it is also Orlistat, except it is sold in 120mg capsules and can only be prescribed by a doctor. Orlistat works by blocking fat absorption into the body. Alli blocks 25% fat absorption when you take the pill with each meal. Blocking fat results in “treatment effects,” otherwise known as frequent trips to the restroom. Alli’s capsule and program appears to be the perfect form of Classical Conditioning. If you eat meals high in fat when taking Alli, it results in frequent treatment affects, in order to avoid this you need to lower your fat intake to 15 grams or less per meal. Of course, no one wants to experience treatment effects, so they will lower their fat intake, which in combination with Alli provides a successful weight loss. This type of conditioning can be an excellent way to rethink the way you eat and create a new behavioral eating pattern. As you take Alli and recondition the way you eat, it becomes second nature by the time you have met your weight loss goal and no longer need to take Alli. In the end, this will result in long-term weight loss maintenance because you retaught yourself how to eat the correct way.

I came across this really fascinating article today by Nellie Lide on the blog “Small Business Trends.” While her article may have been geared towards small business, I definitely see how these same trends she writes about can be applied to large businesses, as well. Consumer trends are something that doesn’t necessarily fit into one piece of the puzzle for business, but can be easily applied across the board regardless if you own a large department store like Sak’s or a fashion focused store like Scoop.

The five top shopping trends for 2007 that Lide lists are:

* Shopping as a Societal Force for a Better World

* Shopping for Temporary Ownership: The Shopper as Buyer AND Seller

As I read through each one of these trend forecasts, I couldn’t help but nod my head in agreement.

Shopping as a Societal Force for a Better World: This is one trend I have been speaking much upon lately here on our beauty, fashion and main blog. Lide mentions the RED program, a program launched by Bono to fight poverty, which you really are seeing everywhere (Gap, Apple, etc.), but there is now also an extension of this program called (Product) RED, whose purpose is to raise funds to eliminate AIDS in Africa. Businesses involved in this are Emporio Armani, Converse and Motorolla. We’re seeing businesses collaborate with charities to fight Global Warming such as Diesel and Lancome, and those going green to lessen the stress on our environment. Business cannot grow in a vacuum and many are foreseeing their growth by getting involved in projects that matter most to their consumers.

In my personal Blogging, I’ve come across many brands without a publicist or PR firm representing them. Many cosmetic brands that contact me are well aware that I am a Blogger for Pierce Mattie PR and will sometimes ask me, “What does a public relations firm do?” The key thing I have found is that these brands do not fully understand what public relations can accomplish for them and more so, how to effectively communicate to the media and public about their brand from within their own company.

When you think about your brand, have you thought about all aspects of it? From the customer service representative to the sales persons, everyone employed by your company should all consider themselves on the same team. Not only because everyone’s paychecks are written by the same company, but also because together, your employees are the force behind your brand. No job title within the company is too small or nondescript to be left out. They are the eyes and ears (and heartbeat) of your brand, and how they view and feel about your products affects how others—your consumers—see it as well.

If you think of a luxury car, do you automatically think of Audi? Others tend to come to mind like Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but Audi? When I think of durability and reliability I definitely think Volkswagen, who is the automaker of Audi. Audi is ambitious and hoping to change the way we think about their brand and are quickly closing the gap on well-known luxury automakers.

Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, has made the ambitious prediction that by 2015, Audi will be the leading luxury car-maker in the world, not simply by sales figures but through setting the industry pace in technological innovation, brand image, and customer satisfaction. In the US, Lexus is known as the quintessential luxury brand with a flawless record for customer service and brand reliability.

While Audi may be gaining ground in Europe, there may be obstacles here in the US, such as overcoming the brand’s image from 20 years ago when Audi owners accused the car of falsely accelerating. Although it was proven by a government investigation that this was not the case, the damage had been done to the brand’s image and other luxury brands continued to move ahead while Audi’s sales halted.

Bank of America has been known for a long while now as a leader in the banking industry. Until recently, they had a stellar reputation, however when the news hit that they would allowing the extention of a line of credit to those without social security numbers or a credit history (aka illegal immigrants and possibly potential terrorists), it left many with a bad taste in its mouth. Now Bank of America has shifted the focus off of this controversy to something more positive and an issue that has most of the world buzzing about right now: going green.

I’m not talking green as in the almighty dollar, although that is obviously what is fueling this initiative, but green as in participating in a way to contribute to diminishing the effects of global warming. This is a great endeavor for a bank as large as Bank of America to embark on. They will be investing $20 billion dollars into this initiative, making them the leader among financial institutions. This initiative will include support for trading in carbon units, which is a means to enable its clients to achieve carbon emission neutrality through existing and emerging market mechanisms. One way they plan to enable this is through an eco-friendly credit card. Each time this particular credit card is used, the bank will make a contribution to an environmental organization to invest in greenhouse-gas reduction projects. Those who plan to obtain a mortgage through Bank of America will also benefit if they purchase a home that meets Energy Star specifications, as it will result in an a reduced interest rate or $1000 cash back.

Portovert is the first and only magazine targeted at eco friendly weddings, helping brides-to-be take into account the environment when planning their big day. Portovert only launched just last month, which is amazing to me with the length of time people have been going green. It is founded by Meghan Myers, who previously had been the Editor for Family Circle.

Portovert (said porto-vair) offers wedding ideas that support an environmentally and socially conscious lifestyle, offering tips on how to make favors yourself, choosing organic menu options, and how to calculate the carbon footprint of all of the activities involved with your guests (hotel, travel, etc). The site also suggests brides and grooms use a gift registry that will give back a percentage of their profits to a non-profit of their choice. In addition to all of the above, they also have everything broken down into categories so you can choose green brands for you makeup and skin care on your big day such as Korres and Aveda, green fashion brands to find your perfect eco friendly wedding gown and accessories, as well as, food, flowers, the honeymoon and an environmentally friendly location to hold your wedding and reception.

The bridal industry is massive and Ms. Myers should fare very well tapping into a niche that was just waiting to be found. Currently the magazine can only be found online, as they of course follow their own recommendations by minimizing their carbon footprint by being paperless. Regardless that this magazine cannot be found in print, I can only see success for Ms. Myers and Portovert.

Fashion:

+ Chic Inspector inspects the color trend pop that was witnessed at many of the Fall 2007 fashion week shows.

+ Lady Licorice discusses and shows you the perfect layering pieces that you can wear now throughout Spring.

+ Cuffington discusses how that Audrey Hepburn dress that sold at auction for $807,000 has turned into more than “just a dress,” but a chance for 3000 children to receive the benefit of an education in India.

Beauty:

+ Legerdenez reviews Michael Kors Island.

+ Canadian Beauty reviews MD Skincare’s All in One Tinted Moisturizer.

+ Nail Tech Secrets reviews the Dashing Diva’s Extra Virgin Collection of nail polish.

We are all familiar with all the various bidding sites that are out there that bring consumer and seller together such as the highly popular website Priceline.com and of course its now defunct name your price grocery website WebHouse (which I sadly miss). Of course there are other variations of sites that look to capture an audience by allowing various businesses to compete for your business such as with Lending Tree and RentalCars.com (owned by Priceline). As more and more consumers are always looking for the best deals, a new trend has been emerging that Doc Searls dubbed last year as the Intention Economy.

The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them. The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don't need marketing to make Intention Markets.---Doc Searls”

With this idea in mind, it opens another market and another way for brands to think outside of the box when it comes to getting exposure for their product. This is a market that is virtually untapped and one that many are beginning to see as a golden opportunity to connect in another way with their target market. One such example is in a specific part of the travel industry: cruises. Cruise Compete is a website that is similar in notion to Lending Tree in that Travel Cruise Agents compete to offer you the best deal on a cruise package. Although sites like Lending Tree, Priceline and Cruise Compete work with a limited amount of businesses to offer you the best deal, these sites still remain popular in this niche of price competition and continue to have a small amount of rival sites.

1. Always remove your makeup prior to going to bed. It’s best to use a makeup remover that is oil-free and alcohol-free. My favorite would be Korres Jasmine Eye Makeup Remover.

2. Follow a daily routine of cleansing, toning and moisturizing your face. Cleansing should be done twice a day (morning and night) and with the use of a gentle cleanser. Toning will help tighten your skin and restore your skin’s optimal Ph level, thus balancing it, prior to applying moisturizer. Maximize hydrating your skin by using a day moisturizer and a night cream. A daytime moisturizer is one that is lighter and works well under your makeup and the night cream is thicker and works hard through the night hydrating the areas you tend to see more dryness in. For this routine I switch between Korres and Epionce products.

3. Exfoliate at least once per week. Exfoliating is so important for your skin to remain vibrant and healthy. While our skin naturally sheds the dead cells, they can clog up pores and create those dry patches you find often on your skin. Exfoliating will slough off that layer of dead skin promoting optimal benefits when moisturizing. I use various exfoliators including Korres Olive Stones, Jordan Essentials Spa Polish and recently, Cosmedicine’s Medi-Morphosis.

4. Use a mask 1-2 times per week. Using a good mask will correct and detoxify your skin hydrating it and absorbing excess oil. It is especially beneficial to those who have oily and combination skin. I love cream masks and mud masks. I interchangeably use Korres Wild Rose Mask and Darshan Beauty’s Multani Facial Mud Mask.

5. Protect your face with daily sunscreen or a moisturizer that contains sunscreen. The damage that UVA and UVB rays do to your skin from repeated unprotected sun exposure may not be evident right now, but in years to come it will be something you can no longer hide. KaplanMD offers the best of both worlds with a Day Cream SPF 15. If you have a Five Things topic you think would make for an interesting post, please be sure to tell us in the comments! Find more posts like this on the Beauty Pro Division Blog.

Fashion:

+ Turlie reviews Valentino’s Fall/Winter Collection from Milan Fashion Week.

+ Fashion.Verbatim talks to Duckie Brown's Steven Cox and Daniel Silver.

+ All About Style shows you how shoes really do make the outfit.

Beauty:

+ Spa Blah Blah reviews LUSH’s Fresh Face Mask’s.

+ GirlPaint review’s Dove’s Skin Vitalizer.

+ Beauty Hobby gives you ten reasons to drink aloe vera gel.

This weeks "President's Pick" (where I "get" to post about one of Steve's "cravable" products or services each week) is something within reach of anyone with a eye for design. Want to instantly and inexpensively change the look and feel of your space for your next event? Need a quick, swanky backdrop for a last minute photo shoot? Maybe you just want to make your space your own, yet are a little phobic when it comes to committing to a particular design? Don’t let your space go barren simply because of design anxiety, there is a cool concept out there by Blik to create a look made by you, yet can be easily rid of should you grow bored and want something new without the fuss (or mess) involved in redesign.

Blik’s concept is self-adhesive graphics that can be applied to walls, floors, ceilings, windows, glass and tabletops that give an aesthetic quality to a room, yet can still be easily removed if and when you want to change the look of your space. Think “stick on” graphics is merely for the kids? Take a look at Max Azria’s boutique (Via Bilk's Blog) on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles touting Blik’s Fly Wall graphics.

For those of us who don’t like to stick to the same ole same ole for years on end, Blik’s graphics make change easy, yet affordable. Most of Blik’s packages of graphics are only $40, which I find amazing considering that most room designs cost considerably more. Blik offers wall decals, decals for your car and glassware, decals for the kids, Prose for those feeling a little poetic and Re-Stik, which are Blik’s top selling patterns made with adhesive that will allow you to reposition your design.

Blik’s products aren’t soley for the average consumer, as Blik has created custom designs for many companies and places such as Sensa, NBC’s The Apprentice, The Gap, the Sundance Film Festival and so on, check out the impressive list of clients Blik has designed custom patterns for.

With such a diverse offering in pattern design and the unique feel it gives to a space allowing you to be the interior designer, I can see why Blik is Pierce Mattie’s President’s Pick of the Week.

Pssst! Here is the scoop. Women’s Entertainment (WE) has a new show coming out on April 15th regarding destination weddings that will be like no other. Get Married will be a program set up like a Bridal magazine showcasing top designers and experts who know the ins and outs of the bridal industry.

The first episode of Get Married will profile Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun, an Unlimited-Luxury property located amidst 71 acres of lush tropical gardens on a palm studded beach in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The second episode of Get Married will be filmed at Sunscape The Beach Punta Cana, an Unlimited-Fun resort wrapped around an expansive free-form swimming pool that meanders throughout the property, complete with waterfalls and a beautiful view to the ocean. Additional episodes airing this spring will feature four other Dreams properties.

A few of my colleagues from Pierce Mattie PR recently visited these resorts and I’ll fill you in on the details of just how fabulous, not to mention luxurious, these resorts are when I interview them about their experience there.

Holly Houk always viewed illustration art as a hobby and thought that most people who wanted to earn a living from their art were fated to be “struggling artists.” Her perception changed when she began working at an advertising agency as an art buyer. Through her job duties and contacts, she began to see that many people made a viable living from illustration art. It was when her employer had a hard time finding the right fit to some accounts in need of illustration art that Holly felt the courage to submit her own artwork. Her employer was impressed and began to ask her for more illustrations.

One day while searching Craig’s List she found an ad by KMC looking for illustration art for an upcoming project. After calling in books from New York agencies, KMC still hadn’t found the right artist and posted the job. The art would be used for their nail polish company Artessa. Here in the US, Artessa’s sister company is Dashing Diva, which I recognized immediately as I have some of their polish myself. Holly was selected over 30 other illustrators being reviewed for the project and was awarded the account. The client was so thrilled with the results they blew up the images 5 feet tall and featured them at one of the world’s largest beauty tradeshows, held in Italy.

Her previous work also includes Airwalk footwear and the Boston Greater Real Estate Board. You can also see Holly’s art on our Beauty Pro blog, and this month she launched her new website, HollyIllustration.com

Holly told me that she gets her inspiration from film, fashion magazines and photography books and keeps a digital camera with her at all times. She even has a folder in her car to hold the random inspiration she picks up along the way – scraps of paper, spreads from magazines and “pretty little brochures.” This year Holly’s goals are to continue to build up fashion and beauty accounts so that five years from now she is working exclusively with high profile long-term clients.

Please be sure to check out Holly’s website, I assure you that you will be just as impressed as I was with her gorgeous artwork.

Fashion:

+ GlamSpree shows that fashion can be found at the (Helios House) gas station.

+ She’s a Betty rounds up 12 DIY ways to “pimp” your shoes.

+ The Budget Fashionista talks about UNIQLO bringing premium Japanese denim to the US for under $60.

Beauty:

+ The It List finds “hair powder” that’s good enough to eat.

+ Meg’s Makeup reviews Beauty Blender Season of Love.

+ The Beauty Newsletter reviews the soon to be launched Too Faced Status Gloss.

Recently my colleagues Hannah and Erin were able to visit AMResorts Secrets, Dreams and Sunscape Resorts. To give you a more personalized insider’s view of each of these resorts, I asked Hannah and Erin to give me the scoop on what it was really like at these destination hot spots without all the PR-ing that you would get from a press release.

In this post you find reviews of Secrets Capri, Dreams Tulum, Dreams Cancun and Sunscape Puerto Adventuras.

Secrets Capri Resort:

Erin: The decor at Secrets Capri is designed to match the Riviera atmosphere. The floors are marble and there are large white columns throughout the property. The space is compact and all amenities are close together. All details are very new, as the resort only opened three years ago.

Hannah: The rooms were beautiful and mine had a small patio where one could sit and relax or sunbathe. The view overlooking the ocean was beautiful—65% of the rooms at Secrets Capri have an ocean view and the rest have a garden view. The bathroom was marble with a separate shower and Jacuzzi.

Erin: All of the staff I spoke to were very friendly, they always said hello when walking by ( I think thats so important) and went out of their way to accommodate guests with the smallest of needs. There’s a concierge on every floor from 9am-5pm and at bedtime a rose is delivered to the room with the schedule for the next day’s activities with a plate of chocolates for dessert.

Hannah: There were 5 restaurants at this location and I ate dinner at Oceana. The Beef tenderloin and jumbo shrimp were amazing. The resort offers theme nights so that the guests have a different dinner option every night of the week.

Erin: The atmosphere at this resort is romance. The entire space is very romantic and intimate. The rooms, dining tables, chairs, etc. all have a very special appeal for couples.

Hannah: Every part of the property that I saw was extremely clean and elegant looking. Also, guests are given their own private concierge table for check in/out, which makes the experience very personalized.

Erin: The Riviera Maya was gorgeous. The water is sky blue and the sand was pure white. The neighboring properties are currently being developed, but there were no construction taking place too close to the resort property.

Hannah: The resorts location on the Mayan Riviera is naturally stunning. Most guests venture off the property once or twice during their stay to see the local attractions. Most of the couples staying at the resort were between the ages of 30-60. There were many couples that came there on their own, as well as couples who came with other friends or with both sets of parents.

Erin: The Spa was clean and luxurious. It is located next to the fitness center downstairs in the main section of the building. It’s not a huge selling point for the resort, but they are building a new spa where the tennis courts currently are.

Hannah: I wasn’t able to witness a wedding at Secrets Capri, but the area where they hold weddings is beautiful.

Erin: I witnessed an evening wedding on the beach that was beautiful. The wedding services they offer are very impressive. The resort hosts an average of 3 weddings per week and during their busy wedding season, they often host 2 weddings a day.

As a coffee addict myself (I prefer mine iced) it’s been interesting to watch the coffee wars brewing (pun intended). Fast food restaurants have geared up to compete with the likes of Starbucks and everyone seems to “Run on Dunkin.” There are even coffee connoisseur websites, such as Coffee Geek, and National Geographic is even getting in on this highly popular niche. We have become so obsessed with the brew that there are even people willing to pay $1000 a kilo for Luwak Coffee, which is the eccentric yet deemed ultra luxe brand of coffee that is obtained through the excrement of the luwak (a cousin of the mongoose).

National Geographic’s section of its website dedicated to java breaks down the origin and timeline of coffee, maps of where it is grown, definition of the various roasts and even offers a coffee forum where coffee lovers across the globe can discuss their favorite coffee topics. Their roast section mentions that most American mass-market roasters tend to offer more Light roasts over any other blend. However, as we’ve been seeing in the coffee wars, most places like Starbucks and even Burger King are making the stronger blends more popular with consumers, which of course results in more health issues such as heartburn and upset stomachs than coffee consumption of the past.

This has prompted Folgers to try taking coffee in a completely different direction and capitalizing on a niche no one else is going after: stomach-friendly coffee. This new public relations driven endeavor tends to be leaning towards the baby boomers, still the largest demographic of consumers, who love to drink their coffee, but can no longer stomach the aches and pains that go with it. Folger’s new product called Simply Smooth is the result of a roasting process that can reduce the level of irritants and bitterness in the coffee, but still maintain the taste and caffeine.

Most industry professionals know that ad placement for publication in September beauty magazines, is the most crucial time for your brand to be seen. As online media continues to strengthen, now is a good time to come to understand how you can maximize your brand’s exposure through Blogging, viral marketing and digital magazines dually with ad campaigns in the leading print magazines. Print magazines and online media sell a relationship with its readers, as well as, an opportunity to reach them in a time of intense focus and receptivity.

Here are some Beauty PR tips that may help your brand stand out:

Understand your competition:
How you can understand your competition begins in their ad campaigns. What you can learn:

+ What magazines/blogs they are pitching their products to.
+ Which demographic they are going after and if it changes depending on the magazine/blog they advertise in.
+ Are they focusing on color, scent, packaging or trendiness?
+ What is their approach? Which key words are they using to get the readers attention?

Learning these key points helps you to decide how to better your current/future campaign with a product that may be along the same lines as your competitor or how to present the same type of product effectively in a different way.

Know The Trends:
Follow the editorial calendars of the books that you want your product or service to appear. The editorial calendars are often featured on magazine Web sites. These give advertisers, readers and writers a heads up regarding planned issue themes.

Even if your product wasn’t originally intended for a particular season or holiday, figure out how you can spin it to make it fit. Study your chosen publications, and determine the types of stories each of them seems to favor—then use them as starting points for your own ideas. Look for patterns, trends, and points of discussion. Pinpoint the best editor for your idea. If need be, call the magazine and ask which editor is best to contact, and how he or she prefers submissions (via e-mail or conventional mail).

Creating a relationship with beauty editors is also key and helps in knowing what beauty editors are looking for months ahead of time. It helps you to prepare your story line and potentially get your product before the eyes of your target audience.

Green Is Good:
One way a non-green brand can become part of the green trend is to donate to a green charity. Brands can do this by becoming a sponsor for a green event, such as Earth Day, or hold a promotion with a percentage of the proceeds going to a particular green charity. Don’t count yourself out simply because you are not organic.

Some campaigns to learn from:
+ Lancome & Carbonfund.org
+ Diesel & StopGlobalWarming.org
+ Bank of America & it's green initiative

Pro-age vs. Antiwrinkle:
If you have anti-wrinkle products, give them a makeover with new wording or new packaging. Breathe new life into them so that they lose the negative connotation that “anti” brings about. Use creativity in the words used on the products and in ad campaigns to promote a more positive feeling about aging when using your product.

Embrace The Concept of Blogging:
Stand out and begin a blog surrounding your brand. When Blogging remember to:

+ Come across as a source of information.
+ Be a problem solver.
+ Remember that Blogging is more about your customers needs than your own.
+ Build relationships with your readers.
+ Allow for interaction between your readers and your brand—keep your comments section open, but moderated to weed through the spam.
+ Be patient. Building readership and trust takes time. The average time for a blog to build a consistent loyal readership is 6 months.
+ Show your brand’s personality. No one wants to read a cold lifeless blog. They want warmth and a personal connection to the brand.

Fashion:

+ The Bargain Queen gives a list of 10 things you must have to be stylish. (It’s pretty clever.)

+ The Jewelry Weblog discusses Black Chandelier’s Hissing Roach Brooch. My 2 cents—I’ve killed enough roaches in my time to know that I don’t want to wear a live one as jewelry.

+ Style Dash asks, “Are we slaves to fashion?”

Beauty:

+ Bois de Jasmin reviews the fragrance Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille.

+ Beauty Snob review’s Fresh’s Sugar Face Polish.

+ Lipstick Powder n’ Paint reviews Palm Sugar Spa products.

By the end of May we'll be hitting the beginning of the travel season. Many of us will be traveling around the US and others will be traveling abroad. For those who travel abroad, there are so many more things that one needs to consider to make sure that their vacation is carefree and provides a little "comfort luxury" along the way. Below are the top five best travel gadgets to consider when packing for your next trip.

1. Gorillapod
The Gorillapod is a flexible mounting device that can hold a digital camera securely, eliminating the need to ask complete strangers to take pictures of you and your family/friends while traveling. The Gorillapod SLR and SLR-Zoom can hold larger cameras and even zooming video cameras for those expert photographers.

2. Ectaco iTRAVL TL-6 Multilingual Talking Electronic Translator
If you love to travel abroad, but don’t have all the languages mastered, then this dictionary translator is a must-have in your travels. It can understand and speak (in a human voice) Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai. Besides helping you understand the language being spoken around you it is also a MP3 Player, world time clock, daily alarm, calculator and has currency and metric conversion.

3. MFUEL Universal Power Bank
This power bank works in over 120 countries and increases the operating time of your portable electronic devices such as notebook computers, cell phones, PDA, MP3 players, Portable DVD players, portable video games, etc. It has a patented “World Jack” eliminating the need for any other recharging devices.

4. HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System
This personal cinema system is ideal for that long plane, train or car ride (as long as you are not the one doing the driving). It offers stereo audio and media in 2D and 3D. With this system you can watch movies, use it for gaming both on and offline or for privately cruising the internet from the comfort of your seat. It’s capable of producing a picture of 360 color fields per second and has reflective micro-LCD technology that offers a stunning resolution. What’s even more incredible is that even those who wear prescription glasses can use this device as it has optical settings to accommodate their prescriptions allowing them to view everything on the screen with clear vision.

5. National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone
You’ve seen the commercial. The one where the guy is on vacation in another country and two people on a moped steal his cell phone and he snarkily tells his friend, “The jokes on them,” because his cell phone doesn’t get a signal abroad. National Geographic has a Talk Abroad Travel Phone that allows you to make and receive cell phone calls in 100 countries around the world. It’s a prepay phone, so you don’t have a contract or monthly fees to contend with when you aren’t using it. It also has 60 countries where incoming calls are free.

Do you have a favorite gadget you consider a must-have when traveling? Let us know in the comments!

Putting aside the Bloggers out there that are soley Splogs or write just for fun, when you think of blogs such as Micropersuasion, Genetics & Health or CopyBlogger, do you see them as people simply writing posts or along the same lines as journalists and editors? As digital media continues to increase in popularity, more individuals are choosing to share their knowledge online through blogging and many more consider themselves journalists and editors. The lines are continuing to blur between the two, as we saw this past year with Blogger Josh Wolf who was jailed in federal prison for 7 months and recently released.

Wolf had filmed video of a protest and published it to his blog. He had been served with a grand jury subpoena regarding identifying the protesters and turning over the video of the protest, which he defied and was then put in federal prison for it. Wolf considers himself a journalist and feels he and all other Bloggers should be protected under a shield law to protect them in the same way traditional journalists are protected to not reveal their confidential sources and unpublished materials. The Assistant US Attorney prosecuting the case feels that a Blogger is in no way a journalist.

Dr. Hsein Hsein Lei, Blogger behind Genetics & Health, also recently encountered this same train of thought when she applied for embargoed press releases from EurekAlert. She was denied because she was a Blogger and not considered a journalist, even though she is a Doctor. She simply chooses to share her knowledge of genetics and health related issues through the blogging medium.

What establishes a Blogger as a true journalist or editor? The lines between the two continue to be gray, only making for more controversy as Blogging continues to become more engrained in our culture. Is there a set of criteria that need to be established that can deem a worthy Blogger the title of journalist? I think there are many more questions than answers when it comes to Blogger as journalist. I would love to hear your thoughts on what the boundaries should be and how we can establish true and binding criteria for the determination of a Blogger journalist.

Fashion:

+ Style Bubble lends her thoughts on the new Kate Moss for TopShop collection.

+ Debutante Clothing brings up the issue of Fashion Copyright, which goes along with what Jason Jobson and I have been discussing on The Fashion Rag.

+ Men’s Flair helps you find a pair of sunglasses for your face shape.

Beauty:

+ Beautynomics reviews Epoch’s Blemish Treatment.

+ Beauty Banter review’s Cleo Bath & Body products.

+ A Touch of Blusher discusses Spring/Summer’s newest trend: white eyeshadow.

Fashion:

+ Style Critic gives the lowdown on A.P.O.’s Personalized-Designer Jeans.

+ No good for me shows that eco-fashion can even be a pretty wood pulp dress.

+ Fashion & Style Tips gives advice from a fashion leader. Not only is this post so true, but it is quirky and quite possibly the best post I have read all week.

Beauty:

+ Canadian Beauty reviews Philosophy’s Sweet Coconut Body Butter.

+ The Makeup Girl gives you Tools 101, a short list of must-have tools to always keep in your makeup bag.

+ Beauty Pro: Check out my review on Kiss My Face’s Tighten Up Moisturizer.

Simply say, “The Beauty Bible” and everyone knows I am talking about Paula Begoun. I recently was able to interview Paula, also known for her other best sellers: Don’t Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me and Don’t Go Shopping For Hair Care Products Without Me. Paula Begoun is also a syndicated columnist of “Dear Paula,” a column that can be found throughout newspapers in the US and the creator and innovative force behind her product line, “Paula’s Choice.”

When you first began to challenge the cosmetics industry, were you met with much resistance by them, or did they give off the attitude that you were simply one individual who didn't pose much of a threat?
I have always found the resistance the same, some people in the industry love my work and others think I don’t know what I’m talking about. In the long run, I don’t pose much of a threat, but that’s always true for an iconoclast.

As time went on and your books became best sellers (and you--a force to be reckoned with), did you notice that the brands you were challenging for false claims began to change the wording in their advertising?
No, if anything things have gotten worse. Cosmetic companies don’t even care what the FDA does, because by the time anyone notices, the next advertising campaign or product launch replaced the previous one.

In the beginning, were you surprised by the amount of women responding to you? Are you still surprised that it continues today?
I’m always surprised how many women know my work. Selling over 2 million books is really great for the ego. What saddens me, is when I feel nothing has changed and women are still wasting lots of money on misleading advertising claims.

You said (on your website) that Paula's Choice and your challenging of the cosmetic industry began as a personal quest. Do you now feel like an advocate for all women discerning fact from fiction in product claims?
It still feels like a personal quest, I find myself wanting to know more all the time. Being an advocate for myself, and having turned that into a business is a wonderful way to earn a living.

What makes Paula's Choice products stand out among its competitors?
It depends on who the competitor is. There are some really bad products on the market and in those instances my products are stellar with state of the art ingredients, air tight packaging (to keep the beneficial ingredients stable), and elegant formulations. But there are also brilliant products out there that are truly excellent and I feel strongly my products compete beautifully (and almost always, mine are far less expensive).

Mother’s Day is only a few short weeks away and happens to be, in my opinion, a day that all mothers look forward to for the pampering, the gifts and demonstrations of love by her family. With consumer spending for Mother’s Day gifts expected to be $15.73 billion, these last few weeks before the big day are a fantastic opportunity to get your brand noticed, especially online.

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2007 Mother’s Day Consumer Actions and Intentions survey, 20% of consumers are expected to do their Mother’s Day gift shopping online, which is a 3.1% increase from last year. Although the other 80% do their gift buying offline, many still use the internet to research and look for gift ideas. While Mother’s Day shopping and gift research typically begins at the beginning of April, far more consumers make their purchase much closer to the holiday, which occurs on May 13th this year.

By utilizing the internet to spread the word about your product(s) as great gift ideas for mom, your advertising costs will be much less versus commercial and print ads and more likely to spread the word faster due to viral marketing. A few ways to utilize the web to get your products before Mother’s Day gift searchers are:

Press Releases
Advertisements on targeted websites
Advertisements on targeted blogs
Promoting them to blog owners

Online press releases are great for search engine optimization and will quickly get you picked up by the likes of Google and Yahoo when consumers do an online search. Using keywords in the title of your press release is a key factor. Key phrases to use are “Mother’s Day gifts” and “Mother’s Day gift ideas.” Some online press release services are PR NewsWire, Send2Press and PRWeb Direct. You can also use these same press releases to email to blog owners, but make sure to include links to your products (if you have an online site) and pictures as well.

For this week's Five Things Friday I wanted to focus on blogging. I knew that the best person to turn to for advice was Brian Clark, the Blogger behind the very popular copywriting and online marketing blog: CopyBlogger. With 15,744 subscribers to his blog, and plenty more regular readers to his credit, when Brian talks--people listen. If you haven't heard of Brian Clark, I will have to wonder if you live under a rock (and then ask you to please come out from under it). Please be sure to check out CopyBlogger, where I am sure you will gain a wealth of information from all Brian has to offer.

With Brian's permission I am reposting his post: The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging.

Blogging is a great way to grow a business, promote a cause, or spread new ideas, because when you take an educational approach to marketing, you gain the attention and trust of people who might otherwise simply ignore old-fashioned advertising. Not only can those people become your customers or converts, they can also become your advocates.

While there’s as many ways to approach blogging as there are blogs, some things remain steadfast when it comes to gaining influence and prompting action. Here are the 5 bedrock elements that you might keep in mind when blogging to persuade:

1. The Law of Value

Your blog must provide value to the reader by addressing a problem, concern, desire, or need that the reader already has. Fresh, original content is critical.

2. The Law of Headlines and Hooks

Your post titles must stand out in a crowded, noisy blogosphere, and you must quickly communicate the value of reading further with your opening.

3. The Law of “How To”

People don’t want to know “what” you can do, they want to know “how” it’s done. If you think you’re giving away too much information, you’re on the right track.

4. The Law of the List

Love them or hate them, informational posts presented in list format are easily digestable, and allow for an efficient transfer of your value proposition to the reader.

5. The Law of the Story

Stories are the most persuasive blogging element of all, as they allow you to present a problem, the solution, and the results, all while the connotation of the story allows readers to sell themselves on what you have to offer.

Fashion:

+ SporkFashion posts about David Lundhal’s Fire Element Necklace.

+ J’adore Couture discusses the success of Gap’s newest Designer additions, the book “Falling into the Gap” and ponders if Gap Inc. has learned from its past as sales are up 4% at Gap and 10% at Old Navy. I vaguely remember *someone* saying that Gap Inc. would make a comeback this year.

+ Fashionista has a great series called “Adventures in Copyright Infringement.” In adventure #10 she compares a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s to an exact copy by J.Crew.

Beauty:

+ Hello Dollface reviews a number of beauty products from NYX Cosmetics (of which I am also a fan!)

+ Modern Atelier review’s two products from Stila’s Summer Collection.

+ Perfume-Smellin’ Things reviews La Base For Her.

When it comes to your brand, are you soley focused on the bottom line and how to bring in the customers and drive your sales? Or are you willing to set aside a portion of your profits and time to focus on the one thing that makes your company a success: your customers and what they need. Tom’s of Maine recognized a consumer issue related to their niche and have created a program to serve a public health need. Not only is this a great way to generate positive feelings about the Tom’s of Maine brand, but also a great PR generator, as well.

Tom’s of Maine has a dental program they established in 2004 called Dental Health For All. It’s a program aimed at helping those who are without dental insurance and seek dental care through clinics. Since 2004 they have granted clinics throughout the US more than $670,000, which has helped more than 15,000 children and adults gain access to dental care. With more than 120,000 people in the US without dental insurance, Tom’s of Maine stepped up and decided to contribute to a cause that is beneficial to both the brand and potential consumers. Since they are one of the top leading brands in natural personal care products, it only made sense for Tom’s of Maine to extend their relationship beyond just their customers, but onto others where dental care due to lack of insurance is an everyday struggle.

Due to Tom’s of Maine’s ability to look beyond sales figures and profits, they have been able to establish themselves as a leader in their industry. Being a leader doesn’t mean your company has the highest profits or best sales tactics, being a leader means being the one to think beyond yourself, step out of the box and contribute to the community not only in a way to help your niche, but to help those customers in an unselfish way. By providing grants each year to various dental clinics around the US, Tom’s of Maine establishes a relationship with dental professionals and the clients who utilize their services and isn’t that what public relations is all about; creating a relationship and positive image of your brand that has the potential to do more than marketing alone?

Tom’s of Maine has done it right, what are you doing to establish a positive relationship with your target market to create brand awareness and create that personal connection with consumers?

Many times when a news story breaks, Bloggers and online news sites scramble to bring targeted traffic to their site through their posts and purchasing keyword advertisements that will pop up when someone searches phrases on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. There are five things you can do to get a hold of targeted traffic, whether it be when a big news story breaks or anytime in between:

1. Use key phrases in your headline. Think like a person, but also think like a robot that searches the web for sites using those words. I like to use Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool, which allows me to type in specific words and then tells me how many times that word was used for a search the previous month.

2. Use keywords in the body of your article. Be specific and try to avoid general terms. For example, if you are writing about what the incident at Virginia Tech, don’t say “the gunman,” instead say, “Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech gunman.”

3. Use multimedia. On your website or in the body of your article, it is always beneficial to include video and audio media, as both have great viral potential. You can also publish the video you used to You Tube with it linking back to your story to generate traffic, but it also give others the ability to post your video to their own sites and help generate traffic for you.

4. Divide your content up into many specific topics with relevant links to other stories you have written. I use Word Press for one of my sites and utilize a plugin that automatically does this for me. If I am writing on a specific topic, it will automatically generate related posts at the end of my article. If the reader has landed on your site for that specific topic, they are more likely to click to other related stories you have written, therefore increasing page views and loyalty to your site as a trusted source of information. If you don’t have a plugin that can do this for you, it is easy to do manually simply by hot linking keywords in your article that link to those stories.

5. Provide the ability for the readers to subscribe to your site or bookmark it. For subscription, Bloggers should utilize a RSS feed service and websites can create an opt-in mailing list; this will generate built in traffic and loyal readership. Creating the ability to bookmark your site means those readers are more likely to return to your site when looking for information than to use the search engines and invest time into a search.

Fashion:

+ The Fashion Rag: Check out an up and coming NYC Fashion Designer, Boaz David.

+ Second City Style gives us a Week in Review of Bad Celebrity Fashion.

+ Fashion I.Q. has compiled a list of the Top 50 Fashion Blogs.

Beauty:

+ Blog For Beauty reviews Max Factor’s Masterpiece Mascara.

+ Claire’s Beauty reviews various beauty products from Bourjois.

+ The Mineral Makeup Blog reviews Jane Iredale’s Liquid Minerals.

Here's the top five fashion trends for Fall/Winter 2007-2008

1. The 80’s influence remains intact: vibrant colors, zippers, off the shoulder sweaters. However greys and blacks still remain the autumn/winter classic.

2. Out with the clothes that hide your body and in with more silhouette friendly pieces.

3. Chunky sweaters with geometric shapes and sporty stripes.

4. Toned down platform shoes creating a modern day pump.

5. Embellishments with sequins and beading will be seen on accessories and clothing alike.

Is there a Fall fashion trend that you're looking forward to?

I found this great article written in Good Housekeeping by Colette Bouchez: 5 Beauty Tips and Secrets Every Woman Should Know. It's a great article every woman should read.

Beauty Tip 1: Never Underestimate the Power of Moisturizer
Beauty Tip 2: Sunscreen Is Your Best Antiaging Product.
Beauty Tip 3: Choose Your Cleanser Wisely
Beauty Tip 4: Use the Right Tools for the Right Job
Beauty Tip 5: Update Hair and Makeup Every 2 Years

Fashion:

+ Trendible has photos of John Mayer doning designer duds in this months GQ. He looks utterly fabulous.

+ Fashion Chicks posts pictures of celebrities that seem to enjoy the feathers trend in dresses.

+ Suze at Glamour’s fashion blog is looking for six couples for Glamour’s next fashion shoot. If you know anyone that would be interested (including you and your mate), check out her post for details!

Beauty:

+ Beauty Blabber tells you how to recreate Katherine McPhee’s metallic smoky eye look.

+ Makeup Moxie review’s Ojon’s Rub-Out Dry Cleanser.

+ Cinnamon Kitten reviews Clinique’s SuperBalm Lip Treatment

A corporate website is still one of the most important tools for companies to establish a voice, educate on brands, and promote campaigns. However, with too much information, they can frustrate and turn away potential consumers.

To help companies know whether or not their websites are user friendly, Eric Eggertson, from Common Sense PR, offers these five potential problems to avoid.

1. Identity Crisis

Product FAQ’s, point of sales, bios, message boards, blogs…these are all great functions for a website but that doesn’t mean it should have all of them. Eric stresses the importance of making sure marketing and communications see eye to eye when it comes to the site’s purpose. He also cautions against too many pull down menus and links.

2. Poor Writing

“Involve your top copywriters. It’s a place to let the spirit of your organization sing.”

It might be tempting to delegate the responsibility of writing the content to an intern or lower level executive, but someone with greater knowledge and experience will bring more credibility and depth to the text.

3. Uneven Flow

“A good website should feel like a good museum or even someone’s home, where there is a natural flow from one room to the next.”

This is a big one. Make sure it’s easy to navigate the pages of your website and that there is a feeling of order. Links that connect to pages with dead ends or pointless material could get you into trouble.

4. TMI

Don’t overwhelm web surfers with paragraph after paragraph of information, if they want to learn more about something they can dig for it somewhere else. Only incorporate the company’s key messages and make sure they’re written out clearly and concisely.

5. Confusing Structure

Users should be able to figure out how to get around your website without a tour guide. Too many flash images that take a long time to load or too many sections and sub sections are definitely things to stay away from.

For additional information, webpagesthatsuck.com offers their top 10 worst websites for 2006, including Tampax, Brown University, and Association of International Glaucoma Societies.

Honorable mentions include graphicartsexchange.com (a sex change for graphic art?) and saltinstitute.org.

* Photo Credit: geeksontime.com

Fashion:

+ Fashion Indie is calling for an Indie-wide ban on Britney Spears for her tasteless use of a Zac Posen gown as a doggy outhouse.

+ Bag Bliss writes about Gwen Stephani filing suit against Forever 21.

+ MetroStyleMen has a post that is really quite interesting and the “fashion” displayed is really quite…well see for yourself.

Beauty:

+ The it Lists reviews Fekkai’s Beach Waves.

+ Spa Blah Blah Blog gives some beauty recipes for a cucumber mask and toner.

+ Hello Dollface reviews GapBody’s Bath & Skin Collection.

You've already created a Facebook sponsored group for your brand and your MySpace friend list reads like the white pages, so here's one new thing to add to your social media PR must-do list: Create a brand-specific social network on Ning.

Ning is a site where instead of just creating a page, you create a community with features like discussions, forums, and messaging. Instead of joining a myspace, you’re a creating a YOU-space, your own personal social network where brand-fans can upload their own content, blogs, videos, and pictures.

“We wanted to enable people to create their own worlds, not just join someone else's,” explains Ning founder and internet pioneer Marc Andreessen (he invented the first web browser) on his blog, blog.pmarca.com. “The more people learn what social networking makes possible, the more interested they will be in creating their own worlds, their own social networks, around every conceivable need and niche: their families, friends, cities, companies, start-ups, classes, hobbies, interests, political candidates, nonprofit activities, and so on.”

Another plus in Ning's favor is the ability for you to add RSS feeds so that you can update members of your network on any new content. Signing up is free and takes little time depending on whether you choose to use Ning’s templates or create your own fancier html code. You can also choose whether to make your network public or private.

According to Andreessen, 71,531 social networks have already been created with networks created by professionals and educators to MTV celebrity Kristin Cavallari, and the numbers keep on growing.

When it comes to creating truly customized social marketing, Ning's the thing.

Photo Credit: learnscience.net

Fashion:

+ Petite Fashionista breaks down Park Ave Chic and Jet Set style in Part 4 of her “What’s Your Fashion Personality” series of posts.

+ On The Fashion Rag, I announced the Fall launch of PORTFOLIO, a fashion newsmagazine for your cell and PDA.

+ MyAirShoes.com gives a preview of Clae’s “Russell” shoes coming out this Fall.

Beauty:

+ 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic gives some great tips on caring for your manicure.

+ The Non-Blonde reviews Bobbi Brown’s Lathering Tube Soap.

+ Delush reviews Kiss My Face Rosemary & Melon Hand Soap.

Amanda Che knows that the right accessory makes the outfit. She understands that a smart belt or tote can make even the most basic jeans & top combo into a stylish ensemble. This is why she created the A.Ché collection of handbags and accessories, which combine luxurious leather and unique detailing to create pieces that both timeless and fashion forward.

Amanda Che’s love of fashion and entrepreneurial drive was apparent early on. At the age of five, Amanda launched her first business selling handmade teddy bears to her neighbors. A Southern California native, Amanda is the oldest of four sisters, and comes from a family invested in the fashion industry. Amanda learned first hand about the industry from her parents who own a lingerie and swimwear manufacturing business. She received her formal training at the FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) in Los Angeles and began working on the debut A.Ché collection after graduation.

Amanda traveled around the world before finding artisans in Thailand with the skilled handiwork necessary to create the signature knot detailing of the A.Ché line. All A.Ché products are adorned with a logo plate decorated with Swarovski crystals and are hand sewn in Thailand using silky soft deerskin leather. Deerskin is an extremely smooth leather that is flexible and lightweight, but durable, rendering A.Ché’s handbags, wallets, and belts as soft as silk.

Inspired by the sensuous Marilyn Monroe, the womanly Sophia Loren, and the elegant Audrey Hepburn, the Fall 2007 A.Ché collection offers the right handbag and accessory to match every occasion and mood.

You can see the complete collection from A.Che at www.a-che.com

Relaxation at the finest hotel, spa and even your own home are not complete without the little luxuries needed to compliment your sense of well-being. Abyss, well known for its impeccable attention to detail in its robes and towels, offers comfort, softness and elegance to enhance your experience of tranquility.

Abyss towels, known for their signature rounded edges, are made from the finest materials such as Egyptian cotton, Belgium linen and Micro Modal. The Abyss towel collection offers a variety of designs and textures to suit each individual taste with their Super Pile line of towels boasting to be “the thickest, most luxurious towel you'll ever find.”

Abyss robes are all made from 100% Egyptian cotton and woven in standard low-lint. The thick, rich unrivalled feeling of durable soft fibres will make you never want to leave your bathroom oasis.

All Abyss towels and robes are pre-washed to avoid shrinking and fading. Abyss doesn’t use industrial machines to create their products, but instead go traditional by using the hands of their craftsmen to cut, sew and hand-finish each product. It is human skill that plays the main role in ensuring high quality, luxurious bath linens to add refinement and harmony as you melt away the stressors that life may bring your way.

Abyss towels and robes can be found at many spas and hotels, but can also be found at various stores online.

Countdown to Fashion Week! I can feel the excitement in the air--can you?

Fashion:

+ Haute & Bothered gives us the Top Ten Most Extravagant Handbags according to Forbes.

+ Fashion & Style Tips wants you to guess who will be featured in a new Louis Vuitton ad campaign next month…she gives you three people to choose from (and the pictures are pretty funny.)

+ The Daily Tee guides you on how to avoid being scammed on imposter vintage tees.

Beauty:

+ Glossing it Over reviews Borghese’s Kirkland Signature Line Travel Kit.

+ Viva Woman sums up some beauty tips from the video she posted by Michelle Phan on how to create brighter, larger looking eyes.

+ 15 Minute Beauty Fanatic reviews Benefit Cosmetic’s Some Kind Of Gorgeous.

Fashion:

+ TopButton.com helps you transform your work wardrobe from runway to your way with Philip Lim 3.1

+ Bag Snob is doing 6 episodes on E! for, “25 Most Stylish.” The lucky gals get to do three of the episodes with the ever fabulous Tom Ford!

+ Fashion Salad let’s us know that Paris Hilton is not going away—in fact, she is going to be launching a footwear line.

Beauty:

+ Beauty Pro is curious what you think of the bold eyebrow trend. Make sure to cast your vote in our poll to tell us whether you love it or hate it.

+ The Organic Beauty Expert wonders how you feel about product packaging going green.

+ The Beauty Blog Network launches its own social media network on Ning and creates it’s own rendition of Digg: “The Beauty Digg.”

In need of a vacation? Looking to stay in a luxury hotel, but with so many to choose from, you're not sure which to pick? Below are the Top 5 Best New Hotels according to the Conde Nast Traveler Hot List for 2007.

1. AC Miramar, Barcelona Spain
A 5-Star hotel perched atop Montjuïc Mountain with a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean Sea.

2. Abbaye De La Bussiere, Dijon France
A luxurious country house hotel set on 15 acres of parkland with that historic French charm.

3. Acqualina, Miami USA
Panoramic views of the ocean and Miami's skyline, this Mediterranean-inspired hotel resort will seduce you with its world-class services.

4. Adara, Whistler Canada
A combination of modern and contemporary decor with an inspired design of chic ambience, this luxury hotel is nestled among the Blackhomb and Whistler Mountains. (*Whistler Mountain is also the official site of the alpine and nordic venues for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.)

5. Amanyara, Turks and Caicos
These 3 and 4 bedroom villas border the pristine reefs of Northwest Point Marine National Park with a gorgeous view of of the turquoise hued sea.

* Photo Credit: Amanresorts.com

Fashion:

+ The Budget Fashionista alerts us to a possible trend that is big in the UK—Jodhpurs.

+ I Like Her Style gives you Work Wear 101: The Corporate Diva.

+ Bag Bliss announces Karl Lagerfeld’s plans to launch a new handbag line.

Beauty:

+ Canadian Beauty reviews J.R. Watkins Body Oil.

+ Makeup and Beauty Blog goes backstage with MAC Cosmetics on opening night at San Francisco Fashion Week.

+ A Touch of Blusher reviews Dior’s merger of handbag and makeup palette in the Dior Diorissime Palette for Fall 2007.

We all know that there have been widespread smoking bans put into place for the general purpose of health, but for one woman in Detroit, she would like to see fragrances added to the list when it comes to the workplace. Seems like a far fetched idea? While, banning employees from wearing fragrance in the workplace may never come to fruition, another advocacy group and medical charity, Allergy UK, is pushing for the recognition of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity as an illness.

Up until now, those who have no physical reaction to fragrance just couldn’t grasp the idea that there are some people who have an adverse reaction to various chemicals found in perfumes, lotions and personal care items. These infractions on one’s health include a severe to migraine headache, skin rashes, muscoskeletal pains and other allergic reaction-type symptoms. This can make it difficult to get through a pain-free workday and affect your performance on the job. I can attest that this syndrome is very real, as my husband will have adverse health affects when around things such as perfume, cigarette smoke, intensely fragrant lotions, shower gels and soaps and so on. He is also severely allergic to a chemical called MSD found in some epoxy flooring. Breathing in its fragrance swells his throat and he has difficulty breathing, with each exposure the reaction seems to get worse. Such is the case with those whose bodies have an intolerance to certain chemicals found in personal care products.

Allergy UK’s mission is to have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity recognized as a true illness and to educate health care professionals and the public about this syndrome. Their Health Care Panel is comprised of General Practitioners, Allergists, Dermatologists, Immunologists, Pediatricians, Nurses and Dieticians to assist in meeting the goal of this mission. They also have a "Seal of Approval" for products they endorse that restrict/reduce/remove allergens from the environment. They feel that once it is a recognized medical illness, then health care providers can properly treat it and there can be medical backup to a person who becomes ill in the workplace due to this chemical sensitivity. No longer can employers feel their employee is making it up or not take their health complaints seriously, such as the case with my husband’s employer despite having his co-workers witness his severe allergic reaction first hand.

Pierce Mattie has products he absolutely loves and the Star Trac Elite Cross Trainer is one of them. This luxury fitness machine, that can be placed in the gym or your own home, is the concept made reality through the collaboration of Star Trac and BMW Group DesignworksUSA. Designed with the latest cross section of technology and fitness that is FitLinxx certified, I can see why this elliptical has become his recent obsession.

One of the top reason’s Pierce loves this elliptical is because of the built-in fan. The fan helps you stay on the machine longer because you don’t overheat and if you're somewhat claustrophobic, it will help you feel like you are actually running outdoors. It is due to this fan that he can remain on the Elite Cross Trainer for 60 minutes while burning up to 800 calories.

However, that is not all that this fitness machine features that proves to be of value. The Elite Cross Trainer features Pro Partner technology that communicates via infrared (IR) beam with Palm OS software. Through another collaborative effort, SingleTap and Star Trac have created technology that allows the user to receive workout data from the elliptical directly to their Palm that they can then compare and review to previous workouts. They also create their own workouts on their Palm and bring them to the gym and upload them into the Elite Cross Trainer. Thus helping them to remain focused and note progress towards their fitness goal.

With 20 levels of resistance and the integration of strength training into a cardio workout, Pierce is pretty positive that the Star Trac Elite Cross Trainer will become an obsession with you, too.

Ladies, have you ever been in a department store dressing room and talked yourself into buying an outfit that looked great - on someone else?

Face it. If it doesn't fit right in the dressing room, it won't fit well or look good when you wear it out in public. Here are five quick and easy tips to remember when buying clothes that look good and fit well on your body type.

1. Stick to a Color Theme

Wear the same color from head to toe. This will create the illusion of a long lean line. Neutral colors work best for this effect: black, brown, camel or cream. (Note: add a splash of color with a jacket or wrap)

2. Wear Your Correct Size

Dress in the size you are - not the size you want to be. In spite of what you might believe, wearing clothes that are too tight or too big will make you look LARGER.

3. Be Aware of Flattering Fabrics

You want to wear fabrics that skim your curves instead of cling to them. Fabrics should drape your body and make you look good, not lumpy.

4. Best Pants to Wear

The most flattering pants to wear for all body types have a flat front, fall just below the navel (not hip huggers), and flare slightly at the bottom.

5. Best Skirt to Wear

The most flattering skirts to wear for all body types gets a perfect grade of "A". The A-line skirt looks good on everybody and is great for hiding figure flaws.

Fashion:

+ Trendible is talking about Sak’s Fifth Avenue’s new 10022-Shoe, which sounds like it is right up my alley.

+ Fashion-Incubator discusses the number one mistake of new fashion designers.

+ Please Don’t Feed The Models discussed an article she read on a law school grad who gets ultra-green by building her wardrobe from clothes she finds on the streets (some of which are Designer duds). Although it doesn't sound terribly fabulous, it's actually pretty interesting the clothes she finds.

Beauty:

+ The Scented Life reviews Peace Comes From Within fragrance.

+ Bella Sugar offers a great home spa tip with a DIY recipe for a Mojito Hand Scrub.

+ We Love Beauty gives you the rundown of some pretty fabulous primers for your skin, eyes, lips and lashes.

Fashion:

+ A Girl's Gotta Spa! snags a picture with celeb fashion stylists Phillip Bloch and Robert Verdi at New York Fashion Week.

+ Haute & Bothered notes a certain floral trend that keeps popping up among the shows at New York Fashion Week.

+ Fashion Chicks wonders just how wearable Missioni's newest "Russell Crowe ala Gladiator" inspired belt is.

Beauty:

+ Beautyholics Anonymous reviews Maybelline's AngelFit Flawless Affinity Foundation.

+ Savvy Skin mentions that Paula Begoun is coming out with the 7th edition of Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter without me and Paula's search for a customer to write the intro of her book.

+ SugarShock gives us the inside scoop to her tress TLC.

Institut' DERMed came to fruition as a result of Founder, Lyn Ross' battle with teenage acne. While most teens battle a pimple here and there, Lyn fought acne since age 11 with her defining moment being her Senior Prom. The embarrassment and heartache she felt over her blemished skin is what lead her to her life's purpose of formulating cosmeceuticals and founding her Georgia-based company, Institut' DERMed.

Growing up in the 60's, skin care was not as advanced as it is now and Lyn's only known way to fight her acne were with Clearasil and Noxzema. It became a never ending cycle of drying out her skin and attempting to cover it up with makeup. When her acne flared up, her self -esteem would sink and it is with that understanding of the connection between emotional well-being and skin health that Lyn Ross is able to do what she does best--helping others with their skin afflictions.

Lyn Ross is licensed through the Georgia Board of Cosmetology as a Master Esthetician and has over 25 years of experience in the field of professional aesthetics. Lyn is passionate about skin care and her focus is educating physicians, nurses, and estheticians on the benefits of clinical skin health care. She lectures frequently on the latest advances in skin and body rejuvenation. She has appeared as a guest on radio and television programs addressing common concerns of skin health including acne, skin discolorations and premature aging. She has been a contributor to several professional and consumer publications, in addition to authoring chapters for textbooks. Lyn is committed to researching and innovating the latest products and therapies for healthy aging.

Lyn is "hands on" when it comes to skin care, keeping in touch with her clients so that she can learn from them and develop new products to meet their needs. Their skin health is a priority for Lyn; watching her client's spirit heal as their skin heals is infinitely rewarding and inspiring to her.

About Institut' DERMed:

Institut' DERMed encompasses three distinct services: a MediClinical Spa, an education facility and an extensive line of treatment products. The Spa combines aesthetic beauty therapies with scientific medical approaches offering unrivaled care and superior treatment results. Institut’ DERMed offers the latest in technologically advanced skin and body care and medical affiliations include distinguished and nationally recognized plastic surgeons and dermatologists who endorse DERMed treatments and recommend the extensive therapeutic options for facial and body rejuvenation. The collaborative relationship between medicine and aesthetics insures client results, comfort and satisfaction for preserving a healthy, youthful appearance and creating radiant health.

Lemonade.com made its debut on the web last week, an e-commerce concept based on the old-fashioned values and money-making strategy of our youth. Sure there are several other e-commerce applications out there available at your fingertips, but Lemonade.com has a slight edge over them (by about 35 million people) with a notch in their belt as being the first and only e-commerce application that can be used on Facebook.

What it is:

A way to recommend and make money from showcasing products you love to those who read your blog, website, and social networking profile.

How Lemonade.com is different from the others:

* While most e-commerce applications only offer one revenue stream, Lemonade.com offers three: Commission sales, cost per acquisition and CPM. All three of these forms of revenue go into your revenue “pot” and you are paid 80% and Lemonade keeps 20%.

* Lemonade has over 200 retailers whose products you can choose from. Unlike other affiliate applications, you do not need to try to qualify for each retailer; if you are a Lemonade Stand owner, you are a guaranteed partner living up to their tagline “e-commerce for all.”

* Lemonade is family friendly with a language filter and no adult content; they hand pick products through a datafeed. So if you are targeting parents with your recommendations using their partner Drugstore.com and want to recommend various toys, you won’t bring up those “other” toys instead.

* A Lemonade Stand can raise funds for charity, which is reminiscent of Alex, the wonderful little girl from Pennsylvania who set up a Lemonade Stand of the non-virtual kind to raise money for cancer (including her own).

* Lemonade gives your stand exposure through its Marketplace. This helps boost your stand views and ultimately clicks on the products you recommend.

In Lemonade.com’s 1st week alone without any marketing, over 1100 stands were set up. I personally decided to give this a try and you can see it live on my blog, A Girl’s Gotta Spa.

What’s next for Lemonade.com:

* In the 4th quarter of this year, there will be new Stand sizes to choose from.
* In the 1st quarter of 2008, you’ll be able to customize your stand.
* By the end of the 2nd quarter in 2008, Lemonade.com will available on mobile phones as a “Stand in your hand.”

The concept around Lemonade.com is simple: creating a sense of familiarity from the Lemonade Stands of the past, but bringing it into the 21st century with a twist and a modern way of doing business.

Have you set up a Lemonade Stand? We’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

Solessence began as a small act of kindness. Growing up, founder Hillary Fry’s mother shared from her heritage the wonders and uses of botanicals and herbs for healing, pleasure and pampering through creams, soap, salves. Her father, the one with wanderlust, enjoyed tracking down hard-to-find ingredients (this was before the age of the internet), and would share his stories from travels the world over. Family projects were learning experiences where beauty and art were always combined.

When friends who had moved to harsher climates began to lament of dry skin and cracked heels, it was only natural for her to seek a solution for them. It wasn’t enough to create a product that worked – it also needed to be a sensory experience worth repeating. She began personally blending oils and ingredients from her travels around the world to create natural/organic treatments for them...and they worked.

Since Solessence’s debut, the company has grown to not only pamper friends originally surprised with the products, but their friends, and their friends, and so on. Solessence is thrilled to be a part of the Billboard Awards, to be on shelves at Whole Foods Markets, and to be discovered by and invited to People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful issue for People en Espanol (Los Mas Bellos), the Emmy Awards and the SAG Awards. Most recently the company was featured on TV Guide Network’s ‘The Fashion Team’ show after a Senior Vice President called to say she was a ‘big fan’ of the product and wanted to help provide more exposure.

Although the application for the company trademark was applied for in 2000, it wasn’t granted until late 2005. During the (long) wait, a website was established and Hillary began marketing. Internet sales began to trickle in. Her first brick & mortar sale was made to a small health store for $200 after a casual conversation with the beauty buyer. Her second sale a few days later was to a larger health store chain, for $5000 – people were responding positively to the luxurious feel and upscale look of this natural & organic skin care line, to the point where they were emailing and asking for her formulations. Although there was a hesitancy to invest heavily if the trademark would not be granted, in 2004 Solessence made an appearance with only the soap collection, temporary scrub labels and unmarked lotion bottles at a New York trade show. It was important to find out if there was a substantial interest in this market to even pursue. It was at this event that two pivotal things happened:

1. The Vice-President of a well known body care company raved about how nice the scrubs were and asked if we would private label for them – to the tune of 70,000 jars a month
2. Whole Foods Market sought out the booth after seeing the soap in the ‘Best of Show’ display area (“That is the best soap I have ever seen!”} and picked up the line.

Fashion:

+ Christa Taylor discusses tips she learned from a Model.

+ The Space Between My Peers explains why watching fashion trends is frugal.

+ The Coveted has a great interview with Swedish design duo Mori & Mimosa.

Beauty:

+ Beauty and Fashion Tech reviews Sonia Kashuk Cosmetics Cheek Sheer, Shadow and Brushes.

+ Beauty Secrets Revealed gives some great DIY recipes for skin whitening/lightening.

+ Aging Fabulous let's purveyors of Estee Lauder know that their lipsticks may be gone, but they are not forgotten.

Dr. Georg Kolb gave Brian Pittman of The Daily Dog a really great interview on what he foresees as the public relations trends we’ll be seeing come 2008. Most of these trends are emerging now while others are trends we began to see take shape last year and have picked up speed as the role of PR has evolved over the year.

PR Trends for 2008 (as forecasted by Dr. Georg Kolb):

+ Fragmentation in the media will require PR to be more focused
+ Publicists will have to do more relationship building than pushing pitches
+ Addressing everyone on distribution lists in the same way will be ineffective
+ Discovery of and involvement in more Web 2.0 will be key
+ Word of Mouth will continue its importance and should be nurtured and supported
+ Corporate values & corporate behavior will need to be cohesive and clear
+ The value of PR will become more measurable

The fragmentation in the media has really taken shape and become more distinguishable as blogs, social media and the mass amounts of television stations have grown exponentially. Things are no longer condensed in neat little areas of media; it’s spread out sometimes creating a lot of scrambling and confusion. Know which portions of these fragments are the most beneficial to your company and stick to those.

For many publicists it’s always about the pitch and pushing the story out there. Just from a Blogging standpoint, I am bombarded with pitches all day long. The publicists who actually invest time into building relationships instead of sending out a blast of emails hoping that they’ll stick somewhere, are the ones who remain the top on my list and receive the most consideration. As I write this, I can think of only 5 publicists out of about 100 I hear from daily who do this. Don’t focus on the “right now” that many publicists fall pitfall to, focus on the many benefits a relationship can bring you time and again in the bigger scope of things. You’ll have to do more follow ups and the more personalized emails will take up more of your time, but in the long run it will reap the greatest rewards.

Fashion:

+ A Wee Bit Skint is naturally drawn to Marni; she certainly gives a great summary as to what Marni's fashion is about (with some great pictures from fashion week).

+ Style It Less is talking about Ashley Judd as fashion designer.

+ Teen Style Lounge shows how black and white can give you that put together and polished look (this would apply even if you are not a teen!)

Beauty:

+ Beauty Gizmo wants you to get a scalp massage with Acca Kappa brushes.

+ Afrobella is discussing the Sean Combs and Mariah Carey fragrance beef.

+ Nadine Baggot's Beauty Secrets gives you the steps on how to get Kate Moss' undone look (when it comes to hair, that is).

Whether you are a makeup artist, photographer, painter or designer, an online portfolio community has just launched to give you a space on the web to not only set up a clean, professional and rich online portfolio of your images, but to also give your work more exposure and a great way to network with like-minded industry talent. Dripbook.com came out of private beta yesterday to showcase all it has to offer to the world of visual arts.

Dripbook is equally appropriate to the fashion scene as the fine art scene to the underground youth art scene. Painters, photographers, stylists and illustrators are equally represented. Dripbook also serves as a survey of the visual arts world, allowing users and viewers to find great artwork around the world.

Alex Wright, a New York based music photographer, is the creative mind behind Dripbook. In designing Dripbook, he took on the challenge of creating a place where artists can upload and organize their art into books, no matter the genre (even if they cover various genres) without the hassle of understanding code and plugins that go along with designing a website for yourself. The interface is easy for both the user and viewer, in that the entire site is HTML and doesn’t require anything extra for the portfolio to be seen. All users have a splash page, a profile, their book page and a place where other artists can comment on their work. The site is very clean, well laid out and easy to navigate.

I believe we’ll start seeing more niche social networks such as Dripbook, IQONS and PRVoices, as more industry professionals look for a way to see and be seen by other professionals in their industry, while avoiding the clutter of networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

See all that Dripbook has to offer at: www.dripbook.com

* Photo Credit: Alex Wright Photography via Dripbook

With most of the year behind us, we can look back upon our successes and failures and learn what obstacles we were able to overcome and which ones we still struggle with. 2007 has proven to be a year of learning new things and gaining the knowledge to do PR in ways we never thought possible before.

Already preparing for the PR trends of 2008, here are 5 of the challenges that lie ahead for the public relations industry:

1. Learning to navigate a system of disjointed media.
2. Working directly with talent during a time when it seems everyone has a "middle man."
3. Relinquishing generic pitches for something more specific.
4. Becoming transparent in an industry that it not typically known for such.
5. Continued education and involvement in Web 2.0.

Have a challenge you want to add? Be sure to post it in the comments.

Shari Weber has been in the music industry for 13 years. She got her start by doing a favor for a friend; she worked a concert as a local assistant by running errands for a band--taking the group to and from their hotel, setting up their dressing rooms and getting them take away Chinese food. That band was the Counting Crows. It was then that she was introduced to a Florida Promoter and he started using her for all of his shows. Shari's career as a touring production assistant has taken her all over the world logging over 840,000 miles in just the last eight years alone. She's been on tour with the likes of Celine Dion, Coldplay, The Go Gos, Def Leppard and many more.

Shari's years of globe trotting has made her an expert in travel, creating and sending digital postcards from each of the sites she visits. Her travels and time spent with musicians and their production crews have given her plenty of material to write her thoughts out in her online diary "Catch Her If You Can." Shari's insight of life on the road, human behavior and oftentimes witty prose makes reading her updates addictive.

Shari just completed a tour with Def Leppard, and also Evanescence, that kept her busy from January up until only a few days ago. Set to go out on the road again at the end of this month, I took the opportunity to get an inside view of what life is like as a touring production assistant and jet setter.

Shannon: How does it feel to have spent more time on a plane than you have in a car?

Shari: It's crazy to think, but it's absolutely true. I've also spent an equal amount of time in a tour bus. I don't care for the tour buses but I do enjoy flying - flying has become a mental cleansing for me. I fall into the time warp of travel; I can catch up with TV shows on my iPod. Watch a movie, eat & have a glass of wine and take a nap - then magically wake up in another country - its quite amazing still to me after all this time. I prefer flights over 6 hours - that's when I can really relax.

I'm rarely ever in a car. I go usually 2 months before I sit behind the wheel of my own car and its a strange sensation - its like you forget how to drive. Once I returned home from Australia and actually forgot, briefly, where I was and found myself driving down the wrong side of a parking gararge! Thankfully, no one was hurt and telling the story to my Mom gave her a great laugh!

Shannon: Female production crew members being in the minority, is there a bond between the women traveling?

Shari: Yes, there is. Even if you would never socialize with them outside of the tour - being thrust in an extreme environment makes people reach out for the familiar. Its nice to know you always have an ear to talk to and to be an ear for someone else.

Shannon: Did you ever think that just doing a favor for a friend so many years ago would be the beginning of your career?

Shari: I never thought a favor would amount to a career. I'm still dumbfounded by what I do for a living and to revisit the past and remember the day that started it all - makes me realize how lucky I am. I never thought doing a show for the Counting Crows in St. Petersburg, Florida would have open the door to traveling the world and working for the people I have. When days & schedules are challenging - I silently curse my friend, but honestly I am very thankful, its a world I never knew existed and I fit rather well in it.

Shannon: Describe what your typical day is like as a Touring Production Assistant.

Shari: This industry doesn't lend much to typical, but when touring North America & Europe, since we travel by tour bus, the average day starts by loading into the venue around 8am, setting up all production offices & dressing rooms - managing local assistants for the day. The entire day is spent sending the local assistants shopping for band & show needs, multiple Starbucks runs and so on. Usually the band arrives around 4pm for sound check and usually chaos begins once they're in the building. The "need" factor increases the moment the band is in the building. Usually, they take the stage at 9pm and show is down by 11pm. We load out & pack up - usually showering in a smelly locker room around 12:30am and climbing into my bunk on the tour bus around 1am. Driving through the night to the next venue and wake up there and start all over again. Its a bit different when in Japan, South America and Australia - the luxury is, no tour buses and a hotel every night with a private shower! Downside to that is being on a plane every 48 to 72 hours!

Shannon: Spending your days in a hotel room, eating room service and at restaurants, traveling by plane and bus—how do you keep yourself eating right and remaining physically fit?

Shari: It's a challenge- very much so. I seek out gyms before my days off so I have a game plan before I arrive the hotel for a non-show day. I go to the gym every day off and on show days, I will break out my roller blades and do a few laps around the building and sometimes, I will run up and down in the grand stands for a quick cardio work out. Most tours carry juicing machines so I try to make fresh juices everyday. Days off are usually the cheat days because after eating crappy catering for weeks on end - I always treat myself to a proper steak or sushi dinner on a day off! And yes, I do sneak in the molten lava cake!

Fashion:

+ Haute & Bothered has a great video from Fendi's fashion show performed on the Great Wall of China.

+ The Well Heeled Society was granted access to the FFANY's and has some great coverage (and photos) from the event.

+ Chic Inspector closely takes a look at a heel trend going on in women's shoes.

Beauty:

+ Makeup Loves Me reviews Urban Decay's liquid liners.

+ Claire's Beauty reviews some great products from Lush.

+ Spa Beautifully gives a great round down of spa treatments and their descriptions.