Getting ready to buy your summer frames? Check out our Sunglasses Buying Guide!:
http://sheknows.com/about/look/8170.htm

If you have curly, frizzy hair you blow out straight, or just very dry hair that can’t handle constant shampooing, your fervent desire is to make your blowout last. However, the same products you use to tame your frizz are the ones that make this result unlikely.

Here are the top five ways to make a blow dry last, care of Dayler Chagas of OC61 Salon in New York.

1. After shampooing the hair really well, don’t condition beginning at your scalp, only condition your hair from the top of your neck down. This prevents your scalp from getting greasy and oily.

2. Don’t make your blow dry pin straight. If you want your blow dry to last in the summer, it will maintain a better shape and look against humidity and frizz if it has more body and movement.

3. Use a flat iron to smooth out little creases in the hair and a big barrel curling iron to bring out the wave and tame the frizz.

4. A silicone/serum product is great to tame frizz and maintain your blow dry.

5. Sleep with your hair in a high ponytail. You will wake up with loose gorgeous waves and it also helps to prevent your hair frizzing up while you’re sleeping and tossing or turning overnight.

“Everyone deserves to have that one piece of jewelry that makes them feel special,” says jewelery designer Colette Steckel, whose collection of high-end designer jewels utilizes gems like peridot, citrine, apetite, diamonds and sapphires to create uniquely colorful and energetic pieces.

How did you get started in jewelry design?

I started making jewelry seventeen years ago once I saved up enough money to purchase my first stones and metals to create my first piece of jewelry. However, I sold my first piece of jewelry when I was only six years old. My mother had a gem rock collection, and I took a piece of amethyst one day. I used a nail file to polish it until it sparkled. I then attached a paper clip to the stone and sold it to my mothers friend.

What are your inspirations?

I find inspiration in my life, nature and my surroundings.

Your creations are beautiful, and very high-end. Who are your typical customers?

I think that everyone deserves to have that one piece of jewelry that makes them feel special. When I make my jewelry, I leave with each design a part of my heart. I have been blessed to experience the arts and culture of my French influence, as well as the colors and appreciation for life that come with my Mexican heritage. In combining the two, I hope to have created a piece of jewelry for everyone. Whether you are a little girl receiving your first pair of earrings, a bride to be, or even a grandmother, I have created designs that will help capture every phase of life.

Your line seems to be growing and evolving with time, what are your hopes for it in the future?

I hope to continue to grow and evolve. I have a very creative mind, and hope to continue my education, using further research in colors, stones, and metals, to help insure that my designs will always be fresh and unique. In time, I hope to expand my business world wide.

Colette

8457 Melrose Place

Los Angeles, CA, 90069

323.951.9148

www.colettejewelry.com

In the wake of post-Memorial Day weekend food comas, just about all of us need a little detox.

Yesterday, Banyan Tree Thai Spa, a new outpost of holistic wellness on the lower east side of Manhattan, invited me to try out their signature body treatment: the black pepper wrap. Banyan Tree is innovative in that it mixes Eastern and Western traditions in an atmosphere of almost entirely organic ingredients.

The environment at Banyan Tree is intimate and cozy, a feel very reflective of the neighborhood the spa is nestled in. Upon my arrival I was given a refreshing glass of green-ginseng ice tea, and shown around the facilities before being ushered down to the private oasis in the basement where my body wrap would occur.

The Thai Black Pepper wrap, I learned, is a long-time Thai secret to stimulating and revitalizing the vascular and lymphatic systems. This, as well as the cellulite massage you receive during the treatment, can also energize your metabolism, encourage detoxification, and long-term, help in weight reduction.

A relaxing two hours in a spa that may also kill my butt dimples? Sign me up.

My treatment began with complete disrobement and relaxation in a private alcove. As the first step of the process was administered - a soothing green tea body scrub - I found myself lulling off to the serene music and dimmed lights. The body scrub includes every inch of you (from top to bottom, even my toes got in on the action), and leaves skin baby-soft. This is followed by the massaging in of the black pepper oils, whose spicy heat attacks cellulite.

The black pepper extract mixture is left applied, as my body was wrapped and covered with towels so that I could simmer in it for about 15 minutes. The feeling was warm, a slight slow burn. When the time is over, the peppers are cleared with hot towels, and green tea lotion is applied to the entire body. Toxins leaving may mean peeing for days, but it may just be with the softest skin of your life.

Oh, and my smooth and sexy skin just happens to be a little more toned, no vacuum necessary.
As I walked back to the subway, I had an overwhelming desire to return to my hidden Ludlow street oasis…but alas…our time together will remain a special memory.

Banyan Tree Thai Spa, 122 Ludlow Street, between Delancey and Rivington Streets (212-598-4241 or banyantreenyc.com).

Some of our favorite flirty summer handbag looks:

By April Cornell, this Poetry bag is lime and pink tapestry blend looks super sweet with my new Spring dresses.

This chic bag set is also spring fun.  By Shamar Custom Design, the mauve silk in the set comes from a Kimono, allowing you to summon a little bit of your inner geisha this season.

As swimsuit season approaches, my mind is aflutter with several issues:

1. Lose my thigh jiggle
2. Grow boobs

Clearly neither of these will occur with a few weeks to go, so instead, I turned to an expert, in search of camouflage techniques. (Works for the military.) Cyla Weiner, owner and founder of Sylene of Washington, has some great tips for women who are not as gifted on top as they might like to be.

1. Find a suit that has ruffles on top
2. Find a suit that is specifically designed to make you look larger. For example, a suit that has pads or pushup cookies inside
3. Many suits do a great job of camouflaging with busy or bold prints
4. An asymmetric top is also a great look

Note: Tissues, still not a good idea.

There’s nothing quite like opening up your mail box, seeing a load of envelopes, and feeling loved.

(Only to realize it is entirely junk mail, and in actuality, no one loves you after all. Loser.)

Spam email is automatically filtered in most of our email systems, but snail mail has yet to reach that level of ease. Still, there just may be a way to halt your junk mail without blowing up your mail box or moving under a rock with an assumed name. (They’d likely find you anyway.)

GreenDimes is a cool new company that maintains a database of the companies that send a majority of junk mail. If you pay them a yearly fee (which works out to about a dime a day), they will contact the worst junk-mail-offending senders and harass them until they stop harassing you. You help save trees, and slow down that gray hair growth. Plus, the company will donate a portion of your fee to planting new trees, to sort of replenish what your junk mail has taken away.

That’s all rad. But, even better, maybe the mail you receive will start actually being about you. And you can stop being sad.

My good friends at KMR Communications hosted a party earlier this week at Bruno Jamais Restaurant Club (home of the best champagne you’ll ever drink) to launch Dr. Aaron Tabor’s new book, The Revival Slim and Beautiful Diet.

Dr. Tabor’s approach to proper nutrition and diet are unique in that he has researched and recognized the need for an integrated diet approach. The Revival Slim and Beautiful Diet will reduce gelatinous belly and body fat rapidly, reduce the appearance of wrinkles and facial lines, increase hair silkiness and shine, improve nail growth with less splitting and ridging. As usual for KMR events, it was tons of fun, with lots of surprise “celebrity” guests.

Owner Bruno Jamais KMR CEO Katherine Rothman Famed French Artist Cyrille Margartit, Manhattan Cablevision Host Coganc Wellerlane, “Joe Pesci”

“Joe Pesci” “Robert De Niro” KMR CEO Katherine Rothman Dr. Aaron Tabor “Paris Hilton” and “Tony Soprano”

KMR Communications and Dr. Tabor have offered a generous gift basket worth hundreds of dollars to one lucky reader! If you are interested in entering the contest, please leave a comment below with your name and email address (and any love notes you wish to include!)

The basket will include:

1. one month supply of Gorgeous Roses™ Daily Vitamin

2. The Revival Slim and Beautiful Diet Book

1. 60 soy bars from Tabor’s signature line of products:
   1. 15 peanut perfect curves
   2. 15 double chocolate catwalk
   3. 15 chocolate mint supermodel
   4. 15 chocolate peanut radiance

Enter today!

• 1907: The word “brassiere” first appears in American Vogue.

• 1907: The loose dress designs of Parisian couturier Paul Poiret allow women to ditch the corset and adopt the brassiere. Poiret says, “it was in the name of Liberty that I proclaimed the fall of the corset and the adoption of the brassiere which, since then, has won the day.”

• 1910: American socialite Mary Phelps Jacob rejects the corset and fashions her own underwear from silk handkerchiefs and ribbon. The next year she is granted the U.S. patent for the brassiere.

• 1923: Russian immigrant Ida Rosenthal and her husband William create Maidenform. Rosenthal will go on to pioneer different cup sizes and patent a strap fastener.

• 1935: Warner releases the A’lure Bra, marking the first time a company uses the abbreviated version of the word “brassiere.”

• 1937: Warner creates the first cup sizing system. Many previous bras relied on stretchable cups for fit.

• 1940: World War II makes steel a precious commodity. This effectively kills the heavy steel corsets still worn by some women.
• 1948: Shirley of Hollywood and The National Corset Company offer women both bra sets and corsets

• 1950s: The missile bra look is popularized by Hollywood “sweater girls,” including Lana Turner and Jane Russell, who wear pointier bras and tight-fitting sweaters to accentuate the bust.

• 1951: Wrapture releases the Tres Secrete inflatable bra, which allows the wearer to inflate cups to the desired size by blowing in a straw.

• 1959: Lycra Fiber is invented by scientists at DuPont. This stretchy fiber makes it possible for bras to fit close to the body without sagging or losing their shape, allowing for more comfortable and better-fitting bras.

• 1964: The Wonderbra, which aims to “lift and separate the bust,” is launched. The Wonderbra will surge in popularity again in 1994 thanks to the “Hello, boys” ad campaign starring supermodel Eva Herzigova.

• 1968: Demonstrators at the Miss America pageant throw bras, corsets, nylons and other constricting clothing into a trash can to protest the effect of beauty standards on women. Although much has been made about feminists burning bras during this era, there is little evidence these events actually occurred.

• 1977: Underwear giant Victoria’s Secret is founded in San Francisco. By 1996 the company will have an annual revenue of nearly a billion dollars.

• 1977: Hinda Miller, Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith sew two jock straps together and call it the Jogbra. The first sports bra is born.

• 1991: Madonna vogues her way around the world, wearing Jean Paul Gaultier’s famous conical bra for her Blonde Ambition tour.
• 1995: On an episode of “Seinfeld,” Kramer and Frank Costanza attempt to go into business selling a Velcro-fastened bra for men and argue whether to call it the “bro” or the “manssiere.”

• 1997: Italian manufacturer Santoni develops a circular knitting machine that allows bras to be sewn all at once, instead of sewing separate pieces together, making seamless bras possible.

• 1999: Soccer star Brandi Chastain strips off her jersey after scoring the winning penalty kick at the Women’s World Cup, revealing her sports bra and creating a media sensation.
• 2007: Happy Birthday!!!

(timeline provided by our friends at Shirley of Hollywood)

I must confess: Previous to my life-changing Keratin treatment at Shampoo Avenue B, I was unfamiliar with the glory that is Keratin. Now, I’m intrigued, and crave more…

Philip Pelusi, celebrity hairstylist and owner of New York City’s Tela salon (www.telanyc.com), was kind enough to answer a few questions on this miracle protein and its evolution to hair-star status.

The Keratin buzz - where did it come from? And is it really worth
all the hype?
Keratin is a protein that makes up a significant portion of our hair.

Though it has always been there, as people (industry professionals,
stylists and media) learn more about hair, styling tools, products and
treatments, the messages translate to the consumers.

Yes - it is definitely worth all the hype. It is an important protein
that our hair needs. The best protein found in products is human hair
protein, which we use in our product at Tela. Even better is when it is
used with other proteins such as soy and/or silk.

The way it works…Keratin is the smallest protein in its family. Silk
is slightly larger than that and soy even larger. The three work
together to create a layering effect. The Keratin filters through to
reach deep within the hair, with the silk strengthening the layer of
hair above that and the soy the layer above that, as well as protecting
it all.

What are your feelings on the keratin straightening? Is it truly
better than the Japanese, straightening, or other methods available out there?

Keratin is not a strengthening agent - it is simply added to
strengthening processes to help buffer the harshness of straightening
products. It replenishes protein to the hair, that which is extracted
from the straighten process. It helps keep it in better shape, but of
course straightening still damages hair.

To help keep hair healthy, I recommend a follow-up protein/conditioning
regime -home hair care. Additionally, protein salon treatments every so
often will also help. At Tela, we have treatments such as extreme and
replace. We use them on their own but also incorporate them in our
straightening process. They are both based on the principles of
protein. Extreme adds protein to help protect and strengthen the hair.
Then, after the straightening process, we use replace, which literally
adds protein back to hair, replacing some of what was extracted during
the process. We use thin product, applied as a mist through a spray
bottle - which allows for rapid penetration (only about 3 minutes).

If Keratin is a natural ‘building block” of hair, is there anything
we should be doing to keep it in there?

Styling products and tools extract keratin from our hair, however these
are things that are hard to avoid. To try and keep protein in your
hair, for everyday hair care, look for products with human hair keratin
in them - and if they have silk and/or soy and/or wheat protein in them,
even better. Additionally, visiting salons every so often for protein
treatments (Tela has many) help as well.

Thanks Philip!