Today Only: Tarte offering 30 percent discount for Earth Day

Tarte.com is running a one-day-only discount of 30 percent with the coupon code EARTHDAY.

Well, as Joan Rivers was wont to say: Can we talk? What's the point of running a sale in celebration of Earth Day? What good does it do the earth to ramp up the average American woman's lust for consumer goods?

Let's face it; if you take advantage of this generous discount, you'll add to the Earth's problems. Trucks and airplanes and factories will create more pollution. You'll get a package in the mail that will create more solid waste. For all I know, you'll endanger the polar bears and make the baby seals cry.

In other words, I smell a sales gimmick, OK? Well, OK then.

Say you're in the market for new makeup, anyway. And say you're looking for an eyebrow product that will combine brow color, brow gel, a brow brush, a teeny tiny tweezer, and a mirror, all wrapped up in a compact that's perfect for travel. You couldn't do better than to buy yourself Tarte's the toolbox.

See how it's claiming to be a $32 value for $18? They're not making that up; I believe I actually did pay $32 for it.

But with the EARTHDAY code, you can get it for $12.60. Shipping is $5.00, although is you spend $50, you'll get free shipping.

(Just be aware that you'd have to kill a lot of baby seals to take advantage of the free shipping offer.)

Hans Solo trapped in Carbonite soap FTW!

The good news is that this is an actual bar of soap. Yes, it's Han Solo that time he got trapped in whatchamacallit in -- was it The Empire Strikes Back? Anyway. If you have a Star Wars geek in your life--and who among us can say she does not--then you need to buy him or her a cake of Luxury Lane's awesome, olive-oil-infused vegan soap. For only $6.50, this could be the Greatest Father's Day Present Of All Time.

The bad news is that the soapmaker is completely backordered, and it will take 4-6 weeks for your order to arrive.

Oh well. As they say in another famous movie: nobody's perfect.

Preppy according to Poppy

Being able to laugh at The Official Preppy Handbook was my reward for

a. having to spend six years at an all-girl school;
b. having to play field hockey;
c. having to learn Latin;
d. being Episcopalian;
e. all of the above.

If you think I picked e., you're absolutely right. However, not everyone agrees:



It's coming out in September, 2010. And you know I'll buy it. And I'll read it.

But I'll be thinking "Tsk, tsk, tsk, buying clothes from the J. Crew catalog doesn't make you a prep. You have to have suffered."

"I have nothing to declare ... except genius."

by PoppyBuxom featuring TopShop

What not to do with a TopShop haul:

1. Buy a bunch of great stuff from TopShop, like those wooden platform sandals
2. excellent "Oscar" cuban-heeled baby blue nubuck lace-up sandals
3. a squashy-soft luggage brown cross-body bag
4. a cream-and-taupe window-pane check scarf
5. and then overlook the part where they'll charge me DUTY on these these items because duh, they're imported from England
   
6. and have to shell out $50 for Customs duty when the mailman drops off the package.

Where's a harbor so I can throw some tea into it?

(Luckily I really love my new loot.)

Items in this set:
OSCAR Lace Up Mid Sandals, $100
OLLIE 2 Part Wooden Clogs, $80
Washed Two Buckle Satchel, $65
Washed Check Scarf, $32
Oscar Wilde Quotes

Urban Decay Friends and Family Sale, April 6th-19th

Visit Urban Decay to access the site, and use 1SFNSF to get the discount.

Thanks to Beauty Blogging Junkie for the head's up!

My Dior Spring 2010 picks

The past couple weeks I've gone just a wee bit crazy with the on-line shopping. First of all, Nordstrom was having a "secret" beauty event. (I wouldn't call it all that secret, but I didn't see any print advertising. I guess it's secret if you only hear about it on line.)

So I popped for some Dior makeup from the Spring 2010 collection. And you can hardly blame me. First of all, how seductive is this graphic?

And then, most of the makeup in this collection has that lovely lace-y pattern pressed into it.

Anyway, I bought two items from the Dior spring collection, the Dentelles eye shadow quint

Dior 'Dentelle' Iridescent Eyeshadow Palette Pearl Glow 059

and the silver nailpolish

Dior Vernis Nail Enamel, Silver Pearl 604

which is really gorgeous. I thought a fun metallic twist on a gray would be an interesting change from the vampy purples I've been wearing lately.

Verdict? Well, the eye shadow palette was an absolute revelation. I've been reading rave reviews of Dior eyeshadow for years, and finally see what all the noise is about. The shades are gorgeous and the finish is incredibly soft. They blend so beautifully.

That being said, the shades are lighter in person than they looked on the computer screen. Lovely for spring summer, but they probably wouldn't show up as anything more than a pearly shimmer on darker complexions.

I haven't tried the polish, but I will this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to having gorgeous superstar toenails. And I need to have them before sandal season starts, or people will wonder whether I have delusions of glamor.

EQUMEN shapewear, for when your husband needs a girdle

Nothing says I love you more than lingerie, right? So how about buying something to boost your man's spirits? Not to mention his butt. And just in time for Valentine's Day.

EQUMEN is offering various undershirts and underpants, all purported to improve posture, reduce back pain and provide core support (i.e., make your keg look more like a six-pack). The guy modeling them is pretty eye-popping, isn't he?


Unfortunately, so are the prices.

The Equmen Core Precision Undershirt retails for $89.00 (for the wife-beater), $99.00 (for the v-neck), $109.00 (for the long-sleeved shirt), while the Equmen Precision Underwear retails for $59.00 - $65.00 (for long trunks), $52.00 - $59.00 (for trunks), and $49.00 - $55.00 (Speedo).

Thank your lucky stars if your husband doesn't require upper thigh control, because it'll save you ten bucks.

For more information about EQUMEN's "core-compression" technology and information on where to buy a mirdle, click here.

It's like they have little signs hanging off them that say "BUY ME."

Urban Decay and OPI--two of my favorite cosmetics companies--have brought out new products to celebrate Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland movie.



OPI has four new polishes: Off with her Red! (coral-ly red), Mad as a Hatter (clear with multi-colored glitter,) Absolutely Alice (teal/blue glitter suspended in a clear base,) and Thanks so Muchness (cool red metalic with a bit of red micro-glitter). Retail is $8.50.



Urban Decay's Alice in Wonderland shadow box has 16 shades.



None is new except Mushroom, a soft taupe. The rest of the shades are UD regulars like Polyester Bride, Chopper, and Oil Slick. They've been renamed to go with the movie.

The set contains 16 eyeshadows (left to right, top to bottom):
-Underland (Flash)
-Alice (Painkiller)
-Oraculum (Baked)
-Queen (Last Call)
-Cheshire (Chopper)
-White Rabbit (Polyester Bride)
-Wonderland (Maui Wowie)
-Curiouser (Grifter)
-Muchness (X)
-Mushroom (Mushroom)
-Midnight Tea Party (Midnight Cowboy Rides Again)
-Vorpal (S&M)
-Absolem (Homegrown)
-Drink Me Eat Me (Sin)
-Mad Hatter (Twice Baked)
-Jabberwocky (Oil Slick)

There are also two travel-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils in Zero (black) and Flipside (teal), and a trial-size Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin (champagne shimmer). Retail is $52, and they're flying out of the store.

You see my dilemma. I just bought a bottle of Primer Potion in Sin. I also just bought UD's Book of Shadows II. And really, the amount of glittery eye shadow I need or would be likely to wear would fit on the head of a pin.

It's just that ... I love the Alice books. So of course I love this stuff. Last summer I visited the Alice shop in Oxford and pored over everything in the store. I mean, I covet the OPI display, let alone the polishes. And what about that adorable pop-up packaging on the eye shadow box? Is that cute or what?

And you just know that if I don't pounce, they'll sell out and then the collection will only be available on eBay. For $200.

Luckily, I have a 13-year-old daughter, so I can buy these items and pretend I'm doing it for her.



(You'll never guess what her name is.)

Now I know what to wear to the Blissdom pajama party

Poppy print pajamas from Neiman Marcus:



With pajamas like this, who needs business cards?

You know things have gotten weird when the GWP is a ball gag ...

Has anyone else noticed how bondage-y the average store's shoe department is looking? No? Well, check out these images from the Neiman Marcus website.


Bettie

Page

is

alive

and

well

and

shopping

for

shoes

at

Neiman

Marcus.

Or if she isn't, she could be.

It's snowing Christmas tree ornaments

I know a few of you out there put up more than one Christmas tree. You have one for the main living area, and a less glamorous tree for the family room/dining room/kitchen. Some of you even put up trees in your bathrooms.

I'm not here to judge. (Except bathroom trees? ::cough::getalife::cough::) No, I'm here to confess that I'm a lazy lump who can barely manage to get one (admittedly eight-foot) artificial, already-light-bedecked Christmas tree up and decorated every year. I love Christmas trees, but it's become an enormous ordeal.

This year I decided to cut back. I would only use the ornaments I actually liked. As it turns out, I actually only really like about a third of the ornaments I own.

I cut out all the child-oriented ornaments that I used to put all over the place. No Ninja Turtles, no Babar, no Cookie Monsters. I cut out all the commercial stuff: no M&M guys on skis, no Hersey elves, no Disney or Hallmark. No seven-year-old lovingly-produced kindergarten ornaments with missing parts.

This is what was left:

1. Things that are the right color--red, green, white, gold and silver.

2. Things with religious/seasonal significance--angels, stars, Father Christmas/Santa Claus.

3. Things that are natural--snowflakes, icicles, pine cones, acorns, birds, fruit.

I thought I was putting up a minimalist Christmas tree. When you bring up three boxes of ornaments and bring two of them back downstairs, still filled with ornaments, it certainly feels minimalist.

But the tree turned out prettier than ever. In fact, I liked it a lot, and I decided to head further in this direction. I would only buy new ornaments if they fit into those three categories.

Enter an email from the Metropolitan Museum. Ten dollars off a purchase of $50.

Well, their clearance section and sale sections brought me a veritable blizzard of new snowflake ornaments! Some of them are obviously chi-chi-poo-poo collectibles, way out of my price range. But others are way marked down, and with code K697, I saved an extra $10.

The truly pathetic, I'm a lazy lump part of this? My tree is still up. Which means that if the package shows up quickly, I might be hanging January clearance ornaments on the December tree.