Beauty Unbiased

On a pleasantly warm October night overlooking Times Square, I shared a seat with Mario Lopez. If, like me, you have entire Saved by the Bell episodes memorized and feel oddly connected to Mario Lopez and fiance Courtney Mazza due to obsessively watching their (way too short-lived) reality show, then you can imagine how hard it was to maintain my cool. The couple was there to announce that they will be the hosts of the Nivea Kiss Stage in Times Square this New Year's Eve. In even better news, Nivea is giving one couple the chance to  win a trip  to spend New Year's Eve with Mario and Courtney in Times Square. After the couple announced that they would teaming up with the Nivea Kiss Stage, I had a chance to sit down with Mario and Courtney alongside my friend Rachna from Urban Milan  to chat about what made them decide to join Nivea in selecting the Kiss of the Year, how they've managed to keep the romance after becoming parents, and of course, their favorite beauty

Haunted by childhood memories of my denim jacket decorated with glow in the dark, sparkly puffy paint that declared "I Love Jesus" across the back, I was justifably slow to embrace the denim or chambray shirt trend. I'm not sure if you can even call it a trend anymore or if people are just still rocking their purchases from previous seasons. Nonetheless, I've been on the hunt for the perfect chambray shirt for awhile now. I've tried on maybe a dozen and they were either too ill fitting for my abnormally long torso, too expensive, or made me feel like a cowgirl, and not in the good kind of way. Breaking news, I have finally found my chambray at the most unexpected of places- PayHalf! The discount store takes a little sighing but for $19.99 I am a happy little denim wearing gal again. Now if I could just find some glow in the dark puffy paint...

I didn't mean to sneak my phone into the spa treatment room. Sneaking may be an exaggeration because certainly you have the right to bring your phone wherever you like, whether or not you will be unable to actually see the phone due to a red vine, ivy, horse chestnut and moisturizing sodium hyaluronate anti-dark circle eye contour patch getting in the way. It was out of pure habit, I guess, that my phone ended up in the large pocket of the plush robe I'd changed into prior to my Vinexpert facial at the Caudalie Spa at the Plaza Hotel press launch. Once the Vinexpert facial began, the green blinking of my phone that was sure to be permeating through the robe pocket was quickly forgotten. The facial started with a lifting massage that was designed to smooth and plump the skin and also included a shoulder, neck, hand, leg and foot massage throughout the hour. The products used in the facial are part of the relaunched Vinexpert line which has been improved to include Caudal

A year ago today, Beauty Unbiased started with a dream and an Emerson quote. The dream was to write, something  I've  been doing since elementary school when I was creating stories about fictional pregnant teens giving up their babies for adoption. The topic seemed poignant to a ten year old who spent way too much time reading contemporary Christian novels and hearing her parents discuss their volunteer work at the Crisis Pregnancy Center. The problem was that I spent so much time focusing on how to describe the hair, makeup and clothing for these mini-novellas that I often got distracted before creating an actual story line. In retrospect, perhaps I can pinpoint the birth of Beauty Unbiased after a particularly fierce argument with my writing partner (and best friend) about her choice of the main character wearing a scrunchie.  Today marks the first anniversary of Beauty Unbiased, a milestone that I was uncertain I would even meet when I first started blogging. My first

Another month, another new collaboration for Birchbox ! In what is arguably the prettiest collaboration box yet (I'm already anticipating the need to quell the urge to cradle the box in my arms and pet it while saying "Pretty bird" Dumb & Dumber style), this October Birchbox is introducing their subscribers to what lifestyle website goop  has to offer. I admittedly know very little about goop other than the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow helped create the site in 2008 and one of my go to daily reads,  Jezebel.com , has often poked fun at the site . Time has taught me to take everything posted by a Gawker owned site with a grain of super-sized sea salt, and I'm looking forward to exploring more about goop through my October box. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty pumped  to have a box with Gwyn and staff approved beauty samples. My ultimate hope for the box? Please oh please let the secret to Gwyneth's perfect hair be revealed. If for some inexpl

Something has been troubling me lately. I find myself asking the same question over and over, with little resolution. The thought that's been gnawing at me? I simply cannot seem to decide which is better, Kiehl's Creme de Corps or Fresh Seaberry Lotion . To absolve myself of the beauty voices in my head and in the same vein of my Prove It! challenges, I'm launching a new initiative: Face Off.    Face Off will take two similar products and pit them against each other in order to compare the main selling points of each. The first Face Off falls under what I call the Basic Beauty category: body lotion. While it doesn't have the glitz and glam of a bold lipstick, a good body lotion can transform your skin and serves as a vital part of my personal daily beauty ritual. After recently discovering Kiehl's and Fresh's lotions, I fell for both of them pretty hard and now cannot seem to figure out which one to buy full size. Allow me to introduce you to The Face Of