Beauty Unbiased

Appreciating a photograph and creating your own little piece of art are two completely different things. While I love a creative, colorful photo as much as the next girl, making my own photographs shine beyond Instagram has been something I've always wanted to work on. When the opportunity through CourseHorse , a website where you can find and enroll in local courses, suddenly presented itself to me, I seized the chance to polish my photography skills. The class I took was "Composition in the Field: Grand Central Station" , taught by the talented photographer and very patient instructor, Marla Mossman from the Digital Photo Academy . We spent the afternoon with different photo challenges after on the spot instruction. From documenting the iconic exterior of Grand Central to close up photographs of food in the Market inside Grand Central, I became much more intimate in those three hours with my Canon Powershot than I have been in the three years I've owned it. W

Who hasn't fantasized about being in the audience at the Oprah show (at the time when it was, you know, still a show) when she unveils that the episode will be her Favorite Things, and you are taking home every.Single.ONE of them. "You get a car! And you get a car..." being the famous words I've longed to hear. Well, today is YOUR lucky day (and my Oprah moment) because I am teaming up with Lancer Skin Care  to give away their Lancer Luxury Collection which was just selected as one of Oprah's Favorite Things in 2012. I'll be giving one of my readers their very own Limited Edition Lancer Method Luxury Collection , valued at $300. You can enter to win until 11:59pm EST on November 25th, 2012. The winner will be announced on my site on November 26th. It's super easy to enter; here is how to win: 1. Leave a comment on this post. Any comment will do but if you're feeling creative, tell me one beauty product YOU would put on your own list of '

After an incident this summer with a brightening mask that sucked all color from my face, I have been hesitant to try out items that advertise as 'brightening' when really what they mean is lightening. I decided to give brightening masks another try when I was introduced to Korean brand  AmorePacific  and learned that most of their products contain a green tea grown exclusively in volcanic soil on Jeju Island in Korea. I'm a sucker for exclusive ingredients, and this was reason enough to give their micro-fiber Luminous Effect Brightening Masque a try. Plus who doesn't want more luminous skin? Definitely not this girl. Beyond the immediate results of my skin looking and feeling amazing (the picture speaks for itself!) another highlight of the AmorePacific mask is how easy it was to unwrap and place on my face without the micro-fiber mask giving me trouble. While paper masks certainly are cleaner in application than a cream mask, one problem that I've had is

It's hard to believe that nearly a week ago half of Manhattan was in the dark, including my little piece of the city. After four days without power, my excitement to get back to a more regular writing routine was quickly extinguished by a week long outage of internet and cable due to damage sustained during Hurricane Sandy. These are of course small inconveniences compared to those who have lost their homes or are still living without heat or hot water in New York City, so I feel extra blessed to finally have my home fully functional once again. I walked past the sign below outside of Housing Works  the day the power in the neighborhood was restored. I continue to be impressed by the compassion of those in New York City and feel more connected to the city than ever. Tough times have a way of bringing out the dimensions of ourselves that are buried in the day to day routines we seem to get trapped in. I'm trying to keep things multi-dimensional in my life right now. One wa