Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ralph Lauren Model gets fired for not being thin enough

Ralph Lauren fires model for being too large to fit into clothes. She's a size 4! Yet another reason to not support that company.

read full article here

Thursday, October 15, 2009

skinny with the chance of cupcakes > A Custom Jean from the indiDenim Design Vault

I just found the most amazing new website! If you're like me, the perfect pair of jeans is like the Holy Grail. I have trouble finding jeans that are my favorite color and style, not to mention the right fit for my particular shape. Everyone's different right? indiDenim has an online system that allows you to create the perfect pair of jeans for your preferences and measurements! Check out mine and then make yours!

skinny with the chance of cupcakes > A Custom Jean from the indiDenim Design Vault

Shared via AddThis

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Cargo PlantLove Lipsticks


While I try to keep makeup to a minimum during the week, I like to wear some on the weekends or for events, and I'm very choosy.

I only go into Sephora for two things: Bare Minerals Foundation (which is getting better safety ratings on www.cosmeticsdatabase.com now so I consider it a cheaper and accessible alternative to Zosimos and Coastal Classic Creations) and... Cargo PlantLove Lipsticks. These lipsticks are my new favorite! I've never used another natural lip product like them! They can be worn lightly for a very sheer stain-like look or applied to opaque coverage. There are super natural-looking colors as well as some bolder shades. My faves are Yellowstone, Majella, Lindsay, and CeCe. I wish I could wear more of them including Ageless, Eve Pinky, Maria, and Evangeline, all of which are amazing colors that just aren't gonna work with my particular coloring, which finds the orange in even the bluest of shades.

Cargo PlantLove Lipsticks have recently been reformulated with MUCH cleaner ingredients and they are cruelty-free and vegan as far as I can tell (I frequently pour over the ingredient list to find anything that might be the pinch to wake me up from my vegan natural lipstick dream).

I attribute the excellence of these lipcolors to the fact that they were made by a cosmetics company who knows how makeup should perform, rather than by a natural makeup company that set out to make products that emphasize ingredients while sacrificing function. I want both! And I think these lipsticks are a great option.

So love your natural lips, but if you must dress them up, do it with healthier cosmetic choices.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Plus Size Beauty in Glamour Magazine


The November issue of Glamour has a pretty cool article about recognizing the beauty of bigger bodies. It opens with an amazing photo of several plus sized models wearing nothing but strategically placed body parts. Their bodies are undeniably beautiful despite the fact that they don't measure up to current standards of beauty.

Apparently, there was an overwhelmingly positive response to a photo of a plus sized model bearing some belly rollage in their September issue. I remember this photo (I've been reading these damn magazines lately- I get them for free at work- it's a phase I hope). The picture was not part of a plus-size feature, it was simply used in an article without any mention of body types as I recall. Lots of people wrote in praising this inclusion.

As someone who is slender yet still has trouble being totally comfortable with her curvy areas, I was truly grateful for this article. After seeing this photo and being struck by how lovely these ladies looked to me, I instantly felt more accepting of my own shape.

The article also mentions that they received many negative comments about the September photo. Several people reprimanded Glamour for promoting an "unhealthy" body type and felt it supported poor choices in an already obese country.

Yes, the US has an obesity epidemic, it's true. But as one of the models points out in the article, seeing photos of very thin models and airbrushed celebrities never motivated her to make healthier choices long term. In fact, this tends to result in worsened self image and therefore more destructive choices like drastic dieting, emotional eating, and unsustainable exercise habits. According to the model, it wasn't until she came to embrace her figure that she began to reach a healthy and stable weight.

I don't think Glamour is trying to promote the fastfood approach to beauty, but rather they seem to be taking steps to be more inclusive in their definition of beauty in the first place.

Our healthiest and most beautiful shape is whatever shape we achieve when we exercise regularly and feed our bodies a diet of healthy, fresh foods on a daily basis. For some people that will look like a breastless, buttless, rail thin bean pole. For others it will look like a super curvy plus sized figure. If I can remind myself of this everyday, I'll be set.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Back from the East Coast

I've just come back from a trip to the East Coast (the Carolinas and New York City) and thought I'd better post something.

New York was AWESOME. It's definitely on my list of places to live someday. Everyone there is so well-dressed and beautiful that I found myself wearing full makeup everyday and caring more about my appearance, which is kind of lame of me, but practically irresistible in the fashion capital of the country. So I'm partly glad to be back in the East Bay where the maximum level of effort is combed hair (or not) and yoga clothes for most people.

product reviews and recipes to come shortly...