As part of Total Beauty Total Cure, my friends at Beauty Alchemist and Mischo Beauty are having great giveaways today.

Beauty Alchemist is giving away $255 worth of SKYN Iceland stuff. Too good to be true for the stressed!

Mischo Beauty is giving away $250 worth of goodies from GOODY! Enter pronto because the contests expire tonight!

Good luck.

Oh, poor Sarah Palin. She’s been the butt of so many jokes that cartoonists must be thinking they’ve hit the politics jackpot. Here’s one more to add to your list: log on to the site www.dresslikepalin.com and have fun comparing Palin’s one month couture budget to what the average American could have bought.

So, if you log on and play the game, you’ll see very quickly that Ms. Sarah has spent $2,500 on a Valentino jacket, $495 for Cole Haan boots, $22,800 for two weeks of makeup (yikes!), $865 on a Louis Vuitton bag etc. etc.

There’s not a ton of stuff on the site, but it does give you a good idea what middle class America would have done with the money. “Real working people live and dress far differently,” notes Executive Director of the California Nurses Association, Rose Ann DeMoro. “The $150,000 shopping spree amounts to, as one writer put it, more than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. The same $150,000 could buy 15,000 chef coats, 5,769 painter’s bibs, 5,000 police shirts, 4,687 auto mechanics’ coveralls, 3,750 pilot uniforms, or 3,571 housekeeper uniforms.”

And the list goes on….remember, politics and excessive fashion should mix only AFTER you’ve won the election (Jackie O had it down pat).

Thank you to all those who participated in the Anastasia Giveaway. We had a flood of entries and I hope you are all the more aware of breast cancer and the fight for a cure.

The winner is ANGELA. I will be in touch with your prize details.

Thank you all for participating and I wish you a beautiful day and gorgeous brows!

I’m thrilled and honored and flattered to be hosting my own special giveaway for Total Beauty Total Cure today. In order to raise awareness of this very important cause, Anastasia Beverly Hills was lovely enough to donate $280 worth of delicious brow booty.

All these products can be yours, if you enter one comment with ONE breast cancer statistic found on Total Beauty Total Cure’s My Space or Facebook pages.

Who does not love Anastasia Beverly Hills? From their 6 Piece Brow Kit (a must have) to their Brow Pencil and Brow Filler, the winner will receive the following products:

- 6 Piece Brow Kit – $75.00 (Color will be determined according to winner)
- Brow Pen – $21.00
- Go Brow – $21.00
- Brow Enhancing Serum – $35.00
- Brow Filler – $20.00
- Perfect Brow Pencil – $22.00 (color also to be determined)
- Tinted Brow Gel – $19.00
- Brow Wiz – $18.00 (color also to be determined)
- Sharpener – $6.0
- Scissors – $22.50
- Shimmer Highlighter – $21.00

Remember: all you have to do is enter below by mentioning a breast cancer statistic found on the Facebook and My Space Pages….and if you want to donate anything, please email me at charu@butterflydiary.com. All proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Deadline is midnight, tonight, October 27th.

Also, please visit www.amominredhighheels.com to enter another contest and win $250 in Murad products. Manic Monday was never better!

Good luck!!

There’s a trend inundating the streets of America that evokes responses so severe it can only be compared to items such as Clay Aiken, the new Vivanno smoothie at Starbucks, and Hillary Clinton on the love/hate spectrum.

We have entered the zone of the Gladiator sandal, and women are taking to the stores like Russell Crowe took to the ring. Maybe it’s the air of competition that seeped over from the Beijing Olympics into women’s closets, but you won’t find any women going into real battle wearing these sandals (That is, unless it’s fighting for a 70% off Marc Jacobs dress at the Saks clearance sale). In order to understand this trend that many adore and many detest, we’ve broken down the styles into three divisions of severity:

1. The simple, flat T-strap sandal. A classic sandal that will never go out of style, this is the easiest way to introduce yourself to the gladiator trend. At age 18 we found a pair of beautiful orange Pradas at the bottom of a pile in the Saks outlet, and needless to say, they’ve been considered chic ever summer since.

2. “The Lobster Trap,” as our friend, a Boston financial advisor refers to them. Due to the entrapment of the entire ankle and foot area, she compares this style to the mechanism meant to capture crustaceans off the coast of Maine. Even so, this look is extremely popular among young women. While the basic brown and black are popular, electric blues and neon colors have been spotted on the feet of well-heeled women across the country.

3. The extreme Russell Crowe circa-Gladiator, knee-high, Forrest Gump leg brace lookalike: First pulled off by eccentric trendsetter Mary-Kate Olsen in a pair of Alaias, this is a less popular yet extremely daring form of the trend. Not many women are willing to attempt this look, due to the possibility of legs looking stumpy, and the somewhat bondage, S&M appearance.

So why is this style popular yet detested? Puzzled, we consulted an expert on the situation: our favorite Barney’s saleswoman. While she says it’s difficult to pull off such a complicated trend, a few chic women are really willing to do so. The basic T strap style is always a crowd pleaser, but the heavy, knee high versions are a more difficult sell. That said, they’re for women who know what they’re looking for and aren’t afraid of criticism.

While people continue to love or detest the gladiator sandal, we can’t help but enjoy the fact that women are becoming more and more comfortable with sticking out in a crowd. While some may poke fun and say you look a bit like Forrest Gump, it’s always better to be noticed than ignored. In knee high gladiators, you surely won’t be ignored. In fact, you’ll probably be the topic of conversation.

These are shots from a future issue of Reinventing Beauty Magazine, which I’m the Editor of. I’m very proud of these beautiful photos taken by my friend, Porter Hovey. The model in the shots is the radiant Michelle Ray Smith from the daytime TV soap “Guiding Light” (she plays Ava Peralta).The magazine will hit drugstore newsstands in a month or so. The makeup was done by Sarah Conley, my awesome and talented friend.

This look: all Ann Taylor LOFT, plus a great attitude to get a business causal look.

Clothes: Banana Republic, including the chic hat. Bag is from Express. Boots from Payless.

I love this picture, taken in front of my friend Brad Bailyn’s cozy fireplace. The plush winter coat is from Express, the boots from GUESS, and the jeans from PZI. The jewelry is from Banana Republic.

A perfect party dress from Express. The blouse is delicate with mesh details and the pumps are from Payless (Lela Rose for Payless).

I totally dig this look. A rich purple dress with bow from Banana Republic is offset with a pair of “Lela Rose for Payless” pumps in coral.

Want to smell 8 years younger? New York-based perfume company Harvey Prince & Co. has launched a new fragrance call Ageless Fantasy, which it claims will shave that many years off your age. How? We’ll get to that.

First the bad news: People over 40 stink. We’ll skip the scientific explanation and simply say that as men and women age, the body produces a chemical that you don’t need to know the name of. When this chemical breaks down, it causes “an unpleasant greasy odor,” according to Harvey Prince, which is the “natural body odor of aging.” Just what women over 40 need: one more thing to feel bad about.

Now the good news: Ageless Fantasy masks the skin’s natural age-revealing scent. Research has “proven” that men around women who use Ageless Fantasy believe them to be at least 8 years younger.

How exactly does this work? “Clinical trials” conducted with 75 men revealed that the particpants associated the smell of grapefruit with youth. So Harvey Prince combined pink grapefruit with a smidge of mango, pomegranate, jasmine and musk-said to be other youthful notes-and voilà: a fragrance was born.

So if we’re to believe the hype, Ageless Fantasy delivers a double whammy. It masks the offensive smell of over-40 female skin and makes men think women are younger than they actually are. Notice that the skin of men over 40 also has a bad smell, but Harvey Prince decided it was only a problem for women. And by the way, why aren’t men being pressured to seem younger? Call us hardliners, but we say this product is not only ageist but sexist.

Maybe we should lighten up. In the interest of fairness, we googled Ageless Fantasy to see what other people are saying about it. We found that some women love the scent and are having fun wearing it, while others think it makes them smell like a fruit cocktail. An online critic wondered if a 40-year-old spritzed herself eight times with Ageless Fantasy, would she turn into an embryo? Another female commentator declared, “I’m waiting for a fragrance for men that will make them six inches taller and three inches longer.”

Youth doesn’t come cheap. Ageless Fantasy EDT retails for $120 for 100ml. at www.agelessfantasy.com and is coming soon to QVC. If you love it and can afford it, go for it. But if you’re trying to knock years off your age, stop and remind yourself that life experience is the most attractive quality a woman can possess. Also think about relocating to France, where women “of a certain age” are thought of as babes. And don’t forget to pack a bottle of Pamplelune EDT by Guerlain, a sexy variation on the smell of-need we say?-grapefruit.

That dreaded zit. It’s more pestilential than the great Plague and more awful than Eva Longoria’s new haircut. In fact, there’s no amount of foundation that makes my zits disappear, and I end up feeling as self conscious during the day as Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones’ Diary.

So when I encountered Dr. Audrey Kunin’s “Ain’t Misbehavin” set of skin treatments, I pounced like Tom on Jerry. First the cream cleanser, the Wrinkle Revenge Antioxidant Enhanced Glycolic Acid Facial Cleanser 2 is soap free, and oil free. It felt absolutely creamy and delish, and calming like chamomile tea for your face. Which is totally RAD because so many other cleansers end up stripping your face of everything it owns.

Here is the list of ingredients:

- White Tea Extract
- Pomegranate Extract
- Ubiquinone (aka CoQ10)
- Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C)
- Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E)

See, I knew there was a tea component to this cleanser!

The spot treatment works like a charm. It does not irritate the skin nor does it feel as though some extra strong steel wool is scourging you.

 The brand new Ain’t Misbehavin Intensive Skin-Correcting Sulfur acne mask has a special ingredient called Phytosphingasine which is supposed to be the latest thing that prevents and clears breakouts by killing the bacteria that causes them. You have to use the mask twice weekly, which is no biggie if you’re a clean skin freak.

The smell of this mask is lovely (not medicine-y) and that’s partly because it’s stuffed full of sweet smelling herbs like Indian Frankincense and White Tea Extracts. It has the highest quantity of sulfur approved to kill blemish causing bacteria.

You’ll have to be patient with this mask. When I tried it, it didn’t work for me for several weeks (but that was also because the stock market was tanking and I was getting more stressed than someone getting married.

One of my favorite products from the line is the Tease Zone, which is a concentrated mattifying gel that is designed to reduce oil and bacteria on your skin. It’s actually pretty light and can go safely under your primer and moisturizer. I wear it to “anti-matte” my skin both morning and night.

The end result of all these products is a much clearer skin. I can’t tell you how much I love my Derma Doctor products…the cleanser, blemish treatment gel and Tease Zone are perma-stays in my medicine cabinet. www.dermadoctor.com

Angels on Bare Skin is a freshly made cleanser for your face made with ground almonds, rose absolute oil and lavender. It’s my absolute favorite (resides in a recyclable LUSH tin can in my shower) and the rose and lavender oils make this fresh paste a great exfoliant.I’d recommend using this SPARINGLY for people who are prone to breakouts. The oils may not be good for your face. But on the other hand, if you have dry or mature skin, this is the cleanser for you.

Other goodies: the Shark Fin Soap Stack, hello? How Philippe Starck of LUSH.

Two Shower Gels you’d want to slather on your bagel, the Rub Rub Rub and Yummy Yummy Yummy (did they run out of words?):

My favorite soap of the season is a blend of spice and lather. Spice Curls is what you need to get now! (Posh is getting some, I’m sure).

Hey there dolls! I went to LUSH’s fabulous Holiday Preview event last week and came home with enough goodies to last 10 lifetimes. I loooove LUSH so it was a special treat to go to the Hudson Hotel and see what they had in store for the hols (can you believe it’s that time of the year already? OK, well it’s tiptoeing around the corner at any rate).

The theme of this year’s new arrivals was Supernatural. Think of witch cauldrons, spices, everything naughty and nice. And here are some of my fave Bubble Bars (bath bombs that you can carelessly toss into your tub and watch them froth over):

From top left, the Candy Cane Bubble Bar, the messy Christmas Morning Bubble Bar that will leave your tub looking like a ticker tape parade, the Marzibain Bubble Bar (for lovers of Marzipan), and the Witches’ Ball Bubble Bar that’s spicy with studded anise all over it.

How can you possibly choose one? Stock up a stockingful while you can, at www.lush.com