the queen

I spent this past weekend in the Hampton’s with my dear friend, I couldn’t help but notice how incredible her hair looked. It was mildly wavy, shining and completely healthy. When I asked what she’d been doing to get her hair in such great shape, she quipped, “The Moroccan Method.” Now, I like to consider myself an avid beauty enthusiast but even I lamented, “oh, Moroccan Oil. Yeah, that stuff is awesome.” Well, trusted readers, The Moroccan Method is not to be confused with Moroccan Oil, as I soon discovered. So, I asked Arden to review and explain the products in her own words. Here’s what she had to say: “I find that my friends and I are constantly thinking about putting the purest and cleanest elements inside of our body but not so much when it comes to our beauty products. when I discovered the Moroccan Method hair pr...

“I was 12 years old and I was watching a TV commercial and I saw Christy Turlington in a Maybelline ad. She was walking down a New York City street, turning around and looking all cute at the camera and I remember thinking, “I want to be that girl,” the Maybelline girl. I crossed my fingers and prayed every night until I got the Maybelline contract when I was 18. I was so into it! Maybelline’s Great Lash Mascara was the only makeup I owned up until I was 20. That really shaped my whole makeup career and life. My modeling career started when I was 12 years old at a family BBQ. This lady at the BBQ asked me to do a Benetton fashion show in San Francisco and there was a modeling scout there who asked me to come in. From 12 to 17 years old, I modeled in San Francisco. It definitely wasn’t high fashion but I was doing some gigs. I...

Like everyone else, I always take some time to reflect at the start of the new year. I go between loving and hating resolutions because, and I’m just being honest here, I almost always neglect my resolutions. I’ll be on it for one or two months, then life kicks in. Then I get angry, consider it a failure, and abandon my resolutions altogether. Instead of such a loaded word like “resolutions” (the pressure!), I’m focusing on a set of intentions for 2017, one of them being take time for myself . I started 2016 with a new job and I was all systems go. It wasn’t until December that I realized I hadn’t used my vacation days. NOT. A. SINGLE. DAMN. DAY!!! It suddenly made sense why I was getting short tempered, annoyed at the tiniest things, and I was tired all the time. I was expected to be “on” at all times and so I was available 24/7. Although I respected everyone else’s time off, I wasn’t thinking about myself. Now taking time for ones self is easier said than done. With ...

I’m a big fan of Liberty London so when I saw the packaging for the 5-year anniversary of Frédéric Malle and Liberty, I couldn’t help but want them all. To celebrate, Frédéric sorted through the archives at Liberty to give his perfume bottles a brand new look, available at the Frederic Malle store (sorry, not online kids!). Each of the 18 hand-selected prints pulled from the archives matches a perfume in the Frédéric Malle collection. The prints were then used to create a limited series of boxes that illustrate the link between perfumes and color (very fitting as Malle is an Art History major). The time is now for me to stock up on Carnal Flower and Lipstick Rose, two of my very favorite Malle scents, now decked in beautiful packaging.

From my list of fragrances is Baby Phat’s newest addiction, Fabulosity.I was super excited when I saw, smelled, and tested (several times) this perfume in Macy’s about a month ago. I love Kimora Lee Simmons and I simply LOVED the first few Baby Phat perfumes (Baby Phat: Goddess and Baby Phat Goddess Gold). This bottle first of all is damn well cute! It’s shaped like a diamond and is intended to lay on its side so you can see the facets. Clever! The notes include plum, orange blossom, tiger lily, mysterious forbidden fruit (one question: que?), damask plum skin, Chinese osmanthus, coconut milk, purple violet, Tasmanian honey, vanilla absolute, patchouli and amber. When you first smell this, it comes off really sweet and fruity mixed with a heavy dose of vanilla. But after it dries down, you get a war woody musk. The vanilla and fruity (plum) smell is still present it just doesn’t hit you as hard. The coconut is present but very soft in this perfume. The major problem is that while i...