There are more and more great organic beauty products every day, it seems—but the labels can be confusing. Some claim to be green, others organic, and then there are those that are just labeled “all natural.” Now the Consumers Union, the influential watchdog group that publishes Consumer Reports, has petitioned the Federal Trade Commission to do away with the widespread use of misleading labels. Unlike organic food, which is closely regulated, there are few guidelines for how shampoo or lotion or lipstick labels can make use of terms like “organic.” In some cases, just a small fraction of their ingredients are actually organic. What do you think—should the federal government take a closer look at this issue?

RELATED LINKS:
· Daily Beauty Reporter: Decoded: Organic Beauty

PHOTO: CARLYNE CERF DE DUDZEELE

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Spring makeup should feel fresh, light, and effortless. With warm temperatures arriving early this year, we already can’t get enough of the new Nars The Multiple Makeup Stick—we got an early preview of the product hitting counters this May. We instantly fell in love with the three superbright, but surprisingly sheer colors from the moment they landed on our desks (and cheeks). Turks and Caicos (shown above) legit looks orange in the tube but on our skin it’s a pretty peach. Cadaqués is a rosy pink that warms our pale cheeks and punches up our lips. And Beverly Hills may seem like a scary red at first glance, but with just a few swipes delivers the slightest flush. We even tried mixing and matching them to create our own version of the shades. The Multiple isn’t just a favorite of Allure beauty editors, but also of François Nars himself. “It’s such an easy product to have with you in your bag, because it gives you three possibilities, for lips, cheeks, and eyes,” he told us.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF NARS COSMETICS

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As we’ve mentioned before, there are a few unflattering pictures of us on the Internet. So when a coworker forwarded an email about pictreat.com, a website that specializes in one-click, free photo retouching for pics of any resolution, we just had to give it a shot. Actually two shots: one of us with vampiric red eye from our cousin Jeff’s wedding (above), and a too-dark shot in front of a blah beige wall at a party (below).

The site claims to remove red eye, clear up blotchy, blemished skin, and auto-correct any wonky color. And, we’re happy to say, it delivers in a very subtle way. The corrections to the wedding picture didn’t make us look creepy and plastic, as we’d expected; PicTreat just brightened up the overall color of the shot (though in this instance, it didn’t fix our red eye). It did the same to the party pic, adjusting the light and color so the image (and our skin) looked a little clearer—though certainly not as clear as it looked when our photographer friend sharpened and increased the contrast of the same original using Adobe Lightroom. Since we don’t know how to use Adobe Lightroom, PicTreat is a welcome convenience. Still, we’re not about to filter our every image through it. If our pictures look too good, what will the next generation have to laugh at? (Besides that facial expression.)

RELATED LINKS:
· Become a Fan of Allure on Facebook!
· Daily Beauty Reporter: Your Face Here
· Daily Beauty Reporter: Get Prettier Facebook Photos—Fast!
· Daily Beauty Reporter: How Far Will You Go For A Great Profile Pic?
· Daily Beauty Reporter: Facebook for Blondes

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The look at Lanvin? Fierce—as in dozens of dark-eyed models, all marching down the runway wearing identical black, blunt-cut wigs. Check out the look, and how Guido and Pat McGrath pulled it off, in our latest backstage video from MOD-TV’s Karen Morrison, a longtime Allure fashion reporter.

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Now, women have very strong opinions when it comes to hair removal—and of course, that group includes celebrities. But Khloé Kardashian Odom may have taken the discussion to a new level in a recent interview on Lopez Tonight. Her overall stance on bikini waxes: “You gotta keep it clean down there.” OK. We kept reading the E! Online report. She recounted how her sister Kourtney noticed, when lingerie shopping with Khloé, that Khloé needed a wax—and offered to do it herself, saying she used to wax other friends in college. And—whoa!—Khloé agreed. It didn’t go well. “She burned me more than helped me,” she told Lopez.

We have two questions for you. Would you let an amateur wax your bikini line? And is it better or worse if your sister is the one who’s in the zone?

RELATED LINKS:
Daily Beauty Reporter: To Brazilian, or Not To Brazilian?
Daily Beauty Reporter: The War On Body Hair
Daily Beauty Reporter: Do You Remove Your Arm Hair?

PHOTO: ROGER CABELLO

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The city of love had some of the highest points on the fashion week calendar. Here are just a few of our favorite makeup moments from the Paris shows.

1. Lanvin. The startling wigs and uniformity were memorable–but didn’t overwhelm the gorgeous makeup, particularly the eyes. Makeup artist Pat McGrath made the makeup “very sexy, sophisticated, really beautiful, and tough,” by applying a superthick line of CoverGirl LiquiLine Blast in Black (launching this summer) all around the eyes and dusting a sparkly antique-gold shadow on top for a “flash of light.”

2. Givenchy. If it’s possible to make red lips any sexier, it’s with Givenchy’s Fall 2010 “very decadent” version. McGrath created a dramatic shape and full mouths by outlining the lips with red lipliner, filling in with a cherry-red lipstick, adding a touch of red glitter in the center of the lips, and then sweeping two glosses (one more gel-like than the other) over the mouths to “maximize the shine.”

3. Yves Saint Laurent. Swoon! This was seriously one of the prettiest looks in Paris. Makeup artist Dick Page focused on the eyes. He lined them thickly with a black cream liner and set it with an indigo blue shadow. To make the eyes “poetic,” Page dusted a the brow bones and upper crease with a grey-fushcia shadow.

4. Balenciaga. We’re not suggesting you try this look at the office, but the jolts of color in some of the models’ eyebrows really was supercool. McGrath took the ultra-clean overall makeup look to a futuristic place by picking up colors in the jewelry and applying them to the brows. First, McGrath bleached a select few girls’ brows and then painted them with greasepaint in bright colors.

Reported by Karen Morrison

RELATED LINKS:
Designer Faces: The Hair and Makeup Look at the Fall 2010 Lanvin Show
Designer Faces: Hair and Makeup From Givenchy’s Fall 2010 Runway Show
Designer Faces: The Hair and Makeup Looks at the Fall 2010 Balenciaga Show

PHOTO: WWD

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We’re big fans of Cover Girl’s LashBlast mascaras: The original (LashBlast Volume) won an Allure Best of Beauty award last year. We also like LashBlast Length for separating and defining. We got an early glimpse at the newest formula, LashBlast Fusion, which aims to give both volume and length. And it delivers: Just today, we were asked if we were using Latisse—but no, we were simply wearing LashBlast Fusion. It elongates and fattens, doesn’t clump, and can be built up, depending on how dramatic you want your lashes to look. The tubes don’t hit stores until April 1, but you can get your hands on it sooner! A special pre-sale of the mascara starts today (while supplies last). Visit facebook.com/covergirl to find an e-tailer (bonus: no shipping fees).

PHOTO: COURTESY OF COVER GIRL

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What would happen if a ’60s-era Jean Shrimpton woke up after a late night of partying, makeup still on from the night before, and casually twisted up her hair before running out to get a cup of coffee? That was the story—literally—behind the disheveled updo and exaggerated eye makeup at Giambattista Valli.

“Giambattista wanted a little Jean Shrimpton on the eyes, but in a modern way, so we’re pushing it more,” said makeup artist Val Garland backstage. “The look is flirtatious and sexy.” We’d add “wild” to that description. To create the pointy winged liner that stretched out to the temples, Garland painted on the triangular shape using brown cream liner, then outlined it with black cream liner so the edges were sharp. About an inch below the eyes, she drew a thin line of white cream liner that carried out to the temples. Then she stacked two false lash strips on top of one another and glued them to the top lashes for a superfluttery effect. With all this action around the eyes, she took it easy on the rest of the face, sculpting the cheeks with beige and caramel blushes and swiping M.A.C. Lipstick in Siss, a matte beige, on the mouths.

“The hair is meant to look as though it was just pulled together in a minute,” said hairstylist Orlando Pita of the loose chignon. Of course, in reality it took a bit longer than that. Pita curled the hair with an iron, then teased it and parted it on the side. He pinned the hair back into a messy low bun, leaving a number of tendrils falling loose around the face. “At this show, the clothes and makeup are so perfect and impeccable,” he said. “So it’s a nice balance when the hair is a little off and undone.”

Reported by Karen Morrison

PHOTO: WWD

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This week, a 37-year-old Florida woman caused a car accident…because she was shaving her bikini line while driving, in preparation for meeting up with her boyfriend. (If that’s not weird enough, she did it with her ex-husband in the passenger seat.) I admit that back in my car-driving days, I occasionally applied lipstick at a red light. That’s pretty tame compared to the beauty acts I’ve witnessed from other drivers, from flossing (the grossest) to applying mascara (the most dangerous). My rule on en-route primping is: don’t apply anything while moving, especially nothing on the eyes, because it leads to nightmarish visions of me (or the driver, if I’m sitting shotgun) slamming on the brakes, sending that kohl pencil right into my eyeball. Ack! Now that I ride the subway to work, I see even more public makeup applications; it’s safer, but not less crude. Female commuters stick mostly to eyes and lips, though I have seen a woman painting her nails (the smell in the train car made me lightheaded) and a man clipping his (um, barf).

We all know it’s dangerous to do anything but drive while driving. But admit it—what primping have you done (or witnessed) in planes, trains, or automobiles?

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

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Here at Allure, the Oscars are practically our Superbowl. Not so much for the ceremony and the speeches, but for the hair, makeup, and dresses. We’re counting down the hours until kickoff, a.k.a., the red carpet, and dying to see stars like Diane Kruger, Zoe Saldana, and Emily Blunt. These women also had some major beauty moments on screen—check them out here, tune in to the show, and follow us on Twitter for updates all night long.

RELATED LINKS:
· The Top 9 Big-Screen Beauty Moments of the Year
· The Best and Worst Oscar Beauty Moments of the Decade
· The Top 10 Oscar Beauty Trends

PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES/THE KOBAL COLLECTION

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