Scarlett Johannson is working the “sex-kitten-meets-bombshell” look to its fullest. The hair is perfect, the makeup is perfect, the dress is perfect. You can recreate this look with what you have. It’s classic and simplistic, yet stylish and sophisticated.
To achieve Scarlett’s soft, flowy curls, nothing but hot rollers will do. Hot rollers have made a come back and they are the perfect tool to create soft, sexy curls. Try Caruso steam rollers. (click on picture for info.) They are better for your hair than hot rollers because they work on steam, not heat. They produce the exact same results as hot rollers.
When it comes to red lips, I’m certainly an aficionado. I adore the “red lip” look. It’s classic and ultra sexy. I have tried (literally) thousands of brands and styles. Beautique (click on picture for details) is my all-time favorite red. I use the pencil all over my lips, as it goes on great as a lipstick, then use thison top. It produces the best red lip ever! The kicker… it’s way inexpensive!
There’s an unwritten rule..or, perhaps it’s written somewhere, that if you opt for a bold lip color, like the red above, you should go with a soft eye look. When you have too much eye and too much lip going on at the same time, your look can go from sophisticated to theatrical in seconds. Scarlett’s top eyelids are lined with a brown liquid liner. If you are a blonde, opt for brown instead of black. It’s less harsh and more flattering to your skintone.
Maybellene’s Great Lash is a long time favorite of makeup artists everywhere (certainly my fav!) But mascara reviews are like food reviews. Honestly, it’s all relative to what you, you, like. Most people, however, like it. It’s ultra-popular with the masses, and often times sold out at stores. Personal fav…brownish black Great Lash with the curved brush. *swoon*
Again, if you are blonde, opt for brownish black Great Lash. It softens your look and is super feminine.
If you exchange bleu cheese for feta in your salad, and skip the dried cranberries and candied walnuts altogether, you’ll save 275 calories! Simple changes on your plate can mean huge changes to your abs!
Stretching is to exercise as dessert is to dinner. It’s the icing on the cake. It’s the feel-good part of both exercise and dinner. After a great workout, be sure you are stretching every muscle that you worked. This is one of the best stretches for the tricpes, the back part of your upper arm. Place arm up and behind your head, as shown below, and slightly push the elbow back with your other hand. Stretch and breathe into the movement. Take your time. Hold the stretch from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes. When you feel like you can’t go any further, take a deep breath and stretch just an inch more. Toned tricpes look gorgeous in a cute summer dress or bikini. Lose the giggle and get your arms looking hot.
Want Jennifer Aniston’s body? Because you can have it. Did you know that? Okay, you can’t specifically have Jenn’s body, but you can have one that looks just like hers. Jennifer’s celeb fitness trainer, Mandy Ingber, dishes on how she trains Jennifer.
Tips from Mandy:
Start with cardio: Ingber suggests 30-60 minutes, three times a week. “Try running, cycling or even walking.”
Work thighs: “Temple pose is essentially a yoga squat. You plant your feet wide, then plie squat and hold for 30 seconds. Then plie deeply 8 times, followed by 8 quick shallow pulses. Repeat.”
Tone calves: “Lovely calves are underrated. Repeat this series slowly twice. Get on the balls of your feet, then lift and lower yourself 8 times followed by 8 quicker pulses.”
For more exercises, get Mandy’s DVD (and Jennifer Aniston’s workout), Yogalosophy.
I just ordered the new Body By Bethenny yoga DVD on Amazon. I was all prepared to wait the standard week to receive it by mail, but fortunately, Amazon let me view it for free (after purchase) immediately…and then stores the video in my Video Library on Amazon’s site. They also give you the option to send it to TIVO or download it to your computer.
Kudos to Amazon for not making a girl wait 7-10 business days to start getting a better body. Cool feature!
Teresa Giudice (Real Housewives of New Jersey) has just written an incredible book on the art of Italian cooking. More than just a cookbook, this is more like a great book with recipes, because there’s lots of dialogue and pictures to go along with the amazing recipes. I especially love the pictures she shares of her house and family (four darling little girls and her juicy husband, Joe.)
I was so impressed with Teresa’s book. I mean, who doesn’t want to have access to a girlfriend whose parents are straight from the old country and taught her everything they know about old-school Italian cooking?
I adore that she believes so strongly in her heritage. I adore people of any culture that maintain their roots and are deeply proud of being Italian, Swedish, German, etc. I love tradition. It’s something I wish I had in my own family. Truth be told, I really have no idea where I came from. I’m blonde, blue eyed, and not exactly what you’d call dark complected. I know that originally my family came from France. Beyond that, it’s a bit unclear. I’ve always found it to be so interesting to listen to people who have deep heritage. I need to visit Ancestry.com.
Teresa shares recipes in her new book, Skinny Italian, that have gone back many generations. She shares all of her bag of tricks…all the while doing it with her Jersey-Girl attitude and sass!
I have literally not been able to put this book down for two weeks. Teresa has even inspired me to try my hand at canning this summer (there’s a whole section on this in her book along with step by step instructions.)
Admittedly, the Real Housewives franchises have tried to market almost every one of their ladies into a brand…(think Vicki Gunvalson with her new book or LuAnn the Countess with her singing.) With all the personal branding promotion, I admit I looked at Teresa’s book with a side-eye, ala Tardy For the Party.
But Skinny Italian is the real deal. Real authentic recipes taught by real authentic Italians. Teresa, I love, love love your new book. Super-impressive work, Jersey-Girl!
Professional yogis don’t use yoga mats just to keep their feet on a soft surface during yoga postures, they use yoga mats because they are incredibly beneficial to help you stretch further. Yoga mats, sometimes called sticky mats, are thick rubber-like surfaces, about 4 feet wide, designed to be under foot while you are doing yoga or Pilates workouts.
When you place your hands and feet on a yoga mat, they almost stick (and sink) into the soft mat, keeping your hands and feet securely firm, with no worry of slipping out of your posture. They are also fabulous for doing stretches, enabling you to stretch deep into your stretches with your feet and/or hands essentially glued to the mat. It truly makes a difference in your workouts.
Also great to stimulate the spine. How to: Lay on your back, hold your bent legs to your chest, wrapping your arms around your bent legs, and rock in a boat pose from head to feet. The thickness of the yoga mat keeps it comfortable for your spine. It will feel like a back massage!
Kiss the carpet goodbye, and try using a yoga mat during your next yoga/Pilates/stretching session. It increases your flexibility by 25% to even 50%. (Those aren’t scientific percentages…it’s just what I can feel in my own workouts.)
If you only have five minutes for exercise today, try this five minute yoga stretch with Tara Stiles. She’s beyond flexible….and ultra-inspiring! A great stretch will not only elongate your muscles to give you a long, lean look, but it also relaxes your mind and recharges your batteries.
It used to be that we’d look at ads in magazines and then experience tremendous heartache soon after. We’d wonder how celebrities could actually have such smooth skin and such tiny mid sections. We wondered how they never had pores on their skin. We wondered how their arms and legs could be so skinny. Luckily, we are starting to see some truth.
In a world of celeb gossip, we are now privy to the uncensored, un-photo-shopped pictures of celeb photo shoots. And as one of those aforementioned women who would experience hatred toward my abs after seeing post photo-shopped celebs, I must say that it’s completely gratifying to know that Britney Spears looks human.
Admittedly, Britney looks great in her before pictures (let’s give credit where credit is due.) But she certainly doesn’t look like her post photo-shopped pictures, and we secretly love that! Britney’s “before” picture physique, after all, is quite attainable.
Cellulite or not, it’s great to see Miss Britney back to normalcy (after a bad couple of years of the crazies!) She looks fantastic, photo-shopped or not.
Bethenny Frankel has been looking fabulous…even pregnant. I can promise you, that’s not easy to achieve. The 39-year-old, who is having her first child late in life, says she has always been obsessed with her body image.
“Since I was 8, I was obsessed with every single diet ever because I came from a very toxic, dysfunctional household with a complete emphasis and obsession with food and being fat,” says Frankel.
“It was absurd and moronic to be an adult and to be worried about dieting.”
Bethenny says she wrote her best-selling diet book “Naturally Thin” last year and finished her second book, The Skinnygirl Dish, filmed and made her her first exercise DVD this year.
Frankel says she works out up to three times a week doing Pilates, yoga and/or running. But the compulsive exerciser says she has learned to embrace moderation in exercise, with better results.
“I’m 10 years older [now] but 10 to 15 lbs. lighter [than I was in my 20s],” she says. “I used to work out obsessively five to six times a week. Now, I work out maybe two or three times.”
In order to achieve a killer physique like Bethenny, you definitely have to incorporate healthy eating into your regimen. Check out her book, Naturally Thin, to take a peek at what she eats to keep looking fab (again, even pregnant!)
To achieve Scarlett’s soft, flowy curls, nothing but hot rollers will do. Hot rollers have made a come back and they are the perfect tool to create soft, sexy curls. Try Caruso steam rollers. (click on picture for info.) They are better for your hair than hot rollers because they work on steam, not heat. They produce the exact same results as hot rollers. 
There’s an unwritten rule..or, perhaps it’s written somewhere, that if you opt for a bold lip color, like the red above, you should go with a soft eye look. When you have too much eye and too much lip going on at the same time, your look can go from sophisticated to theatrical in seconds. Scarlett’s top eyelids are lined with a brown liquid liner. If you are a blonde, opt for brown instead of black. It’s less harsh and more flattering to your skintone. 
Maybellene’s Great Lash is a long time favorite of makeup artists everywhere (certainly my fav!) But mascara reviews are like food reviews. Honestly, it’s all relative to what you, you, like. Most people, however, like it. It’s ultra-popular with the masses, and often times sold out at stores. Personal fav…brownish black Great Lash with the curved brush. *swoon*
