E! news :D

The latest exciting news is that a couple of other interns and I will be in an E! News segment showing the styles of the latest trendsetters of 2008-- who are Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Leighton Meester, Katie Holmes and Gwenyth Paltrow, FYI! Their looks are featured in the People Style Watch Dec./Jan. issue that's out right now. I'm going to be imitating Leighton's look with a BCBGeneration dress... love it!

NY WICI conference

Yesterday I attended New York's Women in Communications Foundations annual student career conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This event is an amazing networking opportunity that I wish I knew about a long time ago. This was my second year attending and I was certainly looking forward to Debbye Turner Bell's ("The Early Show" correspondent on CBS) and Kate White's (Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan...duh!) speeches. You sign up in advance for 3 panels in fields like Communications, magazines, advertising, broadcast journalism, newspapers, marketing, public relations, etc. and you get to ask experienced people in those fields questions about their career, their particular publications and advice on how to get your feet wet.

I managed to squeeze my way in through the crowds of media students after the panels and spoke with the account manager from Cosmo and a reporter for Vanity Fair. I even chatted with the president of my sister's public relations firm, Stanton-Crenshaw! NY WICI is a great way to get business cards and contact information for internships or even future job opportunities.

Talking to a reporter from Variety


Can you spot me in the crowd?

Photos from NYWICI

Beauty Sale!!!

This is a picture captures only a few tables of our sale, before it was ransacked.

Today was our MUCH anticipated beauty sale. I learned they haven’t had one since May and it sure looked like it. We had over 50 bins filled to the brim with beauty products as well as 6 huge dumpsters packed with boxes of more stuff. A dozen of the staff and interns helped divide everything into categories. It was an all-day project and the amount of things we had to organize was pretty intimidating. The fashion closet also had a good amount of their items to put up for sale. 15 tables, 4 racks of clothing and hundreds of boxes later, we finally finished organizing everything within 4 hours.

With a simple e-mail, word spread that our beauty sale was today. People lined up all around the perimeter of the floor to get into the sale. People were pressed up against the glass doors to try to get a peek at the goodies we had inside. It was clearly madness as they all stampeded into the conference room. 2 hours of the sale went by pretty fast and at the end of the day I was exhausted. I’m still not sure what the total amount we made was, but we estimated about $8,000. 100% of it always goes to a charity so I was glad to do my part help out!

Victoria's Secret eyeliner

I have pretty sensitive eyes and absolutely cannot be stabbing them with a super hard eyeliner pencil and I seldom have the patience for a liquid liner. Victoria Secret's Very Sexy eyeliner pencil in Dark Chocolate is my absolute favorite because of it's creaminess, easy application and it doesn't smudge off from a long day of interning. One side is the pencil and the other is a smudging tip. It's smooth enough that you can spread it over the eye with the spongey side for a smokey look. :)

Available at victoriassecret.com for $10

(photo courtesy of victoriassecret.com)

Holiday faves!!!

The run-through for picking out holiday gift guide items was over three hours long! (A typical run-through for a normal story is usually around 20-25 minutes). It's kind of sad to see how many fabulous items just didn't make the cut, but here were my personal favorites!


Dior Holiday make-up palette $70
It has a mini Dior-Addict lipgloss, mini blackout mascara, as well as 6 really pretty eyeshadows, a blush and a shimmery powder. After you've put the make-up to good use over the holidays, you can pull out the products and use the case as a cute clutch!

Now available at: Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales and Saks.
(picture courtesy of nordstrom.com)



Juicy loves Sephora wristlet $78
Juicy Couture came out with all these limited edition make-up bags for Sephora. This $78 isn't just made for holding make-up, but it was certainly one of my favs. I love the design and the chocolately color! Some of the editors thought it might be too young-looking for most readers. I still dig it.

Available at Sephora.com
(picture courtesy of Sephora)







L'Occitane Provencal Travel Treasures $35

L'Occitane shea hand cream is your hand's BFF. I think it's the perfect little kit for when you're on-the-go or going on vacation and don't want to resort to the dinky shower stuff the hotel usually leaves you with. It's a $57 value for only $35 at Sephora. It comes with:
- 1 oz. shea hand cream
- 2.5 oz. shea body lotion
- 2.5 oz shea verbena shower cream
- 2.5 oz of both aromachologie shampoo and conditioner
- 3.5 shea lavender soap and bshea milk butter soap
Doesn't it sound lush?!

(picture courtesy of Sephora)

Everyday Intern Life

Now that Fashion Week's been over for a couple of weeks, I'm back to my busy beauty closet organizing job, which is proving to be a never-ending, but interesting task. We're getting ready for our holiday issue and it's sweet seeing all the festive gift ideas for this year! And I'm finally making a lot of progress tidying up the closet and I'm excited for our sale coming up soon. I've also been given the cool responsibility on arranging desk-sides with beauty companies on my own--I'm definitely part of an awesome team.

Beauty Blurb: Make-up Palettes

Sephora Bronzed! Make-up Palette

Photo courtesy of Sephora.com

"The Sephora Brand Makeup Bronzed! Palette gets you glowing with 24 eyeshadows, 12 lip colors, two cheek colors, one bronzing powder, two double-ended shadow applicators, a blush brush, and two lip brushes with all new shades for summer. The chic, brushed-matte exterior of the slim compact adds a distinctly modern touch."

My Thoughts: The eyeshadows in their photograph look different in person. They also apply really lightly--even the dark brown and purple. For a "Bronzed" make-up palette, I'm kind of surprised they only provide one bronzer and so many similar white/off-white eye shadows. The lipcolors are the best part, but even they are mediocre! The palette's pretty to look at, but I'd save the $30.

Backstage: Baby Phat

Backstage at the Baby Phat show on Friday, key Linea Pro hairstylist Odile Gilbert created a "60s Cher" look for all the models which meant super long, pin-straight hair and a middle part. Some of the models, like the one below, had bangs too and it came out very nice. Odile said that she wanted something "feminine and sexy like Kimora (the designer)" and that "straight hair is always in fashion."

In order to create the super straight 60's Cher hair, Odile used uber sparkly flat irons, pictured left! She kept the hair products to a minumum, using only Mizani light holding hair spray to finish off the look.







I met up with head M-A-C make-up artist James Kaliardos again. He's pretty awesome and said he remembered me from the Nicole Miller show.

C: What's the look for Baby Phat tonight?
J: 70s Cher. 3 shimmery eyeshadows: bright gold to make the inner corner of the eye pop, peachy gold over the entire lid, and a dark/black gold for the contour of the crease and below the eye.

C: And for the rest of the face?
J: Peachy/orangey blush to create a high cheekbone. The lipgloss is also a peach color. We're using false eyelashes and some mascara. The most important part is keeping the skin sheer.

C: Any special techniques?
J: "Keep the skin as sheer as possible--that helps to make the whole look breathe."

C: How do you know Kimora?
J: "This is my first season doing a show for her, though I worked with her as a model."

Runway: Badgley Mischka

I was lucky to get 2 tickets to see Badgley Mischka, so I took my sister! The pretty gowns were so much fun to look at and they definitely lived up to their style of intricate beading and sequins. I liked the feminine colors instead of the browns, greys and whites I saw from the other shows. I read in InStyle that Badgley Mischka are coming out with engagement rings next so that should be pretty exciting to look at too.





I also saw Nastia Liukin again (in red) with swimmer Amanda Beard. Heather Graham (far right) was also in the front row. She was wearing this leopard print dress with dark red lipstick. I'm not really sure if that was cute. I like her look better without all the fuss.

The designers Mark Badgley (L) and James Mischka (R).

Runway: BCBG Max Azria

Today the beauty editor surprised me with an invitation to attend BCBG's Max Azria fashion show. I wasn't really dressed in my best nor did I have my digi cam on me (I know, shocker!), but I was totally thrilled to go. It was a different collection than what they did last week for sure. The clothes were really simple with very delicate fabrics, like silk, and feminine colors--light almond, mauve, light blues (but not like a sky blue... like a gray-ish blue). The clothes also had a lot of surprises like backless jumpers (?!), really low necklines, a loose-fitting one-shoulder top revealing a bare arm.

A lot of people were there tonight. Including Natasha Bedingfield, who is very pretty in person! There were a couple more celebrities in the front row, but I got shooed off the aisle trying to take a peek. :( There were people standing all around the perimeter of the tent, in the VIP lounge, and even people sitting on the runway itself to create and extra 2 rows of front seats. Those who stand outside of the tent seem to get the best view if they're celebrity sighting though... Maybe I should try that next time-- I'm a newbie to this and all about encounters with celebrities in person! I've stared at one-dimensional faces in the magazines for far too long...

Update: Apparently I saw Michelle Trachtenberg (second from left in first pic) at Max Azria too! I actually was standing right next to her for a couple of minutes, but I didn't recognize her in person... I think she was looking more pale than usual. Girl could use a little face bronzer. And I was sitting a few rows behind Nastia Liukin--Olympic gold medal gymnast who was sitting with Ryan Lochte--the American Olympic swimmer! I'm a BIG FAN. So that's hot.

Front Row at BCBG Max Azria Spring 2009 / Max Azria with actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler

(Photos from Zimbio)

Runway: Lacoste

My first runway show experience went by so quickly. All the chaos and pushy photographers and mass of people scrambling to get into The Tent before the show somehow calms down to 20 minutes of silent appreciation for fashion.

Lacoste opened up with an effortless and chic "South of France" look. I saw a lot of different shades of brown and off-whites.Very summery and breezy. Gladiator sandals were kind of toned down to look more "Greek-goddess inspired," according to designer Christophe Lemaire. The hair for the first scene was loosely pulled back behind a twisted head scarf into a bouncy ponytail. I didn't have quite the close-up view for the make-up, but from what I could tell it was natural and fresh to complement Lacoste's sporty style and some of the models had berry stained lips. Lemaire called the second theme "the Sunset Group." It was definitely more upbeat with bright orange, melon, yellow hues. In the third theme, he shows tweaked logos of your traditional gator--"the new one has the crocodile leading the letters and punctuated in between with a red exclamation point."

It was hard not to be overly excited about being able to attend the event. I strolled down the names reserved to sit in the front-row and it gave me a little push to think that with continued determination, I can be one of those magazine editors sitting in the front! And then I'd be able to take pictures of the finale without the audience's heads in them...

Beauty Blurb: Olay Definity Recapture

Olay Definity Color Recapture is an anti-aging UV moisturizer and coverage spiraled up in a really wicked-looking bottle. It's supposed to help protect from future skin damage (SPF 15) and smooth out wrinkles over time.

I haven't tested it myself, but I think it would just be cool to give it a whirl and see how long the moisturizers stays up like that! It's $26.99 at drugstore.com.

Backstage: Nicole Miller

Today, I received one of my favorite assignments so far: I interviewed the head make-up artist (who was using M-A-C products) and hair stylist (using Bumble&Bumble) at the Nicole Miller fashion show in Bryant Park! Nicole Miller is a designer of woman's fashions, bridal and accessories. My internship has given me a lot of firsts and going backstage to Fashion Week was surely one of them.

I learned that knowing the PR people to events is key (hi, sis!). After standing around for a while because I wasn't on the guestlist, it occurred to me that I had the phone number to the PR person for M-A-C cosmetics, who got me in right away when I called. I can't wait 'til that sort of things becomes the norm for me. :P

I had an interview with hairstylist, Rolando Beauchamp, pictured left. Here are some his responses and my notes!:

C: What's "the look" of the show tonight?
R: "Uptown girl goes Downtown." Extremely low side part with the front portion curled around a tight, healthy ponytail that's textured and toussled when finished.

C: Why did you and Nicole decide on this style?
R: It's simple and easy. We needed simplicity for the hair because of the complicated clothes.

Bumble&Bumble products used:
"Shine," "Thickening spray" and "Does it all" hairspray.




Head make-up artist James Kaliardos was a great first interview. He was friendly and was patient as I stumbled through questions.

C: What will be the new make-up trend that we're seeing tonight?
J: "African Voodoo" eye--smokey plum eyeshadow, black mascara, bright dark blue liner (almost a teal color)

C: What's the inspiration behind this look for the eye?
J: The Voodoo look is to capture the spirit of a mesmerizing eye. The plum eye can be for anyone bored with brown, but afraid of black shadow. Plum also accentuates all eye colors-- Nicole and I both love a penetrating, strong eye. But it's very important that it's not theatrical.

C: What's the color palette for blush?
J: We're using an Orangey/Gold blush called "Fun & Games" by M-A-C. Also, the lip color is neutral. We're using "Nudie" which is neither a lip gloss nor a lipstick.

C: Pet peeve with ordinary girls make-up?
J: People who use too much foundation. If you can't see the skin because of too much cover up, you don't get a feeling for the person.

Swarovski & The Wizard of Oz

Last night Saks Fifth Avenue, Warner Brothers Studios and Swarovski partnered together to introduce "The Ruby Slipper Collection." Some of the biggest shoe designers created an exhibition of ruby slippers made of Swarovski crystal in honor of this year being the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz.

Even with the 1 hour line outside in the humid heat (though I had an invitation!) in front of Saks Fifth Ave., it was worth the wait--especially since it was my first "Fashion Week" event EVER! The downside is that until I get more connections or become someone famous, I have to go alone. But for now, I'm kept pretty entertained observing and being in the presence of some of New York's most fashionable people... And trying to spot celebrities. ha!

















::The red carpet and Dorothys!


::The Scene



::The Shoes
1. Jimmy Choo
2. Roger Vivier
3. Christian Louboutin
4. Oscar de la Renta




The evening's event also supported the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Every Swarovski ruby bracelet you see on the right was purchased for $20 and donated to the cause. After Fashion Week, the shoes will be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the foundation as well.

The Start of a Good Thing

My sister thought it would be a good idea to write about my internship experiences this semester. I've had this blog for a couple of weeks now with no big focus so it seems like a good idea.

I met Samantha, a reporter for People Style Watch magazine, at Menlo Park Mall in my hometown. It was totally random. I bumped into a friend from high school and I was telling her about my internship at New Line Cinema last semester, sulking over being a poor college student . The lady next to me said that Time Warner pays their interns at People and we talked for a little bit. I didn't get her contact info, but I used my bosses to track her down. She was totally nice about it and forwarded my resume to the beauty editor.

A couple months later and a lot of stressing out, I got the job!! ... Finally getting a taste of the magazine industry and one step closer to my dream goal. I'm in the beauty editorial department, and I'm quickly loving it. I play with the thousands of beauty products and get to be one of the first ones to see the new stuff coming out for the next season. Organizing in general is pretty fun and I'm good at it on everything besides my own room. I get to sit-in on meetings and participate with all facets of the process. The Style Watch staff is actually pretty small, which is nice because even the newbies like me are acknowledged. There's no Devil Wears Prada action going on here at all and the people I work with are great!