They're Baaaaaaaaaaack!

In my post Intentional Irony, I described Spice Girls as "one phenomenon of the 1990s that many would like to forget." Lo and behold, Spice Girls are reuniting for a world tour. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich, which is the referent for zero longitude and time around the world (I won't get into the technical details), was cleverly chosen as the site to announce their world tour.


L to R: Victoria "Posh" Beckham, Melanie "Sporty" Chisholm, Geri "Ginger" Halliwell, Emma "Baby" Bunton, and Melanie "Scary" Brown announce the Spice Girls' 2007 reunion tour.

I hate the push-up bustiers that Posh and Scary are wearing: it looks like their boobs will spill out any moment (especially Posh). That's not sexy, it's tacky. Baby Spice (who is pregnant) is still cute, and Sporty looks great, better than ever. Geri Halliwell's frock won't win her any points with fashion cogniscenti, but I find her tousled locks and dress a refreshing change for this former topless model whose Union Jack costume made her look like some UK version of Wonder Woman.


Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell in 1997: UK Wonder Woman?

Given the media overkill surrounding the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, perhaps Spice Girls' time has come around once again: after all, their single "Spice Up Your Life" displaced Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" from no 1 on the UK pop charts two months after Diana was killed.

Miracle cream

Miracle cream - LMX5™

The hair on my chin and jaw became unmanageable, so it was time for me to look beyond tweezing and snipping hairs with a manicure scissors. A dermatologist's office tried to sell me on a package of laser treatments, but I balked at the price. Moreover, I've read that the effectiveness of laser hair removal depends on the contrast between the hair and the skin. As many of my hairs were light in color, I decided that I was not a good candidate for laser hair removal and went back to electolysis.

Now, I am a baby when it comes to electrolysis. My eyes tear up and I wince and twitch like crazy. This time, however, I quietly lied on the table while the electrologist deftly removed hairs. It didn't hurt even when she removed hairs near the lips, where there are a lot of nerve endings. The difference? LMX5™ numbing cream, a topical anesthetic.

LMX5™ doesn't require a prescription, but I had to special order it through CVS. drugstore.com doesn't even carry it - it carries only the 4%, which, according to what my electrologist heard from her other clients is not as effective as LMX5™. However, Amazon.com does carry LMX5™.

Don't be turned off by the fact that LMX5™ is marketed as an anorectal cream. After all, if beauty contestants can use Preparation H to treat puffy eyes, why can't you use LMX5™? It's also supposed to be good for undergoing treatments such as Botox.


Liv Tyler, as featured on the cover of the July 2007 issue of Allure

NEW The July 2007 issue of Allure (which features Liv Tyler on the cover) also recommends numbing creme when doing a bikini wax.

Is Beyonce's look really that bad?

OK, this is certainly not Beyonce's best picture and might not be her best look, but is it really the fashion disaster that Cynthia Nellis of fashion.about.coom says that it is?

Ms. Nellis writes:

What's missing in Beyonce's outfit goes way beyond a pair of pants or a skirt (although either would've helped): Beyonce is missing dignity. She owes it to her fabulous self to skip the trends -- like these almost-invisible teensy shorts -- that don't flatter her and stick with what does (which is pretty much just about everything else).

A slightly longer boy short might be better, but who needs thigh coverage with legs like these?

My criticism? The bright pink lipstick. Mally Roncal (her longtime makeup artist) or the beauty professionals at L'Oreal (for which Beyonce is a spokesperson) were not paying attention here.

Dr. Baumann's The Skin Type Solution

Here comes dermatologist Leslie Baumann, MD, with her own system for determining skin type: The Skin Type Solution. According to the publisher's website

Four dominant factors determine your Skin Type. These factors are: oily vs. dry, sensitive vs. resistant, pigmented vs. non-pigmented, and wrinkled vs. tight.

Thus, there are 16 different skin types, according to Dr. Baumann, each with its 4-letter abbreviation. With these 16 skin type combinations, Dr. Baumann's system is less like than the seasonal color typing popularized by Carole Jackson (author of Color Me Beautiful and Color Me Beautiful Makeup Book) in the 1980s and more like the 4-dimension Myers-Briggs Type Indicator!

Has anyone tried Dr. Baumann's system? Is it merely a gimmick or does it really help you care for your skin? Dr. Baumann has an online skin care store BaumannStore.com, which features both luxury and mass-market brands for all the 16 skin types. She has not (at least not yet!) rolled out her own skin care line. More information about her book The Skin Type Solution is found at www.skintypesolution.com (an alias for the publisher's web pages on her book.

The Naomi Diaries

OK, so Naomi Campbell has an anger management problem and might not be a very nice person, but she's so amazing looking and she's the only one of the so-called Trinity of 90s supermodels (the other two being Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington) who still actively works the runway.

The Naomi Diaries is her first person account of her week in community service, after she was found guilty in January for throwing a mobile phone at her housekeeper. Read what she ate at her midday meals and what she did after hours, when she rejoined all her partying friends. The full story is found in the June 2007 issue of W magazine.

Want more Naomi? Visit her official web site and browse her photo galleries to see Naomi in all her lithesome, feline glory (Advisory: nudity, sexual situations).