I am Starbucks

Every Saturday and Sunday, I go to Starbucks for coffee (double tall latte) and breakfast breads. Starbucks very cleverly places the CD stand near the cashier as a point-of-purchase (POP). Starbucks CD compilations such as Jazz Impressionists, Prestige Jazz, and Blistering Licks! has exposed me to music I might otherwise not hear. The cashiers say that the CDs don't sell particularly well, which was surprising, given that Starbucks has become a force in the music industry.

Starbucks' current campaign has features about their coffee suppliers and artists from the Americas, whose items are available for purchase at Starbucks stores. For stationery lovers (like myself), there are notepads and notebooks featuring the bright and bold designs of self-taught artist Yamileth “Yami” Luna Arias. There are also coffee drinks flavored with dulce de leche, banana coffee cake with dulce de leche swirl, and mango and pineapple empanada.

However, the slogan I am Starbucks for this campaign is maladroit, especially for a company as marketing-savvy as Starbucks. It sound more like one of those damage control campaigns where a company bring out its employees to say what a great company it is (think Wal-Mart), when the company is facing a lot of bad press.

Let's set the record straight!

The April 23, 2007 issue of People has a cover story about Marcia Cross and her two infant girls - "The Desparate Housewives star opens up about fertility, her difficult pregnancy, and her 'yummy' baby girls."

While Cross admitted to undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF), it was treated very casually: all that was said about her IVF was "Let's stay put and if we can't give this baby a chance."

Here are facts about IVF that women should know:

Five years ago, IVF cost $10,000 to $15,000 per cycle - I do not know the cost today. Certainly, money is no object for Cross as an actress on a top-rated TV show. For the ordinary woman, meeting these expenses would means taking out loans or taking out a second mortgage on their home. Nothing was said about - not even in the sidebar - about the time that processes such as egg harvesting requires. For the working woman, it might require that she take leave from her job or even force her to quit her job.

Cross is lucky that she conceived on her first try. If I remember correctly, Brooke Shields underwent 5 cycles before she conceived her first daughter. Other women go bankrupt in repeated tries to realize their dream of having a baby.

Fertility clinics are required by law to report pregnancy success rates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); to find reports for the years 1995-2004, visit Assisted Reproductive Technology from the CDC.

In fairness to People, the article did mention that Cross suffered from pre-eclampsia, or pregnancy-induced hypertension, a condition that afflicts many women, especially those who are pregnant past 40. Articles about celebrities (not only Cross, but also Jane Seymour and Geena Davis) having children at advanced ages betray women into thinking that they can postpone having children to well into their 40s.

The longest corporate legal battle

... or so it seems.

I am no fan of direct selling or multi-tier marketing (examples: Amway, Mary Kay). I don't like the aggressive selling or recruitment of customers to be salespeople, with the benefits accruing to those above them. Moreover, I don't like how many of these companies often conflate religion with selling a product.



Probably the most egregious example to conflate religion with selling products was the rumours spread by Amway distributors to tie Procter & Gamble to satanic worship because of P & G's (former) use of a logo featuring a man in the moon and 13 stars. I suspect that the distributors thought that this would play well among conservative Christian customers. For more background, see Logo controversy on Wikipedia. I regarded this effort to be defamation of P & G.

Now Amway is challenging the decision that they pay P & G nearly $20 million in legal expenses:
Amway claims P&G Satanic damages to be improper

Updates to The Style Page website

I've been having a lot of fun inserting add-ins on The Style Page website to enhance users' experience. New features include Google Search on the front, About us, What's New, and Contact us pages, where search results are featured on the same page. Also, I've added links from Yahoo! My Web that are customized for many (but not all) pages on the website. Finally, I've inserted a widget that enables display of thumbnails of linked pages with mouse-over on the Cosmetics page, in which case you might want to look at the page "below the fold."

Have fun searching or browsing our companion website, and share your comments with me via the Contact us page or here on this blog.

Demystifying eye makeup

Perhaps I was a bit critical of Stila's Smoky Eye Palette - I'm not adverse to pricey brands (particularly if they provide something I can't find in less pricier brands) and some folks seem to like the palette. Still, I think it was nervy to insert an audio commercial advertising other Stila products on a $40 item.

That said, eye makeup is the trickiest part of makeup application, and it's to a makeup company's advntage to provide guidance on applying makeup to sell product. Here's a rundown on products with accompanying guidance:


Bare Escentuals Get Started Eyes

Bare Escentuals Get Started Eyes and Bare Escentuals Tutorials - Lesson 1: Smoky Eye provide guidance with the set. I think that the lid and eyeliner shades on the model are great, but I'm not smitten with the pale pink highlighter, especially with deep-set eyes like mine (and the model's). I wish the Chocolate Raisin liner was sold individually - it sounds like the dark-dark brown-plum I love (see also Constant Color Gel Eyeliner)

Jemma Kid Eye Wardrobe Eye Shadow Quartet
Jemma Kidd is a London-based makeup artist. She's also the sister of model, champion polo player, and race car driver Jodie Kidd; great-granddaughter of press magnate Lord Beaverbrook; and wife of the grandson of the current Duke of Wellington - whew! Advice on application may be downloaded from Jemma Kidd's website, as well as her columns for The Mail on Sunday (UK).


Mally Beauty City Chick Smokey Eye Kit

Mally Beauty is a makeup line from celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal (she's the one who makes Beyoncé always look fabulous). Originally available through QVC, Mally Beauty is available at Amazon.com. Mally Beauty City Chick Smokey Eye Kit comes in five different color themes: Brownstone (browns), Skyscraper (slate/gray), Central Park (greens), Nolita Navy (blues), and Plum Chelsea (guess). Each palette comes with eye shadow base and eye liner pencil.

Pop Beauty Eye Class - Smokey Eyes is the most diversified palette of the lot, and features these shades: jet black, smokey steel gray, sapphire blue, silver, deep plum, deep violet, burnished bronze, emerald green, olive gold, nude glow, opal gold, and sparkling white. Examples of application are provided with the palette.

Block-printed textiles

The June-July 2006 issue of Domino had a feature on creating cushions and pillows with Indian block printed textiles. Its palette of white with pops of red used fabrics from Kerry Cassill and Les Indiennes.

The process of block printing, from creating the designs to transferring the design onto wood to carving the wood blocks to printing, is shown in a photo essay on the eSamskriti web site.

I have a duvet cover and reversible coverlet (the back side is a striped fabric) from John Robshaw in brown and blue on a natural background. It's pricey, and my husband, who is a native of India, didn't want to tell his mother how much he paid for it - she'd argue that he could get it much cheaper in India.


Block printed textiles from Pomegranates,
featured with Jaipur blue pottery
Visit the photo essay on Jaipur blue pottery making on esamskrati

Other sources for Indian block printed textiles include FabIndia (mentioned previously), Anokhi, and Pomegranates, a store located in Warrenton, Virginia, outside of Washington, DC. Wendy, who owns Pomegranates, sources her bedding and curtain panels directly from India; in addition, she sells select items from John Robshaw (including crib sets) and select apparel from Anokhi.

Peter Dunham is an LA-based interior designer who also sources blockprinted textiles from India. See his work for Jennifer Garner's home in the fall/winter 2007 issue of Vogue Living.

Links for Kerry Cassill, John Robshaw, and FabIndia may be found on our Textiles page. Links for Les Indiennes, Anokhi, Pomegranates, and Peter Dunham may be found via My Web.

A note for blog subscribers

The Style Page appreciates everyone who subscribes to my blog by email or news feed to be informed of new updates. I have lately been taking advantage of Blogger's tagging capabilities; however, any new tags results in a new Email or update to our news feed, even though the original posting might be old. I regret the deluge of Email or updates to our news feed, and hope that subscribers bear with me as I continue to add tags.

Erin Go Bragh

Wow! Talk about serendipity!

I discovered this bed set from Luxury Lab Linens today via roxi on This Next, the day before St. Pat's.

Check out the claddagh rings on the shams! (via roxi)

Lip tips

After posting Great drugstore finds, I realized that I needed to revise my advice on lips on The Style Page website.

Concerning lipliner that it is not obvious, I had written:

• Another solution is to line the lips using a lip brush with the color you intend to apply: this is especially useful for applying highly pigmented matte lipsticks. [This advice originally came from Bobbi Brown]
  

• ArtDeco, a cosmetics company from Germany, offers a Color & Contour Lip Duo, which features lipstick at one end and contour at the other end for lining the tips. This is a highly pigmented lip color, so blending is still necessary.

Now I think that both techniques result in an overly obvious line, which is why I now prefer clear lipliners or lipliners that perfectly match the color of one's lips (which is why MAC's Lip Pencil in Spice has been so popular).

I've since discovered that companies other than Revlon and Paula's Choice offer clear lipliners, but at a higher price: DuWop Reverse Lip Liner and CARGO The Reverse Lipliner.

Living Beauty by Bobbi Brown

as seen in the March 15, 2007 edition of USA Today.

Lastly, the March issue of InStyle featured an excerpt from Bobbi Brown's latest book Living Beauty. Bobbi Brown wrote that the most flattering lip color is two shades darker than the natural color of your lips. I can vouch for her advice, after a lot of experimentation (and a lot of money spent!). One also has to take her complexion, hair color, and clothes in account when selecting lip color.

I'm light to medium in complexion, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. While I had been classified as a "Winter" (using the seasonal color typing that was so popular in the 80s), I tend to favor rich warm colors over cool colors. Some of my favorite lipsticks are Bourbon from last year's limited edition Catherine Deneuve color collection from MAC and Bésame's Enchanting Lipstick in Chocolate Kiss, particularly when wearing brown. In fact, I favor lip colors that are "ambiguous," that is, not too cool, not too warm.

Another tip is to apply lip color just slightly inside your mouth (I would name the source of this tip if I could recall it) so that there won't be any apparent demarcation lines; also, this application suggests fuller lips.

Get ready for spring - 15% off from Skirt Spot

The Style Page is pleased to announce a 15% discount on orders from Skirt Spot, formerly Boutique Ooh La La, for its readers. Browse Skirt Spot's large collection of feminine skirts with details such as yokes, ribbon trim, ties, contrast hems, and more. This is a great opportunity to build your spring-to-summer wardrobe and also to get ready for Easter.

To take advantage of Skirt Spot's 15% discount, enter code sp0307 (case-sensitive) in the box for Coupon or Gift Certificate on Skirt Spot's web site. This offer is available only for a limited time - the last day to take advantage of it is March 22, 2007.