The Most God-Awful product that I've tried

Bye Bye Pores HD Silk Micro-Powder by It Cosmetics has got to be the most god-awful product I've tried. This powder is so opaque that I felt that I was wearing a mask. Although it contains ingredients beneficial for the skin, I found it drying.

Bye Bye Pores HD Silk Micro-Powder

Talc gets a bad rap, but talc-based finishing powders work better than Bye Bye Pores and don't obscure my complexion.  If you want to use a talc-free HD powder, I recommend Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder. Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder is a favorite of beauty editors and makeup enthusiasts and justifiably merits its hype.

Who wins our giveaways?

Our winners come from across the U.S. and Canada!

Our latest winner is Lisa from Missouri, who won the JK Jemma Kidd fashion junkie eye palette and lip palette.

Ann from California won the Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation.

Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation

Zara from North Carolina won the L'Oreal Paris Big Blowout Giveaway.

Ashley from New York won the beautiful Areaware Desk Accessory Set made from naturally harvested mahogany and sonokeling wood.

Caramel Diva from Florida won the Beauty Strokes Mineral Optics brush collection. See pictures of her Beauty Strokes Mineral Optics brush collection and read her comments!

Christie from Ohio won the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar collection.

We had two winners for Delirium & Co scented candles: Rachel from Minnesota and Robyn from Indiana.

We had three winners for Three Custom Color Specialists Mood Lighting Shimmer Cremes: Irene from Canada; Margaret, also from Canada; and Tammi from Ohio

Becky from Illinois won the 12-piece brush collection from Beauty Strokes.

The fine print: Thanks to all company representatives who donated products for our giveaways!

Best drugstore mascaras

We had the best mascaras at all price points, now we have the best drugstore mascaras. It makes sense when mascara needs to be replaced frequently.

11 Best Drugstore Mascaras

These products feel like splurging -- minus the high price tag

Are you a mascara fanatic? We are too. However, that doesn't mean we'll drop lots of cash on high-end mascaras (well, OK, it does, but we don't JUST do that). Especially when there are these cheap-but-awesome ones out there. Check them out, and say good-bye to your $20-a-tube days. See mascaras

Sam Fine recommends L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara as an inexpensive option.

P&G is ceasing to distribute Max Factor in the U.S., but you can find its top-rated Stretch & Separate Waterproof Mascara and Volume Couture Mascara at drugstore.com.

More winter skin care advice - face

This article is a follow-on to recent articles on caring for the lips and overall skin care in winter.

Experts often recommend a richer moisturizer in winter time, but you might want to use it on dry patches only. Hydrocortisone cream can minimize redness and relieve dry patches, but be sparing: repeated use over time will thin the skin.

I use The Solution by Envision Beauty as an overnight moisturizer. I reviewed this light weight lotion back in April 2009, and my appreciation of this product has only grown since I posted my review. This is one of the few product samples I’ve received that I have used to the bottom of the bottle and went out to purchase afterwards!

I appreciate that Kimberly Snyder revealed that many cosmetics companies spread skin care ingredients among several products, such as moisturizers and serums. The Solution is designed to be a 4-in-1 product: still, the $75 price tag per bottle is too steep for my budget. I took advantage of a recent BOGO promotion to replenish my supply.

While the bottle recommends 2-3 pumps, I find that a single pump works well, even for my dry skin. This also helps to conserve precious product.

Aside from product, I also run a vaporizer in my room, particularly during the night. You might also hang damp clothes taken from the washing machine or lay damp sweaters on a sweater dryer to humidify the air.

In a subsequent post, I’ll provide tips about body care and hand care during winter.

Best and worst magazine covers of 2009

Top 10 (and Bottom Two) Magazine Covers from 2009

These images certainly caught our eyes at the grocery store, how about you?

This year gave us some really amazing magazine covers -- and a few that left us scratching our heads in confusion. Check out our picks for the best and worst magazine covers of 2009 -- did your faves make the list? See magazines

Guess which was among the worst magazine covers?

While not necessarily bad-bad, the February 2009 issue of Allure came in for criticism on account of Stephane Marais's applying a fake bake tan to fair-complected redhead Isla Fisher.

Happy New Year

More winter skin care advice - lips

The article Expert advice on winter skin care provided a lot of excellent tips about protecting your skin during cold winter weather.  In this article, I provide my time-proven tips about keeping lips soft in winter.

Instead of removing dry flakes from my lips with a soft toothbrush, I use Paula Begoun’s lip treatment, a wax that removes flaking skin, but it’s no longer available through her website. It was modeled after Beauticontrol’s Lip Apeel.

May I say something about Aquaphor? Allure touted it as a lip protectant, but it does little for me. A lip product with Vitamin E works better than Aquaphor. The Agatha Ruiz de la Prada fruit-flavored lip balms that you find at duty-free shops at airports in Europe (I have also seen them at anthropologie) are very emollient. Sally Hansen Healing Butter for Lips and the Reviva Labs Vitamin E Stick are satisfactory, but not as good as the Agatha Ruiz de la Prada lip balms. Skin care expert Liz Earle recommends ingesting Vitamin E capsules, but Vitamin E is also great as a topical treatment.

RIP Brittany Murphy

I  very rarely blog about celebrities, although I'm continually fed fashion & beauty stories about celebrities.  It's just that I can't in good conscience blog about celebrities whose work I don't know.   Our DirectTV service is out, I haven't joined Netflix, and I seldom go to the movies.  That explains why I don't know the work of many celebrities, or else they are merely famous for being famous.

Today I was saddened to learn about the death of Brittany Murphy at age 32.  Her breakthrough role was as Tai, the new kid whom Cher and Dionne make over in Clueless.  One of her unsung roles was that of Luann Platter, Hank and Peggy Hill's bird-brained live-in niece, on the long-running animated TV series King of the Hill.  Luann was hilarious, whether bawling "UNCLE HANK!!"  or providing the voices for the Manger Babies puppets during her born-again phase.

Lady Bird, Bobby Hill, Hank Hill, Peggy Hill, and Luann Platter from King of the Hill

Brittany Murphy will be missed.

Brittany Murphy, 1977-2009

Best #Beauty Tools

Missing are favorites such as Beautyblender and the sensuously soft Make Up For Ever HD Kabuki Brush, which I use to apply MUFE HD Microfinish Powder.

The 13 Best Makeup Tools

See which brushes, tweezers and eyelash curlers Total Beauty Readers love

Even if you use your fingers to apply most things, all of us have a few tools in our makeup arsenal that we wouldn't want to live without. TotalBeauty.com readers shared their favorite makeup tools, maybe it's time to add a few to your stash? See tools

No. 13: Shiseido Eyelash Curler, $19

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.1

Readers call this "the most perfectly designed eyelash curler …"

No. 12: Too Faced Kabuki Brush, $30

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.3

It "provides fuller coverage than the usual brushes that eat up your powder …"

No. 11: Bare Escentuals Maximum Coverage Concealer Brush, $20

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.3

It is best when you want "skin tone perfection," as it allows …

Want to see what's no. 1? Click here!

Expert advice on winter skin care

Solutions for All Your Winter Skin Issues

Need help with dry, chapped skin and lips? We've got the answers

Cold weather outside and dry heat inside can really do a number on your skin. If you've tried slathering on every lotion you can get your hands on to no avail, then you need these expert tips to fight dry skin. We talked to Arielle N.B. Kauvar, M.D., director of New York Laser & Skin Care, and Liz Earle, a natural skin care expert, to find out what ingredients, methods and products work best to get you soft, silky skin all season long. See tips