Blog Posts by Allure Daily Beauty Reporter

By Jessica Prince

Backstage at Diane von Furstenberg yesterday, lead makeup artist James Kaliardos created "iridescent smoky eyes inspired by butterfly metamorphosis and peacock colors." As you can see, this=gorgeous! We watched as he created the look.

1. He applied black cream liner as eyeshadow, spreading it across the lids from the upper lash lines to the creases. Then a smaller shadow brush was used to "blend the color up to the brow bones."

2. Next, the black cream liner was applied along the lower lash lines and winged out along the outer corners.

Related: Backstage Beauty: Downtown Girls at Zac Posen

3. M.A.C. Pro Loose Pigment in Steel Blue (a sparkly greenish blue) was applied below the lower lash lines and a brighter cobalt was applied in the inner corners of the upper lids.

4. He dabbed M.A.C. Pro 3D Glitter with a pointy brush just in the inner corners of the lids. He topped off the look with a "good, thick coating of mascara."

Photo credit: Jessica Prince

I had to wake up at 4:15 yesterday morning to film a TV segment. Needless to say, I had some raging undereye circles. Lucky for me (and for the people watching my segment), makeup artist Angella Valentine was stocked up on concealer-and ready to share her application tips. A few things I hadn't heard before that work:

Mix a dab of primer with your concealer: You can use eye primer, but if you don't have any, face primer works just as well. (In fact, Valentine likes Smashbox Photo Finish, which is made for the face). This can do a lot of things:

1. For people whose sensitive skin is irritated by eye cream, the added primer helps moisturize the area in a gentle way.

2. For people who aren't irritated by eye creams but end up with caked-up concealer two minutes later, the primer is smoother (and less dense) than a cream and locks the concealer in place.

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3. The combination gives you full coverage without the

Take it from someone who has been on prescription acne medicine for a decade-laboratory science is a girl's best friend. Still, there's something appealing about DIY beauty remedies, too. Whether it's because we love the idea that nature has provided for us in some way (sea salt for exfoliating!) or simply that we have the ingredients already in the kitchen (to think, I almost threw out that cold tea bag!)-we're always eager to try made-at-home treatments.

In our February issue, Emily Blunt revealed that she's soaked her face in olive oil in the name of soft skin. (Oil and our acne-prone skin do not mix.)


Do you swear by any DIY treatments? Is there one you've always been curious about but haven't had the guts (or the potato chunks) to try?

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• The 10 Greatest Celebrity Hair Makeovers
• The 5 Most Amazing Anti-Aging Makeovers
• 13 Winter Beauty Mistakes
• 17 Bad Skin Habits to Break
• 10 Hairstyles That Make You Look 10 Years

Beauty-related crime always catches our eye. There was the transgender prisoner who wanted the state to pay for his sex change and electrolysis; and then the Canadian inmates who spent four months using a nail clipper to dig a tunnel to freedom. Now, we just heard about a man charged with larceny after he stuffed 75 bottles of Bath & Body Works lotions into his pants at a Massachusetts mall-so many that he couldn't even run from the authorities or bend down to get into the police car.

Legal issues aside, what we do know is that there are more efficient ways to moisturize. Here's what the experts suggest.

-Most bar soaps look innocent, but a harsh formula can leave skin uncomfortably dry. Look for a creamy cleanser that contains glycerin or petrolatum. We like Johnson's Body Care 24 Hour Care Moisturizing Body Wash.

-Mild exfoliation using a gentle scrub with soft, synthetic beads can remove dead skin cells and reduce dullness and allow moisturizer to function more effectively. Try

A couple Valentine's Days ago, we thought our BF knew us well enough to know what we would want. A bottle of bad scented body lotion later, we realized how wrong we were!

So with February 14th approaching, we wondered how much of this new British research reported in the Daily Mail applies here in the U.S. The survey of 6,000 men, sponsored by The Perfume Shop, found that the men were clueless about their partner's dress size, birth date, natural hair color, and even eye color. (What?!) Thirty percent didn't know their partner's bra size, and 12 percent didn't know the name of their girlfriend's best friend.

Related: The Top 10 Romantic Scents


Do you think your boyfriend knows enough about you to buy you a decent Valentine's Day present? Here's one place you can look to start hinting...

Image via sephora.com

More from Allure:

• The Guy's Guide to Buying Fragrance for a Woman
• The 10 Sexiest Fragrances
• The Top 7 Long-Wearing Lip Colors for Valentine's Day

We love a good beauty bargain-and we especially love one that's as easy as the click of a mouse. Market for Drama, a new members-only website, is like Gilt Groupe for beauty junkies. (Don't be intimidated-it's free and anyone can join.) The site offers discount shopping events for high-end brands including Jemma Kidd, Kevyn Aucoin, and Tracie Martyn, as well as hard-to-find and cult favorites such as Savon de Marseille and Histoires de Parfums.

Here's how it works: Every week, there are new sales, with limited batches of products from a brand, and with prices of up to 70 percent off. Members are tipped off with an email, and products are sold on a first come, first serve basis. And, unlike some other sites, Market for Drama gets their loot directly from the beauty brands-to ensure it's all authentic.

Upcoming sales include skin-care line Cosmedicine (a top-seller at Sephora), which starts today, and Kevyn Aucoin makeup, which starts February 16. Check out marketfordrama.com to sign

It's normal for your lips to get flaky in dry winter weather. Here are a few tips from Kansas City, Missouri dermatologist Audrey Kunin for dealing with a chapped mouth:

1. Choose the right balm. You want one that's viscous, not waxy, to really get into the cracks, and you'll need a formula with moisture-restoring ingredients like petrolatum, shea butter, hyaluronic acid, or dimethicone. (We like the petrolatum-rich Kiehl's Lip Balm #1.)
2. Think beyond your lips. Disrupting the pH balance in your mouth can also cause chapping. Toothpastes, mouthwashes, and facial cleansers can all mess with your pH, but applying balm right after brushing your teeth or washing your face can help. If the chapping doesn't stop, consider switching to Squigle, a sodium-laurel-sulfate-free toothpaste that may help.
3. Get rid of flakes. If you exfoliate, do it right: Avoid grainy scrubs or washcloths, and instead, try a lip balm with a little bit of alpha hydroxy acid, like EI Solutions Lip

Sometimes, beauty products are like good accessories-they work just as well when you mix and match. The other day, beauty director Amy Keller Laird told me she loved my lipstick and asked what it was. It wasn't just one product-I had layered Clinique Plump and Shine gloss in Double Plum (shown above) over M.A.C. Lipstick in Rebel, which makes a shiny fuschia. I also love putting a glitter top coat over a colored nail polish, or applying a separating mascara followed by a volumizing one (to prevent the chunky look that a double coat of heavy mascara can give). I'm not the only one who does beauty combos-Amy says, "I always wear a mix of blush and bronzer on my cheeks. First I dab on the blush for rosiness-a cream or gel version gives such a pretty sheer stain-then a light dusting of bronzer. The final effect looks more natural than either alone. I like Tarte Cheek Stain in Flush and Stila Sun Bronzing Powder in 1. Some companies, like Lorac, make blush/bronzer palettes to make it