Blog Posts by The chicks at TotalBeauty.com

Ask women what their best physical feature is and most say their eyes, smile, or legs.

Me? It's my nails.

Related: Can You Wear Nail Art Past 30?

Before this whole nail art fad, nobody ever noticed my perfectly-polished digits. Now, everyone from the bank teller to the grocery store checkout lady raves about my well-manicured hands.

Why are my nails suddenly getting the recognition they deserve? Because thanks to the exploding nail art trend, I'm now adorning my favorite feature with all kinds of inspired designs.

Uninspired by your own nails? These 7 new nail art designs will help spur your inner Picasso.

TIME MACHINE MANIS

Difficulty Level: 7 (out of 10)



We spotted these swirly, psychedelic nails backstage at Nicole Miller, and we were truly entranced. CND's Wanda Ruiz used bold shades (Plumville, Electric Orange, Bicycle Yellow, and Anchor Blue) to create the look, which she says you can easily do at home with a few toothpicks. "Dip a clean

Last Saturday night I got into a "discussion" with my boyfriend. It started when I was in front of my vanity, carefully applying Step 7 of my makeup routine (highlighter above my cheekbones), and my S.O. yelled, "Are you ready yet? How long does it take to put on some lipstick?"

OK, so curling my hair and perfecting my cat-eye takes longer than slapping on some Chapstick. But am I the only high-maintenance one in this relationship?

I. Think. Not.

Related: 12 Hair and Makeup Looks He Hates

I reminded my boyfriend (in my most snarky tone) how often he whines about his "not balding, but slightly thinning" hair and big ears he wishes he could pin back.

Since my boyfriend -- and really, much of the male race -- won't acknowledge how much they really care about their appearance, I'll do it for them.

First up: A recent "20/20" episode that highlighted a growing cosmetic surgery fad this year, one that's not for women.

While Tom Cruise has his loafer lifts

I am many things -- a good cook, a decent artist, a fair-to-middling linguist -- but coordinated I am not. Sure, I can hit a tennis ball with some power and can carve my way around a ski slope, but basic hand/eye coordination has never been my forte.

That's why I suck at applying makeup. And also why I'm beyond hopeless at trying my hand at any of those newfangled braids that are all the rage these days.

Related: 10 Best Hair Trends to Try in 2012

For most people, being utterly inept at things like creating a smoky eye or waterfall braid is no big deal. As a beauty editor however, it's alternately humbling and humiliating. This is why I surround myself with the best people in hair and makeup and pump them for tips on how to best fake being less of a lost cause.

Take these easy-to-follow tips for recreating eight of the coolest new braids out there. They're succinct, thorough, and simple enough for even me to achieve -- and that's saying a lot.

REBEL REBEL

If you had to sum up your current exercise routine with two words, what would they be?

I'll give you mine: ho and hum.

It's not that it's a bad workout routine; it's just that it's gotten as predictable as the plotline of "Glee." Maybe that's one of the reasons I (and a lot of my fellow Americans) tend to give up on my exercise efforts. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 18.8 percent of us meet the physical activity guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity. Maybe we just need our routines jazzed up a little.

Related: 10 Ways to Lose 5 Pounds by This Weekend

"People are used to thinking of exercise as something that has to fit into certain parameters: has to be in a gym, or you have to be wearing athletic clothing," says Maria Brilaki, founder of Fitnessreloaded.com, a fitness habits website. "All those rules burden exercise and limit creativity. They make working out so complicated!" 


But

I love celebrities. "US Weekly" is my holy grail and I devour PerezHilton.com for breakfast with my morning cup of Joe. So when Zooey Deschanel says it's her $4 Rimmel mascara that gives her falsie-looking lashes and not actual falsies, I will go to CVS and buy a tube. And when Reese Witherspoon says her blemish-free skin is due to adding a tablespoon of liquid chlorophyll to her water cup, I'll keep a bottle of the stuff next to the office water cooler.

It's not that I'm a gullible person. I'm aware that celebrities have entire teams of trainers, dermatologists, and stylists, but I still think if I can copy just some of their tricks then I, too, can have abs of steel, wake up with perfectly tousled hair, and sport flawless skin.

But, as you can probably guess, that never actually happens. Instead, I look exactly the same, just with a few less dollars in my wallet.

Well, no more! I asked experts to bust some of the beauty lies that Hollywood's biggest A-listers

Say what you will, but I've always rooted for Team Jen. My love for Jennifer Aniston started during her days as the annoying but oh-so-loveable Rachel Green, and her recent impression of Chelsea Handler on "After Lately" only solidified my girl crush. She's funny, she's hot, and she's only getting better with age.

The star is 43 years old. For-ty-three. So of course, I want to know how the heck she keeps her skin looking more youthful and flawless than my supposedly-at-peak-20-something complexion. That's why I was all ears when the intrepid beauty reporter -- aka Conan O'Brien -- found out.

Related: Warning: Don't Believe These Celebrity Beauty Lies

On his late-night TV show, Conan asked the star how she keeps her skin so flawless. Her response: "I'm obsessed with laser porn."

Come again, Jen?

Aniston said she uses laser therapy to zap away the age spots from her Cali-bred complexion. She also revealed that she loves chemical peels. "It's extremely

I'm on a mission to look like Sofia Vergara. But don't worry, not in the Heidi Montag, Freakenstein kind of way.

It's not that I want Sofia's whole body -- I just want her best feature. You know what I'm talking about. They are rounded just right, and line up perfectly. Plus, unlike so many other celebs out there, hers aren't too big or too small -- they're just the right manageable size.

Wouldn't you agree Sofia's most beautiful feature is her teeth? (C'mon, what did you think I was talking about?!)

Related: Mission: Can I Get Kelly Ripa's Body?

Well, even if they're not what you're obsessed with, her teeth are the one feature I can actually, feasibly, copy. And I found a way to get her sterling white smile without coughing up three months' rent. I talked to the best and the brightest (pun intended) dentists across the country to find out how to avoid all the surprising things ruining my smile. And they shared genius tips on how to whiten my teeth without

Question: What smells worse than a teenage boy?

Answer: A teenage boy doused in Axe body spray.

Every time I visit my nephew, a cloud of Axe meets me at the front door. The poor boy is starting high school, which means he's growing out of the adorable kid stage, and into the acne-covered, awkwardly tall, and smelly stage.

His penchant for the awful-smelling grooming products only makes his puberty-inflicted odor worse, but he's convinced the overpowering scent will get him the ladies.

Related: 8 Grooming Gifts Your Man Will Actually Use

And while my impressionable nephew will probably figure out that spraying Axe or using a pheromone-infused product won't make the girls' clothes come off, a team of lawyers in San Diego is making sure he (and everyone else) knows definitively. They're filing a class action suit against Dial Corp., claiming the company is fibbing about Dial for Men Magnetic body wash's lady-luring abilities. The soap is advertised to be