The Year In Beauty: These Are My Favorite Things, Part 3

Welcome back. And here we have part three of my and Beauty Blogging Junkie's Amber's favorite beauty products of 2010. I don't think my cat makes a cameo in this video, but you will see a lot of wine!

The products I love in this video include Topshop's big, fat Lip Crayon -- I truly thought I couldn't do a big, bright hot pink, but it works in Topshop's matte -- Urban Decay's spectacular Naked Palette, which is a celebrations of beachy browns and golds, Sulwahsoo Concentrated Ginsing Cream, which costs a small fortune but is worth every stress-inducing dollar you'd part with for insanely hydrated skin, Honore de Pres Va A New York perfume, which smells like the end of a long night out in New York, Burberry's Effortless Mascara, and Maybelline's Volum Express The Falsies mascara.

Amber's beauty BFFs are Stila Smudge Pot in Kitten, La Prairie Advanced Marine Biology Tonic, Juliette Has a Gun Fragrance Set (Lady Vengeance), Napoleon Perdis Lipstick in Calypso, La Prairie Anti Aging Eye Cream SPF 15 and Alterna Kendi Oil.

Again, my outfit ended up being an exercise in what NOT to wear on TV. But speaking of TV, I'm going to be on VH1's Top 40 Music Videos of 2010 Countdown show tonight, so hopefully I will be exonerated. And the lady who did my makeup did ELTON JOHN'S makeup for years. No, she did not make me look like Elton. Oh well. There's always next year.

($44, Urban Decay)

Hold The Phone ... And Your Nose... CK One Is Back!

French roll your relaxed fit jeans, spray up those bang rolls, bust out those Coke Classic rugby shirts, and mark your calendars because CK One is coming BACK! Srsly! January 20 is gonna be a historical day and NOT just because the Obamas are gonna paint the White House black. But because CK One -- AKA eau de '90s -- is gettin' reborned with a brand-new marketing campaign, including print ads shot by Steven Meisel (gotta at least give it that!), and a new soundtrack by British artist Jamie Burke. And you get speakers too. You laugh, but that shit sells like WOAH abroad. Also, look for an all-over body spray that comes with an oversize pump, for dat extra stank.

WWD has more on CK One redux.

+ In even more shocking '90s news Malibu Musk is STILL IN PRODUCTION!

+ Suggested purchasing: Let's Paint the '90s Coloring Book!

($13.95, Fred Flare)

And speaking (highly!) of my favies at Fred Flare, make a Valentine for 'em, why doncha? It's for charity!

Harajuku Lovers Coffret Set Winner!

Shout huZZAH to Christine from Minneapolis, for she won the Harajuku Lovers coffret set!

The rest of you losers should definitely check out my favorite of the five scents -- Love:

($25, Harajuku Lovers, Sephora)

It's a bright, sweet floral without too much electric-youthed candy-assedness. And the .33oz size is just $25!

New FashionBinge Giveaway: Win A Harajuku Lovers Fragrance Solid Coffret Set!

Blah blah blarg, you probably know all about Gwen Stefani's fatal attraction to cuteness and Japanese fetish and everything, etc etc, but what you may NOT know is that her Harajuku Lovers fragrances are FANTASTIC. Definitely not for, say, meeting your new boo's parents or presenting your dissertation, but they're parfait for sweet, fun, casual use, right? Right. And hi, they come in funners mccutetown little doll -- the equivalent of Gwen bobbleheads.

While I don't love each of the fragrances, I LOVE the crisp, clean, sweet smell of Love and the bold, loud echo of Music.

And now you can try all FIVE if you win the Harajuku Lovers Solid Coffret set, which includes all five solid fragrances in their fun mini HL versions and a helpful lil mirror, for helping you out! And you can prove your altruistic side by giving a few away to friends, or NOT! It's your life. Whatever.

Enter to win between December 2 - 9 and tell me why you're even cuter than these cute coffrets, kay?

G'luck!

Calvin Klein's Secret Obsession: Not So Secret, Actually When You Spray It Like Ten Times In A Row. Oops.

The friendly folks in charge of Calvin Klein's fragrance PR sent me over an advance of the new Secret Obsession fragrance -- the one Eva Mendes went nudie for and then the pilgrims over at FCC Puritan HQ got all Victorian on us and banned that commercial, probs because it reminded them of the sex they weren't having.

Anyway, Secret Obsession is STRONG, people. Because a lot of the fragrances I prefer tend to be sorta weak, I tend to spritz more than a few times. Bad idea. I nearly suffocated myself and my houseguests after I sprayed this one like six or seven times. This is a seriously musky, mysterious (hence "SECRET") fragrance, so be forewarned: just a dab'll do ya, kay?

It evokes a very glam, old Hollywood, sorta Cheetah Club, late-1950's feeling (I've been watching a ton of Mad Men -- think Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway). Very musky and erotic, with very strong notes of orange, jasmine and mucho tuberose, very seductive, nighttime fragrance. Don't wear this to high holiday services, okay, or else you'll have lots more repenting to do.

Check out Mimi Mimi Frou Frou's highly sophisticado review of the fragrance.

It's available in 1 oz, 1.7 oz and 3.4 oz sizes, and honestly, I'd probably recommend the smallest size because a little goes a LONG way here, ladies.

Eva Mendes- Secret Obsession Banned Commercial
by CelebriNet2

What Are You Wearing? Me: Anna Sui

No, this isn't a phone-sex-related post. Instead, I was inspired by a post by Fashionista entitled "Do You Smell Your Age?" Not as "can you smell how old you are?" but as in "is your fragrance age-appropriate?" An important question.

Today I'm kickin' it fruity and floral in Anna Sui's Sui Love -- I'm a big fan of Anna's fragrances, and this was my most recent and third purchase (I succumbed to my love of packaging and got Dolly Girl a few months back for its sweet little French-looking pink lady head bottle, and I've worn her signature "Anna Sui" fragrance for nigh on a decade now.)

Anna's peeps refer to Sui Love as a fragrance that:

"evokes a melodic symphony of one heart to another. Bergamot and passion fruit with jasmine and white rose unfold the rapture of vanilla and ambrette seed to awaken the sensual and spellbinding climax of love's fragrance."

Um, well, I guess agree, yet I'm sorry to report that I didn't immediately erupt into a perfume-induced orgasm after a mere spritz. But the passion fruit and citrus are sweet yet surprisingly light (waaaaaay lighter than the musky "Anna Sui.") despite its moderate spice factor. And I know, it's sort of counterintuitive to wear a summery fragrance in the dead of winter, but that's kinda the point.

Oh yeah, and since we here at the 'Binge like to "keep our costs down," if you will (and I seriously will), I'm pleased to report that the largest size is under $50.00

Oh, but so speaking of age, the wise women of Makeupalley.com (I CANNOT recommend this site enough, by the way, both for the breadth of its reviews and because you can SWAP products, which is exactly how I got this fragrance and Dolly Girl. You know -- because I ain't rich, kay?) collectively pretty much agree that this is a teen-to-early twenties fragrance! Me, I'm in my late twenties. (VERY late twenties, specifically). Which means... i just got an average of, like seven years younger!

Anyway, I pose three questions:

1.) What fragrance are you wearing today?

2.) Approximately how old do you "smell"? (Hee!)

3.) Disregarding the first and more obvious answer of "Who cares?"... Do you think it's ok to wear "younger" fragrances, or is it shitty?


DISCUSS!

S-Perfume: 100% Love? 100% Vile

So, tonight I stopped into Barneys Coop to find a birthday present for a friend's upcoming Very Big Birthday. While at the cash register, I noticed two different perfume testers: one was Frederic Malle's Outrageous, and the other was 100% Love by S-Perfume and Sophia Grojsman, available only at Barneys. I picked up what I thought was the former, sprayed it on my inner wrist, set it down and waited for it to dry, then noticed I'd accidentally sprayed the latter, 100% Love. While the girl was ringing up my purchase, I took a quick whiff of my wrist. Again, nothing. And then... I. Almost. Fucking. Died.

Now, I know I tend toward descriptive hyperbolics, but I almost never barf, and I am NOT exaggerating when I say that I immediately almost vomited and as I write this, even now, I continue to fight back the dry heaves.

Okay, lemme see if I can do justice to the foul malodor that befell me. You know that sickening sweet-and-sour smell that five-week-old milk has and how when you sniff it, it feels similar to an electric shock minus the high voltage? That's the sensation that passed through and over me when I sprayed that shit. Iller than all ills. On the train ride home, I kept hoping no one would see me surreptitiously stealing sniffs of my arm, even though people do and sniff far worse on trains. Part of me was afraid I looked a little nuts, but the other part of me was so taken aback by the heinous self-inflicted destruction seeping into my skin that I almost wanted to grab the stranger sitting next to me and ask them to smell it so I could be sure my nose was still working properly and I didn't all of a sudden have some kind of skewed wiring leading from my nose back up to my brain. I just had to keep smelling it because I was just in such disbelief. Seriously, packed 2nd Avenue F train platforms in the dead of August don't smell as bad as this shit does.

Anyway, at this point, my arm smelled like rotten milk, warm baby formula, undercurrents of stinky cheese, bold notes of urine and just a hint of fetid tangerines. I can only hope and PRAY that the tester bottle I picked up had, in fact, turned under all of those bright, hot Barneys lights, because nothing SHOULD smell like this on purpose -- certainly nothing one should be expected to pay for.

The fragrance is described as: "The pulpy erotic part of a secret red fruit, the rich, deep and velvety skin of a dark natural rose by L.M.R., a ray of green sap from the rose's thorn, a mystical "concoction" of incense and black cacao."

Reviews I've found describe earlier versions of the fragrance as sweet like candy and roses... uhhh... what? All I know is that I was afraid to walk into my home lest my cat sniff me and keel over.

I'm afraid of what I might need to remove this scent from my sad little arm, and I pray it doesn't involve gaoline or matches.