In this month's "Adventures in Beauty", the O beauty team—director Valerie Monroe, executive editor Jenny Bailly, and associate editor Alessandra Foresto—test-drive nine products and treatments (like skin-plumping fillers, threading, and "comfortable" waxing) to determine whether they make the O grade. It had been two years since the editors' last big beauty road test—Monroe decided the time for a sequel was now. "This is an important story for us," she says. "The only way we can be confident we're making good recommendations is to try things ourselves."
            
Since the beauty team is constantly on the lookout for groundbreaking techniques, each editor had already picked a few favorites by the time they sat down to plan the story. "I heard about a new spray tan for darker-skinned women and was immediately interested," says Monroe. "Our Latina and African-American readers might not know this product is out there." Foresto, whose skin is a natural bronze, gave it a try. "I thought my clothes would get stained, my skin would be smelly and orange—but nope. I loved it!" Foresto had only one reservation about her new tan: She'd have to pose in a bikini in the magazine to show it off. "I did some extra workouts the week before," she says with a laugh.

Photo: Lorenzo Aguis

Back in October, O editor at large Gayle King presented the Huffington Post's Game Changers award to the models of Versailles—ten African-American women who walked in a groundbreaking French fashion show 38 years ago. "Before that event, I'd never even heard of some of these models," says King. "I thought, We have to do something on them!" Creative director Adam Glassman agreed. "This was an opportunity to expose readers to the women who pioneered the success of today's black models," he says.

To convey creative spirit of this issue on our cover, we invited Brooklyn-based chalk-lettering designer Dana Tanamachi to run wild on a blackboard. The artist, who had previously worked at a high-end graphic design firm, found her calling at a housewarming party two years ago. "My friends had a chalk wall, so I grabbed a piece of chalk and started drawing the word Brooklyn on it. Pretty soon people were saying, 'This is awesome.'" Her first commissioned design was for a small SoHo furniture gallery. "I'd been making chalk designs for friends and around my community, so discovering that I could do this professionally was exciting."            

Typically, Tanamachi finds inspiration in typography. "For an Americana-themed piece I looked to stamps, old currency, and documents." The O cover called for something dynamic and fun. So Tanamachi grabbed a box of bright chalk—a departure from her usual white—and got to work in the Chelsea studio where we were shooting. She doodled and sketched before taking her work full-scale. "Chalk is so temporary. I can make big, messy strokes, then erase and add. I just carve away and embellish until I end up with my final design."

Entertainer extraordinaire Jennifer Lopez helps the O team create some major glamour.
           

Photo: Chris Craymer

When hairstylist Ken Paves (third from left) arrived at the Meatpacking District warehouse turned studio where we shot "Jennifer Lopez Is in the House!", he found our eight makeover candidates relaxing and grazing on fruit and yogurt. But at noon, when Lopez showed up for her stint as surprise stylist, the set suddenly buzzed with excitement.

Lopez's engaging personality helped calm nerves all around. "The ladies never had a chance to be starstruck because Jennifer was warm and laughing," says Paves. "They were like old friends." Her rousing call to the group: "You ready? Come on, baby—let's do this!"