 | Writing or making anything—a poem, a bird feeder, a chocolate cake—has self-respect in it. You're working. You're trying. You're not lying down on the ground, having given up. —Sharon Olds |  |
It's Friday! We're grateful for so many things this week, starting with...
Military dad surprises family at a football game for one of the sweetest coming home videos around [via Mashable]
Fingertip portraits. Silly, brilliant, awesome.
An "F" student, who was told his dreams of being a scientists were ridiculous, is now a Nobel Prize winner [via Anderson Cooper 360]
A rescued dog and cat make an inseparable pair [via The Huffington Post]
Military dad surprises family at a football game for one of the sweetest coming home videos around [via Mashable]
Fingertip portraits. Silly, brilliant, awesome.
An "F" student, who was told his dreams of being a scientists were ridiculous, is now a Nobel Prize winner [via Anderson Cooper 360]
A rescued dog and cat make an inseparable pair [via The Huffington Post]
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| Photo: Greg Kessler |
A: Yes, you can get better eye makeup if you pay more for it—up to a point, says cosmetic chemist Jim Hammer, founder and president of Mix Solutions in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. There are terrific options at the drugstore, home of big brands with great research and development teams. Because they're vying for your loyalty, these companies are constantly developing cutting-edge applicator and pigment technologies. At the department store, says Hammer, you'll see diminishing returns on your money: What you get is very similar to high-end drugstore brands.
Very similar, maybe, but not the same, says Anne Carullo, senior vice president of global product development at EstÉe Lauder. "The arsenal of ingredients and processes available to us aren't available to less expensive brands," she says. "We create our own pigments and coat them in a way that makes the application smoother and the wear longer, and we use a higher concentration of color." Department store brands are also likely to have more-durable packaging and include more bells and whistles. (A weighty gold compact does not equal better eyeshadow, but pulling it out of your bag can feel pleasingly luxurious.)
Keep in mind: Whether you're thrifty or extravagant, don't forget to replace your mascara every three months and your eyeshadows every two years, because they can become a breeding ground for bacteria.
| Act as a master of your life by putting your health, well-being and happiness first.—Marianna Olzewski | |
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| Photo: Getty Images |
As her new album, The Art of Renée Fleming, hits stores, the celebrated soprano talks about the City of Light, the secret to weight loss, and what comes after her final bow.
1. You Have to Make Time For Joy
You can't just focus on shoulds. You have to also do whatever makes your heart feel full. Maybe it's cooking for your friends, being with your children. For me, it's a sunset walk around Paris—where I keep an apartment—listening to jazz and Joni Mitchell on my iPod. It's like having my own soundtrack.
2. And You Have To Make Other Things, Too
It enriches you to enjoy music and art and writing, but creating something yourself is even more important. Ask yourself what it can add to your existence to write, to paint, to sing. It's so easy to leave creativity out of your life because you don't have time. But I know I wouldn't feel fully alive if I couldn't put forth some expression of myself.
3. Success Is Nine-Tenths Elbow Grease
I once said to the photographer Annie Leibovitz, "You've met so many incredible people. What have you learned from them?" She answered, "Everybody works really hard." That's the key.
4. Changing Your Body Means Changing Your Thinking
My whole life, I've struggled with my weight. Many people in my profession do—"It's not over till the fat lady sings," as they say. But I've learned that weight loss, like a lot of things, starts with your mind. If you don't look inside and examine how food is protecting you from dealing with something difficult, and why some inner voice is undermining your resolve, no diet in the world will help.
5. Nothing Lasts Forever
A singer's career is like an athlete's—short. It would be easy to view this negatively, but instead I try to think about what my legacy will be, how I'll give back, and all the new things I'll get to try. Like spending less time in airports, for example.
| I care about how you feel when you're wearing something, because I think that if you feel confident, you look beautiful.—Rachey Roy | |
| Photo: Marko Metzinger/Studio D |
"At work it was all about packaging, marketing, and advertising," says Liz. "But once we decided to make products just for us, we thought about only one thing: efficacy." Their goal was to include the highest possible levels of various antioxidants, peptides, fruit acids, and moisturizing sodium hyaluronate. More than a year later, Rachel and Liz left the lab with their dream products in clear vials labeled with a Sharpie. Before long, Liz's fine lines were fading, Rachel no longer needed antibiotics to control her rosacea—and their friends wanted what they were having.
Now everyone can; their Radical Skincare line is available at Barneys New York stores and barneys.com, as well as their own site, radicalskincare.com. The packaging has been upgraded, but it's still simple. "We wanted to keep all the value inside the bottle," says Rachel. "A fancy jar or celebrity endorsement isn't going to transform your skin."
| Photo: Paul Nicklen |
Just when you think you've seen everything, here comes the spirit bear (conveniently enough, in gorgeous and mind-bendingly close-up photographs). No, this white bear is not a Polar Bear, but rather a denizen of Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, and get this -- she's actually a black bear. Born of a recessive gene similar to the human genes for pale skin and red hair, Kermodism, as it's called, is quite rare in the larger black bear population. But on Gribbell Island, nearly one in three black bears is white. (Read the entire article for theories as to why this is.) The native people of the area, the Gitga'at First Nation, call these creatures spirit bears, and according to Bruce Barcott's fascinating National Geographic article, they have never hunted them.
There is something really special about these Kermode bears, something beautiful and rare. And like with so many creatures, their uniqueness seems to lend them a secret advantage in life: apparently the white bears are more successful at catching salmon than their darker counterparts. Oh, and they are scientifically proven to be more likely to make your heart flutter in your chest. Okay, maybe not that last one. You must check out the full National Geographic story, complete with a stunning slide show of Paul Nicklen's miraculous photos. (via My Modern Met.)
Read More:
Experience Nature's Beauty
The Health Benefits of Time Outside
| In the moments I get it right, every step I take seems to be matched by a universal mystery, which obligingly, incredibly, creates what I can't.—Martha Beck | |
| from The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope-Poems |
I am fond, along with everyone I know, of saying things like, "I don't even have a moment to breathe." But what that means is, "I don't take a moment to breathe." Because there are hidden moments here and there, even in the most hectic life, moments that most of us spend staring off into space, or more often at our phones' glowing informative faces—when we could be breathing, or stretching, or humming a tune, or scribbling down a few choice lines or images on whatever is at hand. The back of a receipt. An envelope.
This was the first thought I had when I heard of a new artist's book that includes facsimiles of Emily Dickinson's "envelope-poems." Now on view at the New York Public Library, this lovely object offers insight into Dickinson's later years and creative process, as well as a celebration of the poet's famous economy: the title comes from Dickinson's manuscript A 821, "the gorgeous | nothings | which | compose | the | sunset | keep." But it also offers a reminder to the rest of us non-Dickinsons in the world. It's not your materials that matter (i.e. "This crappy old laptop is keeping me from writing my memoirs!"), or even your scope. We all have envelopes, and pens, and scattered (and non-grocery-list-related) thoughts. We all have tiny moments we can transform into gorgeous nothings.
Read More:
Golden moments that everybody gets
Why you need improbable goals
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