Got a question about haircare, skincare or makeup for O's beauty director, Val Monroe? Now's your chance! During the month of August, Val is answering your burning beauty questions!

Norma asked: Too many confusing choices for face creams, and no money to keep on throwing away products, suggestions please.

See Val's video response:



Do you have a question for O's beauty director Val Monroe or O's creative director Adam Glassman? Ask away here!

Photo: Amy Inouye

For years Amy Inouye's daily walk took her past a neglected phone booth—dirty, abandoned, devoid of an actual phone—near her home in Los Angeles. A freelance book designer and gallery owner, Inouye, 60, started seeing the booth as a challenge: Could she transform a neighborhood eyesore into something delightful and surprising?

Inspired by the books she'd been hoping to clean out of her studio, Inouye and her husband decided to make the booth a community library. In 2010 the couple scrubbed it clean and wrapped its base in a cheery, floral-patterned tablecloth. Inouye made a sign inviting neighbors to leave used, family-friendly books and to help themselves to any titles that interested them.

The library was an instant best-seller. "It can be filled with 50 books in the morning," Inouye says, "and by afternoon, they're gone." So far, mysteries are the most popular genre, but when someone donated a 1,300-page history text, it disappeared in two days. Inouye had initially planned to run the booth for just a month during a lull in her work schedule. But "people kept dropping off books!" she says, "and now I've been doing it for more than two years."

Has there ever been a more misunderstood, yet completely astonishing four-letter word than love? While most people may think love is a feeling, Lovetown USA relationship expert Paul Brunson says it's the complete opposite. Watch as he explains why scientists may have the real answers about love.

Photo: Lisa Beth Anderson

In 2008, when Liz Gerber began teaching mechanical engineering at Northwestern, she set about conveying to her charges that, more than achieving sleek design, an engineer's responsibility is to help her fellow man. "I wanted them to look at problems and succeed in solving them where others have given up," she says. To that end, Gerber founded Design for America, an extracurricular program in which students strategize innovative solutions to social issues. Four years later, DFA chapters have sprouted up across the country: The University of Oregon's group is improving eldercare with Remobile, a spring-loaded chair to help people with physical limitations sit and stand; after learning that hormonal fluctuations can cause dental problems during pregnancy, Dartmouth's team came up with a "smart" toothbrush that detects gingivitis; and Northwestern's DFA team is battling hospital-borne infection with SwipeSense, a roll-on hand sanitizer that clips onto scrubs. "The program is all about human-centered design," Gerber says. "We get to imagine ways to help people thrive."

Photo: Kevin Cremens

This fall we encourage you to enjoy a little wine with your makeup routine—because there has never been a wider, more varied range of saucy bordeaux, claret, and plum lipcolor pigments to choose from....

Photo at left, from top:

• NARS Rouge Tribal Larger Than Life Lip Gloss, $26; NARSCosmetics.com
• Chanel Rouge Allure in Rouge Noir, $33; Chanel.com
• Estée Lauder Pure Color Gloss in Chaotic Currant, $23; EsteeLauder.com
• Lancôme L'Absolu Crème de Mat in Potion D'Amour, $30; Lancome-USA.com
• Shiseido Lacquer Rouge in Drama, $25; Shiseido.com
• Tarte Glamazon Lipstick in Inspired, $26; Sephora.com

Cheers!

Photo: Julienne Schaer

Just after the tenth anniversary of 9/11, a magnificent sight appeared on the Brooklyn waterfront, directly across from where the World Trade Center once stood: a carousel, whimsical and fantastical, with 48 wild-eyed wooden horses cavorting to the sounds of the polka and the cancan. Nestled between two busy commuter bridges, the equines seemed to have cantered straight out of the Jazz Age to delight the citizens of a new millennium.

And, indeed, they had. Originally hailing from Youngstown, Ohio, the 1922 carousel—it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places—had long since fallen into disrepair when Jane Walentas, a former art director for Estée Lauder, and her husband, a real estate developer, bought it at an auction in Ohio in 1984. "It was loaded with charm, and so elegant," says Walentas, who saw in the tired structure a star attraction for the neighborhood her husband was helping transform from rotting piers and abandoned warehouses into apartments, cafés, and playgrounds.

Walentas got to work refurbishing her treasure, mane by mane, bridle by gleaming bridle. She mended broken legs and used an X-Acto knife to scrape decades' worth of chipped paint off the horses, occasionally even hauling one home in her Jeep to work on late into the night. She enlisted local artists to help repaint the herd and chariots an earthy palette of forest browns, aubergine purples, sea-foam greens, and wine reds—all faithful re-creations of the carousel's original colors.

The carousel complete, the Walentas family donated their masterpiece to the city in 2011—27 years after the project began. "I was raised to finish things," Walentas says with a laugh. The horses have already attracted more than 200,000 visitors. When Walentas passes them, she says, "I think back to when the carousel was in my studio in hundreds of pieces, caked with grease and grime—and I feel proud that I saved it from extinction."

Photo: Greg Nichols

In the past few decades, overfishing—coupled with climate change and pollution—has crushed our oceans' delicate ecosystems. In 2010 the United Nations estimated that 85 percent of the world's fish were overexploited or being fished at maximum levels. Which raises the question: What's a sushi lover to do?

She could start by heading to Portland, Oregon, where Kristofor Lofgren, 30, is pioneering a guilt-free way to indulge in omega-3s. At Lofgren's acclaimed restaurant, Bamboo Sushi, you won't find overfished sushi-roll staples like bluefin tuna or unagi—but you might find sustainably caught Tasmanian ocean trout, horse mackerel, or even cod sperm. An inventive "Bamboo charcuterie plate" features "blood sausage" made from local Pacific albacore tuna. Lofgren's meticulous sourcing from only healthy populations has earned his restaurant the first Marine Stewardship Council certification in the United States.

In his view, sustainability is more than a gimmick."Fish caught with care, in a more artisanal fashion"—e.g., using low-tech traditional methods like rods or a small net—"taste better," he says. "In a massive net, all the fish are struggling and stressed-out," conditions that raise the fishes' cortisol levels, which can make their meat tougher. Lofgren's hope is to lure customers with his sushi, then hook them through education. To that end, he's offering a whole shark on the menu—for adoption (the price: a $4,000 minimum donation to the University of Miami's marine conservation program, after which the restaurant will fly you to Florida to personally tag your toothy pet). "Being sustainable doesn't just mean sticking to seafood that's caught ethically and not overfished," Lofgren says. "Our goal is to turn our customers into ambassadors."

Can you imagine explaining Facebook to an alien from outerspace? Or your grandmother? "It's, you know, you put...pictures...you share whatever little thought you have...to like 900 people..." "But why?" the alien grandma would ask, and you would have to shake your head and admit that you just didn't know. Then there's the brand-new Camellia Network. This site, founded by a business strategist and a bestselling author, is designed to help kids aging out of foster care. It's a social network that provides a tangible good, the kind of thing that makes you think, "Oh THAT'S why the Internet exists."
You may have never given much thought to what happens to foster kids when they turn 18, but consider this: According to the Camellia Network, "For youth who age out of the [foster care] system without a permanent family to support them, life is often tough. 25% of these youth become homeless by the time they turn twenty. 25% become incarcerated. 60% have children of their own within four years, and those kids are twice as likely to be placed in foster care themselves - continuing the cycle for a future generation." Kind of makes your veins go cold for a minute, doesn't it? I know when I was 18 I was completely ready to be out on my own. By which I mean, in a dorm room where all my meals were provided at a college my parents were paying for, on a clearly defined path to an adult life I'd grown up studying. Imagine trying to find your way without any guidance. Or dorm-meal-plan-provided cereal.

So what can you do to help? Well, thanks to the Camellia Network, you can post a job or internship opportunity, let the Camellia youth know about your healthcare, education, transportation, etc, service, or even just buy a kid a toaster. Browsing the profiles is its own kind of education, and reveals the genius of Camellia Network's premise: when you see a name and a hopeful face, when you read about each person's goals and how they are working toward them, you are suddenly invested. It's not an "issue," it's a person, a young person setting out into adult life without a safety net.

Learn more about Camellia Network's co-founder Vanessa Diffenbaugh's bestselling and widely acclaimed novel, The Language of Flowers (which is about a foster child aging out of the system), at her website here. Speaking of which, in the language of flowers, "camellia" means "My destiny is in your hands." How's that for a poetic call to action?

Visit the Camellia Network to find out how you can get involved.

Read More:
The Baby You Give Back: Fostering Infants
A Summer Camp That Connects Siblings