Last week, as part of Dove’s Truth Files Campaign, The Daily Show’s very own Samantha Bee hosted an event where she told us some of her personal truths. “Ladies,” she asked, “can you exfoliate to a point where you get a completely different face? I was using my Clarisonic the other day, and I swear I hit a patch of skin from the future.”

Such were among some of Bee’s hilarious reflections of the night. While Dove was demonstrating the “truths” about our skin and body care products in booths scattered around the event, Bee talked to me about how she was celebrating April Truth Day:

Beauty and the Feast: How did you get involved with Dove and Truth Day?
Samantha Bee: Well, it’s a great partnership for me because I’ve used Dove my entire life, since I was a little baby really. My grandma even used their Beauty Bar. I’ve admired their advertising and brand over the years so I thought it was a good fit.

BATF: What’s the most surprising thing you found when you were interviewing people on the street about sharing their truths?
Bee: It’s amazing how much truth people will lay on you. People told me far too much. We didn’t use a lot because it ended up being so personal! I mean, people told us about relationships that went sour. I think people want to tell their stories and they want to be heard. When you least expect it, they’ll share something deeply personal.

BATF: Did you fall for any April Fools jokes? I think I fell for like five.
Bee: That’s adorable. Well, I think people know better. And for the record, I did not perpetrate any untruths. I’m all about truth. April Truth Day, through and through.

BATF: What’s the one truth about you you’d want to share today?
Bee: I sometimes hide from my children. Even though I hear them calling my name and I just don’t come out. I don’t respond. I know they’re safe and I know they’re okay, and if I know they’re okay, I just pretend I don’t hear them. Sometimes you have to…sometimes you have to.

BATF: What is your beauty truth?
Bee: Other than Dove Beauty Bar, I try to leave myself alone a bit. Less is more.

BATF: Do your kids love it too?
Bee: Absolutely. We’re a Dove family!

BATF: Truth: favorite thing about Jon Stewart?
Bee: He’s so smart! So, so, so smart. That is the absolute truth!


BATF: Best thing working at The Daily Show?
Bee: Everyday is completely different. It’s an adventure working there. You never know what to expect.

BATF: Are you competitive with your husband, Jason Jones, on the show?
Bee: We can’t compete with each other, because I give him all my good jokes [laughs]. We did this trivia game show in Canada and I was obsessed. I didn’t really think of myself of a competitive person but when I was on this game show, I was like, I’m gonna win this thing – like, don’t even try it. It just came out of me!


BATF: Truth, who’s funnier – you or your husband?
Bee: Obviously, it’s me. But let’s not tell him that.

BATF: He probably doesn’t read my blog.
Bee: You never know…

BATF: The other part of my blog is food, so wondering if you have any favorite restaurants in the city that you like to go to with your family.
Bee: It’s super fancy, but my husband took me to Le Bernardin for our anniversary and I flipped out. It was my first time there. It was a real experience. When I go out, I mean I have little kids (they’re two-, four-, and seven-years-old), and we don’t eat out too often but I really love good food. So when we go out, we try to make a big deal about it because I just want to be taken care of. I want to be in a soft chair, I want it to be relaxing, I want all the food to be delicious. There, you can’t go wrong. Everything is perfect.

BATF: What in your opinion would be the best way to celebrate Truth Day?
Bee: Call up one person you love and tell them something true about your relationship. I just made that up right now, but it’s pretty nice, right?

Thanks to Dove and Samantha Bee for taking the time to interview! To learn more about Dove’s Truth Files Campaign, CLICK HERE!

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Years before she was even engaged, my friend Sarah Khan would always tell me that she wants me to do her makeup for her wedding. It started out as just a small thing where I would do her makeup just for a night out in New York City, while on vacation to Italy or Miami, or to attend another friend’s nuptials. I thought by the time her wedding came around — seven years later — she would forget all about it. Negative. She had asked me well in advance if I’d be game to do her makeup for at least one of her wedding events and I obliged…for her bridal shower, and her mendhi day (a Indian custom the day before her actual wedding).

The makeup is traditionally a lot lighter on this day than on the wedding day. We had planned to do a trial run before her big day which never happened since I was not in the city for even one weekend for the month preceding her move back to Boston. When the day finally came, I asked her how she envisioned her makeup to look and my only instructions were “make me look hot.” Clearly that wasn’t hard to do. She always trusts me with her makeup and that made me feel a bit more comfortable with diving right in. Being given free reign though, I decided to keep her looking fresh and dewy with light, shimmery eyes. Her outfit was elaborate enough, and I thought it would balance everything to keep it mostly neutral so her own natural beauty would shine through. Here’s how I got her look:

Face: I began by massaging in Olay Regenerist cream on her face. Then I used Lise Watier’s Portfolio and blended some of the purple under her eyes and across her nose to brighten that area. Then I used a mix of Amazing Cosmetics Amazing Concealer and Make Up For Ever HD Invisible Cover Concealer around her eyes and nose just to even out some darker/red areas. Next I wet a BeautyBlender sponge with water and dabbed on Clinique Pore Refining Solutions Instant Perfecting Makeup.


Cheeks: Sarah has really fair skin and she didn’t want to be washed out in photos, so I used a few things to sculpt her face. First, I used Make Up For Ever’s Sculpting Kit in the neutral brown to swipe on the outer corners of her forehead, under her cheekbones and jawline (in a ‘3′ motion) using their double ended sculpting brush. Then I went over it with Laura Geller’s Air Whipped Bronzer just under her cheekbones and jawline and blended it in. Next I used Elizabeth Arden Pure Finish Bronze Powder in Soft Radiance to give her a little more color on her cheeks. I added just a touch of L’Oreal’s Magic Smooth Souffle blush in Cherubic on the apples of her cheeks and blended it in. To give her a little bit of a dewy sheen, I finished off using Nars Illuminator in Orgasm on her cheekbones. I LOVE this product — a little goes a long way and it doesn’t show up streaky or messy.

Eye shadow: I started with Make Up For Forever Aqua Cream in Gold to cover her lids. Then I defined them more by adding Taupe from the same collection and a brown IT Cosmetics shadow from their Luxe Eyeshadow palette to the crease of her eyes and blended it in. The Aqua Creams are waterproof and you don’t need a primer for them. They’ll stay put all night. Then I highlighted her brow bones with Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Cream in Snow. I went over the lid again with a shimmery pink from the same IT Cosmetics palette to give it a little more dimension, and finished off by dabbing just a little more of the gold to the center of her lid.


Eye liner: I used Laura Geller’s InkWell Waterproof Gel liner in Black to rim her upper lashline, and inside her waterline. Then I used InkWell in Burgundy to line right outside her lower lashline. I thought the burgundy would just mix it up a little and play off the colors in her dress, without making her eyes overly intense (wanted her to save that for her wedding the next night). These liners, by the way, did not budge at all all night! I just wrote about them HERE.


Mascara: I used Lancome’s Hypnose Star (my current go-to mascara) on her upper lashes, and Benefit’s They’re Real! on her lower lashes (I used a small travel size of this mascara which made it easier to use sparingly on her lower lashes). I used these awesome Lash Cards to make sure none of the mascara got onto her lids as I was applying. I didn’t even have to curl her lashes, or add falsies — the mascara was intense enough and I didn’t want to overkill.

Brows: I used Joey Healy’s brow shadow in Raven and his Duo Brow Brush to just fill in her already amazing brows a little more.

Lips: I just used a rose-color lip liner to liner her lips, and NYX Butter Gloss in Eclair.


Finish: Lastly, I spritzed her face with a few pumps of MAC Fix+ to set her makeup.

All mendhi photos by Bharat Parmar/www.parmarphoto.com

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If you haven’t tried the craze that sort of caught on last year, BB creams are kind of the all-in-one beauty breakthrough: an anti-aging, skin perfecting, sun-blocking daily cream. The problem is not all BB creams are equal, and a lot of the ones I’ve tried have been somewhat chalky and not always flattering with its mattifying properties. This one I came across recently though has stood out to me in more than a few ways: Dr. LeWinn by Kinerase Instant Perfecting B.B. Cream (only $16 at Wal-Mart).

It has a built-in primer, moisturizer and SPF improve skin over time. Like all BB creams, it has a light translucent tint to it (just one shade so I’m wondering how it fares on skin tones other than medium), but blends in really well.

It also doesn’t have a chalky, streaky application which is what made this really stand out to me compared to other similar creams. It contains soothing glycerin and antioxidant powerhouse kinetin (which is actually Kinerase’s signature claim to fame), and of course, sun blocking octinoxate and zinc oxide. If you’re shopping around, try this one and let me know what you think!

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For a truly bespoke facial, you have no excuse not to visit Klara’s Beauty Lab in the Upper East Side. The brand new medi-spa only opened a month ago, but you would have never known — this spa was completely well-thought out from a beautifully-finished decor to their signature services and all thanks to its brainchild, owner Klara Chrzuszcz. I went the very next day after the crazy winter storm by the name of Nemo, and was by far the most luxurious experience I’ve had yet.

Klara, the petite, doll-like owner was right there to greet me with an ear-to-ear smile when I walked in her spa. She was, I couldn’t help but note, outfitted to match the mint-green furnishings of her space in the most stylish of ways. She seemed too hip to be my facialist!

But if you have any doubt, they are almost running out of room to hang all the wall-to-wall certificates of her credentials.

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Ok this is a result of the excessive Google’ing I have to do at work (and hence tunnels I fall into on YouTube as well). BUT. Have you guys seen this story last month about a girl who tattooed a guy’s name on her face — after the first date? And to make matters even weirder, the boyfriend is a tattoo artist who inked her himself. What’s more, the man who’s name she now bears is also the infamous tattoo artist who was accused of tattooing 56 stars on another young Belgian girl’s face after she fell asleep when she only asked for 3 (she was later found to be lying). But you HAVE to see this tattoo…it’s no small little scribble:

File under weird news story of the day. I just don’t understand anything anymore. Thoughts? Repulsions? Share.

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Well, here’s an easy way to feel like I’ve done nothing with my life: when Lani Lazzari was 11-years-old, she was already a budding entrepreneur. With the help of a small investment from her parents ($2,000), she turned her basement into a lab of sorts, experimenting with organic ingredients from her local Whole Foods in an attempt to concoct all-natural skin products that would suit her own sensitive skin (she dealt with bouts of eczema). Today, she’s turned that into a line she named Simple Sugars. And make no mistake about it — the products she’s come up with are kind of phenomenal.

My introduction to the line have been her Green Tea Facial Scrub and Pink Grapefruit Body Scrub.

The Green Tea facial is loaded with antioxidants and anti-aging properties, and although it’s a sugar scrub, the oils make it gentle enough to use everyday (as I have been for a few weeks now). It’s been leaving my skin extra smooth, and soft without irritating it at all.

The Pink Grapefruit Body Scrub is another product with aromatherapy benefits (it helps you feel uplifted and revived), but grapefruit oil is also known as a great lymphatic drainage massage to help reduce the appearance of cellulite. It left my skin like velvet. I can’t wait to check out more from the collection now!

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