Spring Beauty Tips on Access Hollywood!

I made the mistake of stopping by the Treats Truck on the way back from lunch to pick up some snacks for the P.R. team. The Treats Truck is part of a new-ish trend here in Manhattan of tricked-out trucks that sell all kinds of food–dumplings, tacos, ice cream, baked goods and more. Think the ice cream man, but hipper. Anyway, I bought us these chocolate cream-filled cookies so we’ve all got a nice sugar buzz going. (Except for Melissa, who has a better body than Megan Fox. You don’t look that way by eating cookies all day long.)

I could blame the sugar rush for our enthusiasm over the Nordstrom gift with purchase makeup bag above, but I believe it’s geniuine. These really are the cutest bags. They’re black and shiny with a hot pink logo print featuring the Lancome rose, the Lancome cherub, the Eiffel Tower and lipstick tubes. They’re also the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. To quote Emili the Intern: “Oooh, I want one!” (Thanks to Em for taking the photo above and to Melissa for playing hand model.)

If you’d like one for yourself, stop by Nordstrom or nordstrom.com between now and October 4th. With any $39.50 purchase, you get the bag and six deluxe sample-sized products. You get to pick the six from a list of 12, which includes the much-buzzed about Genifique youth activing concentrate, Definicils mascara and, of course, the baby-sized Bi-Facil we all love.

We’re giving one of these adorable bags away, plus the six goodies that come inside. Just leave a comment and tell us what satisfies your sweet tooth. And if you don’t have a sweet tooth, tell us what other kind of snack does it for you! Please post by Sunday night. We’ll pick one post at random. Good luck and happy snacking.

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Lucky Ashley, who won a jar of Absolue Precious Cells and a Fashion’s Night Out t-shirt, has a really fun fashion blog called Breakfast at Saks. (Breakfast at Tiffany’s is good enough for some girls. Not our Ashley.) I meant to link to it as part of yesterday’s winner announcement, but I forgot. So here’s the link. Make sure to check it out and say hi to Ashley.

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Hi, everybody. Housekeeping day. The first thing I want to announce is our blogroll! Sorry that it took so long to appear. The blogroll is a list of links to our favorite beauty blogs. The list is further down the page on the right-hand side. Please check out these blogs, as the people behind them are doing a great job and working really hard to bring you beauty news, reviews and more. We’ll be adding additional blogs, including our favorite fashion blogs, in the near future.

We also have more winners to announce!
–Lilybiscuit, who loves J.Lo’s glow as much as we do, has won the Scott Barnes products.
–Annalene has won the bottle of Hypnose Senses signed by our spokesmodel Daria and a Fashion’s Night Out t-shirt.
–Kae has won the Declaring Indigo Bearbrick toy and an FNO t-shirt.
–Ashley has won Absolue Precious Cells super moisturizer and an FNO t-shirt.
–Nina won an FNO tee and an official Lancome Backstage tee.
–Crystaleyes has won the Chris Benz lipstick and an FNO shirt. (The Chris lipstick will hit Saks Fifth Avenue, the Lancome boutiques and lancome-usa.com in February.)

Congratulations to all of you! I’ll be emailing you shortly. Thank you to everyone who posted comments for these giveaways. Two of our prize winners from last week are awol. If tlnhtrn and Tricia D are reading this, please check your email. You won the makeup bag giveaway.

P.S. Check back tomorrow for a special Nordstrom giveaway.
P.S.S. We have a new URL: www.thelancomeblog.com
P.S.S.S. The photo above is Daria with our fab Saks New York team on Fashion’s Night Out earlier this month. The “L” in this case stands for Lancome, thank you very much. xoxo

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If there’s one person proud of her heritage, it’s our spokesmodel Miss Arlenis Sosa. She’s one of the best ambassadors the Dominican Republic could hope for. She’s beautiful, she’s smart and she loves her country. Everyone who knows Arlenis learns she’s from the DR within minutes of meeting her.

So we were thrilled to learn that Arlenis was being honored at the Latin Pride National Awards in Boston. The annual awards ceremony, held last Thursday in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month, recognizes the most successful representatives of the Latino community in sports, film, music, education, and of course, fashion.

Arlenis wore a gown by fellow Dominican Oscar de la Renta and her makeup was done by artist Betty DePierre. Arlenis told us that she was quite nervous, especially when she looked out at the audience filled with Latinos, and was overcome with pride and gratitude. (The first photo above is Arlenis with Ada Aimee de la Cruz, who competed in the Miss Universe 2009 pageant as Miss Dominican Republic. She was first runner-up!)

Arlenis just shot a major Lancôme makeup ad in Paris with a photographer we’re not allowed to talk about just yet. She’s also hard at work on a special charity project to benefit the underprivileged in her country. Stay tuned for details!

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Most of the emails and phone calls we receive at our customer service center come from people wondering how to buy a product they saw somewhere, their unhappiness about a discontinued item or their dissatisfaction with a particular product or service. You have to be patient, resourceful and thick skinned to work in customer service! Every now and then, thank goodness, they also receive positive emails. The customer service folks were so touched recently by one in particular that they forwarded it to the P.R. team.

It came from a woman named Maria who wanted to tell us about her late mother, also named Maria, who inspired everyone around her and who loved Lancôme. Here is part of the email:

My mother, who I lost at the beginning of the year, was the first to introduce Lancôme products to me, my sisters and my teenage nieces. She loved using the skin creams and especially your lipstick line. At age 67, she looked fabulous! Family and friends would always ask her for her beauty secret. She had a saying: “Your makeup is not complete…unless you finish up with lipstick!”

My mother had a number of Lancôme lipsticks in her collection and didn’t hesitate to gift duplicate lipsticks to family and friends (usually the ones she would get with gift with purchases). When we were preparing for her funeral services and looked into her purse, we found five Lancôme lipsticks! Each one of my sisters and I wore one of her favorite shades to the funeral service in her honor. Because we have so many memories of her and her lipsticks, my sisters and I have decided to honor her on September 27th (what would have been her 68th birthday) by encouraging friends and family to buy a lipstick in her honor.

My mother’s inner beauty was reflective in her outer beauty. She is best remembered by the open-hearted generosity she shared with all who knew her. She was a loving wife, amazing mother and caring grandmother who taught her children and grandchildren the value of putting others before yourself, not with words, but with actions. She has truly left a void in our hearts, but her beautiful spirit still lives on within us.

To Maria’s family, thank you for sharing this with us. Your mother was clearly an incredible person. To all the Lancôme Blog readers, please think about Maria and her generous spirit this Sunday, her birthday, when you put on your lipstick. Have a beautiful weekend.

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PHOTO FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST

I went to the most amazing event last night in midtown Manhattan, the annual Important Dinner for Women. I had no idea what to expect. I figured it wouldn’t be your typical event as Queen Rania of Jordan, Wendi Murdoch and British First Lady Sarah Brown (who shares a name with the Vogue beauty director) were speaking. It was a majorly glamorous event (including Nicole Kidman, L’Wren Scott, Christie Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Lancome fave Veronica Webb, Georgina Chapman, Diane von Furstenberg and Vera Wang, who looked like a rock star, and many, many others). Tyra Banks, Harper’s Bazaar editor Laura Brown and our spokesmodel Elettra Wiedemann were at my table. It seemed like the only people missing were Oprah and Michelle Obama. Glamorama aside, it was an incredibly substantial event too.

The theme of the night was the betterment of women’s lives around the world, in particular pregnant women and mothers. Many of the speakers referred to the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, which I have to admit I had never heard of. If you have a minute, you should click on the link. Sarah Brown is the global patron and membership in the organization is free. If you’re looking for a way to make a difference, please consider joining.

Another major topic was the Millenium Development Goals. If you’re not familiar with these, they are a set of goals designed to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. The United Nations world leaders agreed upon these in 2000 and set a target date of 2015 to reduce extreme poverty. The goals include: end poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership.

So what can you do to help? You can join the Campaign to End Poverty by 2015. Click here to learn other ways to help, as suggested by the U.N.

Like any good event, this one had a goodie bag! We have one to give away. The bag is a lightweight silver fabric Harper’s Bazaar tote that contains the current issue of Bazaar, a copy of “Half the Sky,” the amazing book that everyone was talking about last night, and, of course, two Lancome products–Definicils mascara and L’Absolu Rouge in Rich Cashmere lipstick. Just post and let us know how you would make the world a better place. We’ll pick one post at random to win the goodie bag. Please post by Monday night. Good luck!

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Allure has the most amazing giveaway going on right now. They’re giving one lucky person our Declaring Indigo Fall 2009 collection. 19 pieces, worth $513. I’m thinking of entering! A lot of these products are sold out or almost sold out, such as the indigo Ink Artliner. (It’s an amazing product. If our marketing team is reading this, please make it a permanent item!)

Make sure to sign up for Allure.com while you’re there so you can get alerts about future giveaways.

Good luck!

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Despite what those annoying drugstore brand ads say, you can still get a great deal at a department store. Especially at a Lancôme counter when there is a gift with purchase available. Now through Sept. 27th, there’s a great one at Belk and belk.com. (Today’s the last day for free shipping at belk.com so plan accordingly!) Spend $29.50 and receive the chic, shiny and embossed black-and-white bag above. (That’s the PR team’s Vanessa holding it to show you the actual size. Nice manicure and jewelry, V!)

Inside are a range of goodies, including lipstick and travel-sized products. You can select the skincare samples you’d like, as well as a cool or warm palette for the makeup items. I have girlfriends who wait for the gwps (that’s what we call the gift with purchase) just to get the travel-sized Bi-Facil.

And…you can ask for a 10-day supply of any Lancôme foundation, which is a service we offer at all of our counters. You can sample or play with whatever product you want to purchase and make sure the scent, texture, color payoff, etc., is exactly what you want. You also can get a little makeup touchup and some free advice.

Not bad for $29.50.

We have one of the Belk bags to give away. Just tell us why you’d like to win one and we’ll pick one comment at random. Please post by Friday night. Good luck!

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Thanks to TT for reminding me we have a ton of giveaway winners to announce. Here is the first set of winners. More names to come later in the week, including all of the Fashion’s Night Out winners…

—Cremitas y Maquillajes! You won all of the Lancôme products in the Michelle Phan summer sunset eyes video. It’s about time you won something! Thank you for all the support and great comments.

—Older Girl Beauty! You won the Lancôme product that our spokesmodel Elettra wore to the “Inglorious Basterds” premiere. If you’re a 30+ gal, you should check out the Older Girl Beauty blog.

—Deanna G! You won the Lancôme products used in the Arlenis video. Deanna doesn’t like when there are long lists of products in the video information box. Deanna, one of the reasons we do it is because a lot of makeup artists watch the videos, so we like to have the information for them. Also, we don’t want to fool people into thinking they can get the look with one or two items. Sometimes it takes a village–of product. But we’ll definitely keep in mind that it can be an overwhelming amount of information!

—Charity! You won the red makeup bag and beauty goodies that come inside.

—TriciaD! You won the black makeup bag plus goodies.

—Tlnhtrn! You won the blue makeup bag plus goodies.

Now, if the three of you want a different bag color, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. There’s a teeny tiny chance I might be able to get you the color you really really want.

Thanks to everyone who posted comments on all of these entries. We appreciate you taking the time to read what we write. Check back tomorrow for another great giveaway.

I’m always sad when Fashion Week ends. But thank goodness for Style.com and New York Magazine’s collection coverage. You can feel like you were there. (Okay, almost.) So here’s the beauty report from L’Wren’s show, which we were so thrilled to do for a second season. L’Wren’s so amazing and stylish (that’s her above with Mick Jagger, who was there) and she has the chicest show around. It was held in the all-white, box-like Gagosian Gallery. The few dozen guests sat at a long white table and enjoyed lunch while watching the show. It was insanely civilized. Everything was white except for the clothes and the pink roses on the table.

Aaron De Mey, our brilliant artistic director for makeup, delicately layered different products and textures to get the Marie Antoinette-inspired look. He swept cream blush along the cheeks, followed by translucent powder and powder blush. Next, he dusted taupe shadow over the entire eyelid and under the lower lashes, followed by several coats of mascara in black. A dab of clear gloss on the eyes imparted a wet finish. Next, Aaron carefully applied dark berry lipstick with his fingers and layered with berry-colored gloss for shiny, color-saturated lips. To perfect the skin, Aaron used YSL Touche Éclat then pressed Shu Uemura matte face powder onto the skin and up to the hairline.

Watching Aaron, I realized that I need to apply my makeup more delicately. Aaron applies everything in light layers, building as he goes if more intensity, color or coverage is required. I try to apply enough all at once, then remove the excess with my fingers, a sponge, Qtip, whatever. You get a much prettier result with a lighter touch and with layers.

All the models got black-rose mani-pedis from nail pro extraordinaire Yuna Park and her team. Trust me when I say you’re going to want this nail polish when it comes out later this year. (You can see the nails sported by model Danielle Hamm in the first picture above. The gorg models in the third picture are Maria Kashleva, Alla Kostromicheva and Addison Gill.) The crimped, cotton candy-like buns were created by living hair legend Serge Normant.

So here are the Lancome products that were used:
Lancôme Color Design Blush in Petticoat Pink and Pret-a-Plum
Lancôme Blush Subtil in Rose Fresque
Lancôme Color Design Eye Shadow in Chic
Lancôme Juicy Tubes in Pure
Lancôme Hypnôse Waterproof Mascara in Waterproof
Lancôme L’Absolu Rouge in Berry Noir
Lancôme Color Fever Gloss in Molten
Lancôme Le Vernis in Untamed Plum (this is in the Holiday 09 collection, available in November)

Tell us what you think of this look and you’ll be entered to win all the Lancome products above. Even the nail, which only editors have received to date! Please post by end of day Tuesday. Have a great weekend and good luck!

PHOTOS FROM STYLE.COM