If you’re heading out to the beach this summer, you’re going to want to make sure you’re prepared and with the recent oil spill in the Gulf that has reached “environmental catastrophe” a few times over, it’s also a good idea to keep in mind how much the environment really does matter. So give back to the environment this year while still having a great time at the beach by checking out some eco-friendly beach essentials. You’re going to want to make sure you’re stocked up on some of these items anyway, so why not make an eco-conscious decision while you’re at it?

DreamSacks Beach Towels

DreamSacks beach towels are made from 70% viscose from bamboo and 30% organic cotton. They are soft, sustainable and available in three different color combinations. They are perfect for the beach, spa, pool, picnics and other fun, outdoor events.
$29.50

Lavera Sunscreens

Lavera sunscreens are 100% natural mineral pigment based sunscreens, which offer up to 95% UVB protection. They are chemical-free, non-toxic and made from a waterproof formula that is immediately effective on application and completely safe for the entire family to use.
$2.95-$31.00

Melissa Love FU IV Women’s Sandals

The Melissa Love FU IV women’s sandals are cute, comfortable and nautical. Perfect for a day at the beach! Melissa Shoes are made from MELFLEX, a trademarked plastic which offers improved elasticity, impermeability, and resistance to water. It is also hypoallergenic, odorless, and recyclable.
$39.95

Tortuga EcoArt Bag

The Tortuga EcoArt Bag is an organic cotton reusable tote bag that features a bold sea turtle. It is a must have sea life accessory with coastal style and are ideal for shopping, books, travel and every day errands.
$17.95

The British lifestyle brand and trendsetter in handbags, Mulberry, will be creating and launching a new handbag line to be sold exclusively through Target.

Target just recently announced the collaboration and the line will will appear on Target.com as well as in most Target stores on October 10th.

Mulberry handbags run anywhere from $145 to $4,000 a piece, so come October 10th you will have perhaps one of the only changes to score an authentic Mulberry bag at a Target price. That is ridiculously awesome! Be sure to mark your calendars so you don’t miss out on this exclusive Mulberry line and act fast because the new line will only be available through December 24th. Think Christmas presents.

…Oh no, did I really just mention the holidays? It’s only June!

The FDA recently tested numerous lipsticks from various brands and found that lead was present in every single lipstick they conducted tests on. What’s even more startling is that the three lipsticks containing the most lead just so happen to be some of the most popular brands on the market, including CoverGirl, Revlon and L’Oreal.

It has been said by the FDA that there is no cause for alarm and that the level of lead found in the cosmetics does not pose a threat to the health and welfare of women who wear lipstick daily. However, despite their best efforts, there has been a great deal of weariness of cosmetics since these findings have been made public. Specifically, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics isn’t buying the FDA’s calls for calmness.

It must be noted that lead is found naturally in air, water and soil, meaning the lead found in these cosmetics could have come from the raw ingredients in the products. But considering that some lipsticks had lead levels that were as much as 34 times the amount of others, it really makes you wonder what some companies are putting into their cosmetics that other companies are not. Specifically, CoverGirl’s Incredifull Lipcolor Maximum Red was 34 times higher in lead content than the lowest-scoring lipstick, Avon’s Ultra Color Rich Cherry Jubilee. Obviously Avon is doing something differently than CoverGirl to make sure that their lipstick does not contain a high lead content.

Even a small amount of lead being found in women’s cosmetics is not something to be taken lightly, considering studies have found that the average woman consumes about four pounds of lipstick throughout her lifetime from doing simple tasks like eating, drinking a licking her lips.

Florida’s Department of Health said that there is “no safe level of lead in blood.” Even in trace amounts, lead collects in the body over time and it stores in your bones. For women, lead is released into the blood at three key times–during pregnancy, during breastfeeding and after menopause.

There is one very valuable lesson to be learned from the FDA’s recent findings, and that is to make sure you educate yourself about what is being put into the beauty products you use. To check what ingredients are in the cosmetics you own, check out the Cosmetics Safety Database and also be sure to sign this petition to ask the FDA to test finished cosmetics for lead, instead of merely testing the colors added to cosmetics after the fact.

There is nothing quite like your natural beauty; when you underplay your makeup to simply compliment you and not take over your face, leaving you unrecognizable. Natural hairstyles and makeup are all over the runways, red carpets, and Hollywood celebs are sporting the “made under” look more and more; however that could be simply because they aren’t accustomed to doing their own hair and makeup anymore and have no idea what they’re doing. I don’t know, I’m not friends with them and I’m not asking them what they use to make themselves look so elegant and under-stated.

Total Beauty however, has the hookup when it comes to achieving those oh so sweetly simple looks being sported by celebs we can’t stop looking at.

Whitney Port just so happens to be one of those celebrities we think are just gorgeous. She could most likely wear a garbage bag, not shower for four days, and eat nothing but chocolate and greasy Chinese food, and she would probably still look gorgeous. So how do you go about getting her bronzed glow for an everyday look that will never get old?

Step 1:
Start by applying tinted moisturizer. A tinted moisturizer will allow your natural skin’s texture to shine through and create a dewy glow. But, if you have trouble areas, feel free to dab concealer where needed.

If you don’t know where to start with tinted moisturizer, check out these top-rated products to get you started:

• Mary Kay Tinted Moisturizer with Sunscreen SPF 20
• Boots No7 Soft and Sheer Tinted Moisturizer
• Bobbi Brown SPF 15 Tinted Moisturizer
• Olay Definity Color Recapture
• Becca Luminous Skin Colour

Step 2:
Define brows with powder that is a shade lighter than the roots of your head hair. Take a look at Ardell Brow Defining Powder if you’re not sure where to start. It is available in a wide variety of colors and is super cheap, with a price tag of less than $5 most places. Plus, it received 10 out of 10 stars on Total Beauty, which counts for something!

Step 3:
Brush your eyelids with a light silver shadow. For a range of silver tones try Physicians Formula Bright Collection Shimmery Quad Eye Shadow in Metallic Quartz.

Step 4:
Curl lashes and apply three coats of black lengthening mascara to top lashes only. For a good lengthening mascara try CoverGirl Volume Exact Mascara or L’Oreal Double Extend Lash Boosting Mascara which we reviewed not too long ago.

Step 5:
Smile big and use a blush brush to apply bronzer on the apples of your cheeks to bring out a healthy glow. Try Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Loose Shimmer Bronzer.

Step 6:
Finish by dabbing on a sheer pinky-rose lip gloss (try Nars Lip Gloss in Sweet Dreams) and powdering your t-zone with a translucent loose powder to control midday shine.

Sarah Jessica Parker looks absolutely gorgeous on the cover of the May 2010 issue of Vogue, no doubt lining up the cover to coordinate with the May 27th release of Sex and the City 2. While she is pictured on the cover in the usual “cover girl” fashion–huge, cheeky smile and sparkling eyes–what stands out about it is, of course, the fashion. The blue Calvin Klein dress is just eye-catching and dazzling, right down to the pleats protruding slightly from the hip. It’s most definitely a dress that, like the appeal of the shoes seen in the latest SATC poster, many women will no doubt be scouring websites, blogs and stores looking for something that compares to what we first came across merely in pictures. But unlike trying to find shoes that even resemble the chic, strappy high heels seen in the poster, getting your hands on Sarah Jessica Parker’s Vogue cover dress has become an actual possibility.

While the blue front-pleated Calvin Klein Collection dress Sarah Jessica Parker was shot for the cover of Vogue in was supposed to be a one-of-a-kind modification of a dress created for this fall by Francisco Costa, the dress has become so successful after the cover of the magazine started appearing pretty much everywhere that it is now considered successful enough to sell.

The dress will be made available to the public in the coming week and for $1,695 you can pick it up (and perhaps wear it better than Sarah Jessica Parker did? Maybe?) at Calvin Klein, located in New York City, New York at 645 Madison Avenue (60th Street), (212) 292-9000 or at Saks Fifth Avenue, located at 611 Fifth Avenue (49th Street), (212) 753-4000.

Perhaps Sarah Jessica Parker and the stylists behind everything SATC 2 really do have the capacity to stimulate the economy, after all!

Back in December, news broke of Julia Roberts joining the ranks of Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet, becoming the newest face of Lancome. The news excited Roberts fans tremendously, since the actress has been busy raising a family, putting Hollywood on the backburner. Even in the newest movie she is in, Valentine’s Day, she only appeared in the film for about 6 minutes total. It may have taken a few months, but the famous smile of Julia Roberts has finally made its debut for Lancome in their just-launched French television ad with Roberts wearing their forthcoming European-market mascara, Hypnôse Precious Cells. Check out the television ad below and weigh in on what you think of it in the comments.

The first thing you may have realized about the above television ad is that yes, it is completely in French, which is a little disheartening and confusing. Julia Roberts is an actress; she’s pretty good with saying words out loud, memorizing lines and even the models of America’s Next Top Model have to try their hand at semi-perfecting foreign languages for their CoverGirl commercials. Was it just easier to have a male voiceover be the only thing you hear in this commercial? The fact that this was the debut of Julia Roberts for Lancome and her advertisement is completely in French is a bit of a letdown as well; especially considering that she is still a pretty big deal in Hollywood, retaining every bit of class she has had throughout the years. Hopefully we can see more of Julia Roberts for Lancome television advertisements in the future and perhaps they will even be in English.

It’s no secret that I love shoes; very few women get away without having that special love affair with shoes. I have easily filled a good portion of my closet with sneakers, heels, flats, clogs, and the list goes on, but when I saw TAGÜR Footwear, I saw something that was completely unique; something that wasn’t already present in my ever-expanding shoe collection. I saw a line of sneakers that really puts the customer in control, by giving people the ability to design their own shoes so they are guaranteed to not just love their shoes, but know that they created the fashion they are wearing on their feet.

TAGÜR’s story is a story that can be appreciated by all of us. How many of us have shoes that are the same style, but in different colors and you bought them months or years apart from each other? A great deal of footwear is essentially copies of shoes that you’ve seen before, all over the place. TAGÜR wanted to bring the concept of footwear backs to artistic expression, which is what we all look for in any fashion we wear–we want to express ourselves and who we are by our fashion choices. And so they began writing on their shoes, again, like so many of us had done when we were younger, or not so younger for some of us, and they created a high quality, comfortable and versatile sneaker that lets you take the reigns of designer.

The TAGÜR AKA Blank shoe is perfect for artists, tattoo artists, people who dabble with airbrushing, or really any type of artwork. They also make a great gift for teens because they can have fun decorating their shoes and then, of course, they have a quality sneaker that reflects their personal taste.

But for those of you who, like myself, have absolutely no artistic talents whatsoever, TAGÜR’s got your covered! They also have shoes that are already decorated–and they have some really awesome and vibrant designs! I had the awesome opportunity to receive a pair of TAGÜR shoes in pink camo and they are so cool!

TAGÜR’s shoes are incredibly comfortable and I especially love their pink camo shoes because they are girly, but they also possess a certain amount of quirkiness, which pretty much sums my personality up in one word. They are fun, vibrant and will most definitely look great with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. They do take a little while to break in, as do all shoes. The first time I put them on they were a little tight, but within a few days of wearing them and walking around in them, they loosened right up and are as comfortable as my favorite sneakers that I’ve had for probably over five years now.

So if you’re looking for fun and bold colors, or want to put the vibrant and exciting colors and designs on yourself, check out TAGÜR.

Mark Fast, a fashion designer known for his tight-knit dresses used both typical, stick-thin models as well as curvier (also known as normal) sized women for his fashion show at London Fashion Week.

Hayley Morley, age 21 and a size 12, Laura Catterall, age 20 and a size 14 and Gwyneth Harrison, age 25 and a size 12-14 appeared on the catwalk during London Fashion Week. The decision behind using normal-sized women in his show was not a publicity stunt, nor was it politically motivated; it was because Fast and his team “wanted women to know they don’t have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress-curvier women can look even better in one.”

The decision to use these models sparked a controversy, even causing Fast’s creative designer and stylist to quit just 3 days before their London Fashion Week show. Luckily, two freelancers stepped up and helped assist in putting the show together.

I think that this is such a great step in the right direction and hope more designers in the future pick up on Fast’s mindset and accept the fact that not just size zero women are interested in fashion. The fashion industry has been criticized in recent years for glorifying thinness and parading extremely thin models. Psychologists and health experts have spoken out about the fashion industry, saying that they are pushing a dangerously slim image and that women and younger girls could (and have and will continue to) try to emulate the images they see being glorified in the fashion industry.

This isn’t the only thing Mark Fast has done to move past the thought that good fashion is only for very thin people; he has also been involved with the exhibition All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, which featured models from age 18 to 65 and from sizes 8 to 16.

Thank you Mark Fast for spreading the much-needed message of a woman’s body is just fine and beautiful the way it is and that women who do not fit into the fashion society’s very stubborn mindset can still look great in one of your dresses. I hope many other fashion designers adopt this way of thinking, and soon.