I attended the cutest baby shower in Jersey today! My friend Miral has a lil baby girl on the way, and being quite the book connoisseur that she is, it was only natural her cousin and sister-in-law, Shazia and Nida, throw her a bookworm-themed baby shower.

The hosts did such a wonderful job with all the little touches: the invitations were fashioned like those old school library slips; the party room had literary quotes and book excerpts hanging on the walls; we nibbled on Goodnight Moon inspired cookies and a cupcake-cake creation inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Sugar Drop); and guests were asked to gift the future mommy with their favorite childhood book (Whattup Corduroy).

This all reminded me of an awesome baby-friendly line I came across recently: Noodle & Boo. The line consist of delicate smelling cleansers and moisturizers that are safe and natural. The Newborn 2-in-1 Hair & Body Wash is a high moisture formula, and contains pro vitamin B and E to keep hair healthy. They also have SPF 50 sunscreen (which is a non oily and water resistant formula with aloe), plus moisturizers formulated specifically for diaper rashes, eczema, or extra dry skin containing soothing calendula. Of course, the entire line is dermatologist and pediatrician tested, hypo-allergenic, and tested for sensitive skin.

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Magnum ice cream’s limited-time pop up shop in officially open for business in Bryant Park! The shop gives you the option to dip your vanilla ice cream in milk or dark chocolate, top it with different toppings, and then drizzle it with MORE chocolate. Magnum has been taking this global pop up concept around the world, offering toppings unique to the cities they stop in–ones you won’t find at your fro-yo haunts: gold flakes at Cannes, seaweed in Shanghai, peppercorn in Sao Paulo, and of course, pretzels just for NYC. I met up with Kate Petridi, Magnum’s Head Pleasure Maker (this is a real title), to customize my own Magnum ice cream bars at 9 am — which oddly, didn’t feel as wrong as I thought it would. And PS, now you can too.

You can choose your own combo of toppings from nine ingredients, like coconut flakes, to honey roasted almonds, to goji berries. I chose to dip mine in real Belgian milk chocolate, then had a mix of the pretzels and chopped almonds and a pinch of sea salt muddled together before they were topped over my freshly dipped ice cream. Then I had a little more milk chocolate spread over the top, and finally, we ended by placing one of their unique Magnum ‘M’ chocolate medallions on top. It was as decadent as you may have imagined.

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All you Harvey Specter and Mike Ross fans, here’s one for you: Birchbox just announced that they’re doing a special collaboration with USA Network to design SUITS-themes Birboxes for men and women in time for the season premier, July 16th.

Birchbox delivers personalized beauty and grooming picks to your door so you have the option to try it out and buy the full sized products later. If you subscribe by July 20th, you will receive the SUITS box as your first monthly delivery.

Better get on that if you want to be among the few to add to your SUITS collectibles!

x
Shy
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So all of you know by now I have a healthy obsession with basketball, correct? Even more excited to tell you where basketball and soccer meets this summer for a good cause…

While some NBA players are using their off-season getting tatt’ed up, Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Steve Nash will be doing what he does best – assisting others (couldn’t help it). This time though, it’s on the field…soccer field, that is. Returning to New York for his sixth annual Showdown charity soccer event on the lower east side on June 26th, Nash said he’s “thrilled” to expand the event by holding a second event in his new home, LA (a mile away from the Staples Center, no less) on July 14th. “Soccer was my first love,” Nash said from LA in a phone interview. “My parents are British. I grew up in a soccer household. My first word was goal.”

NBA players and international soccer players will be joining him in the free and open-to-the-public event to benefit the Steve Nash Foundation which helps underserved children in health, development, and education. “This is really bringing together three of my greatest passions,” Nash said. “Helping children from my foundation; playing soccer, which is the highlight of my summer; and finally bringing it to two great cities is just fantastic.”

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I’m excited to be introducing a new regular nutrition column penned by Jameela Ali! When I met Jameela, I noticed right away she was an encyclopedia of health and nutrition facts. She has strong passion for holistic nutrition as a result of her own journey to wellness that began eight years ago. Jameela has a master’s degree in Public Health and a number of wellness courses under her belt. “I want to share my passion with others and help improve their overall quality of life.” To kick things off, here are some of her thoughts on the “C” word (cleanses, people).

By Jameela Ali

Cleanse. Detox. These words are interchangeably purged out of countless mouths, every day, everywhere I go. I can’t even walk into a grocery store without overhearing sweaty twenty-something-year-old women clad in yoga pants ridicule their bodies and punish themselves to a weeklong juice cleanse. A week of daily juice consumption, alternating naturally high-sugar drinks with ones that taste like grass. Not to mention, the exclusion of solid foods. No, thank you.

Detox diets and cleanses are on the rise with celebrity advocates like Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow purporting benefits of weight loss, increased energy, enhanced mental clarity and clear baby-like skin. The weight loss is not of the fat kind but of the water kind we naturally carry around as women that fluctuates with our salt and water intake. Bite into a “low sodium” soy-drenched piece of sashimi with your bowl of miso soup and the bulk will unfortunately make a comeback your thighs will hate.

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Big skincare news: Riiviva Microderm, which is the first at-home microdermabrasion device designed with diamond-tip technology for face and body, is launching on ShopNBC next week on June 18th. The system sells for $299, but will be offered at a special price for 24 hours on ShopNBC!

I’ve featured a couple of microderm treatments, and this brand promises the optimum amount of exfoliation to treat a variety of skin conditions (that’s including stretch marks, acne scarring and keratosis pilaris). Even better news, I’m happy to giveaway THREE lucky readers products from Riiviva’s skincare line, which includes:

1) Riiviva Skincare MD Cleanser ($30) is naturally rich in antioxidants and has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial benefits to thoroughly cleanse, hydrate, protect and gently stimulate skin’s natural healing processes.
2) Riiviva Skincare MD Serum ($40) is a paraben-free product formulated with vitamin C, peptides and other active ingredients to help lessen appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and hyperpigmentation.

TO ENTER: (Do either of the following to qualify, both to increase your chances):
1) LIKE Beauty and the Feast’s Facebook fan page and leave a comment on this giveaway’s post
2) Follow @BeautyNDFeast on Twitter and tweet “RT Follow @BeautyNDFeast to win products from @Riiviva skincare line! http://ow.ly/lVplB”

Leave a comment below to tell me how you entered and you’re in! Winners will be announced Monday, June 17th. Good luck!

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Right, so this weather. My hair is utterly confused on how to behave with this whole rain/sunshine/rain/sunshine ordeal happening in New York. While I found some great products to beat the frizz, there’s that time recently that my hair was extra shiny and tamed to an agreeable bounce and it was all a happy accident. By that, I mean borrowing my sister-in-law’s T3 Featherweight 2 Dryer.

I know you must be thinking how your dryer causes your hair to frizz up — not this one! No joke, T3’s gives you serious I-just-stepped-out-of-the-salon hair. It actually helps your strands retain moisture, so they say it’s healthier for your hair than air drying AND clinically proven to dry your hair faster (73% saw a reduction in frizz and 86% noticed an increase in body of their hair). This updated version of the original lasts even longer with a professional grade motor. Plus, it’s super quiet compared to traditional dryers.

I basked in the ease of styling my hair. Here’s a pic from that day (my sis-in-law adjusted the color so my hair isn’t really green, but it is really reflecting the light that much!). I spent almost zero-time styling it at all — just a drop of argan oil on wet hair and 10 minutes blasting my hair with T3’s dryer was pretty much all it took.

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The biggest thing standing between me and bare-faced days are dark spots. I met Dr. Dennis Gross recently and he said one culprit could be using oils. Facial oils can be good, even great for skin, but with some already oily skin types or in my case, combination, it might not mix well and lead to clogging. So besides starting to use them more sparingly (and almost not at all during the summer), I’ve invested in some products that have been helping a TON. I would suggest with any of these to use it before bed, and only a few times a week. Follow with a moisturizer at night and SPF in the morning.

1) Philosophy The Micro-Delivery Tripe Acid Brightening Peel, $69
When I read that this mixes three different acids — mandelic, phytic, and azelaic — for maximum skin complexion brightening and clearing, I hesitated. It didn’t sound like it’d be an enjoyable experience. I imagined stinging, redness, the works. No pain, no gain right? It also said results are seen after two uses, which also seemed too good to be true but what did I have to lose besides some pesky dark spots? I couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only did it not sting, I felt like my skin looked better the next day. Two uses, as promised, made it even brighter…enough that even a fellow beauty editor asked me what I’m using for my skin because it was glowing (score!). For more sensitive skin types, it suggests use the enclosed pre-saturated pad (it comes with 12) all over the face and then rinse off after 10 minutes. I myself wipe it over my face, and then top it with a heavy moisturizer like Shiseido Bio-Perfomance Restoring Cream to make sure my skin stays hydrated. Again, for all of these products, make SURE you wear an SPF in the AM!

2) Perricone MD Blue Plasma, $95
You want perfect skin, you ask people with perfect skin, right? For me, The Style & Beauty Doctor, Danielle Gray’s, stellar skin was reason enough for me to try Perricone MD’s Blue Plasma (a product she swears by). She called it the “game-changer” as I examined her skin for even a hint of a pore. This one is the opposite of the Philosophy pads above, in that it’s a non-acidic peel. But it does have other benefits: Bio-specific Peeling to target only dead skin cells, micro-extraction to lift dirt and unclog pores, and what they call hydro-fusion to well…hydrate skin. The price again is a little steep, and since every skin type responds differently to these peeling products, I’d suggest grabbing a sample from Sephora before investing in it yourself. I’ve used it a couple times so far and love it’s gentle exfoliating and non-stinging application. Brighter days are ahead, people.

3) La Roche-Posay Mela-D Pigment Control Concentrated Dark Spot Correcting Serum, $53
This one is at a slightly more affordable price point, though I hesitated a little more about trying this one because I read mixed reviews. Being the guinea pig I am though, I gave it a try and was pleased to find that it didn’t irritate my skin and helped lighten dark spots too. It contains kojic acid, which helps to lighten dark spots naturally and glycolic acid to slough away dead skin cells.

My skin is seeing brighter days. What do you use to lighten dark spots? Would you give any of these a try?

x
Shy
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By Manisha Jogia

Over the weekend, thousands of women from all over the country lined up to attend the first time ever Generation Beauty (about 1200, and yes I was one of them). It’s a three-day weekend event held at LA LIVE in Downtown, Los Angeles where attendees were able to talk to some of their favorite and most influential make-up artists from the web up close (like Michelle Phan) along with learning about up and coming products and having the chance to buy some of their old, and now new, favorite products at a generous discount.

Brands from BareMinerals, Sexy Hair, Nicole OPI, and Benefit were just a few of the booths set up in the venue allowing their fans to not only try out exciting new products but also learn the best way to use them!

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Ever since I moved to New York, wearing high heels have almost been but a memory. I used to live in them. I didn’t even consider flats much of an option during my days living in the Chicago ‘burbs. But the streets have worn my feet down to submission, and I find myself usually stick to no-heel sandals.

I’m slowly re-introducing them to my life recently though — I go to enough event throughout the week after all, and standing 5′5, I feel like most of the fashionistas at the mags, not to mention models backstage, are still towering over me. Enter Foot Petals, a company that is really helping the process.

Foot Petals is a brand known for their shoe inserts to make walking in our sometimes uncomfortable choices in footwear a little easier. At a recent event, I met founder Tina Aldatz. Aldatz told the story about how she suffered third degree burns as a young girl, walking along the California beach and tripping over hot coals. Ever since then, she found it painful to wear most type of shoes, which made standing in heels all day borderline unbearable. So, she invented these solutions. Aldatz showed me tricks she lends to celebrs like Emma Stone on the red carpet using her patented shoe cushions.

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