Fashion Tech : Beauty and Fashion Tech

Hello Kitty Laptop

It’s pink, it’s girly, it’s Hello Kitty! Sanrio and Epson have teamed up to create a Hello Kitty laptop. However, reports are that it isn’t all that powerful and not worth the high price tag (see Engadget story). It is cute though!

You can also get in the blue airplane version:

Right now I believe the only place you can get one is through Sanrio Japan.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Hello Kitty Contact Lenses

At first I thought it was creepy. But I do love Hello Kitty and now they are starting to grow on me.

Hello Kitty Contacts, Yeah or Nay? Source: Hello Kitty Hell.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Lint-On-The-Go Sheets

See that dog? That is Molly. No, she really isn’t crazy, she just appears that way.

See all that black hair? That is crazy. It falls out of her at about the same rate that she is running in that picture. I also have a golden retriever. She sheds a lot too. That means the the black clothes are coated in blond hair, and the white and tan clothes get the black hair. I used to have a white cat as well. Anyway, my life is rather…. hairy….

The upshot is that I am always trying different lint remover products. I have tape rollers all over the place, yet never can seem to find one when I need it, and they are rather large to slip into a handbag. So when asked to try Lint-on-the-Go Sheets, I was certainly curious!

These little individual sheets are quite handy. To use, simply slip your hand under the clear plastic on one side and then peel off the backing on the other. That provides a nice square of tape to use to pick up lint and pet hair. I found that they work quite well, although for pet hair, I had to use several sheets (those dogs really do shed a lot). I use several sheets with a tape roller too, but that doesn’t pack well, so these sheets are quite nice for when you want something compact along.

The sheets can be purchased at lintonthego.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Kicking Off Chicago Fashion Week Backstage with M.A.C. Cosmetics

I had the pleasure this past week of meeting up with representatives of M.A.C. Cosmetics and watching M.A.C. senior makeup artist, Konstantine Mironychev in action before the GEN ART Fresh Faces in Fashion show, a show held the evening before the start of Chicago Fashion Week.

Held in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago, the show highlighted emerging area designers. For the makeup, Konstantine developed two looks–A Modern 70’s era inspired look, and a smoky eye look. Salon Blonde provided the hair services.

First off, backstage at a fashion show tent is a cramped experience. If you thought such a thing would be high glamor and luxury, think again. Instead, there are numerous models, makeup artists and hair stylists working at once in a rather small area. Nails were being done in the center, and everything was moving at a pretty good pace. It was also a rather warm day, so the tent was a bit on the warm side for the artists and the models.

To get the makeup started, Konstantine performed a demonstration of each look for his assistants, who would later duplicate the looks with each overseen and checked by Konstantine. The assistants were all Chicago based, and well trained. Konstantine told me that he is a rather strict trainer, with high standards, but also happy to witness his artists succeed. As a result each artist in Chicago represented a high level of expertise and quality.

Konstantine described his 70’s era inspired look as a modern version of Debra Harry. Red lips and 70’s eyes and brows, but modernized–no blush or foundation. He began with an application of concealer only where needed and used M.A.C. Mineralize Skinfinish for contour. The eyes were done in brown with large amounts of mascara, and the brows were brushed upwards. The look was finished off with a gorgeous red lip.

Above: Konstantine demonstrates the 70’s inspired look. Below: The finished look:

M.A.C. Gen Art Chicago 70’s Inspired Look

The focus of the second look was a smoky, sultry, multi-textured eye. For this look, Konstantine began with a base of one of my favorite products, a painterly paint pot, in a light brown shade. From there, he created a dark brown corner and applied a silvery black from the smoke signals collection around the lash line. The inside rim of the eyelids were lined. The eye was finished off with a bit of mascara. There was no blush and the look included a nude lip using a shade from an upcoming collection. This look was all about the eye! It was gorgeous, and unfortunately doesn’t really show as well as I would like in my photo (below).

M.A.C. Gen Art Chicago Fashion Week Smoky Eye Look

Talking with Konstantine and Heather Park, M.A.C.’s Manager of Global Communications, I learned that M.A.C. utilizes items from upcoming collections for shows well ahead of release. This allows the company to use input from the artists and re-blend or reformulate products as needed. At the Gen Art show, the artists had available lip products from a future collection.

When asked about upcoming trends, Konstantine stated that the modern 70’s inspired look continues to be in style. When he was in New York and other areas this fall, he observed that gold or silver also remained popular with metallic “eye bling” seen as an accessory at many shows.

I asked about regional trends, curious if anything is done differently for a Midwestern show. Konstantine explained that nothing is particularly changed regionally. Trends develop from across various shows, resulting from the communications among the makeup artists and the designers. Each designer takes what he or she likes from various traits for their collection. Thus, the current looks are not particularly regionally based.

I also got a sneak peak at some of the items from M.A.C.’s upcoming holiday collections, including some gorgeous mineralize eyeshadows, a deep red shimmery lipglass that makes me want to try to break out of my fear of dark colors, and an interesting nail polish set consisting of a white polish, and if I understood correctly, a gold polish that will crackle when applied on top of it. I have them and will give them a try soon. So stay tuned!

Shop for M.A.C. Cosmetics

Popularity: 13% [?]

New Beauty Technology: Using Cell Phone Photos to Receive Makup Color Recommendations?

Check out this online article from Scientific American about upcoming technology for the automatic recommendation of makeup colors from your cell phone: Coral Lipstick—It’s You! Or So Says a New Cosmetics Algorithm.

According to the article, Hewlett-Packard has developed an algorithm that will allow cell phone users to snap a photo from the phone and then receive specific recommendations about makeup shades. The results are sent via text message and the process takes just seconds. The technology will become available when Hewlett-Packard announces the cosmetics company that it is partnering with.

There is no word yet on who that cosmetics company is. Nor is there info on how it will be made available or what it will cost. I am quite curious to find out. I also am a bit skeptical about it really working, but according to the article, women who tested it were pleased with the results. Stay tuned…..

Popularity: 5% [?]

Fashion in Computing: Tulip Ego Laptops

Looking for the height of fashion in your laptop? The Tulip-ego at its $ 5,000 base price, and now available at Barney’s, comes in a simple stylish black or white. Additional skins can be added to change the look. At least the basic skins are available in the US, while some skins, such as the love collection (pictured) may only be available in Europe.

Want really show off? For $350,000 (this is the price range I have seen reported, the price is not listed on the company web site), there is also the Ego Otazu with 470 diamonds set in the logos. For further diamond action, there are the limited edition Tulip-ego diamond (100 made) and platinum (250 made), or one can be custom made.

More buzz on the ego line can be found here.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Cosmetic Foot Surgery: High Heel Injections and (gulp) Amputations.

The Chicago Fox News ran a report the other night about “high heel injections,” which involves injecting collagen into the balls of the feet in order to make wearing thin soled, high heel shoes more comfortable. The video came complete with graphic shots of needles entering feet, which I really don’t recommend watching while suffering from a migraine. It also drew some “ewwws” and “icks” from my boyfriend.

I became curious about it and checked into it more today. I was rather surprised at what I found. Not only are some women injecting their feet, but some are amputating parts of their toes in order to wear, or improve the toe cleavage on, pointy toe shoes such as those from Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo. The New York Times initially reported on it and I found some in depth commentary on both procedures at an interesting web site devoted to the wearing of high heels: 2heels.com.

Now I am fairly vain, and I am willing to bet that cosmetic procedures are in my future. But cosmetic foot surgery involving partial amputations???? I’m just not seeing that! The injection idea, while not for me, is somewhat interesting, but I cannot imagine amputating body parts just to be able to wear a certain shoe. Do people who have had this done admit to it? It seems outside of the realm of general social (and likely medical) acceptance to me, but perhaps I am just naive?

Popularity: 9% [?]