Tenoverten Nail Polishes: Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

Two of my blogging obsessions are beauty products and New York City, so when I come across something that connects both subjects, I can’t wait to share my thoughts.

On a recent visit to the bi-annual Elements Showcase (a niche/artisan fragrance trade show with a few extras), I met the founders-owners of the Tenoverten nail salons (“ten over ten,” get it?) and I had a chance to try Tenoverten’s own line of nail polish. The collection currently includes fourteen shades named after streets in downtown Manhattan.

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Product Review: Bare Minerals Advanced Protection SPF 20 Moisturizer (Combination Skin)

Although I wear sunblock on my face all year ’round, I’m especially conscious of the need for protection on sunny summer days. I recently tried out a new product, Bare Minerals’ Advanced Protection SPF 20 Moisturizer for Combination Skin, which boasts a “proprietary ActiveSoil Complex” as well as hydration and a mineral-based sun shield.

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My Back Pages: Edith Wharton’s “Summer”

I’ve been re-reading Edith Wharton’s Summer over the past few days, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Wharton’s writing in Summer is clear and elegant, as always, but the subject matter is surprisingly frank and dark for 1917. The story takes place in a desolate small town in rural Massachusetts, where a young woman’s romance with a more worldly man plays out (to a heart-rending conclusion) against the background of a summertime Berkshires landscape.

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Covet: NK Candles by Niho Kozuru

I love candles and I love historic architecture, so I can’t help admiring these candles. They’re designed by artist Niho Kozuru, who specializes in sculpture (in a range of materials) inspired by architectural details. Kozuru is based in Boston, so she’s surrounded by wonderful eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American architecture. By isolating small decorative elements like finials and balusters, she draws out the sculptural qualities of details we might not even normally notice on  a building.

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