Taylor Swift on Allure

When we saw Taylor Swift on the cover of Allure, JSG gave an inward groan. Sure, she has great hair, but is the teen pop singer worthy of the cover of our favorite magazine? We probably would have skipped reading the interview with her entirely if it weren't for Chelsea Handler. Chelsea is the hilar host of E!'s Chelsea Lately and the author of two of our most treasured books. We want to be Chelsea when we grow up. So when Chelsea gave Taylor Swift her "Chelsea's blessing" and warned Taylor to be careful of BFF Miley Cyrus (Chelsea said Miley is the type of friend who would tell her to cut all her hair off and dye it black. We don't doubt it.), we listened.

Once we gave Taylor a chance and read her Allure profile, we found we really liked her. She's polite (she said thank you 25 times during the interview); plucky (at the age of 11 she was knocking on the doors of Nashville's music producers), self-deprecating (she talks about being the oddball in school) and--we'll give it to her--talented (she writes her own music and plays guitar). So while you still won't find "Love Story" on our iPod (we're still a decade too old for it), we now look forward to seeing her on the red carpet at award shows and seeing how her career develops.



Now on to that drool-worthy hair. Serge Normant styled it--he's also the hair genius behind Julia Roberts' recent Allure cover. According to the mag, Serge gave her trademark natural ringlets a rougher look by applying volumizer on the roots and a silicone smoothing serum throughout the hair. He used a curling iron to create random spirals throughout, then separated the curls with his fingers. "I wanted it to look loose and lived-in, like second day hair." For a behind the scenes look at the shoot, checkout Allure.com.



Taylor wowed last night at the Academy of Country Music Awards in a red one-shouldered Angel Sanchez gown where she won album of the year for Fearless. Congrats, Taylor!

Photo Courtesy of People.

Kiehl's Marvelous Mineral Mascara

We just may have a new favorite long-wearing mascara: The new Kiehl's Marvelous Mineral Mascara. The mascara has jojoba oil and aloe vera to condition lashes--it never even occurred to us that our lashes need moisturizing, but given the wear and tear we give them on a daily basis, it makes perfect sense. Mineral pigments add the color and acai senegal gives it a volumizing boost. The true test of any mascara in JSG's opinion, is how well it stays in place--nothing bugs us more than looking like a raccoon at the end of a long day. Kiehl's Mascara scores huge on this point--it didn't even smudge during our gym class. It's also easy to remove, giving it the edge over other long-wearing mascara we've tried. Well done!

Beat Pimples on the Go

JSG is big fans of the Zeno. If you haven't heard of it before, it's a battery-powered pimple zapper that hits pimple with a concentrated blast of bacteria-killing heat. In our experience, it has been reliable at erasing our pimples overnight--as long as we remember to use it at the onset of the blemish and refrain from squeezing. You also need to sit back and let Zeno do its work--that means don't overzap, expecting to see instantaneous results. Trust us. We've tried and it turned our skin bright pink (our fault, not Zeno's).

Now there's a Zeno Mini, which fits into your carry on bag or purse. We need this baby--between getting ready for a trip on the work and home front, the stress of getting to the airport and the dirty air on the plane, a vacation breakout seems almost inevitable. Zeno Mini is definitely coming to Mexico with us in May!

On Our Radar: Win Your Dream Trip

We always hesitate to tell you about these contests, because it means more competition for us. But this one is too good to keep to ourselves! Kipling is sponsoring a Monkey World Tour contest where the grand prize winner gets a trip to the destination of their dreams, in the form of a $7,500 travel voucher. Our dream pick? Capetown South Africa, because New York Magazine has us all hyped up to go on a safari now.

Kipling also has a fun Facebook ap where you take a quiz and invite your friends to join in to see who makes the best travel companions. The questions cover the basics: do you like cities or beaches, Asia or Europe or South America or Africa, how much do you like to plan your trip out, that sorta thing. It's a great place to start when planning a trip.

The site also matches bags for your ideal destination. For our dream trip to South Africa, we're going off the menu, with our own pick the Katie Shoulder Bag. The green will remind us to be on our best eco-friendly behavior.



Where's your dream destination? JSG wants to know!

Tory Burch Fall '09 Preview

JSG was delighted to be invited to preview the Tory Burch Fall '09 collection earlier this week. Walking into the Tory Burch offices was like walking into an episode of The City. The receptionist area was hot pink and orange, the gorgeous Tory clad employees walking in from lunch were talking about Greenhouse and Norwood (2 of the hottest lounges in NYC), and The Smiths was playing n the background. We wanted to move in!

That feeling was multiplied when we saw the clothes. We wish we lived the type of life where we could wear Tory's clothes everyday. That creamy leather jacket (above) would be perfect for weekends antiquing in Vermont. These velvet and bamboo shoes would make a basic LBD anything but.


This furry vest is made for lounging by the fire at someplace like the Stowe Mountain Lodge after a day of hiking in Vermont.


We never did get around to buying gray boots last fall. These military style low-heeled boots may convince us to take the plunge next September.


We're really not sure where we would wear these sequined gold shoes with flower appliqués. But they're so gorge, we would be happy just looking at them on a shelf.


One of Tory's fab statement necklaces, over a gray tote.


Glad to see our favorite color is sticking it out another season.

Olay Body Wash Plus Tone Enriching Ribbons

We love the idea behind the new Olay Body Wash Plus Tone Enriching Ribbons--it's supposed to give you an all over glow when you use it. We love anything that saves us time and help erase our pasty winter sheen. Unfortunately, the wash doesn't deliver on its promise of adding any noticeable shimmer. Maybe we're too pale?

On the upside--it smells incredible. Our SO used it the other day and he smelled so good we asked him which of the many body washes in our shower he used. The Olay Body Wash is also wonderfully hydrating. Here's hoping in version 2.0 it's a little sparklier.

Vacation Porn

About the only thing we look forward to on Mondays is New York magazine showing up in our mailbox. The magazine is consistently smart, well-rounded, clever and never takes itself too seriously. In addition to all those pluses, it's one of the few publications, in our humble opinion, that understands how a magazine and its website can happily coexist. Basically, if New York magazine were a man, we would marry it.



This week's cover story is "Escape from New York," which features 16 drool-worthy vacations that answer the fantasies of everyday New Yorkers. It made us realize just how much we really DO want to go to Tahiti (above) and Kenya (below).



Of course, we would have like to have been asked by New York Magazine to be included in the story--either to share our dream escape (still looking for the place where hot shirtless guys give us foot massages while we sip a bottomless glass of Perrier Jouet) or to help New Yorkers plot their getaway fantasies. With all due respect, NY Mag, we definitely would have given the hottie hot twin Jason and Garry Clemmons, better advice.

NY Mag--The boys say they like a nice, quiet beach and a good party, so you're sending them to Eleuthera? While we adore the Out Islands of the Bahamas, because we imagine the beaches are similar to those in Tahiti in terms of natural beauty, yet they're only a hop, skip and a jump from Florida, Eleuthera's lacking on the party scene. JSG would send them to the Gansevoort in Turks & Caicos, which we reviewed on Friday. Next time, just call!