A new study out of the University of Bologna suggests that using plus-size models on the catwalk and in advertisements could make women fat. Say what?

PAUSE….. The university of BOLOGNA? Okay, back to the article.

From Huffington Post:

In their paper “Thinness and Obesity: A Model of Food Consumption, Health Concerns, and Social Pressure,” Dr. Davide Dragone and Dr. Luca Savorelli cite the relationships between Italy, Germany and Spain and their respective fashion communities to produce more plus-sized clothes and uphold a minimum size for models. They write:

When reading the content of the agreements, it is clear that both the government and the fashion industry agree that fashion is a powerful trend-setter. It not only influences what clothes, styles and colors are trendy, but also determines how a person should appear to be desirable.

Okay, so fashion is apparently super-influential. Dragone and Savorelli adds:

If people are underweight and stay on a diet, increasing the ideal body weight allows both aggregate welfare and health to be improved. If people are overweight and on a diet, however, increasing the ideal body weight can improve overall utility, but it worsens health because it induces people to become even more overweight.

And, “Given that in the US and in Europe people are on average overweight, we conclude that these policies, even when are welfare improving, may foster the obesity epidemic.”

The pair also said, according to the Daily Mail, in plain language, “To promote chubby fashion models when obesity is one of the major problems of industrialised countries seems to be a paradox. Everyone has to trade off in life a number of things like the pleasure of eating and going to the gym or something as a cost. So if you just fix the average healthy weight then maybe you will throw up some incentives to be thin.”

Um, so far, seeing plus-size models hasn’t made us any bigger. And watching size zero models lurch down the catwalk hasn’t made us any skinnier, either — if anything it’s made us simultaneously revolted and ravenous.

What do you think?

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If you use Clairol Natural Instincts to dye your hair – take notice! Proctor & Gamble has recalled 10 shades of Clairol Natural Instincts.

According to Stylist the company was alerted in late March that something went awry with their popular hair color line. Someone who had used the product contacted P&G after they experienced an unwanted color result, spokesman Brent Miller told StyleList.

After investigating the claims, P&G discovered that the ColorFresh! Revitalizer — a refresher that is applied two weeks after the initial color to enhance the hair’s tone — was mismatched in 10 Natural Instincts hair color kits.

The shades recalled include:
• Natural Instincts Shade 16 Light Auburn (Spiced Tea)
• Natural Instincts Shade 35 Brown Black (Ebony Mocha)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 03G Light Golden Blonde (Honey Creme)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 7.5 Dark Blonde (Maple Creme)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 21G Medium Golden Brown (Caramel Creme)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 23R Medium Auburn (Raspberry Creme)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 30R Dark Auburn (Cherry Creme)
• Natural Instincts Creme Shade 31 Darkest Brown (Coffee Creme)
• Natural Instincts Vibrant Shade 9 Natural Light Blonde (Blonde Vibrance)
• Natural Instincts Vibrant Shade 10 Extra Light Blonde (Sun-Kissed Blonde)

However, P&G confirms that the hair color in the kit is correct and anyone who has purchased any of the products with the aforementioned shades is urged to toss it.

But don’t worry that you’re throwing away hard-earned dollars in the trash. The company is stepping up to the plate and issuing refunds and providing color correction services.

“The quality of our products and satisfaction of the women who use them is our top priority,” Miller told StyleList. “P&G corrected the issue and will have product back on the shelf in May 2011.”

Head over to www.clairol.com/alert for more details.

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A Beverly Hills dermatologist scheduled to make hundreds of house calls in just one hour?  Not exactly, but it’s close … for the first time ever, Neutrogena has partnered with TotalBeauty.com to bring thousands of women a one-of-a-kind, exclusive opportunity to join an interactive live webinar where they can get all their anti-aging questions answered by celebrity dermatologist Dr. Will Kirby.

Dr. Kirby will appear LIVE online to offer his expert anti-aging skin care advice to TotalBeauty readers, many of whom will actually be hosting Neutrogena anti-aging house parties with their friends.  The goal is to have Dr. Kirby answer as many anti-aging questions as possible and for the women participating in the live parties to experience Neutrogena’s newest anti-aging solution: New! Rapid Wrinkle Repair.

Knowing that women lead busy lives and are not able to visit a dermatologist as often as they’d like, Neutrogena and TotalBeauty.com designed this exclusive event to offer thousands of women the opportunity to submit their anti-aging questions, and get answers- from the resources they trust.  If viewers do not get the opportunity to have specific questions answered by Dr. Kirby, TotalBeauty will be hosting a week-long Q&A on its website where readers can submit questions and receive answers — in the spirit of Rapid Wrinkle Repair — within seven days!

Please join us for the first-ever Neutrogena LIVE online event

Wednesday, April 20^th

8:00 PM EST/ 5:00 PM PST

Tune In: www.totalbeauty.com/NeutrogenaAnti-AgingEvent/

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Want to know some beauty insider secret weapons? You might be surprised by some of their tricks (dryer sheets? Really?)!

1) Dryer sheets tame flyaway hair! Next time you’re struck by unwanted flyaways, look no further than the laundry room, says New York makeup artist Alexa Rudolfo. “Passing dryer sheets through static electricity will calm hair in a heartbeat.”

2) If you want to get skin glowing without logging in time at the derm, celebrity makeup artist Troy Surratt suggests adding a tablespoon of baking soda to a bit of water for a really pure paste. “Its consistency mimics that of microdermabrasion, which instantly brightens the face.”

3) Your dream moisturizer just might be in your pantry, of all places. Alexa says that coconut oil (yes, the kind used for cooking!) is packed with natural free-radical fighting antioxidants. Just rub it between palms, wait for it to melt and massage away.

4) For a subtle but sexy pout, try this trick from Alexa: Add a dab of black shadow to the center of the bottom lip and press. You’ll create a unique, sophisticated look that can’t be achieved with all-over color.

5) We’ve never been into being matchy-matchy and makeup is no exception. To make eyes look bigger, coat bottom lashes in blue mascara but stick with your regular black for the top, says makeup artist and creator of Mally Beauty, Mally Roncal. The color contrast makes eyes pop.

6) An eyelash curler is the quickest way to open up eyes, but for those who think the contraption looks too medieval, here’s another option. Grab a great curling mascara and point a blow dryer (on the cool setting) upward while lashes are still wet.

7) Mally says she’s tested this fool-proof trick on many a sleepless celeb: Add a bone-colored eyeliner — white is too stark — to the inner corners of eyes for instant brightness.

For a natural looking lash (do professional tints sound scary to you, too?) try using the end of a non-toxic Sharpie on just the tips, suggests Troy. It will last longer than any mascara and, even better, can most likely be found in any desk drawer.

9) We all feel great after getting highlights but they can make sensitive scalps itch. Anya Burton of Chris McMillan The Salon in Beverly Hills admits it’s odd, but she adds Sweet’N Low to color to soothe irritated skin. Who knew the sugar sub could be good for you?

These are all amazing tip! Thanks to glo for the awesome tricks! Can you believe this isn’t even all of them! There’s more here!

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And she just keeps on going and going and going!

Reality princess Lauren Conrad is at it again. Not only is LC the current cover model for Allure magazine, but the style guru has just launched her very own style website: TheBeautyDepartment.com

The website is a collaboration with her personal hair stylist and makeup artist.

The 25-year-old is well on her way to becoming quite the style mogul: She has two clothing lines LC Lauren Conrad, which is sold at Kohl’s, and Paper Crown, which began rolling out to buyers this February, plus she’s worked with the cosmetic brand mark and has a three-book contract and the New York Times-bestseller stamp of approval. Do any Google search and you’ll see countless articles turn up about her signature look: black winged eyeliner, flowing tresses and a California-chic wardrobe. And since the star released her own book Lauren Conrad Style last fall, she, along with beauty entourage Kristen Ess and Amy Nadine, will have plenty of material to work with.

Check out the site — it’s pretty fabulous! The website’s “About Us” page reads:

We are so excited to be launching thebeautydepartment.com! This is a site for anyone who’s ever had a beauty question or gotten into a fight with a hair brush and lost. We’ll be covering all kinds of hair+makeup how-to’s, nail trends, skin issues, tools, current obsessions & inspirations, as well as countless quick tips. In the process we are truly excited to get to know all of you! We want  to read your emails and we want you to participate in our voting polls so we can figure out exactly what you need! We want to make beauty as accessible as possible. We’re releasing new things every day including videos, printable photo tutorials and exclusive images of our lovely Lauren Conrad. Don’t forget to bookmark thebeautydepartment.com and check back every day for your daily dose of pretty!

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Come join Jocelyn and I  in the CoffeeTalk Community at BlogFrog this Wednesday at 4pm for our Royal Wedding themed live chat. We will be discussing everything wedding related, the dress, makeup and viewing parties. Please come join us for an hour we would love to chat with you.

Can’t wait to chat 04/20/11 4pm !

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Allure Magazine’s Elizabeth Angell uncovers the danger in adult nail polish on kids:

Last week, neon-pink nail polish made some unlikely headlines when a J. Crew advertisement showed the company’s creative director, Jenna Lyons, painting her five-year-old son’s toenails with the bubble-gum shade. While talking heads debated the appropriateness of nail polish for boys and recommended that Lyons put aside some money for Beckett’s future therapy bills, I kept thinking: Is adult nail polish even safe for children? I have an almost-two-year-old son and he took one look at my feet after a recent pedicure and said “Henry have those toes.” I’m happy to let him cover his toenails with rainbow nail polish, but I am just overprotective enough to wonder if the grown-up stuff is right—health wise—for him. (I’m also pretty convinced my helicopter-Mom instincts are the thing that will drive him into therapy, not my permissiveness about makeup experimentation.) Here’s what I discovered:

Adult nail polishes may can contain things such as formaldehyde and pthalates, which are toxic if they’re ingested. “It’s an issue if the child sucks on her fingers or eats the polish. Adults typically won’t do this,” says cosmetic chemist Joe Cincotta. (Nail biters take note!) While a lot of major brands have removed these chemicals from their formulas, if you do plan to apply nail polish to a child’s fingers or toes, consider choosing a water-based formula like the ones from Suncoat Girl (will the gender stereotyping never end!?!) or Priti NYC. “These are non-toxic and have low odor, and are very suitable for children to apply themselves,” says cosmetic chemist Jim Hammer. They are also easy to clean up if they spill. They won’t last as long as other polishes—they peel off if you soak your hands in water—but that may not be a problem for a kid who wants to experiment with different colors. I plan on helping my son Henry safely shock some news pundits shortly!

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