It's ... alive. And wearing Lilly!

Hey internet! Look, sorry I haven't been keeping in touch--I've been really busy lately, what with taking my son back and forth to performing arts camp, dealing with our post-fire condo renovation, attending various summer-themed social events, and throwing a cocktail party for a friend who has finally bitten the bullet and moved to the suburbs.

Many of these activities involved shopping for and wearing lots and lots of Lilly Pulitzer. So I will intersperse this post with pictures of the stuff I've been wearing. (Not pictures of me wearing it, because Lord knows I'm not that organized.)

For example, for my welcome-to-the-suburbs cocktail party, guess who made her husband wear a Lilly blazer?

YES I DID. And he looked adorable, with a huge, abashed grin on his face all night long.

And hey! I've just heard that a lot of you are signing up for The Great American Apparel Diet. Which I thought meant you took a solemn oath to wear only bright colored solid clothes designed for teenagers, but which actually means you promise not to buy any clothes for a year.

And you know what? If you think you have a problem with shopping, then go for it. But I've done the moratorium thing before, and really, I think it's much more sensible to clear out your closets, set a budget, and buy only what you need.

Like for example, the way I needed that bracelet. (OK, maybe not really.)

But think about it. Buying what you need. It's not faddy or internetty. It's kind of old-school. But it works.

The hard part is figuring out what you actually need. Instead of going cold turkey with shopping, how about figuring out why your closet doesn't work with your life? Figure out what clothes you own that don't suit your life, and either store them or get rid of them. Then fill in the gaps with the stuff you really wear.

Like the way I recently bought 5,000 Lilly polo shirts.

In the summer, I wear shirts like this five days out of seven. And the white ones always get messed up somehow. To me, it makes sense to replace light-colored summer shirts with fresh, new, not-stained ones.

See, here's my theory: what happens if you get invited to a wedding or you lose a lot of weight or you need new bras? I did the buy-no-makeup-for-a-year thing way back when, and later on, I did The Compact. And frankly, they didn't significantly alter my behavior.

The easiest way to keep from overindulging is to avoid triggers. People who are trying not to drink shouldn't hang out in bars. People who are trying not to smoke shouldn't watch old Bette Davis movies. And people who want to stop buying so much stuff need to steer clear of malls, catalogs, shopping TV programs, and blogs where people are always talking about the latest crappe they've bought.

Like this dress, which I wore to my cocktail party. (Isn't it cute?)

Lilly Pulitzer, my fair weather friend

I think we can all pretty much agree that Lilly Pulitzer looks best on thin, blonde, tanned Floridians, ideally accessorized with a sprinkling of towheaded children. Something like this:

Well, this is the story of a fair-skinned, dark-haired (thanks to the salon) northern girl (OK ... post-menopausal female) and her part-time, fair-weather, irrational love of Lilly.

When you live in Chicago in a small, elderly house with teeny, tiny closets, you spend more time than you'd like moving things in and out of your closet and drawers. And sometimes, in the dead of winter, when I'm all wool and black puffy jackets and purple tights and suchlike, I look at the neon rainbow of Lilly Pulitzer summer clothes, and a single thought passes through my mind:

WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING?????

And then, lo and behold, summer hits. We get our first streak of eighty-degree days, and I'm rummaging around for the self-tanner and my white sandals and bag. And my Lilly.

This year I discovered that Lilly had--hallelujah!--actually produced some dresses with sleeves. And a chorus of angels started to sing as I discovered some of this seasons dresses aren't skin tight. They're loose, cool, and comfortable.

So I kind of went on a little bit of a shopping binge. And this week I went to a birthday luncheon for a friend of mine. Five of us baby boomers sitting around a table in a private room in a private club, talking, laughing, drinking white wine, and eating gazpacho, chicken salad, and coconut cake.

And I was resplendent in my Lilly Pulitzer blue Elina toile tunic (OK, it's really a swimsuit coverup, and maybe I looked like a walking swimming pool) with my white Michael Kors "Palm Beach" wedged sandals, and a cream-colored vintage Paloma Piccaso bag.

Then I went mattress shopping, where I took a picture.

Like youth, the season for wearing Lilly is short and sweet. And I plan to enjoy every moment!

10 steps to the perfect under eye concealer application

Have you ever gotten an unexpected glimpse of yourself in the mirror and just been blown away by the lemur-like shadows under your eyes? That just happened to me recently when I was at the MAC store on Oak Street in Chicago.

I was testing MAC foundation shades, but when the SA handed me a mirror to see how well N2 matched my skin, all I saw was my hideous under-eye shadows.

They were purple. 

OK, maybe the store lighting wasn't helping (although seriously, MAC--if your lighting makes everyone look terrible, how is that helpful?) But I looked like Mortitia Addams. Or maybe Lurch.

So I've declared all-out war on my mauve eyelids and deep purple undereye circles.

I'm on the lookout for the best under eye concealer regimen ever. So far, this is what works best for me:

1. To plump up lines and allow the concealer to spread easily without caking, I apply my usual eye cream and let it sink in. If you use an eyeshadow primer, like Urban Decay Primer Potion, apply it next, before concealer. (But I find my concealer works great as a primer all by itself.)

2. If you can't remember which makeup to apply first, remember that in general, powder goes on top of liquid and creams, and more heavily pigmented cosmetics go on top of less. I wear tinted moisturizer or liquid foundation, so my liquid concealer goes on top of that--with powder, if any, going on top of it.

3. I use a mineral-based, highly pigmented tube concealer, like Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Under Eye Concealer
 or Revlon Age Defying Moisturizing Concealer

4. To pick the right shade, match your foundation or go a bit lighter--but not ridiculously so. You don't want to end up with light rings around your eyes. Also, keep the color wheel in mind. While I'm not going to tell you to wear a colored primer or anything that complicated, I find that if I pick a slightly-yellow-toned concealer, it does a better job of covering up purple shadows.

5. I squeeze the concealer onto the back of my left hand and work it into a Taklon concealer brush, like the Japonesque Taklon Synthetic Travel Concealer brush (#BP-910). In my experience, fingers, while great for applying foundation and blusher, melt my concealer and smudge it away even as I'm applying it. With foundation and blush, you want to blend blend blend, but concealer needs to be placed precisely, or it's not worth applying. On top of that, it's hard to work with the inner corners of the eye when my hand is in the way. Using a concealer brush allows me to get the pigment exactly where you want it.

6. Using the brush, I apply concealer over the inner third of the lower eyelid, and feather it towards the outer corner. You need to get the concealer up into the inner corner and against the side of the nose; that's where the darkest part of the shadow is. Don't get it too close to your tear ducts, or your eyes will water. And keep your concealer away from any lines you have.

7. Let it set, then blend the edges with your finger tip in a rolling motion. This is when you eradicate the demarcation between the concealer and the rest of your face.

8. If your eyelids have visible veins that make you look tired--and mine do, she complained in a wan, exhausted voice--apply concealer over the entire lid, from lashes to brows, applying it most heavily in the inner corners and across the lids where the veins show through, and feathering it away towards the outer edge of the eye area.

9. Let your concealer set while you do other makeup and move your face normally, then check for creases. Maybe apply a litte bit more where you're darkest.

10. Two excellent video tutorials are Kate Shepherd for Expert Village and Michelle Phan's.

Finally!--an Urban Decay palette for grown-ups.

Urban Decay makes some of the nicest eye shadows out there: the colors are gorgeous, and the texture is soft and blendable. I've loved them for years, and over the years, I somehow managed to accumulate a bunch of UD palettes.

It took a while, but I finally realized that Urban Decay eye shadows are too glittery and/or shimmery, and most of them aren't appropriate for a woman of a certain age. It also finally dawned on me that UD repackages the same colors in their palettes over and over again.

It was time for me to back away from the UD palettes. (Or buy them as presents for my daughter.)

But I just found out from The Best Things in Beauty that in July, Urban Decay will be releasing a new set of shadows in neutral shades. They look really gorgeous, and six of the twelve shades will be new!

The collection will include Sin, Naked, Sidecar (which formerly appeared in the Book of Shadows, Volume 1) Half Baked, Smog, and Toasted and the followed new shades:

1. Virgin--Satin chamois
2. Buck--Matte nutmeg
3. Darkhorse--Bronze patina
4. Hustle--Plum brown satin
5. Creep--Onyx with gold sparkle
6. Gunmetal--Gunmetal gray with silver glitter

The Naked palette will sell for $44 and will include a double-ended 24/7 pencil in Zero (black) and Whiskey (brown).

Thanks to The Best Things in Beauty's Charlestongirl and Tavia of Chic Profile for the head's up.

Sunday afternoon click-a-thon (with random remarks as a GWP)

Want to smell like me? Or at least, Coach's notion of what a Poppy smells like? (Apparently we're fruity/floral--and hey, who isn't?) Beauty 411 has the 411.

The votes are tallied and the griege shoobooties won, so they are on their way to me from Zappos. Yes, I originally found them on Nordstrom, but the free two-way shipping won me over. After all, I'll probably try them on, wonder what I'd been smoking, and run over to the P.O. to return them.

Once I start thinking about a subject, I see it everywhere. And right now, I'm all about the neutral eyeshadow. So I was awfully pleased to see Jennifer Hudson's Got Milk ad. Check out her eye makeup--it looks fantastic. (Please to ignore the icky milk moustache, though.)

Anyone finding their concealer looking awfully pale these days? For now, I'm blending a dot of Giorgio Armani Fluid Sheer (shade #3, Golden Bronze) with my old faithful (and now discontinued) Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer--(and talk about combining high and low!) But what I really need to do is pop for a darker shade. I want to try the new Revlon ones.

I don't see as many ageless looks on The Sartorialist as I'd like. I'm often left feeling bereft. But this lovely brunette in a black top with a white collar has a great Coco Chanel-meets-Pierrot vibe.

In the time lapse between my writing a BlogHer post about serums and it going live, I dug around and found even more serums--like these two from from Phyto-C--that sound intriguing. But Vitamin C degrades when it's exposed to light, so I popped for a serum in a brown bottle. A budget-friendly one, at that. My bottle of nufountain C20 L-Ascorbic Vitamin C Serum arrived yesterday. I'll review it after I've been your guinea pig for a while.

Hey! College Fashion shows 25 summer sandals for any budget.

Finally, if you're fair-skinned, it can be really hard to find a bronzer that adds a little color but looks natural. Physician's Formula consistently comes out with colors that work for pale porcelain princesses like me. Right now I'm loving their Bamboo Wear Bamboo Silk Bronzer in Light.

With my usual high/low outlook, I'm applying my $9.95 bronzer with a $52 Nars bronzer brush. I load the brush with color, tap it off to remove the excess, and apply the bronzer in a sort of circular, rubbing motion over the areas that would get some sun: (that is, if I ever got up from my laptop) cheeks, nose, chin, forehead. It adds just a touch of color and a minimal amount of shimmer, and it's subtle enough to work in partnership with my blusher.

Finally, Une Femme has recommendations for summer weight scarves.

Click, read, enjoy!

While I tally votes, a skincare serum primer

I'm still tracking the voting on the totally excellent shooties I talked about yesterday ... just so you know, preliminary polls suggest that the greige shooties are winning by a landslide.

While I count votes, feel free to check out my latest BlogHer post--a description of what to look for in an anti-aging serum--along with some  products I recommend.

(I don't usually pimp my BlogHer posts, but this post went live on the down-low, so I'd appreciate it if you guys would head over, check it out, and leave comments about how I'm so great. Or leave comments about why your favorite serums are infinitely better than anything I mentioned--I'm not particular, just so long as Notice Is Taken.)

I interrupt my eyeshadow thoughts to wonder about these summer booties

at Nordstrom.

They come in black

which I was totally going for!

But then I clicked on the gray ones.

Which somehow seem so much more summery.

Now, keep in mind that I don't really wear dress shoes all that frequently. Especially in summer, where I shout "hallelujah," pack away the high-heeled shoes and mostly dress like I've been crewing on a friend's yacht for a week. Plus let's not forget that I'm a size 14 and tend to dress conservatively. Talbots-y, even.

In other words, I don't usually rock high-cut sandal/boot hybrids with four-inch heels.

So which ones should I get--gray or black?