The Name on Everyone’s Lips
M.A.C has named lipsticks after vices (“Lust,” “Spite,” “Deceit”), while Urban Decay has titled shades after insects (“Roach”) and even bipolar disorder ("Manic Depression”). Now beauty queen Bobbi Brown has discovered a new muse for her latest tint: Scoop, the boutique. “I’ve always been impressed by the way the store arranges its merchandise in colors,” says Brown. “I thought it would be great to do one lipstick that would work with all those hues – it’s not about matching a lipstick to your blue dress anymore.” After surveying customers to discover the shades they sought, Brown and Scoop owner Stefani Greenfield collaborated on a shimmery mauve bronze ($17.50, available at Scoop stores exclusively) that has already been spotted on the lips of Courteney Cox Arquette and Serena Altschul. What will our cosmetics kits hold next – a blush called “Macy’s”?
BETH LANDMAN KEIL
Film Stars
Despite their protestations about paparazzi, most glitterati types can’t seem to get enough of their own image. Last season’s designer camera, Cannon’s Elph, has been forsaken as the Japanese import Xiao mini-Polaroid has become the favored nightlife accessory for celebrities like Lil’ Kim. The gunmetal-steel-colored camera ($70) prints pictures on matchbook-size stickers, everything from “Say ‘cheese’ ” grins to priceless “Page Six” moments in the ladies’ room. And even though it doesn’t have an airbrush option, three shipments of the gotta-have-it gadget have sold out at Zao (175 Orchard Street; 212-505-0500).
ALEXANDRA HAMILTON
A Charmed Life
Some people take familial frustration and funnel it into years of psychotherapy. Others opt to bicker at the dinner table. And then there are those clever enough to capitalize on it, like Tracey Zabar. Feeling miffed after a family-heirloom fracas, Zabar (related by marriage to the West Side market czar Stanley) decided to create her own jewels: a line of charm bracelets. “I’d seen these kinds of situations totally break up families. I decided, ‘Well, there’s got to be another thing to do with this energy,’ ” explains Zabar. Her fourteen-karat amulets, with charms handcast in the shapes of dogs and hearts, some even dripping with rubies and diamonds ($400 to $5,000 for each bracelet, available at Barneys), may start another family-bauble brawl – they’re a far cry from the fifties dime-store version your grandmother keeps trying to foist on you.
DANY LEVY
Uphill Battle
For black-diamond buffs who fear the unexpected ice patch, as well as bunny-slope beginners who fear arthroscopic surgery, Equinox Fitness Club’s new Ski and Snowboard Conditioning Program may save a bit on this winter’s insurance premiums. An hour’s worth of the almost vaudevillian routine includes balancing on a wobble board while leaning against a large rubber ball and simultaneously lifting dumbbells – infinitely more difficult than scoring an afternoon of powder shots. If you can master this challenge without breaking your neck, Dr. Paul Juris, the program’s designer, guarantees you will build strength and body control and improve coordination – which should prove invaluable when you attempt to hoist yourself onto that T-bar after a few pints at the mountain lodge.
SARAH BERNARD