Raise your hand if you think Gisele is gorgeous. How about Adriana Lima, the Fernandas and Madonna’s Jesus? Yeah, we pretty much agree that Brazil has bestowed upon us some of the world’s most beautiful people.

So when a friend emailed us this link this morning, we found the recent study cited rather curious. According to this, Brazilians and Americans view physical beauty differently. Researchers pointed to feature position and culture as the culprit in this varying POV. Interesting, as of course cultural differences have always played a part in views on beauty.

But how does that explain the global unanimity on the aforementioned beautiful ones? Our guess: Fashion and all its trappings is its own very stand-alone culture. Just refer back to that quote of the day from this morning.

(Photos and Nails by CND)

Today’s WWD reports that Forever 21 will be dipping their toes into the beauty and home markets this year.

This obviously leads us to wonder if beauty companies will soon be faced with the same copycat troubles that have plagued fashion designers. There have recently been lawsuits settled in Europe over the copying of fragrances and their packaging.

And it is in the packaging that we foresee some trouble ahead for the beauty bigs. As with designers, we have even greater concern for the smaller, niche brands who often come up with the cutest and most innovative packaging —and are the most financially affected by knock-offs.

“Perhaps I spend too much time in Manhattan, but it was remarkable to see room after stately room where the vast majority of the ladies of a certain age (dressed with almost antebellum elegance and some Bulgari bijoux I imagined Ms. Triossi might have been keen to secure for her exhibition) had eschewed interventions of a cosmetic surgical kind. They looked, incidentally, just as they should have looked—hieratic and marvelous.” —Hamish Bowles, of course, in The HamishSphere.

Even beauty brands are taking on “inner beauty” lately.

A growing number of companies have started to explore “nutraceuticals” - water that will clear up your acne, supplements for supermodel-shiny hair - even Henri Bendel is jumping on the bandwagon. They’ve just unveiled a sleek new space to showcase their exclusive partnership with the upscale supplement brand FunctionaLab.

I’m nothing if not cynical of the beauty supplement trend, but I have to say I was impressed by the professionalism of the brand. Instead of a one-product-fits-all approach, FunctionaLab launched with hundreds of lab-tested and health-concern specific nutritional supplements. From customized programs to antioxidant-boosted elixirs, all are aimed at enhancing outer beauty through inner health.

Fact: We love Hayden-Harnett.
Fact: Beach season is here and we’re in desperate need of some new beach bag essentials.
Fact: We like free things.

Apparently Tarte Cosmetics is reading our minds because they’ve paired up with the fashion geniuses at Hayden Harnett to offer a fantastic summer giveaway: Beauty and the Beach.

The grand prize is a superbly understated “Erol” tote, the “Iris” maillot swimsuit and a pair of “Athena” sandals, plus a ton of summery makeup essentials from Tarte including their 4 Day Stay lash stain and the new EyeQuatic waterproof makeup kit.

Malin + Goetz lovers rejoice, the boys are working up a storm.

That Mojito balm? Merely the tip of the iceberg.

Their unisex line of products breathes cool functionality and they’re translating that minimalist chic aesthetic into the look for a new store at Amsterdam and 82nd.

The Upper West Side space used to be a Puerto Rican barbershop and they’ve kept some of the orignal personality, including the fantastic tin ceiling, to lighten the otherwise modern feel.

“It’s completely different architecture,” says Andrew (the Goetz of Malin + Goetz), “but it will feel like an M + G space without looking like it’s pre-fab. We would never clone our stores.”

The soft opening starts tomorrow, but it’s officially open for business Monday, May 18. You can check out their new haircare launch, which won’t be available to their distributors until early September. I’m already obsessed with the Gentle Neroli Shampoo and the amazing Intensive Hair Mask.

So yes, it’s worth the trek uptown.

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

Happy Earth Day!

Or should we say, “Happy day for everyone to jump on the green bandwagon and prove themselves eco-conscious?”

Because there’s a slight problem with a lot of brands that call themselves green - they’re not actually. And most of the time, the ones that are truly 100% organic don’t exactly work - or don’t exactly smell perfect. In my beauty years I’ve waded through heaps of alleged organic, natural and biodynamic products, some worked well and others shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

And so, in honor of Earth Day I’ve rounded up a list of my favorite eco-friendly and efficacious brands. If you haven’t tried any of these and really want to go green, I’d suggest stocking up on the following products.

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

I have a love/hate relationship with cream shadow.

I love the way it glistens on my lids and how smoothly it blends and I hate the inevitable half-moon crease that comes mid-day. I’ve tried using powder shadow to set it, but it defeats the purpose, ruining the sexy, dewy effect that’s the whole reason to use creams in the first place

Needless to say I was eager to test out the batch of waterproof creams launching this month. I hoped these versions would deliver the effect I wanted with the staying power that I needed.

Full test and results, after the jump.

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

I don’t know much about beauty.

I’m a wash my face and go kind of girl, after three swipes of mascara at least, but I’ve always been slightly obsessed with liquid eyeliner. But despite all of the brands I’ve tried - MAC, Nars, Dior, you name it - I’ve never been able to perfectly apply both lids in under ten minutes.

And so this weekend, while roughing it at a friends house in the woods, I was confused when she emerged after three minutes in the bathroom with perfectly applied cat-eyes. “Um, excuse me,” I asked, “how did you do that?”

“Bobbi Brown liquid eyeliner gel,” she said. So I bought it Monday morning, on my way to work no less, and have been using it these three days and love it so much that if I was the kind of girl who carried make-up in my purse, this would be the make-up.

It’s insanely easy to apply and it stays pitch black all day. Also, it doesn’t move - I know this because I furiously rubbed my eyes from exhaustion yesterday and it was still there afterward.

So if you’re already addicted to it, great, if not, check it out.

Parlux, the fragrance giant behind scents from Jessica Simpson, Andy Roddick and Paris Hilton, has inked a revolutionary deal with Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West and an unnamed female celebrity (probably Beyonce).

They’re partnering with Parlux via Iconic Fragrances LLC., a different fragrance company owned in part by Jay-Z to make their deliciously sweet perfumes. But instead of just getting a check, the four famous faces will share in the profits through royalties and the Parlux stock they’re about to inherit.

“What they have done is, for the first time, they’ve calculated not how much they can sell but what they can make in profits and how the company can succeed,” says Parlux’s chariman.

We can’t wait to see how all of Kanye’s aggressive fashion research plays into having his own fragrance. Will the bottle cull influences from both Christopher Kane and Louis Vuitton or will he capture the scent of the bustling first row?

Stay tuned.

After last week’s fake tan furor, I learned that while most of you don’t mind the idea of a fake tan, you really can’t stand the smell.

That would be DHA, the chemical that interacts with the skin’s proteins to make you brown, or orange. When the DHA reacts with your skin, the distinct, slightly nauseating odor increases in power as the tan develops.

But if you insist on acquiring a fake tan pre-summer, here’s some good news for you: St. Tropez, a prestige self-tanning company, has revamped their line of self-tanners to include something called Aromaguard. The new technology neutralizes the smell caused by the DHA reaction by at least 70%, replacing it with a fruitier floral scent.

As a freckly Irish girl, I’ve embraced my paleness and managed to avoid the world of fake tanning. I had one ill-advised detour into it a few years ago, stained my sheets, dyed my palms orange, gagged at the smell and rocked streaky legs for two weeks before vowing to avoid all things orange forever. But in the name of research, I gave St. Tropez’s Everyday Perfect Legs a whirl to see if it really delivered on its sweet-smelling promise.

It’s a dual pump deal - one side’s gradual self-tanner, the other tinted bronzer. I applied a small amount of the tanner on my shins and smelled like flowers instead of chemicals. And my legs actually looked healthy and more gold than orange, which means it’s a definite pass in my book.

Am I about to slather it over my whole body? No way - I’m not high maintenance enough - but if I ever can’t stand my pasty legs, this is what I’ll reach for.

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

We hear that Stila has gone bankrupt.

The story goes like this: The beauty brand, which is a favorite with beauty editors but is a little bit of a harder sell with girls that like bright colors on their faces, was sold by Estee Lauder to Sun Capital Partners in 2006, which means the products are only really available at Ulta and Bloomingdale’s besides beauty mecca Sephora.

We hear employees were given little advance notice, and arrived to offices that were shut yesterday morning.

Several attempts to contact Stila via e-mail and phone calls went unanswered.

And the Stila site says it’s down due to “routine maintenance” and that orders placed between March 23 and March 24 “may be canceled”.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Stila finally just got back to us, and they say that they’re “not going bankrupt” but “refinancing”. We asked what that means, and they said it means that they’re “reassessing their funds”…

In 2008, Christian Siriano won Project Runway Season 4. Since then, he’s showed a couple collections, gotten his designs on celebrities like Tori Spelling, designed a line of shoes for Payless, and last week, Saks announced that they picked up his entire Fall collection.

This week, Victoria’s Secret says the petite designer’s created a limited-edition line of Very Sexy makeup to appear alongside Heidi’s.

The line will consist of eye shadow, eyeliner, lip gloss, a bronzer/highlighter trio, and a brush and bag, with each item priced a few dollars more than VS’s regular line of makeup.

Incredibly, no hair products are in the works, but more pressing, would you buy makeup from Christian Siriano/Victoria’s Secret?

When it comes to our hair, many of us are what can be politely described as crazytown. We like our hair to look and feel a certain way and get really bitchy when our strands don’t comply. And since the natural boom, we’ve gotten even more exacting as to what’s actually in those products, or more specifically, what we don’t want them to include: sulfates.

The sulfate debate has been raging for years. If you’re still a little hazy on the details here’s the rundown: Sulfates are a chemical that serves as a lathering and cleansing agent in everything from shampoos to body washes. They are cheap and effective but they are pretty harmful to the environment and are known to strip hair of color and natural oils.

I choose my products based on how good they make me look and feel, unfortunately not solely for their impact on the earth. That said, if there are areas in my life where I can go green without sacrificing efficacy, I do it. So naturally, when I saw that three of the major players in the hair care biz — L’Oréal, Frédéric Fekkai and Jonathan Product — were finally launching their own sulfate-free shampoos, I tried out all three brands to see if they could outperform my regular stuff.

The results:

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

Lindsay Lohan’s about to make zillions selling the spray version, and Rachel Bilson’s just been signed by Jergen’s to help promote their Natural Glow lotion via a campaign about sun safety, but we’re still confused - why do some people persist in pursuing the fake tan?

From girls readying themselves for junior prom all the way up to Valentino, there is a huge population of fake tanners even though a fake tan is kind of like too-dark foundation cracking over acne - totally obvious, and therefore, totally besides the point.

Which begs the next question: What exactly is wrong with being pale? Because from the Karen Elsons to the Alek Weks of the world, the only skin tone that’s ever made us utter “ew” is the shallow orange of a Hollywood Tans devotee - and even that faint brown of fake tan dabblers doesn’t make them look like they just spent a week in Florida so much as an hour in front of some light bulbs.

Some people cite the slimming effects of a tan - but is looking like a cuticle stick really worth looking like a spring breaker?

So if it never looks real, seldom looks good, and pretty much always looks cheap (not to mention that some states are looking to ban the tanning bed version altogether for minors for fear of a link to melanoma), why do people do it?

First, the bad: Kérastase, the beauty brand we’d buy from exclusively if their shampoo didn’t cost more than a filet mignon entree at most restaurants, is discontinuing ten of their products, including their Sérum Nutri-Sculpt Leave-in Lustrous Repair, which we think qualifies for a small funeral service, at least.

Good news: Since they’re trying to clear their stock to make way for the new goods, they’re offering 30% off those soon-to-be-discontinued products on their site, as long as you use the sale code (VIP30).

We shouldn’t have to tell you to act fast. The only place we’ve seen discounted Kérastase is a Condé Nast beauty sale - but so much more on that later…

June’s still pretty far off but it seems like nobody told the beauty brands. Summer makeup will start to hit counters next week (if it hasnt already) and with it comes the usual deluge of “surf and turf”-themed colors and products.

The ocean is the go-to “inspiration” for summer, but honestly, if I see one more turquoise liner or coral gloss I’m going to boycott makeup altogether. Fortunately, amidst all the tired beach crap, emerged two inspired interpretations of the marine trend.

Chantecaille’s limited edition La Baleine compacts for face and eyes, which launched earlier this month, feature an intricately embossed image of a Blue Whale and her calf. I personally love the palette’s gorgeous scene, and the actual shadow shades — pale blue, blue-grey and champagne — are interesting and totally on-trend for spring. Plus, 5% of proceeds from the $98 palette are donated to the International Conservation of Nature to help in the fight to protect whales and their watery homes. This is the fifth environmentally-themed charitable initiative from the brand, with past palettes featuring everything from tigers to butterflies.

Granted, $98 bucks for an eye shadow trio is pretty crazy and I don’t know many people who have that kind of cash to drop, even if it is to help save the whales. So for a more realistic aquatic acquisition, I’m all for this Sonia Kashuk Hidden Treasure Brush Set. The set, which retails for $19.99 and is available next month at Target, features a summery coral print bag and six makeup brushes with handles that are designed to look like, what else, coral. The overall effect is chic, whimsical and proof positive that quality, trend-driven products can be inventive without costing a fortune. Now if only the hot weather would hurry up and get here…

—MEGAN MCINTYRE

Ok, the Glamour beauty department wins the prize of Most Unforgettable Blog Post ever. Seriously.