We are so excited for September.

While the official list won’t be released until August 17th, we just received a huge rundown of events for Fashion’s Night Out, the New York City fashion celebration this September 10th. Over 300 retailers in all five boroughs have already signed up to party from 6pm to 11pm. We’re a little overwhelmed by it…in a good way.

We already told you about Alex Wang at Barney’s. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Also at Barney’s? The Olsen twins (girl crush times two!), Jonathan Adler and Lisa Perry, on hand to teach you how to knit. After you learn, you can knit a square to be included in a blanket to be sold to benefit the September 11th Memorial Fund.

I’ve always been a powder blush kind of girl - creams scare me.

But come summer, I’m loathe to put more powder on my already sweaty face and since there’s been a recent spate of cream stick launches, which are so much more appealing than compact creams, I was willing to try again.

I started out with Avon’s Be Blushed. It has a gel-like consistency and comes in eight different shades. It didn’t take much to blend it in, but once I did it was practically invisible. I had to reapply for even a hint of color and even then there was more pigment on my fingertips than my cheeks.

The next day I tried Bobbi Brown’s Sheer Color Cheek Tint. I loved all six sheer shades, the flush looked natural and stayed on all day though it wasn’t nearly as easy to blend. I had to rub it in so violently that I couldn’t tell whether or not my cheeks were red from the tint or from the rubbing. But once the redness subsided it had the most natural look and feel to it.

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.

Back when I was a beauty intern, I noticed something curious: the number one gifts to send to beauty editors are always the same - Picnic baskets, fluffy robes and flip-flops.

So we knew it was only a matter of time before somebody came up with this newest designer (makeup, that is) collaboration.

Trish McEvoy, Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier have all just designed their own pair of limited-edition Havaianas. They’ll be available at Saks the entire month of June, and all proceeds from each sale benefit charity: water.

The one at top is Laura Mercier’s design - click through to check out Bobbi Brown’s and and Trish McEvoy’s.

(We kind of wish these were coming with neon nail polish, but whatever.)

It’s that time of year again- beauty companies are repackaging their shades into giftable palettes, big and gigantic, so they can charge you $65 for eight shades of makeup you would never use all at once anyway.

In theory, makeup palettes are a great idea. They keep all your makeup in one place, and they make your dressing table look really cute.

But, practically speaking, they’re incredibly difficult.

We like to keep most of what we’re wearing with us through the day, in case we want to touch up. But since palettes are always bigger than necessary, we end up carrying around dead weight just to use that one eye shadow out of the selection of sixteen. It’s so much smarter to buy individual shades to keep in a reusable organizer instead.

We’ve interned at a couple magazines that actually have a ban on showcasing palettes, unless they have all new (and usable) colors, which they never do. We think makeup companies would do a lot better with customers and press to just get rid of palettes entirely, or to at least make the little pans removable so you can fit them with what you actually want (although that still wouldn’t fix the problem of the case itself taking up precious real estate in our handbags.)

Beauty companies, we ask you- please, stop the palettes.