Mona Moore Boots

This is the time of year to find great deals on boots. Our sis-in-law, Jen, turned us onto Mona Moore, the super chic Montreal designer shoe boutique with a huge selection. The advantage to using their website is there's no sales tax and all of our picks were 50% off.

These dark grey suede Jil Sander boots would look good with everything from dresses to jeans:

Jen bought these Marni boots :

Still looking for booties? These Dries Van Noten would be great for day or night.

On Our Radar: The Standard New York

We have fond memories of The Standard in West Hollywood. A few weeks before our 10th high school reunion we took a trip to L.A. simply for the sole purpose of having a glamorous answer when our former classmates asked what we had been up to recently. ("Oh, I just got back from a trip to the West Coast.") We laid out by the pool, which has a killer view of the city, drank apple martinis at lunch and flirted with boys from San Diego. If you haven't been to The Standard, we promise you've seen it: It's where Carrie and the gang stayed when SATC traveled to L.A.

Fast forward to now: The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, along the Highline, opened quietly last month. NY Mag reviewed its architecture and another lucky writer, Sarah Bernard, got to spend the night there. Her report: The views are spectacular, the staff is not only gorgeous, but helpful, too. The downsides: there's no restaurant or room service just yet and the rooms lack full length mirrors.

What we're curious about is the lobby. At the WeHo branch, one could happily curl up on the plush sectional sofa, pretending to read a book and people watch for hours. We'll make the trek over to the Hudson just as soon as the weather warms up and report back.

MAC, Stila, Two Faced and the 80's Character

Nostalgia is all over the makeup counters this month. Answer this: were you a Hello Kitty collector (we had a stationary set) or a Barbie enthusiast (you know who you are…) or even a Smurfette lover (Anne's Halloween costume)? Some of our favorite brands have collaborated to bring you a makeup flashback.

MAC has the most extensive collection with Hello Kitty which is available in February.

Stila has four different Barbie Loves Stila Paint Cans from 1959 Ponytail Barbie to the 2000 Jewel Doll. Our favorite sets are the Malibu and Foxy Dolls available now at Sephora and Stila.com.

And Two Faced is offering a Smurfy Illumination Face Powder which brightens your skin (let's assume it doesn't turn you blue).


Which is your favorite?

What to Wear in Florida When It's Cold...

A few weeks ago, we tackled the question of what to wear when traveling from a cold weather destination to a warm with the help of Smashing Darling.

Unfortunately we're not quite so lucky to have that problem as we head down to Tampa for Super Bowl festivities this weekend. We're looking at a high in the 60s and a low in the 30s!!! Brrr...If it weren't for the thought of all those free cocktails and the hope of scoring a ticket to the game, we might even stay home.

With our San Francisco debacle fresh in our mind, when we had to wear every item of clothing we brought with us in order not to freeze in the middle of summer, we set out to pack for our Super Bowl weekend. Adding another wrinkle to our packing dilemma, JSG is along for the ride on this trip so don't totally know what we'll be doing, though we were told to dress casual. While we pride ourselves on the ability not to overpack, we also want to be ready for every situation. Here's what we've come up with so far for our three evenings out:



All the tops can be worn with jeans and can go from day to night -- the blue sparkly shirt, too. (Keep in mind, we are founding members of the "Sequins for Day" club.) As for the dress, while it's not exactly casual, we couldn't help ourselves. We hardly ever get to wear it and we expect the sexy dominatrix vibe will win over Steelers and Cardinal fans alike.

To stay warm, we're bringing our fave brown Generra leather jacket, scarves and gloves. As for our daytime wear, well, it's a good thing we don't leave til Friday a.m!

Leggings Making a Comeback?

Or, more specifically, stirrup pants. It is a little scary when you're old enough to remember the first time a trend was really big. That's exactly the case with JSG and stirrup pants, but it's not stopping us from embracing them this time around. Hope already bought a pair of Vince stirrup pants at Neiman's post-Christmas blowout sale and has been wearing them ever since. Now we see that Sak's is giving a free pair of Kova & T leggings with any Louboutin purchase. Is it wrong that we kinda want them? They would be just the thing to wear with our pink Miu Mius.

Sally Hershberger Facial Review

We’ve experienced just about every type of facial out there: diamond, oxygen and budget, to name a few. But all that knowledge still didn’t prepare us for the utter wackiness—and wow-worthy results—of the Sally Hersberger Face Place facial with Tom Woodhouse.

He started out by layering our skin with cotton soaked in a yucca solution to soften skin and cleanse pores. On top of that, went a sort of facial tepee—a cone with an opening, which produces a dry heat and amplifies the softening and cleansing affect of the yucca. We soaked in our own personal sweat lodge for 15-ish minutes. We felt relatively comfortable with it despite our slight case of claustrophobia. Tom tells us some of his clients like to read or send emails on their Blackberries. We opted to chat with our adorable manicurist Erica Marton.

After our face was thoroughly cleansed, Tom put a Hannibal Lecter-type mask over our face. In Tom’s words:

The mask works to penetrate a water soluble vitamin and mineral solution deeply into the skin. It stimulates the cells to increase collagen production helping to firm the skin. At the same time it tightens the pores, minimizes bacterial growth in the skin and decreases inflammation.

We experienced a slight metallic taste in out mouth, but other than that it was perfectly pleasant.

The results: Our face was immediately glowing and our monster pimple was in retreat. Best of all—our skin was healthy and breakout free for weeks, despite a grueling travel schedule.

Palm Springs - a Hot Destination?

JSG has been to Palm Springs a surprising amount for an east coast girl--around four or five times. But still, we were pretty shocked to see the desert city landed the cover of February's Condé Nast Traveller. See, most of our trips were actually work related--we don't think we would head to this sleepy town by choice.

As author Adam Platt (also the food critic for NYMag) states in the story, "Sunny Daze":

Palm Springs is a refuge, a place for ultra-public personalities to disappear for days, weeks, or even years at a time, to realign their senses and get their heads screwed on straight.

Maybe that's our problem--we're not screwed up enough to appreciate the town as a refuge. Even though Palm Springs has breathtaking scenery (one of our trips was for a photo shoot), a gorgeous Viceroy Hotel (above), sister property to the Santa Monica branch, and the visually intriguing Parker Hotel (below), built on a former Merv Griffin estate, it's just too slow for our tastes. There's not much in the way of nightlife, shopping (unless you drive to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets) or even cuisine (a point Mr. Platt glazes over in his piece. Curious omission for a full time restaurant critic. Let's blame it on his editor.)




Is it just us, or are we missing something?

Lululemon Apres-Ski Yoga

After a hard day of skiing, we could use some stretch and healing. Lululemon, our pick for the best yoga attire, is offering up free apres-ski yoga classes in their Park City and Whistler stores. Even though we tend to hit happy hour (and some hit the hot tub), our bods would be better off from an hour of yoga.

By the way, yoga pants make a great base layer: they breath, the move well while we're skiing, and they look great when we take off our ski pants. If it's particularly cold, we'll put silk underwear underneath but otherwise our yoga pants are plenty warm.

Who knew two such different sports could benefit each other so?

ghd Travel Hair Dryer

We took to the slopes for a last minute ski trip this weekend. It's snowing outside, we've got a great place to stay; but we're missing one thing: our favorite travel hair dryer. Cold weather and high altitudes are great for our frizzy hair. There's no reason to straighten because there's no humidity. We have some of our best hair days ever with so little effort, unfortunately we have to wear a hat most of the time.

We didn't pack our ghd dryer because we knew the condo where we're staying supplies their own. Unfortunately, it's one of the short curly-corded attached to the wall varieties. Standing within two feet of the wall seriously hinders any styling and its low wattage means twice the drying time. Since last month we been using the ghd as our everyday dryer. It's lightweight, easy to grip and dries our hair just as quickly as our old full size dryer. It's not cheap, but neither was my ghd ceramic iron that I've had for years and has served me very well. Next time, we won't forget to pack it.

Available at Sephora as an introductory set including shampoo, conditioner, styling cream and thermal protector and (our fave!) two big, strong, salon quality hair clips.

Happy travels!

Inside J. Crew's Creative Director's suitcase

The February issue of Travel & Leisure gives us a peek inside Jenna Lyons's suitcase. Jenna is the creative director of suddenly smoking hot J. Crew.

We love the flat J. Crew gold sandals Jenna says were inspired by her frequent trips to Turks and Caicos.

We must have this sunny raffia hat which Jenna says is made to pack, but it's not on the website yet.
Check out Travel & Leisure for her complete list.

White Dress - Our Picks

We've resisted the trend as long as we can. But now that everyone from elegant Michelle Obama (in Jason Wu)

to edgy Chloe Sevigny (in Marios Schwab)



to down-to-earth America Ferrara (in Oscar de la Renta)



to perpetually flawless Anne Hathaway at last night's SAG Awards (in Azzaro) are rocking white, champagne and cream dresses:




it's high time JSG got on board. We may even try one for our upcoming Super Bowl weekend in Tampa -- right after we spend some quality time with our favorite self tanner. (Celeb photos courtesy of InStyle.com)

A few of our picks:

Strapless Ella Moss on sale at ShopBop for $135



One-shouldered Shoshanna dress on sale at ShopBop for $170



Michelle Obama herself would surely approve of this $225 J. Crew style.



A day-to-night Velvet style available at Cusp for $174

Air Force One

Want to know how Obama rolls? Check out National Geographic's On Board Air Force One, premiering tonight at 8 (and in repeats several times this week). Among the nifty facts we learned about this seriously sexy plane:

• The three level plane has a dining room, office areas and six bathrooms.
• The executive suite has a dressing room and a shower.
• The seat belts, pillows, blankets, napkins and shaving kits feature the presidential seal.
• A surgeon flies on board and there's a pharmacy, X-ray and operating table.
• It costs $40,000 an hour to run.
  

We never want to fly commercial again!

Win a Trip to L.A.

We're always on the lookout for free stuff, especially free vacations. On that note, here's a contest we plan on entering: Seven Daughters Ultimate Girls' Getaway contest. (Seven Daughters is a totally affordable blended wine that we drink on Saturday afternoons when we catch up with our DVR watching for the week. It's also tasty enough to serve at your next dinner party with pride.) The prize of the contest is a totally swank trip to L.A. for your plus three friends, including spa trips and a night on the town.

To enter, go to 7Daughters.com. There is a bit of homework involved: You must write a short essay about why you and your pals deserve the trip. You will be judged, so make it good!

We used to judge the Romantic Husband contest for a major woman's magazine. Based on that experience, here's a few words of advice: Under NO circumstances write an acrostic poem. Be original and heartfelt. Stick to the word count. Good luck!

For a trip to L.A. to meet Rachel Zoe, check out Piperlime.

On Our Radar: Las Vegas for the Super Bowl

If we weren't headed to Tampa to watch the Cardinals take on the Steelers next weekend, Vegas would be our next choice. Vegas.com is featuring some sick deals for the nights on January 30-Feb. 2. Last time we checked (Wednesday night), Mandalay Bay was an average of $130 for the three nights, Bellagio was $199 as was the brand new Palazzo. As it is during any major sporting event weekend, Vegas is boy central!

When we're in Vegas, we spend a little time and money at the Forum Shops at Caesar's which tempts us with a Jimmy Choo boutique (sigh), Ted Baker, and Scoop NYC. We love to grab lunch at Mon Ami Gabi, Paris Las Vegas' outdoor cafe which is a local fave and the best place to people watch. Order the croque monsieur, delish! Take a nap after carbo loading, then swing by the Sephora Eye Studio at the Venetian and get a new set of lashes and have them create the sexiest smoky eye ever. Afterwards, you can stay up all night at clubs like Tao, Pure, Lavo, and Ghost Bar. Check out Samara's advise on maxing out your fun in Vegas.

Back to that part about heading to the Super Bowl--JSG is beyond excited (and extremely lucky) to have a friend who is going and offered up a free place to stay. While we don't have tickets to the big game (yet!), we do have entree to several A-list parties. Check back next weekend for updates!

Bobbi Brown Brights Palette

Available this month, Bobbi Brown's Brights Palette is a collection of 35 shadows from pink to green to purple. Bobbi says you should use them any time you want to add some fun to your look. We want to use them because the temp is reaching into the upper 50's tomorrow, which is practically tropical this time of year.

We've already been wearing a couple shades of the Creamy Lip Color designed to work well with the palette. Our lips dry out in the winter which makes the Shea Butter in the lipstick so satisfying. Our fave is the Rose Brown.

Free Shipping until tomorrow, 1/23/09, with the code BEST1.

Unusual Gifts - Valentine's Day

We're all for reduce, reuse, recycle, but these gifts take it a little too far for our tastes:

These elephant dung roses from Uncommon Goods (yes, we said elephant dung!) may look pretty and last a long time, but do you really want your sweetie handing you over a bouquet of elephant poop on Valentine's Day? We would prefer the standard box of chocolates.



Somewhat less disturbing is the line of salmon skin purses from One October available at Bleu Clothing. Salmon is right up there with hot dogs and eggs as one of our least favorite foods and we're not really warm to the idea of touching its skin, either. (We know. We know. Salmon is one of nature's miracle foods. It's still not going past our lips!) Jennifer Aniston is a fan, but then again, she is dating John Mayer.

Hula Hoop and Michelle Obama

Apparently Marissa Tomei isn't the only celeb who likes to hula hoop, so does our newly inducted first lady. That's Michelle and Sasha spinning at a Fourth of July picnic last year, courtesy of the Washington Post. Another person who is getting hoop fever: JSG's Annie.

She says:
I was sent a Hoopnotica travel hoop and videos to test. I first tried it on Friday. It took me a few attempts to get it going, and I was very spastic at first, but now I can walk a few steps and do a 360. It's definitely a lot of fun and I find myself grabbing and spinning whenever I have a few free minutes. Something about the spinning motion is very soothing and I can keep it going for close to five minutes. Hula hooping is for sure a great ab workout and with any luck I'll be bikini ready next weekend when I head to Florida. I imagine as I graduate to disc 2 with chest hooping and thigh hooping I'll get even more of a full body workout.

My one complaint--the hoop is Big! Approximately 42" in diameter, which means I have to clear out the furniture when I want to use it. I checked in with the company spokesperson who said:

The hoop is an adult sized meaning it's easier for a grown up to keep the momentum of hooping going with a weighted hoop. Using one that’s lighter or smaller, say from a toy store would not work. The hoop is collapsible so you can take it apart after use, but yeah it does require some room to experiment with some of the more advanced moves.

We're guessing Michelle won't have these problems in the White House!

Daily Candy and the W

We recently stayed at a W hotel--specifically the one on 49th & Lex in New York City. While it was work-related, it did reignite our love affair with Daily Candy and Bliss. The room had a free Daily Candy 2009 New York City Pocket Guide with witty, mini reviews of the city's best dining, drinking, shopping, services and more. We swiped this little goodie, which lists everything from old school favorites like Cafe Gitane and Bendel's to places we've never heard of like The Blue Seats and Poppy. Move over Zagat!




Our other suprise treat was the W's Bliss amenities. We had forgotten the W carries the line and the stay reminded us how much we love the Bliss Lemon-Sage Body Butter. It has a fresh, sweet scent that's not so strong it will interfere with our own perfume. And can someone please tell us why W's are the only hotels (that we know of at least) to include a face wash along with the usual shampoo, conditioner and body wash? It makes life much easier in these liquid-restrictive flying days!

Clinique Turnaround Radiance Peel - Review

This is the time of year when, despite all our best efforts, our skin starts to look pasty and gray and gets kind of flaky. In an effort to put a halt to all that nonsense, we tested the new Clinique Turnaround Radiance Peel. You apply one vial of the peel once a week before bedtime for 8 weeks. The glycolic-based peel is recommended for Type 3 and 4 (oilier skins). We're a Type 2, but our skin responds well to peels so we figured it was worth a shot.

To use: apply the peel to a cotton pad and sweep it all over your face and neck. Then follow with the Calming Cream, which is included in the kit.


We tried it last night and were very pleased with the results. We had no tingling at all from the peel. When we woke up this morning, our skin was super-smooth, noticeably brighter and absorbed our moisturizer quickly. The flakiness? Gone.

The 8-week kit costs $55--A serious bargain when you consider that's about half the price of one average facial!

Rebecca Taylor Spring '09

Rebecca Taylor is always one of our faves. We can never resist her flirty ruffles, soft lines and gorgeous colors. When you take into account the attention to details and cuts of her pieces, her clothes are well-priced, if not exactly a bargain. A few of our faves from the Spring '09 line, in stores the first week of February:



The retro, hippie vibe of this peasant dress captures our mood about the upcoming spring. Pair it with a pair of tan suede boots or wear it barefoot through a meadow.

Only Rebecca would take our favorite color from fall and gives it a lilac twist for spring.

This frock is classic without being boring. It's got everything we look for in a dress: You could wear it day or night and winter, spring, summer or fall.

Inauguration Information

Washington is a city known for transplants. It's rare to meet someone in the city or the burbs that grew up and still lives here; but this week is one for the records. There are so many people here from all over the country and the world. See the crowd from Sunday's Inaugural concert? The city is jammed with energy, celebrity and enthusiasm. While we pride ourselves in being well traveled and thoughtful, the Inauguration ceremony snuck up on us. That's why we were so relieved to find the Washington Post's Inauguration Survival Guide. Check here to find which Metro stops are open (most around the Mall are exit only in the a.m.), what time the ceremony starts (that would be 11:30), where the jumbo-trons are located on the Mall (because if you don't have a ticket tonight, you're not getting close enough to see the new President Obama), where the porto potties are stationed, when the parade starts (2:30) and much more. Print out a map like the one below with all the details, dress warmly, and take a deep breath. It's going to be an exciting day!

Pictures and Map Washingtonpost.com

MAC Chill Collection

It was a high of 20 today which is the perfect climate to use our new Penultimate Liner in Rapidblack from the MAC Chill Collection. It looks like a felt tip pen and goes on in one super smooth line. You can make the line thicker and more dramatic (check out the Nordic queen above) or draw a thin line just at the edge of your upper lashes to give you definition and refinement without being overly dramatic (which is how we've been using the pen in the daytime). The only drawback we'd mention is that if you rub your eye absently, it'll smear easily, so it doesn't have a strong hold. On the flip side, it's easy to remove. The Penultimate liner would be excellent for creating a cat eye; or pair it with a light gloss, like Tinted Lipglass in Naked Frost, for a look like the one above; or try about a red lip for a Breakfast at Tiffany's look.

DJ Ruckus

We're always on the lookout for some new eye candy--here's our latest, DJ Ruckus (above). He just happens to be cousin to our all time favorite sugar fix, Lenny Kravitz (below). But DJ Ruckus is more that just a pretty face, he's also a talented--and very busy--DJ. His MySpace page lists a full schedule: He's spinning parties at Sundance tonight, headed to an inaugural bash in D.C. tomorrow, opening Diane Von Furstenberg's new Miami store next week then head to NYC for Fashion Week. Here's hoping our paths cross soon!