A Guide to the Best Jeans for Petite Women

As someone who is 4’11” shopping for jeans is a constant struggle. Finding clothes that fit can be a challenge, especially if the brands you like don’t make specialty petite sizing. When it comes to jeans, the biggest problem is usually length, but it doesn’t end there. Some petite woman also struggle with waist sizing due to the proportions of the jeans being created for a different body type.

If having every single pair of jeans you own hemmed to a proper length sounds a little to exhausting to imagine—we’re here for you. No more considering shopping in the kids section, no more chopping off the ends of your jeans and hoping that the frayed look never goes out of style.

We are here to help you find full-length jeans that will actually fit, flare jeans that are proportional perfect for you, and jeans that have all the fun details that those tall girls get to wear. Below, we picked out the best petite jeans from our favorite denim fit experts from J Brand, Joe's Jeans, NYDJ, Hudson Jeans, and more. Scroll to shop them now.

1. J.Crew

The boyfriend trend is always a tough one to master when you have short legs, but J.Crew has given us the slim boyfriend denim in petite sizing so we can jump on the relaxed street style sensation.

2. 7 For All Mankind

7 For All Mankind has a few of what they call ‘tailorless’ styles which have an extra short inseam to avoid a trip to the tailor.

3. J Brand

J Brand offers a collection of styles in petite sizing (cue the choir) the high-rise super skinny will help to elongate your legs.

4. NYDJ

NYDJ is the one stop shop for petite denim, with an extensive petite selection you will find all your favorite styles and silhouettes.

We Found the Best Holiday Dresses for Your Body Shape

Ugh, we know. You procrastinated long enough and now you're without a dress for whatever parties you still have to attend, including New Year's Eve. Well, consider this the one and only time that waiting until the last minute will be in your favor—we found the best holiday dresses, and we did it by body type too.

Got a long and lean silhouette? Embrace your supermodel height with a sinuous midi- or floor-length dress that easily skims over your frame. And if you're petite, go for minis that range from girly ruffled tiers to cute one shoulders. Bordeauxs and reds are champions of the season, which is perfect because the shades look great on all skin and body types. Scroll through to find your perfect dress that you'll wear for the rest of the season and maybe even for the rest of your life, because these are that good.

1. BODY TYPE: CURVY + HOURGLASS

Look for: Flattering fit-and-flare silhouettes in structured fabrics. For added sex appeal, try curve-clinging cuts that highlight your hourglass figure.

2. BODY TYPE: Round

Look for: Swingy trapeze numbers, simple shifts, or empire-waist cuts to create dimension around a round tummy.

3. BODY TYPE: ATHLETIC

Look for: Body-hugging designs that not only show off your hard-earned muscles but also create curves in all of the right places.

4. BODY TYPE: LONG & LEAN

Look for: Ankle-grazing and calf-length, diaphanous dresses in the form of slips and body-framing sheaths.

5. BODY TYPE: PETITE

Look for: Easy minis that won't overwhelm your frame. Find drama with girly ruffles or bold color.

6. Inverted Triangle

Look for: Details—like sweet ruffles, sexy cut-outs, or one-shoulder silhouettes to balance a top-heavy silhouette.

Racil Chalhoub on designing tuxedos for the female staff of Annabel's

Le Smoking, a tuxedo-inspired suit for women, was famously introduced by Yves Saint Laurent in 1966. The androgynous outfit, which challenged societal norms at the time, was deemed unacceptable for fine-dining occasions, and women turning up in suits would often be prohibited from entering high-end restaurants.

The restaurant managers of the 1960s who took such pride in their rigid dress codes would probably be aghast to learn that, half a century later, ripped jeans and tennis shoes are acceptable eating-out attire – our recent story about the evolution of tracksuits suggests that some millennials may even opt for sweatpants, albeit paired with heels, for formal dinners.

Dress codes are constantly evolving, and fashion has taken a largely casual turn, with an increasing number of labels adopting a genderless, normcore approach. But while some posh eateries have become lax in terms of what customers can and cannot wear, Annabel's, a private members' club and restaurant in Mayfair, London, still forbids female guests from wearing T-shirts, sportswear, office wear and trainers. A recent amendment to the dress code allows them to wear jeans, but only if they are dark in tone and tailored.

And, while tuxedos were a taboo for women 50 years ago, the new female uniforms at Annabel's will be heavily inspired by the menswear staple. The club is reopening in a larger, four-storey space in Berkeley Square this November, and Lebanese fashion designer Racil Chalhoub, who lives between Beirut, Dubai and London, was recruited to help lead the style direction and design uniforms for female staff.

She joins a group of talented creatives: known for its impeccable tailoring, the British label Casely-Hayford was enlisted to create bespoke suits for the male staff, and photographer Mario Testino and make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury have been recruited as creative consultants.

Chalhoub was born in Beirut and raised in Paris. She studied fashion design and marketing in London, and in 2006, returned to Beirut, where she founded a fashion concept store and organic cafe in the city's Gemmayze district. After being the store's fashion buyer for eight years, she moved back to London, where she launched her own brand, Racil. Her first and foremost inspiration? The tuxedo.

"I love the clean lines and sharp lapels," she says of the iconic silhouette. "I love how timeless and elegant it is, as well as versatile."

So, it comes as no surprise that her designs for Annabel's are inspired by tuxedos. "Every position will be wearing a different look and will have a different silhouette, but the entire team will look like one beautiful collection; they are all part of one family," she says.

While the new uniforms have yet to be unveiled, the designer hints that they will share elements with her own label's autumn/winter 2017 collection – which, incidentally, was shot at Annabel's, and features wine-coloured velvets, plaid patterns, emerald-green suits and oversized brooches and bow ties.

Chalhoub's aesthetic is markedly modest, but even though modesty may be trending internationally at the moment, the designer says that it isn't something she consciously strives for. "I don't necessarily think about it when I design, but most of my designs will end up quite modest," she says.

She stresses that tuxedos, whether worn as uniforms or formal wear, can be both flattering and feminine. Femininity is an attitude, above all, she says. "You can wear a tuxedo and still be very feminine – a nice way to emphasise this is to add some red lipstick and big earrings."

The designer believes that today's social trends don't leave much room for super-strict dress codes. "There are so many places to go to nowadays that people do not want to feel constrained; they may simply go elsewhere," she says. "Having said that, I also firmly believe that there is a time and place for everything. You have to respect your surroundings and where you are going, and dress accordingly."

Often, it is the attire of employees at a venue that sets the benchmark for its visitors. Chalhoub believes her tuxedo-inspired outfits will give staff uniforms a bold and fashion-forward feel, making sure wearers look at home in the club's interiors, which combine framed art pieces with busy patterns on upholstery, drapes and carpets, for a vibe that's both electric and aristocratic.

"You have to think about what the customer wants to see, what works visually and what fits within the concept, but you also want to keep in mind that the person wearing it is actually working," Chalhoub says. "She needs to look sharp yet be very comfortable – so you have to think about practicality as much as aesthetics.

Many fancy establishments opt for provocative outfits for their female staff. By choosing a designer such as Chalhoub, who is known for creating clothing that is heavily influenced by menswear, Annabel's is shattering stereotypes of stuffy London clubs, and Chalhoub is reinventing a silhouette that society once deemed so unacceptable.

Esmod Dubai launches make-up service for women working in d3

Why do women carry such large handbags to work? Often, it's because these handbags contain bulky cosmetics pouches with perfume, mascara, eyeliner and powder compact for make-up touch-ups required throughout the day, whether its before you enter the office, right before an important meeting or when you're leaving work and heading straight to an evening event.

Tapping into this niche beauty need, Esmod Dubai has launched its SOS Make-up service in Dubai Design District (d3). In October, the French fashion school opened its new branch in d3, which will also offer fashion business masterclasses during the day, and short courses in the evening.

The SOS make-up service gives women working in d3 a speedy and accessible version of a neighbourhood beauty parlour.

Good Morning Make-up includes the highlighter, mascara, one coloured eyeshadow and lipstick, and costs Dh50.

Before Meeting Make-up includes the morning offers, plus eyeliner and a second eyeshadow shade, and costs Dh75.

And Ladies Evening Make-up includes all of this, plus foundation, and costs Dh150. The services are available on weekdays from 8:30am to 10am, and 6pm to 7:30pm.

Upcoming courses at the d3 branch of Esmod Dubai include Fashion Marketing, which starts on October 8; Luxury Brand Management, which starts on November 29; and Professional Fashion Make-up, which is held in partnership with NYX Make-up, and starts on November 29.

The branded-watch culture in the UAE can be bewildering

I'm hunting for a new watch online. I like the idea of the face being of a slim rectangular shape, perhaps with Roman numerals decorating the dial.

A white or mother-of-pearl dial would be nice, but I'm not too picky – as long as it fits nicely, costs under Dh800 and has a vintage-inspired aesthetic.

After a quick search on Amazon.com, I find the perfect watch. The brand is one I've never heard of – Bulova – but I don't mind, I add the timepiece to my cart and a week later, it's on my wrist.

I've since discovered that my method of watch-shopping is somewhat unconventional – at least to many other UAE residents. While I prefer to buy affordable designs, so that I can match different styles to my outfits on a daily basis, others, I've learned, take the selection of their timepieces far more seriously.

It's said that you can tell a lot about a man by his watches, and his wheels, and men in the UAE are particularly in tune to the world of timepieces. Women too, are fond of splurging on watches; Emiratis especially are keen to flaunt their brand-name buys, since, it's one of the few jewellery pieces that is displayed while robed in an abaya.

For many, a new watch is given as a token that marks a new milestone. It's a popular gift for those graduating school or getting married. And while I'd settle for a spur-of-the-moment Swatch design equipped with a transparent PVC strap while browsing a shopping mall kiosk, others spend months researching their dream wrist designs. For them, brands like Omega, Cartier, Bvlgari and Rolex even, are household names.

Being a lifestyle journalist, I have to remain somewhat versed in what the latest watch trends are. Still, there are very few timepieces that have stopped me in my tracks.

The Poetic Complications by Van Cleef & Arpels, which show a transformation in scenery or situation as time ticks away, are real treasures, and space-inspired timepieces by MB&F are impressively avant-garde.

But I've never really considered splurging on a designer watch for myself – perhaps because the exorbitant prices are so drastically outside of my budget, but also because I've never been attracted to the grandiose, in-your-face designs.

When I find myself as an exclusive watch-unveiling event in Dubai, I realise how ignorant I am about their inner workings. A presentation is projected on a wall of the boutique, featuring the specs of two new watches, produced exclusively for the Middle East market.

As journalists ooh and aah I stare on, helplessly confused, wondering what all the fuss is about. I see nothing special about yet another gold or stainless steel watch, with a round dial and see-though case exterior, showcasing the movement, which featuring intricacies beyond my level of comprehension.

It's not long before members of the media line up to try on the watch and snap photos of their wrists, before sharing them promptly on Instagram and Snapchat.

I skip this part, and instead make my way over to the live demonstration, where a watchmaker is assembling key components of the timepiece. It's when I observe his painstaking precision, coupled with an utter lack of emotion and overall absorption into his craft, that I realise there's a whole lot more to watch-making than the fancy exteriors.

The brand director tells me customers usually buy a watch just as they'd buy a rare painting, and that it's this inherent appreciation of art, that's at the core of watch-buying.

Still, the fact that consumers are willing to drop thousands and hundreds of thousands of dirhams on a watch that they'll have to manually wind, blows my mind.

And although there is a breadth of skill and technique that goes into producing one of these luxury timepieces, I remain sceptical about buyers' intentions. Are they paying for the craftsmanship, or for the valuable gemstones, or, alas, for the designer name stamped on it?

The most expensive watch in the world was sold at a Christie's auction in Dubai earlier this year, for more than Dh1.8 million. It was a 1981 Patek Philippe design, that at first, second, and third glance, doesn't look all that extraordinary.

Whether they're bought as prized collectors' items to be stored away, or, worn every day, the region's deep-rooted watch culture remains lost on me.

When it comes to fashion, there are few things more functional than a watch – yet the watches often seen in the UAE are anything but practical.

Set with countless diamonds, some are real blinders – and others are just so ostentatious that you have to wonder if their wearers even use them to serve their fundamental purpose – to tell the time.

FEMAIL rounds up the fashions that got our attention this week

When it comes to fashion, we are all inspired by what we see; whether it be a well-dressed celebrity, a blow-your-mind catwalk presentation or even a super stylish every-day passerby.

As fashion editors, we're moved by all of the above, and then some. We're exposed to under-the-radar labels; we get a first-hand look at collections months before they hit stores; we're tapped into brands with chic-yet-cheap offerings and we shop - a lot.

To share our knowledge, FEMAIL brings you Style Swoon, a weekly series of the latest, greatest and on the verge. We hope this Friday series will serve as a buying guide and point of inspiration for the clotheshorses and fashion fanatics alike.

DASCHA'S PARIS FASHION WEEK DIARY

As one of the stars of Netflix's hit show 'Orange is the New Black', you would think Dascha Polanco would have designers begging her to wear their designs.

Unfortunately this isn't always the case for the  34-year-old. In the past, the actress has been outspoken about designers not wanting to dress her curvier shape.

Thankfully this all changed when she attended Paris Fashion Week for the first time, last week. 'In Paris, the unexpected happened, after having in-person conversations with the designers, I saw their enthusiastic willingness to dress my body type,' said Dascha.

'It caught me off guard and gave me moments of reassurance. I finally felt like my love for being involved in fashion was not impossible but achievable.'

With the fashion industry's approval, Dascha made sure to make a statement as she sat front row at the runway shows of Rahul Mishra and Nobi Talai.

When it came to choosing outfits, the actress said 'Paris Fashion Week brought out the inspiration of romanticism, feminism and military influence, igniting the use of rich, bold colors and textures.'

And with that, she turned the streets of Paris into her very own catwalk. 'Being confident, courageous and taking risks have opened the doors for women of all shapes, and sizes,' she said.

'Curves have become the leading focus in fashion because it represents the majority. It allows room for more creativity, new techniques to dress all these different body shapes and embrace them as opposed to excluding them. It goes to prove that art has no limits and no boundaries. Style and fashion is for all.'

BELLA'S FAVORITE UNDERGARMENTS

Over the past few weeks, Bella Hadid has showed off her incredible off-duty style while traveling the world during Fashion Month.

But there was one unusual brand that we kept noticing in her stylish ensembles - intimates line Commando.

Whether the 20-year-old was rocking their 'Ballet Body One-Shoulder Bodysuit' under a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print suit, wearing their 'Ballet Body Sleeveless Bodysuit' with a trench coat or layering their 'Classic Control Short' under a plaid Claudia Li blazer, Bella kept her Commando underpinnings on full display.

Get the look and shop Bella's exact pieces below. The best part? They all retail for under $100!

Tyra Banks, 43, looked like the ultimate 'Girl Boss' last week, as she spoke at the National Retail Federation (NRF) Shop.org Digital Retail Conference.

The supermodel/mogul chose a simple yet stylish pairing of a black long-sleeved sheath dress and power pumps to speak to the crowd of over 1,000 attendees about her strengthens as a business woman and how her life has evolved so much through the years.

Which Retinol Creams of 2017 is Look Younger Fast?

When I was in my 40s, I was struggling with adult acne and a few of those sneaky little fine forehead lines, despite my somewhat oily skin. Naturally, when my peroxide cream didn't do the trick, I headed straight for the dermatologist in search of a good solution. She sent me packing with a prescription for Retin A. Wow – that stuff was harsh on my skin at first, but it did have a dramatic impact, clearing up my little pimple issue in short order. Plus, I got tons of compliments on my skin, which really did look years younger. Always a bonus.

Fast forward a decade, plus a few years. My skin isn't quite as oily, and I do still suffer from the occasional breakout. Worse yet, I can see the evidence from decades of playing outdoors, often without adequate sunscreen. The result? I've got a lot more fine lines, some honest, well-earned wrinkles and a bit of uneven pigmentation. Knowing I need to use moisturizer, I've tried lots of products. But I've really started to research more about those that are effective at defending my skin from more environmental assaults, and also repairing the damage I've got.

I've learned there are three key ingredients to keeping your skin looking young and healthy, and reversing that ticking time clock; retinol, niacinamide and reservatrol. While there are lots of pretenders out there claiming to be the fountain of youth, from stem cells and collagen to exotic botanicals, the big three actually have the science behind the beauty claims. Retinol, a vitamin A derivative, is really the power hitter when it comes to anti-aging benefits. When the collagen in your skin begins to break down, you'll notice more sagging and lack of elasticity. Retinol actually helps to stimulate collagen production, which makes your skin smoother and firmer, while at the same time, diminishing the appearance fine lines. We all want that, right?

A few of the retinol creams reviewed in this post, like those by StriVectin and PCA SKIN, have formulations that also include the second heavy hitter, niacinamide. A form of vitamin B3, this key ingredient is a powerful way to tackle excess pigmentation and brown spots. In fact, it even helps to block the production of melanin so those spots become less likely to happen. None of the creams reviewed list reservatrol, a powerful antioxidant, in their ingredient lists, but for the most part, all of them do include some antioxidants.

I was in for a little shell shock when I first started shopping. Many retinol creams cost a whole lot of money for the tiniest of tubes. When you're talking about a product that's going to be a part of your daily beauty regimen, that seems hard to wrap your head around. Of course, if you're not spending hundreds on botox treatments every few months, or thousands on a face lift, the price seems pretty worth it for great looking skin. And not all retinol creams are budget busters. We've included many highly rated, well-priced options on this list.

Retinol, similar to that prescription I once used, can be drying, especially at first. While most formulations include hydrating hyaluronic acid, shea butter and jojoba oil to combat that effect, lots of people choose to use their retinol cream on alternating days, or just a couple of times per week. For acne prone skin it's an especially effective tool that may initially cause you to break out, but then clear up in rather amazing fashion. Retinol creams are a terrific weapon to add to your skin care arsenal, no matter your age or gender. Along with a commitment to impeccable daily cleansing, moisturizing and sunscreen, they can take years off your face and leave your skin looking gorgeous for the long haul.

Which Cuticle Removers Is Right for You?

Total honesty: my cuticles are constant struggle. They itch, snag, bleed, and overall aren't very photogenic in their natural state. Prior to getting into nail art, they were an absolute mess, but stamping pretty designs on my nails definitely motivated me to show them off more. And I haven't found an Instagram filter yet that masks red, ragged cuticles, but I have found a couple of tricks that keep my hands looking sleek and tidy.

Cuticle removers are actually pretty controversial. While most of us would rather our cuticles got out of the way of our nail polish, they do serve a purpose by protecting your body from infection. So there are a couple of schools of thought. One is that you should leave your cuticles alone to do their job and just accept your manicures won't last as long. Another is that it's okay to push your cuticles up, but never cut them. And then there's the position that cuticles must go by any means necessary. Only you can decide what's best for your health and your hands. My feeling is that if you're bleeding, you need a different approach.

What's a cuticle?

Funny story, what most people think of as their cuticle actually isn't. The transition between your nail and your finger is made up of three parts: your nail matrix, eponychium, and cuticle. The nail matrix is the part you can't see. It sits below the surface of your skin and does the heavy lifting of growing your nails. The eponychium is what many people think of as their cuticles. This is the lip of skin that touches your fingernail. It's the part of your nail that's prone to hangnails and splitting in when particularly dry.

Your eponychium is constantly shedding dead skin cells (like rest of your body) but these dead skin cells are shed down onto your fingernail forming a coating of dead skin that bridges the gap between eponychium and your nail plate. That's your cuticle: the layer of dead skin that forms over the top quarter or so of your fingernail.

What did cuticles ever do to you?

There are so many products and methods to remove, push, nip, cut your cuticles because the key to a long lasting manicure is having nothing between your nail and your nail polish. If you paint over your cuticle, your polish will look lumpy and chip much faster. There isn't strictly a health reason to remove your cuticles if the way they look doesn't bother you, unless they snag and tear on things like mine do.

How do cuticle removers work?

It depends on the brand, but for the most part cuticle removers use a substance with a very high pH to weaken the structure of the dead skin. Anyone who has poked at their cuticles with an orange stick or cuticle pusher tool knows those little buggers are tougher than they look and cuticle removers make them easier to push back.

A pH scale refresher. It's a scale of one to 14 where seven is completely neutral. The lower the number the more acidic a chemical is and the higher the number the more base a chemical is. And the more excited you are about pumpkin spice lattes, the more basic you are. (Just kidding, there's nothing wrong with liking a coffee flavor. You do you, friend.) Some examples: cola has a pH of 3, water has a pH of 7, and bleach has a pH of 13.

Cuticle removers use chemicals (like sodium hydroxide) with a pH between 11 and 13 to dissolve skin cells. So, yes, cuticle removers are there to dissolve and break down skin cells. These aren't standard hand creams and you need to wash them off with soap and water when they've done their job. They won't discriminate between live and dead skin cells so make sure you read the instructions and follow them. Sodium hydroxide is also known as lye. You've seen Fight Club. Follow the instructions.

I'm freaked out now.

Don't be.

Just like chemical peels, it sounds way scarier than it really is. Soapy water has a pH of 12. If you leave your hands in soap for too long, your skin won't be happy either, but you use that every day. The alternative to using cuticle removers is to use a sharp tool to cut or scrape them off. More often than not, this creates an open wound which leaves you vulnerable to infections of bacteria, viruses, and nail fungus. Softening your cuticles and pushing them back is actually safer.

Plus, some cuticle removers are gentler than others and I'll break down which products are high powered and which are mild. Instead of high pH bases, some removers use acids which also break down dead skin cells. As I wrote about in my best body peels article, alpha hydroxy acids (AHA's) and beta hydroxy acids (BHA's) are acids derived from food that break apart the bonds of dead skin gently so they are easier to shed. I read the ingredient lists for you so can decide which method is best for you.

How to get photo-ready nails.

Cuticle removers and quality manicure tools. Cuticle removers are a good start to help give you clean, polish-ready nails. General recommendations are to push the softened cuticles back with an orange stick or cuticle pusher instead of cutting them with nippers, but it's your call. You can find great sets of tools of both kinds by reading my guide to the best manicure sets and kits. Having or giving yourself regular manicures will keep your nails and cuticles in trim shape so they're less likely to break or snag.

Cuticle remover tip: Do one hand at a time, that way you have better control of how long the product is sitting on your fingers.

Cuticle oil. Your nails are thirsty, particularly after using cuticle remover, and you'll want to moisturize your nail plate and eponychium to keep them from drying out. Dry nails are brittle nails and don't have that glossy shine. Cuticle oils are highly concentrated and often contain vitamins and botanicals targeted for nail health. Read my guide to the best cuticle oils and creams for more information.

Hand cream. Cuticle oils are intensely concentrated and not meant to be used more than a couple times a day. If your job is hard on your hands or you need to wash your hands a lot, your nails can dry out fast. Hand creams are thicker and more hydrating than regular lotion and are great to be used anytime as needed. I'm currently using Antica Farmacista's Hand Cream in Lemon, Verbena & Cedar. You can find more great creams in my best luxury hand creams guide.

Strentheners. Lastly, you want to make sure you are nourishing your nails from the inside–that's where they're coming from after all. There are treatments that soak into your fingertips and supplements that help give your body the building blocks to grow stronger, healthier, longer nails. For more details check out my guide to the best products to grow nails fast.

Best Under Eye Concealers

Dark circles and puffy eyes don't only happen after a late night bar crawl. For some of us it's everyday no matter how much beauty rest we get. We all get them as we age, but how early they crop up has everything to do with genetics. It can be difficult to choose the right concealer and you can really tell when you've chosen the wrong one. There's color to think of and which formula is right for your skin type. I'll go over all that so you can see what your skin needs to look smooth and refreshed.

What causes dark circles and puffy eyes?

They're two entirely different problems and so you'll need a different concealer type depending on if your eyes are puffy or dark or both. Puffiness under eyes is generally the result of swelling from things like crying, water retention, alcohol consumption, or aging. If puffiness is a big issue for you try to cut back on your salt intake and skip the cocktails, but I'll never tell anyone, of any gender, to skip crying. That's what concealer's for. As we age, the skin, tissues, and muscles around our eyes weaken and no longer keep their proper shape. That's why as we get older, we develop bags as the normal fat cushion around our eyes settles lower than it used to be. When your under eyes are swollen, you need a concealer that's one to two shades darker than your normal skin tone to visually push the puffiness back into place.

Dark circles have everything to do with how thin the skin around your eyes is. The skin of your eye area is under half as thick as the rest of you body, with your eyelids being the thinnest part of your skin over all. When your eyes look dark, it's because the blood vessels around your eyes are visible through your skin. Those predisposed to very thin skin around their eyes are going to have darker circles. It's not all genetics though. When you're stressed and overtired, increased blood volume and high blood pressure make those blood vessels even more prominent. So concealer is a great fix, but self-care is also great. Dark circles make your eyes look like they are pushed farther back so you need a concealer one to two shades lighter than your skin tone to bring them forward.

How to choose an under eye concealer.

Whatever you're concealing, you want to choose a shade that is the opposite color of your problem area. Reach back to your knowledge of the magic of the color wheel from when you were a kid. Green is the opposite of red. If inflamed blemishes are your issue, choose a concealer with a greenish hue. Also check out my guide to the best acne spot treatments to really make that zit disappear.

Find some natural light and take a good look at your skin–florescent bulbs always throw your skin color off. If your dark circles are blueish, go with an orangey concealer. If your eyes look bruised and purple, a yellow tinted concealer will bring you back to even. If your puffiness has a yellow tinge, go for a purple tint.

The formula you need depends on your skin type. Concealers come in liquids, creams, pencils, and sticks.

Liquid concealers are a safe bet for nearly all skin types. The only folks who should avoid liquid concealers are those with very dry skin as the liquid won't look as natural over dry skin. They're great for covering large areas, concealing fine lines, and offering a range of coverage. You can build liquids up from having sheer coverage at one layer to opaque at two or three. Don't go over that though or it can look unnatural.

Cream concealers are where dry skin wants to be. It's also a good fit for average and combination skin. They're easy to blend and provide good coverage. Creams are prone to creasing so keep that in mind if fine lines are a concern.

Pencils and sticks are super convenient. They're great for applying on the go and you don't have to worry about spilling. Because of their thicker formula, people with oily or combination skin will want to avoid these as the natural oiliness of these products could clog pores.

Techniques and tips.

Always apply eye cream first to give your make up an ideal surface to stick to.

Foundation first, concealer second. Adding foundation on top of your concealer can smudge it around to the wrong parts of your face and defeat the purpose.

If you're lightening, don't just use it in the space under your eye. Apply your under eye concealer in an upside down triangle pattern that reaches about halfway down your nose. This will brighten and lift your whole face.

Let your concealer sit before blending. Concealer tends to change change color as it warms up and reacts to the air. When you immediately blend, you're working with a product that isn't ready. It's like trying on clothes that are wet. This isn't how they're normally going to behave. Some people call this letting your face “cook.” Once the concealer has melted, blending will be easier and less likely to shift on you.

Dot, don't smear. Instead of painting the area to be concealed completely with the product, dab it on lightly and pat with a blending sponge until you have even coverage.

Set your concealer with loose setting powder for all day staying power.

Best Bridal Nail Polish Colors for Fall Weddings

I'm biased, but fall is the best season for weddings. The leaves are a riot of color and the weather is not too hot and not too cold, so you're not freezing or wishing you could acceptably get married in your bathing suit. The mild weather means menu planning is easier since you don't need to sweat over if you'll sweat while eating a hot meal like you do in summer. Plus farm-fresh, local produce is still easy to come by unlike in winter or spring. I'm excited you're getting married during the hands down best season because now I get to talk all about it.

Fall itself has three distinct seasons: September is late summer, October is fall in all its glory, and November is late harvest and early winter.

For September weddings, you can take advantage of warmer temperatures, late summer flowers, and long days. September wedding colors are cheery and warmer. Think wheat fields, chrysanthemums, and grey dawns.

The backdrop to October weddings is the gorgeous changing foliage. October wedding colors are very harvest-themed. Think dried sunflowers, pumpkins, and maple leaves. And of course, there's always the fun color palettes possible for Halloween/Samhain weddings.

November weddings are rich and jewel-toned to contrast leafless trees and cooling temperatures. Think warm family gatherings, cool sunsets, and vintage bronze.

Shopping for your wedding nail polish colors is one of the few truly stress-free shopping opportunities of your wedding planning. Polishes are cheap enough that you can pick up a few without breaking the bank and you can try them on at home however many times you want. Try doing that with wedding gowns and suits.

A good, lasting manicure needs extra protection. See my articles on the best top coats for long lasting nail polish and the best base coats for a strong foundation.

For more wedding nails tips and tricks to get your natural nails ready in time for the big day, read my guide to the best wedding nail polish colors.

If you're going for a summery look or your climate tends to run warmer in the fall, you can also check out my best bridal nail polish for summer wedding colors article.

Now, on to colors for the autumn bride!

Discover The Bold Beauty Of Toenail Art With This Extravagant Photo Series

There is a sizeable community on the internet expressing a great love for nail art. From elegance to imagination, the hobby celebrates creativity and everything on the artistic spectrum fulfilling every daily need.

Certainly an intricate art form, Instagram accounts show off every detail at the tip of creators' fingertips. But the lesser-shown set? Dig a bit deeper, go a bit lower and you'll find it: toenail art.

Artist and photographer Amy Lombard creates a new photo series, NAILS PT. 2, after an inital collaboration focusing on nail art in 2015. Working with nail artist Natalie Pavloski back then and Sonya Meesh now, Lombard fuses photography and nail art to create a staggering series, with foot modelling by Amanda Lanzone.

On her first series, Lombard explains the importance of creating a juxtaposition that is glorious and disgusting simultaneously, in combining extravagant nails and grotesque fast food. A polarizing stylistic touch also seeps into NAILS PT. 2.

The motivation for this new project comes from a desire to explore an equally growing community:

"The work was particularly inspired by women who favor long, acrylic sets on their toenails.

Like any community, they have their own corner of the internet where they come together and if you look hard enough you'll find amateur photographs of their long extravagant toenails in scenarios ranging from (what I now know is) the go-to pose of bare feet on gas and break pedal, feet covered in food, to photos of more stylized photos in front of silky backdrops."

Throughout Lombard's work, an infatuation with strong contrasts, both in photographic methods and in subject matters, is key. In NAILS PT.2 this translates in the range of concepts and contexts showing off the toenail art.

Flirting with food and kneading the rubble, the series shines a light on the highs and lows of a bold, bright and brilliant art form. You can discover more of Amy's work on her website, and the full series below.

Lana Del Rey's New Way of Seeing

Lana Del Rey always makes me think about John Berger, the writer and critic who died this past January, at the age of ninety. In "Ways of Seeing," Berger wrote that a woman is "almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself." Since she entered the pop ecosystem, in 2011, Del Rey's career has been defined by extravagant self-consciousness, rendered through a narrow set of intertwined cultural tropes. In "Blue Jeans" and "Video Games," the D.I.Y. music videos that made her famous, Del Rey intercut Webcam clips of herself with archival footage of American iconography: palm trees, Vegas neon, roses blooming, police, paparazzi, the Stars and Stripes. (These days, on Instagram, she often murmurs her music into the front-facing camera of her phone.) She pouted as she sang, wearing lace and gold and crosses, looking like a self-composed collage. She was a moll, a starlet, a Stepford wife—a "gangster Nancy Sinatra," as she herself put it. She seemed so aware of the image she was creating that, to many, she inevitably seemed fake.

But artifice is not the same thing as dishonesty. Forty years before social media would lend a new dimension to his thesis, Berger wrote that a woman's "own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another"—namely, by a male viewer. Women, Berger argued, live in a state of self-consciousness that is at once artificial and authentic to the world we live in. He offers two images for comparison: the 1814 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painting "La Grande Odalisque" and a photo from a nineteen-sixties girlie magazine. "Is not the expression remarkably similar in each case?" he asks. "It is the expression of a woman responding with calculated charm to the man whom she imagines looking at her—although she doesn't know him." It is an expression that Del Rey wears as she stares at the camera in those early videos. She controlled the process, unlike the women in those images; but, like them, she was "offering up her femininity as the surveyed," as Berger put it. As tends to happen, she was both rewarded and punished for doing so.

My favorite Del Rey song is the demo version of "National Anthem," a song that appeared on her début album, "Born to Die," from 2012. The album cut is a sweeping, kitschy, string-section fantasia; its opening sounds like the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." The demo is rougher, with a crunchy, grinding beat and a Joan Jett bass line. In the D.I.Y. video that accompanies it, Del Rey dances in a dress that looks like a cupcake, singing for the camera between clips of Elvis, fireworks, and Air Force One. She's isolated—she has the look of someone who's locked herself in a hotel room—and she wears that expression again, luxuriating in the pleasure of her own image as viewed by an as-yet-imaginary audience. "He will do very well / I can tell, I can tell / Keep me safe, in his bell tower, hotel," she sings. She has fully allied her performance with the idea that, as Berger wrote, women are "born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men."

That video was leaked in June, 2012, shortly before the release of the official video—a seven-minute production in which Del Rey plays both Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy to A$AP Rocky's J.F.K. It is a hyper-specific distillation of American romance: golden late afternoon on Chappaquiddick; champagne and diamonds; blue hydrangeas, red dresses, endless green lawns. Visually and lyrically, the imagery is simple: rich men and beautiful women; freedom through submission—"wind in my hair / hand on the back of my neck." Del Rey's two governing aesthetics, love and country, collapse into each other completely. "Tell me I'm your national anthem," she pleads on the chorus, repeating the line as the chords shift to sudden, unnerving euphoria. If Del Rey's entire project is an experiment in all-encompassing narrative obedience, this song is proof of concept to me. The national anthem is as good a metaphor as any for the blind, binding pledges of romantic love.

What Can Luxury Learn from Beauty Influencers

Each May, the world's leading luxury fashion houses present their cruise shows with elaborate marketing spectacles often staged in far-flung locations and attended by a travelling herd of industry insiders, celebrities and, for the past decade or so, a flock of digital influencers and bloggers. Budgets range anywhere from $2 million to over $10 million.

Is it worth the investment? The short answer is maybe. Success can be measured in earned media value: what it would otherwise cost to buy the impressions driven by these events and their PR, influencer and social media amplification strategies.

In May 2017, when Chanel, Dior, Gucci and Louis Vuitton held cruise shows in Paris, Los Angeles, Florence and Kyoto respectively, Gucci's presentation outpaced competitors — even Chanel, which has a larger social media following — clocking over $63 million in earned media value, up 170 percent year-over-year for the month, according to marketing firm Tribe Dynamics. Of the four, Louis Vuitton came in last place, generating $25 million in earned media value, a 31 percent decrease year-over-year for the month.

But even Gucci pales in comparison to Anastasia Beverly Hills, one of the hottest beauty brands on the internet, which generated $90 million in earned media value in the same month — and that without spending untold millions on a splashy cruise event.

It's not an apples-to-apples correlation, of course. Beauty drives digital conversion more naturally than luxury ready-to-wear or accessories because it is accessible to a far wider audience. Beauty products lend themselves more readily to conversations about which products to use and how to apply them. (Consider the popularity of YouTube makeup tutorials, which can garner millions of views and thousands of comments.) They're also relatively more affordable, which means it's easier to convert engagement to an actual purchase. In the first six months of 2017, the world's top five beauty brands generated a total of $1.9 billion in earned media value, $688 million more than the top five luxury fashion brands.

The gap between the earned media impact of beauty and luxury fashion brands should be no surprise to anyone following the rise of independent beauty brands like the aforementioned Anastasia Beverly Hills and Colourpop, which have disrupted incumbents, in part, by dominating the digital conversation. They nurture relationships with thousands of micro-influential consumers by sending them products, inviting them to events, introducing them to executives and celebrating their personal and professional accomplishments.

By contrast, luxury fashion brands have been slow to use the same approach because they have rich histories with which to contend, something many of these newer, more successful beauty lines don't need to worry about protecting. Therefore, luxury brands are less willing to trust outsiders to play a significant role in their marketing efforts. And when they do, they focus on a select group of established macro-influencers, such as Chiara Ferragni, Aimee Song and Bryan Grey Yambao, also known as BryanBoy — each with well over 100,000 followers on Instagram and documented histories of staying on message.

Luxury brands are historically much less willing to cultivate relationships with unproven, smaller-scale personalities who often have more impact on their followers than macro-influencers: according to influencer tracking company Markerly, engagement decreases as audience size increases, and users with 10,000 to 100,000 followers offer the best combination of engagement and reach.

"With luxury, there is hesitation to get into a media format that you don't have a lot of control over…to embrace this community of people that are creating content, that really are the new publishers and editors and bring them into the fold," says Conor Begley, co-founder and president of Tribe Dynamics. "But the frank reality is that you don't have a choice anymore."

By largely failing to engage and steer the digital conversation at scale, luxury fashion brands have, in fact, relinquished control. "The audience is just talking about the brand in the way they see fit," explains Thomas Rankin, co-founder of visual marketing intelligence platform Dash Hudson. "And now certain luxury brands are almost embarrassed by the conversation that has happened from the audience."

The growing volume of social media activity is increasingly drowning out official brand communications, making it harder and harder for marketers without strong influencer strategies to get their message across. "Every year you see 50 percent more photos being shared and you're seeing engagement drop 10 percent year-over-year," says Rankin. "If you don't have an audience that has deep connections with other people, you can't compete, even if you continue to increase the amount you put out in the ecosystem. You essentially start to disappear unless you dump billions of dollars into advertising."

According to Tribe Dynamics, the top influencer driving the conversation on luxury products is the popular — and controversial — singer-songwriter, model and make-up artist Jeffree Star, who has over 500 million views on YouTube and almost five million followers on Instagram. "[Star] is talking not just about the beauty brands, but also the fashion apparel and accessories products," says Begley, recalling a meeting in which representatives from one luxury house told him they didn't want to be associated with Star, although he was already driving more conversation about the brand than anyone else.

Beauty and the Bestiality

The half-buried truth about Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is that, in the end, the prince is a letdown. At the end of the 1991 cartoon, when the enchantment is lifted, he looks incomplete, vaguely embryonic—a smooth-skinned creature with maidenly bedhead and a tentative smile. Even for a viewer too young, as I was, to grasp the psychosexual undertones of a tale as old as this one, the Beast's physicality—the big buffalo head, the wolf's tail, all pathos and silly roughness—seemed less like an obstacle in the love story than its central object.

The same is true in the live-action remake, which stars Emma Watson as Belle, and Dan Stevens, for most of the movie, as the disturbingly tender human eyes that blink from the face of the C.G.I.-swaddled Beast. Without the layer of abstraction provided by Disney's cartoonists, it's harder to ignore the uneasiness of this particular romantic adventure. During the duet "Something There," Watson sings, about the Beast's suddenly apparent sweetness, "I wonder why I didn't see it there before." (I wanted to yell, as if to a girlfriend across a bar table, that the delay might have been because her man was a bison.) As the song continued, the Beast sang, full of pathetic wonder, "When we touched, she didn't shudder at my paw," and the woman sitting alone one seat away from me, who had treated herself to two wines during our Alamo Drafthouse matinée, started to giggle. When Belle and the Beast met at the top of the grand staircase, and "Tale As Old As Time" started swelling, the woman—a stranger, and a perfect one—leaned over to me. "What's his dick like?" she whispered.

In Anthony Lane's review of "Beauty and the Beast" for the magazine, he noted the glint and tug of sex in Jean Cocteau's 1946 "La Belle et la Bête," in which the Beast, after becoming a man again, says to Belle, "It's as though you missed my ugliness." Lane writes, "The lady preferred the animal. Such thoughts are out of bounds, needless to say, in the Disney garden." And still, at the end of the remake, as Belle is dancing with her prince, who wears powder-blue pants and a hair ribbon, she asks him, flirtatiously, if he'd consider growing a beard. He looks back at her knowingly, and gives a short, beastly roar.

A new book from Penguin, edited by Maria Tatar, titled "Beauty and the Beast: Classic Tales About Animal Brides and Grooms from Around the World," provides some historical context. Belle's story, Tatar writes in the introduction, is a "mere nostalgic remnant of a vast repertoire of stories" about similar pairings—fairy tales and folktales that turn "antagonists into allies," allowing us to pursue an "understanding of what we share with beasts even as we try to discover what makes us human."

Both of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" movies are essentially faithful to the durable, child-friendly version written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont for her Magasin des Enfants, in 1756. That was a morality tale in which Beauty deserves her happy ending—the prince, his riches—because of her modest decency, which just so happens to coexist with her superior intelligence and undeniable good looks. (In the 2017 remake, Watson's Belle is refigured as an inventor working to increase literacy among young village girls.)

The "Beauty and the Beast" story may originally have held appeal because of its relatability. "Many an arranged marriage must have felt like being tethered to a monster," Tatar writes. The many stories featuring a young woman turned over to a beast for the financial or social benefit of her family "may have furnished women with a socially acceptable channel for providing advice, comfort, and the consolations of imagination," preparing them "for an alliance that required effacing their own desires."

The animating question behind these tales of beastly alliances, however, remains: Which desires are quashed, and which are awakened? What is the heroine robbed of, and what is she given—both in the manner in which her story is told and within the story itself? The best-known antecedent to "Beauty and the Beast" is the ancient Greek myth of Zeus and Europa, in which the unfaithful deity transforms into a bull and kidnaps a pretty virgin. It's a story of rape and abduction that's generally framed as a story of rapture, with many a painter depicting Europa in "erotic abandonment and oceanic ecstasy," Tatar writes. In Edith Hamilton's version of the myth, which is reprinted in the Penguin book, Europa is attracted to the bull. "She cried to the others to come with her and mount him. . . . He is so mild and dear and gentle to behold. He is not like a bull, but like a good, true man." The bull leaps into the air and, when Europa becomes afraid, he tells her "she had no cause to fear. . . . He was Zeus, greatest of gods, and all he was doing was from love for her."

Another story, an Italian folktale called "King Pig," is a bit more explicit. A young man is cursed by three fairies, doomed to exist in the form of a pig until he has "taken a woman to wife three times." The pig kills his first two wives, who dislike his "foul and dirty" body. His third wife, however, treats him sweetly. When the pig kisses her, "she was not at all backward in returning his caresses." In the morning, the pig's mother sees the young bride "lying in the bed, muddy as it was, looking entirely pleased and contented." The heroines aren't always reluctant. In a Greek folktale called "The Golden Crab," the beautiful princess announces, "I am married to a crab, and I want no one else."

Even when the heroines begin by resisting, as Belle does, they usually give in to their animal husbands in uneven, complicated ways. In "East of the Sun and West of the Moon," a Norwegian story, a father signs his daughter over to a large white bear in exchange for a promise of riches. The daughter resists and resists, and then, finally, she fixes her hair and puts on a nice dress, and rides away on bearback. In an English folktale called "The Small-Tooth Dog," another father consigns his daughter to the ugly titular canine. When she cries and begs to be taken home, the dog asks her, "What do you call me?" She answers honestly, and he's furious. He asks her again, and she says, "Your name is Sweet-as-a-honeycomb."

Most of the stories about young women and animal grooms follow a predictable pattern. The human brides don't have much choice in the matter. They leave home; they submit to an animal; they often suffer; occasionally they experience flickers of deep attraction and love. In the end, they're often rewarded by riches, and the animal is replaced by a man. But the Penguin book also includes plenty of stories in which the genders are flipped, pairing young men with animal brides. In these tales, the animal women are generally phenomenal domestics, and the plot usually goes one of two ways. Either the spell is broken after the animal proves her worth in the home, and she turns back into a maiden—or the animal is forced to become human at the beginning of the story, when the man steals her feathers or breaks her shell. In this type of story, the woman escapes, turning back into an animal, in the end.

The best-known animal-bride story is, perhaps, the Japanese folktale "The Crane Wife," which is surpassingly beautiful: a tale of mutual sacrifice and betrayal, with a pivotal scene of a young man peeking into a room to see his wife as a crane, weaving a lustrous fabric out of her own feathers and blood. In this story, the crane wife offers herself freely and leaves at will—a fairy-tale outcome if I've ever heard one.

Meditation How-Tos with a Kundalini Guide

Women go to great lengths to feel and experience beauty—we buy tons of products and try multitudes of treatments. But, one of the greatest beauty tools is right in your house, waiting for you to give it a try. Unfortunately, you’re not going to like it. Just bear with me because it truly gives your skin that radiant glow you’ve been working so hard to get.

Hydrotherapy is an ancient tool used for radiant health. By that, I mean: cold showers! I know, I know, you get a chill to the bone just reading this, but the benefits are numerous and well worth the few minutes of cold water. A few minutes of cold water for a lifetime of health and beauty feels like a fair trade, if you ask me.

In Kundalini yoga, this is one of the biggest beauty secrets we have. If you look at many of the women who practice Kundalini, it’s not just the hormone-balancing effect of the practices and meditations, it’s also the daily cold showers that make these women absolutely glow. Cold showers are known to clean the blood in a way that nothing else can; it opens the tiny blood capillaries in the body where we store toxins that are very hard to remove—toxins that age us. These capillaries will open and flush out all the toxins and get the circulation moving through the entire body.

Regular cold showers will not only clean out toxins from the body, but will also balance the glandular system (your hormones), strengthen your nervous system (your ability to handle stress), and keep your skin youthful and glowing. Yogi Bhajan, the master of Kundalini yoga, says: "Showers should be cold. Cold showers preserve a woman as a woman; they correct imbalanced menstruation, prevent early menopause and skin problems, and they help her to keep her glow."

How to Practice Hydrotherapy

-Massage the body with almond oil or olive oil. This helps to neutralize the toxins as they are being released.
-It's recommended that women wear something to cover the thighs to protect the femur (thigh bone) from the sharp cold. This area of the body regulates the production of calcium and it’s very sensitive, so if possible, wear shorts or try to avoid getting that area cold as much as possible.
-After you massage with oil and cover yourself (or not), step into the cold shower and briskly massage your skin as if you’re cold and trying to warm yourself up. (Oh, wait, you are!) Move, laugh, scream, breathe. Do whatever you can to stay in there and briskly massage your body.
-Massage the arms, under the armpits, the breasts, your lower back, the backs of your calves.
-Let the cold water hit your face, your forehead, above your upper lip.
-Continue to rub your skin vigorously! Massage until you feel your body warming up (I know, it sounds impossible but this will actually happen as the blood rushes to the surface and your body is able to sustain the cold).
-When finished after a few minutes, dry yourself off with a warm towel.
-While many women chose to do this daily, at least once a week is good enough to start.
-If you need a video on how to do it right, visit the video here of incredible Kundalini yoga teacher Harijiwan teaching how to properly do this yogic practice (it’s a whole thing, trust me) and the many benefits of doing so.

Summer’s beauty is in full swing

So, how did you spend Fourth of July? Across New England, it seems, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Up here in the mountains, the early morning was cool, almost chilly with dew on the grass. As the day progressed, blue skies became dotted with puffy clouds, afternoon temperature in the low 80s, nice breeze blowing, not a trace of humidity, temperatures cooling quickly once the sun set. Perfect, simply perfect, a dream of a summer day.

And everyone was out enjoying it. One of the things you learn quickly living in a vacation destination is how to minimize as much of the tourist hustle and bustle as possible and still do what you want to do. On summer weekends and holidays, that means going out early or late in the day, enjoying home when everyone else is out and about.

My sweetheart Em and I were up early on July 4, and took a walk on a nearby recreation trail to watch the sun rise. This wasn't a major hike, just a way to stretch our legs and get lungs and muscles moving. We didn't want to go too far or take too long. The air was cool for the moment, a nice breeze was blowing, there were no mosquitoes out, and even though this is a very popular short hike, we only saw a couple of other people.

Many songbirds in the area have already raised their first brood of chicks (we've been seeing striped-breasted young robins learning to fly and hunt on our lawn), and it's time for a second nesting. The air was alive with the audio warfare of males trying to establish and defend a territory to attract willing females. Robins, cardinals and doves were the most noticeable.

Wildflowers grow in abundance along this trail and the crown vetch was in full bloom. Gardeners and hayfield owners alike hate this aggressive weed with a passion. In favorable conditions, it can choke out more "desirable" flowers and more nutritious grasses in a hayfield. But, growing here, where it wasn't doing any harm, it was simply lovely, covered with flowers shading lavender to almost pure white.

We had a great time. There's nothing like an early stroll to start a summer day right.

By the time we got back to our car, the sun was well up and other people, most with out-of-state license plates, were starting to show up. As far as I'm concerned, they'd missed prime time. I don't understand why people on vacation are so willing to spend the best hours of a sunny summer day in bed.

There's a lake with a public beach and boat launch about a mile from our house. Before dawn, the beach was empty and only a few fishermen had put their boats in for the day. We could easily have paddled out for a quiet hour listening to loons, but we save that for non-holiday weekdays when there will be less boat traffic later in the day.

As we came back from our walk a couple of hours later, the place was hopping. Every available spot that would hold a vehicle and boat trailer was taken. It was still a little too cool for swimmers and sunbathers so the beach hadn't filled up yet – but it would. 

By early evening, however, the situation had changed. Because it was the actual holiday, lots of folks would leave a little early to try to avoid some of the worst traffic. Others would stay on for the big local fireworks display but had to get dinner first.

So I took a chance, strapped my fast touring kayak on the car (yes, I have different kayaks for different purposes) and headed for the lake. While there were boats waiting to pull out, it was easy enough to carry my kayak to the water and launch it off the nearly-empty beach. Paddling out through the channel that leads to the main lake I had to keep to the side to avoid the parade of slow-moving powerboats headed back to the launch.

As I had hoped, by the time I rounded the point to the open lake, most of the powerboats were gone. One ski boat went roaring by with a tuber behind and disappeared down the lake. One jetski buzzed by like an angry hornet before disappearing as well. That left one fishing boat easing along a weedy shoreline with an electric motor, and a handful of kayaks, canoes and SUPs venturing out onto the now-still waters. A couple of families were enjoying lakeside barbecues, so the lake wasn't as silent as it would have been before sunrise, but it was amazingly quiet for a busy summer holiday

I paddled quietly across the open water, ducked into a couple of quiet coves and circumnavigated an island or two, looking for loons and turtles and simply enjoying the solitude and the pleasure of paddling a sleek, fast, responsive kayak. Once you find your rhythm and the speed the boat wants to go, there's a real Zen to paddling that engages your muscles and leaves your mind free to observe and enjoy. The miles flow by as easily as if the water were flowing and you were standing still.

I wasn't in any hurry, but kept moving at a good pace and covered several miles down the lake and back. All the way back to the boat launch, I had the spectacle of the setting sun to keep me company. Who needs anything more? Life isn't a spectator sport. Get out and enjoy!

The very best beauty from Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week 2017 has been a whirlwind of jaw-dropping, show-stopping beauty looks - each one every bit as mesmerising as the made-to-measure garments.

For the past few seasons beauty looks have been pared back with the fashion doing ALL of the talking. But 2017 has seen a dramatic turnabout with makeup and hair that's been flawless- and we couldn't be more excited. For example ...

Makeup artist Tom Pecheux created a glowing, golden beauty look to match the Games of Thrones-inspired headpieces and soft-waves sported by the models at Ellie Saab.

There was golden locks at Maison Margiela, fresh floral wreathes at Rodarte and smokey disco eyes at Alexandre Vauthier.

In fact, there were so many amazing looks we simply cannot choose the one we love best. So instead, we're bringing them all.

Click through the very best hair and makeup moments from the Fall 2017 Haute Couture shows.

How to get the perfect eyebrows

It has taken me years to master the seemingly unattainable perfect eyebrow shape. Much like a bad haircut, after many (MANY) horrific incidents involving plucking, waxing and threading, I never thought I'd get there. It has taken a lot of patience (and a little bit of prayer), but I'm finally content with my eyebrow shape. While I'm not an official eyebrow expert, unofficially I've had lots of trial and error experience so I can definitely point you in the right direction if this is something you're struggling with.

Achieving the right shape for your face has a lot to do with going to the right/same eyebrow person and also with using/knowing how to use the right tools to fill them in. For me, the perfect eyebrow formula includes the Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow, the Anastasia Brow Wiz and the Village Browery (shout out to my girl Crista). Being consistent with your eyebrow routine will only help to strengthen and define them.

I used to feel the need to fill in my eyebrows everyday, but ever since achieving my current shape I only do so for occasions that call for some makeup. When filling in my brows I start off by lightly going over them with the Gimme Brow tinted gel. I love this tinted gel because I have sparse, but thick eyebrows (if that makes any sense) and it helps to fill them in without making them look too thick or overfilled. I then go in with my Brow Wiz to better define and shape my eyebrows, filling in any areas above or below that I missed with the gel. This is a great combo to achieve a very natural look.

And, that's all it takes! If you're struggling to find a great eyebrow lady, I highly recommend Crista from the Village Browery. She works closely with you to achieve a beautiful eyebrow shape. She definitely put mine back on the map. Above all else, remember that it takes patience and consistency in your routine, but eventually you'll get to that ever-alluding perfect eyebrow shape. Trust me, the eye(brows) never lie.