Simple winter hairstyles that are easy on your fragile hair.

When the winter rolls around, hair can get a little testy: dry, brittle, or just looking a little fried, those locks can be hard to tame and style. But if you stick to styles that don’t require a lot of tugging, heat processing, or hair-spraying, your hair will be much more willing to cooperate.

Here are a few quick styles that keep in mind those basic principles, getting you gorgeous and coiffed in no time.

• Bangs – Bangs cut to properly frame your face can be left to air dry, giving you a trendy look with minimal effort. Pair them with a messy ponytail and you can literally roll right out of bed into your look.

• Side Ponytail – For a more contemporary twist on the old stand-by, try a side swept wintertime ponytail. This look can be achieved with a little bit of volumizing mousse and bobby pins, so you don’t have to subject fragile hair to the rigors of ponytail holders.

• Headbands – Nothing is easier than pushing hair back with a gorgeous headband. And the more fabulous the headband, the more it will distract people from your hastily styled hair. Just tell them you’re rocking that messy bedhead look!

Check out our detailed eye map to demystify the process of fabulous eyeliner application.

People ask a lot of questions about eyeliner and how best to apply makeup in the area closest to the actual eye itself. I get it: it can be tricky and a little nerve-wracking to do all of that fine detail work.

One of the ways to de-mystify the process is to take a look at an eye map that outlines the major areas directly around the eye to which people often refer when doing tutorials. This will help you understand how to make the most of your eye makeup, while avoiding looking heavy-handed.

• Upper Lash Line – The upper lash line is a versatile little canvas that can rock a smudgy kohl line or the precision of a winged liquid eyeliner look. Just stay as tight to the lash line as you can, and remember to apply eye shadow first, topping it with your desired eyeliner.

• Wings – These are the parts of your eyeliner that you intentionally extend out past your outer corner, especially popular for retro looks. Make sure you’re using a liquid liner or a Slanted Brush for precise lines. Otherwise they’ll just look like a messy mistake.

• Lower Lash Line – This is the area just under your lower lashes, and also the area where most people assume that your bottom liner should go. If you take a look at the eye map above, the black eyeliner is actually on the model’s water line (see below) and her lower lash line is accented with the same color purple eye shadow that she’s wearing on her lid.

This is a crucial distinction to make because drawn-on black eyeliner on your lower lash line looks dated and gives you that “ringed raccoon” look that is so unflattering.

This is the issue with the makeup in the photo below; the waterline has been neglected and there is too much harsh eyeliner ringing the eyes.

When lining the lower lash line, it is essential to blend, blend, blend. Harsh lines do not flatter!

• Waterline – The area that actually touches the eye itself, most people are a little skittish about lining their waterline. While it can take a little practice to feel comfortable, just remember a few quick tips:

o Gently pull the lower lid down so that you can line the waterline away from the eye.

o Use waterproof eyeliner for better staying power.

o You don’t have to line all the way into the tear duct. This can actually cause the eyeliner to get smeary and sort of smudge down the corner of your eye, so better to just skip it.

Check out a vlog haul of all the new products from our winter trend line, Frosted Sparkle!

I’m so excited to be presenting you with a haul of the products from our winter trend line, Frosted Sparkle. Check out my vlog and feel free to comment with suggestions, since I’m still learning! Also, you can find swatches and product links below the embedded video.

Products:

Eye & Cheek Palette 01
Eye & Cheek Palette 02

Define & Sparkle Shade 01: Black
Define & Sparkle Shade 02: Silver

Shimmer Gloss Shade 01: Iced Sparkle
Iced Body Powder: Apricot

Eye & Cheek Palette 01

Eye & Cheek Palette 02

Eye Define & Sparkle

Iced Body Powder

What’s your Etc? We asked around and got some pretty wonderful answers. Take a look!

As you know by now, we are beyond excited about the launch of our new fragrance, Love Etc…With a fresh take on some of our favorite scents and notes, Love Etc…has an appeal that’s both emotional and sensual!

In honor of this new fragrance we took to the Twittersphere to ask people “What’s Your Etc?” We wanted to know about the sweet things that make people swoon, and we got plenty of heart-warming responses. Take a look below to see for yourself!

Have more love to add to the mix? Leave them in the comments below so that we can all enjoy!

The Body Shop is giving away more Love Etc loot!

We’re ready to give away another little iPod Shuffle, just for tweeting! It’s easy, all you have to do is follow @thebodyshopusa on Twitter and use the hashtag #LoveEtc anytime you send out a tweet about what you ♥ between now and 4pm EST tomorrow. You’ll automatically be dropped into the pool of entrants, with each tweet increasing your chances of winning our prize!

We’ll randomly select a winner from those using the #LoveEtc hashtag to win an iPod Shuffle with love, from The Body Shop!

An easy How To Get The Look if you’re digging for a last-minute costume idea!

People get excited about Halloween pretty early on, so there have been a few requests for makeup looks dramatic enough for dressing up, but not so complicated that you can’t do them with the products you already have in your drawer. So here’s an easy-yet-fabulous Halloween costume idea: a Living Doll!

• To begin, start with a foundation that is going to leave you with a flawless, porcelain-like complexion. Flawless Skin Protecting Foundation is my pick, because it gives me a substantial enough coverage without feeling thick.

• Prime your eyes with Skin Primer Matte It. You’ll be putting on a fair amount of eye makeup, and you don’t want it to melt off and lose its punch halfway through the night.

Eyes

• Begin by using Eye Color Shade 40: Baby Pink and applying it to the half of your eye closest to the inner corner. Go ahead and bring it all the way up to the brow and out a bit.

• Next, take a purplish color like Eye Color Shade 04: Granite or Shade 30: Amethyst onto your Eyeshadow Brush. Gently pat it onto the outer corner of your eye, only bringing it up to the crease, and blending it over on the lid until you hit the lighter color.

• Take Eye Shimmer Shade 02: Gold and touch it to the inside of each tear duct area to help eyes stand out.

• Next, take your Liquid Eyeliner and line your upper lid, finishing off the outside of the lid with not one, but two flicks. This will help to give you a more artificial, opened-eye look.

• Then, take the Liquid Eyeliner underneath the lower lashline, and begin dragging it down messily in short, quick little strokes. This is called “twigging” (because the famous model Twiggy popularized it back in the 60’s), and it shouldn’t be done with too much precision. Be messy!

• I finished off the eyes by lining my waterline with Eye Definer Shade 01: Black and putting on lots of coats of Super Volume Mascara.

Cheeks

• Take a fluffy brush, like the Face & Body Brush, and swirl it into Cheek Color Shade 03: Heather Pink. Then work the blush in a careful circle right on the apples of your cheeks. Be sure to use enough blush that the circle is visible, and then gently blend it out.

Lips

• Begin by priming the lips with a concealer that is the same shade as the foundation you used as your base. This will help them to disappear into the skin so that you can recreate a lip shape.

• Next, take Lip Liner Shade 13: Rosy Red and draw in liner vertically just after the peaks of the Cupid’s Bow, then fill in. This will create the illusion of a tiny little set of doll lips.

• Use the Lipstick/Concealer Brush to fill in the outline using your desired shade of lipstick. I used new Colourglide Lip Color Shade 52: Rich Scarlet. Then smudge on just a bit of Sheer Lip Shine Shade 03: Strawberry for just a bit of a gloss.

Remember, your ultimate goal for this look is high drama, so don’t be afraid to really go bold. Throw on some fake eyelashes if you have them, and a big ribbon or bow in your hair to complete the doll look.

Can’t conjure a costume? Simple yet gorgeous ideas to impress at that upcoming party!

Halloween is such an incredibly fun time of year. It’s the only time of year that we adult types get to play dress-up with reckless abandon and indulge in creative costuming. But if you’re looking for a little motivation for a costume and look that will still be gorgeous without costing you an arm and a leg, or forcing you to invest tons of time that you don’t have, then here are a few simple suggestions for a costume look on the fly:

• One stunning look that can be put together in an evening is the Greek Goddess. Just pull out a white dress, some gold jewelry, and some leaves for your hair. The makeup look is glowing shimmer, so be certain to sweep on tons of bronzer, and focus on keeping the lips neutral, while playing up eyes with copper eyeliner and gold shadow.

• The Dark Angel look is perfect for giving you that edgy glam look, but it’s generic enough that you could pair it with anything to create a costume. The key ingredient here is getting creative with your Liquid Eyeliner, which you should think of as more of a paintbrush. And don’t forget to load up on shimmery eye shadow to really make the look pop.

• When in doubt, leave your hair long and find a feather for your headband to create the 1920’s Flapper look! A little fringe on your skirt and a snug hat or hair wrap can perfect the look in minute. Aim for slightly smudgy eyes and bright red lips painted to perfection with a Lipstick/Concealer Brush.

Natural Beauty Bloggers top nominees have been selected, so cast your vote now!

We’re so excited that our readers have come forward to nominate some of their favorite Natural Beauty Bloggers on the web. These are the bloggers that bring their readers the newest and best in how to be beautiful and compassionate, both inside and out.

Below is our list of the 9 most nominated bloggers. There were 10 of us, and thank all of you who nominated this blog, but as the hosts we’ll just stand back and watch the fun unfold! These are the bloggers that you’ll be voting for, so make sure you take some time and get to know them by visiting their blogs to see what they’re all about.

1. All Natural Annie
2. Beauty Secrets Revealed
3. dkMommy Spot
4. My Beauty Bunny
5. Prissy Green
6. The Organic Beauty Expert
7. Viva Woman
8. Wellness Oasis
9. What She Really Wants

Once you’ve chosen a favorite, cast your vote below, but remember that you only have until November 6th, 2009 to choose. After that, stay tuned for a Q&A with our winner on all things naturally beautiful.

Here’s what others are saying about our new scent, Love Etc!

Every so often, we like to take some time to click around to other blogs and see what people are saying about The Body Shop and our products. We love customer feedback and reviews, because they help us to create and modify our products to give you exactly what you want!

We are absolutely thrilled with the launch of our new fragrance, Love Etc…, a long awaited arrival to our scent collection, but we were anxious to see what everyone else had to say. Here’s what we have to report on what others are saying about Love Etc…around the blogosphere recently.

• Cosmetic Candy took a deep breath of Love Etc… and fell for the warmth of the vanilla notes. The vanilla base notes help to give Love Etc… a touch of sensuality, and we’re glad that she found it suited her quite well!

• And speaking of ingredients, Daisy Green made sure to note their approval of the use of Community Trade alcohol, which is distilled from Ecuadorian sugar cane. We’re glad that Community Trade is just as important to those gals as it is to us!

• It seems that Ella Cinderella was also smitten by the fruity notes with vanilla undertones, so much so that she’s taken to tossing the smaller size into her handbag. Now that’s what we call favoritism!

• Aside from raving about the scent, Lily Loves Lola was also on about the cute packaging! What can we say, how else could bottled love look but cute!

Win an iPod! Start tweeting about what you ♥ with #LoveEtc hashtag between now & 5pm EST to enter!

Ready to win an adorable little iPod Shuffle, just for tweeting? It’s easy, all you have to do is follow @thebodyshopusa on Twitter and use the hashtag #LoveEtc anytime you send out a tweet about whatever you ♥ between now and 5pm EST. You’ll automatically be dropped into the pool of entrants, with each tweet increasing your chances of winning our prize!

We’ll randomly select a winner from those using the hashtag #LoveEtc to win an iPod Shuffle with love, from The Body Shop!

Love iPod Sweepstakes – Twitter
Official Terms & Conditions

1. The Love iPod Sweepstakes (the “Promotion”) is offered by Buth-Na-Bodhaige Inc., 5036 One World Way, Wake Forest, North Carolina, which does business as The Body Shop® (“TBS”). The Promotion is only open to legal residents of the United States with a Twitter account who are at least 18 years of age. Employees and agents of TBS and/or its affiliated companies and family members of such employees and agents are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited by law.

2. The Promotion begins at 10:00am EST on 10/21/09 and finishes at 5:00pm EST on 10/21/09 (the “Promotion Period”).

3. One winner will be chosen at the end of the end of the Promotion Period. Winners will be announced by 6:00pm EST from the @thebodyshopusa Twitter account.

4. The prize is a new Apple iPod Shuffle 4GB (the “Prize”). A total of one Prize will be awarded during the Promotion Period. TBS will ship the Prize directly to each winner’s door anywhere in the Unites States (winners must provide a valid shipping address). TBS will dispatch the prize within 10 days of its receipt of the winner’s shipping address.

5. To enter the Promotion you must follow @thebodyshopusa and send out a tweet from your own Twitter account and include #LoveEtc in your message. No purchase is required for entry.

6. You can tweet as many times as you like; provided, however, entries using or suspected of using automated tweets will be disqualified.

7. Winners will be randomly selected from the eligible entries. Odds of winning a Prize are based on the number of eligible entries.

8. Neither TBS nor its affiliates shall be responsible or liable for: (i) any technical failures of any kind, including but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (ii) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the competition; (iii) any malfunction of or damage to the prizes; or (iv) any taxes of any kind imposed by any taxation authority in respect of the Prizes.