Made popular amongst my friends by “No Bones” Julie.. liquid leggings are still hot these days and seemingly impossible to find. I first saw them on Lindsay Lohan prob. in US Weekly (where else?) and knew they’d be big for night life wear. What could be next for leggings? So far we’ve seen zippers, bows, ruching, exotic materials/textures, lace, buttons, reflective…  I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Here’s the few pairs of liquid leggings could find. Ladies, cast your votes on which pair is a must-get. Also, if any of you dare to wear these out, I’m curious to see how you’ve worn them so send me a picture if you have one!

American Apparel RSAC306 Shiny Leggings

Members Only Liquid Leggings at Kitson

Slick Leggings at Nordstrom

Celebrities in their Liquid Leggings

I don’t normally blog about beauty here but anything luxe is game so I wanted to share with you the most amazing eye pencil / pencil eyeliner I’ve ever used…

iRobot and I were aimlessly lolling around the makeup counters of the new Bloomies in San Francisco a few months ago… iRobot was looking for some blush and so we hunted the aisles for something she wouldn’t turn her nose to. We ran into a fabulously gay makeup counter attendant. Gay men make the best salesmen to women, wouldn’t you agree? He introduced us to this new line we’d never heard of before — Scott Barnes. Scott Barnes is apparently a high profile makeup artist who created his own line of products.

I gave into the powers of gay persuasion and bought 1 Scott Barnes Eye Pencil in Chocolate and 2 bottles of Eye Ice, one in Glitterachi and the other in Burgundy. Let me tell you, I’ve worn liquid liner ever since I started wearing makeup due to the fact that I could never find a pencil that was thick enough but wouldn’t smudge. Scott Barnes’ Eye Pencil breaks every stereotype I had on pencil liners! First off, it goes on thick and velvety — so important if you ever want that dramatic line. Amazingly, I don’t end up with racoon eyes by the end of the night. It also has just enough firmness to it that it doesn’t break in the pencil sharpener. I’ve sharpened down an entire eye pencil in one sitting when the tip kept breaking off. I loved this eye pencil so much I went back and got it in Moondance (a smoky black). Both are equally luxelicious. At $18.00 they aren’t cheap but to me they’ve been worth every cent.

Eye Pencil in Chocolate — $18.00

The Eye Ice is great too but was not as earth shattering to me as the Eye Pencil.

iRobot ended up getting the Eye Pencil, along with the Chic Palette, a trio of pressed blush powder. Haven’t had a chance to get her reviews on this but hopefully her Scott Barnes experience has been as great as mine!

Chic Palette in Posh — $45.00

The pictures do not justice but the packaging is seriously slick.

I also found a pic of Scott online. I support you Scotty!
 

For those of you who prefer intimate Boutiques over the mass chains and malls, you’ll love this online shop I discovered over the break. Disclaimer: I met one of the owners (Gemma) over the weekend. She’s a friend of a friend of my hubbys’. There’s something about Gemma that just says style, sensual, and fun — all in one. I can see why she’d make a great buyer. She says they named the store TeenyPig since they love to eat. I can most certainly relate Gemma!

What I loved about TeenyPig right off the bat was the unique items, stuff you really just can’t find at the chain stores, and what’s even more bonus is the surprisingly realistic prices. Most things range from $50-$200.

www.teenypig.com

Here’s just a few of the pieces that screamed out at me: BUY NOW!

Lure Chain Drape Back Top — $175.00

Sweetees Belle Top – $88.00

WESC Alicia Knitted Stripe Tank — $90.00

And now… give me a few days to order these before you get them. I hear their stock runs out quick

It looks like a new fashion search engine is on the rise… my guess is that ShopStyle wants to be much more than a search engine though. It looks like they’ve got a pretty good following in a short amount of time (93,058th rank on alexa.com. ShopStyle users can browse the items ShopStyle has cataloged from major fashion retailers like J.Crew, Saks, etc, then create "stylebooks" featuring items they like in a set or grouping — kind of like a spread in a fashion magazine.

The intro on their "About Company" page reads:

"Picture the fantasy fashion magazine—page after page devoted only to must-haves from the best stores and hottest designers.
Now imagine shopping straight from those pages, without leaving home. That’s the need ShopStyle fills for the serious
fashion consumer. And it’s just the beginning of a revolution in the fashion industry powered by technology.

Launched in January 2007 as the first and only shopping engine devoted entirely to fashion, ShopStyle.com gives
style-conscious consumers a place to shop the online stores they trust, all in one place. An aggregator of both
fashion and people, ShopStyle.com brings users together to build and share looks and Stylebooks with friends,
family and the fashionista network."

Any Good?

To tell you the truth it took me some time to understand what the heck I was supposed to find actually interesting or helpful on the site. Besides the fact that a few of my favorite bloggers (Shop Diary, Coutorture, Invade My Closet, and more) have accounts on ShopStyle… I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be coming back frequently. I think ShopStyle faces the same issue that the rest of the Fashion Social Networks like Kaboodle, TeamSugar, Stylehive, and Polyvore face… keeping the user-generated content high quality w/o stifling the community with regulation and governance. Tell me you don’t see a whole lotta crap in some of these sites! It’s tiring filtering through all the stuff that you’re not interested in.

I must say… they were not the "only shopping engine devoted entirely to fashion". Like.com came way before them.

What I can see is that they did a good job of
getting in front of the right people — the Fashion bloggers! It’s the
fashion bloggers who will lead the fashion movement online. Any way you
can get them to particpate within your sites/applications you’re on the
right track. In the next few years I gather we’ll be seeing a lot more
tools tempting us bloggers away from the traditional tools like
Typepad, Blogger, etc. I know that once the right tool is out there for
me, I’ll be saying goodbye to this clunky interface myself!

What I liked in Shop Style

Here are a few of the ShopStyle Books that actually seemed pretty good.

Mom is Coming to Town by Coutorture

Rainbow Bubbles by Coutoture

Paris in the 1940’s by Dita Von Teese

Things They Need to Fix

• Make it easier to link back to individual stylebooks. As you can see above I couldn’t even link directly to the stylebook.
• Make their widget editor more flexible for us bloggers to post within our blogs.
• Add less mainstream and more luxe stores to their index — Talbots? Speigel? Eddie Bauer?? Yech yo!
• I’m assuming you can’t add items yourself from stores ShopStyle is not already affiliated with… that suxe!

Go to www.shopstyle.com to start defining your own ShopStyle. Test it out and let me know what you think… I’m going to play around with it some more too!

I like to stand naked in my closet in the mornings stressing over what to wear to wear. Ok not really. When I can spare the time I can get lost for hours in my closet coordinating outfits, it’s fun for me.. even relaxing on some days, but on most normal days this is a routine I wish could be automated.

As far as I know no tool or service like that exists for outfit-automation but in the meantime, Polyvore makes outfit creation pretty damn fun — online! How it works is you install a plug-in to grab articles of clothing off websites which are saved to your editor where you can then drag and drop the clothes, layer then on top of one another and create an entire look or outfit. You can also browse sets of other outfits girls have put together using the same items you used.

See below:

An outfit someone created…

All the other looks/outfits others have put together using the same blue top.

Selecting what looks good with what is so much easier when you can see all the pieces and parts juxtaposed. I used to lay out the outfits for my blog posts in Photoshop but after EllleElle turned me onto this niftiness of this tool I was sold. You can use it for more than just fashion… furniture layout, etc. Again — something I used to do in Photoshop for HOURS.

It will be interesting to see where Polyvore goes with this tool. Jianing and team — best of luck and contact me when you’re ready for user feedback!!

As for those dreaded mornings in the closet once I’ve created my Virtual Closet product I’ll let you all know You’ll be able to record every item in your closet in a online catalog and sign up for a stylist service that coordinates outfits for you. Sound like a service?

If you can get beyond the cliche name this luxe for less accessories online boutique has some serious bargains. Not that I endorse knock-offs but this site has ‘em, or should I say designer "inspired".

Go to ShopSueyBoutique.com

My luxe picks for the day:

Gwen Sunglasses $14.00

US Mag has a deal on this pair. Spend $40 at shopsueyboutique and get this pair of shades FOR FREE. I like the unique gap between the lens and the curved angles of the frame. It makes the sunglasses sporty but ultra chic.

Lily Belt $12.00

I like these hardware details. I’ve been searching for a belt like this to cinch all the baby doll loose fit tunics I’ve OD’d on.

Bow Hat $20.00

Pauperish but cute.

Stripe Tote $50.00

Something about this bag just makes me want to buy it.

For those of you who are looking for ideas on what to wear, this post is for you!

What’s a Look Book?
"Look book" is the term used to reference a collection of images that are assembled to help illustrate "looks" or "outfits". It could be a clothing retailer or a fashion magazine, and in my case a blog!, who puts together a Look Book. The main objective is to help inspire the reader with complete looks from head to toe. It makes it easier for the viewer to picture the product when it is paired with other nicely coordinating pieces. Look Books are a fairly new trend but I believe they will become increasingly popular and important to the fashion retail industry.

I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to photoshop together looks for you in my Luxe Mix Look Book so here’s some sites to refer to whenever you want some insta-inspiration on outfit ensembles.

Note: I’ll keep adding to this as I find more. Please help us out by adding any you know of yourselves in the Comments section!

Index of Look Books:

Pink Mascara Look Book (Philip Lim, Diane Von Furstenberg, Ya Ya)
http://www.pinkmascara.com/lookbook.html

Shopbop Look Book
http://www.shopbop.com/lookbook/lookbook_main.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302047459&lookFolderID=2534374302047459

BCBG Look Book
http://www.bcbg.com/spring2007/home.php

Activeendevours Look Book
http://www.activeendeavors.com/lookbook/

Max Studio Look Book
http://www.maxstudio.com/website/lookbook/LookBook-1.htm

Anthropologie Look Book
http://www.anthropologie.com/jump.jsp?itemID=2219&itemType=CATEGORY&all=1

Club Monaco Look Book
http://www.clubmonaco.com/032007/lookbook.asp

Luxe Mix Look Book
http://www.luxemix.com/luxe_mix/luxe_looks/index.html

Karmaloop Look Book (Urban/Street Wear)
http://www.karmaloop.com/lookbook/index.asp

Free People Look Book (Urban/Bohemian)
http://www.freepeople.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.browse/categoryID/f4fc7ff0-570a-4600-9c16-2e1b8bc0b63c

RavinStyle Look Book
http://www.ravinstyle.com/shop/outfits.asp

Banana Republic Look Book
http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/category.do?cid=12025&pageID=-1

Some Look Books for Men too!

Billionaire Boys Club (Hip Hop/Urban)
http://www.bbcicecream.com/lookbook/

I started using Kaboodle on Dec 5th 2005… and have not let up one bit. In case you didn’t notice I can fall in love with technology –especially technology that augments shopping! Kaboodle was one of those days that my boyfriend at the time lost a little piece of my heart. If you are not yet familiar with social bookmarking and have not used things like Del.icio.us or Furl, well this is going to blow you away. Kaboodle is actually a slight variation of social bookmarking and it’s classified as "shopmarking" since instead of bookmarking sites you can save or mark items out on the web that you are interested in buying. You can create lists for anything you want to refer to later. This is super convenient to save things you’re considering buying but are not ready to make the plunge.

  You’ll definitely want to install the plug-in to get this button for your browser. From there anytime you are on a page/item you want to save just hit that "add to kaboodle" button and in 2-clicks the item is tucked away into one of your kaboodle lists.

The list I save most the things I want is found here at "What a Girl Wants".

Some other kaboodles you may enjoy:

Index of Luxe Apparel Sites
Index of Luxe for Less Sites
Index of Luxe Shoe Sites
Index of Luxe Handbag Sites

I was blown away when I first saw this site. The technology introduced on this site will forever change the way we shop for fashion online. I’m really serious!!

www.like.com

I must forwarn the site is still in beta so it’s extremely quirky and often stalls my browser or crashes it completely. I’m sure as time goes on the performance will improve steadily.

In any case it’s worth a look. They have built a system that allows shoppers to pick a product, like a shoe, shirt, or handbag and scour the web for similar looking products. Of course the search is contrained to sites like.com crawls so it’s not everything out there but maybe one day it will.

(click on image to enlarge)

Above is a visual search I conducted on black heels. what’s great is that you can use your cursor to zone in on a specific part of the shoe or product that you like, such as the metal buckle of one of the shoes, or the stilleto heel and the search engine will retrieve all black heels that match that visual element.

I heard that the techonology they are using was originally built for facial recognition software. I’m glad they decided to put it to good use finally! Who cares about faces when you can be saving hours and hours of aimless searching for the perfect black patent leather stilleto??

I had heard about some great site Amazon had created for shoes but how come it’s so hard to find it? Well "Mo" showed me where it was today. Thanks Mo! Apparently they are still in beta but it’s true, you get $5 back if you ship overnight. Have yet to try this out myself and being that I just went a little crazy on Zappos.com (Short and Mid Length Boots: Flattering for the Calves… or just an excuse for my new Frye Boots? )

www.endless.com

Reasons Why I’m loving Endless.com (so far…)

• Get paid to ship overnight.
• The site is pretty to look at.
• They seems to have such a unique selection of shoes I don’t see on the usual suspects.
• They employ the latest and greatest web technologies to enhance the browsing and shopping experience — this does cause delays in the loading of images though, almost unbearable at times. But check out this filtering widget.
  
• Or this zoom thing. You’ve gotta try it for yourself to see how slick it is.
  

It’s so nice to see online retailers finally starting to figure out there are ways to sell more to all the shopaholics out there, those poor hopeless shopaholics.

I noticed while clicking around today that everywhere seems to now be offering free shipping. Was it just me or did this happen overnight? Not that I’m complaining.

A few of my favorites I found tonight on Endless.

Farylrobin Tolka Heeled Boot
Tough but Stylishly Proper.

Tribeca Cross Eye Lace Up Heeled Boot
These are kinda Little House on the Prairie but they’re still hot. Too bad they are sold out right now.

BCBG Max Azria Fias Mary Janes
If these are anything like the Chanels they are super comfy, like walking around in your bedroom slippers. The elastic banding secures the shoe to your foot but is so flexible it doesn’t rub against your skin like leather.

uhhh, there’s just too many to keep looking. goodnight for now.