The Best Pink Lipstick? Don't Take Our Word for It! Just Ask Realbeauty.com

Looking for a new lipstick? You might want to check out the Ultimate Lipstick Challenge from Realbeauty.com, the newest beauty site in town. The editors took 137 lipsticks and tried them on eight women with different skin tones and looks. They picked the one red, the one nude, the one pink and the one brown that worked the best on all of the women. Definitely an interesting experiment. (Some of the pink lippie pics are above.)

Why are we sharing this news? Because Lancome's L'Absolu Rouge in Voile de Rose won best pink lipstick! I have to make a terrible confession: I have never worn Voile de Rose! (But guess what I'll be wearing tomorrow...)

Realbeauty.com is in the beta phase, so take a look and let us know what you think.

To celebrate our win, let's give away a tube of Voile de Rose, and we'll throw in a L'Absolu Rouge La Base lip base/treatment. (Haven't tried it? Think of it as a super luxe lip balm.) Just tell us the last time you bought a new lipstick and we'll pick one post at random. Please post by Thursday. Good luck!

Aleksis Loves Beauty and Lancome Loves Aleksis! Here's the Buzz on Oscillation Powerfoundation

Let's start with a disclaimer for our friends at the FTC. Aleksis is not on the payroll! But what a terrific, thorough video. Thank you, Aleksis. Glad you like the product. People like you make my job easier!

Aleksis, as you can see above, reviewed our cool new product, Oscillation Powerfoundation. This is a mineral foundation that comes in a neat, easy-to-use package with a vibrating applicator. Just for the record, it comes in 12 shades and four intensities, from Ivory 10 to Sable 20. Check out lancome-usa.com for the shade chart to see photos of the actual loose powder, not just a shade chip. You'll get a good sense of the colors available. And the shades do work on a wide range of skin tones. We learned this at the editor event we did a few months back.

If you'd like to try Oscillation Powerfoundation, our friends over at My Beautyberry are giving some away. So scoot your cute selves over there and become a member so you can qualify for their giveaways.

P.S. Aleksis, you're not a fan of Oscillation Mascara?? How can that be? Maybe we need to arrange an iChat session so we can walk you through it and demo. We will convert you!

P.S.S. Have a great weekend everyone!

A Little Sumthin for Them, A Little Sumthin for You (It's a Giveaway Alert, My Beauties!)

Does it drive you crazy when stores start promoting the holidays before Halloween even begins? I don't want to see Christmas ornaments and candy corn or tinsel and turkey at the same time. But then there are lots of organized people who don't mind because they like to get their shopping done early.

Whether you're an organized holiday shopper or not, you'll enjoy our Lancome.com holiday gift guide. Why? Because it features options at lots of different price points and four of our favorite people: designer Chris Benz, mua Daniel Martin, spokesmodel Arlenis and sweet sweet Evelyn Iocolano, who created the Lollipop Theater Network charity. Each picked a few Lancome products that would make perfects gifts for their friends, family and other loved ones.

Make sure to take a look. You might get some cute ideas for stocking stuffers or little gifts or even, to quote fashion blogger Bryan Boy, a little sumthin sumthin for yourself. Let's do a fun giveaway. Tell us what gift you'd like to get right now and we'll pick one post at random to win all the gifts on Arlenis, Chris, Daniel or Evelyn's page. (Just tell us which page is your fave.) Please post by Sunday night. Good luck!

Congrats to Epic Theatre Ensemble!

We'd like to share some great news with you. Epic Theatre Ensemble was presented with a "Coming Up Taller" award by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House today! This award is given by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and recognizes outstanding community programs that celebrate the creativity of young people.

As part of its mission, Epic brings theatre to public high school students in New York City. Some of these schools have very little in the way of arts programs, so without Epic there would be no school plays. If you were or are lucky enough to attend a school that puts on plays each season, that's a shocking fact. For many high school students around the country, things like the TV show "Glee" are total fiction.

Lancôme has been a proud supporter of Epic for several years. The Epic artists and the students they work with are an amazing group of people and we've thoroughly enjoyed their Shakespeare Remix productions of such plays as "Othello," "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet." Our ambassador Kate Winslet even spoke to Epic student artists last year as part of an "Inside the Actors Studio"-type Q&A. (That's Kate with the students above.)

Congratulations again on this well-deserved award. Click here for info on Epic's upcoming performances.

The Best Fragrance Commercial Ever (Thanks, Kate Winslet!) And a Trésor Rollerball Giveaway...

Erin and I went to see Deborah Lippmann perform at Feinstein's at the Regency Hotel last night. I hope everyone knows Deborah. She is the top celebrity manicurist on the planet and she has a great nail polish line. Plus, she happens to be a fantastic jazz singer. Oh, and she's one of the nicest people in the industry, which explains why so many people were in attendance. It was a pretty major crowd. Supermodels, celebrity hair stylists, magazine editors, fashion stylists, photographers. Oh, and one very major Lancôme spokesperson.

Okay, it was Kate Winslet. Who has the most beautiful skin and who was wearing Trésor. A few people stopped Kate and told her how much they love her movies. (Including one woman who told her she'd seen "The Holiday" 15 times.) Kate's movies are great, but my favorite Kate role? You guessed it. Her original Trésor commercial. When the PR team watched it for the first time, we had tears in our eyes.*

But we didn't watch it 15 times. : )

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video as much as we do. There are longer versions plus behind-the-scenes options on YouTube. Leave a post letting us know what you think and we'll pick one post at random to win our new Trésor rollerball--sleek, chic, jet-set ready. Please post by end of day Thursday. Good luck!

*I lied. My favorite Kate movie is "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

Sandy Linter & The Breast Cancer Sisterhood

Our Beauty at Every Age expert Sandy Linter spent some time recently with Brenda Coffee, the dynamic founder of the Breast Cancer Sisterhood. This is an online support group with information for breast cancer patients, survivors, their families and their caregivers. Brenda and Sandy teamed up to do a series of videos about makeup for women undergoing chemotherapy. If you know anyone who could be helped by these videos, please pass them on and let them know about Brenda's organization.

This Weekend's Lancôme List!

Some things to do, see and read:

—Patricia, of the Lancôme PR team, is profiled on the Beauty Logic blog. Thanks to our friend Mildred for that and congrats on your 400th post. Phew!
—Our new pal Kae, who's behind the very popular Hungry Asian blog, reviews the Lollipop lip/nail charity collection we just launched. She gave herself a manicure with all the shades, and even added a hand-drawn silver Lancôme rose to the Bon Bon Strawberry mani! (See above.)
—There are a few days left to enter our Polyvore.com Hypnôse Senses contest. The winner gets a $250 gift certificate to lancome-usa.com and a bottle of Hypnôse Senses signed by Lancôme spokesmodel Daria Werbowy. (Daria is picking the winning entry!) Five runners-up each get $100 gift certificates.
—Need to amp up your eyeshadow? Get some inspiration from the charming XtellmeaboutmakeupX on YouTube as she discovers Lancôme for the first time. (The first time! Miss X, how is this possible?) She's pretty fearless with the eyeshadow application.
—If you're near a department store, stop by the Lancôme counter and check out our new Oscillation Powerfoundation. Did you see it in O Magazine? It's a fun product and it's unlike anything you've ever tried before. If you're a mineral fan, you will love this. No mess, no fuss, none of that twirling, etc., etc. The puff does all the work. Tell the beauty advisers that The Lancôme Blog sent you!
—I'll be washing my makeup brushes this weekend. Dirty brushes=dirty skin. Yuck. Good brushes will last a long time--but only if you take care of them. Wash yours if you haven't done so in a while.
—Cheer on the Yankees! (Unless you live in Philadelphia, of course.) The World Series is very glamorous this year, with the likes of Kate Hudson and Demi Moore in attendance. (Demi, btw, has a new Helena Rubinstein fragrance coming soon. Can't wait to smell that!)
—Lastly, have a Happy Halloween. Hope it's all treats. xoxo