Here are some new photos of Molly Sims, leaving an LA salon yesterday. Is this Molly without makeup? I’ve been studying the photos for a few minutes, and it actually seems like she is wearing some makeup… but it’s like she forgot to put on her eyebrows? Something funky is going on in the eye area. Now, I’m not going to yell and scream about how ladies should put on their “faces” before leaving the house. I hate wearing makeup, so it would be hypocritical of me. But surely Molly would normally put on her eyebrows and some concealer before heading out? Maybe she just had a really great facial? Whatever. Stars: They’re Just Like Us. They forget to put on their eyebrows too.

You know what, though? Overall, I kind of like Molly Sims. I’ve seen her in interviews and at best, she’s sweet and funny and at worst, she’s just harmless. She’s now appearing as the Heidi Klum-type hostess of Lifetime’s Project Accessory, which I haven’t watched. My mom is watching though – she says Molly isn’t as good as Heidi Klum, but Molly isn’t actively bad. Are you watching it? Is it any good? I’m happy to report that I didn’t watch any of this last season of Project Runway (my mom said it SUCKED), so I probably won’t catch Project Accessory either.

On 10/25 for comparison:

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Kate Winslet is featured in the new issue of InStyle Magazine – I think it’s the December issue of InStyle UK. These are some shots from the pictorial. Winslet spends most of the interview talking about makeup, and you can tell that she loves talking about and applying her own makeup way more than someone like Gwyneth Paltrow. Winlset even talks about the “peach fuzz” on her face which many of you have noted – I don’t mind the peach fuzz, but sometimes Winslet walks a red carpet with a full blown mustache. Still, I enjoyed this because Kate seems to really care about makeup application and stuff. It also seems kind of like a testimonial advertisement for Lancome, the brand she reps.

Kate likes to do her own makeup: “I like to do my own make-up. I believe in less is more. Recently, I wore a simple, black Victoria Beckham column dress with long sleeves and small, gold belt detailing on the front. I knew that a curly hairdo would have completely gone against the dress, so we went for a high sculpted ponytail, with a little bit of height in the front. It pulled the whole look together.”

What glamour is to Kate: “Glamour to me is about remaining graceful and understated. For example, with very bold lip colours, you can’t overdo the rest of your face. With a bright-red party lipstick, just go with lots of mascara and keep everything else clean. I love Lancôme’s L’Absolu Rouge lipstick, as it lasts. Unless you spend the whole night snogging, you won’t need to reapply it.’

Mix foundations: “I rarely rely on one foundation – mixing two colours can make a big difference. I never use too much powder, only in the right areas [such as the T-zone]. I have peachy fuzz on my cheeks, so I have to be careful with powder.”

Picking the right dress for her body: “The comfort factor is all about the dress for me. I’m lucky to go in and out at the right places, proportionately that’s something I inherited from my mother. I enjoy my shape and my curves. At the same time, you have to know how to dress. If you are hippy, then pleats off the waist? Forget it! You absolutely cannot wear them. It’s about knowing how to work with the right fabric.”

Beware of white: “Recently, I was presenting an award and I wore a lovely white Narciso Rodriguez dress with black trim. It was gorgeous but it was terrifying. You can’t hide a thing in white and if someone gets a bit merry with a glass of wine too close to you, you’re absolutely done for. Then, they started serving dinner, and the first course was beetroot salad. I was terrified for the entire night, from start to finish.”

Toenail polish: “There’s nothing like red polish on toes. I don’t have much time for pedicures, but if I haven’t done anything to my feet for months and I look like a Neanderthal woman, a coat of red means you can somehow get away with anything.”

[From The Telegraph and The Mail]

Just a few things – I believe that Kate really does go to extremes when she wants to lose weight. I’ve never bought her whole, “I never diet” crap – I think she just don’t want to be a bad role model for girls or whatever, or maybe she just doesn’t want to admit that at various times, she’s “gone Hollywood” and lost a bunch of weight and over-bleached her hair and gotten her eyes done. That’s my second thing – I think Kate has been wearing a lot of heavy eye makeup recently because she’s covering up some eye work. But other than that, I’ve always found her pretty. She has amazing skin and I believe she’s mostly real. The problem is when she tries to convince everyone that she’s 100% real.

Photos courtesy of InStyle UK and WENN.

So Kaiser had the title saved for this story and I started sending her emails complaining about how I was offended by Gwyneth Paltrow’s newsletter this week. Goop gave us a makeup “tutorial” that was basic stuff I learned when I first started applying makeup as a teen. There was honestly nothing useful at all in there for me. I have auburn hair and pale reddish skin and I do my makeup every day. I can’t remember the last time I went out without makeup, and I don’t feel like myself when I don’t wear it. I don’t wear a lot, and unlike Gwen Stefani I have no problem sitting at home with a bare face around my loved ones, but when I go out I wear it. I know makeup, I know how to apply it, and I know what looks good with my coloring. You can call me insecure or vain or whatever, but I like doing my hair and makeup every day.

Anyway, Goop used a “dear friend” as a model and wrote that she asked a London makeup artist to do her over and give us advice. It was so basic it annoyed me. I’ll just include Goop’s message here. You can go to Goop’s site for the very simple tutorial:

Believe it or not, I am terrible at doing my own makeup. I’m decent at doing it for a friend, but when it comes to my own face, I never get it right. I have been wanting a step by step lesson for ages so I asked my London makeup artist, Emma Lovell, to show me how. One of my gorgeous school mum friends from my son Mosey’s class agreed to be the model (thank you, Kate!), and I learned so much. I hope it’s helpful for some of you!

[From Goop]

I guess if you have no clue how to apply makeup or what products are available the very basic advice may be useful to you. There was nothing new there or informative to me whatsoever. Doesn’t every makeup tutorial tell you that you need to curl your eyelashes first?

This kind of illustrates for me why Goopy goes out without makeup and why she often looks like hell at events. I’ve seen her do that thing where she rims the membranes and lids of her eyes with thin black eyeliner, making her look squinty.

It bothers me that this woman assumes everyone else is as inept with makeup as she is. When I go looking for tutorials, I want to learn how to do a smokey eye, the right brushes to use to apply and blend blush with my face shape, and how to shape my eyebrows and fill them, not just that I should use an eyebrow pencil and a “cream blush on the apple of the cheek.” Really, Gwyneth? You’ve been working red carpets for years and this makeup advice is news to you? It’s like she really does think we need her guidance in all matters.

Update: I’ve been thinking about this, and the thing that bothers me the most is that Gwyneth assumes everyone is at the exact same level that she is, in everything. She shares gourmet recipes regularly. This makeup advice is the equivalent of telling us how to boil an egg or bake a potato. There are people who need to know how to do that, but that’s not what she claims to be about.

These photos are from 2008 and 2009, when Gwyneth’s makeup was particularly bad. She seems to have hired a makeup artist afterwards.

I could have sworn that Gwen Stefani was just recently the cover girl for InStyle, but I must have hallucinated that. She’s the magazine’s November cover girl, and surprisingly enough, I kind of love the photo shoot. Usually I find InStyle’s shoots too airbrushed and not really that stylish, but Gwen looks great here. As I was looking through the photos, I realized how crazy it is that she’s 42. She’s looked the same for more than a decade, and I think she could easily pass for a woman in her late 20s. Maybe it’s all of the makeup. Maybe it’s her youthful spirit. Maybe it’s just great genes. Here are some highlights from the interview:

Gwen on being a mom: “Being a mother is probably the most challenging thing I do.”

Gwen on finding balance: “At work I’ve learned how to delegate. You don’t have to be on a ladder in a warehouse, micromanaging. You can be at home. And teamwork is also such a big part of marriage and parenting.”

On making time for her sons: “The thing I’d like to do is enjoy these boys while they’re young – so I don’t regret I was working too much when they’re big and don’t want to cuddle with me anymore.”

Her trademark blonde: “My hair color is L’Oréal, but I won’t reveal the number. And I do my roots as often as Marilyn Monroe did hers. I’m serious. I found out.”

The one time she went red: “Right after we came home from the first No Doubt tour I felt like I might get recognized, so I colored my hair red. And I hated it.”

Her makeup: “The makeup goes on every day, even if I’m not going anywhere.”

[From InStyle]

I always find it interesting that Gwen is so old-fashioned about “putting on her face” as we in the South say. My mother is just like that too – she will not leave the house without a full face of makeup (even when she’s sick, even when she’s going to the hospital) and it honestly doesn’t make a bit of difference. She looks pretty much the same, with or without makeup. As for Gwen, I’m sure she does look different without “her face” on, but I suspect she looks even younger, honestly. Previously, Gwen has claimed: “I like to wear make-up for Gavin and I don’t feel energized till I’ve put it on, then I’m ready to go.” I think that’s BS – she’s not wearing makeup for Gavin, she’s wearing it for herself.

Photos courtesy of InStyle.

I’ve spent way too much looking at photos of Kim Kardashian’s crazy face. Often I just stare at photos of her, trying to pinpoint exactly what is happening, plastic-surgery-wise. There’s a nose job, some eye work, lip injections, Electrolysis to remove facial hair and change her hairline, and, of course, regular Botox injections, but those are the only things that I can really identify using older photos of Kim as a reference. But it’s only in the last year or so that I’ve begun to understand why Kim looks to alien-like most of the time – she wears a crapload of makeup. In particular, eye-makeup, and she must wear the biggest, most drag-queeny fake eyelashes out there, because they look scary. Now Kim (and her sisters) are admitting something that we’ve known for a long time: they’re “trannies” – about makeup, at least.

Kim Kardashian is outing herself and her sisters — as trannies! The reality TV star says she and her siblings, Kourtney and Khloe, have always piled on cosmetics ever since their late father Robert Kardashian hired a professional make-up artist to give them beauty tips.

She told website xoJane.com: “He said, ‘My daughters are going to start to wear makeup and I want you guys to look at least presentable,’ which I thought was really cool. And we’ve turned out to be the biggest trannies because of it.”

However, Kim admits not everyone has been impressed with how the sisters apply their make-up.

She said: “We had publicists and people who would tell us, ‘Girls, tone it down. Stop wearing all the makeup.’ But then we would read on our blogs – like in the comments and everything – and everyone was like, ‘What lipstick is this, what mascara do you use?’ We were like, ‘We love make-up, so why try and be what we’re not?’”

Khloe insists they don’t mind the criticism as she knows they don’t need to wear a lot of makeup.

She said: “We joke and say we are like trannies because we love hair and make-up. I don’t think we necessarily need makeup, but we love it. But Kim definitely, if you take off what’s on her face, her face is the exact same. She doesn’t need it. It’s just like a mind thing to her.”

[From Radar]

What do you think about the use of “tranny” as a pejorative about makeup usage? Because there are honest-to-God transvestites who want NO PART of the Kardashian insanity, and they don’t like these bitches giving them a bad name. I personally think it would be appropriate to use “drag queen” when describing the Kardashian ladies’ general style, makeup usage and hair. But I often use “drag queen” to describe women who go overboard, so maybe there’s not such a big difference.

As for Kim and whether she “needs” makeup – she’s seen sometimes with little to no makeup on Keeping Up the Kardashians, and she does look different without it – better, in my opinion. Kim in particular needs to stop overdoing it, because she often looks clownish. Khloe tends to go for a more natural look, so I have no complaints there. And Kourtney… I’ve never really paid attention to anything other than her consistently wrong lipstick shades (she always wears orange-red, and it looks like crap on her).

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.

These are some new photos of Jennifer Lopez last night in Las Vegas, where she made an appearance at Pure nightclub. I think before that she performed in Vegas? The Mail has photos of her performance here – she wore this weird, red, feathered flamenco outfit that would make Carmen Miranda sigh dejectedly. As for these photos of J. Lo in white… ugh. The dress is fine, it’s… whatever. Look at her makeup, though. WTF? Did Jennifer piss off her makeup person again? She looks like she has two black eyes! I don’t understand how this style “look” is happening, at all.

In other Jenny from the block news, she’s buying a new, gigantic Hamptons mansion:

Jenny from the Block is about to buy herself a whole city block right on the beach in the Hamptons — Jennifer Lopez is reportedly about to close on a 15,037 square foot home … listed at just under $18 million!

The seven-bedroom, 9.5 bath, three-story home has an elevator, seven fireplaces, a three-car garage, two laundry rooms … and a partridge in a pear tree.

Lopez already owns a Hamptons crib with estranged hubby Marc Anthony — so it looks like she’s ready to move on with an exclusive mansion all her own.

[From TMZ]

Sigh… beach house. Do I need seven bedrooms and an elevator? No. I would be happy with just some dilapidated beach shack, honestly. So… I’m jealous of J. Lo now. I’m just jealous of the money and the houses, I guess. And the diamonds. I don’t want to look like her, especially not like this.

By the way, is anyone else surprised that she hasn’t gotten a new boyfriend yet? I am. Jennifer loves her jumpoffs, and if she’s got one, she’s keeping him really low-key so far.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Some designers have been pissed at Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, for a while. Soon after Will and Kate got engaged, there was some muttering and bitching about her Issa-centric “Sloan” style – the subtext of which was that Kate needed to broaden her style horizons, stop with the clingy, low-cut silk jersey dresses and find a style that was both youthful and classic. British wackadoodle and beloved designer Vivienne Westwood was one of those critics of Kate. Back in February, she said in an interview that she was waiting to dress Kate because…“I have to wait until [Kate] kind of catches up a bit somewhere with style.” Westwood’s newest criticism? The problem that we’ve discussed her excessively: The Raccoon McWaity Problem. It’s the eyeliner, for the love of God!

“I think she’s got a problem with eye make-up!” Vivienne Westwood declares about the Duchess of Cambridge. “The sharp line around her eyes make her look hard. Either she should be smudgy or wear none.” Meanwhile Kate’s sense of style gets the following reaction: “Let me put it this way. It seems to me, that her image is “ordinary woman”. Therefore, high street shopper. And I just think she should be an extraordinary woman, wherever she gets her clothes from.”

[From Telegraph]

In case you think that Westwood is just bitching about Kate, she’s not – go here to read the piece in The Telegraph, where Westwood also bitches about Kate Moss and John Galliano.

As for Kate’s Raccon McWaity Problem… well, I think it’s her “thing” at this point. Much like Diana and her beloved BLUE eyeliner (which she didn’t wear as consistently as Kate wears her raccoon-style). Perhaps Kate is trying to make the heavy makeup for daywear into her signature. Perhaps no one has ever told her to tone it down. But I know that she would be a lot prettier if she stopped overdoing it – she has beautiful eyes, but no one can even see them with all of that crap she puts on.

By the way, now that we’ve had some truth-telling about the eyeliner, will somebody say something to Kate about her button problem?

Photos courtesy of WENN & Fame.

Here are some newish photos of Cheryl Cole from her birthday party this weekend. Cheryl has been “in hiding” for weeks since she got pink-slipped by her supposed friend Simon Cowell, when she got dumped from the American version of The X Factor and replaced with Nicole Scherzinger. Notice anything different? Yes, Cheryl did what too many do after getting publicly dumped – she radically changed her hair. And it is NOT good. Cheryl chopped off her dark, pretty brown hair and lightened it to this gross-looking rusty-blondish-red color that doesn’t suit her at all. The cut is fug too. Poor Cheryl. AND she’s still wearing way too much makeup. What is wrong with her?!? She could be so attractive, and she just seems intent on making herself look so trashy and budget.

If all of that wasn’t enough, Cheryl is so depressed that she’s spending time with her womanizing, cheeseball ex-husband Ashley too. Gross.

Cheryl Cole’s exclusive 28th birthday party was THE place to be seen this weekend – or at least it was for all the guests bar her ex-husband Ashley. For although the Chelsea and England footballer went to great lengths to attend the lavish bash – making a midnight dash from Heathrow to the five-star venue – he was very keen not to be spotted arriving or leaving. His chauffeur-driven car sneaked into the Sanderson Hotel unnoticed via the underground car park – and when it was time to leave in the early hours of yesterday, he concealed himself in the back seat as the Audi A8 whisked him away at high speed.

Ashley’s four-hour appearance at the party, direct from his holiday in New York, has renewed speculation that he and Cheryl are getting back together, despite his reported infidelity. Last night Miss Cole’s publicist confirmed that Ashley had attended the party, but refused to be drawn any further on their relationship.

But a source close to the star told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It was a small, private party held by Cheryl to celebrate her birthday with those who are really close to her. There were about 20 to 30 guests there. It was just friends and family, and Ashley was invited as well. She was over the moon that he had come because he had only just arrived back from America. The two of them are taking things slowly and it is early days, but Ashley is doing all the right things now. Most of the guests left the party at about 3am but Ashley stayed around for almost an hour longer to spend time with Cheryl. They are getting very close now and she needs someone to rely on.’

After sipping on Belvedere vodka, which the event was sponsored by, Cheryl and Ashley are said to have started dancing together by the DJ booth. Ashley’s mother Sue and brother Matthew told the News Of The World: ‘They are very happy together.’

The tabloid also revealed that Cheryl’s mother Joan, 51, approached Ashley at the party and led him by hand to her daughter.

‘That was Joan’s way of giving her seal of approval’, an insider told the newspaper. The pair then went to the bar to order more drinks, before Cheryl went home at 2am, leaving Ashley to go back to their former marital home alone.

The Girls Aloud singer, humiliatingly dumped from the American version of X Factor just over a month ago, spent an estimated £25,000 to effectively rent out half of the elite hotel for two days to pamper herself and close friends and family. She was in the £1,000-a-night penthouse for three nights, and booked the plush bungalow suite below her for her mother, Joan Callaghan, along with 20 more rooms for other party guests.

Sporting her new blonde bob, Cheryl wore a white Sixties-style Stella McCartney chiffon dress and high-heeled sandals to the party, which was the first time she has been seen in public since her exit from the US X Factor. After cutting an extravagant cake, designed to look like a pile of boutique gifts, Cheryl danced and chatted the night away.

But her ex-husband’s presence is believed to have caused tensions within her family, who are thought to have advised her not to let Ashley back into her life. Miss Cole’s mother is said to be furious that he has wormed his way back into her heart.

After the party, Ashley, 30, returned to their £5 million former marital home in Godalming, Surrey, where he is currently living. Cheryl reportedly stayed there overnight with him three weeks ago, but it is thought the pair did not spend the night together.

A source said: ‘Who knows what is going to happen in the future with them? Ashley is a predator, he likes a challenge, and Cheryl is so tired and emotional that she may just give in.’

[From The Mail]

I wish I could give Cheryl a style and a life makeover. I would make her dye her hair back to that lovely brunette color, I would make her wash all of that junk off of her face and teach her how to do a “natural” makeup look. I would put her in some cute, low-key outfits that flattered her figure (although, honestly, her clothes aren’t the biggest problem). Then I would encourage to spend time with dudes that bear no resemblance in character or disposition to Ashley Cole. She should date a lawyer-type, or a banker, maybe. Isn’t she one of the most desired women in Britain? She could do much, much better by simply picking up a random at a bar.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

These are photos from last night’s season premiere party for Damages. I don’t think I saw the last season, right? I only watched it when it was on FX, so the last season I saw featured Lily Tomlin and Campbell Scott. The strength of Damages’ writing and acting is what made me love Rose Byrne, the little Aussie actress who is everywhere these days – you might recognize her from her recent work as a comedic actress in Bridesmaids and Get Him To the Greek, and she also had a supporting part in X-Men: First Class (where she tried to shoot my Fassbender!!!). Basically, I just like her and I think she’s a very underrated actress. I also think she’s very, very pretty, although you wouldn’t be able to tell from her appearance last night.

So… does her makeup artist hate her? I get that the “in” thing these days is to wear fall and winter clothes and have darker, more “wintery” makeup in the middle of the summer, but this goes beyond a quirky seasonal lipstick. Rose is over-rouged and harsh-looking. Her makeup doesn’t work with her beigey dress, nor her underwhelming bangs-y hair. Who does this to a pretty young actress?

Meanwhile, though – Glenn Close looks like a million bucks. Check out her legs! Check out her un-Botoxed face! I love when a woman looks great for her age and her face still moves. Glenn is so awesome.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

I know we’ve been doing a lot of fashion posts from the Cannes Film Festival, and if you’ve been getting bored, I apologize. The festival ended on Sunday, so these are some of the last pics we’re going to do. These are photos of Gwne Stefani at the Friday premiere of This Must Be The Place, that Sean Penn film where he looks like Robert Smith. I just wanted to do these photos separately from everything else so we could concentrate on everything that’s wrong with Gwen.

First of all, her appearance. The gown is Armani Prive. The makeup is clown college, I suppose. The dress in and of itself is kind of tacky. I generally dislike these kinds of “boob cutouts” and any kind of “breast bow” situation, so there’s a lot for me to dislike here, style-wise. But the makeup takes the whole look to another level. WTF is Gwen’s problem? Who is doing her makeup? Who hates her this much? Is she doing it herself? Because honestly, this looks a homemade makeup disaster. This is the kind of makeup job one drunk girl gives her equally drunk friend when they’re about to go out clubbing for the night.

But the biggest problem I have with this is the WHY of it all. WHY is Gwen walking all of these red carpets in Cannes? Does she literally have nothing better to do? She was one an It Girl, somebody with a career. Now she acts like her full-time job is posing on red carpets and pap’ing her family. It’s all getting really tacky.

Photos courtesy of WENN.