Coolest New Skin Care Product Ever! 7 Seconds Morning Sheets

I just discovered the coolest new skincare product (ever!) for the busy, modern girl-on-the-go! 

Do you find yourself skipping parts of your A.M. skincare routine because you are running late, over slept, or just can't deal, and then all day long your makeup doesn't sit quite right because your skin didn't get prepped properly?
Or maybe your post-workout skin is flushed and sweaty and won't talk to your skin care products, leaving you looking like an oil slick landed on your face?
Or maybe you live somewhere hot and dry and your skin is literally begging you for some love when you get home? 
Or maybe you sit in front of a computer screen all day and your skin hates you?

I have the answer for you! 
It's a South Korean beauty secret called 7 Seconds Morning Sheets.


This one-step product has clarifying toner, essence (a fast absorbing super lightweight super serum) and moisturizer all in one. At $19 for an entire tub they are a smoking deal too!

You keep your 7 Seconds Morning Sheets in the refrigerator so that they stay nice and cold, (or if you are like me and take them out and about with you, keep them in a lunch cooler with an icepack).

The way they are supposed to be used is in the morning you lift out one of the little sheets and spend 7 soothing seconds wiping it across your face.



During that 7 seconds your skin gets a high potency, pre makeup treatment that lasts all day.

If you tend to have an oilier complexion this may be all you need.
If you are like me and trend normal to dry, you may add in some other products too.
If you are or have a teenager this is a super fast way to give your skin what it needs to look gorgeous.

After much scientific research (A.K.A me playing with them endlessly), I found they were great to keep in a lunchbox cooler with icepacks and take with me on shoots to give my models a little high speed skin loving. I also found that after the gym they are skin savers. When I am working day and night for multiple days in a row and I just feel and look like hell, they are soooo wonderful, all icy cool and refreshing.
Days like today, spent in front of a computer screen feel rewarded with 7 seconds of skin swiping.
Now I'm trying to figure out how to keep them cold on a plane for some travel-skin rescue!
They also work without refrigeration, but I like the cooling effect.

You can find this treasure in a tub on my favorite skin care website, Memebox.
Memebox is the world's largest online Korean skincare store and is based out of California, so shipping is super fast and mostly free (I think you just need a $35 order to get free shipping)

Read more about Korean Skincare here

8 Things You Must Do In Naples

Ah - the beautiful chaos of Napoli! I'm in love with this city.

Did you know that Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world?? Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the second millennium BC. 

lovers and families in Naples

Naples is gritty and raw, and a bit dirty. It is also fast, sexy and very exciting. 

This beautiful city is the gateway to the more refined and subdued Amalfi Coast, the main access point to the incredibly chic Capri, the spa-like island of Ischia, and to one of the 10 most colorful places on earth, the gorgeous and quaint little island of Procida. 

Her suburbs include Pompeii and Herculaneum ( Read my blogpost about Pompeii: Things You Probably Didn't Know About Pompeii)

Naples is a heartbeat city. Alive, vibrant and fun, a city you absolutely need to experience.

On foot. Even with all the miles I have racked up driving the length and breadth of Italy and Sicily you couldn't pay me to drive in the madness that is Naples. Even on a scooter.

A vacation on the Amalfi Coast needs at least a day devoted to Napoli. But once you've spent a day in Naples you will leave itching to get back for more. A week wouldn't be enough time to see it all in Naples!

Here are 8 Things You Must Do In Naples.

1. Drink Coffee. 

Italy has the best coffee in the world, and Naples has the best coffee in all of Italy. Start your day in Naples with a quick caffe or macchiato, and then stop throughout the day to get refueled. 
Neopolitan coffee is very, very strong. It tastes like no other coffee on earth. In a way, it ruins you, because after coffee in Napoli every coffee you drink pales by comparison. Just don't go past 9 in one day...

 News articles have told of unfortunates who drank ten espressi in one day and keeled over dead as a result. 

2. Walk Spaccanapoli

Spaccanapoli, literally split Naples, is a perfectly straight street that dates back 2000 years to Greek times. It runs right through the heart of Naples' historic center. 
Walking Spaccanapoli you experience a sensory overload of everything you've ever thought Naples to be. It is narrow and vertical, built up high with fantastic old buildings. At street level it is teeming with life, a visual explosion of shops and people and restaurants, and, well, life!
The sounds of Spaccanapoli are wonderful and loud. Neopolitans don't talk, they shout. And gesture, and emote. They are wonderful!
Don't forget to look up and see the laundry strung out across the street, drying in the coastal breeze.

3. Eat Baba. 

This light as air cake is smothered in a rum syrup. Or maybe it's pure rum? Who knows - I could swear I got a little buzz from it.

Either way Baba is a must.

4. Walk and walk and walk. 

This is definitely not a city to view from a bus window. Hit the street and make a circuit from the train station down past the university, cut through to the Plaza Plebiscito, walk up through San Carlos,  the mall Galleria Umberto and see the exquisite Buildings being restored to their former elegance. 

From there head up to Spaccanapoli, a lone, narrow road that literally splits Naples in half. There is so much to see here! Santa Chiara and it's amazing  cloisters, the cathedral of San Gregorio Armeno and via San Gregorio Armeno where you can buy the world famous presepi. 

These are nativity scenes and individual items from nativity scenes which are an integral part of the Italian Christmas. Every home has one. 

They are not just the 3 Wise Men and Jesus in the manger, the Neopolitan presepi include everyone who lives  in the village. They are so detailed and spectacular and special!You can buy entire nativity scenes to bring home, or individual Christmas decoration pieces. 

One thing I found amazing about spending time in Campania in December was the presepi set up on random little streets by members of the community, replete with hundreds of individual pieces, some of them very very old. 

part of a presepi outside on the street in Salerno

No one stole any pieces, no one damaged any of it, stray cats didn't knock anything over. They were just there for everyone to enjoy. I can't imagine one lasting one night here in America.

5 Visit subterranean Napoli. 

Beneath the heart of the espresso-fueled madness of the city is a geothermal zone called Campi Flegrei, full of fascinating tunnels, catacombs and caves, galleries, Roman roads, early Christian burial sites, frescoes and mosaics. Take a tour and see the galleries the Romans used for their engineering works, see ruins of a Roman theater and typical Neopolitan houses called basso. 
After the volume life is lived at up above you will welcome the almost silence here below. 

Discover the best hotels in Naples

6 Visit The Veiled Christ

The Veiled Christ at Cappella Sansevero will take your breath away. 
How on earth did Giuseppe Sammartino do that? 
Sculpted in marble in 1753, the veiled Christ is considered to be one of the world's sculptural masterpieces. The veil actually brings out the body even more than a regular sculpture (did that make sense?), the shroud or veil adhering perfectly to his form, somehow making Jesus' suffering and the pain in his face palpable. 
Don't be surprised if this statue brings you to tears. And don't miss it if you are in the Naples area. ( the Cappello Sansavero is closed on Tuesdays, so work your entire trip around being in Naples on any other of the 6 days of the week).

7 Visit The Caravaggios.

Caravaggio lived and painted for a little less than 4 years in Naples. After murdering a man in Malta he returned to Naples, where he in turn was murdered to avenge the Maltese.

Of the three remaining Caravaggios in Napoli, perhaps the most spectacular is the Seven Acts Of Mercy, a life sized dark and chaotic piece housed in Pio Monte Della Misericordia.
This is art historian Andrew Graham Dixon's favorite painting by his favorite painter. Hearing him speak about it, or reading his book on Caravaggio (A Life Sacred And Profane) will turn you too into a devotee. If you only see one Caravaggio while you are in Naples, make it this one.

8 Eat Pizza

Of course you know you have to eat pizza in Naples! This is the best pizza in the world.

A couple of notes on Napoli

The best way to arrive and depart Napoli is by sea.
I have arrived by overnight ferry from Sicily at 6 in the morning, and I have sailed to Sicily from Naples as the sun was going down.
The Bay of Naples is really beautiful.
Arriving by car or by train you have to traverse endless awful suburbs crawling with run-down housing projects that bring to mind every mafia story you have ever heard. It can be unnerving.
First impressions stay with you forever, so make your first view of Naples be the staggeringly beautiful view from the bay as your boat arrives. You will see the city, the mountains, and Vesuvius lazing menacingly to the side. 

watching the sun set over Naples from the deck of our boat

Leave your jewels behind, or if you have to bring them with you, don't wear them in Naples. Naples is known for having wily pickpockets and con artists who excel at separating tourists from their diamond rings and Rolex.
The police have cleaned things up massively, so crime is down, but don't tempt fate.
I was always told to wear a cross-body bag in Naples so that boys racing past on scooters couldn't grab it and be in the wind.
I haven't had any problems there, and haven't seen anything going on, but may err on the side of caution.

I met the most fantastic people in Naples. Loud, gregarious, warm, fun and friendly - I can't wait to go back.

Best Of Beauty ~ Oscars 2016

So what were your thoughts about the 2016 Oscars Red Carpet beauty?

Frankly I was super under-whelmed. Sometimes it seems as though in a mad effort to look casually cool some of the ladies looked as if they didn't realize that this is one of the two most glamorous nights in the American year, the other being the Met Gala.
I hate seeing ladies underdone on such a big night.

ho-hum hair and makeup on Alicia Vikander

I was so disappointed in the absolutely gorgeous Alicia Vikander's hair and makeup for the red carpet. She looked like she was on her way to the supermarket. Or Home Depot. Maybe it was just the hair that bugged me? Because her after party look was fabulous.

At the post-Oscars Vanity fair party Alicia looked amazing. This would have been a far better Red Carpet look.

Brie Larson's hair and makeup were also too casual in my opinion.
The hair was awful, and the makeup didn't compliment her eyes. 

Brie Larson Oscars Red Carpet makeup

I really didn't get it. She looked so much better later in the evening at the Vanity Fair party.

Doesn't she look lovely here? Why not this look for the Oscars Red Carpet??

My absolute favorite look on the red carpet this year, second to none, was the incredible makeup on Olivia Munn, created by Patrick Tabere.

Olivia Munn's stunning Red Carpet makeup for The 88th Academy Awards

That lip was everything! Patrick used a combo of 
Chanel Rouge Allure Lipsticks 96 and 90,  offset by blush 76 Frivole and 55 by Chanel. 

If you are going to stand out for being fabulous, Oscar night is the night to do it.

Olivia's after party makeup change was also gorgeous.

Other notables were Charlize Theron for being Charlize Theron.

Margot Robbie was perfection.

Jennifer Lawrence's hair was fantastic and her eye game was strong both for the red carpet (she ran in right as the ceremony was beginning)

Jennifer Lawrence first look at the 88th Academy Awards

and after, when she changed into a very Taylor Swift-esque look.

JLaw channeling her inner Swifty

Rooney Mara's makeup packed a fierce punch - that brow!!! that lip! that eye!

Chrissie Tiegan's bronze and gold makeup was lovely, and her wispy, soft hairdo complimented her total look.

Saoirse Ronan's eye makeup was the perfect counterpoint to her dress. (which I thought was fabulous.)

Rachel McAdams hair and makeup were both perfect.

Best Of The Red Carpet Oscars 2016

Oscar night is always one of my favorite nights of the year.
This year I'm not in L.A working the Oscars, I'm home instead, watching it on TV.

Here are my favorite moments from the Oscars 2016 red carpet:

Olivia Munn in Stella McCartney

Charlize Theron in red Dior. Perfection. 

Brie Larson in blue diaphanous Gucci . Hair and makeup simple.

Cate Blanchett never ever disappoints! This time around she was ethereal in Armani. 

Naomi Watts in strapless metallic midnight blue Armani Prive and a red lip. Hair and makeup perfect.

Reese Witherspoon in Oscar De La Renta

Rooney Mara - hair, makeup and dress. Givenchy Haute Couture. Diamond at navel.

Heidi Klum hair and makeup were gorgeous, interesting Versace dress.

Chrissie Tiegan in mermaid style Marchesa. Her pregnancy style is so on point.

Saoirse Ronan in an emerald Calvin Klein

Margot Robbie in golden custom Tom Ford.

Julieanne Moore in Chanel.

Jennifer Garner in classic black glamour, Atelier Versace.

Dorith Mous in Dennis Diem.

All images via E!online