(This column ran Feb. 11, 2007.)

It’s down to the wire — the last weekend day to buy a Valentine’s Day gift! Here are a couple of floral-scented gifts that will last longer than actual flowers. (But, you know, an actual bouquet never hurt anyone, either. Grab a handful of lilies — or even an orchid at Trader Joe’s.)

Casablanca lilies, honeysuckle, peony: The Valentine’s Day collection at Banana Republic includes a votive candle set ($38) with three scents designed to set hearts aflame: Spring Party (think: walk in the park), Sunday Brunch (breakfast in bed) and Chilled Sangria (an intoxicating fiesta). There’s also a limited-time-only Spring Edition candle ($24) with waterlily, peony and gardenia notes. Banana Republic stores are … in any mall, really (except Biltmore Fashion Park, whose big, beautiful

two-level BR store just closed, which makes me very sad).

Rose: How charged is the new Sensual Therapy Passion Rose line from The Healing Garden? Our computer system’s e-mail server wouldn’t even accept the press information. Maybe it got overheated imagining the results after a Sensual Bouquet Body Soak and a massage with Body Creme ($6.75 each). Or maybe it was just the fact the word "sensual" appeared so many times in the paperwork. Either way, find the line everywhere from Wal-Mart to Rite-Aid, and even some Sears stores.

(This column ran Feb. 4, 2007.)

We’re inundated by messages about the newest! best-ever! must-have products, from $90 crystal-embellished shaving brushes to $250 moisturizers and handbags that cost thousands before they’re shunted aside for the next season’s model. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that you can look good without breaking the bank. Each of this week’s items costs less than $10.

The old St. Ives apricot scrub was true grit — which was great for John Wayne, but sometimes not so great on other faces. The new anti-aging Renew & Firm formula ($2.99) uses alpha hydroxy acids to help achieve the same result: Skin feels smooth, not sandpapered. It’s sold at supermarkets and drugstores.

C.O. Bigelow has added a new flavor to its Mentha Lip Shine lineup: spearmint. Peppermint oil adds a cooling effect and freshens breath, and other ingredients moisturize and create a high-gloss shine. How much do people love the Mentha line? More than 7 million tubes have been sold (at $7.99) at C.O. Bigelow and Bath & Body works stores.

Nude nail polish is still nail polish

(This column ran Feb. 18, 2007.)

I e-filed my taxes the day I got my W-2s, so by the time this hits your doorstep I already had my federal refund burning a hole in my checking account. Sure, I’ll probably be practical and pay down my Visa bill, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been daydreaming about alternate ways to spend at least part of it.

On a recent Web crawl I encountered a python Gucci duffel bag that inspired all sorts of frequent-flier fantasies, but at $3,690, I felt foolish even daydreaming about it. (Adding insult to injury: There’s a wait list!) Luckily I found a more affordable substitute that still makes me long to take to the skies, or maybe a weekend trip in a rented convertible: This handmade calfskin Venezia duffel bag from Floto Imports is bigger and costs less than one-tenth as much ($249). It and a larger version ($389) are sold at the Floto web site or by calling (800) 276-2717.

I’d also go on a shopping spree at the Philosophy store at Casa Paloma shopping center in Chandler, stocking up on gifts for friends’ and relatives’ upcoming birthdays … and lavish myself with products, too. ("One for you, two for me …") I’m keen to grab the new Sweet Coconut Milk body scrub ($25), a salt scrub in a glycerin base to help polish away rough skin. (A creamy body wash in the same scent is $16.)

And now that the daytime temperatures have heated up just enough, I think a day at one of the Scottsdale resorts sounds just about right. Start with an exercise class in the morning, spend lunch by the (heated) swimming pool, a steam/sauna, and to cap off the indulgence, a spa treatment. I haven’t been to the Agave Spa at the Westin Kierland resort yet, so I’d give the Blue Agave Paraffin Wrap ($200 to $220) a try: An agave nectar sugar body scrub, then rubdown with agave oil and paraffin wrap and scalp massage.

(This column ran Feb. 25, 2007.)

When a recent Heloise column suggested using white iodine to strengthen nails, I got a lot of calls asking about it. (You have to special-order it at pharmacies; because it’s used to make meth, it’s sold only in small containers; you can’t use it more than once a week after the first week, or it makes nails worse.) Way easier: Pick up some Sally Hansen Miracle Cure ($7.95) at drug, grocery or chain stores. Apply a coat every other day to toughen up soft, peeling nails or mend hard, brittle ones; the company says nails are 50 percent stronger in three days.

Ready for more of a choice in your workout gear? Lucy stores sell bottoms in several different lengths, from supershort "sports" to ankle-grazing "crops" and full-length pants, and even those come in three lengths (short, regular and tall) with sizes from 0 to 18. The new soy-jersey hoodie ($50) is made of a supersoft fabric that’s equal parts soy and cotton, with a little spandex thrown in for fit. There are Lucy stores at Scottsdale Fashion Square and Kierland Commons shopping center, or shop online.

Quick! Snap up this sweet pink and white shirtdress ($34.99) by Isaac Mizrahi for Target while the weather still makes it wearable. The long sleeves might not be such a great idea in Sonoran Desert summer, but the outfit makes sense for spring.

(This column ran in print March 4, 2007.)

When I first realized I liked Kiss Him cologne ($39 to $49) in Las Vegas over New Year’s, I thought: "There is NO WAY you can admit you enjoy something associated with Gene Simmons." But despite myself, since then I found myself surreptitiously spritzing it in Ulta, taking a scent strip out of Dillard’s (it’s sold in most department stores) — I can’t stop! Maybe it’s the combination of fir, pepper and … something dark I can’t quite recognize that piques my interest. I wore this to a friend’s birthday party and when she hugged me hello, she told me how good I smelled. (And the Kiss Her scent? Actually quite sweet, too. Who’d have thought?!)

With a good cleanser I think toner is optional, but I know some makeup artists who swear that only toner can equalize skin’s pH and prep it for the next step — moisturizer. Dr. Galen Herbal Skin Tonic by C.O. Bigelow ($5 to $24), designed for normal to oily skin, invigorates with rosemary and clary sage, balances with witch hazel and exfoliates with salicylic acid. Men also can use it after shaving to help prevent ingrown hairs. Find the whole line at Bath & Body Works stores or at the Bigelow web site.

I spent last weekend unpacking a dozen moving boxes, removing paper from glasses and vases and plates and the like, then breaking down the boxes for recycling. By the time I was done, my hands were a wreck: It reminded me of the "SNL" sketch where Justin Timberlake’s Target clerk drools on about the dryness in the stockroom (I think it’s all the cardboard"). On repair duty: Physical Conditioning therapy lotion by Cosmedicine ($24), a Sephora exclusive that can be used all over but does well on rough, dry areas.

I’m heading to DC in a week and a half, and sure there are museums and governmental entities to visit. … did I mention they have an H&M store? I mean an actual open store, not a saving-room-in-Tempe-Marketplace-but-nobody’s-confirming store?

The chain just announced that Kylie Minogue would be the face of this year’s beachwear collection (called, appropriately enough, "H&M loves Kylie"). Ten percent of sales will go to WaterAid, which helps provide "safe domestic water, sanitation and and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people."Which is just an excuse for me to run this photo of her, taken by Solve Sundsbo for the campaign. (Click on the photo above to see the full version in a new window.)

This week the Paris designers have been showing their ready-to-wear designs for fall/winter 2007, and there’s been a lot of (surprise!) black and gray, and vivid violet seems to be popular, too. But there’s something in every shade of the rainbow.

Sunday’s style page will have a sneak peak at seven outfits to cover the Roy G. Biv* basics, but go to eastvalleytribune.com Sunday for a 46-outfit slide show that takes you through the whole spectrum sequentially! (Update: just follow this link to go straight to the slide show.)

And after the jump, a picture that made me laugh out loud — and in a "what the hell?" way, not in delighted amusement — from one of the designers, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.

___

* Red, orange, yellow, Green, Blue, indigo, violet.

Doesn’t she just look confused as to what she’s doing on a runway in that getup in the first place? (And you can see her underwear. Or maybe it’s — horror of horrors — a bodysuit, and that’s the snap piece!)

So, I’m not (just) saying this because we tried to get former Valley resident Jenna Jameson to weigh in with her Oscar picks and we got strong-armed from the folks at Playboy like we had asked for a pair of her panties — in fact, at Club Jenna they’d probably respond to that request faster than our actual one — but: Didn’t she used to be … you know, PRETTY?

The answer to that: Of course she did, as these photos show — the first, a totally unrealistic one in all of its airbrushed, overlit glory; the second, a photo taken for the HBO special "Thinking XXX," which followed a photographer as he shot various porn stars in the same pose clothed and unclothed for a book — Jenna’s on the cover of the book and the soundtrack (which I got a couple of songs off at iTunes); the third, something that, when examined up close, reveals her earlier predilection for augmented … lip liner. And the fourth and fifth, just reminders of what she used to look like:

And yes, I realize the face is only part of the equation in her particular industry, but still.

Because as you’ll see after the jump, whatever work she’s had done is to making her look more and more like a young, duckish Jocelyn Wildenstein, that New York socialite who decided to make herself look like a cat. (Click here for comparison photo.)I saw that very first photo of Jenna awhile back and e-mailed it to a co-worker saying … well, pretty much what I did up above. I had hoped that photo was doctored because it was incredibly unflattering, and I thought maybe it could be the work of some angry spurned former employee or jealous porn rival.

But this one, taken at an Oscars party where Jenna showed up with new flame and ultimate fighting champ Tito Ortiz, sort of confirms the trend. And also a dangerous addiction to self-tanner.

Which is sad, because Jenna always seemed kind of fun and "so what?" about things — I remember watching her as a commentator on a VH1 "sexiest celebrities" special and thinking she’d be fun to hang out with for a night. In that photo at left, she just looks scary.

Think it’s not that bad? Look up close. She’s 33 years old.

Target has announced the next designer in its GO International series, which asks designers from around the world to create a limited-edition set of clothing that’s only in stores for 90 days.

Next up: Libertine, usually known for their one-off designs like this from Spring 2006. (For a full runway slide show, click here.) The fashions will hit stores in July.