The Monthly Product Feature for August is the Post-Wax Body Care Kit which includes Tu’el Clear-It Blemish Control, Tu’el De-tox Bath Gel, and FREE Pumice Gloves. These products keep the skin exfoliated between waxing services, help prevent ingrown hair and leave the skin feeling soft and smooth.

If you’ve never had this service or would like a refresher course on how to get the best outcome, check out these two popular posts: Ladies: 10 Reasons Why Brazilian Waxing is Worth It and Post-Waxing Care for Brazilians and Bikinis.

If you’re new to Star Brows, you may not know about The Monthly Product Feature or Rewards yet. To put it simply, 10% of all your product purchases, all the time, go toward free Service Enhancements like Raindrop Therapy, Lash Tint, Chemical Peels, or Star Massage.

When a product is the Monthly Feature, however, you’ll get 20% back in Rewards.

This month’s featured products are: 2 oz. Clear-It Blemish Control $39 ($8 in Rewards) and 8 oz. De-Tox Bath Gel $24 ($5 in Rewards).

The Post-Wax Bodycare Kit includes both products: $63 ($13 Rewards) plus FREE nylon Pumice Gloves. Smooth summer skin guaranteed.

See you at the new spa!

One of my daughters and I at the spa.

If you’re not over 40 yet, you will be someday, so listen up.

Let’s talk about what constitutes timeless beauty. (And you won’t hear the phrase “anti-aging” because I’m not – against aging, that is)!

Now I know American women are not known for their beauty, but I personally have known thousands of gorgeous women who hail from this land.

I’ve been in the beauty business all my life. I grew up in dance class (lots of mirrors), opened a performing arts studio in my 20s, did some modeling, sold cosmetics and skincare, ran a big salon/spa, and now I’m in a private studio-spa having the time of my life working with women to become more beautiful inside and out at age 56!

One of my most-read posts is  How Do French Women Stay So Beautiful. Since I’m writing this on the 4^th of July though, let’s talk about how American women stay so beautiful.

Here is a link to a post called  The Most Beautiful American Women of All Time, in case you’d like to know about popular opinion.

And here’s my recipe for long-lasting beauty – not in order of importance and not just with regard to physical beauty:

• Start self-care early in life. It’s much easier to develop and keep great habits than to try to undo bad ones like unprotected sunbathing, smoking, drinking, and drugs.
• Exercise. Build “movement opportunities” into your lifestyle. Dance, walk the beach, bike-ride with your kids, explore nature with a friend, have a work-out date with your man.
• Cultivate spirituality. Everyone needs hope, vision, a standard to live by, and a higher purpose to keep going.
• Build community. Don’t be a lone ranger. You need love and support.
• Drink water and eat right. “Yes mother.” You know the drill.
• You are spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. If there is an order of importance for cultivating true beauty inside and out, this is it. Your soul is your personality, your emotions. Look inside, seek to heal, learn, and grow.
• Get advice to stay fashionable. My daughters teach me about fashion all the time. Plug in to today’s look by reading magazines, working with beauty consultants (like me!), and finding darling clerks to work with when selecting new clothes or accessories.
• Be confident. Be true to yourself, not just a follower. Blend personal style into the latest style. You might just set the next new fashion trend!
• Ramp up personal care – especially after menopause. I used to hate my period, with all its bothersome side-effects – but now, I miss my hormones! They kept my skin hydrated, cushioned me from disease, balanced my mood, and provided a myriad of other benefits. Being a beautiful and healthy post-menopausal woman doesn’t happen naturally.
• The skin is your largest organ – keep it healthy. Regular cleansing, exfoliation, moisturizing, and sun protection habits become more important with each advancing year. Make intelligent skincare a priority. I’m here to help!
• Put yourself together before you leave the house. You feel better when you look good! 
• Be nice. There is nothing more unattractive than a gossipy (oops), demanding (oops again), mean-spirited woman. You’re not perfect (neither am I), but know this: A Virtuous Woman is a woman of worth and beauty.
• Get plenty of rest,  laugh often and have fun regularly!

See you at the new spa!

This month’s product feature is Brow Boost for brows and lashes! Check this out:  Laura Spencer dishes about Billion Dollar Brows’ Brow Boost with Rachael Ray on YouTube.

This deep conditioning treatment is designed to help strengthen and thicken brows and lashes in 30 days - naturally.

Brow Boost is dermatologist tested, prostaglandin free, and safe for all skin types. I love it’s affordable, reasonable price too – $20.

I was recently published in the national magazine Skin Deep by Associated Skincare Professionals! The piece is in the July issue on page 24. I wrote an article called: Succeed Big By Thinking Small “How to develop your market niche.” It’s about small business marketing and included examples of a few of my favorite niche companies. Billion Dollar Brows by Natalie and Bob Plain was one of the stories I spotlighted. They in turn, gave me a discount on product – which I extend to you, by way of Star Brows’ Rewards program.

Here are the Facts About Brow Boost. Check out the full line of Billion Dollar Brows products at Star Brows!

If you’re new to Star Brows, you may not know about The Product Feature or Rewards yet. To put it simply, 10% of all your product purchases, all the time, go toward free Service Enhancements, like Raindrop Therapy, Deep Muscle Work, Lash Tint, Chemical Peels, or Star Massage.

When a product is the Monthly Feature, however, you’ll get 20% back in Rewards! This month’s feature, Brow Boost, is $20. That means $4 toward a service Enhancement!

See you soon at the new spa!

I am going to review them now, and although the audience is limited (apologies dear readers), this review won’t be filtered!

I first discovered Yelp in 2007. I had just opened Star Brows and posted a review of myself – shameless, yes – but just thought I’d get the ball rolling. Once I realized they had tied my review to my business profile, I tried to remove it. Sorry! You can’t remove this review from their sight.  So, there it sits beside my name and picture (content-less, but still visible) as a reminder to all that I was bad. They say:

1 Review Removed for Violating our Review Guidelines or Terms of Service

Over time they have relegated each and every one of my precious reviews to “no man’s land.” In addition, the 5-star rating I once had is gone. They say:

14 Filtered Reviews for Star Brows – Note: The reviews below are not factored into the business’s overall star rating.

One of their explanations for the aggressive filter reads: Yelp has an automated Review Filter that many people are surprised to learn was put in place soon after our big launch in 2005. Of course, it’s evolved over the years; it’s an algorithm our engineers are constantly working on. Its purpose, however, remains the same: to protect consumers and business owners from fake, shill or malicious reviews.

Let me take you back to high school for a moment to look at a scenario that played out in my life. There was a popular group of kids. Many of these kids were just plain mean, but I too wanted to be popular. Hard as I tried I couldn’t figure out how to attract the masses, become homecoming queen (or at least a princess), get on student council or have swarms of suitors. Since I could never break the code for popularity, I decided to just be me – and forget about the rest. Still, events like being picked last for sports teams (I was also un-athletic) were really embarrassing.

I know I’m not alone, but that’s enough about that. Over it. (Well, almost.)

So, when you are a business, you also want to be popular. You want to attain the elusive “cool factor,” but just like in high school, it’s illusive. Yelp gets it, in fact, when you open your Yelp page it says:

Well aren’t you popular?

Now, before you start feeling too sorry for me or judge me for my lack of  ”the cool factor” – people seem to love to follow cool people – let me just say this:

I’m 56, so I’ve been working on this for a while. I realize that I am who I am, and what I do and who I am is not going to appeal to everyone. Thank God! If everyone in town wanted to see me, I would be working way too hard, have to expand, and probably hire and manage a bunch of employees again. (Been there, done that.) I want a simple, balanced life which is in alignment with my values and the legacy I want to create.

Actually, I’d hardly characterize myself as insecure, and I’m not typically self-defacing, but Yelp has definitely triggered some old feelings from my early days that apparently I haven’t fully gotten over. So I guess a Yelp thank you is in order again! I’ll work on it.

Just for fun, my editor friend, Jeanne Dininni and I have been trying to break the Yelp review code for a while now: What kinds of things flag a review? Because they have engineers working on their filter’s algorithm, it’s probably a little “rocket sciencey.”

Here are a few reasons we’ve come up with for why they dismiss reviews:

• The reviewer is a Yelp friend of yours.
• The review contains too many superlatives (strong adjectives like “best” or “awesome”).
• Too many reviews were posted during a particular date range.
• You are the only Yelp review the person has done.
• You’ve written a reciprocal review.

Yelp’s tagline reads: Real People, Real Reviews. Their niche in the business review market appears to be aimed at giving the consumer a place to post a review that an owner can’t delete or edit. Thereby, in Yelp’s estimation, reviews are authentic and unbiased – real reviews by real people. Good in theory, but here are my questions:

Thanks for reading my rant – and for your loyal patronage. I promise, here and now, never to complain about Yelp again and to be thankful for my humble business and its supporters. If you’d like to review Star Brows, how about going to Yahoo, LinkedIn, or  City Search. And a big thank you to those who have already posted reviews for Star Brows on yelp or anywhere else, your efforts are greatly appreciated!

Experience the luxury of Star Brows, offering a quality, one-on-one spa experience – where you are the star!

I promise to keep it up – with or without Yelp reviews.

See you at the new spa!

He has beautiful eyes and lips, and even though I don’t see men except by referral, I would see him.

Not that countless makeup artists haven’t (probably) told him he needed help. He may have said what a recent client of mine said: “My brows are me.” No! Your brows aren’t you. They can change, just like your hair, clothing, and makeup.

http://www.christiancota.com/ Photo courtesy AskMen.com

Youngblood Mineral Lip Pencils moisturize in natural shades that define, shape and enhance the lips. Youngblood Mineral Lipgloss is a long-lasting, non-sticky gloss which delivers shimmery color. It is formulated with conditioning botanicals and vitamin E to moisturize, hydrate and protect your lips. Plumping shades provide noticeable results without the tingle and irritation experienced by most lip plumpers.

If you’re new to Star Brows, you may not know about The Product Feature or Rewards yet. To put it simply, 10% of all your product purchases, all the time, go toward free Service Enhancements, like Raindrop Therapy, Lash Tint, Chemical Peels, or Star Massage.

When a product is the Monthly Feature, however, you’ll get 20% back in Rewards! This month’s feature, Eye Plus Lotion, is $43. That means $9 toward a service Enhancement. Glorious Gold Eye and Lip Gel, which is $80, give you $16 in Rewards!

See you soon at the new spa soon!

NEW! Mineral Illuminating Body Tint by Youngblood Cosmetics

Give bare skin a warm, sexy glow — instantly — with  our luminous, bronze-kissed lotion. This creamy, non-streaking tint leaves a healthy sheen on arms, legs and décolleté. Indulge your skin and senses with a pampering blend of natural oils for a hydrating, luxurious experience.

Application Tips

After you’ve applied sunscreen and it has dried, with your fingertips, smooth Illuminating Tint onto your body. Layer for desired coverage and glow. Allow product to dry completely before dressing.

What’s in It?

Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glycerin, Shea Butter, Sunflower Seed Oil, Stearic Acid, Jojoba Seed Oil, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Cetyl Alcohol, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Argan Oil, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Acrylates, Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Tocopherol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, Triethanolamine. May Contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides

$37.50

Application
Use small strokes from the outer corner of your mouth, avoiding a hard line and fill in your lips completely with the lip liner and blend. After lining and filling your lips in, add Youngblood Mineral Lipgloss for a natural, healthy look.

What’s In It?
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Hydrogenated Olive Oil Myristyl Esters, Polyethylene, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Glycerides, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Hydrogenated Olive Oil Decyl Esters, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Hydrogenated Palm Glycerides, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate. May Contain: Iron Oxides, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Red 7 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake -

$14.00