Bethenny Frankel on Airplane Food

Not surprisingly, Bethenny Frankel isn't a fan of airplane food. Is anyone, really, unless you're regularly flying first class on Singapore Airlines? Bethenney dished her top tips on avoiding those 1,000 calorie pastries and hot dogs. Read more on BettyConfidential.

La Mer and World Ocean's Day

La Mer is offering a special edition of its cult favorite Creme de la Mer in honor of World Ocean's Day on  June 8th and Oceana, the most prominent organization in support of ocean health.  It's the fifth year that La Mer is partnering with Oceana; but the first time ever that it is redesigning its jar.  This June La Mer released a limited edition 100 ml blue Creme de la Mer.   La Mer President Maureen Case explained, "We are so proud to do so in celebration of this five-year partnership with Oceana as it harkens back to the core of what La Mer is all about – The Sea.” La Mer is donating $200,000 to Oceana in the month of June. 


The limited edition Creme de la Mer is available at Sake, Neiman's, Bergdorf's and http://www.lamer.com/.

The Thompson Hotels and Nanette Lepore

The new uniform for staffers at the Thompson Hotels designed by Nanette Lepore is so sexy, it almost makes us wish we worked there, even if weren't the pool ambassadress. The sexy black cocktail dress will be worn by staffers at the Thompson LES in New York City, the Donovan House in D.C. and the Hollywood Roosevelt in L.A. We're trying to figure out how to get one of our own, short of robbing the front desk clerk.

The Nanette Lepore Vivacious dress is available in white on ShopBop.

Review: The Carrie Diaries

Don't judge me, but I've been on a kick of reading high school literature of late. First there was Gossip Girl, then Twilight, next the Vampire Diaries and, most recently, The Carrie Diaries. The book focuses on Carrie as a high school senior.

Carrie is more down to earth than the crew from Gossip Girl, wearing vintage white GoGo boots on her first day of school with nary a fret about a designer label (the book is set in the 80s, before teenagers--even fictional ones--regularly wore couture). Her friends drink at parties and the local dive bar and some of the characters smoke pot, all pretty normal stuff for senior year of high school.

Turns out Carrie was a born feminist and incredibly self-aware, especially as a 17-year old. She had the same relationship with her looks as she did throughout the show, meaning she knows she is cute, but not model-material, which occasionally leads to self-doubt. I am envious of Candace Bushnell, who based the Sex and the City columns for The Observer on her real life, who now has the opportunity to go back an re-write her high school years as fiction. As someone who recently read and cringed her entire way through her diary from 8th grade, that would be a dream come true.

As for the plot of the Carrie Diaries, it's a pretty predictable tale of boys, familial angst and discovering one's passion in life. Carrie's is writing, of course, and she longs to get into the New School's summer writing program all throughout her senior year. She mentions the New School so much, I started to wonder if Candace Bushnell is getting kick backs. (I'm guessing she, or someone she or her editor loves, works there.) Seriously, she doesn't stress about getting into Brown and doesn't even mention a particular safety school, but when it comes to the summer program at the New School, it's like it's the last life boat on the Titanic.

I kept longing for one of the characters to make a cameo: Charlotte, Stanford, anyone! One finally does at the end and a sequel is reportedly in the works. My advice: Check it out from the library or wait until it's available in paperback!

See our Summer 2010 Beach Reading picks.

What's On My Vanity

We're always tickled when we're asked to contribute to another blog, especially when that blog is the fabulous Beauty Blogging Junkie by our pal, Amber Katz. Amber asks other bloggers, celebs and generally fab people what beautiful item the keep on their vanity for all to see. Check out what's on Anne's vanity.

See what's on Hope's vanity.

Rent the Runway Review

For our SATC 2 screening/my birthday extravaganza, we decided to try renting dresses from RentTheRunway.com. The idea is pretty simple:  You register, peruse the available dresses, request the dress, two sizes (to ensure fit) are sent to your door on the desired date, you wear it, then return it after 4 or 8 days in the provided postage-paid envelope. In actuality, here's how it went:

A friend tipped us off that when you rent one dress, you get the second of equal or lesser value for $25. So Hope and I decided to rent our dresses together to take advantage of the savings. Searching the dresses is easy and fun. I love that they have it broken down by category: Beach Vacation, Birthday, Cocktail Party, designer and price. I started by searching under "Birthday".

Deciding on the dress to rent was a little more challenging. I wanted something that I would look hot in, that fit me well (without my trying it on), that was a good value and that was a little outrageous since I would only be wearing it once. After much back and forth, I decided on this purple one-shoulder Halston Heritage dress. Since we were seeing SATC 2, I thought it would be fun to pay homage to SJP as Halston's new creative director. Rent the Runway even has the white dress SJP/Carrie wears in the opening scene of the movie, but it seemed a little cheesy to wear that to the flick.

Hope went with this Catherine Malandrino jumpsuit.

Our total was $100, which included shipping and insurance. We excitedly awaited the delivery of our rental dress and jumpsuit. However, the day before the dresses were due to ship, we were told that one of my sizes in the purple Halston dress wasn't available. To make up for it, Rent the Runway said I could order any dress off the site, regardless of price. This has actually happened to two of our other friends with Rent the Runway.

I considered a tight, Hervé Leger number, but having worn his dresses before, I know that for my figure, they vary wildly in size and fit. Instead, I opted for this Christian Costa number, which looked flirty, fun and low cut in the front and back. The dresses and pantsuits were messengered to my apartment the next day -- a service that is offered in New York City.

This little mix up worked out to my advantage in the end, as both dresses fit. I wore the Christian Costa dress during the day to lunch. While it looked low cut on the model, on me it wasn't quite as revealing as I would have liked for a special night out. But, it was perfect with gladiator flats for lunch with the girls.

As for the Halston (pictured on me top), I was really happy with the way it fit--the ruching helped hide my figure flaws. It did have a small deodorant stain on it when I received it and the dress had pilled on one side in the front (we guessed it was from a bracelet or sequined bag).

Hope's jumpsuit fit better than expected.  On the site, it appeared there may be a too-short situation; but luckily, it was longer than she thought.  Hope loved the way the silk pants tossed around her legs all night. The only draw back was that she did need to iron the jumpsuit before we went out, so it wasn't ready to wear.

When it came time to send the dresses back, I was definitely a little sad to pack them up. But my credit card is still in one piece. Rent the Runway is an elegant option if you're headed to a lot of weddings this summer, frequently go to black tie events with the same crowd, are photographed a lot (nearly unavoidable in this Facebook-age) or just want to dip your toe into new style waters.

Review: Tom Ford Lipsticks

We would love to tell you exactly what we think about the new Tom Ford Lipsticks, but we haven't been able to bring ourselves to mar the museum-worthy packaging! The lipsticks are made with murumuru butter and soja seed so that even though they are extra-saturated with color, your lips are still kissably enticing. The scent is slightly sweet, almost like a Nilla Wafer. The line has 12 shades: 4 nudes, 4 bolds and 4 dramatic hues. If we were to try them out, we would start with Blush Nude and work our way down the line. For now, we're putting it in our lipstick collection along with the Chanel Rouge Coco bag.

The lipsticks go on sale today at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and the Tom Ford store.

This review was based on a free sample.