Cutural Attache

                     According to the most conventional definition, a Cultural Attache is someone who acts as an ambassador of the culture of their homeland to other nations. However, for Barbie purposes a cutural attache is a Barbie who invests her time and energy into immersing herself into several different cultures. Living in New York, especially, we are constantly surrounded by different cultures, the diversity is part of the city's charm; therefore, Barbies must embrace these differences. A cultural attache is genuine in her attempts to learn other cultures and not interested in critizing or judging, just in learning and respecting. No one likes a, shall we say, old world colonist attitude. In other words, no one appreciates when people come gawk at their traditions and rituals as if they are aliens or animals on the discovery channel. Your way - my oh so loveable, slightly narcissitic Barbie,- is not the only way to live. The main goal must be to listen, learn, abosorb, and most of all, if nothing else, you must respect the life style choices of others. Needless to say this week I'm gonna hip you Barbies to some of the wonderful possibilities when it comes to experienceing different cutures all over New York.
        Every year there are a myriad of cutural festivals. This weekend Ms. Erica and myself checked out the African Bazaar at BAM. For all of you who are not familiar with Brooklyn, BAM is the Brooklyn Academy of Brooklyn located downtown Brooklyn on Lafyette St. This is a wonderful place to go and see a movie, or a live performance. Yearly they host Dance Africa, the African Film Festival, and all sorts of art exhibits and other events and performances. Alvin Ailey will be performing there form June10th to June 20th with tickets starting at only $20. (Wink Wink to all the fellas looking to impress a Barbie).

      Anyways, back to the festival. It was absolutely wonderful! There were so many vendors selling their own personal creations. It was like a  breeding ground for entrepenurship, talent, and creativity. Yet, there was one stand out product that we must absolutely mention. We ran into two sisters who were in the clothing and jewelry business. The jewelry was innovative, offbeat, and spirited, and so were the clothes. Now this Barbie is packing, so i wasnt able to fit the dresses that she had there, HOWEVER, she offered to take my measurements and allow me to leave my name and number with her so I could have something tailored to my size! Their products can be found at thegiftshopbyosa.bigcartel.com. Her dresses $79 and shorts $69  are somewhat pricey but definitely worth it. You get the opportunity to support another Barbie and her burgeoning business and look amazing in the process.The fabrics are rich and the colors are vibrant! You never know what you'll find dolls. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding a deal or showstopping fashion! Go to all the festivals, don't just go the African festival because you're black or the Indian festival because you're Indian, go every where every culture is worth exploring and respecting. Untill next time Barbies, get out there and enjoy it all, have your own adventures and let me know how it turns out!

Product Palooza: The Great Visage

                 Picture this:

               Pretty Pretty Princess Barbie wakes up to more mother daugther arguments. Her and her mother are sitting in the bedroom with Good Day New York playing in the background as they "discuss" some alleged incedent of disrespect! Anyway all of a sudden, there's a break in conversation and Barbie vaguely hears over the television one of the most important words in the english language to a Budgeting Barbie, FREE! She reaches over and frantically grabs the remote and turns up the television only to learn of a free product sample giveaway in the city sponsored by Beauty.com. Immediately she calls and wakes Ms. Erica and they head out to explore! The giveaway was good, they had a wealth of interesting and Barbie worthy products. Although they were a little stingy it was well worth the trip! This incident inspired me for this weeks edition of Product Palooza: The Great Visage!

                I have so many GREAT products to share with you. As you have probably already gathered from the title, this weeks Product Palooza is focused on all the wonderful things we put on our visage! Our face is our trademark. Of course our style is incredibly important, but  our faces let everyone know who we are! The great battle of a fabulous stand out look can all be won and lost in the make up. The name of the game is illusion; its all about enhancing and emphasizing whats great about you and hiding what's not until AFTER the wedding. (Lmao, so to speak). But truthfully ladies make up is an amazing treat, but its pointless unless you do it right and use the right products. Im going to run down some special products and product lines for my fellow Barbies.

                Facial Cleansers : Can't paint a beautiful picture without a clear clean canvas!

We'll start with something simple, Tea Tree Oil Soap. This soap is inexpensive and does wonders! It will have your face baby booty soft and it is great for clearin up mild acne or any other facial bumps such as bites or rashes. A double bar at Trader Joes is about $3.95.

 

Lip Cooling Scrub (Laura Geller) $19 Feels wonderful and helps to get all the dead dr skin off of your lip so you have that kissable look and feel.

Moisturizer: Dry skin is the fastest way to look ten years older!

It is imperative that you moisturize your face everyday whether you plan to wear make up for the day or not.  Dont put things like natural African Shea Butter or CoCo Butter on your face. Those products are to thick and will clog your pore and give you micro bumps i.e. not cute. Here are some facial moisturizers and their prices.

$13  Radiance Solutions (Avon)

Bring in the Moisture ( Carol's Daughter) $25

Morning Glow Moisturizer (Clean&Clear) $6.49

Foundations: this is where you begin your look with killer coverage

Studio Fix Liquid Foundation(MAC) $26

Studio Fix Powder (MAC) $ 26

Undercover HD Foundation (Coastal Scents)$16.49

HD Liquid Foundation (Makeup Forever) $40

The Windows to the Soul: No more expliniation needed

Lash Blast Luxe (Covergirl) $8.99

(Coastal Scents) Palette of 88 shimmer or matte shadows $20.00 This paltte will keep a make up obessed Barbie happy for months at a time

Well ladies those are all of the wonderful products that I think are absolute must haves for mugg beating. Think carefully about the products you use, be good to your face and she'll reward you with years of beauty!

Barbie tip of the week:  keep your ears to the streets, you never know what great sales and opportunities will present themself if you keep a lookout. Also search the web for sites that give you discounts on doing the fabulous things you love to do. I've joined quite a few and you'll be reading about those adventures in the very near future. Smooches Barbies stay beautiful, stay focused, stay empowered!

Product Palooza!

Hey Dolls,

              This week, we're gonna do something a tad different, but its gonna be good so get used to it. I know we usually discuss Barbie worthy places to strut your stuff; however, this week lets discuss all the hard work that goes into being a Barbie. People think being a Barbie is the simplest thing ever. I guess we should take that as a compliment because that means we make it look easy! They dont really understand the amount of hard work it takes to keep it together on a daily basis. Even if you're not the kind of Barbie that beats her mug daily(does her make-up), there is so much that goes into the daily Bedazzling of a Barbie. First, there's affirmations, this is our psychological armor. Then theres the shower, of course there are tons and tons of wonderful exotic smelling bath products that Barbies have to rub and scrub and wash themselves with before they greet the world. Once we're out of the shower, next come the outfit choice... lets not even go there! Finally theres the myriad of hair products and heat styling tools and lastly the two ton makeup bag. So let's do a product discussion. I'm gonna share with my Bevy of Barbies the products that give me my sexy edge. I'm sure you've got your own, so maybe we can share and exchange. Welcome to Product Palooza's first edition!

               Smelling Sweetly!

Every Blushing Barbie must own a bottle of a designated ridiculously expensive signature fragrance. For example, I'm a CoCo Mademoiselle kind of girl! But, that bottle stays in the back of my closet hidden from all other possible users. I only wear it on special occasions and dates. Far be it from me to dictate to my fellow Barbies what their signature fragrance should be; however, because these bottles are so expensive, lets talk about some everyday wear fragrances that will still help you stand out amoungst the pack.

Carols Daughter

                                           Now you are going to hear mention of Carol's Daughter countless times during these posts. This company makes a myriad of products that are Barbie worthy, while they may be on the more expensive side of a Barbie's budget, they are all very much so worth it. Lets start with her amazing scents. These scents smell wonderful and will have you smelling unusally enticing. My favorite is Jamaican Punch, it smells like a sweet spicey juice. This bottle costs about $29 and has lasted me about four months. (Would have lasted longer had it not been for my female family members wanting to be Barbies on MY BUDGET!) The perfume also comes in scents like Melon Malenge, Almond Cookie and a few other to die for fragrances. And if that wasnt enough, many of them also come as body butters and sea salt scrubs. The scrubs are amazing because they leave your skin feeling like butter.Don't forget Barbie's summer is coming and an even complexion and porcelain smooth skin are must haves! Many of the fragrances come in discount duos for $33 or less.

Now on to our next company. Avon is usually associated with older Barbies. While there is abosolutely nothing wrong with that, Mark is the newer, hipper version of the company that caters to younger Barbies. All of the products are extremely resonably priced and definitely Barbie worthy. Fragrance wise their self sanctuary products are amazing. Their lemon sugar mist is only $12 and smells quite heavenly, this product also comes as a $6 bath wash and a $8 body butter. For now this product only comes in two scents, lemon sugar (AMAZING!) and berry cranberry. The one thing that I hate about product lines like Avon and Mark is that many products are here today and gone tomorrow. They used to carry self sanctuary in a sinfully aromatic chocolate scent, but it is now DISCONTINUED! So if you find a product you like at these prices, stock up on it before you NEVER SEE IT AGAIN!

This is Mark's newest fragrance Rio priced at $18. While I've never smelled it, it looks like something that's light, airy, and  made with summer days in mind; maybe even  a few summer nights. So try it out and let a Barbie know what its all about.

One way to smell wonderful all day long without spending exhorbitant amounts of money are body splashes. These splashes are made by most all Barbie worthy companies that sell fragrances and they usually accompany some other more expensive fragrance. So, if the fragrance is out of your budget, the body splash might not be. They are also much lighter and more fruity smelling so they are wonderful for the summer and spring day time use. P.S. body splashes should be cheap, if you're buying one for more than $12, put it down! You can do much better. The final place I'm going to take on this week's edition of Product Palooza: Smelling Sweetly, is THE DRUGSTORE, Duane Reade to be exact. Myself and Ms. Erica spend an awful lot of time in Duane Reade (for whatever reason), so we know our way around the store quite well. In fact, we know it well enough to say that when you see something at an expensive cosmetic store that you cant afford, its more than likely duane reade will have a less expensive and surprisingly satisfactory alternative.

In the section of bath products Duane Reade has tons of products that are designer (the ones we've never heard of, but designers none the less) products that are amazing. I bought a chocolate sugar scrub that i adored for only $14. While i love Carol's Daughter, their scrub was $30 and it was not in the budget. I must say, I was equally satisfied with Duane Reade's product. Im not gonna lie though, im a big fat label whore! So as soon as i could afford the more expensive option I ran out and got it. BUT! There's really no need for that since Duane Reade products do not often disappoint!

I hope you enjoyed my first edition of Product Palooza. Comment on this post and let me know about some of the produts that live on your Barbie Vanity. Until next week, Im off to have more adventures and share them with all of you! You should go have some of your own too.

Love, Pretty Pretty Princess  Barbie.

International Barbie

                          International Barbies are always up for an adventure to an exotic foreign land. they want to learn new customs and be emersed in the culture of any new place they visit. However,  when you're a Barbie on a strict budget you have to be more stringent about where you have these adventures. Most Barbie's on a budget can not just fly to Mexico on a whim, or zip  off to  Thailand when they want Asian cuisine.Yet, one of the most amazing things about being a Barbie in New York City is the abundance of different cultures that are available for sampling. Essentially, in New York, you might not even need to leave your own borough to be an International Barbie.This week your favorite Barbies (Ms Erica and I) went from Thailand to Mexico and back to Brooklyn without breaking our little Barbie banks.
                               Our first discovery, is a wonderful Thai restaurant on E8th street in the city called Cafe Tasia. The restaurant's asthetic is something like, a modern New York chic meets a swanky boarding school lunch room. I know, you're saying "huh?" But the decor is very modern with clean straight lines, yet,  the main seating area is arranged around two picnic style benches. Now swipe that horrible plaid table cloth, wet grass, and bug image out of your mind. These benches are amazingly swanky and have wonderful padded seats. The only down side, is that you have to attempt the dreaded leg swing  over the bench to seat yourself comfortably. Otherwise, the food is wonderful and the prices are so affordable it will make you sick. The most expensive entree is 15 dollars and all appetizers are 4 dollars. Happy Hour is even more impresive with 4 dollar cocktails and a 10 dollar appetizer, entree and drink combo! Fellas, this a wonderful date place, the ambiance in the evening is  exceptionally romantic. In the evening the entire restaurant is lit mainly by candle light, and we all know everyone looks sexy and appealing in candle light. Now on to Mexico.
                                Down on the corner of Fulton St.  and S. Portland Ave. is the most wonderful little taste of Mexico called Habanna Outpost. Walking down Fulton st. you cant help but notice the eye catching lime green and electric blue colors screaming at you. Then, once you walk inside, you are greeted with a warm Mexican diner kind of feel. Not only is the place cozy, it has the cutest outside seating complete with umbrellas to protect costumers from the sun and picnic seating. This is the kind of place where a Barbie can put on her sundress, gladiator sandals, and aviator shades and really take in the summer atmosphere of Brooklyn. The frozen margaritas are wonderful, and the grilled corn is delicious! They are open everyday from 12pm to 12 am and they have a wonderful DJ playing everything from old school hip hop to merengue music every Saturday from 12pm to 6pm. Habanna Outpost is definitely a cute place to have a first date, second date, to chill with your honey, or to meet with your girls before the club. And of course, like all of the places I suggest, this one doesn't break the Barbie bank either.
                              Back to Brooklyn, we had lunch at Night of the Cookers before we went to Habanna. The restaurant is nice. Its simple good ol' American cuisine.  Its a nice place to go if you just want to have a simple lunch, nothing fancy; a place for when you're not feeling that adventurous.   
                             As you can see Barbies I traveled around the globe and back home, all for a price cheaper than anything Expedia could ever offer me. So, this summer, dont get down if you cant afford that trip to some exotic land, find and exotic oasis in your own neighborhood. Adventures are an essential part of a Barbie's life!