Chic and Untroubled

Just because you’re not Christina Aguilera doesn’t mean you can’t Rock the Vote this year.

Stila cosmetics has teamed up with Rock the Vote for a limited edition shade of red lipstick that will play an integral part in the 2008 presidential election or something like that.

25% of the proceeds form the first 500 tubes of lip goodness sold will be donated to Rock the Vote in an effort to “mobilize young people to get involved in the political process.”

And to prove Stila isn’t fooling around about this whole voting thing, their site will boast a Rock the Vote portal that will allow people to become registered voters before its time to make that all-important decision on November 4th.

The lipstick is $17 and can be purchased at stilacosmetics.com.

Much like the clothes and over-sized handbags, the nail polish the models wear on the runway gets just as much scrutiny by fashion and beauty fans alike.

Chanel is the most notable culprit behind these catwalk nail polish wars — causing many otherwise sane women to drop thirty bucks on muted and bright-colored Parisian lacquer whipped up by his beauty lab.

But an American design talent has answered the call to produce an enticing nail polish collection and it won’t even take away from your Starbucks stipend.

Tracey Reese has teamed up with your moms favorite cosmetics brand, Sally Hansen, on a set of nail paints that will be making their debut this August. The collection was inspired by fabric swatches from her Fall collection and — wait for it — will retail for $6.

Funny, because all of Chanel’s polishes can be found in cheaper versions at drug stores too, which makes Tracey’s decision to sell her new beauty products at CVS this fall one nice conceit.

Don’t Go There, Meet For Drinks, I’m With Brad, Never Enough Shoes, Metro Chic and Run With It.

No, these aren’t Cosmopolitan cover lines. Although…

Actually, this selection of cheeky titles comes courtesy of Sephora’s new line of Nail Polishes with OPI. The collection of 54 “fashion-forward shades” go for $9 each and come free of DBP, Toluene, and Formaldehyde, the chemical agents that could potentially lead to life-threatening diseases.

“Metro Chic,” a neutral gunmetal gray hue, has several beauty editors smitten. Do you really need anymore nail polish this summer? No. But that’s never stopped you before from participating in a bit of retail therapy! Personally, my favorite is “Run With It. The polish is bordering on khaki and has flecks of glitter in it, which is always good.

On Saturday, I made a trek to Old Navy with my friend who was equally excited about purchasing flip flops that were going for a measly $1.

Apparently, everybody else in my small college town got the memo about our a little weekend shopping expedition because when we arrived there were absolutely no sandals left. None.

Disappointed, we got a pretzel and call it a day. I temporarily found comfort in Bravo TV’s reality show, Shear Genius. Basically, it’s Project Runway for hair stylists.

For the contestants first challenge this season, they had to make their models look like popular cartoon characters. The most creative hair styles sought Marge Simpson as their inspiration. While this brave women looks more like the bride of Frankenstein with a dye job than Homer’s wife, I love the effort put forth by the stylist.

Meanwhile, Project Runway returns to Bravo in two weeks and will air right after Shear Genius every Wednesday night. Can.not.wait.

While we all twiddle our thumbs until Tom Ford decides to start making women’s fashion again, the man has given the fairer sex a few scents to tide us over until he makes his grand return, which is rumored to be within the next three or five years.

His latest concoction, White Patchouli, debuts this September. Singer Erykah Badu has been tapped to star in the Mert & Marcus campaign. The ads will appear in magazines starting this fall.

The black and white shot of the soul singer is gorgeous.

If you didn’t know who she was, Badu could easily be mistaken her for an actual model, no?

Listen up, beauty fanatics.

Clinique wants to give you tones of free mascara, facial cleanser, and foundation. To be one of the lucky 20 women chosen to participate in the make-up company’s Insider’s Club, you’ve got to complete a few simple tasks first.

1. Tell them in 50 words or less why you deserve to get exclusive sneak peaks of products and free samples.

2. Submit a one minute video that shows how awesome of an Clinique spokesperson you will be once they start showering prizes on you.

If the beauty company thinks you have what it takes to rep. them, they’ll send you a nice welcome package filled to maximum capacity with goodies and a Flip camera.

Good luck!