Hello, Lancome Hong Kong!

[I'm back in the U.S., but I'm going to finish posting about my Lancome trip to Asia with Michelle Phan!]



Michelle and I left our hotel in Beijing at FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. That's never fun, especially when you're not a morning person. Plus, we were very sad to leave our new friends in Beijing. We headed to the airport and caught our Air China flight to Hong Kong. The drive from the airport to our hotel was amazing. You leave the airport and all of a sudden there's the harbor and all these high rise buildings from out of nowhere. I was so sleepy that I forgot to take pictures, but trust me that it was lovely.



Hong Kong was as busy and bustling as everyone promised it would be. "It's the New York of Asia," said David, the head of PR for Lancome Worldwide. "You will love it." Parts of the city definitely felt like New York, but it was different in ways I couldn't quite put my finger on. At nighttime, with all the neon signs, side streets and alley ways, it felt slightly science fiction-y, like the Ridley Scott movie "Blade Runner."



Our wonderful hosts for the week, Nancy and Joyce from the PR team in Hong Kong, met us at our hotel and welcomed us to the city. We freshened up and headed to a photo studio on the other side of town. Once there, Michelle did her own makeup (using some of the Lancome Ultra Lavande Spring collection. You can see the Violet Groove color on her nails in one of the pictures above.) The hairstylist, whose name was Bowie, teased her hair into a wild ponytail for the second photo while the web crew from the magazine interviewed her for an online video.



We had a very nice dinner with the local Lancome team at a restaurant overlooking the water, but we didn't linger. The next few days were going to be quite busy: a personal appearance at the Lancome boutique in the biggest mall in town, two press events and several photo shoots. So it was back to the hotel and straight to bed. I emailed my friends and loved ones back home and snuck a peek at Facebook. (Facebook!!! China blocks most international digital media, so we were on a Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Blogger diet back in Beijing.)



Truth be told, it was good to take a break from all things digital! You read it here. Digital detox. The next big thing. : )



PHOTOS: Michelle strikes a pose, Air China on-air breakfast, Michelle's doodle, at the photo shoot, doing makeup with the web crew, Michelle's Lancome products, fake lashes and silver lids.

What's Up With Our Fave Blogettes? And Congratulations to Erin and Her New Bébé!

My blog sabbatical also included, unfortunately, a break from reading beauty blogs. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and catch up, so I thought I'd do a little roundup. Just in case you're behind on your blog news too...



--Happy anniversary to our friend and new mom Mildred over at Beauty Logic. She's been blogging for three years, which is quite an achievement. The sheer number of blogs makes it seem like an easy activity, but it's not! And now Mildred has a blog AND a newborn to juggle.

--Former Allure editor Tory Kirby (and my former Harper's Bazaar colleague) is doing some great posts over at makeup.com. My parent company acquired makeup.com and hired Tory as the editorial director. Smart move, as Tory knows everybody in the beauty biz. If you haven't checked it out, please do. Don't forget to follow makeup.com on Twitter and Facebook too.

--The already fabulous Fab Over 40 had a bit of a facelift. In addition to the great new look, there's a Lancome giveaway. Make sure to enter.

--Michelle, the All Lacquered Up princess of polish, whom we adore, has a RAVE for our Flash Bronzer Face Lotion. It's part of her "As Amazing As Polish" series (see pic above), which is pretty darned clever. (Totally off subject, I think Michelle is going to see Lady Gaga soon. I hope she takes lots of pictures and does a fun post or two.)

--I got to see Miss Whoever You Are this weekend. Some of you might know MWYA was our intern a few semesters ago and we miss her very much. MWYA is celebrating an anniversary as well, as she's been blogging since July 8th, 2007! In blog dog years, that's a really long time.



Lastly, we want to congratulation our dear dear Erin who gave birth to her first child today. (Many of you know Erin as she worked closely with the bloggers for Lancome.) A little boy, almost eight pounds! Baby X doesn't have a name yet, so if you feel like leaving a name suggestion for Erin, she might appreciate it!

Happy Birthday to the Lancôme Blog! (And Of Course, a B'Day Giveaway!)

Wow! What a year it has been at The Lancôme Blog. In the past 12 months, we've learned how to blog and tweet, made lots of new friends and talked about tons of products, events and trends. There have been bittersweet moments, like when our fab interns finished their internships and returned to school. And even some sad moments, as we've said goodbye to a few beauty and fashion icons.

The best part has been getting to know many of you and sharing what's fun and special about our Lancôme world. I hope you feel that you've gotten a behind-the-scenes glimpse that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise and learned a thing or two about makeup, skincare and beauty in general.

I love logging on every day and seeing so many familiar names. (You know who you are!) The fact that many of you take the time to comment and share your thoughts--even when we don't have a giveaway!--is really wonderful.

Thank you for all the support. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Stay tuned, because the next 12 months are going to be very exciting. From Julia Roberts and Michelle Phan, to our newest mascaras, lip glosses, skincare and fragrance, we have a lot to share with you.

So for our birthday giveaway, I'll let you pick! Leave a birthday wish for the blog and we'll pick one comment at random. That person gets to pick whatever five Lancôme products he or she would like to try. Please post by end of day Thursday.

Tomorrow, more L.A. stories!

PHOTO FROM SPRINKLES.COM. IF SPRINKLES IS LOOKING FOR SPOKESPEOPLE, ERIN AND I WOULD LIKE TO VOLUNTEER.

It's 2010! New Year, New Giveaway Winners!

Wow! I just read everyone's comments from the last two posts and I'm blown away. The team and I will work very hard to bring you what you've asked for. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

The winner of the "people who inspired me most" giveaway is E. Walsh. Murfreesboro, you won the VIP train case, but please email me at thelancomeblog@gmail.com. I need your address. Congratulations to you both!! It's always nice to start the new year as a winner. : )

Speaking of winners, the Temptalia Editor's Choice Awards for 2009 have been announced. I'm happy to report that Bi-Facil won for best high-end makeup remover--second year in a row! If you're not familiar with Temptalia, it's a terrific blog for serious makeup fans. It leans a bit towards one certain brand, but we won't hold that against them! In addition to the awards, Temptalia has picked several pretty lipsticks for the upcoming spring season, including Lancôme's Voile de Rose. (That's Temptalia's VDR lip pic above.)

Speaking of lipsticks, Chris Benz's Chris & Tell was featured in The New York Times Style Section this weekend. Very exciting! We'll be checking in with makeup artist Daniel Martin, who helped create the lipstick, on the different ways to wear the peachy-coral color. I'm dying to start wearing Chris & Tell, but it's definitely a spring wardrobe kind of color. Not zero degrees and freezing kind of color.

Stay tuned!

What's New in Beauty Blogland?

Big news in beauty blogland this week. Tia Williams, one of my favorite beauty colleagues, has shut down her Shake Your Beauty blog and become the beauty director of Essence.com. I hope all of you know Tia. She's been a beauty editor at several magazines, maintained a full-time blog, written a few books, given birth to one of the most beautiful children on the planet, etc., etc. Make sure to bookmark the Essence.com beauty section and follow Tia's latest chapter.

Miss Whoever You Are, one of our favorite bloggers, attended a little Lancome International blogger get-together in Paris recently. MWYA blogs, goes to school, interns and works at a bank. She's clearly a multi-tasker like Tia. She got a sneak peek at Lancome's spring collection and she promises she's going to do some more posts on Paris in general since it was her first trip there EVER and she loved it.

Speaking of fave bloggers, Temptalia reviewed some of our holiday products. If you follow Temptalia, you know she's a tough cookie when it comes to reviews, so we were thrilled to get an A for our Plum Tease Ink Artliner. "Easy to wear, easy to use, and really excellent results make this one a slam dunk for me!" she wrote. Thanks, T! Temptalia also is doing "The Scarlet Season," an on-going series about finding the perfect red lipstick. If you're searching--and really, what beauty junkie isn't--check it out. Those are Temptalia's lips above, wearing our Red and Sensual Java shade. That's some shade name, no? :)

Lastly, Annie over at Blogdorf Goodman did a write-up on our holiday brush set, which is cute, practical and totally giftable. How many things can you say that about? Annie said this "must-have purchase" would make a "killer stocking stuffer." We couldn't agree more. (Annie also references Diana Vreeland, one of my heros. I hope you know who Diana is!)

Any great blogs or blog posts you've seen lately? Feel free to share below.

We're So Proud! Our Interns Are Blogging

We're thrilled to report that two of our interns, the equally fabulous Louise and Hannah, have launched their own beauty blogs. They're just getting them off the ground, so make sure to stop by, leave a comment or two and become an official "follower."

Hannah's blog is called Makeup As Muse. Hannah loves product and even wants to launch her own makeup collection one day. We're convinced she's going to be the next Bobbi Brown.

Louise's blog is called Eyes Lips Cheeks. (Good name, Louise!) Louise has had several beauty internships (two summers in a row for Lancôme) so she really knows her stuff.

We look forward to following both of your blogs. And we miss you! (Lancôme Intern Power Trio above--Emili, Hannah and Louise! I guess pressure's on Emili to start blogging...)