Beauty Products

John Paul Mitchell Systems Inc. in Saugus has sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, alleging that Wal-Mart is selling substandard and unauthorized supplies of Mitchell Systems' Paul Mitchell beauty products. The suit, filed in federal court in Austin, Tex., claims that a former supplier sold Wal-Mart some beauty products that Mitchell Systems had rejected because of poor quality. Mitchell Systems sells hair-care and skin-care products.

Re "Fleshy thighs on parade," Opinion, Aug. 2 Meghan Daum absolutely nailed the reason why the new Dove commercial is so uncomfortable to watch. Yes, let the professional models do their work. Also, stop pretending to celebrate our bodies as they are, if the purpose is just to sell us corrective creams. I feel no guilt about the beauty products I buy. Cleopatra was considered the world's most brilliant and intriguing woman, and she invented the luxury bath. Most women enjoy the fantasy approach.

Full, thick eyebrows may be back on the fashion radar, but how do you achieve them after years of plucking thin-and-tidy shapes? We asked Anastasia Soare, the Romanian-born aesthetician who's turned her talent for taming arches into an eyebrow empire. Soare sculpts the brows of half of Hollywood's A-listers at her Beverly Hills salon, and her extensive line of products -- including gels, pencils and stencils -- has made hers the top-selling eyebrow line at beauty mega-store Sephora.

Can painting your fingernails be hazardous to your health? And if so, should the product label warn you about it? Those issues are the focus of settlement talks continuing today in San Francisco between an environmental watchdog group and attorneys for nearly two dozen nail polish manufacturers. The group, San Francisco-based As You Sow, sued 43 polish manufacturers in April for failing to warn consumers of the hazards associated with the toxic chemical toluene.

The products: Pheromones are the true aphrodisiacs of the animal kingdom. Female pigs don't respond to compliments or slow jazz, but the slightest whiff of androstenone -- a pheromone produced by randy boars -- will instantly put sows in a sexual mood. Hog farmers often use batches of androstenone, also known as "boar taint," to fan barnyard desires. Thanks to a wide array of pheromone-laced hair gels, colognes and body sprays, you can buy androstenone too.

Julie Mitchell's long, wavy hair normally coils into an unruly mass. "I'd spend all this time getting ready, and I'd still be a big ball of hair walking down the aisle," said the 38-year-old flight attendant for Southwest Airlines. That was life P.P.--pre-perm. Now her shoulder-length hair hangs ramrod straight, and her daily battle with the blow dryer is over.

Mindy Kaling and about half the cast of NBC's "The Office"  - where she gained fame playing Kelly Kapoor - stepped out to celebrate her new show, "The Mindy Project," Saturday night at Skybar. Guests including Ellie Kemper, B.J. Novak, Angela Kinsey, Hilary Duff and John Mayer were spotted mingling and toasting with bright pink-and-yellow Vitaminwater cocktails. The new series, which premieres Sept. 25 on Fox, follows the adventures of Dr. Mindy Lahiri (played by Kaling), a romcom-obsessed OB/GYN searching for love.

There'll be no lipstick-sharing -- yet -- between Rimmel owner Coty Inc. and Avon Products Inc. after Avon rejected Coty's $10-billion cash bid Monday. Coty's attempt to buy Avon at $23.25 a share (a 20% premium over the Friday closing price) was both public and unsolicited. In a snippy note on its website , Avon said the offer "is opportunistic and not in the best interest of Avon's shareholders. " Coty had made another, private overture less than two weeks earlier "that was substantially the same," according to the note.