Beauty Products

Turns out there is such a thing as organic lip balm after all. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reversed its decision to yank the "USDA Organic" seal from lotions and lip balms and will allow cosmetics to carry the prestigious round, green label. Having the USDA imprimatur is essential for a product to stand out on store shelves crowded with allegedly organic merchandise, said David Bronner, president of Escondido, Calif.-based Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.

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.

For many Southern Californians, summer is the season for beaches, chaise longues and the quest for the perfect tan. Not for Margaret Qiu. She and thousands of other Asian American women are going to great lengths to avoid the sun -- fighting to preserve or enhance their pale complexions with expensive creams, masks, gloves, professional face scrubs and medical procedures.

Move over Gucci, Tom Ford is back. And this time he's branding himself. The former Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent designer, auteur of hedonistic 1990s style, announced his return to designing luxury goods on Tuesday with the formation of a new company. The first order of business will be an alliance with Estee Lauder to create an eponymous beauty brand, and a line of licensed eyewear with Marcolin Group.

The "totally organic experience" Procter & Gamble promises to people who wash their hair with Clairol Herbal Essences really isn't. The only truly organic ingredients in the shampoo are a few herbs. So the product wouldn't meet new California regulations that say 70% of contentshave to be certified as organic for a beauty product to be labeled as such.

Hundreds of bottles stocked the shelves, fresh sea breezes wafted through the doors and clerks strolled in their crisp white lab coats, greeting fans at the newest outpost of Kiehl's, the venerable 151-year-old New York pharmacy and skin-care company. Tricky construction regulations caused an 18-day delay of the opening of the Montana Avenue store in Santa Monica, which is no biggie, considering Kiehl's let the entire 20th century pass without building a second store.

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.

Mary Kay Inc., a cosmetics company known for rewarding its best-performing salespeople with pink Cadillacs, named Richard Rogers chief executive to let him be more involved in the company his mother started. Rogers, the son of founder Mary Kay Ash, replaces John Rochon, who left to pursue family-related business opportunities, spokeswoman Shannon Summers said. Rogers, 58, will take on the CEO's responsibilities in addition to his role as chairman. Ash remains chairwoman emeritus, Summers said.

Being a girl is so much trouble. It always has been. Ask any female who's ever slept in curlers or ironed her wavy hair straight. While women have long tried to improve on nature, in the last few years spas and salons around the country have seen an influx of progressively younger clients seeking services their mothers didn't indulge in until they were out of college and able to support their own beauty budgets.

Heaven in a jar, my friend Carla calls it. Walking toward the skin-care counter, I wonder what's in the baby-blue cream she swears makes her feel as if she's had a "mini-face lift." The lavender-scented cream, the sales rep says, is made from a "patented copper peptide complex" used on burn victims' ravaged skin and diabetics' slow-healing wounds. If it can stimulate the production of collagen for them, he says, consider the power it could unleash on aging skin--a casualty of collagen breakdown.