Excuse us -- but is this your refrigerator, or your bathtub?
You luxuriate in a tub filled with Foaming Strawberry Milk, scrub with Coco Banana Slush, buff with Tapioca, Rice and Almonds, and give yourself a final pat down with Orange Melon Body Butter.
We found this cornucopia of non-edible skin and hair care products at Hoboken’s brand new lhea (201-222-1522). Everything, everything, looks good enough to eat.
Lhea -- it stands for Live Healthy Ever After -- opened just in time for the holidays on busy Washington Street.
The store is owned by the South Korea-based CHB Group (www.chbgroup.com) and is the first the company has opened in this country. The food-based cosmetics are supplied by Fresh Body Market(www.freshbodymarket.com).
This is not your grandmother’s bubble bath! The milky bubbling concoction comes in flavors like organic coconut, strawberry, eggnog, and chocolate, and is packaged in half-gallon plastic jugs.
The cherry “Skin Yogurt” moisturizer and cleanser are in real yogurt containers. A “Sushi Bar” soap is made of organic rice and fresh avocado.
Make a visit to lhea and you’ll come back with loads of talk-about gifts. Or something for your nice relaxing bath: all-you-can’t-eat goodies that leave you squeaky clean and smelling like a fruit slushie? without adding a single calorie!
Brides To Be The mother of all wedding expos -- the huge Delaware Valley Bridal Show -- Sunday, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill. www.bridaltradeshows.com
The Wedding Planner Straight from the Broadway musical, singer-comedian Stephen Lynch, now taking his act on the road. Catch his bouquet at the Borgata, (www.theborgata.com) all weekend.
Deadly Beloved Solve the wedding murder mystery over dinner on Friday at the Old Mill Inn in Basking Ridge. Champagne toast and cake included! (www.oldemillinn.com)
Find Your Prince At the Enchantment Theatre Company’s Cinderella, Sunday at the Community Theatre in Morristown. www.communitytheatrenj.org
Take The Plunge With the brave Polar Bears in Wildwood on Saturday morning. It’s a benefit for the Special Olympics of New Jersey (www.sonj.org).
Something Old Drawings by Italian Baroque painter/architect Pietro Da Corona. At the Princeton University Art Museum through next weekend. (www.princetonartmuseum.org)
Something New Painter Shari Epstein’s huge, multi-paneled visions of gardens, seascapes, and landscapes on display at the JCC’s Gallery on Grant in Deal Park. (732-531-9100)
The Ring .. is where the action is at Snowbird Acres Farm’s “A” rated Horse Show. It starts Friday in Long Valley and runs all weekend long. (www.snowbirdacresfarm.com)
And Ride Off Together .. at the Motorcycle Spectacular, all weekend at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset (www.gsec.com). Featuring the Knievel bike that jumped the Grand Canyon. The happily-ever-after-party is Saturday night at Jersey?s Sports Pub, across the street.
Gun your engines!
We’re back tomorrow with a gourmet selection of bath-time luxuries.
Remember when going to the grocery store was boring?
Welcome to Whole Foods, (www.wholefoods.com) a celestial feast for the stomach and senses, with much flourish and signage. In the West Orange Suber-market huge banners proclaim:
Aromatic, Abundant, Stunning,andRich! Flavorful, Organic, Tart, Fresh, Local!
Behold: A seafood grill, serving up fresh fish sandwiches and salads with counter seating...
a chocolate emporium,
expresso bar,
desert station (sorbet and gelato)
tanks of fresh salads and salad-add-ons
sushi-to-order
customized pizzas and tortillas
wedges of freshly frosted cake on plates.
All of it made to eat cold, hot, standing up, sitting down at the banquet style seating for one hundred at the front of the store.
We see, We buy, We eat. We believe!
Like other stores in the chain, there is also a healthy selection of cosmetic products, jewelry and organic clothing and accessories.
Whole Foods is not new to us -- but this store is 55,000 square feet; bigger than any of the others in the state.
It is not located, as many are, in a trendy downtown neighborhood, but in a K-Mart plaza. On the plus side, that means acres of free parking -- and even a Wendy’s next door, if you want to indulge the dark side of your appetite!
There was a time when buying a cashmere sweater was a big deal. The ultra-soft wool made you feel like you were wearing something really special.
You thought you’d found a bargain when you paid $40 for a cashmere sweater at your favorite clothing store.
Fast forward to 2007, stir in a mild winter and a serious glut of cashmere.
Ladies, welcome to the era of the cash-mere $20 sweater! $19.97, to be exact, and yes, it’s pure cashmere, and we bought it at WalMart(www.walmart.com). It was two cents cheaper then the $19.99 isaac mizrahi version at Target (www.target.com).
Serious cashmeretologists will be able to find differences between our new, cream colored cashmere crew created by designer Mark Eisen for WalMart, and its more expensive cousins at Lord & Taylor or Saks.
The $20 sweater is 2-ply, not 6 or 8. . But it?s also been so warm lately one of those gorgeous heavier sweaters would leave you schvitzing outside! Our sweater is fluffier, and may pil faster and not last as long. But at $20 dollars a collar, you can buy one in every color.
Tuck a pressed J.Crew(www.jcrew.com) cotton blouse underneath the nicely cabled WalMart special and you’ll be ready for your spring semester at Princeton.
All this discounting is good news for the consumers, though it’s a little sad that something once so special now seems a bit ordinary. What’s next? $50 Louis Vuitton bags? Now if the folks at WalMart could pull that off?
Let’s face it. Even rock stars have dry, damaged hair. Models have ends that are baked and split. Film actresses are over-colored, under-colored, dried and fried. So why don’t we ever see them on a bad hair day?
Because the hair royalty has discovered the London-based Great Lengths method to fix their troubled tresses. It’s available to the masses, at a price.
Guci Image, (www.guciimage.com) in Paramus gave us a demonstration of the pricey Great Lengths cold fusion technology, a process that that can give your hair a new life.
We watched as a chemotherapy patient had her short hair lengthened. Her own hair, and her new extensions, blended seamlessly to give her an instant fullness and shine. The result was amazing!
The process uses human hair purchased from Indian women who shave their heads for religious reasons. This hair is protein-bonded to yours through ultrasound vibrations. It has been meticulously colored to match yours, and even curled to match your curl.
Guci President Joseph Lore says the treatment will last from four to six months, and can be washed, brushed, curled, and treated just like your natural locks.
Unlike other extension methods that bond hair with heat, or use intricate braids, proponents say the cold fusion method is less damaging to your hair.
You will definitely pony up for your new pony tail. To thicken your hair, it costs about $1500 at Guci. For thickening and lengthening, you could spend more than $4000.
Check the Great Lengths website (www.greatlengths.net) to find other New Jersey salons offering the cold-fusion treatment.
You’ll take your hair to new heights. And lengths. Think of it as an investment in your greatest asset. And you’ll be ready when you are called to the red carpet.. even on the worst hair days!
It is less than a week into the New Year, and you’ve already blown your resolution to eat right and exercise.
Help is on the way, and right at your doorstep!
Personal trainer Angel Rocha(www.engineeringfitness.com) will bring her mobile gym --complete with exercise equipment-- to you, if you live in the Morris and Sussex County area.
We asked for a sample work-out to firm our abs. Rocha says always start with basic crunches:
First, lay on the floor-- hands behind your head-- and elevate your feet so your legs make a 90 degree angle with your body. Focus on squeezing your abs to bring yourself up and down, slowly releasing your muscles.
Angel says a common mistake crunchers make is using arms and head -- not abs -- to bring the body upward.
Next, try the reverse crunch.
Lay on the floor in the same position and focus on bringing your pelvis towards the lower part of your rib cage. Again, use those abs, not your legs, to slowly move your pelvis toward and away from your ribs.
Don’t count on crunches alone to reduce the flab. You need to work on that wall of fat that sits on top of your abdominal muscles before your tummy is good and tight.
Combine these exercises with a low-fat diet ? that four letter word we all dread ? weight training, and a regular schedule of aerobic workouts.
If you can’t get to the gym and you don’t want a visit from a personal trainer www.collagevideo.com has a huge collection of videos to motivate and assist you.
Good luck, and remember -- you’ve still got 360 days to keep your resolution!
Excuse us -- but is this your refrigerator, or your bathtub?
Brides To Be
There was a time when buying a cashmere sweater was a big deal. The ultra-soft wool made you feel like you were wearing something really special.
Let’s face it. Even rock stars have dry, damaged hair. Models have ends that are baked and split. Film actresses are over-colored, under-colored, dried and fried. So why don’t we ever see them on a bad hair day?
