New Year, New Fashion

Redbook featured some fantastic "Under $50" finds this month in their January issue! Especially this killer leopard print hat!!xo

The Beauty of Doing Good

When I’m not shuttling my kids to school, gymnastics, karate, play practice, basketball, piano, play dates, tutoring, or trying to relearn fifth grade math and keep them from going hungry, I work. You know, cause I have so much free time. I run Charmed PR, a small boutique agency that promotes a handful of fashion and beauty companies to the media.

One of my beauty client’s, Shea Yeleen, was recently featured in a handful of “Gifts That Give Back” stories including Mashable and MSN’s Glo so I thought I’d share and expand a bit on their incredible product line. Shea Yeleen natural skin care products, which include body butters, soaps, body balms and lip balms, use pure, unrefined shea butter sourced fairly and ethically from women-owned cooperatives in sub-Saharan Africa. The social enterprise was founded by Rahama Wright, a first generation Ghanian-American, during her service in the Peace Corps. What Wright has created is nothing short of a miracle: She organized and trained women in the villages of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali to produce high quality natural shea butter which is used as the main component in Shea Yeleen’s decadent body care line made available for sale to the western world. These sales go back to the village women in the shea butter cooperatives and provide them with fair wages, so they can pay for health care, send their children to school, and improve their communities.

 Today, Shea Yeleen’s products are available online as well as in select Whole Foods Stores. If you’re struggling with what to buy those friends and relatives who have everything this holiday season, treat them with some gorgeous gifts from Shea Yeleen. Your gift will be twofold.

 Lavender Honeysuckle Body Balm

This dense body balm enriched with 95% unrefined shea butter, lavender and honeysuckle essential oils, moisturizes and protects the skin from daily elements leaving your skin healthy, smooth, and beautiful with a hint of fragrance. Excellent for your dry skin, especially elbows, knees, feet and hands; $19.

 Unscented Body Balm 

 This 100% unrefined, natural shea body balm moisturizes and protects the skin from daily elements leaving your skin healthy, smooth, and beautiful! Excellent for your dry, irritated, and sensitive skin; $19.

Lavender Honeysuckle Body Butter 

 Packed with 20% natural, unrefined shea butter, this ultra-hydrating formula is rich in vitamins and will instantly smooth your skin, leaving it glowing and delicately-fragranced with lavender and honeysuckle essential oils; $19.

Unscented Body Butter 

 Packed with 20% natural, unrefined shea butter, this ultra-hydrating formula is rich in vitamins and will instantly smooth your skin, leaving it glowing; $19.

 Lemongrass Peppermint Shea Butter Soap 

This exotic citrus scented shea butter soap will awaken your senses and invigorate your skin, leaving it softly frangranced with lemongrass and peppermint; $5.50. Ingredients: Saponified Organic Base Oils of Safflower, Sunflower, Palm, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Water, Rosemary Extract, Organic Annatto Seed Powder, Organic Rosemary Leaf Powder, Lemongrass Essential Oil, Peppermint Essential Oil.

Lavender Ylang Ylang Shea Butter Soap 

 This wonderful floral, fruity, woodsy blend of lavender and ylang-ylang will gently cleanse the skin, leaving you feeling relaxed and refreshed; $5.50 Ingredients: Saponified Organic Base Oils of Safflower, Sunflower, Palm, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Water, Rosemary Extract, Organic Annatto Seed Powder, Organic Rosemary Leaf Powder, Lavender Essential Oil, Ylang Ylang Essential Oil.

 Black Shea Butter Soap 

 For centuries, men and women in Africa have used black soap to cleanse and nourish their skin. Black soap is an all natural, no lye soap used to soothe skin conditions like acne and eczema; $5.50. Ingredients: Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Cocoa Pod.

Jasmine Sandalwood Rose Shea Butter Soap 

 Fragranced with the essential oils of romantic roses, sweet jasmine and earthy sandalwood, this moisturizing soap will transform your bath or shower into a soothing experience; $5.50. Ingredients: Saponified Organic Base Oils of Palm, Coconut, Olive and Palm Kernel, Raw Shea Butter, Water, Organic Calendula Extract, Organic Rosemary Extract, Essential Oil Blend of Jasmine, Rose, and Sandalwood.

 Unscented Shea Butter Soap 

 This fragrance-free shea butter soap will gently cleanse and soothe skin, leaving it fresh and moisturized; $5.50. Ingredients: Saponified Organic Base Oils of Safflower, Sunflower, Palm, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, Water, Rosemary Extract, Organic Annatto Seed Powder, Organic Rosemary Leaf Powder.

 Apple, Coconut Peach, and Honey Shea Butter Lip Balms 

 These fresh, delicious lip balms will moisturize and nourish your lips, leaving them silky soft; $3 each.

Oscar Fashions for Less!

David Tutera Visits Unique Vintage for "My Fair Wedding"!

Celebrity wedding planner and star of the show "My Fair Wedding" David Tutera made a visit to Unique Vintage Dress Boutique in Burbank, CA last week! He was re-Tuteraizing an LA bride and her bridesmaids for season 3 of the show and is such a fan of the shop, he personally chose three different dresses for the bridesmaids to choose...from www.Unique-Vintage.com
While the winning dress that the gals lined up in is top secret, here's a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes at Unique Vintage. Details of when the show will air on WeTv will be announced soon!

UNIQUE VINTAGE and OPRAH! A match made in heaven!

For the last two years in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October, if you don't know!), the vintage-inspired boutique Unique Vintage has donated proceeds from their pink products to breast cancer awareness and research. So...who jumped on board to help spread the word...Oprah, of course!!! In the October issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, Unique Vintage's pink floral umbrella is featured on their BCA items page. Five dollars from each umbrella sale will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It's only the middle of September and they've already sold more than 100 umbrellas!!!

GET "MAD"

Whether you're a Betty, Joan or Peggy, Unique Vintage (www.Unique-Vintage.com) has your "Mad Men" Style

AMC's Golden-Globe winning show "Mad Men" is debuting its third season Sunday, August 16th, so there's no better time to get your "Mad Men" style in gear.

From ladylike Marilyn Monroe necklines to form-fitting wiggle dresses, the vintage-inspired clothing boutique, Unique Vintage
has everything you need to channel your show's favorite character. Dresses range from $68-$300.













Log onto www.Unique-Vintage.com to shop their entire collection.

The Unique Vintage brick and mortar store is located at:
2013 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91506

Melange Apothecary is featured in the Summer issue of GenLux!

Melange Apothecary's GUAVA & COCONUT SUGAR SCRUB is featured in the GenLux Summer beauty spread with Molly Sims on the cover!

This hydrating and gentle scrub made of organic cane sugar, honey, and shea butter is the perfect way to exfoliate dry sun kissed skin!


Melange Apothecary is located at...
13632 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, Ca 91423

CHECK OUT the Melange Apothecary BLOG for current SALES!

Haiden Surf Makes Big Waves, Thanks to Daily Candy Kids

Haiden Surf was started by, none other than two Southern California native surfer girls turned moms, who were tired of dressing their little men in boring beachwear. After some long brainstorming sessions, friends Katie Motika and Alli Baldocchi--who have four boys between them (Haiden is Katie’s first born)--decided that if they can ride a long board, change a diaper and balance a checkbook at the same time, than they could totally take the boys’ surf wear industry by storm. Fer sure!

In Style Likes Unique Vintage!

Check out the April issue of In Style magazine! Unique Vintage's Rose Glass Necklace has gone glossy!

I'm Featured on a Blog :-)

Considering that my hectic life is ANYTHING but relaxing these days, it's funny the name of the blog I was recently featured on is called CalmingCorners.blogspot.com.

Project Glamour Girl

Prom night is the ultimate red carpet event of high school! From stretch limos to fancy ballrooms, prom is one of the most anticipated events in a young girl's life! However, there are plenty of girls who cannot financially afford that fairy tale dress. That's why Unique Vintage has created Project Glamour Girl; a campaign in which they will donate 20 knock 'em dead vintage-inspired prom dresses to young, deserving girls across the nation. In order to turn you into the belle of your ball, Unique Vintage wants you to write a 500 word essay about why you should be one of their Glamour Girls. Log onto Unique-Vintage for contest rules and application. 

Liam Helps Launch Fat Tie!

Fat Tie is a brand new line of organic boys' tees with ties sewn on top for that hipper than thou appeal. Mari, the designer, was inspired by her little man, Max, to create this adorable must-have, and asked if my son, Liam, wanted to be part of their first season's photo shoot. Shy is not in his vocabulary. Actually, not much is in his vocabulary considering he's only 2 1/2, but he had a ball posing for the camera, none the less...and helped out his mom with holiday presents this year...gotta love iphoto!

Say Hello To My Blog!

Welcome to the Charmed PR blog! This is my first official post so I'll try not to ramble too much...

I'm proud to say that Charmed PR is about to celebrate its first birthday and so far I've enjoyed every minute I've spent promoting my clients. Having started off working in the publishing world as a magazine editor and writer, I never thought that I'd really enjoy being on the other side of the pitch (I, too, have had my share of publicist phone calls and unwanted emails) but life is funny that way. I think, mostly, it's because I've only chosen to work with clients I love and really feel passionate about. 

While I've been focusing primarily on fashion and beauty clients like Melange Apothecary, Crib Rock Couture & Decor, Unique Vintage, Tough Cookie's Children's Boutique and oopsy daisy! beautiful baby, a friend of mine recently introduced me to Nancy Mehagian and her new culinary memoir, Siren's Feast: An Edible Odyssey. My kids are five and two and honestly, I don't have much time to read books other than Where the Wild Things Are and Pinkalicious, but as soon as I this book landed on my doorstep, I could NOT put it down and stayed up past midnight for a week just to finish it. The true story follows Mehagian's life growing up as an Armenian-American in the '60s and '70s as she rebelliously travels through Morocco, India and Ibiza, and even spends 16 months in a London prison with her newborn daughter who she had from a one-night encounter with a gypsy fiddler in Syria (crazy, but true!) The constant that threads her journey together is her passion for food and cooking. Siren's Feast contains more than 40 mouth-watering recipes that will bring out your inner chef. 

I couldn't wait to meet her when I finished the book. Nancy was so amazing and so interesting. I am looking forward to spreading the word on her work!

Some other great clients I've started working with are Fat Tie, the super cute boys' shirt line (when you visit the site, look for the little guy in the brown shirt...that's my son, Liam!), Kaiya Eve Couture Pettiskirts (which my daughter is psycho over), Not Just Any Old Day sterling silver calendar keepsakes, and Devi Yoga designer yoga mats (I don't do yoga, but if I did, I'd totally use these mats, they're gorgeous :-).

Okay, I could keep going, but my husband just brought me my frozen yogurt. Yum.