When I was a dark-brown-haired 14-year-old, all I wanted was to be blonde, but my conservative Republican psychiatrist father would absolutely not allow it: There would be no dyeing of any kind until I turned 18, period. I begged. I typed up a why-I-should-be-allowed-to-go-blonde manifesto. I even offered to settle for red. No, no, and no.

Then, in 10th grade, I left home for a Massachusetts boarding school. Of course, the very first weekend, I went to a Boston salon, slapped down my for-emergencies-only credit card, and got a full head of golden highlights.

When I told my dad over the phone, he yelled—loudly—but miraculously, he just yelled, and that was that, and I was still blonde. And I've remained so ever since.

Here's the thing: Blonde is a lot of work, and you really have to keep up with it: Touch-ups, regular highlighting appointments, base-color regulation, chamomile shampoos, etc.—and I don't. I'm lazy. I shouldn't be blonde—I'd probably be better-looking if I just succumbed and returned to my natural dark hair—but the spurious, resentful adolescent in me just won't allow it.

Instead, I've found a product that really lets you get away with being a faux blonde with minimal effort: Artec White Violet Color Conditioner. It's incredible for neutralizing yellow, gives you that gorgeous white-pieces-around-the-face thing that little kids at the beach always have, and really softens too.

—Cat Marnell, beauty assistant

You know the metal shower caddies that hang over the showerhead and tastefully display all your glamorous products? My showerhead tilts every so subtly downward, so if you're taking a shower and happen to hit the thing the wrong way, or take a shampoo from it a bit too roughly, or if a whim just strikes the caddy, it all comes crashing down around your ears, soaps and conditioners flying. I practically have a heart attack every time it happens. There must be some small device, something to make a shower caddy stay where it's supposed to. Metal? Putty? Superglue? I purport to be a beauty editor, and yet I cannot figure it out.

— Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director

The worst thing about being a parent is making lunch (the kind that goes in lunchboxes —regular, non-lunchbox lunch doesn't bother me). Number two is detangling your child's hair. You hate it, the child really hates it, and you are cast as a hideous torturer—and you must return to that role, every morning, as if you were in Groundhog Day.

After years as the Hair Torturer, I have made an important discovery that significantly eases the job. Maybe the entire world already knew this and I didn't, but: If it's conditioning you want, go with a non-spray leave-in conditioner. A spray, however high-tech, just doesn't detangle like a clonk of full-on cream.

Philip B Lovin' Leave-in is expensive but smells incredible (tomato leaf, which is delightfully fresh and vaguely flowery), and it leaves the victim's hair so soft you just want to keep touching it—and with a burnished gleam that tempts you to try it yourself. Then you almost want to hoard it for yourself, except that you can't face the morning detangling without it. So you buy more.

—Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director

Our enthusiasm for Ciment Thermique—the genius half-conditioner, half-styler we ran in our November Do-It-Yourself story on bangs—has been seconded by none other than glamorous globe-trotting fashion director Hope Greenberg:

"My hair has been a disaster in the humid, rainy Paris weather; I was desperate.  I bought the Kerastase yesterday and used it this AM. Et voilà!  Soft, tousled, beachy waves.  I don't know if it's real cement, asphalt, tar, I don't care.  I'm in love!"

On my way back from Starbucks, four organic mistos in hand, something I'd been dreading throughout my tenure in Manhattan finally happened: A pigeon got me: Bull's-eye on the left side of my head. Blam. There was nothing to do but continue on, desperately hoping not to bump into anyone I knew in the elevator. This turned out to be a very good moment to be a beauty editor. I took a bottle of extra-fragrant Sunsilk shampoo to the bathroom and washed the... affected area in the sink. Still dripping, I snuck into the beauty closet, plugged in an FHI Nano hairdryer, dug out a Spornette brush, and started furiously fixing. The whole thing (mostly thanks to the amazing dryer) only took five minutes—and my hair actually looked better than before.

—Dawn Spinner, associate beauty editor

After an especially grueling redeye flight back to NYC from LA (why I chose to connect in Denver at 12am, I still don't know) I had an hour to relax/nap before getting ready for work. As I washed the airplane grime off of my face, I saw that my skin was significantly worse than just tired and dehydrated—it was almost call-in-sick-bad. I slathered Kate Somerville Total Vitamin Antioxidant Complex all over my face, then, passed out on the couch. When I woke up forty-five minutes later, I was astonished by the improvement (my skin was magically soft and blotch-free). Really: I skipped foundation entirely. Naturally, I'm now using it every day.

—Dawn Spinner, associate beauty editor

My boyfriend's cheerleader sister Paige was benched during a football game last Friday for … (brace yourselves) her perfect, chic, meticulously done manicure. The offense: Black polish. The appalled coach publicly scolded her and gave her a demerit, too. Controversy is raging within the family over who's right; I of course couldn't be more pro-black-manicure, especially when done with the beyond glamorous Black Satin from Chanel (or Essie Black, or Wet 'n' Wild Black Cream.)

—Dawn Spinner, associate beauty editor

Catching up with someone by Googling, Facebook-ing, MySpace-ing, YouTube-ing—it's all well and good. But I had a moment that was literally like bumping into an old friend on the street when I went on beautifulstrangertv.com—which snaps stylish operatives in action and makes them spill all their secrets—and saw the always glamorous stylist Lisa Marie Fernandez, who I worked with long ago at Elle and whose neverending fabulousness is really something to behold. OF COURSE she is light years ahead of me, even in the beauty department: She's obsessed with a line I hadn't even yet heard of (which I am now rushing out to try): Alkaitis. All-organic, of course. The Organic Flower Mask ($45, alkaitis.com/product.html#) is heaven.

—Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director

Shopping for a gorgeous though out-of-my-price-range coffee table at Room in Tribeca, I turned onto Church Street and was shocked to see a futuristic RV/makeup counter, emblazoned with the Maybelline logo, surrounded by dozens of women. They were all trying on mascara and chatting with makeup artists. I elbowed through and tried XXL Curl, which made my lashes super long and completely negated the need for an eyelash curler. The van is now taking off across the country, giving out samples, coupons, and makeup tips. This weekend, they're heading down to Washington DC, stopping at Target in Alexandria tomorrow, Union Station Friday, and Rite Aid in Laurel, MD Saturday.

—Dawn Spinner, associate beauty editor

The brilliant Tim Quinn, creative director at Armani Beauty, has turned me on to his new favorite foundation, Armani Designer Modelling Compact Foundation SPF 22: You apply it with a brush (tucked inside the lid), and it evens your skin tone without looking at all makeupy—it's incredibly sheer and natural. Plus, the formula's slightly more matte than my regular tinted moisturizer, making it especially great for evening, when I want a little more polish.

—Jennifer Scruby, beauty contributor

I waded through the backstage mayhem at quite a few New York Fashion Week shows to get a closer look at the makeup, much of which was gorgeous but completely impractical. The one look I keep trying to re-create every time I go out, however, is from the Vera Wang show, created by Cle de Peau makeup artist Lucia Pieroni. The Roman-inspired, bronzy-nude face is done mostly with powder—even the matte pink lips are powder, dabbed on and blotted. The exact palette doesn't come out until February, but for now I'm using the shimmery peach, lavender, and pink (on cheeks, eyes, and lips, respectively) in Eye Color Quad Number Eleven.

—Dawn Spinner, associate beauty editor

I was a maid of honor this past weekend, and in a last-minute moment of Survivor-style resourcefulness (and beauty-editor foolhardiness), I swept my hair back with a black twist tie—not a length of silken ribbon, mind you, but the thing you use to seal up garbage bags, or loaves of Wonder Bread. Great idea (I mean it: It held the whole night, and oddly didn't look like a trash-bag cincher)... until the next morning. The battle to get it free was epic—tangles, ominous ripping noises, etc. Every effort failed, until I put on this insanely rich, organic Rahua leave-in hair balm (made with obscure-but-genius Amazonian jungle plants, it's only available through this one site: $125, rahua.com). It de-frizzed, it moisturized, it super-conditioned—but most crucially, it functioned brilliantly like soap on a ring finger; the twist tie slipped right out.

—Cristina Mueller, senior beauty editor

I loathe and fear mice, and no qualifications ("They're so cute!," "They're more scared of you than you are of them!," etc.) will convince me that they are anything but filthy, sneaky defecation machines bent on ascending my bed like it's Mount Kilimanjaro to scamper across my face while I sleep.

Because the world is cruel, even after two visits from an exterminator, there is still a mouse, and I am still very afraid, all of the time. Last night, when I discovered a Pete Dohertyn-esque glow-in-the-dark plastic rosary tangled up in some old jewelry, I decided to suspend my agnosticism and hang it on the hook above my stove for protection.

But I'd forgotten the candle burning on my counter. I smelled the burnt ends of my hair a split second before I saw the flame, which I somehow extinguished. The damage, thankfully, was minimal: I'd seared an inch of the hair that I usually tuck behind my right ear.

Today, I am wearing the crispy bits in a sad and vaguely unpleasant-smelling baby braid, occasionally coating it in one of my all-time favorite products, Terax Hair Care Life Drops Leave-In Protein Conditioner, which I feel is working miracles. (Not just for candle-flamed hair, Life Drops also repairs flat-iron and haircolor damage, too.) 

I would like to report similar progress with the mouse, or even the mouse phobia, but so far, no.

—Cat Marnell, Beauty Assistant

I Went to Milan and All I Cared About Were the In-Room Amenities There were fashion editors and models everywhere, the city was beautiful, the food fantastic. If you can in any way manage it, if you visit Milan, stay at the Hotel Principe. I was thrilled anew every time I walked into the bathroom and found the bright yellow Acqua di Parma products all over the counters. That's glamour.

—Cristina Mueller, senior beauty editor

In other dermatologist-related news, I have been dispensing the gentle-but-really-effective AcnoStat antiacne/antiaging cream from Patricia Wexler, M.D., to various 12-year-olds I know complaining of breakouts. It may say "antiaging," but it's just as good on a 12-year-old as a 42-year-old.

—Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director

In a tragedy that really only could happen to a beauty editor, my beloved Dr. Brandt Anti-Oxidant Water Booster—I mix it into my OJ every morning faithfully, as one dropper full is said to equal 15 cups of green tea, without the caffeine—spilled onto my one-day-old white marble kitchen countertop. It sat there for an hour before I realized it. (For the uninitiated, the Booster is a dark, molasses-colored serum.) Needless to say, the stain—a disturbing brown color—is unmoved by scrubs, powders, lemons, and steel wool. I will personally send a bottle of the brilliant (I believe cold-preventing as well as beautifying) Booster to whomever has a stain-removal suggestion that actually works.

—Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director

I hate the new asymmetric hair as the celebs are interpreting it—Posh, Selma, Katie—it looks like a hairdresser's version of sexy: "I'm thinking Blade Runner! I'm thinking Flock of Seagulls!"

Better, in my opinion, are the side parts on many runways—Marni and Prada, for instance—which are also asymmetrical, but much more sexy (and much less Breakfast Club escapee).

As far as going shorter, Lucky fashion news editor Jen Ford reports that the streets of Milan and Paris are filled with girls wearing Louise Brooks bobs and red lipstick. There's a reason this look is a classic: It's incredibly charming, feminine, and yes, sexy.

—Jean Godfrey-June, beauty director