Lip Smackers Live On!

Moms of all tweens and tweens alike, rejoice: Lip Smackers has been brought back from the brink! Last January, Lip Smackers' manufacturer, The Bonne Bell Company, announced that it was closing shop. The scent of the Dr. Pepper Biggy was a constant in my lip gloss rotation from my own tween years, and as a mom I bought these for my own tweens (Lip Smackers make excellent stocking stuffers, Easter Egg fillers, and birthday gift toppers!). 'Twas devastating news to lose this cultural icon. Luckily for tweens and tweens-at-heart everywhere, the Lip Smackers brand has been brought back into production by the new company owner, Markwins International Corp.
Dr. Pepper, the classic "Biggy"s, Cotton Candy, and Bubble Gum, smack on!

(P.S. Sadly the Thin Mint Lip Smackers are discontinued - but maybe we can start a campaign lobby the Girl Scouts to bring them back?
P.P.S. Your eyes do not deceive you: that IS a Swarovski-encrusted Lip Smacker Biggy!)

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Thin Mint Lip Balm!

We stumbled across these fun lip balms in Girl Scout Cookie flavors! Made by Lip Smacker, these look and smell yummy. In fun flavors like Thin Mint, Samoa (chocolate and caramel), Trefoil, and Tagalongs (peanut butter and chocolate).

Available at Claire's $3.50/each or $14.00 for a Party Pack of 8

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Celebrating Flag Day With Tweens

Our tweens are celebrating Flag Day today by making red, white and blue Jell-O (click here for this super easy recipe) and crafting fun ribbon barrettes in patriotic colors (thanks to our friends at Chica Circle for sharing the instructions). Bonus: these accessories can be used again on the Fourth of July!

Because they're on summer break now, nail polish is back in their repertoire - so of course their nails are red, white and blue (check out these instructions for doing a patriotic manicure inspired by Beyonce in her "Telephone" music video - very fun!).

Does your tween know the essentials about the American Flag? Our girls earned their United We Stand badge in Girl Scouts, and whether or not your tween is a Scout, this is a great guide for learning about the flag.

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A Glee-Inspired Line of Nail Polishes

As if tweens weren't obsessed enough with nail polish, now they can add to their collection with a new line of polishes from OPI inspired by the cast of Glee. Colors include "Slushied", "Gleek Out", and "Mash-Up." These are offered as a limited-edition set from Sephora. Move over Biebs!

Available in February. $9.50/each or or a mini-set for $22

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Sweet! Candy Scented Nail Polish

Perfect for tweens: Bubble Yum, Jolly Rancher, and Laffy Taffy nail polish. Bubble Yum is bubble gum scented and an opaque pink. Jolly Rancher is apple green scented and comes in a metallic green shade, and Laffy Taffy is a strawberry-scented opaque pink.

From FredFlare.com, $5/apiece.

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Happy National Candy Cane Day! A Candy Cane Manicure

Today is National Candy Cane Day! Our tweens are are inside during today's snow storm in Washington and celebrating by doing candy cane manicures. We found this cool post by a French blogger with instructions (if you liked this, check out our candy corn manicure post from Halloween).

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Tween New Year's Eve Countdown: Glow in the Dark (Organic!) Nail Polish

We're known for our tween-focused New Year's Eve celebrations, and this year, we thought we'd share our list of all things fabulous for tweens on New Year's Eve a bit earlier than usual.

Our first fun find: eco-friendly glow-in-the-dark nail polish! Made by Piggy Paint, their Radioactive nail polish is part of their new line for tweens called Project Earth. We think this would be perfect for mani-pedis during a fun girls-night-in or New Year's spa party.

$9 from PiggyPaint.com

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Fun for Tweens: How-To Do a Candy Corn Manicure

Just in time for Halloween: a fun how-to for a Candy Corn manicure!

This is from a cute blog by Babbling Brooke who is a tad nail polish obsessed, but lucky for us, she shares - here's her guide for a fun Candy Corn manicure:

1. Use two coats of yellow nail polish (she used Need Sunglasses by OPI)
2. Then paint on a coat of orange using a either a French manicure nail guide or simply swooshing a curved line. Paint to the ends, leaving a stripe of the yellow showing at the base of the nail
3. Use a French manicure white nail pen or tip paint to do the ends in white
4. Paint on two layers of top coat to smooth out the layered look and feel of this manicure

Sweet!

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Justin Bieber Rolling Out a Line of Nail Polishes for Tween Girls

Tween singing sensation Justin Bieber is launching a new line of nail polishes for tween girls called "One Less Lonely Girl." He is partnering with OPI's Nicole brand, and the collection of six polishes will be available in December at Wal-Mart. The colors include: One Less Lonely Glitter (lavender), Prized Possession Purple (grape), Give Me The First Dance (silver), Me + Blue (dark blue), OMB! (bright red), and Step 2 the Beat of My Heart (heart-shaped glitter). We're sure that these will be at the top of many tween's holiday shopping lists.

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Best Lip Glosses For Tweens In Honor of the New Clique Book Release Today

"The Clique" book characters *heart* lip gloss, and Glossip Girl is sadly not a real product (if you are new to the series, Glossip Girl is Massie's daily delivery of lip gloss in yummy flavors). In honor of the release of the latest in the best selling tween series, "The Clique" ("My Little Phony" comes out today), here's our list of the best lip glosses for tweens:

• The Classic: Lip Smackers (great flavors; $2 in most major drugstores)
• The Funky: Tokidoki lip glosses (in funky colors like blue and green (don't worry, they go on clear); $15 from Sephora)
• The Retro: the Biggy Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker (the size of 4 regular glosses; $4 in major drugstores)
• The Free-Spirit: Hard Candy fortune lip gloss (with a fun Magic8-ball in the cap; $6 from Wal-Mart.com)
• The Sophisticate: Tarte Lip Stain (all natural in shades so pretty, moms may want one too; $24 from Sephora)
• The Hippie: Lip Shimmer by Burt's Bees (all natural; our favorite is Guava; $5 from WholeFoods)

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Tweens and Make-up: a Rising Trend?

The New York Times today ran an article about tweens wearing more make-up "Graduating From LipSmackers?"  It profiled a few mothers discussing their views on make-up and how they've changed over the years - in the past, middle school was considered far too young for eye make-up and lip gloss was only emerging. Fast forward to today, and there are major cosmetic companies targeting tween girls. Neutrogena and Dylan's Candy Bar were cited as examples (Neutrogena recently launched its Teen line of acne clearing make-up), but if you walk into any of Beauty 360 CVS concept stores (an off-shoot of the drugstore giant focused exclusively on upscale make-up and skincare lines) or Sephora, you'll see younger-oriented packaging and labeling of many lines.

While hardly as insidious as Joe Camel, it does make one wonder if girls are in fact being explicitly groomed at younger ages by cosmetic companies in order to gain lifetime loyal customers. Girls have been raiding their mother's vanity drawers for ages, and it's nothing new for girls to aspire to look pretty, but is it inappropriate for companies to tailor make-up lines to girls? Is it adding fuel to the image fire, or is it a good thing for girls to have alternatives to the overly made-up images of adult cosmetic labels? Could a company create a line of make-up for tweens that focused on fun, inner beauty and teaching that didn't run a afoul of the very legitimate charge of making girls grow up too fast? Alyssa Pometta, the 11-year old tween profiled in the the NYTimes article seems to say yes: when "asked if there was a particular celebrity or fashion icon she tried to emulate when putting on makeup, [she] said: 'I don’t take a picture of a celebrity and try to make myself look like them. I try to make myself look like me.'"

And that's a great thing.

So, readers, where do you come out on this topic of make-up and tweens? At what age is it okay to migrate from Lip Smackers to want lip gloss and beyond? Is eye make-up ever okay before the age of 16? What about spa days - do those encourage a premature use of product, or are they good hygiene?

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Totally Cool New Lip Gloss - Fortune Gloss!

We LOVED this new lip gloss idea from Hard Candy.  A magic 8 ball is in the lid and answers all of her girls-night-out questions (Does this lip gloss match my outfit? Will I have a math quiz on Monday?)

Available at Wal-Mart for $6

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Starting a Natural Beauty Trend for Tween Girls

Eleven-year old First Tween Malia Obama can add beauty icon to her resume. Girls everywhere follow the First Tweens - what they wear, their musical tastes, where they vacation - and when Miss Malia updated her hairstyle this summer, girls noticed.

Some of the first photos came from their European trip showing her hair in the very natural style of twists. Throughout the summer we watched the Obama girls on their travels throughout the world. We not only saw them interacting with their family and world leaders, but we also observed how they dressed at both formal and casual ocassions.

As girls return to school this month, many young women brought in photos of Malia Obama from this summer asking for similar hair styles. Moms and hairstylist alike have applauded this trend noting that it does not require harsh chemicals or processes that damage their hair. Other African-American celebrities are also making the move to more natural hairstyles including Tyra Banks and Beyonce. Celebrating one's natural beauty is one tween beauty trend we can all get behind.

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