Last night, I recruited my friend Bruce (and co-creater of The Living Room Chef) to come over and help me demonstrate the Tria At-Home Hair Removal system so that we could show you how easy it this DIY job can be.

Before you dive into the video demonstration, let me give you the quick and dirty on how to start your laser hair removal experience at home.

Prep Your Skin: It’s recommended that you don’t pluck or wax 6 weeks before you start the Tria system, or any laser removal for that matter. When you’re ready to start your at-home treatment shave the area you want to treat and remember to clean your skin of any lotions or creams — the surface needs to be totally clean.

Activate the Tria: This thing is pretty smart when it comes to usage — safety first! It comes with a skin sensor unit that must be used to test the skin beforehand. The sensor detects skin tone and will let you know if you’re too tan or dark. If you get a green light, you’re good to go; red light means no go and you have to test your skin before every use.

It’s Laser Time! After the skin sensor gives you the thumbs up, you need to wave the sensor in front of the base unit to activate it. Set your preferred power level (1 - 3) and start zapping! It’s recommended for best results to laser the area you’re working on in 1/2 inch increments. While we didn’t do Bruce’s whole leg, I’d imagine that we could get the job done on both of his lower legs in maybe 30 minutes or so.

Now for the video demo - just press play! And please excuse the mess, we were hanging out in the garage watchin’ TV and having a grand old time!

The manual says you can do subsequent sessions within 2-4 weeks, but when I spoke to the folks at Tria, they actually recommended that I wait closer to 4 weeks. So check back then where I’ll follow up with Bruce for the next edition in Adventures of Laser Hair Removal!

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Things are getting a little bit better this week; I’ve lost a total of 2.2 pounds so far. I think I could have done much better but I really indulged in the food over the weekend (hello, Garlic Festival?!) and drank with my friends nearly every night. I’ll spare the alcohol details, but won’t hold out on the food. My goal for this week is to incorporate one workout and eat more soups as you all have commented. I had a small bowl of this Vietnamese-style hot and sour soup on Monday and it was filling and delicious!

As for the workout, this Sunday the Boyfriend and I have a date with some friends to hit the tennis courts. I’ve never really played so I hope this workout will kick my butt.

Now for the food…

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My fellow San Franciscans, have you noticed that our weather has been a little chilly these past couple of days? Saturday was gorgeous but Sunday and Monday have been horribly overcast and chilly. I had to pull out my winter sweaters to find an outfit for work — I hate when I have to do that in the middle of sundress season. How’s a girl supposed to get her tan on in the middle of all this overcast?

Today, like a sign, I opened up my Daily Candy and found Glow a Go-Go, a sunless spray service that comes to you! No more scrambling through city traffic to North Beach, the land of no parking, because their mobile service now comes to you!

Make an appointment and one of their state-licensed cosmetologists will come to your home, work, anywhere you want, and work their instant spray tan magic on you.  From start to finish, you’ll have a healthy and safe glow that lasts for one to two weeks in just 30 minutes!  So even if I can’t get my warm sunshine in San Francisco’s fickle micro-climates, I can certainly create my own destiny and at least pretend that I just got back from laying out all week in Cabo!

Check out Glow a Go-Go in San Francisco at 1318 Grant Avenue at Vallejo Street or call (415) 335-5716 for more information.

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Lancôme is pre-releasing their hot, new mascara for one day only this Thursday, July 31st, at select locations. Ôscillation is the new kid on the block as the first vibrating mascara. Can you believe that all you have to do is push a button and you could obtain lengthy, luscious, and defined lashes?

Ôscillation has a battery-operated brush that works to provide 7,000 micro-oscillations per minute. Sounds scientific but you’re probably wondering, “How does it work?” Application on this is pretty gosh-darn simple - hold the button on the wand to start the oscillation action and apply in straight, smooth strokes rather than in a zig-zag motion. What you’re left with are gorgeous, glossy lashes that are sure to make your man come hither at the bat of an eye.

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I certainly miss the days of Meet the Barkers on MTV when we got to see Travis and Shanna absolutely in love with each other for all the world to see.

Now, the news I hear about them are few and far between however I just read an article on PageSix.com last week where ex-Mrs. Barker got into a cat fight with Kim Kardashian over Kim’s alleged involvement with Travis while the couple were married. While the article was a juicy tidbit of celebrity gossip, all I could think about afterwards was Shanna’s makeup in the article photo! Check out the subtle pop of teal on her lower lashline. It’s sassy and the look is super easy to do.

Try CoverGirl’s new Eye Enhancers 1-Kit Eyeshadow in Turquoise Tempest using a small rounded smudge brush. Dampen your brush by spritzing a little water to the bristles before picking up the color with it. This will help to intensify the shade even more and allow you to line the color precisely to the lashline.

Hope you all had a great weekend - mine certainly was fun-filled and now I’m exhausted. Hopefully I get a good night’s rest so that I can take on Monday with full force!

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Because at the Gilroy Garlic Festival, you don’t need ‘em!

I just got back from a very hot and very dusty couple of hours at the Garlic Festival where you can grub on just about anything you could ask for - with lots of garlic added. This event happens once a year during the last weekend of July. The Boyfriend and I went last year and this time we decided to invite a couple of friends along for the food ride, too.

Here, you can always find a smorgasbord of delicious, albeit not-that-good-for-you food. Today we opted for Garlic Steak Tacos and Crab and Garlic Fries, because you always need to eat the garlic fries when you come to this festival. Don’t these look like they’d give you a heart attack though? Eeep!

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I’m sitting here watching America’s Best Dance Crew right now and it kinda blows that Supreme Soul and Super Cr3w are in the bottom end of the votes. I won’t give away who went home but you can imagine that it’s not good.

But, it makes me feel better to know that tarte is having a Friends & Family Event going on right now that’s so good, it’ll cure me of any sadness I feel and give me a good dose of retail therapy to keep my spirits up.

Right now through Sunday, July 27th, order any tarte product your sweet little heart desires and get 40% off your purchase. Don’t know what to get? Might we suggest The Eraser ($19 US), this baby will brighten up tired eyes, conceal your blemishes and brighten up your face in a matter of seconds with this uber-versatile pen!

Or, pick up tarte’s famed Cheek Stain ($28 US). It comes in 8 colors and it might be good for you to get all the shades so that you never have to wonder what your perfect blush shade is! My personal pick is Flush for a universal color that’s sure to complement most skin tones.

Both of these products are currently nominated for Glam.com’s 2008 Beauty Awards so you’d better act fast before it’s all gone. And if you’re like me and need even more tarte goodies, don’t miss out the Limited Edition ready-to-wear / prêt-à-porter ($44 US) set. Palettes are great because it’s all you need to pack when you’re heading out of town for the weekend or jetting off on an overnight business trip - because no one wants to pay $15 to check a bag in right??

If want these, or anything else from tarte, start shopping online right now through July 27th and enter in promo code FF08 when you check out. Don’t forget that it’s good for 40% off your total order - so what are you waiting for?!

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Happy Hump Day!

I have a very exciting event to share with you, my lovely Bay Area readers - I’m hosting an at-home hair coloring event with a new line up of L’Oreal Feria products and I want you to join in on the fun! I’ve invited some of my friends to get gussied up and I thought, hey, why not invite a loyal Daily Cookie reader to get herself made over by me too!

L’Oreal Feria is introducing a new formula of their popular multi-faceted hair color with lower levels of ammonia - which means less stinky beauties! The new product also comes with a savvy pro-touch applicator to allow for a faster and more precise application.

If you’d like to be one of the lucky ladies to join me and my friends at a hair-coloring party in San Francisco please email me at thedailycookie [at] yahoo [dot] com by 5pm PST Thursday, July 24th. I’m hosting this event with drinks, h’orderves, and of course a goodie bag from L’Oreal! I’ll pick one lucky reader at random and will email you with all the details of where, when, and what color! Well, you actually get to choose your color; we won’t make you lovely brunettes go blond if you don’t want to

Looking forward to hearing from you and hope you’re having a great Wednesday evening - remember to watch Project Runway and Shear Genius tonight; I certainly am!

xoxo, Lilan

This morning I woke up feeling a little spunky and rejuvenated after a really (really) blah Monday and Tuesday so I decided to actually put some color on my face today.

I dug around my newly organized makeup stash (it probably won’t stay this way for long) to see if I could find something to spice up my life on this Hump Day! It didn’t take me long before I gravitated towards that purple pot of eyeshadow - it drew me in immediately.

MAC’s new collection, Electro Flash, gives us mineralized eye shadow duos that definitely helped to pick up my mood when I spied Odd Couple, a pot containing a bold purple half paired with a side of light bronze with purple veining. They say the shadows are extremely pigmented but I thought they had just the right amount of color.

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I decided to do my weigh-ins every Wednesday - and here are my results from my last weigh-in on July 16th. That first week I think I did okay, as I was really aware of everything I was putting into my body. I mean look! I got down to 130.6, which means about a pound and a half of weight loss.

But for some reason, since last Wednesday, I’ve been eating crap and I just can’t resist. It’s so bad. Here’s the next installment of my food diary - all up-to-date. I definitely think I got in more fruits than I normally eat which is an improvement, but the alcohol consumption for the week is kinda bad. I think I gotta curb that, but hanging out with friends is so fun!

Wednesday, 7/16
Breakfast: 1 kiwi and whole wheat English muffin with 1 tbsp. cream cheese
Lunch: 1 lemon chicken breast, watermelon and 2 raviolis
snack: small slice apple pie with ice cream (it was our monthly birthday celebration at the office!)
Dinner: 2 Vietnamese crepes, 1 vodka and juice

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