Purple Lab’s newest intern is Anna, who I met during New York Fashion Week! Have fun getting to know her and follow Anna on Twitter here.

1. I’m a junior at Columbia majoring in Comparative Literature & Society.
2. I grew up in North Carolina, but no, I don’t have a southern accent.
3. I’ve been writing for Purseblog.com for over a year as an intern. It goes without saying that I love handbags, and my favorite handbag/luggage designer is Goyard.
4. That said, I have at least three times as many shoes as I do handbags. It’s a paradox.
5. I’m the accessories director for Columbia’s only fashion magazine, Hoot. I love seeing my accessories shoots come alive after long weeks of requesting and picking up accessories all over the city!
6. My favorite color is and has always been purple.
7. I love, love languages. I’m Mexican-American so I grew up with Spanish, I learned French in middle and high school, and I started Italian as a freshman at Columbia. I also took Portuguese for a bit.
8. I love Star Trek, especially Season 3 of The Original Series and The Next Generation. My dad actually got me a sweatshirt that says “I’d rather be on Vulcan.”
9. Science fiction and fantasy reads are my favorites, especially the Ender’s Game saga, Harry Potter (I follow Lord Voldemort on Twitter. If you haven’t read his tweets yet, DO IT.), Frederick Pohl’s Gateway series, and pretty much anything by Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein.

10. That said, I also love my fashion reads – The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four Inch Heels and Faux Pas by Purple Lab Creatrix Karen Robinovitz and Melissa de la Cruz (love her Blue Bloods series and eagerly awaiting the Witches of East End series!) was the book that got me hooked on fashion.
11. I love writing fiction, but I also write for the Columbia Spectator, the campus arts magazine The Eye, and Seventeen Magazine’s fashion blog as part of the Style Council.
12. I love my friends at Columbia. It sounds cheesy, but I hope we all stay friends after college even after we go our separate ways.
13. The Disney Channel is amazing. It’s so lighthearted – all the shows are a great way to de-stress after a long day studying.
14. Talk of teen shows bring me to iCarly – the writing is so clever and I always love a good laugh from Spencer’s antics.
15. As you can tell, I’m more of a TV show person than a movie person. If I could watch only one series over and over, it would be Avatar: The Last Airbender.
16. I’ve been practicing circus arts, specifically aerial fabric and contortion, for eight years.

17. At college, sometimes I stretch in the hallways for contortion. I get stares, yes, but I’ve gotten used to it.
18. My dad is the one who forced me to get Twitter in the first place. He doesn’t have a twitter himself, though, so he has to search for my Twitter conversations. It seems tedious. He should get a Twitter.
19. I laugh very, very easily.
20. I love music! I listen to anything from Top 40 to alternative rock in Spanish to Miley Cyrus.
21. I love wearing colors, patterns, and a lot of bracelets. What can I say, I’m an accessories girl!
22. I love traveling. I’m (somewhat) close to being a Lifetime Gold frequent flier with American Airlines and I have a 10-year travel plan to become Lifetime Platinum.
23. I interned with ELLE’s web department over the summer. More than anything, it made me want to write every day.
24. I want to meet Simon Doonan and gossip with him about Goyard and fashion.
25. I have a giant imagination and can make a long story out of anything. But the long comments on each of these facts about myself should have told you that, right? ☺

MWAH!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix

Meet Mikela Lifland, the newest addition to the Purple Lab Multi-Tasking Maven Gang!

1. I was born and raised in the big state of Texas, but I’d like to say I’m a Texan in Texas and a New Yorker in New York!
2. In middle school my nickname was Mickey, but in high school it was shortened to Mick.
3. I’ve been dating my best friend for almost three years.
4. With that said, we are both adopted!
5. My dad is Jewish, my mom is Italian and I’m Hispanic. I feel this makes me really cultural and I love the diversity.
6. I have two tattoos, one is my adoption date and the other is a peony flower that gives me good fortune and luck.
7. I’m an only child.
8. We have 5 cats and 3 dogs living in my house (which are like my siblings) is that weird? Haha!
9. I have screws in both my knees from when I tore my ACL and Meniscus. The right leg was in basketball, the left leg was in soccer.
10. I have a HUGE girl crush on Kim Kardashian. How could you not?!

11. I love to eat all kinds of food.
12. My favorite drinks would have to be Dr. Pepper or sweet tea!

13. I reallyyyy enjoy running and do it 5 times a week.
14. I’m a sucker when it comes to chocolate.
15. I would choose to eat my dessert before my dinner.
16. I love ALL music and don’t discriminate against any genre!
17. I’m obsessed with all kinds of makeup and nail polish.
18. Being in the fashion industry is where I want to be for the rest of my life and would not choose to work anywhere else! It’s a dream!!
19. I really enjoy art (probably from the influence of my parents)
20. Honestly, I don’t really enjoy reading books, but I love reading magazines.
21. When I was younger I thought it was actually cool to have braces and wear a cast. Both came true. I had braces for 6 years. Broke my thumb. NOT fun. Though I do have really straight teeth.
22. I’m dieing to have a French bulldog.

23. I’m determined to have a closet like Carrie Bradshaw one day.

24. Nothing irritates me more than food smackers
25. I’m still learning and growing, but am proud or the person I’m becoming!

MWAH!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix

Attention Fashionistas!

As you know, Purple Lab is extremely inspired by fashion, hence our creme blush, Cheek Implants in Six Inch Heels and our Huge Lips Skinny Hips lip gloss in Red Sole!

To celebrate the launch of our new foundation, Silk Sheets, we partnered with Chictopia, the ultimate destination for style-obsessed clothes horses (me being one of them) to launch the “Foundation of Style” contest.

We know that every girl has those key items that make up their Foundation of Style, be it your go to shoes that are impossible to walk in (walking is so overrated!) or a fedora, made chic by adding a broach, feather, or a crystal necklace around the base.

Between now and Oct.27, enter the Foundation of Style Contest for a chance to win the latest beauty must-haves from Purple Lab and a chic Balenciaga clutch makeup bag. Plus, we will be featuring our winners on Purple Blab as the guest beauty blogger for the month of November!

For details on how to enter, check out the contest on Chictopia and a few of our favorite looks!

Slicari

Maryvannotes

Red Lipstick

To celebrate our contest you can receive 20% on Purple Lab products using the code “chictopia” at checkout, now through Oct 27!

Cant wait to see your looks!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

And the Multi-Tasking Mavens keep on coming! Meet our newbie Amanda…

1. I’m a Senior at NYU, majoring in Politics.
2. I spent last semester in Prague, Czech Republic and I’m counting down the days till I can go back!
3. I’m obsessed with shoes, especially boots!
4. I love a good manicure. And I’m not afraid of funky colors!

5. I have a mini Golden Doodle named Chase, but I call him Floppy because he loves to cuddle.
6. I’ve been taking Spanish classes since 6th grade and still can’t speak it fluently.
7. My favorite food is watermelon.
8. I have a younger sister and a younger brother.
9. Everything in my dorm room is hot pink (even my dishes and silverware).
10. I started playing soccer when I was 5 years old and haven’t stopped since.
11. I have a trampoline in my backyard.
12. My first concert was the Spice Girls. GIRL POWER!!!

13. My family plays 20 Questions at least once a week.
14. I know every line of Mean Girls. And I randomly quote it just for fun.
15. I don’t eat any dairy products.
16. I’m an Art History dork and can spend hours in any museum.
17. I feel weird if I don’t have my watch on.
18. I love, love, LOVE John Mayer. I listen to his albums on repeat to fall asleep.

19. The next time I travel I want to go to Israel, Greece and Turkey.
20. My favorite museum in NYC is the MoMA but my all time favorite is the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.
21. I wish the The O.C. never went off the air. I love Seth Cohen!
22. When I’m bored or nervous, I twirl my hair. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m doing it.
23. I love a good movie marathon on rainy, lazy Sundays.
24. I won a contest to meet and hang out with Russell Brand after his show in NYC.

25. If I could raid anyone’s closet, it would be my Nana’s.

MWAH!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix

After months of patiently waiting, it finally arrived. It arrived on an ordinary Thursday, when I least expected. When I first saw it I wasn’t quite sure it was it. It wasn’t until I saw those three words GUINNESS – WORLD – RECORD that I immediately knew. That’s right folks, Purple Lab is officially in the books as the record holder for the Largest Speed Dating Event in Guinness World Record History.

Guinness World Record!

For those of you who are a bit lost and may be thinking why a beauty brand would break a record for a dating event, I’ll refresh your memory. Back in January, Purple Lab teamed up with the W Hotel in Hoboken, NJ to launch our latest lip stain and gloss duo, Luvah, equipped with libido stimulants and aphrodisiacs. How better to launch the sexist lip product on earth with “Find Your Luvah,” the largest dating event on earth?

Speed Dating in Action

To add that extra dose of dating and relationship street cred, we signed on Steve Ward, the expert matchmaker behind the VH1 reality series, “Tough Love.”

Karen and Steve Ward, the hosts

The event was a huge success attracting 313 speed daters which can be seen in the official certificate. The funny part was, gathering 313 people into one room to speed date was a breeze. The challenging part was proving to Guinness that we met the task. To be officially recognized as a record breaker we had to send in the following information:

1. A recap of the event

2. Signed statements from two witnesses that details exactly what they saw us do, including times, scores, dates and the location where the attempt took place. Each statement needed to be on letterheaded paper from the witness’ company, and include their contact details

3. A signature from each speed dating participant (which we collected at the event)

4. Official video footage of the event

5. Official photographs of the event

6. Official press coverage of the event

The above information had to be gathering and sent to Guinness within two weeks of breaking the record. We mailed the supporting materials in February, 2010 and we just received recognition on Thursday, July 1, 2010.

They take their time in London at the GWR head courters.

Receiving the official certificate from Guinness was a very exciting moment for me as I worked extremely hard on the “Find Your Luvah” event. Here I am holding our award proudly!

So its official, Purple Lab is in the books and has made world record history – we may be a small indie brand but how many other companies can say they achieved Guinness Record status?

Mwah!

Sharon
Communications Queen

Pearlesque Show, Purple Lab’s silicone-free primer with crushed pearls (for that perfect sheen), honey and kiwi, is inspired by old Hollywood glamour, femme fatale beauty embodied by the confident starlets and pin-ups of yesteryear.

So we hoofed it to the Tribeca studio of photographer Burke Heffner (you may have seen him on MTV’s Made) for an old-school style Varga girl shoot, starring the lovely Andrea Lavinthal, an editrix at Real Beauty. He is genius behind the lens and knows just how to bring out the best in his subjects.

On hand, Miss Veronica Varlow, burlesque chanteuse. She was the posing coach, there to show Andrea the art of unleashing your inner Pearlesque star!

You know we luv us some Va-va-va-Veronica! (This is her at our launch event last year!)

If you met Veronica, you’d think she stepped out of another time. Wearing a tight black 1940’s style flared dress with baby pink satin detail, she commands herself with a mix of poise and mystery that is utterly captivating. (The first time my mom met her, she said “It’s so cute that she’s in costume!” I was like, “Mom, that’s how she dresses EVERY DAY!”).

Andrea Lavinthal, our friend/pearlesque model, is a journalist who writes for Real Beauty (Note: when she first graduated from college, she almost interned for Karen and then she got a “real job” at Cosmo Magazine).

Here’s Andrea, pre-shoot (like the lavish bed set up?).

She strolled in with the Real Beauty camera crew who were on hand to capture the magic. In Andrea’s world as a writer, she normally challenges other women to beauty challenges but today, she is challenging herself.

Mission: Unleash your inner Pearlesque Star.

After Ani Hovhannisyan did makeup (using Pearlesque Show, of course) along with all Purple Lab musts, it was time for wardrobe: a curve loving black dress and a Gucci marabou feather shrug (Tom Ford’s last spring season from Gucci, plucked from Karen’s closet).

Andrea unleashed her inner Gypsie Rose and made herself at home on a white shag rug. “If you are ever feeling unsure when shooting, just think ICON ICON ICON …. And it is impossible to look bad,” Veronica said (sage advice and our new mantra!).

Burke has a warm approach and a way of making his subjects confortqable. And together, Veronica and her hubby brought out the best on Andrea, who looked stunningly gorgeous (a new Facebook profile picture, perhaps?).

Three hours later, it was a wrap.

For the final pic and video, you’ll have to stay tuned!

Mwah!

All of us at Purple Lab

I have been wanting to do kamakazi street-interviews with women for a long time and ask them questions inspired by Purple Lab products. Here’s what happened when we grabbed the camera and went to the one place we knew we’d find a hot bed of girls… The Tory Burch sample sale!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

If you’ve never been to a major designer sample sale, it’s something out of the Discovery Channel wild kingdom shows – a stampede of starving lions chasing its prey. And the lines of hungry girls typically wrap the corner.

I sent the Purple Lab girls on a mission last week – crash DVF’s sample sale for some street team marketing. Here they are en route (thanks to Todd, who drove them).

Ashley was the fearless leader, a true alpha lioness. Here is her story!

On Tuesday I headed the Purple Lab Street team and we crashed the Diane Von Furstenburg Sample sale. Guerilla Marketing and Purple Lab go hand in hand. We are a start up brand and have no marketing budget (Karen loves to imagine the amazing things we could do with an actual budget)!

So, we are forced to get creative, which is truly a blessing in disguise! These untraditional methods are going to be what sets us apart!

We arrive at scene on 28th and 5th Ave. to find a line snaking around the block. Where other people are groaning at the situation, we are ecstatic! This is our target audience… fashionable women who are in the know!

Plan of attack: break into groups so we can cover more ground. We talk to people, get emails, give out Huge Lips Skinny Hips samples in No Panty Lines and VIP cards for shopping on our site. The girls are tres responsive! (You would be too if these three sweet, cute girls appraoched you!)

The key is to sound incredibly informed! I could talk about Karen and Purple Lab all day but the question is, “how can I say everything I need to in 3 sentences?” If you’re poignant, witty and relatable they are like putty!

A few hours and 60 glosses later, we’re ready to head home… Then we spot her… Alex McCord from the Real Housewives of New York. I can hear Karen in the back of my head saying, “GET HER THE GLOSS!”

I am cursing myself for running out of product and then I remember I stashed one HLSH in the bottom of my purse! My mom always instilled in me to be prepared… having raw almonds in your purse at all time and never leave home with out a toothbrush to name a few.

I had a feeling there would be someone special. I sprint over to her and say, “I have something for you!”

“Oh yeah?” She says in a sweet welcoming manner.

As I catch my breath, I say, “I am from Purple Lab NYC a fashion inspired beauty brand started by Karen Robinovitz…” All the while, I am digging around in my hand-me-down Prada, fishing for the gloss.

Through a sea of cameras, phones and my own HLSH’s, emerges the gorgeous purple box with metallic fuschia writing. “This is for you” I exclaim triumphantly. She replies with a high-pitched muffled “oh”! I continue to tell her about HLSH and how it was the inspiration for the brand.

The light turns Red and all the cars on 5th avenue stop. I say thank you and she is off crossing 5th avenue with a Purple Lab VIP card in one hand and a HLSH box, which she is intently reading the copy while she crosses the street.

Mission accomplished!

Mwah!

Ashley
Purple Lab Multi-Tasking Maven

You know we recently stormed the premiere, doing makeovers for those waiting in line. This is the video of how it all went down!

Thank you to Kendra Elise for putting this together!

On a side note, I caught the movie on Saturday and have some important things to say!

I loved the glamour of it all, the glossiness and eye candy, but a few things… eh.

The karaoke number. Kind of killed me, I must admit. No likey. And the red dress with spikey 80s Claude Montana-inspired (or actual) shoulders had to go.

But Samantha. OMG! She looks better than ever. That skin. And that architect! He was damn delish! Side note: I also thought the pirate boots did not work with the sequins dress in the Miley Cyrus scene. Just my two cents.

I would have gone with super chunky Versaces with the wooden platform.

SPOILER ALERT!

Who was fiercely angry when she kissed Aidan and yet swept away and then angry that they were swept away? I was all of those things.

Should we go back to that architect?

Who was he? I heard he was once a mechanic and just recently discovered. Good discovered, whomever found him!

Love that there was some recycled chic – Carrie in Dior newspaper print, which was first worn on the show when she confronted Natasha to apologize for having an affair.

My favorite fashion moment, hands down – end scene. Carrie and Big. She was wearing an emerald green Lavin gown with a 3-D ruffle trim and train and a jade Chanel necklace. I nearly melted.

I couldn’t find a pic online but it was divine!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Every season, fashion designers have a look book, a book that’s curated to perfection, showcasing the collection. It’s not something beauty brands would typically do. Being that I’m such a fashion girl at heart, I was a little jealous! I wanted one!

Today we launch our look book (the cover image is above)!

So I asked some of our favorite bloggers and F.O.P.L. (friends of Purple Lab) to strike a pose. We turned my apartment into a photo studio.

The kitchen was the Dolce Gusto coffee and muffin “craft station” as they say on movie sets.

The living room is was saved for hair and makeup. Turns out that Britt, our multi-tasking maven (a.k.a. intern) who also wound up in one of the pics, is genius with hair! To give you a sense of the mayhem – 11 models, 3 makeup artists, Sharon and a team of 4 interns, 2 Dolce Gusto girls manning the cappuccino, 1 photographer, and me.

Our makeup artists rocked! Thank you to Stacie Ford, Ani Hovhannisyan, and Donna Beretsky-Neidecker, who are so talented and smoke out an eye like nobody’s business! And then there’s Ana Schecter, photographer (or as I like to call her, photographess). She is sooooo talented, it hurts! Love, love, love you Ana, Stacie, Ani and Donna!

We carefully plotted which look would be right for each model. Extreme and edgy red liner (Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Red Sole doubled as shadow for the day) for Karen Blanchard of Where did U Get That – she has such a downtown vibe that we knew she could pull it off (not everyone in the world can, but we also gave her a natural look).

Meanwhile, Todd was on the roof deck, morphing it into a photo ready studio. We hung a white blanket on the fence between our deck and our neighbor’s (for a stark white background), removed the table, chairs and grill and set the stage.

This is Ana at work, shooting a pregger and beautiful Mildred of Beauty Logic Blog.

And here she is with the lovely Audrey of Homerun Ballerina, whose birthday is today by the way! HAPPY B’DAY PRETTY GIRL! J’ADORE! Audrey has such a natural glow about her so it was fun to get enhance it with the highlighter of Luxury Squared.

Now, Virginia Nam of Lovely 20s and The Examiner. She looks like such a perfect little porcelain doll so we had to go with it for this very Asian-inspired look, using Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Lychee Martini on the eyes (it really works well as a shadow but you do have to let it dry!)

P.S. We’re working on shadows, BTW! Coming somewhat soon-ish!

Christine from My Style Pill pulled off a really out-there, runway-ready eye – words won’t do it justice. The rest of the face was super natural so that the eyes were the main attraction. See below and drool!

It took a while to perfect the heavy rock star eyes for Anne of The Jet Set Girls. I love the contrast of the dark, dark eye on her fair skin. And that red hair! She was so fierce, I couldn’t stop kvelling all over her!

Noelle and Joelle of The Owls Are Not What They Seem, gave us the glamour – each with two looks.

But check out the eye on Noelle. When the eye was open, it just looked like a thin cat eye but when closed, it was ON!

And Joelle – no words!

F.O.P.L. included Amanda, the cutest blond! She entered our model search contest and we fell so in love with her that we asked her to be in our look book (she came with her mom, Andrea, who started a Twitter account called @vote4amanda when her daughter was racking up votes!)

Hello Bridget Bardot eyes (Ani, amazing job!).

Barbara Dial, our resident pole dancing teacher (from S-Factor, the inspiration behind Huge Lips Skinny Hips in Kitty Poledancer, soft nude-pink), is the consummate California girl. So we edged her up with a side bun and red-red lips.

There was one more look we were dying to do at the end of the day – something kind of hippie chic with a long side braid and we turned Britt into a model! How gorgeous is she here?

More Behind the scenes pics are on Facebook.

And there’s a great video as well, created by Kendra Elise (there she is below).

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix