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Sponsored Post: My New LensCrafters Glasses!

07/15/2011 By 11 Comments

So I picked up my glasses yesterday and am really psyched about how they turned out. So first, a quick review of the last 3 pairs of glasses I got from LensCrafters (all purchased during the same “take 50% off lenses” sale sometime in 2007 or 2008):

A tortoiseshell pair from DKNY with a blue pop-out color on the rim and a bit of a point at the temple…

A thicker tortoiseshell pair from D&G with some fun clear accents…

A dark purple pair of sunglasses from Elizabeth Arden – my first pair of “fashionable” prescription sunnies, but they definitely won’t be my last…

These glasses, along with a few other pairs, were my “everyday” glasses for the office, or are now my “I’m leaving the house on the weekend and can’t be bothered to put in contacts but look! my thick frames tell you I’m still vaguely fashionable” glasses. The primary glasses I wear around the house are actually an incredibly old pair of wire frame glasses — they’re lighter, they’re more comfortable, they don’t fall down my nose the way plastic frames do, and if it’s late and my husband and I are watching a movie I can actually fall asleep in them (whereas I feel like the plastic frames will get permanently screwed up). Super super comfortable, but they surely must be one of the top 3 Least Fashionable Things I Own — gold accents, circular frames, etc.

So when I went in to Lens Crafters on Tuesday, I was definitely thinking:
a) no more brown tortoiseshell!  (I think back in 2008 I’d gone to the sale first with a girlfriend, and she helped me pick out the D&G pair.  Then later on I’d gone with my boyfriend (now husband) and he’d helped me pick out the DKNY pair — and so it wasn’t immediately apparent until later that I’d bought two really similar pairs of glasses.  D’oh.)
b) preferably a frame that had springy hinges — none of my plastic frames do and I have to take them in to be “tightened” every so often
c) something fun that I wouldn’t choose normally
d) did a “comfortable” AND “fashionable” pair of glasses exist?

Like I said, I chose about a zillion glasses — clear plastic! Tiffany-blue plastic! a gorgeous pair of brown tortoiseshell glasses with royal blue lining (hellooo, I love royal blue!) a purple pair of plastic lenses! But after trying them all on the ones I liked best were a pair of brown metal Ray Bans — they had the spring hinge, I liked that they weren’t gold- or silver-colored, and of course I liked the tiny touch of royal blue on the sides. I’m really hopeful that they’ll be both comfortable AND fashionable and be my new go-to glasses.

My new brown Ray Ban metal wire frames!

Readers, what kinds of frames do you prefer — wire, plastic, or something else? Do you like to switch up your eyeglasses on a daily basis?

Disclosure: In addition to receiving a free pair of prescription eye glasses, I received monetary compensation to be a LensCrafters Ambassador.

Filed Under: Accessories, Advertising, Eyewear, Sponsored Post

Sponsored Post: My AccuFit LensCrafters Experience

07/13/2011 By 23 Comments

imageSo yesterday, I went to the LensCrafters on 45th and 5th Avenue and had a lovely experience. First, I saw an optician, who took my latest prescription. She had a few fun new tricks up her sleeve, including a way of seeing my eyeball without dilating my eye.* She actually showed it to me on the screen to show me healthy blood vessels and nerves (I didn’t think to take a picture of it — it looked kind of pretty, though, a bit like the Aurora Borealis or something). All in all the fitting went by really quickly.

After I selected about a bazillion frames and whittled them down to the one I wanted, it was time to fit my prescription into the lenses.  This is where the AccuFit system comes in — it’s a brand new digital system that is about 5 times more precise than the manual method (which you may remember because it looks like binoculars or some such thing).  It measures your pupil distance, the spacing between your eyes, and the shape of glasses, all to ensure that the actual glasses fit the best in the frame.  (I’ve actually tried to measure my husband’s pupil distance when we ordered glasses online once — let’s just say it’s a lot trickier than it sounds, so I appreciated the digital accuracy.) Apparently, less than 5% of American stores use this system, and so LensCrafters is going to be the first retail network to bring digital measurements to the U.S.  (I snapped a picture with my camera of the screen after they’d done my AccuFit-ing — it’s definitely cool.)

One of the fun things about the experience was that I bumped into some of my fellow fabulous bloggers who are ambassadors, including peeps from StyleMom, Gala Darling, Beauty Blogging Junkie, and SugarLaws — you can check out some of their experiences at their websites once they’re up.

Stay tuned later this week when I reveal my new frames!  (I was at the store right before they closed, so I’m picking them up later — normally you can get them the same day.)  As I mentioned on Friday, LensCrafters is having their best sale of the season — 50% off the lenses with any frames purchase, which for me is always the expensive part.  The sale goes on until September 12.

* Am I the only one who hates to have my eyes dilated?  I’ll never forget going for an eye doctor’s appointment or something right before an office holiday party, which was held in the ballroom at a local hotel — it was dark and there were like strobe lights, which added to the surreal-ness (surreality? hmmn)  of it all.  Good times.

Disclosure: In addition to receiving a new pair of glasses, I am also receiving monetary compensation for this ambassadorship.

Filed Under: Accessories, Advertising, Eyewear, Sponsored Post

Sponsored Post: I’m a LensCrafters Ambassador (Just in Time for Their Best Sale of the Year!)

07/08/2011 By 30 Comments

So even though I normally wear contacts for photos/videos I take for the blog, the truth of the matter is that I’m in glasses a lot of the time. This is, in part, due to some complications I had with my eyes a few years ago (which we really should talk about on the blog some day; I would never want anyone else to go through what I did!) — I basically went from wearing contacts about 80% of the time to now wearing glasses about 80% of the time. I have so many pairs of glasses I view them as accessories!

In any event, I was thrilled when LensCrafters approached me about being an ambassador. I’ve gotten a lot of LensCrafters glasses over the years, and both the quality of the glasses and my experiences there have always been great. One of their best sales of the year is upon us – you get 50% off lenses with a frame purchase. (Seriously, when my husband or I need new glasses, this is the sale that I wait for.) I have fairly bad eyesight (-4.5 and -4.0) so the lenses are always the most expensive part of the purchase. The sale starts today and runs through 9/12.

Stay tuned next week — as part of my “ambassadorship” I get a new pair of glasses using their AccuFit system, and I’m looking forward to selecting a new frame.  (New accessories, yay!)  I’m going for my appointment on Tuesday at 5:30, and I’ll be Tweeting as much of it as I can, so if you can follow me @corporette.

Oh, and you can check out the full details on the sale on the LensCrafters website or at your local store.

Disclosure:  In addition to receiving a new pair of glasses, I am also receiving monetary compensation for this ambassadorship.

Filed Under: Accessories, Advertising, Sales, Sponsored Post

Sponsored Post: Kat’s Lancome House of Color Video

06/03/2011 By 47 Comments


Lancome's Color Design 5 Pan palette in Taupe CrazeA few weeks ago Lancome asked a few of their favorite style bloggers to create short films inspired by the colors of their Color Design 5 Pan palettes, and I was honored to be included. They sent me the Lancome’s Color Design 5 Pan palette in Taupe Craze (which I truly do love and have been wearing to death), and my cameraman (aka my husband) and I got to work filming, mostly in our Brooklyn Heights apartment and on The Promenade, which is a few blocks away.  (We did the filming a few weeks ago, so I’m about five months pregnant in the vids…)

You know that mythical object that beauty editors always talk about, the perfect beigy pink eye shadow that makes you look like you’re wearing nothing and instead just look totally awake and alive?  It exists — and it’s in this palette.  So I kept thinking about those rare mornings (rare for me, at least!) where you get up and the world is so full of possibility and promise and you can’t wait to tackle your to-do lists, and you actually do look awake and alive.

The other thing I kept thinking about was diamonds. My other favorite color in the palette, this dark dark brown (intended to line your eyes), has some serious sparkle to it. I’m always wary of sparkly makeup, especially for work,  because it can go wrong in so, so many ways, but this one just looks revitalizing and flattering.  You can see it sparkling both in the case and in some of the close-ups of my eyes.  My beloved right-hand diamond ring (which I feel like I’m always mentioning on this blog) makes a fairly prominent appearance in the video, as do my dangly diamond earrings that I wear for most major social occasions.

Without further ado, here’s the video!

You can find out more about the palette by checking out some of Lancome’s social channels, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.  And, like I mentioned above, I’m only one of videos that Style Coalition did — they’ve been releasing one every day on the Style Coalition YouTube channel! The other bloggers who I’m honored to be among include What I Wore, M.I.S.S. Omni Media, College Fashion, Karla Sugar, Style Observer, nitro:licious, Dramatis Personae, The Jet Set Girls, Beauty Sweet Spot, My It Things, Afrobella, Pretty Shiny Sparkly, Fashion Pulse Daily, Chic Galleria, ThinkThruFashion, Eye4Style, Closet of Style, The Curvy Fashionista, and Beauty Blogging Junkie.  I agree 100% with College Fashion and Dramatis Personae, both of whom mentioned the eyeshadow’s long-lasting qualities — it really does stay put for 8-12 hours.

(The hubs and I shot the raw footage — but huge, huge thanks to Style Coalition and IKA Collective for doing such an awesome edit.  Oh, and thanks to my friends who came over for a dinner party and wound up getting roped into filming the toasting scene — they are now having an amusing discussion via email critiquing their toasting styles.  Ah, lawyers. Oh! And huge thanks to my old friend Michelle of Thursday Night Smackdown, who graciously let me use brownie shots from her drool-inspiring (and hilarious) food blog.)

Disclosure:  I received compensation for shooting this video, and was gifted with the Taupe Craze palette.

Readers, what luxury makeup indulges do you like the most?  How often are your “wake up and conquer the world” days?

Filed Under: Advertising, Beauty, Kat, Makeup That Stays Put, Sponsored Post

Sponsored Post: Derek Lam & eBay Launch New Crowdsourced Collection

05/12/2011 By 39 Comments

This post is sponsored by Derek Lam and eBay, but written by your usual blogger Kat Griffin.

How fun: Derek Lam and eBay have just announced the first ever crowdsourced collection — and it’s available for purchase now. In February, Lam debuted an exclusive 16-dress collection and then invited shoppers everywhere to view the collection and vote for their favorites. More than 120,000 votes rolled in, and five designs were actually produced. Prices range from $125-$295 in sizes 0-16 (which is a pleasant change from his normal prices, with blouses around $850 and dresses usually well over $1000), and pieces are (mais oui!) available in limited quantities.

Personally, my favorite is the Shift Dress, which retails for $175 (pictured). I think it’s a great dress for the office — your classic V-neck, a ladylike length, and even a nice curve to the armholes, if that makes sense.  I love that it’s made of a black cotton poplin with a hint of stretch (poplin AND stretch? sign me up), and apparently there’s a peplum back, as well.   It strikes me as a classic, to be worn with a blazer and pumps for day and perhaps with bolder jewelry and sandals for a night out.

Pictured below: I’m also a huge fan of the denim sundress for the weekend, as well (albeit perhaps with a tank top underneath? I’m never quite that daring with cleavage!) — it looks like a fun dress to pair with wedges and a sunhat and see the sights.


Readers, which of Derek Lam’s 5 looks is your favorite?

Filed Under: Advertising, Sponsored Post

Sponsored Post: Hoseanna Asks

04/04/2011 By 9 Comments

This is a sponsored post from Hoseanna, a new site that launched last week and aims to help busy women everywhere put some of their most annoying purchases (such as pantyhose!) on autopilot by offering subscription service. Read my post last week about it, or visit Hoseanna — and note that you can still enter to win the Facebook contest as well!

1. I write for the Corporate Rookie because I remember being there! There were so many other things to focus on being new in the corporate world — and yet how you look does affect your job and career, as well as etiquette and all those things that no one really talks about.
2. How do you balance style with being ‘business appropriate’? Has that evolved over the years? In the beginning, “business appropriate” pretty much meant “not jeans.” I remember wearing a pair of bright red Banana Republic chinos, a black boatneck sweater, and an opera-length necklace (which I’d made myself), slung once around my neck but otherwise left to hang. One of my male colleagues said something like, “Well, you always know how to be fashionable!” He meant it as a compliment but it made me rethink the outfit — if I was standing out so much that male coworkers were commenting on my clothes, maybe it wasn’t the best thing.
3. Confess! What’s your most embarrassing fashion moment? Egads, too many to count! Most involve arriving to some meeting and looking down at my new blouse or new dress and realizing, “hey, I can see almost my entire bra from here.” From this I adopted the rule: I always wear a camisole the first time I wear something new to the office!
4. What’s your favorite type of hosiery? I’m a tights girl — the more opaque the better.
5. What’s the best way to pair tights with your outfit whether its work or play? With work, tights should be dark, solid colors — a repeating pattern is ok so long as it’s all the same color, I think. There is this idea floating around out there, though, that opaque tights suddenly mean a miniskirt is acceptable for work — and that usually is not the case. Everyone should know their own office, but the default assumption in a conservative office should be that a only a knee-length skirt is acceptable. As for play — it depends on your personality and where you’re going. I’ve had fun with light blue tights or bright purple tights (with mini-skirts dresses!) on the weekends.
6. If you could invite any four women to dinner, historical, fictional or current day, who would they be? Tough call — there are so many women I admire and would love to meet, but I also believe you sort of have to shape a dinner party when you invite people — I’m not sure Oprah and Katherine the Great would hit it off so well.  I think it would also depend what I wanted to talk about most — if it was success in a man’s world it would be a very different group discussing success as an entrepreneur or a group discussing how to juggle family and career.  And I’d have to balance it with my own desires — for example, I never really knew my paternal grandmother — it would be so lovely to have dinner with her.
7. What is the best ‘reclaim your time’ tip you can give your readers? Honestly, I’m a huge fan of Leechblock.  I tend to take far too many boondogles online — I’ll read my RSS feeds at lunch and look up an hour and a half later and wonder where the time went.  At the end of the day, though, I find that if something is important to you, there is room in your schedule for it somewhere.
8. If you had a theme song what would it be? Yeesh — no idea.  I tend to listen to either a) fairly dark stuff (I had Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” on repeat during much of my law school career) or b) fairly silly stuff (Lady Gaga, Britney).  There’s a random Swedish song that I really like by Lisa Ekdahl (“Flyg vilda fogel”) that is just about the happiest thing I’ve ever heard, or perhaps a lovely little song from Lhasa de Sela (“Small Song”) — maybe one of those two would be my theme song.
9. What’s your guilty pleasure? I call it “brain candy” — books that are so well-written that they suck you in, but that have covers or titles that you’re a little bit embarassed to read in public.  Julia Quinn’s romances, Charlaine Harris mysteries…
10. When I grow up I want to be… I would have said “writer” many years ago — and now I’m thrilled to be making my living from writing.  I’d still like to write fiction at some point, I suppose, and I’d still like to tackle a really big entrepreneurial idea.  I do love the idea that we’re not quite done “growing up” though — I suppose the truth is that I never want to “grow up” — I want to continue to grow and learn and reach for new things.

Check out the answers from my fellow “brand ambassadors”:

Readers, want to play along?  Here are the 10 questions…

1. I am a [Corporate Rookie, Corporate Vet, Marathon Mom, or Uniform Diva] because…
2. How do you balance style with being ‘business appropriate’? Has that evolved over the years?
3. Confess! What’s your most embarrassing fashion moment?
4. What’s your favorite type of hosiery?
5. What’s the best way to pair tights with your outfit whether its work or play?
6. If you could invite any four women to dinner, historical, fictional or current day, who would they be?
7. What is the best ‘reclaim your time’ tip you can give your readers?
8. If you had a theme song what would it be?
9. What’s your guilty pleasure?
10. When I grow up I want to be….
Filed Under: Advertising, Kat, Sponsored Post