Skin Is In

You’ve always known less is more. You’ll wear 20 bangles, not 50, thank you. Heavy kohl eyeliner? You’ll stick to your trusty Rimmel Pencil.

Well Vaishaly Patel is your kind of girl. Jet-setter, fashion plate, and facialist extrodinaire, Vaishaly Patel is a step above the rest.

With a clinic in London and a skincare range based on natural and organic ingredients, Vaishaly is something of a skin care wunderkind. Based on her philosophy that you don’t need a lot to take good care of your skin, Vaishaly’s skincare line encompasses all of 5 products. Even better each product comes with step-by-step instructions on how to recreate Vaishaly’s unique massage technique designed to enhance circulation and effectiveness.

At her London clinic, where she treats Elle Macpherson and Nigella Lawson among others, her famous signature facial includes extraction, microdermabrasion, and a treatment mask, topped off with her famous massage technique. Besides facials, she also offers threading, working with and individual’s unique face shape.

Now you too can have the skin of a glowing gopi.

Vaishaly, 50 Paddington Street, London W1U 4HR. Tel: 020 7224 6088
www.vaishaly.com

Too Spicy

She’s done it again. Make us drool that is.

Season 3 of the eagerly awaited (for us foodies anyway) Top Chef debuts June 13^th at 10pm on Bravo, with our favorite model-turned-actress-turned-chef, Padma Lakshmi playing hostess with the most-ess.

For those of you who haven’t tuned in yet, Top Chef pits 15 contestants against each other in a series of culinary trials and tribulations eliminating one chef each week, until of course the most awesome TOP CHEF is left standing.

If the idea of people getting heated over who bought the last chili pepper, doesn’t excite you, surely Padma will. After graduating from college, and modeling for the likes of Vogue and Versace, Padma hosted 2 cooking shows, penned a successful cookbook entitled Easy Exotic and became a syndicated columnist for the NY Times. Another pretty face? We think not.

Next up for Padma is another cookbook Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet releasing later this year and a film directed by Deepa Mehta and starring John Abraham entitled "Exclusion" releasing in 2008.

Whet your appetite with a smack down between Seasons 1 and 2 airing June 6^th at 10pm. Then catch the real deal June 13^th at 10pm.

Top Chef, www.bravotv.com/topchef

Padma Lakshmi, Padma Lakshmi

Scandavian Love

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Scandanavia? Vikings? Herring? The Swedish Bikini Team? If you answered any of those, you’re wrong.

You should have thought of Indiska. Indiska, which means Indian in Swedish, is a trendy chain of stores based in Scandinavia. The unexpectedly fun store carries merchandise inspired by and from India and South Asia. Kurtas as dresses, Hurry Curry spice sets, mirrored notebooks, and a daily desi personal favorite, ceramic tile maharaja hooks, are just some of the trinkets you can find.

Unfortunately, you can’t shop on their website yet. But you can enter a competition to win a trip to India, find recipes for “khari machlee”, enter a contest, or read a blog.

Guess you will just have to take that vacation to Stockholm. Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Indiska, www.indiska.com , multiple locations throughout Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.

Desi Girls Do It Better

Shalini Kantayya is out to win. The 30 year old Brooklynite, is one of the finalists in "On the Lot" the hit reality show created by Steven Spielberg. Miss Shalini is one of the 18 film makers chosen from over 12,000 submissions from around the world. Each week the filmmakers will shoot a short film based on one of a variety of themes. The films will then be screened by a live audience and critiqued by a host of venerated judges, such as Gary Marshall and Brett Ratner to name a few. Not just another ego, Shalini seeks to make films that encourage social change. Besides staring a production company, 7TH Empire Media, she has also produced and directed movies and video across the globe and worked for clients such as Sting and Mariah Carey.

So tune in or set that DVR/TIVO and VOTE!!!! Let’s show them how big our voice really is.

"On the Lot" airs Monday and Tuesday nights on Fox at 8 pm. airs Monday and Tuesday nights on Fox at 8 pm.