Sounds Good

Texas savvy and Valentine finds
I recently shared an exciting glow-in-the-dark Texas star guide from Waterford Press. Other water-repellent pocket Texas guides help you find a funeral duskywing butterfly, beardtongue flower, yellow-rumped warbler and bark scorpion. Wildflowers, moths and butterflies, wildlife, seashore life and birds are the categories. Maybe now visitors and residents can realize those long-legged pink birds in our skies are not flamingos, they’re roseate spoonbills.
Armed with these guides I can tell you I’d rather run into a botta’s pocket gopher than a Norway rat. Next time I go to the beach I can enjoy the now-obvious distinctions between the Southern quahong and turkey wing shells. Boy, do I feel smarter.

Valentine finds
Ladies, my lips are feelin’ fine with Mint Glaze FX and I think I could be snacking less because of it. Cover FX Fortifying Lip Treat Mint Primer SPF 15 will keep your lips fit for the Mardi Gras seawall. The minty flavor of peppermint oil makes me think I just had a candy, and there’s no way I’m going to ruin the look with chip crumbs. The liquid is clear and paints on with a velvety tip promising to smooth, soften and provide time-relese hydration and the look of fuller, smoother lips. That’s a big promise, but Mint Glaze can handle it. You get to shop at one of those amazing Sephora stores in Houston, or Nordstroms, to pick up a tube.
It’s probably no accident the shiny lid on Relastin Ultra Emollient makes it look like a pot of gold. Revance Therapeutics Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., distributes this cream with zinc firming complex to promote elastin formation. I’m not sure how to measure improvements, but I can tell you that after smoothing on this stuff, I’m done with winter blahs.

Romantic hair
When is it okay to appear “loose” on Valentine’s Day?
Loose curls sweeping waves and long-flowing hair are perfect for this holiday’s hairstyles, says Philip Pelusi, celebrity hairstylist, product expert/developer and owner of Tela Design Studio in New York City’s Meatpacking District.
Pelusi’s step-by-step tips for achieving the look involve his own products. I just had a birthday, so I was already feeling old when I tried Longevity. Now my curls are more spry. Here’s the artist’s tips:
• Shampoo and condition - Use a strengthening and weightless moisturizing formula to leave hair in top condition but full of body. Try P2 Longevity Shampoo and Longevity Conditioner to strengthen, detangle and condition hair.
• Apply a volume and curl boosting product (like P2® by Philip Pelusi Recurl) - Comb through with a wide tooth comb. If you have natural waves and curls, gently push them into place and either air dry or blow dry with a diffuser. If hair is straight, follow the same instructions but gently scrunch hair with your fingers while diffusing.
• Curl - The trick to keeping this look sexy and romantic is to curl the hair in opposite directions. Roll some curls going forward and others going back, and tousle the curls with fingers using a product that gives that “just from the beach sexy hair texture.” The line’s BeachComber does it with a citrus scent.

Put Grandma in your nightlight
Seriously…Light Affection takes you photographs then “sculpts” it into an amazing 3D work of lighting art. If you’re an even semi-decent photographer, and you have even the most average-looking of relatives, you will still get an amazing piece of art that inspires memories and double takes. I’m imagining a child enjoying having his photo or a grandparents’ photo in the light. Visit www.lightaffection.com for details.
ddoiron@panews.com