Some products in
It’s About Your Husband

Bobbi Brown Number Four 
(Scroll down the page to “Lip Color,” then look for the shade “Brown.”)

Benetint


Madame Paulette
Professional Stain Removal Kit


toe covers


Neutrogena
Anti-Residue Shampoo

city-girl secrets

Iris Hedge, the heroine of It’s About Your Husband, moves to Manhattan and finds herself with a host of new problems—from large and daunting (unemployment) to small and annoying (blisters on her feet from all the extra walking). As she starts to befriend the locals, she learns some surprising solutions to at least a few of the small dilemmas. 

It's true that New York women seem to possess more arcane fashion and beauty knowledge than do women in other cities. Here are two more city girl-tested tricks:

plastic pedicure
Say “acrylic nails” to a fashionable Manhattanite and she’ll recoil in horror. But this emergency use for acrylic is quietly accepted: You’re running around SoHo in your cute little sandals when you stumble on a cobblestone and stub your big toe. If you’re lucky you’ll just be hurt and humiliated. If your karma is particularly bad, you’ll also—sorry, this is a bit gory—rip off part of your toenail.  This guarantees you three months of closed-toe shoes until it grows back, unless you head to the nearest nail salon. For a few dollars they’ll fashion you an acrylic toenail that will look almost exactly like the real thing and grow out gracefully over time. None of your chic friends will be the wiser, as long as you don’t get carried away and ask the nail technician to airbrush a design on it.

cheater’s "shampoo"
It sounds disgusting, but out-clubbing-till-the-wee-hours Downtown divas and exhausted Upper West Side moms alike occasionally turn to instant (that is, no-water) shampoo when they’ve slept late and must get to work on time. These products are basically just powders that absorb oil and nasty smells and make hair fluffy again. They won’t stave off a real shampoo for longer than a day but do have their time and place. Some Manhattanites swear by Bumble and bumble hair powder and others like Cake Satin Sugar Hair and Body Refreshing Powder, both of which come in various hair-matching colors. But there’s something to be said for good old Johnson’s Baby Powder. Rub a tiny bit into your roots, one small section of hair at a time. Then brush it in completely so no one will mistake you for a white-haired old lady.

You’ll find more tricks in It’s About Your Husband...