We saw plenty of the smoky eye (and oodles of eye candy) last night at AUDREY’S NIGHT OUT! We’ll be sharing the eye candy and all the red carpet celebs with you soon, so keep checking back. Meanwhile, we’ll help you achieve the oh-so coveted smoky eye look in our TGIFree Friday giveaway. Read on …

In our Fall 2010 issue, we highlighted Susie Wang, the creator of the all-natural, fruit pigmented cosmetics and skincare line, 100% Pure. Her line is the first to use only patented fruit and vegetable pigment in all their products, which means you’re directly applying antioxidants and minerals to your face every time you wear her makeup. In fact, the entire line is 100% vegetarian, natural, gluten-free and biodegradable — no chemicals, no toxins, not even fur for their makeup brushes. Even their labels are printed with non-toxic soy ink and all packaging is either post-recycled, recyclable or pre-cycled (“we pick up from our neighbors packing materials such as popcorn and packing boxes to re-use them,” says 100% Pure’s website).

As you can tell, Wang is a hard-core believer in preserving the earth, but she’s also quite passionate about helping animals as well. The company has made donations to various causes helping animals — including no kill shelters and private individuals with animals who need surgery. They’ve even rescued and placed dogs into loving homes themselves.

Susie's babies Bunni and Prince.

100% Pure Creamstick Eye Liner in Black Pearl.

With all that passion, you know the line’s got to have a high standard of integrity. So this week, we’re giving away three sets of the 100% Pure Creamstick Eye Liner in Black Pearl and Black Tea Pigmented Long Wear Gel Eye Liner in Silver Star to our readers.

100% Pure Black Tea Pigmented Long Wear Gel Eye Liner.

It’s actually a really good combo for our Asian faces. You can apply the Gel Eye Liner with a small, hard-tip brush for a nice, silvery-charcoal lining effect, or you can smudge it directly on with your finger for the perfect smoky eye. And the Creamstick Eye Liner is perfectly shimmery without any nasty glitter to stab the eye. That also works as a smudgy eyeliner or as an overall eyeshadow. (Check out our Beauty Trend page in our Fall issue to mimic the look on model Charlene Almarvez.)

So tell me what your fall makeup look is gonna be. You just may win a set of the 100% Pure makeup! You have till September 29, 11:59 pm. You must have a U.S. address to win. Good luck!

Sometimes all it takes is a look. And when that look is the wide-eyed, opaque stare of Hello Kitty, words often become useless.

Especially when the inside is this cute.

Are you ready for Audrey’s Night Out happening TONIGHT?

America’s Best Dance Crew Boxcuttuhz and The Ivy League are performing, and we’ve added so many more celeb guests, including Twilight’s Justin Chon, the oh-so-hot YouTube phenom Joseph Vincent (whom we just interviewed and the girls mobbed him!). Also attending is Jack Yang (Grey’s Anatomy, Cashmere Mafia), Bobby Lee (MadTV), Derek Mio (Greek), Randall Park (Dinner with Shmucks), Allen Evangelista (The Secret Life of an American Teenager), C.S. Lee (Dexter), comedienne Amy Anderson, rapper Dumbfoundead, spoken word artist Beau Sia, Youtube star Michelle Phan, Amy Rider (Secret Life of an American Teenager), Nikki Soohoo (The Lovely Bones), James Kyson Lee (Heroes), Ashley Jones (The Bold and the Beautiful, True Blood), hip-hop MC Shin-B, the cast of the new Ktown reality show, and many, many more!

Shame on you for procrastinating, but lucky for you, we’ve got limited tickets available at the door so come early! First come, first served!

I mean, seriously — Bristol Palin??? I’d expect it from Levi, but it seems Bristol out-Levi’d Levi on this one.

If it weren’t for Margaret Cho, I’d completely ban Dancing With the Stars from my TV. Thank goodness Ms. Cho found time in her busy schedule between touring for her new CD Cho Dependent and her role in Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva to do Dancing With the Stars. I’ll watch just to listen to her sure-fire comebacks to judge’s criticisms.

Artist Miya Ando is a woman obsessed with light.

Miya Ando creating her sakura work in Berlin. Photo by Thomas Krusselmann.

So much so that she went to Berlin recently and braved the freezing temperatures to create this fleeting, beautiful moment of artwork called “Resplendency: The Art of Light” for the Dam Stuhltrager Gallery. As a part of her “I’m Beautiful Night” series, Ando created phosphorescent sakura (cherry blossom) images, visible only for a short time at night, in the icy snow in front of the Reichstag. Of the piece, Ando said:

“My thoughts on doing this piece was basically the result of a meditation upon Berlin as a person who grew up near Hiroshima and heard stories all my life from my Japanese grandparents about the atomic bomb and the World War, how if affected my Japanese family, and how it felt for me to be in Germany, as Japan and Germany were on the same side of the war. On my father’s side, we are Russian-Jews. My father and also my grandfather on his side were military. My Russian grandfather would tell me about Pearl Harbor and about the war, and I have a great uncle and great aunt who are Holocaust survivors and have tattoos of numbers on their upper forearms.

“I thought that having invisible sakura that were visible only very fleetingly for a moment was appropriate in front of the Reichstag.”

Check out the video of Ando creating the work.

Audrey Magazine featured Ando in our Fall 2010 issue. The Japanese-Russian American artist — born in California, raised in Japan, and currently based in Brooklyn — expresses the myriad facets of herself in her art. Here is more of our conversation with her.

Audrey Magazine: Much of your work seems inspired by or is a play on light. What draws you to light?

Miya Ando: I’m very inspired by and sensitive to light. My friends always tease me because I often say that i can’t remember the time or the place or the conversation, but I can tell you what the light looked like. Part of the reason why I love to work with steel is because it reflects the light very beautifully and changes throughout the day, depending on the light. it’s quite dynamic in that way. Lately I have been thinking about light as a poetic expression of transformation or transcendence. I think light can be very mysterious and magical and otherworldly. I’ve always been spiritually inclined and so I regard light in this way and apply light as a component of my visual vocabulary to express my concepts.

An example of Ando's phosphorescent works, as seen in day, left, and at night, right.

AM: You grew up between Santa Cruz, Calif., and Okayama, Japan, in a Buddhist temple? What was that like?

MA: I have very happy memories of the temple and of living with my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. My hometown did not have any other half-Japanese, half-Caucasian people at that time, so at times it was difficult being considered different. I am really grateful to have been introduced to a life of ritual and respect, of contemplation and of having philosophical pursuits be integrated into one’s daily life.

Miya Ando. Photo by Anthony Gamboa.

AM: Is it true you are a descendant of samurai-era swordmakers?

MA: Yes, before my family went into the Buddhist priesthood, they made swords. My Ando family is quite an old family — I am the 16th generation. There is a family registry of history and records that are kept, like a family tree. My great uncles collected the Ando family swords and would tell me stories. It’s very much part of our family identity and history.

AM: After college, you went to apprentice with a master metal smith in Japan. Why?

MA: I finished UC Berkeley in two years and then went on to Yale for graduate school. I left my graduate program early in order to pursue my studio practice and metalworking full time. As part of my commitment to metalworking, I moved back to Japan to become an apprentice and to learn about the material from the very beginning, from zero. It was very important for me to approach the material in a respectful way and I learned a great deal not only about the material but also about humility in my study in Japan.

AM: Is that how you got involved in steel artwork?

MA: I had been introduced to working with metal when I was a very small child; my father had a hobby of rebuilding cars and so I spent lots of time in an automotive garage. I knew how to do basic braising and welding when I was a young girl and so when I started to work with materials as a young artist, metal was very natural for me. I have always felt very comfortable around a metal shop and sparks and welding and sanding. I was drawn to metals because of my childhood, but also because I had always heard these wonderful stories about sword smiths and my Japanese family, I knew that I was from a steel family and working with steel felt very good in the way of connecting with this part of my heritage.

I had something of an epiphany when I was a young artist and I was welding a sculpture for the first time. I was inside of the dark welding hood and it all became very clear to me — that I loved working with this material so much that I decided that I would study very hard and learn as much as I could about the material.

I felt from the beginning that steel was a perfect substrate in that it was so quiet and grey and understated. The innumerable shades of grey within the material has always transfixed me. I think it is quite elegant and refined. The steel is a cornerstone of strength and permenance and yet all things are transitory, ephemeral. I always loved the poetry there. I love that steel can be so hard and look so very soft and ethereal.

30.48 by Miya Ando.

AM: Any other influences in your art?

MA: I think that living in the redwoods in Santa Cruz and by the ocean influenced me. I think back now on that landscape and the beauty in that scenery — of the grey sea, the beautiful fog which I always loved, the solitude in the mountains, the amazing light that would come between the trees and through the leaves. I also think often of the temple where I lived. of the rice fields I played in, the stillness and serenity, the quiet space in the hondo (main altar room in the temple). I think of the very simple, reductivist and minimalist setting of the temple, the grid of shoji screens and of the lovely diffused light that would filter through the screens. All were very influential in my work.

AM: There seems to be a lot of chemistry (phosphorescence, layering chemicals, etc.) and hardcore manual labor involved in your artwork. How do you do it? It must be physically exhausting and you must be really strong!

MA: Metal work in very grueling and physically taxing. I’m drawn to intensity and so the process of working with fire, acid, caustics  and sharp things appeals to me — I’m a tactile person who likes keeping my hands busy and so for me it’s really engaging and interesting, although very challenging at times. I spend hours sanding — I’m pretty sure that my body looks the way it does because it’s a visual manifestation of the physical labor that i do! However, I do push-ups and yoga and exercises so that I can lift the steel more easily when I work with it. I dislike having to stop working and ask for help in moving things around my studio, so I try to be strong so I can stay independent. Now that the works are getting very large though, I have to work with a team.

Yes, there are many chemicals and acids and chemistry in my work — sometimes I feel like a scientist or alchemist! I did not learn metal-finishing in school; my process is a layering of many finishing treatments that I came up with through trial and error. I spend lots of time playing with materials and chemicals and testing things before I go to execute a piece. I have a system of working in my studio where I will hand sand until my arms get tired, then I will move on to another task in order to keep from overtaxing my muscles. It’s more sustainable to do it this way since I work every day.

Ando hard at work. Photo by Thomas Krusselmann.

AM: What inspired the “I’m Beautiful Night” series, and why is it called that?

MA: It is a series of paintings, both indoor and outdoor, that are created with phosphorescent paint that is invisible in the daylight and only viewable for a short period of time in darkness. I love the ephemeral nature of this medium. There is an independence and subtly in this material, which I thought was very poignant.

The title of the series is derived from my own name — “Miya” is written with the characters “Beautiful” (Mi) and “Night” (Ya) in Japanese. The first piece was part of a graffiti-themed show in Louisville, Ky. I thought it was a nice way to pay homage to the tradition of “tagging” one’s name in graffiti culture, but I wanted to write my own name in a way that would transmit a positive message to the viewers. Anyone reading “I’m Beautiful Night” may consider that they, themselves are beautiful, or that they are part of the beautiful night, as the words are only viewable in the darkness.

The art show in Louisville where I am showing the piece is in conjunction with a public commission in Louisville. The commission is for The Healing Place, a women’s homeless shelter and alcohol/drug rehabilitation facility. I wanted to do a piece that had a connection to women and so I used the grass writing style of hiragana. Grass writing was used by Heian Era women, who at the time were not allowed to study kanji characters which were being assimilated into the Japanese writing system. The male intelligencia of the time believed that kanji was too difficult for women to understand. There was an explosion of women’s writing at this time because they were able to write very quickly in the phonetic hiragana writing system. Novels such as The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu (considered the world’s first novel) and the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon are incredible, fantastic works! I loved the notion that these women were marginalized, but were able to transcend their position and create these masterworks. I wanted to honor this strength and creativity by writing in their style of grass writing, which I believe is quite beautiful. To me, grass writing aesthetically conveys a very poetic, feminine and lovely feeling, even if one cannot read the actual Japanese hiragana characters. It felt to me a very nice way to connect the women’s shelter public piece with the gallery show.

AM: You’re actively involved in various causes and the fight against ovarian cancer. What motivates your activism?

MA: I view philanthropy and charity work as an extension of my art practice. It is a continuation of my art in social action. My dear friend and gallerist Karla Diehl in Louisville is a young woman in her 30s, she recently went though chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Given that we were doing a show incorporating women’s writing and also in conjunction with the woman’s shelter, I thought it would be so wonderful if we could do something special to benefit ovarian cancer research. She and I came up with an aluminum print edition to raise awareness for this cause. I’m really honored to be able to apply my artwork to help people.

Want to see Miya Ando’s works live? She’ll be at various places in the next few months, including the Dumbo Arts Festival in September, a solo exhibition in October, and in Australia in November. Get all the details at Miyaando.com/news.

You’ve heard about Audrey’s Night Out 2010 by now — our third fashion show featuring the coolest Asian American designers, celebrities, models and guests. Well, we’re giving away FIVE PAIRS of general seating tickets just for our readers.

All you have to do is tweet this link http://tiny.cc/cygci, post our event and the link on your Facebook, and comment below NO LATER THAN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 AT 5 PM.

We’ll pick five winners and contact you via email. You’ll have to get us your mailing address by Friday morning so that we can mail you out your tickets.

Good luck! Hope to see you there!

We love it when brands recognize the power of the Asian consumer. And Swiss watchmaker Longines is the newest brand to add Asian faces to their spokesperson lineup. Bollywood icon Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Chinese model and actress Chi Ling Lin, and British actress Kate Winslet revealed the new additions to the Longines DolceVita collection in Rome, Italy, this past week.

Kate Winslet, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Chi Ling Lin, Longines Ambassadors of Elegance.

As Longines’ Ambassadors of Elegance, the stunning trio modeled the DolceVita steel and gold watches at a gala at the Villa Miani high above the Eternal City, where a film featuring the three famous faces was shown for the first time.

Check out the photos from the event.

Mode and actress Chi Ling Lin.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kate Winslet and Chi Ling Lin, Longines Ambassadors of Elegance

Longines DolceVita watch.

Are you ready for Audrey’s Night Out happening THIS WEEK?

We’ve added so many more celebrity guests, models and designers. Super cute ready-to-wear designer Disaya (an Audrey favorite — you’re going to love her stuff!) and lingerie line Fleur’T. Hobnob with celebrity guests Ashley Jones (The Bold and the Beautiful, True Blood), Amy Rider (Secret Life of an American Teenager), Nikki Soohoo (The Lovely Bones), Joseph Vincent (Youtube star), James Kyson Lee (Heroes), Bobby Lee (MadTV), Justin Chon (Twilight), Michelle Phan (Youtube star) and many, many more! (Seriously, so many more) Free flowing Ketel One Vodka and Stella Artois beer all night long. Tunes spun by Amy Phamous, Dofunk (93.5 Kday DJ) and A-List let you get your groove on.

And we just need one very important guest to make this event complete: YOU!

Buy tickets here:

When the blackboard started looking more grey than clear white chalk on black when I was in junior high, I knew it was time for glasses. But I refused. Glasses equaled uncool. And in junior high, nothing was worse than uncool.

That sentiment remained with me through college, when I would climb Bruin Walk daily, my eyes to the ground in case I passed someone I knew but didn’t say hi because, well, I couldn’t see them.

Fast forward to today. Today, glasses are my best friend. Though ironically, I don’t wear them today because I need to. (I wear contacts.) Check out model Hyoni Kang in hers for Harper’s Bazaar Korea.

Hyoni Kang in Harper's Bazaar Korea, January 2010 issue.

Bib necklaces? Sigh. Chandelier earrings? So 2003. Statement bag? You and everyone’s mother.

There’s just something I like about being able to hide behind a pair of chunky, nerdy tortoiseshell glasses. It’s another way to accessorize and it adds just enough geek appeal to any outfit. (I won’t even talk about the beauty-slash-self-esteem benefits. Suffice it to say, glasses are to skin issues what a fedora used to be to a bad hair day — they forgive a multitude of epidermal sins.)

Zilzie Wear "Johnny" glasses. Two pairs up for grabs!

Another thing about glasses? You could be wearing the sexiest outfit, but you don a pair of glasses and instantly you’ve got geek cred.

Zilzie Wear "Valedictorian" glasses -- we've got two pairs of these to give away!

Wanna try out your own pair of faux glasses? We’ve got four pairs to give away from Zilzie Wear — they’ve got the cutest glasses around and so wallet-friendly too — so tell me why you wanna try out your own pair of faux glasses. An anti-aging secret? For some hipster cred? Or just wanna look smarter? Talk to me!

You’ve got till September 15, 11:59 pm. You must have a U.S. address to win. Good luck!

Oils have long gotten a bad rap. Oil on the T-zone, oil in the Gulf, partially hydrogenated oil on any ingredient list — all these no-no oils have made us a society terrified of oil.

And yes, while an oil slick on the face or in natural habitats are to be avoided at all costs, there are good oils, just like there are good fats. (Recent studies show certain types of good fat actually help you burn more fat — who knew?!) And a diet high in olive oil and other good oils also helps one keep the weight off.

So oil can’t be all bad. Even on the face.

Hair stylist Ada Garcia used MoroccanOil to smooth out cover model Annie Maki's strands on our summer cover.

We’ve been hearing a lot about MoroccanOil and every hair stylists’ and beauty editors’ obsession with the antioxidant-rich, argan oil-based product. In our Summer 2010 issue, hair stylist Ada Garcia recommended MorocconOil to get the smooth strands featured on our cover model Annie Maki.

Padma Lakshmi.

Padma Lakshmi, the Indian American model, award-winning cookbook author and Emmy-nominated host of the popular Bravo TV series Top Chef, is such a big fan of oils she put out a press release recently in connection with Dial NutriSkin‘s new line of fruit oil-based body washes, spilling her oil-based beauty secrets. (Apparently, she keeps blemishes at bay with a face steam of boiling water and a few drops of pure tea tree oil, then slathers her face with pure honey to suck out impurities from pores.)

After years of avoiding oil-based products on my T-zone like the plague, I’ve become a recent convert, thanks to Marie Louise’s Cleansing Clear Gel. Never have I enjoyed removing my makeup so much — even the stubborn, expensive waterproof mascara that, until now, wouldn’t completely come off unless I pulled it off with my fingertips.

I also recently discovered the joy of oil with Boske Oil-dissolving Cleansing Oil. I know — how ironic. Sometimes it takes oil to get rid of oil, and this little gem not only removes makeup and sunscreen, but it dissolves blackheads with its lipid-soluble solution.

Juara Candlenut Hydrating Shower Gel.

My ultimate little oil luxury, though, is Juara’s Candlenut Hydrating Shower Gel. Made with candlenut oil, a traditional Indonesian beauty oil known for its hydrating and skin-healing power and velvety feel, the gel is sulfate- and paraben-free and uses active botanicals for gentle cleansing. And like all their products, the scent of the shower gel is amazing — their signature candlenut scent infused with lush greens, delicate freesia, jasmine, bergamot, rose and a hint of coconut. Mmmm.

Metta Murdaya, one of the four Asian American women behind the beauty and skincare line Juara.