If you’re looking to add some pieces to your summer wardrobe (and maybe a couple for fall too) you’re probably too distracted with Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale to even give Amazon Prime Day a chance. We get it. But in recent years Amazon has added a lot of department store worthy brands to it’s roster. The only difference is Prime membership gives you free shipping and Prime Day gives you extra discounts. What we’re saying is, don’t sleep on this year’s Prime Day deals that’ll last for two full days—throughout June 16—for this first time ever.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on who you ask) Amazon basically carries every single product known to man and trying to find the best fashion pieces that you actually want to wear is no easy feat by any means. So we’ve gone ahead and done the dirty work by narrowing down the hundreds of Amazon Prime fashion deals to the thirteen that we’re actually pretty excited about.
For someone as glam as Blake Lively, spring cleaning means purging your makeup drawer. The actress did just that recently and used the clean-out as an opportunity to share her favorite beauty products with fans via Instagram Story.
Lively’s collection includes a mix of red-carpet classics (like Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Lips Liquid Lipstick) and prestige pieces (like Diorshow Mascara). But a few drugstore buys were also nestled in her collection. When it comes to her skin, Lively almost certainly has a celebrity dermatologist, a regular facialist, and the occasional team of air-brushers. But for the most important product in anyone’s skin-care routine—sunscreen—she spends only $15 at her local drugstore.
For her lips, Lively shared that one of her go-to lipsticks is Christian Louboutin Velvet Matte Lip Colour, one of the most expensive in the world at $90. But before she layers on a few dollars worth of color, she preps with classic Burt’s Bees lip balm.
Whether you go prestige or grab whatever’s cheapest at the drugstore, let’s take two lessons from Lively this spring: Wear sunscreen and don’t forget to clean out your makeup drawer.
More celebrity skin-care picks:
Now, take a tour of Anastasia Soare’s luxurious bathroom:
“What was it like having Ann Richards as a mother?” People always ask me this question. They’ll come up to me and recite a favorite line from her keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention—“Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, she just did it backward and in high heels!”)—or reminisce about the day she became the first woman elected governor of Texas.
Here’s my answer: Being Ann Richards’s daughter was both exhilarating and daunting. My mom was demanding of herself and everyone around her, and she knew that women only got what they fought for—nothing more, nothing less. She insisted on hard work, and a lot of it.
This Mother’s Day I’m thinking even more than usual about what my mom would have to say about the world today. (One of my great regrets: that she died before having a chance to bring her wit to Twitter!) I know she would have loved that, with the last gasps of the patriarchy in full throttle, women of every age and background are standing with each other, demanding nothing less than full equality. As someone who spent her life making sure women made progress—economic, political, cultural—I know Mom would be at the ramparts with us: knitting her pussy hat, helping women running for office, marveling and rejoicing at the explosion of activism across the globe.
Mom used to remind us: ”When my grandmother was a girl, the only people who couldn’t vote under Texas law were ‘idiots, imbeciles, the insane, and women.’” Yet two generations later, Mom was elected governor of Texas. She got there by sheer determination, and she wasn’t about to let anyone else half-step it in their own life. When my children were born, Mom made it clear she wasn’t the “baking cookies kind of grandmother.” Instead, she always asked each child if they were the smartest one in class. If they said no, she wanted to know why not.
Mom saw so many changes in her lifetime. In particular, she was overjoyed by the passage of Title IX, which gave girls the opportunity to play competitive sports. Watching her granddaughter Hannah pitch through a tough inning of softball or her granddaughter Lily coxswain for the rowing team was a marvel. Mom also cherished her time at University of Texas Lady Longhorns basketball games, where she cheered loudly with her friend Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. If you closed your eyes, you might have mistaken the two of them for teenagers.
When someone asked what she would have done if she’d had a second term as governor, [my mother] said, “I would have raised more hell.”
But of all the issues Mom cared about, women’s ability to control their body and make their own decisions about childbearing was number one. Like every mother I know, Ann Richards found it unconscionable that her daughters, much less her granddaughters, might have fewer rights than she did—and she was not about to let that happen. She often opined about politicians’ obsession with what was going on in other people’s bedrooms. It was no surprise that her first full-time campaign job was for Sarah Weddington, who (at 26) had successfully argued Roe v. Wade before running for state legislature.
Mom was 47 when she decided to run herself. After she won, she became adamant that women shouldn’t wait for an invitation or until they had the perfect résumé. She’d say, “Cecile, this is the only life you have. There aren’t any do-overs. So whatever new chance comes your way, jump at it.”
When I got a call inviting me to interview for the job as president of Planned Parenthood, I almost didn’t go to the interview. I did what any grown woman would do: I called my mother. When I listed all the reasons I wasn’t qualified, she wasn’t having it. “Planned Parenthood is the most important women’s health care organization in the country—how exciting!” she said. “If you don’t try for this, you’ll regret it forever.”
This month, when I left Planned Parenthood after 12 years as president, I was more grateful than ever to Mom for believing in me even more than I believed in myself.
To me, this is the theme of Mother’s Day. Over the last year and a half, I’ve met mothers and daughters who are organizing together, going to town halls together, speaking out together, and doing things they never could have imagined doing before. There are the daughters I’ve met on book tour, who proudly ask me to sign a copy of Make Trouble for their troublemaking mother. The sheer determination of women across America to come together, support each other, run for office, and declare #TimesUp is nothing short of historic. I’m sorry Mom didn’t live to see this moment, and be part of it. But I think of her daily, and how she helped deliver us to to this moment.
So today I hope mothers and daughters everywhere will take a page from Ann Richards’ book. When someone asked what she would have done if she’d had a second term as governor, she said, “I would have raised more hell.”
These are words to live by.
Cecile Richards is the former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She is also the author of the New York Times best-seller Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead (Touchstone), on sale now.
We’ve got some bad news: The State of the Union Address is happening this week, and yeah, you should probably watch—if only to understand the jokes Saturday Night Live will make about it next weekend. No worries, though: When that’s over, there are plenty of fantastic movies and TV shows airing this week that will bring you back to a happy place. These 11 should be your top priority.
Sunday, January 28
60th Annual Grammy Awards: James Corden hosts tonight’s ceremony, which features performances from Lady Gaga, Kesha, and Rihanna. 7:30 P.M. ET on CBS
Monday, January 29
Girlfriends: Phyllis Logan from Downton Abbey stars in this ITV drama, which centers on three women over 50 struggling with relationships, partners passing away, and navigating the next stages of their lives. It’ll be available to American audiences on the Acorn streaming platform. Available for streaming on Acorn TV
The Bachelor: No, a special episode isn’t airing tonight. This is just your friendly reminder to tune into The Bachelor tonight because this season is one of the most bonkers yet. Krystal is truly the gift that keeps on giving—as is Twitter’s Arie shade. 8 P.M. ET on ABC
Tuesday, January 30
State of the Union Address: Eh, I guess you should probably watch this. Maybe have a glass wine beforehand, though. Or three. 9 P.M. ET on various channels
Super Bowl Greatest Commercials 2018: Before that, though, psych yourself up by watching some great Super Bowl commercials. They’ll elevate your mood before it’s destroyed by Trump. 8 P.M. ET on CBS
Wednesday, January 31
Step Up: High Water: It’s the same Step Up format, but in a new location: High Water, a “cut-throat” performing arts school in Atlanta. My body is ready for all the dance-offs.
Cars 3: Eleven-year-old you will love that you’re watching this sequel, which surprisingly has just as much heart and laughs as the original. If you missed it in theaters, now’s your chance to watch. Available for streaming on Netflix
Thursday, February 1
Meet the Parents: Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro star in this cult classic about a male nurse who goes home to meet his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. It’s been 18 years since this came out, and the laughs are still incredibly fresh. This is a perfect Netflix option when you can’t think of anything to watch! Available for streaming on Netflix
A.P. Bio : Tune into a special preview episode of NBC’s new comedy A.P. Bio, about a Harvard professor hopeful (Glenn Howerton) who begrudgingly takes a job teaching A.P. biology in a small-town high school. It’s basically Bad Teacher meets School of Rock, minus the singing and Jack Black. 9:30 P.M. ET on NBC
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Friday, February 2
2 Dope Queens: Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson’s hilarious hit podcast is getting the HBO treatment in the form of four, hour-long specials. Fingers crossed this becomes a full-blown series.
Winchester: Helen Mirren stars as the real-life figure Sarah Winchester, a firearms heiress who boarded herself up in the Winchester Mystery House after suspecting she was being haunted by the ghosts of people killed by guns. Spooky stuff. In theaters
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Saturday, February 3
The Simone Biles Story: This Lifetime movie explores the Olympian’s meteoric rise from foster care to sweeping the 2016 Summer Olympic games—all before turning 20. 8 P.M. ET on Lifetime
According to all available statistics, the film industry is especially brutal to the careers of women, who are routinely in the minority when it comes to landing jobs behind the camera. The challenges faced by women of color are even greater. But after a year of change in the cultural conversation around how women are treated in Hollywood and other industries, there are at least a few bright spots to be found in this morning’s Oscar nominations.
For starters, Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, making Gerwig the first female director to land a Best Director nomination for her directorial debut. The indie darling was already an established screenwriter, with credits on projects in which she also starred, like Frances Ha and Mistress America. But Lady Bird represented her first solo foray behind the camera (she previously co-directed 2008’s Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg). In addition to breaking this particular barrier, Gerwig is now in the teeny tiny club of five women ever nominated for the prize. She joins a handful of other luminaries like Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola. (The club really ought to have included Dee Rees and Patty Jenkins this year, sigh.) Best Director has been won by a woman only once, in 2010 when Kathryn Bigelow took home the Oscar for The Hurt Locker.
Another crack in the glass ceiling comes from Rachel Morrison, who just became the first and only women ever nominated for Best Cinematography, for her work on Dee Rees’s Mudbound. Yes, you read that right, after 90 years, there is finally one woman nominated in this category. Also nominated for her work in Mudbound is Mary J. Blige, who just became the first women ever to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress for a performance in a film directed by a woman of color, as well as the first woman to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song in the same year.
Here’s hoping these incredibly talented women go home with some hardware next month.
