Archive: December 28th, 2006

Jessica Alba hit the streets of Los Angeles last weekend to do all of her last-minute holiday shopping, but millions of Americans took to their local malls and boutiques yesterday to take advantage of great after-XMAS deals. And of course, let’s not forget about returning all of the ill-fitting but well-intentioned gifts you received this holiday season. While some of us prefer to do our shopping online (which is no less dangerous on our wallets), stars like Paris Hilton and Ashley Olsen were spotted joining the masses in a shopping frenzy yesterday. We want to know: Did you hit the shops yesterday? What was the best deal you scored?

Photo: limelight pictures

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If you’ve seen our exclusive Video Diary of Katharine McPhee getting ready for the Billboard Awards, you know she got some help getting red-carpet ready from her hairstylist Campbell and her makeup artist Jake Bailey. They let us in on a few tricks they used on Katharine that night, like Jake’s no-smudge mascara trick of putting cardboard right under the lashes while applying.

To get Katharine’s hair wild and rock ‘n’ roll, Campbell scrunch-dried her hair and then started curling it on a medium barrel iron from the bottom of her head up. Now, here’s a trick we’ve never heard of (but sounds brilliant!) — he took random sections between the curls, braided them, and ran a flat iron over them to lock in the wave. Shake it out, and you have a fabulous wavy texture to toughen up the curls. To keep it locked in place for the big show, Campbell gave her hair more than one spritz of hairspray (try Spray and Play from BigSexyHair, Katharine’s fave). For tips on Katharine’s smoky, sexy eyes and more, keep reading!

Click here to see all four episodes of Katharine McPhee’s Celebrity Video Diary, only on People.com. And click here for beauty tricks of all your favorite stars.

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I’ve come to believe that the world in divided into two: those who adore Hello Kitty, and those who detest her. I am in the former group. In fact, when jewelry designer Tarina Tarantino made a high fashion Hello Kitty “pearl” necklace in 2003, I was first in line to buy one. . . well, make that second because I think Cameron Diaz got hers first. And the love continues — Jennifer Love Hewitt and Vanessa Minillo recently stocked up on Hello Kitty cashmere sweaters from Kitson. Knitted, this cat’s not cheap — Hello Kitty cashmere starts at $198 for a sweater and goes up, but you can get tons of things for under $10 at shop.sanrio.com or check out faux-vintage tees, from $33, on 80spurple.com. Tell us: Do you adore Hello Kitty? Or detest her? – Alison Singh Gee

Photo: Maury Phillips/WireImage; 80spurple.com

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We’ve come to expect certain stars to always look good. But, no one — the normally flawless Beyonce included — is mis-step free. Every celebrity suffers from moments that make us wonder, “What were they thinking?” It pains us to see any star who is typically well-coifed and sumptuously attired go wrong — and Beyonce is only the tip of the iceberg. As we reflect back on the past year in style, we called out the year’s most headscratching moments. Starting with Beyonce and her unfortunate Barbarella-inspired getup, we count them down in our year-end Top 5 “What Were They Thinking” gallery. Tell us: What did you think was the biggest fashion faux-pas of the year?

To check out more of PEOPLE’s year-end wrapup, click here for all the hits, misses and more of 2006.

Photo: Luisa Johns/Photokinetic

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