• Miss Subways: Queens of the underground rediscovered

    MTA via New York City Transit Museum/AP

    Ellen Hart is featured on a placard that appeared in the New York City subways during March and April of 1959.

    Ellen Hart Sturm, third from right, sings at her restaurant, Ellen's Stardust Diner, on Broadway in New York in 2007. Sturm appeared on "Meet Miss Subways" placards in New York during March and April of 1959.

     

    NBC New York reports: It was an ad campaign conceived as eye candy to bring attention to other advertisements in New York's transit system. But the "Meet Miss Subways" beauty contest posters of pretty young New York women and their aspirations quickly evolved into a popular and even groundbreaking fixture that ran for 35 years, from 1941 to 1976.

    When photographer Fiona Gardner first learned about it she "immediately wanted to know what happened to all the women."

    She set out to find out.

    The result is "Meet Miss Subways: New York's Beauty Queens 1941-76," an exhibition at the New York Transit Museum running Oct. 23-March 25, and a companion book of the same name. With journalist Amy Zimmer, Gardner tracked down 146 Miss Subways posters and interviewed 41 winners in person. Together they collaborated on the book, with Gardner taking the women's portraits wearing their Miss Subways sashes at home or at work. Continue reading...

     

    MTA via New York City Transit Museum/AP

    Marcia Kilpatrick is featured in "The Meet Miss Subways" campaign that appeared in the New York City subways from Nov. 1974-April 1975.

    Fiona Gardner via AP

    Marcia Kilpatrick Hocker on a Midtown Manhattan street in New York in 2009. Hocker appeared on "Meet Miss Subways" placards in New York City during Nov. 1974–April 1975. Hocker married an American diplomat in 1981 and lived for a time in Colombia and New Zealand. She put her talents to use, singing at embassy functions and coaching American children in drama. For the past 11 years, she's been a DJ at Jazz Radio KMHD in Portland, Ore.


    MTA via New York City Transit Museum/AP

    Maureen Walsh is featured in a "Meet Miss Subway" campaign that appeared in the New York City subways from February to August 1968.

    Fiona Gardner via AP

    Maureen Walsh Roaldsen poses in 2007 at the appellate court in Brooklyn where she was an attorney. Roaldsen appeared on "Meet Miss Subways" placards in the New York City subways during Feb.–Aug. 1968. She was 23 and working as a secretary at Downstate Medical Center when she won. On weekends, she greeted VIPs and celebrities at the Diamond Club at Shea Stadium. In her 40s she launched a new career as an attorney for the New York State Appellate Court. Full story on NBC New York

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  • Miss Rhode Island wins Miss USA crown

    Julie Jacobson / AP

    Miss Rhode Island Olivia Culpo, center, is surrounded by fellow contestants after being crowned Miss USA during the 2012 Miss USA pageant, June 3, in Las Vegas, Nev.

     

    A 20-year-old cellist from Rhode Island won the Miss USA crown and will represent the United States in this year's Miss Universe pageant.

    Olivia Culpo topped a field of 51 beauty queens on Sunday to take the title at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. She strutted across the stage in a purple bikini and a purple evening gown with sparkly belt.

    -- Reported by The Associated Press

    Read the full story.

    Slideshow: Rhode Islander wins Miss USA 2012

    Julie Jacobson / AP

    Fifty-one hopefuls were whittled down to one winner after the swimsuit, evening gown and interview competitions.

    Launch slideshow

  • Snail-slime at the forefront of beauty

    Ilya Naymushin / Reuters

    An employee gives a medical-cosmetic massage to a client using an African snail at a beauty salon in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 23. The beauty salon is the only one in the region using the snails' method, which is believed to help in speeding up regeneration of the skin, eliminating wrinkles, scars and traces of burn marks, according to the owner Alyona Zlotnikova.

    Ilya Naymushin / Reuters

    An employee gives a medical-cosmetic massage to a client using African snails at a beauty salon in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 23.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    In July, TODAY reported on the trend of snail-slime and guts being used in the latest beauty products. Apparently, the slime contains nutrients beneficial to skin:

    What’s so appetizing about slime? In 2006, Chilean farmers reportedly noticed visibly smoother skin after handling snails they were breeding for the French food market. Packed with glycolic acid and elastin, a snail’s secretion protects its own skin from cuts, bacteria, and powerful UV rays, making mother nature’s gooeyness a prime source for proteins that eliminate dead cells and regenerate skin.

    It’s a treatment that that has been used as far back as ancient Greece: Hippocrates reportedly prescribed a mixture of sour milk and crushed snails for skin inflammations. These days, it’s marketed as an acne treatment, spot and scar remover, and burn healer. Read the full story.

    It seems that this salon in Russia decided to cut out the middleman by placing the snails right onto their clients' faces!

    Would you be willing to undergo this treatment if it guaranteed better skin? I don't think I could do it!

     

  • Brazil clinics see beauty as a right and that "the poor deserve to be ravishing, too"

    Felipe Dana / AP

    In this photo taken Wednesday March 14, 2012, Nilcea Furtado receives a free of charge radio-frequency treatment by Dr. Ana Paula, right, at the Brazilian Society of Aesthetic Medicine clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The philosophy behind the clinic and more than 200 similar clinics across Brazil, is that beauty is a right, and that the poor deserve to be ravishing, too. Beauty, the doctors argue, is more than skin deep, and by treating what their patients view as physical flaws they are often also healing their psyches.

    Felipe Dana / AP

    Doctors perform an abdominoplasty surgery at the Santa Casa de Misericordia hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday March 21, 2012. The hospital focuses on reconstructive operations for burn victims and people with serious deformations, but it also provides discounted cosmetic procedures. At least two dozen, mostly public hospitals in Rio alone offer discounted or sometimes free cosmetic surgeries to low income people, according to a website aimed at informing potential patients.

    Felipe Dana / AP

    More PhotoBlog posts from Brazil

  • Makeup artists and hairdressers teach Ukrainian border police

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    Ukrainian border guards take part in a master class in the Borispol airport near Kiev on Friday. Hairdressers and make-up artists conducted master classes for Ukrainian border guards who will meet tourists at Ukraine's main air hub during the Euro 2012 football championship.

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    A Ukrainian border guard takes part in a master class in the Borispol airport near Kiev.

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    A Ukrainian border guard looks at her reflection in a mirror.

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    Ukrainian border guards chat as they take part in a master class in the Borispol airport.

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    Ukrainian border guard working at the Borispol airport near Kiev.

    Gleb Garanich / Reuters

    Ukrainian border guards and a sniffer dog are seen in the Borispol airport near Kiev.

    More pictures from the Ukraine in PhotoBlog, as well as posts featuring women.

  • How about a gold facial for Valentines Day?

    Reuters reports — Despite tough economic conditions including soaring inflation, people in Vietnam seem to be spending heavily as usual on special occasions like Valentine's Day. Viet My is one of a small number of salons in Vietnam that provides 24k gold leaf face mask therapy, said to help make skin whiter. A single facial costs 1.8 million Vietnam dong, or $86.41 USD.

    Kham / Reuters

    An employee pastes a gold leaf on the face of a client at the Viet My beauty salon in Hanoi on Feb. 13.

    Kham / Reuters

    An employee pastes gold leaves onto a client's face at the Viet My beauty salon in Hanoi on Monday, Feb. 13.

    Kham / Reuters

    A gold leaf is seen before it is applied at the Viet My beauty salon in Hanoi on Monday, Feb. 13.

    Kham / Reuters

    A client rests with gold applied to her face is seen at the Viet My in Hanoi on Monday, Feb. 13.

     

  • Homecoming for a Colombian beauty queen

    By Carissa Ray

    What struck me about this collection of photos is the juxtaposition between the 3 images from the night of this beauty pageant and the 3 images of Ms. Palencia's homecoming the next day. 

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    Contestants run away from the stage during a heavy downpour during the Independence Beauty Pageant final crowning event at the Argemiro Bermudez Softball stadium in Cartagena, Colombia, on Nov. 13. The Independence Beauty Pageant is a competition among women from different neighbourhoods of this coastal city that takes place every year at the same time as the Miss Colombian national beauty pageant, but besides judging beauty, it also takes into account the social projects that the candidates for the

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    The ten finalists of the Independence Beauty Pageant stand on the stage during the final crowning event at the Argemiro Bermudez Softball stadium in Cartagena, Colombia, on Nov. 13.

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    Beauty queen Ivonne Palencia (C), walks around her neighbourhood, Boston, after winning the Independence Beauty Pageant in Cartagena, Colombia, on Nov. 13.

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    Beauty queen Ivonne Palencia, puts on her crown at her house in Boston neighborhood.

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    Beauty queen Ivonne Palencia, wears her crown at her house in the Boston neighbourhood, a day after winning the Independence Beauty Pageant in Cartagena, Colombia, on Nov.14.

    Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP - Getty Images

    Beauty queen Ivonne Palencia, is carried around Boston neighbourhood by her brother Nelson, a day after winning the Independence Beauty Pageant in Cartagena, Colombia, on Nov. 14.

    Other than the downpour, the event looks like a pretty glitzy, typical pageant. So much so, that I was a little surprised to see the comparably very modest home that the reigning "Queen of the people" was returning to. The images are all by the same photographer, but the lighting and the color palette of the photos seems so very different the next day - I like the sobering, and story-telling effect that has.