To me – all of my businesses revolve around one main theme. Just trying to make people feel comfortable in their own skin. For a long while when I was growing the salon and spray tanning for hours every day – the thing that really struck me was how many people hated or felt shameful about their bodies. How many people who were relatively young and attractive who were pissing away their lives feeling too fat, too ugly, too old and not good enough. It seems to be a cultural preoccupation with many people. I know when I was younger I certainly had more issues than I do now. I went through my own phase of waking up every day and feeling too this and too that. For me, after I had daughters, number one I got a whole new respect for the female body and how you could put on 35 pounds, spit out a kid, and how everything pretty much went back into place. Number two, I decided to rethink my issues to try and not hand them down to my daughters. It seems wrong to me that we live in a world when some people can consider some old, fat, bald guy “hot” and any woman who is over thirty and still single supposedly has more chance of being bombed by a terrorist than getting married. Did I really hear that??? Enough of this cultural double standard. I want to cheer and shout and appreciate many varieties of gorgeous womanhood. They are airbrushing anorexic teenagers to make them look thin and smooth enough. Think of Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe, think of hundreds of beautiful icons of times gone by. What is beautiful, what is sexy? Many, many different things. Bland is not sexy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the eye of the creatrix. Surely there is a place for self expression.

I am a great one for action. I founded Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp specifically to design a workout that not only worked out the body – but also worked on the phsyche. I wanted to try and create a language and and an environment where people could start to learn new perspectives at how to look at their body. To create a place where self negation and self deprecation were not options, to work out, to sweat, to dance bathed in a language of self love and more than a dash of humor. Of course this is a work in progress and every day  myself and my partner Teresa are tinkering with this formula. A safe, fun place for women to workout and rethink the language with which they talk to themselves.

I love when I see new students. Of course in NYC we have such a diverse group of culturally sophisticated women. Most new comers look at me with a sparkle in their eye, and you can tell they appreciate the road we are going down. Sometimes you will get two young girls coming together as friends, they will roll their eyes at each other, blush and giggle – I tend to think if they are a little surprised by the material and the approach, even if they laugh at it, maybe the penny will drop a little bit. Even if they think I am some old crazy lady at least they will have heard some of the things we have to say and maybe someday they will appreciate them.

But still, at the school bus stop I keep my double life pretty quiet. I mean, how does a mother of two explain that from time to time you might find her out in a club leading the secret life of a showgirl …. dancing burlesque. How would I even start to explain that?

For me – when I first started watching burlesque their were things I liked and things  I didn’t. Same thing today. You can’t love everything. But I love that at burlesque shows the audience is often more women than men. I love that the women who dance are supremely confident and often very glamorous. They set their own standard for what is beautiful. There is an old style of glamour where the woman chooses to be her own creation. She defines her own standard of beauty. It is not about looking like some fake airbrushed thing from a magazine, it is about real womanly beauty.

Since we started the Pink Chardonnays it has been such a pleasure to introduce other regular women to the pleasure of dancing burlesque. To set the goal of dancing a simple strip tease, to see people consider obstacles in their mind, to briefly doubt them self, to go through with the dance, to have an exhilarating and life affirming experience of having people appreciate and like your performance. I love seeing the girls have this giddy high  - and say,like a little kid at a merry go round – “can we do it again right now – it was to short.” I love that. You rarely hear grown women happy like kids. To me, I seek out those kind of experiences. And I love the closeness and friendship that grows in the groups, people are grateful to be surrounded by fun loving people with a similar positive outlook. A few days after the shows when everyone gets to share all their photos, another wave of healing sets in. the women see themselves, all glamorous and gorgeous – and they feel proud to be part of the picture.

And so – I don’t hide my double life through any shame. I am deeply proud of my work. But it is just a little hard to explain. People could see it another way.

At Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp we are launching “the Campaign for Womanly Beauty.” CFWB is about about endorsing many different standards of womanly beauty. You don’t have to write to your senator about it – but you do have to work on this campaign at a grass roots level. It can be as simple as giving heartfelt compliments to people who need it, or who inspire you. It could be taking five minutes to have a little intervention when you hear someone being self deprecating. Most importantly the campaign is deeply personal, it is about waking up every morning and choosing to approve of the girl in the mirror and to set your own standard of how you would like to carry yourself in the world, others be damned.

When Ghandi said ” Be the change you want to see in the world…..” I am not sure he envisioned the Pink Chardonnays prancing around in le0pard print bras with sparkly marraccas….. but I think it is worth it. Why should little girls think they have to look like something from a reality show or feeling like they have a limited expiration date. I ask you to get to work with the Campaign For Womanly Beauty. If any of you have companies whose thinking is in synch with this campaign, please reach out to me because we are looking for corporate sponsors for some upcoming events.

So – there is about a month til Memorial day – I suggest finding an exercise that you LOVE and doing it often. For me I love to dance and I love to run outside. I do Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp  twice a week, I run whenever I can, I get to Barry’s Bootcamp a couple of days a week and practice latin dancing as often as possible. I don’t think about working out as a chore – I think of it as a priveledge. I think of all the people with physical issues who will never feel the thrill of running, or the utter joy of dancing – as long as my legs will carry me I revel in the joy of movement. Try on a bunch of swimsuits and find something that suits you. Be kind to your self. Get your spray tan – and get out there and have a good time. Hey – and don’t forget to wear your sunscreen!

In the workout category I am totally obsessed with Barry’s Bootcamp right now. This workout has been in LA for about 14 years and opened in Chelsea on West 20th Street last summer. It is the hardest workout I have done and you see results really quickly. Classes are scheduled pretty much every hour of the day from early morning to late at night. You go back and forth between rows of treadmills to weight stations – doing either 4 or 6 really intense intervals. The trainers, men and women are all totally hot and sexy and over the top inspiring. Prepare to be pushed to your limit. Each class is $32 – and so worth it. This place is throbbing with energy.

Everyone in Brazil Bronze is obsessed with the healthy juices and cleanses from Organic Avenue. There are locations all over the city. We have all been doing these juice cleanses that make you feel so vibrant and alive. I totally love the all green juice and the one made from cashew nuts. Sometimes when I have just been eating dreadful I go in there and get a chlorophyl shot  - I am telling you it just gives you a blast of energy. (be careful not to get it on your teeth though – or you will be smiling with green teeth – the stuff is like green ink – not so sexy.) We also love it that Blue Print juices are being sold at Dean and DeLucca and Whole Foods – so it is easy to grab something healthy when you are on the go and stay on track.

Another thing I can’t live without is our Express Tan. You are supposed to leave this tan on for 2 hours and then shower. When I am feeling like embracing my inner Snookie – when I just want to look really dark (I didn’t say orange – I said dark) then I leave the express on overnight. I am super pale and it is hard for me to get good color – this stuff really does the trick. All our staff love this product – also it fades out really nice. then every day I spritz on our new spf – very gentle on your skin and your spray tan.

OMG – I nearly forgot my last and most favorite obsession – the books they are calling “mommy porn” “Fifty Shades of Grey”. I am on the last book of the trilogy and think they are great. Some of my literary snob friends are dissing the books – but I think they are great. Very sexy and at the heart of it – it is a really sweet love story. Who doesn’t like a good love story. I promise you – if you get these books they will put a smile on your face.

Who needs $2000 sunglasses and see through clothes

Spray Tan Safe Sunscreen made by Brazil Bronze Glow Bar

Only someone really white and pasty like myself can really get this. It takes so much planning, say if you want to go on vacation or away for the weekend. When to get your spray tan (or worry about when and how to apply it properly at home). Then you spend all this time worrying if your spray tan will last long enough – and if it doesn’t – what you should bring with you to make sure that you stay looking golden for the duration of your trip. Who wants to wear a bikini looking less tan than when you arrived at your destination. Very few people really want to wear that damned bikini anyway – if you are going to wear it you want to be as tan as possible and to have probably had a couple of frozen margaritas to boot. Now – for someone like me – I can normally make my spray tan last for five to seven days at home. But, when I go away it could be a whole other story. I am so fair skinned that I have to wear buckets of sunscreen. Since I was a little kid I have been blighted by really bad sun allergies. I have to be super vigilant or I get killer sun poisoning that has to be treated by steroids and puts an end to vacation fun. When I use regular sunscreens – lotions or spray – they just act as an exfoliant, gradually wearing away at my fake tan. So disheartening. So sad. So I have to travel around like the frickin Martha Stewart of self tanning, with a whole arts and crafts kit of self tanning supplies in my suitcase. forget trying to travel with just carry on. I have my TanSXL and my Glow Stretcher….the whole kit and kaboodle.

So – for years I have been on the quest for MY holy  Grail. A sunscreen that would be super safe and protective for my sorry skin – and gentle enough for my sunscreen. Finally it is here. The secret was creating a special spray in a base of aloe, with very small molecules, that could be easily absorbed into the skin. It doesn’t rub off the color (like lotions) it doesn’t strip off the color (like conventional sprays that act like pain stripper.) This product is super gentle, in an aloe base, fortified with anti oxidant vitamins A C and E – so your skin is getting a whole nourishing cocktail of healthy things to keep it young and juicy.

I really think that all my fellow fake tan buddies are going to flip for this. Please try it – it will be for sale @www.brazilbronze.com any day now. Email me @ sally@brazilbronze.com with your feedback.

I kind of look at it like this: who knows how long you have on this earth. Seventy years, Fifty Five years, Thirty years. Who knows what is around the corner. While you’re here, enjoy the ride. Wear what you feel like wearing. I don’t like anyone dictating how I should look. It is like someone is saying, with each passing decade you should tone yourself down. What if you don’t feel like toning yourself down? We are all our own creation.

I have always had friends of many ages. It seems to me, that even pretty old people still think about the same things as the young. Most people still crave fun, and passion. Do you know – last week I went with my husband and friends to put on a dance show at a nursing home out on Long Island. These people are old and institutionalized. It could actually make you cry to see their circumstances – and for that reason we like to go and try and make a bit of fun. the show was mostly ballroom dancing, but I decided to throw in two burlesque numbers for the hell of it. Do you know – when the ballroom dancing was going on these poor old coots sat there like vegetables. As soon as we pressed play on the tune “Hey big Spender” it was like someone gave everyone a giant vitamin shot. The sexy moves, the cute costumes – got them all going. Sex is in at every age. Just because you are eighty years old and look old on the outside, you still crave love. Pleasures of the flesh never goes out of style.

In my dance group, The Pink Chardonnays, sometimes I will get a new girl in her early thirties….she will look at herself in a bikini and say – “Oh I’m so fat – I gotta loose weight by next week.” Next week comes around and she dances for the first time in a show, the audience goes crazy, she sees beautiful pictures of herself with her hair and make up all glamorous and pin-up girl – and in an instant, she is able to get it – that a real woman is gorgeous, that she is gorgeous, she is so much more glamorous than she dared to believe possible. But this would never have happened if she hadn’t taken the deeply risky step of prancing around on stage in her smalls.

As I write this it is Oscar Sunday. God – I dread to think what mean things Joan Rivers and that Osbourne girl will say about the poor Red Carpet goers on Fashion Police. I am recovering from a crazy week. On Thursday night Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp put on a big show for 350 guests at the Chandelier Room in the W Hotel in Hoboken. I managed to pursuade the male board members to strip down to their skivvies to raise money for a good cause.

They complained a lot in the beginning – but at the end of the day they were the talk of the party. It was a lot of work pulling this show together – but a great deal of fun.

Then this weekend my friend Edward Simon had a wonderful Ballroom dancing competition at The Roosevelt Hotel. Brazil Bronze has a new product for dancers called “Coco Chacha” for people who want a dark and latin look. Coco Cha Cha sponsored a division at the competition – threw in a little prize money for the competitors. So – this weekend I have been back and forth to the competition – and have really enjoyed watching some of the dancing.

I also went to the amazing Dr Oz’s health and happiness summit at Radio City Music Hall. So many incredible lecturers on the subjects of sleep, nutrition – totally cutting edge information.

So after a flurry of sparkles and rhinestones – feathers and sequins – I am quite worn out. I need an early night…. a cup of tea and a date with the Oscars – in my pajamas, which everyone will see at the bus stop tomorrow morning…

My personal Valentine’s day failings continue. I got my two little daughters Monster High Dolls – these really ugly dolls that are all the rage, they look like a cross between decomposing corpses and Victoria Beckham. The S*** really hit the fan when they found out that I was planning to go out for a private dinner with my husband tonight. Last year, in a terrible folly that I will never live down for years to come, I cooked my daughters a pink dinner party for Valentine’s….cream of tomato soup, shrimp cocktail, penne with vodka sauce and pink cupcakes. You would think that would be nauseating enough to last a lifetime….but no….the tears and drama when they learned I was skipping out tonight. Motherhood is not for the feint hearted. I feel sure they will survive – they can have a cosy evening playing with the Monster High dolls and scarfing down all the candy they brought home from school. I am looking forward to a lovely quiet dinner.

My recent foray into Burlesque has kept me very busy in the month of Febraury – there have been a flurry of Valentine shows – my boa has barely touched the ground. We had a lovely show on Friday night at The Ball, NY. Quite a lot of our regualr guests were sick or having crisies – so we invited a few performers we didn’t really now. Every conversation I hear starts with ” OMG – did you see Ginger Baker….” I was backstage so I didn’t see Ginger Baker – but apparently she did something really racy that I have yet to get to the bottom of. One more show this Friday and then a big one next week at the W Hotel – should be a lot of fun.

Anyway – I am feeling very grateful this Valentine’s day – grateful for having a lot of love in my life. Here’s to lots of love, passion and my personal favourite : ecstatic experiences – for everyone!! Bust out some lingerie – dig into the candy box – enjoy your Valentine

I have been busy. What is a girl to do to blot out the January blues? Feeling fat after the holidays, the blah cold days of winter stretching out ahead of one like goodness knows what. I decided to get busy. One of my goals for this year was to enter The Miss Exotic World Pageant. Miss Exotic World is kind of the Miss Universe of the burlesque world. I haven’t been dancing burlesque that long, but what the hey – I was in the mood to scale the Mount Everest of Burlesque.

We had a great idea for a number, but when we checked the deadline we discovered we needed to submit a video of our proposed entry by January 23rd. So we scurried into action, choreographing, shopping for corsets, sewing feathers, hot glue gunning, begging photographers, rehearsing night after night – and on January 20th – my birthday eve – we went to the studio and put our entry in the can. Who knows if we will make it – what a laugh it has been. The girls in our group all have really serious day jobs: bankers, dosctors, medical sales reps, teachers, nurses – everything you could think of – but we all need a little light relief. We had a very big giggle making burlesque names for the girls who didn’t have one yet – some of my favorites are Fawn Fingerling and Rosie Cheeks…. oh and then there is Candy Applebottom. After we had our shoot we went out for drinks to celebrate my birthday – and I thought how grateful I am to live in NYC, to have my life and my friends – and such a fun business as Brazil Bronze.

The following weekend I celebrated my birthday with a ski trip to Mt Tremblant in Canada.I cannot believe how much fun we had. We flew to Montreal and after an hour and a half we arrived in this gorgeous snowy wonderland. Everyone speaks French, it is as pretty as a picture, the snow was soft and powdery, I just totally loved it. In the pic above I am with Holly Honeythighs, Candy Applebottom and Rosie Cheeks The skiing was amazing, the Fairmount hotel was gorgeous -with the best hot tub, the poor waiter served us cocktails wearing a parka – while we wore our wooly hats in the water and a blizzard raged. We ice skated on a real lake, ate gorgeous fondues – in general we had the best ski adventure possible for a quick weekend away from NYC. I can’t wait to go back.

Super busy now in the salon. Sending out press on all the hot new products for 2012. Getting ready for Valentine’s day – lots of people are scheduling boudoir shoots to surprise their honey. This week we have tons of dance shows – we are actually going to dance in an aquarium tomorrow. Friday I am throwing my own Valentine’s Burlesque bash – a show, party and dancing. This week will be a scurry of work, rehearsals, shows and party planning – with all the usual kids homework and school bus catching thrown in.

So far this winter hasn’t been too bad. I guess the key is to keep busy, keep things fun, stay surrounded by friends and keep the laughter flowing. I’ll be sure to take some pics of dancing at the aquarium. Stay posted.

I am collecting great spray tan pics – if you have a pic of yourself looking great after your spray tan – please email it to me @ sally@brazilbronze.com.

Stay toasty.

At the end of last year I had been to see the New York Burlesque Festival @ BB Kings. The talent, cleverness and humor were amazing. I discovered that most of these talented people had performed earlier that summer at a contest in Vegas called “the Miss Exotic World Pageant.” As soon as we heard about it all of my friends decided that we REALLY wanted to go.

The new year dawned and I was on the phone with my burlesque partner Pink Champagne. We were plotting what would be fun songs for new numbers. We had an idea for a song, I won’t reveal what it is – but it involves wearing a swimsuit. I said “let’s do it – because it would be a cute idea for Miss Exotic World”. Pink Champagne was in no mood to put on a swimsuit in the middle of January and told me I was out of my mind. I begged her to just check the deadline for admissions to Miss Exotic World – and, shock, horror, drum roll….we discovered that you have to have a video submission of your entry by January 23rd. We sat in stunned silence….and then we started to get our brains going in high gear. What is a little deadline…action was what was called for. We hit the phone lines, sent out emails, and found that all of our girls, the hot and lovely Pink Chardonnays were ready for action.

Yesterday Pink Champagne and I slaved from dawn to dusk and came up with the new choreography. We marched around the garment district from House of Spandex to Spandex World to Stretch King and back. Corsets have been ordered, the glue guns are being warmed, feathers have been plucked from some poor yellow ostritch….late last night we gathered our ranks to start practicing in chelsea studios.

Of course we are all feeling quite fat after the holidays. We worry that if we take off the corsets it will be something akin to unleashing a large vat of marshmallow fluff. But doubt is for sissys. So our plan is to practice our dance as much as possible for the next two weeks, while simultaneously crafting our very complicated costumes – from gloves and feathers…. rhinestones galore. Then we will film it and send the submission in. I say ENJOY THE JOURNEY. I so hope we manage to make the cut. I can only imagine what hilarity we could have with such an amazing and fun loving group of women. But whatever happens, we are definitely having a blast right now. Before I was feeling kind of blah and January-ish – and now I feel creative, juiced and kicked into mega high gear. The Pink Chardonnays aren’t exactly like a knitting circle – or maybe they are – the main thing I get from this is being around postive, fun loving, people – who don’t take themselves too seriously.

The kids are back in school. Work is kicking into high gear. Lots of fun projects for Valentine’s day – the salon is already getting booked up by people wanting vajazzling for the day of LOVE, boudoir photography is booked through the roof – gotta get your lover a gorgeous pick of your fine self. Burlesque Bikini Bootcamp is packed with people trying to redeem themselves after the holidays….and believe me – I am trying to redeem myself too. I was seasonally disaffected for three seconds after the holidays – but now I feel buzzing with life and with a sense of opportunity for the new year.

Start this January the way you mean to continue – find time to take care of yourself, to feed your soul and to pursue your passions. What if we are being transported off by martians later this year. Don’t leave yourself with any regrets….

We have a lot going on in the salon. We have two brand new products for home use. TanSXL and Coco Chacha – and we are busy doing everything to get the word out about them for the spring. Very exciting – we are about to launch our own line of sunscreens. Lots more to come about that soon.

In the mean time, wrap up warm, if you feel fat after the holiday excesses – don’t beat yourself up – get a spray tan and work with what you’ve got. We are so grateful to our customers who make every day fun for us – wishing everyone the best possible year. sxo

The salon seems busier than ever. Life is busy and social – so many parties and events and everyone has to look good. Halloween brought a flurry of fabulous party goers. Every year Heidi Klum has a costume party for the rarified stratosphere of super celebrities. We sprayed Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas – she went as a mother from toddlers and tiaras. We used our new darker spray “Coco Cha Cha”.

I just got back from an amazing dance camp in the Dominican Republic. The camp was held at The Paradisus Palma Real resort and I totally recommend this place for a gorgeous relaxing get away. I went with my dancing friends – no husband and no kids, I can’t remember the last time I took a trip like that. I should definitely do it more often – it was totally good for my mental health, the perfect combination of studying latin dance, which is something I am really passionate about, and sun, sea, sand, friends and laughter. Oh – and quite a lot of the national beverage which is called Mama Juana – wine, rum, honey marinated with a bunch of roots in a bottle. All I know is we had a lot of it.

Relaxing after a hard morning at dance camp

Now that everything is heating up in New York – my burlesque girls have been getting lots of opportunity to perform. We have been dancing all over at clubs and shows and parties. We were just at a really cool club 141 Chrystie Street. The place was totally packed. Upstairs they have these really amazing karaoke rooms. It’s funny, I am really not a club person. I love going to a club if I am doing a show and have something to do. I get a kick out of seeing night life from that perspective – and it is fun to get up and dance after a show, with a bunch of friends when you are happy and relaxed and the nights work is done…but I see all these people standing on line, on the wrong side of the velvet rope, and I just wouldn’t be up for that myself.

hanging out with my girls after the show

I am grateful for my double life as a Paper Dolls Dancer that I get to visit all these fun happening places – that other wise I would never stay up late enough to see, or might be rejected at the velvet rope for not having a good enough outfit.

My kids just had a week off of school and I really took the opportunity of the fabulous weather to do lots of super fun things. We saw “How to Succeed in Business” as my kids are super huge Daniel Radcliffe fans. It was amazing. The choreography is just so creative and so well executed. Daniel Radcliffe has this energy like a tightly wound piston – and to see how he uses that in his dancing is just crazy good. We also went to Museum of Modern Art, Tea and Sympathy for cream tea, and Dylan’s candy Bar

Georgiana having tea with the queen in the background

All in all we had a really good week, taking full advantage of no school. I have been running outside every day – just trying to take in the beauty of the fall, the soft colours, the beautiful air. I have a sense of the slight calm before the storm – because in just a couple of weeks it will be hard not to be swept up in all the holiday  craziness. Get out there and enjoy yourself before it gets too cold.