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Getting a pedicure at a salon never gets old, but toward the end of summer it does get expensive.
Now, with little over a month to go before you start pulling out boots, is a good time to invest in the tools for an at-home pedicure. You can shell out a few extra bucks today, and then go through the routine as often as you like (while comfortably watching Mad Men at home instead of flipping through a tired US Weekly).
Fresh's Brown Sugar Body Polish is the key. You'll be tempted to rub it all over your body, but stick to your feet (for now). Once they've been rubbed and soaked, gently use this Diamencel Diamond Foot buffer.
More From ELLEThen, slather your toes with Bliss' Foot Patrol and stick them into the bright blue socks that come in the package. Put your feet up for at least ten minutes, then take off the socks and sweep the lotion off your nails with a cotton swab soaked with nail polish remover.
Sweep a coat of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails over each nail, and then layer on Chanel's Gold Lamé (like a permanent summer on your toes). And then, most importantly, don't move!

Cass Bird/Art + CommerceAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowIn her dressing room at Conan O'Brien's late-night show, the 6'8" women's-basketball wunderkind Brittney Griner is flipping through a rolling rack of men's shirts with one of her very large hands—they're bigger than LeBron James'—while also keeping her eyes on the iPhone she's palming in the other. What attracted the attention of Conan, and the rest of the country, is Griner's absolute dominance as a college player and her selection as the WNBA's number one draft pick this spring—in her first pro game, for the Phoenix Mercury, she dunked twice, setting a league record—not to mention the suggestion by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban that Griner should try out for his team.
More From ELLEHer outfit for her imminent television appearance was settled on a while ago: a blue-and-white seersucker suit with one of her signature bow ties. But backstage at Conan, she's addressing another wardrobe concern: what to wear to the ESPYs, ESPN's annual awards show. The event is three days away, and she needs something to wear with the gorgeous black suit that her stylist, Kellen Richards—who's also Ellen DeGeneres' fashion adviser—had custom made for her. "With Ellen, we choose women's clothes and add menswear touches," says Richards' assistant, when asked to compare dressing the two women. "With Brittney, it's all men's. And it's edgier." (The last time she wore a dress, Griner tells me, was at her mother's request, for her high school graduation. Never again.)
Griner quickly gravitates to a burgundy sleeveless T-shirt by Robert Geller and a black Saint Laurent sweatshirt top with cutoff sleeves and a narrow silver chain sewn across the yoke. Her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, pulls out a Lanvin sleeveless tee with mesh sides as a racier alternative. "Would you like this with no shirt underneath, with nipples out?" she asks matter-of-factly.
"That would be sexy," Griner replies, grinning, "but I don't think I'm ready for that."
She retreats into the tiny bathroom to change from her low-slung jeans and Nike T-shirt—the company has signed her to model its menswear, the first time a woman has had that gig—into her suit for Conan. Once the stylist has fussed over her, including rolling her pants cuffs to just the right height, lest they hike up if she crosses her legs—"I never cross my legs," Griner assures her—Kagawa Colas calls her over for a quick makeup session. "See, it looks like nothing," she says as she puts the slightest smudge of foundation and undereye concealer on Griner's smooth, flawless skin.
At the WNBA's rookie orientation, Griner says she declined to participate in a session about makeup application and how to dress. "I don't need that shit," she says without rancor, adding that the only lecture she appreciated was one on 401(k)s. (Yes, new WNBA players are taught how to apply makeup while NBA rookies learn to beware of gold-digger groupies who might prick tiny holes in condoms.) Now, peering at herself in the makeup mirror, Griner approves of her agent's handiwork. "Looks like nothing," she agrees.
Brittney Griner is now the first man to play in the WNBA…. Brittney Griner threw down two dunks last night. One for each of her testicles…. Brittney Griner suspended for first three games next season after testing positive for a penis. This is a tiny sample of the ugly invective regularly hurled at Griner on Twitter and other social-media forums. She seems pretty unfazed by the haters, however—even motivated by them. "Reading what people say makes me want to be me even more," she told ESPN magazine's Kate Fagan.
In a world in which the female body is always up for critique, Griner stands as very tall testament to how much we've changed in our attitudes toward difference, but also to the distance we have yet to travel. Hers is the story of how a 22-year-old physical anomaly with the energy of the goofy skater kid she is during her off-hours—leaving the arena, Griner worked her long torso through an open car window and sat on the door's edge, hollering to a teammate behind us—is challenging norms of both sexuality and gender. "Gender is who you go to bed as," says one specialist in gender identity issues. "Sexuality is who you go to bed with."
The latter subject is in some ways more straightforward, easier for sports reporters and cultural observers to address—and celebrate. In April, during a video interview on SportsIllustrated.com, Griner offhandedly acknowledged that she's a lesbian. The low-key disclosure came in a spring and early summer marked by watershed moments in gay rights, including the Supreme Court's striking down of a federal ban on gay marriage and NBA backup center Jason Collins becoming the first male pro-athlete to out himself while still an active player.
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Andreas Kuehn/Getty ImagesAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowYou're famished. Nothing has touched your lips since your out-the-door breakfast bar (except maybe gloss), and then there it is, inches from your mouth, happiness in your hand: a classic Chipwich, its two warm chocolate chip cookies meeting the vanilla ice cream middle that's slowly melting down your fingers. This may sound like a Liz Lemon dream sequence, but food legitimately affects your mood—more than you probably realize. Take the chocolate in your 'wich: It contains happy-making serotonin and anandamide, and once it hits your gut, your body thanks you with a surge of opioids—the cocktail of all three reaches your brain and, voilà, bliss! "Different foods signal pleasure both through the substances they contain and the chemicals they cause the gut to release," says Gianrico Farrugia, director of the Enteric Neuroscience Program at the Mayo Clinic. This prompts the question: Should we be eating to balance our moods, not just our scales?
More From ELLEThe brain-gut connection has necessitated a new field of science, neurogastroenterology, whose experts reverentially refer to the gut (comprised of the esophagus, intestines, and stomach) as the "second brain." Unglamorous as it may sound, the gut is a physical and emotional powerhouse: It's estimated to contain more than 200 million neurons, more than the spinal cord has, and can do its work (i.e., digestion) independent of the brain.
Indeed, many of the mood-related messages between these two brains go from the bottom up. Researchers now look at the digestive system as an indicator of what may be going on in the brain: Tissue lesions from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases have been found in the stomach wall, matching those in the brain—a discovery that could aid in early diagnoses. Studies also indicate that people stricken with intestinal diseases, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), benefit from low doses of antidepressants, drugs once thought to work only in the brain. Since the gut contains about 95 percent of the body's supply of serotonin, some neurogastroenterologists now believe that antidepressants actually work primarily in the digestive system, as opposed to the brain, by blocking the reuptake of serotonin and making it more available to bind with important receptors.
Depression sufferers who are unresponsive to antidepressants sometimes turn to vagus nerve stimulation—which essentially delivers a mega-dose of the rush you'd get from that Chipwich. Electrodes are im­planted under the skin near the neck to send electrical impulses through the nerves, "mimicking the good feelings that the gut usually sends to the brain," says Michael Gershon, professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia University and author of The Second Brain (HarperCollins).
In fact, Emeran Mayer, director of the Center for Neurobiology of Stress at UCLA, believes that one day psychiatry may improve mental well-being by treating both brains. He's currently running a brain-imaging study to examine the effect of probiotic supplements, hypothesizing that they will impact mood positively (possibly by improving the digestive system's function). "When we ingest something, it doesn't just sit in our stomachs. It most certainly has an affect on our overall being," Mayer says. Of course, anyone who has ever savored the perfect Chipwich knows that already.

Getty ImagesAdvertisement - Continue Reading BelowSandra Bullock had an Oscar-winning performance in The Blind Side—and she's had winning hairstyles through the years as well. From her Speed-style short bob to her current long locks, vote for your favorites below.
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Which long locks steal the spotlight?survey
Photo: Left: Retna; right: Getty Images
Which undone updo is hottest?polls
Photo: Left: Getty Images; right: Retna
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Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like their girls
Who do girls like their boys
—Kate Lanphear
The boys in Soulland's spring 2010 show were adorably indiscernible from the girls
Click here to see the complete collection
Photo: Courtesy of Copenhagen Fashion Week
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Jerritt ClarkPhoto: Jerritt Clark
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below"When I was growing up, the place I felt least alone was when I was reading," decided to foray into writing children's books, even moving on to be a best-selling author. Her latest work, My Mom Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me, is a charming, rhyming ode to diversity inspired by her own experience as a child of a foreign parent.
More From ELLE Moore, wearing a white draped Alexander Wang dress, arrived at the 21 Club to mingle with New York City moms at a gathering hosted by TheMoms.com. Over lunch, Moore shed any guise of a Hollywood star and instead gave off the aura of an old friend, talking candidly about trying to convince her daughter to read Little Women, the problems surrounding teen kids and social media, and the Scottish quirks she grew up with—such as the constant presence of tartan prints and bagpipe music. After excitedly showing off her latest accessory (a "new, beautiful Balenciaga baaaag!"), Moore chatted with us about her new project and what inspires her acting.
What can readers expect from 'My Mother Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me?'It's about the experience of growing up with a mother from another country. My mom came here from Scotland when she was 10 in 1950, and then I was born 10 years later. So, I grew up with someone who has a very strong identification to another culture. I think so much of our country's history is about assimilation. We come here and become Americans and it's a melting pot, but nobody really talks about that idea that we don't all just assimilate. All the things about my mother that were so familiar to me were very foreign to the world outside. This is something that I thought would be resonant for a lot of people I know.What is different about this book from your 'Freckleface Strawberry' series?Oddly enough, Meilo So, my illustrator, is from Hong Kong but she's living in the Shetland Islands in Scotland right now, where she's now the "foreign" mother of a Scottish daughter. It's this weird synchronistic kind of thing!How does this story fit in with the current generation and social climate?I feel like it speaks to every generation. I think this is one of the characteristics of being an American: We are all from somewhere else. I think that's why immigration reform is so important right now so I don't understand, suddenly, why people can't come or only certain people can come. I think this is something that speaks to us as a nation.Is that diversity why you decided to live in NYC?As an actor, there are places you can live and when I graduated from school it was either New York or L.A., and I liked the East Coast. That's why I ended up in New York.Why did you decide to write children's books?There's a documentary on Maurice Sendak that I saw and people are always asking why he wrote children's books and he says, "It comes out how it comes out!" I don't think anybody has an intention [to write a children's book], things just sort of end up that way. It sort of happened. I wasn't really planning it. Obviously, I'm an actress, not a writer [laughs], so this thing just developed.How did having a split culture growing up come out in your acting?Everything contributes. As an actor, all you have is what you know and what you see in other people. The more you know and the more you've experienced, the more you're able to communicate to other people. The fact that I had access to a whole different culture growing up, and moved around so much, has helped me understand more as an actor. In particular, I feel that human drama is the most compelling stuff. I'm not someone who is driven by big external stories. I like big emotional stories. Jerritt ClarkPhoto: Jerritt Clark

StocksyA few summers ago, I hesitantly asked my on-again-off-again boyfriend to accompany me to a family wedding. After a long rough patch, things finally felt great between us, and he happily agreed to attend. Although he'd met my family before, this would be the first time he was spending extended time with them and really meeting the whole #squad.
We drove down to a vineyard a couple hours away, checked into the hotel, and had some hot in-suite sex before getting ready for the wedding. I was feeling really great about our relationship—and the whole trip—so, after a few 100 pre-dinner cocktails, we snuck down to the vines to fool around. After some heavy making out, I gave him a quick (but super effective) BJ. We quickly fixed each other up, I reapplied my lip gloss, and we slid back into our seats just as dinner was being served.
Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowFor context, we were seated at a table with my parents, my siblings, and my grandfather. Just as the first course came out, my boyfriend began to shift uncomfortably while discreetly "readjusting" himself. Shortly after, he started to aggressively wipe his mouth and guzzle water. When it got to the point where he couldn't hide his discomfort any longer, I realized that my lip gloss was one of the Kylie Jenner-level extreme plumping variety. (Buyers beware: It's called Sexy Mother Pucker XL.)
My family began to make jokes about what was going on (after all, we'd been smooching all night), but, of course, had no idea how far the Mother Pucker had traveled. My boyfriend and I managed to steal away from the table to the photo booth, where he put it all together before excusing himself to go "wash his dick off" in the bathroom. Yeah.
Needless to say, the weekend took a slight turn in mood after that—no matter how many times I insisted that we'd laugh about it later. We never made it to "later" so I hope he sees this and LOLS? Or cries? I'm currently doing both.

Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowKyle Anderson, Senior Accessories Editor, in Gucci shoes
Photo: Kelly Stuart
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