Remember when we were all in love with Dove because they ran an ad campaign featuring "real" women? Well, kind of real -- clearly they weren't going to use fat or unattractive people, but at least the women in the ads were of more normal stature, and not Photoshopped to completely unrealistic proportions.

Or were they?

No doubt, everyone wants to get their hands on a Clarisonic, the facial cleansing brush that is supposed to work wonders because of its vibrating bristles. We'd like to think that we, Styledash, were responsible because we wrote about it last year and have been using it now for a year, but we'll give Oprah a little credit for mentioning it as one of her favorite things. However, the Clarisonic, as awesome as it may be, is a little expensive at $195. A year later, drugstore brands are coming out with their versions. If you can't afford the Clarisonic and were naughty enough this past year that Santa isn't going to get you one, you could try the Neutrogena Wave, which boasts a masssaging action that opens pores allowing for deeper cleaning. It's only $13.99. The other cleanser is by Dove, the Skin Vitalizer, which also uses "vibrations" of cleansing pads on the handheld device to clean skin. It's only $7.99.

Granted, we have only tried the Clarisonic, as we've been using it now for a year, and we've never tried the other two, but at such a significantly lower price point, it sure would be easy to try them both out.

Many of you are familiar with the Dove advertising campaign promoting "Real Beauty" in television commercials and print advertisements. But now Dove has joined a number of other companies in the video "viral" marketing medium by producing a short film for YouTube. The film is called "Evolution Beauty" and I think it's well worth watching. It certainly puts the modeling industry in perspective.

Recently at the Future Beauty and Body Visions conference in London, Dove hair global brand director Marcos Angelini said that the skin care line was thinking of going after the men's market as part of their long-range plans. According to a quote from Angelini, the company wants to be sure not to alienate their core female market. This got me thinking. Would the popular Dove Women ad campaign work for men? The popular ad campaign that had "real women" of varying ages, sizes and skin colors seemed to really connect with the female buying public. Imagine for a moment the male version. Instead of abtastic beefcake models lovingly soaping down their torsos, the line could use the beer-bellied and scrawny posing in their skivvies.

Okay, what is going on with the link between chocolate companies and fashion? First we had Bobbie Brown partnering up with Vosges to create chocolate-colored makeup and a special Bobbie Brown chocolate bar. Now comes a partnership between Laio jewelry and Dove Chocolate. Laio has created a collection inspired by chocolate that is being presented to Emmy nominees. The necklaces feature "chocolatesque" stones like amber, tiger's eye, jade, and pearl. The pieces do have big brown sweeps of fabric that remind me of those chocolate-colored scrims that come drifting across in the Dove television commericals but other than that the connection seems a bit tenuous.