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Salma Hayek unveiled the long-awaited products from her eponymous line for CVS last week in NYC. The effort, which has been a three-year-long labor of love for the actress, will finally arrive at outlets of the retail chain this August. Salma revealed that the items are en route to stores in a February interview with T Magazine, saying that her grandmother, who passed down beauty secrets during Salma's youth in Mexico, served as inspiration for the cosmetics, skin care, and hair care collection. She presented a range of merchandise including hydrating and toning cleansers, gels, and towelettes as well as shampoos, conditioners, masks, and volumizers. Her makeup includes brighteners, "eye pods" with four eye shades, and lots more — Salma and CVS also plan to introduce additional goods as the partnership grows. Salma said:

• On her grandmother being her inspiration: "There is another woman in my life, and I almost want to stop and not talk about her because I'm afraid I might cry . . . which is my grandmother, who was so important to me . . . I can say she was my inspiration, but I can never explain to you in how many ways. But I can say to you that she lived in a time, in a country, when being a woman was even a lot harder than it is today. And that, even though she did not go to college and study medicine . . . she was so smart. And, in many ways, life did not do justice to her genius. She was very close to me because I was her hope. And through this line, I feel I do a little bit of justice to her."
• On being actively involved in creating her products: "I wasn't willing to say, 'Why don't you put a little aloe vera in the creams? I hear it's good for you.' I wanted to go into the lab and work with the people, which by the way I'll tell you, once we picked the lab, some of them were like, 'What?!' Some of them were not happy to have me in there. Even though some of them were very impressed when I sent a list of ingredients . . . they said, 'Does she have a background in chemistry?' or 'Where did she find this stuff?' In the witchcraft stand of the Mexican markets, that's where I found some of it!"

To see what else Salma said about the line, just keep reading.

OK, so this is really not the sexiest item we've found lately, but hear me out. Sometimes, function is more important than fashion, and though CVS's neck heat pack ($8-$13) won't win any design awards, it is a nice little sybaritic goody to have at home. The sturdy vinyl pack is filled with a nontoxic liquid and a small metal disc; bend the disc back and forth, and the liquid turns into a warm crystalline gel. It stays heated for about 45 minutes before hardening, at which point it can be dropped into boiling water for about 10 minutes. Then, it's ready to be used again and again. Placing the heat pack on tired shoulders is relaxing, and you can always rest it on your abdomen the next time you're ready to claw someone's eyes out due to cramps. Like I said, it isn't all razzle-dazzle, but it feels so good.

Did you know that CVS is producing its own makeup now? Yup, it's true, and its latest endeavor is a passel of lip treatments called, logically, Focus on Lips. I'm always on the hunt for good, inexpensive drugstore products, so I decided to give the line a trial run. They make everything from a peppermint lip gloss (almost exactly like C.O. Bigelow's) to a scuffer to primer. Want to know how the store brand stacks up? Just keep reading.

If you love a good drugstore run, then you'll be pleased to hear that, from Aug. 15 through Sept. 11, almost every beauty product on CVS.com will be marked down 20 percent. Sales like this are great for stocking up on long-lasting basics. I know I'm gonna get some makeup sponges, cotton balls, and nail polish remover, at the very least.