She is that notorious table flipper whose reality series M.O. could be summed up in three little words: temper, temper, temper.
"Real Housewife" Teresa Guidice is a little ticked right now. But furniture isn't flying.
Ask a loaded question about her popularity linked with beauty and you get …a reaction. "Everywhere I go, anytime I run errands, every time I'm in a grocery store, I get tapped on the shoulder," says the most popular member of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" who is calling from where else, but her bedroom in Nooo Joosey.
"Sometimes, I'm even wearing no makeup," cries the Housewife with the cascading black hair and two best-selling cookbooks including the new "Fabulicious."
No makeup? I can understand her pain. There's nothing like running into people in the produce aisle when you actually look like your driver's license photo.
"Fans will say, 'Can I take a picture of you…with no makeup up? You look beautiful anyways,'" Guidice cries. "The bottom line is I have four kids. Every single day is different. I don't really care. I try to look my best, but there are days when I try to give my face a break and I just let everything breathe. "
"I like not wearing makeup," she says. "I like to be fresh and clean."
Mention her husband Joe. Does he like her clean look? The one word answer: Fuggedaboutit!
"I think he likes makeup," she says. "Men. They always want us looking good. He pretends like he doesn't mind when I don't wear the makeup, but I can tell he loves it when I get dressed up."
A FRUGAL REALITY STAR
Ask Ms. T for her beauty secrets and she is ready to divulge all. Start with her gorgeous mane, which you can also have for pennies. "I refuse to spend big money here and don't use anything special. Most of the time I use Pantene or Treseme. I grab whatever is handy at the supermarket."
When she's filming the hit Bravo show, she makes good use of the hair pros. "They'll blow it out straight, pin curl it and then roll it. But when I'm home in my own New Jersey bathroom, I usually just put in some sculpting lotion, blow dry and scrunch. I like to embrace my curls, especially during the summer. I have found that pregnancy has made the curls looser and much prettier," says the mom of four daughters.
She isn't obsessive about skin care either. "I love Lancome cleanser and I slather on their moisturizer," she says. "I do make sure to wash my face before I go to sleep. I get my makeup done a lot and it's important to get rid of it at night."
MANGIA! MANGIA!
"The Real Housewives of New Jersey" is also a New York Times bestselling author of "Skinny Italian" and now "Fabulicious" which serves up 60 family recipes straight from Salerno. Of course, there are meatballs galore and lots of pasta to put on your plate.
"My kids love to eat my chicken parm," she says. "These are traditional Italian recipes to cook for your family. I keep hearing, 'Oh my God, I made your recipe and even the picky eaters liked it.' I even have a peas recipe for people who have never eaten peas before."
Ask Guidice how she keeps her perfect figure in this house of cheese and carbs and she just sighs. "I can't live without my pasta," she admits. "I don't know how people do that Atkins diet.
The trick is you can't eat a big mound of pasta. Eat an appetizer sized portion of whatever you like," she advises. "I can't live without my pasta."
Nah, she's not shoving down buttery garlic bread with that pasta. "I'm not a big bread eater. Once in awhile, I get a feeling that I want to deep bread in sauce. Otherwise you can have the bread back." And here's a good tip: "I don't eat carbs late at night, which means we eat dinner at five or six."
She does make sure to sneak some veggies into that pasta. "Tonight is pasta with chopped asparagus," she says. "The next day, I'll sauté the rest of the asparagus in olive oil and a little onion. I throw in an egg and cut it up like a pizza pie and have it for a healthy lunch."
She does admit to being a snacker "I'll do a handful of almonds, thin pretzels with parm or grapefruit, which takes your hunger away. Go to your local Farmer's market for the best fruit. I grab handfuls of blueberries because they're also good for your skin
She admits that she "hardly ever works out."
"I'm just starting now. I want to get more toned," she says.
Part of her shape up program might be for the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." "It's coming back," she tells Style Goes Strong. "I can't say when. I don't know exactly, but I can tell you that it's soon.
"I'm sure now that 'The Real Housewives of Miami' is done and 'The Real Housewives of New York City' is on, they'll start advertising us."
Ask her about the other women – those other 'Housewives' – and Teresa insists, 'I didn't watch 'Housewives of Miami' at all. But I did like Beverly Hills."
Any advice for the Beverly Hills feuding sisters of Kyle and Kim Richards and New Jersey's leading lady opines, "Make up with each other! I don't like to see fighting within families. Someone should just suck it up."
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