Great Beauty

In theory I wholeheartedly believe in routine maintenance, regular tune-ups and preventative care.  Look at any woman of a certain age who has taken care of herself over the years vs. one of the same certain age who has not and the benefit is clear.

But even in the face of undeniable proof my commitment to a regime seems to wax and wane.  In large part this is owing to the fact that I have no idea if my regime is correct.  I mean, I won't see the results for another ten or twenty years, so how am I to know if sticking with it is really going to do any good?  And if it doesn't, why bother with my multi-step, multi-product process?

So time and time again I revert to cleaning my face twice a day religiously (this seems like an obviously good thing to do), using sunscreen on my face and hands daily as every dermatologist will tell you to do (I will forever be devoted to Elta MD, which achieves the unachievable by being non-toxic yet sheer) and throwing on some moisturizer when my skin is screaming out for it.

But those sad, aimless days are over my friends, because I have found an oracle to navigate the beauty jungle for me.

After reading about Eva Scrivo's book in the New York Times one day, I picked it up from the library just to see what the fuss was about.  The fuss was about a hugely successful hair stylist, aesthetician and makeup artist sharing every secret she's got.  And did I mention she herself has aged spectacularly well?

I can't be sure, but based on her references from her childhood included in the book, I can only assume she's in her late 40s, possibly early 50s.  So basically 10-15 years older than she looks.  Which means I'll follow her advice to the letter.

Normally I can't stand reading beauty books.  I look at the pictures, sure, but read them?  So boring.

Not this one.  I pored over it in rapt attention, taking in every tip and bit of advice she had to offer.  Wear a terry cloth headband when washing your face to avoid frizzing up those hairs around your hairline?  Of course!  How brilliant!  Layer liquid eyeliner on top of a pencil for your everyday look?  I would never have thought to do so, but I look much more glamorous for it, and it got me over my fear of liquid liner in no time.  Use a little of many products, on both hair and skin, in layers because one never does all of the jobs you need for it to do?  Genius.  My hair is looking much better for it.  And as soon as all of my professional sized Yonka products arrive from ebay, I'm sure my skin will be too.

I'm so looking forward to stashing a box of skincare products in the refrigerator and bringing it out every night, just as Eva's impossibly glamorous mother apparently did, to slather the stuff on in pursuit, nay, in furtherance (now that I know the regime works) of everlasting beauty.

Shopping Spree In The East (Villlage)

This weekend the sun graced New York with its presence. I won't say that it was the beginning of spring, but it certainly signaled the rumblings of the new season. After months of dreary cold, it was a welcome change. I flung open the apartment windows, thrilled with the idea of fresh air in my living space again. It was off with the winter coat and back to weekends spent wandering through the city. Bliss.


Job one was to get some color back in the apartment, so when I saw this bouquet at the farmers market, I simply couldn't resist. Despite the vaguely garish easter egg vibe of the arrangement, I felt quite strongly that it belonged in my (rather tarnished) mint julep cup on my bathroom sink.



Not more than an hour after I had put the blooms in water they began to open, exuberantly it seemed.



Perhaps the tulips are as excited for spring as I am?


Later in the afternoon it was off to one of my absolute favorite stores in New York, SOS Chefs. I had taken stock of my spice cabinet and found it wanting, so felt it was an appropriate excuse to make my way to Avenue B for a bit of shopping.


I left the treasure trove of a store with a shopping bag full of goodies...


...spices of course, but I could not resist this amber colored chestnut honey



nor this satchel of fragrant chai.

I've been consistently fascinated by the black facial soap that Atef, the owner, has shown me on occasion, both due to the unusual appearance of it and the fact that her own skin (on which on she tells me she smears the dark gunge) is remarkably luminous. I finally caved and purchased a jar.

I hope that I don't one day mistake it for molasses or some other sweet and lovely foodstuff.

Although Atef was not in the day I visited, her male counterpart was just as warm and generous as she and insisted that I take home a mixture of lemon verbena and saffron with me to make some tea.



Deep in the recesses of my brain I recalled hearing somewhere that it is not uncommon to add saffron to tea in the middle east and north Africa, but it had seemed a terribly indulgent idea given the high price of saffron when I heard it initially. But this is a different type of saffron than I am used to, with shorter fibers, a lighter flavor and lighter color (and a smaller price tag).


I realized after accepting this generous gift that I had been sold a bunch of the same type of saffron when I was in Istanbul years ago. When I got it home and attempted to use it as one might use normal saffron, I was disappointed. No brilliant color, the taste was too light to detect...I had been ripped off! I tossed the bag in the trash in disgust. Now I realize I was just expecting the wrong thing from my stash. In food, it must be added early, and simmered at some length to release the delicate flavor.


But I had never even thought to try it in tea, a situation I remedied quickly.



I've always loved lemon verbena in tea, especially in combination with Earl Grey tea, but the saffron added a wonderful softness,

perfect for a late afternoon or pre-bedtime tisane. I for one plan to indulge in one as often as possible!

Silky Smooth

As you may recall, I tend to get a bit hysterical about the purity of my beauty products, both face and body. The list of products that I look to avoid precludes me from using most drugstore and department store lotions, serums and creams, so I suppose you could argue that I've taken things a bit far. However, as I've had good luck finding non-toxic replacements for all of the products I'd used previously, I've been perfectly content with my vaguely radical (some would probably say unnecessary) lifestyle choice.


But there was just one exception. It is bizarrely difficult to find a good natural, affordable body lotion. Of course my beloved Dr. Hauschka makes a gorgeous range of lotions but at $40 for 4 ounces I just can't get on board. And all of the high quality drugstore brands insist on using those horrible hormone altering parabens and birth defect causing phlalates


So when I was wandering through Whole Foods a month or so back, I was mightily intrigued by a massive bottle of very hippie looking moisturizer called Everyday Shea.



32 ounces for $9.99?!! Sign me up! Unscented please.


Now I'll admit that it was a bit rocky in the beginning. Initially the pump delivered some sort of watery shea butter byproduct. I figured that this is what happens with such a painfully organic product, so I unscrewed the lid and attempted to stir the bottle with the long end of the pump. The tube that brings the lotion to the nozzle promptly fell off and I was on the verge of tossing the whole thing out but at the last moment I squeezed a bit out (the top of the bottle seemed to have none of this separation issue) of the pumpless bottle onto my parched hand and was quite taken with the product.


Despite being made of shea butter it is completely non-greasy, even the unscented version has a slight but intoxicating chocolatey scent, and the product keeps the ever-attractive scaly skin well at bay.


And if you care about this type of thing, the proceeds go towards a shea butter cooperative in Togo that produces the stuff. A noble enterprise indeed.

Soap Me Up Soap Me Down

My morning shower is the most luxurious period of my day. At least, in the normal course of events. Therefore, I take my choice of soap very seriously. And, after a trip to my favorite Bay Area store during my last visit, I have finally found one worthy of the lofty position that soap holds in my life.


First of all, my favorite store? The Gardener. My mother claims that when this store first opened they did actually sell gardening supplies, but now it mostly sells various objets...the type of sleek, perfectly balanced, very tasteful household and outdoor accessories that affluent Berkleyites tend to favor. And that the odd Bay Area native now living in New York who is decidedly not affluent also loves.


Things like these Japanese flower shears, for instance:

Hinoki bathmats (and way cheaper than the ones from Viva Terra!).





And organic style tableware.





Sadly for all those non-Bay Area residents, the website does not represent the full breadth of the inventory in the stores, but if you do live out there in god's country and can visit the bricks and mortar store, you are among the lucky ones!


Anyway, back to my soap. As I was walking through the Ferry Building and was drawn into The Gardener store, I detected the fresh, invigorating scent of lemongrass. Where on earth is this coming from, I mused. From a basket of La Lavande soap, apparently. I couldn't resist picking up a few bars ($3.50 each) to take back to New York with me.


As it turns out, they not only smell phenomenal, but also create a silky, lush lather. It is all a very welcome experience first thing in the morning, from when I pull back the shower curtain and get a hint of the olfactory experience to come, to when the hot water hits the bar and I am swept away by the citrusy, astringent lather.

Even Paul, who is, despite being otherwise unconcerned with grooming products, quite picky about his soap, commented on the loveliness of the scent and lather. And let me tell you, there is no higher recommendation than the thumbs up of a big burly Englishman when it comes to genteel soaps.

Head to Toe

Well, as promised, I'm following up my green cleaning products post and my green facial products post with a green body products post.

I'll admit that when it comes to body level skincare I'm not particularly religious. I went through that whole fluffy plastic loofah and foamy shower gel phase in high school that every female I knew succumbed to at one point or another, but generally I am fairly laissez-faire about the whole thing. But occasionally, when the situation gets particularly dire, I snap to attention. And when I do, I need some products to use, and as I am now paranoid about my skin absorbing untold toxins, I need for them to be green.


Exfoliant


I have always had a little bit of a thing for salt and sugar scrubs. I was a pretty loyal devotee of the aromatherapy scrubs at Bath and Body Works for a while, but once the price got up to $20 I couldn't really justify it anymore. I mean really, oil and salt? Let's be serious, shall we?


So I resorted to the granola option and started making my own. I took a very picturesque jar that I had picked up at the Container Store,



filled it about 3/4 of the way full with fine sea salt (but use sugar if you prefer), then poured enough carrier oil (I used sunflower oil, but sweet almond oil or another odorless vegetable or nut based oil would be fine as well) in to cover it by about an inch. I also like to add ten or so drops of an essential oil to the mixture (Neal's Yard has a high quality selection at very fair prices, I particularly like the lemongrass oil) so that I can give myself a little hit of aromatherapy in a steamy shower. This is such a moisturizing treatment that there is absolutely no need for any lotion or other moisturizer once you are out of the shower.



For days that you don't feel like dealing with a scrub, I highly recommend running a Japanese bath brush over your dry skin before getting in the shower, and then following up with a rub-down of argan oil after the shower.


Deodorant


I'll be very honest with you. I have never found an antiperspirant that truly stops me from sweating. I don't know if it was just that I never hit on the right brand or if I'm a particularly prolific sweater, but nothing ever seemed to work. So when I heard that conventional antiperspirants contained ingredients that were associated with various horrible health problems, I figured why not switch to a deodorant? Who cares if it doesn't stop sweat, the antiperspirant doesn't either!


After quite a few years of trying various brands (including at least a year of using various crystal rocks, for which I was mocked mercilessly by Zenia) I have finally settled on one: Dr. Hauschka Floral Deodorant.

I feel that I should qualify this a bit. The product smells amazing, and I find that it keeps me smelling reasonably good all day. But I should warn you that it is a fairly wet formulation, so you need to wait a bit for it to dry once you put it on. As I like to take my time in the morning, applying my eyeliner, blow drying my hair, etc., this doesn't pose a problem for me, but it may be a turnoff for some. I would imagine the $20 price tag might be an issue for some as well. I personally don't mind the splurge since I seem to have started making the vast majority of my beauty and grooming products, and thus am saving untold amounts.

Hand and Foot Creams

I've already mentioned my absolute love of Aveda's foot cream, and that adoration remains unabated. But I have got to add a plug for Dr. Hauschka's hand lotion (can you tell I have a serious thing for the good doctor? Really, everything from the line is fantastic).

The formulation is as perfect as a lotion could get. It soothes and smoothes dry skin, it absorbs quickly and again, smells wonderful. Although, like most Dr. Hauschka products, I can't quite identify what it is they smell like...just something natural and soothing, whatever it is.

Bathtime

And lastly, bath products. I actually really love to take baths, but don't do it too much. My tiny apartment in Philadelphia inexplicably had a big, deep bathtub, so I took quite a few very luxurious soaks, particularly in the winter. At the time I was pretty obsessed with L'Occitane's grape bath tonic, which provides some nice bubbles and an intoxicating scent.

Now, I'm back in New York and living in a bigger apartment but my bathtub is annoyingly shallow. I attempted a soak the other night and the top of my ribcage wasn't even submerged. Suffice to say I am no longer investing too heavily in bath products. So I'm sort of back to the do it yourself stuff...the bathtub version? Epsom salt! $2 for a carton, just throw a cup or so in a tub of water, add whatever essential oil you like (again, Neal's Yard) for a nice, cheap, relaxing soak. A little grandma but hell, we'll all be there eventually.

So there you go...green for the whole body!

About Face

In addition to being assaulted from all sides by the toxins in our household products, we also are apparently absorbing some worrying things from our beauty and grooming products.  I have no idea if this is true, but I've read that our skin absorbs 60% of what we put on it, so it certainly is worth knowing what you're slathering yourself with.

There is quite an extensive list of ingredients common to skincare products that one is supposed to avoid.  I can only ever remember one or two of them...parabens and pthalates are generally the ones that stick out.  I think because they both disrupt hormones and or cause cancer somehow, prospects that I find to be particularly unappealing.  But my point is that I cannot be trusted to weed out the OK products from the not OK products so I often throw up my hands and go for the hippie organic brands where I know everything is OK.  So if my skincare regime seems a little granola, that is why.

Cleanser 

Forever I was in love with Shu Uemura's Cleansing Oil.  I would rave about it to anyone who would listen.  But then I began to realize that it was essentially mineral oil.  The formulation was genius, I mean this is mineral oil that washes clean away when you combine it with water, but mineral oil all the same.  And then I read somewhere that mineral oil essentially creates a plastic-like layer over your skin, which immediately grossed me out.

So I did a bit of internet research and discovered that one can make cleansing oil at home without too much trouble.  Just mix castor oil (this is apparently a cleansing, occasionally drying element) with some sort of carrier oil like sweet almond oil or sunflower oil (my personal preference).  For dry skin, it should be about an 80/20 split between carrier and castor, for combination skin (mine) 70/30, and for very oily skin, 60/40.

Now the one drawback is that the oil does not foam and wash completely away like Shu Uemura.  Instead, you need to rub pretty long and hard with wet hands, and occasionally you'll get a little oil on the towel you use to dry your face afterwards.  But, that aside, my skin has been looking absolutely great if I do say so myself (usually winter is a disaster for my face), and this little concoction costs about one tenth of the Shu Uemura cleansing oil.

Moisturizer

ARGAN OIL.  Enough said.

Exfoliator

I have been using Retin-A for about fifteen years, and will never give it up.  It would have to be pulled from my cold dead hand.  It makes my skin clear, smooth and soft like nothing else I have ever tried.  I have no idea if it is toxin free, but nothing evil jumped out at me when I perused the list of ingredients, so I will pretend everything is on the up and up.  I highly recommend begging your dermatologist for a prescription.

Eye Cream

Eye cream is a hard thing for me to evaluate.  I don't quite have wrinkles around my eyes yet, just a vague crepeyness at the corners, so I don't know if the eye cream improves anything since there isn't a huge amount to improve (if I do say so myself).  I just use it to avoid future drooping and creasing.  And I have to say, I have really been enjoying Juice Beauty's Smoothing Eye Concentrate.

I will say that my little crepey droop does seem to be much improved after using this product.  Juice Beauty is such a lovely line (and all green/organic!) that I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Sunscreen

I have been fairly obsessive about sunscreen my whole life.  My skin is pale, so my mom was slathering me on a regular basis when I was very young.  And from about the age of twelve, I began to use sunscreen daily, so I am at this point fairly informed when it comes the the product.

There are two different types of sunscreen:  those with chemical blockers and those with physical blockers, like titanium dioxide.  For quite some time I have been using Anthelios SX Daily Moisturizer (chemical blocker), and had been loving it.  But sadly, I discovered the dreaded parabens on the ingredient list so had to change.

Most organic sunscreens have physical blockers.  The one downside with these is that they give your face a whiteish cast when you first apply them.  The cast disappears shortly, but it is a little disconcerting at first.  I've tried quite a few different brands, and have found that they all have this same effect, so it is just something that I've learned to live with.  And I ultimately decided to go with Juice Beauty's Mineral Sheer sunscreen because I like the level of moisture it offers, plus it smells good.

Tomorrow:  Green products for the body

The Eyes Have It

I rarely leave the house without at least a bit of makeup, and yet I wouldn't call myself a beauty junkie.  Rather, I have a fairly consistent set of products I use regularly, so when I add an item to my little arsenal, you can be sure that it is quite something.

A few months back, I found myself a little bored with my usual colors, so, using a wedding I was to attend as an excuse, I stopped by the MAC store in Soho to pick up something new.  

Now I've always liked the dramatic look of liquid eyeliner, but after some very tragic episodes in high school, it became abundantly clear to me that I had no business even attempting to use it.  Then these gel eyeliners started popping up, and I was intrigued.  It seemed the perfect answer to my ineptitude.  I bought a couple a few years back but they didn't turn out to be the silver bullet I had hoped for.  They were too thick to begin with and dried out within weeks.

But the adorable makeup artist at MAC used their Fluidline to create the most fabulous Minnie Mouse-esque swoop on me, and I was infatuated with the possibility of reproducing it myself, so, against my better judgment, I bought the navy blue (waveline) one.  At $15 it wasn't actually too much of a gamble.

Turns out the consistency is smooth and perfect, and once applied it stays put.  So it was a keeper, a new addition for me.  But I was still vaguely dissatisfied...not with the product, but with my application.  It took me ages to get a decent looking line, and I never could quite get it right.  

For a time I figured that I was just hopelessly pathetic.  But then I saw the very talented Shu Uemura makeup artist applying eyeliner to my sister with what seemed like the perfect brush.  She was making a flawless cat's eye look pretty effortless.  I silently acknowledged that it was probably her superior skill, but allowed that the brush could have something to do with it.  So again, I took a gamble (again, at $22 it wasn't a terribly big one) and bought the Shu Uemura sable 5F brush.

And you know what?  It makes a surprisingly huge difference.  I actually get compliments on my eyeliner now.  Crazy.  I always knew that the Shu brushes were the best, but I didn't know that they were this good.

Nature Knows Best

I am a huge fan of oil when it comes to skincare. I use it as a facial cleanser, as a facial moisturizer, and as a body moisturizer. Despite the fact that I have always had pretty oily skin, I've found that oil-based products work best for me. Maybe my sebaceous glands see that they have met their match when I load the oil on, and let up on their own production a little. OPEC in reverse I guess.


So I perked up when I came across a New York Times Style Magazine article last year about the hot new fat/oil. First omega-3s and olive oil...and now argan oil.


Argan oil is, perhaps not surprisingly, made from the argan nut, which grows on trees like this:



The trees are apparently very important in preventing desertification. And the nuts are apparently quite tasty, or at least the goat seems to think so:



The oil is extracted by hand by women (and only women) in the argan oil collectives in Essaouira.



The Morroccan government has started to fund the women's operations, and outside groups are even starting to invest in their ventures, due to increasing popularity of the product abroad. And to make you feel even better about the whole thing UNESCO has designated the argan growing region as a biosphere reserve.


In addition to all of this women empowerment and responsible environmental practices stuff, I found argan oil to be especially interesting because to get the benefits all you have to do is rub it onto yourself. I'm not such a fan of the whole omega-3 craze since to get those benefits I need to either eat mackerel (which I have tried to like but simply can't get there...and yes, I'm aware that salmon has massive amounts of the fatty acid, but I feel like it is getting hard to find any decent salmon these days, even if you're willing to pay for it) or take suspicious looking capsules (does anyone believe that the weird gelatin outter layer is not on some level terrible for you?) . So everytime I read about the wonders of the fatty acid I just feel guilty about my lack of intake.


Anyway I tucked the argan oil knowledge in the back of my brain and forgot about it.


But then I saw it popping up in various cosmetics, in magazines and in skincare products. And I started thinking about it again. And then I began running low on my normal face oil and my skin began to freak out with the cold, dry weather (despite my trusty humidifier), so I decided to take the plunge.


I took a trip to my favorite East Village store, SOS Chefs, to see if Atef could hook me up. And of course she could. She sold me a bottle of argan oil that was probably four times the size of my face oil bottle and, at $25, only cost twice as much.


When bedtime rolled around I washed my face and broke into the bottle. It smelled like the most incredible, nutty nut you could ever imagine. So of course I tasted it rather than slathered it on my face. Delicious. Decadent, rich, complex. And sort of...peppery? Just trust me, it is like nothing you have ever experienced before. And the color...well let's just say that I can understand why they call it liquid gold.


Eventually I got around to putting some of the oil on my poor face. I wasn't expecting any miracles, but I'll tell you, I got one. Actually a few. I woke up the next morning with no redness, no tenderness, no flaking, and a seriously diminished zit. Lesson of the day? The Moroccans know skincare. Second lesson of the day? Do not let cosmetics companies interfere with the wonder that is nature. Go for the real stuff.

Brown to Blue

This past Saturday, after a rousing visit to the Onassis Center to see the exhibit Worshipping Women:  Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens (many urns, most of which were in stunningly good condition considering that they are several thousand years old, in case you were wondering), Robin and I headed up Fifth Avenue, against my better judgment, and, as it turned out, against a massive tide of directionally challenged tourists, to one of my absolute favorite stores, Takashimaya.  I'm not sure why, perhaps it is due to the Japanese ownership, but every single object in this store is stunningly beautiful, stylish and unique, and shockingly, not all of them are out of my price range.  In fact, quite a few are well within my price range.

Anyway, we wandered somewhat aimlessly in the direction of the Shu Uemura counter (I feel much the same way about Shu Uemura as I do about Takashimaya...I love everything) and were greeted by a lovely, chic woman offering to show us some new colors.  I was ready to demur in deference to my sister, who is generally less than enthusiastic about makeup, but to my utter surprise, Robin accepted the invitation with unbridled excitement.  Hallelujah!  Despite her stunningly blue eyes, my dear beautiful sister insists on using brown eye shadow.  Don't ask me why.  It was time for a professionally mandated change.

And change she did.  The lovely, chic woman introduced Robin to the joys of baby blue (it looked good, I promise) shadow, slate shadow, silvery shadow, and the most beautiful shimmery slate grey eyeliner.  And to the joys of scant amounts of mascara (her eyelashes are so ridiculously long that a normal amount of mascara looks a little gratuitous).  And she did something amazing to Robin's skin, don't ask me what.  But you literally could not see the makeup.  So pretty:

The artist was so sweet and did such a competent job that I thought it worth revealing her name:  she's Keshonah, and she works Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.  However ladies, if you have big plans for New Year's Eve, she's also working this Wednesday so take advantage of her talents, and of course, buy something from her.  She most certainly is deserving of the commission.

Treat For Your Feet

I'm generally not one for chic grooming products.  I go through fits of being very concerned about what kind of shampoo and conditioner I use, but then I realize that my hair looks pretty much the same regardless of whether I use Pantene or Kerastase so I eventually revert to drugstore brands.  I occasionally enjoy the odd body scrub or the like, but for the most part I have a pretty simple routine that consists of Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil (do not be alarmed by the price, the large size will literally last you for a year), Weleda Almond Facial Oil (I discovered it when I was on an organic beauty product kick last year), Retin-A, Anthelios Sunscreen and Lac Hydrin Five body lotion.  I've simply found that for me, these are the products that actually have some sort of (positive) effect, which frankly, most of the expensive creams and lotions out there don't.

My one indulgence when it comes to the frivolous products that the multi-bazillion dollar beauty industry tries to foist on us unassuming consumers is Aveda's Foot Relief.

With the weather taking a turn for the absolutely freezing, my skin has been getting that cold-weather ashen cast lately so I've rediscovered pretty much every tube of moisturizer I own.  My reunion with Foot Relief was a particularly happy one.  Minty smell, thick, luxurious but easily absorbed consistency, and the exfoliants in the product actually do make your dried out rough feet smooth and generally presentable.  

Gentlemen, I would encourage you not to consider this "women's stuff" as some of you have got some pretty hoof-like extremities that could use some attention.   

If you need any further endorsement, I actually got my dad a tube of this as a mini retirement gift (now that he had time to put his feet up, I figured he might want something to pamper them with) and years later he actually still uses it!  This is a man who has used the same brand of shaving cream since 1971, who washes his hair twice a week whether it needs it or not, and is so frugal he actually carries around a collection of old coffee sleeves to use in case he gets a hankering for a cup while he's out.  If he is willing to buy and use a $19 bottle of foot lotion, it really is something special.

If you are the type to wear socks to bed, it is particularly effective if you put a healthy layer of lotion on prior to the socks.  You will wake up to surprisingly smooth and lovely smelling feet.  If, like me, you absolutely abhor socks, especially without shoes, using it in the morning before you put your socks and shoes on for the day is almost as good...after a long day the scent of your newly unveiled pepperminty feet can serve as quite the pick me up.