making faces :: indispensables [the basics]

cosmetics and vanity products in general are about excess and luxury, but they can become so ingrained in your life that it's hard to picture going without them. i know how to cut back in lean times, but there are a few things that i would turn to crime before giving up. here are a few, from the category of beauty basics- everyday things i use, not including colour... i think i could deal with each colour individually ::

moroccan oil :: my mother actually turned me onto this trendy hair treatment after her hairdresser used it on her. for me, it was love at first try. i would never have thought to put oil in my hair on my own [don't you wash hair to get the oil and dirt out?], but this makes my dead follicles feel amazing. the only down side is that i find it difficult to stop touching my own hair, which gets to look a little creepy after a while. [tends to be good for getting people to leave you alone on the bus, though.]
there are a lot of argan oil [which is what moroccan oil actually is] treatments on the market and it's become very popular to bash the original in favour of its imitators. nonetheless, i can be surprisingly brand loyal when i try and i'm so happy with how soft and smooth this makes my hair feel that i get a bit nervous thinking of how sad i'd be if i got a bottle of another brand and found it inferior. i'd have to work through that whole bottle before i could go back to having a happy head again. scary stuff.

lush "cynthia sylvia stout" shampoo :: it's made with stout. do you require further explanation? well, fine then. it literally gets my hair so clean it squeaks when i'm rinsing it. squeaks. my hair runs a bit dry and i find that "cynthia" leaves it healthy enough that i can actually skip conditioner if i want to [although i do put the moroccan oil on as a leave-in]. i'm consistently amazed at the healthy shine it imparts, particularly since my hair is prone to being a little dull.

shu uemura cleansing oil :: aside from my hair, about the least likely place for me to apply oil would have been my face, up until an enterprising sales associate got me to try a small-size version of one of their famous cleansing oils. i'm sold.

i absolutely love the rosemary-y scent and the fact that it works as both an effective makeup remover and cleanser, allowing me to be lazy by accomplishing everything in one step. i'm very into stuff that lets me be lazy. it removes makeup, even mascara, pretty easily and rinses away with water. it doesn't irritate my skin [which is prone to redness and patchiness if i have to rub it too hard] and, contrary to what i might have thought, it doesn't leave my skin feeling oily at all, just soft. so i can pat my cheeks when i get bored running my hands through my hair.

the bottles are not cheap [there are two standard sizes and different formulas depending on skin type], but my travel size bottle lasted me almost two months using it every single day, so you're not going to have to make the investment that often. amortised over its life span, it's actually not a bad deal at all. and remember, it's filling two roles.

body shop body butter :: pick your flavour. personally, i'm a big fan of the nut-related ones- brazil nut, coconut, almond [although i think that might have been discontinued]- but if you're not a nut nut, there are still plenty to choose from. i'm glad to see that they've finally introduced "economy size" versions for those of us who use it every day, which i do because it is literally the only thing i've found that i can apply to my freshly shaved legs that doesn't make me feel like i've doused myself with hot sauce.


made to order vegan cosmetics "revamp" :: i should have a section of this blog entitled "cool sh*t my friends do", because one of the reasons i have things to do and write about is that i generally surround myself with people who are more interesting and talented than i am. a good example is "made to order vegan cosmetics", the new brainchild of a fellow skincare natural product lover who decided that, since a lot of her favourite products were always getting discontinued, that she'd strike out and make her own.

"revamp" is a moisturiser and after-sun treatment which is a great idea in the summer, when every night basically demands after sun treatment. there's aloe and witch hazel, which help soothe and smooth skin, but what makes this a really perfect summer moisturiser for me is that it's not heavy. the consistency is like butter and, like butter, it becomes quite viscous on application. however, it absorbs within a couple of minutes and my skin feels perfect- not like i'm slathered in heavy cream. it's become the only night cream i use over the last month.

there are a whole range of products available, exclusively [for the moment] through their facebook page [linked above] and new ones are being added regularly.

so what do you always need to have around the house? what products would you secretly harvest your neighbours' organs to buy?

making faces :: product review [lush skin care]

it's been a while now since i've gone to bed at what anyone could consider a reasonable hour. the problem with being awake at dawn every morning is that i can't really do much [because i don't want to wake up dom or my neighbours, particularly the irascible ones downstairs who don't like cats], but i feel like i have to do something or else i'm going to die of boredom.

i do try to sleep, of course. i stay supine for as long as i can, until some unbearable random thought just practically propels me out of the bed. last night, for instance, it was the sudden realisation that there are no decent tiki bars in montreal. i mean, it seems like every city has at least one place with a koi pond and drinks served in coconuts, but i couldn't think of one. [turns out that the only one is actually a kind of horrible vintage place in the east end that i now feel i must try.]

since i was up and i could already see the ravages of sleeplessness on my face, i decided to try giving myself a facial with some of the lush products that dom was given to test on himself and me before he officially starts work there. i'd already tried this once, but i figured that since my skin, like the rest of me, was really fatigued at this point, the results should be even more obvious.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED, BUT IS THERE GOOD SKIN?



step 1 :: toner tabs
toner tabs are like large vitamin pills you dissolve in very hot water and allow your skin to absorb through the magic of steam. it works sort of like your grandparents probably remember vicks working, where you fill a bowl with freshly boiled water, drop your medicine in and then make a tent with a towel [or dom's favourite damned t-shirt, which i apparently got all messy in the process and he had to clean in the sink] over your head and the bowl, trapping all the steam and opening your pores to let in the goodness.

today i tried the vitamin c tab [i'd previously tried the vitamin e], which is supposed to be good for dry and aging skin [mine is both, although all skin is aging, technically]. after about a minute, i definitely felt like my skin was "happier"- fresher, livelier, more "awake"- although whether that's because of the tab or just the benefits of holding my face over a pot of steamy water, i can't say. my skin was noticeably softer, though, which i think would be the result of the tab.

a word to the wise- store your tabs somewhere they can't get knocked around. i wasn't quite so careful and i was greeted by a lot of white powder going everywhere when i pulled the tab out of its wrapping. 

$1.95ea

step 2 :: ayesha face mask

this is one of lush's truly "fresh" products- meaning that there's a lot of vegetables and fruits in them and they'll last less time than the cheese you buy the same day. it's best to buy these in small increments, since they really don't keep that long.

i'm usually a little iffy about masks, because so often, they have a clay base which is great for sucking the oil right out of your skin, but not so great if your skin needs to hang on to the oil it has. however, this mask is exceptionally soft and gentle and is actually very moisturising. although it apparently does have some clay in it, i didn't get the uncomfortable tightness that normally accompanies playing around with a mask. that said, if you're skin tends to be oily, i wouldn't really recommend this, as i don't think it would offer the toning and balancing such skin would need. i also wouldn't recommend it if you're very picky about smells. i didn't mind the scent myself, but for sure some people will find it "funky". [it's loaded with asparagus. you can tell.]

as with most facial masks, there is a bit of mess involved and i'm assuming that it was in a fit of insomnia-induced insanity laziness that i likely dirtied dom's shirt by wiping my asparagus-and-kiwi pulp-covered hands on it.

once it's on, of course, it occurs to me that the superintendent could be coming by at any time to fix the living room window frame, which sustained some water damage and caused a nice little rainstorm in the apartment last week. if he were to arrive at this moment, he would see me sitting in front of a table with a bowl of dingy water, a lot of white powder and what looks like a pile of baby shit smeared on my face, with five very wired contraband cats [although everyone knows i have them, i've never been specific about how many of them there are] excited that mom is up to keep them company. it also occurs to me that i'm supposed to leave this mask on my face for half an hour, which means that even if he does arrive, i'd just have to kind of nod and act normal, or else my time will have been wasted.

fortunately, he didn't drop by, but just take this as a word of warning: make sure that you are going to have the time to use these masks properly [twenty to thirty minutes, not including prep and cleanup time].

$5.95

step 3 :: moisturiser

i tend to tone my skin with either orange flower water or rose water. they're cheap, i can pick them up with the groceries and i can use them for baking as well as skin care. so having rinsed, i use some orange flower water and then apply moisturiser to face and around my eyes.

for the eyes, i've been trying "enchanted eye cream", a very gentle, neutral cream with no real fancy science behind it, no magic ingredients that send micro-gnomes to rebuild your skin, but that imparts moisture to this area where the skin tends to be fragile and prone to damage. the good news is that mostly what the area around your eyes needs is simple hydration, because it's an area that can't retain moisture terribly well on its own.

i was given a sample of "gorgeous cream" to try as a facial moisturiser, which is probably meant as a description of the product, but that always just makes me think of the episode of family guy where the volcano insurance salesman tells peter he obvious bought a store full of "handsome cream". [i think that makes me peter in this situation.]

as far as i can tell, this is the most expensive item that lush sells that isn't a gift set. the cost is driven by the natural oils used, apparently and in this case, the price is particularly high because there is a greater concentration of pricier ingredients like evening primrose oil and a less of cheaper ingredients like cocoa butter. the price is horrific when you compare it to what prestige brands charge for their creams [not all of which have serious science behind them, no matter what they claim], but i think it is a leap for the average lush customer.

the good news is that you really don't need to use much product. although it's recommended for normal to combination skin, i found it quite rich for me [slightly dry to combination].

enchanted eye cream :: $24.95
gorgeous cream :: $85.95cad/ $89.95usd

you may notice that i only have one set of prices listed for most products, rather than different ones for canada and the u.s. that's because lush, as far as i can tell from scanning their web sites, maintains no differences in price as a baseline [i'm assuming that deviations from this are due to import levies on specific ingredients, although i haven't asked]. so that makes them a free trade angel on the currency gouging index. way to go lush!

my bad

all in all, while i think that those looking for products to address more serious skin concerns might want to look elsewhere [or at least include other products in their regimen], these are some excellent products for hydrating, toning and soothing the majority of skin types, without a lot of synthetic additives. if it can make my insomniac face feel revived, it should do wonders for normal people.

all products available at lush boutiques. all products except the face mask are available on the lush web site. [where you can also search for a lush location close to you.]

[editor's note :: in case it wasn't clear from my flippant intro, these products were provided free of charge, not to me, but to dom, who is secure enough in his masculinity to work for lush. i chose to review them, honestly, of my own free will.]

making faces :: getting naked on my second date with nars

this man knows good skin :: spokes-model marcel nars

i have no idea why it took me so long to come around to this brand, i really don't. after all, there were people i trusted who recommended it. i'd heard nothing but rave reviews and some of their products were such cult favourites that i could tell you what they were despite the fact that i'd never tried them. then one evening, i just decided to take the plunge and i bought a couple of items. since that time, it's been a seemingly non-stop love fest. and now i find out that they have a whole line of skin care products that i didn't even know about.

the fact that i didn't know about them is surprising, because there's a link to them on the company web site, where you are magically whisked from the chic black of the cosmetic site to the pure, fresh white of the skin care section. then again, nars hasn't gone to great lengths to promote the line, which means that most of the people turning to their site are there to grab themselves a fresh orgasm and don't realise that they can also cleanse themselves at the same time. the skin care line isn't even available at all nars locations.

fortunately, it's now available in canada at nars counters in the bay and, to celebrate, adorable spokesperson marcel nars is inviting the public to give it a try.
 

ready to get radiant

now i already had a date with nars recently, where i had my makeup done by the lovely emilie, but this is quite different. this, after all, is about taking away the makeup and giving yourself a really good base from which to start. and so the little corner boutique at the door of the bay in downtown montreal was magically transformed into a miniature spa, where guests could stretch out on a table and get introduced to the various magical potions nars has in order to make your skin feel cleaner, fresher, softer, better.

the pedigree for nars skincare is solid: it's actually produced by shiseido, who are part of the same overall group and who have been known for years for their skin care. so that fact that nars isn't a name that's associated with groundbreaking skin care research should not make you hesitant to try them out. nor does it mean that these are just repackaged shiseido products. this is a different line, created specifically for nars.

as part of my "spa day", nars makeup artist corinne used a total of seven products, which is a great way to get acquainted with a product line in a hurry:

eye makeup remover
refrshing hydrating lotion
hydrating moisture cream
nourishing eye cream
mud mask
aqua gel hydrator
essential vitamin serum

now, the trick to trying out skin care products is that you can't tell a whole lot from a single usage, but i've tried enough and know enough to be able to make some broad judgments.

one of the first things that jumped out at me was that, while they weren't entirely scent-free, the products were certainly all very lightly scented. there was a faint citrus aroma that was a little stronger in the vitamin serum than in the other products, but even there, it was fairly delicate. this doesn't entirely surprise me,  because their cosmetics have almost no discernible scent, but i think that it also helps create the impression [augmented by their sleek white packaging] of a line that is pure, simple and austere.

the other thing that i noticed immediately about all the products is that they seem very light and refined. even the most hydrating products are not rich or heavy. whether or not that's to your liking is subjective- how well a product work has to do with what's in it and not how it feels. [some products have to be made with a certain texture to keep their elements stable, but that's a different chemistry lesson.]

getting info and making choices

of the products used, i have to say that my absolute favourite was the refreshing lotion. this was one instance where i could feel the benefit almost immediately, as if the impurities were being sloughed off my skin and i was left feeling frseh and moisturised. the nars web site refers to this product as having exfoliating properties, which would explain my reaction. i liked the fact that the gel-like texture meant that there was no residual greasiness and that my skin felt hydrated- as in plump with water- after application. i also liked the fact that there was none of the tingling sensation that accompanies many chemical exfoliants.

i think it speaks to the gentleness and neutrality of the line that after having seven products applied, my skin felt fresh and soothed. my skin can get irritable when i put on night cream without anything else, so that's a pretty remarkable accomplishment. the ph balance of the products has to be spot on for that to be possible.

although several of the products are recommended for dehydrated or dry skin [and i think they would probably be good everyday products], i think that those with serious dehydration and or dryness [not the same thing] would need something extra to get the moisture they need. it's also important to note that these products are geared towards the maintenance of healthy skin and not concerns about aging. you'll find products that help you moisturise and hydrate, cleanse, refine [seems to be their key word for exfoliation], etc., but there are no anti-wrinkle or line-correcting products. [note- taking care of your skin's basic needs will help with lines and wrinkles, but if these are already a concern, you'll need to look at including something else in your regimen.

for normal, mixed, slightly dry or oily [nars calls it "active"!] skin these seem flat-out perfect- no tightness, no greasiness, no heavy perfume, just skin that really does feel refreshed and radiant. i'll be trying out their makeup remover [since i'm still searching for my ultimate there, as you might remember] and their aqua gel hydrator [an interesting hybrid between a mask and a cream] to see how that first flush of romance holds up under closer scrutiny. 

my happy, healthy, unadorned post-facial face

price-wise, these definitely fall into the range of what i would term "prestige" products and, as is usual, the products get more expensive the more specialised they become. cleansers are $35-$36usd on the nars web site [i didn't get a complete price list in canadian dollars but be warned, nars is, sad to say, one of the worst offenders in the exchange gouging game], and specialised treatments [like the vitamin serum] fall more in the $70usd range.

once i was done, of course, corinne was nice enough to "touch up" my makeup [actually, give me a nice makeover] with some of the new products from the nars summer collection. and yes, some of those seemed to find their way into my bag as i left and i will have a more detailed review of the collection very shortly... but not now.

for now, i'm pretty to give the nars skin care line a solid, well-moisturised thumbs up.

available at select nars locations and online [in the united states only] at www.narscosmetics.com

thanks very much to dom for the photos!