Skin Care

If you’re heading out of town for a summer vacation (the latest east coast heat wave has sent everyone packing!), we’ve got a couple travel essentials for you:

By now, we’re all used to slathering or spraying ourselves up with a minimum of 30 SPF before leaving the house. What about all those overexposed areas like your lips, nose and ears that need touch ups throughout a steamy hot and sunny day? Ideal for any sun-worshipper or cautious nature-lover during the summer – Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream Targeted Sun Defense Stick SPF 50 fits the bill!

What better way to accessorize your beat-up suitcase or weekender than with LaLucca’s leather luggage tags? Available in seven bold colors (with hot pink lining!), these little leather tags will help set your luggage apart while you travel in style. Available at www.lalucca.com for only $31 each.

My face and I are not getting along. She hasn’t been pleased with the sudden moodiness in weather; and I haven’t been pleased with her tendency to flake, shine and erupt into painful blemishes. It’s like, seriously, “Please make up your mind about who you want to be!”

Up until last month, she responded to the soothing moisture in Kiehl’s Ultra Facial collection, and I was able to keep her temper at bay with the occasional tea tree oil spot treatment. But since summer hit, it’s like we haven’t been speaking the same language. And once you add hormones to the mix, you REALLy don’t know what kind of drama is going to go down. Clearly, we need help. (more…)

How much do I love LUSH?  It would be hard to count the ways…  I’m like a moth to a flame when it comes to their stores.  I cannot stop myself from going in and I’m powerless when it comes to spending money there.  Which is why it’s such a good thing that I love their products so much and they so rarely disappoint.

Mask of Magnaminty is a face and body mask that has been in their stores for awhile, but it’s a recent discovery for me.  It’s a thick green paste that feels cool when you put it on, which makes it perfect for hot summer nights or post workout (which is when I’ve been using it).  It smells amazing, like freshly cut mint leaves, so it’s totally invigorating and stress relieving.  The mask is great for acne-prone skin since it soaks up oil, and it has china clay and bentonite gel in it that pull the dirt from your pores, plus ground aduki beans and evening primrose seeds for exfoliation.  I just adore the way my skin feels after I use the mask.  I know it’s partly the minty smell (which comes from peppermint oil) but it just totally relaxes me.  If you’re a LUSH fan and haven’t tried it yet, what are you waiting for?

My skin’s been really up and down lately, for some reason.  (Probably the fact that I’m testing about 12 different products on it at the moment, but I can’t help it.  I have to!)  Since I’ve had a lot of luck with Philosophy’s skin care line, I decided to turn to their new Keep the Peace moisturizer and see if that would help get it back to normal.

Keep the Peace is meant to calm down your skin and soothe away redness and sensitivity.  I’m a big fan of moisturizers that are aimed at doing this because Los Angeles is tough on even the best skin – the smog and pollution are really bad for it and anything I can do to help reverse that effect is definitely worth it.  The moisturizer is full of natural extracts and antioxidants and it has a very soothing formula – when I smooth it on, my skin almost instantly feels softer and healthier.  Its formula is fragrance-free, but I think it has a light, clean scent to it – nothing that would irritate even the most sensitive noses, but enough of a scent for me to notice it.  The formula isn’t heavy or greasy, but it does a great job of moisturizing my sensitive skin.  I’ve been using it at night since it doesn’t have an SPF in it, but you could always layer it with another moisturizer with SPF in the morning if you wanted to.  A two ounce jar is $38, but a little of the cream goes a long way, so that should last a fair amount of time.  If your skin’s been showing a little stress lately, I definitely recommend trying Keep the Peace as a way of getting it back on track.

Never thought I’d say this … in fact, I’ve held out for several weeks. I’m still pinching myself. Kiehl‘s has done it again. Their new Double Strength Deep Wrinkle Filler, $39, is truly a scientific breakthrough. OK, OK, before I talk it up to the point of no return, I shall disclaim. For the first two weeks of using this product, I saw little to no change and lamented the fact that I had run out of my beloved Kahina Eye Cream. I still miss Kahina, but for now, I’m content watching the miracle that is Kiehl’s slowly unfold before my eyes. And now I’m upset that I haven’t taken before-and-after photos. (more…)

Last night, I stopped by Kiehl’s unveiling of its environmental partnership with Golden Globe winners Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”) and Chloë Sevigny (“Big Love”) in support of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization dedicated to preserving and protecting water from polluters. As I’m someone who loves to hang out in the ocean and observe marine life off the coast of California, this is an issue that hits close to home, especially with the abundance of waste, plastic bags, oil pollution and nuclear disaster coverage that have unfortunately become part of our lives. But it’s not just the ocean that needs our attention, it’s the rivers, lakes, streams, even groundwater, that affect us and our health on a daily basis.

To show its support, Kiehl’s USA President Chris Salgardo presented the Waterkeeper Alliance with a giant check for $100,000 at Kiehl’s beautiful Santa Monica store while Sevigny, Hall and Santa Monica Baykeeper/Executive Liz Crosson look on smiling. Chloë’s brother, Paul Sevigny, DJ’d the event while guests sipped on cocktails and checked out stacks of Kiehl’s Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque, featuring limited-edition label art designed by Sevigny and Hall (see Sevigny’s, left). One-hundred percent of the collection’s proceeds go to the Waterkeeper Alliance.

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For all of you who have grown up obsessed with the image of Beverly Hills (I freely admit that before I moved to Los Angeles, I had a preconceived notion of it from, uhm, the first version of “Beverly Hills, 90210″) this new skincare line is definitely for you.  Beverly Hills Skincare is the first line of skincare, body and facial products that was given permission to use the legendary city sign on all its packaging, advertising and marketing, so it really seems like you’re getting a little piece of the city when you buy it.  (My teenage self would’ve been VERY excited about this).

I tried out a few of their skincare items and I really like them.  The Daily Age Revolution with SPF 15 is an everyday moisturizer that I like to put on in the morning.  It’s light and not greasy at all, and it has an enjoyable fresh scent that’s not too strong for 8am.  It’s loaded with eco-friendly, organic antioxidants (always a plus) and it has an anti-aging growth factor peptide in it, which means that it protects your skin when you have it on, but it also helps give you long-term benefits that’ll help your skin to look younger down the road.  I wish it had a little bit stronger of an SPF (30 would be great) but any sun protection is a good thing, especially for those people (like my sister, who I constantly nag about this) who don’t wear any SPF at all on a daily basis.

At night, I’ve been using both the Advanced Youth Recovery and the Intensive Eye Therapy.  The Advanced Youth Therapy is an overnight treatment (basically, a thicker moisturizer) that’s super hydrating and helps rejuvenate and firm your skin while you sleep.  I’ve been testing it at a bad time to try and see results because I’ve been working crazy hours, so I’m not sure that any product could actually make me look “well” rested, but I don’t scare myself when I wake up and look in the mirror either, so I consider that a victory.  The Intensive Eye Therapy was formulated specifically to reduce signs of aging around the eyes.  Again, it’s kind of hard to vouch for results on this one, especially because signs of aging take a good amount of time to work on, but I do really like this as an eye cream.  Like the rest of the products I tried, it’s very moisturizing and it doesn’t irritate my eyes at all.  I’m at work right now and I just applied it for a little pick me up – I’m going to keep doing this every day to see if I get any more results from just putting it on once at night.  It can’t hurt!

To find out more info about the brand, visit www.BevHillsSkincare.com.

After a week of pre-Oscar parties like Vanity Fair’s and the Sheer Cover-sponsored Dare2Care benefit, tons of celebrities and a few of us lucky beauty bloggers braved the ice-cold, blustery winds on the beach in Santa Monica today to stargaze at the annual Independent Spirit Awards. There, Black Swan took home top awards and celebrity spottings included ISA and Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (had to take a photo), Nicole Kidman (in a stunning L’Wren Scott red lace pencil dress), a very pregnant and glowing Natalie Portman (in a short yellow Givenchy number), Zoe Saldana (in awesome, vermilion Brian Atwood pumps), and Uma Thurman and newcomer Jennifer Lawrence (both most elegant in all-white Dolce & Gabbana).

Backstage doing touchups for the presenters was sponsor Aveeno‘s official spokesperson and branding consultant Patrick Melville, whose clients includes Demi Moore, Heidi Klum, Tom Cruise and Harry Connick, Jr., to name a few. An absolute sweetheart with an intriguing New York-London accent, Patrick was very calm, cool and collected despite having to touch up so many aggressively wind-blown hairstyles. So calm in fact, he just decided to “go with it” and not “fight nature.” (Beachy waves and messy updos galore!)

Aveeno had quite possibly the most serene lounge set-up in the area, complete with Aveeno Active Naturals product displays (new Nourish + Moisturize Conditioner, Positively Nourishing Calming Body Wash, Daily Moisturizing Lotion and Skin Brightening Daily Scrub). Celebrities like Diego Luna enjoyed drinks and snacks in the chic, Art Deco-inspired, glitter-adorned ELLE Green Room. Other sponsors, some of whom had awards in their name, included Jameson (the official house spirit of the evening along with G. H. Mumm Champagne), Piaget, Acura, Stella Artois, LG Cinema 3D, HTC, smartwater and Netflix. All in all, despite the cold, it was a great, laid-back ceremony filled with tons of humor (thanks in part to host Joel McHale) and stars who seemed like they were in the best of moods — the perfect ramp up to tomorrow’s much-hyped Oscars!

I don’t really have rosacea, but I do get occasional red, patchy areas when my skin gets dry in the winter. And there hasn’t been much I can do about them short of covering them with concealer. I recently heard really good things about Ole Henriksen Black Currant Complexion Oil, $32, and since I’m a fan of essential oils as moisturizers, I thought I’d mix it into my routine and see if it helped even out my overall complexion. Surprisingly, the extra step works!

Simply rubbing three drops (no more!) between my hands and patting on my face before applying moisturizer or foundation has helped even out my skin tone and bolster my usual moisturizer for winter. I dare say I could even go without foundation if I was feeling up to it. Infused with apricot kernel oil, black currant oil, cypress, geranium and lemon, this little potion is engineered to do a variety of things including moisturize (with vitamin E), protect your skin from environmental damage, soothe, sanitize, tone and energize by boosting your skin’s metabolic activity. The only caveat I’d throw out there is the scent; a cross between rose geranium and tea tree oil that I don’t mind, it could be a downside for those who don’t like strong, floral or herbal scents.

I’ve been using Parisian hair care brand Leonor Greyl (a rumored celeb favorite that’s gone on tour with both Madonna and Gwen Stefani) off and on for about a year now, and I must say their beautifying oils are not only some of the most glamorous “natural” products I’ve encountered, but the Huile de Palme (for hair) and Huile de Magnolia (for face and body) are quite the little miracle workers when it comes to moisturizing dry skin and hair.

Free of the chemicals and additives found in most hair products (sulfates, parabens, silicones, etc.), Huile de Palme (literally “palm oil”) is an environmentally friendly blend of botanical and vegetal oils that protects hair health from the elements, such as sun, surf and chlorine. It’s a pre-shampoo treatment, so you can apply it to dry hair and leave it on anywhere from a few minutes to overnight, depending on your hair texture and/or conditioning needs. (more…)