For years, my make-up routine has been fairly heavy-handed. A typical workday look includes two layers of BB cream (by YSL and Dr. Jart), a slick of bronzer (by Kevyn Aucoin)/highlighter (by Burberry)/blusher, a full-blown smokey eye (using Bobbi Brown cream eye shadow in Stone and Charlotte Tilbury eye quad in The Sophisticate). The whole ritual takes about […]
Beauty & Skincare
Your Face Cream Might Make Your Skin Worse
I over-think almost everything, and that includes my skincare routine. I have tried several different combinations of products to design the ultimate anti-aging, moisturizing rotation. I’ve even timed my nighttime ritual to try and identify areas where I could be more efficient. (For example, I only use a Clairsonic brush once per week instead of five […]
My Favorite Beauty Products From the Health Food Store
Like most Americans, my devotion to health and wellbeing has been hot and cold. (I’ll be honest — for roughly 90% of the time, that relationship has been pretty frigid.) Every so often, a new diet book will come out, and I’ll go crazy, buying organic groceries for one week before slowly slipping back into Seamless’ arms. […]
Do I Look Different? (New Haircut Alert)
Ever since my first dye job in high school, I’ve had nearly ever color imaginable. Zebra-stripe highlights in 1999, purple-black in 2005, fire-engine red in 2008. But for the past few years, I’ve had some variation of “brunette-with-highlights.” But lately, I’ve been wanting to go shorter and blonder. The ultimate dream is to one day […]
Spring Cleaning Your Beauty Routine
A few days ago, the New York Times published a story on how the weather impacts retail sales — specifically, how shoppers return to stores in droves as soon as spring pops. Retailers call this phenomenon “pent-up demand.” The premise is that after months of wearing the same winter-weary accoutrements (beanies, boots and coats for months on […]
How to Organize Your Cosmetics, Shoes and Everything Else
The past few weekends have been frigid, gray and short. It’s been the worst possible weather for outfit photos. Instead, these types of weekends seem built for doing chores. (Riveting, I know.) The bright side? I’ve discovered the single greatest organizational secret for cosmetics. Don’t laugh. But do you ever have problems identifying which eyeshadow palette is which […]
Taking a Break from Eye Makeup
For the past few weeks, I’ve had a little problem. It started last month, when some late-afternoon mascara flakes fell into my eye. After a swipe of make-up remover, I felt fine. Two weeks later, a dreaded sty appears. No problem. I swabbed that sucker with some antibacterial cream. Cut to last week. I’m in Vermont with a house full […]
Winter Beauty Secrets
Some people measure the proximity of winter by counting the number of shopping days till Christmas. Me? I can tell the date by looking at my winter-raw cuticles. (Once my knuckles start bleeding, it’s almost New Years!) This is the time of year when I buckle down and revamp my entire beauty routine to prevent errant cracks, […]