Caudalie Fig Body Oil: Practically Perfect in Every Way

Caudalie’s new Smooth & Glow Oil Elixir, (Sephora Canada, $66) is for anyone who spent the summer in the water until their fingers got all pruney and their hair turned to straw. Or it’s for that optimistic soul who stayed too long in the sun, trying to bank enough residual heat to keep them warm throughout the winter. Pity that doesn’t actually work.

But dreading winter aside, this is the oil blend to take your dried-out, late summer skin from faintly reptilian to a hydrated, ‘let’s turn the clock back, shall we?’ dream state. Loaded with antioxidant-rich prickly pear, argan and shea oils, Caudalie Smooth & Glow Elixir also adds softness and shine to crispy, frizzed out hair. All with a wonderful, ‘fig bush after a summer storm’ fragrance. And while the scent is epically figgy, there’s also a faint undercurrent of warm cedar to temper the sweetness. (If you like Diptyque’s Philosykos, Caudalie Smooth & Glow is for you.)

But I’m betting you won’t truly appreciate this oil until you crack open a bottle in deepest darkest November. Then you’ll get a serotonin jolt of happy from the scent and your skin will be very grateful for the much-needed moisture. But why would I even mention November? That seems unnecessarily negative.

Sunscreen For People Who Hate Sunscreen: Shiseido Clear Sunscreen Stick

Choosing a sunscreen can bring out your inner Goldilocks — this lotion is too thick, this one is weirdly greasy,  this one makes your face ghostly white. It’s a boring exercise, especially when all you want is applause for your diligent sunscreen use.

So cynical me, I was immediately skeptical of Shiseido's clear sunscreen stick which promises to avoid all those issues and seemed too good to be true. But it is actually that good.

Shiseido’s Clear Sunscreen Broad Spectrum Wet Force stick ($40, Sephora) is a gel solid in a swivel-up stick that you swipe on with broad strokes, so your fingers never touch the product. When sunscreen application is simple and mess-free, you are hopefully more inclined to reapply, because for sunscreen to work, you need to keep topping up every two hours if you are outdoors and wet (preferably from being in a pool or lake, if it’s a day like today.)

Shiseido’s Clear Sunscreen stick protects against both UVA (aging) and UVB (burning) rays with broad spectrum SPF 50, and Shiseido’s proprietary Wet Force and HeatForce technologies that cleverly leverage heat and water to amplify the sunscreen's effectiveness. (It’s as if Shiseido is compelling you to get in the water.)

And because it’s a gel solid, It won’t drip into your eyes when you ride a bike, play tennis, tend to your garden or just live your life in our unreasonably humid climate. And if you are a makeup wearer (and props to you for wearing makeup in this heat) you can even swipe it over top and it won’t disturb your makeup at all. It is the easiest sunscreen to use by far. So no excuse. Go get it before it sells out again.

Crone Relief: L’Oréal Revitalift Line Plumper Is a Tatcha Water Cream Dupe

Pre-coffee morning face saver.

I love sharing well-priced skincare dupes. They’re the beauty equivalent of your grandmother adding a crisp twenty dollar bill to your birthday card.

New L’Oréal Revitalift Line-Plumping Water Cream, ($42, Shoppers Drug Mart) is a super skin hydrator that’s a twin to Tatcha’s best-selling Water Cream, but the Revitalift costs less than half. That’s good to know as inflation is still climbing and Loblaws now apparently charges seven dollars for celery according to this TikTok. (There are so many other food examples I could cite, but I enjoy that girl’s pure, crystalline rage.)

Water creams are high in ceramides, glycerin and hyaluronic acid to hydrate skin quickly, which is key when you are feeling shrivelled and pruney-faced. Revitalift Line-Plumper contains low molecular weight hyaluronic acid to plump skin quickly while ceramides (the ‘mortar’ between the ‘bricks’ that are your skin cells) work to strengthen your skin barrier which can get temperamental and needy as you age. A strengthened skin barrier acts younger and retains moisture better, making skin less sensitive and more resistant to redness, irritation and general discomfort.

On mornings when I wake up feel especially crinkly, I stagger to the bathroom, splash water on my face and get some Revitalift water cream on before hying myself off to the kitchen for coffee. By the time the caffeine hits, the cream has done its work and a much more presentable me greets the day.

And because the Revitalift is so well-priced, you can use it lavishly and still have money left over for things like celery.

Make This Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. If you don’t feel like competing with the hordes for a pint of green beer at a crowded bar (I look back at teenaged and early twenties me with genuine wonderment) then this easy soda bread recipe will make you feel like you marked the day.

It comes together quickly, requires no kneading and by baking it in a cast iron pan you ensure a satisfyingly crunchy crust.

Soda Bread

Makes one round, serves 2-4.

For a savory version, omit the sugar and add three chopped green onions and a cup of coarsely grated cheddar to the dry ingredients and butter mixture before adding the buttermilk.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups buttermilk (no substitutions)

1 egg (optional, for added richness. So yeah, do it.)

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into a measuring cup to ensure an accurate amount. Dragging the cup through the flour and then levelling it off packs too much flour into each cup.)

3 T granulated sugar

1 t baking soda

1 t kosher salt (Diamond Crystal if possible. It really is the best.)

5 T cold, cubed unsalted butter.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

Whisk together the cold buttermilk and the egg.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Add the cold cubes of butter to the flour mixture and incorporate it with a pastry cutter until it all resembles cornmeal (as if you were making a pie crust.)

Pour in the buttermilk/egg mix and stir until combined. When you have a unified (albeit crumbly) mass, turn it onto a floured board and barely knead for only half a minute until the flour is incorporated.

Shape into a round and place in your cast iron pan. Cut a cross into it almost all the way through, as this will help it bake evenly, place on the middle rack and bake for about 40 minutes. (Start checking at the 30 minute mark. You might want to drape it with foil if it browns too quickly.)

Remove when done and cool it on a wire rack and then happily consume it all in one sitting.

REN Plumping Essence: Your Skin Barrier’s New Best Friend

Every Laura Ingalls Wilder fan knows that Farmer Boy is the superior book in every way (The ice cream scene! The endless pies!) but The Long Winter is more appropriate right now. We made it through February, yet here we have March to contend with.

Winter storms are back, and as much as I want to bury myself in books and tea (what a friend calls ‘the Jane Austen cure’) we all have to leave the house eventually. So before heading out, it is prudent (such a good Jane Austen word) to use a an essence to protect your skin from the wind and ice demons lurking just outside your door.

Essence can seem like a superfluous skincare step until you try it. A super hydrator with a ‘water, but thicker’ texture, REN Smooth, Prep & Plump Essence, ($70, Sephora) applied right after you wash your face, gives your skin much-needed moisture while cannily sneaking in skin barrier-protecting ingredients like hyaluronic acid and polyglutamic acid that will help your skin’s top layers retain moisture. It also helps your skin better absorb the active ingredients in serums you use afterwards.

And it makes your skin feel like actual skin, not crêpe paper. That alone should be all the motivation you need to try it.

**

And how old is my copy of The Long Winter? Not only did it cost a mere $2.10, but WH Smith hasn’t existed in Canada since 1989.

Weleda Skin Food Face Conquers #winterface

The air is so dry right now that my skin feels like I’ve been tumbling for days in a dryer set on high.

Into the teeth of this low-ambient-moisture, gloomy time of year, Weleda has mercifully launched a trio of new Skin Food face products that are both lanolin-free (ergo, vegan) and lighter-weight than the original Skin Food Ultra Rich Cream. Loaded with soothing ingredients like plant-based squalane, skin-calming tiger grass and fatty-acid rich sacha inch oil, they will help your poor, weather-beaten skin recover from seasonal moisture suck. Angry and red or ashy and drawn, #winterface is real.

There’s also a new cleanser that drew raves at the launch event: a Neosporin thick, oil-to-milk cleanser that transforms into a light milk when you add water. With sunflower seed oil that is high in unsaturated fatty acids, it leaves skin clean and hydrated, not taut and drawn. The face you see in the mirror will be your old, non-wintery face: a happy augury of spring.

Skin Food, which launched 97 years ago and now sells one tube every 11 seconds, inspires crazy devotion. I have sung its praises here. Celebrity makeup artist Pati Dubroff, who has kept a tube in her kit for 30 years, uses it on her makeup clients as pre-makeup skincare and ad hoc highlighter. She also applies it liberally on her own face when she flies. “For some it may be too heavy,” she says, laughing, “but for me, no way.” If you do fall into that other camp, the day cream is just what you’ll want to protect your skin on flights.

And I have a message for Weleda HQ: a dear friend fervently wishes that Skin Food lotion was available in a giant pump bottle for both maximum ease and the comfort of having an extravagant amount of Skin Food at one’s disposal. For real fans, a solitary tube or jar is never enough.

All is Quiet on New Year's Day

The Czechs like to say “Jak na nový rok, tak po celý rok” which loosely translates to “as on New Year’s day, so will it be throughout the year.”

This means you must avoid all work on January first. Just spend the day enjoying the company of the ones you love, going for walks or reading and napping on the couch.

Happy new year!

The Nice List: Gifts For Girl Friends

This homage to the great Slim Aarons was staged at the beautiful Belvedere Mykonos hotel.

As much as I enjoy the festive sparkle of the season, it’s the coziness, as exemplified by these cosseting, mostly beauty-related gifts for friends, that I love the most.

The Biossance Love, Joy and Bestsellers gift set, now on sale at Sephora for only $56, is a tremendous value and a lifesaver for anyone whose skin is just assaulted this time of year by the dry air, wind and cold. (The entire Biossance line is built around squalane, a fruit-derived version of a natural substance produced by the sebaceous glands that accounts for 10% of your skin's oil.) There’s lactic acid in the Resurfacing Serum to gently smooth skin while it moisturizes and you get a full-sized pot of Squalane + Omega Repair cream to soothe winter-battered skin. There’s even a soft pink sleep mask so no uninvited light messes with your sleep!

These Martine bracelets from Suetables are the grown up version of a string friendship bracelet, but they’ll last longer as they are made with genuine semi-precious stones. At $36 each, (fashion pack must-have Carolina Bucci Forte Bead bracelets run close to eight hundred dollars a pop) these are well-priced enough that your friend can go back and buy more if she prefers the multiple bracelet look.

Crémant, a type of sparkling wine made around the champagne region of France, is, according to the booze snobs, subtler than champagne and softer than prosecco which has been the go-to now for a decade plus. Crémant de Bourgogne Brut Réserve Bailly Lapierre, $22.95, lcbo, with its beautiful orange label, is a favourite to drink straight or change up your Negroni Spagliato.

Who are those people running around with smooth, shiny, non-frizzy hair in the winter? They may be using both the gifts in this Kérastase Hydration Essentials kit, $87.75, Sephora.com. The overnight serum does its non-pillow-staining hair-nourishing magic while you sleep and the hands down, best smelling hair smoother there is, keeps your hair controlled for day. (Seriously, I wish the scent was a perfume/body lotion/hair mist.) Not only does it keep hair smooth, but it does it with that wonderful and let’s face it, very high end scent.

The Hugs & Kisses Classic Shea Butter duo, $24, loccitane.com is so much more than a tree ornament, It’s your best shot at keeping your hands from becoming all lobster-red and horribly dry and your lips from getting cracked and peeling off in painful little flakes this winter. L’Occitane’s beloved shea butter hand creme is protective and soothing yet magically lightweight. And when paired with L’Occitane Ultra Rich lip balm, which contains all the shea butter and beeswax you could need, you are now protected against everything winter can throw at you.

In my dreams, I go to a spa for a week with girlfriends and we spend our days having relaxing treatments, hiking and lolling by the pool, reading all the books that had accumulated on our nightstands back home.

To mimic a sensorial spa bath at some imaginary spa, Bathorium’s Amber Glow Mineral Clay Bath Soak, $48 for three ‘servings’, bathorium.com, is a soak-until-your-brain-melts wonder. It’s both relaxing and energizing with sea salt, red clay, papaya seed oil and a gentle floral scent to turn a bath into a detox spa treatment. Rinse off and then stagger to bed for an uninterrupted eight hours.

The model in the original photo was Aarons’ wife, Rita, and apparently she was quite cold and unhappy whilst posing for this shot.

The Nice List: A Free(ish) Seasons x Caudalie Diffuser

In its signature Caudalie Bordeaux shade, this Seasons x Caudalie diffuser is a beautiful addition to any table.

Looking like a ceramic vase or art objet, the Seasons x Caudalie diffuser may be the best Gift With Purchase ever.

If it’s getting a little too fireplace candle-scented in your home, this diffuser, that you load up with the stress-busting scent of Caudalie Beauty Elixir, is what you need to see you through the coming dark winter months.

Caudalie have partnered with Seasons to create this striking diffuser in the signature Caudalie Bordeaux shade to gently and continuously scent your air with Beauty Elixir’s famous “garden’s worth of rose, orange blossom, rosemary and aromatic myrrh” like a magical, unseen house fairy. And because you charge the unit with a USB cable, there’s no ugly power cord attaching it to a wall.

As a free gift with purchase in stores at Sephora through Caudalie, it requires a minimum spend of $300, which I know sounds steep, but a Seasons diffuser retails for around $180 Canadian on its own. So buy everyone on your list a Caudalie gift set (not even joking) and finish off your holiday gift buying in one fell swoop.

It’s just so beautiful. So many diffusers are pretty enough (I’m lying. I loathe most of them) but their ‘spa vibe’ only looks right on a shelf in your yoga room or in the bathroom.) But Seasons x Caudalie is chic and looks at home on a stack of books or on the coffee table. It really ties the room together. (100 points if you know where that quote comes from.)

Here are some favourite Caudalie gift sets from Sephora to reach that $300 mark:

The Vinotherapist Body Moisturizing Duo in just the prettiest pale purple hatbox contains Caudalie’s newest Vinotherapist Hand and Nail cream and a giant jar of their new, heavenly smelling, quick absorbing, vegan Replenishing Body Butter, $95. Sephora.com

The Caudalie Vinoperfect Dark Spot Brightening Solution Set, $95, Sephora.com, contains brand stars like the Brightening Glycolic Essence (a staple no matter what other brands you use) and the very effective yet quite gentle Brightening Moisturizer.

This is a great deal: a bottle of Beauty Elixir to spray in the air, on yourself and to use in the diffuser, along with a pore-clearing Vinergetic C+ Instant Detox mask, $25, Sephora.com. It’s your serene Saturday movie night, sorted.

(Semi-related aside: I am particularly fond of the tableau in the photo at the top of this story, because that is Craig’s winning entry to the New Yorker cartoon caption contest. mic drop.)

The Nice List: Better Gifts For Men

Colin Firth in Bridget Jones’s Diary, which, if you think about it, was a Christmas movie.

This bit of snark courtesy of Instagram..

Men get a lot of nonsense at Christmas, and not just holiday-themed sweaters. A recent gift guide go-to was whiskey stones — cubes of frozen soapstone used as ice cubes that wouldn’t melt and dilute an expensive single malt.

But despite the fact that they don’t really work, they refused to go gentle into that good night, and are now shorthand for silly men’s presents, along with beard oil and anything leather (see chart.)

The gifts below tread the line between silly and practical. They’re also pretty genderless. I’d be happy to receive any one of them.

Instead of, say, a monogrammed leather passport cover*, give him his initial filled with an assortment of delicious Scandinavian candy from Sukker Baby Toronto, ($69 plus cost of letter.) These high fructose corn syrup-free scandi treats make for a gift that will be greeted with true delight instead of polite smiles.

*We all know you have to remove the cover when you reach passport control, so that’s one item that always puzzled me.

Why are contemplative baths only for women? Everyone needs to hide out in a steamy room, submerged in hot, fragrant water. Steeping in a Dr. Hauschka Spruce Warming Bath, $35, Drhauschka.ca, is a powerful sense memory of being in a forest and the bathroom will stay beautifully scented for hours afterwards.

Give a guy a break and prevent him from pulling something when cleaning off the car this winter. The Karcher electric ice scraper, $79, Canadian Tire, will make quick work of that impenetrable ice glaze that covers the windows when the car sits outside overnight and the temperatures rise and then drop precipitously.

We love a shacket, and this toasty, quilted fleece version from Brixton, $180, Brixton.com, comes in pure orange for your favourite peacocking gentleman or in a clutch of more neutral shades if standing out is not his thing.

Now that everyone uses their phone to tell time, luxury watches serve mainly as a way to spend a truckload of money. But an oversized, brightly coloured G-Shock, thebay.com, is fun, a tiny bit silly and has the childlike appeal of a hard-won midway prize.

If your family doesn’t have their Scrabble tiles in a Crown Royal bag, buy a bottle of the famous Gimli, Manitoba whiskey now, ($46.45, lcbo.com), while they are offering the signature purple drawstring bag as a gift-with-purchase. Then drink it with ice, not whiskey stones, or add a generous slug to liven up everyone’s cup of grocery store eggnog.