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.

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.

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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.

The Five Second Brow Lift

Top to bottom: Revolution Brow Soap, e.l.f. Brow Lift, Iconic London Brow.

When you turn 50 the government should send you a beautiful cake and something for your brows.

A cake would be nice and lord knows we deserve it, having made it this far, but the brow kit is critical. Because in addition to all the nonsense that happens to our bodies around that milestone birthday, our brows can go crazy in one of two ways.

“You’ll either get wiry, coarse brows or they’ll just become finer and finer and disappear,” brow artist Maribeth Madron once told me as she tamed my wild caterpillars with her signature Rubis tweezers.

If your brows pull a disappearing act, daily use of a brow serum can give them a second chance at life. But if nature has decided to bless you with brows that have started to curl like a Toni home perm, an industrial strength brow product (favourites listed below) will rein them in and make them lay flat. Then just brush them upwards, as brows that point down can make you look like a sad clown painting. And because these brow fixes aren’t tinted, you will never look overdone (see again: sad clown), but the effect will be dramatic.

Or you can head to the salon for chemical ‘brow lamination’, but I’d much rather spend five seconds with a brush.

From Top:

1. Revolution Beauty Soap Brow, $18, Shoppers Drug Mart, is a misnomer, as this soft waxy solid is soap with shea butter to keep brows in place. A sturdy wide brush makes it easy to brush brows up and the faint scent is an added bonus.

2. e.l.f. Brow Lift clear eyebrow gel, $8, elf cosmetics.com and Shoppers Drug Mart, a wee pot of glycerin-based, clear paste, is as mighty as it is tiny. it looks like gel, but it too has a waxy texture for taming the most unruly brows. And you cannot beat the price.

3. Iconic London is a brand for flossy young influencer girls who wear a lot of makeup. Ignore all that, go to Sephora and get this slender tube of Liquid Brow Silk Max Gel, $31, Sephora.ca. The thick white lotion dries clear and holds brushed up brows in place like a champ.

Klorane Baby Cologne is pure #sweaterweatherperfume

Is it a cheat to recommend baby cologne as #sweaterweatherperfume? Isn’t it just a liquid version of baby powder?

Except Klorane Petit Brin Eau Parfumée is French baby cologne (technically alcohol-free, scented water) for those Parisian infants being wheeled down Boulevard St. Germain in prams by impossibly beautiful young mothers. Elegant yet softly cozy and comforting, it is #sweaterweatherperfume in its purest state.

A mix of white flowers with (apparently, because I don’t detect them) ‘fruity’ notes, Petit Brin smells like luxurious bath oil not classic North American baby powder.

Sure there are more sophisticated powdery fragrances with added musk and amber notes to make them even more sweater weather-y and more adult. I love them too, but sometimes you just want full-on powdery comfort and nothing else.

Klorane Petit Brin needs to be on any pharmacy shopping list when you travel to France, but it’s also available in Canada at Well.ca for only $24, so you can get it right now.

Gym Lips?

Every generation believes they invented sex. And now, every generation thinks they invented using nude lip pencil under lip balm.

Old beauty tricks have found new life on Instagram and TikTok for the next generation and I am trying not to roll my eyes too hard, because once you get past the clickbait-y names, it’s good to be reminded of these moves.

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk pencil with By Terry Baume de Rose is another excellent pairing.

• Gym lips is the evocative new name for outlining and filling in your lips with a pinky-nude pencil topped off with a bit of lip balm. A classic no-makeup makeup ruse (that could easily go undetected at the gym, ergo the name) it’s a great way to sharpen a fading lip line and boost natural colour. And the name is clever, so why does it make me churlish?

Nota Bene: when you are past 50, it’s best is to select a pencil that is a touch more berry toned, to return some colour to your fading, bloodless lips. Sephora Collection lip pencil in Rosewood, regularly $8, is such a ‘universally wearable” shade and right now, everything Sephora Collection line is 30% off until November 7th, so the pencil is a mere $5.60. Top it with a dot of non-shiny balm like Lip Wrap Reviving Balm from Ilia, $32, (also at Sephora) and done!

• Skin Cycling is what TikTokers call the sensible practise of not attacking your delicate skin every night with strong, active-heavy skincare. Alternate using retinol or vitamin C with nights of just moisturizing to prevent your face from becoming an inflamed, peeling, angry mess. It’s that simple.

• Liquid Hair (as seen on Dakota Johnson in this Vogue story) is what the rest of us call really shiny hair (usually thanks to luck-of-the-draw genes and an assist from a silicone-forward hair serum). Silicone needs to be used sparingly - three drops are usually enough. But if you overdo it with your anti-frizz hair serum and end up looking like you haven’t washed your hair in weeks, just remember that you didn’t make a mistake, you just now have ‘liquid hair’.

This is actually a good rule for any mistakes you make in life. Just re-name them and say they were intentional.

Forever Summer: Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Neroli

Ignore all the online sweater and boot propaganda. There are roughly four weeks of summer left, so let’s extend the happy, bare skin feeling because soon enough the central air will get switched on and we’re all going to shrivel up like raisins.

The original Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse.

The original Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse was already the star of every single French Pharmacy haul video or story for its lightweight, non-greasy ‘dry oil’ feeling, its warm skin scent and magical ability to smooth frizzy hair and instantly make skin look supple. It epitomizes my belief that beauty-wise, French women have it better than we do. And now Nuxe has launched Huile Prodigieuse Néroli, ($53, Shoppers Drug Mart) a certified organic version scented with neroli oil, from the blossom of the bitter orange tree. Heady but with enough green citrus sharpness to keep it fresh, neroli is the smell of French summer.

Scent aside, Huile Prodigieuse is a skincare workhorse with antioxidant- and anti-inflammatory rich sesame seed oil to help repair skin and give hair strength and shine and plum seed oil, with fatty acids for dry skin and hair — critical as the weather turns to s(&^! and the air loses moisture.

Use it to gleam up your shoulders, shins and forearms, rub it into your cuticles (don’t forget your toes have cuticles too) and run some through your hair to smooth frizz or coax out some waves. Then head out into the world, smelling heavenly and glowing greaselessly.

‘Greaselessly.’ Not a beauty word. Oh well. Still accurate.

After Sun Bliss: Exfoliating Bar Soap

Oh, the pure, unalloyed joy of unwrapping a fresh bar of soap to take into the shower. Specifically, this one, the SheaMoisture 100% Virgin Coconut Oil & Shea Butter Soap, $7.50 CAN, amazon.ca. A hefty half-pound of lightly scented, skin-nourishing happiness, it also contains finely ground coconut fruit and shell to gently exfoliate. All you have to do is rub it all over your skin after a day spent outdoors to gently remove grime and now past-it sunscreen. It’s as soothing as a head scratch but for your entire body.

Ah, bar soap. The world has slowly capitulated to body washes and in the mid teens bar soap sales declines precipitously as millennials viewed it as unhygienic and hard on skin so only men should use it on their rough, beardy faces. Body wash was convenient (shudder) and bar soap was a fusty relic of your grandmother’s powder room. (Remember all those pale blue, shell-shaped guest soaps in milk glass dishes?) And thus began the global domination of body wash and pump hand soaps and we lost the sensorial delight of unwrapping a fresh bar, the engraved letters still crisp under our fingers. I remember reading someone declare that if they won the lottery, they would open a new bar of soap every day for their bath.

Unlike pricy scented bars from fragrance brands — my favourite Sisley soap is now $135, which is patently absurd — SheaMoisture’s coconut oil and shea butter soap is very well priced. Each half pound bar (227 grams) is only $7.50, so you can make a pleasing stack of them in your linen closet to greet you every time you open the door to grab a towel. Because that too is one of life’s great pleasures: being welcomed by tidy, all-white towers of neatly folded linens, towels and an ample soap stash. It’s the little things.