Kérastase Fresh Affair Dry Shampoo Smells Like You Moved Into a Higher Tax Bracket

Inside this can lies your better self

On the days that you are hanging by a thread and dry shampoo is your lifeline, you do not need to be reminded that everything has gone pear-shaped. And the last thing you want is some boring, mass-market-smelling, ‘good enough’ dry shampoo. What you need is someone kind who says “hey, it happens to the best of us,” and maybe also a dry shampoo that smells as if (for the brief moment that you are spraying) your life is actually perfect, not just merely ok.

Kérastase Fresh Affair Refreshing Dry Shampoo is scented with neroli, the blossom from the bitter orange tree, so it smells like the very best, most expensive eau de cologne. And it contains rice starch to efficiently absorb the (sorry to use this ugly word) ‘grease’ that has flattened your hair. But it also has vitamin E, so that same hair won’t becomes dried out and brittle. And the neroli scent gently lingers, giving you blissful little whiffs of your expensive-smelling self for hours after you spray.

There’s even a small travel size available, so when we return to the gym (I really miss the gym) you will be the fanciest lady at the communal mirror, hands down.

The ‘I Would Like to be Invited Back’ Cottage Gift Guide

Lake of Bays July 25, 2019

Cottage host gifting is all about largesse.

If someone is lending you their lake house this summer, or you’re lucky enough to have cottage-owning friends or family in your ‘bubble’, this year’s essential gift is not a sold out Provençal rosé, but rather hard-to-find Lysol wipes. (I recently got some at Dollarama. Go figure.) But that’s only your opening gift salvo. 

Bring snacks (healthy and otherwise) as well as all the components for one very nice dinner. Throw in a special bottle for the host to enjoy later, apart from what you’ve brought to consume during your stay. And if you are positively giddy with the thought of leaving the steamy city for a cool, quiet lake, then add a gift so nice and unexpected that every time your hosts look at it they’ll think, “oh, we must invite her back.” 

And don’t forget to sweep up the bunkie on your last day, strip your bed (or even better, bring your own sleeping bag so you’re not sticking them with laundry) and maybe leave some gas money if they took you out in the boat for a tour of the area or wake surfing.  

Enjoy your stay!

Images clockwise from centre upper right

• If your hostess was a bookish young girl in the 1970s, The Long Secret is a trip back in time. The darkish 1965 sequel to Harriet the Spy spoke directly to outwardly polite girls with hidden reserves of intensity. And it takes place in Water Mill, on the south fork of Long Island, New York, i.e. the Hamptons before they were “The Hamptons”. 

• Hand sanitizer is part of our daily lives now, so make it pretty. Vancouver’s own AG Hair’s Hands Free Clean Hand Sanitizer Gel, $13, in a sleek pump bottle, looks chic on an entry hall table and its 73% ethyl alcohol formula is effective, while aloe and glycerin calm skin and restore moisture. AG Hair has donated 5,000 bottles to BC area frontline and health care workers.

•  A family sized bottle of Bioderma Photoderm SPF 40 High Protection Spray sunscreen, $37.90, contains almost half a litre of sunscreen, with a trigger sprayer that makes it easy to keep the entire brood protected.

• Draped over the back of a couch during the day (cannily hiding that patch that the cat destroyed) and over your shoulders on the deck on chilly nights, The Bay’s 350th anniversary sterling wool caribou throw, $170, is a monochromatic take on the classic multi-hued Hudson’s Bay point blanket and its subtle gradations of pale to dark grey stripes will elevate any room.

• If those tubes and jars in the cottage bathroom have Zeller’s price stickers, they’re probably pretty old. Restock the medicine chest with Canada’s own Zax’s Original brand natural remedies like arnica-based Bruise Cream, $19, and soothing Bug Bite & Itch Cream, $16. (Zax’s is donating twenty per cent of online sales to the Red Cross in support of Covid-19 initiatives.)

• Saje x Jillian Harris Aroma Carve ($94) diffuser’s fluted cylindrical cover looks beautiful on a shelf. Too many diffusers just look like diffusers and that utterly defeats the point. Include Saje Deep Breath Diffuser Blend, $16, a mix of eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender that is not only calming and invigorating, but also refreshes musty cottage and cottage bathroom air.

• A French market basket can corral towels indoors or get loaded up to stylishly transport a picnic lunch to the beach.  

• Nude’s Glacier Wine Cooler, $118, is so elegantly sleek and unfussy that your hosts might even decide to bring it back to the city. Include a fresh bag of ice from the gas station en route and be the cottage hero.

• Sure you can bring the ingredients for a summer cocktail (Remember Greyhounds? I would like to bring them back) but a modern classic like Cave D'Esclans Whispering Angel Rosé is always a crowd-pleaser.

Neutrogena Sunscreen Mist Makes It Easy To Stay Protected

Keep this by your side for the remainder of the summer

Of course you’re diligent with sunscreen in the morning, after you shower. That’s the easy part. It’s when the sun is at its highest and it’s time for your lunchtime sunscreen re-up when it all falls apart. Who wants to get their hands all sticky adding a layer of goo to an already heat-dampened face?

Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Face Sunscreen is a fine mist, so it’s easy to apply as your critical midday top-up, no face-touching required. Reapplying sunscreen throughout the day will protect you from dark spots and expensive IPL (intense pulsed laser) spot-removing treatments down the road, so why wouldn’t you?

At 100 mls, it can go in your carry-on (I’m not, but some of us are flying) and it’s small enough to slide into your straw summer tote. And arguably not that important, but very important to me, the delicate fragrance is nicely ‘chi-chi beach club with white chaise longues’, so you get an olfactory reward for using your sunscreen.

Clarins Eau Dynamisante #perfumeeverydamnday

I swear I’m not making this up. Years ago, in February, I saw a staffer at Toronto’s Clarins spa mopping the floor with the contents of a giant bottle of Eau Dynamisante, so even in the dead of winter the whole place smelled of citrus and summer. 

An extravagant hand with an energizing scent is the approach we need in the midst of swampy July. At $60CAN for the 100 ml spray, Eau Dynamisante encourages liberal spritzing. 

Its mix of petitgrain (bitter orange oil) and Amalfi lemon with rosemary, thyme and cardamom is eau de cologne with herbal energy for a lift when the hot weather has laid you flat. 

Or if you’re feeling extra louche, use it as fancy room spray, when the thought of lighting a scented candle in July seems wrong.

Feed Your Face: Borage Oil for Glowing Skin

Take four capsules of borage oil a day for glowing skin.

In the ‘what is happening to my aging body now?’ saga, dry skin is not nearly the worst thing. But my skin always feels desiccated and tight now, as if I accidently shrank it in the wash. 

So I eat more salmon, snack on walnuts instead of Doritos and take fish oil capsules daily – all to get those precious omega 3 fatty acids. And not just for their ability to reduce inflammation and inhibit the formation of clots in the bloodstream. Omega 3s even help strengthen our skin’s barrier function and improve its texture. 

But apparently we need to be thinking about omega 6 fatty acids as well. The less popular sibling to omega 3s, omega 6 fatty acids play a significant role in brain function, they stimulate hair growth and maintain bone health and one omega 6 fatty acid in particular, gamma linoleic acid (GLA), is really, really good for your skin. 

It all began when I met Lorna Vanderhaeghe. It was a bleak and cold winter’s day and I stared (rather rudely, I fear) at her skin, which was glowing in a way that one does not see in Toronto in February. She may be 60, but her skin is barely into its 40s.

Vanderhaeghe, a formulator with a background in nutrition and biochemistry, is the founder of Smart Solutions supplements. She takes borage oil, which is rich in gamma linoleic acid, also known as GLA (an omega 6 fatty acid) every single day and has for years.

GLA is essential for skin. it’s used topically on infants suffering from sebbhoreic dermatitis, and can help combat eczema. “Deficencies in fatty acids can spur on wrinkles and rosacea,” says Vanderhaege. “Literally all of the high end cosmetics have GLA in them.”

There are trace amounts of GLA in leafy greens and nuts, but, unlike omega 3 fatty acids, you can’t source it from fish and flax. We get GLA from breast milk, but we know that’s a short ride. Evening primrose is 8% GLA, but has a hard shell which inhibits extraction whereas borage (which is 24% GLA) has a soft shelled seed, so the oil can be cold pressed. Unlike the omega 6s found in vegetable oils, which can be unhealthy if consumed in excess, GLA is a powerful anti inflammatory. (And these are only two of many studies.)

If your skin is really tight and mad at you for whatever reason, you can even use GLA topically, like a souped up face oil. Just pop a capsule and apply the contents directly your face at bedtime and wake up feeling much happier when you face the mirror.

Mineral Sunscreens That Won’t Leave You Ghostly White

Did you correctly identify the vintage sunlamp tanning goggles?

I’ve always felt faintly uneasy advocating for expensive sun care, because for sunscreen to work you need to apply it liberally and often. But we tend to be somewhat miserly with expensive creams unless we are JLo, who made her rep as a beauty product libertine who coats herself head-to-toe in Crème de La Mer.

Nowadays, mineral sunscreens are increasingly the first choice of people who don’t want, or react poorly to chemical screens (they can sting sensitive faces) or prefer a cream that does its work at the skin’s surface, bouncing the UV rays off like a disco ball (chemical sunscreens absorb the harmful rays and convert them to harmless heat.) But some mineral screens come loaded with good intentions, but not necessarily the nicest formulas, so they sit thickly on skin, all whitish and heavy.

If you want a highly effective, broad spectrum mineral sunscreen that disappears into skin with no white cast, after only the most cursory rubbing, Alumier MD Clear Shield Broad Spectrum SPF 42 ($48), Dermalogica Invisible Physical Defense SPF 30 ($77) and REN Clean Screen Mineral SPF 30 ($48) might cost a bit more, but they will make you disproportionately happy.

Serge Lutens Des Clous Pour Une Pelure #perfumeeverydamnday

A deep blue fragrance is par for Serge Lutens.

The mysterious, deep blue-green colour does not give you a clue what it smells like. Des Clous Pour Une Pelure (loosely) translates to ‘cloves for an (orange) rind’ and while it initially smells like a clove-studded orange Christmas pomander or a potion from the apothecary, it comes to life on your skin (men’s skin, women’s skin, it truly is genderless).

if you are spending this month hiding indoors or in the shade, Des Clou Pour Une Pelure proffers just enough bright orange to feel summery, but without going full-on eau de cologne.

It opens up brazenly, all energizing and grapefruity with a hint of sweetness. But soon the clove retires into the background and what remains is a citrus scent with enough spicy depth to convert anyone who thinks that citrus scents can be rather ho-hum. It’s refreshing and richly layered at the same time.

And while it will not turn your skin blue, I wouldn’t spray it anywhere near that white cotton dress you have on repeat this summer.

Caudalie Beauty Elixir: Why Live Without It?

Just because something is frivolous doesn’t mean it’s not essential

Sure you can live without Caudalie Beauty Elixir, but why would you want to? Are the pleasures in your life so thick on the ground that you can afford to reject one?

You skin certainly doesn’t need Caudalie Beauty Elixir. For cooling you could just splash on cold water from the tap, but then you’d miss out on that famous scent: a garden’s worth of rose, orange blossom, rosemary, along with benzoin and myrrh and Caudalie’s signature grape water loaded with polysaccharides for moisture and mineral salts to calm redness.

Without it, your days, which can seem endless at the 4:00 p.m. mark, whether you are working from home or not, would be a lot greyer. “It’s the Starbucks coffee of the skin,” says Caudalie founder Mathilde Thomas, selling it rather short, frankly. It is, in fact, the “stroll-through-Paris-with-your-lover-on-a-sunny-day-and-then-have-a-tête-à-tête-in-a-sidewalk-cafe” of the skin.

This year’s limited edition bottle, with its pink ombré glass and line drawings of herbs and flowers, will easily be the nicest-looking thing in your fridge. Keep it stowed there (a work from home benefit) for regular, chilly blasts during these endlessly hot days. Or spray the air around you in a witchy ritual to banish dull air and dull thoughts and make your workspace just that much nicer. And Frencher.

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Orange Soleia #perfumeeverydamnday

Like walking through an orange grove that is also an herb garden.

Spraying Guerlain’s new Aqua Allegoria Orange Soleia is like splitting apart an orange and breathing in that exploding arc of juice. The blood orange, bergamot and petitgrain (oil from leaves of the bitter orange tree) are an almost fizzy fortification against that wall of humidity you’ll encounter when you step outside this time of year.

Citrus fragrances have a notoriously brief life on your skin, but the addition of mint, floral-yet-biting pink peppercorn and a gently warm, woody note extend Orange Soleia’s presence well after that initial mood-altering orange burst has fled.

The scent is meant to evoke a Calabrian citrus grove in the hot sun, but imagine it’s your citrus grove with a pool at its edge. This is a fantasy after all. You walk through your citrus grove, eat an orange, jump in the pool to cool down and then dry off on your sun-warmed, wooden deck chair. There are worse ways to spend the summer.

James Read Self-Tanners for the Risk-Averse

I have to trick myself into using self-tanner. It’s a brilliant concept but the reality can be messy and fraught with all sorts of dangers. And as my clever friend and colleague Janine Falcon observes, it is all too easy to make your skin look like faux wood grain if you’re not careful. To mitigate this, London-based, tanner-to-the-stars James Read’s products are virtually idiot-proof (and I say this as a card-carrying idiot,) all in glamorous, faintly 1950s seaside hotel, retro packaging.

Just like the name says, with Click & Glow Tan Drops, you dispense a couple of drops into moisturizer or serum in the palm of your hand and smooth over your face. It’s gradual and you can ‘titrate’ the amount used (my favourite medical term meaning ‘continuously measure and readjust the balance’) incrementally increasing the amount added until you reach the desired shade of ‘glowy, but not resembling a glass of Tang. With apologies to Shakespeare, remember that “restraint is the better part of self-tanning”. Less is definitely more.

Gratifyingly, for a tanning brand owner, Read encourages a light hand to prevent one from looking overtly ‘tanned’. In fact, a single application of the Gradual Tan Sleep Mask Tan Face in Light/Medium, applied before bed, results in faint but believable colour. It’s more of a subtle enlivening with no overt tint, so if you have alabaster skin (the kind that can actually look blue) this is a great one to try. You can happily stop at ‘barely detectable glow’, or repeat nightly until you reach your desired shade.

One final, sterling bit of advice: beauty writer and Guardian columnist Sali Hughes recommends using self tanner at bedtime after a night of excessive imbibing. Naturally, you’ll wake up the next morning feeling like hell, but the (faux) healthy glow will minimize the visible signs of devastation. To me, this defines useful beauty journalism.