Coveting: A Men’s Blue Shirt

A couple of weeks ago, I became obsessed with the idea of wearing an over-sized, pale blue, men’s linen shirt as a cover-up at the beach. But by then, it was already mid-July and they were sold out everywhere. So I began searching online resale.

Doppelgänger shirt’s Poshmark listing

Clothing resale is growing rapidly online, given the surfeit of unsold garments created by the relentless churn of fast fashion. With 70 pounds of clothing per person going to landfill each year, it is definitely time to start mining that mountain of misfit clothes.

Instead of searching on a designer site like theRealReal, I tried the more populist Poshmark, and quickly found two men’s shirts: a very pale number for $25 from Doppelgänger (an Italian chain that I’d never heard of) and a never-worn one from Uniqlo still bearing its in-store fold marks and a size L sticker, for only $15.

Unlike flipping through the racks at Value Village, Poshmark wares come pre-sorted so there’s no real life digging, followed by that “eureka” moment when you spot a treasure amidst the dross. But finding the exact thing I wanted was still pretty satisfying. And there is quite a bit of summer left to wear my “new” blue shirts to the beach.

Skincare with Sunscreen Included For Those Days When You Just Can’t

Maybe it’s the incessant heat that can grind you down or just the tyranny of having to take care of yourself like a grown-up, but there are some mornings when even after two large coffees, the thought of applying skincare and then sunscreen is just all together too much. For those times, hybrid skincare-slash-sunscreen gets it done in one step: not only protecting skin against the sun’s damaging rays, but helping it heal pre-existing damage. It’s multi-tasking for the lazily inclined.

The trio above protect skin from UVA (aging) and UVB (burning) rays, absorb quickly and contain premium skin-building ingredients. And with added skincare ingredients, you might feel more inclined to reapply your sunscreen during the day knowing you’re getting a vitamin or antioxidant boost along with sun protection.

Clockwise from upper left: Vichy LiftActiv Collagen Specialist Daily Anti-Aging Moisturizer spf 30, $61.95, Shoppers Drug Mart, protects with broad spectrum SPF 30 while providing serious skincare with vitamin C to boost radiance and peptide to build collagen and elastin, all in a light, ‘cosmetically elegant’ (I love that expression) lotion formula.

Garnier Green Labs Pinea C Brightening Serum Cream spf 30, $23.99, Shoppers Drug Mart, ticks all the good-for-you boxes. It provides the skin brightening of a vitamin C serum (get a start on reversing any summer sun damage) and a broad spectrum 30 spf sunscreen all in a soothing cream. Oh, and it comes in a 100% recycled plastic bottle.

Prevage City Smart Broad Spectrum Sunscreen SPF 50 $88, Shoppers Drug Mart, is perfect when you really need a bit of skin-tone evening and a light tint. This gold medal winner (well, in my mind it should have won some award) contains antioxidants to prevent free radical damage and perk up dull skin, and anti-inflammatories to sooth and repair. And its soft tint counteracts whiteness from the mineral formula while subtly evening out skin tone.

Perfect Linen Trousers For Less Than $40

Maybe you’re like me: double-vaccinated yet still panic-inhaling bags of chips. It seems my extra Covidpounds™ are sticking around.

H&M’s drawstring-waisted linen trousers have been my salvation this summer. Only $39.99 Canadian ($34.99 on the US site), they saved me when most of my other pants no longer fit. They’re crisp and breathable and great for day with a t-shirt and Birkenstocks but this faintly oyster, barely there grey is dressy enough for evening. I’ll be wearing them next week to my first girlfriend patio dinner since 2019 with black sandals, a Rae Feather clutch and some sort of silk top (although definitely not sleeveless like the beautiful model here.)

They’re often sold out in other shades (the dark blue is especially good, more midnight than navy) and grey is a tricky colour to order online because it can look flat. But trust me. This is a good, pale, silvery grey. Oh, and disregard the fact that they’re called ‘joggers’ on the site. That is mis-marketing at its finest.

H&M linen joggers look sleek with a chunky lug sole sandal and sleeveless shell top.

These Gradual Self-Tanners Will Keep You From Resembling an Oiled Walnut

James Read Express Glow20 and Bondi Sands Everyday Gradual Tanning Milk give you a subtle summery glow.

In the wrong hands, a too-dark self-tan can make you look like a reality show contestant who gets kicked off the very first week. And when you’re over 50, that same faux tan might leave you resembling Magda from There’s Something About May.

Her tan may have been over the top, but Magda’s earrings and shimmery aqua eye shadow were brilliant.

This duo, above, of James Read Express Glow20 and Bondi Sands Every Day Gradual Tanning Milk will keep you looking natural while delivering a warm, subtle and believable faux tan.

James Read Express Glow20 ($44) is a hydrating tanning serum that you massage in like skincare and then rinse off in either 20, 60 or 90 minutes, depending on how deep a colour you want. It even contains skincare ingredients: skin plumping hyaluronic acid, antioxidant vitamin E, and vitamin C for brightening. So, unlike time spent in the sun, with Express Glow20, you’re actually repairing skin while getting (fake) darker.

Bondi Sands Everyday Gradual Tanning Milk, ($27.99, Shoppers Drug Mart) smells quietly beachy with a subtle cocoa butter scent, while the pump dispenser makes it easy to us when you emerge from the shower. I’m pretty slapdash with application but it’s impossible to mess this up. (I used this tanning milk as my body lotion all through last winter into spring to take the edge off my ghostliness.) Colour appears slowly as a glow which then deepens with repeated daily applications. So you will never look Oompa Loompa or Magda orange again.

Now go forth and spend as much time outside this summer as humanly possible. This year more than ever, I do not want to spend any more time indoors than absolutely necessary.

D&G Light Blue Body & Hair Is Impulse Body Spray For People With Actual Taste

As a teen in the 80s, I knew that perfuming yourself all over, like the model in the Impulse body spray commercial, was peak grown-up glamour. I didn’t want a man running through the mall to offer me flowers - that seemed terrifying - I just wanted to drench myself with scent. But even then, I intuited that Impulse fragrances, with problematic names like “Instantly Innocent”, were kind of cheap. (Still, all respect to the eBay seller asking $6,000 for a single can of Impulse ‘Innocent’ last week.)

Dolce & Gabanna’s new Light Blue Body & Hair spray (100 ml, $42, Shoppers Drug Mart) taps into this nostalgia but instead of (shudder) Impulse’s “Always Alluring” or “On Fire” fragrances you can mist yourself with Light Blue’s singular Sicilian lemon, apple, cedar and white flowers scent. A consistent but never over-exposed success since 2001, Light Blue evokes languorous sun worshippers on the Amalfi coast. More complex than any one-note lemon summer fragrance, it’s bright and citrusy but heady with white roses and jasmine and a skin-scent musky amber finish. And it demands to be sprayed on sun-warmed skin after a day at the beach.

But best of all, Light Blue hasn’t been tediously overexposed on social media and ‘gifted’ to a zillion influencers, so you won’t feel weird buying it if you’re over the age of 23.

This Guerlain Bronzer Dupe Is Only $23

Physicians Formula Light Bronzer is great for paler skin tones.

Oh, that sickening feeling when you drop a compact.

This busted Guerlain Terracotta Light bronzer in Natural Blonde (top) was my favourite. It contains pink along with the expected bronze and gold tones, so you get a natural-looking glow, not a flat, muddy brown tint that can look like you wiped your face with dirty fingers.

But Guerlain discontinued it (the new version is nice, but not the same) and my only one decided to leap to its death (or rather, I was clumsy and dropped it.)

Physicians Formula Multi-Colored Bronzer in Light Bronzer ($23, Shoppers Drug Mart) is an excellent substitute. Like Guerlain Terracotta, it’s finely milled, and goes on lightly for a bronzy, blushy glow that looks believable even on pale skin. Which is good if, like me, you lost your makeup application skills during the pandemic.

The only drawback is that the packaging isn’t nearly as nice as Guerlain’s and there’s no signature Guerlain Terracotta scent. But did I mention that it’s only $23?

What Your Body Scrub Says About You

Summer is almost here, which means it’s time to:

1. Switch your closets from winter to summer clothes.

2. Confront your flaky-skinned limbs that have been hidden under clothing during a long winter of dry air and central heating.

3. Choose the right body scrub that aligns with your worldview and current state of mind.

Do you need at least two cups in the morning to be a civil, functioning human? Is your blood roughly 50% shade grown Arabica? Would you kill for an on-demand, cold brew tap in your kitchen? If so, then Drunk Elephant Sugared Koffie Almond Milk Scrub ($37, Sephora) is the perfect reward for waking up and making it to the shower.

Not only is its ground coffee and raw sugar blend a gentle natural exfoliant, coffee seed oil is an antioxidant to calm winter-beaten skin while its heady scent subliminally tells your brain that you’re getting caffeine. Jojoba, marula and coconut oils soften skin, and almond milk moisturizes and soothes and makes the whole thing smell like a custom latte made by angels for the Good Lord herself.

Do you wish your home was a spa? Do you have white terry hotel slippers by the front door to keep guests from wearing their gross ‘outdoor’ shoes in your house? Do you only drink water spiked with fresh mint and cucumber and do you put bowls of cubed watermelon in the fridge and pretend your 'staff' did it?

Clarins Tonic Sugar Polisher ($52, Shoppers Drug Mart) gently exfoliates with hazelnut oil and shea butter while its geranium and rosemary scent will leave your bathroom smelling like the Four Seasons Tribeca (a hotel so luxe it makes Toronto's Four Seasons feel like a Motel 6.) Clarins Tonic is a gorgeous mood-lifter and even its translucent yellow jar glows with the promise of endless summer days spent reclining on a poolside chaise.

Aveeno Positively Radiant 60 Second In-Shower Facial ($13.99, Shoppers Drug Mart) is meant for faces but works brilliantly on bodies too. The glycolic acid effectively dissolves the bonds between dry skin cells and natural cellulose helps sweep them away. It’s a full body spa scrub experience at home.

You may feel wanton using a significant chunk of one tube on your body, like when Kim Basinger allegedly rinsed her shampooed hair with Evian water — there’s a pop culture reference only women my age will get.— but if you do feel guilty, just buy multiple tubes when it goes on sale at Shoppers. This is a perfect example of being extravagant, but never wasteful, which is a useful trait to carry to the rest of your life.

Do you miss travelling? Is your favourite lockdown pastime pouring a large glass of Pinot and “strolling” the streets of Paris on Google Street View? The Body Shop Spa of the World French Grape Seed Scrub, $32 smells brightly green and luxuriously fancy to remind you that you weren’t always a homebound, elastic-waist-pant-wearing drudge.

With powdered grape seeds and evening primrose to gently exfoliate and grape seed oil to soften skin, it can psychically transport you to the vineyard of your choice. The tub is massive which makes its already reasonable price even more of a good deal. It’s a given that you will want to travel once lockdown is over, so if all that online comfort shopping you did over the past year depleted your plane ticket fund, it’s time to build it back up.

Do brightly coloured personal care products give you seizures? With its sleekly minimalist packaging and energizing herbal scent, Necessaire Eucalyptus The Body Exfoliator ($45, Sephora) is all business and a perfect companion for anyone who uses their shower time to brainstorm projects and make endless To Do lists in their head.

The Body Exfoliator contains physical exfoliants bamboo charcoal and volcanic pumice, along with a trio of chemical scrubs: glycolic acid to sweep away dead skin cells, lactic acid to moisturize and salicylic acid to dissolve oil and unclog pores. Now go forth and conquer the day, you sleek-limbed thing, you.

Olay Regenerist Mineral SPF is Your Holy Grail Non-Whitening Sunscreen

Olay Regenerist Mineral SPF is Your Holy Grail Non-Whitening Sunscreen

There’s nothing like trying to run out the door, but being stuck in front of the mirror, rubbing in mineral sunscreen. The “hey, I’m a mime!’ white cast it leaves is annoying on pale faces and completely untenable on darker skin.

We put up with the whitish finish and load up on bronzer and blush to look less corpse-like because mineral has its benefits over chemical sunscreen (it’s instantly protective the second you apply it - no 20 minute wait, and if you have sensitive skin, it’s less likely to sting.)

But Olay Regenerist Mineral SPF 30 sunscreen (Shoppers Drug Mart, $44.99) is a non-whitening revelation. It’s a light lotion containing micronized zinc oxide that rubs in quickly, so you couldn’t sport Elle Macpherson’s striped 80s ‘zinc nose’, even if you tried.

But like a late-night tv ad that says ‘wait, there’s more!’ Olay Regenerist Mineral SPF 30 has added benefits. Because it was created by the obsessives at P&G (I am a longtime fan of their next-level attention to detail) not only does it go on easily to protect your skin from damaging UV rays, but it’s a twofer that also tackles existing damage with powerful skin-building peptides to stimulate collagen production and Vitamin B3 to smooth texture and minimize large pores.

Which means you don’t have to apply your skincare and then your sunscreen, because your healing skincare ingredients are in your sunscreen. Saves time, saves money and you aren’t piling on layers of product.

A+.

Mother's Day Gift Guide

The chicest thing ever is to buy a vessel, like this bold and cheering Casa Cubista stripe jug, ($50, Saudade Toronto) and take it to your favourite florist for filling. The recipient gets both the ephemeral gift of flowers and the enduring reminder to keep buying flowers for themselves.

This Mother’s Day, let’s honour the women we love who kept it all together this past year despite 24/7 childcare, Zoom meeting tyranny, virtual house arrest and unending meal prep. And let’s recognize those friends who mothered us when we needed it- the ones who dropped off baked goods or emergency booze. It’s time to spread the love.

The lockdown-inspired resurgence in creating home bars is also a reminder that gorgeous presents can come from the liquor store. Canada’s own Laneway Distillers No. 12 Vodka ($51.45, LCBO) with its pale green label and frosted bottle is too beautiful to hide in a cupboard and pairs beautifully with a gold Japanese jigger ($32, Cocktail Emporium.) And a Moscow Mule made with ginger kombucha is perfect for Spring.

This brass-clad home bar belongs to Ett Hem hotelier Jeanette Mix.

This polished swoop of rose quartz is a Gua Sha ($40, The Fix with MC) a tool used in traditional Chinese medicine to get a depuffing, drainage massage (follow the steps in this video from MC herself.) An application of facial oil prevents the Gua Sha from tugging on delicate skin and Biossance Squalane + Vitaminc C Rose Oil, ($95, Sephora), is a rose-scented and moisturizing skin brightener as well.

A Slip silk pillowcase ($119, Sephora) sounds like a a frivolity but silk stops hair frizzing up overnight and prevents pillowcase creases from marking one’s skin. Plus, the giddy sensation of sinking into a smooth, silk-covered pillow at the end of the day cannot be overstated.

With its overdose of raspy, sunlit bergamot, Malin & Goetz Bergamot eau de parfum (Sephora, $120) is the perfect mood-booster that effortlessly punches a hole in a cloudy sky to let the sun shine through. And because it’s an eau de parfum, it lasts longer than cologne (which frugal moms will appreciate.)

Bring Those Skimpy Brows Back to Life

Around age fifty, you’ll see a photo of yourself and realize that your brows and lashes have done a slow fade, like someone turned down the contrast on your face. Bringing brows back to life is actually pretty easy and enlivens your face the way smiling or a good dose of blusher can, and no one will figure out what you’ve done. You’ll just look better rested or like you had a vacation.

Brow rescue is a two-pronged affair. Part one is brow serum, which as a former tweezer enthusiast, I can affirm does actually work to repair what youth and cluelessness put asunder. RapidBrow Eyebrow Enhancing serum, ($43, Shoppers Drug Mart) contains peptides to stimulate growth and spur those snoozing, dormant hairs on to greatness, while biotin and panthenol strengthen the age-diminished hairs themselves.

It takes a couple of months of twice daily applications to see results, so diligence is key. And you have to keep at it once your brows have returned. Some people may squawk about having to continue using brow serum, but just remember that you also need to eat food every day. You can’t just eat for a month and then never eat again, so it’s like that.

If like me, you recklessly tweezed away the little ‘fan’ hairs at the inner corners of your brows in the misguided belief that wider-set brows make eyes look wider set, (they don’t) Rapidbrow serum can bring those back. (God, all those unhelpful, ancient beauty stories that instructed you to hold a pencil beside your nose to determine where your brows should start.) Not to mention the 90s skinny brow trend that too many of us succumbed to. Even Canada’s national treasure, Celine Dion, is a cautionary tale of inner brow over-tweezing and while you could argue that that’s her look, I don’t want that for you.

Maybelline New York Tattoo Studio Longer Brow pencil in Blonde,

In the meantime, while you wait for your brows to awaken like Sleeping Beauty, you can do an artful patching job with Maybelline New York’s new Tattoo Studio Longwear brow pencil in Blonde, ($12.49, Shoppers Drug Mart.) This shape-shifting, ashy taupe ‘blonde’ shade will invisibly fill any sparse areas even if your brows are dark. It’s also magically perfect if you have some silver hairs mixed in there as well. Just apply tiny, feathery strokes to the sparse areas. Go slowly, and always step away from the mirror to see your handiwork before adding another stroke.

And Maybelline New York Tattoo Studio brow pencil claims to last 36 hours, which is longer than you’ll need, as we are now past the age of dancing all night in illegal clubs and emerging at 4:00 a.m. with our make all smudged, in search of breakfast.