Rosy Lips and Flushed Skin For Cheap

If you are sharp-eyed or just into beauty products, you may remember Cherry Chapstick’s brief appearance in the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada as Ann Hathaway’s Andie absentmindedly swiped it on before heading out the door. It was cinematic shorthand to show her disinterest in elaborate grooming rituals, but actually served as a pointed reminder that quickly-applied reddish lip balm is a cheap and speedy way to get some enlivening colour on the fly.

Just to drive the point home, Andie’s Cherry Chapstick is the only item in focus.

Burt’s Bees new Gloss & Glow glossy balms (Shoppers Drug Mart, $11) in ‘Eat, Drink and Be Cherry’ (transparent red, pictured above) or ‘Wine Wednesday’ (a titch deeper) are loaded with coconut oil and mango butter and give your lips just the right amount of sheer, youthful colour. And a trio of dots stippled onto your cheeks blends easily for a natural ‘no makeup makeup’ flush.

I would be amiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Maybelline Baby Lips balm in Cherry Me ($4.96, Walmart.ca), long a favourite of my dear friend and colleague, Janine Falcon, to use on both lips and cheeks.

And Cherry Chapstick? Well, it used to leave a hint of red, but Pfizer sold the brand to GlaxoSmithKline in 2019 and they must have reformulated because, even though the balm itself is still pinky red, it sadly no longer deposits any colour. End of an era, really.

Shaving Face: Peach Fuzz Belongs on Fruit (repost)

Gillette Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive multi-blade razor is the best dermaplaning tool.

I’m reposting this from two years ago to remind you that you do NOT need single blade ‘dermaplaning wands’ to shave peach fuzz and dead skin cells from your face. Schick just launched a pack of six such ‘wands’ for $25 and I know you have better things to spend that money on. Keep reading to find out how to dermaplane safely with a well-made, proper razor and stop buying unnecessary things.

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Some of the things that my mother didn’t warn me about turning 50:

• Thinning lips

• Increased chance of UTIs (That one was definitely unexpected)

• Overnight, weed-like growth of facial hair

And I don’t mean chin hairs — the stealthy ones that you don’t see until they're an inch long, that you tweeze and wonder if you’re becoming a werewolf.

What’s a real nuisance is the all-over “peach fuzz” that appears at menopause when your estrogen levels fall while androgens (primarily testosterone) rise. This ‘vellus hair’ (unlike the thicker ‘terminal’ hair of whiskers, brows, lashes and the hair on your head) may appear in a “male pattern distribution” that starts as pale, downy sideburns and can soon colonize your entire face. Get enough of it and you look fuzzily Muppet-ish when the light hits it just right.

You can go to a med spa for dermaplaning, where someone in a white coat goes at your face with a sharp, single blade, removing that top layer of dead skin to stimulate cell turnover and enhance the penetration of your anti-aging skincare products. As a bonus it takes all that peach fuzz along with it.

But because I am semi-lazy while also being high maintenance, I do it myself and remove the fuzz and dead skin with a proper, multi-blade razor. I don’t trust dedicated, lady face-shaving devices or single-blade ‘wands’ that come in multi-packs. Plus, using a razor with multiple blades “allow(s) you to cut more hairs with less strokes and less irritation," California-based dermatologist Dr. Peterson Pierre recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.

I want the sharp, safe razors built by the obsessives at Procter & Gamble who spend their days worrying about blade-on-skin friction ratios, say things like “we do more welding than most car manufacturers” and get excited by the fact that “the radius of the blade’s tip is 25 nanometers.” (That’s one millimetre divided by 40,000, in case you didn’t know.) 

The Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive razor is perfect for any face-shaving newbie, and with five ‘low cutting force’ blades and a lubricant strip, designed to minimize irritation, it’s already meant for sensitive skin.

Please note that this is an off-label use, that is NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE BRAND. They would say that their Gillette blades for men are designed for faces while the women’s are meant for the straight-away real estate that is your underarms and legs. 

But unlike men who have to go under the chin and down their tender necks and all over uneven terrain (a skill that takes years to master), female vellus hair really just grows in that afore-mentioned sideburn pattern, so you will only be shaving flat areas anyways.

Which I do. I make a point of shaving the fuzzy outer portion of my face in the shower whenever I change blade cartridges. That way I'm using the sharpest blades possible, ensuring an easier and closer shave. And don't worry about the hair growing back thicker if you shave it off. Hair is dead when you cut it, so that’s a myth. It might feel spikier because you razored the ends which makes them pointier. That’s it.

And do remember that peach fuzz and dead skin cell removal will leave your skin receptive to the brightening properties of a Vitamin C serum.

So shave, and then apply some vitamin C and consider that a morning well spent.

Your Lips But Better: Tinted Balms Bring Colour Back

As a general rule, while the central heat is still on, you should never be more than an arm’s length away from a tube or pot of lip balm. One in every coat pocket, one by your desk, and at least one on your nightstand. (I keep this beach stone-shaped lilah b. balm on the coffee table as well. Sneaky.)

If you’re already applying balm throughout the day, why not try a tinted version to imbue your lips with the rosy hue they had way back when? (The number of your blood vessels in our lips decreases with age, so yes, you’re not imagining it. Your lips are getting paler.) And unlike ‘faffing about’ (I love that expression) with lipstick, which requires both a mirror and a steady hand, balm can be applied absentmindedly in front of the television.

A trio of new favourites (clockwise from bottom): Burt’s Bees Squeezy Tinted Balm in Watermelon Rush ($10.99, Shoppers Drug Mart) tastes like a Bonne Bell Lip Smacker, brings soothing moisture, thanks to lanolin, beeswax and cocoa seed butter, and has the perfect amount of ‘your lips but better’ transparent red colour. Indeed Labs Hydraluron Plus Tinted Lip Treatment in Red ($14.95, Shoppers Drug Mart) provides sheer natural colour and contains a lip-plumping peptide and water-retaining spheres for the appearance of more generous lips.

Milk Makeup’s Electric Glossy Lip Plumper ($33, Sephora) is technically not balm, (Sichuan peppercorns provide a light, piney tingle that plumps lips) but It also contains protective jojoba seed oil and mimosa flower wax. A sheer swipe of the shade Lola subtly deepens lip colour for a ‘Who me? No, I’m not wearing makeup’ look.

Shaving Face: Peach Fuzz Belongs on Fruit

Gillette Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive is the best dermaplaning tool

Some of the things that my mother didn’t warn me about turning 50:

• Thinning lips

• Increased chance of UTIs (This one strikes me as extraordinarily cruel)

• Overnight, weed-like growth of facial hair

And I don’t mean chin hairs, like the stealthy ones that you don’t see until they're an inch long and beginning to curl. So you marvel at their length, tweeze them and wonder if you’re slowly becoming a werewolf.

No. I’m talking about the all-over “peach fuzz” that can appear when menopause hits and your estrogen levels fall while androgens (primarily testosterone) rise. This ‘vellus hair’ (unlike the thicker ‘terminal’ hair of whiskers, brows, lashes and the hair on your head) may appear in a “male pattern distribution” that starts as pale, downy sideburns and soon threatens to colonize your entire face. Get enough of it and you start looking like a Muppet when the light hits it just right.

Sure, in “the before times”, you could go to a med spa for dermaplaning, where a nice woman in a white coat would go at your face with a sharp, single blade, removing that top layer of dead skin to stimulate cell turnover and enhance the penetration of your anti-aging skincare products. And as a bonus it would take all that peach fuzz along with it.

But because I am horribly lazy (and possibly cheap?) while also being high maintenance, I like to DIY and shave the fuzz off myself with a proper razor. 

I don’t trust dedicated, lady face-shaving devices (usually pink) or single-use blades with flimsy plastic handles that come in multi-packs. I want a sharp, safe razor built by the obsessives at Procter & Gamble who spend their days worrying about blade-on-skin friction ratios, say things like “we do more welding than most car manufacturers” and get excited by the fact that “the radius of the blade’s tip is 25 nanometers.” (That’s one millimetre divided by 40,000, in case you didn’t know.) 

The Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive razor ($15, drugstores) is perfect for any face-shaving newbie, and with five ‘low cutting force’ blades and a lubricant strip, designed to minimize irritation, it’s already meant for sensitive skin.

Please note that this is an off-label use, that is NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE BRAND. They would say that their Gillette blades for men are designed for faces while the women’s are meant for the straight-away real estate that is your underarms and legs. 

But unlike men who have to go under the chin and down their tender (so very tender) necks and all over uneven terrain (a skill that takes years to master), female vellus hair really just grows in that afore-mentioned sideburn pattern, so you will only be shaving flat areas anyways.

Which I do. I make a point of shaving the fuzzy outer portion of my face in the shower whenever I change blade cartridges. That way I'm using the sharpest blades possible, which means an easier and closer shave. And don't worry about the hair growing back thicker if you shave it off. Hair is dead when you cut it, so that’s a myth. It might feel spikier because you razored the ends which makes them pointier. That’s it.

And do remember that peach fuzz and dead skin cell removal will leave your skin receptive to the brightening properties of Vitamin C. (I always encourage the use of vitamin C.)

So shave, and then apply some vitamin C serum and consider that a morning well spent.

Revlon Glass Shine is a drugstore Chanel dupe

Revlon’s new Super Lustrous Glass Shine Lipstick in Glazed Mauve, #007, is the kind of ‘your lips but better’ shade that subtly sharpens lip colour, like someone fiddled with your own personal contrast button. It brings your whole face into focus and makes you look more ‘there’. This is especially good if your lips are doing that discouraging fading thing that they do as you get older. And it only costs $13.50.

That’s an insanely good price for a virtual doppelgänger of Chanel’s beloved yet discontinued Rouge Coco Shine in the shade Boy. Sure, Chanel launched Rouge Coco Flash ‘Boy’ in its stead, but it’s not the same colour. When you find a colour that you rely on, seeing it discontinued is annoying because now you’ll have to find a new one that makes you feel finished without looking overly done up. Having the right ‘your lips but better’ lipstick is a little bit of security that you can carry around with you.

Because Glass Shine is a hybrid balm/gloss, it disappears when you eat or drink anything. This is not a bulletproof lip stain. But that’s the only downside. And given how cheap it is, that’s not a deal breaker.

No. Powder. Blusher. Ever.

If you are over 50, I want to forbid you to wear powder blush. Things can go rather Miss Havisham dusty pretty fast when you use powder after a certain age.

Maybelline’s new Cheek Heat gel cream blush ($11 at drugstores) gives you a natural flush and it applies fairly easily, so if you pause to breathe before blending it in, you won’t be left with dark dots of stain on your cheeks. There are six shades that look vivid in the paint-box inspired tubes (first popularized by Glossier, but no less cute for it) but they sheer out quite nicely.

The right blush enlivens your whole face and makes you look like you just spent a nice couple of hours tramping through the woods. Which is another thing to dream of doing when our house arrest ends.