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Love Thy Mother
I used to roll my eyes when I heard someone refer to "Mother Earth". The term conjures images of filthy hippies reeking of poor-quality Patchouli, all googly-eyed and possibly hopped up on the Goofballs and Mary Jane. But I feel differently now. Photo, ABCNews.com As I got older and my awareness grew of the world's rapidly depleting resources, I began to understand that the Earth is, in fact, our parent in the most literal sense. We come from it, it nourishes us in every single way. In my endeavor to work only with Earth-friendly and organic products, I discovered LoveLula.com, a UK-based site devoted solely to exactly that. There are hair, makeup, skin and body brands galore, including John Masters Organics, Nvey Eco and of course, Mother Earth. Everything sold on LoveLula claims to be free of parabens, artificial fragrance and petrochemicals, among many other nasty little toxins. The site's brands give me my necessary dose of luxury without excess, so I can use cool stuff and still honor my mother. Get in touch: beautyexaminer@gmail.com |
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Moi A L'Orange
Once and for all: There is no question that UV tanning, whether in an outdoor or artificial setting, is incredibly harmful to the skin. This is pretty much indisputable, and absolutely includes tanning beds; the claim that only the UVA rays, not the UVB ones are transmitted makes virtually no difference whatsoever, and is total crap. Any darkening of the epidermis resulting from exposure to UV rays is evidence of damage. Tanning is your skin's protective response to harm. photo, Getty Images Now that that's out of the way, I must say that I love the way bronzed skin looks. Coco Chanel pioneered the look in the 1920s after returning from a Paris -to- Cannes yachting excursion ( I know, it's uncanny how similar our lives are) with a burnished glow. Before that, the ideal was porcelain as could be; in a nutshell, there was a direct correlation to the fact that people with money didn't have to work outdoors, thereby preserving the pallor of privilege. And I love it too. I can't help it; I was a teenager in the eighties when we thought SPF 4 was protection enough, and believed that getting a "base tan" was the only protection needed. Sometimes you had to get a burn first, then wake up one morning and squeal with glee when you find that your lobsteresque flesh had "turned to tan", and you liked to peel, because it was some kind of badge of your deep and abiding commitment to tanning, plus wasn't it kind of fun to peel off the moulting skin? Did you ever used to do that? No? Oh, um, me neither, that's gross... As a practicing aesthetician, further destruction of my epidermis is not an option, so my quest for a sunless tanning product that doesn't turn my legs the exact color of a ripe butternut squash has been ongoing for the last ten years. Self-tanner has been around since the 1950s, and the formulas now on the market are a far cry from the days of Man Tan, which I was surprised to learn was the very first self-tanning product on the mass market. How about that? Dudes used to do this before us. And they looked real stupid the majority of the time. I've certainly been there. Once, I got a spray tan in one of those booths, and I did not follow the instructions to buff myself with a towel after emerging from the toxic cloud of fake-tan mist. Three hours later, I was having dinner with friends, and when I got up to visit the restroom, my friends all gasped in horror at the distinctly poo-like brown streaks all down my legs. It sort of defeats the purpose of the whole spray-tan effort if the result is appearing as if your colostomy bag is leaking. Not cute, to put it mildly. Leave it to Bliss, one of my very favorite lines, to come up with literally the only self-tanner that works for all skin tones, especially pale birds like me, on every level.  photo, blissworld.com A Tan For All Seasons is truly on a whole other plane than anything you have used in the past, I promise. The pigments in the subtle tint are brown and purplish, no orange involved. The formula is unlike any other, and really does not streak no matter how quickly and haphazardly (within reason) you apply it. One reason this spray rocks so hard is that in addition to DHA, the active ingredient in self-tanners, it also contains erythrulose which works conjunctively with the DHA for unequaled evenness and natural effect. It also does not posses the telltale DHA smell we dislike so much. Essentially, if you follow the simple instructions for use, the stuff is perfect, except you really have to wash your hands immediately after application, as A Tan For All Seasons works and dries faster than anything I've tried. I recommend snapping on a pair of rubber or latex gloves, so you don't have to worry about it. Questions? Requests? Suggestions? Just want to chat? Please get in touch, I'm interested in your thoughts. Holler at your girl at beautyexaminer@gmail.com. |
Like Shooting Fish In A Barrel
I recently saw the most disturbing television commercial ever. It is for a fast food/ice cream kind of place, a National chain that's been around for decades, and it is extra creepy. The ad involves a scenario wherein a mother and daughter approach the counter to order. The daughter, a gorgeous child of about five or six, coquettishly locks eyes with a little boy. She tosses her hair, she winks, she smiles seductively. At this point, all I can think about is JonBenet Ramsey and the possibility that sick pedophiles everywhere are rationalizing their evildoings because of imagery like this.  So anyway, this girl- this child- tells her mother not to bother getting her ice cream; "Just get one", she says with a knowing smirk. A moment later, the waiter brings a sundae to the little girl, compliments of the young boy. The girl flutters her fingers and bats her eyelashes at him, and turns to her mom and says, "It's like shooting fish in a barrel".  Start 'em young. Yikes. .jpg) I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please get in touch. If you have a question, comment or suggestion, please add here or e-mail me at beautyexaminer@gmail.com.
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Avast-Ye, Blimey Swabs
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I once visited the Maritime Museum on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. Actually it was not so much a museum as it was a giant gift shop with a disproportionately tiny annex in the back with a few small dioramas. My favorite was a small glass case entitled "What Pirates Ate" or something of that nature, which contained only the following: -A rubber rat (Does this mean they ate rats? It was unclear) -One rubber wedge of Swiss cheese (the handwritten marker beneath it read simply "Cheese", which my companion and I found endlessly hilarious for some reason) -One possibly real hunk of some sort of petrified meat jerky There was another glass case which housed a life-size mannequin of Blackbeard, the legendary pirate. His real name is believed to have been Edward Teach, and he was a prototype for modern self-spin. This guy clearly understood the power of altering one's physicality, which ultimately amounts to understanding something about human nature. Blackbeard loved the ladies, and was instrumental in creating the mystique of pirates as the rock stars of their time. Image, NC Maritime Museum  When Blackbeard (a moniker he coined himself, by the way-how much do I love this guy?) started making a name for himself in the pirate game, he realized he liked the money-getting, not-working part of piratry, but not so much the killing and fighting and what have you. So, he surmised that the scarier he looked, the less he would actually have to fight. So he grew his thick black hair and beard long and tangled, and tied red ribbons to the ends. He smudged kohl around his eyes, and strapped lots of scary-looking knives and ammunition to his chest. Blackbeard even pioneered what would become pyrotechnics at concerts; when approaching a ship to overpower, he burned bundles of hemp to create a sort of smoke machine around his feet, making it look like he was surrounded by a mysterious veil of fire and mist. What a showman! I rarely wear eye makeup, but there are days when eyeliner is armor, mascara is power and a mysteriously smoky veil of shadow are the extra ammo I need. I am, after all, a lover, not a fighter. I am also lazy, which makes DuWop Smoke perfect for me; each duo includes an inky cream liner and coordinating powder for the perfect smoky eye. .jpg) Photo, DuWop.com The shades are deep and subtly shimmery, and the little compact comes equipped with two teensy but decent-quality brushes, so you can throw it in your doublet or waistcoat or whatever and spontaneously create sultry eyes that would make a pirate proud. |
Oil Slick
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If eyes are the windows to the soul, those who have excessively oily eyelids yearn for the cosmetic equivalent of Windex. It's a hassle to deal with, especially in summer. Eyelids have much tinier oil glands than the rest of the face, so it really does matter if something is formulated for the area or not; plus there are stricter safety regulations for a product's use in the ocular region. It's more difficult for some ingredients to assimilate into the delicate skin of your peepers, which is why you get those perplexing white bumps. They're called Milia, they are made of protein (keratin), calcium, and sebum (oil) and don't you dare try to pick at them; they live a bit deeper in the epidermal layers than your ordinary zit or blackhead. Milia are often caused by petroleum-based eye care and makeup, and require extraction by a professional. And oh, man, do we aestheticians love to get them out. Seriously, it sounds perverse but it's quite gratifying. My clients who don't wear eye makeup are particularly frustrated by the lack of effective yet unobtrusive remedies for overly oily lids. "It's not fair", lamented one woman. "Why do I have to pile on eye shadow like a cheap floozy just to cover up the primer holding back the grease?" Why, indeed? It's a phenomenon into which I hadn't put much thought lately. Why can't there be something that mops up oil all day, doesn't irritate, won't run, is made specifically for the eyes and is invisible? After extensive field research, I have found not one, but two products that do all those things and more: .jpg) Urban Decay Eye Shadow Primer Potion is exceptional. It works to absorb oil with talc in a silicone-based delivery system (and yes, is chock-full o'parabens, but at extremely low levels) and glides on easily. It's marketed as an eyeshadow base, but don't be deterred, you don't have to wear shadow-it works really well for minimalists. After drying to a nearly invisible finish, it stood up to a long day outside, and I noticed that my eyes were a lot less irritated than usual. Perhaps there are magical pollen-blocking properties in this stuff, because now I'm using it every day as an anti-allergen shield for my eyeballs. Who knew? An excellent and unbelievably inexpensive ($2.50!) option is the Rice Powder Facial Block from the always awesome Pearl River Mart in NYC. Rice-based powders are so much finer than anything else. I adore it as an absorbent in eye products, because it's so gentle. This Chinese formula has been around for literally hundreds of years and remained virtually unchanged, and it looks so pretty on the shelf in my bathroom. I should note, though, that this powder isn't necessarily approved for use around the eyes. I've never had a problem, but proceed with caution. Just rub a clean, dry ring finger across the powder block and dab on your eyelids, and move on with your life, makeup-and grease-free. .jpg) Photo, pearlriver.com |
Natural's Not In It
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It seems like every few months, we in the skin business are made aware of another horribly toxic chemical to avoid. Interesting that these chemicals, usually preservatives, are most commonly found in cosmetics, hair dye, and skin care products-all used primarily by women. Hmm...I'm not going to embark on a postfeminst tirade here, but it is a fact that we will happily suffer in the quest for superficial beauty. Historically, ladies everywhere have applied noxious unguents and suffered painful and degrading procedures at the hands of someone like me. Way back in Ye Olden Times, women dropped Belladonna in their eyeballs to dilate their pupils, and let leeches suck the blood from their cheeks to be paler. In Asia, lovely ladies painted their teeth black and did away with their eyebrows altogether. My favorite deadly concoction, commonly used throughout Europe until the late 1800s, was a delightful blend of carbonate hydroxide and lead oxide. Yep, that's the same lead oxide that is so toxic, you shouldn't even live in a house that's been painted with it. It took quite awhile for the medical community to determine that all that swooning wasn't necessarily due to womens' delicate constitution, and that perhaps a swoon was actually a seizure. When all the pretty damsels started dropping like flies, nobody really suggested that the deadly face powder was the culprit for a long time, even though it was an obvious common denominator. They didn't want it to be so bad 'cause it made the ladies look so good. All of the dangerously beautiful substances I just mentioned were completely natural, and by today's standards, one hundred percent organic. My point is that preservatives exist for very good reasons in many cases. Natural is not categorically good, and chemicals are not always bad. Having said that, I do think that using organics and clean, plant-based cosmetics is a good idea. I just don't think it is reasonable to alleviate preservatives from our lives altogether. .png) Everyone is all up in arms about parabens lately. Here is the straight dirty as I understand it: parabens are bad, but it would take an unfathomable amount to have an estrogenic, hence cancer-causing, effect. According to the Food and Drug Administration's most recent studies, "The FDA is aware that estrogenic activity in the body is associated with certain forms of breast cancer. Although parabens can act similarly to estrogen, they have been shown to have much less estrogenic activity than the body’s naturally occurring estrogen. For example, a 1998 study (Routledge et al., in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology) found that the most potent paraben tested in the study, butylparaben, showed from 10,000- to 100,000-fold less activity than naturally occurring estradiol (a form of estrogen). Further, parabens are used at very low levels in cosmetics. In a review of the estrogenic activity of parabens, (Golden et al., in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2005) the author concluded that based on maximum daily exposure estimates, it was implausible that parabens could increase the risk associated with exposure to estrogenic chemicals." The bottom line is that I still use products with parabens in them. But I've always been a risk-taker. I like to live on the edge. In the immortal words of Gang of Four, "This heaven gives me migraine." |
Act Natural
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I think it is fair to say that every day should be Earth Day. Everyone knows this. But even if for one day a Government-sanctioned holiday(ish) compels me to conserve a little more, use only what I need, or even just heighten my awareness of my surroundings, that's fine by me. It isn't even close to being enough, and clearly we Earthlings are on the way out on a cosmic garbage scow of our own making, but it all still counts. I'm trying to switch over to mostly organic and green materials in my practice. To move this process along, I'm attempting to use up a lot of my eco-unfriendly products. I've been wasteful of late in my urgency to start fresh with all new nature-compatible stuff, and that must stop immediately; I would love to go shopping for all new supplies and get rid of the products I already have, but that would be completely counterintuitive to the concept of preserving and conservation; the plastic and glass which house the waxes, oils and creams has to go somewhere, and part of respecting the Earth is the idea of getting the most out of every resource I use. So today, instead of discussing fantastic green beauty products (oh, there'll be plenty of that to come, don't you worry), I decided to honor Earth Day by: 1. Not showering, to conserve water. Honestly I just didn't feel like it, so that doesn't count as a sacrifice on my part-maybe just for the poor souls who have to share the elevator with me. 2. Shelving my beloved blow-dryer and flatiron for today. This also doesn't count, as there is no need for either due to aforementioned lack of bathing. 3. Not driving anywhere. I do not own a car, nor have I ever had a driver's license, so this is also not hard. 4. In order to save electricity, I slept until noon to avoid wasting precious kilowatts. I realize that not everyone can be as committed as I clearly am to preserving our globe's natural resources. Every little bit helps, though, so don't feel bad if you are not super-green like me...just a few simple adjustments to your daily routine can make all the difference. |
Trouble Afoot
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The balmy spring weather of late (thanks, global climate change!) has nudged me prematurely into last summer’s flip -flops. It feels so good to wiggle my toes in the warm breeze, unencumbered by heavy boots and wooly socks. What interferes with my enjoyment of moments like this, though, is the fear of offending the public with my exposed appendages. My feet are, how shall I put this…not my best feature. I could dangle them in an Olympic-sized swimming pool teeming with crazed foot fetishists, and remain undisturbed. Actually they (the crazed foot fetishists) might ask me to leave. I dread the moment of sheepishly removing my shoes after not having had a pedicure in five months, apologizing to the nail technician, who can barely conceal her disgust. Like most American women, I get pedicures, and most other beauty treatments for that matter, for the aesthetic payoff. When you aren't showing your tootsies to the world, why take care of them? That's not good. I am attempting to shift my focus somewhat. Photo courtesy of bastiengonzalez.com  This is Bastien. Having such unnaturally huge feet may have influenced his choice of profession.The renowned pedicurist Bastien Gonzalez believes in a combination of medical and holistic techniques to address the foot's beauty from the inside out. He sands and buffs and massages, and uses no nail polish. It has been widely reported that a Bastien-ized foot is smooth and sculptural, like polished marble, and able to propel the person attached to it with a singular glide and elegance. In my fantasy life as a princess, Bastien gives me a pedicure every week. I have a rich fantasy life. Since Bastien isn't showing up anytime soon, I own the Rolls Royce of foot files: The Diamancel #10. Photo courtesy of blissworld.com  This pricey (but worth it) foot file isn't just better than all others; it's way, way superior. It's made by the same company that manufactures the best professional microdermabrasion machines and tools I have used, so they clearly know how to exfoliate the living daylights out of anything. The #10 is made with teeny diamond chips, is antimicrobial and can be cleaned and sanitized. You use it only on dry feet. It always remains perfectly rough, and with some dedication, renders my mangled paws almost fit for public view. |
Swamp Thing
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Springtime is here. The birdies are chirping, trees are erupting with blossoms, and no matter what I do to iron my wavy hair straight, by around noon my locks look less like the glossy curtain ( I hope) I left the house with, and more like that of the entire female cast of Saturday Night Live circa 1979.
I think Newman's "Partially Used Q-Tip, or "PUQT" style best represents disco-era hairdos.
Jane's limp yet frizzy "Disillusioned Housewife" looked the least explosive, but somehow annoys me more because it's so noncommittal. Plus the DH is disappointingly similar to what I'm working with at the moment. So, I'll keep you posted. I will follow the instructions for use to the letter, use it faithfully, and perhaps this can be the beginning of many beauty experiments. If you would like me to try a makeup, skin- or hair-care product, service or technique, let me know. I'll do it, man. I'm not messing around. All photos courtesy of nbc.com |
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The brilliant Ms. Radner's usual style was closer to the PUQT than the iconic, boldly geometric "Roseannadanna" shown here. .jpg)
Jolie-Laide
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Ah, the French. They always seem to have the perfect phrase for life's most nuanced phenomena. Literally translated, jolie-laide means "pretty-ugly"; it's used to describe unusual or unconventional beauty. It seems appropriate for this, the maiden voyage of what I hope will be a different kind of beauty blog. I don't purport to be the ultimate authority on all aspects of the global cosmetics industry and culture, but I have been in the trenches all my life in some capacity, and I can tell you this: beauty is not always pretty. So let's get at it.
Photo courtesy of sephora.com I always see women on the MARC and Amtrak trains rummaging through huge bags, extracting an arsenal of cosmetics and un-selfconsciously applying a full face of makeup en route. I must admit that I occasionally participate in this ritual too, but I feel tacky and disorganized when I do. My lovely grandmother (may she rest in glamour) would never have dreamed of applying anything in public other than her "liprouge", always delicately applied with a pinky finger, which was wiped discreetly on her perfectly pressed handkerchief after the dirty deed was done. Quite a departure from dumping the contents of my giant purse onto the seat beside me and diving for wayward eyeliner beneath the seat in front of me on a moving train. Grammy would have seen this as unspeakably rude; a blatant declaration of disrespect to my fellow passengers. She would have told me and my commuting sisters to set the alarm fifteen minutes earlier and be ready to walk onto the train platform looking polished and mysterious, not exposing our secrets and messiness to the world. And she definitely would have approved of subtly touching up her always-perfect lips with Nars' limited-edition J. Mendel lip palette. The esteemed fashion house teamed with Nars, one of my absolute favorite lines (they really have the best reds) to create my perfect commuter tool; the modern-classic, pretty-ugly rubberized black compact houses three lipglosses, in colors ranging from glistening sheer white to a deep, juicy grape and three lipsticks, from sheer rose to rich wine. I use the white gloss as highlighter for my whole face, the sheer rose lipstick as blush and the reds, of course, I dab on my lips with a pinky finger. Starched hanky optional. |
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Arika Casebolt
Arika Casebolt is a renaissance woman--a former rock goddess and now an aesthetician who has lived the D.C.-to-Baltimore commuter life. Her goal is to educate and enthrall her readers with beauty tips for everyone, from the meek to the daring, for the commuters in all of us, and for those who prefer to stay at home.
Arika Casebolt is a renaissance woman--a former rock goddess and now an aesthetician who has lived the D.C.-to-Baltimore commuter life. Her goal is to educate and enthrall her readers with beauty tips for everyone, from the meek to the daring, for the commuters in all of us, and for those who prefer to stay at home.
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Don't forget, it's for the kids
Tonight is the night for Youth for Christ, featuring superstar Amy Grant.Click here for all the details. ...
