Jack & Hill: A Beauty Blog - make-up, cosmetics, perfume, and the substance of style

Should I Cut My Hair? You Decide

While I am not endowed with her other attributes, I do have about the same hair (texture, color, curliness) as Sophia Loren. A few months ago, I was looking at images of her and was taken by a short cut she had, the photo of which I sent to my hair-cutter, saying, I might want this cut when I go to Panama in January, as I will not be taking the blow-dryer (what my daughter calls my "ghetto hairdryer," to which I have essentially been harnessed since age thirteen because it nicely half-pulls out the curls). She assured me, my hair will look that way with that cut, no problem. Two images below: what my hair (if not my... attributes) sort of looks like now, on the left; the proposed cut on the right. Let the voting begin!

Laser Hair Removal, Part II

A few months back, I posted that I was going to bite the bullet on hair removal and get some laser treatments on my legs. This, for, oh, so many reasons: because the hair is dark, because there's a lot of it; because I have been waxing every month since age 17 years and am sick of shelling out the dough. Because, on those occasions when I've had to shave, the hair grows back sharp a needles, each leg hurting the other as I get under the covers.

May I just say right now that the only thing my husband has said to me of late, when he runs his leg over mine in bed, is, "Smooth." To which I now respond, "Forever smooth." Yes, this laser stuff works and then some.

As mentioned in the first post, I did a lot of research as to type of laser and price, and decided on Emerge Medical Spa, which is in Lake Oswego, about a 20-minute drive from where I live in Portland, Oregon. The staff is friendly; the place is clean, and the lasering itself not a very big deal: you buy a package of six (the number of sessions they estimate it takes to get the job done), and go every six weeks or so. The session, for full leg, takes about 90 minutes. Because there is less hair each time, the pain is exponentially less, though for me, it hasn't been bad at all. I've had two treatments and have very little regrowth, which means I'll now start putting more time between the sessions, so that any hair inclined to regrow will get a chance to, whereupon I will kill it.

I am having such good results, I am also getting the bikini done. At Emerge, you pay the same price, whether you just want to clean up the edges or get a full Brazilian. I was surprised to hear, from my aesthetician, that most women do get the full Brazilian; not me. As a friend who's also having her bikini done said last week, "The vagina's not that gorgeous to begin with, and I think I'm going to want to have a little hair covering it when I'm seventy."

Linda Mason's The Art of Beauty

Linda Mason's The Art of Beauty
Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I happened to walk past makeup artist Linda Mason's retail space yesterday in New York (yeah, I'm in NYC now - boy, do we need to catch up). What a stunning collection of beauty art. I didn't go in, but will have to return soon and check out her wares up close.

Suggestions, please!

Cake by my husband, bless him. 

It's my birthday! I am 42, which is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything; and grown-up enough to buy whatever I want, for myself. (Often the best birthday gift is one's own, as every woman discovers sooner or later.)  

So, what shall I get? The local mall has a Nordstrom and a Sephora, which covers most eventualities. I'm thinking of berry-coloured lipstick, calming smells that help one sleep, or sexy perfume. Or all three, of course. What do you love right now? Anything enjoyable and fun; not face-cream, which is a necessity, like toothpaste.

Bad hair month... so far

Nancy's experiences without shampoo were exactly what I needed to inspire a new direction in caring for my long, dry, thick, tangle-prone and increasingly wavy/curly hair... that was two weeks ago. Since then, a number of things have occurred: 

1. Total failure to find the Dax Beeswax that Nancy recommended, resulting in hours standing in the black haircare aisles, reading product labels and feeling confused. Everything seemed either 'cone-infected or oily (I'd read something online about oil being bad- but of course these mileages vary). 

2. Basic cheapo hair gel, which does encourage the waves but is also drying. And scrunching to de-crisp seems to re-encourage escaped, frizzy bits. 

3. Vitapointe hair cream contains wax but after misunderstanding how to use it I looked like Neil from The Young Ones for three days. On vacation. At a family reunion. (The first day we had no working bathroom, the second day I was ill, the third day I went out with the recommended anti-frizz t-shirt wrapped round my wet head after shampooing through gritted teeth...) 

4. Mornings. The hair wakes up newly tangled and frizzy, as if it had a much wilder time than me, all night. Misting with water and a little conditioner seems to help, but not enough to prevent me unconsciously smoothing and finger-combing and generally pulling out all the curls and ending up all flattened and Afghan-houndy. 

The picture is one side of my hair this morning. As you can see, a little tangly/ crispy/ unkempt. Still working on it.

OK, so here's the thing- I dived into this without having read the book or ordered any of the recommended Curly Girl products, and it's a learning process anyway because everyone's hair is different, and frankly the massive and mounting stash of silicone products to which my hair and I were addicted had long since ceased to do their job right. My hair is way too long and thick to wash and air-dry every morning, with or without 'poo, and had to be braided or bunned from day 2 onwards before. So already, this is better. But getting it right for once and all is going to be quite a job.

I wonder if there are any curly no-shampoo personal advisers out there?

Biting the Bullet on Hair Removal [*updated!]

I have plunked down $660 for six sessions of laser hair removal, for full legs. I did an enormous amount of research as to type of laser, and where I wanted to have it done, eventually picking Emerge Medical Spas, because they were professional and responsive and competitively priced. They use a LightSheer laser, which is pretty much state-of-the-art, so far as I am able to sleuth. I know it's generations ahead of the laser treatment I was given, gratis, thirteen years ago, when writing about hair removal for the LA Times Magazine, two three-hour treatments that, so far as I and my waxer could tell, did nothing to reduce hair. I am hopeful this time, and am doing it not so much because the monthly constitutional of getting waxed is getting boring and expensive (though that, too), but because after 20-plus years of waxing, the hairs are getting weak and having a hard time finding their way to the surface, resulting in so many ingrowns I look as though I've been attacked by a pack of bees.

I'll start the treatments as soon as I quit tanning (the laser working best with contrast, i.e., light skin and dark hair). I'll report back as to the process and its efficacy. Here's hoping!

So, have readers tried laser hair removal? What are your experiences?

Update: So I had my first laser hair removal treatment this week at Emerge (which, if you wind up going there, please tell them I recommended you as I believe I then qualify for a discount, should I have any future treatments). I like the place a lot; it's clean and low-key and none of the employees are walking around with platypus lips and/or humongous boobs. There's also no hard-sell for any other products, though they seem to offer a buffet of skin care options. Anyway, Jennifer took me to a comfy room, and told me how it was going to work: a gel (of the sort you use with a sonogram) would be spread on the area, after which she would move the laser, which does about an inch at a time, but quickly; it's very efficient. I told her, I would probably read during the treatment; she said, I probably wouldn't; that there would be a little more pain than that. And there was, but not bad; I'd put it at about a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 - 10. It feels like a little pin jab each time the laser hits the hair. An area with little hair, no jabs and no beeps from the laser; area with lots of hair (hello, knees!), lots of jabs and lots of beeps. She said, with dark hair and fair/olive skin, I am a perfect candidate and should, after the 6 treatments, see more than a 90% reduction; that sometimes, you can even see the hairs jump out -- I did!

I was done in 90 minutes, with very little redness or swelling. I liked it so much, I am going to get my bikini line done, as well as a few other areas. For less than $1500 total, I can get every unwanted hair on my body pretty much removed forever, or about what I'd spend in 15 months on waxing. Four days later, I can already tell some of the hair is gone, as the regrowth (you need to shave before treatment) is for sure less stubbly.

I will report back after next treatment, in mid-September.

Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel

True story: Yesterday, I booked a cab to the train station - approximate fare, $16 plus tip - from where I would then journey three stops to my office. (This is a rare indulgence, though one I've taken advantage of twice this week, as a well-earned gift to myself. I usually walk the two miles to another train station.) As soon as I got in the car, the cabbie turned around in his seat to face me and said, "Your perfume - it is so beautiful." When he was again facing the road, he repeated the sentence twice more for good measure.

He then offered to drive me all the way to my office for $20. On the meter, it would have been nearly double that.

What can I say? It smells damn good, with that musky, masculine undertone I love, and I wear it almost every day. I now have even fewer reasons to switch it up. 

32.

32.
Originally uploaded by dynamist.

Tuesday was my birthday. With an unexpected spare hour to get ready for work, I decided to curl my hair for the first time since high school (not quite an exaggeration). I genuinely think it set the tone for the entire, wonderful day.

Apologies for the lack of blogging lately - I've been splitting time between my new place in NYC and my usual base in Silicon Valley, and things have been hectic and messy. Let's get back to it!

I Have Not Washed My Hair in Two Months

And it looks better than it ever has.

Let me explain. I was getting my hair cut a few months ago, leafing through a book at the hairdresser's called Curly Girl. My hair is fairly curly, which I don't really mind -- and which for 30 years I have kept semi-straight with a blow-dryer. What I don't like is the frizz, which comes and goes depending on the weather, and which is always worst in high humidity; when Diane von Furstenberg entitled a chapter of her 1976 Book of Beauty: How to Become a More Attractive, Confident and Sensual Woman, "Brazil? With My Hair? Never!" I knew exactly what she meant, having my own annual losing battle-of-the-frizz on Martha's Vineyard, which, spectacular as it is, must admit to being a very bad hair island.

Anyway, Curly Girl advised that girls with curly hair should not use shampoo, ever; that the structure of our hair is such that the shampoo is absorbed, you can't properly rinse it out, and that it only makes it frizz. Instead, it advised you take a little conditioner, rub it into your scalp to loosen dirt and oils, rinse, and then condition as usual. Huh.

I tried it. Immediately, my hair behaved better. But the coup de grace to the frizz was a little jar of Dax Beeswax, which I'd had for a while but had not used. It's very thick and oily -- you can find it, for about $2.39, in the black hair care section of the supermarket or drug store -- and it smells fantastic. I put about a dime-size dab of it in my hand, rubbed it between my palms, and ran it through my hair. Then I blew dry my hair as usual, not all the way dry but enough to keep it in control.

Wow. Dare I say, my hair was lustrous? I kept doing it, all month. My husband complimented my hair, then again. He also said it smelled really good (just so you know, your head does not start to smell bad if you don't use shampoo). A month later, I went back to my hairdresser for a trim.

"Your hair's really healthy," she said, something no hairdresser has ever said.

But the real test was Martha's Vineyard, where I have been going with my mom every summer since age six, and not once, not for one bleeping day, has my hair ever looked anything but a proper wreck.

I kid you not, my hair looked great. It looked perfect. It never frizzed. Even if I didn't take the hairdryer to it, it just curled nicely, no wild woman bush. It is not an exaggeration to say, I feel liberated.

More good news: in January, we're going to Panama, whose climate is about the same as Brazil's. I'm not taking my hairdryer.

Quote of the day

To claim that girls and women want to look like blonde bombshells because of the billboards, movies, TV shows, music videos, and magazine advertisements makes as little sense as to claim that people become hungry because they are bombarded with images of food in the media. If only the media would stop inundating people with images of food, they would never be hungry! Women’s desire to be blonde preceded the media by centuries, if not millennia.

- Ben Casnocha, in his notes on Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters, by Alan Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa.

Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Inspired by Carmindy Airbrush Foundation

That's a lot of words for one little product. I didn't even know who Carmindy was, being far too loyal to the British original of Trinny and Susannah's What Not to Wear to tolerate the shrieky, very fake-seeming American version. It turns out that Carmindy is the makeup artist on that horrible show. And yet, she seems to have produced - with Sally Hansen - at least one very good product in a line called Natural Beauty. As the woman herself says of the collection:

I partnered with the Sally Hansen team to develop this breakthrough cosmetic line of the highest quality products at a price we can all afford. Natural Beauty is totally paraben-free and filled with natural anti-oxidants and botanicals. Each and every product works seamlessly together to deliver the flawless look and feel you have always wanted. You won't believe how fresh and light Natural Beauty is and how easy it is to apply.

She's not just spouting PR lines.

I tend to choose a tinted moisturizer with at least SPF 30 many days, which gives me sheer coverage. Sometimes I want to even out my skintone a bit more, which is when I opt for a proper foundation. Lately, I've been reaching more frequently for this one. (It offers no sun protection, so underneath I apply Neutrogena Age Shield Face with SPF 80.)

The word "airbrush" gives the sense that you'll be spraying your face with this stuff, and that it will Photoshop away all your imperfections. Instead, you spray the product into your hands, then blend it into your face. I don't know what the dispensing method has to do with why this foundation works so well, but it does. I don't feel I need much concealer (just under my eyes, to cover dark circles) when using it, yet it doesn't look cake-y or heavy.

At $13.50, I don't think you're going to find a better everyday option for foundation. (Trust me, I've shelled out many times that for the Vincent Longos of the world, and am very gunshy about returning.)

The Scarlett (Johansson)

This is the bleached blonde bob that Mrs. Ryan Reynolds is sporting in the new Mango campaign. I find it exceedingly sexy. If I could bear to have my hair touch my forehead or cheeks, I would be getting this cut today.

No, it's not far off the deceptively simple-looking cut that Sally Hershberger designed for Meg Ryan a few years ago - but then I loved that, too. But this is total JBF hair and I love it. I suspect that it would work well for women of all ages, but would work best on blondes and redheads.

What do you think?

MAC Naked Honey Body Wash

Full disclosure: MAC sends me a ton of products every month - an overwhelming, but wonderful selection of free cosmetics, skincare, and some of the most beautiful promotional artwork you've ever seen.

With that out of the way, I must tell you that their new Naked Honey Body Wash is simply the most glorious thing I've ever used in the shower. The smell is incredible - the honey melds with the scent of narcissus, jasmine, and a bit of lavender for the slightly masculine edge that I love. My only complaint is that the scent is perhaps a bit too subtle. That said, I used it during my evening shower and woke up in the morning wondering, "Hey, why do I smell so amazing?"

The entire Naked Honey collection of thirteen items includes a skin salve, a body cream, and a fragrance. I think I shall be spending some of my hard-earned ducats on a few of these products as soon as I can.

John Frieda Luminous Color Glaze

I'd read and heard so much about this product - all raves - that I just had to try it.

But first, I had to find it. I searched high and low, in every Duane Reade I passed in Manhattan, and couldn't find it. They all seemed to stock the Luminous Color Glaze Clear Shine, which does not impart any color "re-awakening" as the Luminous Color Glaze does, but I wanted the real deal. I may have gotten a bargain on my new hair color, but I was willing to spend $9.99 to keep it fresh.

Of course, I found the brunette version of Luminous Color Glaze at the CVS right around the corner from my apartment.

I've only used this once, today, and it's supposed to take three uses before a difference is apparent. You're also supposed to use it every time you wash your hair - a minimum of three times per week. (No sweat for me; while I usually try to go every other day between washes immediately following a color treatment, usually I have to shampoo daily or I just feel unclean.)

So, I'll let you know how it works out. In the meantime, what are you doing with your hair for summer - lighter, darker, highlights, shorter, or the ponytail thing? While I like my new haircut, I've been seriously considering getting it chopped down to about three inches of messy tufts. But I don't think my physical features are delicate enough to carry it off. What are your summer haircut plans and fantasies?

Maybelline The Colossus Volum' Express Mascara

Maybelline Colossus Volum'Express Mascara
Originally uploaded by dynamist.

What annoys me about this product is the marketing. This model is clearly wearing mega false lashes. Does Maybelline really think women are that dumb?

I didn't see that photo until now, when I was looking for a link to the Maybelline page. I'd heard some good buzz about this mascara, and even Nigella Lawson loves it:

[T]here's a sort of game I play with a girlfriend of mine, and we each try and trump each other with a better mascara. I was very smug about Max Factor Masterpiece, and she countered with Estee Lauder Turbolash. I thought I'd got her with L'Oreal Telescopic but she bounced back and bounced higher with her latest offering: I have to say I have yet to find a better mascara on the market than Maybelline's The Colossal Volum' Express. It delivers what its slightly comical name is driving at, and it doesn't clump.

Indeed, this product nails separation, which is hugely important to me. My lashes are naturally long (which I had no hand in), so lengthening isn't important for me. But this is a very neat formula; the anti-Great Lash, I suppose. I didn't wear it on my lower lashes - I almost always leave them bare, for reasons of neatness - but loved the effect on my upper lashes.

All this for less than $8? I think I'll be a repeat buyer of this one.

Shear Bliss

After walking in to a random threading place and getting an excellent set of new eyebrows for a measly $6, I thought it must be my lucky day. So I walked into Shear Bliss in the Murray Hill/Kips Bay area of Manhattan while walking home from a meeting and asked what the odds were of getting a cut and color right then. As it happened, they were excellent, and I'm very happy with the job Coco did for me. As a new customer, I also got a free haircut and discounted blow dry with the color, for a total of only $95.

As much as I was loving how my hair was growing so long, a) it's summer, b) the long and short layers thing was annoying the crap out of me, and c) I don't think long hair does much for me.

I mean, I'm always pulling it back to get it out of my face, and I'm too lazy to use a curling iron or straighteners on it very often, even though I tell myself, "Well, I can STYLE long hair in such pretty ways!" Except that I don't. Hair that just hangs there, looking average, is the ugliest hair of all.

I'm pretty sure this length also makes the most of my bone structure and eyes (or at least that's what lots of people tell me.) As for the color, it's a dark chocolate like I naturally had as a child. Coco informed me that my natural hair color now is not, as I have claimed for years, light brown. She said it's a dark blond. I say let's just call it mousy and leave it at that. So I especially love the darker shade I've got now, which goes best with my coloring.

What a fortunate day. Shame I didn't buy a lottery ticket.

Shear Bliss
397 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016
(212) 213-6050

Bath & Body Works Aromatherapy Sleep - Lavender and Chamomile

For Christmas, Hillary's 17-year-old son gifted me with a stuffed black sheep (he inherited his mother's sense of humor) and a big bottle of Bath & Body Works Aromatherapy Sleep Body Wash with lavender and chamomile. My first two, ungrateful thoughts:

1) Oh, great, another bottle of freaking body wash.
2) Oh, great, lavender and chamomile. I always wanted to smell like an 85-year-old shut-in.

But I was more than pleasantly surprised when I used the wash that night before bed. I don't know about any of the claims that the formula helps induce a restful night's sleep, but I do know that it smells absolutely incredible. It's nothing like the old lady-ish scent I feared, and the lavender gives it a slight masculine edge that I love. (Beauty trivia: Prince Charles wears cologne made from the lavender he grows in his gardens at Highgrove.) 

I met with the PR rep that handles Bath & Body Works' Aromatherapy line last week, and gushed to her about how much I love this fragrance. She gave me a bottle of hand soap in the same exact scent, and I have been become even more OCD about washing my hands ever since. I'm also smelling my fingers a lot, which I'm sure would look strange if there was anyone around to watch me, but since there isn't, I will continue to be a finger sniffer.

 Now all I need is the body lotion and my life will be complete.

PS: B&BW is having a two for $20 sale on selected mix and match body care products right now, so this would be a good time to stock up.

Avon True Color Bronzer + Rock & Republic Trickery Tinted Illuminizer

I always groan when a PR sends me bronzer; it is always, without fail, way too dark for my skin. The faintest application makes it look like I've just got a dirty face. It looks cheap, fake, and embarrassing, as if having pale skin is something to be ashamed of.

That said, I do miss being tan. I grew up, until age 9, right on Lake Erie. I can't recall my parents ever applying sunblock to me. (The picture at right was taken in 1978, shortly before my second birthday. I've cropped out the Coppertone baby tan lines that resulted from me running around the beach in a diaper and bathing suit bottoms all summer long.)

After we moved away from the lake, I spent almost every day in the summer at the city pool - mostly because I had a crush on one of the lifeguards. I occasionally applied SPF 15, coconut-scented sunscreen because I didn't own perfume.

And as a teenager, I worked in a tanning salon, the only real benefit of which was unlimited free tanning.

Which is precisely why I am now so hyper-vigilant about not getting a real tan. At age 31, the wrinkle fear is here to stay. Not to mention that cancer sounds like an experience I can live without.

But sometimes I do want that fabled sunkissed glow. This week, I think I found the combination of products to give it to me:

1) Avon True Color Bronzer in Sunkissed (for which I could find no web link) excited me as soon as Avon's PR showed it to me. It doesn't even look like a bronzer, because the shade is so reasonable. As it turns out, it does give a very subtle hint of warmth, as if I've spent a day walking around the county fair with only SPF 15. No streaks, no dirty look.

2) Rock & Republic Trickery Tinted Illuminizer is excellent for adding highlights to your bronzed face, so the look is more three-dimensional. I use it at my temples, at the tops of my cheekbones, and along my upper eyelids. This product is a keeper, though I'm not sure I'd have paid $48 for it without a bit of angst. (I got mine for free from Rock & Republic's PR firm.)

What are your surefire ways to look subtly tanned without being mistaken for Brooke Hogan? Or do you just embrace your naturally pale skin, don a straw hat, and try to walk on the shady side of the street? (Advice Goddess Amy Alkon, a dear friend of both mine and Hillary's, really rocks the hottest sun protection look I've ever seen.)

A Kiehl's mea culpa from a new convert

For some reason, I thought I wasn't a Kiehl's fan, even though both Nancy and Hillary use and love many Kiehl's products. But I am attracted by the simplicity of their packaging and presentation; I feel like I'm paying for actual product, not a box or ostentatious packaging (which I have nothing against, except when it's better than what it contains).

On Friday, I spent some time with Kiehl's seemingly effortlessly beautiful PR manager for the US, Rachael Kelly. My friend Matthew and I met Rachael at the original Kiehl's store and apothecary, which the company has occupied since 1851. It's a pretty cool place, all exposed brick and Steve McQueen's old motorcycles propped up in corners.

I don't want to make this post all about Rachael, but she's a really good PR person. (Working in marketing and PR, nothing grates like an incompetent one, and few things please me as much as interacting with a PR who knows what she's doing. She's open, friendly, genuine, and doesn't recite from any script.)

We spent over an hour with her, talking products and why so many natural/organic claims are bogus, as well as about how Kiehl's puts an emphasis on SPF (their routine departs from the traditional "cleanse, tone, moisturize" and is more like "cleanse, moisturize, protect").

I've spent a bit of time testing out a few of the products she gave us - Rachael was very generous - and right now I'm wondering why it took me so long to start using their Ultra Facial Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 15. Nancy blogged about this wonderous product here nearly a year ago. I'm pretty much not in the market for another tinted moisturizer or foundation right now, thanks to this. (That's me, at right, wearing it with only a bit of powder and blush on top.)

I passed some of the samples she gave me to Matthew, so his mother and sister could test them - such as the Marvelous Mineral Mascara. Rachael was wearing this and it looked very pretty on her, but in a minimalist, barely-there way. I like a little more oomph from my mascara, so don't think it would suit me. (It is paraben-free and fragrance-free, if you're sensitive about such things.)

Both Matthew and I immediately took to the Superbly Restorative Argan Skin Salve. It helped rescue his dried, cracked cuticles without an overpowering or feminine scent; I found it very soothing on a rash I was starting to develop. It's a very solid salve, not goopy, so there's no mess when you use it.

I've got a lot more products to test, but I felt obligated to take back immediately my previously sneering attitude toward Kiehl's. These are items I'd pay for, and have no hesitation about recommending. Do you use Kiehl's products? Which ones should I buy?

Anne Hathaway at the Met Ball

How such creative people with so much money (and freebies) at their disposal manage to make such a potentially interesting, fun event so boring is beyond me. Maybe it's all the drugs?

One highlight for  me amongst the Met Ball monotony was Anne Hathaway's look. Anne is the kind of girl whom I used to find extraordinarily beautiful, like a young Nigella Lawson. Recently, I've found that she either looks very pretty or downright awkward. (As someone who tends to look very goofy indeed in candid shots, I know how annoying this can be.)

But it was great to see her working the '60s retro look - and resembling Nigella more than ever - at the Met Ball. I loved the hair, and the makeup was perfect, even if the dress was just so-so. Lancôme did Anne's makeup - here's the rundown from their PR department:

Celebrity makeup artist Leslie Lopez gave Hathaway her ultra-glamorous, ultra-dramatic look, with smokey eyes as the focal point. Leslie swept Lancôme Color Design Eyeshadow in Statuesque over the entire eyelid, dabbed Color Design Eyeshadow in Daylight on the brow bone and finished with several coats of Lancôme L'Extreme Mascara in Black. Anne’s sheer, neutral colored lipstick--Lancôme L’Absolu Rouge Lipstick in Couture Suede—was the perfect finishing touch.

Aside: Anne Hathaway was college roommates with one of my friends, who reported that there is absolutely no juicy gossip or anything weird about the actress. How tragic!