Welcome Spring: Self-Tan Those Sticky Outy Parts

Canadian spring’s ‘two steps forward, one step back’ rhythm means you may find yourself bundled in a parka while wearing sneakers with exposed ankles. I don’t need the world to see how pale I got over the winter (Narnia’s White Witch pale-verging-on-translucent) so I self-tan, but only the parts that show: forearms and hands and shins to feet. It’s the beauty equivalent of cleaning only the rooms that guests will see.

For this targeted tanning, I use Clarins Radiance Plus Golden Glow Booster self-tan drops, $49, that you mix into your own lotion for a made-to-measure tan of whichever intensity you choose. And it’s not finicky at all. Just add three to six drops onto a squirt of your favorite lotion sitting in the palm of your hand — then rub it into your skin for a natural-looking, buildable tan. (Carefully wash your palms and scrub your cuticles with a nail brush, so you don’t look like a weirdo chain-smoker with brownish fingertips.)

My own proprietary blend is to add the Clarins drops to Caudalie’s new Vinotherapist Hyaluronic Nourishing Body Lotion, Sephora, $42, a star in the ‘body care with skincare ingredients’ firmament. Sure, it contains super-moisturizing shea butter, but also has water-attracting hyaluronic acid to counteract that weird seersucker puckering thing your skin does after menopause. Vinotherapist quickly absorbs into skin so you can get dressed right away, unlike heavy creams that require you to sit around, naked and freezing, while waiting for them to sink in.

The crowning touch is the Vinotherapist signature scent: light, airy and uplifting. You will get a beautiful faux tan and smell expensively French.

Chic Bathroom Accessories From the Pharmacy

A minimalist bathroom tableau for tired eyes. Toothbrush, Hello Products, soap: Yardley London, marble cup: Homesense.

I will die on this hill. The most important part of a hotel room is not the firmness of the mattress, the strength of the wifi signal or the number of electrical outlets. It’s the quality of the bathroom amenities. I want weighty, hard-milled soaps from beloved or cool new brands, rich bath gels and velvety body creams. Fiddling with a strange hot water dial is difficult enough, but to be stuck using public restroom-grade soaps and thin lotions make the whole affair feel like a women’s prison episode of Charlie’s Angels.

A hard no: bright colours disturb a serene bathroom.

The black toothbrush and soap, above, give my humble bathroom some much-needed ‘fancy hotel room’ energy. The black soap hints at luxurious impracticality (will it stain my towel? No. It will not) while the black toothbrush is a minimal chic alternative to all the kiddie toy-coloured ones on offer nowadays, (right). Bathrooms should be serene, not searing your eyeballs right before bed.

Low key luxe: Stockholm’s Ett Hem hotel bathrooms are stocked with Marvis toothpaste and black Fueguia soap..

My new beloved black toothbrush didn’t come from some ‘curated’ (translation: overpriced) boutique. It’s from Hello, a line of dental care products that launched in Canada last year, bringing newness to the sleepiest aisle in the drugstore.

Hello toothpastes contain real peppermint and breath-freshening tea tree oil, their whitening toothpaste is peroxide-free and there’s even travel-friendly toothpaste tablets (right).

But it was the black toothbrush, $5.99, drug and grocery stores, with its plant-based handle and sustainable, charcoal-infused bristles that made my bathroom look a little newer and cooler. And as if that weren’t enough, Hello tubes, caps, mouthwash bottles and brushes are now easily recycled through a free mail-back program with TerraCycle.

The beautiful, hard-milled charcoal soap in the photo is courtesy of venerable soap maker Yardley London, who have expanded well beyond their classic rose and lavender bars (which are great for scenting your lingerie and sock drawers and you should definitely get some just for that purpose). Their black charcoal soap purifies skin and wakes you up with the scent of spearmint. There’s also a new hemp seed oil bar scented with herbs and rose that makes your bathroom smell like a spa.

And a final shoutout to Homesense. Remember when lockdown ended and there were long lineups outside every last Homesense store? All the online shopping in the world cannot replace walking those aisles in peace. And it was in the Homesense bathroom accessories section that I found the above marble cup for $9.99. Bless.

Let’s Keep Chanel Cuir de Russie Our Secret

Chanel Cuir de Russie, photographed against a sweater because it is the most luxurious #sweaterweatherperfume ever.

With all this (social) distance, some of us have been ‘free pouring’ our perfume to make a big olfactory statement. Forget that ‘your fragrance should only be detectable by your lover in your arms’ nonsense. We need scent that can be smelled across a room and through a mask, and perfume houses have obliged with ever-bigger smoky, leathery fragrances (Tom Ford’s new Ebène Fumé is selling out everywhere) that are as brash and aggressive as a banker bro loudly ordering ‘top shelf’ vodka shots in a noisy bar.

But the perfect bold leather-and-woods scent already exists and surprise - it’s from 1927.

Les Exclusifs de Chanel Cuir de Russie, (75 ml, edp $250 CAN) is a velvety, smoky dream created by Ernest Beaux to sate Madame Chanel’s obsession with all things Russian. In addition to birch tar (that ‘Russian leather’ note) it packs in musks, woods and smoke all encircling a very Chanel-esque rose and jasmine heart. (Ernest Beaux, after all, created Chanel No 5 six years earlier.)

If you’re going to spring for one Verdura Maltese cross, you might as well get two. (This pair actually belonged to Mme. Chanel herself.)

It’s arguably a men’s fragrance for women, although what does ‘unisex’ even mean anymore? Cuir de Russie would be equally at home on a gentleman in a Charvet shirt or a woman who pushes up the sleeves of her Chanel jacket to show off twin Verdura Maltese cross bracelets. But you can just wear it with your athleisure and marvel as it makes you unconsciously put your shoulders back and stand straighter than any Pilates class ever could.

And unlike formerly niche scents (remember when Le Labo Santal 33 went from cool to over-exposed?) you still don’t smell Cuir de Russie everywhere. It has maintained its ‘deep cut’ status. So if you buy it and someone asks what you’re wearing, just fib, ok?

Worth It: Biologique Recherche Masque Vernix

When it’s minus 10 degrees outside and the air inside is as dry as a space station airlock you have to bring out the big skincare guns. I wouldn’t waste an expensive gem like Biologique Recherche Creme Masque Vernix, $210, (biologique-recherche.com for stockists) on my face when it’s warm out, but come endless January, you do what you gotta do.

The name is something of a metaphor. Masque Vernix is meant to mimic the vernix caseosa, the waxy protective layer coating the skin of newborns. This mask takes your winter-beaten, sad, ashy face and replaces it with the glowy untroubled visage of someone who just returned from a month at a beach shack in Trancoso.

The ingredients are a greatest hits package of nurturing elements like ceramides (the fatty ‘grout’ between the tiles that are your skin cells) cholesterol (bad for the blood vessels, excellent for your skin) and ‘amniotic fluid’, an extract that replicates the protein and lipid-rich amniotic fluid bathing fetuses in the womb, because they need cosseting and protecting and so do we.

Skip this if you are squeamish: A colleague once whispered to me that her former surgical nurse-slash-crazy aunt, now in her 80s, claimed that back in the day she and her fellow nurses would save the vernix from c-section newborns to use as skin cream. I am pretty certain this is wildly unethical and breaks any number of rules and probably not even true, so you did’t it from me.

#sweaterweatherperfume Moroccanoil Brumes du Maroc

There’s a house-cleaning cheat where you only do the bare minimum of wiping down the stove and sink with your most heavily-scented cleaning product to make the whole house smell like you deep-cleaned even when you didn’t.

Moroccanoil Brumes du Maroc hair and body fragrance mist, $36, Sephora.ca, operates from the same principle. Spray your dry hair and body with that signature Moroccanoil amber, floral, earthy scent to trick you into thinking you just did a hair mask. And because Brumes du Maroc contains argan (aka Moroccan) oil, vitamin E and glycerin, your winter-parched skin and hair will even get some immediate and always welcome moisture. Spray liberally when you emerge from the shower and then wrap your beautifully scented self in your favourite sweater. It’s a perfect lift when we’re smack in the middle of winter.

And if you spray your hair after washing and then twist it into a top knot, when you release it after a time, not only will you get summery waves, but also that wonderful scent which will have somehow amplified in the intervening hours. And while I would never endorse getting an actual sun tan, this fragrance is also perfect to wear after using self-tanner, both as a complement to your ‘faux’ bronzed skin and also to hide that, uh, ‘singular’ self-tanner smell.

Glowing Skin For the Super Lazy

With most things in life, you have to put in the work to see results. You can’t eat Twizzlers at four p.m. every day and expect to lose weight. This is tiresome and unfair.

Dermalogica Age Smart Skin Resurfacing Cleanser, $63, dermalogica.ca, is made for anyone who finds multi-step skincare routines needlessly complex and time-consuming. Made with easily-tolerated lactic acid (the greatest exfoliant for older skin because it also moisturizes) Dermalogica’s Age Smart Resurfacing Cleanser is a two-for-one hero.

Use it as a regular daily cleanser (no more than once a day) but then twice a week turn it into a mask. Massage it in and instead of immediately rinsing it off, leave it on for a minute (start slowly) and then rinse and note how the gentle-but-mighty lactic acid handily lifts off dead skin cells, speeding their turnover and leaving your skin noticeably smoother and glowing. And just like that, you’ve just given yourself a fuss-free exfoliating mask.

Follow up with Dermalogica’s Biolumin-C Vitamin C Gel moisturizer, $89, Sephora.com, for even more brightening (gràce à vitamin C) and you will have just done good things for your skin with practically no effort. And don’t forget to use sunscreen afterwards to protect your newly peeled skin. You wouldn’t want sun damage to ruin all that effort.

Tom Ford White Suede: #sweaterweatherperfume for bitterly cold days

Tom Ford’s White Suede eau de parfum should have been a superstar.

Launched in 2009, White Suede (50 ml, $335, The Bay) has been quietly earning fans as a smoky-into-powdery, musk skin scent. Beloved but always under the radar, it never reached the front ranks. Maybe it was too subtle to be a huge, noisy hit?

Back then, Tom Ford was best known for his room-filling, attention-grabbing Black Orchid, so it’s easy to see how White Suede slipped by unnoticed. Unlike Black Orchid, which smells like seduction or the promise of a party, White Suede is what you want on ‘big sweater and undone hair’ days, which are most days to a lot of us. Maybe this stealth allure resonates more now?

White Suede is quiet. Even though it is rich and layered, courtesy of rose, oud, saffron and frankincense, with unexpected brightness from thyme and lily of the valley, it never shouts. It’s a powdery, soft musk, in a quietly smoky leathery frame.

It’s perfect when you want something singular and not easily identified. And it will never turn sweet or overly floral as it dries down. Which is the kind of integrity and steadfastness we need going forward.

An Authentic NYE With This One Simple Trick

Dark red lipstick and a pair of diamonds encrusted snakes winding their way up your arm is all you need for New Year’s Eve.

I’m going to make our quiet New Year’s Eve feel like a crowded 1990s party by getting Craig to blow cigarette smoke directly into my hair after I go hard with red lipstick and spray myself with an extravagant evening fragrance. I really miss the perfume-plus-smoke smell of a party and want to feel like I had a wonderful time at an overcrowded fête without actually spending time in an unventilated room with drunken strangers.

But where can I buy just one cigarette? Maybe lighting and then blowing out a stick of Palo Santo to wave around my head would work equally well, because Palo Santo is something I actually have.

And these two newish perfumes epitomize the big party vibe I crave.

Mugler Angel Nova eau de parfum, $115, Shoppers Drug Mart, launched last year when no one was feeling particularly festive, so I am drawing your attention to it now. It doesn’t smell much like the famously vanilla/patchouli/cotton candyish Angel. It’s more of a tipsy, smeared lipstick scent: all waxy rose and woods, patchouli and musk. It smells like being beautifully dressed and somewhat slutty, but slutty somewhere cool, like Venice.

Carolina Herrera Very Good Girl eau de parfum, $130, Shoppers Drug Mart, starts out as a happy, fizzy cocktail with lychee and red currant before deepening into dark rose and resinous vetiver. It’s like a shiv hidden under a poofy crinoline. Or like a sleek-limbed vamp in a black and white Helmut Newton photo (see above).

Burt’s Bees 100% natural Lip Crayon in Napa Vineyard, $9.99, London Drugs, is an under-appreciated gem with clean beauty bona fides at a drugstore price. The colour is a deep rich red, the formula is beautifully moisturizing and the twist up crayon format makes it easy to apply. We need the small joy of buying a glorious product that doesn’t make our wallets shriek. New year, new budgetary restraint, amirite?

#sweaterweatherperfume For Only $14

We interrupt gift guide season to suggest you buy yourself something small when you’re stuck at the mall with your long list and your waning patience.

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It’s very Cool Girl to not let price dictate what you like. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was known for wearing Karim Abdul Egyptian Musk Oil that she would buy from NYC street vendors. The Body Shop White Musk perfume oil has that same quiet cool energy. It’s a gentle skin scent that doesn’t smell like ‘perfume’ per se, but instead becomes a part of you. This is especially welcome during sweater season when you are hiding your actual skin away under so many layers.

White Musk was the first non-animal derived musk, when it launched in (gulp) 1981 and its most recent iteration, launched this year, is now 100% vegan. And if you did wear it way back in the early 80s, when we all flocked to The Body Shop for Kiwi Fruit lip balm and Peppermint Foot Lotion, you’ll be happy to know it is still the same great ‘laundry’ musk, with floral notes to subtly amplify its clean vibe.

Isn’t it reassuring when something you loved in your youth hold ups and isn’t a massive embarrassment now?

The Best Luxury Beauty For Giving

Sure, Hermès Les Mains Hermès nail enamels, $63, Holt Renfrew, might look like the most extreme sort of frivolity, but the colours (inspired by Hermes’ iconic leather shades) are beautifully executed and have wonderful depth. They’re a lovely gift for a friend if you feel hesitant buying them for yourself.

19/99 Beauty’s Countertop Precision Colour pencil set, $134, 1999beauty.ca, is all the Canadian brand’s carefully curated pencils for eyes, lips and cheeks gathered in a sleekly graphic glass cup. Having everything in front of you lets you simplify your daily ‘get out of the house’ makeup or amp it up for a holiday festivities with minimal fuss.

So many ‘holiday’ makeup offerings are just intense ‘evening’ colours garishly overloaded with excessive shimmer or chunky glitter. The Gift Edition $180.64, from Westman Atelier lets you create a festive less-is-more holiday look with only two items: a gleaming pearly oyster highlighter stick and a quartet of richly pigmented, moisturizing matte lip shades.

Sulwhasoo’s herbal facial soap is skincare masquerading as a beautiful bathroom accessory. You get two bars of antioxidant-rich red ginseng soap and a delicate filigree-patterned soap dish for only $50. Holt Renfrew.com.

This trio of Fresh Colour & Care Hydrating Lip Gift Set is only $35 (luxury isn’t just about price) at Sephora.ca, but the joy of having a heavyweight balm (the metal cases feel substantial and solid) in your coat pocket, in your bag and one by your reading chair cannot be overstated.

I see new Kérastase Chronologiste Sérum Universel, $250, Kerastase.ca, as more of an extravagant hair perfume (fragrance lasts longer on hair than skin after all) with nourishing benefits, then as a haircare product. The tea rose, wood and musk scent is rich and deeply fancy while hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and deep sea Abyssine tame frizz, plump hair fibres and protect from external aggressors. It even comes in its own dust-bag (I am a sucker for a good dust bag.)