We often remember specific summers by the anthems that defined them, the tunes that topped the charts and dominated the radio waves, that served as the soundtrack to our road trips, beach dips, and sweaty flings.
Over the last few years, Western beauty companies have finally started to embrace and adopt some of the skin care practices that have long been a mainstay in Korea, where women are known to approach facial cleansing and hydration with meticulous care and a near ritualistic solemnity.
If you watched The Sound of Music a lot as a kid — and had a dad who, for reasons unknown, owned both the soundtrack and a special CD with the Vienna Boys’ Choir singing “Edelweiss” and “The Hills Are Alive” (along with marching band music tapes he’d pop in as a mild torture device whenever we weren’t getting out of bed quickly enough!) — then you might just be my life twin but, aside from that, you probably have a treasure trove of songs that pop into your head at random intervals (and in Julie Andrews’ voice of course).
As spring flowers bloom and the once-dreary skies and snow-covered expanses become a not-so-distant memory, nail polish colors also tend to experience a reawakening, moving from dramatic, indulgent, even gothic shades to exuberant brights, pretty pastels, and glistening metallics.
For years, I’ve heard women with blemish-prone skin praise turmeric for its uncanny ability to eliminate breakouts, heal acne scars, and reduce the sebaceous glands’ oil secretion, thereby leading to clearer, non-greasy skin and less visible pores.
It seems like only yesterday that we were all coveting dewy, luminous complexions and subtle, semi-sheer coverage, leading to a global BB cream craze.
When Clarins releases a new skincare product, I tend to perk up eagerly, an almost Pavlovian response developed after years of primarily positive experiences with brightening, soothing, anti-aging, and radiance-boosting formulas.
What makes a woman mysterious?
The poet William Goldsmith Brown once wrote, “The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.” This Sunday, remind your mom of how sweet you think she is and how thankful you are for her being an endless source of encouragement, love, forgiveness, understanding, and inspiration.
Don’t let its name fool you — the purplish red fruit known as “prickly pear” (and the vital ingredient in the Christophe Robin Regenerating Mask) actually grows atop the rounded pads of the Opuntia cactus indigenous to the Mexico rather than dangling from the branches of leafy trees like the Bartlett, Bosc, and Anjou pears harvested in the orchards of Washington state.
