Hellllloooooooo friends! Happy almost spring.
Have you ever heard of a staycation? That’s right: a vacation where you stay put. As in, at home. It’s the kind of thing eternal optimists tell you to do at the end of a really grueling week, when you are a) desperately in need of a break, and/or b) can’t justify the expense of a 48-hour trip out of town. So you say to yourself, “Screw the tax prep, bill-paying, and grocery shopping I was supposed to do this weekend—I’m going to treat my house like it’s a hotel and luxuriate.” Or you do what I did, because my cats drive me nuts and I’m sick of my apartment: go halfsies with a special someone and rent a room at an actual hotel.
“Packing” for a staycation seems inherently contradictory, but hear me out. The items I brought to the Standard (High Line) after New York Fashion Week were few, but true to my everyday life. My entire beauty arsenal as of late can pretty neatly fit into one oversized, unlabeled canvas pouch, ready to go with me anywhere. In my constant, ever-evolving quest to get to the core of beauty—nay, the core of life!—here’s what’s making the cut:
Has there ever been a more perfect moisturizer than Embryolisse? I think not. Time after time I see this in someone’s cabinet during a Top Shelf shoot, hear that’s it’s the best, and then I’m on it again. Are there more science-y moisturizers out there? Sure. Will this one stop aging in its tracks? No. But it feels. so. good. Same with Homeoplasmine: give me a French nipple cream to put on my lips any day of the week. It’s amazing. So simple. What is decidedly not simple is the Biologique Recherche skincare line. It can only be procured via a handful of evangelical aestheticians or 'approved' e-tailers, and is currently spreading across a certain sect of downtown ladies (e.g., Ashley Olsen) like wildfire. NYC facialist Aida Bacaj practically gives sermons on the stuff, and during a recent visit, she told me to put down my foaming cleanser and pick up Lait VIP02. So I’m on those samples, and so far, so good. I’m also trying out La Mer’s new Lifting Serum, because I’ll be 29 soon, and “lifting” is starting to have a certain ring to it.
Bioderma Créaline still can’t be beat for gently removing eye makeup, and as for cotton pads, I splurge on fancy ones from Clé de Peauor Koh Gen Do. It’s like the difference between Charmin Ultra Soft and generic.
As for things you spray, there are two that I’m currently enjoying: a pure, organic rose water facial mist from a friend-of-a-friend’s line in Paris called Doux Me, and Weleda’s Sage deodorant. It’s the only natural deodorant I’ve tried that actually works.
And teeth! Did you know that Darphin makes toothpaste? They do, and it’s in the chicest toothpaste tube you’ve ever seen. This is very luxurious toothpaste.
In the makeup department, I use three things on most days: Anastasia clear brow gel, black mascara (I’m currently enjoying the natural look of Clinique’s Naturally Glossy), and a medley of warm taupe-ish eye shadows from Revlon’s creamy, dreamy “Skinlights” Illuminance Crème Shadow palette (thanks, Jessica Diehl!). I apply a couple of the shades at random with my pinky finger along the upper and lower lash line, and I like it best at the end of a long day, when it has settled into the creases and looks sort of…melted. No joke.
Where I skimp on makeup I make up for in hair care, though, due to the blond. Having platinum hair is like wearing a white silk blouse every day of the week, dry-cleaning it every other, and trying not to spill anything on it in between. No hair commitment I’ve made in all my years—not the questionable-in-retrospect Leonardo DiCaprio-inspired mop; not the undercut—has required so much continual effort. But I love it. L-O-V-E. This is because Aura Friedman is a genius colorist, and Christophe Robin makes products. Beautiful, beautiful products, most notably the new Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt, which is an enigma of a shampoo-slash-treatment that I use all the time. I stick with Davines Silver Alchemic conditioner to keep my blond icy-grey, and on Living Proof’s Targeted Repair Cream and Nexxus Color Assure Glossing Tonic for styling pre-blow-dry. Post-blow—to smooth the inevitable sad, broken hairs that are a casualty of even the most careful bleach job—I rely on Shu Uemura Essence Absolue Nourishing Oil-In-Cream. Now, the philosophical question I’ve been pondering has to do with perception. Newly flaxen Aymeline Valade told me backstage a couple of weeks ago, “People are friendlier to me now.” Could this be?! TBD.
—Emily Weiss
Emily Weiss, wearing a Theyskens Theory slipdress and T by Alexander Wang bra, photographed by Candice Lake in New York on February 15, 2013; photos 2-4 by Emily Weiss.
