Gifts Like Candy

All photos Kyle Ricker, MUA

Oh the vanity of it all! I ran around a luxury department store last month in preparation for Sweetest Day 2019. According to NationalToday.com this day is designated as a day to give little sweets, cards and gifts to someone appreciated.

Let’s start with a fluffy brush. This is the Estee Lauder Kabuchi Brush. Don’t “brush off” this suggestion. This fifty dollar Powder Foundation Brush was tops on my list of extravagant items. The tool delivers the highest level of makeup artistry finishes when working with powders. I’ve been kickin’ it Kabuchi-Style for twenty years and … the only time this item needs replaced or upgraded is if 1.) The brush accidentally falls into the toilet and 2.) If a puppy eats the item.

Both of which unfortunately happened to me. This holiday – I’m the owner of a brand new bristles, the perfect accomplice to my Doublewear Powder.

Women drool for this tool once they see the finish.

Grab an Eye Lash Primer and the newest latest and greatest Rebel Length and Lift Mascara while there the counter.

Make sure there isn’t any room left in the linen closet for actual towels… Buy the Detoxifying Himalayan Salt Soak with a matching Made By Mixture giant wooden bath candle. Add these matches.

I counted a quartet of Musee Bath Bombs to be bright additions to my bag, a sleek jar of of Chanel Chance Eau Tendre Body Cream and for the actual candies — a perfectly understated flight of Godiva Truffles.

All, oh so sweet!

Apps Axed

For this past season’s summer luvin’ on lux goods series all photo editing — expelled. I don’t mess with image altering apps at all and there’s a reason why.

Number one my photographer has access to all original photos. My local news background and deadline-driven-video-camera-on-me-at-all-times persona annoys him.

He had a beer popped open this last session within two scenes.

We did adjust. Dry hair was made wet.

The curls then ruined the subsequent shots showing off the season’s hottest new Costa (del Mars).

My hair and tired swimwear (did you know a BGSU college student ran off with my new Josie Beach collection all of the patterns) made the entire spread appropriate only for a low budget boating magazine.

The entire scene had to be reworked at an idyllic beach in the backyard.

By then, I had a accumulated some color.

Hours of editing could have happened. Photo editors can change the backdrop, waistline, skintone, eye and hair color texture and tone. Swimwear shades can be adjusted and fictitious facial features can be manipulated and exaggerated in a number of smart phone apps.

In a world of false prophets and scandalous social media accounts depicting a person one truly is not is embarrassing when face-to-face encounters and real conversations occur.

The critical process is a thief of joy.

Failing to stand firm in your own truth will eventually take you down.

Fresh Skin for Fall

As soon as Labor Day Weekend wrapped up I declared: I need a facial.

With that in universe my colleague, aesthetician and former Chanel beauty rep extraordinaire messaged me to please come in and see her.

Former Chanel artist and aesthetician Aida Deeb (left) and colleague Cathy Oswald with Anders Dermatology

Her new digs, Anders Dermatology on Holland Sylvania Road in Northwest Ohio.

She signed me up for a Dermaplaning, a procedure that removes the top layers of skin and reduces the look of fine lines. A tiny scalpel is used to tenderly scrape the skin for an exfoliating treatment.

Only — I truly do not have dead skin cells. After a series of Microdermabrasions from the owner of Westshore Skin & Health in Westlake, and application of Gabriel Correctives Exfoliating Gycolic Gel, souls living where the sun barely shines couldn’t tell I had spent so much time at sea.

Lynn Dellapasta owns a home in Old Town Key West and is trained on exactly what to do to skin stressed from the tropics.

My skin had been slugged like an Atlantic side beach on Matecumbe Key after Hurricane Irma.

For the past two and a half years I’ve been drenching my skin with the world’s number one selling serum Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair. But, with the amount of sunscreen from this summer’s outdoor activities I am sure some pores were no longer perfect.

You can reach Aida, my favorite Northwest Ohio Aesthetician at 419-215-7904 or call the office 419-473-3257.