12 Days of Christmas Gifts

Photos by Erik Tyger

Let’s start with the Ugg Cozy Crew Pom Pom Socks. I have a pair in Christmas Red. (They are) cute, warm and festive for the entire season.

As we all know Christmas IS the first day of Christmas. The day Christ is born. The Twelve Days of Christmas, or Christmastide, is the period leading up to The Epiphany, or January 6, in most Christian churches. This is the day the Magi bring Baby Jesus their gifts. I choose to celebrate the season with these ancient traditions, but am hustling in some ideas to mark the bustle of the retail season and everyone else’s shopping habits.

The Red Pom Pom socks match the ribbon on the black wrought-iron sleigh bed and fuzzy throw from Pier One. The Martime Red Pima Cotton Turtleneck my dad gave me as a Christmas Gift eighteen years ago. Order the exact one here from L.L. Bean.

Yes. There are people who’s Dad’s baby sister gives them Christmas Jammies and their Dad’s little brother’s wife gifts them tea cups with little birds to match the bed sheets.

Only, I stole the sheets. The fabric belonged to my Grandma. While my mother was attempting to sell them, I stole them with this design idea in my mind. Remember one cannot buy the Spirit of the Season. Only the details. For the socks click here. The rest is about the soul.

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.

Bronze Goddess GIVEAWAY !!!!

Photos: Me and Steven Drescher

To celebrate four more weeks of summer, anything and everything cosmopolitan beach and my Number One pick for Lux goods to make those poolside hours and cabana rendezvous all the more intoxicating : the Bronze Goddess Collection by Estée Lauder, I’m hosting a giveaway.

Here is what I am giving away:

This Bronze Goddess Prize Package featuring:

  • 1.7 Ounce Eau Fraiche Skinscent, features Sicilian Bergamot and Juicy Mandarin Pulp making the smell of summer so sweet and all about sun, sand and an umbrella drink
  • The world’s No. 1 Illuminating Powder Gelee in Heat Wave

Here is how to enter to win:

Those are the steps to this sweet summer prize pack.
The winner will be chosen Wednesday, August 28 at 8 a which gives everyone roughly twenty four hours to post those favorite Summer photos.

The official Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess prize will be postmarked and shipped immediately to the winner from a remote island.

Let the Sun Worship You

Summer Luvin No. 1

Photos Stephen Drescher

There are a couple of ways to designate a Number One pick of luxury summer goods for the globe to digest. One is that I am using the item and decided the days in my life would not be of the same intoxicating enjoyment without. Number two: my colleagues representing Chanel buy the goods from me.

Let me just note: topping the Costa del Mar sunglasses is not easy. Hitting the number one spot is the entire Bronze Goddess collection from Estee Lauder.

I wrote about this fragrance over one year ago when I first discovered the mixture of frangipanis, Italian Bergamot and Juicy Madarin Pulp.

Since then I’ve amassed an entire wardrobe from this Global Cult favorite. The Body Scrub, The Whipped Body Cream, Heat Wave Illuminating Powder Gelee, one of the new Mineral Infused Matte Bronzer, Eau Frache Skinscent and the 2018 Eyeshadow Palette.

This posh palette for Summer can only be found (appropriately) on Poshmark or ebay at this point. The 2019 Desert Heat Palette one is going to have to search for; but there is this Limited Edition Goddess Glow Eyeshadow Palette for under forty dollars.

The eyeshadows, bronzers,, and highlighter keep the sunkissed, cosmopolitan beach look going all year; because when the leaves begin to turn in the Fall, the sun lovers and beach lovers in us all begin booking and packing for adventures to MIA and South.

Want to lock in endless summer follow my social media pages and I am going to be giving away a one-point seven ounce Eau Fraiche Skinscent and the Heat Wave Illuminating Power Gelee . Let’s Let the Sun Worship You and celebrate the last four weeks of Summer 2019.

Summer Luvin’ No. 2

There is a true tie between my favorite luxury gear for Summer 2019 in the number one and number two spots.

I will die with both on me and request burial with both products.

Number two on the list are my Costa Del Mar Sunglasses.

I have been wearing Costas since 2009 when given a pair of Isabellas with a black and raspberry frame as a fantastic gift from Divers Direct Key West; which also included, the assignment of the lifetime.

I got to #SeeWhatsOutThere to put my years on top of the ocean on a dive boat and under the ocean’s surface lightly.

This sunglass concept was Born on the Water in 1983 by some forward thinking fishermen for those one with the ocean and lakes. Designed for both: Sport Performance and the Beach Lifestyle I would not be falsifying this fashion essential when I emphasize I do wear these everywhere. (I wear them) on the golf course, boating, to work and play on the islands and the mainland. They’re so sleek I had them on the other day with black business attire and heels.

I love this piece of luxury gear not only because of the look but due to the design.

The Hydrolite nose pads allow me to move them on top of my head and into my hair without bending and breaking.

I snagged this super sleek pair of Gannet Polarized Round Sunglasses in Shiny Black with rose gold trim for under two hundred dollars at Dillard’s.

To shop the selection click here.

Summer Luvin’ No. 3

Photos: Dana and Me

“Wow! Look at your tan!”

“You are definitely not white (Caucasian!)”

(I am South Eastern European with a little Swiss and French).

“Where have you been? You are so tan.”

A shot of sunshine is healthy. Meaning between thirty and ninety minutes a day. The Vitamin D boosts mood and immunity. I am also letting everyone in on a known secret to boost the bronze glow. This is a trick myself and my high school classmates discovered back in the 90s after a memorable cruise to the Bahamas.

We stopped at a surf shop on Cocoa Beach. A volleyball teammate of mine grabbed a bottle of Banana Boat After Sun Lotion. A cream designed to tone her North Coast skin after taking on the tropical sun.

After sun products work. They produce a glow, deepen skin tone, and smooth skin. They do not work the same as self tanners. The scent – delicious. Introducing Sun Bum®️ Cool Down, a Premium Moisturizing After Sun Lotion (a)

“Soothing and Cooling Aloe Lotion with Rich Cocoa Butter and Jojoba Seed Oil. (To) preserve and extend Tan.”

The product introduced in 2010, which hails from Cocoa Beach (Florida’s East Coast), is:

  • Vegan
  • Gluten Free
  • Antioxidant Enriched (Vitamin E)
  • Dermatologist Tested
I reach for the Sun Bum®️ After Sun Lotion after all of my outdoor activities; including, tennis, golf and swimming. Plus, I put the product on before work in the morning.

Eight ounces is twelve dollars. Proving: we can all Live the Dream; or, at least look as though we are.

For the Lux Sunsscreen I’m using back track to my first post of Summer Luvin’. For the scents I’m layering on top of the cream hit No. 4. To see how I’m Toting all of this gear around; including in my treasured Pelican Case from Diver’s Direct, head to No. 9.

I’ll add links now later. I am sure many of you have joined in me — in blogging on the go — from one of your iPhone’s – while calling clients and giving editing directions to a man on an island – and golfing with your man trying to convince him he needs to model his new swim trunks.

Summer Luvin’ No. 4

I like giving (and receiving) gifts. Something else I like: charcuterie boards! I love different styles and textures, the ambiance they add to gatherings, shopping for the elements, decorating the board and of course eating every delicious morsel on them.

I just gave this seventeen inch marbled charcuterie board by Mud Pie as a gift (but really as a gift for me). The copper plated initial adds a swanky understated factor to the housewares find.

This weighted conversation piece comes with a hammered cheese knife to compliment the design.
I piled on gourmet berries, cheeses, chocolates and crackers.

Charcuterie is a French word and means cooked meat; mainly pork, which is why Pepperoni, Salami, and Proscuitto are the main attraction.

This one showcases simple slices of DeLallo Pepperoni that contains beef. I have put Coastal Living Magazine award-winning party plates together with smoked salmon drenched in minced olives, lemon and onion.

When the kids are around I swap the aged cheese and Brie for a dish of peanut butter and cheese strips and the occasional crustless PB&J.

For thirty-six dollars this is the cutest non-wooden snack tray I’ve seen.

I’m swigging San Pellegrino Terme these days but add on a matching marble wine stopper for twenty dollars.

Summer Luvin’ No. 5

All photos by Steven Drescher

Touted by the makers as Crisp, Radiant, and Addictive Eau De Soleil Blanc by Tom Ford’s Collection for men and women has secured my number five spot for top picks of luxury goods for Summer 2019.

“Eau De Soleil Blanc… (is) drenched with sparkling citrus. The vibrant twist on the floral amber warmth mirrors crystalline reflection of the white sun, a sensuous gleam of sky on water.”

Containing notes of Bitter Orange Peel and Moroccan Orange Blossom plus Ylang Ylang from the Comores Islands, the fifty milliliter bottle is summer in a bottle for one hundred and twenty eight dollars.

I didn’t leave with just one. Not when the Tom Ford Private Collection is one of the most prized by aficionados around the globe.

Cool, Salty, Refreshing…Costa Azzurra Acqua is an aromatic fragrance with fresh fougere and citrus facets.

Hemingway could have penciled the ambiance of the blend merging cool air and refreshing waters as one.

“The salty waves of wind and sea collide with the warmth of the sun on the body, tempering its pulsating red-blooded heat. An instant hit of exhilarating sea air mixes saltiness with the woody macchiato of the beach, a wild tangle of cypress, juniper and myrtle.”

A one hundred milliliter bottle is one hundred and eighty dollars.