My holiday hit early. One of my customers, whose makeup I have applied over the years for her various grandchildren’s weddings, exclaimed to me, “I wish I could give you a box of chocolates.”
My reply, “oh, you can!”
Michigan born Tobi Tobin has traveled the world as a model and designed spaces for famous names in Hollywood. She recently expanded her L.A. based brand to include unisex fragrances, candles and luxury chocolates.
Her concept is affordable clean luxury.
A six piece, or “Petite” box of chocolates with or without nuts, is $48. Making this an ideal detail to deck the halls with or gift to indulge a hostess with. Shop the candles and fragrances here.
I paired with a glass of Malbec barreled in the Lone Star State another customer gifted me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The official Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess prize will be postmarked and shipped immediately to the winner from a remote island.
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.
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 Youand celebrate the last four weeks of Summer 2019.
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 Waterin 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.
(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
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.
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.
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.
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