Thursday before Labor Day: It’s the summer equivalent of December 30. It is impossible to get anything done, because everyone we need to call, usually sitting somewhere in the vicinity of his\her desk, is now in the vicinity of his\her beach house \ rental car \ Turnpike toll booth etcetera. Also, our cell phone is mysteriously broken, so even if people were anxiously awaiting our phone call, which they clearly are not, we are not able to call them. Dog days of summer, etc.

Next week is going to be so freaking exciting around here, with the winner of our skincare regime \ regimen \ regiment contest, and the [latest] return of our extremely itinerant stylist, and a week-long salute to New Orleans designers. Seriously. They are the loveliest, and will be here all (next) week, to talk about their city. It is so hard to write about something, or some people, you actually respect, when your normal tone is sort of snark-lite. This is a challenge we are not going to be able to surmount, at least tonight.

We will close here with a brief story. We were leaving Europe via Dublin, and for some reason, at this one airport, you go through immigration there, instead of waiting to do it in JFK. We do not know why, but fair enough. And our immigration guy, one of a breed we typically find to be completely charm-proof, was all, "You live in Park Slope?" And it turns out he grew up there, and we were one of the early 2000s yuppies who moved in and ruined his once-interesting neighborhood. (Gentrifiers—they’re just like us!) But he was really quite nice about it, and said to look for this ivy his dad had planted on Seventh Avenue between Lincoln and Berkeley. And we were all smiley about it, because he was very nice and we liked him. Still, we weren’t expecting much, but then we got home and looked up and there is this immense, beautiful jungle of ivy there, and now we know who planted it. It was magical. It would be more magical if we had a picture to prove it, which we  eventually will, but in the meantime: magical.

Anyway, today’s skincare suggestion. Still not to late to play! Send your ideas here, and remember, public acclaim chooses the winner, so if any of these suggestions have worked for you, let us know.

So I was all prepared to write up my skin care regime (hm, is that right? You have me confused) but I see that my favorites have already been claimed—Cetaphil and Dr. Hauschka. I swear by them! However, I was so intrigued by the olive oil entry that I had to try it last night and I may be a convert. Or I may just have been dazzled by Sophia Loren. (Have you seen "Two Women"? Off topic, but incredible.)

Anyway, I do have one more trick up my sleeve: sugar. It’s the best exfoliant I have ever used. I usually mix it with some Cetaphil to lubricate it a bit, then scrub away (and, yes, don’t forget your throat and chest!) The reason the sugar is so brilliant is because you can adjust it even as you are scrubbing, so if you’re feeling more (or less) thick-skinned, it’s
rougher (or not) almost instantly, just by adding more sugar (or a few drops of warm water.)

Also … I used to be crazy about lipstick, but now I feel like I just can’t be bothered to pay as much attention to it as it needs; plain lip balm feels too sporty for me.  So instead I like Alba Terra Tints, which I get at my local Whole Foods. The best of both worlds.

And PS the sugar trick works wonders on chapped lips in the winter.

–J.

See also:

Skincare + Fashion Babylon = All Sorts of Nice Things
Skin Care Regimens and the Hotness of Sophia Loren
The Fashion Babylon Skincare Regimen Contest + Gratuitous Picture of Twiggy
The First Fashion Babylon Skincare Recommendation

Honestly, we don’t even know if Jean Shrimpton had good skin or what. But we have been more or less awake for the last 28 hours—we just wrote "days," which feels accurate but is not—and Jean Shrimpton it is. Our mid-century icon match continues! As does our skincare regimen Fashion Babylon contest. It’s not too late to play, so if you love your own skincare regimen, send it over. And, quite key-ly, if you have tried any of these out, let us know or leave a comment, for the winner will be selected by public acclaim. That is all.

And now, today’s:

I am a pretty low-maintenance all-natural kinda girl, with sensitive skin on the dry side. I’m not afraid to shell out extra bucks once I find something I like.

In the morning, I wash my face with an all-natural olive oil soap from Lebanon (I’m Lebanese) which is extremely mild and hydrating. Kiss My Face has a decent olive oil soap that is unscented, and any natural food store should have something similar.

After washing, I use Dr. Hauschka’s Rose Day Cream for my face, neck, and chest. Lately, since I have been out in the sun quite a bit, I’ve been using Neutrogena Healthy Defense Daily Moisturizer with SPF 30 instead.

Before bed I wash my face with the olive oil soap again, and follow with some Dr. Hauschka Clarifying Toner. I’ve been thinking about beginning to use eye cream (I’m 27) but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

The fundamental part of my routine is the use of a lip balm—I NEVER leave home without it. I’ve tried various kinds and so far my favourite is Weleda Everon Lip Balm—it has a pleasant mild scent and is the ultimate lip moisturizer.

Every now and then, I’ll mash up an avocado with honey and use it as a mask for my face, neck and chest. Never, ever forget the neck and chest!

That’s it.

—Z

Excellent! So here we are. Still taking entries, particularly if you have any tricks or special home preparations, can be as tricky or not as you’d like. Beer in hair sorts of things. You know. Send them over if you do, and want to win a very fashion-y prize.

We would like to add that we are currently, right this minute, at the airport, and instead of shooting venom from our eyes, like we had been prepared to last night, we actually feel quite calm and that sort of pseudo rested you feel when you only actually sleep for three hours, before sitting bolt upright in bed, convinced you have slept through your plane departure. We would like to add, further, that the highlight of the trip last night, besides walking through the landscaping of the hotel that lied about their "free shuttle to and from airport," was asking the receptionist why the poster said the shuttle came every five minutes. And she’s like, "That’s impossible, there’s no shuttle from the airport, and to the airport it’s only every 30 minutes." The poster was actually 20 feet away from her, and we walk her over to it, because we are in that bad of a mood, and she just sort of points at the poster and says, "Well, that wasn’t here before." We felt more validated than we usually feel when we get all bent out of shape over something and can’t, say, immediately prove it.

We could also attribute our [relatively] good mood to

H’Suan Wen Hua ("the original Lush hair moisturizer") because our hair is still wet from our shower last night and it smells like we are walking around in a little halo of apple pie. Cinnamon! Love it. We have no idea if our hair is better moisturized at the moment but at least we are in a much better mood.

Except for the part about how we almost tripped a bag-sniffing customs dog with our laptop cord. Ooh, if we could just take a dog with us wherever we went, we’d never be in a bad mood. Dogs! Love them even more than cinnamon.

H’Suan Wen Hua, $13.50

This is the fifth time we have tried to write this sentence, and each time we stop because we become so enraged that we lose the words we need to sound rational and level-headed, rather than murderous and rageful. We just tried again, and failed. All we know is that there is a security guardess at Glasgow Airport who was entirely too pleased with herself when she confiscated our sunscreen, and we hope that tonight we dream of her, in rodent shape, and of ourselves, in eagle shape, and we hope that we eat her alive. 

Wow! That’s sort of weird. Apparently we have an anger-management problem. It’s a good thing we are doing skincare regimens all week, because anything we would personally contribute would be so angry and misshapen that we’d only be embarrassed. Er, more embarrassed. Than we are already.

Anyway: skincare regimen. If you have actually tried any of these, please let us know! For that is how we will judge the winner, who will be announced at the end of next week! Hurrah, winners! Boo, assholes!

From Alanna:

My mother got me started on a skincare regimen when I was in sixth grade.  I have tried a lot of products.  I have, over the years, spent a lot of money on these various products.  And then, the last time I went to the little Russian lady who does my bikini waxes, I had an epiphany.

“You have nice skeen,” she said. “What you use?”

“Right now, all drugstore brands,” I said. “I’m in college.”

She looked at me, intensely and wisely. “I worked in the cosmetics industry for 20 years,” she said. “Is all bullsheet.”

So. There you go. I’m not completely ruling out ever spending $40 on moisturizer again, but when this stuff works, why bother?

Cleanser: Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser ($6.99). Amazing. Doesn’t dry out skin and doesn’t feel greasy either. It takes off makeup, too.

For any leftover makeup, I agree with Leigh: Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover is good. And, as the name suggests, not oily.

Toner: I generally use one without alcohol because I have sensitive skin. I like Nivea Moisturizing Toner ($5.99), alcohol-free. Plus, it’s pink and smells pretty.

Clean and Clear Oil Free Dual Action Moisturizer is truly the most amazing thing in the world, aside from puppies. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s fantastic. I buy it in bulk. The Cetaphil moisturizing cream is really good too, although I’ve found it to be better for the winter; it can feel thick and greasy in the summer.

And finally: I have reddish patches on my lower cheeks and relatively dark circles under my eyes. I used to smear foundation all over both of these areas, and then I discovered Eucerin Redness Relief Tone Perfecting Cream ($11.69), which is green to neutralize the redness. Yay!  Physician’s Formula Gentle Cover Cream Concealer in Yellow neutralizes blue tones in eye circles. So now I only use a little bit of foundation under my eyes on top of the yellow goop, and skip it on my cheeks altogether.  I am happy to no longer smother my skin in foundation, and it saves time.

Not only is everything on this list cheap, none of it involves snotty department store women.  Excellent.

Excellent, indeed. Ah, we love the skincare regimens. We think we’re just going to keep going with the mid-century beauty icons for illustration.

Ahhhhhh adorable. We were going to say something about how it would be nice if there were a young child, perhaps of the niece or nephew variety, we could accessorize with this tote bag, but really we would just keep it for ourselves. And, we would like to add, this would not be the first time that would have happened. French duck canvas tote, $24

Ha! This may be our very skin-care regimen (and again, we have typed "regiment") of all time. We are going to enjoy this one for a bit, while we try to figure out where 4/5ths of Friday’s post went. It’s the last week of summer, and everything is falling to pieces, in some sort of natural-energy surge of fall-resistance. Maybe if we focus on buying jackets and tights we will somehow overcome our pre-emptive seasonal affective disorder.

Anyhow, the recommendation:

Here’s the skincare regimen: extra virgin olive oil.  That’s pretty much it. Get yourself a nice cork-topped Tuscan bottle at Trader Joe’s (or anywhere) for five bucks. Procure a bag o’ (real) cotton balls. And behold your eye makeup removal, skin cleansing, and moisturizing vehicle for the rest of the damn year. This even works on oily skin, much as it may seem counterintuitive. I promise that it will not break you out.

All you do wipe your face down with a oil-daubed cotton ball. It may take three or four, depending on how much makeup you slather on. When you appear to have removed the majority of your goop, rinse your face with warm water–and you’re done. If you have really dry places (under eyes, for me), you can re-apply some oil (via cotton ball) to them, and just leave it be. It sinks in pretty fast.

Olive oil has been used for thousands of years as skincare by Mediterranean ladies. It is packed with anti-oxidenty goodness. You are smooshing all this lovelyness into your pores w/the cotton, which, in tandem with the oil, provides exactly enough exfoliation even for tender, easily irritated skin.

The absolute best thing about this regimen is that people will ask you what you use on your glowing, gorgeous skin and you say, "Oh, this? All I use is olive oil ho-hum." And it’s true.

Maggie

It’s our weekly summer Casual Friday, Fridays coming, as you would expect, once a week. Today we have several excellent suggestions from readers, one question, one skincare regimen Fashion Babylon entry, and our weekly beseeching to embrace the world of our little ad section over to the left. And this, honest to goodness: If you find yourself about to make a purchase on Orbitz (or, indeed, Hotwire), and you wouldn’t mind stopping by here and clicking on their respective ads over there, it will not cost anything and will simultaneously support Bunnyshop and our somehow ever-increasing contest funding demands. We cannot explain the wrath we suffered upon our friend D. when he promised he would buy a whole series of plane tickets via Bunnyshop, and then promptly forgot. Anyway, we would love it, if you are so inclined.

Okay, and now on to the less begging parts of the day:

Dear Bunnyshop,

I am moving to London on Monday from NYC – one of my favorite things to do in New York is going to sample sales (i.e. Prada sale this week is so fantastic). Does London have the same sort of thing?  I never see info on London sample sales…

Thanks!

There are like nine trillion billion things about London and the United Kingdom that absolutely baffle us, including but not limited to the definition of "barnet." We just learned what whingeing is. Really, the whole place continually baffles us, even the parts of it we adore so much. (Why are there seven billion property shows on television, and how can we arrange to watch them all?)

But: sample sales. Everything we find, we find in the shopping section in Time Out. We have always wanted to go to the Mulberry outlet in Bath, but we’ve never quite been able to motivate.  We have gone to several of these, and found plenty of good stuff. However, our general attitude with London sales in general is that Marc Jacobs at 50% off in London is just about equal to full-priced Marc Jacobs in New York, so we don’t venture out unless it’s a brand we can’t get at home. Even we cannot find a reasonable way around this math, try as we might. So if we buy anything, we buy at the markets or Topshop or maybe Cath Kidston or Brora or things that are a little harder to get at home, and even then, we wait until "the sales," and then we have, like 2-for-1 shoe extravaganzas reminiscent of stuffing our mouths full of pie in one of those 4th of July eating contests.

If anyone more sufficiently, and actually, Londoner-y has a suggestion, please comment it below or mail it in and we will happily publicize it here.

If we had any more summer or, indeed, hot-weather, weddings on our calendar, we would totally wear this DVF dress.  Love the back. Diane von Furstenberg strapless dress, was $275, now $192.50

And so it is: Our first entrant for the Fashion Babylon contest. This easy! This quick! We are really not so good at pimping the contest prize, but really the book is way better than our description, as it is full of glamorous people doing lecherous things. Anyway: Send us your skincare regimen, and we will either pick the winner out of a hat or by public vote, we haven’t quite figured that part out yet. But the book is purchased and we remain otherwise poised to act.

"What timing—I’ve become a little obsessed with skincare, too, thanks to a dermatologist who misled me into believing that I had rosacea when, indeed, I just have pink cheeks. But another rant, another time.  Here’s the deal with my skincare:

Having just gotten out of a job as a social worker, I don’t have the money for higher-end cleansers.  However, I do have money for Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser ($6.99, above). Out of all the cleaners I’ve tried, I feel like this is the one that does the best job of getting makeup off, including all my eye makeup, as well as gently cleaning my face.

Before I realized how good this cleanser was at removing eye makeup, I used Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover ($7.49). I can’t use eye makeup remover with oil in it because it badly irritates my eyes. This, however, does the job, and it doesn’t have an obnoxious odor of rose petals or anything else. I also like it more than makeup remover pads, which I use about four of to get makeup off.

At that point, I use Tazorac (if it’s night). Retinoids are the only product I’ve ever used that actually change the texture of my skin. Tazorac, and all the retinoids I’ve tried, makes my skin as smooth as it’s ever been, takes care of acne, and makes my skin really clear. I would highly recommend trying out retinoids to anyone who’s unhappy with their skin. These medications work, and they can work for some people with sensitive skin, like me.

If it’s the morning, I use whatever sunscreen I can find that has UVA/UVB protection. I put it on even when I’m not going outside. I haven’t had a tan in years, which provokes some lame jokes from others, but in ten years time, I’m going to be the one laughing and skin cancer-free.

Finally, if I use a foundation, which I need to far less thanks to the Tazorac, I use Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation ($7.99). I’m Eurasian, and it’s very difficult for me to find foundation that matches, even at better cosmetic counters like MAC and NARS. (And if it’s difficult for me, you should see me rolling my eyes at the people who work at the counters.) This is the only foundation I’ve found, so far, that actually matches my skin tone. It’s a great texture for me too, since I have slightly oily skin.

So that’s the regime, which looks long, but really isn’t. 
Leigh

This sweater is so back-to-school we simultaneously love and despise it. Cartonnier "pullover", was $88, now $44.95