Product Review - Marie Veronique

This is clearly a line that was born in Berkeley, CA and should have stayed there.  But the founder must have gotten married and wandered off to Mill Valley for a time, and promptly did Mill Valley-esque stuff like having inconsistent store hours and full appointment-only days etc.  Eg, became a hobby business.  Somehow, that didn't compromise the quality of her products, which a small, cult-like following devoured via her website, which despite being French and in Mill Valley did remain open.  Now MV is back in Berkeley and the product like has been re-vamped a bit.  (What happened to the miraculous once-in-a-lifetime turn-back-the-clock red algae stuff????)

Fortunately, MV has retained one of the best one-bottle-stop products I've ever tried, the Rejuvenating Face Oil.   It's loaded with anti-oxidants from multiple sources, particularly seed oils; mega-omegas, including from all-star sea buckthorn; and skin-balancing oils including argan and rosemary.  Plus it moisturizes and hydrates like crazy.

That combination makes it a terrific choice, in theory, for those seasonal changeovers when just sort of.....look like crap.  Breaking out while your face is flaking off sort of thing.  Plus it's organic, vegan, cruelty free, paraben free, etc. etc.

PACKAGING:  Brown glass apothecary bottle with dropper.  PLUS.  Glass, despite being a hazard in the bathroom, poses fewer toxicity risks than does glass (and won't interact with active ingredients).  The tint protects the contents from degradation owing to exposure to light, also a good thing, albeit somewhat superfluous for most of us since we keep our bottles in the cabinet once they're out of the box RIGHT?  If my products aren't packaged in a vacuum-sealed bottle with a pump dispenser, which keeps the product at its freshest, I like a dropper for hygiene and precise application.  Plus a bottle with a dropper allows the user to see how much is left (and get all the product out, a major gripe that most of us have with vacuum sealed opaque containers).

TEXTURE:  It's an oil.  Do I have to explain what that feels like??  OK fine a medium to light textured oil.  Happy?

USAGE:  Depends on how dry you are, and how fast your skin drinks up the product.  Personally, I like to use a hydrating mist before applying oils, which limits the amount I need to use.  Start with one drop for face, one for neck, one for the back of hands.  I put two on my chest as well.  I used a slightly bigger drop size at night than during the day, because I was applying sunscreen on top.

MIRACLE INGREDIENTS:  Too long to list, but topped by raspberry seed, blackberry seed, sea buckthorn, meadowfoam, kiwi seed, and marula oils.

THE VERDICT:  Does it work?  It does.  I used the oil instead of my usual arsenal for two weeks, keeping a retinol only.  I will say I immediately noticed less time in the bathroom.  Beyond that, once I got used to using less in the morning than I was tempted to use (here in Texas, you have to watch it or everything slides right off your face during the day), I liked the cumulative effect better than my typical daily anti-oxidant and hydration combo.  For one thing, my skin felt a lot more hydrated, and that the effect lasted longer than my usual product. For another, and this is one of those hyper-subjective words that means nothing and everything, but I felt...glowier.  

The Korean Influence

I'm getting a lot of accusations about being influenced by the Korean trend lately.  Specifically, the trend to follow a regime popular in Korea, eg using about as many steps in one's skincare routine as it takes to kick a hard-core meth habit.  Nay! Say I....they're imitating me!  Kidding of course.  I have, however, long been frustrated by the inability to find products that do as much as I'd like them to do:  unwrinkle, brighten, firm, hydrate, moisturize, protect from environmental damage....you get the picture.  So as much as it may appear that I enjoy beginning my bedtime skin routine while I'm still in the office or at dinner, that is not in fact the case.

Some ingredients are fiendishly difficult to mix together, either due to their inherent chemical instability or because they just don't play well together in the sandbox.  Some are most effective when applied in the morning, others at night.  Some are most effective applied to bare, dry skin, while others kind of boost up the effectiveness of other products that you've just applied.

To wit:  Vitamin C, one of my top picks for anti-aging and anti-oxidant protection, is best applied on bare skin in the morning.  Why?  Because it's extremely strong, so it's hard to gauge how it will react to something already sitting on your skin, particularly something with active ingredients.  BUT once it's in, it's in, so you can (cautiously) layer other stuff on top.  Even better, it boosts the power of your sunscreen, so all other factors aside, it's a natural for day.  Similarly, retinol and related derivatives are all-stars in the anti-aging retinue, but are the sandbox bullies of skincare.  They need to go first, and should only come out at night.  (Certain evidence suggests that using retinol during sun exposure can increase one's risk for skin cancer.....eeek!)  AND retinol is notoriously unstable in the bottle, because it starts to break down when exposed to the elements.  Look for airtight packaging like a pump or a tube.  Brief aside, if you're the type who likes to slather, a pump is terrific because it will keep you in line.  More is NOT more with a lot of active ingredients.  Abuse retinol and you'll wind up with a red, scaly mess of a face.

Now, there ARE a few products that are basically one-bottle-stop miracles.  I've been testing out two, and will review shortly, (I swear, not in three months!)

The Holy Grail

I've found it.  Finally.  (And no I'm not using this quest as an excuse for not posting in, like, forever.  I'm just.....overwhelmed.  Sorry).

So I've gone on quite a bit about my travel schedule, and yes you're probably all sick of hearing about the trials and tribulations that air travel plus lack of space in suitcase plus changing weather plus differing mineral content in water blah blah blah can wreak upon my already difficult hair.  When you didn't care about my hair in the first place, you care about YOUR hair.  We all have the same issues with travel, though you straight-haired ladies probably don't come out looking like a roadie from Motley Crue like I do if you're not cautious.

I'm always trying to un-weight my suitcase, which comprises 90% beauty products at any second.  Carrying shampoo, conditioner, leave-in conditioner, de-frizzer, straightener, and curl cream is at direct odds with that goal.  My dream is ONE BOTTLE that controls frizz, defines curls, and maintains straight while not drying or crunching.  Until last month, I've thought of that as an absurdist fantasy.  But then I got around to trying Living Proof's Perfect Hair Day.

The claims this stuff makes are amazing.  I'd tell you how it works, but they're hiding their secrets with mystery acronyms.  Can't fault them for that, everyone in my industry counts on that trick to charge big fees, its a time honored tradition.  I can say that its resin (volumizing), silicone (smoothing and anti-frizzing) and oil (de-frizzing and conditioning) free, yet they say you'll achieve all of the desired effects at once.  (Cue photo of Jennifer Aniston with typically fab hair).

For me, the real test is whether or not I can actually straighten my bangs, which are the first part of my hair to curl, being the shortest, and keep them straight, while keeping my curls in some semblance of order when they air-dry.  The first time I tried it, I ignored the admonition to skip leave in conditioner, feeling as I do that this would be akin to leaving home without a bra, and to use a small amount, accustomed as I am to interpreting 'small' as 'size of a quarter'.  The first worked out well, since my hair is dry and brittle.  The second?  When they say small, they mean it.  I wound up with product-y looking bangs.  Not good.  On day two, I used half the amount, and found that my bangs dried to a perfect, smooth bounce in less than half the time it normally takes, and STAYED that way through a typically foggy San Francisco day.  Even more miraculously, the rest of my head looked nearly as good as it does when I use my top curl cream.  OK, not saying much, but its a product not a wig.

Downside?  Largest bottle is small, and costs a medium-sized fortune.  Bizarrely, my four product daily routine winds up being more cost effective than cutting down to a one-product regimen.  That being said, for sheer convenience and suitcase lightening, beyond worth it.    

Random Thought Bubble

I was going to post a long, holier-than-thou treatise on how to pack.  Starting with selecting the right suitcase, which should only be a Tumi or a Rimowa.  Yes, yes, who am I to tell you what to do, double platinum status on two different airlines or not.

You're right.  After #usairways did the following to my poor (practically new) Tumi on a recent flight, I'm just going to get my big trap shut.

The Horror that Has a Name

And they're called blackheads.  Gross, right?  Agreed.  Particularly when you can't get rid of them.  But in fact you can manage this little recurring nightmare, and it isn't even that much work.

When I was a teenager (you know, five years ago), I discovered what seemed to be a permanent constellation of blackheads decorating my nose.  I did what any teenager would have done during that particular decade, and assaulted myself with SeaBreeze.  Didn't work, but, attractively, my nose did turn red and peel.

Then, I developed a more sophisticated approach:  I tried sucking them out with sickly blue St. Ives mud masks.  Also didn't work, plus smelled funny.

Years later, Biore came out with the utterly addictive pore strips, which adhere to your nose, and when dry, peel off to reveal the little oxidized oil plugs sticking up from the tape.  Which provide an endless source of rapt fascination, but, oddly, one's nose still appears to have blackheads, despite the offending oil plugs just having been yanked out.  Why?  The pore itself is stretched out, so still looks dark.  Then attracts yet more dirt and grime, starting the cycle all over again.

So does anything actually work?  Sort of, yes.  First, exfoliate religiously; doing so keeps the dead cells from clogging up on the surface of your skin, and allows the turnover and shedding process to move along as it should.  Second, yes, go ahead and use the Biore strips, OR a mud mask (I happen to love Aesop's Parsley Seed mask) but plenty work quite well, look for ingredients like charcoal and kaolin clay.  And of course the epic Borghese mask is always a go-to favorite.  Just make sure to use the mud mask after exfoliating and steaming for best results.  If you use the Biore strips, try doing a gentle chemical exfoliation afterwards, it helps to tighten up the pores, even if temporarily.  Over time, chemical exfoliation can help to improve the appearance of pores more generally, so keep at it even on off weeks.

See?  Not so hard.  And minimal grossness.

That Took Way Too Long

Normally, one hears a lot of complaints about why it took so long to put wheels on suitcases.  I often wonder the same thing myself, usually while refusing to open a baby-blue relic of the pre-wheels era that I vaguely remember using for storage somewhere back in the early 90s.  My father, helpfully, put this giant, hard-sided bad boy into a shipping crate (weight:  14 pounds BEFORE I stored whatever I stored inside its capaciousness) and sent it to my tiny New York City apartment.  Sometimes I reflect on its small, hand-only handle:  who carried this thing, fully-loaded, with '60's weight hairdryer and all, over Chicago-sized snowbanks and through the unremitting hell of O'Hare airport, back in the day?  And why DID it take so long to think to put little wheels on the bottom.....a few thousand years after the wheel was invented??

It was with the same spirit of wonderment that I contemplated the new beauty vending machine in JFK's terminal 7 recently, stashed somewhere next to a Juicy Couture shop and behind an Embers restaurant.  (Digression:  when SFO was renovated, they put in: a Napa Valley Market;  cleverly designed restrooms with enough door swing clearance to allow one to get in while actually carrying a bag and not fall into the toilet plus stall doors that actually lock and sinks with raised dividers between that one can rest one's bag on without risking a soaking plus leaving a budget to actually clean said restrooms; eateries with things that are actually edible; seating that has some relation to human ergonomics.  JFK went from bad to bad.  How do they do that??)

But back to the beauty vending machine.  Despite the G-d awful non-upgrade to the terminal, featuring absolute shit food, filthy non-working bathrooms that one can't use, and nowhere to sit, they did put in this lovely, thoughtful feature, even if they did hide it somewhere totally random.

How many times have each of us forgotten, or run out of, a mission-critical item while in transit, like cleanser?  Or makeup remover?  Or sunscreen?  This machine is stocked with a thoughtfully edited range of medium to high end products that help out the intrepid traveler in virtually any beauty emergency.  Plus just the idea is fab.  I bought a Dermalogica cleanser duo (makeup remover and cleanser), which, despite my not needing either at all, was awesome.  I also violated a major rule of cosmetics shopping, and bought a Kate Somerville sunscreen without reading the ingredients.  While that didn't work out so well (not just oxybenzone, but a whopping amount of oxybenzone, PLUS retinol palmitate.....) it didn't dampen my enthusiasm for the experience overall.  After all, its me that exhorts any and all to read the label before buying, right?  

True Confession

They say that admitting that you have a problem is the first step in recovery.  So here it goes:  I am a non-practicing self-tanner addict.

That wasn't so hard, was it?  Since I may in fact be the ONLY non-practicing self-tanner addict on earth, you've probably never met anyone who suffers from this condition, but just in case, look for these symptoms:

• pale, almost greenish skin that can serve as a rescue beacon at sea
• phobia of actual sun or tanning beds
• existing and expanding stockpile of self-tanners, some expired, that never seem to get used up

Theoretically, the first two points make me an obvious candidate for self-tanner addiction.  And I get that, so I'm a sucker for any two for one special, anything advertised as looking uber natural on super fair skin, anything that a kindergartner can apply.... But why do I stockpile them until they expire, and sometimes well beyond the sell-by date?  

For one thing, most kindergartners are better at applying self tanner than I am.  For another, I can't reach my back, so unless the self tanner is hyper-subtle, I'll look ridiculous.  For a third, I want to walk out the door and go about my day, but you can't put sunscreen on top of any self-tanner that I've encountered.  Finally, and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I don't like to skimp on my skincare routine, not even for a day.  Because I'm convinced that even a day will cause me to come down with an irreversible case of sagging and wrinkling. Then I stumbled across this little miracle.

Its light.  Its loaded with fabulous skincare stuff.  Its SPF 20.  Its a GRADUAL self-tanner, so you can't screw up too badly.  It doesn't transfer to your clothes.  And get this:  it has subtle, skintone correcting shimmer, so you look more amazing instantly.  Now why did  the founder pick such a retarded name?  Supergoop??  REALLY?

Their name may be funny, but they really have their stuff together when it comes to sunscreen.  Check it out:  NO oxybenzone, lots of good stuff like tocopheryl Acetate, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Helianthus Annuus, (Sunflower) Seed Oil, and Euterpe Oleracea Fruit Extract.

Even I'm using up this whole tube and going back for more.