beauty - The Seventh Sphinx

August 10, 2013

trying out: the fresh Umbrian Clay Treatment bar

I like a face mask. I do at least one a week, maybe more, and have a bunch of them to combat the various, manifold shortcomings of my skin. Part of the appeal is the experience, the ceremony of them, which I find relaxing. Sometimes potentially entertaining. Recently added to the selection is the fresh Umbrian Clay Treatment Bar, made of an anti-inflammatory and highly absorbent clay from this one town in Italy that can be used as a detoxing face wash, a mask, or a spot treatment. It’s pricey but it seems like it will last a couple of years, seriously.

It’s a bit messy to use, so if I’m going to bother at all I usually go for the mask, maybe removing with a muslin cloth for added exfoliation.

I am deeply into exfoliation.

So, yes, this gives a very thin layer of intensely absorbent/effective clay, which reminds me a lot of the Aztec Secret Bentonite Clay mask. At a fraction of the price (I picked it up at Whole Foods for around $7) it could be worth checking out first. It comes as a powder and you mix it with water or vinegar [or whatever else you like…I like to add lemon juice and tea tree oil as well, maybe rosewater or some essential oils…] to your desired consistency. When you get the balance of ingredients right, this is an amazing mask: it tightens like crazy, so you look like a maniac when it’s fully dry, and even worse when you take it off as it draws the blood to the surface and makes you bright red for a bit. Twenty minutes later, though, there is a difference. [Part of the appeal may be the experience – imagine would be fun to do with a group.] This is another type of clay that boasts supernormal absorbency, able to absorb many times its own weight in volume, that kind of thing. The ants of the clay world. The nice thing about the Umbrian clay is that it achieves a similar effect with less product and less effort. I find the effort intrinsic to the appeal of the Aztec Secret mask, though, so to each its own.

July 30, 2013

smell this: Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess body oil spray

Estée Lauder’s Bronze Goddess fragrance has been coming up in a lot of lists of best summer fragrances*, and I am in complete agreement, particularly wrt the body oil spray (which I find richer and longer lasting than the eau fraîche skinscent). This is summer in a bottle. Imagine a nostalgic suntan lotion smell–an old school Coppertone kind of smell–then remove all of the harsh-smelling chemical elements, amp up the coconut, and add a summer flower bouquet. What you get is a creamy base of coconut and vanilla (kept from being too sweet with some subtle vetiver and sandalwood) layered with a variety of citruses, lavender, and delicate white florals: jasmine, magnolia, orange blossom**.

*This one being the best I’ve seen. I am so often in agreement with Guardian beauty columnist Sali Hughes. Her videos are great, too, extremely knowledgeable and well researched. And sensible. I like sensible people.

**You can see all the notes and more on basenotes, which is a great resource if you’re not already familiar.

They re-release it every summer with the Bronze Goddess collection so the packaging and formula may vary slightly from one year to another. I have smelled it the last four years running, though, and it always smells great (and essentially the same) to me.

There is nothing heavy-handed about this. It is light, effortless, sunny and fantastic. The notes that really stand out on me are coconut, vanilla/amber, and jasmine, all with the lightness that indicates citrus, too, without feeling explicitly like citrus at any given moment. Be warned that it does smell rather like suntan lotion, only really luxurious suntan lotion. I like the smell of suntan lotion anyway. It may smell different on you (some report a cheap vanilla ice cream effect, try everything on your skin first), and for some it’s not interesting enough…but who cares about smelling interesting if you already smell great? I like a complex scent as much as the next perfume maven but there is something to be said for smelling, simply, good.