Deciem is Discontinuing ‘Shop’ Room Spray

Last month, Deciem announced it was shuttering four of their smaller lines: Hylamide, HIF, Skin Chemistry and Abnomaly, to focus on their star skincare brand the Ordinary. This means that their wonderful ‘could win an MMA fight against Diptyque but only costs $23’ room spray, Shop, will be discontinued once they sell off the existing stock. I immediately bought three. As of this writing, it is still available. Maybe the Estée Lauder company will relaunch it as a Le Labo scent? I think it’s just too beautiful to be killed completely so hopefully it will live on under a new name. But for now, get it while you still can.

***

In my dreams, an invisible fairy places fresh flowers in every room of my house twice a week. That’s most likely not going to happen, so finding a great room spray seemed like the best alternative.

For the longest time, I would walk into Deciem stores and practically swoon at the smell: elegant, woody, leathery, but still light - like commingled, very expensive men’s colognes. But whenever I asked, the cheery salesperson would always tell me ‘Yeah. It’s something that Brandon created exclusively for the stores. We might start selling it eventually…” This went on for years.

Then, sadly, Deciem founder Brandon Truaxe died suddenly in 2019 and I remember thinking that the room fragrance would never see the light of day. But now Deciem’s new owner, the Estée Lauder companies, have released it under Deciem’s newish Abnomaly brand. It’s called Shop and it is brilliant.

Shop is fancy, like actual perfume and its list of notes reads like the afore-mentioned pricy men’s scents: sequoia and cedar wood, resinous labdanum, musk and patchouli. There’s even ‘Iso E super’ a perfumer favourite ingredient that brings a transparent woody and earthy aspect to a scent- like a forest shot through with light and air and sun.

Angela Tsementzis’ Concrete House in Toronto

The result is a scent that is woody, leathery and resinous, creating the sensation that you’ve entered a deceptively simple and restrained, light-filled modernist house with an enormous picture window overlooking a thickly treed valley. And Shop is only $23 CAN which is a bargain for something of this quality. It could easily go head to head with Aesop or Diptyque’s interior fragrances.

I have been repeatedly spraying my semi-chaotic office in the hopes that I will be inspired to finally wrestle the space under control. The room is untidy, but if you close your eyes, it smells like everything is perfectly arranged on uniform shelves or hidden away in custom walnut built-ins. Such is the power of Shop.

Menopausal Skin Heroes: Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions, Biossance Squalane + Copper Peptides

Vichy and Biossance weren’t necessarily thinking of women with dry, ‘mature’ skin when they created these two serums, but I would like to thank them both from the bottom of my desiccated little heart.

Just adding moisture to dry skin always struck me as a wasted opportunity, so thank god for serums in general for their high water content plus skincare ingredients. But thank god for these two specifically, for boosting my skin’s defences for the long-term, while keeping me from looking like a wrinkly sphynx cat in the short term.

Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions Regenerating and Repairing Booster, $49.95, Shoppers Drug Mart, is a Six Million Dollar Man (better, stronger, faster) version of Vichy’s classic Mineral 89 hyaluronic acid and thermal-water-loaded skin booster. Vichy Mineral 89 Probiotic Fractions adds 4% niacinamide to help even out skin tone and juice up your skin’s defences to protect against moisture loss while probiotic fractions optimize the good bacteria on your skin and strengthen its barrier function. All this in the original, cooling, jellified water formulation. It’s great straight out of the shower.

Because the entire Biossance line is built around squalane (a sugarcane-derived version of squalene, a component of our skin’s sebum that sadly diminishes as we age) it’s perfect for menopausal women. Squalane is a truly lightweight oil that absorbs easily to lock in moisture and its anti-inflammatory properties help reduce redness. Biossance Squalane and Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum ($88, Sephora) gives menopause-dried skin elasticity, softness and moisture while the copper peptides stimulate the growth of skin-firming collagen and elastin to plump skin and soften fine lines.

Rosy Lips and Flushed Skin For Cheap

If you are sharp-eyed or just into beauty products, you may remember Cherry Chapstick’s brief appearance in the opening scene of The Devil Wears Prada as Ann Hathaway’s Andie absentmindedly swiped it on before heading out the door. It was cinematic shorthand to show her disinterest in elaborate grooming rituals, but actually served as a pointed reminder that quickly-applied reddish lip balm is a cheap and speedy way to get some enlivening colour on the fly.

Just to drive the point home, Andie’s Cherry Chapstick is the only item in focus.

Burt’s Bees new Gloss & Glow glossy balms (Shoppers Drug Mart, $11) in ‘Eat, Drink and Be Cherry’ (transparent red, pictured above) or ‘Wine Wednesday’ (a titch deeper) are loaded with coconut oil and mango butter and give your lips just the right amount of sheer, youthful colour. And a trio of dots stippled onto your cheeks blends easily for a natural ‘no makeup makeup’ flush.

I would be amiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Maybelline Baby Lips balm in Cherry Me ($4.96, Walmart.ca), long a favourite of my dear friend and colleague, Janine Falcon, to use on both lips and cheeks.

And Cherry Chapstick? Well, it used to leave a hint of red, but Pfizer sold the brand to GlaxoSmithKline in 2019 and they must have reformulated because, even though the balm itself is still pinky red, it sadly no longer deposits any colour. End of an era, really.

Shaving Face: Peach Fuzz Belongs on Fruit (repost)

Gillette Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive multi-blade razor is the best dermaplaning tool.

I’m reposting this from two years ago to remind you that you do NOT need single blade ‘dermaplaning wands’ to shave peach fuzz and dead skin cells from your face. Schick just launched a pack of six such ‘wands’ for $25 and I know you have better things to spend that money on. Keep reading to find out how to dermaplane safely with a well-made, proper razor and stop buying unnecessary things.

***

Some of the things that my mother didn’t warn me about turning 50:

• Thinning lips

• Increased chance of UTIs (That one was definitely unexpected)

• Overnight, weed-like growth of facial hair

And I don’t mean chin hairs — the stealthy ones that you don’t see until they're an inch long, that you tweeze and wonder if you’re becoming a werewolf.

What’s a real nuisance is the all-over “peach fuzz” that appears at menopause when your estrogen levels fall while androgens (primarily testosterone) rise. This ‘vellus hair’ (unlike the thicker ‘terminal’ hair of whiskers, brows, lashes and the hair on your head) may appear in a “male pattern distribution” that starts as pale, downy sideburns and can soon colonize your entire face. Get enough of it and you look fuzzily Muppet-ish when the light hits it just right.

You can go to a med spa for dermaplaning, where someone in a white coat goes at your face with a sharp, single blade, removing that top layer of dead skin to stimulate cell turnover and enhance the penetration of your anti-aging skincare products. As a bonus it takes all that peach fuzz along with it.

But because I am semi-lazy while also being high maintenance, I do it myself and remove the fuzz and dead skin with a proper, multi-blade razor. I don’t trust dedicated, lady face-shaving devices or single-blade ‘wands’ that come in multi-packs. Plus, using a razor with multiple blades “allow(s) you to cut more hairs with less strokes and less irritation," California-based dermatologist Dr. Peterson Pierre recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.

I want the sharp, safe razors built by the obsessives at Procter & Gamble who spend their days worrying about blade-on-skin friction ratios, say things like “we do more welding than most car manufacturers” and get excited by the fact that “the radius of the blade’s tip is 25 nanometers.” (That’s one millimetre divided by 40,000, in case you didn’t know.) 

The Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive razor is perfect for any face-shaving newbie, and with five ‘low cutting force’ blades and a lubricant strip, designed to minimize irritation, it’s already meant for sensitive skin.

Please note that this is an off-label use, that is NOT RECOMMENDED BY THE BRAND. They would say that their Gillette blades for men are designed for faces while the women’s are meant for the straight-away real estate that is your underarms and legs. 

But unlike men who have to go under the chin and down their tender necks and all over uneven terrain (a skill that takes years to master), female vellus hair really just grows in that afore-mentioned sideburn pattern, so you will only be shaving flat areas anyways.

Which I do. I make a point of shaving the fuzzy outer portion of my face in the shower whenever I change blade cartridges. That way I'm using the sharpest blades possible, ensuring an easier and closer shave. And don't worry about the hair growing back thicker if you shave it off. Hair is dead when you cut it, so that’s a myth. It might feel spikier because you razored the ends which makes them pointier. That’s it.

And do remember that peach fuzz and dead skin cell removal will leave your skin receptive to the brightening properties of a Vitamin C serum.

So shave, and then apply some vitamin C and consider that a morning well spent.

Spring Scents for Rain or Shine

Spring does not know her own mind. Chilly and rainy? Sure. Hot and blowy? Also possible. Both extremes are epitomized, above, by Christy Turlington, all bundled up on top, but with bare legs. If Christy were shopping for a blazer in Canada, surely she would get it from Smythe, known for beautifully made toppers and impeccable tailoring, season after season.

And they now have their own eponymous fragrance created by niche perfume house Fueguia 1883 (eau de parfum, $275, shopSmythe.ca) that is genderless and deeply, deeply sexy (I try never to use that word, but it applies here.) It’s loaded with sandalwood and cedar, like a fire roaring in the fireplace at the Gramercy Park hotel (going forward, all my references will be hotel-based because I yearn to travel) and is smokily earthy with patchouli. But then it’s shot through with sharp, sunny, almost astringent bergamot. I predict it will become the scent you smell on striking women as you attempt to dissect what makes their outfits so cool.

Feuguia 1883 also created the signature fragrance for Stockholm’s luxury Ett Hem boutique hotel, that was briefly available at Toronto’s Holt Renfrew for an eye-watering $514 CAN (photo, right.) I couldn’t spend that much on something ephemeral, no matter how much I wanted the cozy, black pepper, cedar and sandalwood scent. But I did take this picture, because I knew I’d never believe a perfume could be so expensive.

No-one does discreetly elegant and achingly expensive-smelling floral perfumes like Valmont. Just spray on their newest Collezione Privata, Just Bloom (eau de parfum $380, Holt Renfrew) and I swear a Chanel tweed jacket will magically appear draped over your shoulders, and instantly you will be ready for tea at the Paris Ritz. Just Bloom, which layers optimistic white flowers (lily of the valley and gardenia) over an enigmatic ‘damp forest floor’ scent of ambergris, has that transformative power.

Aerin Cedar Violet eau de parfum ($155, esteelauder.ca) may have came out last fall, but it quite accurately bottles the sensation of being out on a rainy spring day. Cedar Violet opens all fresh and positively herbal with bright violet leaf and lily of the valley before warming into creamily soft gardenia and cedar. It’s protectively cozy like wearing a paper thin, soft merino wool T-shirt under your rain gear when the skies open up.

Shower Joy: Haircare Dupes for Expensive Fragrances

There’s nothing as deflating as heading into your morning shower, half asleep, only to be jarred awake by the smell of aggressively scented, ordinary shampoo. We need beauty in those early hours to gently coax ourselves into the ‘what fresh hell awaits us today’ world.

These three haircare products above are excellent and their fragrances are “inspired by” best-selling perfumes. Do I like them more because they smell so good? Yes I do.

Left to right: Unbreak My Blonde Leave-in Treatment from Matrix, Chatters,ca $24.50, softens and strengthens straw-like, bleached blonde hair, all the while evoking Bvlgari’s classic Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert, ($130, Holt Renfrew), the smell of the early ‘90s. Endless copied since its launch in 1992, Bvulgari’s mix of seemingly disparate notes like bergamot, coriander, orange blossom jasmine and rose on a woody and green tea base still smells new.

Bounce.Me Curl shampoo from DesignMe, $27, (centre) is note-for-note Bobbi Brown’s Beach, $105, Sephora, another classic, this one an homage to 70s sunscreens like Coppertone and Bain de Soleil. Remember that metal Bain de Soleil tube of orange ‘gelée’? Nothing was more glamorous. Bounce.Me transforms even the most egregiously fuzzy steel wool hair into soft waves and defined curls. (I always adored the Beach scent and never forgave Bobbi Brown for discontinuing their Beach-scented ‘sandbar' soaps, with their thick crowns of sand for handy exfoliation. They were probably massively injurious to skin, but I loved them.)

From the singular white flowers and sandalwood scent to its suede-finished, parchment coloured bottles, Authentic Beauty Concept’s line for damaged hair both looks and smells like Donna Karan iconic Cashmere Mist deodorant (the Bay, $39). It makes sense given that - fun fact - Cashmere Mist stick deodorant, has been the #1 best selling prestige body product in the US since 1996. ABC’s replenish line (conditioner, above) provides much needed moisture to restore winter-battered hair. And the sueded bottles are especially nice to grip with soapy hands when you are still asleep during that morning shower.

For screen-capping:

Grab These Classics at Sephora’s Spring Sale

Former Vogue Germany editor Christiane Arp epitomizes cool, minimalist elegance.

The Sephora spring sale is in full swing (until April 11th) and rather than strolling the (digital) aisles with no game plan, it’s time to restock for spring. And get that 10-20% off, depending on your Sephora standing.

Here are some personal favorites both new and old. Left to right, from top:

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Natural Skin Perfector, $59, Sephora, gently evens out skin tone, provides a hefty dose of moisture and protects skin from environmental aggressors. Reformulated three years ago with boosted hydration and skin-loving ingredients, this classic is all you need for a dewy, natural finish. And its wide colour range includes everyone.

Canada’s own Ilia is a clean beauty line with great formulas and sophisticated textures. Lightweight Balmy Tint Hydrating Lip Balm, $37, Sephora, comes in a reassuringly heavy, metal lipstick case so you don’t have to muck about with pots and the shade Wanderlust is a universally wearable and buildable cool berry for a ‘Your Lips But Better’ flush.

Dermalogica Prisma Protect, $90, Sephora, is either a lightweight moisturizer with SPF 30 or it’s a sheer spf 30 sunscreen with added hydration. Either way it’s a truly stellar formula with a great texture, so applying and reapplying it will not be a chore. Did you know that compliance is 90% of sunscreen success (I just made that number up, but compliance is essential. Sunscreen doesn’t work if it never leaves your medicine chest.) One caveat: this one is pricey, so get it on sale!

Dior 5 Couleurs Couture Eyeshadow Palette in Soft Cashmere, $75, Sephora, is a finely milled collection of the most natural intuitive, subtly variegated shades from an eye-brightening soft peach highlight to elegant taupes and two rich browns to apply as a soft liner.

Westman Atelier’s Superloaded Highlighter in Peau de Peche, $100, Sephora, is the product you never knew you needed. One sweep up and out along your cheekbones gives dimension and warmth and makes you look instantly better. Not gonna lie, the price is a shocker, and the blender brush is another $166, but there’s no dupe for that brush (believe me, I’ve looked) and it’s made by Japan’s oldest brush maker. If you buy just one thing (well, two things) from this list, make it this duo.

Oh I still shudder thinking of early 90s matte skin. Tarte Cheek Stains burst onto the scene in 1999 and became best selling antidotes to chalky and deadening powder blushes. And the revolutionary gel formula in what looked like a men’s deodorant stick made the transparent colour so easy to apply for a natural looking flush. After being cruelly discontinued they are back with antioxidants, a higher percentage of water and a wonderful sheer finish. The shade Flush is the best. Trust. $40, Sephora.

Despite certain newer, splashy rose entrants into the field, Chloé Roses de Chloé, 75 ml, $130, Sephora, is still the choice of rose scent junkies. This classic from 2013 elevates roses with litchi and lemon for a spring-into-summer blossoming rose scent that is simultaneously mood-elevating and quietly elegant.

Welcome Spring: Self-Tan Those Sticky Outy Parts

Canadian spring’s ‘two steps forward, one step back’ rhythm means you may find yourself bundled in a parka while wearing sneakers with exposed ankles. I don’t need the world to see how pale I got over the winter (Narnia’s White Witch pale-verging-on-translucent) so I self-tan, but only the parts that show: forearms and hands and shins to feet. It’s the beauty equivalent of cleaning only the rooms that guests will see.

For this targeted tanning, I use Clarins Radiance Plus Golden Glow Booster self-tan drops, $49, that you mix into your own lotion for a made-to-measure tan of whichever intensity you choose. And it’s not finicky at all. Just add three to six drops onto a squirt of your favorite lotion sitting in the palm of your hand — then rub it into your skin for a natural-looking, buildable tan. (Carefully wash your palms and scrub your cuticles with a nail brush, so you don’t look like a weirdo chain-smoker with brownish fingertips.)

My own proprietary blend is to add the Clarins drops to Caudalie’s new Vinotherapist Hyaluronic Nourishing Body Lotion, Sephora, $42, a star in the ‘body care with skincare ingredients’ firmament. Sure, it contains super-moisturizing shea butter, but also has water-attracting hyaluronic acid to counteract that weird seersucker puckering thing your skin does after menopause. Vinotherapist quickly absorbs into skin so you can get dressed right away, unlike heavy creams that require you to sit around, naked and freezing, while waiting for them to sink in.

The crowning touch is the Vinotherapist signature scent: light, airy and uplifting. You will get a beautiful faux tan and smell expensively French.

Chic Bathroom Accessories From the Pharmacy

A minimalist bathroom tableau for tired eyes. Toothbrush, Hello Products, soap: Yardley London, marble cup: Homesense.

I will die on this hill. The most important part of a hotel room is not the firmness of the mattress, the strength of the wifi signal or the number of electrical outlets. It’s the quality of the bathroom amenities. I want weighty, hard-milled soaps from beloved or cool new brands, rich bath gels and velvety body creams. Fiddling with a strange hot water dial is difficult enough, but to be stuck using public restroom-grade soaps and thin lotions make the whole affair feel like a women’s prison episode of Charlie’s Angels.

A hard no: bright colours disturb a serene bathroom.

The black toothbrush and soap, above, give my humble bathroom some much-needed ‘fancy hotel room’ energy. The black soap hints at luxurious impracticality (will it stain my towel? No. It will not) while the black toothbrush is a minimal chic alternative to all the kiddie toy-coloured ones on offer nowadays, (right). Bathrooms should be serene, not searing your eyeballs right before bed.

Low key luxe: Stockholm’s Ett Hem hotel bathrooms are stocked with Marvis toothpaste and black Fueguia soap..

My new beloved black toothbrush didn’t come from some ‘curated’ (translation: overpriced) boutique. It’s from Hello, a line of dental care products that launched in Canada last year, bringing newness to the sleepiest aisle in the drugstore.

Hello toothpastes contain real peppermint and breath-freshening tea tree oil, their whitening toothpaste is peroxide-free and there’s even travel-friendly toothpaste tablets (right).

But it was the black toothbrush, $5.99, drug and grocery stores, with its plant-based handle and sustainable, charcoal-infused bristles that made my bathroom look a little newer and cooler. And as if that weren’t enough, Hello tubes, caps, mouthwash bottles and brushes are now easily recycled through a free mail-back program with TerraCycle.

The beautiful, hard-milled charcoal soap in the photo is courtesy of venerable soap maker Yardley London, who have expanded well beyond their classic rose and lavender bars (which are great for scenting your lingerie and sock drawers and you should definitely get some just for that purpose). Their black charcoal soap purifies skin and wakes you up with the scent of spearmint. There’s also a new hemp seed oil bar scented with herbs and rose that makes your bathroom smell like a spa.

And a final shoutout to Homesense. Remember when lockdown ended and there were long lineups outside every last Homesense store? All the online shopping in the world cannot replace walking those aisles in peace. And it was in the Homesense bathroom accessories section that I found the above marble cup for $9.99. Bless.

Gift Guide: World Sleep Day

Because there are no big holidays until Easter and Passover, this year I’m mashing up St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) with World Sleep Day (March 18th.) Translation: I will bake and then demolish a round of Irish soda bread (recipe below) and then hopefully have a good night’s sleep.

It’s funny that World Sleep day comes the week we’ve all had our slumber thrown into disarray thanks to daylight savings time. According to the Canadian Research Chair, up to 25% of Canadians suffer from a sleep disorder. I would argue that by a certain age (ahem) that number hovers around 100%. Does anyone our age sleep through the night unassisted?

Here is the Oldish sleep pack:

Madge and Mercer’s La Calma is a high 50 mg dose of CBD with a micro 2 mg dose of THC for anxiety reduction and sleep assistance. And the subtle ginger and lemongrass flavour handily mask that ‘singular’ pot smell and taste. It cracks me up that so many of us who did not partake when we were younger are all over this stuff now.

The Belif Aqua Bomb sleep mask, $45, Sephora, a cousin to the truly stellar Aqua Bomb moisturizer soothes and hydrates your poor, winter-dried-out face overnight, with anti-oxidant-rich Lady’s Mantle and Scottish heather to calm irritation and redness. So even if you don’t sleep properly (oy), at least the face in the mirror the next morning will look dewy and rested.

A great big, body-wracking O is still the best soporific. Dame Products is a woman-owned company so you get cleverly designed tools that are cringe-factor free, much more aesthetically pleasing than a standard issue vibrator and ‘face meltingly’ (not my words, but such good words) effective. The Aer, $120, doesn’t vibrate, instead using puffs of air to work its magic.

30 minutes before bed, open the window (cold rooms equal better sleep) and lightly spray your pillow with Bleu Lavande’s calming lavender room spray, on sale for only $13.88, Shoppers Drug Mart. When you walk into the gently scented, cold room at bedtime, it will feel like some kind soul (you, a half an hour ago) prepared the room for a good night’s sleep.

Keep Ilia Lip Wrap Hydrating mask, 434, Sephora, on your nightstand as a reminder to use it before bed. Papaya enzyme gently exfoliates while mango butter and a host of nourishing oils bring moisture back to chapped lips. You might argue that a lip product isn’t a sedative, but it’s these bedtime rituals that tell your brain it’s time to sleep.

We’re supposed to turn off our screens and read a book before bed, but that’s difficult when our phones are virtually soldered to our hands. A bath prevents this, unless you are a true cowboy who puts their laptop or iPad on a bath tray, in which case I cannot help you.

My favourite Canadian bath company, Bathorium, has stellar scent blends like Sea Kelp Serenity bath crush, $30, The Detox Market, a Dead Sea salts bath soak with lavender and bergamot that will relax you down to your bones so completely that you’ll have to crawl to your bed.

This stunner of a soda bread is not mine, but with this recipe and a cast iron pan, it can be yours.

And finally, I want to leave you with a recipe for soda bread. It comes together quickly, requires no kneading and by baking it in a cast iron pan you ensure a satisfyingly crunchy crust.

Soda Bread

Makes one round, serves 2-4.

For a savoury version, omit the sugar and add three chopped green onions and a cup of coarsely grated cheddar to the dry ingredients and butter mixture before adding the buttermilk.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups buttermilk (no substitutions)

1 egg (optional, for added richness. So yeah, do it.)

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (spooned into a measuring cup to ensure an accurate amount. Dragging the cup through the flour and then levelling it off packs too much flour into each cup.)

3 T granulated sugar

1 t baking soda

1 t kosher salt (Diamond Crystal if possible. It really is the best.)

5 T cold, cubed unsalted butter.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and lightly grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

Whisk together the cold buttermilk and the egg.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Add the cold cubes of butter to the flour mixture and incorporate it with a pastry cutter until it all resembles cornmeal (as if you were making a pie crust.)

Pour in the buttermilk/egg mix and stir until combined. When you have a unified (albeit crumbly) mass, turn it onto a floured board and barely knead for only half a minute until the flour is incorporated.

Shape into a round and place in your cast iron pan. Cut a cross into it almost all the way through, as this will help it bake evenly, place on the middle rack and bake for about 40 minutes. (Start checking at the 30 minute mark. You might want to drape it with foil if it browns too quickly.)

Remove when done and cool it on a wire rack and then happily consume it all in one sitting.

***

And finally, here’s something to be proud of: the government of Canada reached their $30 million match ceiling for the Red Cross by March fourth, but the Red Cross is still a great place to donate to help Ukraine.