Month: December 2018

December 31, 2018 at 03:00AM Nothing says “New Years Eve” quite like popping champagne. IMHO, that sweet, sweet bubbly is the most celebratory of all drinks, and is synonymous with the exciting fresh start that 12 a.m. on January 1st inevitably brings. But in honor of the fact that 2019 is “the year of the homebody” (you heard it here first, fam) we found an entirely new way to use champagne to ring in the new year that doesn’t require leaving your couch and braving the NYE crowds: Champagne skin care. “Champagne has several benefits in skin care,” confirms dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, a New York City dermatologist. “Just like in wine, champagne is rich in skin-calming antioxidants, while the acidic pH can help tone the skin.” There are dozens of products with champagne as an ingredient—cleansers, moisturizers, and toners (oh my!)—which give your complexion a hand, while also quietly making every day feel like a celebration. NYC-based skin-care haven, Savor Spa, even offers a champagne facial, which utilizes a cleanser made with a champagne grape seed exfoliant. It helps to remove the the top layer of dead cells without irritating or inflaming pores. Having treated my skin to a little pre-holiday champagne facial to make the final days of 2018 feel extra bougie, I can attest to the fact that the treatment left my skin with an otherworldly glow. The grape seeds were so teeny tiny that it was exactly the type of gentle sloughing my dry, winter skin needed. When the treatment was

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December 30, 2018 at 02:19PM No matter how you feel about former President Obama as a politician, you have to admit his year-end lists are solid. Plus, this year’s best-of-2018 recs dropped ahead of the laziest weekend in memory. (With Monday and Tuesday off for New Year’s, and Christmas over, why do anything but nothing?) So for the first time in months, I had time to actually be curious about something—and on Friday, it was the ex-president’s picks. And now—thanks to Obama’s recommendation of a deep, deep Prince cut, and my need to stretch out airplane-scrunched back muscles—I’ve conjured some kind of crazy self-care magic. (New year’s resolution: Be bored more often. Even science says it’s good for you.) The recipe is basically: one part yoga (cat pose and cow pose, specifically), with a generous helping  of whatever Prince was channeling from the heavens during “Mary Don’t You Weep” from his 1983 Piano & A Microphone recording. Maybe shamans would say I’m moving stuck energy, and fitness pros would simply say I’m stretching longer (and getting more of the benefits) because I’m enjoying the music. But all I know is it has unlocked something I struggle to feel on a daily basis: boundless, smiling-to-myself, can’t-help-it joy. It has unlocked something I struggle to feel on a daily basis: boundless, smiling-to-myself, can’t-help-it joy. Let me say up front that I already have deep respect for the cat-cow sequence, where you’re on your hands and knees, alternatively rounding and arching your back. As Joseph Pilates once said

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