What women in their 20′s want

Is staying smooth a sticky situation for your budget?

One of the best memories I have from last summer’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard wasn’t the backyard barbeque my friends and I threw at our rental house, nor was it the leisurely bike ride I took through historic Edgartown on a sunny Wednesday afternoon.  Instead, it was the glorious feeling that filled my ego each morning as I pulled on my swimsuit en route to the beach, bypassing the line for the bathroom (we fit six girls into a two-person cottage – you do the math) and enjoying the extra half hour or so I had each day as everyone else scrambled for a fuzz free existence.  I had bit the bullet the week before, exchanging $100 and a few awkward moments with my aesthetician for a perfectly waxed bikini line and underarms.

In my efforts to stay smooth, I’ve also forked over $80 for the occasional Brazilian wax if I’m dating a guy I really like, only to curse the $80 less I have for retail therapy when we break up the next week.  I’ve spent an unfortunate $6.99 on a bottle of Nair that left my apartment smelling like a rodent pancake from Hell’s Kitchen and left my legs raspberry tinged and tingly; and have gone so far as to consult with a laser hair removal specialist at a medispa, only to scurry back to disposable razorland in fear of a four-figure price tag for hairless gams.

The equation of staying hair free is this:  Time – hair – money = your happiness threshold.  A razor might be the cheapest method to remove hair initially, but cartridges, shaving creams and treatment lotions add up – nevermind the need to repeat the process every day.  Waxing at the salon is great, but regrowth is inevitable after several weeks.  Laser hair removal can be a sure-fire way to defeat your stubble for good – if you’re willing factor in the length of time you’ll stay that way and not focus on its initial costly investment.

With a bevy of summer weddings to attend and a trip to San Francisco in my future, it makes sense to visit the salon for a date with a treatment room and a tub of hard wax.  But, with my wallet wearing thin after abiding by Crate & Barrel bridal registries and a roundtrip ticket to the Left Coast, I’m sticking with the men’s Gillette Fusion razor ($13 for a package of 4 replacement cartridges at Duane Reade), Suave apple conditioner ($1.69 at Target – and yes, hair conditioner does a better job than conventional shaving cream) and Juice Beauty’s Soothing Serum ($36 at Whole Foods) for the inevitable razor burn that flashes through my sensitive skin.

Daring to bare:  a challenge for the mind – or for the wallet?

Designers take a cue from the fashion elite with the latest in high end décor for less
Target and IKEA debut their designer home furnishings

 It’s time for interior design to have a go at it inside the high-meets-low ring with the latest design collaborations headlined by industry heavy hitters. First to the mat is New York designer Dror Benshetrit who is the brainchild behind the avant-garde label Studio Dror responsible for such designs like planks of wood that hang on the wall like an art installation but sit on the floor to resemble a chair.

His latest project is a 23-product Target collaboration filled with your garden variety linens and stationary as well as eye catching pieces like a retro looking sunburst wall clock ($24.99) and an ever morphing shelving unit ($89.99).

In the unit, sets of four trapeze shaped wood boxes stack on top of each other to create an angled tall shelf or can be nestled together for storage. And if that’s not unusual enough for you, next up is IKEA with its PS Collection which includes Swedish big name Front and their storybook chair.

And I kid you not, it literally is a storybook! The cushions on the chair fold like the pages of a book to unveil four different prints that tell the story of the Swedish history of textiles. Talk about page turner!

Also see: underwood interiors dallas

-Wendy

“Something old, something new.”  The saying that rings from every chapel, backyard reception and simple civil ceremony in New York City, celebrating the vow of marriage and eternal wedded bliss.  And with that charming ring comes the bride; with the bride come her bridesmaids dressed in colors, fabrics and textures of complementing dresses that are often worn once, then stored for safe keeping in the deep throes of a closet, never to see daylight again.  

As a sister of a soon-to-be-bride and a bridesmaid many times over, I can’t tell you how many times a seamstress has gushed over my taffeta or lace-spiked bridesmaid dress, insisting I can wear it again.  But how, and where?  Do you just toss on leggings underneath a tea length yellow chiffon number and call it a day, or is there more to it?  The answer is that there is more to it – if you’re willing to go the extra mile.  Designers like Coren Moore, who created the dresses for my sister’s wedding, have gotten hip to the multi-million dollar wedding industry’s demands for bridesmaid dresses that are more black tie than black plague and can be worn again as-is.  My dress, reminiscent of a raspberry sorbet dessert, will look great when paired with fishnets and black satin pumps for a winter holiday party come December – once I wear it down the aisle with nude pumps and a hydrangea bouquet in a few weeks, of course.

Other options include:  having your dress shortened (or lengthened with extra fabric from the manufacturer or otherwise); adding a belt or straps; lowering the neckline; and, having an overlay (think sheer fabrics, like mesh or lace) attached.  If getting frisky with a sewing machine isn’t your thing, a good tailor can do this for you for a fraction of the cost of the dress itself – just bring your own creativity – or you can find a design student from a school like Parsons or FIT to make your old dress their guinea pig.  Now, what to do about that bouquet?

With city pollution, stress and exhaustion (a lack of sleep from too many sample sales, perhaps?), it’s no wonder that women flock to makeup counters in groves, in search of the holy grail of makeup to cover everything from undereye bags to crows’ feet that run deeper than the Nile river.  As a late-20 something who prefers to nix liquid foundation in lieu of something subtle that can deliver, concealer is my oasis of epidermal faux-fection.  But with so many new products flooding the market that promise everything from perkier lids to perpetual bliss, how does a girl make her mark without maxing out her Amex?

My first stop was iQ Derma’s iDisguise ($45 at iqderma.com).  A multitasker since birth, I was intrigued to find out if its claims of being able to “even skin tone” and “neutralize undereye bags” would hold true in the brutal court of broad daylight.  Truth be told:  the iQ formula was lightweight and floated on top of the pesky fine lines that are beginning to develop under my eyes, and also made my skin appear brighter.  The “Medium” shade I ordered, though, appeared orange on my pale, olive skin.  But with only four shades to choose from, my options were limited.

For comparison, I tried another new breakthrough product:  Perfekt Beauty’s Eye Perfection Gel ($45 at Sephora).  The gel, inspired by Perfekt’s line of skin primers and treatments, felt more like a a cushy layer of frosting as I spread it into the deepest grove of my dark undereye circles.  As with iQ, the shade I chose, “Refreshed,” was too dark for my skin – and was left wishing there were more than three tints to choose from.  While the tube travels well in a purse, the product didn’t deliver; the only destination it has in the future is in my backup stash of makeup.  (Note:  there is an “Awake” shade, which is clear and acts more as an undereye treatment than concealer.)Neither product knocked my socks off, which leaves the justification of their respective price tags in limbo.  It also begs the question of whether I was attempting to conceal my flaws – or the shame in spending so much on makeup.