A veteran magazine beauty editor/writer (and a member of the 40+ club), Genevieve Monsma created MediumBlonde to help Gen Xers and Baby Boomers age the way they want.
All in Skin
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Laura Geller, makeup artist and founder of Laura Geller New York cosmetics
I’m researching a hair story for a national magazine, and the experts I’ve been interviewing keep waxing poetic on the healthy-hair benefits of coconut oil. (To clarify, they’re not advocating you eat food cooked in coconut oil, though that’s not a bad idea. Rather, most are suggesting you slather it on like a VO5 hot oil treatment.) My stylist Nunzio Saviano has been touting the benefits of coconut oil for a few years, so its accolades are not new(s) to me. But, given that several experts offered up coconut oil as a “surprising” source of good-hair health, it seems word is not getting out...
Before I left for New York, my son Heath had a bad cold—the kind that starts with a sore throat, then morphs into a stuffy nose…and lingers for weeks. So, when my plane touched down at LaGuardia and I felt the start of a scratchy throat, I knew what I was in for. Two days later, as I circled Central Park for the Shape Half Marathon, I was drugged up on DayQuil and sucking on Chloraseptic lozenges. The morning after the race, I headed out for meetings armed with a wad of tissues. Yuck. Thus, I was grateful when I met up with my friend Jaime, a beauty publicist, for lunch, and she slid Farmacy’s Honey Savior across the table to me.
In the past week, I’ve been to New York City, Greenwich, Bronxville, Jersey, and Tennessee. All this traveling did prevent me from posting—but not from stockpiling new beauty and health info. My trip to the East Coast was peppered with breakfasts, lunches and cocktails with editors and publicists (and I took copious notes). Then Mary Kay took me—and about two dozen other beauty editors—to Blackberry Farm outside of Knoxville to showcase their new spring and summer launches. I’ll be weaving info from this weeklong trip into posts for weeks to come, but here, to start, are five (surprising!) tips and tricks I picked up along the way.
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Jane Park, CEO and Founder of Julep
When I was the beauty editor at teen magazine CosmoGirl!, we frequently published recipes for skin and hair masks made from common kitchen ingredients like honey, avocado, yogurt and eggs. The treatments were easy to make (albeit messy) and mildly effective. The new Facial Moisturizer Kit from Ktchn Apothecary is kind of like that, but with more grownup, potent ingredients—and far less cleanup.
By now, most of us know that the effects of beauty products are more than skin deep. They don’t just make us look better; they can make us feel better too. Thus, my new It Cosmetics bronzer makes me feel like summer’s around the corner—and, like sunsets at 10 p.m., a full glass of Whispering Angel rosé, and days where I wear a bathing suit all day, this releases happy chemicals in my brain.
Moving to Ann Arbor two years ago provided one gift I’d like to give back: spring allergies. Each year, I sail optimistically through March, convinced I won’t get stuffy this spring. But by mid-April, I’m buying the value pack of Claritin at Costco. Taking meds does help, but on some days my eyes are still itchy and puffy no matter what I do. And that inflammation around my eyes isn’t just annoying; it creates under-eye circles. Concealer has helped a bit, but not as well as tapping on Urban Decay’s new Naked Skin Highlighting Fluid in Skywalk.
It works. So many of you have been messaging me, asking when my next Lash Boost update will appear, I didn’t want to bury the lead. So there you go: Lash Boost delivers. Here’s the scoop.
Of course pictures help recall a memorable vacation. But, for me, nothing brings back a treasured trip like a scent. Jasmine whisks me back to my honeymoon in Bali. Lavender conjures our tenth wedding anniversary in Napa. Cherry blossoms call to mind a magical trip I took with Shiseido to Tokyo. And rum punch and cigarette smoke remind me of Key West Spring Break 1994 (hah). Thus, when we travel, I always look for an aromatic token I can bring home to evoke happy memories of my trip, later on.
As part of a regular series, I’ll be asking inspiring, in-the-know women (all 40+, of course) to share their best tips and favorite products. The point? As always, to find out what works. This week's beauty insider: Naomi Whittel, 43, founder of Reserveage Nutrition and current CEO of Twinlab
Winter whipped back into town this week and with it, insta-chapped lips the second you stepped outside. Regular readers know I love Fresh Tinted Lip Treatments, but when it’s 16 degrees out, I up the ante on lipcare with cult-classic Smith’s Minted Rose Lip Balm from Rosebud Perfume Co.
A reader recently emailed and asked me if there was an advantage to starting Botox at 40 before she had any lines etched—or if it made sense (and was more cost effective) to wait and do it once she noticed lines didn’t disappear anymore when her face was at rest. I started Botox at 33 so you already know where I fall on this issue, but I did ask Gary Goldenberg, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, for his opinion.
When I first started working as a beauty editor, I butchered the pronunciation of more than one French beauty brand. My friend and fellow beauty editor, Didi, practically collapsed on the floor when I told her I was on my way to a Guh-vin-chee press launch (I was trying to say Givenchy, which Didi, through hysterics, explained is actually Ghee-von-shee). I’ve still not lived that one down. But I know I'm not the only one who never took high school French (or Italian or Japanese), and who has struggled to sound out fancy, foreign-sounding beauty brand names.
It has been three weeks and four days since I started my Lash Boost application. Rodan+ Fields says some (lucky ducks) may see results in as little as four weeks, while, for others, it can take closer to six to eight weeks. I think I fall in the latter group.
