Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2018 i Allure

Lily James was born in England on April 5, 1989. Allure was still a couple of years away from its first issue, Paula Abdul had a song on the Billboard Hot 100, and the Internet was mostly for academics. Today, things look a tad different. We have Beyoncé! The Internet is a breeding ground for love and positivity! And to top it all off, what’s this? A red velvet cake has just arrived on an Allure set, wishing James a very happy 29th birthday. A magazine cover shoot, it turns out, is not the worst way to spend your birthday—especially when the day involves a monarch’s trove of designer wares and spa treatments. “Because it was Lily’s birthday, I did a La Prairie sheet mask on her, plus a little…

It may look ethereal and pretty, but a lot of the glitter that’s in our eye shadows—and lipsticks and highlighters—may not be good for our planet. It’s unsettling, but some glitter, especially larger sparkles and loose glitter, is made from plastic sheets, which are cut into tiny shimmering pieces called microplastics. They’re smaller than five millimeters wide, do not break down, and can threaten marine life: “When you wash your face, glitter goes down the drain. It’s too small to be filtered out of the water, so it ends up in oceans, lakes, and rivers, where pollutants stick to it like a sponge. When fish ingest glitter, the particles can go up the food chain to other marine life or even humans. Studies have found microplastics in sea salt, honey,…

“Imagine if you were able to take a photograph of the way something smells,” says Firmenich master perfumer Honorine Blanc. You could freeze the aroma of lilacs covered with dew at sunrise or honeysuckle creeping up the walls of an English cottage, without plucking a petal. “Headspace technology works just like that,” says Blanc. A syringe-like device extracts a scent from the air: “It captures the molecules we inhale, called volatile chemical compounds, that make up every object’s aroma.” These compounds are then analyzed by a computer so the perfumer can see the chemical composition of the scent and re-create it in a laboratory. The technology has been used for decades to accurately mimic smells, but now it’s also being used explicitly for earth-conscious reasons. No honeysuckles were harvested for…

Allure’s founding editor, Linda Wells, just created a new makeup line, and it’s exactly the kind of beauty genius you’d expect from, well, a beauty genius. Called Flesh, it includes 30 lipsticks, eight blushes, and one very cool potted eye and cheek gloss, Fleshpot. A tiny dab creates that sexy, high-shine finish that makeup artists always do for the runway with random creams in their kits…but this one actually lasts. (For the record, Wells invented backstage beauty reporting.) But the real star is Thickstick, a foundation that comes in 40 shades. It’s hard to make a solid foundation that’s not chalky or cakey, says Wells, so she sent hers back to the lab for revisions until they were creamy, portable perfection. Sending things back until they’re just right is how…

THE STYLIST WOULD PULL AND SEPARATE MY HAIR WITH STIFF FINGERS. “YOU SHOULD GET A PERM,” SHE WOULD SAY. The first good thing that I remember belonging to me is my hair. I’ve seen photos of myself perched on my beloved yellow bike with green wheels (this is almost every photo at age five, it seems), spinning around my grandmother’s lawn. But when I think about my childhood now, all I remember is my hair. “It’s like wool,” my mother used to say, as I sat between her legs and she wedged a comb into my roots, putting her hand on my forehead for support, and raking back with a force that caused her arms to tense up. “It’s so nice and thick.” Having wool hair was a blessing coming…

IF KINDNESS WERE EASY, MOTHER TERESA’S BRAND WOULDN’T STILL BE SO POTENT. Being kind is not easy: The amount of emotional gymnastics required to be unconditionally, unrelentingly kind to every person you meet far exceeds the average human’s stamina reserve, which is why kind people are a precious resource and everybody else is generally awful. Sure, studies support claims that humans are inherently good and selfless—for example, a 2007 Yale University experiment showed that babies gravitate toward people whom they witness performing positive acts, demonstrating an early sense of right versus wrong. But where are these people in my daily life? Are these the same babies who will grow up to learn swear words so they can hurl them at cyclists when they’re supposed to be sharing the road? Will…

Meet Billie, a chicly packaged razor start-up. Billie’s website says its mission is to take on the “pink tax”—price hikes on products marketed to women—and that it donates “1 percent of all revenue to women’s causes around the world.” It’s well intentioned, but also a bit vague. Is Billie making truly meaningful contributions to truly meaningful organizations? Or is it one of a growing number of beauty brands that seem to be trading, at least in part, on a loosely defined give-back mission? See, as the world started to fall apart, a very good thing happened. Amid shortages of water, sand, and sanity, and an overabundance of horrifying political headlines, people started to care, to act, and to be conscious of what their purchases support. And businesses have reacted: “In…

Face wipes. They’ve ushered in an era of convenience, but they’re made of synthetic particles that will remain in landfills for 100 years. Look for biodegradable alternatives, like RMS Beauty The Ultimate Makeup Remover Wipes and Klorane Make-up Remover Biodegradable Wipes. Cardboard boxes, cotton balls, and cotton swabs with paper sticks are all compostable (unbleached cardboard is ideal, and cotton that’s not saturated with nail polish remover) and degrade in as little as three months. Many cities have composting centers—find your nearest one at compostingcouncil.org—or compost in your backyard. Plastic pumps and caps can be nonrecyclable, because they’re often made with multiple resins. As for plastic tubs, tubes, and bottles, look for a triangular arrow and number, and then consult your local city recycling rules to see if the plastic…

Legally, as a New Yorker, I’d prefer not to discuss my own experiences with cannabis products. I should not say with certainty whether they make for the perfect activity on a sunshiny Saturday afternoon, stretched out on a blanket in the park, wrapped in sunlight. What I can say is what everybody else has already been saying, which is that we’ve come a long way since terms like “devil’s lettuce” and films like Reefer Madness. As the United States moves toward more widespread legalization of cannabis for recreational use, the booming wellness economy—a natural by-product of decriminalization—is reinventing the public perception of marijuana, complete with Instagram-friendly smoking accessories and millennial-fluent marketing teams. But beyond its moneymaking potential, marijuana also has a host of curative properties that Americans are beginning to…

A: I tried, and no. There’s not nearly enough glue or texture in a Tatcha blotting paper ($12 for 30) to effectively roll marijuana, and this comes from someone who once witnessed a high school junior attempt to roll a joint with a Post-It note. A few beauty companies have tried to sell their blotters as rollers, but this is pure marketing bordering on false advertising. (Nice try, though, Milk Makeup and Fenty Beauty.) However, the opposite proves true: Zig-Zags ($2 for 32) are great for absorbing excess shine. Try any corner store.…

YARA AND KERI SHAHIDI Grown-ish star Yara, 18, says she and her mom, Keri, 48, try to be open to life: “We say yes more than anything.” Y. S.: “I’ve had the good fortune of having you by my side for everything. Others don’t have a parent on set with them. I remember starting Black-ish and having high-def makeup on all day, a strip of eyelashes. There’s a weird correlation that happens between being ‘ready’ and being doused in makeup. We’ve had conversations about separating the two.” K. S.: “I’ve passed on the very basic idea that you are exactly who you are meant to be. Makeup is fun, but going barefaced should feel normal. We talk about health more than anything. Right now, we’re on day five of [drinking]…

I’m struggling to write this first sentence. I’m emotional. And I want to do this right. I’ve been rereading my notes from Melissa Schummer, whose 11-year-old daughter, McKenna, lost her 19-month battle against bone cancer on March 9. McKenna developed a passion for makeup to distract herself while she was in treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. “Beauty meant so much to McKenna,” says Melissa. “In a time when she lost all of her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, it was very difficult, but she found beauty and confidence in herself through makeup.” The aspiring makeup artist would immerse herself in YouTube tutorials by people like Christen Dominique and loved unboxing new products herself. “When she would get new makeup, she would take one package at a time:…

This is really weird, but multiple brands are putting bananas into their new face masks and creams. And the even weirder part is that banana as a skin-care ingredient…works. “Bananas are high in vitamin E, which makes them moisturizing, and they’re antioxidant enough that they’ll delay cell aging and improve elasticity,” says cosmetic chemist Ni’Kita Wilson. Banana pulp (in Farmhouse Fresh Mighty Tighty Turmeric & Banana Tightening Mask) also contains provitamin A, which helps keep skin tight and exfoliated (your body converts provitamin A into retinol, though, so don’t use it if you’re pregnant). And banana flower extract (in the Body Shop Banana Body Yogurt) calms redness and softens lines.…

D.S. & Durga’s I Don’t Know What is possibly the best fragrance I’ve ever worn. And it’s not a perfume—it’s a “fragrance enhancer.” Which is to say, instead of being a mix of 12 different scents, it’s a simple blend of bright citrus (bergamot, vetiver) and musk. It renders single-note scents multifaceted—like light passing through a prism. And layered with a more complex fragrance, this stuff just makes it palpably better. But I think it’s best on its own, when it mixes with your body chemistry and produces an eau somewhere between clean laundry and distilled pheromones. People will compliment you and ask if you’re wearing a scent, and you’ll be just about to tell them it’s I Don’t Know What until you realize that “thank you” works perfectly instead.…

Within the concrete walls of Valley State Prison, a medium-security facility located in Chowchilla, California, exists a tiny oasis of whirring blow-dryers and warm-water scalp massages, populated by students eager to learn the delicate arts of gel manicures and hair dye. According to a January 2017 study, more than 100 state and federal prisons in the United States offer educational programs to their inmates (an important statistic considering that a 2013 study found that education reduced recidivism by 43 percent), and Valley State is one of them. The program began in 1996, when Valley State was a women’s facility. Sixteen years later, it became a men’s prison, and the salon classroom, fit for 30 students, remained. It became a prison beauty school for men—possibly the only one of its kind.…

Meditate. Sitting with your thoughts is standard emotional maintenance—the benefits range from relaxation to profound insight—but studies show that meditating on compassion (with mental space given to the concerns and worries of those around you) can help strengthen the vagus nerve, which plays a large role in cardiovascular health. Pick up the check. A study published in Health Psychology found a direct link between heart health and spending money on others. The 36 adults who were tasked with treating others showed lower blood pressure than the 37 who were assigned to spend money on themselves. Donate generously. At an 11 a.m. lecture, Lara Aknin, a kindness expert and assistant professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, divided her class into two groups—one received nothing, and the other…

thistle farms Founder: Becca Stevens Peruse the ingredient list for one of Thistle Farms’ lotions, oils, or soaps and you’ll learn they’re made of simple, soothing ingredients (natural oils, butters, and waxes). Continue to read the packaging and you’ll discover that they were made by women who are survivors of human trafficking, domestic abuse, and addiction. And these women are getting way more than a paycheck: The Nashville-based company’s residential program also provides free housing, medical care, therapy, and job training for up to 32 women at a time. And those who keep working at Thistle Farms after they’re back on their feet continue to receive career training. Thistle Farms’ current manufacturing manager and national sales director were both graduates of the program (as is most of the sales team).…

Am I stoned? I wondered recently when a dermatologist told me CBD—short for cannabidiol, the nonpsychoactive (so legal everywhere) cannabis derivative—could shape up to be the next skin-care panacea. CBD is already praised for its ability to ease PMS pain, assuage sore joints, and modulate mood disorders. Now, apparently, the powerful plant extract has the potential to alleviate a festering gamut of skin afflictions, too: Psoriasis, eczema, and other chronic skin conditions are all contenders. “There is rapidly growing evidence that supports the use of a variety of cannabinoids—including the naturally occurring cannabinoids produced by the endocannabinoid system in the human body—in skin care,” says Adam Friedman, a professor of dermatology and the director of translational research at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. If you…

After hitting 30 and discovering my tolerance for alcohol had become so slight as to leave me with a headache after even a single glass of wine, I discovered vape pens, which, if you know me, you’re already aware of because I have not stopped talking about them since. Rather than having to fumble through a ritual with moving pieces, vape pens make the act of smoking seamless, consistent, and an overall pleasure. (Which is how it should be.) Pen brands vary, as do subtle details (I’m partial to ones that are nonrefillable but contain anywhere between 50 and 200 doses, plus the ones that eschew weed lingo in favor of feeling descriptors like “Bliss”—no botany or balancing metrics required). Each pen is completely self-contained, and each hit usually delivers…

THE BAR LEEF ORGANICS NOOKS + CRANNIES CBD SOAP THE STRAIN: Electra 4, a sativa strain. Sativa and indica are the two types of marijuana plants—sativa grows upward with narrow leaves, while indicas are more shrublike. THE PAYOFF: It’s rich in CBD, which is redness-fighting, skin-soothing, and radiance-inducing. THE SALVE PAPA & BARKLEY RELEAF MASSAGE OIL THE STRAIN: An artisanal blend of Boax, Cherry CBD, and the aggressive but well-meaning Fuck Cancer. THE PAYOFF: All three are medicinal strains dosed with THC, but you can use it at your desk to tone down anxiety without inopportune vision quests. THE SALTS MARY JANE’S MEDICINALS HEAVENLY HASH BATH THE STRAIN: One part Strawberry Cough to one part Ambulance (!). THE PAYOFF: Strawberry Cough is a powerful pain alleviant. But both Cough and…

300+ Number of feet Elastigirl can stretch in Pixar’s The Incredibles. (Longer than a Boeing 747.) 4 Movies Marvel has released with actresses of color in a lead role: Thor: Ragnarok with Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Spider-Man: Homecoming with Zendaya as Michelle, Guardians of the Galaxy with Zoë Saldana as Gamora, and Black Panther with Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia. 1940 Year the first two superheroines appeared in print: Fantomah (in Jungle Comics #2), whose face became a bare skull when she activated her powers, and the Woman in Red (of Thrilling Comics #2), the first-ever masked female hero. $103.1 MILLION Amount Warner Bros./DC’s Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, earned in its opening weekend in the U.S. It currently holds the record for the highest-earning opening…

It’s tough to say, but easy to like: bakuchiol. Pronounced “ba-koo-chee-al,” it’s an herbal extract “that’s a natural version of retinol,” says cosmetic chemist Ni’Kita Wilson. “The data behind it is impressive.” Similarly to retinol, this Chinese herb smooths skin by building collagen; dissimilarly, it’s an antioxidant, so it also brightens and protects. It’s not quite as well researched as retinol, which has years of data behind it, “but bakuchiol may be better for sensitive skin because it’s nondrying and nonirritating,” says Debra Jaliman, a dermatologist in New York City. That’s why it’s getting a lot more popular—it’s the star ingredient in new natural serums, such as Joyome Intensive Overnight Repair, Isdin Melatonik, and Biossance Squalane + Phyto-Retinol.…

Botulinum toxin injections have been smoothing brows, and beyond, since before some of you were born (hi, Gen Z). But all three options—Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin—have always taken at least a couple of days to fully minimize lines, and results typically last three to four months. Now, two new types of the toxin are poised to change that time line. EB-001, from the California-based biotech company Bonti, has been shown in early trials to set in unusually fast (within 24 hours) and lose its effect relatively quickly (in two to four weeks). The speedy onset means you could see the effects of a Friday-morning appointment by Saturday night, rather than the following week. And if you’re a first-timer, you can see what you’d look like without the average three-month commitment…

Life’s greatest pleasures require some sort of sacrifice. This is why pomegranate seeds are so annoying to extract, Netflix costs money, and bleach gives your hair grip and makes it easier to style—but at the expense of your natural hair color. Actually, scratch that last one. Blackstones salon in New York City now offers a “texture painting” treatment that makes fine hair as volumized and unslippery as it would be if you’d gone a few shades lighter—without requiring the lighter part. How it works: They paint bleach on with a brush, which opens the hair cuticle (and gives lightened hair its roughness and volume) before depositing dye that matches your natural color in the bleached sections. To try it, just ask your colorist to apply bleach in one-inch sections from…

Mabel Bassett Correctional Facility Located in McCloud, Oklahoma, the state with the highest number of incarcerated women per capita in the U.S., the Re-Entry Investment Student Education program is the first cosmetology course in the state. The program’s support extends post-release—women get help with transitional housing, clothing, and substance abuse recovery, if needed. Rikers Island Prison Complex Brooklyn-based hairstylist Heather Packer brought her nonprofit, Fearless Beauty (founded in India), to the U.S. this year. The six-month pilot program teaches 15 women at Rikers in NYC to cut and style hair. Coffee Creek Correctional Facility Oregon’s only prison for women, in Wilsonville, can include up to 20 inmates at a time in its Coffee Creek School of Cosmetology. The facilities house a beauty salon for students and a supply store where…

The story starts 26 years ago with the founders of M.A.C., Frank Angelo and Frank Toskan, partners in life and business. It was the early days of M.A.C., and as the brand was becoming more successful, HIV and AIDS were wreaking havoc on the fashion and makeup artist communities. Angelo and Toskan wanted to do something. They created the M.A.C. AIDS Fund and a lipstick—the first Viva Glam—as a fund-raising mechanism. One hundred percent of the selling price would go to help men, women, and children affected by HIV and AIDS. It made sense to do a lipstick—you use your mouth to spread a message, and lipstick is visible, so it’s great for fund-raising. I don’t know what powder you’re using, but I can see your lipstick. The name Viva…

73 Number of grants (tallying up to $4.3 million) Philosophy has given to more than 65 organizations that support mental health and well-being through its Hope & Grace Initiative. 120 Nonprofit leaders who have been helped by the L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth program over the last 13 years. Through those women, L’Oréal Paris has donated $1,175,000 in grants to fight homelessness, hunger, domestic violence, and human trafficking. $3 million Amount Lancôme has raised for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital since 2010. 13 billion Number of pollinator seeds Burt’s Bees has planted to support healthy honeybee foraging through its Greater Good Foundation. 153.76 Miles that Kiehl’s employee and ultra-marathon runner Christopher Bergland ran on a treadmill in Kiehl’s New York City flagship store in 2004, breaking the Guinness World Record…

Put an extra wastebasket (or any basket) in your bathroom to hold recycling. “Most people only have one recycling bin in their home, usually in their kitchen,” says A. Tianna Scozzaro, the director of the Gender, Equity, and Environment program at the Sierra Club, a national environmental nonprofit. “So when you unwrap or use up a product in the bathroom, you put it in the trash without thinking.” Buy local. In an ideal world, you could track the route of every face oil to your bathroom sink—and perhaps even walk it. (Products that arrive on planes are often packed in layers of Styrofoam and plastic.) If you can’t buy goat’smilk soap from a local shepherd, try shopping locally rather than online—it reduces shipping burdens and cuts down on Bubble Wrap,…

“There’s a goodness that I want to get away from.” It’s Wednesday at 3 p.m., and Lily James is handing me a shot of Patrón XO Cafe, a sticky coffee-infused tequila that goes down way easier than it should. “It’s good, isn’t it?” the actress asks after we toss them back. “I much prefer it to, like, tequila-tequila.” She licks her lips. “I find that really drinkable.” We’re at a pub in Finsbury Park, a neighborhood of North London that isn’t known for being particularly posh, and since James has the luxury of an afternoon off, it feels appropriate to day-drink. It started with a few frames of bowling next door at Rowans Tenpin Bowl, then some pints, then talk of something called a “strawpedo,” where you reportedly suck Smirnoff…

“I think self-care requires a lot of things—it’s eating healthy, doing things you enjoy, taking care of your body and your mental health. And weed is one of those things for me, to relax and get in the zone. On Sundays I’ll wake up at 9, 9:30 and start my day—I’ll go for a walk, get a coffee, and smoke a joint. I love smoking outside on a walk; it really calms me down. Maybe take a Pilates class, read my book. I smoke and I clean my house. I dance around. I’m a daytime person, and I’m much more productive in the afternoon. And then later if I’m anxious, if I can’t sleep, if I need to eat but I’m not hungry—a little weed helps all of those things.…

In my freshman year of college, I enrolled in a “Theory of Beauty” seminar because I thought it would be a lively discourse about supermodels and Shiseido ads. It wasn’t. The only text that I remotely understood was Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp,” which I will summarize for you now as Sontag does backflips in her grave: Everything that is kitschy or gauche is actually great and fun and artistically significant. Economists have observed that camp, or bad taste, prevails when societies experience such prosperity that their cultural capital is exceeded by actual capital. That’s why the ’80s was such a vibrant decade in American fashion, offering every neon shade of windbreaker imaginable. When we’re free to take aesthetic risks, we create terrible demons, like leg warmers, but…