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Luxist Gift Guide 09: Sensai Holiday Gift Sets

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance, Holiday Guides



If only Pamela Anderson had discovered the new SENSAI Platinum Edition Coffret Gift Set, before she let her platinum addiction drive her into bankruptcy. The new luxury gift set out just in time for the holidays offers for the first time ever, platinum, in a soft pearl powder and highlighting platinum body lotion. If that sounds decadent to you, it is. Forget the latest diamond cremes, platinum is the new luxury ingredient, straight from the renowned Japanese beauty line, which counts Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Aniston as fans. The Platinum Gift Set, which includes the powder, flawless brush, and body lotion packaged in a velvet clutch is available exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman, and retails for $80. It's literally all you need to take to any party this season. But use sparingly. A brush of powder is all you need to make your whole face glow.

Dermalogica NYC Store Opening

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

dermalogica
We all have to be clean and we all want skin that is healthy, soft and radiant. And while there may be little that is exciting or luxurious about skin care, the store opening of Dermalogica in NYC's SoHo is one that instantly grabbed my attention. With their only other US location being in Los Angeles, CA, it was long overdue for the east coast to get its very own store. Located on 110 Grant St, its beautifully designed and roomy interior makes it inviting to enter while a licensed skin therapist will get you started on learning how to care for your skin through personalized five minute skin exams. For a more intimate and in-depth look on your skin, there is a 20 minute skin care service and hour long treatments, try the Skin Pod. This is a private small space to get skin care treatments with customized lighting and music to set the mood you need to relax and feel rejuvenated.

Frida Kahlo Face Care Box

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance


Legendary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has already had her name used to sell tequila, now New York City-based Naturals Skin Care has created a skin care line retail store. Venezuelan-born aromatherapist and holistic cosmetologist Antonio Sciortino has created a line of over 30 products including candles and makeup. There is also an Omega-3 collection, which consists of hand and body lotions, shower gels and anti-aging and anti-wrinkle face creams. The Frida Kahlo Face Care wood box includes the cucumber eye serum, the Omega 3 face cream, micro abrasion cream, mango hydrating face cream, cleanser, toner and olive oil face soap all in a wooden box. It sells for $230.

Epione Skin Care Line

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance


If you live in Southern California and have channel surfed on a weekend morning, you've probably run across the infomericals for the Epione Clinic in Beverly Hills. Dr. Ourian's Epione Medical Center uses lasers and injectables such as Botox and Restylane to create the before and after transformations shown on the informerical. Now Dr. Ourian has created a skin care line. The most expensive item in the line is the Restoration Firm and Fade. It is a skin brightener and lightener that contains an active blend of 2% Hydroquinone, Kojic Acid, Azelaic Acid and High Potency Vitamin C. It promises to improve uneven skin tone, lighten age spots and tighten and firm. The cream, which is meant to be applied nightly, sells for $350.

Amatokin, The Latest Option For Spendy Skin Care

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

A new pricey skin cream, Amatokin, is coming to the U.S. and making those who are always on the prowl for the next great anti-aging treatment reach for their wallets. The product is on sale at Bloomingdales for $173 for a one month supply. That's far from the kits we have seen that sell for several thousand dollars but certainly expensive enough to make me wonder what it is made of. So what's the secret? The product uses stem-cell technology harnessing the regenerative potential of your own facial stem cells. The product is being marketed by the same people who marketed StriVectin which explains the rather basic packaging. A recent article in the Daily Mail reports that a woman tested it out for French Elle and was quite pleased with the results.

Ultrasonic Facials, A New Skin Care Trend

Filed under: Spas

The latest skin care treatment uses water and electricity to create better skin. The new trend in facials is the ultrasonic wet dermabrasion treatment using the Dermasound machine. The treatment is a three-stage system that uses low frequency sound waves to perform aesthetic services. The skin is cleansed with antioxidant-rich Glymed products, exfoliated and then moisturized. Dead skin cells are removed with ultrasonic water then ultrasound is used to push anti-aging and anti-inflammatory vitamins deep into the skin and then microcurrent therapy is applied to recharge and balance skin. Facials using Dermasound are available in spas around North America and generally cost around $100 for a one-hour treatment. The treatment is supposed to help with both acne and aging.

[via The Vancouver Sun]

Creme de la Mer Radiant Facial

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

The latest face fix from Creme de la Mer is a two-part system called The Radiant Facial, The facial is an eight-minute treatment that consists of the Radiant Primer, which uses an Anti-Irritant Marine complex to calm and soothe the skin and the Radiant Mast, a cotton mask embedded with tourmaline (the same gem that makes ionic blow dryers work so well). The Radiant Facial helps diminish the appearance of age spots, freckles and uneven pigmentation and helps prevent the appearance of future discoloration. They recommend using the facial twice the first week and then once a week afterwards. The package sells for $320.

ReVive Artbox 2006

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

Previous packaging we've seen from RéVive has looked like some sort of futuristic space face cream but their 2006 art box is sweetly artistic. They package the three pieces of the RéVive Intensité line: Crème Lustre, Les Yeux, and Volumizing Serum in one box designed by artist Melissa Dadourian . The box is adorned in Eva a 2006 oil and wood painting created by Dadourian for the ReVive box. The homage to beauty sells for $990.

Daniele de Winter InsideOut Skin Care

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

Like the Borba company we have covered previously, Monaco-based Daniele de Winter believes in beauty from the inside out. Her skin care line includes the Shot Beauté beauty drink as well as external skin care which uses natural antioxidants and enzymes such as Hawaiian noni, acerola, Polish cranberry and blueberry. The range includes cleansing, toning, moisturizing, body and special beauty care products, as well as two beauty drinks (one for morning and one for evening). The double-teaming of antioxidants from the inside and the outside has earned the line a devoted following on international beauties including Ornella Muti and Catherine Deneuve.

[via The Moodie Report]

Air Repair Kit

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

With holiday travel and vacation coming up Visage Studio has created the Air Repair Kit to help protect your skin before and after flying. The kit includes six products designed to keep you from looking haggard after you get off the plane. The kit includes Desquacreme, a creamy, foaming facial cleanser by Sothys from Paris, Karin Herzog Oxygen Face Cream and Essential Mask from Switzerland, Air Repair Skin Vitality Mineral Mist which can be sprayed on the skin to relieve dryness, Air Repair Rescue Lip Balm and Terme Cream from Italy, a long-lasting hand and nail cream, all bundled up in a tolietry bag with an instruction card on use. The kit costs $195 and has a 30-day supply of products. The products can be used by both women and men, since just about everyone looks a bit ragged after a long flight.

Zelens Day Cream

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

Whenever I hear of a new face cream I always get a bit thrilled, what new expensiveness can I slather on my face to ease the ravages of time? The ultra-pricey creams tend to often include ultramodern packaging and rare extracts I have never heard of but the Zelens cream comes in a simple green glass jar and has an active ingredient Fullerene C-60, an anti-oxidant for which a team of scientists received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1997. The company claims that Fullerene C-60 is 100 times more effective than Vitamin E in the same concentration for neutralizing free radicals, which are the big boogeymen of aging skin. The creams promise to "prevent environmental damage to the skin's DNA" as well as stimulate the action of cells that produce natural collagen. The day cream sells for $200.

Detox for your Skyn

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Cosmetics and Fragrance

It was on Lindsay Lohan's recommendation that I first heard about The 5-Day Detox Kit from skyn Iceland.

"Detox" has the ring of seriousness, doesn't it? Well, for some of us -- and yes, Lindsay and I fall into this category -- detox is exactly what we need when it comes to our skin. If you have chronic dryness, redness, irritation, flakiness, skyn's 4-step regimen is the only skincare line designed to address the tell-tale signs of stress on your skin. Inflused with a unique Biospheric Complex, the detox kit gives you everything you need to replenish the naturally occurring "glow" most of us have when we aren't under the influence of things like deadlines, caffeine, lack of sleep, hang-overs, sunburns, sugar, anxiety or -- in the case of La Lohan -- the paparazzi.

La Mer Face Serum

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Cosmetics and Fragrance

You might question her judgment on fashion, men and musical tastes, but when it comes to her choices in pricey beauty products, Jennifer Lopez only picks winners. A case in point in her love of La Mer cosmetics.

Powered by some kind of mysterious unnamed "broth",  La Mer's lifting face serum and intensifer are, according to devotees like J.Lo, worth every penny.

The serum, which is applied beneath your moisturizer is created through blue algae bio-fermentation. Though it sounds yucky,  blue algae has a remarkable capacity for restoring the skin's smoothness and clarity. 

La Mer's intensifier is designed to boost the lifting benefits of The Lifting Face Serum with Azurite, a crystalline material formed in sea beds. As The Lifting Intensifier is absorbed over time, the mesh-like collagen and elastin uphold the skin.

Still, blue algae is a little weird, and I have to wonder where they got that special algae from, because at $285, it sure can't be from the pond in my local park.

Molton Brown Expands Their Cosmetics Line

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

I usually mention the UK company Molton Brown when discussing hotel amenities or spa treatments. They are now making a big push into the makeup world. Their Skincolor line has existed for sometime but they are now revamping it into a larger collection that will feature products with plant, fruit and flower extracts with skin-improving properties. According to Cosmetics News, the products will come in capsule format. New items will include a tinted moisturizer with ginkgo biloba which sells for $43, a blush powder for $33 and Wonderlips lipstick which will sell for $23.45.

Is Your Shower Making You Look Older?

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

Should you be afraid of your shower? For years I've heard of celebrities washing their face and hair with Evian. Now several beauty products have been developed to counteract the effects of tap water. Jonathan Antin recently came out with a $95  shower purifier that is supposed to result in healthier hair and there are also products to protect the skin. Dorit Baxter’s Day Spa in New York has created the Facial Shower Shield which is  a cream that is meant to be put on when you step into the shower. A two ounce jar sells for $12.99. Is this overkill or is tap water really making us look older?


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