LOVE AFFAIRS
MAUBOUSSIN, NEW YORK
DECEMBER 27.2011
by AIMEE BLAUT
2012 is days away -- what better time than now to find a signature scent for the new year?
On my quest for my next favorite fragrance, I linked up with Laurence Bouard, the newly appointed Director of Mauboussin on New York City's Madison Avenue. This was my first trip to their recently renovated five-story townhouse. The store is elegant and whimsical with a touch of 1900’s Paris. At Mauboussin, they boast that “luxury should be the universal language.” The French jewelry house manages to make luxury affordable with a broad range of inspired fragrances, hand-crafted by master perfumers.
I spritzed and sprayed the morning away with Laurence (trying my best not to get distracted by the shiny objects, ahem — the sexy rings.)
In the end, these were my favorite perfumes:
Pour Elle, Mauboussin’s provocative yet feminine scent with rose and red-fruit heart on a jasmine and gardenia blend. It’s known as their “love potion” and comes playfully topped with a signature ring.
Oriental, a mature fragrance with notes of golden plum, Indian jasmine and red mandarin.
M Moi, my personal favorite (partially because it is a play on my name, Aimee) I’m crazy about white flowers like narcissus – and M Moi combines them with white currant and cashmere wood.
I’ll take all three please! (That’s right, Santa, I do accept late presents.)
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: 2012, France, Jewelry, Laurence Bouard, M Moi, Madison Avenue, Mauboussin, New Years, New York, Oriental, Paris, Perfume, Pour Elle
YOU ARE A BABE
CONNIE WANG, GLOBAL EDITOR, REFINERY29
DECEMBER 26.2011
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I grew up in Minnesota but then I went to school out in San Francisco. Um. . . I moved to New York and when I started at Refinery I was maybe the third editor they had. I was number six on their staff, now we’ve grown to maybe fifty people with a huge team. I’m the Global Editor, so I manage everything that shows up on the homepage for Refinery. I source freelancers and contributors that have really niche interests and I also write stories and trend reports."
“I don’t use face wash since I have very dry skin, if I wash it even once a day it gets super dry. I think it’s a well-known cardinal sin for beauty but it works fine for me. I use the Boscia luminizing black mask when I need to recover from a long weekend of debauchery. The only thing about it is you need to do it by yourself since it goes on super black. It peels off all in one sheet and is very satisfying. I feel super clean afterwards like it pulled out all the impurities and build up. Since I don’t wash my face this kind of thing is really helpful.”
“Since I live so close to where I work, I wake up fifteen minutes before I have to be at the office. My beauty routine starts with messing up my hair. I shower before I go to sleep and wake up with crazy bed head so I like to play off that. I use Bare Essentials on my cheeks because they can be a little bit red and some Bare Minerals bronzer and then Stila eyeliner and I’m ready to go. On fancier occasions I have this eye shadow palette that I’ve been using for like five years, it’s a mix of gold colors by Smashbox. I doubt they even make it anymore. I don’t wear mascara since I have really short eyelashes and I don’t think it makes much of a difference. I generally stick to Tarte lip balms or lip crayons because they stay on longer than lipsticks do. I picked up a lot of wet N’wild Halloween lipsticks that come in those vampire makeup kits – they’re super pigmented and last forever.”
“At my core I’m a very lazy girl but I’ll take risks with my nails. I’ve had stiletto and 3-D nails before, I’ll go all out. I’m also obsessed with body lotions and creams; I love La Roche Possay cus it’s made for sensitive skin. Otherwise I use this Avène body lotion – it’s a little thick though, so I only use it during the winter. I use a ton of hand lotions too and keep a million of them at my desk because I type all day long and forget to wear mittens during the winter. The Khiels ultimate strength hand salve, is my super serious one.”
“Working at Refinery I road test a ton of different treatments. Over the past two years I’ve had the most insane things done to my hair. I’ve gotten a perm, which was awesome for a couple of weeks and then just destroyed my hair. I’ve gotten it dyed six different times in the past two years and I’ve gotten really strange haircuts that took forever to grow out. My hair has seen everything and is super dry now. I try to take care of it with oils and deep conditioning treatments. The Rene Furterer intense hair mask and karite oil transforms my hair and makes it look amazing. I also use the Sally Hershberger wave spray and it smells so so good I end up over spraying it as perfume.”
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Avene, Bare Essentials, Bare Minerals, Boscia, Connie Wang, Editor, Hair trauma, La Roche Possay, Nail Art, Refinery29, Rene Furterer, Sally Hershberger, Smashbox, Tarte
YOU ARE A BABE
SASHA OWEN-LONGFELLOW, MODEL / BLOGGER
DECEMBER 23.2011
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I’ve been modeling for like ten years so I don’t really need to work with an agency anymore which is cool. I still have one in Tokyo, Seoul, and Stockholm but not in New York. I also have a blog where I write about interesting things; mostly it all revolves around myself and people that I meet. When I was living in Tokyo I found writing to be much easier since everything felt new and different compared to New York. I’m actually going to be in Tokyo for all of January and blogging for Milk Made."
“I start the day with Fresh soy face cleanser and then I use the Philosophy SPF moisturizer so I don’t get wrinkles. But from day to night I look totally different, during the daytime I usually don’t wear much makeup if any, maybe just some mascara. Right now I have eye shadow on by Charlotte Ronson and I’m all about Fresh sugar lipsticks in plum and rosè. I’ve been really into makeup; once you start hitting twenty-four or twenty-five I think you become more interested in makeup because you start to look old.”
“At nighttime I usually go a bit goth or weird alternative depending on the mood I’m in. I use Benefit’s bad gal mascara in plum because if it smudges, like all mascara does, it kind of looks pink. I have blue eyes so it looks like I have pink eyeliner, which is better than having black all over. Of course I use Bare Minerals on my face. At nighttime I use Bare Minerals bronzer in warmth to carve out my cheekbones pretty drastically. I use this Charlotte Ronson eye shadow in gold, red and black. I smudge it all around my eyes and underneath towards my temples. I have a basic black eyeliner that I use in the corners of my eyes. For my lips I start with some plain chapstick and put some of the brown shadow on top of it so it looks matte brown.”
“I use the Philosophy exfoliating scrub at nighttime. Then I do this thing where I mix their hope in a jar cream with fish oil – the orange scented kind. I was using the unscented oil for a while and the guy I was dating was like, “what’s that smell” which was pretty funny because I said, “Oh it’s just my fish oil.” (laughs) I’m a vegetarian so that’s kind of funny.”
“I used to live in Seoul and I’m obsessed with bath house culture, I love sweating. I went to the bath house in Korea everyday, which is six floors and very intense with a gym and huts for sleeping in the basement. In New Jersey there is a place called King Sauna, which is a serious Korean bath house – it’s awesome. I also like The Face Shop in New Jersey, they have tons of whitening facemasks that I’m obsessed with. This place has hundreds of them and they’re only a dollar to three dollars. The masks make you purer or rejuvenated or hydrated with ginseng. There are so many different kinds, I like to think that they work.”
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Bare Minerals, Bath House, Benefit, Blogger, Chapter, Charlotte Ronson, Fresh, Milk Made, Philosophy, Sasha Owen-Longfellow, Seoul, Spa King, SPF, The Face Shop, Tokyo
