THE FORMULA

YOU ARE A BABE

TRACEY LOMRANTZ LESTER, GILT GROUP

MAY 10.2013 by AIMEE BLAUT

"I spent almost eight years in magazines before I made the move to Gilt Group—I was both insanely nervous and obnoxiously excited and the first couple of months here have exceeded all of my expectations. I had some knowledge of e-commerce from some of the cool projects I’d worked on at Glamour, but working for a pioneering company like Gilt is a whole different game. It's one thing to have good taste and be able to spot trends, but it's something else entirely to package those trends, present them to our members in a way that feels exciting and actually get them to shop (an enormous endeavor that I never had to worry about when I was an editor). I’m looking at fashion through a whole different lens, and it's such a gratifying experience. I work closely with our buyers to decide which trends we're going to invest in and I help editorialize the shopping experience through video, original imagery, interviews, and style advice. Along with my amazingly talented team I create content for our blog. No day is like the one before it—the pace is just astonishing!

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I am super uptight about oral hygiene so when I wake up I brush my teeth right away. Usually I’ll do a light spritz on my face with an Evian Spray and then I work out. After I get back from the gym I wash my face with Cetaphil. I’ve been using it for a hundred years; it’s the most amazing cleanser in the world. My grandmother’s ninety years old and she’s been using it forever and has amazing skin so that has always stuck with me. I use a Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado and recently started using a new moisturizer, Clinique Moisture Surge. It’s really good and only thirty dollars a jar, which is pretty incredible. In the winter I like the La Prairie Caviar Cream when my skin is dry.

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When it comes to cosmetics I am very low key. Lipstick is my number one product; it’s my armor. No matter how crappy I feel or how much I hate my outfit I always put on some lipstick and it can change everything. I am not a brand loyalist and have about fifty different tubes. I’m wearing Estée Lauder, Fuchsia Velvet and I have a Clarins red that I have been obsessed with forever. I just got into a dark lip from MAC and am loving it. I am making it my mission this year to learn how to wear eyeliner. I just have never figured it. I am determined to master a nice little cat eye and winged flip. I’ve been wearing DiorShow mascara forever, that’s my go to.

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I try to wash my face every single night; I hate to go to bed with any makeup on. Moisturizing my hands is really important to me. Hands are the telltale sign of how old a woman is, I am fanatical about keeping my hands youthful looking. I use L’Occitane hand cream and sometimes I sleep with cotton gloves. I put Vaseline on my lips every single night. I hate the feeling of dry lips.

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I chopped all my hair off in October for a shoot for Glamour. It was down to my waist and cut more than ten inches off, it was so scary. It was a huge move for me after having long hair for years and years.”

Photos by Aimee Blaut in New York

Tags: Cetaphil, Clarins, Clinique, Dior, Estee Lauder, Evian, Kiehl's, L'Occitane, La Prarie, MAC, Vaseline

YOU ARE A BABE

SABINE MAIDA, BEAUTY EDITOR, GLAMOUR FRANCE

JULY 30.2012 by AIMEE BLAUT

"In the Nineties there was a first Glamour magazine created by Condé Nast. It lasted for three or four years and after that it was finished. It was the greatest magazine I’ve ever seen in France. Very often people would say that Glamour was going to be launched again and each time I wanted to be a part of the team. For a while it didn’t come back, it would be Jalouse or another launch. When the new Glamour was finally launched for real I was eight months pregnant with an extra twenty kilos [laughs]. I was working for another magazine called, Vingt Ans then. It was a very special magazine that doesn’t exist anymore, but very funny and unique. I was the Beauty Editor for this magazine and their idea about beauty was different. But I said okay I am going to try to see the editor in chief for Glamour and I will see what happens. I was sure that she wouldn’t take me because I was so pregnant and we didn’t know each other but I sent her a mail with a book of my work. She called me and said ‘ok we can meet each other.’ We talked and then she decided that she wanted me for this position. Condé Nast took me during my maternity leave. This kind of thing doesn’t happen often so I was very touched they trusted me. But I worked during my pregnancy and my baby was one week old and I was at work and taking meetings. It was very hard in fact but I don’t have any regrets, I was very happy to work for Glamour and it was nine years ago now, so it is a very long love story."

“I am not such a beauty girl. I am very natural; I think I am very French for this. At the same time I am a woman and a Beauty Editor so I have to test some stuff [laughs]. When I wake up the first thing I love to do is spray rosewater on my face. Afterwards I have a green tea then take a shower. I have sensitive skin so for my face I use a lot of La Roche-Posay and Avène—more pharmaceutical products. For my body I can try everything. I love the smells and textures. I take the time to nourish my skin with lots of Clarins Sérum Corps Peau Neuve it’s my basic and afterwards I use Aesop.”

“I know American girls wash their hair everyday but I can’t. Since I was young I’ve been told that if I wash my hair everyday it will be too dry so I wash it every other day. I put a lot of oil in my hair before I shampoo it. I’m a Mediterranean woman, from the French Riviera so I love oil. I use the Kiehl’s Amino Acid Shampoo with coconut. I love Kerastase and the brands of L’Oreal Professional. Shu Uemura Art of Hair products have great texture and smell nice. After I wash my hair I use a serum like the one from David Mallet or an Aveda cream for texture so I don’t look like a big head of hair. I never use any blow dryers though. I think when you have curly hair you need to come as you are. In France we have a sentence that means if you want to forget your natural way it will come back fast and strong.”

“I love to wear some splash after I nourish my skin. Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino is amazing. I use so many because for me it is a very feminine and important gesture. It is not so much about the smell because the scents are very subtle.”

“I only wear a little makeup. I don’t use a foundation, just some powder from Givenchy, Croisière . Now that it is summer I have some tan so I try to keep it. Afterwards I add pink because it can look too brown otherwise with the bronzer. I don’t like eye shadow or eyeliner so much because afterwards I can be a mess like a girl coming home with everything all over. I use a lot of black mascara by La Roche-Posay. I have very sensitive eyes and this one is very gentle. Sometimes I put blue pencil around my eyes just to change it up, but if I don’t use this blue, I use nothing. I think black looks hard on me. At the end of the day if I’m going to a party I’ll wear lipstick. I like a good matte lipstick with a lot of color like MAC Lady Danger. For the day I prefer something more sweet, with color but not too strong.”

“The last thing I do before I leave the house is apply real perfume. I love No.19 by Chanel. I have had it since I was seventeen. It is my first and my all and my everything, my first love [laughs]. Sometimes I use L’eau Froide, by Serge Lutens it means cold water. It is very special because when you smell it, it is very cold but it is hot at the same time.”

Photos by: Aimee Blaut

Tags: Aesop, Avene, beauty, Beauty Editor, Chanel, France, French, French Beauty, Givenchy, Glamour France, Glamour Magazine, Glamour Paris, Kerastase, Kiehl's, La Roche Posay, MAC, Paris, Sabine Maida, Serge Lutens, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, Tom Ford

YOU ARE A BABE

PARISA AND MAX , MAX FOWLES

JUNE 11.2012 by AIMEE BLAUT

Parisa: “We are launching Max Fowles Ready to Wear collection for Autumn/Winter 2012. I’m the Creative Director for the brand and we’ve been designing the collection for the past few years. It’s a small twenty-piece collection and we are really excited. When you get your first sale it’s the point where you feel like oh this works and it is so rewarding because you have a vision in your head but you don’t know how it will work until you get the feedback.”

Parisa: “Max is more obsessed with putting creams and such on; I’m actually not [laughs]. I didn’t even put body lotion on until he forced me to. But I always wash my face with Crème de La Mer face wash. I have very sensitive skin so I can break out if use the wrong products. Crème de La Mer works really well on my skin. Kiehl’s body lotion—I love. For fragrances I hate common smells. I have on Chanel Coromandel—it is amazing. It’s very strong with a musky touch to it.”

Max: “Yeah I am the one spending all the money on my beauty regimen. I have the more elaborate beauty closet. When I wake up I just rinse my face off with water in the shower and then moisturize with Crème de la Mer. I also use their eye balm. For lip balm we use Fresh’s Sugar but everything else is Crème de la Mer and an SPF from my dermatologist. At night I always shower before bed and moisturize my full body. Then I use this gel serum on my face that is like a peel. I use it every night and then always eye balm and always lip balm. For perfume I always use Byredo. You can only buy it typically at Barneys never at Duty Free or something like that.”

Max: “We just bought a shampoo that is really cool called Number twenty-Four. My hairdresser from London, Daniel Galvin is incredible, his son James opened up a place in Los Angeles. So they started up a line and the products are great–we are loving them.”

Parisa: “Okay for makeup it’s my turn now [laughs]. I like NARS a lot. I like their lipstick, the pink one I’m using Schiap, its super pink and feels fun. I’m a big blush person. Mascara, I don’t use that much, unless it’s a special day, but I look dead if I don’t use blush and some bronzing powder on my face. I like NARS in Casino and Desire. Eyeliner is something I have always used since I was fifteen years old. I like to do dark eyes with a bright lipstick. I use the Benefit waterproof eyeliner pencil and it doesn’t smudge it’s really good. I always thread my brows, they are naturally pretty thick but I keep them up [laughs]. It hurts a lot and I thread once or twice a week.”

Parisa: “I was born in Iran but I moved to Sweden when I was two years old. We live in L.A. now but I am used to always traveling. When I’m in Stockholm I go to Sturebadet, for my gym and my spa that’s the best spa in Sweden. I love the spa at The Setai Hotel in Miami, they have an amazing spa there, it is one of my favorites, very relaxing. Here in L.A. we go the Beverly HIlls Hotel when we want to pamper ourselves really well.”