elizabeth arden – Adamant About Beauty

I travel. A lot. I crisscross the country every which way for work and I love it. I often am on four to five flights each week and I often change time zones and climates two to three times each week. And I still get compliments on my skin. Here are my best beauty travel tips.

I pack so many beauty products that I always have to check my bag. So if you are adamantly opposed to that, just stop reading right now.
I think of skin care like I do about clothes – in terms of changing climates: it’s all about layering. T-shirts + jackets = serums + moisturizers. I add and layer as need be and am equally prepared for Puerto Rico and Seattle weather.
Airplane air is drying, so many of those products are aimed at maintaining moisture – oils and heavier moisturizers that I would not necessarily use daily during a week in the office. Our Gentle cream cleanser. Our Kantic+® Intensely nourishing cream. My current favorite facial oil. Lots of serums.
Also because airplane air is drying, I always have a travel size of our Kantic® Brightening moisture mask in my purse and I apply some on any flight longer than 2.5 hours. (This also prevents me smelling like airplane all the time, which is a most lovely benefit).
Because of my line of work, I get a lot of samples and gifts of beauty products. I use travel as a way to test them. This morning, as part of my multi-step facial routine, I tried a sample of the new Elizabeth Arden vitamin C capsules (received as a gift on the road in Puerto Rico last week). I also take full-size gifts on the road (hence checked suitcase) and leave them in the hotel bathroom if I don’t fall in love with them and imagine that a lovely hotel attendant will find them and fall in love.
I have an amazing walk-in shower at home, but no bathtub. So hotel rooms with bathtubs are like a treasure. I pack bath oils (I love any Clarins body oil in my bath), bath salts (Kneipp and Aveda, always lavender, are my favorites), and take baths.
These baths are the perfect excuse for a mini facial “at home,” aka Gentle refining scrub and Kantic® Brightening moisture mask. Proper exfoliation is always important, but I feel it is particularly key on the road to keep my skin bright and glowing.
Because I am on the road so much, I maintain the same body care routine on the road as I do at home. Firming gel for neck and bust. Optimizing body contour gel. Soothing body lotion. (Are you starting to see the need to check my suitcase…?).
Flights are terrible for swelling in the lower extremities. So a leg and foot massage with our Dry skin balm is a must every day I fly.
One thing I do not travel with is my hairdryer, and hotel room hair dryers are not always amazing. A DryBar appointment on the road helps me look my best for important meetings.
And finally, every morning, a tall glass of water with EmergenC (Super Orange), and a shot (to drink not to inject) of Vitamin B12.

May your travels be safe – and beautiful!

The very day I announced that our newest product, our Advanced retinol serum with time-release technology was hitting the shelves, I was asked what our next new product would be. I felt like how I imagine a woman feels who has just given birth being and is asked when she is having another child…

Today, exactly two months post launch, I am ready to think about newness again. Here is what is on top of my mind – I would love to hear your insights, requests, ideas, and input.

It if were entirely up to me, I would create a facial oil. Of all of the product categories that are represented by other brands in my skin care routine, oils are the most significant as I am always using two or three depending on the day. The Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum may be my favorite of all time (and certainly the most expensive product I have purchased in a long time!). I grew up using Clarins facial oils, which I still use today. I love the oils by Goldfadden MD, Indie Lee, Naturopathica (the carrot oil in particular). Can you tell I have a thing for oils?

Even better, a facial oil in capsules.

And, I love capsules. My Mom used oil capsules on her skin when I was little, and I remember seeing her open one delicately every evening – like it was a treasure of pure liquid gold for her face. She loved an obscure French brand that is no longer in business, and in trying to replicate that memory, I recently purchased the Advanced Ceramide Capsules by Elizabeth Arden. Maybe this purchase also has a little bit to do with my girl crush on Reese Witherspoon? I love opening up those little bubbles of deliciousness and love the feel on my skin, but don’t love the fragrance, or that they contain dimethicone. Could we create an even better product?

Another mask. After all, our Kantic Brightening moisture mask remains our hero product, top seller, and editor favorite, so it would be strategically sound to expand the “mask franchise.” Plus, we have had requests for a mask that is more focused on purifying and detoxifying. (I can tell you it won’t be a sheet mask however, I hate those). The pressure is on – a second mask would have to be as perfect, as magical, as this first one…

A toner / mist / antioxidant spray. We don’t have a toner in our line because our cleansers are pH balanced to the skin. Having said that, there is something so refreshing about a mist, and it is one of the non Alchimie products I use. I love the Yonka Lotion PS mist that smells like lavender and often use it during travel…

At-home peel pads. Estheticians everywhere love our professional-only Brightening peel. I do too, and I must confess to sometimes using it on myself at home. So it is only natural to think about a “real” at-home version. Yet I have mixed feelings. Can we make better at-home peel pads than the Dr. Dennis Gross top-selling product? If we make them “safe” for consumer use, are they still effective? And if we make an at-home version, will consumers forego our professional peel treatment? So many questions…

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