Don’t let people tell you your 30s will be the best time of your life in a tone that suggests your looks will fade so you better find inner peace. Vicki’s Pick is a weekly beauty column that features Vicki’s all-time favourite beauty products and latest discoveries for women in their 30s who plan on staying pretty on the outside for a long, long time. Inner peace is optional.
When it comes to dating, size matters in more than just the obvious measurements of inches below the belt and the number of zeros at the end of your pay cheque. In fact, size is so complex an issue that I’m surprised it hasn’t inspired its very own genre of self-help manuals meant to capitalize on the insecurities of people who believe they’re one wisdom-telling book away from finding true romance. But since this is a beauty column, I’ll focus purely on the importance of size as it relates to beauty products and, in effect, your dating life.
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If you opened up my bathroom cupboard (and I’m sure the nosiest of my guests have), you’d be struck by the sheer number of gorgeously packaged lotions and fragrances mixed in with sterile-looking bottles and containers that seem fit for a science lab. I love experimenting with the latest and greatest in beauty technology, be it an expensive designer invention or a DIY home remedy designed by someone fascinatingly vain like Gwyneth Paltrow. While I have varying degrees of brand loyalties, I’m not the kind of girl who sticks to a tried-and-true beauty regime because I hold the unverified belief that using the same products too long leads to skin complacency.
This is all fine and dandy when I’m at home because I can slather on dollops of my current “it” night cream or use half a pound of Epsom salts in my latest kitchen experiment, but it complicates things when I travel, especially if I’m traveling with someone I happen to be dating. Packing a suitcase worth of beauty products screams “high maintenance,” and while I consider myself more of a beauty hobbyist than a victim of consumer culture, it’s hard to make that argument when I’m also using it to justify checking bags at the airport just for an overnight vacation.
Fortunately, ever since airport security introduced the 100mL maximum for liquids allowed in carry-ons, beauty companies have upped their game when it comes to travel-sized editions of their best products. Once upon a time, you could only get basic cleanser, lotion, and body wash travel kits, but that was when the idea of being jet-set signified extreme wealth and private planes. Now, frequent flying is just a way of life for business and pleasure, and the most cutting edge beauty companies have adapted, releasing travel-sized versions to coincide with their latest revolutionary product launches – especially products where the ideal results rely on consistent use.
My new favourite find for traveling is Dermalogica PowerBright TRx Treatment Kit ($50). Dermalogica just launched the brand’s new Dermalogica PowerBright TRx line this September, which features three skin-brightening products designed to fight hyperpigmentation, particularly in aging skin. The line includes: Dermalogica C-12 Pure Bright Serum, a lightweight, easily absorbed topical treatment applied morning and night before a moisturizer, which combats hyperpigmentation with peptides, Rice-derived Phytic Acid, Zinc Glycinatem, and algae; Pure Light, a day cream with SPF 50 that also regulates melanin production, works to balance skin tone, and hydrates skin with Hyaluronic Acid; and Pure Night, a night cream that reduces brown spots and restores moisture and vibrancy to skin with Oligopeptide-34 and skin-brightening Vitamin C.
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The regular-sized editions of the three new products are an investment at $120 for the C-12 Pure Bright Serum, $106 for Pure Light, and $100 for Pure Night, so the idea of leaving these products at home and taking a few days off from the skin-brightening regime for the sake of lighter luggage doesn’t seem sensible to those of us who take new beauty treatments seriously. Although I’ve just been using the new line for a couple of weeks, I love how hydrated my skin already feels, especially this time of year when it tends to dry and flake with the change in temperatures. Given that I’m about to go on a romantic fall get-away to New England, I’m relieved Dermalogica also released tiny 100mL travel editions of each of these products in the brand’s PowerBright TRx Treatment Kit so I don’t have to choose between looking impossibly high maintenance and sabotaging my new skin care routine. It’s nice to be both the kind of girl who can throw her cares to the wind and her slightly more complicated beauty regime directly into her carry-on.