New Year Beauty Resolutions, Part 1.

Tue, 6 January 2009 10:14AM

Ditch the booze. Start Bikram Yoga. Get my submarine license. Stop doing burnouts in the car park. Sell the Hummerzine and buy a street luge. Return that email Angelina Jolie sent… These are some of my non-beauty new year resolutions. As you can see, some of them border on ridiculous, I mean when will I get time to email Angelina? My beauty resolutions on the other hand, are a lot more achievable… In fact, they are so achievable that you should probably copy them.

1. WEAR SUNSCREEN EVERY, SINGLE DAY, EVERYWHERE.

The face I always do. But sometimes I forget my own advice and fail to my neck, arms and backs of hands, even though I know these places age at the same rate or faster than the skin on the face, and are just as visible. (Next time you see a woman 40+ in an evening dress – or Elle MacPherson – you’ll know what I mean.)

How I will achieve this: By using a lightweight broad spectrum body lotion every morning and keeping one in the car, too. Nivea does a cracker called Light Feel Everyday Sun Lotion, which is about ten beans and devoid of that sticky, thicky sunblocky texture.

2. SERIOUSLY CUT BACK ON PEELS AND CHEMICAL EXFOLIATION

On March 1 by Estee Lauder will release a new anti-aging cream called Time Zone. Being a “journo” (industry slang for journalist), I have already had the privilege of attending the media launch and meeting the scientist behind Time Zone, the great Dr Daniel Maes. I will go into more detail once Time Zone is actually available for you to buy, but for now I have to share one of the many things I learned while getting to terms with the technology that went into developing this cream, and that is that constantly forcing your cells to renew (by peels, exfoliation and such) is not the wonderful thing we originally thought it to be. After all, the skin only has a finite amount of layers, and if we keep peeling them off so that we get that fresh glowy new skin we have all become so addicted to, eventually we won’t be left with anything other than overly thin, sad, tired skin and Dr Maes tells me, small white lines (caeloides) made of collagen that look like little stretch marks. And these will not be able to be removed. And that’s no fun. The key, says Dr Maes, is to slow down cell renewal, not speed it up.

How I will achieve this: By letting go of my obsession with glycolic acid and doing gentle monthly, not weekly facial exfoliation. I am going to feed my skin this year, rather than constantly strip it back.

3. EMULATE THE MAKEUP AND HAIR FROM MAD MEN

Mad Men, for those who have not seen it, is kind of the best show on TV, ever. It’s about an advertising agency in the early 1960s, and filthy cheating husbands, and twisted TV stars and mistresses and glamorous hookers and dysfunctional families but most of all it is about Exceptional Beauty (and fashion.) Designers (especially Michael Kors) have been influenced by the show (which won a Golden Globe in 2008, after only one season, oh yeah, it’s that good), and any recessionista worth her bus pass knows that classic, fitted feminine clothes (pussycat blouses, pencil skirts, cinched dresses) are timeless and totes perfect for 2009.

I am most fixated with Betsy Draper (played by January Jones). She is married to (and constantly being cheated on by) sexy-slimy bad guy Don Draper (Jon Hamm), but more importantly, has a Park Avenue honey blonde bob, blue eyes and obscenely perfect features. Very Grace Kelly. Generally she wears muted red, pink and orange lipsticks and minimal eye shadow and her hair is set in large rollers for glamorous waves. LOVE IT. Makes me want to chop off my long, curly faded-regrowth mop and go back to the shiny brunette curly bob I had in, ooooh, 2007. There’s definitely something to said for looking polished and groomed and “ladylike.” (Not sure what. Will tell you when I know.)

How I will achieve this: By reuniting with my curling tongs and hair spray, who I sent off on a cruise around Canada several years ago. By eventually going back to rich, shiny brunette, as I do each winter. By using a lush lipstick in pinky-red tones, faint traces of blush and a little liner along the top lashes. By teleporting myself back to 1962 using a cunning combination of my toaster, a Mexican walking fish and some pliers.

Posted by: Zoe Foster

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Tags: 1960, anti-aging, cell renewal, curling tongs, fashion, lipstick, mad men, sunscreen, time zone