LAST SUMMER, five months into lockdown and two hours past midnight, I found myself glaring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror with five drops of Bertolli extra virgin olive oil drizzling down my nose. After an evening spent picking at my pores, I had found a buried Reddit thread suggesting I massage my skin with oil to rid it of the tiny grey spots that dotted its surface. These little nuisances—or “sebaceous filaments”—are not acne but passages that carry oil from the pores to the skin’s outer layer. Everyone has them, and they are not visible to the human eye except from an intimate distance. But, under lockdown, with the distance between my visage and the mirror shrinking with each passing day, I’d become obsessed with purging my face of these invaders.
These days I am more aware of the time passing by than I have ever been before. I had the impression that yesterday was Monday, but it’s already the end of the week, and time is so fleeting. The only constant these days is how much time I have been devoting to taking care of myself. It has become part of the routine to mask and to take the time to apply all the creams and serums ...
These past summer days, I have been lounging around reading Find Me by André Aciman, the author of Call me By your Name. Contrary to what everyone expected, he wrote on twitter: “I would actually love a sequel to Call Me By Your Name. In fact I am writing one.”
I am not usually interested in what is new in the beauty market, but would rather know everything about what is best. Figuring out which combination of products works for my skin is still a work in progress. My skincare routine always starts with a thorough cleansing process and then applying layers of products from the lightest to heaviest.
After years of attentive observation in my continuous quest for a natural, effortless Parisian look, I’ve come to realise everything starts with skincare. From make-up artists to international models, there is a place no one fails to stop by while in Paris: La Pharmacie.
THEY SAY THAT THERE IS currently a ring of ice surrounding New York City or so the story goes, and friends have been complaining about the bitter cold and spending hours burrowing at home. While it has been the coldest winter here in the UK in two years...