Category: – –

Beauty Break: Mizu and Sarra

Spring means no more Uggs and down parkas. For me, it also means an abundance of beauty treatments. While I could gladly succumb to a two hour massage (extra deep) daily, I’m not great about making time for all the other primping rituals. But alas, it’s all in a day’s work. For the third year in a row I’ll be writing the “Best of Beauty” (and “Weddings”) for the Improper Bostonian “Best Of” issue. That means weekly facials, multiple mani pedis, a haircut and maybe even highlights, depending on how dedicated I’m feeling, and a bunch of bikini waxes. (Everyone gets to rip an inch. Ouch.) This year I started early, but even so, the next few weeks will be jam packed.

mizu

mizu1This week I visited mizu, the new hair salon owned by Elan Sassoon (yes, his daddy’s Vidal), at the Mandarin Oriental Boston. The white-on-white, tunnel-like, futuristic space is more interesting from the outside and in. It makes an impact when you’re at reception, but once inside, it’s business as usual. It runs along the long corridor that connects the Prudential to Lord & Taylor across the way, with glass panels allowing passerbyers to peek in. While the overall experience wasn’t overly impressive (all was well, but no bells & whistles), I got a fantastic cut from the Managing Director, Patrick McGinley, who was formerly the Artistic Director at Vidal Sassoon in Boston. I can’t swing the $150 price tag on my own, but in the name of research, I will gladly go back.

sarra

sarra1Next stop, Sarra in South Boston (in the same warehouse as rocker hairstyle haven Shag.) As you can see, the space is amazing, full of light with glossy white furnishing and aqua accents. Proprietor Lauren Genatossio is a makeup artist and professional brow plucker who not only beautifies her clients, but de-mystifies makeup madness. She’s lots of fun and clearly loves her work. (She even owns another location in her hometown, Hingham, on the South Shore.)

She shaped my brows quickly and perfectly, then set about to fix my face with her own line of cosmetics. I absolutely adored step 1, the Retexturizing Face Primer with SPF 20. After that she smoothed on foundation to even my skin tone, showed me how to apply concealer so it wouldn’t weigh me down, and then played with color. I’m not sure I loved the peachy blush and nude lips (I’m more for a subtle rosy pink), but the purple-lined lids were appropriately smoldering for a sexy night. (Never mind all I had on my agenda that day was my son’s baseball parade down Charles Street.)

As a longtime beauty editor I’m pretty adept at navigating the cosmetic counters, but I know many feel overwhelmed. Lauren is the perfect antidote to too much information. Bring her your cosmetics case, dump it out, and she’ll help you make sense of it all. And if you’re planning a girl’s night, grab a case of Champagne, primp, and party. The lounge-y setting is also perfect for your wedding day. There’s plenty of room for you and your bridesmaids to get your makeup done in sun dappled comfort; the space is even be large enough to accommodate your MIL.

Site Spotlight: Better Wall

Sometimes it’s worth perusing those little ads in the back of magazines. I blogged about Abode 7 a while back, a pretty decent home furnishings site I found buried in the depths of Dwell. There was another keeper back there too – Better Wall.  The company has been around for a few years, and garnered some press when it launched, but I’ve never seen it before. It’s a neat concept – they sell those huge banners that museums hang to announce special exhibitions. Obviously there is a limited supply, so you can bet nobody else you know will have one. While such fanfare might not fly in a center hall colonial or prewar co-op, I think the banners would be a great statement piece in a loft space. The subjects are diverse, from Mayan sculpture to urban architecture, Impressionist imagery to avant-garde videography. Here are some of their offerings:

close

japwoman
kahlo

okeefe
robert-bechtle

swell

mayan

dl

Escapes: Playa del Carmen, Mexico

imagehandler-1ashx

Again with the amazing vacation house. While I freeze my but off in the chilly Atlantic, Betty Riaz of Stil, one of my favorite boutiques in Boston (I’ve bought many a dress and loads of jewelry there), spends family vacations at their home in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, frolicking in the Caribbean Sea. (Playa del Carmen is almost at the very tip of the Mexican peninsula.) When they’re back in Boston attending to everyday life, it’s available to rent.

Playa del Carmen is apparently a hip town, and the condo is in a great downtown location. It has floor to ceiling glass windows that look over a tropical garden and pool lounge, hardwood floors, and terrace. There are two bedrooms, an open living space, and flat screen TV (with channels in English and Spanish – wouldn’t want to miss an episode of Gossip Girl!)

Betty is très fashionable, and so is this property. Have a look:

imagehandlerashx

imagehandler-3ashx

imagehandler-2ashx

imagehandler-5ashx

tub1

At Home: Do You Bamboo? Clearly We Do Not.

dresserforsale1 If you’ve read my wallpaper post, you know I am working on re-doing our bedroom. Wallpaper behind the bed, green paint for the walls, and a new dresser.

Erin Gates, a talented and sweet interior designer, is helping me put things together, make decisions, etc. I’m good at some of this, but not all. One of the things I need help with is mixing different styles of furniture. Erin suggested a vintage dresser in faux bamboo style. It’s not only stylish – once it gets a new paint job anyway – but you can find them on ebay for cheap, cheap, cheap.

I discovered the specimen above on Craig’s List. It was holed up in a not so cute secondhand shop in Brighton. Two hours and $40 delivery charge later it was in my bedroom. Not so fast.

My husband, whose taste and judgement is quite good, though he may lack vision, laughed when he saw it. Okay, the scale was off compared to our other pieces. Okay, it was rickety. (Actually, what he said was, “Let’s take it out to the alley, where it belongs.”) Okay, it wasn’t made out of real wood, though for that price what do you expect? Although he would have happily indulged me, I had to agree it just wasn’t right, at least for our room.

Erin generously posted it on her blog, “Elements of Style” (which you MUST bookmark), and by noon it was sold. There was lots of interest. So there.

P.S. The lucky buyer was Audra Boyle, the co-owner of Looc boutique in the South End, who has impeccable taste.

Site Spotlight: Abode7

2

The other day at jury duty , while I was conscientiously reading last month’s Dwell on prefab housing (I’m doing a piece on an amazing prefab in Maine), to kill time, I studied the little ads in the back of the book. I came upon a cute ad for Abode7. This morning I checked it out, and it’s worth a look.

It’s a decent mix of transitional furniture and accessories, blending trendy accessories, like Thomas Paul pillows and Dwell bedding, with more subtle staples, like eight different styles of sisal rugs.

p1p2p3

The furniture is along the lines of Crate & Barrel in terms of style and price, with a whole bunch of upholstery options that are so-so. While much of it was too traditional for my taste, I found some simple silhouettes to consider, like the Nolan Cane Back Slipper Chair, especially at its sale price of $519. And the Asian-influenced pistachio curved stool, for $180.

stool

nolanchair

aebra


If you’re into bamboo and grass shades, there are about 30 different styles, and there’s also drapery, both custom and ready made. A lot of it is awful (Trudy Plaid Drapery, ick!) but the Moroccan Palace and South Beach patterns have potential.

They also offer a bunch of fabrics by the yard if you’re a DIY-er. A lot of it is eh (again with the hideous pastel plaids), but there’s a zebra linen, Thomas Paul look-a-like florals,and graphic trellis patterns.

So, while you’re not going to get any major inspiration here, Abode7 is a good site to poke around for basics, like well-priced non-trendy sofas, accessories, and such.