Beauty Game-Changers

By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS    

Maybe you can’t invent a better mousetrap, but you sure can create better beauty products, and this week we have some serious game-changers that will no doubt revolutionize the way you dry your hair, deal with hyperpigmentation (sun spots), go to the beauty salon and even decorate your home, making being beautiful (and being surrounded by beauty and practicality) a breeze.

Wraparound Drier

It’s the most popular hair tool on the market – accounting for over 33 percent of all hair-tool sales worldwide – and nearly 93 percent of women own one.

Electric hair driers, which more than 60 percent of Mexican women use at least four times a week, are the most versatile and essential tools in our haircare arsenals.

But as fundamental as hair driers are to our daily beauty routines, the truth is that they haven’t really evolved much since the first handheld blow drier was introduced back in the early 1920s.

That is, up until now.

Revlon Profession has just introduced a completely new design in hair driers, the Revlon Pro Collection 360 Surround Hair Drier and Styler, that actually wraps your tresses in a 360-degree blast of air from dual jets to quickly provide 70 percent more surface coverage and cut drying time by as much 60 percent.

Now available in Mexico, this 1875-watt, two-speed, three-temperature high-tech beauty wonder combines ionic and ceramic technology to reduce frizzing and leave hair shiny and smooth for salon-worthy results in a flash.

By holding hair from its tips, you can style and shape while you dry without the worry of split ends or excessive heat damage.

The 360 Surround blower even has a built-in cover that twists around to convert it into a conventional drier.

Out, Out Damn Spot

There is nothing quite so annoying or resilient as sunspots.

They show up on hands and face without warning and no matter how you try to get rid of them — whether with creams, lasers or peelings — they just don’t seem to ever go away.

But now the U.S. pharmacosmetic skincare line SkinCeuticals has come up with the first real cure for hyperpigmentation.

SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense is clinically proven to reduce the appearance of dark spots and discoloration on the face.

Powered by kojic acid, tranexamic acid and vitamin B3, this advanced formula is a hydroquinone-free skin brightening serum that, with continued use, visually minimizes the reoccurrence of discoloration and brown patches with continued use

The serum’s kojic acid helps improve skin brightness.

SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense has niacinamide (vitamin B3), which has been shown to help reduce the appearance of skin discoloration and hepes, which activates natural enzymes in skin to help break the bonds that bind dead skin cells to the surface for even exfoliation.

Most women report a 60 percent average improvement in the appearance of stubborn brown patches after just 12 weeks of use.

SkinCeuticals Discoloration Defense is paraben-free, fragrance-free, silicone-free, gluten-free and hydroquinone-free, so it is an ideal complement to professional skin discoloration treatments, such as chemical peels or non-ablative laser.

All-in-One Salon

Lax has just opened the first co-working beauty salon in Mexico, located in Colonia Roma Norte.

The concept of co-working is to concentrate all your salon needs in one space, rather than having to go to one place to have your nails done, another for your hair and a third for skincare treatments.

The single-site Lax offers haircare, makeup, cuts and barber services, coloring, mani-pedis, glow sprays (to leave your skin with a weeklong glow without the tanning beds), brow design and waxings.

You book the treatments you will need ahead of time via an app and when you arrive, you are given your own beauty station where the stylists of your choice come to you (no waddling from station to station with wet feet and hands).

The concept, first developed in the United States, offers co-working spaces specifically built for beauty and health professionals who want to own and operate their own businesses without opening a whole salon.

At Lax, multiple stylists, known as members, rent individual spaces and operate independent businesses under one roof.

Although all members have a private space in which to focus on their individual clients without the distractions of a traditional beauty salon, they are still part of a community of like-minded professionals.

And salon customers get to save time and energy by not having to go from place to place.

While they are being pampered, guests are offered a selection of courtesy mixed drinks, and there is also a variety of beauty products on sale in the front of Lax’ installations.

Lax is located at Guadalajara 36 and is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Chaotic Handbag

Even if you don’t have time for a head-to-toe wardrobe overhaul, a simple addition to your ensemble can make a major difference in your look.

Case in point: a colorful, eye-catching, hold-everything handbag from Tous.

The Spanish design house’s versatile Kaos Shock Color purses, available in 10 different shades with the classic Kaos cutout (created in 1999) on all four sides (hiding, of course, an understated image of Tous’ iconic little teddy bear), the inner cloth bags are interchangeable, so you can mix and math to create you own unique style.

The purses’ color spectrum runs the gamut from soft, neutral pinks and navy blues to bright DayGlo yellows and crimson reds, so you can be as reserved or chaotic as you want.

Home Reboot

The Polish furniture and home design house Vox has been producing quality interior furnishings and décor in Europe for more than 30 years, but the company just opened its first four stores in Mexico City this year.

With branches located in Colonias Polanco, Altavista, Santa Fe and Lindavista(and a fifth store due to open in Interlomas later this month), Vox offers sleek, no-fuzz designs with a heavy emphasis on space exploitation and creating storage areas.

Hutched corner closets and two-sided desks that take advantage of every smidgen of available space, along with dining tables with hidden drawers and lift-up beds that let your store sheets and covers under the mattress, Vox has made modern urban living carefree and clutter-free.

During the opening of the company’s Polanco store, Vox CEO Piotr Wil Woelket, who flew into Mexico for the occasion, explained that the company’s motto has always been “Freedom begins at home.”

“We try to make products that are both beautiful and practical, with artisan style and within-your-means affordability,” he said.

Vox currently has 11 new household furnishing collections available in Mexico, all handcrafted in Europe.