Beauty Spot: Guerlain harnesses flower power in Orchidée Imperiale line

Nadine Kam photos
Women from the Sogetsu school of ikebana meet Guerlain’s National Beauty and Fragrance Director, Marie Line Patry, center.


Neiman Marcus welcomed Guerlain National Beauty and Fragrance Director Marie Line Patry to the store Jan. 22, who shared the luxury skincare company’s latest Orchidée Impériale and Blanc de Perle whitening products.

She was welcomed with a display of orchid arrangements created by women from the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, in celebration of the flower that brings its healing, hydrating and whitening properties to the Orchidée Impériale line.

Botanists and green thumbs have long known of the orchid’s ability to withstand severe weather conditions. They can also appear to be dead over seasons, but under the right conditions, bloom again. Guerlain’s researchers found the Gold Orchid, Dendrobium chrysotoxum, a native of Myanmar, Nepal, Northern India, Thailand and China, to be extremely resilient.



This flower provides the Imperial Orchid Molecular Extract, or I.O.M.E. that prolongs cell fertility, and is at the heart of Orchidée Impériale skincare.

The event also marked the Hawaii launch of Blanc de Perle, available for the first time in the United States, after being used in Europe for a decade. This line targets dark spot-creating melanin to deliver a brightening effect on skin.

After listening to Patry’s talk, women were welcome to try the products, and one of the women who spent more than $1,000 reasoned, “If you go to a spa once, it’s going to cost you $300. I can use the cream every day.



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Priscilla Growney’s ikebana arrangement.

Joyce Tomonari with her ikebana arrangement, incorporating a gold-painted bowl fashioned from pine needles, also shown below.

Linda Hamasaki with her arrangement, shown in more detail below.

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Nadine Kam is Style Editor and staff restaurant critic at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser; her coverage is in print on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact her via email at nkam@staradvertiser.com and follow her on Twitter, Instagram and Rebel Mouse.

Beauty Spot: M.A.C unveils Heirloom Mix

Nadine Kam photos
M.A.C cosmetics introduced its Holiday “Heirloom Mix” collection during an event that took place at Ala Moana Center’s Centerstage Dec. 5 and 6.

M.A.C Cosmetics presented a dazzling mix of performance and makeup artistry during an event that took place Dec. 5 and 6 at Ala Moana Center.

The M.A.C Pro Ala Moana team was there with visiting Director of Makeup Artistry Gregory Arlt, who shared some of his tips for holiday radiance.

The Heirloom Mix Collection is all about sophisticated hues for face, eyes, nails and lips, with a touch of sparkle and glitter. And while Arlt said, “I love glitter,” he added, “It doesn’t have to be extreme to be effective.”


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A touch of sparkling lip gloss over dramatic red lipstick is a perfect holiday look that can be worn by anyone, and he called a sensual red lipstick “the little black dress of makeup. It looks beautiful and men love it.”

Even so, as he travels from coast to coast, he finds many women shy away from such a bold statement.

“If you’re afraid of red, start with something lighter, like a stain or sheer red lipgloss.”

Most of all, he said, don’t be afraid to try new looks and trends as they emerge. “Just remember it’s makeup; it comes off.”

Eric Faamusili photos / For M.A.C Cosmetics
Dancers wore color from the Heirloom Mix collection during their performances throughout the event.

An overview of the stage setup and throng that gathered for the spectacle.

The vision.

A sampling of some of the glittering products from the collection:

 Quite literally, Heirloom Mix glitter, in “Amethyst,” $23.

Heirloom Mix pressed powder highlighter in “Victorian Plum,” $21.

Heirloom Mix Cremesheen Glass lipgloss in “Courting Chic,” $22.


To view more from the collection, visit http://www.maccosmetics.com.

Beauty spot: Clean up fine lines with Clarins

I've written about the wonderful smoothing effect of Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch, that works like face spackle, minimizing the look of oversized pores.

The brand has come up with something similar in an even richer formula. Clarins Instant Smooth Line-Correcting Concentrate comes in a slim, purse-friendly, smooth-tipped wand, allowing the Dermaxyl line-correcting peptide to be applied directly onto lines, wrinkles and enlarged pores throughout the day to keep your complexion looking smoother.

I tried it on some of the fine lines under my eyes, going over lightly with my fingertip and finding it seamlessly filling in some of the enlarged pores in my cheeks, with no cakey effect.

Note that it's more of a line filler than an active solution, so you can't expect it to lead skin improvement over time. But I'll take appearances, and let my other serums do their handiwork at night.

It works best with fine lines, not crevasses, but chances are that when you see the results, you'll cut the frowning that led to those canyons in the first place!

Get it ut Nordstrom for $32.50, or find it online at www.clarinsusa.com.

Beauty Spot: Cindy Joseph helps women find their glow

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Heather Weston photo courtesy Cindy Joseph
Cindy Joseph doesn't believe in hiding one's age and letting the fashion industry dictate how one should look or feel about oneself.

By Nadine Kam

In the world of cosmetics, youth sells. Every day, new products appear purporting to address every baby-boomer desire. Creams and serums promise anti-aging, tightening, lifting and spot-fading formulations.

The message is clear: You are not OK unless you retain the complexion, or perfection, of a 20-year-old.

Rising above the harangue is Cindy Joseph, one of the few women who will tell you it's perfectly fine to look your age and has no qualms about sharing her age at 60.

"There's not a woman who doesn't want to look younger than she is because we're told that as we age, our value goes down. The graph of life we're given is a triangle," she said, indicating a peak in the middle and a long slope down, which she deems "archaic." The real graph should be a "V," she said, where life starts at a point and expands, growing richer and fuller.

She should know. Joseph enjoyed a long career as a makeup artist before, at age 49, becoming a model herself. She was approached on the street by a casting agent to pose for Dolce & Gabbana, photographed by Steven Meisel.

If anyone had invited Joseph to model 30 to 35 years ago, she would have laughed her head off. She's a natural beauty, for sure, but as a high-fashion makeup artist at the time, she knew she didn't quite measure up to her clientele, the generation of supermodels that included Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford.

But at 49, she had a different kind of beauty, complete with character lines and a silvery mane that she refuses to color for any job. Her face has appeared in beauty campaigns for Olay, Elizabeth Arden and Aveda, and she's graced magazine covers ranging from Real Simple to Glamour.

Cindy Joseph developed a set of three multi-use products aimed at enhancing a woman's natural beauty and glow.

During her makeup artist career, she was a proponent of the natural look and recently added CEO to her list of accomplishments, having developed a simple line of cosmetics designed not to mask, hide or correct but simply to enhance a woman's natural beauty.

BOOM! By Cindy Joseph is a set of three multi-use products that should be able to replace a drawerful of cosmetics. In Joseph's eyes, these are all any woman needs to head out the door looking naturally beautiful. There's BOOMSTICK COLOR for rosiness, BOOMSTICK GLIMMER to highlight with a pearly sheen, and BOOMSTICK GLO to add moisture wherever it's needed.

"They don't hide anything, they're not concealers. They just make you look alive," she said during a recent Honolulu visit that included checking in with Honey Girl Organics, which supplies the emollient organic bee propolis for BOOMSTICK GLO and her new BOOMSILK body moisturizer, which launched on Black Friday. She said she wasn't planning to add to her line, preferring to help women simplify their lives, but fans keep requesting more products.

Any one of her BOOMSTICKs ($24 each or $68 for the set) can be applied to the lips, eyes, cheekbones or decolleté for a paraben- and phthalate-free dose of color and moisture.

"It's very forgiving," she said.

BOOMSILK moisturizer protects, heals and nurtures the entire face and body. It's handmade by beekeepers in Hawaii, formulated with beneficial organic ingredients: organic extra virgin olive oil, organic beeswax, organic propolis, organic pollen, organic honey and Vitamin E.

In coming up with her line, Joseph said she observed the women she worked on over the years, from top models to actresses such as Uma Thurman and Susan Sarandon. "I'd study their faces and tried to figure out just what made them extra beautiful when they were in a particularly good mood. That's when they glowed."

Her products mark her attempt to package that glow so that by wearing her products, no one will suspect cosmetic enhancement, only that one is flushed from a light workout or good laugh.

"All facial structure is good as it is and maybe you just want to enhance or accentuate what you have," she said. "It's sad that people resort to Botox or surgery to look younger, at younger ages. If we stop concerning ourselves with age, maybe our country can start behaving like other countries that value the contributions and wisdom of their elders."

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BOOM! by Cindy Joseph line is available at www.BoombyCindyJoseph.com.

Beauty Spot: Kali's a hands-down winner

Nadine Kam photos
Kali's Nail Supply stocks a wide array of nail products, including China Glaze polish, which she says has just surpassed OPI in popularity.



One of the under-the-radar beauty spots in town is Kali's Nail Supply. Kali Gregory has been an industry wholesaler for 24, going on 25 years in 2011, but lesser known, she's also open to retail clients.

While certain products are only available to licensed salon professionals—such as Calgel, due to training and safety issues—she stocks an array of polishes, bath and body products that anyone can purchase.

Although she's just around the corner from our office at Restaurant Row, I didn't find out about Kali's until she announced her series of First Sunday sales, the next one to take place Feb. 6., and she's adding a First Monday sale as well, for those who can't make it on the weekend.

Kali Gregory looks out for her customers. She said her accountant thinks she's crazy to offer her First Sunday and Monday discounts, when the profit margins on a bottle of nail polish are already small.

She calls herself a crazy Greek for wanting to save money and wanting to help others do so too, such that on higher end products, she'll try to stop people from buying, encouraging them to wait for First Sunday and Monday, when she offers 20 percent off a $20 minimum in product purchases.

I wouldn't call her crazy, but effervescent. She has a lot of enthusiasm for her products, and can explain the obvious and not-so-obvious uses of each one, such as using Be Natural Dry Heel Eliminator on her face. Billed as being good for cracked skin, she points to some wrinkles around her eyes and says, "These are cracks!"

I looked at the ingredient list, which is typical of any face moisturizer. The ingredients don't distinguish between your face or feet.

If you have any concerns at all about nail products, salon practices, fungal solutions, Kali's always willing to share her knowledge about the various product lines.

Drop by and take a look, or mark your calendar for First Sunday (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Monday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) On First Sundays, she also presents Calgel demonstrations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays and Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. She's at 547 Halekauwila St., in the one-story building in back of the circuit court building. The building has a paid lot, but parking is free in the spaces marked Kali's.

Call 585-8788; neighbor islands call toll-free 1-888-883-KALI (5254), or find more information online at www.kalisnailsupply.com.

Zoya is one of the most popular brands for health-conscious buyers and expectant mothers. The nail enamels are vegan friendly, formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and camphor.

For those who like a bit of dazzle, Nubar Nail Jewels are among the products that can do the trick.