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Sexual by Michel Germain Reminiscent of Escada’s summer scents

Winning habits

Celebrities kick off 2013 and its awards’ season with a variety of luxurious products benefiting skin, hair, inner health and inner peace, observes Elyse Glickman
photographed by the author and by Carell Augustus

Clockwise from top left Schwarzkopf Osis
Plus. Shoosha. DBH–Dermæsthetics.
Mediel. Shany Cosmetics. Skinfix.

What do you do when you are between a rock and a hard place in relation to your beauty and wellness routine, and you have to look your absolute best after several weeks of holiday season revelry? This is a question that just may have gone through the minds of celebrities sprucing up for the Golden Globes, which kicked off Hollywood’s award show season.

In other words, before the ink has dried on New Year’s resolutions, you have to get your act together and do it fast. And what better place to do it than in Beverly Hills?

It was the Secret Room and the GBK team to the rescue, bursting at the seams with all kinds of creams, elixirs and consumables that promised various forms of beauty redemption for celebrities attending the Globes or swanky viewing parties around town. Both events showed there was literally something for everybody, from a high-energy action star (such as Criminal Minds’ Shemar Moore or Revolution’s Giancarlo Esposito), to seemingly flawless ingénues and budding starlets (Californication’s Madeline Zima; Nashville’s Chloe Bennet), to sexy and seasoned industry veterans (Joe Mantegna, Loretta Devine), to somehow improve or bolster their beauty or fitness routines.

The selective Secret Room, staged in the ballroom of the SLS Hotel, featured a cherry-picked selection of skin care products, as well as vitamins, colour cosmetics and some body conscious clothing designed especially for women who stuck devotedly to their last year’s New Year’s resolution to lose weight and keep it off. The charity in focus was To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.

Los Angeles denim innovator David Kahn, certainly provided incentive to keep weight off or lose it with a selection of stretch skinny denims in a variety of colours and prints (including a distressed metallic pair Fergie is rumored to have toured the world in). Carla Garro, creator of Lita Sea Glass Jewelry and Kimberly Rosadiuk (creator of the wickedly creative Dressed ’n Case dress and tunic collection), meanwhile, offered some gorgeous looks for some of the après-award beach vacations some of the celebrities will no doubt be taking.

Of course, most of the fitness gurus in town will tell you that true beauty and absolute wellness starts from within. Australia’s Swisse Vitamins, for this reason, was a good place to start one’s adventure at the Secret Room. Ironically, Swisse is a secret no more, as it recently received a boost from spokesperson Nicole Kidman and Ellen DeGeneres (who is doing the “Oprah” thing by inviting her lucky audience members to Australia and doing a series of tapings there in March, in collaboration with Qantas, which was promoting its exceptional first and business class menus by celeb chef Neil Perry).

Schwarzkopf Osis Plus: while the Osis Plus hairspray is a go-to product for many fine salons and stylists in Hollywood, some of the unique new introductions to the line include the Dust It, a silica powder which cuts down shine and adds volume to oily hair and the Mess Up Matt Gum for short hair and men’s tailored hair styles.

DBH–Dermaesthetics: bring together the high-tech trappings of Korean skin care ranges with Beverly Hills’ cache as a skin care and dermatology world capital, and you get DBH, a prolific company with a variety of products addressing such issues as acne, age spot reduction, serums and eye-specific care.

Shoosha: there are many fine Mom-and-baby lines in circulation, but this by far is one of the most adult-friendly lines. The collection is USDA certified organic, vegan, never animal tested, and 100 per cent biodegradable.

Skinfix: what is most interesting about this Canadian line is that it is as edgy as it is practical. Clearly unisex by design, solutions offered in the special celebrity gift box include special formulas for babies (diaper rash paste), the recently tattooed, and the family dog.

Mediel Laboratory: this line is so new that it is just beginning to establish its web presence. The headlined product at Secret Room was its Peptide Firming Essence, formulated with firming proteins to visibly firms skin and reduces wrinkles in just minutes, as well as promote cell renewal, increase skin respiration and reduces wrinkles.

Shany Cosmetics: formerly a pros-only collection, Shany has not only made its products available to the public but also priced its goods for them as well. Vibrant, larger-than-life colours (which are sold in collections in a variety of beautiful presentation cases) are quite alluring, and brand rep Roham Pourmehr mentions special custom collections can be created for special occasions and people (i.e. bridesmaids, birthday parties and so on).

Blinc: people with sensitive eyes, rejoice. Blinc has created an eye-focused product line intended to maximize your eyes’ impact while reducing such problems as sparse brows and irritating mascaras. The eye-catching Fountain of Youthful Colour Eyebrow Mousse delivers water-resistant, moisturizing colour to eyebrows along with a hit of moisture.

Clockwise, from top left Revitalash Eye Bar. The Real Juice Company.
The Real Juice Company finds a fan in Kate Flannery. Burke–Williams H2V skin care.
Vita raw organic chocolates. Sammy Rotibi. Jeff Daniels.
Tempestt Bledsoe and Giancarlo Esposito. Chloe Bennet at Bread Basket.
Eternna Bella lotion and cream.

With anti-bullying and basic human rights as hot topics both in the news and a variety of recent films including this year’s award show nominees, Lambda Legal seemed to be a perfect fit as GBK’s headlining charity. Lambda has been making the case for equality on behalf of the LGBT community and those with HIV across the nation for 40 years. Their approach integrates groundbreaking work in US courts with innovative education and policy advocacy to change the hearts and minds of the public—and to teach people how to make sure that LGBT civil rights are respected. Through their New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles offices, the organization handles an average over 60 cases at any given time, tackling a range of issues including marriage, relationships and parenting; employment; HIV; health care; transgender rights; youth issues; and the battle for fair courts.

Yes! Beat Liver Tumors, the other charity beneficiary of GBK’s 2013 Golden Globes event, under the leadership of its endearing founder Suzanne Lindley, is a prolific organization that really puts the entire Hollywood “wellness” phenomenon into perspective. Like any good philanthropic organization, they are not just raising money for patients, treatments and medical research but also compelling the public to pay more attention to their eating habits, environment and attitude toward medical check ups.

Top-tier film and television talent including Jeff Daniels, Brian Benben, Sara Rue, Alison Pill, Giancarlo Esposito, Tempestt Bledsoe, Loretta Devine, Garrett Morris, Thandie Newton, Garcelle Beauvais, Dennis Christopher, Madeline Zima and Joe Mantegna were among the celebrities who had the opportunity to partake in the following among our favourite products from this edition of GBK.

Heaven Skincare: celebrities received products fit for a (future) queen—the Duchess of Cambridge, to be exact. The product line’s marquée product is the Bee Venom Mask By Deborah Mitchell.

Burke Williams–H2V Skincare: long established as the go-to spa for Hollywood stars, executives and entertainment industry folk (with locations in Torrance, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Pasadena and Sherman Oaks), they at long last have packaged the experience with H2V, its own line of at-home treatment and skin care products that provide men and women the same no-nonsense kind of pampering that their in-house treatments offer.

Sexual Fleur by Michel Germain: you have to love this product for the names alone. After all, sex will sell no matter how you package it. However, not all sex is good sex. Fortunately, Sexual Femme is sexy and somewhat reminiscent of Escada’s summery scents, with notes of pink grapefruit, macadamia nut, daisy, plumeria, freesia, plum and dulce de leche.

Vita Organic Foods: dark chocolate is really good for you, but the company’s CEO was informing discerning choco-holics such as Revolution’s Giancarlo Esposito that not all naturally tasty indulgences are created equal. The raw organic chocolate line is soy free, vegan, low fat and low glycemic.

The Real Juice Company: everybody is juicing, cleansing and doing whatever possible to squeeze a little more nutrition into their daily diet. While there are many fine juice purveyors, Real Juice got our attention through their simple, streamlined presentation and through the fact that (taste wise), the juices celebrities are receiving are just so balanced.

Revitalash: just as there are certain talent who get nominated over and over again, like Steven Spielberg, there are beauty products that keep getting nominated to appear at pre-award show events. Revitalash, which launched the whole lash and brow thickening movement (in non-prescription consumer form), could be the Spielberg of lines showcased at GBK.

José Eber Infrared Blow Dryer: what makes this drier different from the fleet of high-tech, tourmaline-based driers? The infrared mechanism infuses a gentle heat deep inside the hair cuticle, not on the surface of the hair shaft, decreasing drying time by half. While it is said to decrease drying time, it eliminates the risk of hot spots, burns, and damage with its even heat distribution. •

Clockwise from top left Beach Candy swimwear. Bellamy Young. Jerrika Hinton at Sabra.
Oscar Núñez at Toy State. Titus Welliver. Ol Parker and Thandie Newton. Sarah Drew.
Janina Gavankar at José Eber.



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Elyse Glickman is US west coast editor of Lucire.