Autumn Grooming Guide

It's a brand-new season. The beauty blogs are buzzing and the fall fashion magazines are as heavy as a kettlebell. It's time to shake the summer sand from between your sheets and face forward into autumn. It's time to clean out your medicine cabinet and try out some new product.

Many skincare lines are utilizing the latest developments in cosmeceuticals: cosmetic products with biologically active ingredients that, purportedly, have medical benefits.

Now is the time to be pro-active with your skin regimen. Correct the first signs of aging with a high-performance skincare line.

Let's face it: good skincare is an alternative to cosmetic and plastic surgery - and even a high-end emollient is less expensive than going under the knife.

Spread a little serum and leave the knife for your steak.

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Legart Forschungs Atelier: Ambuja Empire Wanderlust Elixir

Maybe it's all those photos of fresh-skinned German youth from the era of Christopher Isherwood and Horst P. Horst, but something about the Bavarian Alps connotes radiant skin.

Legart Forschungs Atelier, the avant-garde German company with a keen eye for design, creates limited editions of bespoke, sustainable beauty products that are based on handpicked, raw materials and formulated with the purest alpine spring water from the Bavarian Alps.

The Empire men's skincare line is designed for those quality-conscious world travelers who seek multi-purpose products that are both efficacious and pure. Wanderlust Elixir is a lightweight age-defying serum that promotes cell renewal while preventing signs of premature aging.

Formulated with 100% natural bioactive ingredients that are 85% organic, including green coconut water and lotus cell water, Wanderlust Elixir delivers a potent dose of hydration. The addition of pomegranate and rhodiola rosea improves elasticity and reduces fine wrinkles. The result is skin with a radiant and youthful glow.

Legart's luxury products are packaged in boxes that are an amalgam of objets d'art and origami. With its sleek packaging and stylish profile, Legart's Ambuja Empire skincare line looks as if it belongs in the master bath of men like Karl Lagerfeld and Tom Ford. And you, too, of course.

PRICE: 225.00 � / 30 ml.
LINK: Legart Forschungs Atelier Ambuja Empire Wanderlust Elixir

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Vitaphenol: Daily Fortified Moisturizer

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate - how many times have you heard it? And yet, few things are more important for our bodies - and our skin - than hydration. After all, in case you've forgotten, water comprises roughly 60% of our body weight and you want that water in circulation - and not stagnant.

Hydration is particularly important for the face at this time of year when the sun is still strong. What your face needs is a cooling moisturizer with soothing antioxidants. What your face needs is Vitaphenol Complex, an anti-aging blend of super antioxidants, comprised of mangosteen, pomegranate, white tea, and green tea.

Vitaphenol Daily Fortified Moisturizer provides your skin with a potent blend of hydration and antioxidants to impart a healthy glow. The addition of caffeine helps to instantly tighten and give the appearance of tighter, younger skin.

Formulated with mangosteen, which is loaded with one of the most potent anti-aging antioxidants, Vitaphenol Daily Fortified Moisturizer also features hyaluronic acid, which acts as a facial sponge to seal in moisture, while plumping fine lines and boosting suppleness. The addition of pomegranate helps to increase the production of collagen and elastin, which strengthens the skin.

Drink your protein smoothie every morning - and give your face a boost of protein with Vitaphenol Daily Fortified Moisturizer.

PRICE: $95.00 / 1 fl. oz.
LINK: Vitaphenol Daily Fortified Moisturizer

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Skin & Co. Roma: Face Velvet Tuber Lotion with Truffle Formula

Recently, while dining in Vancouver, we were presented with a risotto laden with truffles. A bowlful of sliced truffles, enough truffles to consider stashing a few for later - for our face.

Which is saying something, given how much we love truffles. But lately, we've been under the spell of Skin & Co. Face Velvet Tuber Lotion with Truffle Formula. Lately, we've been seeing the velvety-smooth impact of truffles on our skin.

When you think about how much we love feeding our face, have you ever considered what our face might most like to eat? Maybe, like us, it craves truffles. In which case, Skin & Co. Face Velvet Tuber Lotion with Truffle Formula has our face covered.

This deeply hydrating face lotion is formulated with shea butter from the Savannah region of West Africa, as well as rosemary, allantoin, vitamin E, sunflower seed oil, echinacea, and, yes, that's right - truffles, also known as tuber melanosporum. Truffles, as we prefer to call them, have been reported to be a scavenger of free radicals, which we all know is anathema to youthful skin. You might think of truffles as the PacMan for your face: eating all those nasty free radicals.

Face Velvet Tuber Lotion with Truffle Formula hydrates and nourishes the skin while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Spread the truffle love all over your face and witness the velvety smooth results.

You'll never see a truffle the same way again. Should I eat it - or should I rub it all over my face? Only you know the answer to that question.

PRICE: $48.00 / 50 ml.
LINK: Skin & Co. Roma Face Velvet Tuber Lotion with Truffle Formula

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Kate Somerville: CytoCell P299 Oil-Free Anti-Wrinkle Serum

It's the stems that do the work to keep the flowers looking beautiful. Think about it: what's a flower without a stem?

So it's interesting to hear that Kate Somerville's latest treatment serum utilizes stem technology to diminish the look of wrinkles. Because, let's face it, it's the stem that keeps the flower hydrated and radiant.

The creator of a renowned medi-skin clinic in Los Angeles, Kate Somerville is the face behind the glowing complexions of film stars such as Debra Messing, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton, and Sandra Oh. One of the first pioneers of the integration between skincare and medicine, Somerville has been at the forefront of skin wellness for the past 15 years.

Formulated with three advanced peptides, which diminish the look of lines and wrinkles, CytoCell P2999 Oil-Free Anti-Wrinkle Serum also contains two potent marine algae and hyaluronic acid complexes that provide long-term hydration for the skin. The stem technology helps to fight the signs of aging by activating the natural renewal process that strengthens skin. The oil-free formula is ideal for all skin types.

In two weeks, more than 75% of those who used CytoCell P2999 Oil-Free Anti-Wrinkle Serum showed an improvement in skin elasticity and firmness.

Think about it: a radiant face like a flower. Get into it, Miss Rose.

PRICE: $95.00 / 1 fl. oz.
LINK: Kate Somerville CytoCell P299 Oil-Free Anti-Wrinkle Serum

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(Autumn Grooming Guide continues on next page...)

Masque*ology: Revitalizing Eye Gel Mask

All those summer days outside - in the park, at the beach, by the pool - were lovely, but oh, the toll on your skin. And then those summer nights - out until morning. Oh, your eyes, your eyes, in the bright light of day. What did you walk into? Is that a caterpillar under your eye?

Give your eyes a break after all those hours spent staring at Grindr and Manhunt on a tiny screen in the glare of the sun. Give your eyes a Revitalizing Eye Gel Mask by Masque*ology.

As Masque*ology's tagline states, "We've got a masque for that" - no matter the damage or stress on your face and skin.

Masque*ology Revitalizing Eye Gel Mask is a synthetic single-use mesh mask saturated with revitalizing ingredients that create a gel that contours to the skin around your eyes. Formulated with hydrolyzed collagen, which improves elasticity, and vitamin-rich algae, fortified with sea minerals and amino acids, this eye mask also contains caviar for stimulating elastin and pearl powder to keep skin smooth and supple without pigmentation.

Launched in spring 2012, Masque*ology has a line of ten facial masks, each one designed to address a specific skincare need - no matter how debauched your lifestyle. Mask your sins with a masque from Masque*ology.

PRICE: $24.00 / pack of three
LINK: Masque*ology Revitalizing Eye Gel Mask

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Own: Lifting Eye Cream

Yes, it was a long, hot summer and maybe you weren't always diligent about wearing sunscreen and sunglasses. Shame on you. Don't let it happen again - because your eyes matter and you want to protect them.

Now that's it autumn, do something good for your eyes. Don't sleep with your face slammed into a pillow, for example, not unless you look pretty with sleep lines - because sleep lines can become wrinkles. Think about that the next time you're about to pass out.

Own Products is a new natural skincare collection that utilizes CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), a derivative of the safflower plant, to help fight aging in all three layers of the skin. CLA boosts cell metabolism and enhances collagen production to gently repair and nourish the delicate skin around the eyes. Best of all, CLA has been shown to be as effective as retinol - without the adverse side effects.

Own Lifting Eye Cream reduces the appearance of crow's feet and helps to decrease any pesky wrinkles around the eye area by simultaneously treating the three main causes of aging skin: dryness, dullness, and loss of elasticity. The result is a more rested and alert appearance - rather than that sallow hangdog look that marked too many mornings this summer.

Use a little dab of Own Lifting Eye Cream and the skin around your eyes becomes as soft and smooth as velvet. What's not to love about that?

The entire Own line retails for under $25 and is available online and at Whole Foods and Duane Reade, prior to a national rollout in autumn 2012.

PRICE: $24.00
LINK: Own Lifting Eye Cream

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HeadBlade: HeadLube SPF 30

If you shave your head, you don't want to carry an umbrella every time you're out in the sun. And sometimes maybe you're not feeling a hat - because you want to feel the breeze instead.

HeadBlade originated in 1999 with the introduction of their eponymous razor, which is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Seriously. And Time Magazine anointed the HeadBlade Classic one of the "Ten Best Designs of 2000."

Since the company's debut, HeadBlade has expanded and now makes a number of skin care products for the shaved head. Their latest addition is HeadLube SPF30, a moisturizing lotion with sun protection. Formulated with vitamins A, C, E, and pro-vitamin B5, HeadLube SPF 30 contains no perfumes or dyes - and it won't leave your head with a sticky residue.

Next time you need sun protection, shine that pretty head of yours with HeadLube SPF30.

PRICE: $9.97 / 5 fl. oz.
LINK: HeadBlade HeadLube SPF 30

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