Apparently, Julia looks just like me.

We hear it almost everyday. It comes in different ways.

“Do you know you look just like your Mommy?”  A stranger might ask Julia sweetly on the bus.

“Wow. She’s your twin.”  We hear a lot.

“You’re so pretty. Just like your Mommy!” We get this one from sweet grandmas, as well as creepy men on the street. Read more

I’ve long been a fan a Perricone MD. I believe in his science-based approach to beauty and skincare (also now, cosmetics.)

I tried this cream in a sample kit I bought from Sephora and I was instantly obsessed. It is AMAZING under makeup, creating a smooth, radiant finish that lasts all day. It provides moisture without grease or shine, while supercharged ingredients like ALA, DMAE, and vitamin C ester work behind the scenes to nourish, protect and diminish fine lines and wrinkles.

I love a multi-tasker.

If you don’t like primers, this is your answer to what to put on before makeup. Or, put this on before primer if you like. At the moment, I am using this alone under my favorite BB cream. 

Apparently, I love all things Canadian: my Dad, my fabulous new friend and neighbor, N., my beloved Marcelle mascara and now, this Miracle 10 AHA cream.

Where to begin? Because I certainly wasn’t looking for an alpha hydroxy acid product. Historically, AHA’s and I haven’t gotten along very well. We tend to start out okay, but then, over time, I get flakey and dry. And red. (And, ultimately, resentful.)

But I was introduced to Miracle 10 when I interviewed Gilt Co-Founder and Glamsquad C.E.O. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson because she included the brand’s (amazing) cleanser in her list of can’t-live-without-beauty-products. They assessed my skin online and sent me a regime to try, including the cleanser, toner, this weightless serum, this AHA cream and a heavier night cream. After some research, I became intrigued with the brand and decided to commit to it for a month.

Two months later, I’m still using it all religiously. Actually, I recommend the whole line—the products do work together in the regime Miracle 10 will customize for you—but I like to stay focused here so I’m honing in on this wonderfully gentle, extremely nourishing, carefully exfoliating AHA cream. No redness. And definitely no dryness. The cream combines lactic acid 6%, with vitamin E and hyaluronic acid (the stuff that’s in skin-plumping injectibles) to create skin brightening, pore tightening AHA magic.

Perk: Miracle 10 is offering a 25% discount to BeautyMama readers with the code “BeautyMama.” No minimum purchase. And free shipping on orders over $75. Yay!

My daughter, Julia, 7, all of a sudden has my head of hair. It’s thick, it’s wavy. It responds unfavorably to humidity. (Sorry sweetie.) And yet, it’s still little-girl hair, with a beautiful softness and sheen that sometimes takes my breath away. It seems like overnight, Julia needs actual “hair care.” She needs real cleansing, hydration and, I don’t know, I feel like I want to nourish her scalp with vitamin oils or something.

Enter So Cozy hair care for children. Children. Not babies. This genius line of hair products is for kids and tweens—because they’ve outgrown baby washes but are too young to borrow your shampoo and conditioner. The scents are age appropriate (read: delicious) but not babyish. The packaging is so fun and kids (both boys and girls)  feel cool having products that look and feel like their very own.

The Cinch line of shampoo and conditioner offers a 2-in-1 shampoo and body wash, a  3-in-1 that is shampoo, body wash and conditioner, a hydrating conditioner and an excellent detangler/leave-in conditioner we can’t live without. The Behave line of styling products offers a gel, mousse and smoothing cream. All products are toxin free and vegan, of course. And they really work.

Check out the entire line at SoCozy.com.

I grew up in Miami in the ’70s and ’80s when sunscreen was, shall we say, less dynamic. Basically there was Coppertone 8 and white zinc oxide. Maybe there was more in the middle, but I can really only remember people with oil slicked tanned skin laying out and their fairer counterparts under hats with zinc on their noses.

As a kid, I do not recall sunscreen being a rule, the way I make it a rule for my alabaster-skinned daughters. I actually feel physically fearful when their porcelain skin is exposed to the sun for more than 10 minutes. My mom should have instituted that rule because my girls got their milky complexions from ME. One summer in tennis camp, I got so fried, I had to wear that white zinc on my entire face and a baseball cap.

So I’ve known for a very long time that:

A: I am not a person who tans

and

B: I don’t just not tan, I burn painfully and quickly.

So I can’t really tell you why, when we went on vacation recently, I found myself closing my eyes and tilting my face to the sun thinking Tan Thoughts. Read more