Allure, the first and only magazine devoted to beauty, is an insider's guide to a woman's total image. Allure investigates and celebrates beauty and fashion with objectivity and candor, and places appearance in a larger cultural context.
Green. Clean. Natural. Science based. Most people in the Allure world understand those terms are mutable at best. (Green means nothing more than a pretty color when you see it on a label.) Sometimes, people equate living a cleaner life with foregoing lab-manipulated ingredients and “chemicals” (a word that applies to water, for the record). But science can give nature an automatic boost in efficacy and help preserve the potency of products on shelves. In this issue, we explore the important interplay between nature and science, especially in skin care. We also investigate how recycling strategies are ever shifting. In “Is Aluminum the Answer?” we get a deeper understanding of why every brand seems to be launching metal tubes these days as part of a sustainability initiative. With that in…
“Bronzer is all the makeup I need for a day in the park. I like a matte formula. The sun can add the sparkle.”…
Makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench has put seashells, sequins, and snakeskin prints on skin—and now, for her new makeup line, piercings on mascara and lipstick tubes. The silver hoops studding her debut Berlin-inspired Industrial Collection can be removed and worn, but it’s the formulas inside that we’re piling on: mascara with a latex finish, electric green eye shadow, nearly black lip serum. A bit on the edgy side, sure, but if you look at Ffrench history, it’s in fact all very wearable. (This is a woman who once transformed a model into a lizard with lips the size of hot-dog buns.)…
BLOCK PARTY Lime green eyeliner is playful—even more so when it’s color-blocked with cobalt blue. At Capasa Milano’s fall 2022 show (far right), makeup artist Jen Myles used MAC Chromagraphic colored pencils in Hi-Def Cyan and Landscape Green (right) to make sure the wings and underliner were on point (see what we did there?) and then doubled down with Kryolan’s neon shades for a strong, saturated finish. GREAT LENGTHS False lashes bring the drama… especially when they are an electric shade of green. At Yuhan Wang’s fall 2022 show (left), makeup artist Rebecca Wordingham and her assistant handmade this striking pair of fringe by gluing yarn onto deconstructed eyelash strips. The result was wispy lashes that “gently oscillated like feathers as models walked.” Not into DIY? PaintLab’s Optical Green Lashes…
This is not a self-care, beauty-isa-ritual kind of story. It’s a science-driven-formulas kind of story. We’re here to talk about products that block the dulling, pore-enlarging effects of the stress hormone cortisol, which gets mainlined into your bloodstream by deadlines, arguments, and endless smartphone pings. “When stress hormones are dialed up, we get a downstream effect on many organs, including the skin—an increase in inflammation and oxidative stress, which can lead to acne breakouts, slower wound healing, thinning of the skin, and it’s thought to contribute to hyperpigmentation and textural changes over time,” says Whitney Bowe, MD, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “We are learning more about these effects and how applying certain ingredients directly to the skin can help…
Scarlett Johansson has a controversial statement to make: “Most people are pretty happy with their skin.” It’s one she says is backed up by the consumer research she did before launching her new skin-care line, The Outset. It’s also backed up by her own experience: “I just want to preserve the skin I have for the future.” For Johansson, skin care is a game of defense. “My routine is about putting moisture into my skin,” she says. “My skin has never reacted well to resurfacing. It doesn’t survive that complicated type of routine.” Johansson first experimented with skin care as a 12-year-old on the set of The Horse Whisperer. “I remember the makeup artist giving me cleansers, acne creams, there was a pink gunk,” she says. It was the beginning…
