NuFace Is a LOT of Work!

+ A moment with editor and respected beauty person Rani Sheen, a band with a cute member, and the soundtrack of a generation.

We’re back! This wasn’t a one and done, slacker style. If you subscribed on the strength of our first newsletter then thanks, and if you’re new here, welcome. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

You better work. No, we mean YOU.

ANNOYING BUT EFFECTIVE
Things we love, things that work, things you should try, but they’re kind of a PITA

NuFace: I never tire of being asked “Does XYZ work?” I’m happy to share my decades of product knowledge and competitive research with friends, or the random lady in the hair aisle at Target who happened to ask my thoughts on a treatment and I gave her an entire dissertation on bond builders. (Sorry/you’re welcome?) And if I don’t know the answer, I’ll send you a study or article written by someone I trust. However, I always feel a little sad when the question is about something that purports to address aging. Because that specific ask is tinged with a lot of hope—this friend REALLY needs or wants a thing (usually it’s to do with eye circles or sagging skin) to solve a real or perceived problem. One of the most-asked questions I get is: “Does NuFace work?” And the answer is “Yes,” but also, “It depends on you.” (LH note: AMG is not wrong)

ANNOYING: NuFace, to wildly oversimplify, is a microcurrent device that helps improve the tone and tightness of your face. There are plenty of articles /Reddit threads out there about its efficacy, a lot of them seemingly written by a demographic that doesn’t need facial toning or tightening. (This is true of most antiaging skincare writing these days–combined with Google’s absolutely trash new algorithm, you’re likely to get retinol tips from a literal teen.) The device is not cheap (the basic Trinity model starts at around $380 and goes up from there), and you also need to use a water-based gel activator on your skin, which helps the microcurrent technology do its job. The NuFace one is expensive and you need a lot of it (the small gel is $35 for 1.69 ounces, and that’s only a month’s supply), but there are alternatives. You cannot use anything oil-based, because it will interfere with the microcurrent stimulation and it won’t work. Ok, so you’re still on board? Here’s the real deal: You have to, HAVE TO use it as instructed, at minimum 5 days per week for 5 minutes at a time, if you expect to see ANY results. And you have to KEEP USING IT for weeks, 4-6 at least. This is not one of these “I have an event this weekend and I want to look snatched” kind of things. This is a long game. 

EFFECTIVE: You will, eventually, look snatched. Like, IF YOU DO EVERYTHING RIGHT, you will have more of a jawline, you will have some cheekbones, you may have a slightly lifted brow area. You will look perhaps like this T-shirt I once saw that said: “Good Sex, No Stress, One Boo, No Ex, Small Circle, Big Checks.” (Although now that I think about it, “One Boo, No Ex,” doesn't make any sense. Are they suggesting you should stay with one person your whole life?) It’s easy to get a NuFace on sale, like at Nordstrom or Ulta; I have also seen the branded gel on sale too, on Amazon (which is an authorized retailer). They don’t update the device with the same frequency as an iPhone, so you can buy an older model and get the same results. (It may not have the newer attachments, but IDK if you need those.)  (LH note: I have those newer attachments and I have to say I am enjoying them). My skincare routine is SUPER SIMPLE, but I got over feeling like adding this was a bit of a production, and started to enjoy my 5-minutes-a-day with this thing. And yes, after a little over a month, I definitely saw a slight buoyancy in my face, especially around my chin and eye areas—which didn’t last long, because (ANNOYING) I stopped using it. I got lazy. I got “busy.” I ran out of gel. So in conclusion, if consistency, routine, and regularly replenishing beauty products is not your bag, NuFace is probably not for you. — AMG

THE SAME FIVE QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
A concept we are directly stealing from Jane Magazine, which used it to interview celebrities. We’re only stealing two of the questions though.

Rani, gloriously standing at Jason Lee’s salon. (He cuts my hair too—LH)

In a world where now everyone is a beauty “expert”, how do you know who you should really listen to? We will tell you. First we must travel back in time children, because things used to be a lot different. Tik Tok didn’t exist, the beauty looks on runways mattered and people knew who Pat McGrath was. There were beauty editors walking among us and some were writing really amazing, well reported stories.

Now meet Rani Sheen. I worked with Rani at a fashion magazine for many years; she joined as the copy editor and edited some health pages and also wrote some beauty stories for me while I was the beauty director. She then did my maternity leave followed by my colleague Sarah’s and in that time she wrote some amazing features such as one of perfume flankers, which went on to be nominated for a Canadian Fragrance Award for Best Editorial. [AMG Note: I also had the pleasure of writing for Rani. She is a dream editor!] Then she decamped to The Kit, where she was their beauty director but these days serves as their features director and therefore doesn’t dabble so much in beauty anymore. She is the reason I use the word ‘glorious’ as it was the name of her only page on Pinterest. Anyway, Rani is indeed glorious. Perpetually optimistic, a joy to work with and always gives good advice on how to ‘minimize damage’ (i.e., your boss has a terrible idea but you have to execute it anyway, ugh). She is also an excellent travel concierge. –LH

What secret urge do you get but never act on?
To spend a stupid amount of money on an Hermès small Cape Cod double tour in Barenia leather. The urge ebbs and flows, since I’m not sure how much I actually need an analog watch (to gaze at? Yes. To tell time on? Not really.) And no, an Apple Watch strap doesn’t count. But to get the cost per wear over the remainder of my life down I should really act on this urge soon.

Who is on your celebs-to-make-out-with list?
Jeremy Renner, specifically when he’s running very fast in Bourne Legacy. Ralph Macchio circa The Karate Kid. Miguel, singing. An honourable mention to Jodie Foster in Nyad, who is so sporty and swaggy as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s best friend and adhoc coach.

What do you consider beauty snake oil? 
When companies print “No xxxx!” on products that wouldn’t contain that ingredient anyway. When a shampoo and conditioner from the same brand says “no sulfates’” on just the conditioner, that really gets me. (LH Note: Oh fuck, ME TOO!! Like NO lipsticks have sulfates you MORONS)

I’ve never met a lip oil that didn’t dry out my lips. They sound so unctuous but I don’t think they do what they say they will. [AMG Note: I’m sorry to all the teens who love that Dior one, but I will die on this hill. Lip Oils are NOT HYDRATING, OMG THEY ARE THE WORST.]

And blue light acne treatments at medi spas—I had a hunch they were a ruse to make people go back weekly, indefinitely, for lots of money and time and not too much result, and recently the excellent Toronto facialist Victoria Radford said she agreed. (She does love red light, for all skin types.)

What beauty product do you re-buy. Like you likely received free at one point but it's so amazing so you will pay for it now?
Aveda shampoo, conditioner and especially the hairspray, mostly for the smells. I cannot get enough of their smells. I stock up on Black Friday. 

Belif Aqua Bomb. I went to Seoul on a press trip with a different brand but discovered this instead and it remains my preferred moisturizer, summer and winter. If you don’t love thick creams but want serious hydration that really lasts, it’s the best.

Surratt Artistique powder blush in “Barbe a Papa”, which is a beautiful enlivening pink in the silkiest texture— it just floats on. It’s not just a matter of buying it on my own but finding it, especially in Canada—I’ve harassed Anne-Marie to be my personal location-finder for it before and I’d do it again. [AMG Note: Full disclosure, I work for the brand, but I did not ask Rani to include this!]

I buy 1999 Beauty’s Lash Tint mascara; it’s the perfect everyday mascara with a very skinny wand. It’s not volumizing but very defining because it captures every lash and there’s no clumps or smudges or fall. It’s $18, which I consider a nice price.

And I hope I never have to replace my Dyson Supersonic, which is not a nice price, because now no other hairdryer will do for my super thick hair that takes forever to dry.

What's your beauty media diet? Can be print 😭,  websites, newsletters, podcasts, an IG account. Where do you get your beauty news?
I feel lucky that a lot of launch news comes to my inbox from PRs. I like WWD’s beauty newsletter for my “who bought who” corporate gossip. I read Sali Hughes’ product columns. I love Val Monroe’s perspectives on aging and beauty and life in her newsletter, How Not to Fuck Up Your Face. I keep up with makeup and hair artists’ Instagram accounts, to see what they’re doing for shows, red carpets and shoots. (Like, Guido Palau, Diane Kendal, Pati Dubroff, Jenny Cho, Bryce Scarlett, Lacy Redway, Jo Baker, etc etc). I wish most of them would write more about what inspired the looks and the process, but I guess that’s what they need beauty journalists for! [LH Note: UM YES!!! And now Vogue doesn’t even CREDIT the artists on IG during fashion week which Dick Page gets very salty about and rightly so!]

Lesa’s Picks

I need this on vinyl.

Album: Semiwestern-s/t
I consider myself lucky that I got to see Elliott Smith back in the 90s. And I’ll never get over the fact that he got nominated for an Oscar for “Miss Misery” in Good Will Hunting, which meant he performed that year! And he was up against Celine! (She won ofc). I digress. Elliott is long gone, but I feel his presence when I listen to semiwestern, the project of Ty Bohrnstedt and Daniel Gonzalez. Stereogum summed their music up perfectly: “....sounds as if Elliott Smith made shoegaze.” So that tells you why I love it and I can’t stop listening to it. Also, Ty is cute? (I embarrass him by telling him that over IG DMs too…)

I just bought it on vinyl.

Album: Sleater Kinney–The Woods
I am enjoying their new album Little Rope but the absence of former drummer Janet Weiss is still palpable, especially when you listen to this album from 2005. She was a goddamn beast! “Jumpers” is a song that always puts me in warrior mode; it was on my iPod in the days when I was a sucker and belonged to a gym and ran on a treadmill. (NEVER AGAIN). And “Entertain” is just UGH. I want to fight the patriarchy so hard when I hear Janet wailing on those skins. I saw What Sleater Kinney Can’t Live Without on The Strategist and Jill Krajewski reposted it on Threads and added “Janet Weiss” and you know what? She’s right. 

I have on vinyl thanks to the band messaging me and selling to me directly.

Album: Blankenberge–Everything
I don’t sleep well; I wake up every 2 hours like clockwork (it’s the perimenopause). I do manage to fall asleep again but by 4am it’s really difficult so I eventually just get up at 5am. But lately in that hour between four and five AM I will put this 2022 album on. Blankenberge are from St. Petersburg, Russia (they fled to Serbia when Putin invaded Ukraine) and they’re a shoegaze band that’s one of the most underrated. Yet it’s utterly transcendent music and I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience them live. I’d feel like I was at church, in my own sonic cathedral.  “No Sense” is what to listen to when you feel like giving up. “Time to Live” makes you appreciate that you are alive. And “Everything” is what I want to hear when I ascend to the afterlife. 

AMG’s Picks

Playlists: Derrick Gee
TikTok put me on to Derrick—his music knowledge and taste level are amazing. (Sometimes the FYP really is FY.) The first time I saw Derrick on TT, he told a story about Hall/Odo, a combination burger/speakeasy/sushi spot here in NYC, where he took particular notice of its jazz-heavy playlist. Turns out, the music was being selected by the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto (!), and Derrick, being super cool, created a companion 2-part Hall/Odo playlist on Spotify. It was also through Derrick that I learned that designer Jun Takahashi (Undercover) has literally dozens and dozens of playlists on Spotify!

I am….verklempt. I had this taped to my bedroom wall. —LH

Playlists: 90s Gap In-Store Music
My Gen-X bona-fides are legit: I worked at the Gap during what was arguably its pop-cultural peak—1992-1995. We’re talking Reality Bites, SNL’s “Gap Girls” sketches, Miles Davis Wore Khakis. Sliding Doors me might have even worked at Gap corporate, had my well-meaning managers been more persuasive in getting me into the management program. But those few years of retail stayed with me all the same. Not only do I still fold my jeans the Gap way (IYKYK), but many important musical memories were forged while restocking the denim wall, which had the best speaker access, and thus, on slow days, I could zone out listening to the soundtrack of the Gap. It was there that I heard genres like house, acid jazz, and Bossa nova, and discovered artists like World Party, Saint Etienne, Yaz, and Us3 for the first time. Store playlists changed regularly, and we all looked forward to getting a new tape (YES IT CAME ON AN ACTUAL TAPE) because they were so good. Mike Bise, also a former Gap employee during the brand’s heyday, has done the Lord’s work of compiling these lists on Spotify. Start with 1992, or honestly, whatever year in the 90s was meaningful to you, they’re all bangers.

Song: “Running,” by Helado Negro
When was the last time that you stared longingly out of a window while listening to music? I do this regularly on the Long Island Railroad. Like, no doom scrolling, no toggling fitfully between IG and TikTok— just being present with a song. This is the perfect track to listen to while gazing moodily into the middle distance, whenever you are or wherever you’re going.