Swept up in that whole postsummer, get-your-act-together vibe, I recently decided to lighten up and add a little sparkle and shine to several key body parts.
Of course, I tapped a few gurus along the way. In my quest, I even channeled one who is no longer with us—the late Kevyn Aucoin. In my long, festive career, I'd have to say that getting to know Kevyn was one of the highlights. A gentle giant with a not-quite-rags to total-riches life story, he was one of those emotionally available types who could be howling with laughter one minute and bursting into tears the next. And he used to give me great gifts, like the entire Tori Amos oeuvre, a Japanese-y kimono coat, and a DVD of Auntie Mame.
Recently, as I peered in the mirror and saw a pair of bloodshot eyes staring back, I thought of old Kev. He was always banging on about these eyedrops he had found in Europe that had changed his life. Obviously he's not around, so I can't ask him what brand he was yakking about. But I conducted a search and came across Collyre Bleu. And I'll be damned if they don't make the whites of my eyes positively blinding. So props to the forever-beloved makeup god—his endless stash of beauty tricks lives on.
Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I headed to the New York City headquarters of the movie star–handsome Jonathan Levine, D.M.D. Founder of GoSMILE and an expert on all things teeth, he recently developed an in-office whitening procedure called ProWrap. Designed to eliminate what he calls "zingers" (those mind-warping jolts of pain that can stop a tooth-obsessed gal dead in her tracks), it entails having your gums sealed under a rubbery scaffolding. Then the technician applies a bleaching solution and pulls a beam machine right up to your kisser while you lay there in the all-white digs, watching Anderson Cooper or what have you.
After a few of these eight-minute light "passes" (I had four), you can bank on considerably brighter pearls. According to Levine and his trusty fake-teeth color guide, I lightened up from a not-bad A2 to a very respectable B1, a total of four shades. (Don't ask me to explain why B is better than A in this scenario; it's ultratechy.)
But much like my dear, diapered darling unleashed in FAO Schwarz, I immediately wanted more, more, more. Why not strive for, say, the color of Dentyne Ice?
"We offer a few off-the-chart shades," says Levine. "And we do get a few bleachorexics in here. But those are the same women who overdo everything—they get too tan, get too much collagen in their lips ... I could go on and on. They're excessive."
I back down; contrary to the perpetual "Under Repair" sign tacked on my door, I'm not really excessive. For now, my B1 teeth are just dandy.
But there's always room for improvement, oui? My final attempt at brightening merely required dabbing Neutrogena Visibly Even Night Concentrate on brown spots wrought by too much sun. This doesn't have the instant-gratification factor of the eyedrops or the ProWrap; it's more of a long-haul effort. But I read recently that people perceive a complexion devoid of sun damage as up to 20 years younger. And you gotta love that.
