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Necklace, Maison Martin Margiela at Club21 Online
Shoes, Sergio Rossi he moon lives in the lining of your skin,” wrote Pablo Neruda – oh, how truly we believe those mantras – “Beauty is a light in the heart,” Kahlil Gibran said. We know how good emotions, a great state of mind, and a healthy diet contribute to a fabulous complexion. We subscribe to the total package – with a double dose of Pilates. But achieving it, we wish it were that easy. Enter: a woman’s beauty arsenal, which these days reads like a grocery list (I’ve added spot whitening and lip plumper to mine, by the way). Where do we begin, and … where does it end? The BAZAAR Beauty Awards – into its 10th year already – has all the answers.
We take our awards seriously. Five independent judges – and myself as the “control” – laboriously (and with great pleasure) each tried, tested, and rated over 600 products to come up with this year’s Hot 150. It seems plenty but this entire repertoire takes you from top to toe, all meant to improve the quality of your skin and, with the addition of make-up, enhance your natural beauty. Discover the serum that delivers eight hours of sleep, and the perfect shade of red that takes your lips from sweet to seductive in a flash; these are some of the things you must have on your list!
There’s much more to this Beautiful At Every Age issue, including how to celebrate each decade by working your best features (page 122: I’m in between “working the shadows” and “giving lip”, oh dear) and the style feature ‘All Grown Up’ (page 94) on how dressing like a real woman is back in chic. If there’s anyone who knows what women want, it’s Miuccia Prada, queen of intelligent fashion – with a touch of whimsy. “When I do fashion, I don’t want to inject my other knowledge to look intellectual, but obviously it comes out,” she tells Cathy Horyn in the feature ‘Looking Through Mrs. Prada’s Eyes’ (page 86), “Also, because I am not an intellectual; I am more human.” This balance is artfully posed in a Prada skirt, which had ‘Waist Down’, a four-city exhibition, dedicated to it in 2005. The Skirt, this season, draws inspiration from German culturati Joseph Beuys and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and is actualised in Art Deco print. With a white silk tunic and architectured wedges, it expresses perfect sophistication; red lips complete. Simply, beautiful.