foxy martini Category
That time of the year is here, gorgeous winter… cold and dry and harsh for the skin sometimes. Here at Martini and Milk we’re lucky to be in the inner circle of Michael Rogers, the Beauty Prince himself, to ask for advice on skin care and beauty.
Michael sweetly took time in between his busy schedule to answer our questions below…
M&M: Winter is here. Cold and dry outside. How do I take care of my skin during the winter?
BP: Well, to start there are certain things that should be done no matter the season; drink plenty of water so you do not dehydrate, and wear sunscreen, which we will explain on the next question. However some of the products you use may need to change. What you use in the Summer may not be best for you in the Winter. Mainly what I am saying is, if you use a gel or foam cleanser in the summer you may want or need to use a lotion or cream cleanser that is more emollient. Our skin does tend to be on the drier side in Winter, between the cold elements outside and then going inside to the dry heat blowing. Our skin needs a little more oil to protect it and hold our natural oils in the skin. Same with the moisturizer, you may use a gel or light weight lotion in Summer but may need a little bit thicker lotion or possibly a cream to maintain the moisture of your skin during the Winter
M&M: sunscreen in the winter, same amount or less?
BP: Same amount. We generally may not spend as much time outside in the elements, but the Sun is the Sun no matter what the season, so always use sunscreen.
M&M: The girls traveling during the winter time, what’s a simple package care you recommend?
BP: There are some great travel sets out there that have the basics you need during travels.Ideally you want a lotion cleanser, moisturizer cream, eye cream and a spray toner that hydrates,if possible for the plane. Here are couple of brands that have some great travel sets: Philosophy, Jurlique and Korres.
M&M: A product you must absolutely live with during the winter time
BP: Hyaluronic Acid (KaplanMD & Peter Thomas Roth make good ones), Vitamin C (I LOVE Philosophy Vitamin C powder that I add fresh to my serum or moisturizer), Retinol (Philosophy Retinol pads, Derma Doctor Retinol) if you have a hard time with Retinol try Algenist and I like to ramp up my exfoliation during the Winter months with Glycolic (in a cleanser by Derma Doctor or pads by Peter Thomas Roth called Un-Wrinkle Peel Pads). Philosophy is launching a new product called The Microdelivery Triple-Acid Brightening Peel I believe this month!
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Thank you sooo much our Prince…! Thank you for your awesome
blog and thank you for beautifying your girls continuously! We love you!
Interview by Lolo Kartikasari Sosronegoro
Our video is finished and up on our site for you to enjoy. You may noticed the gorgeous pieces of jewelry worn by our model in the video. Most of the pieces we pulled from our good friend Susan Woods. Susan is not just a jewelry boutique. Her collection of jewelries are carefully selected and collected throughout the years. She works privately (by appointment only) with clients from her quaint home in Silver Lake.
Jewelry by Susan Woods
In between returning and pulling more jewelries for our shoots and pop up shop parties, Susan and I got to enjoy our coffee and chat a little…
Lolo: Can you tell us a little bit about “Susan Woods”?
Susan: A “little” something…hmmm…not much for making long stories short, but I’ll do the best I can! I’m one of those new age baby boomers…you know where the new 60 is the newer 40…or less, LOL — a CA native from inner city L.A., I revel in old school traditional ideas and ethics, but at the same time, embrace an eclectic “stupid funky, fresh” lifestyle enjoyed with my husband, Darryl (a musician) and our two chow chow dogs, Boomer and Ja Ja.
With a degree in Journalism, that catapulted my business career in Human Resources management. I’m a classic victim of the “Peter Principal.” (Essentially looking to downsize my working world and recapture my “original self.”) Doesn’t everyone?
Susan Woods, in her garden
Lolo: Tell me about your services and your jewelry selection…
Susan: I’m multi-tasking these days & currently on a maiden voyage of brokering an eclectic collection of contemporary & vintage jewelry. My goal is to offer well made, top brand pieces at a substantial discount ( between 30 to 65% below retail), starting with private home “salon” parties. The pieces are one of a kind in my collection, I don’t buy in duplicates, so if you love it, buy it! Ultimately, my goal is to develop a loyal following that look to me as their retained jewelry/accessory virtual stylist. After jewelry, next step is handbags!
Lolo: What is your philosophy in pairing jewelry pieces with outfits?
Susan: I do have some basic “goddess” rules:
#1 – I don’t like matchy – matchy, rather I enjoy wearing pairings that surprise. (Love to wear glamour drops with jeans)
#2 – In the days of more is more, that’s OK, but I prefer less is more, but that “less” should be a stand-out SPECTACULAR piece. If you are wearing the right necklace or ears, that’s all you need…girls, please don’t put them together! Ugh!
#3 – Very important now: If you’re going to invest in a jewelry piece, make sure something you can hand down with pride and that your future grandchildren will think it’s cool…that’s what you call a CLASSIC!
#4 – And most importantly, if it goes with black, or white T-shirt and jeans or (my fave), leopard…it works no matter what! LOL!
Lolo: What pieces are you drawn to the most?
Susan: I love organic shapes, architectural designs, and surprisingly small classics (baby boomer, remember?) Sophisticated stone drops for earrings, classic but not fussy. Love striking, yet simple. And It MUST be of high value at discount prices…nothing excites me more than a $80 purchase that retails for $300!
Lolo: Where can people buy your jewelry selection?
Susan: I currently display a rotating sample collection of about 30 pieces on consignment at a local boutique in Los Feliz, Half Off Clothing. My collection changes every 3-4 weeks and then showcases another selection. Half Off Clothing sells great parings with my jewelry at discount prices as well. They are located at 1748 No. Vermont Ave, L.A. 90027, (323) 665-1526, open 7 days a week.
Lolo: How do people contact you?
Susan: I am currently working on a retail website (more later). Until then, I can be contacted directly at woodssusan7@aol.com or (310) 359-0937.
Thank you Susan, been so great working with you! Love your pieces. Until next project…
love,
L
Happy summer! Here at Martini and Milk we believe in looking amazing while maintaining your beauty, your look, your health! We therefore sought advice from our foxy friends. And while we are all girls here, we do have a boy and his tips we would like to generously share with you. Our boy Michael Rogers a.k.a the Beauty Prince. Get ready to fall in love with those gorgeous blue eyes too while you’re reading his beauty tips!
Michael Rogers, the Beauty Prince
So, there is something I have to tell you, I am horrible with beauty regime. I am so completely lost. Now that I met Michael, his blog (the beauty prince), I feel much better. Having Michael around is completely good energy too. Very sweet guy. Our downtown office was happy to have him.
Lolo: Okay, straight to the point. Summer is almost here. Help me!
Michael:
(laughed) Well, first and foremost you always want to remember that 75% of your body is water. Therefore you need to make sure that you stay hydrated. If I have to break it down it will be these key points:
1. Drink plenty of fluid
Your healthy skin is a balance of oil and water. Now, unfortunately many of us don’t drink enough water. You sweat more in the summer. Target the hydration part of you first. Remember, since it is about balance, you want to make sure you’re not drinking too much water either, because you don’t want to flush out your nutrients.
A good amount for you to drink is (he paused a little here, pulled out his cellphone and called his partner, Geek4Beauty for confirmation)… okay, it’s your body weight divided by two. That’s how many ounces you need to drink.
2. SPF
Make sure your moisturizer has between 15-20 SPF in it. Ingredients you want to have in your moisturizer are:
- Vitamin C, this is an antioxidant, protects you from damage caused by your environment such as pollution or stress.
- Hyaluronic Acid, helps attract and keep moisture in skin. It gives that nice plumpness in your skin.
Now, just for everyday in and out the office day, remember to re-apply your SPF once every two or three hour. You can get a mineral powder foundation with SPF in it, which you can use to touch up your make up and also functions as your skin protection throughout the day.
Philosophy
3. Cleanser
So important that you cleanse in the morning and evening before you go to bed. Now, if you’re going to argue with me that you don’t have time to cleanse twice a day, fine, do it at night (I seriously did not argue here, I was being a really good student!). The one thing about cleaning your face though, apply your cleanser twice. The first application cleans your make up alone. The second application opens up your pores, lift up what may be stored throughout the day. Cleaner skin absorbs product better too.
4. Night Cream
Now, your body repairs itself at night. Work with that, take advantage of it. Serum or night cream will benefit you much more if you apply it at night rather than the day time. Your body is already busy working during the day, it doesn’t have the time to repair cells. That’s why it is very important you cleanse well at night, you want your skin to absorb skin cream. In the morning cleanse again, remember the cleaner the better job your skin does in absorbing your skin products.
Michael said stick to this routine for now. He started talking about the difference between sunblock and sunscreen, but unfortunately we ran out of time, he had to go to his next appointment. I told him he will just have to come back with more tips for the Martini and Milk ladies! We said our goodbyes, Michael is preparing for his travels to Paris and then Florida. He promised to keep his blog updated during his travels. Thank you dear Prince… we love ya!
Hugs,
L
I am a huge fan of self expressed girls and every so often I get girl crush, Adri Law is one of them…
So young, so talented, so brave and so damn cute! Adri is a photographer (Ford Models Agency being one her clients), a model (not her first choice), clothes and jewelry designer, sculptor and a vocalist. Adri’s photography work has been featured by t-shirt lines in LA as well. Everything about her screams talent. In a major way.
I got to sit down with Adri one afternoon and listened to her talking about her work, her passion, her art, her life. ”I think my friends are interesting looking.” she said about her day-to-day photography gallery. Her friends, I agree, are among the most interesting looking people I’ve met.
Ask her what her passion is. Without any pause she’ll tell you,”Photography. Music. I would love to someday work for a magazine like Nylon and just take pictures of bands performing.” and you know what, she’s already doing that. She goes to concerts and take amazing pictures. She did a collaboration with a shirt line, Wiloh, on these photography work.
I definitely went over my own time limitation of meeting new people for no more than one hour. OK, I’m weird, but we all are. We talked about her jewelry, the upside down cross she created. She picked up one of it from the table, looked at it and as if she was talking to herself she said,”How interesting what shape does to people.” I smiled, knew where this was going but asked her anyway,”What do you mean?” And she replied,”You won’t believe people actually got offended by it. To me and to you, this is nothing but an upside down cross, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s a shape. But to many, there’s a completely different meaning to this shape. It actually has that… meaning. Hm.”
And then she showed me her latest creation with a friend, a collaboration in design, of crop tops. Cute. But then everything about Adri is cute. Wait, I already said that at the beginning. Well, so there… With that I’m gonna leave you with a couple more pictures Adri took of the girls of Posso Universe (possibly hottest LA DJs right now). I am blown away by her: her talents and her personality. Til later Adri!
I am so happy to announce that Martini and Milk is now officially carrying “Fallen Into Vintage”, one of my favorites local LA revamp vintage line! Founders Lisa Chin and Nicole Tanner were high school friends who share the love of vintage pieces. A few years ago they reconnected and started “Fallen Into Vintage”.
The duo find vintage pieces or fabric, re-work each piece, and also re-design to create their signature triangle dresses and voila! The collections have been this amazing mix of 60s, 70s and 80s lay back, less structure, Californian style dresses. I love that their dresses are so easy to dress up and dress down. Whenever I have a super long day where I gotta be a mom, a friend, a business owner and then head out to an evening event in town… you can bet I’ll be wearing “Fallen Into Vintage”. The dresses are just so comfortable and chic.
Fallen Into Vintage works with many stylists in town. Tyra Banks worn some really cool pieces in her show. Lisa and Nicole have been featured in blogs and TV shows as well. And now I am sharing my obsession with you. I picked up great great dresses from them for our photo shoot a few weeks ago… and I wanted them all. No joke. Literally, Dian McManus and I went through the dresses and kept on saying “Yes, this one. And that. Oh, wait, but did you see THIS one though?”
There are more pieces to show you… They all will be available soon in Martini and Milk shop. We will be having parties as well, you’ll get to see these amazing and affordable pieces (Prices range between $45 to $145! Don’t you just love me?) very very soon. As for right now, I am only doing by appointment only if you want to stop by and see the collection!
Much love,
L
