Page 40 - Westchester Magazine - January 2011

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Beauty & Style
the sweet smell of success
Gili Zilca of Briarcliff Manor
had enjoyed a 20-year career as a
chemical engineer before starting to experiment
with homemade soaps in her kitchen back in 2004. The
results of those experiments led to Luisa New York, Zilca’s line of
simply sublime handmade olive oil soaps (think chocolate mousse, peppermint eucalyptus, and raspberry lemonade daiquiri) along with bath and other natural beauty products. She just moved to a new location in the Rose Hill Shopping Center (660 Columbus Ave, Thornwood, 914-495-3799), where she now makes the soaps on-site; her first boutique, in Pleasantville, opened in 2008. You can also find her goodies online at luisanewyork.com. Soaps usually cost $1.50 per ounce unwrapped and $6.75 wrapped. You can even have cakes of soaps decorated, well, as cakes—complete with frosting (and a candle, if desired). Custom soaps are also available.
Nature’s Bounty
Sharonn Itliong, founder of the Crater Lake beauty product company in Peekskill
(craterlakecompany.com), grew up in the fertile lands of the Philippines. While other little girls were off playing hide and seek with their friends, Itliong would observe the women in her family while they experimented with the exotic fruit and herbs picked right off their land. Her grandmother would grab a banana, mash it, and preach about its moistur- izing properties right there on the spot or pluck an avocado, peel it, and apply it as a natural facial masque. Her aunt would stroll over to a guava tree and shake down its ripe bounty; the juice she would apply to her skin or boil down the leaves of a papaya tree for a soothing bath. She witnessed other natural skin care techniques as she traveled all over the world on vacations. She remembers that, in the Zambian countryside, she and her nanny “used to go to the market on beauty ingredient treasure hunts, and buy bulk amounts of indigenous oils and shea butter.”
All this multigenerational knowledge has been incorporated into her product line of artisanal bath and skincare luxuries. All are made with decadent butters such as mango, shea, and cocoa; nourishing oils of marula, avocado, coconut, and sunflower; as well as soothing botanical extracts. Two must-try products:
Zambian Coffee Body Scrub, made with authentic Zambian coffee, is the perfect was to start your day ($20); follow up with Flutter Butter body butter, an ultra rich but lightweight moisturizer that smells
// By Nancy L. Claus
amazing ($19.45).
—Karen Holly Berliner
More Than Mascara
BEFORE
AFTER
Ever wish you could wake up in the
morning with your eyes made up? LashDip promises six entire weeks of lush, dark, clump-free lashes with just one “dipping.” No need for mascara ap- plications or extensions, and you can for- get about nightly removal or the dreaded raccoon eyes. Swim, sweat, whatever. Justine Occhipinti, one of the 17 techni- cians in the country certified in the tech- nique, promises your lashes will remain gorgeous. The process, which takes about an hour, involves curling the lashes with a warm metal eyelash curler, then dipping each lash in the solution and sep- arating each lash. Prices range from $200 to $300, which includes a touch-up and cleaning at two weeks and complete re- moval after six...unless you want to pony up and do it again. Available at Shine Salon & Spa, 161 Main St, Ossining (914) 762-6675, Shine-Salon-Spa.com.
take it all off
If you have trouble getting your nail polish off at home, try what the pros use. Barielle makes a great non-acetone nail polish remover with a twist lock pump (no spill worries). It is enriched with vitamin E, so won’t dry nails out—just takes away what the old polish leaving your nails clean and healthy. $14 for 4 oz at barielle.com.
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