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As soon as you’ve said yes to the dress, it’s time to start thinking about the hairstyle, makeup and accessories to go with it. To help, we assembled four beauty looks with four very different inspirations: Old Hollywood starlet, ballerina, flower child and ‘60s retro.
Target Canada brands were unveiled today
Target finally revealed the brands, collections and designer collaborations that are going to be available in Canada when its first stores open in March and April. (Toronto is getting four stores to start: Centrepoint Mall, Coverdale Mall, Shoppers World Danforth and East York Town Centre). The most exciting news: limited-time-only collections from Roots and Hollywood stylist Kate Young, both of which should give locals a taste of competitive shopping. Below, the full list of Target Canada brands, including long-term collaborations and the retailer’s in-house labels.
During its heyday, the Brazilian Ball was where you’d find drunken CEOs and socialites in a conga line with nearly naked carnival dancers
(Image: Courtesy of Brazilian Carnival Ball)
Toronto, unlike Rio or Montreal, never had a reputation as a party town. The late society figure Anna Maria de Souza worked harder than anyone else to change that. Her annual bash, the Brazilian Ball, was, at its peak, the biggest of the big-ticket charity events. Everyone who was anyone in the world of politics, business or media attended. The Braz, as it was known to regulars, was that rare combination: an obligatory social event that was also a blast.
De Souza threw her first carnival-themed party in 1966. Born in Brazil to a wealthy family that owned and operated a coffee plantation, she’d married John Marston, a Canadian importer of orange juice, and moved to Toronto in 1965. Although the city’s social circuit embraced her as a vivacious, exotic beauty, she grew homesick. Her solution: throw a dance in the basement of St. Ines Church at Dundas and Grace Street. The party, like its hostess, was a novelty in staid Toronto.
Ever wonder why Monika Schnarre looks the way she does? Well, the supermodel revealed today via press release that she began looking for “a safe, natural, efficacy-based anti-aging option that would actually perform as advertised” when she turned 40—and she found it. Enter iampure, a beauty system designed by Dr. Keith Burk and his team at Avaria Health and Beauty Corp. (whew, what a mouthful). The complete “system” includes pills and creams, all bearing Schnarre’s name, as if she made the stuff, even though we’re not totally sold on the fact that she even uses these products. But we’re certain she’ll sing a different tune on July 5, which is when she’ll be selling her anti-aging cure on The Shopping Channel. There’s no word yet whether she’ll be going on before or after the Ronco Food Dehydrator segment.
In a city overrun with delicate glass towers, 222 Jarvis is an oddity. The hulking, inverted ziggurat, opened in 1971 as Simpsons-Sears’ Canadian headquarters, is a prime example of Toronto’s brief affair with brutalist architecture. It oozes testosterone, and it’s hard to love: the dark brick seems to glower. Which is why it was such a surprise that the province, after buying the building from Sears in 2007, didn’t simply rip it down, like so many of the city’s 20th-century follies. Instead, Queen’s Park chose to improve what was there, undertaking an ambitious green retrofit scheduled to be completed later this year. The revamped structure includes rainwater harvesting, occupancy sensors, extensive bicycle storage and a dramatic, oversized skylight that pours light through nine storeys of open-plan offices. The price of the job—an estimated $100 million—was rationalized, in the way only bureaucrats can, as a cost-saving measure, since it will house staff from four ministries who were previously working inefficiently in 19 offices around the city. Had the scheme been proposed in the current era of belt-tightening, the city would likely have one less icon.
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It’s time I faced the truth about my philandering ways
Janet opens the door to her house, already wearing her powdery white latex gloves, left over from her mother’s kidney dialysis.
“Did you bring the foils?” she asks.
“Yeah, I cut some at home.”
“We should get the ones from the beauty supply store for next time,” she says. “They’re thinner and easier to work with.”
I put down my bag of contraband hair products, procured from my sister, a professional stylist, and pick up a glass of wine. Our friend M. is already here, with a towel around her shoulders. Her hair is swirled around her head in a muddy paste. (M. has asked for anonymity out of respect for her former colourist.) She checks her watch; eight more minutes to go.
“Shall we start?” Janet says to me, snapping her gloves. I pull out assorted bleaches, toners and potions, along with my sister’s handwritten instructions. One sentence is underlined: “No more than 10 minutes under dryer,” it reads, “or hair may fall out.” We mix up a nasty-smelling brew that turns a purple colour—a horrible Easter pastel that, when slathered on my hair and blasted with heat, will result in lustrous streaks of blond.
Homemade highlights.
I was tired of spending $120 and long afternoons in a salon chair. Everything else today is high-speed; I eagerly await the blond app. In the meantime, our colour cabals have become a pleasant ritual. We save a pile of money, while also enjoying a nice sauvignon blanc. And so far no one has run screaming from the results. Our DIY salon intervention is working out well.
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This could be you! (Image: Luca Vanzella)
Men who have thought about getting their legs, arms, back or unmentionables waxed—but have thought the process too ladylike—can now privately get their bottoms ($35-$72), feet ($13), hands ($13), fingers ($13), chest ($24), shoulders ($20), forehead ($13), brows ($8-$20) and stomach ($15-$24) attended to at Waxon Waxbar, Summerhill’s new wax-only spa centre. It’s really private, too: men can access the spa from a back door to avoid anyone noticing them going inside to get preened, because apparently some dudes still find getting their wax on a tad too girly for their tastes. Come on, dudes, even Steve Carell did it in the open. (Women are welcome and may enter the front or back door.)
Waxon Waxbar, 1246 Yonge St., Unit 100A, 416-924-4920, waxon.ca
Shampoo Read the rest of this entry »
Beauty Supply Outlet
1568 Yonge St., 416-929-6533
While salons might charge exorbitant sums for a wash and cut, they make their real money selling product. The Beauty Supply Outlet isn’t technically wholesale, but salon-quality Goldwell shampoo sells for several dollars less than anywhere else. $14 for 300 mL of Goldwell Rich Repair.
Consonant, 2479 Yonge Street (Image: Supplied)
The place: The clean, sleek storefront of Consonant Skincare’s first Canadian flagship location sits just north of Eglinton at 2479 Yonge Street. The very white space radiates a relaxed, spa-like atmosphere that almost demands a white terrycloth bathrobe and slippers. Products are carefully displayed along the walls with precision that would make even the most O.C.D. customers happy (of course, this might mean standing and straightening out of place items if you work there, since people like to read the labels). The cleansers and tags state the scent, colour and notable features of the products they accompany, and a nearby sink invites the consumer to try before buying. The building also houses Consonant’s offices above the street-level store, so consumer feedback can be heard and considered.
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A model gets her closeup backstage at Greta Constantine (Image: Jenna Marie Wakani)
While the clothes always take center stage (or runway, as it were) at fashion shows, the beauty component is an equally important aspect, helping tie the looks together into the designer’s cohesive vision. We went backstage at Greta Constantine—not only to scope out the half-naked male models—to give you the skinny on how the makeup artists and hair team get the models (normally a haggard bunch) looking catwalk ready. Hair was styled by Hair on the Avenue under the supervision of Colin Ford, director of education at L’Oreal Professionnel. Ford says “the clothes are both structured and unstructured and kind of androgynous,” so he wanted a similar look to the hair. It reminded us of a woman who vacations in St Barts: very sleek on top with a tousled look at the ends. The team achieved this by using L’Oreal’s Mythic Oil, a nutritive oil, on the ends and Lumicontrole, a cream wax, at the roots for shine. Though it took the stylists fifteen minutes to achieve the look, they told us anyone could do it at home in only five (but, of course they’d say that).
Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family (that’s the company that owns us, by the by). Check them out below:
• Fashion Magazine offers the best products and trends this season—plus the artists behind the fall season’s beauty messages—in its Fall Beauty Guide 2011. Read the entire story [Fashion Magazine] »
• We previewed the website What Toronto Said—a website that allows users to browse, and respond to, the myriad responses to city hall’s core services review—earlier this week. Torontoist follows suit with a more in-depth look. Read the entire story [Torontoist] »
• In the July/August of Quill and Quire, Canada’s magazine of book news and reviews looks at what promises to be the biggest books this fall. Read the entire story [Quill and Quire] »
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We were not permitted to eat these pigments. (Image: Lia Parsley)
We recently had the opportunity to take a party bus to MAC headquarters (all the way up the 404), where, as some people may find surprising, their entire product line is manufactured in one of two factory facilities. Some may also be surprised to hear that MAC has been manufacturing its makeup on home turf (in Markham) for about three decades. We certainly didn’t know that, nor could we imagine prior to this visit that any global style brands were born next to Pacific Mall. Take a look at how the stuff we apply to our faces gets made—right in our backyard— in a gallery after the jump
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There’s always been some debate about how much makeup is too much, and in this video we found, it seems directors Lernert and Sander wanted to push the limits of how much can be pancaked on before a waif model suffers serious skin damage. After nine hours and 365 layers of different kinds of makeup, doesn’t she look, um, amazing? Who doesn’t like looking like their face has melted?
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Purple Reign
Not quite a hat and not quite a hair clip, the fascinator is spring’s most regal fashion statement, thanks in large part to England’s newest princess-to-be, who is often photographed with one perched atop her head. At Lilliput Hats on College Street, requests for fascinators have doubled since the royal engagement was announced in November. And unlike china or mouse pads emblazoned with the royal couple’s heads, this is the kind of matrimonial hysteria we can get behind—if only for the opportunity to play dress-up with coquettish netting and decorative feathers. $70. Lilliput Hats, 462 College St., 416-536-5933.
A client receives arty pink tips at Tips Nail Bar (Image: Paige Dzenis)
We all know the post-manicure mantra: “Don’t rummage through your purse, and forget whatever’s in your pockets.” Even if we make it home smudge-free, the best polish job is bound to chip within days. We’ve noticed that soak-off, UV-cured gel lacquer is quickly becoming the norm at some salons across the city — thin layers of colour are applied to the natural nail, exactly like polish, except that each coat is cured under a UV lamp, making it instantly dry to the touch.
Tips Nail Bar, WowWow Nails, The Ten Spot and Ritual are among some of the best practitioners in the city, and with two leading nail polish companies producing their own soak-off gel systems (OPI has Axxium and CND makes Shellac), we can pick a Pantone and replicate it on our nails (and a gel lacquer manicure stays shiny and chip-free for longer than two weeks). Unsurprisingly, a nail technician at Ritual said nail polish is “so 2010,” which means we can keep our hands in our pockets until there is an unnecessary 2010 revival.
Click on to see our rundown of the best manicure specialists in the city »
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