I used to be a 10-serum girlie, but I’m constantly in makeup for work so giving my skin a break and sticking to the basics has definitely been the lesson I’ve learned this year. I use Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser and Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Hyaluronic Serum and The Good C Serum. I have a text chain with my dermatologist, Dr. Pearl Grimes. I’ve known her since I was 4 years old. She has a personal line of products called Katalaya Skin Care; right now I’m using her Rejuvenating Moisturizer. My favorite little tool if I’m doing facial massage or gua sha are these Blue Ice Globe Facial Massagers that I use in the morning.
When I want to make it look like I’ve slept well, I’ll mix my foundation in with my moisturizer for light coverage. I love the Dior Forever Skin Glow Foundation because it looks like skin and it doesn’t take much for it to seamlessly blend. I never used to wear red lips because I didn’t think the color fit my skin tone and it felt like it took over my entire face, but I’ve found that Rouge Dior 999 is my perfect red. I’m somebody who takes excess blush and puts it on my eyes, so right now I’m using Dior Rouge Blush in Grand Bal. I love a pink shimmer and this blends in so nicely and is really buildable. For years I didn’t wear mascara because it would run and I like the fact that Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Waterproof stays, even if it’s 80 degrees and I’m sweating.
As a curly girl, it’s important for me to have moisturizing shampoos. When I have an occasional off week and my hair can be in a bun, I’ll do a deep conditioner and avoid any other products so I can reset. Olaplex No. 8 and No. 9 — the hair mask and the serum — have been really great for me. I can get the curls I want with minimal products. I like Aunt Jackie’s Defining Curl Custard: It’s super simple and just helps the curl take shape.
In the shower I use the Daily Moisturizing Body Wash from Aveeno and I buy my Pacha Whipped Soap + Scrub in either sea mud or lavender at Whole Foods. I walk out feeling so smooth and clean and it really gets rid of any body makeup. When my skin feels especially dry, I’ll keep coconut oil and CosRx Oil-Free Ultra-Moisturizing Lotion in the shower and moisturize while I’m in there. I use Arm & Hammer Rosemary Lavender Deodorant — that is the only sort of fragrance thing that I use consistently. I try to nail the high-low thing.
When Silvia Rozas and Marco Zambon took over Venice’s Birraria La Corte in 2021, the restaurant, which had been in Zambon’s family for more than two decades, served classic Venetian recipes like squid ink pasta and fritto misto di mare using seafood flown in from across Europe. Inspired by a growing fleet of other chefs in the region who champion local products and culinary traditions — including Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto of Venissa and Riccardo Canella of Oro — the young couple began retooling Birraria La Corte’s menu to feature ingredients grown on farms around the Venetian Lagoon. Now residents and visitors alike jostle for tables at the San Polo restaurant to order spritzes infused with local herbs such as salicornia and artemisia or dishes including mullet carpaccio from the Rialto Market with marinated turnips and miso crème fraîche. In May, Rozas and Zambon opened a new restaurant in Santa Croce called Bacán that interprets Latin American cooking through Venetian ingredients. Another community-minded Venice chef, Marco Bravetti of Tocia Cucina e Comunità, forages on the nearby islands of Vignole and Lido to collect ingredients like mustard and beach fennel, works with fishermen to source lesser-used seafood such as mullet and the invasive blue crab and organizes culinary pop-ups at events like the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Cinema Galleggiante (or “Floating Cinema”) festival. And Canella, who joined Oro in 2022 after seven years at Noma, in Copenhagen, believes sustainability also means exchanging information — whether by introducing his suppliers to other chefs or promoting new community initiatives like How Do We Meet, a networking group for Venetian artists and professionals. “There’s something special happening here, with people putting aside their egos and working together to effect change,” he says.
Covet This
Vintage-Looking Rugs From a Hotel-Designer Duo
Christie Ward and Staver Gray, the creative duo behind the hospitality design firm Ward + Gray, regularly create custom objects for clients such as Wildflower Farms Resort in New York’s Hudson Valley and the chef Nancy Silverton’s London outpost of Pizzeria Mozza. Now, fans of the firm’s cozy, nature-inspired aesthetic will be able to take a piece of it home: Ward and Gray have designed a collection of vintage-inspired hand-knotted rugs in seven styles and three sizes, all made in India and Pakistan by artisans with whom the pair have collaborated for years. The Winter and Autumn rugs are made of sisal with a New Zealand wool overlay to create a layered look that was modeled after an antique evening gown Ward and Gray spotted in New York City. Their patterns — incorporating cool blues for Winter and notes of maroon for Autumn — are based on Swedish herbarium specimen sheets that the pair found while antiquing. Other hand-distressed patterns were designed to evoke the seasonal colors of fields in upstate New York. In addition to their use underfoot, Ward recommends them as wall hangings. “In a larger space, we feel a rug makes for an interesting substitute for art,” she says. From $2,810 for runners, wardandgray.com.
On the banks of Portugal’s river Douro, in the historic city of Vila Nova de Gaia across from Porto, the Rebello hotel occupies four 19th-century industrial buildings. The name is a riff on rabelo, the Portuguese word for a small wooden boat traditionally used to transport barrels of port wine, the area’s major industry for centuries. The new hotel’s 103 apartment-style suites, all with kitchens, were designed by Daniela Franceschini of Quiet Studios, who also oversaw the interiors at Rebello’s sister hotel, Vintage, in Lisbon. Franceschini collaborated with several artists, both local and international, to create what she calls neo-industrial spaces in which “all the shapes and the furniture are completely different from the one next to it.” That means a dynamic mix of drawings by the Spanish artist Josep Maynou, plaster works by the Los Angeles- and Berlin-based Tomek Sadurski and ceramics by the Lisbon-based Joana Passos. In the lobby and spa, nautical-inspired objects such as ceramic nets by Fig Studio and undulating mirrors evoke the Atlantic Ocean, which is visible from the rooftop bar. From about $215 a night, therebello.com.
Try This
Perfumes Made With Mexican Flora
Mexico has a vast botanical landscape — the country is so large that it’s both subtropical and temperate. Inspired by the diversity of its flora, a handful of perfumers are bottling Mexican scents. Xinú (meaning nose in Otomí, an Indigenous language) was founded in 2016 by Veronica Peña and the design studio Esrawe + Cadena with the intention of replicating Peña’s memories of her grandmother’s garden. The brand works with the nose Rodrigo Flores-Roux to create scents like Oronardo, a light combination of golden tuberose and orange blossom, bottled in plastic-free packaging that doubles as a vase after the fragrance is finished. Flores-Roux also works with Arquiste, a label started by Carlos Huber in 2011 that uses ingredients such as Mexican tuberose, plumeria and copal to create scent collections, some of which are based on aspects of Mexican folklore. Flor y Canto, a spicy scent with a top note of Mexican acacia, references the two Aztec deities of flora: Xochipilli, the prince of flowers, and his sister Xochiquetzal, the goddess of beauty, who is often associated with plants.
María López Blanco, based in Mexico City, founded the brand For All Folks after she experienced skin issues in 2017 and dedicated herself to developing a line of beauty products complete with perfumes designed by Nadjib Achaibou, who created a set of earthy pairings: patchouli and sandalwood, ginger and vetiver, and incense and moss. And in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood, Lula Curioca creates chords — small groups of ingredients — that evoke a wide variety of scents, from freshly cut grass to a dusty monastery and even armpit sweat. Her room fragrances and hand oils are available for purchase, but visitors can also book a personal appointment to develop a custom perfume with her guidance.
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Bright Table Décor Inspired by a William Eggleston Drawing
“I thought this was a good opportunity to have a festive, ‘come on shake your body, baby, do the conga’ summer tablescape,” says Rebecca Gardner of Eggleston Cabaret, a line of decorative accessories — napkins, a tablecloth and a lampshade — she created with fabrics from Electra Eggleston, a textile company run by Andra Eggleston, daughter of the photographer William Eggleston. Gardner, an event and interior designer who has an online shop called Houses & Parties, has long been a fan of Eggleston’s fabrics, printed in Monroe, N.C., on Belgian linen and in Glarus, Switzerland, on Irish linen. She is especially fond of Miami Cabaret, which, based on the elder Eggleston’s drawings, is a jubilant combination of purple, orange and fuchsia (pictured above). “It reminds me of a trip I took with him to Miami when I was 12,” Eggleston says. Houses & Parties is offering the oversize Tablecloth-to-the-Floor in Miami Cabaret, as well as dinner napkins and a lampshade in an equally vibrant pattern called Kentucky Goldenrod — a field of orange and purple squiggles with dots of yellow — which, when set together, create what Gardner calls “a wonderful cacophony for summer.” From $98, housesandparties.com.
