Consuming Beauty

Nivea facial cream for sensitive skin was proclaimed by a colleague to be one of the best she's ever tried.

nivea 88 (photo credit: )
nivea 88
(photo credit: )
According to a friend, Giorgio Armani's new fragrance for women, Armani Code Women, is as elegant and sexy as his outfits. This welcome new arrival into the family of Armani perfume is based on orange blossoms with mild notes of vanilla, jasmine and ginger. The result is an original and seducing perfume that mixes the warmth of Sicilian orange blossoms with the freshness of the Eastern scent of ginger. Armani Code comes in a beautifully designed dark blue bottle decorated with a small black flowers motive. Armani Code for Women is a tool of seduction for the modern elegant woman who knows what she wants; it follows the successful latest Armani fragrance for men, Armani Black Code. A 50 ml. bottle is NIS 540 and 100 ml. is NIS 680. I never really have the time for a facial-mask treatment, but the new L'Oreal Revitalift facial-cloth masks seem to be an easy and relatively clean way of giving your skin a pampering treat. The cloth is drenched in an anti-wrinkle and firming cream, the equivalent of almost one week's treatment of a face cream, and has holes cut out for the eyes, mouth and nose. The mask felt rather cold, and the cream was a little stingy at the beginning; the white cloth makes you look really scary, but the advantage is that you can go on with your business as the cream does its work. After leaving it on for 10 minutes, you rub in the excess cream, and voila - there's no washing off hard-to-remove cream, as is the case with other facial masks. My face felt nice and smooth after the mask; a package of four cloth masks is NIS 130. Summer is approaching fast, and with it the need to protect our eyes from the bright sun. The new summer collection at the Opticana eye glasses stores has a lot of so-called pilot-glasses, and the novelty is that a lot of the frames are decorated with small, fake precious stones: little diamonds, crystals, pearls or star-shaped stones. The colors are still mainly black and brown, but you can also detect some purple and Bordeaux. The Rap sunglasses I tried have a Bordeaux-red frame, something different for a change, and have Polaroid black lenses that feel as if they're protecting the eyes adequately from any bright light. The price for the Rap sunglasses at this chain is NIS 349; other affordable brands are Koya (between NIS 399 and NIS 599) and SM (NIS 299). My daughter, who is always trying to find the ideal product for untangling and straightening her thick, curly hair, was really happy with the new Pantene hair cream. The cream is supposed to protect the hair and help you shape it the way you want; it smells very nice, something that's important since you don't rinse it out. This time she used the classic version, but maybe after this is finished, she'll switch to the straightening version, which will take the volume out of her hair and leave it straight and smooth. The price for a 300 ml. flacon is NIS 27. Nivea facial cream for sensitive skin was proclaimed by a colleague to be one of the best she's ever tried. The cream felt light but moisturized her tight, dry skin. It doesn't leave any oily residue and has a very light fragrance. In our climate, it's also good to know that it contains a sun protection factor of eight. And to prove that good cream really doesn't have to be extremely expensive, the 50 ml. jar is priced at NIS 130. Clarins Smoothing Body Scrub is a real luxury product for use in the shower. The cream, containing bamboo powders that exfoliate and moringa seeds that purify the skin, has a subtle and delicious smell. The scrub particles are not too harsh and leave your skin feeling smooth. The exfoliating cream supposedly removes dull and dry skin, and also enhances a natural or applied tan. This luxurious product will set you back NIS 205 for a 200 ml. tube; Clarins products are available at the SuperPharm chain.