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On a warm, fall October afternoon, I drove up to Cos Bar in beautiful Montecito, California, for an event featuring Tata Harper. A coastal town in Santa Barbara County, Montecito boasts some of the most spectacular and expensive real estate in the United States and includes Oprah Winfrey among its star-studded residents. It's the perfect place for a highend beauty store.
I had recently read about Tata Harper and her 100-percent organic, natural skincare line that bears her name. It's no secret that organic beauty care is a fastgrowing market segment. In fact, market research projects the organic personal care market to be worth $16 billion by 2020. The challenge for consumers and beauty store buyers alike will be to find quality organic products that perform at the right price points. Many beauty news sources had pointed to Tata Harper as a high-performing, luxury organic line, and I was eager to try it and have an in-store beauty experience for myself. Cos Bar did not disappoint&and neither did Harper.
Well staffed, tastefully catered with light fare and beverages and well attended for the time and location, the event was uplifting, informative&and fun! Perhaps what struck me most was the multi-aged crowd. There were young women present&as well as women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond&chatting, getting facials from Harper and her knowledgeable staff and enjoying themselves. I overheard one young gal talking with an older woman about a concert in Coachella Valley featuring legends of rock and roll&they bonded over mutual enthusiasm for Paul McCartney (who apparently brought out Rihanna for one song) and the Rolling Stones. The beauty business itself is very much a mix of generations and here they were converging&even the Cos Bar employees ran the gamut from young millennials to baby boomers.
At that moment, it occurred to me that an online retailer could never create this experience of community. And it made me thoughtful of beauty stores in general. Beauty stores can be and often are gathering places for women of all ages&and men, too&to find beauty solutions together. It was a good day for business for Cos Bar. Nearly all who received a facial purchased Tata Harper as well as other products that they had ample time to explore while waiting for their turn for a facial. It was also an opportunity to gather information. Harper brought a tremendous amount of knowledge about natural skin care. She directed me and other attendees to the products that would address our individual needs. We experienced, firsthand, before and after differences in our skin. It made an impact.
Beauty stores offer community in addition to personal customer service, education and, let's not forget, an enjoyable time. This holiday season, give your customers an experience to remember. Give them a reason to come back. No online retailer can do that!
By: Kim Henderson, Executive Editor
Happy Friday y'all!! Who is excited for the weekend?! I know I am! I'm heading to Tiger Town for the game tomorrow. One of the last home games&just one left after this weekend! I don't know where this football season has gone! Fall is flying by!
Well if you are going to be staying around Charleston this weekend then you should head on in to Cos Bar downtown on King St for a chance to meet Tim Quinn, Giorgio Armani's Celebrity Face Designer! He'll be there from 10 am to 5pm Saturday. He and his team will be showing the hottest trends from the runway to the red carpet. And 10% of the proceeds go to the Farrah Fawcett Foundation! If you want to make an appointment to get beautified send an email to
or call 843-793-1776.
Speaking of getting all dolled up I had the pleasure of heading in to Cos Bar a couple of weeks ago when they had Tom Ford artists in. I'm a big fan of Cos Bar&you may remember me bragging about them in the past. They have prestige brands that no other stores have&actually they are the only retailer of Tom Ford in the Carolinas. And the women that work there are sooo knowledgeable. I always walk out with awesome purchases and new makeup tips. I also see Karen for my eyebrow threading! She is the best!
The first part of my makeover was a fragrance consulting session. I've never had anyone ask about how I like to feel when wearing a fragrance or to describe what I like. I usually walk in a department store, smell fragrances, and decide on my own. So this was a really unique experience. The Tom Ford rep was on point. She really nailed 3 fragrances for me. And they are amazing! Definitely thinking I'm going to need to go Tom Ford for my next fragrance purchase. My favorite that she picked out for me was the Jasmine Rouge. Loveeee!
Heavenly did my makeup and she had me looking fabulous! Super natural but more eye makeup than I typically wear. I've never used any Tom Ford products before so it was really neat to learn about the brand and see what he has to offer in the cosmetic world. The first product that Heavenly used on me that I loved was the foundation stick. I have never used a foundation stick before. I usually either use powder, liquid, or some sort of BB or CC cream (yes, I have a problem with trying different products!). But I really like the idea of the foundation stick. You can do as little or as much coverage as you would like. And it's really handy as you can just throw it in your bag for touch ups.
Some other products that were used that I loved include the eyebrow pen and some eyeshadows. I may be switching my eyebrow pencil when I run out of mine. It's larger so it fills in really nicely and goes on super smooth. The 2 eyeshadow products that I fell in love with (and of course had to leave with) are a cream shadow in Sphinx and a pallet in Disco Dust. I'm a very big fan of the neutral colors&tans, browns, golds, rose golds, etc. and these 2 products are amazinggggg. Soooo glad I bought them.
Heavenly did a stunning job with my makeover! I didn't want to take off my makeup that night! If you are looking for a new place to shop for your cosmetic needs definitely check out Cos Bar if you haven't yet! They are the best! Go treat yo'self!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
By: Tiffany Hoard
By: Jeannine Morris
Old Man Winter has finally arrived in town, bringing even drier air to altitude along with him. Cooler temperatures aside, day-to-day life in the mountains can take a more extreme toll on your skin, so we turned to longtime local and beauty industry legend Lily Garfield. As the founder of Cos Bar, which debuted in Aspen in 1976, Garfield marked a major milestone this summer with a grand 40th anniversary celebration.
Today, the beloved luxury cosmetics emporium has 14 stores in 10 states and last year took on its first outside investor, Tengram Capital Partners, which aims to introduce some 50 stores and a refocus on e-commerce over the next few years. Now serving as Cos Bar's chief merchandising officer, Garfield is still on the hunt for new, exclusive, and hard-to-find lines, just as she was in the early days. Garfield was among the first independent retailers to discover the likes of La Mer, Clé de Peau Beauté, Laura Mercier, and Bobbi Brown, and has grown the Cos Bar portfolio into one of the poshest collections of beauty brands across the globe.
Garfield cites the "limited number of skincare products available to combat the climate conditions in the Rockies" as one of her inspirations to launch Cos Bar 40 years ago. Here (in no particular order), she shares her personal picks on how best to protect the face and body this season. They're on on the pricier end of the skincare spectrum, but when Garfield recommends a product, we listen!
1. Creme d'Olives, d'Olives
"This cream is great, as it can be used 24 hours a day, year-round. It's especially effective at combating environmental stressors in the winter: it will hydrate wind-burned, parched skin and take the redness out. Both men and women love it." Exclusive to Cos Bar. $145
2. Black Rose Precious Face Oil, Sisley Paris
"This essential face oil leaves my skin soft and hydrated." $235
3. Revitalizing Body Oil, Tata Harper
"Use this 100-percent natural, hydrating [and anti-aging] body oil right after the shower, while skin is slightly damp. Follow with La Mer body cream for extra moisture." $95
4. The Body Cream, La Mer
"The best of the best for super-rich effective mositure. We sell this in both a tube and a jar, so you can keep one at home and one for travel." $275 (jar), $195 (tube)
5. Intensive Eye Contour Cream, Cle de Peau Beaute
"This eye cream leaves the eye area very soft, cushy, and moisturized. You only need to use a tiny drop." $255
6. Cellular Swiss UV Protection Veil Sunscreen SPF 50, La Prairie
"This is perfect for everyday use and is also great on-the-go so you can reapply on the mountain. Apply it as a film (like icing on a cake) and let it absorb. Do not rub it in." $185
Shop Lily's picks in town at Cos Bar Aspen, 309 S. Galena St., 970-925-6249, or online .
By: Katie Shapiro
Sephora and Ulta aren't the only games in town when it comes to specialty beauty retail. Cos Bar, a true luxury beauty outpost founded in Aspen, CO, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
And while it some may consider 40 to be middle age, Cos Bar isn't slowing down. In fact, by some standards, this beauty retailer that promises "beauty elevated" is just getting warmed up.
Selling a curated assortment of ultra high-end makeup, skin care, fragrances and bath and body products for women and men such as like Tom Ford, La Prairie, Chanel, Sisley-Paris, Dior, Cle de Peau, Oribe, Laura Mercier, Giorgio Armani, and YSL Beaute, Cos Bar is already is already having a critical year.
For starters, Cos Bar recently took in a major financial investment from parent company Tengram (which owns brands like Laura Geller, Nest and Algenist in its portfolio too). In addition, Cos Bar expanded its leadership team by hiring four marketing heads and naming David Olsen, formerly of Net-a-Porter, as its CEO.
This month, it will open another flagship Southern California location in Brentwood, marking the start of a major expansion plan that includes remodeling existing stores and opening 36 new stores over the next five years. The new doors will join other stores in Carmel, CA; Charleston, SC; Edwards, Aspen and Vail, CO; Wailea, HI; The Woodlands, TX; Edina, MN; Highland Park, IL; La Jolla, Montecito and Los Angeles, CA; Santa Fe, NM; Brookfield Place in New York C and Scottsdale.
Happi recently interviewed Lily Garfield, founder/owner and president, and Olsen about Cos Bar's past and its plans for the future and how the beauty retail scene has changed during the past four decades.
Happi: So, this year marks a major milestone for Cos Bar. As the founder, what does this mean to you personally and professionally?
Garfield:We are celebrating our 40th anniversary of the Aspen Cos Bar opening this year which is a dream come true! I had worked in the beauty industry in New York and knew that women needed something better and more convenient. Opening up a Cos Bar in the heart of New York City last year was a monumental moment for the brand as well as my career in the beauty industry.
Happi: Brand/product wise, how has beauty/skin care changed over time since you opened your first door in the late 1970s?
Garfield: In the past few decades new brands have emerged and the iconic brands we all know and love have evolved with the ever-changing needs of consumers and trends. At Cos Bar, we have been successful in keeping up with the times and trends while also staying true to our ways with excellent customer service and top beauty brands catering to each and every loyal customer.
Happi: How has the beauty retail scene changed since then too?
Garfield: Forty years ago, all you had were department s you had certain brands in drug stores and luxe brands at department stores. There weren't many niche beauty focused retailers and Cos Bar was created to meet this need within the marketplace.
Happi: Can you share with us more about the deal with Tengram—what will it mean for the company this year and moving forward?
Olsen: Tengram Capital Partners took a stake in Cos Bar in December of last year. This partnership has allowed the brand to grow and evolve at a steady and successful rate. With new store openings, additional digital assets and programming as well as larger scale partnerships and expansion Tengram will be a key player in these milestone moments for Cos Bar.
Happi: Opening 36 stores in five years is an ambitious plan. Why so fast now? What are the major challenges this will entail?
Garfield:It was never my intention to expand when I was starting out 40 years ago. However, there was customer demand for our business and, in response, we kept exploring new areas and methods to reach our customer.
We know there are larger markets where this luxury consumer exists. We're using huge amounts of data science to understand which locations will be productive for us and meet our customers' needs.
Happi: What makes Cos Bar different than other retailers now in the space—like Sephora or Ulta?
Garfield: At the core, Cos Bar is all about service. We pride ourselves on our friendly and expertly trained staff, and the personal relationships we build with all of our clients. All of the brands are curated to offer only the best of the best and are tailored based on each location/market, and ultimately tailored for each customer. Another main difference from a Sephora or Ulta is that we aren't prestige, we are luxury.
Happi: How has the online beauty retail space impacted your operations?
Olsen: Our expansion strategy includes a large focus on omnichannel, with plans to add at least one warehouse, click-and-collect services and next-day delivery.
Happi: Can you share with us the company's annual sales or provide us with another indicator of growth?
Olsen: The brand plans to quadruple sales in three years with 120% year-over-year e-commerce growth predicted. In addition to physical retail, growing the brand's omnichannel destination
is a focus. We are focusing on expanding our social media presence and have rolled out a loyalty program in-stores that will launch online later this month.
By: Christine Esposito, Associate Editor
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) & When it comes to your complexion sometimes you need that little something extra, so why not try a beauty gadget?
I went to Cos Bar in Brookfield Place, the latest destination for all things beauty. I was joined by skincare expert Jenny Patinkin.
We discussed five simple gadgets that can take you from good to gorgeous.
By: Christal Young
By: Sarah Kinonen
By: Jada Wong
When October rolls around I get excited about apples and pumpkins, with the hopes that we'll pick up the latter and get them carved before Halloween night passes. (Last year with work travel, I cut it kinda close!).
While we all think in terms of orange and black this month, my mind and inbox are also plastered pink for breast cancer awareness, which is awe-inspiring. It's humbling to see the number of businesses, designers and entrepreneurs sharing personal stories and striving to make a difference.
Below are my finds of BCA goodies that I'd buy whether or not they benefitted any charities because they pass the test of total coolness regardless. A reformulated lipstick that's better than ever, a sophisticated, top-handle bag, snappy workout staples...sign me up! The fact that they are supporting such a good cause on a multitude of levels—education, caregiving, support and research—well, it just makes me believe we're stepping closer to a cure.
Bobbi Brown Art Stick Duo
Nab these universally flattering lip hues of Electric Pink and Dusty Pink, and for every set purchased $10 goes to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
By: Amy Goodman
Most people probably don't view ski trips as an opportunity to stock up on $525 face creams, but that's exactly what happens at Cos Bar, a 14-store chain of ultra-luxe beauty emporiums primarily located in upscale resort communities like Vail and La Jolla.
Selling $2,000 worth of merchandise to a single Cos Bar shopper is a daily occurrence. One customer even recently broke the $10,000 barrier, according to a representative for the company. Customers will come to their vacation homes for two weeks and pop in to Cos Bar regularly to add products to a box, which staff will then ship home for them. (This Clive Christian scent will set you back $865, so it's easy to see how that bill can add up.)
"What stands out with Cos Bar is that no one has touched what we've done, and that's super luxury," says founder Lily Garfield, who opened the first Cos Bar in Aspen in 1976. The 14th store opened last year in the high-end Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan. While Cos Bar sells brands with eye-wateringly high price points like Clé de Peau, Sisley, Tom Ford, La Prairie, and Creed, it also carries prestige-priced but decidedly more affordable lines like Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier, and Bliss. The store will soon be stocking Serge Lutens, which sells a lipstick palette for $160, and also Jo Malone, purveyor of $85 candles.
Garfield is right that her luxury-focused business model is unique, at least in the brick and mortar space. The beauty landscape now is ruled by stores like Ulta and Sephora that collectively carry products at every price point, from mass drugstore brands to prestige luxury labels like Dior. The era of department store beauty buying is waning. Department stores are hedging their bets with different retail strategies lately, like Macy's purchasing growing indie beauty retailer Bluemercury and JCPenney adding Sephora outlets into its stores.
Finding new brands has also always been a priority for Garfield. She carried both La Mer and Bobbi Brown before Estee Lauder purchased those companies. Now she's on the hunt for high-end, efficacious natural brands because they're in demand by customers. She stocks Goop's skincare collection and has been carrying the organic Tata Harper brand for more than a year. The Elixir Vitae ($380) line is a robust seller there, according to Harper herself.
Harper, who vacations in Aspen and had often visited Cos Bar, is excited to sell her products there. "I love their strategy of how they've been able to go into a lot of really high-end, second home places. You can have that exposure with your clients from New York who are in Aspen," she says. "I think she's been very strategic about opening her locations."
When Garfield opened her first store, she had two goals: first, to provide upscale beauty products to her hometown of Aspen, which did not hav and second, to provide an alternative to department store shopping in general. She wanted shoppers to be able to mix and match brands, which does not happen easily in a department store where counter salespeople work for a specific brand and are trained to sell as many products from that brand as possible.
Cos Bar had been self-funded up until the end of 2015, when Garfield took on Tengram, her first-ever outside investor.This is not Tengram's first investment in a beauty company. It has also invested in skincare brand Algenist, fragrance brand Nest, and color cosmetics brand Laura Geller. Cos Bar will soon be tripling its brick and mortar footprint to 50 stores, including locations in Brentwood, California and other upscale destinations that Garfield did not want to disclose yet. The company is also investing heavily in its e-commerce capabilities.
While it might seem there's a finite market for "super luxury" beauty, Rich Gersten, a partner at Tengram, explains why his firm was keen to invest in Cos Bar. "We believe this was the right time to finally partner, given the strong growth in the prestige and luxury beauty industry and the shift away from department stores to specialty retailers."
According to Cos Bar CEO David Olsen, "specialty beauty is in a sweet spot. Beauty spend is increasing at 10 percent, but malls are suffering and specialty is thriving. Many customers still want to purchase beauty in-store, especially luxury beauty, so physical presence is essential. We are in the business of 'luxury,' but beauty is an attainable luxury."
E-commerce is where the store faces the most competition right now. Net-a-Porter and Violet Grey, which also has a physical store in LA, carry many of the same brands as Cos Bar. The brick and mortar stores are still more profitable than the website, but that may soon change. It's probably not coincidental that Tengram appointed Olsen, who was Net-a-Porter's former head of beauty operations, as CEO. He notes that people who buy things "multichannel," meaning both digitally and from stores, spend four times the amount than those that shop in only one channel.
"This is a whole different ballgame with e-commerce," Garfield acknowledges. "I'm from the old school & I'm brick and mortar. [Olsen]'s new school & he's e-commerce. I'm going to give myself a pat on the back, because now we have two very smart people here!"
Garfield moved to Aspen in her twenties after working at a cosmetics counter at Bloomingdale's in New York City. She became a ski bum and took a job at a local drugstore to support herself. She got the idea to open Cos Bar after seeing her friends in Aspen give each other lists of beauty products to pick up at department stores when they went to Denver or other large cities. Garfield called a few brands like Lanc?me and Borghese, who supported her idea to open up a small, upscale cosmetics shop.
She opened Cos Bar in 1976 using her own money, then got married a year later. She had only the Aspen store for the next ten years. "I wasn't interested in more stores. I was more interested in being a mom and an athlete," she explains.
Garfield opened her second store in Vail in 1986, after she and her husband divorced. (Fun fact: She remarried him again 10 years later.) The third store, which she says was a turning point for her, was in Santa Fe. "Leonard Lauder himself called me and said, 'Lily, a department store in downtown Santa Fe is closing down. We'd like for you to open up Cos Bar.' I said okay!" The Lauder company didn't fund it, but having the blessing of the most powerful beauty company in the US and access to its brands was a big deal.
She opened several more shops. Another turning point came in 2000, when a friend of Ross Perot's wife, who loved to shop at Cos Bar in Vail, reached out to Garfield. It turned out Perot's company was opening the upscale Wailea Mall in Maui and wanted a Cos Bar there. She signed a lease on Labor Day in 2001. A week later, 9/11 happened. The landlord offered to let her out of the commitment. "I said to him, 'If I back out of the lease, they will have accomplished exactly what they wanted to and kill the US economy. I'm not doing it, because we are resilient.'"
Cos Bar also weathered the recession in 2008, a time when being a seller of luxury goods was tricky. "It still was selling, because of our locations. But instead of the customer coming in and buying five products, she'd only spend on three products. In 40 years of history, this wasn't the first recession. We also had a recession in the early '90s," Garfield notes. When asked if business has picked back up again, she says, "Oh god, yes."
The final realization that Cos Bar could be a brand to be reckoned with came in 2012, when Target reached out to Garfield and asked her to curate some products for the discount retailer's Shops at Target project. In this initiative, Target opened pop-up shops in its stores with various indie retailers. Cos Bar provided reasonably-priced eponymously branded products for the collaboration. Being in 1,800 stores made Garfield realize, "Everyone knows who I am now. I think it's time we put the pedal to the metal."
With the store growth and e-commerce push, Garfield is still very sure of her customer, who's generally older than 35, likes to shop in person & especially for makeup & and loves a good serum. But what about attracting millennials, something that many businesses will need to do to stay afloat? Garfield laughs and says her shopper is "the millennials's mothers!" She later acknowledges that Cos Bar definitely has something for a younger and (ostensibly) less flush customer.
"They're hitting their thirties now, they've finished grad school, and we are seeing them. They might not buy as much, but they buy a brand like Amore Pacific," Garfield says of the upscale Korean brand, where prices range from $40 for sunscreen to $525 for a serum. "She's not buying the top-of-the-line product, but it's that aspirational thing like, 'Okay, I like what this product stands for.'" The implicit assumption is that once you get hooked on the fancy stuff, it's hard to go back to Olay.
Garfield is bullish on Cos Bar's future, especially with her new investor on board. "We interviewed a lot of frogs and this is the prince that understands who we are and knows not to change our DNA. I'm very happy with this so-called marriage."
By: Cheryl Wischhover
Linda Rodin is a quiet, but strong, force: super stylish, striking silver hair and the kind of energy you spot from a mile away. And she's not close to slowing down. The 68-year-old model, stylist and creator of the cult-classic facial oil line Rodin Olio Lusso sat down with us at Cos Bar in New York to share some of her best beauty secrets and hinted at some very big upcoming launches for the brand.
On her biggest beauty secret...
"I get nine hours of sleep a night. For me, sleep is key. I eat dinner very early. I eat at 5 p.m., so by 7 p.m. I'm not stuffed or drunk. I do everything very early. Recently, I've been glued to the TV. Nighttime is my time to watch TV, answer emails, text. I'm not a big nighttime socializer. I'm out all day, so at night, I just want to be my myself. Someone recently asked me, 'Don't you have FOMO [fear of missing out]?' No, I have FOBI. Fear of being invited."
On her bath time ritual...
"I take a bath every night. I stay in as long as I can or as long as my dog will let me. I cleanse my face with my facial oil, I use my soap and I use my body oil. I'm pretty much a one- I use all my own stuff. We're thinking about creating something for the bath, but it's not that simple to make a bath oil that doesn't smell commercial. But we are working on it!"
On the facial-oil revolution...
"Oils have been around since C there's nothing new about them. But I think everyone was afraid of them before, for all the wrong reasons. Women have sent me testimonials that they had acne for 30 years an the truth is, you need oil to help with oil. So I think the light bulb went off.
I just always loved oils and I was making my oil [as the story goes, Rodin mixed her first oil in her kitchen, launched the line in 2007 and Estée Lauder acquired the brand in 2014] for myself. The fact that it snowballed is kind of funny, but gratifying. I still think mine is the best, but that is subjective! Now, there's a million of them. There's a new oil a day. I'm sure some of them are great, but, and this may sound snotty, I have no interest in trying them. I love mine."
On her new lipsticks...
"For me, it's not about lipstick—there are a billion reds out there. I made the lipsticks because I don't leave the house without lipstick. I have five shades, they are all mix-and-match, they all look great together, but they aren't trendy. It's more about the formulation and how I wear it. I make things that I use, use repeatedly and are classic."
On the one shade she won't wear...
"At my age, I don't look great in the nude shade, but I made one because I lived in nude from 20 to 40. I think it's better on younger people. It just doesn't work with my gray hair—it makes me look really tired. I do mix it with the other shades and it makes the other colors look more vibrant."
On the beauty step she skips...
"I don't wear foundation. I haven't worn it since my early 30s. I never really felt comfortable in it. If I have a pimple or a spot, I'll cover it up."
On her signature hair...
"I use purple shampoo. It really does work. It's great. We want to make one because it's all I use. I started going gray when I was 35 and I've been using it ever since. People see what they want
in my mind, I'm still a brunette! I wash my hair once a week. I used to straighten it, and I ruined it for years. I gave that up about five years ago. It's amazing I have any hair left. Now, I just put it in a tight ponytail. It h I never wear it down."
On what we can look forward to from the brand...
"I have a lip pencil coming out. And possibly some eye stuff. I don't consider the line it's a lifestyle brand. I want it to be things I use every day. My thinking is you have to pick your lane and stay in it."
By: Liz Ritter, Executive Managing Editor Image: Getty Images
A lot of people have been asking me who the "Holy City Chicks" are and what we are all about.
The #HolyCityChicks (see photos via hashtag on Instagram) are not so much one group of people, but any Charleston gal with a blog or social media presence that wants to meet up to have some great professional photos taken at a great price.
Jennifer Collins Photography offers this photo meet-up session monthly to bloggers as a group,
and I coordinate with brands that want to have their products photographed.
Everyone involved benefits through affordable photography and a larger pool of cross-promotion.
We are having so much fun with this, and some really fun brands are starting to take notice!
We are thrilled to be featuring Draper James soon so stay tuned...
Here is a little behind the scenes look at one of our monthly photo shoots for your entertainment, which featured Weekender shirts from Bonfire and dog accessories from Crew LaLa.
Maddie became a Crew LaLa customer a long time ago when we were vendors at a market together, and I have used Bonfire's platform to sell shirts that raised around $1000 for a friend of mine who needed help with medical bills.
The cool thing about Bonfire is you don't have to put any of your own money up front for t-shirt sales, and you can start your own fundraiser with this link. The company will then give and you and I both get an extra dollar for every shirt sold!
You can also buy one of these fun "Weekender" t-shirts through October 30 to benefit Pet Helpers with 100% of profits.
The day of this Bonfire/CrewLaLa shoot was the day before I was leaving town for a week, so I was feeling very scattered.
I'm usually a planner and love coordinating shoots like this, but today was just not my day. Of course my husband had been cleaning for an overnight guest and "cleaned up" the bag of bracelets from Wear It And Wander we were planning to use during the shoot (which I discovered about 10 minutes before needing to leave).
Next it was on to get my make-up done thanks to an invitation from Cos Bar, who was celebrating 40 years of great make-up!
This was a bright spot of the day, because the CosBar staff was not only so welcoming and sweet to me, but also to Maddie!
I loved the whole experience because the makeup artist, Leslie, was really fast and knew her stuff without making me feel too done up.
This was probably the only thing that went right that day, because my makeup was STILL looking good 7 hours later when I finally had my lunch at 10pm (see bathroom selfie, and I hate selfies but I had to share)!
Post make-up application and Maddie and I are rushing to get to the shoot with 2 bags full of collars and leashes.
We head to the battery where some of the bloggers and their pups are hanging out at the gazebo being very patient.
One after another we got photos of each pair, with group photos in the middle. Well, needless to say some dogs liked each other better than others so we didn't get to have many as a grou. I hope you enjoy my favorite shots of the day along with a couple of outtakes. Remind me to NEVER try to take photos so many dogs at once ever again, I'm sticking with bloggers!
Thanks to Jennifer's daughter, Bethany for being such a perfect and life-saving assistant!
Everyone wound up looking pretty darn great, don't you think?
You and your pup should grab a Weekender tee to benefit Pet Helpers, and support a great local handmade company with a CrewLaLa leash/collar & bow, bowtie, or bandana!
By: Liz MartinImage: Jennifer Collins Photography
New York Fashion Week is winding down, but fall campaigns are just picking up. Just in time for the new season, brands are introducing new collaborations, videos and campaigns. First up? David Beckham and Kevin Hart, who wear Beckham's new H&M Modern Essentials line.
"I loved shooting the first campaign with Kevin for H&M so much that we just had to do a sequel," Beckham says of the previous campaign, in which Hart pretended to play Beckham for a movie role. "This time we've pushed the story even further. I hope everyone likes it — we certainly enjoyed filming it."
And that's not all for the brand. H&M is also teaming up with Kenzo to create a Kenzo x H&M collection, launching November 3rd. The campaign, which will launch on October 17, was shot by photographer Jean-Paul Goude and stars famous faces including Iman, Chlo? Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Chance The Rapper and more stars. Plus, they've also created Kenzo-themed GIFs ike the one below.
Moving to footwear, you can now find Sarah Jessica Parker's SJP shoe collection on Amazon Fashion! The actress and designer released a fun video to go along with the new collaboration, in which she embarks on her first day on the job at Amazon and hands out shoes to her very lucky fellow employees. Watch it all unfold here.
For Marc Jacobs' Fall 2016 campaign, the designer teamed up with music video director Hype Williams, to create a neon-yet-dark masterpiece starring Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Missy Elliot, Susan Sarandon and more stars.
Zosia Mamet stars in a video for Kate Spade's new #missadventure series in order to support the brand's new see-now-buy-now collection. The pieces are all worn throughout the video short and are available for purchase now.
Jimmy Choo celebrated its 20th Anniversary during New York Fashion Week! Jasmine Tookes, Taylor Hill, and more stars helped the iconic label spice up the occasion in the music video below.
Shinola is giving us a look inside the brand's factory, with the help of actor Luke Wilson and Facebook. The actor walks through the factory with a 360 degree camera, making sure viewers can catch every detail. Catch the tour here.
And last but not least, beauty store Cos Bar is turning 40, and industry pros like Bobbi Brown, Deborah Lippmann and more are proudly helping the brand celebrate in the video below.
By: Jillian Ruffo
Cos Bar, one of the first specialty cosmetics retailers, is hitting 40 years in business with a growth spurt.
The 14-store chain & with doors in cities such as Aspen and Vail, Colo., Carmel, Calif., Scottsdale, Ariz., and New York & has ambitious plans to open 35 more stores in key markets over the next four to five years, according to Cos Bar founder and chief merchandising officer Lily Garfield.
Garfield maintained she was "comfortable as a family-owned business," but to take the company to the next level & and to further "differentiate Cos Bar from the Sephora's and the Ulta's" & she would need a strategic partner.
"We're not prestige, we're luxury. This is a market I feel we can tap into, and I can't do it alone," Garfield told WWD of Cos Bar's retail expansion.
This has been made possible by the involvement of private equity firm Tengram Capital Partners, which took a majority stake in Cos Bar in December of last year. David Olsen, who spent four years at Net-a-porter Group as senior vice president, was named chief executive officer of Cos Bar in February.
Already, there are plans in the next few months to open stores in Brentwood, Calif., and Lexington, Ky. A 1,300-square-foot door in New York's Brookfield Place bowed in spring 2014, the last store Garfield opened before Tengram came on board.
Industry sources put Cos Bar's business at around $25 million, and Olsen said plans are to quadruple sales over the next several years. In addition to physical retail, growing the brand's e-commerce destination
is a focus. Also in the pipeline is the introduction of same-day delivery and a loyalty rewards program, B. Cos.
"We've barely scratched the surface with digital," Olsen said, adding that a new web site will launch next month. (He predicts 120 percent year-over-year e-commerce growth.) Additionally, a second corporate headquarters in Los Angeles (the first is in Aspen) will be up and running later this month that will house marketing, finance, human resources and technology departments.
Garfield and Olsen have compiled a list of about 50 locations where they want to open the next Cos Bar locations, and hope to open 10 to 12 doors next year. Potential locations include another store in the New Jersey area, Manhattan and Texas.
Among the brands carried in Cos Bar are La Mer, Tom Ford, La Prairie, Chanel, Sisley-Paris, Dior, Clé de Peau, Oribe, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier, Giorgio Armani, Tata Harper, YSL Beaute and Creed. Select locations offer spa services from facials to eyelash extensions.
"Forty years ago, all you had were department s you had certain brands in drug stores and luxe brands at department stores," said Garfield, who opened the first store in Aspen, Colo., in 1976 with a range from Lanc?me. "[And] who had the number-one location in department stores? It was always cosmetics. You had shoe stores, jewelry stores & why couldn't you have a cosmetics shop?"
This thinking is what precipitated the opening of her first shop, as did the harsh climate conditions in the Rockies and living 200 miles from Denver, where the nearest department stores were located at the time.
The original store, she noted, sees close to double-digit growth every single year.
By: Rachel Strugatz
Despite the fact that the first Cos Bar outpost opened in Aspen 40 years ago, it now has 14 locations (including one in downtown Manhattan), and it did a collaboration with Target years ago, the ultra-cool beauty retailer still feels under-the-radar. It's our go-to when we want an edited-down selection from department-store brands, gorgeous candles, and hard-to-find fragrances. Ahead, Maria Campitiello, store manager at Cos Bar Brookfield Place, shares the location's top four sell-out beauty buys.
Design By Tristan Offit
Private equity firm behind major expansion
The last time the Republican party faced a potentially contested national convention was 1976, when Gerald R. Ford beat Ronald Reagan on the first ballot before going on to lose the general election to a little known peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter.
During that bicentennial year celebrating the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, KSNO radio was playing in heavy rotation hits like &Sara Smile& by Daryl Hall and Woody Creeker John Oates, which elbowed out Queen&s &Bohemian Rhapsody& for 11th on Billboard&s &Hot 100& songs of 1976.
Over in a tiny space on the edge of Wagner Park in downtown Aspen, Lily Horn, a 25-year-old transplant from New York had just opened her &cosmetics boutique& that sold luxury, city-style skin care products to mountain women and tourists. Luxury cosmetics had heretofore been the domain of department stores like Bloomingdale&s, where Horn (now Lily Garfield) work Carl&s Pharmacy&s selection at the time was limited at best.
Armed with $5,000 and contacts with luxury lines like Borghese, Germaine Monteil, Lancome and eventually Clinique, Garfield opened the first Cos Bar (short for &cosmetics bar&), a store that this year celebrates its 40th anniversary in Aspen. There are now 14 stores in the Cos Bar chain, from Vail to Scottsdale and most recently at the Brookfield place in Manhattan.
After taking on private equity company Tengram Capital Partners as an investor in December 2015, Cos Bar became poised for a major expansion to double the number of stores across the country, beginning with a new &flagship& Cos Bar in Los Angeles this fall. All told, 50 Cos Bar stores are planned.
&We&ve been self funding for 40 years. To take it to the next level, you need help,& Garfield said this week from the busy second-floor offices where her son, Oliver, the company&s COO, also works. Oliver plans to relocate this fall to Cos Bar&s new Los Angeles headquarters where he&ll work side-by-side with CEO David Olsen, formerly of the luxury e-commerce site Net a Porter.
Lily Garfield said she isn&t afraid that control over the Cos Bar concept and name would be lost with a private equity partner.
&One of the things they loved about the Cos Bar was that it was really unique, nothing like Sephora or Uta,& two cosmetic boutiques that have made inroads nationally and have arguably changed the way women approach an industry that, by 2018, is forecasted to approach $11 billion for skin care products, according to the trend-following GCI magazine.
While Sephora and Uta offer variety but little in the way of service, Cos Bar prides itself on a trained staff.
Its focus on service and &the luxury space that we occupy& is much in demand, Garfield suggested It was that luxury space of coveted client data bases and stolen trade secrets that was at the heart of a 2015 lawsuit between Cos Bar and a former employee that was dismissed last May by now retired Judge Gail Nichols.
Changing times
&When I first started, it was all about skin care and to make sure women were protecting their skin in this environment,& Garfield said.
&The original concept of makeup was, what was proper for skiing, for playing golf or for tennis,& she said, citing Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova as early clients who were reflective of the outdoors, healthy style.
Today, &The outdoor fresh look has gone the way of more of a city look,& Garfield added.
Ricki McHugh, owner of McHugh Antiques in the Aspen Square building, said she remembers Garfield&s first business and identified its location, in a mark of true longtime local-dom, as &above the old Aspen State Teachers College.&
&That was where you went to get a face cream,& McHugh recalled. &There were very few places to go. You could get Vasoline at Carl&s back then but if you had fine or fair skin, there really wasn&t anything available,& she said about the 1970s-era Aspen retail landscape.
The years of hands-on experience, followed by a slow initial expansion of properties (Vail, in 1986, was second in the chain) seems to have served the Cos Bar well.
&I think Lily was learning along the way,& said McHugh, whose business has also evolved, to include art and decor. &I think we were all learning,& she added.
The Cos Bar &look& or the idea, of what surrounded the Cos Bar brand, was behind a surprise phone call in 2012 from a representative of the Target chain asking her to curate a store-within-a-store called &The Shops at Target.& Cos Bar&s Target line was limited to nail polish, bath and body items and accessories like makeup pouches.
No makeup or skin care products were part of the promotion that lasted only six weeks in the store but had the longer lasting impact of creating a luxury brand with mass market appeal and staying power. Later in 2012, Garfield was recognized by Women&s Wear Daily as &retailer of the year.&
Pointing to a trophy in her office that represents the Oscars of the beauty industry, Garfield said,&I slept with it that night.&
For new business owners who may feel discouraged by headwinds early in their business, it&s worth noting that Garfield opened the Cos Bar in 1976, on the cusp of the driest ski season in Aspen&s modern history. She survived that year in part by learning an important lesson: Cultivate a local following.
While her new title is founder and chief merchandising officer,Garfield, 67, shows no sign of wanting to retreat from steering the Cos Bar&s future direction.
&They still want me (involved in the operation) because I am the face of Cos Bar. This has been my baby& for the past 40 years, she said.
Twitter, @Madski99
Craig Turpin/Aspen Daily News
Cos Bar founder Lily Garfield helps customers at the cosmetic boutique&s store at 309 S. Galena St. that packs a lot of merchandise into its 1,200-square-foot main floor. The Aspen business, which turns 40 years old this year, is undertaking a major expansion and has taken on a private equity partner.
By Madeleine Osberger, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Kathleen Baird Murray&s edit of the best products & depending on what you need
There were three of us on our Californian road trip, or four if you count the huge bag of sunscreens that came with us. Enough to cover the population of Venice Beach and yet somehow there wasn&t one product that suited our specific skin concerns. A cluster of spots had broken out on the face another was so sensitive her skin was irritated the minute she stepped away from the air-conditioning. As for me, the sun seeks me out like an E I could be buried under a rock and I would still get a tan. A good thing, perhaps, under England&s grey skies, but not so welcome if you&re exploring Joshua Tree National Park in July.
We happened to be on our way to Santa Barbara at the time, so I made a pit-stop at Cos Bar in Montecito, a niche beauty store founded 40 years ago. I wanted to learn how the local chic Californian women with their immaculate skin can live in the sun with seemingly so few repercussions.
At Cos Bar, the very welcoming beauty consultant, Sybil Mata, recommended Amore Pacific&s Natural Protector SPF30 (&52.30) as a good all-rounder sunscreen that won&t cause breakouts. And, she told me, the trick to making make-up last longer in the heat is YSL&s Touche Eclat Blur Primer (&29.50), an extremely popular product. To set make-up, she loves By Terry&s Hyaluronic Hydra Powder (&42). Personally, I find the thought of wearing powder in the heat bordering on abhorrent, but this one is so lightweight you can&t feel it on your skin. After that, Mata suggests topping up on SPF throughout the day with a spritz of Amore Pacific&s Sun Protection Mist Broad Spectrum SPF30 (&56). &I keep mine on ice.& she added. They&ve got it covered, those Californians.
Now returned to Britain, I have since resolved never to grab the closest bottle of sun cream to me again. Here&s my edit of the best suncare products & depending on what you need. None smell of tiare flowers, but all come with a previously missing ingredient: trust.
The make-up primer: Chantecaille Ultra Sun Protection SPF45 (&76) A modern classic, with a silicone base that creates an invisible film for make-up to cling to when it gets hot, and a strong sunscreen protection. You need to shake the tube first to ensure the lightweight lotion goes on evenly.
"All these products come with a previously missing ingredient: trust"
The pigmentation protector: Institut Esthederm Photo Reverse (&55) While it&s loaded with filters and mineral screens to block out infra red, UVA and UVB rays, there are no actual SPF numbers displayed on the bottle of Photo Reverse (or indeed any of the Institut Esthederm products); they also encourage tanning, providing it isn&t achieved with any burning, as they believe that the quicker we tan, the more the skin builds its own natural protection. Many a dermatologist would be up in arms, but this French skincare brand, which has been going since the late 1970s and was created by a pharmacist, comes backed with so many proven patents that its counterintuitive philosophy does make common sense. Photo Reverse, a light, white cream that smooths to nothing, is heaven-sent for pigmentation sufferers. Not only does it block out the sun, it lightens existing brown marks even while you&re exposed to it. Protection and treatment in one.
For those who can&t be in the sun at all: Institut Esthederm No Sun (&38) Another one by Institut Esthederm, this is loved by those with the kind of heat sensitivity that makes them prone to prickly heat, or who need to avoid sun exposure post-surgery or because of medication. A cream derived from 100 per cent minerals, it requires application 20 minutes before going into the sun and then reapplying every two hours.
Dry, sensitive skin prone to redness: Paula&s Choice Redness Relief SPF30 (&22.50) Paula&s Choice Beautypedia website, is a fascinating resource for ingredient listings and reviews, and not just of founder Paula Begoun&s products. This lightweight sunscreen from her own skincare range keeps skin feeling calm, and fights redness.
Breaking the breakouts: Bioderma&s AKN Mat SPF30 (&13.90) Bioderma is brilliant for all skin complaints. This high-protection fluid for acne-prone skin is not only water-resistant, but it also claims to prevent your skin from having that all-too-familiar rebound outbreak when you get home.
The one-hit wonder: Innovative Skincare&s Extreme Protect SPF30 (&60) If you could take just one sun protection product to your desert island? With aloe vera to comfort and promote healing, Extreme Protect helps reduce inflammation and erythema, and is also good for acne-prone skins. It smells neutral but nice.
Main photograph: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
By: Kathleen Baird Murray
Private equity firm behind major expansion
The last time the Republican party faced a potentially contested national convention was 1976, when Gerald R. Ford beat Ronald Reagan on the first ballot before going on to lose the general election to a little known peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter.
During that bicentennial year celebrating the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, KSNO radio was playing in heavy rotation hits like &Sara Smile& by Daryl Hall and Woody Creeker John Oates, which elbowed out Queen&s &Bohemian Rhapsody& for 11th on Billboard&s &Hot 100& songs of 1976.
Over in a tiny space on the edge of Wagner Park in downtown Aspen, Lily Horn, a 25-year-old transplant from New York had just opened her &cosmetics boutique& that sold luxury, city-style skin care products to mountain women and tourists. Luxury cosmetics had heretofore been the domain of department stores like Bloomingdale&s, where Horn (now Lily Garfield) work Carl&s Pharmacy&s selection at the time was limited at best.
Armed with $5,000 and contacts with luxury lines like Borghese, Germaine Monteil, Lancome and eventually Clinique, Garfield opened the first Cos Bar (short for &cosmetics bar&), a store that this year celebrates its 40th anniversary in Aspen. There are now 14 stores in the Cos Bar chain, from Vail to Scottsdale and most recently at the Brookfield place in Manhattan.
After taking on private equity company Tengram Capital Partners as an investor in December 2015, Cos Bar became poised for a major expansion to double the number of stores across the country, beginning with a new &flagship& Cos Bar in Los Angeles this fall. All told, 50 Cos Bar stores are planned.
&We&ve been self funding for 40 years. To take it to the next level, you need help,& Garfield said this week from the busy second-floor offices where her son, Oliver, the company&s COO, also works. Oliver plans to relocate this fall to Cos Bar&s new Los Angeles headquarters where he&ll work side-by-side with CEO David Olsen, formerly of the luxury e-commerce site Net a Porter.
Lily Garfield said she isn&t afraid that control over the Cos Bar concept and name would be lost with a private equity partner.
&One of the things they loved about the Cos Bar was that it was really unique, nothing like Sephora or Uta,& two cosmetic boutiques that have made inroads nationally and have arguably changed the way women approach an industry that, by 2018, is forecasted to approach $11 billion for skin care products, according to the trend-following GCI magazine.
While Sephora and Uta offer variety but little in the way of service, Cos Bar prides itself on a trained staff.
Its focus on service and &the luxury space that we occupy& is much in demand, Garfield suggested It was that luxury space of coveted client data bases and stolen trade secrets that was at the heart of a 2015 lawsuit between Cos Bar and a former employee that was dismissed last May by now retired Judge Gail Nichols.
Changing times
&When I first started, it was all about skin care and to make sure women were protecting their skin in this environment,& Garfield said.
&The original concept of makeup was, what was proper for skiing, for playing golf or for tennis,& she said, citing Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova as early clients who were reflective of the outdoors, healthy style.
Today, &The outdoor fresh look has gone the way of more of a city look,& Garfield added.
Ricki McHugh, owner of McHugh Antiques in the Aspen Square building, said she remembers Garfield&s first business and identified its location, in a mark of true longtime local-dom, as &above the old Aspen State Teachers College.&
&That was where you went to get a face cream,& McHugh recalled. &There were very few places to go. You could get Vasoline at Carl&s back then but if you had fine or fair skin, there really wasn&t anything available,& she said about the 1970s-era Aspen retail landscape.
The years of hands-on experience, followed by a slow initial expansion of properties (Vail, in 1986, was second in the chain) seems to have served the Cos Bar well.
&I think Lily was learning along the way,& said McHugh, whose business has also evolved, to include art and decor. &I think we were all learning,& she added.
The Cos Bar &look& or the idea, of what surrounded the Cos Bar brand, was behind a surprise phone call in 2012 from a representative of the Target chain asking her to curate a store-within-a-store called &The Shops at Target.& Cos Bar&s Target line was limited to nail polish, bath and body items and accessories like makeup pouches.
No makeup or skin care products were part of the promotion that lasted only six weeks in the store but had the longer lasting impact of creating a luxury brand with mass market appeal and staying power. Later in 2012, Garfield was recognized by Women&s Wear Daily as &retailer of the year.&
Pointing to a trophy in her office that represents the Oscars of the beauty industry, Garfield said,&I slept with it that night.&
For new business owners who may feel discouraged by headwinds early in their business, it&s worth noting that Garfield opened the Cos Bar in 1976, on the cusp of the driest ski season in Aspen&s modern history. She survived that year in part by learning an important lesson: Cultivate a local following.
While her new title is founder and chief merchandising officer,Garfield, 67, shows no sign of wanting to retreat from steering the Cos Bar&s future direction.
&They still want me (involved in the operation) because I am the face of Cos Bar. This has been my baby& for the past 40 years, she said.
Twitter, @Madski99
Craig Turpin/Aspen Daily News
Cos Bar founder Lily Garfield helps customers at the cosmetic boutique&s store at 309 S. Galena St. that packs a lot of merchandise into its 1,200-square-foot main floor. The Aspen business, which turns 40 years old this year, is undertaking a major expansion and has taken on a private equity partner.
By Madeleine Osberger, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
As a pronounced minimalist and disciple of all things au natural, this fashion editor has very few skincare and make-up basics in her possession. I prove to be profoundly overwhelmed and inefficient when perusing make-up counters and skincare lines My mind becomes festooned with a make-up mathematical equation that's lost on me. I keep in mind that the object of the game is to choose wisely any product I put onto the most important feature I present to the world: my face.
My mystical voyage of dermal beauty starts with a horrible habit of scouring Amazon, reading ambiguous skincare reviews inside the pages of Vogue, or trusting the advice of friends who have entirely different skin types than I possess. The arduous task at hand for some, if not most women, can either provoke migraines or worse & worry wrinkles!
Thanks to Shanna, manager of Carmel's Cos Bar, I'm encouraged to voyage into planet Make-Up with a renewed sense of confidence. What Cos Bar achieves so seamlessly is personalized service, epic variety of the most modern, all natural, and luxury products, plus a staff of studied professionals (quick summer job applicants for college kids or those just passing through, NEED NOT APPLY!) You are well taken care of here, ladies. Once you walk into Cos Bar armed with the motivation to change your makeup palette or skincare routine, you can rest easy knowing you're in good hands with the true queens of dermal beauty.
I spoke to Shanna recently while in the midst of a makeup and skincare rut and walked out with renewed hope of trying out (gasp!) blue eye shadow and sampling the highly coveted Korean skincare line, Amore Pacific.
HOW DID Cos Bar COME TO BE IN THE WORLD? Cos Bar was founded in 1976 Lily Garfield. It started with a flag-ship store in Aspen, CO and now we have 15 stores.
WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE Cos Bar BRAND? Everyone here that works with Cos Bar has a minimum of 15-20 years experience. Nobody works here as a part-time job while they're going to college or just for fun. We make a firm career out of what we do. You have to have experience and we want to provide that for our customers. Our ladies are trained by every single line we represent. For instance, we are trained to present all the facets of each and every product. Cos Bar is an alternative to your run-of-the-mill department store and we aim to create a luxury boutique shopping experience that personalized for your needs- this is why we stand out! At Cos Bar we are not brand driven, we are customer experience driven, which makes for a more intimate experience.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE MAKE-UP TRENDS FOR THIS SEASON? Strobing. Intense highlighting. Flat and dull skin is definitely something to avoid. Playful make-up is definitely having a resurgence. The natural look is out and the Eighties are definitely seeing a resurgence. Make-Up is definitely supposed to be fun at the moment! We are seeing a lot more customers who really want to have fun with their colors and make-up techniques. Also, the lash! Long, long, va-va-voom eyelashes. And then fragrance, our fragrances are getting very popular.
WHAT KINDS OF SERVICES DOES Cos Bar SPECIALIZE IN? We do make-up for weddings, proms, private parties, you name it. One thing we specialize in that's not offered anywhere else on the peninsula is Air-Brushing. We sale air-brushing kits, we teach our customers how to use them, and it's an incredible make-up experience and tool.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON MAKE-UP MISTAKES WOMEN MAKE THAT DAMAGE THEIR SKIN? Not taking care of their skin. Not washing make-up off before bed. I always tell people when they ask me what to spend money on is to start with a good moisturizer and a good foundation. The rest will follow. You must take good care of your skin. You have to exfoliate, moisturize, and build a good skincare routine.
WHAT ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTS AT CARMEL's Cos Bar LOCATION? La Prairie is definitely very popular. La Mer has a huge cult following and that's a big seller here, Tom Ford. Anything Tom Ford, the fragrances, including the lipsticks, mascaras, we can't keep them on the shelves!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PRODUCTS THAT YOU USE ON A DAILY BASIS FROM Cos Bar? Our Air Brush from TEMPTU. Sisley is one of my favorite brands. It's a French brand, not mass-produced and they use a very refreshing variety of botanicals. I really enjoy their anti-aging products.
WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO GO AND GET A GLASS OF WINE OR MEAL AFTER A LONG, HARD, SATISFYING DAY AT Cos Bar? It depends on the time of day! For lunch we definitely do Lafayette, we love Little Napoli, Vesuvios, all fun places to go.
THERE'S SO MUCH OUT THERE WITH REGARDS TO SKINCARE. SOME WOMEN CAN REALLY FEEL OVERWHELMED BY ALL THE OPTIONS! CAN YOU GIVE US TIPS OR ADVICE ON HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST PRODUCTS? The first thing you need to do is come in and let us talk to you. Every single woman is so different and unique. One woman may only need a moisturizer, because that's what she can handle for her lifestyle. We really need you to give us the opportunity to meet you, see you, and get acquainted with your skin. We have something for everyone even when it comes to different price points. We pride ourselves and standout by forging personal relationships with all our clients. Also, there's no recipe for good skin. If you give us just a few minutes or some time to work with you, we will find the perfect products that suit your needs.
WHAT'S THE BEST COMPLIMENT YOU'VE EVER RECIEVED FROM A CUSTOMER? How good my skin looks! Once you commit to a skincare routine everything else just fall into place.
Visit Shanna and the staff of highly trained Professionals at
By: Ana L. Roman / Photo: Manny Espinoza
No doubt you've done some damage at Sephora, and maybe at upscale beauty boutique Bluemercury, too. But it's unlikely Cos Bar has your credit card on file, yet. It will. With 14 Cos Bar beauty boutiques around the country today and 50 slated for the next five years, plus a big push in e-commerce, the luxury beauty retailer is about to go big. It's also celebrating a birthday & the big four-o & and, thanks to a steady regimen of retinoids, vitamin-C serums, and hyaluronic-acid creams, it doesn't look a day over 29. Not bad, considering Cos Bar is old enough to be those other beauty boutiques' mother.
I visited the first Cos Bar in its unlikely birthplace, Aspen, Colorado, last week while on vacation with my sons. I say unlikely because Aspen is not exactly the center of the beauty universe. Nor is it the capital of great skin, unless you like a goggle tan. Two days on the slopes and I'm florid with windburn, gummy with sunscreen, flaky-lipped, runny-nosed, and begging for mercy. When we sat down in her office, Lily Garfield, the founder of Cos Bar and queen of luxury beauty, handed me a box of tissues, a leopard-print face mask, and a bunch of beauty wisdom.
Give me a little Cos Bar history. How did you start it? Why Aspen? I worked at Bloomingdale's in New York and I never wanted to set foot in there again. I came out to Aspen and with $5,000 to my name, I put in an order for Borghese, Lanc&me, Orlane, and Germaine Monteil. Your skin takes such a beating in this environment. And there was nothing else here, other than the pharmacy. My store was originally supposed to be for locals, with the theory that, if it worked for locals, then the tourists would come. That was 1976. When Leonard Lauder saw the store & he has a house here & he said, "This is how cosmetics will be sold in the 21st century." And now indie cosmetics stores are more common.
Why is the skin-care business challenged right now? Fragrances outsold skin care last year, and that was a first. There's more competition. There's the dermatologist, the aesthetician, spas & we're all competing for the same dollar. And they're all copying each other. Doctors are taking existing products to labs and saying, "Replicate this." Also, some products need to be explained. And most salespeople aren't trained well enough to explain skin care. Salespeople will tell you things like, "You have to use every product in our line or your skin will react." Nothing bad is going to happen if you mix brands.
So what are your favorite products right now? This cream by Amore Pacific. It's called Prime Reserve Creme. You have to try it. I'm 66 & should I say that? & and after I used it I ran into people who said, "What have you done? You look amazing." They only make 1,000 jars of the cream a year because it comes from some particular plant.
How much is it? $750 a jar.
Yes. And you cannot use it alone. You have to use another cream on top of it.
I'm sorry, but that's insane. Tell me what else you like that's under $750. Linda Rodin's oil [Olio L $170]. Sisley Black Rose Oil ($235). I love oils, especially in this climate. You have to try This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray ($29). It's lavender and chamomile, and it puts you right to sleep. Try it on your kids' pillows. I love Temptu [the portable air $195]. You can almost use it with your eyes closed. You could use it wearing a white chiffon blouse and it wouldn't get on it. And it doesn't look like heavy makeup at all. I'm a Clarisonic brush girl. I keep it in the shower. One of the greatest cleansers is by Cle de Peau. It's a cream that dissolves into an oil ($72). And don't even talk to me about the Cle de Peau concealer ($70). It's the best concealer in the world.
I need more than concealer. My skin is so red and dry and wrecked right now. I'm embarrassed to be seeing you like this. What can I do? Did you bring your Clarisonic brush with you?
No. I had a lot of luggage. You should have. Your skin is clogged with sunscreens. It's also dehydrated and windburned. [She searches her desk and hands me a Patchology face mask.] This will help. And you have to drink more water.
So tell me, what's the future of skin care? Keep it simple. Go for immediate results. After cleansing, while your skin is still damp, apply an essential oil & the purest, highest-grade extracts from the pla}