P H O T O G R A P H BY P E R R Y H A G O P I A N ; H A I R BY PA U L WA R R E N U S I N G R E N E F U R T E R E R FO R A R T D E PA R T M E N T; M A K E U P BY M E L I S S A S I LV E R FO R M AY B E L L I N E N E W Y O R K . BY M A L E N E B I R G E R B LO U S E .
“W
HAT PRICE BEAUTY?” Do you know where that expression actually comes from? I didn’t until 20 minutes ago, when I asked Google— which is (scarily?) becoming how I solve just about any problem. Turns out, at least according to my computer, What Price Beauty? is a 1925 silent film starring a bunch of people I’ve never heard of and partially set in a beauty salon called the House of Magic. The House of Magic! Let me say, for the record, that should I ever find myself the owner of a salon, I’m going to name my place the House of Magic. But we’re not here to talk about salons; we’re here to talk about drugstores, and the price of beauty. I have a particular fondness for drugstores, perhaps because my first job, at age 15, was at Happy Harry’s drugstore, in Newark, Delaware. When I worked late and the store was empty, I would walk up and down the aisles, moving bottles and cartons to the front of the shelves (there was a name for this that I can’t recall; maybe Google knows?), listening to songs playing on the speaker system from a local radio station, daydreaming about my boyfriend, and wondering when I would be grown up enough to understand what all of those products on the shelves were for. And would I really need them all? As it turns out, I wouldn’t. But I recognized early on that a drugstore is its own house of magic. And if there was magic in those bottles and cartons back when I was 15, there’s a lot more magic now. Times have changed; formulations
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have evolved; consumers have become more savvy. We have more choices, more products, more research, and Sephora! But drugstores remain practical beauty’s best entry point. We know that you are passionate about skin care because you ask us about it all the time. We know that you care about price—and you want things that work. And so, for this month’s issue, we consulted five top dermatologists to find out their favorite (affordable, effective) drugstore skin-care products, for every skin type. You’ll find their recommendations in “Spend Less, Get More” (page 65 ). Or, if you don’t feel like turning the page, you could type, “What kind of morning cleanser should I use on my combination skin that doesn’t cost more than $7?” into your search bar. But I’m not sure even I would rely on that.
MARCH 2016
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