Beauty guru Zoe Foster shares with GCM ⁰

by Kirra • Beauty, Uncategorized

Beauty guru Zoe Foster, former beauty editor for Harpers Bazaar and Cosmopolitan magazines, recently released a book on all things beauty. Amazing Face is an Australia-wide  hit with beauty tips, how-tos and product recommendations. Here, Zoe shares her wisdom with GCM.

What are the major differences between men and womens skin? Male skin is 20-30% thicker than female skin, (but paradoxically, is more sensitive) and they lose their collagen and elastin at a slower rate than women, meaning in general, that men’s skin ages a little slower than women’s. Most importantly though, men have a higher (almost 50%!) rate of skin cancer than women, partly because they spend more time on average outside than women, and partly because they’re rubbish at using sunscreen.

What can men learn from Amazing Face? They can squeeze out some skin care advice, particularly regarding sun protection – but I have to concede that for the most part, they’ve been horrible neglected in Amazing Face.

What beauty products do you sneak into your boyfriends bathroom cupboard? I pretty much have duplicates of all my Real Life beauty prodz in there now, from self-tanner and eyebrow pencils to brightening serums and sea salt spray. People often (“never”) think I’m low-maintenance when it comes to beauty, but actually I am a relatively heavy user. I know! Shocking.

How can we convince our manly friends of the benefits of a beauty routine? One good way is to show them images of (the freakish) Mickey Rourke or Ray Liotta, to terrify them into the reality of Bad Ageing and Panicked Plastic Surgery. Another is to simply point out that they have skin (an assumption, but pretty much a certainty) and they live in Australia – two things that combine to equal premature ageing in the shape of wrinkles, sun damage and pigmentation. Even if all they use is a daily moisturiser with broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sun protection on clean skin in the morning, a face wash in the shower at night, then a non-sunscreen face cream at night (pushing it, I know), they will see short and long term results.

Men seem to suffer from ‘fluffy hair syndrome’ after washing their hair and so tend not to do so (eek). What products do you recommend to combat this? I am all to aware of male Post-Wash Phobia. I advise washing the hair at night, so sleep takes away some of the fluff, then using hair powder (or magic dust as I call it) to create the perfect “dirty” Second Day texture. You simply tap and dust some of the powder onto the scalp all over and rub in with the fingers for a few seconds for invisible, natural grit and texture. Try Aveda Pure Abundance Hair Potion, evo Haze or Schwarzkopf Osis Dust it.