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In support of non-egocentric, male-on-male collegiality, and because we're sluts for a good fragrance, BD is squarely in the camp of Frederic Malle. The Parisian parfumeur, who always takes as partner another known nose, brings back Jean-Claude Ellena (he of the sublime Bigarade) to create the holiday release L'Eau d'Hiver. The challenge: cook up a floral scent both warm and fresh. It's a tough task—go too far one way, you get a splash; the other, an oriental—but Ellena's mix of snappy bergamot and iris, plus caramel and musk for depth, pulls it off. Let's just hope they don't start a drum circle to celebrate.
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BD is overrun with body scrubs, yet we never reach for them in the shower. The problem? Unscrewing glass jars or squeezing granule-clogged tubes is a too much to manage when we're feeling morning-after (and therefore could use the exfoliation most). So we'll happily poach John Allan's X-Bar, a brilliant scrub in the form of a soap bar, from the manly men it's designed for. Volcanic pumice is the abrasive (boys always get the big guns) and shea butter is the conditioner. Voila, permission to drink more. Available by calling 866-JA-STYLE.
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We didn't always love guys in pocket protectors, but since we depend on them for technological hair innovations, BD has come around. In fact, we're tempted to grant sexual favors to the science nerds who came up the FHI Ceramic Ion Styling Iron, a negative ion-charged hair straightener that, by neutralizing the hair's positive ions, retards fading color and frizz. Do we actually understand what this means? Not really, but the iron is as gentle as advertised and not all that spendy. So when we tryst with our geeks, we'll be the one with the good hair. $159.99, available by calling 877-289-6297.
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Though shopping at Walgreen's usually leaves us feeling like someone's poured acid on our skin, we've discovered a neutral zone in the shampoo section, specifically the shelf for Ken Paves Professional. The hairdresser to Jessica Simpson and Heather Locklear (whose fans certainly don't share our phobia) has created a truly magnificent shampoo. It's totally detergent-free, thick, lathers effusively, has a gentle, herby smell and rinses really, really clean without stripping. And, hello, it's like $6 for a gigantic bottle.
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The time had come to do something about those yellowing, tartar-encrusted stumps otherwise known as our teeth. Sure, we tried White Strips, but our sensitive chompers felt assaulted by the high doses of peroxide with little effect (that we could tell). We knew an over-the-counter product alone wasn't going to deliver what we needed anyway, so we gave in and booked a whitening session ($840) with Jonathan Levine, the surprisingly cute tooth maestro who created gentle Go Smile with his wife Stacey.
Before slapping a gentler peroxide gel on our teeth, orange goggles on our eyes and turning on the laser-cooker that makes the gel work much faster, Levine's office gave us a proper and thorough cleaning. Then on went the slather, after which we watched a movie to let the time fly (we chose To Have and Have Not because we're classy like that). By the time the credits roll, we were ready to walk out the door with a full Go Smile kit (30 ampules, a compact case with 7 more, and full-size tubes of delicately flavored AM and PM whitening toothpastes). Levine can get you up to eight shades whiter, though going for the mega-bleach can cause some discomfort. We kept it real at four shades (because we're wimpy like that), and have been grinning like a politician ever since.
Jonathan Levine, DDS
923 5th Ave.
212-734-6111
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