Fashion and beauty news: Custom cosmetics, a fresh take on wedding wear and day-tripping essentials

Here are this month’s news, buys and curiosities in the world of fashion and beauty.

Retail

Solid foundation

Lixr Beauty Apothecary, 884 Queen St. W., in Toronto.Supplied

Canadian beauty entrepreneur Susanne Langmuir is turning her expertise in custom cosmetics made with botanical ingredients to Lixr, a new beauty brand focused on foundation. “My breakthrough beauty innovation is custom-made foundation that fuses skin care and makeup,” Langmuir says of her Future Foundation, which is available in a serum and a stick formula. In addition to the foundation products, the Lixr lineup includes a selection of lip colours and body items made with many ingredients grown on Langmuir’s Ontario farm. The star ingredient? Calendula, a flower that Langmuir says offers skin soothing and reparative benefits.

Lixr Beauty Apothecary, 884 Queen St. W., Toronto, lixrbeauty.com.

As the fashion industry takes a closer look at its environmental and human impact, some fashion makers are turning to plant-based dyes to lessen their contribution to pollution in waterways; according to the World Bank, approximately 20 per cent of global industrial water pollution is attributed to the dyeing and treatment of textiles. At her Toronto-based label Nusha, designer Aneta Sofronova taught herself to naturally add colour to fabrics such as cotton and hemp using plant-based materials such as tea and trees through trial and error. Unlike their lab-made counterparts, Sofronova says that natural dyes can be unpredictable, varying from vat to vat and even plant to plant because of conditions such as soil minerality and time of harvest. But whatever challenge that inconsistency may pose for large production runs is a special bonus for smaller makers. “It just makes each piece so much more unique and personal because it’s just this one singular tree in this one region that gives you this one specific colour,” Sofronova says. To that end, Sofronova offers natural-dye workshops for those interested in breathing new life into textiles.

Business

Style down the aisle

Montreal brand Noémiah has taken its first steps into the bridal category.Supplied

Earlier this year, Montreal women’s wear brand Noémiah took its first steps into the bridal category, joining contemporary fashion brands such as Staud in bringing a fresh take to wedding wear. Known for her work with silk organza, designer Noémie Vaillancourt says it was her own engagement, and specifically her considerations of what would happen to her dress after the big day, that inspired her to get into bridal. “That idea obsessed me as we work hard to incorporate sustainability at the core of every design, decision and direction,” Vaillancourt says. The result is Cher Amour, a contemporary bridal collection cut exclusively of silk. It features unconventional bridal styles, including a shirt dress and separates, as well as accessories such as veils, flowers combs, chokers and brooches. To further explore sustainability in bridal wear, she opted to incorporate low-impact fasteners instead of traditional zippers or plastic buttons and is inviting brides to switch up their wedding dresses with natural dyes. “Offering a second life to a wedding dress by dyeing it with local flowers once the big day has passed is a unique way to prolong our product life cycle.”

Obsession

Relaxing meets biohacking

Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.Supplied

To further empower guests in achieving long-term health goals while on the road, luxury hotels are creating biohacking-based treatments for their spas. A self-guided health movement that involves making strategic lifestyle choices related to diet, exercise and mental health, biohacking has gained a following for its DIY approach to optimizing personal wellness. At Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, a biohacking program created by Dr. Oz Garcia was introduced last year that features three treatments (including an anti-gravity chair to encourage relaxation, compression boots to reduce inflammation and an infrared mat to promote recovery) aimed to reduce stress, improve sleep and enhance overall quality of life. Closer to home, the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto added a Wellness and Biobar category to its spa menu earlier this month. These treatments include Celluma Light Therapy to treat skin conditions as well as aid in arthritic pain and muscle tension, LPG Endermologie, which can help improve jet lag recovery, and even hypnosis.

Investment Buy

Get packing

T.Line x Naghedi Mini St. Barths Tote.PATRICK MARCOUX/Supplied

Just in time for spring getaways is a new collaboration between Toronto fashion label T.Line and New York’s Naghedi. The limited-edition Mini St. Barths Tote is made of off-cuts from T.Line’s bestselling white dress-shirt handwoven with navy neoprene, Naghedi’s signature material. Featuring a top handle and a matching pouch, it’s roomy enough for all of your day-tripping essentials.

T.Line x Naghedi Mini St. Barths Tote, $310 through trouvailleonline.com.