New salons and products are giving Denverites no reason to skimp on grooming this fall. Here’s an update:
Dry run: It’s easy to look great when you leave the salon with a fresh haircut and blow dry. The tricky part comes when trying to duplicate the style in front of the mirror at home. Blondies, The Beauty Shop, is addressing that by teaching women the techniques their stylists use at monthly Blow Dry Parties, typically the first Friday evening of each month. Owners Gina Martinez and Amy Lerch and their staff offer hair-conditioning treatments, blow-drying lessons, wine and hors d’oeuvres from 6-8 p.m.
Blondies features hair color and cuts from junior stylists (cuts start at $20 for men, $25 for women) and senior stylists ($35 and $45). The shop is at 563 Detroit St. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Call for appointments and details: 303-377-5313.
Man power: Jung Park can’t stand the word metrosexual, but that didn’t keep him from naming his business Metroboom and targeting it at young urban men. He opened the hair salon and clothing boutique in the booming Central Platte Valley last month.
Park, 34, says doesn’t like the metrosexual label for city guys who are into shopping and being well- groomed, because “There’s nothing new about looking good – that’s why we have pictures up of Frank Sinatra, James Dean and Rock Hudson.”
As a student at the University of Colorado at Denver last year, Park created a business plan for the salon that won the Bard Center’s annual competition and $10,000. Park used that money, loans and credit to build his business, a sleek spot decorated with a green and black barber pole, Ikea furniture and leafy plants. Guys can get their hair cut and have a chair massage on one side of the space, while the other is a boutique brimming with T-shirts from Caffeine and Bachar, jewelry, caps, ties, dress shirts, jeans and trousers. Grooming product lines include American Crew, Hempz, Woody’s and Elements. Also offered are fashion consultation and shopping services.
Haircuts are $30, and include a shampoo, scalp and neck massage; for $35, you get all that plus a pressure-point massage. Color or highlights are $45 and a chair massage is $20 for 15 minutes.
Metroboom, 1550 Plate St., Suite A/B. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 303-477-9700; metroboom.com.
Building a foundation: Denver makeup artist Michael Moore says the right foundation and concealer form the base for a beautiful face. After years of using other companies’ products, he still didn’t find the perfect base, so he created his own line of custom foundations and concealers. All natural and preservative-free, the products are mineral-based and include liquid and powder foundations, concealers, bronzers and a primer. Prices for the foundations are $45 and $52.50, concealers in wands and pots are $20, bronzers are $25-$47, tinted moisturizer is $47 and the primer is $34. The foundations are custom blended and come in a range of formulas, and clients can choose such additional options as SPF 30, oil blotters, texturizers to smooth lines and hydrators for dry skin.
Simply Moore is at 3000 E. Third Ave., No. 4. Call 303-399-4151; simply-moore.com.
The eyes have it: Dedicated to improving the look and feel of skin and hair, Osmotics is a Denver-based cosmeceuticals company that has been first to the market in the past with such ingredients as kinetin and copper in their products. Among their newest creations is a product called Eye Surgery Under Eye Rejuvenator, designed to reduce dark under-eye circles, puffy eye bags and crepelike skin on the eyelids. Using peptides, and anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ingredients, the product aims to give the user brighter, younger-looking eyes, sans surgery. It sells for $65 at Nordstrom.
Seeing red: Denver-based Neoteric Cosmetics was one of the first companies to come out with skin-care products featuring alpha-hydroxy acids to rejuvenate the skin. That was in 1992, and they’re not resting on their laurels. Among their new Alpha Hydrox products, packaged in red boxes and getting buzz on shows like “Oprah,” is the Nourishing Cleanser, $7.99, judged a “best pick” by Ladies Home Journal in October; and the in-home Intensive AHA Revitalizing Peel, $15.99, which was among Redbook’s “treatments that work.”
All the products are new or newly formulated and, while sold nationwide, have the Colorado woman’s skin in mind, says spokeswoman Barbara Goldstein. “We felt it was very important to have a sunscreen in the moisturizer,” she said of the product with an SPF of 15. Alpha Hydrox products are sold at grocery, drug and discount stores and online at alphahy drox.com. A toll-free consumer-care line, 800-447-1919, offers product advice, and the company’s website is interactive.
