F is for Fashionably Sweet: Dylan Lauren of Dylan's Candy Bar
If you haven't heard of Dylan's Candy Bar you can be forgiven. The exuberantly packaged high-end candy line by Dylan Lauren is fairly new to Canada and exclusive to Holt Renfrew. If you're into fashion, though, you'll already know Dylan is the daughter of Ralph Lauren, that her Dylan's Candy Bar in New York City is a big sweet deal, and that she has fabulous hair to go with her natural, outdoorsy-girl good looks.
"I think my hair is kind of dry, actually," Dylan tells me when we meet at Holt's on Bloor St. in Toronto. "I've always kept it long -- my mom has long hair. I just keep it conditioned." At the moment she's using Kerastase Chroma Riche, a moisturizing line designed to hydrate and soften colour-treated hair and amp up shine, but she also likes Sally Hershberger and Phyto. "I don't really go for gourmet hair products. I'm not really girly-girly."
Surprisingly, Dylan, who is in her mid-30s, is not big into a whack of skincare stuff. I nearly fall off my chair when she tells me she uses The Body Shop Vitamin E Body Butter on her face. "You must have really dry skin," I squawk in shock. She laughs and says yes, then cleverly draws my attention to her Dylan's Candy Bar body line, specifically Birthday Cake Batter Candy Butter Cream, her take on body butter. (I'm gaining weight just writing about it. Might be because I'm snacking on an Everything But the Kitchen Sink choco-marshmallow-popcorn-crunchy-stuff bar as I write -- don't judge. It's not my fault.)
Dylan keeps things simple when it comes to makeup, too (a makeup artist handled things for her interview day). She agrees her look is a natural, outdoorsy one, encouraged, she says, by her father who prefers that type of beauty, too. "I don't look good with heavy makeup. I don't like concealer and all that stuff. But I love enhancing cheekbones and lashes." A new fan of lash extensions -- she likes them because she doesn't have to bother with mascara -- she quickly checks her blackberry and gives up the technician and NYC salon who did them for her: Ria at Lashtique, 718-974-2821. (Toronto folks, my bad -- I've yet to gush about my own lash-extension experience from Olena Kovalchuk at Kirsch Cosmetic Studio!)
About the only other makeup item Dylan thinks is a must-have is bronzing powder for accenting those cheekbones. "Bobbi Brown No. 4 deep," she says right away when I ask her what she uses. And for her body she mixes Clinique for Men Non-Streak Bronzer, a tinted gel, with body lotion.
"I'm not a fussy girl with makeup," she says. "I'm fussy about packaging, finding the right look, the perfect colour."
So what's her favourite colour? "Turquoise 3135," she says almost before I finish the question. That's a Pantone colour used in printing and the predominant colour in her Dylan's Candy Bar bags.
For more on Dylan's Candy Bar at Holt Renfrew, hit this video interview of Dylan by web editor Lara Ceroni on ElleCanada.com (which just won a P&G Beauty Award for best beauty or fashion website -- go Lara!).
Dylan's Candy Bar products are available in Canada exclusively at Holt Renfrew, and in the US via dylanscandybar.com.
