Moreish is the latest range of beauty and skin care products by New Zealand company API, using argan oil as the core ingredient.
   Argan oil is renowned for its nourishing, regenerative and anti-ageing properties. Known as ‘liquid gold’, argan oil is the cold pressed, extra virgin oil extracted from the kernel of the Moroccan argan fruit. Rich in vitamin E, Omega 9 and antioxidants, the rare oil has been used for centuries by the Berber tribeswomen who harvest it to nourish their skin, hair and nails in the dry desert heat.
   ‘Argan oil is already known as an ingredient that nourishes and hydrates hair. Now it can do the same for your skin. It protects skin elasticity, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and blemishes,’ says Moreish brand manager, Emma Duncan.
   Moreish also contains pohutukawa extracts, grown wild and hand-harvested in the East Cape, and a unique blend of antioxidants naturally extracted from kiwifruit skins and grape seeds, which help to brighten the skin, reduce redness and improve elasticity. It uses no parabens, phenoxyethanol, petrochemicals, and synthetic colours or fragrances. The range uses recyclable packaging, and is not tested on animals.
   The purchase of Moreish products helps to improve the welfare of the Berber women of Morocco; ensuring the women have educational opportunities, retain their traditional skills, earn an income and improve their quality of life.
   Moreish supports local New Zealand charities, and asks people to visit www.moreishskincare.com to suggest a charity that supports women and families. It will receive 50¢ from each pack of Moreish skin care sold this year; Moreish will select a different charity, based on consumer suggestions, every year.
   The range comprises 15 facial products to suit all skin types, including night and day creams, cleansers, masks, a salvation balm and pure argan oil. It is available from selected pharmacies nationwide, including Amcal, Unichem, Care Chemist, Radius Pharmacy and Life Pharmacy.
   The star products from the range would have to be the salvation balm and argan oil, which softens your skin and can be used to nourish cuticles and smooth split ends—two multi-purpose products perfect for the home cabinet.—Sopheak Seng, Fashion and Beauty Editor

Summer Rayne Oakes and Benita Singh’s Cartier award-winning venture, Source4Style, which helps designers source sustainable fabric through a well designed, transparent website, launches its second version today. Lucire has the low-down in the main part of the site, and this story forms part of some of our next 2012 print and other non-web editions.
   We believe this will revolutionize the way the business of fashion is conducted. Think about it: consumers demand sustainability and the trend has no signs of stopping. Yet, according to Singh, suppliers are spending up to 43 per cent of their marketing budgets just on trade shows. ‘It’s a huge up-front time and financial commitment with no guarantee of a return,’ she says. On the other end of the scale, Cornell University research shows that designers are spending up to 85 per cent of their time visiting those same shows, going through online directories, or wading through sample folders.
   Source4Style uses the internet to bridge the divide, and has obvious positive implications for smaller suppliers, who are on a level playing field with the big names. Some of these suppliers are in third-world countries, so it’s not hard to see the financial benefit that Source4Style can have for them and their communities.
   It’s in line with the ideas in Simon Anholt’s Brand New Justice, where Anholt posited that good brands helped third-world communities find greater profits and margins. Source4Style doesn’t quite give these companies brands per se, but through the site, it allows them to be the equal of businesses that are operating in the first world, and levels the playing field.
   It is the solidity behind this venture that sees us devote two web pages and the cover to it. We encourage readers to take a look, as this may well be the moment when fashion changes for good—in more than one sense of the word.—Jack Yan, Publisher

The Jojoba Company skin care range has been crafted with environmentally sensitive minds, promoting the concept of an all-natural way of replenishing and revitalizing your skin. Its latest trio of Hydrating Day Cream, Firming Eye Balm and Intense Overnight Renewal Crème maintain the iconic qualities bought forth with the golden Australian jojoba and with scents of cucumber, guava and aloe vera concocted within this mix. The results are a luxurious and refreshing treatment to your daily skin care régime.

   Another company which aims at producing a carbon-negative footprint is Weleda, who have developed a range of wholly organic products ranging from skin care to alternative natural remedies. Its latest offering, the Rosemary Hair Lotion, joins a product line-up is rich of scents derived from floral and nut origins that leave a poignant yet reinvigorating fragrance. This strong focus on natural products is said to allow for stimulation of the bodies’ own cells to recoup themselves.
   The Rosemary Hair Lotion is in the same tradition, with herbal extracts and essential oils, benefiting those with coloured, highlighted, permed or treated hair the most. The rosemary leaf oil restores, strengthens and reconditions, nourishing the scalp.
   In other beauty news, a collaborative endeavour with music sensation Nicki Minaj and nail lacquer giants OPI has churned out a stellar line-up of exuberant varnishes paralleling the songstress’s own flamboyant persona. These will be available early in the New Year and include such shades as Pink Friday, Metallic 4 Life and the quite literally visually shattering Super Bass Shatter.—Eeli Y

Summer Rayne Oakes, who has a long association with Lucire, tells us that her short film, Extinction (eXtinction to give its official capitalization) can be viewed for a very limited time (a total less than two days from the time of this post) on Dailymotion. You can view the film at this link.
   This important work highlights what we realistically face on our planet in our lifetime, and why looking after it sustainably and sensibly is the only hope for humankind. Beautifully photographed, Extinction puts forth powerful arguments in its short running time—and we would be wise to heed its message.
   In the beauty department, Billie Goat Soap has launched a natural soap range made from goat’s milk, with a pH level close to our own skin. Goat’s milk is high in vitamin A, B6 and B12, while it naturally contains a high amount of antioxidant selenium and lactic acid. Both the plain and milk and honey soaps retail for NZ$13·50 each.
   Meanwhile, Stanley Moss has reviewed another very fashionable Parisian hotel—pop over to the main part of the site to see his story on 7Eiffel, located in the vicinity of the École Militaire and Invalides.

Stephanie Osmond

Earlier this month, Bees Blessing launched its new range of all-natural cordials at the Empire in Petone, New Zealand, serving food and drinks, and demonstrating recipes (including lemon honey mojitos, cucumber socks fizz and spiced syrup marinade).
   The new range comprises New Zealand’s only honey-sweetened all-natural cordials, says the company, which makes its own pure honey from hives at its 22 ha Kau Whero Farm in the Mangaroa Valley, and sources more from local suppliers.
   Offerings include mulled lemon and honey, and strawberry cordial, alongside more traditional fare such as lemon, honey and ginger, cider vinegar and honey, and elderflower. To top it off, they are all hand-made.
   The family business—a New Zealand success story—has grown from selling honey at local farmers’ markets to innovative marinades, dressings and cordials, free from additives and preservatives, retailing at boutique retailers nationally (such as Commonsense Organics and Moore Wilson in Wellington).






Stephanie Osmond and courtesy Bees Blessing

Peugeot has announced its new 208 B-segment compact car, initially supplementing, and ultimately replacing, its 207.
   The culmination of Peugeot’s A9 project, Peugeot is aiming for class leadership in the very competitive segment, rivalling established models such as the Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio.
   The car is lighter than the 207, with an average of 110 kg, and a maximum of 173 kg. The lightest model tips the scales at a very light 975 kg. It is also shorter (by 7 cm) and lower (1 cm) though Peugeot boasts there is more interior room, including at the rear and in the boot. The new model line’s carbon dioxide emissions are 34 g/km lower than the 207′s on average, with the lowest at 87 g/km for the e-HDi model with stop–start and never exceeding 99 g/km for that model.
   Smaller, three-cylinder petrol engines make their début, with 1·0- and 1·2-litre capacities.
   Of the polymers used, Peugeot claims 25 per cent is recycled or of natural origin, and the rear bumper and fan assembly made entirely from these materials.
   It is also aerodynamic (C_d of 0,29, with a C_dA of 0,61). The new design takes on more current Peugeot cues, including a more athletic, sharper appearance. The new Peugeot grille, which the company calls a ‘floating’ one, is slightly hexagonal, with the chrome surround not quite at its edge; the ‘boomerang’ rear lights are to be a distinctive signature, extending from the rear wings to the rear bumper at almost a 90-degree angle.
   Internally, Peugeot has introduced a higher, more visible, instrument panel coupled with a smaller steering wheel, and a large touch screen.

Panos Emporio, as it expands its clothing line from its core swimwear, will début a new tagline that ties together everything it has done in the last quarter-century: ‘Dare to be human’.
   The new tagline was conceived to encompass the brand’s ideas of elegant design, its desire to push the envelope—which it has successfully done in swimwear—and its social conscience.
   Speaking of swimwear, Anita Talbert’s Miami Swim report appears now in full online, as do several articles you may have missed: Megan Gale’s L’Oréal ads, Lola Saab looking back at the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the Met, and Ian MacKintosh’s interview with illustrator Gerardo Larrea.
   Sopheak Seng takes an in-depth look at the Mister show from New Zealand Fashion Week—the one where they got a standing ovation—while Lola Saab begins her New York Fashion Week features with the Argentine Designers’ joint show.
   Finally, Lucire wishes to recognize the jewellery designers who were recognized at the New Zealand Jewellery Show last month.


Top Primavera, by Lucas Ebbeke. Above Timekeeping, by Sarah Walker-Holt.

   Papakura-based Sarah Walker-Holt’s Timekeeping, winner of the contemporary section of the New Zealand Jewellery Show Design Awards, is a pendant made using wooden kitchen utensils, firewood, garden twine and nuts and bolts.
   ‘The solutions Walker-Holt used to construct her piece are not accidental, but in fact are the result of careful decision-making. The æsthetic seems to come out of a DIY vernacular, and assemblage of parts reflects a resourceful keen eye and hand,’ said the judges.
   The fine jewellery section saw Auckland’s Lucas Ebbeke win for Primavera, which organizers described as ‘a fine jewellery flower ring that transforms at the flick of a hidden mechanism into a pendant studded with almost $30,000 worth of sapphires and diamonds.’
   Judges stated, ‘Lucas Ebbeke’s ring that transformed into a pendant was the clear winner. The design, finish and technical skills involved in the piece were some of the best we have seen. He is surely a master jeweller.’
   The event—now in its sixth year—ran from September 9 to 11. It saw over 100 jewellers exhibit their New Zealand-designed and made works, which were on sale during this period. Mayor Celia Wade-Brown opened the event, while TV producer Carol Hirschfeld MCed.

Prevention is the best medicine when it comes to ageing. There are many medicines on the block that claim to prevent and reduce signs of ageing, but many of these contain a long list of tongue twisters on their ingredient list. Founded by two brothers, Grown is based on the principle that everything we put on or in our bodies must be nutritious and lack the harmful additives that many skin care products today have. Their latest product, the Grown Contour Sculpting Facial Moisturizer, is no exception. Made with the latest technological advancements in organic cosmeceutical skin care, the white tea and phyto-peptide facial moisturizer lacks a long list of those unpronounceable chemicals and leaves the skin feeling lightweight and refreshed.
   The key active ingredients include a variety of organic substances intended to moisturize, replenish and counteract signs of ageing. Potent polyphenols from white tea contain antioxidants that fight diminishing elasticity and other visible signs of ageing, while phyto-amino acid peptides smooth the appearance of the skin. Asta-xanthin antioxidant, found in cranberries, leaves the complexion looking like radiant and healthy and hyaluronic acid visibly restores the natural moisturizing factors that the skin loses as we age.
   The formula can be used both day and night, and I used it in the morning in lieu of the lotion I normally used under my foundation. It rejuvenated my skin and the moisture remained locked in, but unlike many other lotions I’ve used, this one didn’t leave my skin feeling greasy. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to using Grown products in the future.—Sabine Ernest