If airfare, the threat of hurricanes, and carcinogenic rays strike you as things you’d rather not get into for vanity’s sake, there are plenty of low-risk solutions. You could have a 30-minute spray tan—Paul Labrecque’s is pretty convincing, as it’s not streaky and it won’t turn you nominee-orange. All you have to do is stand against a wall in your underpants while a technician sprays you with what’s essentially a garden hose. It costs $75 and lasts about a week (212-988-7816). If you don’t care about having a Britney-hued belly, there’s Trish McEvoy’s $25 legs-only spray tan. It contains DHA, which interacts with amino acids in dead skin cells to produce a color change; you get to choose the intensity (212-758-7790).
If you prefer to pigment in private and save up for that Prada pencil skirt, there are some effective self-applied products, too. Air Stocking, a spray-on mix of silk, polymers, and moisturizers, coats the leg—in natural, bronze, or terra-cotta ($28 for a whole can at Saks or Henri Bendel)—and you can just rinse it off in the shower. Clarins Sheer Bronze Tinted Self Tanning for Legs ($28) uses the same DHA compound as the spas. And the color comes from caramel and cocoa extracts, which also happen to smell fantastic. If you want to take a subtler approach—who’s going to believe nut-brown in about another week anyway?—Bloom’s Aloha Body Shimmer Cream uses mica to even out the glow with just a hint of pigment ($20 at Sephora).
As for those spider veins, Dr. Luis Navarro (212-876-9284) can inject them with sodium tetradecyl sulfate, which closes the vein ($375 for the initial session and injections, $250 for each additional visit). Three to five sessions should do the trick—supposedly forever. If you’re looking for something less intrusive, Nu Visage has the Complete Leg and Vein Therapy Regimen with an oral supplement to strengthen skin and veins, and a restorative leg cream ($60; 866-688-4724). Both are made with OPC, a compound derived from grape seeds and pine bark, imported from France.
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Karl Lagerfeld’s name has long been synonymous with the glamorous high-end: Chanel, Fendi. But next month, he’s issuing a $24.90 fragrance to go with his limited-edition clothing line at H&M. The perfume, which is unisex, smells rather junior when compared with the sophisticated mix of jasmine, rose, iris, and ylang-ylang that makes up Chanel No. 5. “Liquid Karl,” however, has a far more delicious aroma, like warm bread and chocolate. Ironic, when you consider that the recently slimmed-down designer has spent the past several years studiously avoiding such temptations. Lagerfeld has a simple explanation: “I would rather smell chocolate than wear it on my hips.”