Last week I stopped by the Korres Flagship Store opening in SoHo (the first in the U.S.!), and I had a brief moment to chat with one of my favorite entertainment TV anchors, Ms. Debbie Matenopoulos. As you may have guessed, she’s a gorgeous Greek gal, and she stays that way by using Korres products. Here’s what she had to say (after a couple of glasses of bubbly!)
What connects you to the Korres brand?
First off, I’m Greek…obviously. With a name like Matenopoulos you’re not fooling anybody. And I came across it like 2 yrs ago in a store randomly in L.A. and I saw the writing; there’s Greek writing all over the box. And I went to Greek school. When you’re Greek, you’re Greek. When your family’s really Greek, they stuff the Greek thing down your throat. And I went to Greek school and Greek dance and the whole thing. So I came across it, saw the Greek writing, and bought it because either way it’s cool - look at the writing! I ended up falling in love with the product. About a month ago, I was contacted by one of the candidates for the product, and they were like “We’d love to give you some of our products, we know you’re Greek.” I used the entire box, the whole thing, in a month. Crazy—a little much. Then just a few weeks ago, I got a phone call and they’re like we’re opening our flagship store and I was so glad. I couldn’t find this product in the places I wanted to find it. For instance, they’re very selective; they have a store in Paris, they have a store in London, in Athens—obviously—a lot of stuff in Asia, but they didn’t have a store in the U.S. I was like “Are you kidding?! Sign. Me. Up.” Immediately; I’m not even passing go, I’m coming straight to NY, so you know, it started because I have love for my peeps and because I’m so loyal to my country, but at the same time it’s a really good product; I get sent so much crap everyday. When you have a TV show, you have a magazine, you know. And I have to tell you I’m allergic to everything, this I’m not allergic to. All the bath products smell amazing, they look amazing. I grew up in a hair salon, so I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to shampoo, I gotta be honest, and I’m even more of a snob when it comes to conditioner, because I feel like people really cheapen their conditioners; their conditioner makes your hair like silk, and they conditioned the hell out of this wig. Trust me, my hair feels like straw till I put that conditioner on, then it feels good. But I’m just a big fan of it; I’m a big fan of what they stand for. You know, it’s all the natural products; it comes from the first homeopathic pharmacy in Greece! Do you know how this actually happened, how it started?
No, please tell me.
He’s (George Korres) a chemist and his wife (Lena Korres) is a biochemist, and six scientists got together and they have a homeopathic pharmacy where they were making creams and stuff, for people’s bodies; the 24hr Korres cream. It is the best shit you can put on your face. I love it. I’m not kidding, anyway; so they got together, so people were starting to say (because it was like a prescription for people), “Why don’t you give us your cream and we’ll sell it in our stores?” and he’s like, “It’s just homeopathic stuff for people who have skin problems” but people loved it so much that other stores were coming to him in Greece and saying, “Why don’t you put packaging on it and we’ll sell it.” So he said “okay” and he started giving it to his friends and they were putting it in their stores and they were selling it very locally and before you know it, it became such a big deal and there was such a demand for it where they were basically forced to make a company because there was such a high demand and it started from cream. And to get six scientists together these days to make any sort of product…that doesn’t happen, you know what I mean? Like people are like I’m trying to get a buck. And I’m skeptical of creams that are brand new saying “This is going to change your life” and “tomorrow you’re going to look like Giselle” and they cost $700 of course, and I’m like “Really? Okay.” The thing with their product line is there’s nothing over $40. It’s affordable, and when I started working with them, I found out that a lot of the silicone and mineral oil they put in makeup is cheap, but you can go down the line in Neiman Marcus or Barney’s or any of those places and those products cost a lot of money. I said to them “Why doesn’t everyone use this; why don’t they put that in instead of mineral oil? And why don’t they put that in instead of silicone? And they said because it’s expensive. and I was like “Well it can’t be that expensive, you’re selling your most expensive product for only $40” and their like “Exactly.” So I’m all for a product that’s good, that works, that’s honest. It’s no thrill. They’re not trying to sell you the sun, the moon, the stars. They’re saying this is what it is. The truth is, it doesn’t have to be expensive to be good. My mom always said growing up olive oil and water was the best thing to put on your face and I used to tell her she was insane. All these Korres products—olive oil and water. My mom used to tell me—I used to get sunburned and greased—put Greek yogurt on your face or put Greek yogurt on your arms. There’s a Greek yogurt cooling mask, which is by the way amazing, to this day I still use Greek yogurt; I go buy real Greek yogurt if I’m burned—it works!
Where were you raised?
Between Greece and Virginia and I moved to NY when I was 16, but pretty much every summer I was in Greece, regardless. I was raised in Richmond, VA and went every summer to Greece and I moved here to go to NYU and then just moved to LA.
What are you 5 must-have Korres products? What can you not live without?
~The 24 hr wild rose cream is amazing, it’s not too heavy, some creams are heavy and they clog the hell out of your pores. If you have young skin, I mean it’s not like we’re grandmas. I’m like “I can’t put this on my face!” Their cream, 24-hr wild rose cream, I looove that. It smells good, too.
~I love their almond scrub; that’s amazing.
~Their correction pen. Because I have a zit here, as you can see and I tend to suffer from adult acne from time to time, so I use their correction pen, which is olive oil. It’s amazing, I love it.
~And their guava body butter is SO amazing. When I say body butter, when you then go out you can’t stop touching yourself. Trust me, I was having way too much fun with myself when I put the body butter on. The guava body butter is amazing.
~The vanilla cinnamon body milk.. I LOVE.
~ I also love the yogurt cooling mask. Because my skin is always messed up from the makeup they put on, so I get a lot of burning…and it takes the hot out; that I love really love.
~Oh, the fig body wash. Half the things double as food. That’s the best thing about Korres. While your bathing and while you’re putting all the products on your face, you suddenly feel full! That’s what I’m saying, it’s like eating great food without adding any weight to your ass.
Technorati Tags: Glam Media, Glam.com, Glam Blush, GlamBlush, Beauty, Debbie Matenopoulos, Korres
**Photo Courtesy of WireImage.com**
Love This Story? Buzz It Up Here!
Following the recent product demonstration event (that I sadly missed!), CEW has just released their nominations for the 2008 CEW Beauty Awards. Check out the lengthy list below, and see if any of your favorites made the cut. I’ve placed pink stars next to my winning predictions… (Yes, I picked two in every category because I am greedy!)
Stumble It!
Save to del.icio.us
Digg
Email
Facebook
