Life + Culture

Russ Simon Beauty Studio

Beauty Redefined Article and Photography by Celebrity Makeup Artist and Lash Guru, Russ Simon is a true leader in the beauty industry. With his unrivaled, time-tested techniques, Russ innovates with every brush stroke.  At the all new Russ Simon Beauty Studio, Russ continues to offer Xtreme & Mink Eyelash Extensions, waxing, full makeup services, and eye brow design in an upscale and modern boutique.   The studio also hosts a collection of his favorite makeup brushes, colors, skincare, and...

Style + Beauty

Color Me Seen

Dee Pineau used to hide in black. Now she helps women see what was always there. Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie For a long time, Dee Pineau didn't want to be noticed. An engineer in corporate America, Dee found herself looking at herself on Zoom during COVID, and thinking, I don't look great.   "I was wearing a lot of black," she says. "I wanted to fade into the background. I was just kind of unhappy with where I was. ‘Don't look at me’." It's a feeling she hears...

Home + Design

The Good Stuff

The furniture Amanda Burgess-Proctor restores has history. So does she. Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie When it's dark outside and the lamps are on, that's when it feels right to Amanda Burgess-Proctor. That's when the 1923 bungalow on 14 Mile returns to what it's always been, the word she goes back to time and time again in our conversation: a home. This is Dee Dee's Fine Vintage, where everything has a past… and some things, Amanda will tell you, have a way of...

Life + Culture

Interesting All The Way Through

Amy builds our magazine like her photographs: seeing what others miss Article by Marshall Zweig The first thing Amy Gillespie looks for when she raises a camera isn't the subject. It's everything behind the subject. “In every shot, there’s a foreground, a middle ground, and a background," she says. "I make sure something is interesting all the way through the frame." She learned it from meeting National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. Abell was known as the quiet photographer; his...

Life + Culture

Royal Oak Corner

Amber Poupore and The Cacao Tree Cafe Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie Can you believe there was a time Amber Poupore didn't know how to cut an onion? That's where her decades-long relationship with Royal Oak actually starts: January 2000, with Amber at the back door of Inn Season, hired for whatever they needed and willing to do anything. "Really. I didn't even know how to cut an onion,” she recalls with a smile. “I mean, literally. That is how new to food I was." ...

Local Services

Flipping Mythbusters

Two Max Broock agents are done watching good homes ruined by bad flippers — and not shy about saying so Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie Before they were Royal Oak Realtors, Matt Bazner spent 25 years as a licensed contractor, and Justin Bercheny was an interior designer. Together, the two Max Broock agents bring something most real estate professionals simply can't offer: they've seen inside the walls. Literally. That backstage access makes them unusually...

Finance + Legal Services

Trust Over Trends

Michael Cayen brings aloha spirit and steady hands to investing Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie At 13 and Campbell in Royal Oak, there’s a hula girl silhouette on the side of a building, complete with palm tree and sunset. It’s the kind of image you don’t expect to see alongside the practicality of Little Caesars and 7-Eleven. Michael Cayen put it up. His goal is simple: make something bright enough to maybe change a stranger’s mood at a red light. “That’s the whole...

Wellness

Reconnecting With You

Following her voice led Susanne Scott to a miraculous reunion — and a calling. Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie "There's something familiar about that belly." It's a strange sentence to hear in your own head. Especially when you're walking along a seawall in San Diego, searching for an uncle you haven't seen in decades. But Susanne Scott heard it anyway. Clear as a bell. And she followed it. The man with the familiar belly was leaning back on the seawall. When he...

Home + Design

Right Plant, Right Place

Less lawn, more life: Erica Zador helps backyards do more than look good Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie The wind is a character in Erica Zador’s story. Not metaphorically. Literally. The kind of wind that rips across the Great Plains with enough force to rearrange your mood—and, if you’re unlucky, your car. In Erica’s Kansas childhood, growing up 27 miles from the nearest town, tumbleweeds weren't charming symbols of the Old West. They were the wind’s weapons...

Arts + Culture

Home Ground

Dustin Walker's century of Royal Oak roots keeps homebuying human Article by Marshall Zweig | Photography by Amy Gillespie Dustin Walker describes Royal Oak streets the way most people talk about their living room.  It makes sense: his family has been inhabiting them for over a century. "My great-grandparents moved here in the 1920s," Dustin explains. "Since then, we've just kept moving up Campbell Road. My great-grandmother lived at 11 and Campbell. My dad grew up at 12 and Campbell. I grew...