Beauty: Meet my beauty stars for 2021
These just-launched game-changing products have revitalised my make-up bag
The beauty business doesn’t need seasons for reasons to launch new products; they can – and do – happen at any time. But January always sees a raft of newness and here are my top five…
1 Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation (£40, harrods.com). More like hydrating skincare with pigment added than just a base, I love this foundation. Moisturising and lightweight, it also has capucine extract to boost cell oxygenation – essentially it helps your complexion look even more glowing. The slightly matt finish leaves skin perfected. Full marks. Available in 30 shades.
2 The Inkey List Succinic Acid Blemish Treatment (£6.99, theinkeylist.com). Blemish treatments have been booming as many of us suffer from breakouts due to mask wearing (aka maskne). This Inkey List offering focuses on a lesser-known ingredient: succinic acid (though it’s well known in medical circles), which helps to clear blemishes and pores quickly but is kind to skin. It also includes salicylic acid, good for exfoliating, sulphur powder to reduce excess sebum without drying skin, and a chlorophyllin-copper complex that reduces inflammation and gives the treatment its unusual green hue (invisible once applied).
3 Elizabeth Arden Flawless Start Hydrating Serum Primer (£28, elizabetharden.co.uk). With a very lightweight gel texture, this hyaluronic acid-based serum helps to hydrate and plump skin and works as a great prep before make-up. The formula includes thyme oil, which offers antibacterial properties and adds glow but doesn’t feel greasy.
4 Revlon ColorStay Brow Fiber Filler in Clear (£8.99, boots.com). There are coloured versions of this brow filler but I am currently obsessed with the clear one. You brush it on much like a mascara and it plumps up and primes brows. If you add a coloured fibre on top they look even more filled out and emphatic – but still natural.
5 Charlotte Tilbury Happikiss, (£25, charlottetilbury.com). A new entry into the hybrid lip category where tinted balms meet gloss-like finishes and sheer colour washes that moisturise as they go. But this is a very lovely and sumptuous option and contains hyaluronic acid to aid hydration. I love the Pillow Talk shade, Charlotte’s classic nudey-pink. Be warned, when you twist up the bullet you can’t twist it back down so don’t push up more than you need.
@edwinaingschambers
A REAL NATURAL BEAUTY
New to these shores from Italy is affordable skincare brand Florena (it’s under the umbrella of Beiersdorf, which also brings us Nivea, Eucerin and La Prairie). Florena is a Cosmos-certified natural and vegan brand with a focus on flower and fermented ingredients and a mission to prove that natural skincare can be efficacious.
The face oils are definite hero products and contain flower extracts – obtained by heat treatment rather than any chemical process – and feature suspended petals in the jars, too. I like the Illuminating Facial Oil (£24.99, boots.com), which features both pink helichrysum, a flower used since the 19th century for skincare, and fermented safflower oil to hydrate and brighten skin.
The face creams follow similar lines. The Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream (£24.99), another hero product, includes hydrating hyaluronic acid, fermented honeysuckle (to reduce oxidative stress which can cause inflammation and break down collagen) and fermented olive oil.
Why fermented ingredients? Essentially the fermentation process boosts the efficacy of the ingredients and changes their molecular structure so much that they require a different ingredient name. So that olive oil, for instance, once it has gone through the fermentation process, has ten times more antioxidants than in its normal state.
The range also has an environmental focus. Packaging uses recycled materials and can be recycled. More than that, sizing has been stripped back to the minimum so that a normal 50ml pot almost looks like a sample size and weighs around 7g instead of a more usual 40g.
MY NEW HIT SPRITZ
Recently I wrote a bit of an ode to Sisley’s classic Eau de Campagne fragrance. For, although Sisley may be most associated with skincare, it creates some truly wonderful perfumes, too. So I’d also like to recommend its latest: Izia La Nuit, a warmer and more sultry version of the original rose-based Izia. This has oak moss and patchouli added for elegance, depth and sumptuousness but also some sparking top notes of mandarin and blackcurrant to keep an element of lightness and optimism to the blend.
From £94.50 for 30ml, sisley-paris.co.uk