Super Summer Your Health

When packing for a holiday, it’s fair to say we fling all  the ‘sexy’ things into our suitcase first: suntan lotion, sarong, bikini, lip gloss…the last thing we want to think about is a dodgy tummy and block nasal passages – we’d rather bury our head in the seaside sand.  But as any jet-setter knows, itchy insect bits and travel sickness can lay you low on your lilo!

Weleda stylishly trouble shoots any health niggles with their summer travel kit. With a smart mix of beauty and healthy must-haves, each product is under 100ml so they’re dinky enough to pack into your carry-all for the plane. Zipped up in a transparent plastic pouch are three products from the Citrus range: Creamy Body Wash, Deodrant and Refreshing Body Oil. All smelling refreshingly zingy by-the-way. On the health front the trio includes: Combudoron Spray – great for insect bites, Melissa Comp Drops – ideal for over indulgence and travel sickness and Rhiondoron Nasal Spray – ideal when the pollen count is sky-high or the air is desert dry.  All products that sort you out when feeling out-of-sorts.

Weleda Summer Travel Kit, £29.99

www.weleda.co.uk

Zelens Super Mask

When a face mask is called Transformer you expect something big, massive and explosive to happen. Well, Zelens Instant Renewal Mask of said name didn’t turn me into Rosie Huntington-Loveliness, but it did gloss and feed my skin with an extra dose of fabulousness.

 I’ve harped on about Zelens before – a next generation skincare brand created by plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr Marko Lens.  Available in 5 dinky tubes, it’s a mask that's used in his professional ‘Red Carpet’ facials,  helping encourage skin renewal thanks to bio-energizing complex, high potency enzymes and other such high flipping, acrobat performing ingredients. What I like about this mask is its low-key application. There’s no wrapping of impregnated fabrics to be draped around the face and no eye widening hardening within the required cooking time. It simply glides on, feeling incredibly luxurious (I'm guessing that would be with the help of pearl extracts) and disappears into the skin. Leave for 15 minutes and rinse off with warm water. Simples!

Youthful is a word that’s over-used in skincare with not much credibility, but if a smoother, bouncier and radiant looking skin is acting youthful, then this baby captures it! Skin is visibly more hydrated and glistening. A couple of people commented I looked refreshed post application, which in my book is always a good sign something has made a difference. The downside? The price.  It’s £120 – but I will try and justify. It’s a professional treatment so key ingredients are plentiful and hardworking, the box contains 5 little tubes, but you can easily pump two treatments out of one tube – that makes 10 applications, adding up to only £12 a session, cheaper than a cocktail in a swanky bar.  It’s used on Hollywood stars. You don’t need a red carpet to feel good after wearing it! Convinced yet?

Zelens Transformer Instant Renewal Mask, £120 for 5x5ml tubes.
www.spacenk.com
www.zelens.com

Flip Flop Sunshine Bright Polishes

Just had to cheer you up with these pop art coloured nail polishes. They can’t fail to brighten up fingertips and  toenails - even on the dreariest of days. Thanks summer for not downloading. Again!

British beauty brand, Filthy Gorgeous, have popped and punched two of their beloved shades, giving them an exotic cocktail radiance. Rosey Posey is now a grab-your-sunshades brighter neon pink and Air-Kiss is a vamped up, knock-out neon blue. They look great when worn and worked with brightly hued Haviananas. Formulated without formaldehyde, toluene and DBP they’re kind to your nails too.

Filthy Gorgeous Neon Nail Polishes are £9 each.
www.filthygorgeouslondon.com

The Luxury Liner. Love Clarins

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

I’ve never been so excited about an eye liner! I appreciate you can’t eyeball this product until September, but many of you like Dolly Mixture to spotlight new products before they reach counter, then remind you later on Twitter when they’ve launched.  Anyway, getting back to the subject in hand, I couldn’t wait to try this product when I was introduced to it at the Clarins autumn make-up collection.

NO ARTIST, BUT DOTTY ABOUT THE RESULTS!

I’m pretty pants at applying liner, even though I’ve watched it being applied countless times by make-up artists. But this 3-Dot Liner is literally goof proof. Positioned as a new generation, ultra-easy eyeliner, that’s no inflated claim. Instead of trying to draw straight lines – which usually come out wonky near to the base of the lashes, it allows you turn into something of an artist. Combining the precision of liquid eyeliner with the dexterity of a pencil, all you have to do is dot the triple-point applicator along the lash line. It really is genius. It successfully fills the space between each lash making the lash line look sexily defined and the lashes fuller. My only grumble – and it’s slight, is it could be smudge resistant. As warned, I’m no artist, but I’ve done a little crude drawing above showing how it really is child’s play to apply.  

Clarins Limited Edition 3-Dot Liner, £20 is available from September    

The all round super smoother

NOW A FAVOURITE IN MY BATHROOM

I  thought I would bring skin lovers’ attention to this little gem. My sister bought me thisworks enjoy multi-tasking lotion for my birthday, and to be honest it was a while before I tried it. My birthday is in January since you ask! I’m well aware thisworks is a perennial favourite with beauty editors – after all its founder was the former beauty director for Vogue, but I’ve never been mad about body lotions, preferring oils for their hydration qualities and lightness.  But this lady is for turning, and I’ve found myself doing a 360 degree beauty twirl!

Multi-tasking is often a word that’s hijacked, and it’s disappointing to buy a product that professes to do everything but make a cup of tea, but in reality can only perform solo. In contrast, this product lives up to its moniker – including the enjoy tag! It can be used on every part of the body, including the face and somehow manages to sit well on every inch of flesh. Sometimes body lotions can be too occlusive for the face, leaving the complexion looking shiny and providing a poor foundation for make-up – not this. Although described as luxury, that doesn’t equate to thick, proving to sink in super quick, leaving the skin delicately scented with essential oils including rose and geranium. The packaging is smart too, ideal for travel. Lightweight, with a pump dispenser it makes for easy peasy application and can be thrown into a gym or flight bag. Go buy!

Thiswork enjoy multi-tasking lotion costs £25

www.thisworks.com

Packed and Polished

ROLLED OUT



TUCKED IN

Many a make-up artist and manicurist follow dolly mixture, so I thought this nifty little invention would come in really handy (excuse the pun) when doing session work. It works for holiday packing too.

 Roo Beauty have hopped to it and come up with the Nail Polish Roll. Created alongside nail expert Marian Newman, it’s the perfect piece of portable polish kit for professionals. Try saying that after a drink! Marian has been testing the roll for a time now and concludes it’s perfect for carrying vast quantities of polishes to shoots and fashion shows. For the jet-set, it takes up little room in your suitcase.  Many of us like a one night stand with nail polish, so when holiday bound for two weeks, one colour choice is never enough.  This roll holds 12 varnishes, all of which fit snugly in the netting, allowing you to see what colours you have at-a-glance. Made from a water and stain resistant leatherette, it’s easy to clean. Go on, just roll with it!

Roo Beauty Nail Polish Roll costs £9.99

www.roobeauty.com

No Sun Required

CHEATING MISS SUNSHINE

When the sun hasn’t got its hat on and isn’t shouting, ‘hip, hip hooray’ then measures have to be taken.  A rain drizzled June does no favours for a pallid complexion. The answer? A must-have bronzer that will sweep to the rescue and give skin a cosmetic vacation.  Counters are awash with bronzers, but two which have recently alerted my beauty sensors, helping give a much needed dose of faux holiday colour are:

M&S GET FUNKY

M&S Limited Collection Bronzing Powder. Having recently funked and fashioned up their beauty range, the bronzer is packaged prettily into a cupboard pot with an on-trend leopard print. Available in two colours – light and dark, there’s no fancy formula, but the powder gives skin a touch of pretty shimmer and instantly illuminates. For a beachside hue, dust over bony areas where the sun hits first: nose, forehead and cheekbones. Then lightly swirl onto temples and a tiny bit on the chin. This will help capture a natural sun-kissed effect rather than a contrived product-developed look. And for only £5 it’s a real beauty steal.

UNE'S BEAUTIFUL BRONZER

FINGER DAB AND BLEND ON NOSE, CHEESE AND FOREHEAD

With the growing demand for BB creams, it was only time before the technology was harboured into a bronzer. UNE have got their first with their Healthy-Sun BB-Cream Bronzer, £14.49 available mid June. With a cream-powder-soft-and-melting texture, there’s no shimmer or shine as it’s devoid of any pearly or iridescent pigments. There's just a sexy, matt glow to be had. Perfectly blendable, just pick up on fingertips and dab on. Available in two shades – Golden for a light complexion and Coppery for a medium complexion, it gives a flawless natural sun blushed look that stays put all-day. More than can be said for the UK sun!

Estee Lauder's New Skin Saver

When it comes to pushing back the tides of Father Time or foxing Mother Nature with the help of superlative skincare that doesn’t come with a needle, up there!

Estee Lauder has always been a leader in the field of sophisticated skincare, and their new Perfectionist [CP+R] Wrinkle Lifting/Firming Serum is no exception. With innovative CPR-75 Technology - anything that sounds like a life saving formula must work, right? It’s proven to supercharge skin’s natural energised look and line fighting power. Cutting to the chase, their R&D findings have revealed that happy, youthful skin cells are happy namely because they’re supported by a vital ionic ‘pump’ that encourages skin’s natural energy potential known as the Trans-Epidermal Electrical Potential – or TEEP for short. And you’ve guessed it, due to age and daily skin GBH such as UV rays, the pump begins to get sluggish, crushing the natural energy potential needed to sustain optimal natural repair.

So far so bad, but there is hope on the horizon. Driven by this technological insight, they’ve introduced this new wrinkle slayer, with an all signing, all dancing advanced amino acid and protein complex that creates a virtual ‘force field’ against the look of wrinkles. Sounding something from a sci-fi movie, it works by supercharging and re-strengthening skin’s natural line fighting potential. Quite gloopy for a serum, and scented – a little too floral for me, it does however sit comfortably, giving the skin an immediate silky quality. I've been trying it on my number elevens (those pesky two lines that run vertical between the brows) for the last week, and they do seem less aggressive. This could be the calling of the light diffusion optics which helps diffuse and scatter light, blurring their seriousness.  Well, that was enough to make me smile.

New Perfectionist [CP+R] Wrinkle Lifting/Firming Serum, from £50 for 30ml.
Available from July.
www.esteelauder.com

Bobbi's Desert Beauty Storm

When I worked for magazines, apart from the model and the make-up, a shoot was all centred on the light. When shooting on location, we used to be up at the crack of dawn for the light, mid-day the sun was too high and the light therefore too harsh, and the cameras were put down. They were then picked up again about 7pm. I can understand why Bobbi Brown’s new summer collection is called Desert Twilight, because having shot in the Californian desert just as the sun is going down after a hard day; the soft golden hues are absolutely breathtaking.  It’s the kind of light you search to emulate in your home, find at a restaurant, or wish they had installed on the tube to make you look utterly beautiful. If Hollywood could capture and bottle it, they would. It would save a fortune on lighting technicians. You cannot look bad in this light. It’s as photogenic as - even not more than candlelight.

Bobbi’s star product of this collection is her Desert Twilight Eye Palette. Snap the lid open and you will see eight eye shadows, each a very wearable shade. Honestly, there’s not one out of the eight you couldn’t use. As you can see the lighter colours are iridescent and the darker ones matte. Blend, define and highlight with shades such as Navajo Twilight, Chocolate Mauve and Twilight Metallic.  Casting a flattering glow to lids, eyes look prettily sun swept, not overly made-up and wears well with a holiday tan.

Other picks in this collection I like is the Bronzer/Blush Duo – with an injection of shimmer that looks both gorgeous and sexy, and the nail polish in Turquoise which shouts blue desert skies and tranquil swimming pools. Dip in!

Desert Twilight Eye Palette, £48

Bronze/Blush Duo, £26
Nail Polish, £10

All products are limited edition and on counter July