Repair sun-stressed skin and get ready for autumn with these top beauty buys, picked by bloggers, beauty press and our very own experts.
After this summer’s gloriously hot days your hair and skin will be happy that autumn’s here. Sunshine is wonderful for the spirit, but can leave hair and skin parched, patchy and dry. The aftermath isn’t pretty! Legs and arms go flakey, tans fade unevenly and wrinkles creep in as the skin on our faces gets thirsty and tightens. It’s like a body and face hangover, the morning after a brilliant beach party. Yuk!
Now is the perfect time of year to give your body some TLC, exfoliate, put the moisture back in and keep that summer glow going a little longer. We’ve picked 10 products to start you off, including more than a few cult beauty buys that our favourite beauty writers are excited about right now.
Bloggers, beauty journalists, celebrities and dermatologists love Egyptian Magic cream, because it’s one of those all-in-one products that can solve a multitude of problems.
It melts into skin to provide all-over nourishment, fights wrinkles, reduces scars and blemishes and even helps combat eczema and psoriasis. It’s such an all-round miracle product that it can probably forge world peace too.
Great as a massage balm, which is handy as the dark nights draw in! We’re offering 33% off, too.
It has a heck of a long name, but its benefits are to the point; it repairs sun-stressed skin.
It’s a very light cream, so there’s none of the gloopy feel of heavier winter moisturisers, but it packs a powerful punch thanks to its blend of free radical-busting anti-oxidants.
The sun, as you know, causes all kinds of havoc to our skin. Anti-oxidants, in this case vitamin C, lemon bioflavonoids and white tea, help repair the damage. It has a lovely orange scent too; autumn skincare with the scent of summer!
Do you want to know every beauty journalist’s number one secret? Self-tan lotion will be your best Autumn / Winter beauty buy, bar none. How else do you think these glamorous girls stay so healthy and fresh-looking all year round?
Slick on your favourite self-tan and you’ll carry on glowing when others start hurtling towards that quintessentially British grey pallor! Make-up can stay minimal and quick to apply, just as it is in summer.
Lavera Sun Self Tanning Lotion uses organic soy extracts to provide as natural a fake tan as you can get. Vitamin E and green tea provide extra nourishment at the same time.
You can thank the sunshine for picnics in the park, the chance to wear your favourite summer dresses, and your boss’s good mood, but you can also thank it for summer hair frizz and, come autumn, dried-out locks!
Jason Organic Supershine Apricot Shampoo nourishes and returns the gloss. It gets its super-shine creds from plant-derived panthenols, so it gets the same results as other shine-boosting shampoos but without the chemical nasties. Our customers love it.
5. Burt’s Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Crème £9.90 (60ml)
If you haven’t worked it out yet, another beauty editor secret is to pay as much attention to your hands and neck as to your face, because it’s the skin on these parts that truly give away your age.
Autumn is the perfect time to start paying hands extra attention; summer has no doubt left you with “farmer’s hands” (tanned and toughened), and winter is set to crack the skin and beset your poor frozen paws with aches and tingles. Feed them now, and they’ll survive the cold ahead.
Burt’s Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Crème contains sweet almond oil, aloe vera and vitamin E to nourish and moisturise. Hands will feel smoother and look softer. Put a pot by every sink and use each time you wash your hands.
Everyone has a friend who seems to get life right; she’s lovely, her home is gorgeous, she dresses well, she rarely has a bad hair day, and her husband’s a bit of alright too! It’s women like this that use Korres products; they’re known by women in the know, and used by women who value quality.
We’re thrilled to now be stocking the Korres range. The Black Pine Anti-Wrinkle & Firming Eye Cream is a real cult buy. It’s the product of a state-of-the-art, award-winning research project, which has proven the exceptional performance of Black Pine in keeping the deep-down structures of our skin healthy, and boosting the appearance of the skin we see.
If summer has left you feeling dry and wrinkly, you can’t get much better than this.
If we had one pound for every beauty blogger, journalist or friend who’s told us how much they love Trilogy’s Rosehip Oil (or tried to blag one from us!) we could shut up shop and head for the Bahamas.
This is one of those products that even the cult brands call a cult! Why is it so loved? It is a light, easily absorbed oil, suitable for all skin types, which simply does its job of keeping skin moisturised really well.
It’s full of protective and restorative natural ingredients, all in a dinky bottle that can fit easily into a handbag. You never need to be without it, and it seems that half the beauty press don’t want to be!
http://www.biggreensmile.com/products/dead-sea-spa-magik-salt/dssalt1kg.aspx?productid=dssalt1kg
If your summer holiday has left you a little short of spending money, Dead Sea Spa Magic Salt might be the choice for you. At less than a fiver for a large bag, it’s not going to break the bank, though it might break your foot if you drop it!
This is one of those products that once tried can become a favourite for life. We have customers who’ve used it for literally years and years. It’s great for moisturising (yes, who’d have thought it), even better for soothing achy limbs, and works as a wonderful exfoliant too. As part of your post-summer beauty MOT, this would be ideal for skimming off that top layer of sun-parched flakey skin and exposing the smoother, more even-toned and younger-looking fresh stuff just below.
Here’s a lovely, gentle exfoliator for your face. Remove all make-up, and apply a ten-pence-sized blob in gentle circles, avoiding the delicate eye area. Wash off with warm, but not hot, water, or sweep with moist cotton wool pads. Follow up with a moisturiser, and enjoy an instant skin pick-me-up.
Exfoliation is a great thing to do 24 hours before applying fake tan, too. It helps to ensure your face is free of product, including the last batch of fake tan, and means the new application will go on more smoothly and evenly.
This Faith In Nature exfoliant contains blackcurrant exfoliant and organic calendula, and is safe for Vegans to use. It’s a very gentle product that shouldn’t aggravate even delicate skin.
Who doesn’t love a face mask, especially one you can do at home? After all, what’s better for freaking out the kids?
Seriously, for the full at-home spa experience you simply must try Green People’s Vita Min Mask. It’s an extra-moisturising mask suitable for dry skin, containing organic mandarin, seaweed and avocado. Avocado is rich in vitamins A and E, as well as protein, and is especially good for regenerating damaged or flakey skin.
Apply to a perfectly cleansed and exfoliated neck and face, and leave for 20 minutes. Remove excess with a soft tissue, and moisturise. Repeat whenever you feel your skin needs it, and every Halloween.