skin

Ever wondered whether a new beauty launch or trending product is truly worth the hype? If so, you’re in the right place. I Just Tried… is our beauty column where we test out everything from new formulations to cult classics to find out whether they’re really worth your money. Oh, and we’ll answer the most-searched-for questions so you don’t have even have to ask. When it comes to affordable skincare, there’s one country that always gets it right: France. In fact, whether I’m interviewing a dermatologist or a celebrity about their skincare habits, there’s one common denominator: People with great skin have a plethora of French pharmacy brands in their beauty stashes. So when I got wind that yet another beauty product was trending on TikTo...

So that’s kind of what inspired this piece. Over the holidays, I spent about three full months in Arizona where my parents retired, and in that course of time, I recommended tons of different products to my mum. I’m consistently gifted more products than I can humanly try as part of my job, so to get a second opinion on new launches or just whenever my mom was in need of something new or extra special, I’d set a few things on her vanity for her to test-drive—some she loved and some she, well, didn’t. Here, we’re celebrating 10 skincare products that are so effective and fabulous that we both love, use, and recommend them despite the 46-year age difference in our skin. Below, I asked my mum to share some insight into why she loves each of the all-star formulas,...

You’d be right in assuming that makeup wipes really have no place in any beauty aficionado’s routine. Despite the fact that their throwaway nature has the potential to drastically damage the planet, they can also prove detrimental to the condition of your skin. “Most cleansing wipes contain detergent-like chemicals and harsh alcohols that strip away the natural pH balance of the skin. These ingredients can cause irritation and leave the skin dry, dehydrated and sensitive,” reveals celebrity facialist Lisa Harris. At this point, you might be questioning just how serious the dryness can really be. However, it turns out it’s not just the harsh chemicals that can cause the skin to age. Harris goes on, “Wipes don’t cleanse the skin properly and instead spread bacteria around the face, whic...

As a beauty editor I am often asked where I personally love to shop for products is, but with so many brilliant options out there—Cult Beauty, Harvey Nichols, Space NK, the list goes on—it can be hard to choose a favourite. However, there is one decidedly underrated beauty destination that I now swear by if I’m looking for a beauty bargain: QVC. Yes, a website that started life as a TV shopping channel might not seem like the obvious or most glamorous place to shop for beauty but after a friend converted me to the delights of shopping there last year I just can’t stop raving about it. Turns out, QVC stock some of my favourite beauty brands of all time and have the best beauty deals online—hands down. Trust me, I think it’s abou...

Not only has Hailey Bieber really been slaying it in the fashion department lately (our camera roll has too many outfit shots to count right now), but her beauty game is perpetually on point as well. Personally, I’m a little bit of a Hailey Bieber fiend, if you will, and keeping tabs on everything she’s wearing, loving and talking about has basically become my favourite pastime. My Who What Wear co-workers are very aware of my admiration, so when Bieber took to her IG stories recently to share 10 of her favourite beauty products, our US editor in chief, Kat Collings, quickly rang the alarm and sent the must-save screenshots to me.  If you love Hailey’s aesthetic just as much as I do or are interested in seeing which products she swears by for keep...

From 20 to 29, a great deal changes in not only your life but your skin. “From your teens to your 20s, the skin loses some subcutaneous fat and collagen production decreases,” Colbert tells me. In other words, the juicy, dewy skin you might have naturally enjoyed at 21 might not be so plump at 28. Similarly, Susanne Kaufmann advised that “you should work in your mid-to-late 20s preventatively against premature ageing of the skin.” This might mean looking for ingredients like collagen in your cleansers and moisturisers or introducing retinol into your treatment stage as a preventative against fine lines and wrinkles. “Often underestimated but immensely important is the correct and regular use of eye cream,” Kaufmann tells me. To combat these early signs o...

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s a secret that the beauty industry doesn’t want you to know, but it’s about time someone just laid it down for us: There is no such thing as anti-ageing. There isn’t a single moisturiser, serum, cleanser or mask with the power to knock five years off your face. Sure, there are ingredients around that can smooth very fine lines under a microscope, make skin look temporarily glowy and plump sagginess in the short-term, but as far as one hero product that guarantees eternal youth goes? It just doesn’t exist. And what’s really frustrating is that, deep down, we all know this is true. We know it’s true because we spend hundreds of pounds on skincare products that promise us age-reversal, and they never live up to their claims. Howe...

Choosing a signature scent isn’t easy—trust me. I’ve spent years trialling hundreds of perfumes in a quest to find The One. From affordable spritzes to blow-the-budget blends, no perfume that I sprayed quite cut the mustard. Why? Because for years I was absolutely convinced that I didn’t want to smell like anyone else out there. I was adamant that I would never become the person who stopped someone on the street and asked what their perfume was because unless I’d discovered it for myself, I didn’t want it. However, many years (and a whole lot of beauty expertise) later, as I walked to meet a friend, a waft so fierce and feminine kissed my nose that my senses ran away from me, and I more or less chased a lady through a train station to ask her what perfume she ...

When it comes to personal scent, I am something of a fragrance junkie. From celeb-approved perfumes to this year’s trending scents, I love experimenting with new aromas but pride myself in being able to find the best expensive-smelling scents that don’t cost the earth. And when it comes to home fragrance? Well, I’m similarly obsessed.  Honestly, at this point in time, my fireplace has pretty much become a display shelf for scented candles. After all, why light just one when you can light five? So, as someone that’s always on the lookout for candle recommendations to add to my collection, I thought it might be interesting to see which scented candles the A-list fragrance their own abodes with. From Megh...

You don’t need me to tell you that chopping and changing your skincare line-up every time a new It product hits the shelves is terrible for your skin. Not just because our skin likes routine, but also because all skin is different, and what is deemed a miracle product by one skinfluencer could be disastrous for your complexion. And no one knows this peril better than a beauty editor. You see, while we beauty editors like to think we know better than to fall for every buzzy product that comes our way, in reality, we’re ruining our skin every single day by testing and trialling them all—it’s part and parcel of the job. In order to know what products are good and which ones aren’t, we’ve got to be prepared to face the music when our skin acts up. This is where our stash of antidotes come...

If you were to take a quick scroll through my Instagram stories then you’d be forgiven for thinking that my job basically involves swatching lipsticks and testing face masks for a living, and to some extent you’d be right. A lot of what I do does involve trying and testing new products so that I can make genuine recommendations, but there’s a whole other side to working in beauty that I love just as much—geeking out over data. From stats about sell-out products to studies on skincare, I’m obsessed with the evidence that proves a product works. So when we noticed that there was one specific beauty product trending in our weekly reports because Who What Wear readers had been shopping it in their droves, I immediately wanted to know why.  ...

Despite the fact that the majority of the skin on our bodies is below the neck, we do a very good job at neglecting it. While double cleansing, exfoliating and masking our faces might be rituals cemented firmly in our weekly beauty routines, for the most part, the skin on the rest of our bodies is left to fend for itself. And while the skin on our faces has more demanding wants and needs, the rest of our skin does require at least some basic level of TLC, too. Most notably, at around this time every year, it has a tendency to turn dry. As the seasons change, a perfect concoction of fluctuating temperatures, wind, sun exposure and a change in wardrobe choices (is it warm enough to show a bit of ankle yet?) can cause our skin to turn dry, scaly and ashy. And while dryness on the face ca...