skin

It’s fair to say that I have made no secret of my scepticism about eye cream. They are usually eye-wateringly expensive when you look at the cost per millitre and come with a whole host of unwarranted promises about their ability to reverse wrinkles and eradicate eye bags. In fact, until I discovered The Ordinary’s Caffeine Solution back at the start of 2019 I basically didn’t use eye cream at all—and this one really only changed my mind because it’s pleasingly affordable at just £6 and didn’t make any ludicrous claims that it then failed to deliver on. Fast-forward two years, however, and oh how times have changed. I am now in my early 30s with a one-year-old baby and contending with dark circles and under-eye puffiness has become a daily challenge. If an eye cream lands on my desk these ...

Ask anyone what type of skin they have and most of us will reply with sensitive, oily, normal, or dry. And traditionally, that’s the way that many of us still shop for our skincare products. However, consumers are becoming increasingly aware that this general approach to skincare just isn’t delivering when it comes to results. After all, our complexions are, well, complex.  “We are all different and so is our skin… One size does not fit all,” says Ben Esdaile, MD, consultant dermatologist at Skin + Me. Esdaile believes that 2021 will be all about “tailor-made and custom-blended skincare prescribed for the individual based on their skin type, life stage, skin concern, and lifestyle.” That way, consumers will truly get the results they are looking for. For this to work, skincare needs t...

And while there is a whole bunch of questionable advice out there that could have skincare experts debating for days, there are recurring pieces of false information on social media that they are growing increasingly frustrated over, and as a result, I am too. Crucially, it is important to remember that in skincare, there is no one-rule-fits-all answer to anything, however experts argue it’s important to have a basic understanding of the extra information that often gets left out. So, in a bid to help debunk some of the skin-shaming myths doing the rounds right now, I reached out to some of the most straight-talking skin experts in the game to uncover the social media skincare lies that rile them up the most. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reima...

According to Jeanniton, WOC are commonly charged with caring for some specific skin conditions. “My approach to skincare for women of colour has two priorities: optimising skin health and keeping hyperpigmentation at bay,” she says. “Physiologically speaking, the skin needs of women of colour are the same as anyone else: UV protection, reduction of oxidative stress, preservation of a healthy skin barrier, and encouragement of cell renewal. But because of heightened sensitivity to inflammation, issues of hyperpigmentation factor prominently into the considerations for this group.” Sounds familiar, right? Hyperpigmentation is likely the first skincare term you ever learned. “It can take a significant amount of time to restore the skin barrier once compromised. G...

For as long as I can remember I’ve passed as being a few years younger than my actual age. When I was 22 I was mistaken for being 16, and on my 27th birthday I was asked for ID when buying alcohol. Why am I telling you this? Well, since becoming a parent, I’ve wondered if I have still retained my youthfulness. I can’t deny that there are now bags and dark circles under my eyes when they weren’t before. As I type this, I feel very tired. The sort of tired that’s only caused by long-term sleep deprivation. And what were once tiny, almost non-existent lines on my forehead are now becoming deep grooves.  Now firmly in my 30s (I’m 35), I decided to canvas my colleagues to see how old they thought I was. Over Slack I asked them how old they thought I looked and asked them to be genuinely ho...

Well, team, we’ve officially made it to 2021. Congrats all around! To be standing here, on the other side of the hardest year ever, is an accomplishment worth celebrating. Although the challenges of yesteryear trolled the hell out of us, they also taught us a ton of new skills to keep in our beauty arsenals. Maskne? We know how to handle her. Overgrown roots? Not for long. But one of the biggest lessons we learned is that a lot of products we’ve been using don’t deserve to accompany us into the New Year. Harsh but true. While we’re not totally out of the woods with all of the craziness we faced last year, we’re certainly moving in the right direction toward a much more peaceful new normal. As such, purging our beauty routines of any dead weight is a must. Than...

“The Ordinary is an evolving collection of treatments offering familiar, effective clinical technologies positioned to raise pricing and communication integrity in skincare,” the brand states on its website. “It was created to celebrate integrity in its most humble and true form. Its offering is pioneering, not in the familiar technologies it uses, but in its honesty and integrity. The Ordinary is born to disallow commodity to be disguised as ingenuity. The Ordinary is ‘Clinical formulations with integrity.”‘ So when we were discussing the brand and five of its top-selling formulas during a recent editorial meeting, I couldn’t help wondering what my 73-year-old mum would think. Even though she loves a good bargain and does swear...

There’s nothing I enjoy more than being asked for a product recommendation. Whether it’s a glow-seeking colleague asking for tips on the best brightening face masks or a a tired mum friend seeking an eye cream that will actually work on dark circles, I have always loved offering up advice on the best beauty products. But how do I determine what’s worth recommending? Well, I’m lucky in my job as a beauty editor to be sent a huge amount of products to test which means that my beauty stash is in near constant rotation. Some products make their way in and out pretty sharpish while others might stick around for a little while before making their way into my friends and family donation pile. There is no greater seal of approval, however,...

When it comes to spa-like cleansers that leave skin soft, nourished and glowing beyond belief, this cult product goes unrivalled—and that’s why it’s so exciting that Who What Wear has teamed up with Elemis to give away 200 Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balms (100g), worth £44 each, to our readers. Simply enter below to have the chance to get your hands on a free tub! Besides being a hot favourite amongst team here, it is also considered an everyday staple for beauty buffs and editors far and wide. Formulated with just the right balance of nourishing oils and waxes, it melts away makeup and grime, revealing a complexion that practically beams health and radiance. You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should b...

Be warned, though. This is a treatment you have to set some time aside for. (Some would say it’s the perfect thing for a period of staying at home.) The masks themselves vary in how long they should be left on. Some are as short as an hour but no longer than overnight. A quick piece of advice from us: Always soak your feet in warm water for a short time before applying any of these masks to help the process along. The exfoliation part, however, involves the mask’s ingredients working slowly over a period of time, sometimes up to a week or 10 days, before any results are seen. Then, the top layer of your skin sheds, much like a snake, leaving behind baby-soft soles underneath.  So if you’re ever planning to use one in preparation for a specific even...

A little disclaimer before we get started: Despite the fact that my job involves testing hundreds of beauty products each year to decipher which ones are genuinely good and which are a case of the emperor’s new clothes, I am still not immune to the buzz surrounding a trending beauty product. In fact, one of the biggest joys of my job is getting to test out the most talked-about new beauty launches—you know, the ones that are currently saturating your Instagram feed—to find out whether they actually work. However, while there are plenty of beauty products that are, undoubtedly, worth the hype (Drunk Elephant’s T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial, I’m looking at you), there are plenty more instances when a new release turns out to be a whole lot of nice packaging and not much else. If you ask...

Prior to using brightening face masks, my skin was, well, not very bright all the time. I tend to not get as much sleep as I should, and it often shows. The closest thing I found to eight hours of sleep is these masks, and most also have long-term benefits. The market is pretty saturated with brightening masks at this point, so I volunteered to be your guinea pig and try quite a few of them out. The first thing I learned during this process is that applying multiple brightening face masks in a relatively short period of time isn’t exactly an amazing idea. (Luckily, I had this cult Summer Fridays mask on hand to rescue my skin when I needed it.) The commonality between these masks is that they all promise glowing skin, but I did find differences between them, such as ho...