How to fake a winter glow

No Courchevel or Costa Rica trip on the horizon? Who needs holidays when you can get the sun-kissed look with Rosie Green’s pick-me-ups

OUR EXPERT SHARES HER INSIDER KNOWLEDGE

Wan. Adj. (of a person’s complexion) pale and giving the impression of illness or exhaustion.

This is me in the depths of winter, Gollum-like. Thanks to a combo of central heating, gotta-get-through-this booze and lack of vitamin D, my skin is paper thin and translucent white with delightful patches of red. Meanwhile, my olive-skinned friends say they’re an unfetching shade of yellow – think smoker’s ceiling – and mates with darker skin tones complain of looking ashy.

How to counter it? The right mix of fake tan, make-up and skincare.

Add a hint of glow

Fake tan isn’t just for summer. In fact, in winter it has double benefits because it adds healthy warmth to pallid complexions and evens out skin tone

(great for red noses and general blotchiness).

Skinny Tan’s tanning expert Claire Lambert says it’s essential to exercise seasonal caution, though: ‘One layer of tan in winter is all you need. It will look more natural and give you that gorgeous glow you’re after.’

For more cautious types

(me), try adding a few tanning drops to your usual moisturiser. I like Tan-Luxe Illuminating Self-Tan Drops (above,€26.50, feelunique.com) and the purse-friendly Boots Glow Gradual Tanning Drops (€6.49, boots.ie).

Post application, Lambert suggests keeping skincare basic, as too many active ingredients can ‘alter the colour of your tan’. For winter she advises using a fake tan that comes in a hydrating serum to combat dryness. I like Skinny Tan Tan & Tone Wonder Serum (€39.99, boots.ie).

And don’t dismiss fake tanning if you have a darker skin tone. It still adds glow and warmth and blurs blemishes.

Apply fresh colour

Channel the après-ski beauty trend with the latest Chanel Les Beiges make-up range, Healthy Winter Glow. All products are designed to achieve a ‘fresh, subtly rosy complexion’ that looks like you’ve spent a ‘day in the mountains’. As well as primers available in three shades (right, €50, chanel.com) to perk up flagging faces with a hit of hydration and a flattering iridescence, the collection includes blushes

(€65) that mimic a just-in-from-the-cold flush, and nail varnishes – icy-white Glaciale and frosted-pink Skieuse (€32 each).

For those who want to look like they’ve spent time on a sunlounger rather than skis, try Cabana Glow Mineral Glow Serum Drops SPF50 (€38.75, feelunique.com) or other YOU favourites Delilah Lip Saviour Lip Oil (€34.95, delilahcosmetics. com), which hydrates and enhances natural colour; Sainsbury’s Boutique

Blush Palette Romantica (€5.85 sainsburys.co.uk) and Ciaté London Dewy Stix Bronzing Balm (€23.45 lookfantastic.ie).

Scrub up

Dry winter skin absorbs rather than reflects light, hence dullness. For exfoliators try new Dermalogica Liquid Peelfoliant (right, €74, dermalogica. ie); Relevant Sol Tone Resurface & Glow Solution (€63.84, feelunique.ie); The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution (€10.80, boots.ie) and Bramley Walnut Shell Revitalising Face Scrub (€37.50, bramleyproducts.co.uk).

@lifesrosie