Golden mask to blast away your wrinkles...
and the other bizarre beauty innovations in store for 2019
WHEN it comes to your beauty regime, this year is going to be all about innovation, with LED light treatments you can carry out at home and clever brands that rethink the way products are formulated and packaged.
From pizza-wheel eyeliners to handcream that can remove nail varnish at the same time as moisturising your mitts, here’s how to update your pamper time. DO-IT-YOURSELF LED MASKS THEY may look like props from a sci-fi movie, but these high-tech masks are inspired by the LED lights you usually find in the dermatologist’s clinic which employ LED (light-emitting diodes) to boost skin tone. Different colours treat different issues — red boosts elastin and collagen production, amber and green light is used to treat skin pigmentation problems and sun damage, while blue light stops the bacteria that cause acne.
Until now, these full-face masks have been salon-only, but home versions are about to hit the market. Cosmetic surgeon Dr Zamani’s golden face mask (available mid-January, €595, mzskin.
com) has five different coloured LED treatments — including yellow to reduce redness and inflammation and white to work on skin sensitivity — designed to be used for ten to 30 minutes, several times a week.
Meanwhile, Dr Gross’s DRx SpectraLite FaceWare Pro (€380, drdennisgross.
com) promises to smooth wrinkles and zap acne-causing bacteria in a threeminute daily session. Neither come cheap, but both promise results within a month.
THE PICK-YOUR-OWN COLOUR PALETTES
WE’VE all bought what we thought would be the perfect palette only to discover we use only one of the colours because the others are the wrong hue.
The 2019 solution? Beautonomy. com, an online shop, lets you build a bespoke palette. You can choose from more than 40 shades, as well as customising the colours, patterns and fonts of the packaging to create a bespoke product. There are seven sizes to choose from, ranging from a two-pan, €11.10, face palette — choose from blushers, bronzers and highlighters — through to €27.80 for eight eye shadows or brow shades.
THE PIZZA WHEEL EYELINER
STRUGGLE to perfect your liquid eyeliner? That could be because you’ve been using a pen or a brush when what you really need is a pizza wheel.
Yes, a pizza wheel — or to be more accurate, a miniaturised version of one of those trundle wheels they use for drawing lines on the road.
The premise is simple — dip the wheel into the liquid liner, as you would a brush, and roll across the lash line.
Mac kickstarted the revolution last year with Roller Wheel Eyeliner (no longer available) but now everyone from Guerlain (Roll’Ink Liner, €24.15, allbeauty.com) to Nudestix (Rock ’n’ Roller Easy Liner, €22.23, cultbeauty.co.uk) and Revlon (ColorStay Exactify Liquid Liner, €6.42, (feelunique.
com) has a version. Perfect if you happen to be a little cack-handed.
THE MAKE-UP DE-CAKER
YOU’VE finished your make-up perfectly but somewhere along the line you’ve overdone it on the powder and, rather than looking glowy, your skin is cakey and flat.
Until now, there was no way to quickly and easily reverse the powderiness, but Guerlain’s latest part-make-up, part-skincare product can do exactly that.
It’s basically a super-lightweight tinted moisturiser laced with micro-pearls that you can apply as a primer, or — and this is where it comes into its own — on top of make-up to give a dewy glow that moisturises at the same time. Guerlain Abeille Royale Bee Glow Aqua Cushion, €50, cosme-de.com.
THE NAIL VARNISH REMOVING CREAM
TRULY a miracle for anyone used to polish removers that seem to strip everything from the nail, leaving them dry and brittle. This acetone-free nail polish remover cream smells nice, gets rid of polish and leaves nails and cuticles nourished, thanks to macadamia, almond, argan and vitamin E oils. It smells and feels like a posh hand cream but, apply a thick layer to your nail, leave for a couple of minutes, then remove with a tissue or cotton pad for polish-free, moisturised paws. Nailfix & Chill Nail Polish Eraser Cream, €16.60, thisisbeautymart. com.
THE ANTI-AGEING POWER CAPSULES
THE next generation of skincare capsules are packed with more powerful ingredients, and are increasingly available at the cheaper end of the market. As well as being convenient for travelling, they keep active ingredients protected from light and air, ensuring they’re at their most potent when they hit the skin, and deliver the perfect
dose. Elizabeth Arden’s ceramide capsules now come with added retinol, the anti-ageing skin ingredient that everyone is raving about (Retinol Ceramide Capsules, €50, arnotts.ie).
For those on a budget, nSpa (Nightly Revitalising Retinol Capsules, €11.10, spaathome.co.uk) also has a version containing retinol and moisturising oils.
It’s so confident about the results, it is offering a money-back guarantee if you don’t look younger in four weeks.
Beauty Pie has two types of capsule, one with vitamins C and E to help brighten and protect skin, and the other with hyaluronic acid (from €11.90, beautypie. com).
And watch out for L’Oreal’s Revitalift HA Ampoules, a sevenday skin-plumping course, which is due to be launched later this month.
THE GEL-IFICATION OF SKINCARE
YOU might think we’d all be turning to heavyweight creams and oils given the winter chill, but the latest skincare trend is for lightweight gel textures that are super hydrating, without being clogging.
The beauty community’s current fave is Dr Sam Bunting’s Flawless Cleanser (€17.80, drsambunting.com), a simple, soothing, unfragranced clear jelly that effectively cleanses all skin types without irritation.
Moisturisers have gone similarly lightweight — there’s Murad’s Nutrient Charged Water Gel (€55.74, bathandunwind.
com) with peptides, vitamins and minerals in a moisture-locking base; Revolution Skin’s Hydration Boost Gel-Cream (€8.99,
revolutionbeauty.com) and even Olay has created an ultra-light formulation (€38.90) using a technology that allows the product to hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water, alongside key ingredients, which are released onto the skin in a cream-to-liquid form.
SMART PACKAGING REVAMPS
THE people behind the iconic Beautyblender sponge have created a foundation (Bounce, €35.60, cultbeauty.co.uk) in a bottle designed to dispense the foundation into a well in the side.
Meanwhile, in the world of haircare, Hold Me Three Ways (€14.96,
sallybeauty.co.uk) looks like a regular hairspray, but twist the nozzle and you can adjust how much spray is dispensed, from Light for taming flyaways and setting a blow dry, to High for securing up-dos.