FRESH FROM THE NEW QUEEN OF CLEAN

Emily Parr is a New York based PR powerhouse who has helped to launch many a ‘clean’ beauty brand. You should also know that she washes her face three times a day (four at weekends). When she wakes up, to expunge ‘sleep sweat’, after her morning workout and then, of course, there’s the double cleanse before bed. So it’s little wonder that when she decided to launch her own skincare line, with business partner Majeed Hemmat, it all started with cleansers.

Enter Holifrog. I hadn’t expected to be so bowled over by it, but I really have been. For now it consists of four differently textured cleansers: Kissimmee Vitamin F Therapy Balm Wash (£38), Superior Omega Nutritive Gel Wash (£33), Tashmoo Water Lily Nourishing Milky Wash (£35) and the one that really started it all, the Shasta AHA Refining Acid Wash (£35).

The formulas are ‘dense in nutrients rather than surfactants’ – the chemicals that get a product to lather and emulsify. Emily has nothing against them but thinks they are used in too high quantities and that we’ve all been brainwashed into thinking that if something isn’t super foaming, it isn’t working. Use fewer of them and there’s more space for beneficial ingredients such as vitamins. Holifrog does contain some surfactants, of course, but only between three and eight per cent. Emily wanted to make something that doesn’t just clean but also delivers benefits to your skin. So this range is full of antioxidants to protect against free radicals and pollution; vitamins A, B, C, E, F and K to help nourish and boost skin function and more.

As for other ingredients, don’t even get her started on ethylhexyl palmitate, which is common in many balms. ‘People think they’re buying an oil cleanser but it isn’t even an oil,’ says Emily. She has similar feelings on high levels of water and glycerine – fillers not fixers. She is ‘very nitpicky when it comes to formulas’, so this line is free from parabens, polyethylene glycols (PEGs), phthalates, silicones, palm oil, and much more. It is also the bee’s knees. Available from net-a-porter.com from Tuesday.