Hannah Betts Beauty micro tweaks that will take years off your look
Better...not younger
WILL 2023 be the year you get fitter? Perhaps. Will it be the year in which you get fit, lose ten kilos, look 20 years younger, get a perfect hairstyle, solve your spots, grow your eyelashes, paint your nails, and become the kind of woman who prefers kale over cake? Probably not.
What I propose is to change only one thing this January: something small, attainable and possibly rather fun.
For there’s nothing quite like some bijou personal project by way of diversion. I shed half a stone between September and December simply by not being spectacularly greedy, and I even enjoyed that gentle behaviour modification.
Change fosters change, so by embracing one tweak, you’ll be opening yourself up to more of them. And, should you get a taste for it and want to make more microshifts then, by all means, knock yourself out.
First off, allow yourself a bathroom reboot. After sprucing things up and disposing of anything festering, I installed new towels in place of our ancient ones. Nothing fancy, you understand. It merely took a trip to the local supermarket to decide upon a colour, then job done.
I also changed our toothbrush heads, laid out new bars of Nesti Dante Dei Colli Fiorentini Cipresso soap (£4.75, amazon.co. uk), filled the dispenser with Aroma Active Laboratories’ dreamy, patchouli- scented Soothing Body & Face Cleanser (£5.40, sephora.co. uk) and broke the seal on Next, some new body cream.
may I suggest that you adopt a make- up change? Never rocked a bold lip or a bright talon? Now is the time. And, if this spurs the reaction ‘ that’s not me’, well … not me is precisely what we’re looking for.
Always sport a barely there pink? Do fuchsia. Happiest with a pale caramel? Don a sensational satsuma. Or, if this holds no fear, change texture. Live for matte? Go for sheen. Barry M’s sheer, non- sticky Glazed Oil Infused Lip Gloss (£4.99, barrym.com) is a terrific place to start.
Being more of a balm fiend than a huge lipstick wearer, I’ve opted for Lisa eldridge’s true Velvet Lip Colour in Velvet Myth (£ 26, lisaeldridge.com) —a move so radical even my make-up-oblivious partner gasped.
It may be in my cooltoned ballpark, but Velvet Myth is a full- on, insanely pigmented mulberry, inspired by a vintage kimono Lisa found on her first trip to Japan.
I never go for red — and this strays dangerously close — but it has enough blue in it to whiten my teeth and instantly clear and freshen my complexion.
Wearing it, I’ve been forced to reconsider how to play the rest of my face — never a bad thing.
It requires different application techniques and a whole new attitude. It is ‘not me’, and invigoratingly all the better for it.
Nail-wise, your hands are far enough away from your face that you don’t even have to bear in mind what suits you — just take a technicolor leap!
Or your focus might be eye make- up innovation: finally cracking eyeshadow shading, or mastering waterline kohl.
Find a new foundation style, swap bronzer for blusher, or experiment with a ( slight) contour. Do what our daughters and granddaughters do and have a look on Youtube. then, invest in a set of brushes and play.
You might become a serum specialist, get a tweakment, change your parting or cut a fringe.
Or perhaps you’ll unearth a new scent you’ve never considered before — the lessenteurs.com website is a wonderful place to peruse.
embrace change, explore, evolve, shock yourself a little. You’ll look — and feel — all the younger for it.
Follow: @HannahJBetts