Glowing for Gold

There were squeals of excitement, followed by exclamations of surprise that nobody had dreamt it up sooner when the Clarins PR team introduced the latest self-tanning innovation to the Scottish press this week. Clarins Radiance-Plus Golden Glow Booster (£18; www.clarins.co.uk, from May) is the product we’ve all been waiting for, whether we want a tanned, not Tango’d, face or whether we just want a subtle glow to replace our naturally ghostly pallour. Why? Because it’s designed to be mixed with our regular day cream to allow a natural-looking tan to develop.

All you do is mix a few drops of this clever self-tanner into to your daily dose of cream (or your serum) as you’re about to apply it. The self-tanner develops evenly on the skin. Continue with three drops if you want to intensify the tan, and once you have the colour you want,  you only need to apply a couple of drops a day to maintain it. Genius!

And if proof were needed that it really is all about looking healthy rather than looking like a potential
customer for the skin cancer specialist then look no further than Chanel. Its chic collection of SPF powders, launched last year, was called Healthy Glow and the range now includes two new, limited edition, powder compacts, Healthy Glow Multi-colour (£39; from May 9), which each have three colours that can be swooshed together to give the complexion a radiant appearance, or can be used separately as a highlighter, blusher and sculpting powder.

Also launched is a Healthy Glow Fluid SPF15 (£34), a lovely formula, available in six shades, which combines powder and gel and evens out the skin while imbuing it with a radiant lustre.

 

Superheroes à la Guerlain

Guerlain’s Super Aqua-Serum is, without a doubt, one of my “Desert Island” beauty products; an exquisitely scented lotion which helps tackle dehydration and plumps up the skin. It’s one of those beauty items I treat my complexion to every now and then, whenever I feel a pick-me-up is required – and often after I’ve been dallying with some new cream or other that my skin hasn’t warmed to. I’ve certainly had plenty of occasions to turn to it during my 18 years on the beauty beat: this sublime serum has been on the go for a quarter of a century. It is now regarded as a bona fide classic, and one which underwent an updating of its technology just two years ago.

This spring, my Desert Island dressing table is going to have to make room for another product from the newly relaunched Super-Aqua range: the Day Cream (£70) which I’ve now been using for a fortnight (along with my beloved serum). My skin isn’t so much dry as thirsty so it was in fact the Day Gel (£70) that I had hoped to try but since samples of those were scarce, I “made do” with the cream. And, oh, I’m glad I gave it a go… Why? Because it is gorgeous – luxurious but easily absorbed, cocooning but not heavy, and it makes the skin – well, MY skin – feel unbelievably smooth and look even-toned. So much so that I have actually left the house without foundation. More than once. And when I do put foundation on over it, it looks fab. Super-aqua-duper, in fact…

 

The Eyes Have It

It’s all about the eyes at the moment. whether you like dramatic colour – as depicted by Chanel in this beautiful shot that shows off the gorgeous greeny-blue Tisse Venitien palette from their recently launched 2014 Eyes Collection – or whether you prefer to go natural, with just a slick of mascara.

Chanel has reformulated their classic Les 4 Ombres palette (£40), which was first introduced in 1982. I have to say, I wasn’t a fan of the previous incarnation: its hard little boules of colour were always, I found, difficult to work with and didn’t last. The new formula is much more user-friendly: it has a softer and longer-lasting texture, and it has an intense concentration of pigments. Used dry, the eyeshadows can provide a wash of colour or be built up and blended. Used wet, the colour is ultra-dramatic. The new collection has been inspired by tweed, the fabric most strongly identified with the House of Chanel – and there are eight gorgeous colourways to choose from.

My favourite item in the new Chanel Eyes Collection is a limited edition version of the fab Le Volume Waterproof Mascara (£24) – the Vert Grise shade, a murky greeny-grey shade which I think works very well with blue eyes. Mind you, I’m a bit of a sucker for all shades of Le Volume!

Its only serious rival at the moment is the latest mascara offering from Clinique – its Lash Power Feathering Mascara (£18; www.clinique.co.uk), a smudge-proof formula with a brush which creates a soft, feathery effect on the lashes. The look is quite subtle but I found that the Black Onyx shade (there is also a Dark Chocolate variation) intensified the effect of my eyeliner, making my eyes stand out more – even with no other eye make-up…