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 make-up de-caker, 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 are 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, mzskin.com) has five different coloured LED treatments designed to be used for ten to 30 minutes, several times a week.
The pick-your-own colour palettes
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.
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 but now everyone from Guerlain (Roll’Ink Liner) to Revlon (ColorStay Exactly Liquid Liner) has a version.
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.
Guerlain's Abeille Royale Bee Glow Aqua Cushion is 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.
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 everyone is raving about (Retinol Ceramide Capsules). Watch out for L’Oreal’s Revitalift HA Ampoules, a seven-day 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.
Moisturisers have gone similarly lightweight — there’s Murad’s Nutrient Charged Water Gel with peptides, vitamins and minerals in a moisture-locking base; and even Olay has created an ultra-light formulation 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.
Murad’s Nutrient Charged Water Gel.
The super-charged eye patches
Whether it’s fine lines, dark circles or bags, the under-eye area is notoriously difficult to treat. Gel masks can help, but the latest generation has extra teeth. Known as micro-needle patches, they don’t pierce the skin, rather they have a surface of microspikes that feels rough — like a cat’s tongue.
The idea is that they not only stimulate the production of collagen but also enhance penetration of any ingredient. Vichy’s LiftActiv Micro Hyalu patches are made of hyaluronic acid that gradually dissolve into the skin.
© Daily Mail