From garden-inspired perfumery to invisible skin scents and super-charged self-tanning, here’s what you need to know for a beautiful month ahead
Escape
June’s beauty launches appear to be speaking to, and of, a communal desperation for escape. At Diptyque, a collaboration with illustrator and designer Luke Edward Hall bottles some kind of mediterranean mirage. Recalling the regular haunts of Yves Coueslant and Desmond Knox-Leet, two of the brand’s three founding members, Hall has lent his trademark naive illustrations to the range. There’s Ilio, a perfume named after Helios, the Greek sun god, which with its prickly pear and bergamot base somehow smells like sunny salty skin. And Citronelle, the most upscale mosquito-repelling candle you’ll ever lay your eyes on.
The Summer Fridays girls are, as the name explains, always in this dreamy kind of mood – with their hit products like the cooling, juice-ifying Jet Lag Mask and their vanilla-y Lip Butter Balm. But their latest, Summer Silk Nourishing Body Lotion, is particularly evocative with its dreamy cocoa butter fragrance, and ultra light holiday-ready consistency. Chanel’s Les Beiges Summer Light collection would be the perfect accompaniment on a long-awaited trip, with its whipped, moussy Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream, and Le Vernis Longwear Nail Colors in shimmering shades like Sunlight, Golden Sand and Solar.
At Gucci, 1921 is the latest edition to the apothecary-inspired Alchemist’s Garden range created in conjunction by master perfumer Alberto Morrilas and the label’s creative director Alessandro Michele. It celebrates 100 years of Gucci as well as its birthplace, the city of Florence. A blend of the Florentine fruit, limone cedrato – a huge and gnarly lemon with plenty of pith – heady neroli and lush Oakmoss (a synthetic recreation since the natural lichen plant is a known allergen), it’s a welcome addition to Gucci’s customisable collection of eaux de parfum, perfumed oils and acque profumate.
Reuse
It’s World Environment Day on 5 June, and World Ocean Day on 8 June, so mark the occasion with this collaboration between refillable soaps purveyors Kan Kan and fashion brand L.F. Markey (launching on 7 June). This ceramic seasidey dispenser offers a seasonal twist on Kan Kan’s reusable brown-glass pump bottles, which can be filled with their cans of all-natural baby, body and hand washes.
Scent
There’s a lot of moreish scent coming our way this month. Firstly with CSM designer Kiko Kostadinov’s absolutely addictive first perfume KK.001, which comes in tiny toothpaste tubes of squeezable scent. Devised alongside Tokyo based fragrance label RETAW, it’s an utterly edible concoction of seemingly classic woody and musk ingredients – I can’t get enough of it. Luxe lingerie line La Perla has just launched its first beauty range, complete with a nine-piece perfume collection (in poppy Memphis-like flacons), high-voltage make-up and body care products in elegantly carved packaging. It’s as high-end as one would imagine, with a particularly captivating barely there EDP – Invisible Touch – that conjures images of cashmere on clean skin. Bjork & Berries’s Mareld meanwhile, is a jolt of fresh air, inspired by a midnight swim in Nordic waters, it’s salty and cold, with bergamot and violet.
Boost
Self-tanning drops have gone high-performance: Natura Bissé’s C+C Vitamin Self-Tan Drops help brighten while tanning and Tan-Luxe Super Glow boasts a combo of tanning actives, hyaluronic acid, superfood ingredients and antioxidants like chia seed oil, beetroot extract, avocado oil and blueberry extract to nourish, protect and brighten.
Hair stylist George Northwood has added another hit item to his excellently priced range Undone by George Northwood: the Volume Spray. It does what it says on the recyclable tin: adds volume and texture to pre-styled hair, without adding frizz. Fans of Sisley’s now iconic Black Rose range (we’ve already discussed how the Cream Mask is heaven on earth) will be snapping up the latest Black Rose Beautifying Emulsion for body. Its delectable scent and ultra-plumping formula is a welcome boost to WFH-fatigued bodies.
