From calming treatments and skin-soothing elixirs to kitsch lip balms and piney scents, here’s what you’ll need for a beautiful season ahead
Take a Beat
Shed the stress of the festive season with a trip to Mayfair’s newest boutique wellness clinic, Le Petit Saint. From the moment you enter through the blush pink doors, you’re cocooned by warm, Pinterest-ready interiors created by Australian designer Blainey North, who’s known for overhauling New York’s tallest residential building and multiple celebrity abodes. Amid the nap pods, water features and high ceilings peppered with cherubs, you’ll find rooms equipped for Hydrafacials, futuristic ExoMind treatments (to improve mental wellness) and IV drips.
If you can’t get yourself to London, set the scene at home with NEOM’s limited edition Wellbeing Pods, which exude aromatherapeutic essential oils and come in pleasing colours to match your decor. The scent Perfect Peace smells like just a real Christmas tree. As does the iconic Sapin Candle by Diptyque, with festive notes of Siberian pine, resin, cedar and moss, back in time for the holiday season.
Skin Soothers
Parry winter’s drying grip with Uni’s 24-Hour Body Serum, which swiftly sinks into skin (no stickiness under your festive knitwear). It calls on Australian kakadu plum and bladderwrack seaweed to support collagen production, as well as Australian lime caviar to exfoliate dull patches as it moisturises. Or, if you prefer to use an oil, Wallow’s Untamed Moss Bath & Body Oil by Piglet in Bed coats limbs in patchouli, geranium, bergamot, lavender and lemon essential oils. It smells refreshing and earthy like grass after rain, and you can use it as a bath soak or on dry skin.
For your face, the new Malin+Goetz Niacinamide Restorative Cream will cut your get-ready time on chilly mornings, as it combines a serum and moisturiser into one convenient step. Vitamins, mushrooms and ceramides plump up skin and keep it feeling hydrated even in the depths of winter, and it evens skin tone too. Similarly, Medik8’s Advanced Pro-Collagen + Peptide Cream feels rich and silky – like a hydrating, cocooning veil. Lock everything in with Mauli Rituals’ Sacred Union Scent & Dry Oil, back by popular demand. Deeply inhale its grounding scent – which comprises lime, coriander, sandalwood and rose – as it gets to work on nourishing your skin.
Exceed Expectation
When your skin looks dull and hydration alone won’t cut it, try an exfoliator. Naturium’s AHA Exfoliating Mask uses lactic and glycolic acids, as well as finely milled rice powder, which doesn’t feel harsh or leave your skin feeling squeaky.
As harsh weather descends, hands also require more care. Slather Le Labo’s newest Perfuming Hand Cream in the scent AnOther 13 – a musky blend of warm ambroxyde and jasmine with spiky moss, created in collaboration with AnOther Magazine’s Jefferson Hack. The cream calls on meadowfoam seed oil to hydrate drying fingers, and its scent lingers for ages – just like a perfume would.
Come Christmastime, kitsch, themed formulas are an Achilles' heel. Glossier’s new Balm Dotcoms in Cookie Butter and Hot Cocoa spark joy with their delicious scents that taste just as good as they smell – all without compromising on their ultra-hydrating prowess. Apply liberally to lips, dry elbows, cuticles, ad infinitum.
Let Down Your Hair
No matter how much you dye, heat or bleach your hair, Typebea’s Pre-Wash Damage Repair Mask will repair it with a clever blend of hydrolysed wool protein and antioxidants to strengthen each strand from the inside. It smells delightful – floral and juicy, like a noughties celebrity perfume – and leaves hair feeling shiny and swishy, so you can whip your woolly hats on and off without worrying about friction-induced frizz or breakage. If you’re less worried about breakage and instead struggling with an itchy scalp, enlist Rahua’s new aloe vera range, which reduces inflammation and balances the scalp’s natural mantle. The soothing cucumber feels positively intoxicating against irritated skin.
Lash Care
As party season approaches, eye launches are working particularly hard: Rhode’s take on the under-eye patch features a cooling hydrogel to instantly depuff and brighten sleepy moons, while Gróa’s natural and prostaglandin-free Lash Serum uses peptides to lengthen lashes without irritating delicate skin. The real pièce de résistance comes in the form of Rum Wrap Party – a tubing mascara developed by three industry veterans: beauty editor Sali Hughes, make-up artist Sam Chapman and brand strategist Jo Jones. It’s easy to remove with just water, and it doesn’t transfer, smudge or crumble. Apply for separated, fanned out, long and flexible lashes that last all day. Pair with the new Merit Sheen Solo Shadows and you have yourself the perfect party eye look.
