Like fashion, our beauty wardrobes can be a blend of fast and investment buys. This month, the industry is doubling down on value and sustainability, with makeup and skincare offerings that are both attainable and clean. Here’s what’s hot mid-winter. By editor Trudi Brewer.
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Beauty is increasingly shaped by our global economic climate, with plenty of innovations at attainable prices, which, by the way, are also brilliant. If winter is a time for rest, reflection, and rejuvenation, there is an exceptional, vitamin C power shot to address brown spots, blush drops to brighten even the dullest skin, requiring no skill to achieve a flush of colour. Also, our style director shares her best K-Beauty purchase.
Morphe Hot Shot Blush Drops, $23
It’s one of the fastest-growing beauty brands with a new exclusive home at MECCA Cosmetica here in NZ. This bold, LA-based brand is designed for makeup artists and loved by millions. If you like punchy colour and a seamless finish to your makeup, then Morphe is a great go-to. The Blush Drops are epic. Not only are there five shades, but you can apply them with your fingers or buff them in with a brush to achieve a seamless finish. Not only are they affordable, but the formulas are also packed with skincare ingredients, including niacinamide, glycerin, and vitamin E. Pictured here is the shade That Girl.
Clean, innovative formulations are the calling cards of local beauty brand Aleph, which has reimagined its signature Lift/Lengthen Mascara, along with a colour that doubles as a lash-boosting growth serum. Stacked with growth-stimulating synthetic peptides, such as Biotinoyl Tripeptide-1 and Myristoyl Pentapeptide-17, combined with candelilla wax, sunflower oil, red clover, and organic mung bean extract, to stimulate length, density and prevent fallout. True to its conscious, clean status, this mascara contains zero nasties, including microplastics (common in cosmetics to add slip and a mascara’s case, the film that coats the lashes and makes the pigment last), think glossy and fluttery.
As a nod to sustainability, this mascara is refillable, and the glass tube can be cleaned and reused as part of the brand’s circular packaging model. Another major bonus is that, if you have sensitive eyes, it will rinse clean. Hold a warm cloth over your eyes for a few minutes to soften the formula, and the mascara gently wipes clean.
Tailor Skincare Gold Dust, $65.50
If you haven’t tried Gold Dust, you must. The newly renovated formulation of one of the best vitamin C infusions your skin can get, offering WOW results. It’s also customised, featuring a vitamin C infusion that you can mix with any serum or moisturiser to deliver those brightening benefits to your skin. Our style director is obsessed. “I love the new chalk-like powder that blends with my moisturiser to feel like silk on the skin. I am targeting redness from spider veins, and I have seen a great result with skin clarity.” How, you may ask? With 100 per cent natural ingredients, including a powerhouse antioxidant. CoQ10 and a pure blend of vitamin C. A potent antioxidant with epic brightening capabilities, as it blocks the pigment synthesis pathway, so say goodbye to those ageing brown spots too. So, how much Gold Dust should you use? The brand suggests a pinch mixed with your favourite serum or moisturiser, and then you need to listen to your skin. Start slowly, once a week at night, and then gradually increase the number of applications over time. If your skin is sensitive, be cautious - this skin-brightening powder is potent.
If your hair needs taming and direction, this is the bomb. There's everything to love about Umberto Giannini haircare, and this styling cream helps repair damage and reduce frizz, which is essential when your hair is wavy (like mine). Why? Its power lies in plants, including rosemary, coconut, and jojoba oils, as well as soy protein with a generous dose of Shea and cupuaçu butters, which help with hair manageability. This brand is also clean, with no silicones, sulphates, parabens, and 88 per cent of the ingredients are from natural origin. - and of course cruelty-free. Smooth through wet hair and heat style or dry naturally - consider this your new styling BFF.
Impressed is an understatement. Revlon is killing it right now with their latest beauty innovations; this creamy-gel multi-liner is one of them. Created with versatility in mind. It blends effortlessly before setting, to become transfer-proof, but wait, there’s more. You can use this liner on your lips and eyes to contour, define, and add definition and highlight. Double-ended with a built-in brush, it also doubles as a beauty tool. For transparency, it is a 100% vegan formula. There are six neutral shades, including High Point, a gold highlighter, pictured here, the perfect berry brown, Dallying.
Our style director, Louise Hilsz, is a die-hard K-Beauty Fan. Currently, her go-to is a sheet mask that promises brighter skin from a vitamin infusion stacked with niacinamide (vitamin B3), which not only boosts skin clarity but also helps strengthen the skin’s barrier. Glutathione is a potent amino acid extract with brilliant tissue-building and repairing abilities. This mask helps reduce the appearance of melasma and pigmentation, evening out skin tone for a visibly brighter, more luminous complexion. While pineapple extract gently exfoliates to reveal fresher-looking skin. It’s also safe for those with skin sensitiviies.
