The ingredients that will steal the show in 2016s beauty products
SHEA butter, coconut oil, hyaluronic acid... the usual suspects crop up on the bottles in our bathroom cabinets and make-up bags time and time again.
That’s not to say they’re no good — these ingredients are popular precisely because they’re so effective — but it’s also wise to shake up your beauty routine on a regular basis, to ensure you’re not missing out on that miracle product you’ve been longing for. Now is the perfect time, with a major influx of innovative new elements emerging from the world’s cosmetic laboratories, plundered from the depths of the oceans and mountain peaks. These are the ingredients to add to your 2016 beauty shopping list...
ASH: Like a blow-dry in a can, Macadamia Professional Style Extend Dry Shampoo, €21.05, uses volcanic ash to soak up excess oils and refresh second — or even third — day hair in seconds. Unlike other dry shampoos, it feels more like a hairspray, with no white chalky residue in sight, and a creamy coconut scent to boot (www.feelunique.com, free p&p).
“Swiss cress sprout extract, rich in the mighty sulforaphane, a powerful antioxidant, is being hailed as the latest answer to pigmentation,” says Oskia founder Georgie Cleeve, which is why her new Renaissance BrightLight Intensive Pigmentation & Dark Spot Serum, €103 approximate, is packed with the salad garnish derivative (available February, www.lookfantastic.com, free p&p).
Avocado continues its reign as the trendiest breakfast food, but the creamy fruit is more than just Instagram fodder. Vivderma Sculpting Neck & Chest Cream, €60, contains Effipulp, a peptide derived from avocado that helps to boost skin volume and detoxify cells (www.vivderma.com, free p&p).
Oriental citrus fruit yuzu has cropped up on the fanciest restaurant menus in recent years, and now its antioxidant goodness has been harvested in Erborian Yuza Double Lotion, €42 approximately. Shake the bottle to mix the rejuvenating (aqueous) and nourishing (oil) phases, before sweeping over skin with cotton wool (available March; www.erborian.com and Space NK, Grafton Street, Dublin).
To celebrate 21 years of leading the way in perfumery, Jo Malone has created Jo Loves Red Truffle 21, €86 approximately, for 50ml, a fragrance that blends the distinctive aroma of the precious fungus with bergamot, fig, juniper, and patchouli. “Looking back, I don’t think I would ever have had the confidence to use such a unique and unusual ingredient as truffle until now,” Jo says. (www.joloves.com, plus p&p).
Hailed as beauty’s Next Big Thing, astaxanthin is the substance that gives shellfish their pink hue, and it also happens to be a highly-concentrated source of antioxidants for humans. It can be found in Ingenious BeautyUltimate Collagen+, €99 approximately, for a 40-day course, a supplement that plumps skin from the inside and strengthens nails and hair (www.ingeniousbeauty.com).
The live bacteria found in probiotics can help get your gut moving, but did you know they can also pep up your complexion? Too Faced Hangover Primer, €32, mixes probiotics and coconut water to perk up tired skin and leave a silky smooth base for make-up (available February; www.debenhams.ie).
Any anti-ageing cream worth its salt is packed with peptides, but Institut Esthederm Lift & Repair Absolute Repulp Balm, €90 approximately, goes one further. The formula uses an innovative technique to harness pea peptides, which have a double-strength firming effect, alongside a host of other wrinkle-banishing ingredients (available February; www.spacenk.com).
Usually found in the potting shed, perlite is sometimes added to soil, but ground down, it makes a very effective (and not too abrasive) exfoliator. The volcanic glass is combined with an enzyme exfoliant and oxygen-rich mousse in the Filorga Scrub & Mask, €39.90 (Available Marks & Spencer).
If excess oil is top of your list of skin concerns, zinc could be the answer to your prayers. Thalgo Purete Marine Absolute Purifying Mask, €26, is laced with two types of zinc-rich algae, helping to control sebum production by tightening pores (see www.thalgo.ie for stockists).
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