In our monthly Let’s Make-Up round-up, we bring you a selection of the tried and tested, freshest, and buzziest beauty launches that are worth adding to your basket.
All types of lotions and potions across makeup, skincare, haircare and more cross our desks and we take it upon ourselves to review them all so you don’t have to. If we include it below, then you know it’s a good ‘un.
This July, there’s no stopping the innovation in the suncare space - so now we all have no excuse not to finish our routines with hard-working UVA and UVB shielding formulas. Look to Dermatica and Ultra Violette for their lightweight, skin-loving textures.
Enhancing our complexions with a sun-kissed glow, no sun exposure necessary is bareMinerals and its glowy new launches as well as Jones Road Beauty who is turning the traditional bronzer texture on its head. For all your summer home scenting needs, leaders in the space Byredo and Boy Smells have you covered with addictive aromas that put a twist on the fresh, vibrant notes associated with the warmer weather.
For all this and more besides, see our edit of the hottest beauty drops you need on your radar.
Dermatica SPF 50 Photodamage Defence Sunscreen
Depending on who you ask, there are some elements of the skincare world that can be open to interpretation or down to personal preference, yet one unequivocal fact is that we all must wear SPF every single day.
Dermatica is making that easier with this formula that does more than simply protect from free radicals (although it does this with SPF50). The suncare product also includes glycerin that locks in skin’s moisture and panthenol that support the skin’s barrier. This ensures that while protecting your complexion, it is boosting it at the same time. The formula is lightweight, absorbs quickly and can be layered under makeup with ease.
Buy now £15.95, Dermatica
Ultra Violette Fave Fluid SPF 50+ Ultralight Skinscreen
‘Tis the season for suncare (although the practice should be all year round) - and one of the brands spearheading innovation in the space is Ultra Violette who is renowned for blurring the lines between suncare, skincare and makeup. For its latest launch, it turns your serum step into an effective SPF.
While giving your complexion the benefits of balancing niacinamide, a specialised active ingredient known as BeauActive for collagen boosting and a form of vitamin C and E, it uses UV filters with SPF50+ to shield your skin from external aggressors. It’s a barrier-loving, hydrating and pigmentation-reducing powerhouse.
Buy now £37.00, Cult Beauty
REFY Lip Blush
This multitasking lippy taps into the blurred lip trend with its blotted effect. It’s a lightweight product that leaves a subtle wash of colour in the same way as a tinted lip balm. The creamy textures glides onto the pout but works double duty for the cheeks too - we love a formula that can do both.
The low mainteance makeup essential stays put once applied but may need to be layered up with a more pigmented product for a fuller lipstick look. There are five shades in pops of pink, orange, purple and reddy brown.
Buy now £16.00, REFY
bareMinerals Gen Nude Highlighting Blush and Blonzer Blush & Bronzer
Our friends at bareMinerals are treating us to not one but two new launches this month that go hand in hand for the dewy, glowy summer skin that we all deserve.
First up is a multitasking highlighter blush that gives a rosy look to the apples of the cheeks with high wattage shine. There’s no misunderstanding what the Blonzer Blush & Bronzer is designed to do; you get the healthy flush of blush with a holiday sun-kissed glow when applied to the temples and cheekbones. Both come in powder form with the brand’s signature weightless mineral texture that offers a blurring filter effect.
Buy now £25.50, Sephora
Hershesons Air Dry Spray
The summer season calls for the banishment of your heated tools to let your hair go au naturel. But if you’re reluctant to sacrifice your perfectly coiffed style, fear not. The experts over at Hershesons have created this formula to give you that effortless natural tousled texture - no effort required. The Air Dry spray is like a salt spray, providing texture, volume and will hold your look in place.
Buy now £16.00, Hershesons
Klorane skincare
It is a brand that may already dominate your haircare routine with its cult dry shampoo and nourishing mango-enriched range, but now Klorane is coming for your skincare too - expanding into the sector with its signature plant-powered formulas. There are three products in the range that star cornflower for hydration, decongestion and plumping, acquatic mint to counteract pollution, and peony for soothing. These are used in a stick mask, a daily water cream hyaluronic-rich moisturiser and a rich cream.
Buy now £8.00, Escentual
Hourglass Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm
With some of the best lipsticks in the biz, it is no wonder that Hourglass will feature dominantly on your FYP. The brand is beloved for its pigmented shades - with this balm front and centre. The Phantom Volumising Glossy Balm is lauded for its lip balm-like moisture, plumping benefits and gloss-level shine; it’s the ultimate all-rounder.
The Menthyl Lactate included within the formula has an immediate cooling effect on the lips, while the conditioning complex ups the hydration for your parched pout. Ready for the summer, there’s four new colours; Rise - a cool nude, Sense - a peach nude, Desire - a cool pink and Impulse - a deep red. You’ll want one for each bag.
Buy now £34.00, Space NK
BOY SMELLS Farm To Candle
You only need to look to the viral sell-out of Malin + Goetz’s tomato candle to see the appetite for food-inspired fragrances. Boy Smells has entered the chat with three candles that are ripe and ready to set the scent of your home this summer.
Snap (no crackle or pop) takes its inspiration from the green bell pepper that is set alongside creamy florals of the tuberose and hyacinth nature - but as is the signature Boy Smells way, becomes deeper and more sensual with leather and spicy vetiver.
Herbaceous is an onomatopoeiac candle that needs very little explanation. Think a burgeoning herb garden without the green fingers needed to keep it alive. The aroma of fresh herbs are given depth with geranium and ambrox.
Rinder rounds off the collection and is unlike anything you’ve smelt to date. The watermelon aroma is combined with notes of earthy carrot seed, orris root and a finishing of amber and violet. Full of contradictions but it just works.
Buy now £52.00, Space NK
Gisou Honey Infused Lip Oil Golden Shimmer Glow
If you’re already a fan of Gisou’s viral Honey Infused Lip Oil, we have some good news. In line with the summer season, the beloved formula has been treated to a glitzy makeover. It still retains that mirror-like shine that has earned the product its cult status and the hydrating heroes hyaluronic acid, buriti fruit oil, blueberry seed oil and of course, honey - as is the brand’s signature ingredient - providing the moisturising benefits.
Buy now £24.00, Gisou
Liz Earle Beauty Co Skin Repair Hydrating Night Cream
What night cream can you apply in high temps that won’t cause you to excessively sweat during warm summer nights? This is a dilemma that I face almost nightly. Liz Earle has thrown its hat into the ring to solve this specific skincare woe with its moisture-boosting Skin Repair Hydrating Night Cream.
Much like the rest of the botanical-based collection, it takes a sensorial approach from the ritual to the scent where rose and lavender encourage relaxation before bedtime. The formula is powered by plant-based hyaluronic acid that is enhanced by the inclusion of hydrating borage seed oil and nourishing avocado oil.
Buy now £26.00, Boots
ELEMIS Pro-Collagen Rose Micro Serum
Elemis’ Pro-Collagen range is the gift that keeps on giving, jam-packed with anti-ageing heroes that make each application feel like a luxury experience, all while providing a heavy-hitting dose of high-performing complexion boosters. This serum is the fifth product to join the rose line-up and honours the collections 20th anniversary.
It is made up of micro droplets, over 7,000 of them to be precise that are infused with rose to provide optimal hydration. So much so that the brand suggests the moisture-enhancing effects will last for 72 hours, plumping the skin and providing a smoothing effect on fine lines. The texture is a unique oil in serum that allows water and oil to work harmoniously to fortify the skin barrier.
Buy now £90.00, John Lewis
Byredo Summer Rain
There’s just something about summer rain that feels romantic, joyful and a far cry from the relenting downpours of the winter. Perhaps it’s the rain’s ability to break the humidity and offer a much-welcomed relief from record-breaking temperatures.
Byredo has transformed this feeling into candle form with its take on a rainy summers day. To achieve this olfactive experience, the fragrance house has called on notes of green fig and sparkling ginger, putting a sweet spice that will conjure up the whiff of raindrop-hit leaves and trees. For that reinvigorating feeling that a bout of rain provides, there’s tonka beans and sandalwood at the finish.
Buy now £64.00, Cult Beauty
OPI Repair Mode
You’ve heard of bond building technology for your hair (from the likes of Olaplex and K18), but what about for your nails? Always on the forefront of nail innovation, OPI has unveiled a brand new innovation to transform weak, brittle nails with a swipe of the brush.
The trademarked Repair Mode product uses a further patented Ulti-Plex Technology that, when applied, absorbs into the nail to repair 99 per cent of keratin protein. It’s like a serum in its texture; very lightweight yet the brand suggests that you nails will be four times stronger in just six days.
Buy now £25.42, Amazon
Jones Road Beauty Gel Bronzer
Bobbi Brown once again demonstrates her mastery of all things makeup with this latest launch. Her Jones Road label has unveiled a specialised gel bronzer texture. Two words that don’t typically go hand in hand, it provides a totally different feel to the powders and cream that dominate the bronzer market. Gliding onto the skin, it offers a more natural ‘fresh from the beach’ glow that is sheer and glowy rather than mattifying. Bobbi Brown suggests ”You can use Gel Bronzer on bare skin, mixed with your moisturizer, or over your What The Foundation”. Available in three shades.
Buy now £32.00, Jones Road Beauty
