2 hours ago
6
I’m not given to making new year resolutions, but by coincidence I have recently made a number of pledges to adopt better beauty habits. I believe that even someone in this job, who already moisturises and UV protects religiously, can still find areas for improvement.
Once again, I have pledged to drink more (or indeed some) water. After decades of tea dependency, I never find myself thirsty in the way others describe, and so force myself to hydrate only for the sake of my skin (to which it makes a noticeable difference) and well, aliveness. To this end, I’ve bought one of those ridiculously enormous mugs influencers drain several times daily, and hope to make my way through perhaps one by bedtime.
I will use an LED mask not once every five months but at least four times a week, as I advise others to do. For this, I choose Beauty Pie’s The Dynamo Deep LED Collagen-Boosting Mask, which I find comfier and more secure than most, as well as comparatively well priced (£199 to members).
In terms of products, I will take one of my semi-regular sabbaticals from trying new retinols for the sake of journalism and instead stick to the one that yields terrific results on my skin: Klira’s The Special (from £59 a month with annual membership), to which my skin is nonetheless constantly reacclimatising because of the breaks.
After almost five years of bleached highlights, my hair will be treated to a regular mask, probably Olaplex’s Weightless Nourishing Mask (£39) because its effects are promised to last through three normal washes.
I will try not to always carry six to eight near identical lip products when most are at least adjacent to the unimprovable neutral pinky nude of Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk Love Effect Lipstick in Naughty Talk (£29), which is now back permanently after a silly intention to make it limited.
I will try collagen supplements, despite seeing no compelling evidential justification for them, because I owe it to the vast number of my readers who remain adamant that they help and would like first-hand recommendations.
Most horrifyingly, I have bribed my son to attend the gym with me once weekly because, after a lifetime of engaging in absolutely no structured exercise, I’ve been formally told off by my doctor – twice. Without some strength training, I will one day, she says, move like “a much older lady”. I hate workouts, but really love being alive, so it’s time to woman up.
