From Weleda’s new Skin Food Light, a much lighter take on the original multitasking catwalk favourite, and Diptyque’s limited edition odes to Valentine roses…to Jo Malone’s five new Wild Flowers & Weeds fragrances and de Mamiel’s five blue flower healing serum, February is already feeling “Next stop: SPRING”!
Here’s more on the launches worth a closer look.
WELEDA’S NEW SKIN FOOD LIGHT HAS LANDED
Whilst the original super-emollient, rich, nourishing Skin Food tube has been much loved for years, Weleda’s new “Light” version (£7.95/30ml) couldn’t have landed at a better time. Perfect for spring but comforting enough for winter, I’m currently using it on my face, lips, hands and any a couple of dry patches. Even the scent is lighter, fresher and sweeter..it’s very “spring”. It’s also housed in a lighter tube (25% recyclable plastic) v. the old aluminium tube.
I think Skin Food Light will quickly become Weleda’s new hero product – Weleda fans will love it and it’s sure to attract new Weleda converts, too. It’s joined by a new Lip Balm (really do love this, great texture in an easy squeazy little tube, very glossy and nicely neutral-natural tasting). Not everyone is, but I am a fan of *mint* lip balms so if Weleda were ever to launch this in peppermint it would live in my handbag (forever).
Launching 1 March: SKIN FOOD BODY BUTTER
Look out, too, for Weleda’s new Body Butter appearing next month – richer, but with a similar ingredients label to Skin Food Light with chamomile, wild pansy, glycerin, shea butter, cocoa butter, rosemary and calendula among the skin-soothing line-up.
BEAUTY PIE’S NEW QI ENERGY RANGE
Not a brand I use, but… Dubbed the Netflix of beauty, Beauty Pie (the discount membership beauty co. founded by Fit Flop pioneer Marcia Kilgore) has just released its new QI ENERGY collection, drawing on Eastern medicine ingredients like ginseng root and ginger (flashbacks to Origins’ GinZing Energy-Boosting Moisturiser here?).
In fairness, Beauty Pie doesn’t claim to be natural – it isn’t, instead it focuses on luxury appeal at a very appealing price mark – but in my opinion this brand could be so much better if it took out the first half of its ingredients and let the second half, the natural ones, shine. In fact Origins’ GinZing has a cleaner ingredients label than the new Beauty Pie Qi Energy Moisturiser.
Nevertheless Beauty Pie is what I call a “transitional” brand ie from synthetic to more natural. If you used Dior and switched to Beauty Pie, that’s an improvement. Not a brand I’d buy because the ingredients are too “mixed” shall we say, but…an all natural Beauty Pie? Now there’s an idea.
DIPTYQUE CELEBRATES THE ROSE WITH TWO LIMITED EDITIONS
Boxed in boxes too pretty not to keep, Diptyque’s two limited editions – Centifolia (full of the rich scent of May Rose) and Damascena (Damask Rose) are here in time to adorn bedside tables and sofa-side tables for The Day of Love (Happy Valentine’s!)
Burn time: 60 hrs £53. Also available as a boxed duo, in smaller sizes.
COMING SOON…WILD FLOWERS & WEEDS: 5 NEW FRAGRANCES FROM JO MALONE
Out soon – in early March, we hear – comes Jo Malone’s much-anticipated spring fragrance launch featuring five new scents celebrating a whole new, somewhat experimental olfactory mingling inspired by wild flowers, field grasses and weeds.
The very British collection includes:
Cade & Cedarwood, Hemlock & Bergamot, Lupin & Patchouli, Nettle & Wild Achillea and Willow & Amber.
All are 30ml, and designed by master perfumer Frenchman Yann Vasnier (who created Jo Malone’s English Oak & Redcurrant and English Oak & Hazlenut) and Louise Turner.
“What I love about wild flowers and weeds is that nature takes over, with no rhyme or reason – and makes things unexpectedly beautiful”
Celine Roux, Creative Director JO MALONE
ESPA’S NEW TRI-ACTIVE ADVANCED PROBIOME RANGE
3 new ESPA products have landed (serum, moisturiser and eye cream) with pretty weighty price tags (£65/15ml for the eye cream and £100/30ml) but like Elemis, ESPA’s fans are loyal and long-lasting.
The new trio harnesses “pre- and pro-biotic technology” and showcases a trio of ingredients: peony extract, microalgae and a prebiotic blend, along with Chinese Butterfly Bush to help filter blue light (See: 2019 BEAUTY PREDICTIONS and IS “DIGITAL” DAMAGING OUR SKIN?)
The serum is loaded with delicious oils, once you get past the initial ingredients of aqua, witch hazel and glycerin – including bergamot, orange, bitter orange, rosa damascena, may chang, jasmine, rosemary leaf extract, chlorella, algaes and probiotics amid a very long line-up of plant, fruit and flower extracts.
DE MAMIEL’S NEW SKIN RECOVERY BLEND PRESSED SERUM
Aromatherapist Annee de Mamiel has led one of the most interesting lives in the beauty industry – like most of us, replete with ups and downs – and in her late teens she was one of Australia’s top three women’s triathletes.
But one Christmas Eve her boss suddenly passed away, then a close friend died from a drug overdose soon after, triggering a change in her, and a desire to leave her job in finance and go back to learning.
But (again) a cancer diagnosis put those plans on hold and even though she beat it first time and managed a round the world yacht race, it returned. Aromatherapy and acupuncture were two of her most important healing pillars, and now, many years on, wellbeing has been a key ingredient in Annee de Mamiel’s product development and philosophy.
With a degree in Tradicional Chinese Medicine and love of nature, plants, flowers and herbs are her absolute passion and I think this really shines through her entire range – it’s a joy to discover.
The newest addition to the de Mamiel beauty stable is SKIN RECOVERY BLEND – a pressed serum, spotlighting 5 blue essential oils (the Azules of Blue Cypress, Cape Chamomile, German Chamomile, Blue Tansy and Yarrow).
Calming effects:
Anti-inflammatory, cooling, nourishing, good for inflamed or irritated skin or skin breakouts due to anxiety.
Contains over 20 botanical oils. £95/30ml.
And in closing, a quick reminder for all those who’ve been asking when the 2019 Awards results will be announced:
DATES FOR THE DIARY
THE 2019 BEAUTY SHORTLIST AWARDS and OUR (NEW) 2019 WELLBEING AWARDS
JOIN US ON FRIDAY 1 MARCH FOR THIS YEAR’S BRAND NEW TESTED, LOVED, 100% RECOMMENDED LINE-UP.
IT ALL KICKS OFF AT BREAKFAST TIME (LONDON TIME) WHEN THE COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS GOES LIVE ON OUR HOME PAGE.
2019 HAS BEEN THE BEST YEAR EVER, COINCIDING WITH THE BEAUTY SHORTLIST’S 10th YEAR.
KEEP AN EYE OUT, WE WILL BE CELEBRATING A DECADE OF GREEN BEAUTY WITH SOME SURPRISES THIS SUMMER!
2019 MAMA & BABY AWARDS – DATES
WE’LL SHARE MORE NEWS ABOUT THE 10th YEAR CELEBRATIONS IN APRIL WHEN WE OPEN THE 2019 MAMA & BABY AWARDS on 1 April.
Entries open 1 April
Closing 15 May
Awards: Friday 21 June 2019
Thank you for your wonderful support over the years.
