If you want radiant skin and lustrous hair
all through the party season, take a look at the latest trend in beauty
Whether you want silky smooth legs, a
blemish-free complexion, glossy hair, or simply want to look your best for the
party season, there’s a beauty oil that can help. With their nutrientrich
credentials, plus a host of moisturising, balancing and regenerative
properties, beauty oils have fast taken over serums and balms as the wonder
product of the year.
With
their nutrientrich credentials, plus a host of moisturising, balancing and
regenerative properties, beauty oils have fast taken over serums and balms as
the wonder product of the year.
Clarins, Decléor and Darphin were some of
the first beauty companies to introduce the concept of botanical face and body
oils. And now a host of cult brands have followed suit, including Neal’s Yard,
Ole Henriksen, ESPA, Aromatherapy Associates, Liz Earle and organic spa brands
such as Ila.
You can use beauty oils in a variety of
ways to seal in essential moisture, either during or after a shower, like a
naturally protective skin barrier – after all, our skin naturally produces its
own oil called sebum.
Oils can also tame frizzy hair and add a
sexy sheen to party skin, when applied to your décolleté, arms and shins. If
you don’t like the greasy feel of oils, a new generation of ‘dry’ oils are
easily absorbed into the skin without leaving a slick behind.
‘Oils have been used for centuries in skin
and haircare all over the world, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and
Asia,’ says Sandrine Sylva, from Argan+, which makes Moroccan argan oil
products. ‘Oils are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty
acids and other valuable nutrients for the skin, helping regenerate skin cells
while being deeply replenishing, nourishing, softening and rebalancing.’
And with the cold front of winter edging
in, making dry and chapped skin a problem for many, there’s no better time of
year to experience their benefits. ‘The effects of central heating and cold
weather can leave skin dehydrated and sensitive,’ says Kerstin Florian’s Dawn
Spurgeon. ‘Essential oils help create a conditioning protective layer and lock
in hydration. During the festive season, we expose ourselves to more
free-radical damage by eating rich food, drinking alcohol and burning the
candle at both ends.’
Here’s the lowdown on the best face, body
and hair oils to leave you glowing with health in no time.
Your Face
Just a drop or two of oil (containing
micro-molecules small enough to penetratethe skin) when used beneath your
moisturiser, can help the moisture sink deeper in to the dermal layers than
simply using moisturiser alone. At the end of the day, an oil-based cleanser
will help to clear pores of built up grime and prevent outbreaks. At night, a
rich face oil can be a deeply nourishing replacement for your regular night
cream. Natural sebum levels fall as we age, so skin, particularly in winter,
needs a helping hand.
At
night, a rich face oil can be a deeply nourishing replacement for your regular
night cream.
You may think that putting an oil onto an
oily skin would make matters worse and that oils are better suited to dry skin,
but the opposite may be true, depending on the oil’s formulation. In the same
way that harsh anti-acne products can strip away the skin’s naturally
protective acid mantle layer (causing the complexion to churn out more oily sebum
to compensate), a beauty oil can actually help regulate how much oil your skin
naturally produces. Just ensure you find the right formulation for greasy skin
and use it sparingly. We know that tea tree has great anti-bacterial properties
for treating spots, but face oils have other uses, from oil-based cleansers, to
solid balms and unguent face oils.
Wind down
At bedtime, massage in Dream Face Oil by
Heaven Skincare, $40.55 for 25ml; heavenskincare.com, with jasmine, lavender
and geranium to nourish skin and help you nod off.
We love
For
deep cleansing
Shu Uemura’s Ultimate8 Sublime Beauty
Cleansing Oil ($54.5 for 150ml; shuuemera.co.uk) scores highly in trials and is
said to help eight skin problems. It smoothes, moisturises, revitalises and
nourishes the skin.
Shu
Uemura’s Ultimate8 Sublime Beauty Cleansing Oil
For
oily skin types
ESPA Balancing Face Treatment Oil ($84.9
for 28ml; espaonline.com), formulated with clarifying lemon, rose geranium,
soothing rose damascena and hydrating avocado, restores equilibrium to
stressed, congested or dehydrated oily skin without blocking your pores.
ESPA
Balancing Face Treatment Oil
For a
plumped complexion
Barefoot Botanicals Rosa Fina Face &
Décolletage Oil ($44.9 for 15ml; barefoot-botanicals. com) is a light,
rosacea-friendly oil that instantly rejuvenates, thanks to the rosa mosqueta
oil it contains – a magic wand for party-worn, blemished skin, and wrinkles.
Barefoot
Botanicals Rosa Fina Face & Décolletage Oil
For dehydrated
eyes
Use Dr Hauschka’s Eye Contour Day Balm
($45.5 for 10ml; drhauschka.co.uk) in the morning for rich eye protection
against crow’s feet. It contains castor seed, peanut, jojoba and apricot kernel
oils.
Dr
Hauschka’s Eye Contour Day Balm
For winter
protection
Pat a few drops of Kerstin Florian’s
Rehydrating Neroli Oil ($44 for 15ml; kerstinflorian. co.uk) over clean skin,
add to your moisturiser or use bi-weekly instead of night cream. It contains
nurturing bitter orange flower and marjoram oils.
Kerstin
Florian’s Rehydrating Neroli Oil
For
radiance
Neal’s Yard Remedies Rejuvenating
Frankincense Facial Oil ($42.9 for 30ml; nealsyardremedies.com) is a blend of
frankincense, myrrh, baobab and omegarich botanical oils that’ll tone your skin
and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Neal’s
Yard Remedies Rejuvenating Frankincense Facial Oil
Your Hair
The use of oils for hair is something of a
science, according to oleotherapy hair expert and author Julie Gabriel. ‘Oils
help regulate sebum production in your scalp in the same way face oils work on
your skin,’ she explains. Heavier oils such as shea butter and castor-oil
(which has quite a following for its alleged hair-stimulating properties) have
larger molecules that can weigh flyaway hair down. Lighter oils such as avocado
or almond are suited to most hair types. Argan oil is best used to add gloss to
medium-to-thick hair, as it’s quite viscous. Lighter, drier oils such as
coconut and grape seed are ideal for fine, flyaway hair. Clarified jojoba is
lighter still, having had its wax removed.
For a weekly deep-conditioning hair
treatment, work your chosen oil into dampened hair, pop on a shower cap, and
lie back in the bath for 20 minutes. The heat helps the oil to sink in to your
hair shafts. You may have to shampoo it out two to three times, before
following with your regular conditioner. Experiment to see what works best for
your hair type.
Tame
the frizz
Specialists from John Frieda to Kérastase,
Ojon to Fushi are offering high-tech oil products for frizz or curl control and
damaged hair. The award-winning success of Philip Kingsley’s pre-cleansing hair
mask ‘The Elasticizer’ is in part due to its natural castor and olive oil
content that helps ‘lock in’ moisture and fortifies hair’s keratin proteins.
Moroccan argan oil is used in Fushi’s Really Good Hair Oil ($25.5 for 100ml;
fushi.co.uk).
Fushi’s
Really Good Hair Oil ($25.5 for 100ml; fushi.co.uk).
