BEAUTY BITS: BRITISH BEAUTY BLOGGER FOR M&S, STEAMCREAM, DIPTYQUE, PRO-AGING, TERRY DE GUNZBERG, MARILYN MONROE, BURT’S BEES, YAHOO BEAUTY

FIRST LOOK: BRITISH BEAUTY BLOGGER’S M&S MAKE-UP LINE

Processed with VSCOcam with hb1 presetHow exciting is this? Britain’s best beauty blogger (AKA British Beauty Blogger), Jane Cunningham has only gone and produced a makeup line with Marks & Spencer. It’s brilliant on lots of levels. The fact that we’re in a place where influential bloggers are producing mainstream product lines with huge heritage brands is wonderful in itself, but the fact that it’s Jane is perfect. Jane is so in tune with consumers (her beauty boxes sell out in minutes) that she has an instant feedback loop from potential customers about what they want. And in this case, it’s affordable, wearable make-up for a broad spectrum of skintones. The limited edition lines goes on sale at M&S on 9th October, in stores and online at Marksandspencer.com.

DREAM CREAM

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I’m a big big fan of anything lavender scented and SteamCream (£12.95)is my latest lavender-infused discovery. It’s an interesting company, everything is hand made with natural, traceable ingredients and the brand is known for its limited edition printed tins (although actually I find the tins a bit of a gimmick). The calming properties of lavender are what grab me – applying this light cream feels like a lovely ‘me-time’ indulgence, plus it’s a great moisturiser. Buy it at Steamcream.co.uk, Feelunique.com and Asos (where there’s currently an offer for two tins for £20).

BUY IT NOW: DIPTYQUE EAU DE LAVANDE

Diptyque Eau De Lavande
More lavender love… Diptyque has launched a lavender eau de toilette as part of its range of floral EDTs, but it’s not as traditionally lavender-y as I expected. Eau de Lavande has a more masculine take, it’s slightly woody but very refreshing. A good one for those (admittedly rare) hot, muggy days. It comes in both a 100ml spray bottle (£65) and a 20ml roll-on (£32). Buy it at Selfridges.

BEAUTY: THE NEW ‘AGE’


The Future Laboratory filmed a bunch of inspirational, ariticulate and dynamic women (Caryn Franklin, Linda Rodin and Anna-Marie Solowij among them) talking about how the beauty industry is changing its attitudes and language around grown up women. This is a subject I bang on about a lot but these ladies express it far more eloquently than I do. It’s an absolute must watch

TERRY DE GUNZBERG FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY

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By Terry’s Terry De Gunsberg has produced an arty limited edition make-up collection for the National Gallery Company. To support its Making Colour exhibition, there are nail polishes, eye pencils, lip glosses, a mascara, an eye palette trio and this jazzy palette of seven high pigment eye colours (£150), Warning: it’s only available until 12th July, in store and online at Nationalgallery.co.uk.

MARILYN MONROE’S TOP SHELF

Marilyn-Monroe
“On Sunday, which is my one day of total leisure, I sometimes take two hours to wake up, luxuriating in every last moment of drowsiness…” This has got to be the cutest Top Shelf ever from Into The Gloss. You can never have too much of Marilyn…

TAKING THE PLATINUM PLUNGE?

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If you’re planning to go platinum like Emily Weiss, read this first…

BURT’S BEES HERO HAND CREAM

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I go through phases of really dry hands and cuticles so Burt’s Bees Almond & Milk Hand Cream (£9.99) has become my constant companion. It’s pretty rich so it takes a while to rub in but the effects are absolutely worth it. I can’t lie though, a big attraction is the incredible hit of marzipan-y almond you get when you open the jar. Buy it at Debenhams.

YAHOO BEAUTY IS LIVE

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The revamped Yahoo Beauty channnel is now live and I’ve had a nose round. Overseen by Bobbi Brown, it has a lifestyle approach to beauty, with a combination of aggregated beauty features from the likes of Instyle, The Cut and Into The Gloss, and original content edited by Ex-Fashionista.com Britt Aboutaleb. It’s Tumblr-esque feed makes sense. Tumblr is now owned by Yahoo of course but that aside, the multi-window layout feels very immediate and ‘sticky’ so should appeal to a young demographic, while the inclusive Bobbi tone will hopefully reel in older beauty consumers too. If anything, I wish it had slightly less content as it does feel a bit overwhelming but maybe that’s just me…