Switch Up Your Beauty Regime With These New Season Products and Treatments

Forget boring blowdrys and retro mullets – bitchin’ braids are officially where it’s at for SS17. Taiba Akhuetie and Jessy Linton created Keash Braids “as a celebration of all things youth culture, heritage and girl power.” Their pop-up braiding bar offers 12 signature styles that range from £10-£40, while the more adventurous can experiment with glitter, semi-permanent colours, charms and even hair rings. Remaining intact for four days, the R&B-inspired braids are equally good for wowing on big nights out or looking pulled together (literally) on warmer, frizz-inducing days to come. And because they’re heat, sweat and dirt proof, they’re a great option for festivals, preventing you from having to spend your mornings blearily untangling your locks from clumps of mud and booze. Whether you opt for braided space buns, pierced plaits or a tight, purple patterned weave as favoured by FKA Twigs, a trip to Keash will certainly put one hell of a twist on your spring look.

Designed to completely eliminate makeup waste, MakeUp Drop’s silicone applicator promises to flawlessly apply and blend your foundation, blush, highlighter and concealer without absorbing a single drop. Our verdict? Exactly what it says on the tin. The clear, smooth silicone texture of the water droplet pad means that you only need to apply half as much makeup as you would to a sponge or brush applicator – making your beauty products go a long way while also being a million times easier to clean. The best blending tool to touch our cheeks in a while (and the secret weapon of beauty editors across the globe), the silicone sponge is incredibly easy to manoeuvre, flexible enough to add dimension to your bone structure, and can cover all those hard to reach areas. Steering you well clear of the dreaded ‘cake’ effect, the soft silicone edges spread makeup evenly, ensuring a seamless coat whether you’re after full or light coverage. The pad isn’t particularly compatible with mineral and powder products, but other than that, MakeUp Drop is onto a winner.

I’ll admit I was slightly sceptical going into my Leonor Greyl Deep Repairing Treatment. In the past, no amount of protein-rich product has made my hair significantly less droopy, dry or brittle. My locks are constantly tangled and snap off in their dozens every time I brush my hair. But Leonor Greyl’s spa treatment, which offers tailor-made scalp therapy using only bespoke, natural ingredients, sounded promising. My deep repairing treatment began with a close examination of my scalp by a microviewer, so that my wonderful technician was able to determine exactly the right treatment for my hair type. Once complete, she swirled together a variety of relevant products to create a concoction truly bespoke to my needs and lathered it on. 90 minutes, a stint under a hair steamer plus a multitude of head massages later I was blowdried and ready to go with a mane that was noticeably fuller. A day later I’m pleased to report that it seems moisture has genuinely been restored. There’s much less flop and frizz going on and buckets of shine. Dear lord. It works.

Brows really do have secret powers. Whether bold, bushy, preen or dramatically arched, finding your ideal shape not only offers structure and balance – a brow-over can do as much for your looks and your spirits as a facelift. Like us, WAH-based BAM are hooked on eyebrows. They’ll wax, pluck or even bleach you into symmetrical shape. If you were a victim of ‘90s over-plucking you’ll have learned the hard way that this is one area where it pays to go professional, and the brow masters at BAM always deliver clean, precise lines with a grand total of zero ingrown hairs. So next time you fancy a flawless pair of arches, you know who to call.

Discover your new favourite summer scent with a trip to royally-appointed British perfume house Penhaligons for their complimentary profiling service, now available at three of their London stores. Take a seat in their decadent boudoir while an expert asks you to recall favourite memories of scent and taste to gauge your personality, before blind testing you with each of the fragrance families (citrus, floral and oriental and so on) from their archive of perfumes to see your instinctive reactions. The process is refined down to a particular fragrance family, then edited until a choice of two remains, which are tested on the skin before the name of the favoured fragrance is revealed. The final result can be an unexpected delight. 

Repeat after me: “I must wear SPF every day.” It’s the simple rule that your skin will thank you for in the future, especially as, according to Cancer Research UK, skin cancer rates are projected to rise 7% in the UK between now and 2035. For protection with a healthy brightening effect try this richly moisturising but non-greasy formula from Clinique.