The seasons this year seem to me to be working a good two months in advance. I’m already in coats and reaching for richer winter skincare. I’ve barely resisted, since some fantastically good and affordable launches have me excited.
Japan’s bestselling skincare brand, Curél, is now available at Boots and Sephora, and I can’t recommend it highly enough if your skin is sensitive and tetchy in the colder weather. The brand is designed around the Japanese principle of double cleansing and double moisturising, and while the latter may sound like a faff, Curél’s Deep Moisture Spray (£19.50) makes layering up a two-second job.
For double helpings of moisture and hydration, just mist over the cooling lotion before applying your moisture cream as normal, then top up (even over makeup) whenever skin feels depleted. Very easily irritated skins, like those with rosacea, will appreciate the no-touch application and high glycerin content.
There are three very good and fairly priced cleansers in the Curél range, but if you’re a facial wash lover, save your pennies and head instead to Garnier for what I believe is – against stiff competition – its best and most bargainous launch this year.
Garnier’s new Hydrating Deep Face Cleanser (£6.99) is everything one needs in a rinse-off cleanser – that is, it cleans away any traces of makeup-removing oil or balm cleansers before bed and refreshes and revives clean skin in the morning.
Thorough, skin softening and non-irritating, the vegan formula, rich in hyaluronic acid and ceramides, works fast and rinses off extremely easily without the use of sulphates. And unlike so many others, it leaves my dry face feeling comfy and calm. I’m not even a face-wash lover and I’m over halfway through the bottle. Full marks, a rowdy round of applause – this is the lowest-risk skincare purchase you’ll make all autumn.
I’ve spent much of this year cursing Soap & Glory’s decision to discontinue its Sugar Crush exfoliating body lotion. But thanks to Dove, I can move on with my life. Its newly reformulated Pro-Age Body Lotion (£7) uses olive oil to moisturise, glycerine to hydrate and, crucially, lactic acid to de-flake dry shins and noticeably reduce any upper-arm bumpiness, which is common throughout the year but typically at its worst in winter. It smells better than many others of its type and is slurped up thirstily by my poor, weather-weary limbs. And it’s always on offer somewhere.
