Forget “new year, new you” – for beauty editors, autumn is the time of the Great Beauty Reset. We sharpen our pencils of all varieties; HBs, eyeliners and lip liners. While this reset normally happens in line with the children going back to school, given the lingering warmer weather, we’ve had a few extra weeks before de-summering our make-up bags and bathroom cabinets.
If you have absolutely no idea what I’m on about, let me explain: during the summer months, you may well have switched to a lighter face cream and a thicker sun cream. You may have also set your full-coverage foundation to one side for a lighter tinted moisturiser and skipped the hair masks for salt sprays. That’s all perfectly fine for the warm weather, but the new season often calls for a more intentional beauty routine.
Skincare
Let’s start with skincare, which should always fulfil one of two aims: protect or correct. (This is the easiest question to ask yourself when buying a new product: does it either protect or correct? It should do one or the other.) For instance, using an antioxidant serum in the morning will protect your skin, as will a cocooning face cream layered on top. My current duo of dreams is the Longevit-8 Peptide Serum by Byoma (£22, uk.spacenk.com) layered with the Illiyoon Ceramide Ato Concentrate Cream on top (£20, boots.com).
Longevit-8 Peptide Serum, Byoma; £22, uk.spacenk.com
Ceramide Ato Concentrate Cream, Illiyoon; £20, boots.com
Save your “correcting” skincare for the evenings. This is where a good quality retinoid comes in. “If you are a regular retinoid user, you can use the ingredient year-round,” the American dermatologist Dr Samantha Ellis tells me, “but if you’re new to it, the autumn months are a good time to try it out.” As a seasoned retinoid user, I go from using it once or twice a week during the summer months to three to four times a week from September. If you’re a beginner, try Retinoid 1 by Skin Rocks; if your skin isn’t sensitive, try the brand’s Retinoid 2, and those who have used retinoids for a few years, like me, will see fantastic results with Retinoid 3.
Make-up
Next, let’s look at rethinking your autumn make-up. I went backstage at the M&S London Fashion Week show last month and had a hurried chat with the show’s lead make-up artist, Becca Wordingham, who summed up the new season shift-up perfectly: “This season is about velvety, polished skin, which has shine in the right places and is covered in the right places.”
In other words, selectively using a more full-coverage foundation (she was using Estée Lauder’s Double Wear Foundation) just where you need it, buffed out with a brush. For the “shine” element, a term that can strike fear in anyone over the age of 25, she brushed a drop of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair serum on the tops of the cheeks to give a healthy, non-shimmery glow. (My fellow beauty editors backstage and I raised our brows and shared an energetic “oooh” at that particular nugget of advice.)
Advanced Night Repair serum, Estée Lauder
Hair
As for hair, it differs wildly depending on your hair type, but Sam McKnight, backstage at the same show, offered his analysis of the new season. “We want real hair with a bit of a tweak, without a fussy blow-dry, and using a couple of products that work with your own hair texture rather than fighting it,” he told me.
This is hairdresser-speak for not trying too hard, which I think sums up exactly the sort of polished-but-minimal feeling of the Great Beauty Reset.
Three products to try
Eyeshadow Stick in Smokey Brown, Jones Road Beauty; £30, liberty.com
For the eyes, you can’t beat cool-toned browns on the lids – this suits absolutely everyone and can be blended out with your ring finger.
Signature Lip Blush lipsticks, Merit; £25, meritbeauty.com
For these next few months, ditch the gloss for a more grown-up matte lipstick in any shade of your choosing: I can’t fault any of these lipsticks but particularly love the brick-red shade September (how fitting).
Gentle Cream Cleanser, MV Skin Therapy; £44, mvskintherapy.com
A proper cleanse every evening is non-negotiable, and I usually switch to a richer balm or cream cleanser for the cooler months. This is a real treat.