Trends come and go. But if there’s one thing we’re all in pursuit of when it comes to beauty, it’s a flawless complexion.
Backstage at the fashion week shows there is an ever-increasing focus on skincare - giving it as much attention as the make-up itself at some shows – and one glance at Instagram will prove that our obsession with achieving a luminous glow matches that of the perfect feline eyeliner flick. It’s a sign of the times that “Your skin looks great” has become even more covetable a compliment than “I love that dress”. So whether you are going for Spring’s “bare but better” look, or this season’s on-trend bold blue eyes and updated red lip, do it with a radiant, perfected complexion as your backdrop. To achieve that goal, here are 4 star players in the world of beauty to know about NOW.
#1 THE GENIUS SERUM THAT TRULY DELIVERS: KANE NY SERUM SAVANT
This is the hyaluronic acid serum that does it all: It moisturises, smoothes the lines, plumps and lifts the facial contours, brightens the complexion, calms redness and irritation, while protecting skin from environmental garbage.
Before your eyeballs roll out of their sockets at the sight of another hyaluronic acid (HA) product, allow us to explain why this one is considered a breakthrough by beauty chemists. We all know how wonderful HA is for our skin et cetera, et cetera, and we’ve seen them listed on tonnes of skincare labels. But the truth is, getting the huge HA molecule into skin (picture trying to shove your goodie-packed handbag through a keyhole) without irritation remains a huge challenge for skincare formulators even after all these years. So in most instances, your expensive HA product is just sitting on skin’s surface to temporarily trap moisture, which cosmetically plumps up superficial lines transiently. That’s all well and good, but a far less pricey ingredient, like petrolatum, can achieve that, too.
Some companies try to grind HA up into pieces, but those tiny, irregular shards tend to sting like microscopic glass splinters. The eureka moment came when Japanese scientists found an organic enzyme that minces up the HA into the same regular, minuscule, multi-sized pieces every time. Cascades of those HA molecules then pour into and through skin, dispatching benefit into every cellular nook and cranny without irritation. The largest fortifies the natural barrier, locking in moisture and active ingredients at work. Some suspend throughout skin’s structure to restore its plush, dewy youthfulness. And the tiniest go where no topical has before – acting as a powerful carrier by surrounding and pulling in the vitamins, brighteners and other collagen-boosting actives into the deep levels where new skin cells are regenerating.
If all that didn’t impress you, hear this: In double-blind studies, 100 percent of the study participants had significant improvements in fine lines, wrinkles, dryness, and radiance after 4 weeks of twice-daily use. Enough said.
Read More: Youth Additives – All You Need To Know About Hyaluronic Acid
#2 THE LASER AIRBRUSH FOR PHOTO-READY SKIN: SMARTX LITE LASER
Committing to a skincare regime isn’t easy. As with any new relationship, you start out a little giddy, brimming with optimism that this will be the one. As the weeks stretch on, you get a little bored, and a lot impatient. Not anymore, ‘cos creating the perfect skin canvas just got unbelievably easier.
Like a pair of chopsticks, both textural issues (open pores, lines, and increasingly loose, crepey skin) and colour concerns (dullness, sunspots and sallowness) tend to turn up hand-in-hand in various combinations to cause vexing complexion blah-ness. The new SmartX Lite’s latest-generation micro-resurfacing laser deeply renews, repairs and rejuvenates with a corrective laser airbrush to painlessly smoothen out lines, old acne scars, stubborn pores and crepey undereye skin, while simultaneously optimising skin’s colour balance by erasing uneven pigmentation, and rebuilding a robust collagen network to offset dull sallowness, thereby giving you off-the-charts radiant supermodel skin with a quick zap.
Besides being armed with more muscle power, this modern skin hero boasts impressive control on every treatment parameter for precise tailoring to individual skin condition and lifestyle needs. Smart technology that’s super efficient and makes perfect seemingly simple – we call it beauty with brains.
Read More: The 4 Faces of Ageing – Which One Are You?
#3 THE WEARABLE INSTAGRAM FILTER: SHISEIDO SYNCRO SKIN LASTING LIQUID FOUNDATION
Make-up companies have channelled their energies into formulating products to create a radiant, perfected, Instagram-filter-esque complexion with ease. A semi-sheer coverage and blurring properties are all prerequisites, but Shiseido is using some of the best to turn something as basic as a foundation into something remarkable – make it behave more intuitively and recognise skin conditions.
Like a smart gadget, Synchro Skin packs a slew of clever cosmetic technology that senses and reacts to your skin’s needs for a flawless #wokeuplikethis velvety glow all the time. First up, Airy Cushion Formula with a Powder Network structure gives this liquid-to-powder foundation an extraordinary light, smooth texture that’s a breeze to blend and forms a thin discrete veil over skin. Transparent Correcting Polymers give clear, true colour without dulling to retouch the skin tone and optically diffuse the appearance of enlarged pores, roughness and fine lines, while allowing your natural skin to peek through. Its adaptive Time Match Powder reflects the optimum amount of light for the amount of sebum you produce: When skin is less greasy, the powder increases clarity for a dewy effect. When skin gets greasier, the powder becomes semi-transparent for a matte finish. Oil and sweat are also repelled by the Micro-fit Polymer, while the Sebum Absorbing Powder absorbs grease spots and Hydro-sensing Polymer + Glyceline to help retain hydration, so makeup looks and feels fresh even after eight hours. A true godsend for combination skin, especially in our humid tropical weather that transits into a moisture-sapping air-conditioned office climes in a split second.
#4 THE NEW WAY TO FIGHT DARK CIRCLES & BLEMISHES: COLOUR NEUTRALISERS
While makeup artists have employed this trick for ages, colour correction (applying different hues on the skin to cancel out problem areas more effectively with less product) has shot to rapid stardom in the recent months. But the concept of applying bright colours like green, orange and purple all over our faces still seem daunting to many.
Beauty blogger, Tianacosmetics, uses different shades of colour correctors before magically blending away all flaws in her skin in her viral Instagram video.
While it may seem complicated, the science behind colour correction is pretty straightforward: The two colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel “neutralise” each other when they are blended together. Use lavender shades to illuminate dull, sallow skin; peachy tones (or orange for darker skin tones) to counter bluish dark circles; green shades to neutralise skin redness or pimples; and yellowish tones to conceal dark spots and purplish veins.
For effortless correction in a click and endless glamour, Yves Saint Laurent’s world-famous Touche Éclat now has three new guises this Spring – Violet, Vert Green and Apricot Bisque. The evanescent texture blends seamlessly to perfectly target the problem zone and blur out colour imperfections. Three new ways to create the perfect base.
Watch this video on YouTube.
Read More: ID Your Dark Circles
- By Claudia Lin