While make-up and skincare are certainly seasonal (much of what will behave beautifully in winter weather will migrate sludgily in summer temperatures) there are products that work, and bring joy, all year round.
The job of a beauty writer simply could not be nicer. I am lucky enough to try a wide range of products. My working life is full of novelty, colour and texture. The industry, in its Herculean effort to reinvent the wheel, is constantly pushing out something new, and I am always waiting in delight to see what is coming. However, in my daily life as a consumer of beauty products, like most of us, I am less adventurous.
There are always the reliable products that we turn to, and I have discovered some failsafe ones this spring/summer season which will take me, and hopefully you, too, comfortably into autumn/winter. Some of them are glamorous, some of them are more pragmatic, but all of them have a permanent place in my heart (and bathroom).
Dove Argan Oil Shower Mousse (€4.69 at Boots) is just a shower product. I say "just" a shower product, but we all know that the unguents we use in a morning shower are more than that. When I reel from bed, bleary eyed and raging at the world, I want to wash with something that carries me gently into the day. This mousse from Dove feels expensive and smells delicately beautiful. I regularly pick it up on offer at Boots when they sell it at half price. The coconut and argan iterations are the most scrummy.
My skincare find of the summer is DCL C Scape High Potency Night Booster (€137 at Space NK), which is expensive, and not a comfortable product to use.
A little like a retinol, it can sting, result in dryness and sensitivity, and its slightly gritty texture is downright weird. However, nothing improves pigmentation and red scarring like it. Skin is brightened quite remarkably. I find myself wearing less makeup since starting on this product and when Glossier started shipping to Ireland recently, joy ensued. The millennial brand that produces a beautiful face of minimalist make-up quickly and easily, it is perfect for novices or those who lack time. Haloscope (€21 at glossier.com) is a glowing yet subtle highlighter with skincare benefits.
If you buy but one palette to take you from summer to winter, let it be the Huda Beauty Smoky Obsessions Palette (€28 at Brown Thomas).
A range of textures make the palette versatile and the pigment of the shadows is sensationally rich and opaque. It works in summer for a soft wash of colour or a night-time eye, and ideally in winter for a warm but deep seasonal make-up. NARS Radiant Longwear Foundation (€45 at Brown Thomas), though not a spring or summer release, was the best foundation release this year.
A blob of it mixed with highlighter or moisturiser makes a delectably glowy summer base, or applied as is, its coverage is incredibly thorough and impressive.
