Best British Beauty Brands
By Lulu Townsend, Travel & Lifestyle Guru
www.lulusluxurylifestyle.uk
Trinny London
Trinny London is the ultimate modern, premium beauty and skincare brand created by Trinny Woodall. Sarah-Jane Duncanson aka "Trinny" Woodall is an English fashion and makeover expert, television presenter and author. Trinny founded this great British beauty brand from her kitchen table back in 2017 with the aim to give everyone accessible tools to enable them to be the best version of themselves. Unlike other brands she started with makeup before skincare, introducing stacking pots of happiness and colour and the iconic best-seller BFF a glow-boosting skin perfector with SPF 30.
Makeup was quickly followed by skincare ‘when our skin feels dull and tired, we feel dull and tired’ says Trinny. The skin products are beautifully packaged, highly active and very effective.
One of the latest innovations is Boost Up a super-strength, highly active (not for sensitive skin) Vitamin C serum that gives your skin back its glow, and it really does. Full of antioxidants this balmy cream evens out skin tone and boosts your complexion. It doesn’t have the rather unpleasant smell that many Vitamin C serums have and the packing is sleek and modern. It can be used daily morning and evening under your usual moisturiser or a few times a week for an instant boost.
‘Forget the Botox, it's time to go back to basics’ says Trinny Woodall founder of beauty brand Trinny London.
I also love the Double Cleanse pack which comes with an oil-based cleanser and muslin cloth and an exfoliating gel which gives your skin a radiant glow – the ideal partner with Boost Up.
Dimple Amani
A favourite with celebrities Dimple works miracles on the face and body with her lymphatic drainage techniques using Ayurvedic-inspired products and tools she has created which are now available for everyone.
Kansa Wand
This versatile tool helps increase circulation, restore balance and drain toxins from the face. The Kansa wand is wooden with double-ended copper massage heads; copper helps eliminate toxins whilst alkalising the skin. Used on a regular basis you’ll see a reduction in fine lines and dark circles. It’s a great tool to reduce puffiness in the mornings used with some of Dimple’s new lymph drain face oil which de-puffs, brightens and nourishes the skin. The end result is soothing, uplifting and toning.
£95
Miracle Tea
Detoxing, rejuvenating tea which helps flush out toxins. The unique Ayurvedic blend includes Turmeric, Ashwaganda, chamomile, Tulsi Basil and Ginger. Hair growth is stimulated, nerves calmed and digestion soothed. The tea comes in a copper tin encouraging alkalinity in the body.
£45
You can book treatments with Dimple who has a studio on Vauxhall Bridge Road in London.
Jet Candy
Jet Candy Plane Remedy was created and formulated by Helios, the UK’s most well-respected homeopathic pharmacies. The Plane Remedy helps adjust the body’s circadian rhythm when travelling ensuring sleep patterns are re-aligned and uninterrupted. Jet Candy Plane Candy also helps circulation, hydration and reduces Deep Vein Thrombosis in flight. Ingredients include Arnica, bellis perennis, cocculus, gelsemium & petroleum.
www.jet-candy.com
De Mamiel
Pure, potent and precise is the mantra of skincare brand De Mamiel. This beyond skincare brand encourages you to breathe deeply and take time for yourself. The products are formulated in small batches in the UK to create a sensory, calming and nourishing skincare experience.
‘Each ingredient has been mindfully chosen to create the most luxurious, potent product I can’ Annee de Mamiel
The three products that really stand out are:
Altitude Oil
This energising inhalation essence can be used at any time to clear the head and defog your thoughts – it’s great for travel and suitable for all skin types. Either sprinkle on a tissue or dab a few drops under your nose. A travel and every day essential.
Exhale Daily Hydrating Nectar SPF 30
A potent blend of actives in the form of an everyday, intensely nourishing moisturiser enriched with the essences of orange and vetiver. Once tried there’s no going back; the intoxicating smell and the luminous glow it gives your skin is addictive.
Dewy Facial Mist
As a hotel guru, travel is always on my agenda and so this product caught my eye as it’s perfect for rehydration on flights. But it’s also great for an any time of day skin refresh and a quick hydration spritz for thirsty skin. The fragrance of wild rose and sandalwood lingers as the flower essences treat the skin. Another travel essential.
OTO
OTO aims to provide the most effective and luxurious experience, so all of their sustainably sourced products are rigorously researched, designed, and tested to ensure they actually work. And they do.
Founder Gemma first discovered CBD while she was working in the stressful, fast-paced fashion industry. She had always suffered with anxiety until one day a friend told her to try CBD and this is where the OTO story began. CBD changed her life. My favourite product is the OTO CBD Sleep Drops which help you relax, unwind and drift into a good night’s sleep, but they are also great for anxiety and calming your nervous system. A 15ml bottle contains 1500mg pure CBD infused with lavender, calming butterfly pea flower and fresh field mint. This blend has been specifically created to maintain balance within your body, helping you align with your natural sleep cycle without making you feel drowsy or sleepy. Great for teenagers coping with exams, working mothers trying to juggle and anyone struggling to sleep. One of the best CBD products in the UK.
Relaxayvoo
The best newcomer to the UK beauty market. Relaxayvoo is the result of many meetings between founder Constance and Aromatherapists, beauty experts and essential oil suppliers in France resulting in two exquisite natural facial oils that reduce the signs of ageing.
Those of you who know French, even if just phonetically, will appreciate the ‘VOO’ element of the brand, meaning ‘YOU’
The two oils, ‘Protect’ and ‘Nourish’ are both meticulously hand-blended by Constance. I can honestly say that after 10 days of using both oils religiously my skin felt and looked renewed and rejuvenated and the Relaxayvoo ritual is one that I look forward to morning and evening. Both are great for menopausal skin as they add an extra protection for your skin barrier.
New for 2022 is the bath and shower oil with delicate citrus scents of Combawa elevated with notes of Eucalyptus to raise your overall sense of well-being, perfect for a quick revive. I find it best used in the morning to wake up your mojo! Be warned once you have used the face oils you’ll find yourself addicted, not only to the wonderful aroma but to the glow they give your skin. Subscriptions are now available to ensure you never run out! Not just a travel essential, but a daily essential.
Micheline Arcier
Madame Micheline Arcier was a pioneer of modern day Aromatherapy. She developed exclusive products and signature aromatherapy massage techniques that treated each client as a unique and complete individual. This approach, coupled with her own passion for further development, saw her create a highly regarded private practice in Knightsbridge, London. This has now closed but her reputation for quality and excellence lives on, through the exceptional products she developed. True aromatherapy was pioneered in the 1950s by Marguerite Maury, an Austrian biochemist who developed the early massage techniques from which today's aromatherapy derives. Her treatments were initially designed for skin rejuvenation, but her clients reported such great benefits including better sleep and pain relief inspiring her to pass down her knowledge and Micheline Arcier was one of the very few people to be trained by her personally.
I never travel without Harmonie Aromatherapie Dream Drops from Micheline Arcier; If you’re having trouble sleeping or relaxing put a few drops onto pulse points and chest, inhale deeply and drift off into a magical slumber. And when life is becoming demanding and sleep elusive run a bath and add some award-winning Harmonie bath oil, a deeply relaxing and soporific oil that eases aches and pains. No other bath oil comes close to helping you drift off to sleep like this one, in fact it’s so effective other brands have tried to copy it without success. Ingredients include petitgrain, ylang ylang and chamomile. For an extra layer of relaxation finish off with Harmonie Body Oil.
ilāpothecary
Sister company to the organic skincare brand www.ila-spa.com (whose face oil by the way is amazing) - The name ‘ilapothecary’ is inspired by the Sanskrit word for Earth – ‘ila’.
ilapothecary is an award-winning British brand offering a cutting-edge synergy of Herbology, Homeopathy and Phyto-Actives. Products are lovingly handmade and blended in the UK, using simple methods based on an intuitive approach.
The brand is committed to healing with 100% natural products (which are free from: mineral oil, silicone, propylene glycol, ethanolamine, parabens and SLES). There are many powerful remedial ingredients used in the formulations including essential oils, live stem cells, vitamins and homeopathic ingredients to help mental and physical fatigue, hormonal changes and environmental pollution. The uplifting, balancing and nurturing products, suitable for a busy, stressful lifestyle, are made with British-grown healing botanicals that are combined with homoeopathic filaments which have been distilled over long periods of time from powerful gemstones. A big part of the ilapothecary experience is sensory as all of the products have a very powerful aura and essence. Did you know that an incredible 75% of our emotions are generated by what we smell?
One of their best-selling award-winning products is Beat The Blues Room Spray, a favourite of Demi Moore and a favourite of mine. This magic bottle helps clear the atmosphere and creates an uplifting, happy space with the help of clary sage, rose geranium, petitgrain and tuberose which help quieten the mind and lift our mood. Also in the Beat The Blues collection is the body oil, heaven in a bottle – Vitamin E, Argan oil and Sweet Almond have been added to the alchemical blend in the room spray to create a deliciously fragrant and utterly spoiling experience.
Unlike other room sprays a few squirts of this lingers in the air for a few hours. It lifts your spirits and picks you up when you’re down. One of my absolute travel essentials.
La-Eva
Love, love, love this brand, its founder and all that it stands for. La Eva is the organic brand created by former psychologist Louisa Canham who has designed a collection of uplifting and grounding products. At La-Eva, the focus is on sensorial well-being and cosmetics using natural and organic ingredients which treat the mind and body as one. Their lifestyle products have been inspired by the idea of synaesthesia (from the ancient Greek syn–‘together’ and aisthesis–‘sensation’). Ethically conscious products and sustainable packaging combine luxury, simplicity and beauty.
Blū Face & Body Wash and Body Lotion are two of their best-selling products and it’s easy to see why; both are packed with regenerating and nourishing ingredients including coconut and apricot kernel oils, shea butter, aloe vera, milk thistle and calendula, for their calming properties. The fragrance reminds me of childhood, carefree days, running around the garden in pyjamas after having a bath.
All bottles are glass with pumps so you can buy 1-litre aluminium refills - a subscription option is now available on their website. AND BIG NEWS!!! La Eva sensorial body treatments are now available at Claridge’s in London and feature layers of fragrance, music and massage to nurture the mind, body and soul. Total luxury. Watch this space, this is a British brand that is going to go far.
Revive Collagen
There are different brands of collagen popping up all over the place, so it’s difficult to know which one to choose. It’s well documented that our collagen levels start decreasing from as early as our 20’s and that our body’s ability to regenerate these levels decrease rapidly as we get older and head towards menopause. Studies show that women's skin loses about 30% of its collagen during the first five years of menopause.
That’s where Revive Collagen comes into play - each sachet contains between at least 8,500 MG of high-quality marine collagen. You need to ingest at least 6,000 MG of collagen peptides daily to trigger the cells responsible for collagen production in the dermis. Hydrolysed collagen is absorbed faster and more easily than other forms of ingestible collagen, so you’ll see quicker results. Expect to see visible results in 6-8 weeks (so you’ll need to buy two boxes!), with consistent use but I started to see results after just 3 weeks, with plumper skin and reduced fine lines. What I love about this brand is that it has added hyaluronic acid and aloe vera boosting the effects of the collagen itself, which by the way is tasteless! It’s worth noting that Revive has also introduced the world’s first clinically proven vegan collagen product.
“I take the Revive Collagen sachets on the go daily. I’ll normally pop one into my coffee while getting ready for my early mornings on Heart Breakfast. The product is natural and great tasting and the fact that it also contains vitamins B6, B12, C and D means I don’t need to worry about taking any additional supplements." Amanda Holden