Cult Favourites
These products have sometimes niche but always totally devoted followings from the most expert and obsessed beauty addicts out there (including many of our WHO profiles). And while many might want to keep their ride-or-die beauty products under wraps, we’re feeling generous. Here, the cult beauty products you need to try - you won’t know what you did without them.
C E Ferulic Serum
Bright, glowing skin in a bottle. Skinceuticals C E Ferulic is a staple in the routines of dermatologists and beauty lovers worldwide (the ever radiant Sienna Miller is a fan). Its clever combination of vitamins C and E plus ferulic acid trumps the effectiveness of ordinary vitamin C serums, and helps boost collagen production and skin clarity. Try it and you’ll never look back.
Les Beiges Healthy Glow Powder
The ultimate in that no-makeup makeup thing you know we love. It adds glow and illumination without glitter or sparkle (yes please) and enhances the skin in a low-key ‘I’ve just been on holiday somewhere gorgeous and sunny’ kind of way. It can also be used without foundation as a chic, all-over wash of bronze.
Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream
If you’ve spied someone with gorgeously glowing but natural looking skin over the past few years, there’s a good chance they’ve been wearing this cult base product. IT Cosmetics’ CC+ Cream shot to fame (its constantly being sold out and lengthy waiting list are both very much evidence of this) thanks to its skin perfecting formula that somehow manages to just, as its name suggests, make your skin look like itself, but better.
Crème de la Mer
You can’t get more cult than Crème de la Mer – dozens of our WHO profiles cite it as a skincare holy grail and it’s not hard to see why. First crafted by Dr Max Huber to treat severe burns, it’s packed with skin-beautifying ingredients like hand-harvested sea kelp and lime tea, as well La Mer’s signature Miracle Broth, to improve skin barrier function and accelerate cell regeneration.
Facial Treatment Essence
The product that launched a whole category of products, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence introduced the world to the benefits of essences (helping your subsequent products work harder and deeply hydrating skin, among others) and continues to be one of our favourites to this day. It’s rich in the brand’s hero ingredient, pitera, a clever yeast-derived ingredient that mimics our skin’s own natural moisturising factors. Jessica Gomes and Jess Hart both use it daily – need we say more?
Eyelash Curler
We’d be hard pressed to find a makeup artist without a pair of these in his or her kit – the iconic Kevyn Aucoin actually dubbed them his ultimate secret weapon when making up supermodels. And they’re name dropped in The Devil Wears Prada – you get the idea. They’re engineered to work on all eye shapes to create long-lasting, fluttery lashes and are easy to use, even for the lash curler averse among us.
Drying Lotion
This powerful potion of skin-brightening salicylic acid, purifying sulphur and soothing calamine has been saving us from soul-sucking pimples since the moment we discovered it. Apply at the first hint of a burgeoning blemish, leave on overnight and the pimple will have pretty much vanished by morning – it’s totally miraculous and we can’t be without it.
Lait-Crème Concentré
It’s been a French pharmacie staple for over half a century, and our love of this primer-mask-moisturiser hybrid shows no sign of abating. It also creates the perfect base for makeup, leaving skin feeling hydrated and soft (it’s a longtime makeup artist favourite for this reason). Julia Restoin-Rotifeld and Jane Birkin both swear by it.
Cleanser
Yet another WHO profile favourite. Eve Lom can fairly be credited with getting women to cleanse their faces properly, steering them away from old-school cold creams or stripping formulas with her gorgeously sensual balm and hot cloth cleanser. Use it twice a day for radiantly clear and hydrated skin, thanks to clove, eucalyptus and camomile oils.
Cleansing Purifying Scrub With Sea Salt
This scalp scrub slash shampoo from the King of Cool French Girl Hair, Christophe Robin, has amassed a wealth of celebrity converts (Gucci Westman and Megan Gale have both proclaimed their love of the stuff to us). It deeply cleanses the roots to remove oil and product build up, and improves scalp health – super important because a healthy scalp equals healthy hair, after all.