March's beauty must-haves for your fresh spring looks
New palettes, reboots of been-around-the-block brands and more to shop right now.
Spring is almost here! After these dry, grey days of winter, we want to greet it with vibrant pops of colour and clean, fresh skin. Whether you're looking to freshen your cosmetics bag with new hues or finally get your best skin ever, this list has all the new products that you need.
Truly outrageous!
Canadian designer Hayley Elsaesser, known for her OTT patterns and colourful coordinates, has just released a limited edition, pop-fantastic cosmetics collection with Annabelle cosmetics. The line of 10 collectable lipsticks are housed in HE print packaging created by the designer herself. With bold creamy and sparkly hues in the range (and names like Bloody Slushee, Bazooka Poodle, Banana Yana, Bugging Out Plums!), fans will now have a perfectly paired lippy to wear with their HE duds.
Annabelle x Hayley Elsaesser The Outrageous Collection, $8.95 each, annabelle.com
Hello, Hollywood
If anyone can find more ways to perfect that Tinsel Town glow, it's Charlotte Tilbury. The latest launch from the Brit makeup artist's line is a highlighter, serum and Insta-filter all in one. Made with pearlescent Porcelain flower extract (a brightening ingredient from a Thai flower that contains natural antioxidants and anti-inflammatories) it gives a soft-focus look to the complexion. Flawless Filter, which comes in seven shades, also works to make your lines and pores look smoother while it highlights your best assets, and it can be worn on its own or under your favourite foundation.
Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter, $50, holtrenfrew.com and Nordstrom.com
The Reboot
Most beauty brands would never admit to completely overhauling their product line, especially not a brand that has been in existence for nearly 150 years(!) but that's what Shiseido, one of the world's oldest beauty brands, is in the midst of doing. Shiseido's new Essential Energy creams use patented "ReNeura Technology", based on 25 years of research out of Harvard that says that the brain and skincare are linked through 800,000 sensory nerves. Meaning: textures and scents in lotions and creams can trigger the skin to work better with the ingredients it's given. Containing Ashitaba alpha extract (a delicacy in Japan) that helps to suppress damage to the mitochondria, it is a like a battery boost to your cells.
Shiseido Essential Energy Moisturizing Cream, $64, Essential Energy Moisturizing Gel Cream, $64, and Essential Energy Day Cream SPF 20, $64, thebay.com, sephora.com, and select Rexall and Shoppers Drug Mart
New & improved
This sweet smelling, mild cream cleanser (the uplifting citrus scent is divine, but not overpowering), helps to remove even long-wear makeup without striping skin of its natural oils thanks to allantoin and glycerin. It's perfect for dry, rough skin, which most of us have after this crazy rollercoaster of a winter!
Whip it real good
Olay is also in revamp mode! The mega beauty brand just launched Whips, a cream-to-liquid texture that leaves behind hyper-hydrated skin with a matte finish. This new Whip texture is available in their über popular Regenerist, Total Effects and Luminous ranges, so your fave drugstore moisturizer just got a boost.
Passing the (strand) test
Once your rich new hue is set at the salon, the last thing you want is to see it become duller after that first shampoo. Thanks to Phyto Phytomillesime Color Locker Pre-shampoo, you won't have to worry about that. With an innovative formula that you apply for one to two minutes before you shampoo, this sleek gel texture smooths down the scales on each strand and forms a cosmetic mesh of sorts to trap pigments within the hair shaft. Your locks will retain more colour and also shine bright like a diamond.
Phyto Phytomillesime Color Locker Pre-shampoo, $48, in store at Murale and online at beautyboutique.ca or phyto-canada.ca
Aussie import
Australia's biggest natural cosmetics brand has just landed in Canada! With 30+ products, from between $18 to $50 dollars, this mineral based collection is full of warm hues made perfect for spring and summer looks. The star ingredient in the line is Kakadu Plum, a native-Australian plant known for having the highest concentration of natural vitamin C in the world. The line also contains Lilly Pilly and Cehami, both of which provide antioxidant benefits to the skin.
Nude by Nature, $18 to $50, available at Shoppers Drug mart, nudebynature.com
Let's get cooking
One of MAC's latest collaborations goes from day to night, making pit stops at all your culinary adventures in between. Padma Lakshmi, the actor and host of Top Chef, has now created her own capsule cosmetics collection, consisting of two gorgeous eye shadow palettes, a range of seven lipstick shades, two blush/bronzer palettes and a shimmery pale lipgloss and three makeup brushes.
Gimme a boost
Fermented is not usually a word we would associate with skincare, but Fresh's latest will change that! Their newest toning essence is made with buzzy Kombucha, a fermented sweet, black tea, to smooth out fine lines, brighten the complexion and restore moisture while is refines the appearance of the skin. Use it in the morning to help protect your complexion from daily exposure to pollutants.
Fresh Black Tea Kombucha Facial Treatment Essence, $85, shop.nordstrom.ca, sephora.ca
That California life
Skincare junkies should get to know Osea, the latest skincare line added to Holt Renfrew's H Project collection of sustainable goods. Osea, which stands for ocean, sun, earth and atmosphere, has been practicing the art of natural beauty since well before it was trendy to do so. Launched in the Golden State in 1996, this family operated business utilizes the benefits of seaweed sourced from the Sea of Patagonia as its main ingredient, boosting it with the help of organic essential oils, peptides and nutrients. Try two of their star products, the Anti-Aging Body Balm (Shonda Rhimes, Kylie Jenner, Jessica Biel and Emma Roberts are all fans!) or the Hyaluronic Sea Serum (a lightweight formula that glides on to smooth wrinkles and plump of skin).
Osea Anti-Aging Body Balm, $60, and Hyaluronic Sea Serum, $110, holtrenfrew.com
The fantastic Mrs. Fox
For a quick boost to your complexion, it's time for Fox in a Box. These five shimmer shades are inspired by different moods. Made with finely milled mica pigments, each marbleized powder is a sheer, yet buildable shade, to add multi-dimensional look to your cheeks.
Hard Candy Fox in a Box, $7.98 each, walmart.ca
Let's get digital
Revive parched, dry hands by counting to ten! Fresh from Rocky Mountain Soap Company comes 100 per cent natural, 10-ingredient lotions. With scents like Lemongrass, Vanilla Coconut, Lavender and Vanilla Mint each super moisturizing concoction is purse-perfect and made to keep your hands hydrated wherever you may roam.
Rocky Mountain Soap Company hand cream, $11.50 each, rockymountainsoap.com
Strong hold
Put those fly-aways on notice, because Finesse's strongest hold hairspray is here. Power Mist Hairspray has a finer mist and wider spray radius than other non-aerosol sprays and offers super strong hold all day long.