Beauty Industry News

Royal seal of approval for Weleda, matt make-up starts 'overtaking' glossy skin looks and new French 'pharmacy' beauty brands worth knowing about

Beauty sleep is as vital, as is not resting on your laurels when it comes to beauty industry, but what happens when one’s success becomes one’s impediment? Being a celebrity is not a guarantee that a brand will be a success and the same applies to Royalty. Marie-Chantal of Greece made her childwear brand Marie Chantal much coveted over the years because who doesn’t want a little bit of Royal fairy dust sprinkled on their cherub, especially when it comes in a form of Angel Wing Sleepsuit? Her book on manners will serve as a great guide during childhood too!

The same sadly can’t be said about success of His Majesty The King past Prince’s Trust collaboration (when His Majesty was still the Prince of Wales) with celebrity hairdresser Daniel Galvin Jnr on natural line of organic body washes and lotions called Highgrove Baby, which was then followed by Highgrove Signature skincare - I am not sure whether it still exists. What would work in beautiful synergy is the collaboration between HM The King and Lady Bamford’s Daylesford Organic - now, can someone whisper this in either ear please?

In the meantime recent communication from Swiss natural beauty brand pioneer Weleda about their upcoming new natural beauty line with Princess Madeleine of Sweden “MinLen’ didn’t exactly excite me. Especially after I read carefully the words contained in the official statement shared via Princess Madeleine’s Instagram account.

“First natural, responsible, multi-generational brand in Europe”? Forgive me coughing into my porcelain cup of tea, but hasn’t Weleda been that for decades already? Not much is known about the line of products beyond above statement yet, and the fact that the younger daughter of the King of Sweden won’t use her title in this creative endeavour, but being a mother of three doesn’t automatically make you an expert of natural beauty.

Weleda has been making plenty of changes in the last decade, some of them questionable in the desire to please beauty influencers and load them onboard, even if they don’t care about natural beauty segment and post about Weleda alongside their favourite L’Oreal and La Mer promotions, but I can understand why they want another Royal seal of approval to seal the deal. And which Royal doesn’t want to become the Gwyneth Paltrow of beauty ? With my love of Weleda and using the products in my household on the ‘intergenerational’ members of my own family, I never-the-less fail to see the sense of this business venture. It would be interesting to see if Princess Madeleine and her businessman husband will be investing their money into this business venture which at the moment has more of a whiff of the bonfire of the vanities than of natural herbs and plants scent.

Matt make-up is starting to trend - goodbye glossy skin trend?

With more and more brands launching matt make-up formulas and products, are we starting to move away from glossy and glassy skin? We still seem to want the glow, but in a more toneddown version. Many make-up artists have been vocal for years about the magical powers of powder to transfer our looks and make make-up last longer, but as anyone beyond her or his first flushes of youth knows, powder can also be so very drying and enhancing the wrinkles that we would rather naturally blur. After all we want to draw attention to our strong features, rather than enhance the impact that the passing of time and gravity leave on our skin. In that respect my “one and only” powder blush is the one that comes in a multitude of shades from RMS Beauty. Their powder blushers, bronzers and living luminizers are the best on the market as far as I am concerned - and I welcome anyone in their glorious middle age to challenge me on that. I tried many in the past and swore off using them each time, including Maestro Armani’s, until Rose-Marie Bravo and her formidable RMS team launched ReDimension Hydra Powder blush - no other powder blush garners me that many compliments - and lasts beautifully all day.

Now make-up artist and ingural BoF beauty award winner Sara Homidi offers an essential Face Compact and so does Westman Atelier with the Lip Suede Compact and Vital Pressed Skincare Powder. Want it pressed? Look to Gen Z brand Tower 28 Beauty or Saie, Kosas does a loose one and so does Ilia. Yours truly is too engrossed in the meantime exploring the newly launched RMS Beauty Cashmere Matt Eyelights that come in the riveting colour palette of eight choices. Some brands are followers and some are natural born-leaders. Let’s see how this trend evolves with different generations of women exploring the offering.

“French pharmacy” brands are having a renaissance - which ones should you know about