Jo loves... Spring 2026
Recent discoveries include a glorious make-up palette range (and an easy-glide eyeliner), an oldie-but-goodie hair mousse, an end-of-winter skin quencher – and the most divine, commented-on candle
Gatineau Collegene Expert Plumping Revival Mask
This is just the skin drink that my skin needed lately, landing on the desk from Gatineau just when the central heating seemed to have sapped every last molecule of moisture from my poor face. We’re known to be big Gatineau fans, at Beauty Bible HQ, and I’d a hunch that this new introduction would be a goodie. Use it one of two ways: as a 10-minute quick fix, or (as I’ve been doing a couple of nights a week) overnight, allowing the mask to sink in. By morning, my face looks plumped and smooth, while feeling less tight. There’s a subtle fragrance – always a deal-maker, for me – and I’m tempted to call it ‘lotus’, a sort of watercolour floral scent that doesn’t overwhelm, but adds to the pleasure factor. Deffo worth the skin-vestment.
£44 for 75ml – buy here
Stila Stay All Day Smudge & Set Waterproof Gel Eye Liner
Much as I love my Lisa Eldridge Seamless Glide Eye Pencil, it’s not great for holidays (melts to a great big racoon smudge in the heat, on me – which may be just the rock chick look you like, but I don’t).
So, after Stila Stay All Day Smudge & Set Waterproof Gel Eye Liner landed on my desk, I took it on my January break – and not only is this Stila product great for eyelining – dense in colour, buildable, smooth to apply yet easy to smudge, before it sets – but it then stays put brilliantly through heat and swimming (although NB, I never actually put my head under water!) I also like the fact that the slimline pencil swivels up, so never needs sharpening, having sometimes failed to take our own Beauty Bible advice and scratched my lid with a stub! Loads of shades available, but I never stray from black (goes by the name of Stingray Black).
£18 (but 20% off at time of press) – buy here
John Frieda Frizz Ease Dream Curls Curl Reviver Mousse
My lovely John Frieda hairdresser Eugene Smith and I had been trying to find a mousse that worked really well on my stubborn, hard-to-style hair. (It has kinks, grows in several different directions, and is more of a challenge than any hairdresser ever imagines, at first glance.) Nothing that Mayfair’s Aldford Street salon – where I’ve been devotedly going for 30 years, now – seemed to tick all the boxes. So I remembered: when the salon stocked John Frieda products, there was an ace mousse that tamed my wayward hair without feeling crunchy, left it shiny, and was a veritable Duracell bunny, when it came to hold. Eugene sweetly bought a can for his kit – and is now using it on other mousse-loving clients, a total convert to this total steal.
£8.99 for 200ml – buy here
I saw my beauty editor friend Sali Hughes raving about these in The Guardian, and – always on the hunt for a replacement for my beloved, discontinued Tom Ford Cocoa Mirage neutrals palette (which I’d used right up), I ordered a palette from Paris. Palettes are the speciality of Viseart; alas, the precise Praline Étendu palette that I ordered (above left) is now on back order, but has a great range of taupes, a smooth chocolate brown and a range of neutral shimmers for a touch on brow-bone and lid. (You can join a waitlist to be notified.)
There’s a really good colour pay-off to these shadows, but they blend out with a shadow blender brush to an utterly seamless look – my perfect scenario. There are so many other great options in the line-up, including the palette on the right, above, which also showcases brow-colouring waxes (and shades to touch up a greying hairline), as well as a dazzling palette called Paris Nuit Étoilée Étendu (half-price at around £17, at time of writing, for 12 shades), which appears to feature many of the same tones as my Praline Étendu. After years of looking for something to replace that Tom Ford palette, I have honestly stopped scouring the beauty counters, slightly feeling like I have my life back!
Matière Première Encens Oman Candle
There is a new flagship store for the French fragrance brand MATIÈRE PREMIÈRE, in Covent Garden, which I heartily recommend that the perfume-lovers among you pay a visit to – not least to be able to smell the line-up of pure essences from the raw materials (or ‘matière premières’) on which perfumer Aurélien Guichard bases his fragrances. It also offers the just-launched, luxe line-up of candles, again based around a single ingredient. Visiting the shop with a couple of perfume-writing colleagues, we smelled this particular one and honestly, all sort of growled at the gorgeousness of it. I’ve been burning the very chic black square vessel of Encens Oman in the office, to lots of visitor comments: ‘WHAT’S that gorgeous smell?’, from half-way up the stairs. That’s when you know it’s a goodie.
£85 for 220g – buy here
