What Jo's loving right now
Jo loves... a super-comfy lipstick, a body treat that wafts her to heaven, a shiny-hair mask specially for her blonde hair - and she's eating her words about a toner...
AERIN Rose Balm Lipstick
This is a veritable slanket of a lipstick, comfort-wise. Packed with rose waxes, it glides onto lips and feels like the most delectable lip treatment – but adds an excellent level of coverage, at the same time. From the can’t-put-a-foot-wrong range by Estée Lauder’s daughter Aerin – a woman whose laid-back elegance has me gnashing my teeth somewhat unattractively every time I meet her – this is a new favourite. (Although NB: I’m onto the third pot of her fab cream blusher, reviewed here.) Her Rose Balm itself is also sitting on my desk: created from flower waxes, it smells wonderful (apparently 350 rose petals go into every jar, and it sure smells like it) – great stuff, but with this lipstick I simply don’t need it: it’s truly ‘treatment colour’. The shade I’m sold on? Several (there are 10 altogether), but 06 Liebling (it means 'darling') is the one that I’m fast working to a stub.
• AERIN Rose Balm Lipstick/£25 at www.esteelauder.co.uk – buy here – and AERIN Rose Balm, £40 for 23.5 g – buy here
Ushvani Coconut & Kaffir Lime Butter
Ushvani is a seriously cool yoga centre and day spa that’s currently on my treatment ‘bucketlist’, not least because I’d like nothing more to be slathered in their gloriously-scented products for an hour or so. (Ushvani won Best UK Day Spa in the Tatler Spa Awards 2012, NB.) While I’m waiting for a timeslot in my life to open up (the mind/body/soul are willing, the diary is weak), I’m enjoying the spa-in-a-jar-ness of this, though. It’s rich, it’s lush: the blend of coconut oil and shea butter is seriously skin-softening. It’s the scent that gets me, though (as ever): lemon tea tree, lime, plus the straight-from-Thailand fragrance of kaffir lime extracts. Expensive, yes – but the jar’s lasted a couple of months so far and has plenty of mileage in it yet.
• Ushvani Coconut & Kaffir Lime Butteris £42 for 150 ml at www.ushvani.com - buy here
Fresh Black Tea Age Delay Instant Infusion Treatment TonerI never bother with toners. Never. Always advise they’re completely unnecessary and a waste of time. So why have I (hypocritically) found myself coming back to this? Well, it’s more than a toner: it’s a treatment, with radiance-boosting ingredients including Japanese mandarin extract, vitamins E and C, blackberry leaf and lychee extracts and loads of antioxidant-rich black tea. It’s also got lots of hyaluronic acid, and I swear as a result it has a ‘plumping’ action. (I still apply moisturiser over the top, but am actually rather enjoying adding this extra skin-swiping step to my regime.) It also features kombucha, a fermented black tea which we used to make at home. (Weird, vinegary-tasting stuff – but it made us feel great!) ‘Treatment toners’ are becoming quite a big thing, actually – not as the final step in cleansing, but as a first step in moisturisation (they’ve been huge in the Far East for years.) This joins my other favourite-ever Fresh product – Black Tea Instant Perfecting Mask (which is one of my top masks ever, ever ever) – as top picks from this long-term ‘crush’ of a beauty brand. Word is that Fresh is soon going to be more widely available again in the UK – and about time, too.
• Fresh Black Tea Age Delay Instant Infusion Treatment Toner/£38 for 120 ml at the Fresh Store, 92 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4RD
John Frieda Sheer Blonde Everlasting Blonde Deep Conditioner
Once upon a time, John Frieda didn't have a mask for blonde hair in his range. Then I pleaded. So did my colourist - and the first Sheer Blonde mask was produced. This is a new perfect-for-blondes incarnation, though - and I'd say it's the best yet, fantastic for preserving my bleached-to-high-heaven colour and adding nourishment and shine. I'll let you into a secret: through great good fortune, I can get away with a blow-dry once a week - and do nothing but run a brush through my hair, in between. I always, always apply a mask, though - and from now on, I needn't lug a jar of my own to the John Frieda Aldford Street salon, because this shining star's already waiting for me.
• John Frieda Sheer Blonde Everlasting Blonde Deep Conditioner/£6.29 for 150 ml at www.boots.com - buy here