If you’re suffering from static hair (a side-effect of a centrally-heated atmosphere), add a drop or two of vitamin E oil to the palms of your hands, rub together and skim them through your hair before bedtime.
Stuck outdoors on a cold day? Keep moving. Whether you’re cheering on a family member from the sporting sidelines or waiting for an overdue train, try to keep moving. Walk up and down the pitch or the platform to boost your circulation, rather than allowing the cold to rise through the soles of your shoes.
If hands are cracked in the cold weather, don’t merely slather on more lotion; exfoliate with a gentle scrub, too, to improve cell turnover and stimulate collagen and elastin production.
If you're using an oil treatment on your hair, these work as a pre-shampoo treatment. Then wash twice; the first lather removes the bulk of the oil, the second lather gets hair properly clean, rinsing away any debris.
Best time to tweeze? After a hot shower when pores are open. (Just de-fug that mirror, first.)
To make sure powder doesn't settle into lines, experts recommend pressing powder onto the face with a velvet puff, then dusting OFF the excess with that big, fluffy brush.
We all know about washing our make-up brushes. But don't overlook those teeny brushes that live inside your eyeshadow or powder compacts; these need regular cleansing, too.
We love a bath at any time of the year, but we love its therapeutic effects in this busy-busy-busy season. To enhanc relax, swoosh a kilo of magnesium or even sea salt under running and mix in well. 20 minutes is optimum for relaxation, whereas for a more tonic effect, go for a much shorter bath.
Love party hair accessories, hate the way they slide out of your hair? You’ve two options. A spritz of dry shampoo will add grip, but alternatively, try twisting the hair before fixing the accessory. (Something that clicks into place is also likely to grip better than slides.) And to be triple sure, finish with a texture spray, to help with hold.
If you’re planning to self-tan before a party, be sure to exfoliate well and lavish on plenty of moisturiser (face or body), for a more even finish. Think: enzyme exfoliators for the face (gentler than grains), and an oil-based scrub for the body. Skin is drier in winter and the active ingredient in most self-tanners – DHA – clings to dry, papery and hard skin, delivering very uneven results.
When it comes to party make-up, we love this advice from our friend Kathleen Baird-Murray in the Financial Times, drawing on wisdom from Tom Pecheux. Basically, ‘take whichever look you do best – be that the smoky eye or bare eye and red lip – and throw a little glitter at it.’ So: a smidgen of sparkly shadow on brow or lid or the inner corner of the eye, or a glimmery gloss over lipstick. You’ll look like you. Only ‘partier’. (To paraphrase Bobbi Brown.)
With the canapé season fast approaching, it can be tempting to skip lunch to make room for those tidbits. Much healthier is to have a proper lunch, with protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. (If you don’t have a kitchen at work, take in your leftovers.) That way you can be sure of getting one good, balanced meal (since few of us want to go out to dinner after a few rounds of snacks). It certainly stops us attacking the canapé tray like a crazed hyena when it hoves into sight…
With good hairdressers, organising an appointment can sometimes feel harder than co-ordinating a G20 summit. We like to schedule appointments two or three in advance – that might mean every five weeks for a cut, every two months for colour – and work our diaries around those appointments. (So much more elegant than begging on bended knees for a last-minute slot…)
The festive season is almost upon us. Which means: so is the washing-up season. We keep a pair of rubber gloves in our luggage when we visit friends. Then if we find they don’t have a pair to hand, we can still muck in with the chores without drying out hands and nails.
We’ve learned never to let manicurists use a file on nail tips to get rid of flakes. Gentle buffing is fine – but files weaken and thin nails, in our experience, compromising their strength.
Facialist Debbie Thomas prescribes salicylic acid products to her red carpet clients who can’t be seen with a zit. ‘Salicylic acid is great for acne,’ she notes. ‘It helps unblock pores, reduce oil production and is anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial.’
Saunas are back in style. But if you're prone to broken veins, keep a limit of just a few minutes on time spent in there; prolonged exposure to excessive heat can cause broken capillaries (and actually braek down collagen and elastin, too).
We’d far rather give someone a Christmas beauty gift they really want than something destined for the nearest charity shop or to gather dust in the bathroom. With the gift season upon us, we recommend asking someone for three things they’d love – and buy one of them. That way, it’ll still be a surprise.
Fingers or tools? Kay Montano starts with a sponge, but advises: ‘Ultimately, you’ll always need to use your fingers to blend any product. Nothing beats that final “hands-on” touch. It’s the only way to feel how much product is actually on the skin.’
Got an important meeting or a VIP event? We never recommend trying a new face mask, exfoliator or indeed pretty much any new product on the day (or the night before). You’re never going to be 100% sure it won’t trigger a reaction – and you don’t want to have that panicked feeling that you’d rather venture out with a paper bag over your head…