Tried and Tested – Holiday Beauty Buys

While on holiday recently, I packed a number of beauty products that turned out to be cracking additions to the Holiday Must Have beauty list.

First up, Percy & Reed’s Wonder Cleanse and Nourish, which is basically conditioner-as-shampoo. You may have read about this new hot trend to wash your hair in conditioner rather then shampoo. When I met Adam Reed recently, he highly recommended his new-ish product (well I guess he would) to cope with holiday-hair-frizz and it definitely worked. It’s a bit weird, you wash wet hair once with the product, combing it through to the ends and then washing it out. Adam recommends three washes before your hair gets used to the non-soapy washing, but I can say my hair has NEVER come back from a sea-and-sun holiday in better condition. £18.00 from here

I actually took a few products from the Gallinée range, it’s an innovative new range that uses probiotics and lactic acid to keep your skin healthy gently, by nourishing your skin to health using good bacteria, a bit like how those yoghurty ones help your stomach. For me the stand out product is the La Culture Body Milk. It has a soft, fruity scent that is gentle on the nose and has a flowing texture which is easy to apply to hot and sensitive skin. There must be something in the nourishing skin theory as my holiday skin has rarely been so soft. I also love the hand cream and my young female house guest has been testing the Foaming Cleanser, which has really helped calm her slightly acne-prone skin. Quite well priced for such a quality product too.

We all know to keep ourselves plastered in factor one million sun cream, but finding a good one for your face can be challenging. I found Filorga UV Defense 50+ excellent, not least for its easy to find shiny metal tube.

My love for Omorovicza has been well documented here, and I urge you to consider this lightly scented Queen Of Hungary Mist, for hot holidays. It is a joy to use on a hot sweaty beach, inside a non air-conditioned rental car or when squished into a smelly, miserable seat aboard a plane. It makes you feel organised and glamorous, the sort of person who cares to create their own delightful environment where ever they go…Ideal also, for making hot flushes bearable.

I have written about the really good organic range MV Organics here, I tested the Pure Jojoba oil on holiday, which is terrific for any kind of moisturising job; hands, face, skin, so is an all-round performer that earns its space in the suitcase. The Rose Soothing Protection Moisturiser was light enough to cope with tropical weather without making me break out in hot-weather-spots too and did not turn my face into a grease slick.