Does your makeup bag feel like it grows every time you open it? Do your dressing table drawers and bathroom cabinets seem fuller this morning than they were last night? Don’t worry, it just means that like us, you’re a card-carrying beauty junkie. And that is most definitely never a bad thing.
The feel-good factor of simply buying new skincare or cosmetics is as much of a ‘high’ as actually using them, but when cupboards and drawers won’t shut it’s time to have an edit. Luckily, there’s a new breed of products we like to call ‘The Transformers’ that cut down the amount of products you actually need. Named so, because they can take an existing beauty product and tweak, or even turn, it into something completely different.
From making any lipstick matte to a corrupter gel (far less scary than it sounds) that distorts your eyeshadow, transforming beauty products are promising to reinvent your makeup bag for good. Here are five of our favourites…
Adjust the shade of your foundation
Bottles of foundations are bulky at the best of times so if you have a whole spectrum of them the chances are your makeup bag is fit to bursting. The Body Shop Shade Adjusting Drops, £10, allow you to edit your foundations down quite considerably. Rather than buying a foundation that’s a few shades darker when you’re on holiday, or considerably lighter when your skin is grey and pale in winter, these drops allow you to customise your foundation to a shade to match your skin tone on any given day. If you’re a fan of fake tan it also means you can colour-match after a spray.
Turn any lipstick matte
Matte makeup used to be a bit of a fashion thing. You’d see it on catwalks or on photo shoots but the practicalities of matte, particularly with lipstick, were drying and uncomfortable. Luckily, matte formula lipsticks are streets ahead of where they used to be now. Smashbox Insta Matte Lipstick Transformer, £18, keeps the whole thing a little more streamlined because applied over a creamy lipstick, it has the ability to transform it into an opaque matte finish – and it prevents bleed over the lip line too. Genius in a tube..? What’s more, it means gone are the days of carrying both a matte and a sheeny finish of your favourite colour around.
Give your skincare an extra boost
You know that feeling when your skincare just doesn’t seem like it’s working? It could be at a certain time of the month, when the season changes or when you’ve had less sleep than you’re used to. You might feel like your skin is crying out for more moisture, or perhaps it just feels a bit sluggish. You don’t want to bin your skincare – those pots of cream cost money after all – but you don’t have the time or the inclination to seek out a whole new regime, either. Here’s where Clarins Boosters, £30, come in. You can add drops into whatever skincare you’re currently using to supercharge them for what your skin needs. Skin feels tired – mix in some Energy drops. Tightness or redness bothering you – drop in some Repair booster. Been overdoing it? No judgement. Then reach for the Detox drops. It’s customised beauty without the fuss.
Corrupt your makeup
Fancy some special effects with your makeup? Illamasqua The Corruptor, £20, fakes the skill of a seasoned makeup artist with minimal effort and no room for error. Applied over the top of eyeshadow, it completely changes how the light catches it and moves and blurs your look in an edgy not a walk-of-shame way. We particularly enjoy how this works over a metallic eyeshadow – taking the powder look to a liquid metal finish.
Make any product give you a tan
The glow of a tan is known to be instantly and effortlessly beautifying. However, the layering of self tan and skincare, not to mention the moisturising and exfoliating maintenance can make it a bit of a nonsense. But what if you could make one small tweak and turn your daily moisturiser into a gradual tanner so the effect was natural looking with barely any effort required? Enter Tan Luxe Illuminating Serum Self Tan Facial Drops, £35. These specially designed odourless drops can be added to any skincare – don’t worry, we’ve checked and they won’t disrupt or diminish any of the anti-ageing ingredients in your moisturiser – transforming it into a flattering tanner. You can build it up over a few days, use every day or as and when you feel you need it. It puts you firmly in control of your tan and is completely customisable; one drop for a glow, two for a bronze… You get the idea.
