A friend was recently chatting about her beauty regime, morning
and evening. It involved six or seven steps (“You’re supposed to layer
the serums, right?”) and she was wondering if one of the steps was
behind the new dry patch under her eye. “Anyway,” she said, “what
about you?”, and was surprised when I told her that I have two steps:
I clean my face, then I moisturise it if it needs it. Every now and then I
exfoliate. Sometimes I use a serum. That’s it. I have nice skin, if I say
so myself, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Also, all this faffing about at
bedtime! Who needs it? I am tired and desperate to go to bed in the
evening, to the point where I slightly resent brushing my teeth, let
alone the idea of having a 22-step beauty routine, using products that mostly soak into the pillow.
But I know why people do this. It’s because the wide availability of affordable, single-ingredient
products in no-nonsense, clinical-looking vials has made chemists and dermatologists out of every-
body, instant experts who have complicated their skincare regimes to the nth degree. Your skin might
love whatever miracle ingredient you’re supposed to be putting on it this month, but it’s just as likely
to be completely indifferent to it and may even not love it at all. An excessively elaborate routine prob-
ably isn’t doing more harm than good, but there’s a good chance it’s kind of pointless, a waste of time,
money and effort. I don’t personally think that anyone’s skin needs layers of products, like an enor-
mous product cake sitting on top of it all night. It needs a few effective products that work, and then it
needs to breathe and to be left in peace.
Sali Hughes is a beauty journalist and a friend. Now she has launched her own product line, which
is exactly as described above — clever, small and perfectly formed, rather like Hughes herself. (Let’s
just get this friends thing out of the way: if I didn’t rate her products I would not write about them. It
would be so easily done: I’d say, “It’s a bit awkward because you’re a friend,” and she would say,
“I totally get it,” and that would be that. But here I am because they’re great formulations that give
great results at a great price.)
What we have here are a handful of products, all gloriously affordable, that do their job extremely
well. There is no guff about “needing” to use the entire line to the exclusion of other products: if
you are devoted to your squillion-quid serum or feel you need to add six steps involving things for
which there is allegedly a giant waiting list, then, eyeroll emoji, carry on. But her range, Sali Hughes x
Revolution Skincare (revolutionbeauty.com), provides every basic you need: two cleansers (morning
and evening), a daily liquid exfoliant, a vitamin C serum and a moisturiser. I can’t emphasise enough
that this is all you need. Hughes calls the range “the perfect white T-shirt” of skincare, which I like:
great on its own, but if you want to wear it with a feather headdress and a diamond-encrusted cloak,
that works too.
The Butterclean Makeup Meltdown Cleansing Balm (£15) gives some products that are three
times the price a run for their money. I love the Placid 5 Acid Daily Exfoliant (£14) too — not too
brutal, not too weedy, effective without making your face look like it is moulting. The moisturiser,
Cream Drench (£14), is perfect if you have dry skin (a version for normal/combination skin is coming
at the end of the month). The Must-C Anytime Daily Serum (£15), with vitamin C and niacinamide,
is exemplary — I don’t see why you’d use something more spenny. I haven’t tried the morning
cleanser, Clean Sheet (£10), because my daughter stole it. So, five products that work and should cut
down your beauty routine to under five minutes, all in. Even I could manage that. ■ @indiaknightIndia Knight
INDIA LOVES
WATCH Julia (Sky Atlantic and Now). This is Sarah Lancashire being unbelievably good, even by
her exalted standard, as the legendary American TV chef Julia Child. David Hyde Pierce plays her
husband. Eat before you watch or you’ll rampage through your kitchen feeling ravenous.My daily beauty routine lasts five minutes and this brilliant
new range should shorten it even more
The range
has been called
‘the perfect
white T-shirt’
of skincare,
Victoria Adamson which I like
The Sunday Times Style • 41