Georgia Day’s Top Underrated Beauty Gems

Medik8 is a brand that makes plenty of excellent formulas using state-of-the-art actives in advanced formulations (case in point, its latest C-Tetra Advanced vitamin C serum) but I urge you to try one of its less showy stars, the Lipid Balance Cleansing Oil. If you’re a fan of a cleansing oil, you will love this, but even if you’re not, I think this is the one to change your mind. What I love most about it is that everything is so considered. It’s oily without being too oily. It removes everything you need it to, without it leaving your skin feeling stripped. It delivers the perfect amount of slip to enable a really good, bone-achingly firm massage but without ever feeling too slippery. And it rinses off leaving skin feeling soft, supple and not in the slightest bit greasy. It’s hard-working, reliable and properly effective.

Available at MEDIK8.COM

After an annoying bout of perioral dermatitis, my skin has done a complete 180° turn and it’s currently looking better than ever. I put it down to a couple of things (more to come later) but one of them is undoubtedly this serum. I love niacinamide as a skincare ingredient anyway, but this combines a punchy 10% dosage with plenty of soothing, brightening antioxidants and my skin loves it. The most noticeable thing after six weeks of using it is the huge improvement in clarity; virtually all my dark spots have faded, and everything is more uniform and less patchy. There’s no disputing that Beauty Pie is brilliant at everything it turns its hand to and while other serums are rightly, highly rated, this gem has genuinely been a proper game-changer. Don’t sleep on it.

Available at BEAUTYPIE.COM

I’m not hugely picky about which shampoo I use, so long as it’s hydrating and offers decent colour protection. That said, I recently started using Davines’s NOUNOU Shampoo and I am a full-blown, forever convert. Everything about this shampoo (and actually, on closer inspection, this whole brand) needs to be talked about. It’s rich and hydrating but without weighing hair down and, after testing it a few times with no conditioner afterwards, it imparts the most insane amount of shine and softness. I could honestly just use this shampoo and nothing else at all and would be perfectly happy with the look and feel of my hair. (Side note: I noticed on the label that it uses tomato extract from a farm a mile down the road from my house in Puglia and now I love it even more).

Available at LIBERTYLONDON.COM

Anastasia Beverly Hills might be best known for making excellent brow products but if you’re looking for a liquid liner, let me tell you right now that this one is virtually foolproof. I have tried and loved the black but it’s the dark brown shade that I need you to know about as it’s not always an easy thing to get right. While many are either too much of a reddish brown or too much of a blackish brown, this is the perfect chestnut shade with just the right amount of opacity. The applicator pen is shaped so that fat feline flicks are a cinch, but thinner, finer flicks are just as doable, and the pigment stays put without smudging or flaking.

Available at LOOKFANTASTIC.COM

Keren Bartov facials are, without doubt, transformational so imagine how overjoyed I was to discover that you can achieve a version of one of her hi-tech facials at home, thanks to her clever Wand device. Disclaimer, it’s not cheap. But if you’re in the market for an LED based tool that does more, then I highly recommend it. As well as using infrared and red-light therapy to rejuvenate skin and improve tone and texture, it combines it with radio frequency to deliver targeted heat deep into the skin’s layers. This not only boosts blood flow and cell regeneration but stimulates collagen production too. I have been using it three times a week and I swear it’s made a difference.

Available at KERENBARTOV.CO.UK

I’ve spoken about my love of blusher many times, and while I’m partial to many (Rhode, Merit and NARS are all up there) I can now definitively say I have found the best. Bold words I know, but it’s true. The product in question is L’Oréal Paris’s Le Lumi Blush, specifically in the shade ‘Glowy True Rose’. It’s a creamy liquid blusher so it’s blissful to blend and it comes with a generous doe-foot applicator that makes depositing a fat dot on each cheek easy. Aside from being the most perfect shade of red-tinged rose that I promise works on various skin tones (I have tested it, so you don’t have to) the wear of this product is actually insane. As in, you can wear it for 12 hours without so much as a whiff of a touch-up and it looks as good as it did when you first applied it.

Available at BOOTS.COM

French brand MyBlend might be better known for its skincare offering but I recently tried its Energiser Body Massage at Hershesons in Fitzrovia and, wow. Now that’s what you call a massage. Revitalising and relaxing at the same time, it was an hour of hypnotic, deep-tissue, knot-nixing strokes. I think there’s something to be said for its no-nonsense approach too; because the treatment room is tucked away in this beautiful beast of a salon, there’s no room for the fluffy, frivolous spa-type vibes that can sometimes get in the way of a good treatment. When I want a serious massage, I want to go in, lie down and get going, knowing I’m going to emerge afterwards feeling like I’ve got my money’s worth. This is exactly that. I’m constantly asked for advice on where to go to get a good massage in London. Now I know.

Visit HERSHESONS.COM