Brave the bathroom cabinet and chances are you’ll find endless potions all promising to boost, buff or beat your body into a state of awe-inspiring beauty. But do they actually work? Cult Beauty Editor, Elspeth Waters introduces a beauty website that reveals all...
Have you really pledged life-long allegiance to one core set of brands? Or are you still waiting for the next miracle? The fact that nearly all those bottles and tubes have barely been touched would suggest the latter. And this, alas, is the world we live in. Big Brands with their big ad spends convince us that their latest launch will change our lives. And glossy editorials seem to be driven by the same pound signs so all we see is launch after launch after launch with little guidance as to what actually deserves our hard-earned time and money.
This may seem a pretty dim view of the beauty world, but fret not, people: thankfully there is another way – namely, Cult Beauty, an independent online beauty boutique and mini-magazine that heralds a much-needed evolution in the beauty industry.
The purpose of Cult Beauty is not to offload hundreds of beauty lines like a catalogue, but rather, to champion hero products from each field. The site has ‘old’ favourites like YSL Touche Eclat and Benefit Benetint, but there’s also a wealth of new or not-yet-widely-available expert-recommendations that we know you’ll love, like Omorovicza Complexion Enhancer, a natural wonder that makes every day a great face day; and Sophyto Polyphenols – little drops of skin heaven; and Daniel Galvin Junior King of Colour the organic haircare range that makes even coloured hair looks its glossy best; and Yuroll Jade Roller – THE best way to prevent cheek sag. And Molecules 01 – wear this and literally every man, woman and child will want to walk beside you…And lots, lots more.
Cult Beauty's not going all gung-ho on the organic and natural versus synthetic chemical tirade. Plenty of great sites have that pretty well covered. Instead they want to tell you which products work… and EXACTLY what’s in them (the good, the bad and the obscure) as well as any awards they’ve won, celebrity fans and reviews written by the people who use them, from Mary Greenwell and Charles Worthington to Jodie Harsh and Betty from aisle 4.
If ingredients are particularly important to you, the very detailed Advanced Search facility lets you search for products which do contain certain ‘good’ things, such as Omega oils and Vitamin K or don’t contain certain ‘bad’ things, such as Petrochemicals and Talc. Or, if you are more concerned about just finding something that will revive your middle-aged, city-smog-exposed skin, you can search by specific concerns, age range, skin type, etc. too.
Being interested in celebrity culture may not be an admissible pastime. But we all do it. We all want to know what makes the beautiful people beautiful and get in on the action. With Cult Beauty you can feed that guilty pleasure. They've gathered together the people responsible for making those A-listers beautiful and persuaded them to share their top tips and tell us what they use on our favourite celebs – with advice on everything from hair conditioning to makeup, Nutrition and nail care.
Cult Beauty is the 'online arbiter' for the best cult hair, beauty and grooming products from around the world, sourced and suggested by experts and us mortals alike. They're trying to do for beauty what Net-a-porter has done for fashion: bringing previously exclusive and inaccessible beauty products to everyone, whether you live in Wallingford or W1.
