Thoughtful (beauty) Shopper

Hair Gloss, Ouai, €33, Cult Beauty

Launched this week by cult favourite Ouai (pronounced ‘way’) – founded by US hairstylist and columnist Jen Atkin – is their new Hair Gloss. Created using sugar beets to help provide colour protection and shine while preventing damage (it protects hair from heat damage up to 232°C), it also contains a blend of rice water, hyaluronic acid, and panthenol to promote overall hair health and repair damage. For finer hair, you can use it in place of your conditioner, for more curly or coiled hair, you can use it like a serum after conditioner too. Its sustainability credentials are strong also, as it's paraben-free, cruelty-free, sulphate-free and fully recyclable.

Prada Reveal Skin Optimising Foundation - refillable, €58, Brown Thomas

Prada Beauty’s fully-stocked counter launched at Brown Thomas this week and while many are rightly drawn to the undoubtedly gorgeous eye palettes, one of the real winners is their Skin Optimizing Foundation, whose formulation apparently came about by chance when experimenting with the combination. Working on the skin in three dimensions – tone, luminosity, and texture – it delivers a soft matte finish using its advanced IRL-micro-filterä technology which optimises light diffusion with a smart molecule that micro-crystallises onto skin, giving a kind of filtered complexion. It comes with extra skincare too, with vitamin E to improve overall skin tone; 100 per cent active niacinamide to lock in moisture and Lactobacillus extract complex to refine skin texture. Available in 33 flexible shades.

Dyson Onyx Gold range

If you are looking for a last-minute beauty grab, then Dyson’s new Onyx Gold colourway has just become available in the Dyson Airwrap multi-styler (€549.99) and Dyson Supersonic hair dryer (€399.99). With sleek dark lines, a contrast of gold, and a pop of red, the new shade is finished in ultra-matte onyx and satin-finished gold. Like everything Dyson, there is always engineering beneath with the new shade achieved through precision-applied satin paint topcoats, with abrasion and scratch tests carried out to ensure the durability and reliability of the finishes with the latest digital and scanning electron microscopes used to precisely apply the colour finishes. Dyson.ie

Full Control Lash Sculpting Mascara, €33.95, Cloud10beauty.com and ZoloBeauty.com

Founded by Irish-born and a former editor of Cosmopolitan Orla Maguire, Lash Star Beauty’s Full Control Lash Sculpting Mascara is not new but is worth adding to your arsenal this month to give your lashes an extra lift. Featuring two formulas and two brushes to sculpt lashes, the custom-engineered tightline brush acts as a primer to define, separate and lengthen every lash from root to tip, followed by the curved silicone moulded brush to give buildable volume and curl extension.

Pro-Collagen Banking Serum, €99 (launching at Dermalogica.ie and all authorised stockists starting January 11th, 2024)

Not out until 11 January so one to bookmark, Dermalogica’s new Pro-Collagen Banking Serum aims to get around the collagen conundrum (ie most collagen molecules applied to the skin are too big to be absorbed topically) by using the building blocks of collagen themselves. Formulated Using Collagen Amino Acids and Carnosine Dipeptide that promote new collage and help maintain what’s there, it also contains jojoba ester and polyglutamic acid to nourish and plump, wild indigo extract and arginine PCA to help restore skin’s radiance and pink carnation flower extract to help improve skin’s softness and resilience. Dermalogica’s products are designated cruelty-free by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Leaping Bunny and are certified vegan with 90 per cent of ingredients to be sustainably sourced by 2025.