BEST BEAUTY INNOVATIONS

I’ve always been a proud Pop-Culture fan, with a keen interest in fashion & beauty. However, it was only at the beginning of this year that I decided to invest in educating myself about the two latter industries, from time spent on consuming content and to just making an effort to express myself a little more through fashion and beauty. I find myself more on fashion blogs and watching make-up tutorials than I watch E! Entertainment. This new realisation had me thinking about the future of beauty, how the industry has been transformed by social media and how the results have created many beauty moguls. This inspired me to compile a list of my favourite beauty innovations, some based on personal experience and others based on marketing buzz and just sheer brilliance.

BEST BEAUTY INNOVATIONS

HUDA BEAUTY – FAUX FILTER FOUNDATION

Let’s be honest, we all dream about flawless and radiant skin, and thanks to filters, we can live out our wildest skin dreams.  Huda Beauty’s wildly hyped #FauxFilter promises exactly that, and more. Launched in October 2017, the foundation comes in 30 shades and was designed to create an Instagram-ready blurring effect, providing full coverage and a filtered finish (hence the name) both on-camera and IRL. The Dubai-based beauty entrepreneur, who boasts almost 25 million Instagram followers, made a career out of showing women how to channel their inner Kardashians — through recreating some of the reality tv family’s beauty looks. Through her Instagram, blog and YouTube channel, she has built what has become a beauty phenomenon. The link between her rise in business and her Instagram fame are what make her Faux Filter Foundation such phenomenal product.

FENTY BEAUTY – BEAUTY LAVA & FAIRY BOMB

OMG! OMG! I’ve never seen such yummy, sultry and cute products. When Rihanna launched her much-anticipated makeup line in September last year in 1600 stores across 17 countries, the collection sold out almost immediately online and in Sephora stores. Also quite an impressive accolade for the brand was Time Magazine naming Fenty Beauty as one of the Best Inventions of 2017. Following its explosive launch, Fenty Beauty is expanding their offering with the introduction of illuminating body cosmetics, including Body Lava highlighters and the super adorable shimmer powder puff.  Rihanna’s new drop, dubbed the “Beach Please” collection will apparently have us asking, “WHO NEEDS CLOTHES?” when they launch this week.

AFRO BOTANICS – BLACK PEARL HAIR JUICE

I have recently decided to wear my natural (relaxed) hair for a bit. Over the years, my hair had grown thin due to damage caused by weaves, but thanks to wigs, I’ve been wearing protective styles for almost two years now. This has given me enough confidence to bring out my hair before winter kicks in. I came across Afro-Botanic’s Black Pearl Hair Juice while shopping for new products. My goodness! I am blown away! The Black Pearl Collection is a capsule of the basics to achieving healthy and beautiful hair, a collaboration between Afro-Botanics and actress Pearl Thusi. According to Pearl, the products are formulated using mostly natural ingredients that enhance and lock moisture in hair. I can’t wait to see her next move for this brand.

KKW BEAUTY – CONCEALER KITS

What would any list be without my fave beauty mogul and make-up goddess Kim Kardashian-West? When the multifaceted internet and tech entrepreneur announced that her newly launched KKW Beauty’s Contour Kits had sold out in just a few hours, I couldn’t have imagined that because all 300 000 units had sold out, this meant Kim’s newest business venture had generated $14.4 million in those hours. It’s reported to have taken nearly eight-plus months for KKW Beauty to release their first 2018 release, the undereye concealer kits. With this new launch, the brand outlined the three steps to concealing undereye circles, 1. Conceal (Liquid Concealers – available in 16 shades), 2. Bake (Baking Powder – available in four shades), and 3. Brighten (Brightening Powder – available in four shades). This product launch helped simplify the process of a face beat for me. First, you conceal with a Liquid Concealer, then you bake with a translucent Baking Powder, and then you brighten with shimmer-flecked, pressed Brightening Powder. Simple right?

KNC BEAUTY – LIP MASKS

Ever wondered how to get fuller looking lips without injections? KKW’s bff and wife to Kanye’s former manager, Don C, Kristen Noel Crawley came up with a game changer of a product. KNC Beauty All Natural Collagen Infused Lip Mask is a favorite among celebs like Emma Stone, Kim Kardashian and Teyana Taylor. The KNC Beauty mask is an all-natural twist on the popular K-beauty lip masks. According to KNC, their mask blends “rose flower oil, cherry extract and vitamin E” to plump, hydrate, moisturize, and condition lips. The KNC Beauty Founder and Elle Beauty Columnist told Vogue that she would love to expand her fast growing brand into lip balms or moisturizers.

ESTÉE LAUDER – ADVANCED NIGHT REPAIR

Often termed a beauty hero, Estée Lauder’s ANR is a peachy-coloured, gel-like serum that has been around since the Eighties, and one of the brand’s bestsellers. The anti-ageing serum is designed to work while you sleep, acting on lines and wrinkles, dullness and dryness for a more youthful and radiant skin. entering my thirties made me realise that it was time to start using a ‘proper’ anti-ageing product, and this product came highly recommended. Two-months later, my skin feels brand new and has a natural and radiant glow.

SUMMER FRIDAYS – JET LAG MASK

For months, super influencers Marianna Hewitt and Lauren Gores Ireland had been teasing a new project called Summer Fridays. This month, the blogging duo officially debuted their inaugural skin-care product under the brand called the Jet Lag Mask. I didn’t pay much attention to the impending  launch, until the product literally took over my Instagram feed. Everyone from Kim Kardashian to Vogue and the whole of beauty Instagram were raving about the newly launched product. The Jet Lag Mask is an intensely moisturising white cream that goes on mostly clear — when looking for a way to remedy the dullness and dryness that can result from lots of air travel and an irregular sleeping schedule. The product is such a hit it sold out on both Sephora and Summer Fridays’ site in the first two weeks. Brilliant!