After New Year’s Eve, we all tend to experience our second helping of that “new year, new me” mentality in spring. From spring-cleaning marathons to closet overhauls that would do Marie Kondo proud, the new season always brings with it a sense of much-needed renewal and transformation.
As the Goldilocks of seasons — not too hot and not too cold — spring is the ideal time to start weening your skin, makeup, and hair off the moisture-boosting, richly textured, barrier-bolstering saviours of winter and start introducing more lightweight, glow-enhancing, restorative, and protective formulas that will play nicely in balmy weather.
If you’re not in the habit of doing weekly or monthly resets, start with a clean slate by doing a full audit of your skincare, hair, and makeup products and ditching any that are past their expiration dates, haven’t been used in the past six months or that have split, cracked, dried up or gone a bit whiffy. Once everything has been pared down to the necessities, it’s time to invest in these small (but mighty) products to renew, transform, and elevate your summer kit.
Style Notes
New season refresh
Our guide on what to buy, swap or ditch for the best beauty arsenal going into summer
After New Year’s Eve, we all tend to experience our second helping of that “new year, new me” mentality in spring. From spring-cleaning marathons to closet overhauls that would do Marie Kondo proud, the new season always brings with it a sense of much-needed renewal and transformation.
As the Goldilocks of seasons — not too hot and not too cold — spring is the ideal time to start weening your skin, makeup, and hair off the moisture-boosting, richly textured, barrier-bolstering saviours of winter and start introducing more lightweight, glow-enhancing, restorative, and protective formulas that will play nicely in balmy weather.
If you’re not in the habit of doing weekly or monthly resets, start with a clean slate by doing a full audit of your skincare, hair, and makeup products and ditching any that are past their expiration dates, haven’t been used in the past six months or that have split, cracked, dried up or gone a bit whiffy. Once everything has been pared down to the necessities, it’s time to invest in these small (but mighty) products to renew, transform, and elevate your summer kit.
Travel luxuries
FRAGRANCE
Buy: Nature-inspired scents
One of the first swaps in our spring beauty arsenals is fragrance. Moving away from rich, heady scent profiles, the new light, floral, and playful scents match the season’s mood. As seen at Maison Margiela Replica, Goldfield and Banks, and Diptyque, scents are taking their inspiration from Mother Nature and summer memories, landscapes, and ingredients. The sweet tartness of Maison Margiela Replica’s On A Date perfectly captures the vineyards of Provence on a hot summer’s day, with notes of bergamot, blackcurrant-liquor accord, and rose-petal essence. Languid afternoons along the Mediterranean coast are captured in Diptyque’s limited-edition Ilio, while Goldfield and Banks’s Bohemian Lime bottles the scent of a sunlit tropical rainforest in Australia’s Byron Bay with notes of Australian finger lime, coriander, cedarwood, and sandalwood.
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Ditch: Non-sustainable perfumery
No matter how good they smell, we’re just not on board with fragrances that don’t prioritise sustainability, socially responsible sourcing, and conscious production. With more luxury maisons jumping onto the sustainability bandwagon every season, it’s only right to ditch those that are not kind to the planet in favour of scents that use high-quality raw ingredients of at least 90% natural origin that are sustainably grown, use responsible production practices and recyclable packaging materials, and have refillable bottles
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SKINCARE
Buy: Skin-renewing treatments
Sometimes skin just craves a massive factory reset to shake off the remnants of winter — and what better way to do so than with professional skin treatments? Whether you need to address uneven tone, dehydration, a lacklustre complexion or rough texture, investing in high-quality, professional treatments can go a long way towards jumpstarting the skin and producing a renewed appearance by summer. Lamelle’s new Synergy Peel is a bioactive, superficial peel — and the first trichloroacetic acid (TCA) peel that is safe to use on darker skin types. Designed to work in the deepest layers of the skin, combat hyper-pigmentation, and provide anti-ageing properties through a hybrid-acid structure, the Synergy Peel harnesses the power of structurally modified TCA and lactic acid. The treatment is non-invasive, pain-free, and with no downtime, with skin looking radiant and feeling hydrated while dark spots look much improved. Lamelle Synergy Peel, R855, lamelle.co.za
Image: Supplied
Swap in: Lip recovery
The lips are one of the face’s most delicate areas and the first to show the tell-tale signs of a dry winter. During winter, it’s all about loading lips with hydration and keeping chapped, peeling lips at bay. Leading up to summer, keep your lips on a recovery journey and don’t jump back into drying matte lipstick formulas just yet. Instead, go for tinted oils and glosses that will help with the recovery from the drier season instead of being solely cosmetic. You can also incorporate the use of overnight lip masks — such as Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask — that can be applied in the evening to restore lips while you sleep.
Image: Supplied
MAKEUP
Buy: Luxe colour
Spring is synonymous with colour. We’ve been “demure and mindful” all winter — now is the time to dabble in vibrant shades and step out of our comfort zones. With trends such as 1980s powder-blue eyeshadow making a comeback and the focus on a more care-free approach that champions self-expression, experiment with colourful makeup collections such as Chanel’s Summer 2024 collection, created by global makeup creative partner Ammy Drammeh. Inspired by flowers and insects in a summer garden, these have rich hues such as chartreuse, tangerine, violet, soft pink, and bronze in dreamy textures and pearlescent finishes.
Image: Supplied
Swap in: Hybrid SPFs
There’s still a global partiality for “no-makeup makeup” and a low-maintenance yet polished skin finish. When it comes to foundation, take a lighter approach and aim for breathable, fresh-faced, off-duty coverage with a second-skin finish. Swap out heavier foundation formulations in favour of tinted sunscreens that provide both coverage and sun protection. Brands such as Lamelle and Hello Sunday have hybrid-SPF products that infuse the protective properties of SPF into traditional makeup and skincare formulas such as skin tints, blush, serums, and primers.
Image: Supplied
Swap in: Rouge flush
Thanks to the Barbiecore trend and viral looks such as “cold-girl” makeup, every shade, texture, and finish of pink blush have been swept across cheeks, noses, and temples this past season. However, as spring and summer approach, pink shades are, for the moment, being exchanged for the new trending shade — red. Unlike pink blush, which imparts a somewhat chilly flush, red blush imbues the skin with a more sun-kissed look.
Image: Supplied
Ditch: Powder illumination
Don’t start trashing all your powder highlighters just yet — rather put them on ice for a while and go for lightweight, melt-into-skin glow lotions, radiance bases, and strobe creams. Whether you prefer cream, liquid or balm textures, or need a coverage solution for skin that is still recovering from the dry, flaky grips of winter, brands such as Westman Atelier, L’Oréal, MAC, and Chanel have all brought out iridescent formulas that give skin an unreal glow. Great for off-duty weekends or on warmer days that call for a fresher, healthier glow, these can be applied underneath makeup or on their own as a final step in your skincare routine.
Image: Supplied
HAIR
Buy: Climate-proof haircare
The transition from winter to summer is not an easy one, no matter how many times you do it. Between trying to revive dry, sensitive skin to dealing with the shock of suddenly balmy weather, it can be quite a trial-and-error period for some of us. We want to bring back hair to all its summer-time glory with products that will help combat the effects of environmental aggressors. Beat common transitional concerns such as frizziness, dryness, and lacklustre locks by investing in climate-proof haircare, such as Moroccanoil’s Frizz Control range with Hydro Resist Technology, which helps shield strands from frizz-inducing humidity.
Image: Supplied
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