We love a New Year. A completely clean sheet of paper – even more so, with a new decade ahead of us. (Sarah never drinks, but that’s why you also won’t find Jo indulging in more than a sip of Champagne on New Year’s Eve. Why would you want to start a new year, or a new ten-year phase, feeling rubbish…? We’d rather get up and at ‘em, Hoovering under the bed and heading outdoors for lungfuls of fresh, cleansing air.)

New Year is famously a time of re-evaluation – casting off the old, embracing the new. A time of good intentions – but also, of realistic goals, because otherwise it’s just too easy to ‘break’resolutions and write off the next 363 days. Instead, we think resolutions should be like horse-riding: you fall off (which Sarah has done spectacularly on at least one occasion), and you get back on again.

Our beauty philosophy, though, hasn’t changed fundamentally from when we started writing books together back in 1996. Powered by common sense and insights into the beauty industry – and, through our Beauty Bible Awards, into what works and what doesn’t – we’ve seen fads come and go, over our years in the business. As we proudly proclaim on our own website, we’re about ‘real beauty and wellbeing for grown-ups’. So here’s what we resolve to do, at the start of a year – make it ten – so full of possibilities.

We resolve to re-evaluate our skincare regimes regularly.

Skincare needs change, over time. For instance, Jo always described herself as having ‘dry, sensitive skin’. And then one day, not long ago, she woke up and realised: actually, her skin’s not so dry and not so sensitive anymore, either. Fact: over time, our skins’ needs shift, especially at times of hormonal upheaval – but it’s incredibly easy to get into a rut.

Really think about the products you use every day, and question whether they’re delivering. Are you over 35? Time to add in an anti-ageing cream. (Though eye creams can be introduced from late 20s onwards, since signs of ageing first show up there.) Skin feel tight? Sign of dryness. Ask yourself every single time you finish a jar or bottle: is this delivering what I want? If not, make a switch and go for something new. But don’t just chop and change for the sake of it; that’s what we used to do, in the early days, and it definitely triggered years of touchy skins for both of us.

We resolve to make a date night every week. With ourselves…

When you’re having to give everyone around you plenty of TLC, nobody need feel guilty about being kind to themselves. In fact, if you don’t, you’ll soon be running on empty. Stock up on products which deliver real TLC, such as Aromatherapy Associates Deep Relax Bath & Shower Oil, or their Inner Strength. Place a soothing SpaceMask over your eyes. Slather on a body oil afterwards (we love the neroli, lavender, rose and mandarin scent of Aurelia Firm & Revitalise Dry Body Oil), smooth the fantastically nourishing Ameliorate Intensive Foot Treatment into feet – and for a really kind-to-yourself feeling, slip them inside a pair of luxurious cashmere socks, warmed by a hot water bottle.

We will try a ‘beauty dare’, once a month.

Don’t let yourself become one of those people who can say ‘I’ve been using exactly the same products for years…’ Introduce one item into your regime that you don’t already use; ‘date night’ is the perfect opportunity, as you’ve already set aside the time to pamper yourself, and can ‘play’ with a different styling product, a ‘root touch-up’ product, a scrub mitt, really giving a bit of thought to what you like about the texture, the effect, perhaps (where relevant) the fragrance. Then get in the habit of using it…

We resolve to be even more sleep-obsessive.

Having recently listened to a fascinating Desert Island Discs with circadian rhythm expert Professor Russell Foster, we’re more obsessed with sleep hygiene than ever before. He actually believes that before long, we’ll regard lack of sleep as something akin to smoking, in terms of the health damage it inflicts. You might have thought that while you snuggle down beneath your crisp white sheets at night, relaxing and restoring energy was all you were doing. But scientists have now pinpointed that at around 1 am, the body is at its most resourceful – helping to repair and renew skin, as well as other body cells, while we slumber sweetly. So beauty sleep really is that – which is why it’s so vital to make sure we get your zzzzs, and slather on creams that take advantage of your natural circadian rhythms.

Our mantra is going to be ‘skin-plification’, in 2020.

We’re totally over ‘K-Beauty’, a.k.a. Korean beauty, a trend imported from South Korea, which proposes the idea that you need at least seven or eight different products each morning and evening. You don’t. You really don’t. You don’t need to spend the money, OR the time on an over-complicated regime; what you need is products that really, really work. (That’s what our Beauty Bible Awards have always been about.) We expect to see a lot more multi-tasking products like LixirSkin Universal Emulsion, which can basically be used as cleanser/moisturiser/body cream. And hallelujah for that.

We resolve to make this the year that we give your hands the TLC they deserve.

Hands work so hard for us: chopping vegetables, dancing across keyboards of all kinds – and communicating love and affection. Isn’t it time to return the favour? For silky, smooth hands, lavish care really has to become a many-times-a-day habit – rather than a quick squirt of cream in a posh restaurant loo! (Sound familiar…?) Always worth repeating, the best tip we ever heard is to keep a hand cream next to every set of taps in your life – and in our handbag. (Favourites, to be found here on VH: Lanolips Rose Hand Cream Intense, and Margaret Dabbs Intensive Hand Hydrating Lotion.)

We will be completely ignoring ‘influencers’, and turning to trusted sources for info.

OK, a little New Year rant here. We’ve been in this business a l-o-n-g time, and met a huge number of experts. We’ve always believed in scratching deep beneath the surface and not taking things at face value, and that’s the foundation on which we’ve built our reputation. But today, there’s a huge buzz around ‘influencers’, who are often paid to take pretty pictures of themselves, supposedly as a result of using this product or that product. Fact: many of them don’t know their AHAs from their elbows and wouldn’t know what to say to a dermatologist, trichologist or psychologist if they met one.

As trends go, the ‘influencer’ is a bubble poised to burst, and we’re already hearing that there’s a swing back towards knowledgeable writers and experts who really know about skincare, or nutrition, or yoga, or cosmetic ‘tweaks’ – people like Alice Hart-Davis, Fighting Fifty’s Tracey McAlpine, Lucia Ferrari, Ingeborg van Lotringen (who just left Cosmo, but expect her to pop up somewhere soon…) Want real beauty advice for real life? Look to a grown-up.

We’ll always be here for you – and it only remains to say: don’t just have a gorgeous year – have a gorgeous, healthy decade…

 

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