Triona McCarthy: Five mini hair and make-up gems to pop into your carry-on this summer

Irish Independent

3 days ago

Simply perfect!
Dior Forever Skin Perfect Foundation Stick (€60, brownthomas.com) is a great little stick to bring away as it's a multi-use product. Aside from being a foundation that gives a blurred finish, it can also be used as a target concealer. It's extremely portable and can be thrown in your bag for touch-ups on the go. It's also very buildable and evens out the complexion, plus it lasts for up to 24 hours.
Holy trinity
The Trinny London Trinity Stick (€44, trinnylondon.com) is a great multitasker for lips, cheeks and eyes. It's dual-ended and one end provides glow, while the other is a creamy matte. If you're a fan of Trinny Woodall, you'll probably have seen her creating all sorts of looks on Instagram from the three different sticks. My favourite is Venice, which combines a soft dusky rose shade with a golden pink glow.
Smooth operator
Forget the hairspray, gel and hair clips, The Smooth Stick (€16.99, thesmoothcompany.com) is perfect for controlling frizz and flyaways. It doesn't leave your hair feeling greasy or crisp, and it's enriched with aloe vera and vitamin E. I love the design of the wand, as its bristles are strategically positioned to comb every hair into place.
Oops, hair it is
For those who like to treat their hair on holidays, The Hair Edit (€47.95, voduzhair.com) from Voduz will allow you to ditch the bulky bottles. It contains everything from thermal conditioning oil and hydrating hair oil to texture spray, an exfoliating scalp scrub, a paddle brush and a hair tamer. They're all 100ml or under and are perfectly sized for cabin bags and weekend escapes.
It's the tooth
Forget the bulky charger, bring the Burst Nova Sonic Toothbrush (€12.99, allcarepharmacy.ie) away with you and you'll spend your holiday delivering minty-fresh kisses with confidence. It will give your pearly whites a powerful clean with 33,000 sonic vibrations per minute and has a battery that lasts up to four weeks.
Treat
Fragrant father With Father's Day coming up, treat dear old dad to Bleu de Chanel All-Over Fragrance Balm (€70, arnotts.ie). It softens and tames facial hair and can be applied to hands, hair and beards. If you're feeling generous, pair it with Bleu de Chanel moisturiser (€75). Once you hand this pressie over, you'll definitely be dad's fave child!
Treatment
Facial fabulousness The Johnstown Estate in Meath is on my wish list to visit so I can experience the Elemis Sculpt & Contour Facial (€140, can include 90 mins thermal suite access). What makes it tickle my pickle is that the facial is only 60 minutes, no downtime and it includes a targeted LED mask application and a triple cleanse so my face will not only be squeaky clean, but glowing! See thejohnstownestate.com
Trick
Solid foundations Even though it's very tempting to add more make-up on later on in the day when you're going out, stop right now, thank you very much. Follow in the footsteps of those fabulous Spice Girls with some girl power face revival by taking the foundation off that you've put on earlier – as it will have settled into your skin and won't look fresh – and do it again. You can leave your eyes alone and just touch them up as they'll be OK with a little mascara refresh!