Latest news with #HalfMagic
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Louise McSharry: How to strip back your make-up look when the weather hots up
Unfortunately, dampness doesn't exactly lend itself to most of our beauty practices. Make-up melts off, hair gets frizzy, and crevices get stinky. So how do you stay looking good when the heat comes a-calling? My advice is always to lean into it. Sure, you could invest in expensive setting sprays and anti-humidity hair sprays, but if you know things are going to be really damp, there's no point in stressing about your face or hair getting wrecked. Instead, I like to think about how I can manage to maintain a look even if the sweats are intense. Last week, at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, I went to see musicians Charli XCX and Troye Sivan perform their Sweat tour, so you better believe I employed this tactic. For make-up, this meant that I kept it relatively simple. As far as I'm concerned, there's no point in applying heavy foundation in these circumstances; it won't look good as you sweat and will feel uncomfortable. Instead, I accept that my skin simply will not look flawless and use a pot concealer, like Nars Soft Matte Complete Concealer (€35 via to cover major blemishes. Elsewhere on my face, I do what I can to distract from my less-than-perfect skin with long-wearing cream products and glitter. Bronzer, blush and highlighter go a long way to adding life to your face, and while they won't last forever, they will wear relatively evenly, meaning you won't end up with weird patches. Also, they're handy to pop in your bag and can be tapped on with your finger tips should you decide to top it up. Makeup by Mario's cream products are excellent — easy to apply and long-wearing. I recently bought Sculpt & Pop On-The-Go (€34 via which includes two mini versions of his excellent contour sticks and blush sticks. Their small size makes them ideal for travel, and the formulas themselves are great. They're available in three shade pairings. I'm also absolutely loving Charlotte Tilbury's new Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Sticks (€40 via These chunky blush sticks come in six shades and deliver a fresh and youthful flush to the face. They blend easily, and I find they look great on the lips as well, making them a handy product to carry with you. The eyes are my real focus on sweaty days, however. Eye crayons have come a long way and, in my experience, are some of the longest wearing products on the market. If you go for a grungy look, it will actually improve with wear and look more authentic as the day goes on. I love Half Magic's Sparkle Sticks (€23 via which are packed with glitter and come in 10 shades. I wore Punk Pony, a deep blue, to Primavera, and it was still on 28 hours after application. Finally, a tubing mascara is your friend. The good ones won't move until you remove them with oil. 5. Maybelline Lash Sensational (€12.99 via is my favourite and has never failed me. Now, go forth and sweat! Lost in translation I feel like I can't turn a corner without someone asking me about salmon sperm these days. (What a life I've built for myself!) Why? Because of the beauty treatment which injects it into the skin. Well, sort of. Salmon sperm contains a high concentration of DNA fragments known as polynucleotides, which are thought to improve the appearance of wrinkles by stimulating collagen and elastin production. Are they effective? Yes, sometimes they have a visible impact on the texture and appearance of the skin. Will they make you look like a newborn? No. It's also important to remember that your response to a treatment like this might not be the same as someone else's, so it's always a bit of a 'buyer beware' situation. Something old… I remember the first time I tried a beauty product that 'adapted to your skin colour to formulate your perfect shade', and it was a very long time ago. Like, decades ago. Since then, they come and go, seducing a new generation of youngsters into thinking it's some sort of magic. Brands suggest that their product provides a unique shade via the skin's pH but, in my experience, the shade is always the same. If you photograph said shade on a variety of skin tones, it will look different, but isn't that just their individual skin tone shining through? Me? Cynical? Never. Anywho, that doesn't necessarily mean the shade it provides isn't pretty and, as the result, is usually sheer and glowy, I've known and loved many of these products in my time. The first of them was a Barry M lipstick I used on my cheeks, and while it doesn't exist in that precise iteration anymore, the brand's Colour Changing Gel Blush (€7.99 via provides very similar results. ... Something new To be honest, I was shocked to learn that Dior was getting involved in the pH-balance tomfoolery but, nonetheless, here we are. In fairness, it has been at it for some time with its Lip Glow and Rosy Glow products. Additionally, it's not launching a single blush stick and claiming it will adjust to every skin tone — instead the Backstage Rosy Glow Blush Stick (€49 via is available in six shades, which features 'pH-activated colour' for a 'made-to-measure' result. Do I think that's a load of nonsense? Yes. Are the products beautiful nonetheless? Well, yes. The formula is light and creamy, gliding onto the skin and delivering sheer but buildable colour. Do I think you need it? If you already have a cream blush you like, probably not.
Daily Mirror
02-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mirror
The future of beauty is low-waste - five must have eco-conscious beauty hero products
The beauty industry's has a plastic problem, but a new wave of low-waste products are giving us hope. Greener beauty is helping the planet, one product at a time, and cheapest is just £7 The beauty industry might make us feel good, but its impact on the planet is far from pretty. Packaging waste is one of its biggest environmental challenges. According to Zero Waste Scotland, the average UK household churns out around 23kg of plastic packaging waste each year, with a huge slice of that coming from cosmetics and personal care. Globally, the picture isn't any better. In 2018 alone, the United States generated a jaw-dropping 7.9 billion units of cosmetic waste, contributing to landfill overflow, ocean pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Add in the microplastics lurking in many products, and a single shower can wash 100,000 microbeads down the drain. It's clear: the beauty world has some serious cleaning up to do. Thankfully, a new generation of brands are stepping up. They're proving that luxury, pigment, and performance don't have to come at the planet's expense. Here are five low-waste beauty heroes leading the way. Half Magic – Eyeshadow Singles, £10 Makeup that looks good and does good? Sign us up! Half Magic's eyeshadow singles are housed in compostable PaperFoam compacts, with no plastic used. When you're ready to switch things up, simply peel out the pan, remove any glue, and pop the compact in your home compost or recycling bin. Even better, you can build your own forever palette, making these pigmented, planet-friendly shades the perfect guilt-free indulgence. Lush – Naked Mascara, £12 Lush has ripped up the mascara rulebook with their solid, plastic-free Naked Mascara. Made with gentle butters and waxes for a natural lash tint, this innovation completely ditches the traditional plastic tube. It's a bold move, but one that speaks volumes about where the future of beauty packaging needs to go: less waste, more wow! Lisa Eldridge – Refillable Lipstick, £49 Lisa Eldridge's lipsticks are iconic luxury beauty with a conscience. The beauty fan-favourite Rouge Experience lipsticks come in refillable aluminium cases, offering full, satin-finish colour without the environmental guilt. Aluminium can be infinitely recycled, so swapping out your lipstick bullet instead of buying a whole new product is a simple but powerful way to cut down on cosmetic waste Faith in Nature – Shampoo Bars, £7 Say goodbye to plastic bottles. Faith in Nature's solid shampoo bars are crafted from 100% natural origin ingredients and packaged in recycled cardboard. Designed with curly and dry hair types in mind, they're vegan, cruelty-free, and brilliantly travel-friendly. A cleaner conscience and a great hair day? Yes, please. Honeypie Minerals – Foundation, £15 Honeypie Minerals has nailed the brief with their refillable, zero-waste foundation. Their silky mineral powders come in compostable pouches but can also be popped straight into a reusable jar. The formula itself is packed with skin-loving minerals, free from harsh chemicals, and perfect for sensitive or acne-prone skin. Beauty that's kind to your face and the planet. The beauty industry's plastic problem won't be solved overnight, but these innovative products show that sustainable alternatives are more than possible - they're already here. With every low-waste mascara, refillable lipstick, and compostable compact, we get one step closer to a beauty industry that's as good for the earth as it is for our skin.
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Chosen Family review – fluid directing by Heather Graham ballasts enjoyable romcom
For younger readers not well versed in last-century cinema, Heather Graham was one of the hottest ingenues in Hollywood throughout the 1990s; her greatest performance was arguably as Rollergirl in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Recently, she's taken up writer-director duties (she made her debut in 2018 with a comedy called Half Magic) while continuing to star as well, and this sophomore effort impresses with its mildly acidic observations of contemporary mores. There aren't exactly belly laughs in this tale of single yoga instructor Ann (Graham), but quite a few of zingers and bits that stick the landing nicely thanks to fluent direction and good comic timing from Graham and her excellent supporting cast, which is filled out by cracking actors who might not often be given as much spotlight as they get here. That's entirely fitting given that the plot, as the title might suggest, is all about the greater value of the friends and loved ones you make throughout life as opposed to the toxic monsters you're saddled with at birth. In Ann's case, that pretty much goes for her whole nuclear family, from zealous Christian wingnut dad (Michael Gross) and narcissistic mom (Julie Halston) to her admittedly damaged but still totally vile sister Clio (Julia Stiles, having fun sinking her teeth into the role). Graham's script perhaps makes Ann just a bit too nice and a co-dependent martyr to these nightmare people. However the plot moves along when a video of her letting off steam and denouncing all of her relatives in an angry rant (while wearing a bikini) goes viral, thereby boosting business. Meanwhile, she's got charming buddies, including sharp-tongued Roz (Andrea Savage), chef Max (Thomas Lennon) and polyglot Frances (Odessa Rae) who are close enough friends they don't mind telling her the truth when necessary. The fizzy group chemistry is palpable every time the gang gets together on screen. That honesty is sorely needed when Ann starts dating Steve (John Brotherton), a lovely bloke who's kind, mostly stable, and great in bed. The 'but' comes in the shape of his preteen daughter Lilly (Ella Grace Helton, tremendous), a spoiled, manipulative psychopath in a ballet school tutu who feels threatened by Steve loving anyone apart from her. While contemporary narrative grammar might lead viewers to expect fireworks from the ending, it is instead a little anti-climactic – but all the more realistic for that. It results in a film that feels like the product of lots of therapy, meditation and – judging by Graham's still impressively svelte physique – lashings of yoga. Good for her, she deserves a bit of success after all the dross she had to do for the money over the years. Chosen Family is on digital platforms from 21 April
