Mixology Beauty: Products Made Just For You
Hands up who has spent years struggling to find the perfect shade foundation or the ultimate red lip and still searching for The One? Well, we are thrilled to announce that brands have now realised one size doesn’t fit all, and even with colour ranges and skincare concerns significantly widening, consumers will no longer settle for ok, we want the perfect match. So, let us introduce you to a whole new way of shopping for your beauty buys that are made especially for you. With fancy new-age beauty tech and personalised customer service, beauty shopping has never felt more luxe, affordable, or bespoke.
Beauty Tech & Customised Buys Worth Your Time
The brand: DUOLAB
The concept: Beauty tech at its finest, this revolutionary personalised skincare solution is designed to keep up with the changing nature of your skin by offering tailored, highly natural formulas. Because your skin is constantly changing, a skincare regime that remains the same day in, day out just won’t do. Every day, mix your personalised duo of capsules to create your fresh dose of cream. Freshly blended at home with natural ingredients, in just 90 seconds and zero mess, you’ll have your own bespoke skincare ready to apply. Genius! It’s not cheap (£179) but it’s truly a beauty gamechanger.
The brand: Ormonde Jayne
The concept: Create a unique fragrance with the ‘Your Scent, Your Strength, Your Style’ service that allows you to choose one of their signature 15 fragrances, then choose the strength: either Extract (poured at 40% concentration, £185) or Intense (poured at 50% concentration, £205). Then choose from the 8 gorgeous bottle colours, have your name and initials engraved, all while guzzling champagne and Charbonnel et Walker chocolates. This is the ultimate royal treatment.
The brand: Dcypher
The concept: Founded by husband-and-wife duo Adam and Claire, a British biochemist, and a consumer scientist. After seeing a huge gap in the market, they decided to venture into beauty personalisation. “Giving the customer exactly what they want, with infinite shades, finishes and formulations.” Super easy to navigate, the Dcypher website is easy to decipher (get it?!) your skin colour and undertone, after three images of your face using your phone or computer camera, and a small questionnaire of your skin type, the coverage and finish you desire, you’re perfectly matched. And just to make sure you’re happy with the shade, they make a small sample of the foundation to test before your big bottle arrives. For £28 and no guesswork, it’s well-worth the investment.
The brand: Dermatica
The concept: Whatever your skin bugbear, Dermatica has you covered. The process starts with a free online questionnaire, which, along with your photos are assessed by the Dermatica team that includes consultant dermatologists, pharmacists, GPs, clinical researchers, and formulation scientists that create a bespoke skincare prescription using powerful ingredients that are often not found in over-the-counter type skincare. Alongside their custom-made creams, they have a universal cleanser and moisturiser that are sent monthly to your home. Dermatica are on a “mission to make expert dermatology advice and evidence-based treatments accessible and affordable to everyone”, which is exactly what they’re doing. First month is £2.90, then £19.99 per month thereafter. Bargainous for serious skincare.
The brand: Miller Harris
The concept: This 90-minute Fragrance Profiling service, from £100, is available quite literally at any time of the day or night. (They’ll happily shut the shop or open it in the middle of the night for this service). After several questions to establish a little bit about you and your background, your lifestyle and happy memories, a fragrance expert will select three ‘lights’, three ‘darks’ and two wild card perfumes to take you on a beautiful journey to finding that perfect scent. A real princess moment!
The brand: Clinique
The concept: Create your iD, £45, is a skincare service which is tailored to your specific skin care concerns with 15 unique combinations on offer. You choose your hydrating base (hydrating jelly, moisturising lotion, and oil-free gel), select your pure active cartridge (based on your main skin concern), then the magic happens when you put them together. Simply click the cartridge into the base. It’s an affordable way to create customised skincare either in-store or online, and the bottle lasts forever.
The brand: Function Of Beauty
The concept: Revolutionaries in all things hair (and science) this customisable hair care range ensures your locks gets the TLC it deserves. Like your skin, often your hair can feel and behave differently depending on the season, the weather, and your lifestyle. Function of Beauty allows you to personalise your hair care for every eventuality. Simply pick a shampoo or conditioner specific to your hair type then select targeted booster shots (£4 each) to address your unique hair concerns and goals, such as Anti-Frizz, Shine, Lengthen, to name a few. Pop them in your shampoo, £12 or conditioner, £12, or both, give them a shake and voila hair care designed specifically for you!
The brand: Code8 Beauty
The concept: This cult favourite makeup brand is known for its high-performance and multifunctional products, and they’ve raised the bar once again with their Bespoke Lipstick Bar service, £80. This very unique experience at its flagship store in Burlington Arcade, London was inspired by Code8’s founder Sophia Chikovani childhood memories of watching her artist aunt blend lipsticks together to achieve her perfect shade. Whether you’re looking for the perfect nude or pillarbox red, or even replicate a discontinued shade, the Bespoke Lipstick Bar’s cutting-edge technology can recreate any lipstick shade, and you can even choose the finish (creamy or matte). Over 45 mins you’ll be guided by a Colour Maestro who will help you choose flattering colours to mix and match to find your unique lipstick colour, you’ll even see him/her make it in front of your very eyes. Finish by giving your bespoke lipstick its own name.
Plus, multiple people can enjoy the service together – a great idea for bridal showers or for gifting a special family member or great friend.
The brand: Klira
The concept: Born out of the knowledge that prescribed skincare by dermatologists is costly and not an affordable or realistic choice for many. Klira’s detailed online diagnostic test, based on your genetic characteristics and environmental exposure, takes the guesswork out of skincare. With 51 dermatologist devised questions that cover collagen, melanin, sebum, and skin barrier reveal your ‘SkinSize’ – one of 12 skin categories defined by Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr Emma Craythorne. Each SkinSize has its own custom-blend of acne, pigmentation and wrinkle busting tretinoin and azelaic acid, housed in a cream base that’s right for your skin. But currently Klira only offers one product to be used at night, but they are happy to recommend an edit of ‘day’ products by other brands to optimise your skin. £49 for a monthly subscription that gets delivered to your doorstep, so you’ll never run out.
The brand: Skin + Me
The concept: After a 5-minute online consultation with dermatologists who create a personalised combination of ingredients to treat anything from acne to ageing. Skin+Me also offer a tretinoin-based night cream, but yours could be laced with anything from exfoliating azelaic acid and sebum balancing niacinamide, to soothing anti-inflammatory clindamycin. They also offer cleansers and moisturisers that are designed to work alongside the active packed Daily Doser, to nourish and protect the skin barrier counteracting common side effects like dryness, and irritation that occur when first using tretinoin. One feature that’s really impressive is the click dispenser of the Daily Doser – twist till it clicks to get the exact amount you need, also ensuring that you don’t cause unwanted irritation by using too much.
