The Best Lockdown Beauty Essentials

None of us were prepared for the shut down of the beauty sector last year and although they were able to open for brief periods in between lockdowns, it’s likely that you’ve found yourself in some sort of ‘hairy’ personal care predicament – pun very much intended. I’m not going to pretend that I’m someone who is always in the beauty salon or hairdressers but even I have struggled to maintain what little beauty standards I have so I’m here to share my essentials that have kept me just about presentable over the past year.

Eyebrow Tint

My absolute favourite product that I’ve discovered during the pandemic is Eyelure Dybrow* in dark brown. This is an at home eyebrow tint which only takes 10 minutes to develop and only 30 seconds or so to prepare. If you’ve never used anything like this before, don’t worry, neither had I and it has never failed me. I’m very fair haired so my brows can look a bit sparse if I don’t wear make up but this gives my brows so much colour, better depth and shape. I barely wear make up at the minute so having my brows dyed really gives my face a better frame without the need for make up. I posted about this on Facebook at the time of discovering it as I was so impressed – see my before and after picture below.

Tip – don’t use the wand supplied in the pack. Instead use a little eyeshadow brush like this one* and pat the mixture onto your eyebrow and skin underneath. This gives your skin a tiny bit of colour too but only for a day or two. Make sure you do your tinting before any plucking/trimming as you may get dark flecks in the pore if you have recently plucked. Also do your patch test you naughty people!

Price- £6.50 to £7.50

Eyebrow Trimmer

Still using tweezers to pull out each individual hair? What you doing lass! Get yourself one of these bad boys from JML and you won’t regret it. It’s so quick to give your brows a good tidy up and it’s pretty much painless (unless the trimmer has a moment and does a little ‘wwwuurr’, sometimes it pulls a bit but it’s not bad I promise). It’s battery powered and has a light but to be honest the light is a bit pointless – get at your face in the daylight and you’ll be fine.

Price – £19.99

Facial Hair Trimmer

Now technically, you don’t need both trimmers – you could use the JML one for the whole of your face but it will take you AGES. If you’re after some whole face peach fuzz removal, you will want something like this too. The one I got was from ebay and I was very dubious when I opened the package but it has surprised me. It’s really good for the fuzz on your cheeks and sideburns and any lip/moustache situations you might have going on. Peach fuzz removal helps with how your make up looks and spreads but even if you aren’t wearing any face make up, it makes a huge difference to the clarity of your face. I know that’s weird to say but it’s like looking into your bathroom mirror after you have cleaned it – you didn’t realise how bad it was before. I can’t find the exact one I got on ebay but here* is a similar one.

Price – £6.99 to £20.00

Hair Dye

My favourites are Superdrug’s own brand, Colour Performance, or Garnier Olia. I’ve been favouring Garnier Olia at the moment as I feel like this is less harsh/chemically due to the fact that it contains oils and no ammonia. There’s nothing to say you can’t dye your hair when you are pregnant but I felt like this option was less harsh than others and it doesn’t have a strong smell. There’s often deals on at Superdrug.com for both brands so get stocked up.

Price – £4.99 to £6.99 each

Hair Removal Cream

Let’s be real, I’m not talking about your pits here, I’m on about your ahem, lady garden. If you are used to getting waxed rather than shaving, give this stuff a try. It’s called Woowoo hair removal cream and it’s nothing like any other hair removal creams I’ve tried. It doesn’t smell too strong and it’s very gentle on your skin but it does a really good job of dissolving the hair.

Tip – the instructions say it’s an ‘in shower’ hair remover but I’ve never done this. I apply it and stand in the shower and wait as I don’t think washing the cream off in the shower would work. Get yourself a cloth or a flannel and when your time is up, rub the hair in circular motions to remove it. Job done.

Price – £6.99

And that’s it girls, so even if lockdown if lifted and we never have to go without professional assistance again, I would still recommend these products to try as they will definitely save you a few quid in comparison to a visit to the salon and are good to have as an inbetween if you can’t get an appointment.

*Any links with an asterisk are affiliate links meaning I will get a few pennies from Amazon if you make a purchase