Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, shop our pick of the best female-founded beauty brands, including our favourite skincare, make-up and perfume buys
International Women’s Day is marked globally every year on 8 March as a way of celebrating and recognising the achievements of women, and this year the day falls on next Saturday.
If you’re looking for a way to mark the occasion by treating yourself this payday, we’ve rounded up new launches from some of our favourite female-founded beauty brands, as well as cult classics that are giving back this IWD…
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Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant is a beauty staple to always keep in your bathroom cupboard, and now’s a great time to stock up. From now until 31 March, Elizabeth Arden will donate £5 from every tube on ElizabethArden.co.uk to The King’s Trust Change A Girl’s Life Campaign, supporting women to change their lives for the better.
Elemis
Elemis is another of our all-time favourite beauty brands co-founded by women, and this month they’re supporting the Change A Girl’s Life Campaign too, for the fifth year running.
From now until 8 March, Elemis will donate £10 to the cause for each Dynamic Duo set sold on elemis.com. This bundle – which costs £67 but is worth £89, and contains the Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Wash and Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Pads – everything you need for clean, glowing skin this spring.
Nails.INC
One of the reasons why gel polish is so popular nowadays is the lack of drying time; waiting for multiple layers of regular nail varnish to completely set can take the best part of an hour. Nails.INC’s new It’s Topless 1 Step Gel formula, however – founded by Thea Green MBE – combines base, treatment, colour and top coats in one, and promises up to eight days of glossy polish that’s dry in under a minute. Available in 21 shades and priced at £8.99, they’re super handy for emergency manis in a flash.
Fenty Beauty
Want the shine and shimmer of a lip gloss with the ease of a lip balm? Pick up one of the new Gloss Bomb High-Shine Gloss Sticks, £23, from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty; with a nourishing formula rich in squalane, vitamin E and shea butter, they keep lips moisturised for up to eight hours and deliver subtle sparkly washes of colour. Find it in six of your favourite Fenty shades, including the now-iconic Fenty Glow, a shimmery, suits-all nude.
Skin Rocks
I’m fussy about eye creams – lots either irritate my skin, aren’t moisturising enough, or are too heavy – but The Eye Cream from Caroline Hirons’ brand Skin Rocks, £65, is absolutely perfect: immediately silky, smoothing and plumping. Her video on the Skin Rocks Instagram page on how to properly apply it is worth a watch too (spoiler: forget the rule about only using your ring finger).
“I sent this to my mother and she is so pleased with it,” one happy customer wrote. “She loves the texture and, more importantly, has seen small lines to the sides of her eyes disappear!
Floral Street
At first impressions body sprays may remind you of your first tweenage forays into fragrance, but hear me out: the latest generation are sophisticated, and a lovely lighter way to wear perfume (I always keep one on my desk). Started by Michelle Feeney in 2017, Floral Street’s new Perfume Mists, £24, come in three of the brand’s bestselling scents, and get big bonus points for being gentle on the skin and kind to the planet, using the UK’s first metal-free, full recyclable pump.
Nuchu
Wellbeing brand Nuchu was created after founder Cynthia Cohen struggled to find tasty vitamin gummies that didn’t contain sugar or artificial sweeteners, or exacerbate her gut issues – and so she created her own. Immunity, Beauty and Calming, £21 each for 60 gummies, are instead sweetened with a prebiotic plant sugar derived from beetroot, and deliver effective levels of vitamins, minerals and adaptogens without the sugar spikes.
