CULT BEAUTY: WHERE ARTISTRY LIVES
This spring, beauty is the medium – a language of colour, light and texture to create, experiment and express who you are. From radiance-restoring serums to bold and playful colour stories, get ready to dust off your brushes and lean into spring – equipped with a palette of painterly pigments and light-scattering textures.
Whether you embrace a blurred, impressionistic finish, or channel the resurgence of the ‘new romantic’ influence, read on to discover the trends (and techniques) we’re obsessed with this season.
THE ARTIST'S RETREAT
Pack light, play more. Wherever spring takes you, express artistic energy at every destination with our sized-to-try skincare and makeup.
With quick and cumulative benefits, Medik8’s Liquid Peptides Advanced MP is a skin-prep powerhouse – laced with a buffet of firming, line-smoothing and volumising peptides to refine and revitalise skin in ten minutes, while BY TERRY’s Brightening CC Serum – fresh from a reformulation – bestows an ethereal glow (and comes in a cute to-go bottle).
When it comes to makeup, LANEIGE’s collectible Juice Box Lip Tints deliver a soft wash of sheer, shiny colour (and have made-to-move packaging). Or pocket one of Saie’s beautiful, soft focus Mini Dew Blushes for a hazy pop of pigment that looks just as great on lids and lips for an effortless monochrome look. And let’s not forget SUMMER FRIDAYS – the brand built for globe-trotters – whose new Softline Lip Liners and Flushed Lip Stains are multi-use must-haves for those with artistic proclivities.
K18’s HeatBounce Conditioning Heat Protectant is perfect for keeping your style looking fresh from-the-salon wherever you land, while Medicube’s Collagen Night Wrapping Mask is the ultimate in-flight companion – a dew-boosting blend of glycerin, hyaluronic acid and brightening niacinamide to deliver an intensive shot of cabin-counteracting moisture.
Sol de Janeiro’s adorable Jelly Perfume Balms are perfectly handbag-compatible (not to mention great for layering), and L’Occitane’s Amanda Sublime Shimmering Body Oil leaves skin looking gorgeously gilded – recreating that enviable, sun-soaked gleam ‘til long after the holiday’s over.
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THE ARTIST’S PALETTE
Designed to be smudged, blurred and blended, spring’s colours paint an impressionistic picture. Made with creative expression in mind, embrace new techniques with high-performance formulas and multitasking hybrids that combine skincare credentials with effortless textures for impact in a single stroke.
Achieve a romantic, rose-tinted effect with SimiHaze Solar Tint Blush Duo – worn high on the cheekbones and around the hairline for a Brontë-worthy bloom – or drape RMS Beauty’s ReDimension Hydra Powder Blush from the temples to create a ‘pop’ aesthetic. Lips should be beautifully boundless – imagine the perimeter is pixelated – with balms, sticks and pencils smudged with fingers to achieve a just-caught-kissing finish. From MAC’s Macximal Silky Matte Lipstick in ‘Velvet Teddy’ to Patrick Ta’s Major Moisture Smoothing Lip Balm in ‘Milk Tea’, it’s all about an easy, fuzzy feel – precision feels passé; this season, free, expressionism reigns.
Dewy skin is nothing new, but this spring it’s all about dialling it down for a natural, luminous look. Fuelled by our enduring appetite for ‘90s authenticity (freshly reignited thanks to Sarah Pidgeon’s Carolyn Bessette), this is all about a beautifully buttery, just-buffed complexion. It’s glow without the glass, and a celebration of real-skin texture that’s refreshingly ’analogue’ in our increasingly digital, AI-generated world.
Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops deliver subtle luminescence that looks gorgeous on its own or under makeup, while Vieve’s Skin Nova and Gucci Beauty’s Glow Skin Tint Moisturiser enhance without masking, freeing you to flaunt your freckles.
With everything under one super-slim roof, Make Up For Ever’s HD Skin Face Essentials Palette boast six creamy, long-wearing shades to achieve custom coverage – made to mix and match for seamless concealing, sculpting, bronzing and highlighting – alongside six lip and blush tones for the most authentic flush.
For eyes, Danessa Myricks’ aptly titled Beauty Freedom Palette in ‘Everyday Neutral’ boasts six versatile shades in matte and metallic finishes to elevate your gaze, while Anastasia Beverly Hills’ GLIDR Shadow Sticks are quick and expressive – great for defining the lash line, or smoking out for an all-over cloak of bold, shimmering pigment.
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THE ART OF SCENT STACKING
Fragrance is a form of expression. Whether through lotions, hair mists and the latest wave of jelly-balms that gradually release their perfume (hello, Sol de Janeiro), or through complementary scents worn together to create something truly unique, in our modern world of influence, being ‘different’ is hard to achieve – which is why we’re inventing new ways to wear scent and assert our individuality.
Brands like Le Labo, Escentric Molecules, Creed and WHO IS ELIJAH are encouraging experimentation – combining unexpected notes to reinvent the rules. M+ Champaca marries the signature warmth of Iso E Super with Indian champaca absolute to tell a scent story that slowly unfurls to enhance your allure, while Le Labo’s Another 13 comes in multiple formats, from Shower Gel to Liquid Balm, to layer in a bid to maximise longevity.
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THE HAIR ATELIER
Artfully tousled or perfectly polished, achieve your desired effect with masks, mists and finishing touches that make simple styling feel like a work of art.
We're firmly in our curl era, but this spring it's all about smooth separation as we move away from boho, tousled texture to a more deliberately sculpted look. We're stocking up on butters, creams and glosses that define and hold your curls in place while amplifying shine and calming fluffiness. The goal is decidedly grown-up and glamorous – Sabrina Carpenter and Raye in all their modern-retro glory – and thanks to the new generation of wands, tongs and brushes, achieving a big, bouncy blow-dry has never been easier.
At the other end of the spectrum, straight, layered, mid-length looks that conjure '90s vibes are of-the-moment. In hot pursuit of soft, sleek styles with lots of shape and movement (choppy layers and face-framing graduation), we're dusting off our straighteners – which thankfully now come in countless damage-minimising iterations for all hair types and textures – and stocking up on silky, smoothing serums (a category ripe for a renaissance (Frizz-Ease, anyone?)). Polished without looking overly done, there's a cool-girl, low-maintenance ease to this look that feels fresh and free-spirited. It's hair designed to run your fingers through, to whip into a minimalist French twist, or smooth into a low-slung sporty ponytail – no mirror needed.
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PROTECT YOUR CANVAS
Every masterpiece needs preservation. Sheild your skin with expertly edited SPFs, from invisible creams to effortless sticks and hybrids.
Damage limitation is the order of the season, with 'skin longevity' taking precedence over the relentless pursuit of 'youth at all costs'. While exfoliants still have a place in our rituals, we're shifting the focus away from resurfacing treatments toward a more gentle approach, choosing products that fortify barrier function and bolster resilience. Influenced in part by an influx of Korean innovation and advanced, peptide-rich formulas, we're keen to safeguard what we've got - nurturing the skin we're in and working hard to keep it stronger, longer. It's about slowing down and embracing the present - we'll never be this young again, so celebrate the moment and respect your skin's boundaries with multi-tasking screens designed to 'futureproof' your face (and offer instant beauty benefits).
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Cult Beauty’s Content Editor and a Cult Beauty OG, Verity loves nothing more than the marriage of language and lip balm. A quintessential Libran, she’s a self-professed magpie for luxury ‘must-haves' and always pursuing the new and the niche — from the boujee-est skin care to cutting-edge tech. Balancing an urge to stop the clock with her desire to embrace the ageing process (and set a positive example for her daughter), Verity's a retinol obsessive and will gladly share her thoughts about the time-defying gadgets, masks and treatments worth the splurge...
