An Ode To The Really Beautiful Beauty Products

Dec 19

One of my favourite things about beauty products is not only the way they make me feel but also the way that they're packaged. It's part of the whole beauty experience for me, maybe it's because I'm a visually driven person but it's always been this way. I'm drawn to pretty beauty products like a magpie is drawn to something shiny. Some might say the packaging of something doesn't matter because it's just superficial and even though I know what's inside is what counts overall. I can't help but favour things with pretty packaging and when you're paying out for something [especially luxury beauty] you, of course, want to look nice as well as it being functional. Just like when you buy clothes you want them to look nice as well as keeping you covered and warm. So here are is my ode to beauty products that are really, really beautiful.

BEAUTY

I'm absolutely gooey eyed over beauty products in the first place with their dreamy formulations and pretty shades. So putting them into beautiful casing makes my heart flutter like it's going to come out of my chest. My tastes are relatively simple, I don't like anything with too much embellishment and faff. Simplicity is key but I'm a sucker for anything with beautiful typography and a killer colour scheme. Some of my loved items definitely lean on the more feminine side and brands like Too Faced and Lanolips do this perfectly. Then I love branding that is simple and keeps their logo to the minimum and brands like Diptyque, Hourglass, Jo Malone, Clinique, Charlotte Tilbury, Zoeva and Topshop do this to perfection.

Even though I'm typically superficial with my taste in beauty product design. Something I think is incredibly important is whether or not the product is functional in that packaging. Whether it's high end or not you still want to be able to get out as much out of them as you can. So products in tubes are always a firm favourite of mine like Lanolips Lip Balm and the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. And then lipsticks that have sturdy packaging with lids that firmly clip on like the Clinique Pop Lips and the Fresh Sugar Lip Balms are by far my favourite as I don't have to worry about them being ruined when on the go. Finally, compacts with mirrors are something else I find incredibly important, even though I know things like this cost a little more in production so we have to pay more it's worth it in my opinion.

SKINCARE

For my makeup, I want something that really screams luxury when I'm paying high-end prices. As I can't deny that it does change the way I feel when I'm using something like that over a product in crappy cheap plastic packaging. But when it comes to my skincare I take a lot more of a practical approach. Granted I still want it to look and feel nice but I favour the technical side of the packaging rather than the overall design. Brands like Liz Earle, Antipodes, Aesop and Clarins all have this down.

One of the biggest things that I struggle with when it comes to skincare is opaque packaging. It's incredibly practical if you keep your skincare out as it doesn't allow light to get through to product and tamper with it in any way. But of course, there is a big issue with not knowing how much you're using which is something I like to know and think it's important to see how quickly something goes down. There there are the products that come in tubs, mainly cleansers and moisturisers are packaged this way. Of course, it means you can get every smidgen of product out. But I find that it's a little unhygienic and it's all too easy to forget to wash your hands and spread germs around. Metal tubes are probably my favourite type of packaging for skincare, you can get every last bit out [especially if you cut them open], it's hygienic and you know how much you're using. I used to be loyal to anything with a pump and whilst it does make things incredibly simple to use so often you can't get to all the product which is irritating.