Whether it’s gnarly brows or dry scaly legs, even the ELLE beauty team aren’t immune to this by any means. After all, there's a lot to deal with, make-up, cleansing, toning, is it any wonder that one slides? We confess to the black holes in our routines...
Emma Strenner, Beauty Director: Brow How?
So here's the thing, that nobody really knows…I'm Emma, I'm the beauty director of ELLE, and I never, and I mean like, NEVER do anything to my eyebrows.
In all other aspects of my life, I would say I'm fairly high maintenance. In fact, it is more or less my job to be high maintenance. I get my hair coloured every six weeks, without fail. I have a facial every month. I double cleanse at night, first with a balm, followed by an oil. My skincare regime includes both a serum, a mist, an SPF, a moisturiser. My make-up is multi-layered and honed to an art so I wear plenty but look like I am hardly wearing a thing. I apply a hair mask every week, and I'm fussy about treatments – not too soft, and not too hard and the towels have to be just so…
So why is it that I can't get myself to start looking after my brows? They are so important in terms of shaping your face. They are the bridge after all to looking super groomed from looking dishevelled and unkempt. And yet, while I might tweeze the odd stray, I have a mental block, what marathon runner's may call "the wall" when it comes to dragging myself over to a real brow expert to these things into any kind of real shape. Maybe it’s because they're not big hairy caterpillars stuck on my face, or maybe it’s because I'm so busy tweaking everything else around my face? But still – they are grossly neglected.
So as beauty resolutions go, it’s not a major one – to have a brow treatment occasionally. Shavata, eyebrow queen suggests that monthly visits aren't necessarily a must-have anyway – if you get a really good shape once every six month's it’s all down to maintaining that shape. My latest find is Benefit's Brow Zings, £22.50, which has everything you need for tidy brows in a little kit. Perhaps I'll start with that little step then.
Georgia Collins, Deputy Beauty Editor: To wash or not to wash?
I'm down with most necessary beauty regimes – I moisturise every day, I tend my brows, I exfoliate religiously, but if there's one thing that fills me with absolute and utter dread, it's washing my hair. I know it might sound odd, after all I love a good shower and it's surely just an extension of that, but I find the prospect of having to do it, so dull. I'd rather have a bikini wax if truth be told, and that's saying something.
I think part of it stems from the fact that overall I am inherently lazy with my the upkeep of my hair – I get it trimmed only when I need to and didn't even own a hairbrush or dryer until recently when a hairdresser friend put his foot down. So to me there's nothing more arduous than standing in the shower, lathering up (TWICE if I condition too) and then having to deal with the dripping wet, tangled mess that I'll inevitably be left with afterwards. Wet hair makes me cold (I hate feeling cold), I can't be bothered to brush it (call me weird but I don't like having shiny, groomed hair) and I like the texture that comes with several days' wear and a can of Oribe Dry Texturising Spray, £38.
So the bottom line is that although I do it (I'm not ready for dreadlocks just yet) it is and will always be my weak spot when it comes to grooming. Next time you see me with freshly washed hair (on average twice a week), be thankful that it's been done and know that it has been achieved with more than a little moaning and groaning.
Amy Lawrenson, Beauty Writer: Lotion Lapse
Naturally I have oily skin so while I routinely cleanse, tone and moisturise my face, but the moisturiser never makes it further south than my chin. I never moisturise my body. I know; the shame. But I do think about it though. And I worry that I’ll wake up one day, years down the line to dry, wrinkled arms and think why didn’t I moisturise? Why? Every so often when that thought runs through my mind, I manically slather on one of the old moisturisers sitting on my bathroom shelf. They are always there maybe to keep up the charade to visitors that yes I’m a Beauty Writer and of course I do every possible grooming routine ever thought up, silly.
I’ve even tried tricking myself with lotions that promise to slim me with the sweep of a hand, but that lasts days, sometimes weeks. I’ve tried dry oil sprays left on the side of the bath that I can spritz on when I’m still wet post shower, but no that never sticks. I did have a brief encounter with Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Body Treatment, £25, which came close to a full-blown relationship until the tube ran out (the first time this has ever happened with a body lotion) and I never got around to buying another one.
My solution, I book in for as many body treatments where someone else can do the hard work for me. But really who am I kiddng?
Suzanne Scott, Beauty Writer: Beauty Drought
I'm a beauty girl through and through. If they've made a cream for it, I've used it, I'm not exaggerating. But (and here’s the shameful part), I never drink water. I know, it’s terrible. It’s the cardinal sin of beauty. Ask any expert and they will tell you that the cornerstone of any beauty regime is good hydration levels. It’s not that I don’t like the taste, it’s just that I’m forgetful. I often fill up a glass in the morning but come six o’clock that glass is still sitting on my desk untouched.
Is it any wonder then, that despite my extensive beauty regime, whenever I have a facial or a body or hair treatment my therapist always remarks on how parched and dehydrated I am? In fact, when I recently met with Darphin's Head of Education and VIP Therapist, Emma Schulz, for a facial she told me I can use all the lotions and potions I like but I will never have really nourished skin unless I drink more water – as Schulz put it, I’m walking round in a constant state of dehydration.
So there you have it, as beauty confessions go it’s a biggy. So I here-by promise myself to give my body the eight glasses a day that it needs. I must, I must, drink more water.
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