Beauty: Products to make skin the star of the show

Skin is the current star of the beauty show. Whether you want to achieve a shiny glass or soft-focus finish - both are trending - the trick is to ‘backend’ your beauty routine and invest in wonder-working skincare. Alice Ryan reports

Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask, £61, tataharperskincare.com: Don’t let the dinky pot deter you: this mask is a big-hitter. A bestseller for Tata Harper, the US brand which pledges to ‘reveal your true beauty, rather than cover it up’, it both boosts glow (thanks to gently exfoliating beta hydroxy acid, extracted from white willow bark) and refines texture (pink clay unclogs pores; beetroot, barley and elderberry smooth and soften). As with all Tata Harper products, the mask is formulated with 100% natural - and largely organic - ingredients. Leave on for five minutes for a wee pick-me-up or 20 for maximum impact.

Guinot Beauté Neuve Mask, £43, guinot.co.uk: The latest release from Guinot, the French skincare company famed for products so powerful their results rival those of aesthetic procedures, this mask works miracles. With stabilised Vitamin C to protect (being a powerful antioxidant, it staves off damage), gluconolactone to perfect (a polyhydroxy acid, it sloughs away dead cells) and chaga mushroom extract to regenerate (evening the complexion and shoring up the dermal barrier), it restores radiance to even the dullest, drabbest skin in the space of just five minutes.

The Ordinary GF 15% Solution Age-support Serum, £13.50, theordinary.com: The Ordinary, the famously no-muss-no-fuss beauty brand, has done it again: deploying a powerful 15% concentration of next-gen growth factors - nature-identical peptides key to cell repair - this Age-support Serum delivers cutting-edge skin science for a fraction of the typical price tag. Apply just a few drops post-cleanse, morning and night, for skin which immediately looks and feels smoother, plumper and perkier; it makes impressively short work of rough patches. With repeated use, there’s the promise of fading the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles too.

REFY Face Sculpt, £38, refybeauty.com: Having made its mark on makeup, simplifying our routines with its nifty multitasking formulas, British beauty brand REFY has segued into skincare. The first product out the gate? Face Sculpt, an ingenious two-in-one massage tool and moisturiser. Fitted with five rotating metal balls, the applicator promotes both product absorption and lymphatic drainage, lifting and depuffing the face as it sweeps across the skin. The moisturiser itself is also no slouch: it contains Inst’tight, a unique-to-REFY complex developed to increase hydration and firmness. The combination of tool and product is killer; putting on moisturiser never felt so good.

Cha Vohtz Age Defy+ Retinal Booster Serum, £49, greenpeople.co.uk: Retinol has long been hailed a hero ingredient in skincare, but now an even more potent version of the Vitamin A derivative has hit labs: known as retinal, it converts more readily to active retinoic acid for faster results. In this serum, new to Green People’s Cha Vohtz skincare line, a 0.05% concentration of retinal is combined with hyaluronic acid, aloe vera extract and a plethora of plant oils to maximise hydration, minimise fine lines, support collagen production and accelerate cell turnover. Slot it into your nighttime routine and wake with noticeably softer and smoother skin.

Revision Skincare Youthfull Lip Replenisher, £42, revisionskincare.co.uk: With Hollywood royalty reported to be fans of the brand - Julianne Moore among them - Revision Skincare is a way-paver, pioneering the use of everything from peptides to the power of the microbiome to provide support for ageing skin. Loaded with hydrating hyaluronic acid, soothing plant extracts (shea butter, jojoba esters, sunflower seed oil) and protective antioxidants (green tea, Vitamins C and E), this Lip Replenisher leaves your pout visibly plumped from first use. It also - and this bit’s proper wizardry - restores lips’ natural colour, negating the need for lippy.

Enhance My Skin Glass Skin Refining Liquid, £32, enhance-my-skin.com: Developed by an aesthetician, Enhance My Skin formulas are, as you’d expect, highly results driven. The main ingredient in this Glass Skin Refining Liquid is mandelic acid, which has umpteen skincare skills up its sleeve: it exfoliates without aggravating, brightens tone, fades pigmentation, unclogs pores and refines texture. Building up from three non-consecutive uses per week, it’s designed to be applied at night. Gradually giving skin a fresh and glossy finish, it’s the product equivalent of a very flattering phone filter.