LIXIR

There are very few skin care ranges that piqued my interest last year – LIXIR is one of them. I met with founder, Colette Haydon back in the autumn, whose formulations you will almost certainly have used because as a dermo-pharmacist, she’s been cooking up beauty recipes for well-known brands for nearly ever.

The strange thing is that we’ve never met before. She has read my blog for years and I have followed her formulations for years. So, you can imagine that when we finally did meet over a coffee and croissant it was as though we already knew each other. I’m wary of meeting brand owners but this was the easiest meet ever.

With LIXIR, Colette’s been left to her own devices – obviously. There’s no agenda, no brief from a brand and no particularly required trend ingredients. She can do as she pleases and she has, including keeping prices reasonable.

If there is one thing about Colette Hayden, it’s that she is BS free. Despite devising complex formulations where required, she is really all about keeping it simple. She and I seem to have the same questions about beauty – when it comes to eye creams, why do you need a separate cream to treat the same skin? Indeed. She has no answer and if anyone could give a good and valid reason it would be she. There is no eye cream in the LIXIR range.

She also gave me a mild telling off about not using a wash off cleanser. Everything, she says, has to be rinsed, otherwise it’s not cleansing properly. Not even with a micellar? Not unless you rinse it. I hate rinsing but she is satisfied that a daily shower, even without a skin wash product, is probably doing the job without me noticing.

One of the perks about being a beauty writer is that I get to change my skin care as often as I feel like it. LIXIR relies on the fact that skin likes change – it makes it work harder to do better rather than settling into a routine which is why Colette’s Night Switches are so important. You use one, let’s say the 1% Retinol for a few weeks, and then change up to BHA/AHA 10% or PHA/AHA 10% before switching around again. Keep your cells busy and they’ll keep your skin glowing! All alongside one core product, the Universal Emulsion.

I’ve covered LIXIR already, but I know that you like to know about it when I discover good people behind good brands. Everything feels right on this one – price (from £20), formulas and someone who asks questions of the beauty industry as a whole. The original post is HERE and  you can find LIXIR HERE.