Shopping Fix: the new Irish cleansing balm that will make you want to double cleanse

This new Irish cleansing balm will make you actually want to wash your face

Do you hate the faff of cleansing? Regularly reach for a make-up wipe to take off your make-up even though you know you shouldn’t, or worst of all sins, just go to bed with your make-up on? What you need is a cleansing balm. Or to be more specific, you need this new one from Irish brand Nunaïa that so genuinely enjoyable to use, it makes cleansing almost therapeutic (no, really), forcing you to pause, rest and reset – which is pretty much what caused founder Nicola Connolly to create the brand in the first place.

Nicola Connolly left behind an aggressive, fast-paced career in London to set up her brand. “I realized that it just wasn’t right for me and I was looking for more connection,” says Nicola. “I headed to South America and I ended up spending 12 years living and working with traditional communities and tribes on the Galapagos Islands, in the Amazon rainforest and in the Andes mountains of Peru. I had a chance encounter in the Galapagos Islands where I went to the mayor and pitched a project, and so began a career of sustainability. While I was doing this work I was discovering all of their amazing ingredients and superfoods they were using every day to look after their skin and bodies and minds. I started studying and learning more about their traditions and rituals. Each time I came back to Ireland I would discover that things had gotten even busier and people were more and more stressed. This is where the idea came for Nunaïa. What we’re trying to do is to help people create these little moments of connection in their day through a range of superfood skincare rituals. What makes us different is that every single drop of our product is a really potent burst of plant nutrition for the skin.”

Her first serum, the moisturising, nourishing and regenerating Nourishing Radiance Serum has won over seven awards (including an IMAGE Beauty Award), and the newest product, the Superfood Cleansing Balm, €59, is just as good.

“When I was fifteen I tried Eve Lom’s Cleansing Balm for the first time and absolutely fell in love,” says Nicola. “I could never find a natural alternative that actually works so this is what we’ve created.”

Nunaïa Superfood Cleansing Balm, €59

Like the serum, the Superfood Cleansing Balm contains vitamins (A, C and E), antioxidants and essential fatty acids and the brand’s signature rainforest actives: sacha inchi (rich with amino acids, fatty acids and antioxidants for helping improve the skin’s barrier, protect from free radicals and maintain skin regeneration) and maracuja (a vitamin C rich ingredient from the passionfruit family that protects the skin from free radical damage and brightens skin).

Nunaïa Superfood Cleansing Balm, €59

So if you’re too fond of a make-up wipe or prone to avoiding cleansing because it’s too much effort, look to a cleansing balm. There is no product more effective at melting away your make-up than a balm cleanser buffed off with a hot flannel. If you’re oily skinned and thinking that the last thing you need is more oil, trust me on this paradox – you do not need to live your skincare life restricted to soapy, foam cleansers.

It melts away your make-up with absolute minimum effort required. The silky texture balm glides onto the skin. Massage the balm onto the face and neck and add wet fingertips. It emulsifies into a gorgeous milk, thanks to an innovative almond active, which will dissolve and lift make-up, feel plush and luxurious, and loosen the most resilient of waterproof mascaras and long-wearing foundations.

It leaves no residue, just skin that’s hydrated, radiant, dewy and as instantly transformed as greasy hair after a blowdry at the hairdressers. Best of all, it makes washing off the day genuinely a joy.

Photography by Jason Lloyd Evans.

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