How to avoid food guilt this Christmas
How to avoid food guilt this Christmas

IMAGE

‘For the first time, we weren’t alone… Somebody would listen to us’
‘For the first time, we weren’t alone… Somebody would listen to us’

Lia Hynes

This Christmas, hold space for those carrying the quiet burden of grief
This Christmas, hold space for those carrying the quiet burden of grief

Dominique McMullan

Inside the glittering Dublin home of jewellery designer, Chupi Sweetman-Durney
Inside the glittering Dublin home of jewellery designer, Chupi Sweetman-Durney

Megan Burns

‘For every festive freak, there are those who don’t consider this the most wonderful time of the year’
‘For every festive freak, there are those who don’t consider this the most wonderful time...

Suzie Coen

Five delicious vegetarian recipes to enjoy over the Christmas season
Five delicious vegetarian recipes to enjoy over the Christmas season

IMAGE

This year, let’s shatter the illusion of a “perfect” Christmas
This year, let’s shatter the illusion of a “perfect” Christmas

Amanda Cassidy

‘I was a child who received a Christmas shoebox. This is what it meant to me’
‘I was a child who received a Christmas shoebox. This is what it meant to...

Amanda Cassidy

An ode to Christmas Eve mass, the festive season’s greatest social occasion
An ode to Christmas Eve mass, the festive season’s greatest social occasion

Edaein OConnell

How to host Christmas without breaking the bank
How to host Christmas without breaking the bank

Megan Burns

Image / Beauty

Stress-relieving Beauty Products: Tried and Tested


By Aisling Keenan
03rd Dec 2018
Stress-relieving Beauty Products: Tried and Tested

It’s Monday, there’s three weeks until Christmas, the Toy Show has been and gone and everyone seems a little frazzled as we hurtle, slightly panicked, towards 2019.

I, for one, find Christmas time a source of much anxiety – lots of joy and mince pies and jingle bells too, of course, but a lot of stress nonetheless. Intense planning, gifting strategy, family politics… It’s all kicking off, and not just for Santa, Rudolph et al.

With the next few weeks of work, parties and work parties looking particularly insane for many of us, I’ve gone to ground and started using my tried and trusted selection of stress-busting beauty products to try to ease me into a busy day or a restful night’s sleep at the end of the aforementioned day. Here are the three that work for me:

1. Treasure ‘me’ time

Aromatherapy Associates Treasured Time set, €22

Aromatherapy Associates know their stuff when it comes to calming spirits with their relaxing blended scents and oils. I have their Treasured Time combo of roller balls, which you apply to pressure points such as wrists, temples, back of the neck, behind the ears, to either pep you up while keeping you calm, or relax you enough to let you drift into a comfortable sleep.

2. Midnight treat

Kiehls Midnight Recovery Botanical Cleansing Oil, €35

More like 9pm for me, to be honest – I’m fit for nothing but sleep after that these days. Either way, whatever time of day I arrive home, I cleanse my face. Taking the day off is a silent signal to my mind that the end of the working day has arrived and I can relax. This product I adore for two reasons – one, it’s the best cleanser I’ve ever used to remove my makeup. It’s gentle, soothing but extremely effective and I recommend it to anyone who will hear me out. And two, it’s super calming. Lavender and Evening Primrose oils combine to make it the most spa-like experience of cleansing I’ve had outside an actual spa.

3. Mio my!

Mio Liquid Yoga Restorative Bath Soak, €30.95

Liquid Yoga sounds like a wonderful thing – so visual a name. I can confirm, the floaty, stretched, zen vibe the name elicits is exactly the feeling this bath soak gives you. I often pour this into a steaming hot bath after a long week, light some candles, put on some Miya Folick (Strange Darling is my bath opening track) and feel it’s restorative powers melt away the tension in my body. You leave the experience feeling like your body has been lengthened and you feel totally at ease. Do not use this in the morning, unless your job is as part of some kind of sleep study – just FYI.