I have scoffed at many beauty products over the years. Usually, I then go out and buy them. Michael Kors Leg Shine (£21.53; 0870 0342566) is a classic example. One of the silliest products I have ever fallen in love with, it’s a waxy block, rather like a rectangular candle, and you put a slick of it up the front of your leg. Supposedly it makes them look longer, thinner and all-round better. It smells wonderful, but it’s the most ridiculous idea – I mean, really, how empty does your life have to be that you crave shiny legs? But I have embraced it with messianic, some might say maniacal, fervour and even go so far as to lug it to work so as never to be caught short with dull shins.
The Decl?or idea of putting an aromatherapy oil under your moisturiser was another one that brought out the cynic in me. “A fast-track to spots,” I thought. “They just want you to buy two products, not one.” Then, fed up with persistent dry skin, I tried Aromessence N?roli Oil (£39, below; 020-7313 4774) and Hydra Floral moisturiser (£35) and saw the light. I don’t care how or why it works, and it seems weird, but it doesn’t bring you out in spots; it just makes your moisturiser work better.
And I am not alone in succumbing to the strange. My friend swears by her Mister Mascara heated eyelash curlers (£10.45; www.beautique.com), which sound at best foolish and at worst dangerous. Why would you want to put something battery-operated near your eyes, for heaven’s sake? But, she reckons, the curl they give is softer and lasts longer than normal eyelash curlers. Then there are eyelash combs; I choked as I handed over £10 at Space NK (020-8740 2085) for what looks like a miniature flea comb. But would I be without them? Would I risk setting foot outside with clumpy eyelashes? I would not. I have my pride.
As for eye creams, well, no claim has gone underided in the Rose household. I have spent years being resolutely unimpressed by all their triple-enzyme-action, de-puffing jargon. That was until I tried Guerlain’s Super Aqua Eye complex (£51.87; 01932 233887) and was converted overnight; while for day I, who had forsworn all eye creams but Sisley’s, found Liz Earle’s Daily Eye Repair (£12.50; www.lizearle.com) the cheapest way to look well-rested, short of a decent night’s sleep. So cynics of the world unite: there is much to be dubious about in the realm of beauty, but some of the strangest-sounding concepts can help us look younger and prettier and, perhaps most importantly, shinier of leg.