Where heat, sound and light meet: the season’s best beauty gadgets
GHD IV STYLER £99
As any woman will tell you, the beauty buck stops with the right hair-straightener and never more so than with this one, ghd’s state of the art IV styler. This edition boasts improved temperature control (internal condensation can damage straighteners, so if you happen to be in Siberia and room temp drops below 8 degrees, the IV will shut down until the temperature rises again), a new sleep mode that switches it off after 30 minutes, a rounder barrel for curls, flicks, waves or straight hair and – we like this one – universal voltage so you can get good performance wherever you are in the world. Ghdhair.com.
JAPONESQUE HEATED MINI EYELASH CURLER £12.50
Manual eyelash curlers are so last decade – plus, they pinch and break the lash. And, thanks to the long lash craze unleashed by Cheryl Cole and her ilk, we’re mad for volume, curl – anything to make our lashes look false, without necessarily being so. This is the best of the new breed of heated curlers: and you can use before or after mascara application. Crucially, it’s not bulky: an all-in-one battery powered wand, it is eminently portable. And man, those lashes will rock – even small, tricky ones. www.johnlewis.com
PHILLIPS SATINELLE LIMITED EDITION EPILATION SET, £53.33
If waxing is torture, epilating is…like tearing a Band-Aid off. An electrical device that removes hair by grasping multiple hairs and pulling them out, epilators are kinder than wax as they do not remove hair cells at the root. This one has a massage attachment that relaxes your skin as it pulls hair, and a sensitive cap for delicate skin. Two speeds mean you can manage the torture (sorry, hair removal) and the pain need not last too long: the Satinelle helps tease hairs out of their follicles so it’s “off with their heads” nice and quickly. www.philips.co.uk
CLARISONIC PLUS SONIC SKIN CLEANSING SYSTEM, £179
Women actually get excited to wash their faces thanks to this little “tool from heaven”, the ultimate facial cleanser sworn to diminish the appearance of fine lines and pigmentation. How does it work? Well, sonic technology gently cleanses the skin, oscillating at a frequency of over 300 movements per second. The brush head has 3 speed settings to loosen dirt, make-up and oil from pores, while the body brush head will give the rest of your skin a good clean and improve the appearance of cellulite. Comes with three cleansers and a refining skin polish. www.clarisonic.co.uk
THERAPIST SELECT SHIATSU MASSAGING CUSHION, £39.99
For office workers who spend their days hunched over a computer, keeping this intensely relaxing cushion about the house or office is a clever idea. Deep kneading action simulates the hands of a professional massage therapist as a Shiatsu mechanism slides up and down the cushion. Three programs allow for full back, lower back or upper back treatments – and a programmable touch pad control offers customized massage selection. www.play.com
SILK’N SENSEPIL HOME PULSED LIGHT HAIR REMOVAL SYSTEM, £250
The Rolls Royce of home hair-removal gadgets, the SensEpil (pronounced Sense Appeal) sports a sophisticated system known as Home Pulsed Light (HPL) technology, which seeks and destroys unwanted hair in your area of hirsuteness. The HPL pulse unleashes light energy combined with sound waves that are absorbed in the hair shaft, disabling hair growth, then the machine scoop. Beware: as with as with any light-based or laser hair removal device, results may take a few treatments. Clinical trials indicate that HPL is safe – but if you’re a first timer to the world of hair removal, you might want to opt for an epilator to get going. www.amazon.co.uk