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laura-mills
2nd November 2015

An ode to international beauty products

Fancy trying some new beauty products from across the globe? Laura Mills gives you her top 5 favourite picks from around the world
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TLDR

When looking into my beauty drawers (shamefully yes, there’s more than one…), I noticed that I’ve acquired a number of different products from a number of different countries. Here’s a roundup of my top 5 from around the world.

France

Some of my favourite international beauty products come from just across the channel in good ol’ France. Their pharmacies are always well stocked with countless skincare gems from brands such as La Roche Posay, Avene, Nuxe, Bioderma, and Caudalie. One of my favourite finds has to be La Roche Posay’s Serozinc—a zinc sulphate solution that can be sprayed or swept across your face on a cotton pad to soothe the skin and any irritations. It also works a treat on any cuts, rashes, or ingrown hairs (and nobody likes those). They’ve recently started stocking this in Boots, so it’s super easy to get your mitts on them.

Italy

KIKO Cosmetics comes out top in my eyes. From Italy, they’re really reasonably priced, good quality, and have recently started popping up stores all over the UK too. My favourite pick from here would have to be their Long Lasting Eyeshadow Sticks. These are easily a dupe for the ever coveted and crazy expensive Ombre Blackstar shadow sticks from By Terry—but at just a fraction of the price. KIKO also do some great lip liners, and a really cool lip scrub in stick form.

USA

Heading across the pond now, and we’re faced with hundreds of amazing choices. However, one of my favourites (that you can get here in the UK on cultbeauty.com—yay!) has to be the Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade. A favourite of many bloggers and celebs, this little pot of joy works wonders to help filling in my nonexistent eyebrows. It is so quick and easy to use, especially with the eyebrow brush they sell too. They also do a stick form of this cult product in the form of Brow Wiz, another favourite to the stars.

South Korea

Possibly more of an unknown beauty find would be the wonderful selection of BB creams that South Korea has to offer. A personal favourite of mine is the Skin 79 Super Plus Beblesh Balm, Triple Fuction (phew that’s a mouthful—but it’s the one in the pink bottle). This can be worn alone as a base, or under your usual foundation as an additional skincare step in order to minimise dark areas, create a clearer skin tone, and provide SPF30. There are a number of different variations of this product too, so if you prefer a higher SPF, or a more moisturising finish—they’ve got one for you. These are a little harder to get hold of than the other products that I’ve mentioned, but I usually find mine on eBay.

Australia and New Zealand

Finally, we finish up with the wonderful Rosehip Oil from Trilogy. It’s an all natural brand from Australia and New Zealand, and the products are extracted from rosehip seeds (ooh), a natural alternative to synthetic skincare ingredients. This miracle in a bottle can help improve skin tone, reduce the appearance of scars and stretch marks, and moisturise the skin, too. Good news, it’s also easy to get hold of and you can find it stocked in Boots, Debenhams and even Holland and Barratt.

So there we have it, 5 wonderful products from 5 wonderful countries.


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