Hannah Betts’s Better… not younger: Good news! You can fake a natural look this summer

• Hannah Betts explains that it is possible to use more natural lip products 
• She says that there are certain nail products which create no-manicure manicures
• Bourjois Twist-Up Mascara is this week’s cosmetic craving 

Or we long to pare everything back to some sort of bare-faced, if artfully augmented, guise.

This summer, the natural mode appears to be winning out, with faux-bare beauty at the forefront, especially when it comes to lip and nail trends.

As ever with the ‘natural look’, this is nothing of the sort. However, it is pleasingly spring chickenish. My postman put my age at 32 this morning, and I may yet marry him.

We older birds often tell ourselves that we ‘need’ lipstick given that colour drains from our features with age; and it does provide an easy way of looking pulled together.

However, texture, as much as tint, can lend focus and create the optical illusion of enlarging a time-withered pout. It can also be a lot kinder when you and your complexion are looking and feeling exhausted.

Hannah Betts says that this summer, the natural look appears to be winning out, with faux-bare beauty at the forefront, particularly with lip and nail trends (stock image)

The hashtag gymlips has been trending on TikTok after make-up artist Kelli Anne Sewell showcased the no-lip lip she dons when exercising or doing chores; namely, mouth overlined with a natural-looking liner, plus a treatment or shine on top.

‘It looks like you’re wearing no make-up, but you just have plump, juicy lips,’ says our glossy trendsetter.

And she’s not alone. The British Beauty Council last week confirmed that consumers are switching from lipsticks to more hydrating and plumping alternatives such as lip gloss, which saw a 20 per cent increase in sales in April 2022 compared with three years ago.

If you haven’t considered shine since your Lancôme Juicy Tubes addiction back in the Noughties, now is very much the time.

Every beauty company worth its salt has some state-of-the-art new lip treatment. U Beauty’s The Plasma Lip Compound (£60, theubeauty.co.uk) caused a stir among high-maintenance types when it launched this spring, promising to visibly plump and re-shape the mouth in just four weeks, remodelling without any injections via the formation of new fat cells. Fans claim to see increased volume by morning when wearing it overnight.

My favourite nourishing shine is organic specialist Ipsum’s award-winning Lip Oil Balm (£19, ipsumskinuk.com), launching today in tube form, and rich in macadamia and pomegranate seed oil. I also have a penchant for Rihanna’s altogether more OTT Fenty Cherry Treat Conditioning Lip Oil (£15.20, boots.com) with its pinky tinge and uber-glossy formula, applied in generous swipes by a cunning doe-foot applicator.

Hannah Betts, pictured, said that google searches for ‘light pink nails’ and ‘natural nail ideas’ are also up 300 per cent 

And I recently snapped up a positively glassy Technidaze Jelly Lip Oil in Cherry (£5, beautybay.com) because too much is never enough for this disco dolly.

Nail-wise, Google searches for ‘light pink nails’ and ‘natural nail ideas’ are up 300 per cent. The trend may be for extreme minimalism, or the ‘nonicure’, as it’s being called, however this doesn’t mean no work. Heaven forfend.

Nail guru Lynn Mason counsels that moisture is crucial, with nightly oil massage of nail beds key. Her choice is Mavala’s Cuticle Oil (£14.35, lookfantastic.com); mine is whatever I can find in pen-with-a-brush form, meaning I actually use it. Otherwise, just apply leftover skincare.

Then, you need a base coat, followed by a single layer of Mavala’s Riga (£5.50), a sugary pink ‘just sheer enough for the whites of your tips to show through,’ or its Natural (£5.50), an off-clear, finished with CND Super Shiney Top Coat (£5.50, amazon.co.uk).

Dior has its best-selling sheer Nail Glow for insouciant, French-girl chic (£21, dior.com).

While Nails Inc’s hard-wearing Glow Naturale Glowing Nail Polish Duo (£12, feelunique.com) is also designed to (forgive me) nail that no-manicure manicure gleam, being a sheer plus a pearlescent pink that you can play about with to create a bespoke super-natural shimmer.

Then it’s lashings of hand cream and it’s Thunderbirds are go on minimal magic.

RACE YOU TO IT 

Emma Lewisham Skin Reset Eye Crème (£70, at emma lewisham.co.uk), had a global waiting list of more than 5,000 when it was being developed and is now the cult New Zealand brand’s best-selling product. With over 18 scientifically proven natural ingredients, it stimulates collagen production. 

emmalewisham.co.uk 

 MY ICON OF THE WEEK

 DIANA ROSS 

The singer, 78, has said: ‘My ‘quick make-ups’ are jumbo eye pencils — really black, black pencils — and mascara.’ She wears her own scent, Diamond Diana (£38, amazon.co.uk), a blend of musk, orange blossom, jasmine and black rose, laced with crisp greens. 

FIVE FRUITY BEAUTIES 

Garnier’s first body launch for seven years leaves skin feeling lusciously hydrated for up to 48 hours. 

boots.com 

Removes even long-wear slap, dirt, oil and pollution with a non-drying cherry and coconut lather. 

boots.com 

A gentle exfoliator made with luffa cylindrica fruit and apricot seed powder

kiehls.co.uk 

Enriched with organic Ecuadorian banana.

thebodyshop.com 

Sophia Grojsman’s fruit-filled classic is the aroma of a summer lived joyously.

allbeauty.com 

 COSMETIC CRAVING

Brace yourself — Bourjois is back in Blighty, online from today at Superdrug and being rolled out in stores across the summer.

When it left the British High Street back in 2019, many of us were heartbroken and continued to buy it online. (Regular readers will know about my addiction to its brilliant eye palette Le Smoky, £5.20, amazon.co.uk). Well, now you can snap up its much-loved Little Round Pot Blushers (£8.99) and Healthy Mix Foundation (£11.99) without a trip to gay Paris.

All new to the UK is its Twist Up Mascara (£11.99, superdrug.com), France’s best-selling lash love — one being sold every 1.7 seconds — which combines the extremes of a lengthening mascara with the oomph of a volumising version.

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