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.