Love fancy pants packaging? New Filorga Lift-Designer Ultra-Lifting serum (R1 095, selected Edgars and Red Square stores), which aims to help lift and firm, comes in a tube attached to a metal roller ball. It’s easy to use, you just press the little button on its side and the serum squeezes out onto the roller which feels nice and cool on your skin.

I like to use the roller on my eyes in a bid to massage out puffiness but whether that has an effect or not I don’t know. I don’t have the patience to massage anywhere else though. While trialing it I’d just squeeze out the serum and rub it into my face using my hands. It’s got a nice gel-cream texture that absorbs fast and doesn’t leave me feeling oily. But what’s in the mix?

Being Filorga, it contains ten million different actives in teeny tiny amounts. Never a bad thing, but I do think you’re better off with a large amount of a few things as opposed to lots of little, but it does contain a few useful goodies listed before ‘fragrance’ in the ingredients list.  One is turmeric extract which is a wonderful, underrated antioxidant with great anti-inflammatory properties. It’s also got loads of glycerin in it to hydrate as well as a little soluble collagen and hyaluronic acid to help plump.

So, what’s doing the heavy lifting when it comes to, well, the lifting? Pullulan! For those who don’t know, pullulan is a film-forming agent that, when it dries on your skin, forms a breathable invisible ‘mesh’ that tightens as it dries to create a temporary subtle lifting effect. It also instantly improves your skin’s texture, kind of like a primer.

Because of this, I kind of consider Ultra-Lifting serum as more of a rival to Clarins Beauty Flash Balm (which does the same thing using rice starch), albeit with more anti-ageing ingredients which makes it better bang for your buck, assuming you can afford it. I like to use it after my moisturizer on days when I’m feeling bleh to give my face an instant pep talk.

Moving on, let’s chat about Jhirmack Silver Brightening Ageless shampoo and conditioner (R149,95 each, Clicks). You’ll find they’re new to Clicks but have been going strong in the states for years. (The brand’s founder, Jheri Redding, helped formulate Redken and Nexxus.)

The sham and con was created for all shades of silver or grey hair to keep it ‘sexy silver’ as opposed to dull, yellowed or, God forbid, orange. Still, there’s nothing stopping blondes like me from benefiting from its violent tint that immediately blitzes any brassiness. It came in useful the other day when I went to my hair dresser in a crazy rush and didn’t sit under the heat lamp long enough, meaning the one colour in the highlights I had touched up didn’t fully lift. This left it a bit more strawberry as opposed to light blonde which wasn’t a biggie, it’s happened before and it fades out after a week. Thanks to Jhirmack, however, I could zap it with one wash.

I really liked that the shampoo is a high foamer but not strippy so it left my hair feeling bouncy and clean. The conditioner is nice and light, but has lots of slip, so my hair was easy to brush while wet and had weightless ‘swish’ while dry. It kind of made me wish they did a non-violet version because if I use too much of it consecutively my hair gets too ashy and I prefer a sunnier shade. As far as the leave-in conditioner goes, this is something I can use every day. I don’t notice any colour deposit and it does a nice job of detangling.

Lastly, Bioderma’s added a newbie to their collection for oily-combo and acne-prone skin – Sebium Sensitive soothing anti-blemish care (R236,95, Dis-Chem). Now, this sounds weird, but Bioderma’s Sebium collection was specially formulated to help improve the quality of your skin’s oil. I went to a launch once where they showed me a video in which two beakers of oil were continually stirred. One had antioxidants added to it regularly and this kept the oil ‘liquid’ while the other, which didn’t get antioxidants, soon became gunky and thick. This is why antioxidants, aside from being brilliant free-radical fighters, are imperative for oily skin as they stop your sebum from (as gross as this sounds) ‘thickening up’ and plugging up your pores.

This is why you’ll find Sebium Sensitive contains antioxidants in spades, particularly those that have an anti-inflammatory effect to help control redness and irritation. Just a few include zinc gluconate, licorice extract, ginko biloba and kelp, which is also hydrating.

Another interesting anti-inflammatory antioxidant is bakuchiol. A natural chemical compound found in plants (cannabis is one of them), it’s been referred to as the ‘natural alternative to retinol’ (although more studies are required) due to its ability to help stimulate collagen without the irritating side effects. It’s been used in Sebium Sensitive, however, for its great soothing ability as well as it’s antibacterial properties.

I’ve used Sebium Sensitive for a few days now and like it’s light, gel-cream texture. It dries to an ever so slightly powdery finish thanks to mattifying powders. Often, powder-finish moisturisers are too drying and make it tricky to apply make-up afterwards, but Bioderma gets the balance just right.

See anything you’d like to try yourself?

Love, love

Leigh