The Best in Beauty Just Got Better

Whilst the beauty world is never short of a new launch, it seems that a handful of brands, despite having already created close-to-perfect skincare formulations and secured loyal long-standing customers, have turned their focus toward improving, upgrading and re-working their current cult products rather than starting from scratch in creating new ones (although they appear to be doing that too).

Clinique DDML+

This summer, 45 years after it was originally launched, and without a single update until now, a new version of the instantly-recognisable little yellow bottle that is Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion, aka DDML (all the best products take on an acronym), hits counters nationwide.

Quite simply, and aptly, named DDML+, the refreshed formula incorporates a blend of two skin hydrators and added ingredients to further strengthen the skin’s natural barrier. Ultra-moisturising agents Hyaluronic Acid and Glycerin work by drawing moisture to the skin improving hydration and suppleness, whilst a cocktail of sunflower seed cake, barley and cucumber extract combine to lock that added moisture onto the skin for longer. And all without disrupting DDML’s original feather-light liquid texture.

Meaning, somehow, your can’t-be-without cult-classic just got even better.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion+, £28 Clinique.co.uk

Lancome Advanced Genifique

And then there’s Lancôme who, despite having only launched the best-selling Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate serum a handful of years ago has, thanks to leaps and bounds in its genomic technologies, updated the formula for 2013. Now boasting added hi-tech anti-ageing boosters including a delivery system that enables the skin to absorb  wonder ingredient Vitamin C for over 24 hours, the silky-smooth brightening and plumping serum now works that little bit harder.

Lancôme Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Concentrate, £58 Selfridges.com

Skinceuticals Mineral Radiance UV Defense

The beauty ed’s daily (yes, even in the depths of winter) SPF of choice, Skinceuticals’ Sheer Mineral UV Defense SPF 50, has had a long-awaited colour update for 2013.  The new formulation has been infused with a skin-supplementing tint that offers all of the same high broad-spectrum UV protection and lightweight quick-absorbing texture as the original, but with an added super-sheer hint of tone-adaptive colour that gives skin a radiance boost. Skin-enhancing sun protection at its best.

Skinceuticals Mineral Radiance UV Defense SPF 50, £35 www.skinceuticals.com