DORÉ

Alexia Inge is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of a little known beauty mecca you might have heard of called Cult Beauty :) Trust us, she knows everything and then some about beauty, so you’re going to want to study this Beauty Minute. Enjoy!

What is your morning beauty routine?

Like many, I embraced a much more ritualistic regimen while working from home, the benefits of which are hard to relinquish as life’s volume control cranks up again.

My first morning ritual is to massage with a cleansing oil and Gua Sha, the Votary Rose Geranium & Apricot cleansing oil is spectacular. I follow with a [hot cloth] steam with a Resore Wash Cloth (woven with Silverbac and Lyocell, making it deeply unattractive to bacteria) which plumps out the pillow creases and opens my pores ready to absorb some hard-working skincare.

The Vit C flood gates are opened by BeautyStat’s Universal C Skin Refiner; it’s like that spikey friend who tells you home truths and makes you improve as a person – a bit gritty, a bit prickly, but boy does this upgrade my skin. I make sure to support with the pincer strategy of a liposomal vit C supplement (love Altrient C). Then I cap off my skincare with the multi-hyphenate Allies of Skin – the founder Nicolas is a skincare savant, and this mid-priced potion punches way above its pay-grade.

I mix in a couple of drops of the Tan-Luxe The Face Self-Tan Drops every day to take my complexion to ‘pale’ to inhibit people enquiring after my health. Top Tip: if you have pale skin, go for darker faux tan formulas and use a tiny amount mixed with moisturizer, it produces a much less orange outcome.

A bout of COVID made around 30% of my hair fall out. This also happened to many Cult Beauty customers over the last two years, so I was as ready for it as one ever can be looking at fistfuls of hair in the shower drain.

Project ‘Rapunzel’ is in full swing, using Virtue’s Flourish range, ‘wing-manned’ by The Nue Co’s Growth Phase Hair Supplements. Two months into using these, I’ve started to see baby hairs that make me look like an electrocuted Pomeranian, but it bodes well for summer :)

My body and spirit armor is provided by Therapie Cherish Body Serum, it not only stopped me getting stretch marks as a 42 year old Mum, it makes me feel mentally stronger once I’ve applied it in the morning.

What products do you use throughout the day and why?

My arid skin is further desiccated through the day with continuous screen time, so I always have a ferment facial mist on my desk to keep my skin glowing through the day. The Byoma one is juicylicious. Plus, I love being surrounded by colorful products on my desk (minimalist aesthetics are so 2019).

‘Nature’ has become the panacea for modern life. Growing social anxiety and two years of restrictions have earned ‘the great outdoors’ an almost feverish level of fetishization among urbanites in London, like myself. When I can’t get outside, I wear a fragrance called ‘Forest Lungs’ by The Nue Co, which bottles both the essence and chemical benefits of forest bathing to de-fog, de-frazzle and re-zing.

What is your evening beauty routine?

I’m a bath-fiend, so my evening routine is all foreplay to that steamy crescendo, ha ha. Makeup is ‘de-robed’ by Then I Met You’s Living Cleansing Balm, my dawdling cell turnover galvanized with Kora Organics Turmeric Exfoliating Mask and then a looong soak with Therapie’s Himalayan Detox Salts (if you need help sleeping, these salts a sure thing).

I like to multi-task while I marinade, adorned with a multi-hyphenate face mask. Farmacy’s Honey Potion Plus Ceramide Hydration Mask is insanely good for my dry, dull, ‘experienced’ skin.

I’ve found that, post 40, stronger AHAs like glycolic have the reversed effect from what’s promised, I get spots. I’ve become a real fan of lactic acid and am loving Shani Darden’s Lactic Acid Exfoliating Serum at night because it doesn’t stick my face to the pillow and it leaves me looking really peachy perky in the morning.

My nightcap is Apothem’s lights out Drops.

What is your definition of beauty?

Beauty resonates in your heart, delights your soul and elevates your mood.

When do you feel most beautiful?

With the wind in my hair, the sun on my back, my hubbie by my side, a cold beer in hand and a killer soundtrack in my ears.