5 Ways To Get Spring’s Glossy Skin Glow

Using a gentle daily peel, such as Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare’s Alpha Beta Ultra Gentle Daily Peel, will deliver consistent, gentle exfoliation – but it also pays to use a more intensive peel once a week to eliminate dry and dead skin, and create a smooth surface. La Prairie’s Cellular 3-Minute Peel is gentle but still packs a skin-brightening punch with its combination of heavyweight exfoliators, including plant-based AHAs and BHAs (namely, salicylic acid). As the name suggests, it gets to work swiftly, plus there’s no downtime, redness or flaking, and your skin looks beautifully fresh and glowing for days afterwards.

A foolproof way to achieve maximum glow from your highlighter and blush is to apply them in the shape of an arrow. First, use a liquid or balm highlighter to create the arrow’s tail from the highpoint of your cheekbone towards your temples, then use a blush in a similar texture to create the arrow’s head – making sure to point it towards the apples of your cheeks. Blend with either a sponge or dense foundation brush and, if you have too much product on your skin, buff it lightly over your eyelids, too, to tie everything together. It couldn’t be easier. Plus, overlapping your blush and highlight like this guarantees a soft, warm glow.

A daily facial massage is one of the easiest ways to plump your skin and maximize its inner glow. It helps to reduce puffiness, sculpts your complexion, and floods the outer layers of your skin with blood (note: some flushing is normal). Plus, if you carry tension in your jaw, it can help to eliminate that, too. Celebrity facialist Su-Man says that the best time to massage is during your cleanse, as “the cleanser helps your fingers or gua sha slide over your skin without dragging”. Use firm pressure, especially when you encounter areas of tension around your jaw. If you can spare five minutes more, use a toning device, too, such as the NuFace Mini+ Starter Kit, so you can simultaneously tighten, lift and tone.

You can’t shrink or eliminate pores, but you can make them less noticeable to ensure they don’t interfere with your glow. Start with a clay mask, such as Charlotte Tilbury’s Goddess Skin Clay Mask, to remove the oil and sebum lurking in your pores (Tilbury always uses this on her A-list clients before applying makeup). Perfect for oil-prone complexions, clay masks leave all skin types with a beautiful, velvet-like clarity – and you only need to apply the formula for 10 minutes to plump up skin, even tone and add luminosity. Then, follow with a cold or cryo treatment or tool, which will force pores to temporarily constrict and tighten, further reducing their appearance.

Achieving lasting clarity and glow requires commitment, and retinols tackle all the things that hinder radiance, such as uneven texture, hyperpigmentation and enlarged pores. The new generation of retinols deliver texture-refining, glow-giving results that are as close to a prescription tretinoin cream as you can get – and all without causing the infamous redness, flaking and soreness associated with prescription-only products. Plus, because the ingredients are less irritating, it’s easier to commit to using the product regularly.