New Year's beauty resolutions: From trying a strong lip to learning to love yourself

1 January 2019, 00:01 | Updated: 16 January 2019, 15:23

Heart's Beauty Editor Nicola Bonn shares her beauty resolutions for 2019 - how many of these will you be trying?

There's no denying 2018 was quite an intense year in the world of beauty.

As customers, many of us have become obsessed with (and sometimes a bit confused by) specific ingredients and what they can do for our skin.

From Retinol to Vitamin C to DMAE to Lactic Acid, we've been exploring a whole variety of exciting products and piling them on our faces with enthusiasm.

This culture of fast-buying and stock piling endless products is fun and exciting but it leads me to my first beauty resolution for 2019.

I think we all need to slow down a tiny bit and think about what our skin really needs. Rather than spending loads on products that we like the look of but that may not suit our own skin type, I think that 2019 will be the year of really working out our own skin's needs and buying the products that will really help with our concerns. 

This leads me to beauty resolution number 2. The high street is brimming with amazing beauty experts who can help us choose the right products for our skin. From Space NK to Selfridges, to John Lewis, there are incredible people on hand to advise us.

Anyone at Dermalogica for example is highly trained and knows exactly how to analyse our skin. Let's make 2019 the year of buying beauty from the high street, meeting with the experts and finding the products that will really work for us.

My third resolution is to love the skin I'm in. 2018 saw people flocking to Instagram to show us who they really are. From Toff showing her acne to Bryony Gordon wearing a bikini and showing us her body, women are finally realising that there is no such thing as perfection and that we are beautiful just as we are.

So I don't know about you, but in 2019 I'm going to work on being comfortable being me, warts and all. 

Leading from this is resolution 4. Have fun with makeup and try a bright lip!

I truly believe that makeup is there to make us feel good and it can be great fun, a real confidence boost and actually quite therapeutic to get creative with bright colours.

I won't be shying away from red lipsticks in 2019 and might try a few bright oranges for good measure. 

I also predict that the trend for patterned nails is going to explode even more in 2019. If you like a manicure make 2019 the year that you try something new. I'm talking French manicures in red and pink, the names of your kids written on your nails in gold, geometric patterns... anything goes but the more intricate the better.

Being a beauty editor, I have to throw in a few resolutions that will get you on Santa's good list next year. Firstly, the more research I do and the more "in the know" people I speak to, the more I realise how important a product with good UVB and UVA protection is.

The B in UVB stands for burning and the A in UVA stands for Ageing.

UVA is also the one that causes skin cancer so it's really important to protect the skin from it. I will be wearing a sun screen every day and swear by IT Cosmetics CC cream as a good all rounder. It not only gives the protection you need but is a beautiful alternative to foundation.

The next resolution is to improve my beauty hygiene habits. I'm talking washing my makeup brushes regularly, washing my hands before poking them into an expensive pot of moisturiser and also throwing out makeup when it's past its best.

Mascaras are the ones to look out for here...they go off after 6 months (they start to smell funny).

Finally, let 2019 be the year that we make a little bit of time for ourselves. It's incredible how the odd manicure, long bath or massage can make you feel.

As women so many of us feel guilty for spending time and money on ourselves, but I am definitely of the school of thought that the odd bit of pampering and self love can lead to improved wellbeing and happiness.

Follow Nicola on Instagram @OutspokenBeautyPodcast