Why This Make-Up Artist Wants You To Put Fewer Products On Your Face

BETINA DU TOIT

With Mintel reporting that 28 per cent of women have reduced the number of products in their skincare routine, it would appear that a sizeable number of us have grown tired of being told we need yet another step in our regime.

For many, gone are the days of the double cleanse, followed by the water, followed by the essence, followed by the three serums, and followed finally by the cream. If you count yourself among us, the new skincare brand A.D.C. Beauty should be on your radar.

Its founder, the make-up artist Adam de Cruz, also subscribes to a more minimalist approach to beauty. Having tended to the faces of supermodels and actresses for fashion weeks and editorial shoots across the globe, he knows a thing or two about what skin really needs to look good – as well as everything it doesn’t.

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“I completely disagree with having seven steps to clean your face,” de Cruz tells Bazaar. “Ultimately, your skin can’t handle it. I started A.D.C. Beauty because I wanted to strip skincare back and create something completely results-driven.”

The brand currently consists of only one cream (de Cruz hopes to launch a cleanser in the coming months). “I was never really sold on primers because I always thought that prepping the skin for make-up was the job of a moisturiser, too,” says de Cruz. “I wanted something beneficial to the skin but that would also be helpful with the application of make-up.”

COURTESY OF BRAND

The High Performance Moisturiser contains mangosteen fruit extract, which helps to reduce redness and puffiness (and is a fruit commonly eaten in de Cruz’s native Malaysia), and gotu kola leaf extract, an effective anti-inflammatory often used in Ayurvedic medicines. Its bouncy texture comes from perilla seed extract, which also helps leave the skin feeling ready for make-up.

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As with most brands launched these days, A.D.C. Beauty is setting out to be a sustainable as it can be. The brand worked with the paper company GF Smith on its packaging, which is made of recycled coffee cups, and de Cruz hopes to be able to offer a refill service in future.

“What’s exciting about this process is that they will evolve the materials they use,” says de Cruz. “If we somehow solve the coffee cup crisis, they’ll move onto another kind of packaging which is being wasted and not being extracted properly for re-use.”

As for the cream itself, it feels surprisingly rich on first touch but sinks in within a minute (de Cruz says that this is the ideal time to apply foundation, as this will help it to look more like your own skin). Skin felt soft and nourished but with no greasy feeling. And to anyone worried about ditching their primer and going (relatively) bare-faced, de Cruz says this: “Stop doing what you’re doing, cut back, give it a minimum of three days, and you will see a difference.”

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A.D.C. Beauty launches exclusively at Harvey Nichols and online at adcbeauty.com on 9th September.

From: Harper’s BAZAAR UK