Pakistan’s really stepping it up in terms of locally-produced skin and hair care products, as well as other grooming essentials. We tried them, and guarantee you won’t regret the investment!
We think we have the formula to always looking polished, even when you’re on the go: freshen up your facial skin, tame your brows, and have at least one sweet smelling item on you whenever you’re out. Gone are the days when investing in your looks involved spending a fortune on expensive, imported products, or waiting for relatives to visit Pakistan to get you the real thing at the original price.
Pakistani entrepreneurs edged into the beauty game with Luscious Cosmetics in the ‘00s, and though that paved the way for more cosmetic brands to enter the market, we still had to settle for either inferior local skincare products or resort to the expense of imported products.
The last couple of years have seen a minor sprouting of local, often organic skin and hair care ranges. We’ve seen CoNatural introduce their various gels, creams as well as essential oils, which smell amazing, BTW. Neco’s has a range of shampoos and washes, as do Mana’s Calm & Balm, Aura, etc.
What we love most though is brands getting into the science of skincare. We need cleansing, hydration, and skin barrier protection. Skin Deep is making huge strides in that direction with their new Super Naturals range, and we are excited to try the range and report back, but today we will just set you up with some of our favorite, handy products.
That fresh face
You know the face, right? When your skin just looks, for lack of better words, like someone’s behind. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just woken up from nine hours of sleep or spent nine hours behind a computer drawing up a crazy campaign for a tea brand. Your face looks like it looks on that day. Enter The Primary Jasmine Dew Mist. Now we must tell you that this mist, which contains the water-loving hyaluronic acid, green tea and aloe extracts, as well as pretty-scented jasmine, is a revelation. While its official description tells us it targets dehydrated and dry skin, it works just as wonderfully on oily or combination skin. A spritz of this before your serum and cream actually makes makeup application easier and the results a lot smoother. Even without the makeup, your skin kind of radiates a soft glow with the Jasmine Dew Mist. At Rs 990, this is your perfect daily companion and ideal for your nighttime skin ritual as well.
Luxe eyebrows
Once your skin is primed and prepped, turn your focus to your brows. One lesson we have learnt during Covid lockdowns and endless online meetings is that all you really need to look good is a pop of color on your lips, defined brows, healthy-looking skin, and some mascara, if you feel like it, otherwise feel free to totally skip that too.
Anyone with either very sparse or very lush brows will tell you that is their biggest beauty challenge. How do we make them look fuller? How do we make sure stringy flyaways aren’t wrecking an otherwise awesome look?
Please meet Luscious Brow Luxe Kit. Available in light, medium, and dark shades, this tiny pocket-sized palette holds lighter and darker brown brow powders, and brow pomade. The bottom slides out to reveal a small spoolie, tweezers, and a soft brush to apply powder.
Honestly, you could throw on some lip balm after this and be all set, but we should probably nudge you in the right direction there too…
Color-poppin’, smellin’ sweet
Okay, as your final implement, we would like to recommend a couple of things. Firstly, if you haven’t yet discovered tinted chapstick or lip balm, you must. The color payoff is subtle and you’ve got soft lips, plus some chapsticks, like Nivea’s smell really nice.
We recently also came across Nur by Juggun Kazim’s lip and cheek tint, available in 3 shades. The stain is buildable, and while we liked the way it looked better on our cheeks, and were okay with the lip tint too, the taste is a bit too candy-ish to wear every day.
Nur’s winning product seems to be the Vanilla Body Lotion, which smells great – like an upscale vanilla scent, no cheap ingredients, as it was described to us – and works quite well as a light hydrator too.
If you love yourself thick butters and lotions, this isn’t for you, but it is a good addition to the bathroom or kitchen counter, because a pump is all you need to keep those hands soft and hydrated after all the handwashing we seem to have dedicated the last couple of years to. The lotion reportedly is not oily looking, but brightens the skin without any ashiness. Retailing at Rs 1399 on the Nur by Juggun website, this lotion may be the answer to your dry skin issues.