Hormones. Dontcha love ‘em? Well, as humans we wouldn’t function without them – but we do rather wish they didn’t cause skin flare-ups, for some of us, with quite such a vengeance.

Whether you’re pregnant, post-natal or going through menopause, hormones can put skin into imbalance, often becoming super-sensitised. Of course, other things can trigger mega-sensitivity, too: Jo recently broke out in nasty hives, some combination of perfume, hot weather and trying out a new make-up setting spray. This innovation from our holistic therapist friend Annee de Mamiel very much calmed her face and neck down.

Concocted ‘to restore calm to hormonally unbalanced skin,’ if used regularly, it promises to restore calm and reduce inflammation and irritation. How so? It’s a gentle botanical powerhouse of a blend, with antioxidant botanicals, along with PhytoSqualane to restore skin’s lipid barrier (along with a probiotic peptide which also helps to reinforce skin’s barrier function), soothing calendula, borage and oat (to tackle redness and reactivity), and calming alpha-bisabolol.

Better still, while de-stressing skin, this facial oil brightens it up, too; the formula also contains collagen-boosting seabuckthorn oil, among other ingredients.

Pricy, yes – but a little goes a super-long way. And we’re pleased to have this in the arsenal, for future skin S.O.S.es.

PS If you’ve more tolerant skin – and ours is, normally – you’ll want to know that Annee has released her seasonal facial oil blend, offering a nourishing mix of argan, rosehip, prickly pear, white poppy and elderberry seed oils (among other base oils), together with geranium, jasmine, royal Hawaiian sandalwood, grapefruit, mandarin and patchouli, essential oils chosen to ‘ease us into shorter days, longer nights.’

de Mamiel Phyto-P Elixir/£85 for 20ml – buy here

de Mamiel Autumn Oil/£90 for 20ml – buy here

Prize Draws