Over the next few weeks, we thought we’d share the products (and in some cases, health-boosters) which Beauty Bible is relying on to get us through this weird time. We can’t have facials. We can’t even get our hair cut or coloured. And (in between baking banana bread) we all want to do what we can to improve our wellbeing. So for the first in the series, I get to share what’s helping me get through this – day by day, Zoom call by Zoom call…

Corniche Stripe Rainbow Cards (pictured top)

I wrote a whole editorial for Victoria Health about how important writing cards and letters to friends, loved ones and people I admire is to me, right now (read it here). It is literally helping to keep me sane to spend time each morning in bed just writing to people to tell them what I feel about them. It’s that ‘life’s too short to pussy-foot around’ feeling, with the current health crisis putting everything into sharp focus. So as well as powering through my exit-through-gift-shop life-long stash of postcards, I’ve been buying some lovely cards and sending them off – and with a weakness for Cornishware striped pottery, Corniche’s cards really pushed my buttons with these wonderful messages and bright designs. 

£10 for five – buy here

Chanel Rouge Allure Lip Ink

We’ve featured Rouge Allure Lip Ink in the past, but for me this has really come into its own in the past few weeks. I’m spending a LOT of time doing Instagram Lives and on Zoom calls, and the two things to get right make-up wise on-screen, as far as I’m concerned, is having groomed-looking brows – facial ‘architecture’ – and a strong lip colour, so that I don’t look washed out. I apply a teensy touch of lip balm under this – fave colour deep cherry 152 Choquant – then dot it onto lips and ‘press’ it, to spread the colour around a bit. On screen, it’s a shade that looks like bitten lips – but the colour lasts brilliantly for the entire (often lengthy) call or broadcast.

£31.00 – buy here

Your Zooki Vitamin C Zooki Liposomal Vitamin C

Obviously I am doing everything I can to try to stay in optimum health. If there is one upside of all of this focus on health, it is that people understand that we do all have a responsibility to stay fit and healthy – and that nobody else can really do that for us. It isn’t just that I don’t want to get this virus; I don’t want to get a dozen other (mostly age-related) diseases, either.

I take pretty good care of myself generally: 10,000 steps a day (at the moment I am out before 6 a.m. to escape the kamikaze cyclists on Hastings seafront), eat mostly vegetables and grains, meditate, rattle with vitamins (and am happy to do so). But I thought I’d ask my health ‘guru’, Victoria Health’s pharmacist Shabir Daya, if there was anything extra I should be taking right now for wellbeing, and he recommended Your Zooki Vitamin C Zooki Liposomal Vitamin C. There is some fascinating research coming out about the role vitamin C can play in virus treatment, and the point about this is that it encapsulates the vitamin C so that it is more readily absorbed by the body. As well as being immune-boosting, it’s good for iron absorption, collagen formation… A pretty impressive list (you can see the full run-down via the link below). I mix the liquid into fizzy water and drink it to wash down my other vitamins – and I’m certainly feeling pretty good. Especially all things considered!!!!

£39.99 for 30 sachets – buy here

Fiona Cairns Rose Gourmand Hand Wash, Hand & Body Lotion and Hand Cream 

I have turned SO many people onto this amazingly fragrant collection from Fiona Cairns. About a year ago the cake baker extraordinaire launched her bodycare collection into Waitrose and I’ve been hooked ever since. Obviously at the moment we are getting through ENORMOUS amounts of hand wash and hand cream, but it’s never a chore, with this; the scent is the most wonderful powdery rose scent, with just a whisper of sweetness. I almost exclaim out loud with the pleasure of using these, every single time. The Hand & Body Lotion is by our taps, while the Hand Cream – in its soft-touch dusty pink tube – sits right by my computer. Just heaven.

Hand Wash/£6 for 250ml – buy here

Hand & Body Lotion/£6 for 250ml – buy here

Hand Cream/£6.50 for 75ml

 Dyson Airwrap Styler Volume+Shape

OK, so this is an arm and three legs – but I did take advantage of a 0% interest payment plan, to spread out the pain of buying the Dyson Airwrap. Because I have a confession to make: I haven’t blow-dried my own hair in years. Or even washed it myself. I realise that sounds impossibly grand, but I have incredibly wayward hair that any hairdresser agrees would require at least three arms to style well, yet when I have a pro blow-dry (at Nicola Clarke at John Frieda), I can expect fabulous hair for at least a week that requires nothing more than a brush through it, easy morning.

I fell for an Instagram ad for this – and well, I’m chuffed to bits. It’s incredibly easy to use; if I want, I can literally brush through my hair and dry it. There’s no damaging high heat, and initially I use the pre-styling drier to get out most of the moisture, leaving it just damp. It then deploys a super-clever technology which ‘attracts’ the hair to the barrel (but without tangling), when you use the styling attachments. (It comes with two barrels, one for each side. Trust me, you’ll get used to it!) I honestly doubt when London reopens that I’ll be going up so often (so: fewer pro blow-dries) – and the ‘cost-per-style’ of this pricy baby is going to plummet, fast.

£399.99 ­– buy here

Prize Draws