She’s taken the spotlight over at The Great British Bake Off, but Nigella Lawson already knows a thing or two about basking herself in – her words – ‘the most alluring gleam’. We’ve done some digging into the presenter’s delicious beauty favourites, and discovered she’s found the dream recipe for instantly glowy skin at 66.
It transpires that Nigella is extremely partial to Iconic’s Prep Set Glow, a much-loved setting spray, which adds an immediate lustre while fixing makeup in place. Describing it as an ‘unexpected treasure’, she explains that it’s a product that’s taken her by surprise.
‘I’ve never gone in for setting sprays before,’ she told The Sunday Times, admitting that she was initially put off by the appearance in the bottle before being proved spectacularly wrong. ‘I rather thought the lustre of this particular one made it a young person’s product, but my poor old skin comes alive with this radiant finish.’
She warns that Prep Set Glow does look ‘alarmingly wet’ when first spritzed on to skin, but pleads patience. A quick mist ‘shortly subsides to a most alluring non-glittery gleam’, she reassures.
So, what do you need to know about Nigella’s speedy skin hack? Well, it’s an Iconic bestseller than can be used either before makeup for a bare-skin boost or to add an extra lustre plus longevity to your makeup. It also includes caffeine from green tea to combat puffiness, plus calming extracts of cucumber and chamomile. And it’s £26 for the full size or you can get a mini version for £14.
Our verdict on Iconic Prep, Set, Glow
Beauty director Lynne says: ‘I’ve used this in the past, but when I heard Nigella had been singing its praises, I did a speedy restock. One spritz refreshed my memory immediately, along with my complexion. What looks like a champagne-coloured glitter bomb in the bottle dispenses with a soap-bubble prettiness, bursting softly on to the skin.’
As Nigella herself says, it does go on visibly wet and, because I sprayed it about 30 seconds before an online conference, I kept the camera off to spare colleagues my surprise semi-drenched look.
However, within a minute or so, it had dried down nicely so I was able to switch my camera back on, showing off my skin while also proving I wasn’t, actually, still in my PJs. ‘Oh yes, it does look good’ my workmates chirruped as I leaned in for a close-up.
ICONIC LONDON Prep-Set-Glow in Glow
In real life, there’s just enough of a lustre to make my skin (definitely poor, and I’ll go with ‘old-ish’ at 51) look healthier. For journalistic purposes, I also treated myself to the richer-toned Glow version, which also works nicely on my fair skin; a little pick-me-up without resembling C3P0. And yes, both versions do keep makeup fresher for longer.
It is, as Nigella would say, sumptuous.
