Beauty ingredients - Wear the mask and eat it too

The fragrance is intoxicating and the texture smooth as silk. As you generously slather it on, your skin takes on a natural-looking tan, just like the warm caramel colour of the self-tanning cream.

What makes this skincare product from Clarins a delicious addition to your beauty kit is its use of cocoa bean extract, which soothes and prevents skin-ageing. Cocoa unsaponifiables penetrate deeper to help to moisturise and nourish the skin. When the entire beauty industry is competing against nature to make our skin and hair look gorgeous for a little while longer, new ingredients and fun combinations are being experimented with. So now, what's on your plate is literally on your face!

A cuppa in your cream

The refreshing cup of tea you sip in the morning has found its way to skincare products. While green tea is the most popular of the lot, white, black and chamomile tea extracts are blended with other active ingredients and fragrances for a nourishing skin cream.

Two brands that have added some healthy teas to their collection are L'Occitane and Elizabeth Arden. The former wins hearts with its Tea collection that blends Bergamot from Calabria and black tea leaves to bring out a refreshing range of body milk mist, hand cream and perfumes. Arden's Green Tea Honey Drops body cream has a fragrance to flip for. Green tea as an ingredient works well in unisex products.

Berry-licious

From tarts to packs, delicious berries are a popular ingredient, especially for anti-ageing formulas and radiance products. Rich in antioxidants and vitamins, they are used in masques, cleansers, peels and lotions. Some popular berries that find their way into the ingredient list include blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and acai berries to name a few. Acai berries, in fact, are a fairly recent hit and are said to be rich in flavonoids, amino and fatty acids that help fight inflammation and regenerate skin cells. Eminence Organics has quite a few products with the goodness of berries, blended with other organic ingredients.

Fruit punch

While orange, banana and apple have been used in different permutations and combinations by skincare brands, grape seed and pomegranate extracts are the most spotted ingredients in the new set of products. Pomegranate is filled with antioxidants and works well in stimulating the skin's collagen production and counters the ageing effect due to exposure to sun and pollution. The extract finds mention in anti-aging creams and anti-wrinkle potions.

Grape seed on the other hand is high in vitamin E, linoleic acids and flavonoids, and is a natural antioxidant and protects skin cells. Its extracts are also used in creams that help you look young and radiant.

The Body Shop uses both grape seed oil as well as pomegranate in its select range of products. Its Naturlift kit is a hit with pomegranate seed oil and includes day and night cream, toner and cleanser.

Getting exotic

Then of course is the thrill of dabbling with unusual, absolutely exclusive ingredients. Luxury skincare brands go out of the way to hunt for some rare plant or unknown mineral to stand apart from the rest.

Some exceptional ones are Dior's L'Or De Vie range of products based on the vines of Yquem, ‘an exceptional vineyard that has the gift of regenerating and improving itself year after year'.

L'Occitane has developed exclusive active ingredients from organic Red Rice from Camargue into a whole range of products. The range, which includes cleanser, toner, mask, exfoliating powder and face fluid, meets specific needs of combination and oily skin, mattifies and restores balance.

But taking exclusiveness to a whole new level is Kérastase with its hair care product developed with mimetic caviar concentrate. The Chronologiste collection is an innovative formula of pearls (immersed in sea-water to mimic the structure of caviar) and velvety cream.

This is one helluva beauty platter! Slurpp!