As a beauty editor I'm often asked, “Are expensive beauty products really better?”. At one time, my honest answer would have been “yes”. But not anymore. Case in point: Habi, the new skincare brand by Boots that launches today.
Accessible skincare has been booming since the Pandemic. The Ordinary and Glossier famously both made it into the top ten most searched-for skincare brands in 2020; while Boots continues to be an incubator for innovative skincare, boasting impressive, patent-led technologies.
And that trend is only gaining steam. Habi is the new kid on the purse-friendly block and it's betting on consumer demand for efficacy at a good price, as well as TikTok's obsession with colourful, playful packaging.
Ahead: My full Habi skincare review
Habi is a new 360 degree skincare and wellness brand. The supplements – featuring sea moss, biotin and magnesium to name but a few – have already launched, each with a £10 price point. Now it's the turn of the eight-piece skincare line, where the cheapest product rings in at £4 and nothing costs over £7.50.
I've spent the last few weeks trialing the new Habi skincare line and these are my honest thoughts on the products I tried…
First impression: I really like that Habi has two different cleansers in its offering as oily skin has very different needs to dry skin. My skin is prone to an oily T-Zone, especially in summer, so I've been using the Clean Slate in the morning, which is laced with antioxidant green tea leaf water and hydrating allantoin.
Then at night, I applied both the cleaning balm and jelly cleanser in quick succession for a more intensive double cleanse. The Moisture Melt, which is powered by shea butter and jojoba oil, lives up to its name and easily melts away makeup and SPF (F.Y.I, oil attracts oil and most SPFs are oil-based). The second cleanse with Clean Slate removed any remaining residue without leaving my skin feeling tight or uncomfortable.
I'd happily keep both in my skincare routine going forward as they do exactly what they say on the tin – plus, I don't believe that you need to spend a lot on a cleanser as it's only on your skin for a matter of minutes.
This was by far my favourite Habi product. Don't be fooled by its lightweight, watery texture – this serum still packs a powerful hydrating punch thanks to the inclusion of hyaluronic acid while niacinamide, a brilliant multitasker, helps to calm, brighten, curb oil production and keep the skin barrier strong.
My skin immediately looked dewy, it felt hydrated but not greasy and it primed my face for the rest of my skincare routine.
For me, Hydra Glow is the perfect example of how a brand can effectively focus its energy on solid ingredient-led formulas at a good price point while paring back on other frills such as fragrance.
This was another product that I genuinely looked forward to applying every day. It has a Goldilocks rightness about it: it's creamy but it's not heavy and won't suffocate your pores. The Hydra Boost also contains two key ingredients that I always look for in a moisturiser: ceramides and squalane.
I still can't get over the £7 price tag – if I was blind-folded, and had this cream massaged into my skin, I would assume this was a luxury product.
As well as a high SPF, the formula also includes antioxidant vitamin E for added protection. A drier skin type will gratefully drink up the hydrating ingredients in Sunny Shield whereas for someone like me with oilier skin, I found that I could easily skip moisturiser and just layer the SPF over the Hydra Glow serum.
The formula blends right into your skin without too much rubbing and there's no white cast – just a really gorgeous sheen that moonlights as a glow-y base for your makeup.
If I'm honest, this was my least favourite product of the bunch. Yes, it was refreshing, especially after I kept it in the fridge. The ingredient line up is also strong with soothing centella asiatica, glycerin and three different ceramides to lock the hydration in.
It makes sense that this face mist would be fragrance-free so that even someone with sensitive skin can benefit from it. But there was just something about the natural scent of the ingredients in the blend that didn't make me want to reapply it.
The other two products in the line that I didn't try were the Habi Moisture Magic Water Moisturiser, a lightweight alternative to the Cream Moisturiser if you have acne-prone skin, and the Zit Zapper Spot Stickers to help shrink those annoying chin-hugging spots.
My final verdict
With its on-trend pastel packaging and graphic font, Habi (which is a play on the word ‘happy’) lends a bit of fun to the often stuffy, clinical business of skincare. And I'm a big believer that any beauty product should be a spark of joy in your daily routine. But don't be fooled – it takes its ingredients roster seriously.
Habi hasn't launched with dramatic claims about erasing wrinkles or being a facelift in a bottle. Nor is it laced with punchy actives like retinol that you need to use with caution. Instead, it's about delivering trending, science-backed ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, ceramides and niacinamide in fuss-free formulas for anyone who wants a simple-yet-effective way to care for their skin.
In that respect it joins the likes of Byoma and Hailey Bieber's Rhode in making a healthy skin barrier its main objective.
Everything about Habi is also great for tweens and teens who are starting their skincare journey – from its colourful aesthetic to ingredients that aren't too harsh for younger skin. Who's it not for? I'd say someone over 30 with more complex skin needs, or those who want to radically change their skin.
Ultimately, my goal as a beauty editor is to steer people towards products that not only work, but also enable them to develop good skincare habits over time. A purse-friendly price point obviously helps with that, but consistency is also key – and you'll only ever want to reapply a skincare product if you like the texture and can see visible results.
I can vouch for the fact that Habi ticks both of these boxes. I particularly love the silky-smooth texture of the Hydra Glow Hydrating Serum. The way it plumped up my skin after blasts of air-con had sapped it of moisture was a little like inflating a limp balloon.
Bonus points also go to Habi for being Leaping Bunny approved (meaning it's been awarded cruelty free status) and the way it has demystified what parts of the packaging can be recycled. The Sunny Shield tube, for example, has clear instructions to recycle the tube and cap but to remove the pump and discard it in the bin.
Easy to use, effective and enjoyable? What's not to love?
Save when you shop Habi skincare with these Boots discount codes at checkout. For more from Fiona Embleton, GLAMOUR's Associate Beauty Director, follow her on @fiembleton.
