Beauty news: is festival beauty a contradiction in terms?

Rounding up the beauty news so you don't have to
Radio 1's Hackney Weekend - London
'Woohoo! Wait, I think I dropped my lipbalm' Radio 1's Hackney Weekend at Hackney Marshes, London. Photograph: Ian West/PA

Not another festival beauty feature…

Front page pictures of pretty girls sitting on shoulders above a sea of arms can mean only one thing – the UK festival season has officially started. And, like every year, it brings with it umpteen features on 'festival beauty'. Hmmm. I've often struggled to get my head round this. I'm a regular festival-goer, it being the only time of the year when I embrace camping, crowds and cider. And it's also a time when I spend little thought on my beauty regime because I'm busy having fun. To me, if you're perfectly groomed at a festival then you've got the wrong attitude. Festival life is a bubble where normal rules don't apply, so I can't help but flick through these festival beauty features with a feeling of bewilderment. Who has time to bother with cordless hair straighteners or self-tan body wipes (both 'essentials' according to LOOK magazine)? Or why bother, Marie Claire, with lip balm in a tin when you can't wash your hands properly for days? There's plenty of good advice too but it's generally all the same common-sense tips every year – facial wipes, dry shampoo, sun cream, lip balm (in a bullet) and paint your nails before you go. Simple stuff really. I'd also stretch to some BB cream or tinted moisturiser (with SPF), waterproof mascara and maybe even a multitasking lip and cheek tint. But night cream? Eye cream? I'd rather save the space for an extra tin of cider.

Chunky crayons for your lips

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Photograph: Richard Pierce

Seeing that we're on the subject of festival beauty (kind of), if you're in the market for a new lip tint you could do a lot worse than Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain which launches this month. Bearing a striking resemblance both in style and function to Clinique's Chubby Sticks, these chunky crayons from Revlon are a combination of a moisturizing balm with a hint of colour. Super easy to apply (you don't really need a mirror hence lending itself to festival life) and cheap enough that if it doesn't make it back from some field in Scotland then it's no major heartache.
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain, £7.99 from Boots and Superdrug stores nationwide

om Cruise and Katie Holmes on the red carped before the premiere of the movie "Valkyrie" in Berlin
Bird poo facials? Well, they do say it's good luck Photograph: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / Reuters/REUTERS

Bird poo beauty

Probably the best line of beauty news I've seen this week was 'Tom Cruise uses bird poo'. For what? Not for use in some childish prank on soon to be ex-wife Katie Holmes, as one might first think, but on his face. And he's not the only one, apparently. Everybody loves a weird beauty ingredient story and the 'Geisha facial' (named after its originators) has been gaining momentum recently thanks to some celebrity endorsements. But this is all done under the controlled environments of a beauty spa so don't think that parking your car under a massive tree and waiting to scoop up the consequences is the answer to eternal youth.