The new season is the perfect excuse to rethink your routine. Here’s how to reset your beauty shelf, simplify your steps and get your skin, hair and body ready for autumn, with a little help from Ruth Crilly.
Summer can be brilliant for beauty, but it can also leave your routine feeling a little… chaotic. Different weather, more SPF, travel, heat, humidity, more washing, less structure. Suddenly September arrives and you’re staring at a bathroom shelf full of half-used products wondering what you actually need.
Enter: The Beauty Reset with Ruth Crilly.
Ruth has spent years testing beauty products, writing about them and trying pretty much everything the industry has to offer. So when we created her second edit with us, the idea wasn’t to throw together another collection of products. It was to create a simple, considered routine using brands and products Ruth actually uses, loves and recommends. With 14 products worth £318, it covers everything from skin and SPF to hair, brows and body care. Here’s how to give your beauty routine a proper autumn reset.
1. START WITH A GOOD CLEAR-OUT
Before you add anything new, look at what you already have. Are you using five different cleansers? Have you been keeping a serum because you might use it one day? Are there products on your shelf that you can't even remember buying? A reset is a good opportunity to strip things back and work out what you actually enjoy using.
Ruth’s approach is refreshingly straightforward: find products that work for you, use them consistently and don’t make your routine more complicated than it needs to be.
A good place to start is with Weleda Skin Food Cleansing Balm, a gentle oil-to-milk cleanser that removes dirt, impurities and makeup while leaving skin feeling soft and conditioned.
2. GET YOUR SKIN BACK ON TRACK
After summer, skin can often benefit from a little extra attention. This is the time to focus on hydration, radiance, firmness and getting back into a consistent routine.
Gatineau Radiance Enhancing Vitamin C Serum is an easy addition for a brighter, more luminous complexion, while Alpha-H Firming Collagen Repair Cream provides richer hydration and helps skin look smoother, firmer and more strengthened.
And for those moments when your skin needs an instant pick-me-up? Emma Hardie Vitamin C Brightening Hydrogel Facial Mask delivers a hit of hydration and radiance when you want your complexion to look particularly fresh.
3. DON'T PUT YOUR SPF AWAY
One beauty habit that definitely doesn't need an autumn reset? SPF.
Ruth’s edit includes Ultra Violette Queen Screen SPF 50+ Luminising Skinscreen, a glow-giving SPF that doubles as a radiant makeup base. It melts into skin without pilling and gives you that fresh, luminous finish. Autumn might mean jumpers and darker evenings, but your skin still deserves daily protection.
4. GIVE YOUR TARGETED TREATMENTS SOME ATTENTION
A good routine isn't necessarily about doing more. It's about knowing what you want your products to do.
For a little extra focus on firmness, RoC Derm Correxion Firm + Sculpt Lifting Serum Stick is designed to visibly tighten and firm the face and neck, while PRAI Beauty Ageless Throat & Decolletage Creme – Intensive Gold+ gives the neck, chest and shoulders some dedicated care.
And if your brows and lashes have been through one too many beauty experiments, Brow Aid The S.O.S Advanced Brow & Lash Recovery Mask is designed to support regrowth and recovery with a clever dual-ended applicator.
These are the kinds of products that can slot into a routine without turning it into a 15-step production.
5. RESET YOUR HAIR, TOO
Your hair has had a summer of its own. Sun, heat, swimming and regular washing can all mean your strands need a little more TLC as we move into autumn.
Start with Living Proof Full Shampoo and Conditioner Duo, designed to deliver 2X the volume while helping hair stay cleaner and healthier for longer. Then give dry or damaged lengths some serious conditioning with Philip Kingsley Elasticizer Deep-Conditioning Treatment, which is clinically proven to reduce breakage after just one use.
For everyday styling, Hair by Sam McKnight Happy Endings Nourishing Balm smooths, defines and helps tame frizz while nourishing the hair and sealing the appearance of split ends. And when you need to extend that blow-dry for one more day, REHAB Mini Essential Dry Shampoo absorbs excess oil while adding volume, texture and lift at the roots.
In other words: fuller, smoother, healthier-looking hair without completely reinventing your routine.
6. DON'T FORGET THE BODY
A beauty reset shouldn't stop at your face. If you’re not quite ready to let go of that summer glow, Gatineau Golden Glow Gradual Tan gives skin a natural-looking, buildable tan while keeping it hydrated. It's an easy way to keep that just-back-from-holiday feeling going, even when autumn is very much on its way.
7. KEEP WHAT WORKS
Perhaps the most important part of a beauty reset is knowing when to stop. You don't need to replace everything you own. You don't need to follow every new trend. And you definitely don't need a bathroom shelf that looks like a department store beauty hall.
Ruth Crilly’s Beauty Reset is built around exactly that idea: tried-and-tested products, a strong routine and beauty that fits into real life.
THE AUTUMN RESET, SORTED.
Whether your beauty shelf needs a serious clear-out or you simply fancy giving your routine a new-season refresh, The Beauty Reset with Ruth Crilly is a pretty good place to start.
