The pharmacy product that rescued Simone Ashley's hair
Bridgerton star Simone Ashley is the epitome of hair goals.
But, the 29-year-old has been pretty open about the fact that she's been on a journey with her beauty routine (she overplucked her eyebrows for years), and she's not afraid to vocalise her love for her skin colour and natural hair texture, after admitting she'd experienced racism at school.
Now, as an adult, she's all about products that enhance her curls, a low maintenance hair care routine that fits into her effortless style, and having fun with hair accessories (when she's in the mood).
"My day-to-day go-to hairstyle is pretty much this," she said of her bouncy curls in a recent Harper's Bazaar UK YouTube video.
"People always ask me, where do I put my parting, but I always just like to flick it around and I like my hair quite big, but sometimes just having it in the middle like this is quite nice as well," she said casually as she absentmindedly played with her hair.
"I've been lately wearing those Y2K butterfly clips and that's quite cute with curly hair, you just twist at the top and then put a clip — I think that can be kind of cute," she said.
But most days she just wears her hair natural, long and down, and these are the three hair care products she swears by for defined, bouncy and lightweight natural curls.
The exact products Simone Ashley uses in her curl care routine
1/ L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss Lamination Treatment ($25.99 from Chemist Warehouse)
In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, Ashley credited the L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss Lamination Treatment ($25.99 from Chemist Warehouse) for rescuing her hair and retaining its glassy shine.
"I love this product so much," she gushed to the publication. "I put it on in the sauna or when I'm in the shower, or on my phone, and leave on for five minutes."
2/ Oribe Supershine Moisturising Cream ($91 from Adore Beauty)
"As soon as I've got out of the shower I like to put in a leave-in conditioner, and I like to use the Oribe [Supershine] Moisturising Cream ($91 from Adore Beauty)," Ashley told Harper's Bazaar UK.
"This one's really good for when your hair's wet," she said of the ginger root and amber extract-infused formula, which simultaneously softens, strengthens, smooths and enhances shine from root to tip.
3/ Oribe Curl Gloss ($66 from Oz Hair & Beauty)
Ashley follows up with the Oribe Curl Gloss ($66 from Oz Hair & Beauty), a lightweight glossing gel, that she applies to her fingertips and scrunches through her curls.
"I like to do this after I've diffused it," she explained to Harper's Bazaar UK. "If I've got time I'll diffuse my hair, which is really good for curly hair because it doesn't make it frizzy, but if I just want to air dry it, I'll wait for it to get dry and then just scrunch this in."
She likes to flick her hair forward so she can get to the roots after giving her attention to the mid lengths and ends of her hair.
"I go upside down and I like to put a little in the roots just to make sure it's not frizzy on the top, and then that's kind of it," she said nonchalantly. "Less is more I feel, because the more you put with curly hair sometimes it just weighs it down a little bit. Especially if I've just washed it, just a little bit of product and it just makes it nice and neat."
Main image credit: @simoneashley
Those aren't her only good beauty tips either, Simone Ashley's got a pretty impressive skin care routine.
Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).