Beauty Fix: Why you should try a dry conditioner, how to combat reoccurring dark spots and more

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Every week our Beauty Fix columnist takes on your questions about makeup, skincare, hair and more. Have a beauty question we haven’t answered? Email us at beautyfix@fashionmagazine.com.

Can you suggest a travel-friendly foundation? I’ve had a few spills in the past that have turned me off liquid makeup altogether.
There’s nothing quite like a makeup bag covered in a coveted product to kick-start a vacation! If you’re often taking your foundation on the go, explore cream formulas that come in a compact format, like Armani Maestro Fusion Compact ($68, at Holt Renfrew). This lightweight foundation is comprised of a blend of dry oils and waxes that meld with your skin for natural, luminous finish. It can also be layered for higher coverage or concealing needs and comes with a handy brush applicator included in the compact for this very purpose. Bonus: The packaging isn’t glass, so you’re in the clear if you decide to toss it in your bag on the go, making it incredibly travel friendly.

As someone with a vibrant dye job, I depend on dry shampoo to help me skip as many washes as possible. But what can I use to smooth my dry ends?
How did we ever live in a world before dry shampoo! While it’s highly effective in helping you avoid the daily wash/blow dry cycle by targeting oily roots, it doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to helping smooth and hydrate the rest of your hair. Fortunately, dry shampoo has a counterpart: dry conditioner. While the effect isn’t quite the same as applying a deep conditioning mask or treatment to your ends, a few spritzes of Pureology Fresh Approach Dry Condition ($24, at salons) brushed through the length of your hair will smooth frizz, add shine, control static and condition ends. Even better, hair colour is protected with an antifade complex of antioxidants and minerals, helping you maintain the integrity of your hair colour.

Lip gloss often leaves me with flaky lips. What can I use for a similar look without the dryness?
While your lips certainly look the opposite of flaky when covered in a gloss, like anything you put on your lips, it’s what’s inside that counts. Newer glossy formulations have involved less stickiness and more hydrating lipid bases, like L’Oréal Color Riche Extraordinaire Lip Colour ($12, well.ca). This formula consists of oil-enriched pigments that create a much more comfortable wear on the lips, as well as intense colour and tremendous shine. With 16 shades to choose from, you’re bound to end up grabbing all your staple colours in this noteworthy formula.

What can I do about reoccurring dark spots?
Dark spots—or hyperpigmentation—have different stages of maturation. You may be used to addressing hyperpigmentation that you see on the immediate surface of your skin (dubbed the established stage) with the use of brightening skincare. However, as time passes, hyperpigmentation that was underlying (in the nascent stage) emerges, and it needs to be treated too. And, to further complicate things, uneven pigmentation can also be in a recurrent stage—which is tricky to treat with traditional products. In order to say goodbye to reoccurring dark spots, you need to target all three stages. Try La Roche-Posay Pigmentclar Serum ($59, at Shoppers Drug Mart), which is ideal for daily use. This product uses lipo-hydroxy acid to break down the areas of concentrated melanin for a more even skin tone without irritating skin and works to eradicate hyperpigmentation in all its stages.

I’m noticing an area of thinning hair near the crown of my head. No amount of teasing or styling is helping me out. What can I use to keep hair from looking so sparse?
Thinning hair can be due to a number of factors, such as stress, hormones or over-processing hair, but ultimately, it’s unsettling to see hair thin out in any given area on your head. Hair is made of keratin, so using a product with keratin fibres is an excellent place to start. Toppik Hair Building Fibres ($28, at Shoppers Drug Mart) is a quick way to thicken the appearance of hair—no wait times necessary! Simply dispense the fibres onto the sparse area and pat into place: they cling to your existing hair due to a natural static charge, drastically increasing the appearance and volume of your hair. The fibres come in four shades that can be mixed in order to properly match your hair colour for the most seamless look. Bonus: this product will stay in place through perspiration, wind and rain.