Saturday 17 January 2015

skincare


Inspired by one of my favourite features over at into the gloss, here's my 'top shelfie'- aka the skin and care products I use all the time (you can see the endlessly fascinating list of the 'official' top shelfies here).

Firstly, a little about my skin. On the one hand, I'm lucky enough to have fairly normal skin, never oily and only dry in small patches in deep winter. However, that luck is evened out by a ever persisting curse of spots- urgh bane of my life. They were worse as a teenager, kept in check by a steady stream of chemicals. Nowadays, I get the odd breakout especially round my chin, and especially around my time of the month (or if i've been slacking on the healthy eating).



In the morning I love to use Clarin's Gentle Foaming Cleanser with Cottonseed (£19) because it makes your skin feel soooo clean. Although I read somewhere that the squeaky clean feeling isn't actually the best thing for your skin I LOVE IT. I follow this up with a broad sweep of La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo (£15.50) over my entire T zone. I find this isn't quite effective enough to tackle actual spots, but it seems to do a good job of keeping my slightly-less-problem areas, like my forehead & nose, under control. To actually deal with those pesky spots, I use Origins Super Spot Remover (£15). I've only been using this for a couple of weeks after a breakout over christmas I like to blame on chocolate, cheese and wine (not a winning combination for someone who's lactose intolerant). I'm gonna do a full review in a couple of weeks once I've tested it properly but I had massive improvements just over night when I first put it on!

To finish up my morning routine I use Vichy Idealia Life Serum (£29.95) followed by Korres Wild Rose 24-hour Moisturiser for Dry/Normal Skin (£20). I was lucky enough to receive the Vichy serum for my birthday last year, as it's pretty pricey. I find it hard to measure the effect of individual products, but it does seem to keep my skin tone even and bright. It feels really luxurious when putting it on, and the slight pearly sheen makes your skin look super fresh immediately afterwards. Plus one pump is generally enough for the whole face which means it seems to last for ages. The korres moisturiser was actual bought in Athens airport after my skin was nice and salty and dry after a holiday but I regret nothing. Easily my favourite moisturiser I've ever used, it's not too thick (which I find important when you don't have dry skin), it smells fantastic and layers really well.

In the evening, I begin by using Bioderma Sensibio H2O (£9.99 for 250ml) to remove most of my makeup. I bought it in Paris, but it's so easy to get in the UK now. I hate oily make-up removers and find this one works great, although I do find I need to do another round of make-up removing post cleansing. In the evening I use La Roche Posay Effaclar Purifying Foaming Gel (£11.50) with my Konjac sponge (£7.99). I picked up a Konjac sponge half price in the Fenwicks sale because I remembered I'd seen it in on of Lily Pebble's haul videos. It's kind of strange but I actually really love using it, even by itself it makes your skin feel really soft and exfoliated. After this I sometimes use La Roche Posay Effaclar Astringent Micro-Exfoliant Lotion (£12) as long as my skin isn't feeling too dry. My evening routine is then completed by some more Effaclar Duo + Origins Super Spot Remover.



Other stuff I use regularly include Boots Botanic Fast Absorbing Hand Cream (£1.93), St. Tropez Bronzing Mousse (£20.49), St. Tropez Gradual Tan Face Lotion (£14) and my Berocca (Mango flavour, £4.79) & vitamins (ABC plus from Holland & Barrett, £7.25 for 120) . I get through hand cream at a pretty rapid pace, so I dislike spending lots of money on them haha. This one is really easily absorbed, smells nice but isn't too strong, and that price can't be beaten. For fake tanning, I love the St. Tropez range because it goes on super easy, it's a really nice shade on my otherwise extremely pale skin and doesn't seem to streak unless I do it in like 20 seconds before I go out (I can only blame myself). They are quite expensive but whenever I need to buy it there always seems to be a sale on in either boots or superdrug, so make sure to shop around.



On the bottom shelf I keep my cheaper skin care products. These are the ones I found worked when I was a teenager, but now I'm a bit older and actually have an income (/student loan) I really like using more expensive skin care. I have probably got through countless bottles of Clean & Clear Deep Action Cream Wash (£3.50) and would recommend it to anyone looking for a really good daily cleanser on a budget. I also found the Garnier Simply Essentials Soothing Toner (£2.99) helped calm my skin down during particularly bad breakouts. I also keep a spare pot of Ponds Cold Creamer Cleanser (£5.49) just because (the one I have is the old packaging... I should probably chuck that). I also have my two favourite moisturisers, an old Johnson's moisturiser I can't seem to find anywhere and Palmer's Cocoa Butter Lotion (£3.99).

Hope you enjoyed having a little peek into my skincare essentials! What are you favourite beauty buys? Do you prefer expensive cleansers and lotions or budget drugstore classics?

1 comment:

  1. Great post, I need to shake up my skincare routine :) I love your blog and I have followed you with Bloglovin. If you ever get a chance to check out my blog I would be delighted, thanks!

    Camille xo

    www.cococami.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete