Empties!

By Get Lippie

I'm having one of those weeks when all my favourite skin care items run out at the same time, and it's INFURIATING!

Champneys Spa Skin Super Rich Cleansing Balm:

Slightly grainy (and a little exfoliating as a result), I took this pot of balm on my honeymoon with me because I didn't want to use a chemical exfoliator, what with their sun-sensitivity issues and all, and I couldn't be bothered packing two products when only one can do all the work, and I've not looked back since.  A lovely rich balm with excellent cleansing properties, this is a brilliant (cheap!) cleanser, particularly if you totally ignore the instructions on the jar, and remove it properly with warm water and a face cloth, like what you are supposed to do.

Zelens PHA Bio-Peel Resurfacing Facial Pads

God, I love these. Gentler than straight glycolic acid, but still packing a tingly punch of exfoliating goodness, I start to panic every time I get past the halfway point on a jar of these.  Used after cleansing, these pads gently help your skin reset itself, and make you glow.  PHA is also humectant, so it binds moisture to your skin too, as well as resurfacing. Only drawback is the price, which is £65 for 50 pads.  I have been known to cut them in half to eke them out longer ...

Hydraluron

My love for Hydraluron is fairly widely known, this is either my third or fourth tube now, and I can't imagine life without it.  Which (bearing in mind that I was totally underwhelmed with it when I first started using it) is going some!  This is one of those products that doesn't really appear to do much whilst you're using it, then, when you've run out, you can really tell the difference - my skin is just more dull when I don't have this in my routine.  I use it to layer extra moisture into my skin, and I apply after my serum/oil, and before my moisturiser.   I panicked the other day when I realised the tube was empty, I don't mind admitting.  Yes, I am a big sad. 

Aromatherapy Associates Soothing Cleansing Balm

For days when I don't really fancy a  slightly scrubby cleanse with the Champneys Balm, this gloriously silky and gently fragranced balm cleanser does the job.  It melts makeup and grime on contact, and never leaves my skin feeling dry or stripped.  There are no bells or whistles to this balm, it is just a good, gentle, and even beautiful product.  Oh, and it's in a tube. I fupping LOVE balms that come in a tube.  Love them! MORE TUBES IN BEAUTY PACKAGING, PLEASE.  Have I mentioned how much I hate sticking my fingers into a jar of runny goop?  Well, I do.  A lot. I actually keep a teaspoon in my bathroom to actively avoid having to dip my fingers in stuff.  It's a bit weird, I know, but we have a million teaspoons for some reason.

I've had a lot of compliments on my skin recently - and I've just got through an entire winter wearing only tinted moisturiser (or the occasional CC cream -more about those soon)  which is entirely unheard of! I'm normally caked in foundation from October to April, every year, so this is massive for me, and it's (almost) entirely down to the products featured here.

What are your most repurchased products?

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and repurchases

This post: Empties! originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Wedding Preparation - My Current Skincare Regime

Spending a lot of time worrying about a) my skin, b) breaking my nails, and c) my wedding perfume at the moment.  The wedding is eleven days away now (seriously, where the hell has the year since we got engaged gone?), and I thought I'd share some of my routines with you. Nails and perfume will come later, but for today, I'm focusing on skincare.

All I want on the day is clear, soft, glowing skin, no spots, no irritated reddened patches, and no rashes.  So, alongside some cast-iron tried and trusted favourites that can't be beaten, and that I know give results without irritation, I've taken a few actives out of my routine, and swapped them for gentler formulations.  Above you can see my AM and PM routine, which I'll take you through product by product:

Aromatherapy Associates Soothing Cleansing Balm:  My skin can get a little irritated when there are too many essential oils in  my routine, but this is an absolute delight to use, not too scented, it has excellent slip, and I do indeed find it very soothing.  I use this as my PM cleanser, as a tiny pea-sized dollop from the tube (and how much do I love that it has a tube dispenser?  A LOT, is the answer) allows me to both get rid of even the most heavy-duty makeup, and give myself a good facial massage at the same time.  My skin is left calm and glowing after I use this, with no redness.  Result!

Elemental Herbology Delicate Cleanse: I use this gently rose-scented cleansing milk in the mornings, alongside one of my beloved Washi Cloths. It's gentle, and not too bracing, which is just what you want in the mornings.  Unlike many cream-cleansers,  I don't find this drying in the least, and when I want a less-oily cleanse these days, this is the cleanser I increasingly reach for.

Clarins Gentle Exfoliator: I am of the age where I do need some actives in my routine, but at the moment, I am a bit scared of over-stimulating my skin, which can lead to increased redness, and scaly patches when I've overdone something in my routine.  The Clarins Gentle Exfoliator contains glycolic acid, an ingredient I love, but find extremely easy to overdose on, particularly when using it in products containing a higher amount of the acid.  Lactic, and malic acids actually suit my skin better, but this watery fluid has "buffered" the glycolic with other ingredients such as glycerin, which means you still get a light exfoliation effect, but without any drying. I find it suits my crazy-sensitive skin very well, and is non-irritating. I use this every morning, and then immediately follow it with a spray of

Balance Me Skin Bright Hydrating Face Mist: Chock-full of hyaluronic acid, this gently-scented spray soothes away any tingles left behind by the exfoliating toner, and gives my skin an immediate hydration boost.  It's nice to use during the day too, and makes an excellent setting spray for makeup, owing to the, quite frankly, excellent spray nozzle which sprays s l o w l y over a wide area, meaning it's not a rude awakening to spray yourself in the face!  I use this both AM and PM.

Darphin Camomile Oil: I'm very rarely without a bottle of this. For my reddened and easily sensitised skin, it is a super-healing miracle in a bottle.  I use it as a serum both night and day, no matter what other products I'm wearing, and I find it healing, soothing, and also moisturising.  This is a great choice of oil for anyone with troubled skin, and I recommend it to people left, right and centre. This is my third bottle, and I find a bottle lasts for at least a year (I tend to only use it once a day in summer), so, whilst initially spendy, on a cost per wear basis, it's cheap as chips.  I have a backup too, from Decleor, as I tend to flip-flop between the two brands for my essential oil requirements.

Kate Somerville Goat Milk Cream: This turns up  in every skincare routine I do.  Why? It works.  This is my fourth jar, and I am madder than a wet hen that Kate Somerville has been withdrawn from the UK.  Once this jar goes though, I've sworn to try something else, any suggestions?  I have my eye on the "Gentle" range from Clarins at the moment, but I'm open to ideas!

And because wedding preparation isn't limited to merely the bride, here's some products I've forced suggested MrLippie starts to use too:

 
Here we have Facial Radiance Pads from First Aid Beauty, which are great acidic pads (mixture of gycolic and lactic, with lemon and licorice too) perfect for his slightly troubled yet less sensitive skin than mine, which is helping to both even out his skintone and deal with his (occasional) breakouts gently, and Melvita Argan Oil, as his moisturiser after peeling, which again is perfect for his less sensitive skin, and also comes in a nice big bottle which favours his rather heavy-handed application style! 

Hopefully we'll both be glowing on the big day!
        
The Fine Print: Mixture of purchases and samples.

This post:Wedding Preparation - My Current Skincare Regime originated at: Get Lippie on 6th February 2013 at 6am GMT.  All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

On Massage with Aromatherapy Associates, L'Occitane and Liz Earle

Lippie Underground HQ - soon to be Lippie Towers, but more about that anon - has been the scene of a lot of massage lately.  For a variety of reasons, it's become a slight necessity, prime among them is the fact that for the last few months I've been suffering from a skeleto-muscular problem, which isn't quite as serious as it sounds but has been causing continuous headaches since April.  Even so, this is all way less scary - and stressful - than the brain tumour I thought it was initially.  I don't recommend worry as a beauty aid.

Anyhoo, a decent massage begins with a decent massage oil, and I've found these to be my top contenders (one isn't a massage oil at all actually, so I hope I'll be forgiven for so heinously misusing it!):

Aromatherapy Associates Enrich Massage and Body Oil.  A glorious blend of Geranium and Ylang Ylang in a blend of olive, coconut and macademia oils, this has plenty of slip, and warms delightfully in the hands to provide a nice scented massage oil, that isn't too heavily fragranced.

I've found that it leaves the skin soft, scented, and wonderfully moisturised without being at all sticky, and, for that, I love it.  One downside is that the frosted glass bottle is a little tricky to handle with oily fingers, and it has been dropped once or twice because of that, (luckily the glass is thick and heavy, so no major spillages!) so I tend to decant in order to use this.  This costs £33 for 100mls, and I'd happily purchase another bottle.

Next up is L'Occitane Lavande Body and Massage Gel, which surprised me by arriving in a large, flat, plastic tub.  For some reason, I'd been expecting a tube. But, no matter, it's already more fit for massage purpose than a heavy glass bottle, even when you consider my heebie jeebies about jarred products.  If you like the smell of lavender (and I do, very much so), then you will love this, and even if you don't, then you still might like it, for in use, this has an odd effect that that in the jar, the smell is pungent, and heady, but on the body, it's a rather light and delicate scent.

As this is a gel, I was expecting it to be sticky, and, it is stickier than the two other oil products, but not unpleasantly so, and not so much that you'll notice it really.  It still gives very good slip, and is great in use.  It can, however, be very, very, very cold straight out of the jar, so this is one that you must warm in your hands before applying it your massage victim partner.  It's a fairly reasonable £20 for 200mls too, so is the cheapest option I'll be showing you today.

And now, my controversial choice: Liz Earle Superskin Concentrate.  Probably Definitely the most extravagant oil here, by far (costing £37.50 per 28ml, or £133.93 per 100ml), this has been a pleasure to use for massage.  Now, ordinarily, this is a facial oil, hence the small bottle and the whopping price comparison, and I wouldn't recommend it for this use as a rule, but, personally,  I adore the neroli/lavender/camomile scent, and it makes for a highly fragrant experience if you do use it for anything other than the recommended usage.  Also, I had a bottle handy nearby. Also surprising is that this tiny bottle (easier to handle than a big glass bottle) actually lasted through around a month of massage!  Excellent slip, and it led to pleasantly scented dreams ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples all, and gratefully received, too.  Thank you very much to all the firms who listened to my pleas for massage products.  And sincere apologies to Liz Earle for misusing her fine facial oil ... As always, the links are here for informational purposes only, and are not affilliate links.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

My Picks of 2010

Needless to say, you'll have seen a million of these posts already, and I was in two minds whether or not to post my selections too, but some of these products have been life-changing for me, and I thought I'd share them anyway ...

Bath Products of The Year:


Aromatherapy Associates

Early on in the year, I was sent an Aromatherapy Associates Miniature Bath and Shower oil selection, which I adored, and since then, I've been through two - count them! - full-size bottles of the Deep Relax bath oil.  Both heady and relaxing, this stuff has seen me through an operation, a change of job, and moving house, I can't recommend it highly enough.  A capful (or two, in my mega-bath's case) is more than enough to soothe my aching bones, and ease my weary head.  You can also use it as a shower oil, or, in extreme cases, you can dab it on your pulse points and sniff as required. They do great candles too.


Lipstick of the Year

Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia

Adore the packaging, love (love!) the colour, and the fact that it's both £10 cheaper than Tom Ford's Pure Pink, alongside being slightly easier to wear makes this glorious shade my pick of the year.   The Tom Ford Private Collection lipsticks did grow on me throughout the year (to the extent that I now own three of them), however, this is the shade I'll be buying  back up of very soon.

Shampoo/Conditioner of the Year:

Andrew Collinge Smooth & Shine

An oldie, admittedly, but a damn good one.  I found this moisturising, and made my hair behave beautifully.  Easy to rinse, and it left my hair with an amazing shine, and at a bargainous £4.99 for a 500ml bottle, it lasted forever too!  If it were SLS-free, I'd be using it still (I had a keratin treatment at the end of year, so am using SLS-free formulations right now), but I had no issues with colour-stripping whilst I was using this on my dry, colour-processed hair.

Blusher of the Year

Daniel Sandler Watercolour Blush

2010 was the year I really started to get into blusher, it started with Estee Lauder's Bronzed Goddess bronzer, and ended with Nars Douceur, but in between were these little gems. I love them still, and now own three, in Truth, Cherub and Dare (plus I intend to get my hands on Flush and Gentle at some point too), as they're practically perfect.  Long-lasting, buildable and perfectly tinted, after I learned to handle them, I fell in love.

Eyeshadow of the year

Le Metier de Beaute Kaleidoscope in Le Cirque

To be fair, everything I've tried from Le Metier this year has been great, but the Le Cirque Kaleidoscope blew me away a little bit. Beautiful and endlessly versatile, this is practically the only eyeshadow palette I've reached for since I bought it a couple of months ago. Alas, it's limited edition, so I'm glad I arranged a backup when I could.

Foundation of the Year

A tough one, this, so there are two winners (and a runner up ...):

 Guerlain Lingerie De Peau and Bourjois Healthy Mix

Both great for a glowing finish (even though the Bourjois is technically only a "satin" or semi-matte finish), I genuinely couldn't choose between the two.  The Guerlain is a lighter-than-air, dewy finish that I find works best when set with just the tiniest bit of powder, whereas the Bourjois doesn't need setting, but I find the coverage is a little heavier.

Just want to give a mention to a distinguished runner up, which is Armani Face Fabric.  Amazing mousse texture, but for me, I need to be having a really good face day to do it justice.  But this is great stuff:

Nail Varnish of the Year

Deborah Lippmann: Hit Me With Your Best Shot. 

A glimmering steel-grey shade with hints of multi-coloured micro-shimmer, I've reached for this polish again and again since it arrived in my stick little paws, I love it, and it just edged out Dolce & Gabanna's Perfection (which it very nearly is) as my pick of the year.  Unfair as I still don't think House of Fraser have it in stock yet, but when they do, snap this one up!

Candle of the Year

Jonathan Ward Idina's Locket

No competition - unless you count the rest of the candles in this superbly-scented Amber range from Jonathan Ward, of which I bought the entire range of the day it was released!  And I know I wasn't the only person to have done the same, either. Warm and evocative, this candle smells like it was stolen straight from the boudoir of  Coco Chanel herself.  I now have more candles from Jonathan on my "Candle Wall" than I do from any other maker, and the reason for that is because they are wonderful, not to mention very clean burning.


Perfume of the Year

Untitled by Maison Martin Margiela

A possibly controversial choice,  but my blog, my rules, so ... I have to say that out of all the mass perfume releases I smelled this year, this was by far the most interesting, and it's definitely the scent that's responsible for getting me interested in perfume at all during 2010, so for that, it was a very important discovery for me.  Not every perfume in store smells like sweeties, and thank goodness for that.  You're going to be hearing a lot from me about perfume in the coming months, so you can all blame the 'Martin.

Skincare Range of the Year:

 Much like Le Metier above, where I haven't had a duff product from them all year, Alpha H has been the same for skincare.  I've tried practically every product from the range now, and (one exploding eyecream aside) I've liked (at worst) all of them, and loved some of them.  Start with Liquid Gold, try the facial oil, then move onto the masks, you can't really go wrong.  I'll have some more in-depth reviews of a couple of things coming up soon, but this is a great, no-frills brand, and I highly recommend them.

You might also want to have a look at Mir Skincare, which is formulated for sensitive skin, and is a bit of a marvel, in particular I loved the (vegan-friendly) Argan Oil, which I'll shortly be placing a replacement order for.

And finally - if you're still reading!

Overall Product of the Year

Clarisonic

Quite simply, it's a life (and skin) changing bit of kit.  I've banged on about it at relentless length several times before now, so I shan't go on, but suffice to say, I can't imagine life without this now.  Even if it is, essentially, a giant toothbrush for your face.

This has been one massive post, sorry!

Lifesavers! Bath products for the shower ...

No, I haven't gone insane, I just haven't had a bath for a month.  I really, really, really want a bath. I love baths, and have been known to spend several hours in there, just floating, reading, relaxing, and chilling, really.  They're where I go when I need a little respite from the daily grind (and they're where I can hide from MrLippie - don't tell him) Occasionally, I even, you know, clean myself in there too.  Showers simply don't compare.  In fact, whilst I'm being honest, I shall admit that I find showers rather unpleasant. Purely a necessary evil, as far as I'm concerned.

So, having spent the last month confined to showers only (and quick showers at that), has been a trial for me.  I love my luxurious bath oils - Ren Rose Otto is still a world beater as far as I'm concerned - and I miss my "me-time".  I've been avoiding shower gels during my bath-prohibition, as I can find them a bit drying and, the thought of itchy skin combined with healing scars after my operation still makes me wince a little bit!

So, I've been delighted to find that Aromatherapy Associates bath oils can be used in the shower too.  At a cost of £26.50 (£2.95 each, more than comparable to a Lush Bath Ballistic, for example) these are completely luxurious to use in the shower as the scent is amazing, and you still get clean.  To use these as shower oils, you simply rub them over your (dry) skin, prior to getting into the shower, and then rinse off as normal with your shower instrument of choice.  There are nine scents in the box, and my own personal favourite is the Deep De-Stress oil, which is meant for aching muscles, but I find the gingery, herby scent most invigorating!

For a shower treat that's a little more traditional in style, I've also been using No7 Shower Oil, which claims to foam gently. Personally, I find it foams barely at all (even on a shower puff), but the scent is nice, it leaves my skin silky soft, and it cleans admirably. Plus, at a cost of £8.75, it's a little more purse-friendly than the Aromatherapy Associates, albeit this means that there are a few synthetics in there, so I suggest you check the label before buying.

Two more weeks till bath-time!  I can't wait.  For serious.

 The Fine Print: Some samples were provided for review purposes, and some were provided as a gift in apology for someone's website accidentally infecting my computer with a trojan virus.  I'm not going to tell you which is which though - none of these links are infected, I've checked.  They're not affilliate links, either.  The Romans used to bathe with oil, you know.