Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Oil

Clinique Take the Day Off cleansing oil is a staple of my routine, and frankly, I'm really embarrassed that it's taken me till now to review this product!

I have sensitive skin, and this, coupled with a rather, um ... magpie-like ... approach to collecting skincare can cause occasional problems.  However, Clinique Take the Day Off oil has never, ever caused me a problem. Unencumbered by essential or mineral oils, or even, weirdly, any oils at all (the short ingredients list is full of oil-like ingredients, but of actual oil in the formulation; there is none), TTDO is a silky-feeling cleanser that removes every single scrap of makeup and sunscreen without ever stripping, or irritating the skin. And it is deliciously inert, unfragranced, and just a great choice for sensitive skins because of it.

Whilst I don't use it every day, where it becomes invaluable in my collection is when I'm introducing new products into my routine.  As I have sensitive skin (I think I might have mentioned it once or twice over the years), introducing a new product into an established routine can be traumatic, so I have a couple of products that I fall back onto, ones that I know never irritate.  And I use those religiously alongside any new product to ensure that any results (good or bad) come directly from the product I've changed, rather than the routine itself.  I also have an SOS skincare routine for those times when my skin is just being irritable, and TTDO oil has made it into both those routines. Other products that I rely on for testing purposes include La Roche Posay Serozinc, and Murad Hydro-Dynamic Moisturiser, and the SOS routine is different again.  For a product to make both lists is very, very rare.

 Clinique Take the Day Off oil is both gentle on the skin, and a powerful cleanser. It takes off almost all makeup just in one cleanse, and emulsifies beautifully.  Also, it lasts almost forever, I've had a bottle on the go ever since the launch, and only recently had to buy a backup. I can't imagine life without it.  At around £19-£22 for a big 200ml bottle, it's a bit of a bargain too.

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Aedes de Venustas Signature - Review

 

 
March has finally arrived, and in some books (okay, mine), that means spring is nearly here.  It has been a long, long winter for me, and I'm craving greenness, brightness and the smell of living things.  A bottle of Aedes de Venustas signature fragrances turned up on my desk quite unexpectedly last week, and it has fulfilled all my spring-y requirements beautifully.

I was reading recently, and some "science" reports popped up that stated that a marked preference for bitter tastes might mean you're a psychopath, and went on to extrapolate that a marked liking for black coffee, gin and tonic, or even dark chocolate (!) might be a pointer to your mental state. In that case, I found myself wondering if a marked preference for sour might be the sign of being a total misanthrope?  For my name is Get Lippie, and I love sour things and hate people.  The reason why I mention this will become clearer later.

Aedes de Venustas begins with vibrant rhubarb, nostril-tingling and mouth-puckering in the most delightful way. It invokes memories of me, as a child, with my parents digging around in the vegetable plot that we dug out in the back garden one summer.  That was the summer in which we simultaneously discovered that rhubarb was the only thing that would grow in our rocky, clay-heavy patch, and that the entire family hated gardening.  These days, I love rhubarb in any shape or form, whether raw with the fresh cut end dipped in sugar (a crunchy, textural magnificence), or cooked into a dessert item, or in a very specific chutney from Waitrose that was the only way I could eat many meats when my parosmia was its crippling worst.  I love it in soaps, hand lotions, candles, shower gel anything. I mean, who hasn't taken a 3 mile detour (on foot) during a trip to Paris to see if a particular shop has restocked a much-loved rhubarb shower-gel, hmn*? Just me?  Anyway, rhubarb is a wonderfully astringent scent, akin to lemon and grapefruit, but with a slightly greener, more vegetal aspect to it.  As rhubarb is technically a vegetable, this shouldn't really be a surprise, I guess.

Aedes de Venustas, in spite of pairing rhubarb with the soft green fuzziness of tomato leaf, the clean and flinty mineral tones of vetiver, alongside just a whisper of bright green apple, deftly avoids being a gourmand fragrance, in spite of its fruity star guest. By avoiding any sugar in the mixture whatsoever, and allowing the sharp green and pink stalks of rhubarb to take centre stage and dominate the scent throughout the wear, Aedes is a sour-fragrance lover's delight, a fruity fragrance for grownups, if you will. This is no "rhubarb and custard" confection and I, for one, am grateful for that.

 Aedes is a fairly linear fragrance, in that what you smell at the beginning is more or less what you will smell throughout, but the dry-down does pull a little sweetness through as the rhubarb fades, and some of the other fruits (berries, mostly, I think) in the composition begin to assert themselves.  It's fairly quiet, and I find I need to apply quite heavily to get the full effect (but please, of course, bear in mind that I have a compromised olfactory system), but this isn't a fragrance that is likely to offend in the office, as the sillage is quite low, even when application is a little heavy-handed.

All this said, Aedes de Venustas turns out to be a proper love-it or hate-it fragrance in the Lippie household. My "auxilliary nasal unit" (aka: MrLippie) properly hates this fragrance.  I mean, properly hates it.  He thinks it smells of something rotten - that'll be the unusual sourness - and refuses to come anywhere near it.  Which is a shame, as it's really quite beautiful, if a little strange at first smell, fragrances aren't often sour, which is a huge shame as there's a lot of beauty to be found in sourness, sometimes, you just have to be prepared to look for it.  Said the misanthrope ...

* On their honeymoon.
 
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No7 Lift and Luminate #BetterTogether Trial Results and Review

This is a sponsored post on behalf of No7

In January, I started taking part in the #BetterTogether Challenge with No7, whereby I was going to be using only their revamped range of Lift and Luminate skincare for a month.  Now, I'm back to talk about the results!

Now, it has been a heck of a challenge for me, and the temptation to continue picking different bits and bobs from my collection to suit different requirements on a day to day basis has been strong! But, I've managed to stay completely true to the challenge throughout the month I've had the products, and only supplemented the range's core day and night moisturisers, serum and eye cream with appropriate cleansers and toners as required.  

So, how did I get on?  Well ... colour me hugely impressed, actually.  I don't say that lightly (or even often), but I've been delighted with the condition of my skin throughout the trial, and I've even begun to wonder if all the chopping and changing I do normally is maybe not the best way to treat (my) sensitive skin.  My skin has been smooth, soft, and with far fewer of the under-skin "irritation bumps" I quite regularly get around my eyes, which is my usual sign that my skin has been overstimulated and usually means I need to remove something from my routine. My skin is even noticeably less red, which is amazing.

Both the day and night creams are smooth and rich in texture, but don't feel oily on the skin. They leave behind a nice velvety feeling on the face, which makes a great base for makeup in the case of the day cream.  My skin is on the oilier side, and I haven't feel the need to add extra oil to my skin under either cream, even though it's winter and supplementing with oils is usually standard for me in the coldest months of the year.  Both the day cream and eye cream feature SPF -  something I usually avoid in my skincare, preferring to add a separate SPF on top, but I haven't had any problems with it in either product.  The serum is velvety and sinks in really easily to the skin, again without leaving a greasy base behind.

Have I noticed a huge improvement in my skin?  No, not a huge one as I was starting from a base of healthy skin anyway, but there is definitely a noticeable difference, my skin is calmer and more even, and I'm very happy with it.  It seems that things in skincare land really do work "better together", and these products are joining my regular arsenal right away. You can shop the Lift and Luminate range here: No7 Lift and Luminate Range at Boots

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Anosmia Awareness Day 27th February 2017

As is now traditional around this time of year, it's time for me to point out that Anosmia exists, and list some resources for people who may be affected by this life-changing, but barely-known condition.  My life was turned upside down in 2014 by the simple act of catching a cold. My olfactory nerve died as a result of that cold, and life hasn't been the same ever since. I still feel the effects of that cold, and the resulting anosmia, every single day of my life.

Imagine never knowing if something smells bad, whether it's your home, your food, yourself.  Imagine never being able to smell your loved ones again, your babies, your partner, your family - not being able to bury your nose into their clothing and just inhale their essential scent. Imagine a sterile world where nothing smells of anything, and you feel completely isolated as a result.  That's anosmia.

Or conversely, imagine a world where things smell too much, but every single thing smells wrong.  Like, for example, spending a year or two where every single thing you smell smells like it's burned. Or rotten, or burned and rotten.  Then imagine every single thing that you taste also appears to be burned or rotten, or both.  That's parosmia, and that was my life for a very long while.

Or imagine that you constantly hallucinate bad smells, and can't think of anything else whilst it's happening. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night thinking your house is burning down.  Or that everywhere you go is covered in gasoline.  That's phantosmia, and it's incredibly difficult to live with.

Then there's cacosmia, and I have just one word for you here:  sewage.  Imagine your whole life smells - and tastes - like sewage.   I have been there, and I can tell you it was the worst time of my life.

Tomorrow, many anosmics across the world will be wearing red and using the hastag #anosmiaaware on Twitter to share their stories of anosmia, and I'll be amongst them. If you're interested in finding out more about the condition, you can have a look at the following links.

Anosmia Awareness Day Official Site (with further links): https://www.anosmiaawareness.org/social-media/
Fifth Sense (advocacy group for people with smell and taste disorders) http://fifthsense.org.uk

Oh, and my story will be featured on episode five of "Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston's Casebook", which airs on March 22nd at 9pm on BBC2  where I'll be talking about my struggle in learning to live with my conditions, and regain my sense of smell. I'm bloody terrified.

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Zelens Extreme Velvet Lipsticks - Nude Plum, Red, Dark Red, Merlot

When I heard Zelens were launching a new lipstick range, I was delighted, for Zelens are one of my (if not the very pinnacle) favourite skincare brands of all time, and so I was incredibly excited at the thought of actual lipsticks from them.  I already own several of the lip glosses that were launched a couple of years ago, and they're amongst my most-used lip products.  Then, when I saw the actual Extreme Velvet Lipsticks in the flesh, I was even happier, for instead of releasing a range of crowd-pleasing insipid nudes and baby-pinks, like so many ranges these days, the colours (inspired by the favourite colours of the patients seen by Dr Marko Lens, the brand founder, in his surgery) are bold, and rich and deeply, deeply pigmented.

And they're beautiful.

Zelens Extreme Velvet Lipsticks have a soft and hydrating matte formula, which is full of lipids and waxes, and they also contain both hyaluronic acid and an ester of retinol (to encourage cell-turnover and collagen production),  all of which are designed to treat the lips as well as colour them. These are a great, exceedingly comfortable and non-drying wear.  Whilst not promoted as a long-wearing formula, I have found that they wear well without needing a touch-up for around six to eight hours. And without leaving a red ring of doom, too! They fade gently and evenly, even after eating or drinking.

Swatches in natural light (l-r) Nude Plum, Red, Dark Red and Merlot

I have, of course, gravitated towards the redder end of the colour choices in my selections - there are nine shades in the range, the others are Nude Pink, Nude Beige, Cinnamon, Raisin and Tea Rose. 

Nude Plum is a great "nude" shade for people who (like me) don't really wear nudes, with plenty of pigment, and without that nasty "concealer lip" effect.
Red is a bright and slightly warmed orange-based red that colours beautifully in one swipe of the bullet.
Dark Red is a slightly warm deep red wine shade.
Merlot is an even deeper version of dark red, a little difficult for everyday wear for me, but just stunning with the right outfit.

I'll probably pick up Tea Rose at some point as it's a great everyday colour, and I have a feeling it'll be quite versatile with the depth of pigmentation on offer.  If I have one criticism of the range (and it's a minor one, admittedly) it's that I'd like to see a brighter deep pink in here too because as it stands, the range is slightly skewed dark and warm, but actually that's not really a bad thing in the bland sea of nudes that tend to predominate these days.

 The lipsticks cost £32, are housed in handsome silver tube with a screw-top lid and are available exclusively from the Zelens website

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