Ren Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial

Ren is one of those brands I like, that I’m glad exists, that do nice products, but for some reason, I don’t really love them.  I can’t put my finger on why I don’t love them, but they lack a certain … USP for me. 

That they’re “clean” products is something I appreciate – their ingredient lists are on the small side, which is always a bonus – but they’re rather faceless to me, and I admit that I find their range a little bewildering as a result. It's a large offering, and I never know which products are meant to go together, or where to start looking for my particular skin concerns. 

I occasionally find myself reading Ren labels and thinking; "Ooh, that sounds all sciencey and stuff, but I wonder, what does it actually do?"  A body cream of theirs a few years ago, boasting of biosaccharides on the label, might be responsible for this mindset. I remember thinking when I picked it up: “Surely that’s just sugar?  Is that … good  … in a body cream I've bought because it smells of roses?”  There was no explanation of why it the sugar was even thought mentionable, never mind mentioning what a sugary body might be good for (and if you're not thinking that my mind has just headed straight into the gutter now, then you've not really been paying attention to the blog over the years, frankly). Sometimes, simple packaging can be too simple.  If you name a product after an ingredient (especially when it’s a common ingredient and you’re just using the scientific name for it), then jolly well tell me why it’s so important for you to have done so, plz.

Anyhoo, don't worry, there's a product review coming, I haven't forgotten:  Ren Flash Rinse One Minute Facial.  It’s not a rinse, so why call it one?  It’s also not that easy to rinse, so doubly confusing.  You do get to the rinse stage quickly, I guess, but surely “Flash Facial” or “One Minute Facial” would be better.  One Minute Facial  is a nice, soft textured, grainy aqua-shaded balm, which, when used as a mask, promises to leave you revitalised and rejuvenated.  You simply apply it to cleansed skin, dampen it down to activate the Vitamin C in the formula, leave it for a minute and then rinse it off and revel in your new lovely soft skin.  In theory, it sounds amazing, and so it could well be, but this product turned out to be just a little too revitalising and rejevenating in my case. It burnt my face!  It’s my fault, actually, I knew it probably wouldn’t suit my (actually much less than it used to be) sensitive skin just from reading the label, but I went and used it anyway. Buffoon, thy name is Lippie.

The product is a coconut oil balm base with added sugars for both chemical and physical exfoliation (it's a bit scratchy), ascorbic acid (vitamin C), frankincense and some plant-seed oils.  I’d read a few reviews mentioning the smell, but I didn’t find it unpleasant at all, I suspect most of the other users are reacting to the carrot-seed oil (which can smell a bit ferrous or earthy if you’re not expecting it), in my case, I thought it was rather light and apple-y, rather pleasant, actually.  It was easy to use, though I used a spray to activate the ascorbic acid, rather than my damp fingers as directed, because I didn’t want to move a sugar-scrub around my face too much – sugar can really be an irritatant to redness-prone skin – then rinsed as I would any other physical exfoliator (ie very carefully).

And, boy!  Was I impressed with the results?  Yes, I flipping was! My skin was smooth, even textured and not red in the slightest. Beautiful. My pores appeared to have disappeared (that’s an odd sentence construction, but I’m sure you know what I mean), and my skin, indeed, felt like velvet, I couldn't stop stroking it after, it was such a stonking result.  I thought that by following it with a dab of May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon Balm, knowing Flash Rinse to be a highly active product, all would be well.

But it wasn’t.  My lovely new, velvety and evenly textured, poreless beauty lasted around 20 minutes, when I began to think I was having a hot flash.  I was red. Very, very, very red.  So red I had to break out the Dermablend to cover up how red I was. I was redder than David Cameron being presented with a Danepak gift basket for services to bacon marketing.  Just perfect before a lunch-date with my beloved, no?  The red eventually died down after an hour or two (thank you, May Lindstrom), but worse was to come.  The following day, raised red spots on my cheeks followed, alongside intense itching, meaning I had to completely swap out my skincare to my emergency kit, which is essential oil-free, fragrance-free and bland, bland, bland.  It has subsided after a few days, but I won't be using this again for a while, if ever, tbh.

I want to make it clear that this was not the fault of the product. It does say, quite clearly on the packaging that it’s not suitable for the "most sensitive" of skins, but it has literally been years since I had a inflammation this bad. I’ve spent years acclimatising my face to AHAs, BHAs, Malic- Glycolic- and Lactic acids, not to even mention even retinol, so these days I wouldn’t even dream of thinking of my face as anything even slightly approaching the “most" sensitive any more.  Still, every day is a school day, and you live and learn, and a bunch of other cliches re making a silk purse out of a sows ear and that.  My skin is still sensitive, it's just not as reactive as it used to be.  Not a bad lesson to learn, but a very sore one, admittedly.

Ren Flash Rinse One Minute Facial is widely available and usually costs around £32.  If you have sensitive skin however, avoid it like the plague.  I tried it with a bunch of other people, and was the only one to have an adverse reaction.  It really wasn't the product, it was me ;)

The Fine Print: PR Sample

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On being an "older" beauty blogger

 

My name is Get Lippie. I'm 45, and I’m tired.  I’m tired of “older” being beauty industry shorthand for “ugly”.  I’m tired of being nagged about my age by the products I use.  I’m tired of constantly reading the same old (ha!) messages all the time which imply that the only quality women have worth venerating is “youth”.  I’m tired of toothpastes and deodorants, and foot creams and handcreams, and shampoos and lipbalms, and practically everything else on the planet using the message: “don’t get old, you’ll be worthless (bitch)” to create panic and stimulate demand for products.

 As I get older, it (the messaging) enrages me more.  Because it’s a lie.  I repeat: It. Is. A. Lie.  When I was younger, I was terrified of old age – turning 30 was horrific for me, I was “officially old” according to the adverts, and the media I was consuming, and I spent the last couple of years of my twenties alternately panicking at the thought of being over the hill, and raging about how “unfair” it was that we have to get “old”.  I was a fucking idiot.  Two years of my life wasted panicking about an arbitrary deadline imposed entirely about someone else’s idea of how women “should” look.  Young.  And worrying that being over thirty (and worse, being over thirty and single) is to be a waste of flesh.  We use old in the beauty industry and media to scare people, to create panic,  to force people not into making peace with their age, but to worry about it.  And as the end result of that fear, that worry and that panic created by the beauty industry itself is (besides, of course, them offering the “cure”) is to make women hate themselves.  To remove the comfort of liking the skin that one is in.  Worse, to make being comfortable in your own skin seem … incongruous.  Eccentric.  Insane. Freaky.

Women start to panic about being old in their late teens.  I see it on Twitter/Instagram and Facebook all the time, young, beautiful, intelligent, humorous women worrying about turning 20/25/30/35 whatever, “this time tomorrow, I’ll be old …” because all the messaging we have in the media is that to be old is to barely be a woman at all. It’s depressing.  And heartbreaking. And infuriating that these women are both beating themselves up over an arbitrary number, and writing off the hundreds of women they know who are older than them as “worthless”, however inadvertently.  Anti ageing products fuel this panic in younger women, and infuriates some of us elderly bitches to boot.

Older women are not ugly, or worthless or useless.  We are, however, invisible.  Oh yes, there’s Jane Fonda, and Helen Mirren. Well, yippee! Bully for them.  But for every Jane Fonda or Helen Mirren or Judi Dench, there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, oh sod it, MILLIONS of … ordinary … women in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and even beyond who will never be Jane Fonda, or Helen Mirren.  Don’t even want to be those people.  Don’t care about them.   There are millions of us, but where are we properly represented in the beauty industry?  If you’re not under 25, or haven’t had the genetic blessings (and good cosmetic surgery) to still be considered a (freak!) sex-symbol in your sixties, then you don’t exist.  We use teenagers without a line on their faces to sell wrinkle-cream to older women, then photoshop the hell out of the pictures because even being young, increasingly, isn’t good enough, you also have to be pore-free, line-free, and smooth, smooth, smooth like an egg, only without the personality.  The more we make the images behind the products unreal, the less people will believe the claims for your product.  I am never going to look like the woman in the advert because I used a £35 facecream, and I don’t care how much science went into the pot. I never, ever will.  And don’t use a sixty-something “sex-bomb” in a patronising attempt to appeal to “older” ladies because I won’t look like them, either.  My mum might though.

I don’t want to be younger, I want to not be scared of getting old.  I want my products to stop feeding that fear.  I want adverts to stop telling me that "old" women need to be less like themselves to be acceptable.   No face cream (or deodorant, or toothpaste, or even bloody foot cream for that matter) is going to stop me being the age I am.  I want to be the best me I can be.  I’m happy looking like me, for all I resemble an over-stuffed sofa with a smacked arse in place of a face.  Frankly, the younger, thinner, and inarguably much better-looking me was an even bigger pain in the behind than I am now – I don’t think I’d like her that much these days, and I really didn’t like her all that much at the time, now I come to think about it.

Ageing is a process.  We’re all of us getting older, right from the day we’re born. It’s inexorable.  You’re going to be “ Let’s make the inevitable products required to make ageing less of a chore (because it’s tiring enough just being old without added worry about looking old), and make the message behind them positive, not negative. 

 Beauty doesn’t need a time limit.

... and breathe ...


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Christian Louboutin Velvet Matte Lip Colour in Survivita Review

Does the world need a £60 lipstick? More specifically, do I need a £60 lipstick?  Objectively, of course, the answer is no.  I have a bucketful of Guerlain Rouge G's which were £32.50 each (though I remember when they were £28, and rather eye-watering then) and a drawer of Tom Fords, which are £38 each.

However, when Christian Louboutin launched his super-luxe lip colour collection, offering 38 lipstick shades in three different formulations at a whopping £60 each, I was at least slightly intrigued as to what makes a Christian Louboutin lipstick worth almost twice as much as the two of the other most expensive formulations widely available right now.  So I bought one.  Like you (okay, I) do.

The inside of the cap is Louboutin red to match the flocking on the box

Having seen (but not been able to swatch) the different shades at the official press launch last month, I selected Survivita in the Velvet Matte formulation.  A cool, cool red that has a hint of pink, I selected the matte formula because, frankly, if I'm paying £60 for any cosmetic product, then I want it to last.  So, did it pass the Lippie test?  Click through to find out (warning, picture heavy)

Skincare of the Week 20.09.15

Or, welcome to another week of what I plaster onto my ugly mug ;)  I'm still trialling Omorovicza Blue Diamond Eye Cream, and Zelens Intense Defence Antioxidant Serum, though I was thwarted a bit in testing this week through circumstances, as we'll see.  This was Monday's face, and I forgot to photograph the moisturiser ... :sigh: I wasn't made for Mondays.

Tuesday arrived, and I thought I'd try my L'Occitane Immortelle Precious Mist in place of my Bioderma Crealine/Serozinc sprays, and I'll be using this  a couple more times before I form a real opinion.  Aside from that, this was a pretty standard routine for me.  Oil cleanse, acid tone, moisture tone, serum, eye cream and moisturise.

On Wednesday, I "shopped my stash",  and brought out some autumn favourites, the Aesop Parsley Seed Facial Cleansing Oil, and  B & Tea Balancing Toner,  I do like to change my skincare around with the seasons, and as I have combination-oily skin with sensitivity issues, this is a good combo for my skin with my usual favourites around them.

Then on Wednesday evening a MUA in Harvey Nichols burnt my face with a cleansing foam, and I had to go back into crisis-mode ...

Flamingo Candles - The Melt Crowd

Meh.  I'm so over box schemes for beauty, I can't even begin to tell you.  But there are so many other companies using the subscription-box model to send out interesting (and more useful!) things, that I couldn't resist getting involved with this one.  Flamingo Candles do a range of funkily-scented candles and wax tarts to use in a burner, and now, for £10 a month, they'll send you a selection of eight of their latest scents (and in your first box you get the burner shown above too) for you to scent your home with.

Included in the September box were melts in:

White Lilac and Rhubarb
Grapefruit Orange and Lemon Peel (which I'm burning as I write this - I find grapefruit great for heightening concentration) (exclusive to subscribers)
Lemon and Lime Mojito
Rose and Marshmallow
Earl Grey Tea and Cucumber (I'm a bit obsessed with cucumber at the moment, so I'll be burning this one next!)
Circus Candy Floss  and
Crème Brulee (a preview of a scent to be release by Flamingo in the future)

 

Personally, I find a lot of this months selection quite sweet, but there are enough citrussy/cucumbery scents in there to keep me going.  Plus it turns out, I really don't like the smell of lilac (but that's personal taste rather than a fault of the tart)!  Shame, as I love the smell of rhubarb.

The melts last at least 8-10 hours in burning, and are powerful enough to scent the whole flat, I've found.  If you're a fan of Yankee Candles at all, these foody scents are a great natural-wax replacement, and best, they're British!  And so much cheaper (and nicer) than Yankee. 

You can find out more about the Melt Crowd scheme here.  One of the greatest things about it is that the £10 fee includes postage.  Individual melts normally cost £2, so the Melt Crowd box represents a great saving every month.   

The Fine Print: Purchase.


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Jo Malone Mimosa and Cardamom

As a result of losing my sense of smell last year, I'm attracted to smells that stimulate my trigeminal nerve as well as my olfactory one, and, from a perfume point of view, that means spicy fragrances are my friend, so when I heard about Jo Malone London Mimosa and Cardamom fragrance being launched recently, I was intrigued.

The last fragrance I really took to from Jo Malone London was the fruity-herbal Blackberry and Bay - all their releases from 2014 were released when I couldn't smell, so are a bit "lost" to me right now, but I fully intend to at least properly smell Wood Sage and Sea Salt if it kills me this year.  Mimosa and Cardamom is a slight departure for the brand, being slightly less lady-like and inoffensive than some of their releases in recent years - the "English Desserts" collection in particular turned my stomach somewhat I'm afraid, and it's all the better for it.

It starts with a puff of musky saffron and spicy cardamom before the tickly scent of mimosa kicks in.  Later, once the spices have dissipated slightly, it's a milky tonka and sandalwood, with just a hint of flowers in the background.  It makes an excellent house-scent, being warm, welcoming, and ... strangely lovable, without being over-sweet.

As a layering fragrance, it works astonishingly well over the Cologne Intense in Tuberose Angelica from the brand too, the clean bubblegum scent of Tuberose adds a depth and narcotic sexiness to the spicy green cardamom of Mimosa & Cardamom.

So nice to see - and smell! - a new direction from Jo Malone London.  As we turn into autumn, this is a perfectly-timed release from the brand, too, the spicy warmth makes a great addition to knitwear and tweedy jackets.  The candle version in particular is great for lighting on cooler autumn evenings.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

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Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil

Has the hype died down yet?  Is it safe to emerge?  I'd been waiting for Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil to launch ever since I heard a little snippet on the grapevine about it last January.    It took AGES to get onto market, then by the time I got my bottle, the entire world and his wife had theirs, and they had blogged about it, so I hid my review away until such time as it would be less buried in the avalanche of coverage.

I've been a massive fan of the Sunday Riley oils (and range in general) for a long time now,  and I'm well aware of how long they last (a year's worth of usage in each bottle, easily) so, whilst throwing down that initial £85 was hard - and it was - I knew it was an investment I wouldn't easily regret.  Luna Sleeping Night Oil is a retinol product, and my skin being of a sensitive disposition, retinols have been something I've routinely avoided over the years as every excursion into them has led to redness, flakiness and peeling.  Sexy.

Retinols are derivatives of Vitamin A, which encourage exfoliation and can lead to the reduction of fine lines, pores and wrinkles, which has to be a good thing.  It encourages cell-turnover, which is why it can occasionally lead to irritation on more sensitive skins.

In Luna, the active retinol is buffered by soothing blue tansy oil (though I notice that there is artificial colouring in the formula of the oil, so the deep cerulean blue of the product isn't entirely down to flower essences), alongside other neutral carrier oils, so even my prone to redness skin can handle it.  Blue Tansy is also a major ingredient in s favourite balm of mine, May Lindstrom's The Blue Cocoon Beauty Balm Concentrate, and it's a great ingredient for stressed-out skin.

To use, you apply three-to-four drops of oil to your face (a drop or two extra will cover your neck and décolletage, too) after cleansing at night, then follow it up with the moisturiser of your choice (I double this up with the Blue Cocoon every time) and wake up to smoother, younger, plumper, fresher-looking skin.  Seeing my skin in the bathroom mirror after a night using Luna is always a treat (shame it's still the same face, but you can't have everything), things look fresher.  More even, less red.  I haven't noticed any particular difference to my wrinkles - I'm, ironically, not very wrinkly considering my status as an OLD LADY of blogging, but there you go - but my skin does, very much, look better after using it.

I've started off using Luna Sleeping Night Oil twice a week, and I'll probably end up using it every other night at some point - I have a feeling using it more often will lead to irritation.  So far, three months or so in, I've yet to see any dryness, redness or peeling as a result of use, and I'm very happy about that.

So, was it worth the hype?  In my eyes, yes. Is it worth the £85 price per bottle?  It's undoubtedly expensive, but for visible results whenever you use it, it's hard to beat.


The Fine Print: Purchase


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