Skincare of the Week 8th July 2016

Yeah, it's been a while ... Turns out I like not blogging almost as much as I do actual blogging, who knew?!  Anyway, for today at least, I'm back slaving away at a keyboard. I would have been back last week, but stuff happened, and I'm still wearing the bandage on the middle finger of my left hand, let's put it that way.

Anyhoo, skincare.  This week was mainly about trialling the new Burts Bees Cleansing Oil (literally just released in the UK, and costs £16.99 a bottle from their website).  I like it a lot, but I'm a bit upset it's a fragranced oil, I can't see any reason why it needs to be.  It's a light, smooth oil that spreads over the skin nicely, and removes makeup thoroughly but gently.  The label indicates its for dryer skins than mine, but my sensitive combination-oily skin tolerates it nicely.  It doesn't quite emulsify when you come to rinse, just becomes a bit looser, and it easily wipes off with a warm flannel.  I like it.  

Everything else I've been using this week is an old (or an almost-old) favourite, I'm still mostly in love with Tata Harper skincare, and I'm nearing the end of this  bottle of the Tata Harper Rejuvenating Serum, and I totally intend to finish it off. I recently finished my much-beloved bottle of Zelens Intense Defence Serum, which has left a gaping hole in my routine, to be honest, I'm still casting about to find the perfect replacement, the Tata is good, and does what it is supposed to, but I just don't love it as much as the Zelens for some reason.  It does work really well with the Rebuilding moisturiser though.

How has your week in skincare been?

 The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Skincare of the week 29.11.15

I've been ill for a fortnight now - why there weren't any posts on the blog last week, sorry! And this is the skincare I've been using to help myself look approximately normal again.  It's not working, I still look like death warmed up, but at least my skin isn't blotchy and flaking.  For now ...

Monday brought Biologique Recherche Lait, with PixiBeauty Glow Tonic, Murad Eye Cream, Medik8 Red Skin serum (something I'm starting to truly love and rely on), and SkinCeuticals moisturiser - of which there is a full review coming up, because it's a great product on my sensitive oily-combination skin. Oh, and Serozinc, which is an all-time favourite!

Tuesday was the same,  only I swapped in Bioderma Crealine spray for the Serozinc (and in all honesty, I use them both interchangably - if you have one, you probably don't need the other), plus I added in Pestle & Mortar Pure Hyaluronic, for more hydration.  Tuesday was a long day at the office, and I knew I'd need a boost of hydration to get through the day, but I needed a bit of exfoliation first to make it sink in well, so the morning also brought in my much-loved Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Toner.

Wednesday was one of those days where I woke up super exhausted, and it was showing on my face, so I wanted some lovely, buffering, comforting skincare, so I dug out my beloved (truly beloved) May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon Balm, which is an amazing skincare product for sensitised slightly reactive skin like mine.  A rich balm that melts into an oil, and contains natural anti-histamines in the form of blue tansy oil, I use it as a night treatment mostly, but it's superb at protecting from the weather, on occasion.

Thursday - I'm experimenting with the Kiehls' Ultra Facial moisturiser at the moment, which I really liked in conjunction with the Blue Cocoon Balm, and, just because I could, I did a double-cleanse with PixiBeauty Nourishing Cleansing Balm, and Bioessense Miracle Cleansing Water Cleansing Jelly (about which more soon).  I don't normally double-cleanse in the morning , but sometimes you just want to kick things up a bit.

Friday.  KATE SOMERVILLE is back in my routine! I received a little package of the products a while ago, and I've been holding onto them (along with the KS products I've been keeping in my fridge for a good few months now too - thanks to kind friends and family who have been to the US this year, and dragged some back for me) till now.  You're going to be seeing a lot of KS in the coming weeks, but it's always a joy to use them.  I'm currently using the Kate Somerville Nourish Moisturiser, and the Age Arrest Eye Cream, but I'll be rotating a couple of other products in and out of my routine for a couple of weeks.  I also have a couple of pots of Goat Cream, but I'm keeping those mainly as night creams right now.

Saturday - I wanted to do a routine composed entirely of favourite products, both old and new ones, and this was the result.  Zelens Balm Cleanser, which I left on my face for a good five or ten minutes as a mask before removing (not deliberate, but it felt really nice, actually!) Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Toner, Serozinc, Zelens Antioxidant Serum, and three (count them!) Kate Somerville products, the aforementioned Nourish and Age Arrest eyecream, alongside Quench Hydrating Serum, which is one of my favourite products ever.  I probably need the oil-free version for every day use, to be honest, but I do like to use this on days where I'm in no rush to apply my makeup afterwards.

How has your week in skincare been? 


The Fine Print: PR Samples, purchases, and gifts which were  until recently kept in the back of the fridge ...


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Skincare of the Week 8th November 2015

A bit of a mixed bag this week, skincare wise.  Looking at the pictures all in one place kind of makes it clear that I have certain patterns in product usage - Pixi Glow Tonic, for example, I tend to use for two days then swap to Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Toner.  The one product I've used consistently this week has been Medik8 Red Alert Serum, which I'm liking more and more the more often I use it.  I find it gentle and soothing, and my redness, particularly in the mornings is much reduced.  Doesn't make any difference to my redness when I drink booze though ... oops.  I really like the Skinceuticals moisturiser too.  It's quite a lightweight texture, but it is still plenty hydrating on my combination-oily skin, without leaving a greasy residue.  I'll write more in detail about both these products soon, and there's a full review of the gorgeous Votary Cleansing Oil upcoming too.

I've picked up some more of the Pixi Skintreats range this week, as I've been incredibly impressed with what I've tried from the range so far and I was intrigued to try more - you can see the Milky Hydrating Mist and Glowtion Day Dew in Thursday's picture, but I also have the Glow Pads and a couple of other bits as well. And I'm trialling some new things from Dermalogica and Murad over the next two weeks, it's all go on the skincare front, but I'm looking forward to trying them out!  Have a few more Christmas-themed posts coming up this week first though ...

 The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Skincare of the week: 31/10/2015

A (slightly) different format for Skincare of the Week this week ... Also, I've decided to introduce a little Product of the Week award too! 

This week was busy and stressful, and coupled with a bout of insomnia, it wasn't really fun.  I did have a good facial this week at the Askinology Facial Bar in Leadenhall Market, which is where I discovered Medik8 Red Alert Skin Serum. You can see it in every picture from Wednesday onwards. 

As many readers of this blog know; I'm prone to redness, and sensitivity is one of the banes of my existence.  I was a bit worried after my facial that a rather, ah ... enthusiastic scrubbing with a physical exfoliant (something I would never, ever do at home) was going to leave me red and sore for the rest of the week, but a few drops of the Medik8 before going to bed, and a few drops in my facial routine the following morning seemed to sort it right out.  I've stuck to blander cleansers since though, just in case a flare-up was imminent, but a pinkness crisis seems to have been averted, so far. Just in case though, I've been at pains to avoid essential oils for a few days too - as, with a very few exceptions, they all irritate when my skin is inflamed.  This is a shame, as I am loving the Votary range of oils at the moment and, especially, the cleanser, but they are essential oil-heavy, and delicious with it, but are something I need to wander away from when I think my skin is a bit irritable.

But, the real miracle product in my routine this week has been Pestle & Mortar Pure Hyaluronic Serum, and as such, it's my inaugural "Product of the Week"!  I picked this up on a whim when I was in Liberty recently - my Hydraluron stocks are running low - and I kind of fell in love with it.  A slight bout of insomnia this week (funny thing, I've been interviewing auditors all week, you'd think that would be a cure, not a cause, but I digress) means that I've been aware I've been looking tired - so very tired - when I wake up in the mornings and a quick swipe with two or three drops of this has had my skin plumped up and happy-looking even on the shortest of sleep-cycles.  With one of the shortest ingredients lists I've ever seen* in a skincare product, Pure Hyaluronic Serum is vegan and free of things like phtalates, parabens and silicone.  It costs £33 and is currently exclusive to Liberty in the UK.  If you're a bit tired, snap some up. I'll write about it in a bit more detail soon, but it's great stuff.

*Ingredients list in full: Aqua, *Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice,  *Sodium Hyaluronate,  *Cucumis sativus fruit extract,  Butylene Glycol, *Tocopheryl  Acetate,  *Glycerin,  *Xanthan Gum,  Phenoxyethanol,  *Caprylyl Glycol (all ingredients marked with a * are plant-derived)

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and personal purchases.


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Skincare of the Week 25/10/15

 It has been a long and busy week here at Get Lippie, and my lifestyle has shown a bit in my skincare choices, I've swapped to a more hydrating routine, and I've slipped a few new products in too.  I'll be concentrating on some night-time routines this week.  More after the jump.

Skincare of the Week: 17.10.2015

 

I've been beauty blogging a long time, well over six years now, and in that time my interests have changed. From basically wanting to catalogue my lipstick collection (where the name came from), to learning to love (and grow) my fingernails, then COLOURS, COLOURS, COLOURS, and finally to where I am now, which is obsessed with skincare.  Mostly I'm too lazy to spend hours every day applying my face - though I do wear a different lipstick every day still - so my skin needs to be tip-top at all times, hence the obsession.

My skin is combination-oily, prone to redness and sensitivity, and it is full of pores.  I suffered horrendously from adult on-set acne in my late twenties too - which I mainly cured through getting my skincare right. I'm in the "mature" skin category these days, but a lot of anti-ageing creams are too heavy for my oiliness, so I'm constantly on a quest to deal with my redness rather than my wrinkles (of which at the moment I have thankfully few, but the ones I do have grow slightly more entrenched every day - I'm learning to love them).  These Skincare of the Week posts are my way of diarising what I'm trialling, what I really love, what works - and if you see it disappear after just one use or two - what doesn't work at all.  So read on to find out what's been on my ugly mush this week.

Skincare of the Week 11.10.15

No blog posts last week because I was unwell last Sunday and I simply couldn't face writing in the slightest.  I still kept up with my skincare routines though, because I do (occasionally) have standards ...  The routine above was a night-time one mid-week, from when I had a congested chin - complete with zit!  I haven't had a zit in a couple of years now!  Stupid hormones - I'll be reviewing the Pixi Skintreats Glow Mud Cleanser in full tomorrow, but I found that a mixture of the Overnight Glow Serum (a gel formula with 15% glycolic acid) on the congested areas and the Nourishing Sleep Mask (which contains lavender and hyaluronic acid) on everywhere else really, really helped.  The zit was only in place for a day or two, which was nice...

Another night-time routine later in the week had me trying these Elizabeth Arden Skin Illuminating Advanced Brightening Night Capsules, and I'm looking forward to using these a couple more times, as the texture of the formula is fabulous, and I was left with lovely velvety smooth skin in the morning.  Hopefully they'll be like that every time!

For more daytime routines, please join me after the jump.