Products I'm loving February 2014

Being someone that is very much into all things beauty related, I'm always buying new products and rediscovering old favourites. My skin is generally combination although my t-zone is incredibly oily and I suffer with random dry patches/sometimes eczema through the colder months. 

This month I have been using a variety of products really, I always use my faithful Bioderma Sensibio H2O to cleanse my face in the mornings and remove my makeup in the evenings. It's great, I love it and it manages to get through the layers of makeup to reveal my skin in a few swipes of a cotton wool pad. I buy the 500ml size as needless to say I get through a bottle at super high speed (I buy it from escentual.com). 

I recently bought the Clarins Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner after reading endless blog posts about it and decided that I must write one too! I am ashamed to say I am actually Clarins trained and worked at a salon with Clarins products readily at my fingertips for 2 years but didn't explore many of the products for myself. Slapped wrist for me! Exfoliating my skin once or twice a week is great for my body as I wear fake tan almost all the time but my face flares up if I scrub it with an Exfoliator containing bits. At the same time I don't feel that enzyme or fruit acid peels do anything amazing either. This is where Clarins come in. I wipe my face over with the Brightening Toner a few times a week and to my surprise it makes my skin feel soft and look less dull and tired. 

I'm also loving my Elizabeth Arden lip balm which I wear at night to soothe my incredibly dry lips which I spend all day licking and nervously chewing! Bad habit I know. 

Hair- I can't get enough of my Milkshake Leave In Conditioner and my tangle teaser. My hair falls just below my bra strap and takes a fair amount of time to brush as it knots very quickly. The leave in conditioner smells like milk bottle sweets so i spray very liberally on my hair to get my sugar fix. Tangle Teasers are one of the best things ever invented, I still haven't quite worked out how they manage to de-tangle my mop with not so much a scream or swear word! 

Xx

My Skincare Routine

It's about time I wrote a post on the cleansers/ creams etc I use. I have a big basket full of cleansers/toners/masks/serums/moisturisers... The list goes on! You name it, it's in there. I go through phases of using particular products then switching to something else although at the moment I'm trying to use up a lot of them so that I can use the new ones I get for my birthday and Christmas ( which is coming round way too quick). 

For cleansing I am switching between two products- Bioderma and Elemis Pro Radiance Cream Cleanser. I use the Bioderma when I have makeup on as it gets rid of every last little bit and only takes a few minutes. I use the Elemis cleanser when I have hardly any makeup on or none at all, it's thick and smells gorgeous. I just massage it over my skin and then rinse with warm water, followed by the L'Occitane Immortelle Essential Water. I love this stuff! I just have the sample size as it always comes in a box or bag along with full size products I order but that's plenty big enough as I took it on holiday in my hand luggage( I am addicted to using it). Just spritz it on your face after cleansing and it instantly refreshes it without that horrible drying affect toners have. I don't like using toners as they strip my skin and I don't like the tight feeling they leave behind. My skin is quite oily and dehydrated but I don't like stripping the oil off it as it then makes my skin go into overdrive and produce more oil! I can't win really! :) 

Currently I am using up my L'Occitane samples of Essence Sublime and the Angelica Hydration Cream. I'm hoping that by using these my skin won't be as dehydrated and uneven. The Essence Sublime reduces redness, evens skintone, tightens pores and gives the skin an overall fresher and smoother look. My skin does look better and my pores aren't as visible, it also soaks in very quickly so my skin clearly needs and loves it! The moisturiser is light and fresh and not at all greasy so it ticks all the boxes as far as I'm concerned! If I'm suffering from a few breakouts, I use the La Roche Posay Effaclar A.K Targeted Breakout Corrector which seems to reduce the redness of my spots and makes them heal quicker. Also every night I use the RapidLash eyelash growth serum which I was a bit dubious about to begin with buy it really had made my lashes grow! I bought it a few months ago when I had my eyelash extensions taken off as my natural lashes have always been short and horrible. It took a few weeks for me to notice a different but it has definitely thickened and lengthened my lashes.