Living for the Good Life: skincare

Showing posts with label skincare. Show all posts

As you've seen, I'm seriously loving skincare at the moment, and so when I was browsing Marks and Spencers sometime around Black Friday and saw this set from REN for half price, I was ecstatic.

I've been eyeing up REN skincare for a while now, after using the little samples from Space NK, but could never decide which product I actually wanted to take the leap and buy a full size of. So, when I saw this trio set of full size products for the amazing price of £49 (RRP £100!), I jumped at the chance. The selection sounded ideal for what I was looking for and I decided there and then on the spot to buy it immediately.

As you can see, the products come in a cute box (which I've already recycled as a nail varnish container), and the set includes the Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask (50ml) - you know how much I love my glycolic!, the Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial (75ml), and the Keep Young and Beautiful Instant Firming Beauty Shot (30ml).

I've used all three products now and can easily say I love all of them. The glycolic mask is only to be used once or week or so, and leaves your skin feeling so cleansed, so long as you wash it off properly. The flash rinse facial is to be used every 3 days and is a rougher texture mask that leaves your skin feeling ever so exfoliated. I used the keep young serum every night and apply it as the first product, so the base layer. Even when my skin has been playing up because of bad eating, I can see the blemish-free areas are clear, bright and glowing.

Even for the full £100, this set isn't a bad deal, and I'd definitely recommend getting your hands on it if your skincare routine needs a refresh.

The set's exclusive to M&S and is currently unavailable to buy online, but definitely check your nearest large store.

A.M.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel - Lovely texture, sinks into the skin nicely and leaves your skin feeling plump and hydrated but not too 'wet' or greasy.

Nip+Fab Viper Venom Eye Fix - Typical rollerball eye roll-on gel. Comes out quite wet but feels refreshing in the morning. Doesn't sink in very fast or easily, however.

Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado - To top up the eye roll-on. A more intense and creamy treatment that feels luxurious and sinks into the skin nicely when patted on gently. I'm all about preventing them eye wrinkles.

P.M.

Nip+Fab Glycolic Fix Serum - A gel-like serum that sinks into the skin rapidly and leaves you with a slight 'tightened' effect. Really noticed results with this product. Brightened, tightened and more glowing. Big fan of glycolic acid here!

Nip+Fab Viper Venom Extreme Night Fix - I wanted another night treatment to pair with the serum. This one is more of a creamy consistency and thus adds a bit of moisture into my night routine. Thoughts and results to come in time after further use!

Sudocrem Antiseptic Healing Cream - Apply this every night to blemishes. Works a treat and reduces redness and swelling, as well as healing scabs.

Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado - Apply this both day and night.

A.M. & P.M.

Boots Exfoliating Face Scrub with Tea Tree & Witch Hazel - Cheapie that I simply use to give my face a thorough rinse and exfoliate when I'm in the shower. Really feels like it's getting all the grime off your skin and leaves you feeling fresh.

Anthony Glycolic Facial Cleanser - My daily cleanser that I use pre-skincare both day and night to remove traces of make-up or general grime. Creamy consistency that leaves your skin feeling plump and fresh - can tingle slightly occasionally if you have an open blemish. I'd recommend avoiding the eyes with this one.

Please do let me know what your skincare routine consists of. I'm super keen to expand my collection and bring in some new wonders to my routine. Seriously open to any night serum or moisturiser recommendations!

I don't know what's going on or what's causing it but lately I've been getting extremely itchy in random places like the back of my knees, my ankles, and even the top of my bum cheeks of all places! (sorry if thats TMI). It particularly plagues me at night, which, naturally, I find highly annoying and discomforting - anything that comes between me and sleep spells disaster...

Anyway, I was given this in a goody bag when Holland & Barrett opened in Chester a couple of months back and it's been an absolute skin saviour ever since. It's made using 100% pure aloe vera and claims to help soothe, moisturise and soften dry skin. It also states that it can be applied to strecth marks, dry or chapped skin and skin irritations. I can attest to these claims and so can the boyfriend.

Whenever late night random un-welcomed itching makes its appearance I leap out of bed and slather this stuff on, leading to instant relief. It's a clear gel consistency that is instantly cooling to the skin and leaves no real residue, only a mild tackiness on the skin if applied generously. I always panic that I will wake up with scratches and red rashes from where I itch myself but if I apply this I wake up with no evidence and no more itching (for the rest of the day anyway...).

The boyfriend has also found this extremely handy as he gets eczema on his face and when he doesn't have his normal eczema cream to hand he uses this and it provides relief for not only the redness, but also the dry, flakiness that eczema brings to his skin.

My tube is 100ml and that size will cost you only £3.99 at Holland & Barrett, and for 200ml it's £6.99. So, at such a good price I really don't think you can wrong. It's a wonderfully multipurpose product that I will definitely be re-purchasing when my tube runs out.

I recently hit that unfortunate stage where all your skincare seems to run out at the same time, and so made the most of my recent trip to Manchester to pick up some goodies.

My Boots cleanser had ran out and I fancied investing in something more upmarket with more promising qualities for, of course, about 5 times the price. How I think of it though is that your face is with you forever and is the first thing people tend to see so it's really one of the main things that's worth investing in over say, make-up or clothes. Until it has ran out I was using Nip+Fab Glycolic Fix Serum as my nightly treatment, which really did do wonders to my skin. As a result of this I knew glycolic acid was a winner for me but didn't actually really know what it did, until I went to Space NK in Manchester. I told the sales woman that I was looking for a cleanser and spent about 10 minutes going back and forth stuck between various options and being intimidated by price tags. After said time the sales woman approached me and commented that she thought the products I'd been browsing were perhaps too heavy and too anti-ageing for my younger skin and so immediately recommended me the brand Anthony.

I'd never previously heard of Anthony, which is probably due to the fact that it's a line actually marketed at men! Apparently it's marketed at men, but is very popular with women. I was told that due to the fact that apparently men are unwilling to pay as much for skincare as women, their products tend to be priced lower, but contain very similar ingredients. I was shown the Glycolic Facial Cleanser, which's star ingredient is, of course, glycolic acid. This immediately drew me in, alongside the product size (237ml) and the price tag (£26). I told the sales woman I loved my glycolic serum and that I wanted to start using anti-ageing products asap, to which to my delight she replied that glycolic acid is one of the best anti-agers going - result! Compared to many of the other cleansers on offer this one from Anthony just seemed to make sense to me - glycolic acid works wonders for my skin, it's a much bigger size than other more expensive cleansers, and as an added bonus doesn't have the terribly strong smell of some other cleansers. Also, it's a creamy lotion consistency that lathers up, which I much prefer the idea of in comparison to the thick, greasy, balmy texture of the Emma Hardy cleanser that I was firstly seriously considering. I was sold quickly and hurried to the till, where I was given some free samples with my purchase - good old Space NK!

Free samples wahoo!

I then hurried over to Boots revelling in my newly founded glycolic-acid knowledge and decided that I would repurchase my Nip+Fab Glycolic Fix Serum - glycolic all round! To my sheer delight some of the Nip+Fab products were around half price so I not only repurchased my serum but also picked up the Nip+Fab Viper Venom Eye Fix anti-ageing gel. This is basically a fancy eye roll-on that is supposed to be anti-ageing and reduces the appearances of dark circles. Don't ask me about the whole 'viper venom' part...sheer marketing con, let's be honest. But I like it so, whatever! It has been recently repackaged, which I really dislike, but I'll ignore that for now.

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