Skin Routine

Sooo kiddos. I thought I would do you a little post a bout my skin-care routine. I was talking about it on Twitter and wondered if anybody was interested, and a few people were... and here we are.

L-R:

Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover

Shu Uemura Skin Purifier

The Body Shop Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash

Decleor Paris Tonifying Lotion

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub

One:

Make sure all your makeup is removed. I use a liquid eye makeup remover, and then a face-cleanser. I like this Shu Uemura one, but I'm probably not going to repurchase. Both this and the Boots Botanic are oil-based cleansers, and as a chick who likes a shit-ton of eyeliner and is a fan of bright, staining lipstick.. these are godsends, literally. Matte red lipstick stains like hell, and this gets it off. If you're feeling lazy and can't be bothered, cheat and use a makeup wipe and THEN use a cleanser like the Body Shop one (i'll get onto that in a second). Generally I don't use both the Shu Uemura and the Body Shop, as this dries my skin out. To remove eye makeup, dampen a cotton pad with your remover, hold on eye makeup for ten-twenty seconds, then sweep off, removing makeup and mascara.

Two:

Cleanse, cleanse, cleanse. This seaweed one from the Body Shop is inexpensive and great quality. Even if you think you've got rid of all your makeup - you probably haven't. It'll be lurking. If you want to use a deep-pore one, those are great, you can kind of tell when they're working well as you feel really clean and your skin is nice and smooth, but not dried out. This will get rid of any traces of dirt or oil, and everyday yuck like that. If you remove your makeup properly and cleanse every single day, you're much less likely to get spots or blemishes.

Three:

Exfoliation. Some people say this isn't necessary, but I think it's important to do it every so often. If you have sensitive skin, do it twice a week, or something. I find it just helps remove any dead or dry skin, and keeps my skin feeling fresh and smooth. My skin always looks brighter and healthier, and more glowy. Don't use a scrub that's too harsh, or you're scratch and hurt your skin. I've just upgraded from a veryyyyyy gentle one (with barely any exfoliator in it) to this Neutrogena, and I feel like it's on the border of being a bit too harsh, but I'll see how it goes.

Four:

Tonerr. This step definitely isn't completely necessary. Some think they're awesome, others claim that some are too harsh and can remove your nail-varnish (ahem, Clinique..). A good toner tightens your pores and gets rid of anything left on your skin. If you feel like your cleanser does this, leave it out. Genuinely, I have had this bottle for ages now, and only bust it out when my skin is in real need of rescue, but I do recommend Decleor for face-essentials. They're a pricey brand but they're a good name with good products, in my opinion. This is a very nice, gentle product that doesn't hurt or sting, and has a really lovely, fresh smell. Investigate and try out your toners, if possible, and read many opinions before settling on one for yourself. If it stings or feels too harsh, stop using it. To apply, just sweep all over your face with a cotton ball (these seem to work better than with pads, I'm not really sure why).

Five:

Moisture. I haven't included a picture, because I need to buy a new one, but my ultimate favourite is Clinique's Dramtically Different Moisturising Gel (such a mouthful). They do two, a lotion and a gel, the gel is infiniteeely better, imho. It sinks into your skin immediately, leaving wonderful, soft, soft, soft skin. This makes sure any moisture you've removed from your skin by cleansing and exfoliating and scrubbing is put back in, ensuring you don't get dry skin! Simple.

Was this helpful? Do you have any questions..? What is your skin routine..? Let me know! (:

First Impressions!

At 11PM this evening, my friend was having a chocolate craving and I was in a fit of boredom (for those who have never experienced this, a fit of boredom is basically just passed out on my bed). So I drove over and we went to the local Tesco's for a wander and spent like an hour just having a browse, haha. I ended up leaving with a couple of cans of Rubicon (the guava juice is the best drink in the world), a Grazia magazine, and this Neutrogena face scrub! The other thing was something I picked up in town this morning.
That said, here are my first impressions of two products:


Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Daily Scrub, £4.49
Boots Botanics Soothing Eye Makeup Remover, £2.99

I was looking for the eye-makeup remover today and my friend pointed out to me the Pink Grapefruit face-wash, which I declined (because I have two facial washes I need to get through, haha). Then this evening we were wandering around Tesco's and I wanted to get a gentle facial scrub, so decided to try this one, as I fancied a bit of a change.
It claims:
- with exfoliating micro-pbeads the formula unclogs pores to clean deeply and help elimiate spots and blackheads.
- the refreshing scrub gently purifies the skin without overdrying, while a wave of pink grapefruit uplifts the senses.
I used this when I got home about an hour ago so this is my pretty much immediate impressions. It says "gentle" - which I am in two minds about, really. I don't know if I have very sensitive skin, but it was exactly gentle. Not hard, but not really gentle. Firm, maybe? I dunno. They do a good job, though! Just don't know if I would use that word, really.
The smell is pretty lovely! I love anything with a grapefruity smell (even though I hate grapefruit...) so I warmed to this straight away. It's not unlike The Body Shop's Grapefruit scent, but it smells a bit more.. hospitaly? If that makes sense? A bit like disinfectant. It's not off-putting, but it's noticeable, I think.
Like I said, I used it about an hour ago and my skin instantly felt smoother and much cleaner, which I like. It says it gives a "fresh clean feel" which is about right, really! I feel like almost a fiver is a bit on the expensive side, but I suppose I only used about a 5p amount of product so it'll last for a while, and the packaging is fairly standard for these kind of products - but they do get a bit messy around the cap sometimes, which is a pain.

Price: 3/5
Packaging: 3/5
Product: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Would I buy this product again?: Probably. Might have to try some other options, though.

My Simple eye-makeup remover was starting to hurt my eyes a little bit, like sting my skin, so I thought it was about time to change what I've been using. So I went hunting for a nice one that was gentle to my eyes and found this by Botanics. It claims to be soothing, with "Iceland moss that hydrates and soothes" and I used it earlier to take my makeup off, and it definitely was quite soothing. It's a weird forumla, I didn't really notice but it's very oily, in fact, it separates:
You can see the two different layers, here, one is greenish and one is clear. I'm not sure if it's oil exactly, because the oily looking one is on the bottom. So I dunno about that really. That's beside the point, though. It is very nice on the eye area, and removes makeup very well, even getting off the trace of mascara and eyeliner that normally linger. I don't really know anything about the moss it supposedly has, but it doesn't hurt so this is good in my book!
I loveee the shape of the bottle and the style, I think it's really nice and simple, and it's not a bad price, either, for £2.99! Pretty good, in fact. I can see it lasting a while, as I'll just use this to remove stubborn eye-makeup and then use a cleanser on my face.
It didn't leave an oily residue as oily makeup removers sometimes do. Sometimes they seem to make my skin feel really sticky and heavy, and this didn't do this! So good times were had.

Price: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Product: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

Would I buy this product again?: So far, most definitely!

Hope you enjoyed this first impressions review, I am now off to bed!

rogue rouge

like the title? i do too!
anyway, i decided to post this because red lipstick seems to have been everywhere lately. ever since jen brill came on the seen with her eternally red lips, it seemed all the girls on the late night scene wanted their lips blood red as well. we've seen the red lip done at a myriad of fashion shoes, in a slew of fashion editorials and on the high heel clad girls downtown. are you curious about trying this look? the look is appealing to me, but i'm not ready for it yet. before i jump into the world of sexy red lips i'm going to do some research. in order to get the perfect red look you need to take your skintone into account. here are some great options that i found.
♥ me

the lip of luxury lipstick in drop dead red by too faced is drop dead gorgeous. it goes on smooth and has a diamond shine. it's perfect for romantic evenings out or fancy events. this color is best for people with lighter skin with pink undertones. you can get it for $18 from freepeople.com. i think a large part of the price is accounted for by the fact that it contains champagne essences. i wonder if you wore it enough, if it would be possible for you to get drunk? farfetched...but you never know!

IMAN Luxury Moisturizing Lipstick in Iman Red 005 is an excellent choice for those with darker medium to dark skin. as you can see in the swatch above, it is a very warm red. but what i like about it is that it is still a true red. it's not too orangey or pinky, it's a pure warm red. there aren't a lot of makeup lines that cater to women of color, but i think Iman did a great thing by formulating a makeup line for women of color. believe it or not, women of color aren't just black women--they're indian, chinese, pakistani, hispanic--they're from island nations, from africa, etc. it's very hard to get all of those different skintones into a bottle, so i'm definitely an advocate for more specialty makeup lines! ok...that's my little spiel...on to the next shades...

Neutrogena Moisture Shine Lipstick is relatively cheap and has three good red shades for various skintones. poppy red is a less intense, muted red for those with light to light medium skintones. the red isn't too intense, so it'll leave your lips looking flushed. cherry twist is a glamorous red for light to medium skintones. it seems to have a slight blue undertones, so it would really pop on people with very warm, orangey/yellowy color in their skin. pomegranate is a beautiful red that reminds me of the sauce on pizza, and it looks just as yummy! this shade would be great for darker medium to dark skintones because it could bring out the gold and bronzey undertones in those complexions.

Luxury for Lips Moisture Rich Lipcolor from Kohl's also has three shades for different skintones. rose wonder is a sheer red that's good for lighter skintones, but could work as a nude color on darker skintones. nantucket red is definitely on the berry side, but would be a snazzy red option for darker skintones, and probably wouldn't require the wearing of lipliner. siren red is great for light to medium/dark skintones. i love it's bright hue.

other red lipsticks that i've heard are popular are from kevyn aucoin, sheseido and givenchy. so if you're willing to shell out a lot of cash you can look into those brands. :)