The products above have all contributed to getting my skin in ship shape recently, I have always had difficult skin but a couple of months ago I was suffering from a lot more problems than usual. The main culprits being; constant breakouts (hormonal and otherwise), severe dry patches, and sensitivity. A very irritating combination I might add, but luckily, after a LONG period of trial and error I have found my 'life saving' products!
I have included two face cleansers, and I didn't decide to purposefully use these two separate cleansers for a specific reason, it was just because I spotted the Vichy one when desperate for a new cleanser on the way home one day and found this in a random pharmacy in Kensington and it looked perfect for my skin problems at the time. I started using the Dermalogica one because I needed something that would remove my eye makeup and didn't want to use the Vichy one as it has scrubby particles in it, so to try and cut a very long winded and boring story short it seemed to me that the Dermalogica cleanser was excellent at removing a full face of makeup and then I could cleanse my makeup free face with the Vichy one targeted at acne prone skin!
I have to say I think the whole double cleansing thing may have helped to keep the breakouts to a minimum but they have both massively cleared up my skin.
After using two face wash cleansers my skin can feel a little tight afterwards but by no means uncomfortably stripped (which I can't stand) and once I put my moisturiser on it feels perfect.
One thing I quickly need to rave about is my Body shop facial buffer, its £3 and its is this little baby ALONE that has completely gotten rid of my dry patches, and trust me, I have tried nearly EVERY product out there that removes dead skin cells and dry patches; masks, peels, scrubs, muslins, you name it and although most have been pretty effective, none have been as good as the facial buffer, and at £3 it is by far the cheapest solution!
The Caudalie mask I have spoken about before but its basically my spot treatment whenever I notice a blemish appearing and it saves me every time.
I love the Jurlique Purely Age Defying eye cream simply because I normally react in some way to eye cream, by either developing dry sensitive skin under the eyes or by clogging up the pores and getting little bumps, but after using this eye cream I have not reacted at all and the skin around my eyes is just as it should be! Plus this is an anti ageing product so I feel like I am preventing any unwanted fine lines.
I have saved the best till last.....Oilatum Natural Repair Cream, as recommended by Nic and Sam from Pixiwoo...this stuff is flipping amazing! My skin type is so dry and tight that it needs a heavy duty moisturiser that penetrates in to the skin efficiently so it hydrates my skin properly but doesn't leave a greasy film so I break out, which my skin will do in an instant. I have searched and searched, and after having just finished working at Space NK for 2 and a half years and trying every product under the sun I have finally found my saviour moisturiser! The best thing is that its £7.49 from boots! Slight downside at the moment being that as it was recommended by the Pixiwoo sisters there unfortunately now seems to be a mega shortage but I'm hoping this will be temporary and Oilatum will step up to meet their new demand!
I do use a serum but I find that any one is fine, I've never found any particular brand or product to do especially good or bad things to my skin, all i know is that I notice when I don't use one, my skin will be too dry and I will need to apply more moisturiser than usual. Plus i like knowing that I am hydrating the layers of skin underneath the surface layer as the molecules are a lot smaller in a serum and will travel a lot deeper in to the skin.
That has turned out to be a massive ramble but I am really happy with my skin care routine at the moment and its taken me a long time to get here so I thought I should share!
Hope it was helpful to someone!
x Lucy x
