As in, I’ve decided today is face day, and also: take a trip in the way-back machine to get some quick reviews of face masks I have tried and tested. Below are the products reviewed:
Dermalogica makes yet another appearance! I am nothing if not consistent.
When reviewing things
It helps to read directions.
Call me crazy, right?
I love French stuff: the food, the wine, the lifestyle, the whole santé thing that they do. I’d never heard of the Avène line before, but have had the chance to try several of their products. I particularly got a kick out of the Thermal Spring Water, but haven’t really made it a big part of my regime. I was spritzing myself with the pressurised spray because I was bored last year during the snowpocalypse. It helped break up the day, and I suspect my skin, housebound as I was, enjoyed the refreshing sensation.
We don’t suffer from a lack of moist air in Ireland, so it doesn’t seem necessary to carry around a container of hydrotherapy in my handbag. Neither is the sun much of an issue, but SPF enthusiasts will insist that any sun is sun that is going to age us and give us skin cancer, so when the Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF came through the letterbox, I thought, ‘Better safe than sorry.’
Of course, I didn’t bother reading exactly what it was so when I tried to use it as pressed powder, uh yeah, it didn’t work. Because it is foundation. Unaware, I swiped it over a face that was already sporting foundation. Crazy! I put it aside and forgot about it, scarred momentarily by my misuse of it.
Then one day I was running late, and I wanted to cut out the middle woman, meaning the time-consuming dispensing of foundation and then application of it onto my face > yeah, wha’? This makes sense to me, okay? Remind me to tell you about the time I used to take a cab four blocks to work — And so! So I picked this up, and using the pad that cunningly rests in the hinge between the top of the compact and the flip-up mirror, had a flawless face in three-ish swipes of product. I’ve never actually counted. I’m trying to reconstruct in my mind’s eye… okay… more like four-ish.
I brought this with my on my hols because it’s compact and effective and easy. It looks amazing, and it lasts and lasts. It’s also got a laundry list of excellent qualities — protection against UV radiation, free radicals, and sweat, as well as offering irritation reduction — but frankly the most important thing to me, at the end of the day, is that I don’t want to have to be touching up excessively throughout said day. This is a matte finish that combines the best effects of foundation and powder, and I am quite sad that I am near to using it up.
€20/£15/$35
As a day-to-day routine, I never took to using Elemis Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsules.
It’s not because they are no good, it’s because they are so good, and I tend to hoard them.
They work like this: there are sixty capsules in this delightful package, with thirty rose-scented for morning, and thirty lavender-scented for night; these are, logically and respectively, pink and green. They smell lovely and feel soothing, and the clean Elemis packaging makes your bathroom look like a fancy spa.
The thing is, they do feel a bit stingy, and the capsules seem too small to use every day. Like, you’ll go through these in a heartbeat. So I tend to ‘save’ them for when my skin feels especially rough, when I need a pick-me-up, when I forget I’ve got them and go, ‘Oh! These!’
I know I’m not going to get much benefit from them, these tiny little pockets of anti-aging and pollution-counteracting goodness, if I don’t actually use them consistently, but cast your eye over the price and you’ll see why I’ve gone all Silas Marner over this ish. Eep!
It occurs to me that under these circs, I could have brought them along on the trip, as a treat for my travel-stressed complexion. So I have made this note to my future self, and since I most likely won’t be using them on the reg, they can look forward to the next journey, whenever that may be.
€75/£58/$105
BREAKING NEWS: On Saturday, Elemis are having a QVC show, on air at midnight, 1am, 4am, 7am, 8am, 11am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm. QVC available on available on Sky Digital channel 640, Freesat channel 800, Freeview channel 16 and Virgin TV channel 740. Yay!
Okay, basically, this is a powder made out of beauty. Continue reading
This tube of goodness
Is better travelled than most,
But should be retired.
I was getting a Dermalogica facial once, and a lovely lady at Papillon in Ranelagh said that whenever she travelled transatlantically, she used the Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask as a skin hydrator. Just apply upon take off, and then take it off upon arrival. The lightness and transparency of the mask meant that you would maybe look a little shiny, but you wouldn’t like you would be capable of scaring small nephews.
That sounded like a good idea to me: I didn’t really find it very effective as a mask, but thought that using in this fashion might be beneficial. The main thing I didn’t like about it was its quick absorption; I like that in a serum, but not in a mask. I figured that slathering this on, especially on the journey back to Ireland from NYC, would shield my skin from the worst effects of floating around in recycled air for hours.
This plan mostly worked when we didn’t have to display our cosmetics for the delectation of airport employees. Even when we began to take part in the product parade, the 75mls made it as regards the restrictions, but it took up too much space in my plastic baggy. Especially when they got strict about the size of the baggy, and I couldn’t use my go-to quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag.
Despite not having it to hand, I still packed it on every single trip I have taken over the last many years, even though it l
anguished in the hold. This doesn’t make a ton of sense, but once I had decided it had a use as a travel companion, it was going to go with me everywhere.
I wish I could sign it up for frequent flier miles, we could probably go round the world for free by now.
It’s been to Paris countless times. It came on honeymoon; it came with me to residential school at Bath University when I was studying psychology with the OU, mid-divorce; it is here with me now, and I’ve actually been using it as it is intended to be used since I did such a poor job packing adequate skin care.
I am still not entirely sold on it as a mask. As I have said, I prefer my masks to actually be mask-y, but if your skin is super sensitive, then this might be worth a go. Oh, and here’s the fancy-pants new packaging. Gosh, it is awfully modern-looking and sleek, isn’t it? I can’t see tossing my auld soldier, even if he is past his sell-by date. He’s still got some go in him yet.
€39/£33/$46
I am sensing a trend.
I really like things that smell nice.
I don’t know, maybe there are people out there who don’t care about how things smell? Or disagree with me as regards what constitutes a pleasant fragrance? I can understand the latter, but the former? No way.
Anyway, here’s another extraordinarily lovely-smelling thing, and it is also a thing that comes in another version with sparkle in it. Can it be more perfect?
I love it so much, I can actually spell Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse without looking it up. Continue reading
Sometimes, you just get tired of product, right? Of having to use like eight million things at time — primer, foundation, powder, and who knows what else?
I know: sacrilege! But honestly, why in the world do I need to put on, say, concealer, when I don’t have dark circles? Why bother? Surely foundation is sufficient?
I staunchly stood by this conviction until I got my brows waxed in the Benefit Brow Bar in Brown Thomas. Continue reading
Hmmm. Is this really any improvement a’tall?
Three lip things — there’s the Lush Latte yoke that didn’t make the last photo; one foundation {although I expect the Eau Thermale Avéne compact I’m reviewing will slip itself into a coat pocket}; one hair thing, one brow thing… a new thing {upper left} that came in the fabbbb Kiehl’s gift box that my sister-in-law gifted…
I don’t know, I guess this is a good edit.
The long shiny rectangular yokie is Clinique’s Black Honey Colour Surge Eyeshadow Quad, must share my opinion on that officially. Hint: it is excellent. The product, that is, although my opinion is excellent, too.
Well, I think I did do an okay job:
Yeah, fine. Oh, and I googled the Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask {bottom left} and they’ve redesigned the packaging. Yup, I knew it was old, but…
Right before The Christmas, there was an exciting launch of the Clarins Spring/Summer 2012 collection. One never needs much of an excuse to go hang in a fancy hotel in Temple Bar, and beautiful cosmetics notwithstanding, the nibbles were pretty impressive.
I haven’t had a chance to play with the Ombre Minerale 4 Couleurs and in all honesty, that bright turquoise pigment gives me the willies — but I am your intrepid beauty blogger, and will give it a go in due course.
But! I didn’t expect to like the Gloss Prodige in Papaya. Not so much the gloss part, but the papaya part. It looks really coral-ly in real life, and I am not a fan of coral, and it is not a fan of me. I wanted to see how prodigious the gloss was, though, and I can say that it is so prodigious that the papaya colour actually worked. The glossiness of this is extreme, and very sexy.
As vernal as I’d like to be right about now, when we are bracing ourselves for some below zero temps, I don’t think I can pull off the sky-blue vibe of that shadow, not in December/January. I’ll leave that for braver souls than I.
I can be a real snob when it comes to product. Growing up, I read too many magazines, and started to get a bit sniffy about cheapy cosmetics at an early age.
I couldn’t afford to be as posh as I wanted, but it didn’t stop me from dropping some serious dough whilst in art college: I had found a special something at a fancy Manhattan shop, on the Upper East Side {which is saying something, since I went to Pratt in Brooklyn} and — holy cow! early onset is pre-empted as I just remembered the name of it. I was struggling to remember what it was called and I couldn’t bring it up for the life of me until I started writing. The special something was a mud mask by Princess Marchella Borghese, who is still around. I would welcome any samples of her Fango: Active Mud for Face & Body for a future review, just to see if it is still as good as I remember it to be. The container was similar to what it is now, a luxuriously heavy glass jar; the mud was scented to just the correct degree, and it was my first experience of true self-care indulgence.
Whoops, down the rabbit hole! The point of the above was that having been exposed to a serious mud mask, anything else wouldn’t do. I like to keep an open mind, and have found several non-muddy masks to be effective, but to me, there is nothing like having my face squinched by drying product. I am sure there are anti-ageing arguments against this experience, but feck ‘em. I love a good squinch {TWSS} and in these modern times, I have found something that satisfies this need entirely.
The Yes To line has branched out to include Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Blueberries, but to me, Carrots will always be the cornerstone of the brand. These all-natural, crap-free products care for every part of you, and in general, they work as well as crap-laden products — and come on, let’s be honest, in general, most natural products simply don’t work. The cleansers don’t cleanse, the mositurisers don’t mositurise, or else they require so much more product to effect change that it’s not cost effective.
Or maybe our standards have become too laden with crap, and they work just fine, and we have only to adjust our expectations.
Expectations need not be adjusted when it comes to YTC’s C the Difference: Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask. It’s made from Dead Sea mud, and it’s rich and thick, yet applies smoothly — it’s not like you’ll be trowelling this on. Fragrance-wise, it is pleasant without being too perfume-y, and in this regard is one up on the Borghese, as far as memory serves < and it serves pretty darn well, considering. I tend to leave it on for way longer than the 5 minutes prescribed, but that’s me, the squinch-lovin’ beauty blogger, so take that with a pinch of Dead Sea salt.
Ooh, I’d love a dose of this right about now: I’ve just woken up and my face feels like it’s flaking off. The post-mask C skin feels shiny and clean and new, and I’d love that right now. I’d also love to run around the house scaring my nephews with my crazy mud face. Ah, well, there’s always next time.
€12.99/£12.35/$17
Bright & Beautyfull! 