SPF

La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL: Compact, But Not Sturdy

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Ugh: nothing worse than the mix of sunscreen and make up. I’ve got a few liquids I’m trying, and so far, not so good. They are fine on their own, and I gotta say, SPF 50 works. I haven’t had the usual outbreak of freckles all summer, because I’ve been as mindful as I’m meant to be, especially when horseriding. Not a smidge of pigmentation! This is great news.

Not so great: the days when I want to put the foundation on my face, or even a tinted moisturiser, and continue on with the full complement of brows and mascara, much less eyeshadow. What’s gal to do then?

I’ve been doing this.
ANTHELIOS COMPACT
La Roche-Posay’s Anthelios XL SPF 50+ Compact-Cream is proper make up with proper SPF that properly protects and also makes you look like you’ve got a good, finished look to ya. You’ve got your UVA/UVB broad spectrum protection, and an excellent quality creamy foundation coverage. It is also water-resistant, so sweat as much as you like.

However, if like me you don’t know your own strength…
BUSTED
I’m pretty sure I’ve never used a compact so much that I’ve broken it. I don’t know that I’ve used this all that much, either, to result in such destruction. Good thing I bought that asparagus that time, because I kept the purple elastic and it’s just the correct size to keep everything together.

I’ve had this issue with other LRP products, in which the packaging doesn’t stand up to regular usage. Its annoying, but it won’t put me off altogether, at all.
ANTHELIOS B&A
And this is why I love it. I feel all sun-protected, and yet natural-looking. I can use this with allll the make up, or as depicted here, with none a’tall. I haven’t even scraped down to the bottom — you know the way you get that little hole in the middle of a compact? — and there is so much summer yet to be had.

Okay, so maybe there’s a freckle or two on my nose, but srsly: nothing like the splatter of frecklage that used to look so cute all those years ago…

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€21;  comes in Sand Beige or Golden; the former is depicted here.

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Let’s Review! Eau Thermale Avène Tinted Compact 50 SPF

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I reviewed this a year ago, and happily received a tweet from a pal last week, who was loving it as much as I did.

I felt it bore repeating, particularly as I was hosted by the actual spa itself only a week or so ago. I feel, even more strongly, the courage of my convictions, and will be posting about Avène-les-Bains in due course. Until then, read on.

***

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 during the snowpocalypse. It helped break up the day, and I suspect my skin, housebound as I was, enjoyed the refreshing sensation.

AVENE TINTED COMPACTWe 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.

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€24.41/£15/$35

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Dude Week: This La Roche-Posay Vid Will Always Be Relevant!

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I saw some dudes selling the paintball experience out in Henry Street, when we had summer last week, and I was like, dudes! You are burning yourselves to a crisp! The foreheads, they were scarlet! So may I sorta reblog myself: a post from last May. Bears repeating.

{I was going to edit the part about the sun seeming ‘a distant, wistful memory’, because it is out, this very second — but that will probs change the minute I post this. Doesn’t matter! ABSPFing!*}

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Chase Your Dude Around the House with SPF!

Because one in eight Irish dudes will get skin cancer.

Yeah, I know, I’m looking out my window, too, and the sun seems a distant, wistful memory. And frankly, the last three {four? Five?} ‘summers’ haven’t exactly inspired any of us to even think twice about UV protection.

Picture 6I am bad enough, me with all my samples and knowledge, about being ambivalent as regards the SPF, but dudes? How many dudes do you see sloping around with their shirts off, the minute the mercury creeps above anything that seems even remotely warm? And, as it says in the video created by La Roche-Posay for their Save Our Skin campaign, some Irish dudes do think that sunburn is hilarious — I’ve seen them, laughing at their poor, lobstery mates! — but the long term ill effects of a right roasting can be life threatening.

So, you know, if you want your man to take care of his pelt, it might be up to you to get the routine started. And, uh, apparently like, clothes don’t really block out the UV as much as you’d think, so if you are chasing your dude around the house with SPF, well, it could be fun. Because you can’t really apply the stuff effectively when those clothes are on? Right?

Sun protection can be sexy.

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*Always Be SPFing!

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Hey! Weather! I Got Work to Do, Yo.

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

I know, I know — I know! But even here in Ireland, where we expect such things as hail and rain and sun and hail and rain in one hour, we are getting fed up.

It is feckin’ May, dammit. I have things I need to use and have not got much impetus to do so.

I know I am an amateur when it comes to self-tanning. I still abide by these now arbitrary rules as to when it is actually ‘summer’. Heck, I’d begun relaxing them in recent years to incorporate May, but look where we are with that. How’m I s’posed to check all this stuff I’ve got if there is not going to be A} sun to block or B} sun to illuminate the applied shine?

HEY WEATHER!There’s that bottle of Clarins Splendours Shimmer Body Oil {€37}, which falls squarely in the B category. Sure, I could douse myself from head to toe, and how I yearn to do so, but then what? Cover it up with a jumper? What a waste! I also have a tub of He-Shi’s Luminous Shimmer {€12.60}, not pictured because I think it ran away from home, and is heading for climes in which it can be shown to its best advantage. Cannot believe the bitch did not take me with it.

I suppose I could use La Roche-Posay’s Anthelios XL Invisible Nutritiv Oil SPF50+ {€22} when I go horseriding, and I think I will definitely try in on my face. I found the Anthelios XL Extreme Fluid {€19.50} to come over rather Chaplinesque  — not a good look.

At least I’ll get some use out of the above. But whither my massive IsaDora Bronzing Powder {€25.95}, much less my long-awaited and anticipated Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick {€42.50}? Or the new Vichy Capital Soleil Beautifying Sun Protection Compact {€19.50} — which, okay, since we’re meant to ABSPFing* I should probs use anyway.

All this moaning would be moot if I would just crack into Cocoa Brown’s Night & Day Tan {€7.99}, giving myself the proper canvas upon which to apply all the shimmer. This shows up the tan immediately, with no development time, and showers off the next day to a lovely, light tan. Or so I’ve heard.

And I guess I could work my way into the whole glow-y vibe by using the Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder {€48}.

CHANEL les beiges

I am happy just to look at the lovely cream lid. I am such a weirdy, but that is actually lifting my spirits. So elegant. So… so full of je ne sais quoi. No, I know quoi — it’s an inanimate object, uneffected by the vagaries of les temps.

Anyway, as I watch the rain piss down from the heavens, I feel a rebellious urge begin to stir within… Let the tanning begin! Weather bedamned!

***

*Always Be SPFing

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Changing My Tune: Lancôme Génifique Sôleil SPF 50

/ MANY BRAVE FOOLS / Leave a comment

Or to give it its full name, Skin Youth UV Protector for the Face SPF 50.

Now that I’ve, to put it indelicately, busted my cherry re: laser treatments, I am newly converted to assiduous SPF use. I know, I know, blah, blah, blah, should have been using it all along. I’m sure I have been, via moisturisers and foundation and all that craic, but now — now I am going to be a tiresome, UV protecting evangelist. Why undo all the good work The Zap has done?

I was somewhat taken aback by the price point of this one — €28.50 — but taken with:
> The light texture
> The super speedy absorbancy
…and then taken aback again by:
> Its extreme whiteness
> Its scent — which fades quickly, but not quickly enough?

The thing is: the lightness. This is going to be the thing that influences my choice of daily SPF. See, I equate SPF with sunscreen. This is possibly {probably, definitely} erroneous. Sunscreen = heavy, gloopy stuff that you put on at the beach. The last thing I want to have to do is apply something that is going to take forever to dry. This is because I am not efficient in the mornings.

Basically: I don’t want an SPF that’s going to require that I get up early in the a.m.

This is a good candidate for daily use. I’ve got a few others up my sleeve, however…

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Lancôme is available at all good department stores.

On Your Marks, Get Set, SPF!

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

Hallelujah! I am going to cover myself in sunscreen and come back and tell you all about it.

The thing is, all the sun creams and sprays and mists have to pass a load of tests, right? I mean, no one is going to be able to put something on the market that’s going to result in a lawsuit. Given that, I think the thing about sun care is gonna be all about texture, rate of absorption, and how badly it gets all over your clothes.

Now, ideally, you are sunning yourself on the Dalmatian Coast, and are in your togs, so it doesn’t matter if you get sunscreen all over the place. But if you’re going out at your lunch hour, or planning on sitting out-of-doors to work, and you don’t think ahead and put on some protection before you put on your clothes, then it’s a concern.

I can tell you right this instant that Lidl’s Cien Sun Cream SPF 20 made it into my horseriding kit bag, and it’s gotten passed around the last few days. It’s coverage isn’t great, and you have to use maybe more than you’d like, but at €2.49, you can go through this for a short cut and it won’t matter. Neither does it absorb very quickly, so one the one hand, it has the potential to get all over your clothes, but on the other, you do a good job of spreading it round, because it takes forever to sink in.

The tube is highly portable, which is why it ended up in the equine rucksack, and it’s a big plus. I’ve got ones sitting on the desk that are massive, which means they will probs get socked into the luggage when I go to Croatia for my hols*, but aren’t going to be useful to me on the local road, if you know what I mean.

Okay! Off to apply myriad products to my limbs and then once more into the breach, my friends!

*I am not going to Croatia, except in my dreams. Hmmm, let’s call this ‘visualisation’ and not ‘fantasising’. ‘kay?

A Sensible Stick by Eau Thermale Avène!

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First, let me just say: look how nice and shiny my famous supermodel thumbnail* looks! And just so you know, I have duly applied another coat of the Dr Lewinn’s stuff, and boy, do I feel virtuous!

Also feeling virtuous re: suncare. It is understandably difficult to be bothered about SPF in this country, but as I do spend time out-of-doors on the horses, I have decided to cop on. And with the sky this very strange and unfamiliar shade of … blue, I think that is blue? it only stands to reason that there will be a glowing orb radiating both healing rays and not-so-healing rays.

On the way to the yard last night, even though it was slightly overcast when I left the house, I took up my Stick Zones Sensibles by Eau Thermale Avène, and rubbed it all over my face. This seems like a good one to bring to the yard, because it’s small, and it’s waterproof. And even though I am riding with a helmet, and it’s got a wee brim, I can still get colour.

I want colour, but I don’t want to burn, so yeah, SPF. Here’s hoping I actually have need of this thing over the coming months.

I guess it worked — I mean, it did get sunnier as we went up the hill, and we were outside, but it was after 7pm, so…? I don’t know. To be honest, I’m going to go a’googlin’ because I don’t see how you really judge SPFs. Okay, like, total fail if you fry, but otherwise? I think it may be about absorbency and fragrance and relative stickiness.

Eh. So, I’m going to be good, and do this. According to a study done by Avène, 77% of women and men don’t bother with sunscreen on their lunch hour. As if it’s not hard enough to decide what you’re going to eat in the first place! Seriously, though, it is a good decision to slap on some protection, and there are easier, if more chemically-based, ways to get your glow on. But you still need to use sunscreen anyway. I think I read somewhere that you have to put it on even on the bits that are covered by clothes, because clothes don’t really protect you? Wha’?!?! Off to go see is that true or not…

*On a day when I have nothing else to do, I am going to find all instances of said thumbnail and make a whole category, just for it. Gotta have goals, ladiez.

Actual Bronzing from Actual Sun!

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I can’t get a good picture of my arms, which, after only like 45 minutes sitting in the sunshine at lunch, are warmly light brown.

I mean, not like a celebrity tan — which is a good thing, depending! — but more like I am a living, breathing human being, and not a pale pod person who still has to wear her fat coat to the stable. Wearing a down jacket in May! I ask you!

Since we are set to get the stones split by sunshine over the next few days, I am sure that most among us are going to be gasping to take advantage of it. This is as good a time as any to shake my finger at yees all re: SPF. Frankly, I am shamelessly using you as a surrogate, because as I have said before on this site, I am a lazy arse when it comes to sunscreen.

Not anymore! I am going to go on an SPF binge for as long as we have the rays beating down upon us. Eau Thermale Avéne have a new suncare line that is going to get a look in tomorrow, when I prepare to go horseriding, and I’ve also got some goodies from Cien, the house brand from Lidl,  and we’ll see how we get on with that. I’m sure I’ve got more, but I am posting from the library in Dun Laoghaire, and can’t remember what else I’ve got in the press.

Seriously, I swear, my arms are nice and toasty. It may just be from the flourescent light in here, though. Eh, I don’t care, because you know what the colour of my arms is? The colour of HOPE.

Chase Your Dude Around the House with SPF

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

Because one in eight Irish dudes will get skin cancer.

Yeah, I know, I’m looking out my window, too, and the sun seems a distant, wistful memory. And frankly, the last three {four? Five?} ‘summers’ haven’t exactly inspired any of us to even think twice about UV protection.

I am bad enough, me with all my samples and knowledge, about being ambivalent as regards the SPF, but dudes? How many dudes do you see sloping around with their shirts off, the minute the mercury creeps above anything that seems even remotely warm? And, as it says in the video created by La Roche-Posay for their Save Our Skin campaign, some Irish dudes do think that sunburn is hilarious — I’ve seen them, laughing at their poor, lobstery mates! — but the long term ill effects of a right roasting can be life threatening.

So, you know, if you want your man to take care of his pelt, it might be up to you to get the routine started. And, uh, apparently like, clothes don’t really block out the UV as much as you’d think, so if you are chasing your dude around the house with SPF, well, it could be fun. Because you can’t really apply the stuff effectively when those clothes are on? Right?

Sun protection can be sexy.

A Confession

/ brightandbeautyfull / Leave a comment

I am really crap as regards SPF. Like, it’s probably in most of the stuff I use, but… if it’s not, it doesn’t even occur to me to supplement it.

Yesterday, on my way to horseriding, I met a lovey crowd of women from Image Skincare* who said, with confidence, that I must be swimming in SPF, because I am so often out of doors.

Uh, no, not really. Oops. Continue reading →