Best of Skin Care 2016

Eye Make-Up Remover

This eye make-up remover is one of the few that removes my eye make-up without me having to rub vigorously at my lids. I just shake the bottle to mix & saturate two cotton pads, leave on my eyes for a few seconds & wipe away. At €3 from most pharmacies its easy to find, lasts for ages & doesn't break the bank.

Make-Up Remover

This make-up remover is micellar water mixed with oil & it removes every scrap of make-up off my face. I soak one of the large cotton pads & sweep across my face. This bottle has lasted me for months. It says that it is for dry/normal (my skin would be quite dry) but it doesn't leave any residue on the skin, so might work for all skin types. €6 from most pharmacies, but I actually picked mine up from Penneys/Primark.

Facial Cleanser

After I've removed my make-up with the micellar water I usually deep cleanse with Simple's Kind to Skin Moisturising Facial Wash. I don't have particularly sensitive skin, but I do find that alot of other foaming cleansers dry my skin out too much & leave it feeling uncomfortably tight. This removes any traces of make-up which I may have left behind without the uncomfortable feeling. I got mine from Tesco when the whole Simple range was half price.

Toner

Pixi's Glow Tonic is my absolute Holy Grail skincare product. My skin's texture has improved so much since using this product. The Glow Tonic is an exfoliating toner, so it removes dead skin cells to reveal the brighter skin underneath. As it contains 5% Glycolic Acid you will have to slowly build up to using this neat on the skin. I started using it on damp cotton rounds for the first week or so. I use this every evening now & it makes my dull, dry skin so much brighter & the next morning my make-up goes on smoother. £18 on Cult Beauty.

Facial Exfoliator

I received The Dr. Brandt Pore Dermabrasion in a Birchbox, so it was only a sample size, but it has been the best exfoliator I used in 2016. It has tiny granules which slough away the dead skin cells leaving incredibly smooth skin underneath. A tiny bit goes a long way, so as I only use it around once a week a small tube lasts for ages. £43 from Birchbox.

Lip Scrub

The smell of this lip scrub is delicious (safe to eat as well!) The granules are course enough to make a difference & it leaves behind a slightly oily residue which moisturises the lips. £5.50 from Lush.

Serum

This has more of a lotion consistency than a typical serum. It doesn't give me enough hydration by itself, but this gives my skin an extra boost of moisture underneath my normal moisturiser. Great also as a primer before foundation. I've gone through multiple tubes of this & I will keep repurchasing.€3.50 from Penneys/Primark.

Eye Cream

I use two different eye creams, one for the morning & a different one for the evening. My morning one is Caudalie's "Premier Cru- The Eye Cream", this has a nice light consistency but still moisturises & smooths under the eyes. It also doesn't have any adverse effects with any make-up applied over it. Benefits "It's Potent" eye cream is a bit richer so I apply it in the evening after I've removed my make-up. Since using this cream I've noticed a huge difference in the texture of my under eyes & also the appearance of some of the fine lines. Caudalie Premier Cru as part of a kit from Cult Beauty. Benefits It's Potent €26 from Sam McAuleys.

Facial Moisturiser

I have yet to find my perfect moisturiser, but this one from Simple has been the best so far. Its easy to layer with other products & doesn't leave a residue on the skin or clog the pores. I mainly use this as a night cream, but works well under make-up too (if you have dry skin). €5 from pharmacies.

Facial Spray

This is without a doubt the best facial spray I've tried. It contains Argan Oil & is great underneath my moisturiser for an extra boost or for spraying over make-up when my foundation looks dry or cakey. I love it so much... but it breaks me out... I get small little red bumps on my forehead when I use this, easy to cover up with make-up & usually disappear after using a detoxing face mask. But it does mean that I don't use it every day. Its such a good product that I'm going to persevere using it & hopefully my skin will adjust to it as I'm not usually prone to breakouts. £18 Cult Beauty. 

Korean Activated charcoal mask

Traditionally I have always had fairly oily skin growing up. This changed about the time that I turned thirty, as well as moving to a new home which has very hard water. The combination of the two has now turned my skin to dry/dehydrated.

One side effect of my new skin type is that I now have to use heavier products to moisturise my skin, resulting in clogged pores & blackheads on my nose!

I have tried several different masks & pore strips over the last couple months, but all these have done have dried out my skin more without actually removing the blockages. It was during my daily dose of YouTube viewing that I came across a 3 Step Korean Activated Charcoal Mask, which claims to first soften the blockages, drawing them to surface & then removing them via a peel off mask

I ordered this mask on Amazon for approximately €15 & took a week to arrive.

 

So this was my nose before. I started of by thoroughly cleaning & drying the area.

The instructions which come inside the box are much easier to understand than those printed on the back of the box, for example: " Penetrates pores deeply to quickly dissolve accumulated oil & dirty old horny to promote normal metabolism of skin keratin & recupertion of skin"... Enough said.

So step one of the process involves massaging the Deep Pore Sebum Softner into my nose, leaving on for about 5 minutes, rinsing off & then patting dry.

Next step was to smooth the Blackhead Removal Activated Carbon Mask to my nose (I used a cheap flat head make-up brush to ensure even coverage) I let that dry for approx 30 mins & then slowly peeled up from the bottom of the mask to the top.

It was not sore to peel of the mask, just made my eyes water slightly.

After I removed the mask I patted on the Skin Clarifying Pore Treatment Essence which they highly recommend to tighten the pores.

So this was my mask after I peeled it off. My nose felt noticeably smoother with a lot less congestion, especially around the corners of my nose.

Overall I would give this mask 4 out of five. Definitely made athe biggest improvement from any mask I've tried, the only downsides being that there is three different products to use & also that ordering off Amazon means that with the postage cost, the price can add up.