Aurelia Revitalise and Brighten Eye Dew Refill

I have written about this before, but how lovely to receive a hand written note along with a re-purchase within its hand wrapped package.

Now previously the Eye Dew was only available as part of the Eye Revitalising Duo which Aurelia produces, and which contains the Revitalise & Brighten Eye Dew (10mls) and the Illuminate & Smooth Puff Reduction Eye Cream (15mls). 

When I first purchased this duo I whizzed through the Eye Dew, not within days or weeks mind you. I finished it just shy of three months, the Illuminate & Smooth lasting a good four months. And whilst I would repurchase because I found the products to be both a joy to use, but also an effective joy to use, soothing and revitalising in equal measure, the Eye Dew in particular was a bit of revelation. It really is a dew like consistency, and for my aged and bagging eyelids I feared that it would be a bit like an excuse for an eye cream, all style over substance. But it really did both hydrate and nourish, calm and moisturise.

However £90 is a considered purchase to me.

This refill is not really a refill in that it is a full size product complete with its metal roller ball, but it is missing its partner. And at £40 I can cope with that. 

I do hope that Aurelia consider making the Illuminate & Smooth Puff Reduction Eye Cream a single purchase also.

Cult Beauty Summer Goody Bag

I received this over the weekend. A plethora of skin and makeup products, some full size, some sample sizes and some teeny tiny, but too cute.

I was keen to try the Fiberwig Mascara, and the Nudestix Lip and Cheek Colour. I am currently on an SPF50 obsessive journey so the Alpha H is a welcome addition to try and the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel is already a staple.

The bag is a beautiful ocean blue, certainly no ocean lapping on British shores is this colour! 

I am a bit of a sucker for a good bag and have to say that having purchased each of the Cult Beauty Bags from winter of last year and spring of this year, each time they have not disappointed, and the bags themselves are very good quality.

In order to qualify for this (free with a £95 or over spend), I purchased Tata Harper Refreshing Cleanser (£60) and Omorovicza Mineral Concealer (£35).

I have wanted to try Tata Harper cleansers for a while and this one piqued my fancy - I have tried it as a second cleanse although I do have these sorts of cleansers coming out of my ears. So far so like but I need to try it more in order to decide if it is a repurchase or not.

The Omorovicza Mineral Concealer was another longed for but un-needed purchase, but searching for concealers like searching for bases is a long and arduous task and one does need to try and experiment and reject many before finding a success. On my first few trials I like the shade - Ivory is a yellow but a neutral yellow to my eye. The texture is cream to powder and the coverage is good. Again I need to try for longer to give a full review. The packaging is glorious.

Cult Beauty Summer Goody Bag

I received this over the weekend. A plethora of skin and makeup products, some full size, some sample sizes and some teeny tiny, but too cute.

I was keen to try the Fiberwig Mascara, and the Nudestix Lip and Cheek Colour. I am currently on an SPF50 obsessive journey so the Alpha H is a welcome addition to try and the Anastasia Clear Brow Gel is already a staple.

The bag is a beautiful ocean blue, certainly no ocean lapping on British shores is this colour! 

I am a bit of a sucker for a good bag and have to say that having purchased each of the Cult Beauty Bags from winter of last year and spring of this year, each time they have not disappointed, and the bags themselves are very good quality.

In order to qualify for this (free with a £95 or over spend), I purchased Tata Harper Refreshing Cleanser (£60) and Omorovicza Mineral Concealer (£35).

I have wanted to try Tata Harper cleansers for a while and this one piqued my fancy - I have tried it as a second cleanse although I do have these sorts of cleansers coming out of my ears. So far so like but I need to try it more in order to decide if it is a repurchase or not.

The Omorovicza Mineral Concealer was another longed for but un-needed purchase, but searching for concealers like searching for bases is a long and arduous task and one does need to try and experiment and reject many before finding a success. On my first few trials I like the shade - Ivory is a yellow but a neutral yellow to my eye. The texture is cream to powder and the coverage is good. Again I need to try for longer to give a full review. The packaging is glorious.

Sunday Riley Good Genes

So I have finished this up after around 6 months of use - it was a bit stop/start because I wasn't really sure how and when to use it, more about that later.

I wanted to try it because it is purported to be good for all those niggly irritations that my nearly fifty year old skin has in spades, thus hyperpigmentation, open pores, redness, dullness. And if I am honest, every product that I have tried from Sunday Riley has given results.

It has a slightly gel like tacky sort of texture with a strong lactic acid scent, and on me it does tingle, a bit, not much but it is there, even after regular use.

The full list of ingredients are as follows - Prickly Pear Extract, Blue Agave Extract, Lady's Slipper Orchid Extract, Cactus Extract, Aloe Leaf Extract, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Butylene Glycol, Cyclomethicone, Dimethicone, PPG-12/SMDI Copolymer, Stearic Acid, PEG-100 Stearate, PEG-75 Meadowsol, Glycyrrhiza Glabra Extract, Triethanolamine, Xanthan Gum, Phenoxyethanol, Steareth-20, Methyl Paraben, Propyl Paraben, DMDM Hydantoin

Touted as both a serum and a mask, the idea is to apply post cleanse on clean dry skin and leave to do its magic overnight, or one can apply a layer as a mask, and then remover, or one can add a pump to a pump of Sunday Riley's Ceramic Slip Cleanser.

I got a bit confused. It doesn't take much. I got confused about how much to pump out, 1 pump seemed rather paltry but 2 pumps seemed somewhat excessive. I applied it as a mask and sort of tentatively patted it into my skin, but then decided to stop being such a wuss and massaged it in more vigorously. And I used it a couple of times and was not really bowled over, and felt the tingle designed to make me feel like it was doing something, so back into the cupboard it went.

Then I read a bit more about it and decided that I would up the use a bit, so used it regularly as a mask.

However for me I think that it is best used as a nightly serum, post cleanse, pre oil (although apparently if one is using Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Oil one needs to apply that first and then Good Genes). This is what I have been doing for the past 3 weeks or so. And I have found that my skin is generally brighter, however I think that the Luna Sleeping Oil is a significant factor.

At £85 for 30mls this is a considered purchase for me. I am currently considering a re-purchase.

Omorovicza Thermal Cleansing Balm

It is indeed a sad old day when one comes to the end of a product, or specifically in my case a cleanser, or even more specifically a balm cleanser.

For me, this is the closest that I get to a treatment cleanser, a cleanser with knobs on, a product which does the biz and the rest, it goes the extra mile if you like. 

It is a balm in that one needs to scoop it out of the reassuringly heavy glass jar, but this is not a mimsy flim flam of a balm which emulsifies at the merest whiff of water - not that there is anything wrong with those sorts of balm cleansers - no this is a full on oily balm which needs to be massaged on and hot clothed off, no water necessary.

To my nose, the scent has a bit of orangey blossomness and mud, for Hungarian mud is a high up ingredient, pleasant, warming, comforting.

The texture looks granular, a little like one has taken a pumice and ground it up, but whilst there is a texture, it is a whisper, the feel on the skin is one of an rich oily balm.

And it is grey, and it applies grey to the face, which is somewhat disconcerting. 

Now this is my third empty jar of this product. Initially I savoured it, for at £46 for 50mls it is not conducive to my usual twice or thrice pm application. But goodness it is such a joy to use, it really is an absolute pleasure, from the glass jar, to the richness, to the scent, to the texture and feel on the skin, I get huge pleasure at every sensorial level, my skin feels cosseted, and I feel satisfied.

So I don't use it regularly for my first pm cleanse, sometimes I do but invariably I will go in with another balm cleanser and then luxuriate in this cleanser.

Fortunately I have another jar waiting in the wings.

Currently £46 for 50mls

Summer Feet

All I want for summer is a pair of acceptable feet. I don't want them to be beautiful, but I would like them to be viewable, to be on public display without shame. For me, caring for my feet is a step (no pun intended) too far, they feel too far away, and I am not particularly tall - 5' 7'' apparently the same height as Kate Moss but other than both also being female, that is where our shared characteristics end. 

I have fiddled about with various unguents and implements to scrub and soothe the hard bits but to be frank it is all a bit of a faff. Until now.

I have used the Diamancel Diamond Foot Buffer #11 for aeons - infact a quick swizz over to Makeupalley and I reviewed mine in 2005 so 10years. And it works fantastically well, but one needs to apply a decent foot cream to seal the good smoothing work and I have yet to find one that works.

Margaret Dabbs Foot Hygiene Cream was a recent Beauty Pick of the Month on QVCUK and I hummed and hawwed over whether to purchase or not given the glowing reviews, and in the meantime it sold out twice and then could not be had for love nor money anywhere.

I tracked it down on Cult Beauty and have applied nightly for the past month and it is fantastic.

It is a stiff thick anhydrous balm ie no water. It melts at room temperature and smells reassuringly medicinal and tea treeey.

I found that a couple of goes over my feet with the Diamancel Foot Buffer, followed with I a fingerful applied nightly completely eradicated the dry cracks and crevices on my heels. As time went on I did not need to use the Diamancel and I found that my toe nails were softer and easier to cut and the fungal infection (sorry if too much information) I have on one of my big toes is actually lessening.

My feet look rejuvinated, and I now would not be without this product. 

Currently £18 for 100mls