Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil - an update

For the final post of the year I thought that I would update on the Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Oil which I purchase back in April and I would have to say is the one product which has made the biggest difference to my skin.

So I have finished my Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Oil, and my replacement has arrived and is ready to be opened.

I bought my original back in April - no it hasn't lasted me eight months, that would have been pretty phenomenal. I used it for about two months every night, then I dropped it to a couple of times a week, sometimes three times. I had a bit of a break of about a month, and then back to a couple of times a week.

I have never used a retinol product before, and all I can say is that this one product has made the absolute difference to my skin this year. Yes I still have all the little niggly bits which come with my age; uneven skin tone, broken thread veins, blackheads, open pores, but this product has evened everything out, as if it has put a sheer wash of optimism over my weary features and said "yes you may no longer pass for twenty five, or thirty five or even forty five, but your skin is in pretty good nick."

What I like particularly about this product is that it is easy to apply, the texture is an oil, so there is no difficulty in dripping it out from the dripper into my hand and then getting it onto my face which can be a problem with some products which have a texture almost like water.

My original review is here this product is now available from SpaceNK and Cult Beauty and I would indeed buy it again in a heartbeat. £85 for 30mls

Emma Hardie Cleansing Balm

The trouble with blogging intermittently and infrequently and on different blogs is that one forgets what one has posted about.

Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm is a cleansing balm which I have used on and off for several years but haven't blogged about it here. 

So a cleansing balm, a buttery balm to oil unguent which, as per the norm nowadays, becomes a milk once water is added.

For me the uniqueness of Emma Hardie is two fold; it smells delicious, a beautifully light orangey flowerblossomy stunner, and if it smells good, one wants to use it and luxuriate in using it. Its texture is very soft, really like soft butter on a warm afternoon, meaning it quickly melds into an oil, rendering it easy to massage around the face and dissolve the makeup and grime of the day, one just needs to watch the ambient temperature, as can be seen in the photo below, the oil can migrate.

The ingredients are plant based oils both the carrier oils and the essential oils and it is refreshing to see a product where water is not the first ingredient.

What I like about Emma Hardie cleansing balm is that it is a utilitarian product which feels sumptuous on the skin.

For me it removes my makeup but feels special enough to allow for a bit of indulgence, a bit of time taken, if I want to go on with a second cleanser I can, but if I can't be arsed then that is okay too, because I don't feel that i have missed out, or that my skin hasn't.

Emma Hardie is available from SpaceNK, Cultbeauty, and other online retailers including the Emma Hardie website. A 200mls jar lasts me around four months of daily use, at around £50. If I am being picky, I would prefer a jar with a wider diameter. 

Blue Copper, Moon, Cocoon

Looking around in my current routine, I realised that several products are blue, from the delicate faded chambray blue of NIOD Copper Amino Isolate Serum, to the pale turquoise of Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm, to the deep petroly teal of Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Oil.

Maybe even five years ago I would have been suspicious about such a distinctive shade in a skin care product, when all I wanted was a neutral cream, maybe with a hint of buttery yellow, but now looking at the ingredients, this distinction is due to the ingredients, I think that Luna has colour added but it is the final ingredient in the list.

I cannot comment on NIOD having only just started to use this watery blue treatment, and Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Balm, whilst having worked my way through a third of a jar, is too beautiful a product to dismiss its worth with a sentence or two here, and Luna deserves an update all of its own.

Of course missing from this plethora of blue is May Lindstrom's The Blue Cocoon, but that is housed in my very special box.

And I don't even want to disturb it until 25th December.

Votary Cleansing Oil

Another day, another cleanser. Or to be exact cleansing oil. And this is superb, I mean just the packaging is a glorious understated quality, from the beautifully rich dark green of the glass, so more pleasing than the pervasive brown glass, and equally protective, to the soft bronzey rose gold of the label, to the embossed white box. I know one should not judge quality of product by quality of packaging but in this case I was totally swayed and totally right.

The older I get, the more I require my cleanser to be nourishing and comforting, I find that I don't mind if my cleanser sinks into my skin somewhat prior to removal, infact I rather delight in that, because I feel that the moisturising process has begun, and I don't have dry skin, my skin is oily, but I don't bloody care, the sensory pleasure of massaging in something which sinks in a little at the same time results in my skin feeling lovely.

The ingredients list is reassuringly short and I for one am glad to see apricot oil above jojoba and grape seed oil for it is a far richer carrier oil.

There are essential oils in this cleansing oil, but this does not smell like some namby pamby lavender (not to lambaste lavender which smells divine, but can be added almost as a given to products), it smells as it is of a cleansing oil with with essential oils in, the chamomile coming through particularly for me.

It is a light oil, which is sprayed on to the hands rather ingeniously I thought, no dropping or dripping or pouring anxiously.

And remarkably it really does remove makeup, a couple of passes, more for pleasure than effectiveness and I have soft, clean and comfortable skin.

In these days of cleansing-oil-balms-which-turn-into-milks this is a welcome change. I absolutely love it and want to try the facial treatment oils in this range.

Currently £45 for 100mls it comes with a plush white flannel - blissful.

More information from the Votary website.

Eve Lom Powder Foundation Brush

I do love a foundation brush, I really do. Well strictly speaking I love a buffer brush, something to buff my chosen base of choice into my stricken skin. And the chosen base of choice could be liquid, cream, powder, dependent on the strickeness of my skin and how much coverage is required.

This is £38 so to my mind is a considered purchase when there are many and varied buffing type brushes available at considerably less.

But I am on the quest for the one, the one true buffing brush which is long of handle, I find most buffing brushes frustratingly short in that department and dense of bristles.

So this brush is certainly full of bristles, but the head itself is reassuringly small and thus easy to manoevre.

The fault for me is that it is beautiful, and in its beauty lies a reluctance on my part to use and dent its perfection, on the few times I have used it, it has certainly performed and added a polish to my skin, but frankly I prefer to look at it and stroke it occasionally.

Orange stuff for my poor old hands

My hands really are poor and old. I look at posts where I have swatched onto the back of my hands and I see age spots and thin papery skin. I work in a hospital and at times when I am holding the hand of an aged patient - and by aged I mean over eighty, probably ninety and maybe one hundred - and I can barely distinguish between their hands and mine.

I am not good with handcream - I could say that I am a bit of a handcream tart for I will skit about from brand to brand with barely a couple of uses before moving onto the next brand, and I will apply once, usually at night.

So these products sit by my bedside and I apply them every night, without fail. Their cheery orange hues never fail to put a smile on my face when I apply.

Margaret Dabbs Nail and Cuticle Serum, is a light serum with a slightly citrussy whiff. It comes in a pump which is a little temperamental, one pump is sufficient for all ten nail beds. What I like about this product is that it sets the scene for me, it sinks into my cuticles with a bit of a massage and feels both healing and nourishing without the drippiness of an oil - my nails which are now short, look healthy and well groomed. I should be putting it in my handbag and using it regularly but frankly my brain is not that forward thinking - it would make its way into the handbag or more likely pocket and then languish there until I remembered it, in the meantime my nails would revert back to hard and painful hangnailness.

Pai Rosehop BioRegenerate Oil, I have not really managed to incorporate this into my facial routine but I know about its legend ability to tackle discolouration. I don't find it especially moisturising but I find it nourishing if that makes sense, what I mean is that it seems to penetrate my papery skin which at times can look like those left over leaf husks, maybe they are sweet pea seed husks? I don't know but there is a transparency to the skin on the back of my hands which reminds me of them. This product fills out the transparency and gives the skin some substance.

Balance Me Supermoisturising Handcream, currently my favourite handcream. It is for me the moisturising part of the equation, my skin feels hydrated after an application. It is quite thick but not heavy and has quite a spicy scent. 

I have plenty of "before" pictures but I will attempt to remember to post some "after" pictures in a couple of months to see if there has been a significant improvement.

NIOD Skincare - my thoughts albeit initially

Up until a week ago I had not heard of this brand, but wandering around the interweb as is my wont led me to Victoria Health and some intrigue and the above kit.

NOID stands for non-invasive options in dermal science - hardly catchy to my mind, and the strap line of "skincare for the hyper-educated" serves to alienate me further if I am honest, for there is a lot of science about this brand, and a lot about its ingredients, which is great and the website is clear and informative but maybe a tad lacking in the readability to me, which is a criticism of me rather than the website, sadly my 49 year old brain skids off information even if it is simply set out - I no longer have the capacity for concentration.

However, the reviews are positive and the enticement of something new in skincare is a delight and a motivation for me to investigate further. Incidentally Jane at British Beauty Blogger has a written about the range here, here, here, and here which makes for informative, and entertaining reading as is to be expected from her.

So these are my initial thoughts only, I have had this kit less than a week and will have used it for four days when this post goes up

Firstly the sizes in the kit, whilst appearing small - the eye concentrate is 3mls -  all have a fluid, water like consistency, which means that a little really does go a long way. The products are cased in brown or clear bottles with pipettes or droppers as needed and the scent is of nothing, maybe a faint trace in the cleanser but it is innocuous.

But this fluidity can lead to a bit of a panic for me, how do I get the darn stuff onto my face? It does have a tendency to run.

So what I can say on such a limited use? Well I think that a trial size of a product should enable one to see if one gets on with the smell, texture and ease of use. 

I feel that I can only really comment on the cleanser and the eye serum, the Multi Molecular Hyaluronic Ester and the Photographic Fluid Opacity 12% both need further exploration for me.

The Low Viscosity Cleaning Ester or LVCE appeared to me on first glance like one of those ubiquitous micellar waters which never floated my boat, too boring frankly. This is a weird one, water is not an ingredient apparently, and it does not feel like water on the skin, it feels like a light oil, a very light oil mixed with, well, water. It has slip. It removes makeup remarkably well, it whistles through sunscreen and full foundation and concealer, and mascara. I need a second pass, but then that is always a given with me.

The Fractionated Eye Contour Concentrate or FECC is extremely moisturising on my eyes, well the skin around my eyes. The instructions are to apply a drop, which is enough for both eyes, the drops from the dropper are tiny, so I apply two and I was amazed that my eyelids and general eye area comfortable and moist well into the evening post application some four hours earlier. I did not feel the need to add an eye cream on the top which further amazed me.

All in all I want to try these further and they are already on my bathroom shelf, but the sensorial paucity may dent my enjoyment.

More information from Victoria Health, the kit is currently £25.
Caroline Hirons has just published a helpful guide here