Hyaluronic cream and weird hand photos

I went to Paris for October half-term last year. It was the first time in over thirty years that I have been to Paris, let alone abroad, I was super excited, as giddy as the sixteen year old I was when I first went, I enjoyed every minute of it, especially the pharmacies.

One of my purchases was this cream.

It is a in essence a cream as in it is opaque and white and can be squeezed out and applied. It is immediately cooling and hydrating, literally like dipping one's hand in cold water, the main ingredient is hyaluronic acid. 

Now it is not easy to photograph the effects of a cream on one's face, it is not easy to photograph skin changes anyway, what one perceives so clearly with the eye, translates so dismally to the screen, for this cream really does hydrate, really and truly.

I applied it to the hand on the right in the photo below, now I know that probably if I applied any cream to my dehydrated hands then there would be a marked difference, but I am not sure that that marked difference would appear on the screen, in the photo below it does.

On a completely random note, why do hands look so alien in photos? 

Perhaps it is just my hands, but I look at them and think, why have my mother's hands appeared at the end of my arms?

The cream is around £14 for a 100mls tube, I do tend to layer it underneath a richer cream and treat it a bit as a creamserum.

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronised Recovery Complex II

This is a love affair that germinated about two years ago when Harper's Bazaar gave a small bottle away with I think the September or maybe October issue. I bought 2. 

They languished in my stash, or it might have been my knicker drawer, awaiting useage, and they remained there until about 3 months ago when I finally decided to try them. I had had a couple of serums to use up, and I do have a strange aversion to high end mass market type brands, I find them too fragranced, and too mainstream weirdly, we all have our foibles and mine is a deep suspicion of run of the mill brands, I don't know why, I can't explain it but from my skincare I want difference and nicheness and to my mind ANR was a bit meh.

So I applied with fairly low expectations, a bit of "bugger I have no serum, what can I use? Oh yes there is that ANR II, I may as well use it up.

What I noticed immediately was no smell, or more accurately no discernible smell, a sort of freshness maybe but nothing significant to my nose. Next nice colour, who doesn't love a bit of soft apricot first thing in the morning, oh I knew enough about ANR to know that it was okay for am application. But what impressed me the most initially was the texture, light, fluid, cooling, refreshing, with just a little bit of substance to show that it is on the skin, I didn't find it tacky, but neither did it sink into the skin without a trace. I found myself looking forward to applying this each morning, oh and maybe in the evening as well.

And what do you know after using up the little sample bottle which lasted me around 5 weeks of daily am use and some pm uses, my skin began to seem a bit brighter, a bit more even toned - now bear in mind I regularly use Sunday Riley Luna Oil which I have found to be excellent in even-toned promotion, but is pm use, or at least that is how I prefer to use. On finishing the first bottle I quickly moved onto the second bottle, and my skin continued to enjoy this product, feeling soft, looking a bit brighter and feeling calm and hydrated prior to makeup application - I missed it hugely when I finished both bottles.

So much so that I have gone on to purchase the 50mls size.

Now at around £70 for 50mls this is a considered purchase, but I am using it once sometimes twice a day, it sits happily under any moisturiser I put over the top, maintaining its cooling, hydrating properties and on hot sweaty days is sufficiently moisturising to negate the need for anything else. So actually, not a considered purchase at all but for me a necessity.

Aesop Parsley Seed Antioxidant Serum

Sometimes I just want to stop all the madness and step off the roundabout of new products and in particular potions which brighten and smooth and exfoliate and slough off, in short I want some rest and relaxation for my mind, my wallet, and my skin.

I have been using Aesop Parsley Seed Antioxidant Serum for about a month, with time off for using up a couple of trial vials of Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair, more of that at a later date, and it is like a refreshing shower of calmfulness for my thin old skin.

For suddenly my skin is feeling all of its fifty years, it is cranky and unpredictable, spots appear and do not go, and leave a red mark, blackheads continue relentlessly, open pores march unremittingly across my cheeks and the thread veins which I have resolutely been ignoring are breaking through even the most tenacious of concealers.

This really is a very calming and cooling serum, it feels instantly hydrating on my skin. The ingredients are somewhat benign for my skin as I have no reaction other than a relaxing sigh post application.

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, PEG-60 Almond Glycerides Water (Aqua), Sorbitol, PEF-150 Distearate, Benzyl Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Polysorbate 20, Lavendula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Panthenol, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Vilis Vinfera (Grape) Seed Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Dehydroacetic Acid, Ormenis Multicaulis Oil, Carum Petroselinum (Parsley) Seed Oil, Linalool, d-Limonene.

And for £45 I get a whopping 100mls. The downside is that that bottle is somewhat narrow-necked and the dropper is difficult to replace back inside without escape of product down the outside - irksome in the extreme.

I bought mine from SpaceNK.

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 Rose Lifting Serum and Radiance Renewal Serum

I have come to the end of these two serums from Omorovicza. I have a few products that I have purchased from Omorovicza, which is a higher price range than what I can afford on a day to day basis, but the textures and scents are sublime and with a judicious use of discount codes and present requests I have been able to explore the range a little.

If one purchases from the website there is always a choice of sample sachets which although are too small to see any effect on the skin, give enough to decide whether texture and scent are pleasing enough to consider a full size purchase.

So I have used the Radiance Renewal Serum am and the Rose Lifting Serum pm. 

They are incredibly light in texture and very "wet" if that makes sense, I suppose really serums are meant to be light and wet, with a texture which allows for easy spread around the face but not for full on massage so that the ingredients can sink into the skin.

Photographed below one can see the texture, the Rose Lifting serum is marginally thicker but it is marginal.

I have tried to show the slight pink sparkliness which is the pro ruby crystals as one of the key ingredients in the Rose Lifting Serum.

These are undoubtedly very lovely products, they are light, instantly hydrating and easily absorbed. 

They are housed in heavy glass bottles with lockable functioning pumps, with a gentle scent which does not irritate or jar.

There is a little pilling of subsequent products in the morning but given that I am applying sunscreen, serum, and moisturiser as well as primer and foundation that is hardly suprising, it is minimal and I can live with it. 

Rose Lifting Serum ingredients:
Aqua (Hungarian Thermal Water), Glycerin, Corundum (Pro Ruby Crystal), Phospholipids, Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Pullulan, Saccharomyces (Hungarian Thermal Water) Ferment Extract, Carbomer, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Mica, Sodium Hydroxide, Xanthan Gum, Disodium EDTA, Ethylhexylglycerin, Chlorella Vulgaris/Lupinus Albus Protein Ferment, Pectin, Silica, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5, Tripleurospermum Maritima (Sea Mayweed) Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Extract, Sorbic Acid, Dextran, Caprooyl Tetrapeptide-3, Linalool, Geraniol, Citronellol.

Radiance Renewal Serum ingredients:
Aqua (Hungarian Thermal Water), Glycerin, Saccharomyces (Hungarian Thermal Water) Ferment Extract, Alcohol Denat., Mannitol, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Niacinamide, Benzyl Alcohol, Carbomer, Zinc PCA, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Disodium EDTA, Chlorella Vulgaris/ Lupinus Albus Protein Ferment, Nasturtium Officinale Flower/Leaf Extract, Phospholipids, Yeast Extract, Xanthan Gum, Dehydroacetic Acid, Pectin, Parfum (Fragrance), Linalool, Limonene, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Benzyl Benzoate.

If my budget allowed I would repurchase these, they are £80 and £75 respectively for 30mls, and the pump pumps out a very little amount although amply sufficient, which means that these have both lasted me a good five and half months of daily use.

Aurelia Revitalise & Glow Serum

Another day another Aurelia Probiotic Skincare empty. The brand has really satisfied and placated my picky, dehydrated somewhat oily skin.

This is a serum obvs. It is a light slightly tacky serum which applies easily, skips over the skin with a satisfying amount of slip and then sinks in without a whisper of a trace but imparting a gleam and indeed a glow.

And amazingly, my skin looks more glowy post application, and that glowiness lasts and is not shiney, and moisturiser and makeup apply more easily and my skin feels comfortable.

This has a light citrussy scent and really is such a pleasure to use. 

Ingredients: Aqua/Water (purified water), Aloe barbadensis extract (Aloe Vera), Bifida ferment lysate (probiotic culture), Cocoglycerides (emollient from coconut oil), Glycerin (vegetable glycerine), Lactose (probiotic bifidoculture milk extract), Lactis proteinum/Milk protein (probiotic protein), Coco-caprylate (coconut based emollient), Cetearyl glucoside (corn sugar emulsifier), Cetearyl alcohol ( vegetable based thickener), Kigelia Africana fruit extract (botanical Kigelia Africana), Hibiscus sabdariffa flower extract ( Hibiscus flower), Adansonia digitata fruit extract (Botanical Baobab), Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Citrus nobilis peel oil (Mandarin essential oil), Helianthus annuus seed oil (Sunflower oil), Jasminum officinale flower extract (Jasmine essential oil), Plumeria acutifolia flower extract (Plumeria essential oil), Polianthes tuberose flower extract (Tuberose essential oil), Xanthan gum (natural based stabiliser), Sodium stearoyl glutamate (vegetable derived emulsifier), Sodium magnesium fluorosilicate (nano) (naturally occurring mineral salts), Sodium phytate (natural origin), Glyceryl caprylate (coconut-derived emulsifier), Benzyl alcohol (preservative), Dehydroacetic acid (preservative) , Citric acid (fruit derived pH regulator), Limonene*, Linalool*, Benzyl benzoate*

£47 for 30mls more information from Aurelia Skincare website.