Pestle & Mortar Superstar Retinol Night Oil, my excited but limited thoughts based on 3 weeks of use

I am never really sure about reviews of skincare products. I mean I love skincare, I have an extensive range, it is what I spend my money on, it is what I think about before I go to sleep and what I day dream about during the spaces in between. What I am really doing is putting my thoughts out there about a product which may or may not suit somebody else. However given that I currently get about 2 views per day and that includes my own maybe it is neither here nor there, to the person who looks at my burblings, welcome, but please bear in mind that these are my own rather excited but initial thoughts.

So Pestle & Mortar Superstar Retinol Night Oil. This had been on my radar for a while after that post by Caroline Hirons

I have been using Sunday Riley's Luna Oil and indeed had repurchased, but I was not using as regularly and wanted something which felt a bit more nourishing for the winter months. 

I have been using this for all of 3 weeks, stupidity to make any vast claims really but I am in a bit of a giddy mood for I do bloody love this. 

What can I say about this? It is elegantly packaged, housed in a slim black tube with a pump which works. It has no smell at all, not even an oily scent, it is odourless. It has a thickness to it, it is not a dry oil to my mind, nor a thin oil, it is an oil which disperses easily across my skin with a stickablility which enables massage but not drag. 

What have I noticed after such a short space of useage? I am worried that I am whizzing through it and it will be gone, the instructions are for half a pump at night but I didn't see that until I was looking on the website last night and I have been using a full pump which lets face it is not a vast amount, probably around 1.75mls if that, but the tube feels suddenly lighter and it is currently sold out on the website and I am panicking somewhat, because it really does feel good on my skin, I mean really good, like a good tonic of goodness, it seems to get into all my nooks and crannies and plump them out a bit and then calm all the redness and plump out the thinness.

This is currently £63 for 30mls. It is sold out at the moment from the stockists that I know of, ie the Pestle and Mortar website and the Cloud10 Beauty website. I think this is my new favourite treatment oil, and may have reached the status of needing one in storage at all times.

Ingredients: Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil*, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil*, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil*, Rosa Canina (Fruit) Oil*, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate) Seed Oil**, Ribes Nigrum (Black Currant) Oil*, Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate, Retinyl Palmitate, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Seed Oil***, Nigella Sativa (Black Cumin) Seed Oil**, Calophyllum Inophyllum (Tamanu/Foraha) Seed Oil**, Vaccinium Macrocarpon (Cranberry) Seed Oil*, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Tocopherol, Calendula Officinalis Flower Oil**, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil**.
*Cold Pressed | **Cold Pressed and Organic| ***Steam distilled

An example of an inability to follow through

Firstly I have to say that this post is more about me than the following product. It is about my delight in beauty products but about my delight in owning them as opposed to using them - I am a piss-poor consumer of beauty products. I delight in the chase, the ability to secure something rare, and then I relax and admire my purchase and occasionally stroke it - idiot woman.

May Lindstrom The Blue Cocoon is a prime example. I own this. I purchased it last December as part of the Caroline Hirons/Cult Beauty beauty box collaboration. I posted about it briefly here 

I was looking forward to using it, more than that, I was excited.

As you can see this product was "made fresh" in October 2015. I received this in December 2015, it is now September 2016 and I have used all of this much....

See? Total epic fail at consuming. I have looked at it, I have admired the heavy glass jar, I have opening it, I have dipped a finger or two in, but I have not used to any great extent.

Now in my defense, I do not like the scent and that is a purely personal observation, I can smell the slightly chocolatey cocoa butter scent and the myrrh and lavender and it is all a bit strong for me.

I struggled to fit it into a routine; I used it post cleansing, seruming, oiling and moisturising as a sort of pre-bed facial massage, I tried it as the sole moisturiser/treatment post cleanse but it did not sit happily on my skin but I think that was more to do with the scent than any texture, because it is a balm which quickly melts into an oil and gives a slip which more than allows for a good massage. And it is an exceptionally good texture for massage, there is no sudden slippyness resulting in skidding fingers up the nose and into the eyes, just a singular reliable texture. It does sink in but after a time, and that is no bad thing in my mind.

The ingredients are lovely, the packaging is lovely, the texture is sublime, but it is not for me sadly. I think the moral is "be careful what you wish for." 

Something Blue - Sunday Riley Blue Moon Tranquility Cleansing Balm

I mentioned this product in a previous post where there was a distinctive blue hue to a current slew of beauty products, as can be seen below

But this product deserves a post all of its own - I have purchased, used up and now re-purchased this product for I don't think I could live without it.

It is a thick, waxy balm I suppose, it needs a bit of a dig to get it out, but it does melt quickly and it is blue - I feel as if my second batch is bluer than my first, but that could just be me. It does require a bit of work into the skin, it is not as melty as say Emma Hardie Moringa Cleansing Balm, but that bit of resistance is okay for me as I find I am not slipping and sliding all over my face uncontrollably. It does slacken with the addition of water but it is rather a chore so I prefer to remove with a warm flannel.

I have used it to remove makeup but at only 100mls and £46 for that amount, I am loathe to frankly waste it on that function. For me I like to cleanse my face and then use this as a hydrating mask whilst I am in the shower in the evening, then remove and go on with various oils and moisturisers. 

Ingredients listed below

£46 for 100mls jar which is shallow enough and wide enough to get every last scrap out of.

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

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.