Sarah Chapman Skinesis Liquid Facial Resurfacer

I do have a bit of an obsession with exfoliating toners, I think once I got over the "acid" word, and saw the benefits, it was a race to grab armfuls of the stuff and as with all product categories, shop until I drop and find the one I am happiest with whilst sampling others along the way.

So Sarah Chapman Skinesis Liquid Facial Resurfacer is a relatively new product, it was available on QVC on two lots of easy-payments and I watched Sarah herself demonstrate it, I liked what I heard and thought I would try it.

I have enjoyed Sarah Chapman products in the past, I like the fact that it is a British brand, I like that I can watch her on QVC and find out a bit more about the products by listening rather than reading, and I like the range of ingredients many of which I can pronounce and have a working knowledge of what they are meant to do.

The product comes in a bottle with a pump, and the design does mean that some of the product escapes around the underneath, which is annoying but not sufficiently so to impede useage and enjoyment.

And this really is good. It is satisfyingly dense in texture, a bit thicker than most toners and more like a thin serum, and it does tingle, in a good way, in a way that suggests effectiveness, a tingle and not a sting, there is a difference, I have experienced both with exfoliating products and I know which I prefer.

I have listed the ingredients below, interestingly ingredient of the moment copper is high on the list and it is blue, as can be seen in the application video below.

Here are some of the other exfoliating toners I am currently using on rotation.

It can be used am and pm but I prefer to use am only, as with all exfoliating toners, the advice is to follow with a sunscreen.

Having only been using this for a week, it is difficult to make any claims, but I feel that it easily fits in with the other exfoliating toners that I use, and I am inclined to ditch the others and see how this performs over the next couple of months.

Currently £36 for 100mls

What I have loved in January 2016

So these are the products which I have really enjoyed using this month.

By Terry Denisiliss Concealer is a concealer which I had wanted to try for a very long time because the reviews I have seen have been glowing, but at £44 the price was a little prohibitive for me until Father Christmas came to my rescue. 

I use this under my eyes and on my upper eyelid, I don't have especially dark circles but I do have discolouration and with crepey eyelids and folds upon folds, any concealer that I apply around my eyes is liable to disappear or crease. This doesn't, at all, ever, I almost cannot believe it, but it works.

Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer. I am embarrassed to confess that I bought the full size of this product (no mean feat at £52) and then fell out of love with it, and it languished in a drawer unused and unloved for a good six months until I got fed up with trying to make SPF50 sunscreens work as primers and dug it out, and I haven't looked back.

What I like about this product is that it is white, which suits my pale discoloured skin, it that is lessens the red bits, and skims over the hyperpigmentation. I like the texture which is light enough to fill in the open pores without clogging them up. I like that it makes my base product last all day. My only gripe is that the pump on mine does not work especially well, so I have to unscrew the top and spread some from the tube and I tend to use too much.

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Ink. I don't do eye shadow, or upper eye lid flicks and kicks. My eyelids are well documented awnings and it is a waste of time and energy and an immense disappointment to attempt any form of upper eyelid lining. I do do tightlining and with these pencils by Urban Decay, there is no travel. Ink is a suprisingly bright navy which is rather flattering on my sludgy brown eyes. My Mum, bless her, likes to think they are green but she is my Mum.

Charlotte Tilbury Rock 'N' Kohl Iconic Liquid Eye Pencil in Eye Cheat. It makes me look awake. End of. Unlike most usual "flesh coloured" eye pencils, this is neither too pink or too white, and suprisingly it lasts more than the time it takes to apply it to the other eye. I also like it as a spot concealer.

What I have used up in January 2016

I was going to upload a video but chickened out, maybe next time. So what I have I used up this month?

Starting at the top left Charlotte Tilbury's Magic Cream. I bought this back in May of last year, and no it did not last this long, it took me a little while to get started with it.

The texture is quite thick, I have scrapped the last little bit out on my hand to show below.

There is a slight opalescence to this cream. It applies beautifully to my skin and does not feel thick or claggy or oppressive in any way, it lays beautifully over my serums and feels like a cloud of comfort on my skin. I will buy this again when I have used up my next day moisturiser.

Moving on in a clockwise direction, MV Organic Skin Care Energising 9 Oil Skin Tonic. I have never been particularly sure that I am using this in the correct way, it is I suppose a treatment cleansing oil. I apply it in the evenings after my pm cleanse and then leave it on whilst I get in the shower, and then remove. I use it when my skin is feeling a bit in need of a purge, a good deep down cleanse, but with that little bit of added comfort. This product gives my skin a thorough cleanse with an extra bit of care, effective, but gentle. I have a back up.  

Clarins Gentle Exfoliator Brightening Toner. I was a bit late to the party with this exfoliating toner, I think because I believed that I needed a product with more oomph. But this is lovely, it has a texture more akin to a serum and I suppose at a push one could apply with fingers. I tend to only use exfoliating toners in the evening, but if I was to use one twice a day this would be my am one of choice. I reviewed this in more detail here

Ultrasun Face Anti-Ageing & Anti-Pigmentation Sun Protection SPF50+. This product is a given for me, everyday, rain or shine, this is the first product to go on my face after I have cleansed in the morning. It has lessened the appearance of my hyperpigmentation and I would not be without it. A more detailed review here

Charlotte Tilbury Eye Magic Rescue

This is the new eye cream from Charlotte Tilbury, I had seen that it was out before Christmas and having had somewhat unexpected success with her Magic Cream, I decided to try a sample, which turned into two samples and then I had to purchase the full size, it was that good.

I am a bit of a sucker for an eye cream, I think partly it is because I have quite low expectations in that I was virtually born with awnings for eyelids and nothing other than surgery will improve that, so I enjoy eye creams safe in the knowledge that they are not going to change my eye area hugely. 

But I do have some pre-requisites. I want a product that doesn't have a scent, I want a texture which allows for some massage, and I want it to not sink without a trace, but then neither do I want something which sits around for ages, and causes my eyeliner to migrate down my cheeks.

And this ticks all the boxes for me. It has a mild scent of nothing very much, inoffensive. But it is the texture which did it for me. It has a beautiful slightly sticky gel cream, not sticky in a cheap old lipgloss way, but more that it has a substance, a presence, there is something to work with, a bit like a liqui-cream texture, there is something serumy, and a little bit oily but again in a good way that affords some decent massage around the eye to get the product in and enable a bit of puffiness reduction.

What I have found is that after use, my under eye area especially feels smoother, as if there has been some resurfacing, and although I feel a bit as if it is wishful thinking because I have only been using the product for three weeks, I am sure that the milia in my eye area have reduced, and that is no bad thing.

£40 for 15mls jar.

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.