Dermologica Skincare Review

It was my birthday a few weeks ago so I decided to treat myself (seeing as I'm getting old) and redeem a voucher I had for a choice of beauty treatments. I decided to have a facial, actually my FIRST facial ever...I'm actually embarrassed I've never had one because they are a-mazinggg and I think my skin has definitely been desperately craving one. I'm not saying I came out and my skin was perfect or anything like that because I'm suffering with pretty severe acne at the moment but a lot of the redness that seems to surround my already unsightly spots had vanished. Long story short, I asked what products had been used and was given a few sachet samples targeted at oily and acne prone skin by Dermalogica. Here's what I was given and have tested out in the meantime...

Sorry I've used stock photos but I didn't think photos of little sachets ripped open would look aesthetically pleasing...I know I'm a geek! This is more of a collective review because the samples I was given were literally minuscule amounts. Now I'm pretty sure a lot of you will of heard of Dermalogica and you may also be aware that their products are pretty expensive BUT....having tried out the products above, I think the quality and effectiveness definitely justifies the price. After using the dermal clay cleanser, daily microfoliant and sebum clearing masque, my skin feels super soft to touch and as I mentioned earlier, redness is significantly reduced. The oil control lotion is equally as good, it kept oil at bay for longer than anything else I've tried in the past and I literally must of tried the majority of oil control lotions available.


Overall I was really impressed and I'm definitely a dermalogica convert! If you can't justify paying so much however but still feel an urge to buy something from the range I would highly recommend trying out the daily microfoliant which is without doubt THE best exfoliator I've ever used, it's surprisingly gentle on the skin as well. It comes in a powder form so you have to wet your hands then sprinkle about a teaspoon sized amount into your hands, rub together then massage in circles all over your face.


Prices range from around £20-30 but I've also just found out you can buy skin specific travel kits that contain small sizes of a selection of products for around £20 which is great if you want to road test everything before splurging a load of money on something you don't know will work for you. I've seen these kits on a few different websites such as Amazon and approved stockists websites. Here's a few examples of what they look like and contain...

I'm hoping someone will fancy buying me one of these for Christmas...that's if I can control myself until then :-)

Have any of you tried Dermalogica, if so what do you make of their products?

Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions Review

My mum often used to palm off her unwanted Clinique samples onto me years ago when I was still in school and I never really thought much of what they had to offer to be honest probably because I was using sample products that were meant for my mums normal-dry skin rather than my oily, blemished teenage skin. Having said that, I know a lot of people credit Cliniques 3-Step regime with improving their skin and clearing it up if they've experienced breakouts so I decided to give some of their Anti-Blemish Solutions products a go as my skin is a bit of a nightmare at the moment with pregnancy hormones and what not.

Anyways, I ventured into Debenhams to have a skin consultation but unfortunately the Clinique peeps had gone home sooo my indecisive self had the hard task of selecting the correct products for my skin type...fortunately they had a really good offer on at the time, which included 3 sample sized 3-step regime products in a handy little washbag with any 2 skincare purchases, so I got to test out several products from the Anti-Blemish range without paying a hefty sum of money :-)

Left-Right: Anti-Blemish Solutions Cleansing Bar, Anti Blemish Solutions Cleansing Foam, Anti-Blemish Solutions Clarifying Lotion, Anti-Blemish Solutions Clearing Moisturizer and Anti-Blemish Solutions Clear Blemish Gel.

Just to clarify..I haven't reviewed the cleansing bar as it's still wrapped up, ready to go in my hospital bag with my other travel sized toiletries :-)

Cleansing Foam

  I absolutely love this, it makes my skin feel squeaky clean and eliminates any traces of oil, 2 pumps is more than enough for my whole face aswell. The only negative thing I'd say is the packaging makes it a bit bloody hard to tell when your about to run out! Overall 4/5.

Clarifying Lotion  

This again is fab, although probably not great for sensitive skin types as it can sting quite a bit. It exfoliates dead skin away easily and gets rid of any remaining traces of make-up with ease, however I don't think it works wonders for getting rid of oil. Overall 3½/5.

Clearing Moisturizer  

I'm not a big fan of this to be completely honest, I don't think it's helped clear up my skin and my face seems to get oily quite quick when I have this on whether I'm wearing make-up or not. I actually came across an old sample of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel the other day and I think this works much better for controlling oil. Overall 2/5

Clear Blemish Gel  

This is okay, I think some of my spots are slowly starting to fade and it does seem to prevent exisiting spots from getting worse but I haven't experienced a dramatic reduction in spot size. Again, it can sting so I wouldn't recommend if you have sensitive skin. Overall 3/5.

All in all, I do like these products even if my review doesn't really reflect that! Considering I only actually paid for the cleansing foam and blemish gel, I'm relatively happy with the results. For some reason I kinda like the clinical smell of the products but this might not be to everyones taste and I probably wouldn't recommend any of this stuff for sensitive skin types.


Is there anything you've tried by Clinique that you've loved or loathed?

July Favourites

Hey everyone, hope your all having a great summer! I'm so happy it's finally stopped raining here and the sun has (sort of) been making an appearance :)

Just thought I'd share some of my favourite purchases from last month, I was considering doing a post like this every month as I tend to rave about products I've just bought and consequently, some of my holy grail products become forgotten about. I have actually spent quite a lot on make-up this month, mainly on E.L.F. products as they had a 50% promo on about a week ago I'm gonna do a haul post on everything I got from them another time though as there is so much to review, so much that I've not even had a chance to try everything I bought yet! Anyways here's my favourite new purchases & products from July:

 

H&M Brick Red Poncho

I'd had my eye on this poncho for a while as I knew it would cover my bump and it looked lovely in the catalogue promo photos. I'd resisted purchasing for a while when I noticed it had gone into sale for the other day and considering the lack of affordable and fashionable maternity clothing I caved in and bought it....as well as a few other things :) 

H&M Feather Earrings

I can never just buy one thing from H&M, it's so bloody cheap and on-trend! Which leads me onto these boho kinda earrings I also purchased. Long, embellished earrings have always been a bit of an addiction of mine but recently I was trying to give my poor earlobes a break from all the heavy fake metal I'd been hanging off them over the years :\ Fortunately these are really lightweight and look stunning on.

Available from: hm.com

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Spot Stress Control Ultra Light Spot Treatment Moisturiser

I've always found Neutrogena products slightly hit & miss especially when they changed the formula of one of my HG face washes :\ Anyways, I reluctantly purchased this moisturiser as it was on promo in Boots and needed something cheap to replace my Body Shop skin clearing lotion. Whilst I'm still not sure of it's spot fighting abilities, the way this makes my skin feel is great. It feels really light and refreshing on the skin and which I'm guessing is down to the cucumber ingredient. On the days where we've had really humid weather, this hydrates my skin just enough as well as cooling it down.

Witch Anti-Blemish Skin Clearing Primer

I absolutely love this product. It fades the redness around my breakouts and previous acne scars, mattifies oily patches of skin, makes my skin surface smoother before applying make-up and I love the fact that it acts as a barrier to the plethora of make-up products I apply over the top. I've been using this for a few weeks now and admittedly it is my first ever primer! I don't use moisturiser underneath as I feel like applying both a moisturiser and primer is just drowning my face in products which doesn't help if you have oily skin plus this does a great job of moisturising on it's own. Overall, great product if you want a purse friendly primer :)

Boots Skin Clear Oil-Absorbing Sheets

These have been a god send for me over the last month! I hate applying powder over greasy skin so oil blotting sheets are a must-have for me. These are quite powdery when you tear them off the adhesive inside the packaging but they work wonders at absorbing oil from the skin and my make-up doesn't come off at all when using them either which I've noticed can happen with other oil blotting sheets I've used in the past.

 Products shown available from: www.boots.com

Make Up Academy Professional Eye Palette Heaven & Earth

After seeing several bloggers raving about this value for money neutral palette I had to have it considering I'm pretty much always on a budget and Superdrug were offering free delivery on all purchases so win win for my lazy, pregnant self :) Honestly though, this is a fab eye palette if you love neutrals as that's pretty much all this consists of.

Top row swatches taken in natural daylight.

Top row swatches taken with flash.

Bottom row swatches taken in natural daylight.

Bottom row swatches taken with flash.

Overall, this is an amazing product for the price, it retails at £4 which I think makes it well worth trying out. The shadows are very easy to blend and pigmentation is good so I'd definitely advise snapping this up before it sells out!

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss Peach Petal

 This had been on my wish list for a while simply because I was yet to find a nude coloured lip gloss that actually gave a nude lip and having googled swatches of this, I was hopeful this would end my search!

Bare lips with no product applied.

Lip swatch of Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Peach Petal.

 For your reference I'm an NC25 in MAC, so as you can see, this is highly pigmented and does in fact lighten my lips to give a more nude lip. One thing I would say is that this gloss is really sticky so it can go on quite streaky and kinda sit on any dry bits of skin. Overall I'd say this is a fab lipgloss, just make sure you really moisturise your lips beforehand which I mistakenly didn't do when I was swatching! I'm definitely going to be purchasing some more colours from the range in future.

Products shown available from: www.superdrug.com

 

 I hope you've enjoyed this post or it's at least been a bit helpful, would love to get some feedback.

 Have you tried any of the products I've spoke about and what products or brands are you loving at the moment?

Vichy Normaderm Review

 

I've been using the Vichy Normaderm Purifying Cleansing Gel, Purifying Astringent Toner and Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care for a few weeks now having taken advantage of the Boots 3 for 2 skincare offer and seeing good reviews in terms of helping improve acne. Whilst my skin hasn't got any worse from using these products as a 3-step cleanse, tone and moisturise regime, it hasn't got any better either.

 

Out of the three products the cleansing gel is the only one I MIGHT consider purchasing again...I stress might because of the price and owning cheaper alternatives that do the same job. You only need one pump to clean the whole of the face and the smell is quite nice but I think there are lots of cheaper alternatives that do the same job, if not a better job in terms of eliminating shine and cleansing pores.

The toner claims to unclog, tighten pores and give a matte finish to the skin, however I don't feel like it lived up to any of these claims! I felt like it left quite a sticky residue on my skin and I think my skin actually looks less shiny before using this.

I had high hopes for this product after reading several rave reviews about how it dried up spots and helped clear up acne etc. Vichy claim that the cream smoothes skin texture, purifies the skin and reduces the appearance of pores whilst giving a matte finish and continuous hydration for 24 hours. Again, I was bitterly disappointed, I was expecting this to at least help with my oiliness as I'd seen a few people on MUA claiming it dried up their skin too much but it actually made my oiliness even worse! On the other hand, the texture and smell is nice but I'm afraid this is not enough for me to repurchase.

Before and After Using Vichy Normaderm Products to Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise

Apologies for the extreme close up of my greasy skin but I thought it might be helpful for any of you likewise oily skinned people to see how these products actually perform.

 

1. This is my skin after removing make-up with a cleansing wipe so yeah still very oily as you can see :(

2. After using the cleansing gel you can visibly see that the skin has been cleansed well and oiliness is reduced.

3. After using the toner I think there is a slight difference in pore appearance nothing significant though.

4. After using the hydrating cream I think my skin looks more oily and pore appearance is consequently worse.

I'm sure these products may work for some people but I would not recommend using these as a 3 step skincare regime to someone with very oily skin especially considering the combined price of all three products normally would be around £30 and you can purchase much cheaper and more effective alternatives by brands such as Neutrogena. I hope this post was helpful to anyone considering purchasing any of the Normaderm products and I would love to hear your suggestions for any products that have helped you with oil or acne, so feel free to comment :)

Blemish Prone Beauties

I have had very oily acne-prone skin since being in high school which has ultimately led to me having tried and tested tons of products targeted at blemish prone skin. Becoming pregnant has unfortunately meant my skin has gone back to how it was when I was a teen so expect a ton of reviews on regimes and products I have been testing!!

I've used the Body Shop's tea tree range ever since I started to get spots in my teens and I would definitely recommend the range to anyone suffering from oily or blemish prone skin who doesn't want to splash out on expensive products. I have at some point tried nearly every product from the range and the only thing I wouldn't purchase again is the concealer, purely because it didn't give me the full coverage I wanted on my previous scars and emerging blemishes. 

I'm not made of money myself so I wouldn't expect anyone to go out and buy the whole range but if you have never tried these products I would recommend trying the facial wash, toner, day lotion and night lotion. When used together as a daily skincare regime these products do wonders for my skin in terms of mattifying my complexion, reducing pore size and generally smoothing out the texture of my skin.

 

Finally, a separate ramble about the tea tree face mask...I've used it since I was a teen and it is my holy grail product for skin disasters! It makes my skin feel thoroughly cleansed and refreshed but I'd say the main benefit I experienced from using is how much it reduces redness in my skin especially where I have scarring and spots. It also lasts forever because of the consistency so I'd definitely say this is a must-have product. 

As I've stated I do have a very acne prone, oily skin type so what I've experienced will not necessarily be the same as someone with a normal or combination skin type. Would love it if you let me know what you think of the range or any alternative skincare products for problematic skin sufferers!