I’m an older … yup coming up on 56 and no idea how I got here … but am still and always will be a skincare kinda gal. I’ve always needed a moisturiser and as of the age of 40 added serums in to the routine night and day. When they were expensive. Really expensive. So shout loud and be happy that we now have moderately priced serums. Whilst I still have the odd Augustine’s Bader mega splurge … the Teutonic efficiency of Dermalogica and the catch all Medik 8 on hand.. I highly recommend the peptide finishing oil from Nip and Fab. It’s a game changer. Do yourself a favour and buy a little travel spray bottle and decant … it makes application easier and uses the product more efficiently.
Here’s a BIG NO … Garden of Wisdom Vit C and Ferulic Acid … I bought this as the Skinceuticals equivalent is MEGA bucks. After a weeks use it very badly stained my hands where I had used my palms to apply it. I did look rather tanned however.
Also using the Ordinary Polyglutamic ??? serum to test the whole proposition that it is a wonder product. It’s not a game changer for me and it smell’s curiously vile.
"I don’t know what that dumb bitch was talking about not using the powders unskilled" laughed old loud at this one. Just love your writing! As you wanted a useful recommendation, I'll also vote for the KIKO eyeliners.... as good (if not better) than VB's and so affordable.
I have spent the summer using CC Dull correct. (Bonkers name.. but was recommended it by a friend). Simply marvellous stuff.. pea size amount on face somehow lifts the dull, rainy English summer from your face.
Nivia Sun & Protect (spray only) means everyone can now apply their own sunscreen so none of this « can you do my back » malarkey… so irritating when you are comfy on your lounger and engrossed in a good book!
For anyone too oily for the Cetraben, I cannot say enough good things about both La Roche Posay Effaclar and Vichy Normaderm. A bit spendy but between them they've calmed down my oily but dehydrated skin.
I do need to get my act/shit together re skincare as I just use Nivea q10 and make up from Superdrug.
Whilst my husband and son are kicking footballs around sports direct on the retail park, I run in and look what youth are buying in the way of mascaras and eyeliners etc and stock up. Not for foundation though. IT cosmetics is my go to there.
I need a life coach(?) to tell me what to wear, use, buy, cook, eat, say to my child and do at the gym. I’m absolutely terrible at making decisions. I’d like to go to a make up counter for a lesson but I’d end up crying after spending £600 and the only time I ever did get eye make put on me in the Trafford Centre , my then 5 year old cried when he saw me.
If you like cetraban, the pro hydrate 5 from the same brand is a great general hand/body cream - 75ml tube so good for travelling & not expensive. I repeat buy the erborian bb cream - you need a v small amount so even the mini 15ml version lasts ages.
Ha, I love that your dermatologist recommended Cetraben. I used to eschew any moisturiser that wasn't £££, thinking it was bad for my skin, but for the past year I have been using cetraben on my face and body. A huge £14 tub lasts me 3 months - absolute bargain! I also use tretinoin/azaelic acid via Skin + Me and Cerave cleanser. My dull, dry, blemish prone skin has never been so good! X
Just about to head off on second week of holiday. I have a 13 yr old daughter and between us, we have 5 times the beauty / body/ hair products than we do clothes! Thing is- I need all those potions ! I get rosacea and relatedly have scalp issues, so I need to take specialist products. It’ll most be painful if b I don’t :(
Finally. I don’t really do much holidaying as life, dogs, just bought a house, self employee husband. HOWEVER I am enjoying (RIGHT NOW ACTUALLY) a night away now & again in cutesy little hotels. Had to come to Bristol for back to bsvk dental
Appt so am staying in The Rodney Hotel in Clifton. £54 a night. They provide fresh ground coffee & cafetiere, fruit & I had THE BEST Croque Monsieur & frites on a tray in room last night. It was fried. Just mindblowing.
Highly recommend.
And on the subject, Esther, please tell Giles to stop sending people to Wales, it is where I retreat to get away from people. I grew up outside Swansea & holidayed every year in West Wales & it is still quiet so SSSH !!
I currently have the biggest stash of make up EVER despite living in the country & it being slightly incongruous to wear lippie to walk dogs.
I bought a fab boxy make up bag & feel like a MUA when I do wear it.
Currently loving Il Makiage eye liners as i have piggy eyes and no eye lashes and they make them stand out.
I just splashed out on Giorgio Armani silk foundation and frankly cannot wait for winter to start wearing.
I found an old Clinique Black Honey lip crayon behind my make up dresser & have fallen back in love. So universally flattering.
I LOVE my chanel red double lip compact. A clear balm to prep lips and a red lipstick powder - feel so finished and I can rarely carry off red lipstick.
I have two Hourglass items @Esther that I bought SIX YEARS AGO pre-wedding as had prep at Space NK Bath & bought what lovely clever woman used.
One was a bronzer which did make me look like the Tin Man if I wasn’t careful. I dropped this last year & it was like a terracotta earthquake so binned. BUT I do still have a highlighter which I use and like when I do a full face (like twice a year)
I also love french brand Typology for tinted serum / foundation. Really reasonable (£25) - they also sell a fab highlighting jobbie in a bottle with a pipette. Makes me all glowy. Also love their lippies in glass bottle with sponge applicator.
I have discovered the holy grail for my senile warts I think. Remember these ?
I don’t recall what article I was reading which prompted it; but it mentioned salicylic acid for basically exfoliating the skin which effectively just pisses the moles off and over time they just lose colour, get eliminated.
Did some research & discovered Naturium at Space NK - it is a glycolic acid body wash k they recommend using the lotion afterwards.
I am tight and normally would NOT consider spending £18 on a body wash but these things make me self-conscious plus I figure they will last a LONG time. A little squirt and rub onto my torso in shower; leave to work while i wash hair.
Might be placebo effect / psychosomatic but I feel they are already fading after just a few showers.
I love Votary for all things natural and organic and that actually work. I love all their products .
That and Neals Yard facial misters.
Anything else I just get confused by chemical sounding names - I can’t get on at all with retinol even though I’ve heard how transformative etc they are. I have highly sensitive and reactive, dry skin and it’s never looked worse when I tried a low grade retinol. Must have been user error - but I’m too scared to retry it..
PCOS deep cystic acne here. It’s held at bay with hard drugs - Spironolactone (a water tablet that as a side effect reduces testosterone or “androgens”). Must say it’s such a joy to now have acne free skin and be fucking normal! Deep, deep cysts that would eventually rupture to the surface (3-4 months) then slowly heal (2-4 months) then leave pigmentation (2-5 years, and counting) and eventually in the worst case the lower dermis would atrophy and I’d be left with pick axe scarring… a was just so painful and so, so shit.
But now that’s done! Skinceutical b5 serum is a joy. So lovely, wake up with skin visibly looking plumper. What else - recently got an £80 space NK voucher and blew the lot on a dr Dennis gross 15% vit C serum. Goes on like orange syrup but again, wake up seeing the difference.
Bought a Kiehls clay exfoliant that’s lovely. And skinceutical glycolic 10 renew overnight is great.
Medik8 retinal is fine.
No routine, rhyme or rhythm. Just stick some of it on sometimes, and can really tell when I’ve bothered!!
I think I attempted Spironolactone or considered but bottled it…
I was at a point of particular despair and an amazing lady in Space NK Bath advised me to strip back completely my routine and got me on Darphin water based moisturiser & a gentle cleanser. It worked wonders.
A similar situation when an amazing lady at Printemps in Paris; she actually worked on the Armani make up stand and I wanted that silky stuff ( this was 20 years ago) but she sent me to the Helena Rubinstein counter & got me stocked up with a phenomenal moisturiser devised for burns victims originally ( sadly since discontinued) and it changed my life as I actually had severely dehydrated skin.
I think (no expert) but we are being flogged way too many acids etc for our skin in the pursuit of youth & not sure it is the answer ?
La Roche Posay was always my default as my parisian dermatologist said this is THE brand.
Now I am an addict to Erborian. They are MUCH MORE than just CC & BB creams. My skin glows these days as I am oiled & serumed to the hilt.
omg this is intense. I deeply feel your joy at "normal" skin. the rage and horror and then horror at vanity at bad skin can only be understood by a fellow traveller
Agree 100% re bathrooms without space, also the functional nature of Cerave. You have the knack of putting into words all that floats around untethered in my brain. Also: Chats with Dominic Sandbrook, friend who works at Hourglass? Totes jel, as people probably don't say anymore.
Re researching holidays, just finished listening to Gary Janetti's new book 'We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay' which was full of lolz, and had a lot about how he extensively researches holidays and restaurants, then casually mentions to his partner 'Oh, we could try this place'. Worth a listen, or a read (both thin and funny - the perfect book).
Re makeup - I just can't let myself be spendy anymore, I am boringly thrifty - though I have friends who swear by Victoria Beckham and Westman Atelier, I am finding Elf eye sticks and Maybelline Sky High mascara (called 'Primer', in white tube) better than a lot of more expensive brands.
I’m an older … yup coming up on 56 and no idea how I got here … but am still and always will be a skincare kinda gal. I’ve always needed a moisturiser and as of the age of 40 added serums in to the routine night and day. When they were expensive. Really expensive. So shout loud and be happy that we now have moderately priced serums. Whilst I still have the odd Augustine’s Bader mega splurge … the Teutonic efficiency of Dermalogica and the catch all Medik 8 on hand.. I highly recommend the peptide finishing oil from Nip and Fab. It’s a game changer. Do yourself a favour and buy a little travel spray bottle and decant … it makes application easier and uses the product more efficiently.
Here’s a BIG NO … Garden of Wisdom Vit C and Ferulic Acid … I bought this as the Skinceuticals equivalent is MEGA bucks. After a weeks use it very badly stained my hands where I had used my palms to apply it. I did look rather tanned however.
Also using the Ordinary Polyglutamic ??? serum to test the whole proposition that it is a wonder product. It’s not a game changer for me and it smell’s curiously vile.
"I don’t know what that dumb bitch was talking about not using the powders unskilled" laughed old loud at this one. Just love your writing! As you wanted a useful recommendation, I'll also vote for the KIKO eyeliners.... as good (if not better) than VB's and so affordable.
I have spent the summer using CC Dull correct. (Bonkers name.. but was recommended it by a friend). Simply marvellous stuff.. pea size amount on face somehow lifts the dull, rainy English summer from your face.
Nivia Sun & Protect (spray only) means everyone can now apply their own sunscreen so none of this « can you do my back » malarkey… so irritating when you are comfy on your lounger and engrossed in a good book!
For anyone too oily for the Cetraben, I cannot say enough good things about both La Roche Posay Effaclar and Vichy Normaderm. A bit spendy but between them they've calmed down my oily but dehydrated skin.
I do need to get my act/shit together re skincare as I just use Nivea q10 and make up from Superdrug.
Whilst my husband and son are kicking footballs around sports direct on the retail park, I run in and look what youth are buying in the way of mascaras and eyeliners etc and stock up. Not for foundation though. IT cosmetics is my go to there.
I need a life coach(?) to tell me what to wear, use, buy, cook, eat, say to my child and do at the gym. I’m absolutely terrible at making decisions. I’d like to go to a make up counter for a lesson but I’d end up crying after spending £600 and the only time I ever did get eye make put on me in the Trafford Centre , my then 5 year old cried when he saw me.
I’d cry if I had to go to the Trafford Centre too… that place is like a Poundland version of Dubai
If you like cetraban, the pro hydrate 5 from the same brand is a great general hand/body cream - 75ml tube so good for travelling & not expensive. I repeat buy the erborian bb cream - you need a v small amount so even the mini 15ml version lasts ages.
Ha, I love that your dermatologist recommended Cetraben. I used to eschew any moisturiser that wasn't £££, thinking it was bad for my skin, but for the past year I have been using cetraben on my face and body. A huge £14 tub lasts me 3 months - absolute bargain! I also use tretinoin/azaelic acid via Skin + Me and Cerave cleanser. My dull, dry, blemish prone skin has never been so good! X
Hourglass mascara - made my eyes stream until I looked like a panda who had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. Avoid.
Just about to head off on second week of holiday. I have a 13 yr old daughter and between us, we have 5 times the beauty / body/ hair products than we do clothes! Thing is- I need all those potions ! I get rosacea and relatedly have scalp issues, so I need to take specialist products. It’ll most be painful if b I don’t :(
Finally. I don’t really do much holidaying as life, dogs, just bought a house, self employee husband. HOWEVER I am enjoying (RIGHT NOW ACTUALLY) a night away now & again in cutesy little hotels. Had to come to Bristol for back to bsvk dental
Appt so am staying in The Rodney Hotel in Clifton. £54 a night. They provide fresh ground coffee & cafetiere, fruit & I had THE BEST Croque Monsieur & frites on a tray in room last night. It was fried. Just mindblowing.
Highly recommend.
And on the subject, Esther, please tell Giles to stop sending people to Wales, it is where I retreat to get away from people. I grew up outside Swansea & holidayed every year in West Wales & it is still quiet so SSSH !!
I currently have the biggest stash of make up EVER despite living in the country & it being slightly incongruous to wear lippie to walk dogs.
I bought a fab boxy make up bag & feel like a MUA when I do wear it.
Currently loving Il Makiage eye liners as i have piggy eyes and no eye lashes and they make them stand out.
I just splashed out on Giorgio Armani silk foundation and frankly cannot wait for winter to start wearing.
I found an old Clinique Black Honey lip crayon behind my make up dresser & have fallen back in love. So universally flattering.
I LOVE my chanel red double lip compact. A clear balm to prep lips and a red lipstick powder - feel so finished and I can rarely carry off red lipstick.
I have two Hourglass items @Esther that I bought SIX YEARS AGO pre-wedding as had prep at Space NK Bath & bought what lovely clever woman used.
One was a bronzer which did make me look like the Tin Man if I wasn’t careful. I dropped this last year & it was like a terracotta earthquake so binned. BUT I do still have a highlighter which I use and like when I do a full face (like twice a year)
I also love french brand Typology for tinted serum / foundation. Really reasonable (£25) - they also sell a fab highlighting jobbie in a bottle with a pipette. Makes me all glowy. Also love their lippies in glass bottle with sponge applicator.
I have discovered the holy grail for my senile warts I think. Remember these ?
I don’t recall what article I was reading which prompted it; but it mentioned salicylic acid for basically exfoliating the skin which effectively just pisses the moles off and over time they just lose colour, get eliminated.
Did some research & discovered Naturium at Space NK - it is a glycolic acid body wash k they recommend using the lotion afterwards.
I am tight and normally would NOT consider spending £18 on a body wash but these things make me self-conscious plus I figure they will last a LONG time. A little squirt and rub onto my torso in shower; leave to work while i wash hair.
Might be placebo effect / psychosomatic but I feel they are already fading after just a few showers.
https://www.spacenk.com/uk/bath-body/body-cleanser/body-wash/the-smoother-glycolic-acid-exfoliating-body-wash-UK200037923.html?istCompanyId=0e8ad2cd-a29f-4f10-aa02-bfe7beec114f&istFeedId=4dabe32f-dcf8-4bb2-893d-2b02fd2dd75d&istItemId=rmlqtqatm&istBid=t&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=snk-uk-shopping&utm_term=alwayson-all-mixed&utm_content=mixed-restofdesigners-static&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD9ohPo6FyKdZNjNn8jdqkRjrG1BI&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxLrm36qKiAMVsZVQBh3soTlJEAQYASABEgIrCfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I love Votary for all things natural and organic and that actually work. I love all their products .
That and Neals Yard facial misters.
Anything else I just get confused by chemical sounding names - I can’t get on at all with retinol even though I’ve heard how transformative etc they are. I have highly sensitive and reactive, dry skin and it’s never looked worse when I tried a low grade retinol. Must have been user error - but I’m too scared to retry it..
Also can’t get retinols to work for me…most annoying. Even the most recommended / hyped / sensitive skin-friendly etc etc etc
I agree. Have similar skin & pared back, little or no acids is what works best for me.
PCOS deep cystic acne here. It’s held at bay with hard drugs - Spironolactone (a water tablet that as a side effect reduces testosterone or “androgens”). Must say it’s such a joy to now have acne free skin and be fucking normal! Deep, deep cysts that would eventually rupture to the surface (3-4 months) then slowly heal (2-4 months) then leave pigmentation (2-5 years, and counting) and eventually in the worst case the lower dermis would atrophy and I’d be left with pick axe scarring… a was just so painful and so, so shit.
But now that’s done! Skinceutical b5 serum is a joy. So lovely, wake up with skin visibly looking plumper. What else - recently got an £80 space NK voucher and blew the lot on a dr Dennis gross 15% vit C serum. Goes on like orange syrup but again, wake up seeing the difference.
Bought a Kiehls clay exfoliant that’s lovely. And skinceutical glycolic 10 renew overnight is great.
Medik8 retinal is fine.
No routine, rhyme or rhythm. Just stick some of it on sometimes, and can really tell when I’ve bothered!!
I had these and these caused me no end of misery.
I think I attempted Spironolactone or considered but bottled it…
I was at a point of particular despair and an amazing lady in Space NK Bath advised me to strip back completely my routine and got me on Darphin water based moisturiser & a gentle cleanser. It worked wonders.
A similar situation when an amazing lady at Printemps in Paris; she actually worked on the Armani make up stand and I wanted that silky stuff ( this was 20 years ago) but she sent me to the Helena Rubinstein counter & got me stocked up with a phenomenal moisturiser devised for burns victims originally ( sadly since discontinued) and it changed my life as I actually had severely dehydrated skin.
I think (no expert) but we are being flogged way too many acids etc for our skin in the pursuit of youth & not sure it is the answer ?
La Roche Posay was always my default as my parisian dermatologist said this is THE brand.
Now I am an addict to Erborian. They are MUCH MORE than just CC & BB creams. My skin glows these days as I am oiled & serumed to the hilt.
omg this is intense. I deeply feel your joy at "normal" skin. the rage and horror and then horror at vanity at bad skin can only be understood by a fellow traveller
Love Elf - their nude palette eyeshadows have great staying power - and can recommend Kiko Milano for nice soft eyeliner pencils and eyeshadow sticks.
Agree 100% re bathrooms without space, also the functional nature of Cerave. You have the knack of putting into words all that floats around untethered in my brain. Also: Chats with Dominic Sandbrook, friend who works at Hourglass? Totes jel, as people probably don't say anymore.
Re researching holidays, just finished listening to Gary Janetti's new book 'We Are Experiencing a Slight Delay' which was full of lolz, and had a lot about how he extensively researches holidays and restaurants, then casually mentions to his partner 'Oh, we could try this place'. Worth a listen, or a read (both thin and funny - the perfect book).
Re makeup - I just can't let myself be spendy anymore, I am boringly thrifty - though I have friends who swear by Victoria Beckham and Westman Atelier, I am finding Elf eye sticks and Maybelline Sky High mascara (called 'Primer', in white tube) better than a lot of more expensive brands.