Skincare Shake Up December ’16

It feels so strange to talk about December ’16 as it feels like a million years ago! But here is my (belated) Skincare Shake Up December edition. You know how this goes, so let’s just get going before I waffle even more than usual!

Evening Skincare Shake Up December ’16 Routine:

I know that I promised that I would try something other than the The Body Shop Camomile Cleansing Oil * this month – my dependence on this product is raging out of control – but my rosacea is usually quite misbehaved over Christmas and New Year and I just wanted to use something that I knew would work. You’ve heard me rave about it before here, here, and here. It’s wonderful and you need it.

My second cleanse was the Omorovicza Cleansing Foam*. I’d only every tried one thing from this brand before and that’s the Omorovicza Queen Of Hungary Facial Mist (which features in this post about products that are almost to beautiful to use). I’d heard wonderful things about this range. It is from Budapest where – interesting fact ahoy! – the Earth’s crust is at its thinnest. This means that the waters can rise closer to the surface and the sun’s rays warm the minerals in the ground, which in turn makes the water in the natural baths and springs really beneficial to skin. People are even ‘prescribed’ visits to the thermal baths to help with skin conditions. So the water from this area is pretty special… and naturally features heavily in the Omorovicza products. The cleansing foam is a pretty, baby blue foam that smells of a dreamy spa treatment and feels really light and soft on the face. I really, really like this cleanser: it leaves my skin feeling clean, without stripping or drying it. Omorovicza products are pricey, but if you want products that work AND make you feel very fancy and special, then this brand has that in spades.

For my exfoliating step this month, I was using a mixture of all of the wonderful products that I showcased in my ‘5 Best Budget Exfoliators For Sensitive Skin‘ blog post. You should go read that, along with the other posts in that series. Every single product has the Talonted Lex seal of approval and we all know that’s worth its weight in GOLD. (Does sarcasm come across in blog posts…?)

I love skincare in general and get excited every single time I try a new product but it’s rare that I experience the levels of excitement I felt when I made an order from The Ordinary. You may have heard of DECIEM: they have some of the most exciting brands currently on the market so I’ve advise losing yourself in their website for a while! I’d wanted to try The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 for ages and during the Black Friday sales, when checking my phone in bed, I saw that it was in the sale for £1. ONE POUND. I am not lying when I tell you that I *ran* to my laptop to order it. The Ordinary’s USP is that they pare back on packaging, superfluous ingredients, and complicated names, and it’s fair to say that the beauty community has lost its mind over the whole range. This product is incredibly good and the results are almost instant, with the skin looking more plump, less dry, and as a result more luminous. This can just slot into your existing skincare routine and you will not regret it. Plus, even at full price it is only £5.90!

The other product I ordered from them was The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%. Zinc is brilliant for combatting excess oil (which can help with congestion), healing and helping scarring from acne. Niacinamide (the fancy name for vitamin B3) helps to prevent pigmentation, with fine lines and skin elasticity. I have definitely noticed a reduction in oil production although it’s hard to say that it’s just down to this. I think this would be better suited to someone with pigmentation and blemish prone skin so I may pass it on to a friend. There’s another product from DECIEM coming up in this post, but expect to see a lot more in the coming months. I’m now addicted!

The Body Shop Youth Bouncy Sleeping Mask* was one of the prizes at the THIRTY PLUS Blog Awards and I am annoyed that it took me so long to try it. Sleep masks have been huge in Asia for a long time and was inevitably going to make it over here. It’s a simple concept: a cream-gel that you apply like any other moisturiser but is designed to slow-release its goodness over the course of the night. It’s also memory-foam-like, in that it moves like jelly but reforms once you’ve removed a blob with the included little spatula. SO FLIPPING FUN. It does contain fragrance but I still found it very calming and had no reaction. The tub is a little cumbersome and heavy, so not at all suited for weekends away or holidays, but as it lives next to my bed I don’t mind too much. I’m not sure that I have noticed a difference between using this and using any other moisturiser, the ‘slow release’ aspect hasn’t been obvious to me but it’s a nice, standard moisturiser that’s a pleasure to use.

Morning Skincare Shake Up December ’16 Routine:

As I was away for much of December, I went back to my standard and trusted micellar water – Bioderma Sebium H2O – as my morning cleanse. My skin likes it, it does what I need it to, and the travel bottles are perfect for packing ‘light’ (… I think we all know I’ve never packed light in my life).

I followed this with the Omorovicza Omoressence* which I LOVE. I’ve spoken about essences before (another product concept we have adopted from Asia but is yet to truly catch on) so you already know that I really enjoy using them. And I think that’s important to mention: I think if you don’t have the time, money, or inclination, then essences (like facial mists) are not absolutely key to a skincare routine. However, if you like taking your time with skincare, if you like to feel pampered and are looking for a step that will add more moisture into your skincare routine then essences will be right up your street. This one is probably the best I’ve tried: it sinks in quickly, isn’t sticky, smells DIVINE and I think has really helped my skin to feel less dry and more calm over the recent cold weather. Again, it’s PRICEY. No one is denying that. But at the time of writing I’ve been using it for 6 weeks and I’ve used maybe an inch – you only use about 2 drops at a time – so this will last at least a year I reckon. That’s about £7 per month for a bit of luxury and a boost to your skincare. Yep, I’m in.

Next up was the Hylamide Sensitive Fix*, the third and last of the DECIEM products in this post. That little star next to the names means that I didn’t buy this one myself, unlike the other DECIEM products above. I was keen to try this as it sounds like it was made for me: it’s designed to reduce sensitivity and redness. THE DREAM. I’m not sure about the redness in my skin overall but I have noticed a change in my skin’s sensitivity over the past month. December was full of cold weather, central heating, a lack of sleep, booze and a lot of food and my skin would typically be very unhappy by the time we shuffled into the new year. But recently my skin has been slower to react, flush, or become sore so I’m chalking that up as a win. I do not like the smell of this product at all, but I’m happy to ignore it because I think the positives of the product are more important and obviously I’d rather the chemical smell rather than it having an artificial fragrance added. I’m going to carry on using this and report back on any changes in my redness.

I hadn’t tried any Avon skincare before but I was pleasantly surprised by the Avon ANEW Essential Youth Maximising Serum*. I have a full review of it going live on the Avon website soon, so I’ll link to the detailed review when that’s live but in summary: it’s a very lightweight serum that really helped reduce the dry patches around my temples, gave my skin a lovely glow (which I consider a miracle in the horrible winter months!) and, most excitingly, I noticed a real difference in the fine lines around my eyes. Bravo, Avon, you have a new fan!

And bringing up the rear is the third and final Omorovicza product. If you read my Skincare Shake Up posts fairly regularly you may have noticed that I rarely try out a range of products from one brand at one time. I tend to cherry-pick my skincare from my to-try box and it’s rare that multiple items from one brand stand out to me as my skin has so many different needs. So it should speak volumes about both Omorovicza and DECIEM products that they feature so heavily in this post. The Omorovicza Elemental Emulsion* is a really light and delicate moisturiser that still packs a punch of moisture. If you have easily aggravated skin, light layers of products are often better than thick and heavy creams because anything that makes your skin feel smothered can induce a flare up. This is oil-free and sinks in so quickly that it’s the perfect base for make up. One pump is more than enough for the whole face so, again, it may seem pricey but it will last flipping ages. It comes in a heavy, frosted glass bottle which just looks and feels luxurious and special – not the most important factor by any means but still a significant one.

I also wanted to note that I’ve been trialling a liquid supplement this month, but I did a whole post on that so I won’t repeat myself! If you struggle to take tablets or want an easy way to get supplements into your diet then you can read my review of Silidyn Rejuvenate* HERE. It’s designed to improve your skin, hair and nails as well as support joints and bones and I’ve seen great results since taking it.

And that’s your lot! My Skincare Shake Up December ’16 edition is done. There are some seriously incredible products here, ones that will definitely make it into my bathroom cabinet (hallowed ground for a beauty blogger!), along with some that I am pleased to have tried but are perhaps not for me.

What products have you been loving this month? What are your thoughts on all of my Skincare Shake Up December items?

Lex

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