Recent Skin Saviours #1

A couple of times a year I find myself victim to some sort of skin disaster. Usually I can’t find the root cause of the issue and find myself fumbling through a number of products to try and find something that will get my skin back to health. Over the last couple of months my skin hasn’t been great; whether that’s the seasonal shift, small and unidentifiable changes to my diet or lifestyle or my hormones wreaking havoc I’m not sure, but what I do know is that my skin has been really blemish prone, quite tight, a lot drier than I’m used to and I’ve also had a breakout on my chin that just hasn’t shifted (and my hormonal breakouts are usually over and done with within a few days).
The first step I take when faced with bad skin and no obvious reason is to cut down dramatically on the number of products I leave on ‘intensively’—that is, overnight. Although my skin care routine is always fairly refined as I worry for my sensitive skin if I’m subjecting it to a whole cacophony of ingredients, I do normally use 4-5 different products and I also rotate my skincare frequently within a week. So my first step was to cut this right back to two products, and to stick with it. First up is the Vichy Idealia Life Serum. After cleansing and toning my face I gently massage in one pump of this serum, which is designed to combat against daily pollutants (smoke, UV rays, and stress). It’s suitable for even the most sensitive of skins so I knew this wouldn’t cause me any problems and thankfully it’s done just the opposite—my skin has a renewed radiance and the dark circles and dullness that were plaguing me are on the out. It contributes to an all-round more ‘well-rested’ look which is what I’ve been really missing over the past few weeks. Second up is the Clarins Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil, an exotic blend of rosewood, patchouli and blue orchid designed to rebalance the skin and restore moisture and radiance to dehydrated skin. Added hazelnut oil gives the intensive injection of moisture and for me this is the most distinctive smell, too—a rich, nutty, almost chocolatey scent with top notes of florals—so all round very, very luxurious. A couple of drops of this massaged in to the face have changed my skin care routine forever. After a night’s sleep with this working its magic my skin is soft, visibly hydrated and my skin’s texture has been completely revamped. I feel like ‘me’ again, and as an added bonus, this helps my make-up to apply like an absolute dream. This has fast-tracked straight into my holy grails and I’m so, so glad I’ve discovered it (as a heads up, Clarins also do the Lotus oil for for oily and combination skin and the Santal oil for dry skin). There’s not an age group or a skin type I wouldn’t recommend a Clarins Face Treatment Oil to—get them on to your Christmas lists, girls!
What are your saviour skin products?
The Vichy Idealia Life Serum is £29.50 here and the Clarins Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil is £23.95 (which is a pretty meaty saving of 20%) with free UK delivery here.
// var _gaq = _gaq || (); _gaq.push(('_setAccount', 'UA-33155304-1')); _gaq.push(('_trackPageview')); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')(0); s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); //