Inside The Skincare Cupboard with Blanche

 

If you value knowledgeable skincare fanatics, stunning photography and bloggers who really, truly care about their blog and accompanying content, please go over to Blanche’s blog; The Beauty Bloss. P.S. You may want to grab a cuppa for this post…it’s a long one. And brilliantly interesting. Over to you, Blanche…

Hello to all of Jess’s lovely readers! I’m Blanche from over on The Beauty Bloss. I firstly want to thank Jess for the opportunity to create a post for her blog I was beyond thrilled to hear from her and this is my very first “guest post”. Scary stuff lol.

I thought we would talk through my bathroom shelves and some of the products I am currently obsessing over and what I use on a day to day rotation for my personal skin concerns. Should I start by giving you a rundown on my skins current condition? I have normal/combo skin which gets a bit oily in the t-zone throughout the day but drier cheeks and under eyes. My skin is quite easily irritated with harsh scrubs or abrasive material but can quite happily tolerate acids – skin acids that is! I also have concerns with aging/wrinkle prevention as I’m 33 so anything that going to stop my skins clock is a winner for me!

Every morning I start my day with a clean face. If you take anything from this post – wash your face in the morning! Your skin will thank you and you will find your makeup will sit far better on a clean face than a face with remnants of last nights night cream or oil. My current cleanser of choice for morning is the Tata Harper Refreshing Cleanser. I think it smells like Froot Loops. Do you have this breakfast cereal in the UK? I’m not sure. If you don’t then I’ll say it smells fresh orange & citrusy. Its a creamy cleanser that you massage in and wash off with face washer. It’s so uplifting and awakening, perfect for waking you up after a late night spent on bloglovin’.

Depending on how my skin looks at this point I sometimes use a little of Pixi Glow Tonic if I want a little brightening action and I then like a spritz of a hydrating toner and lately I’ve been really into rose smelling products and found this Kosmea Rosewater Mist at my local drugstore. I’m not sure if its available world wide but another I love is La Roche Posay Serozinc. You lucky, lucky UK peeps – we can’t get it here in Australia anymore. Major sadface. Ok, enough of the Aussie pity party onto a serum. The one I find I’m favoring during the day has been the Vichy Aqualia Thermal Serum which is a hydrating serum and one I’ve found to be an amazing dupe for the Chanel Hydra Beauty Micro Serum. I’ve only ever had a couple of sample sizes of the Chanel but this Vichy Serum does the same job of giving my face a little hydrating boost and I’m so happy to have found a purse-friendly alternative. I then apply a gentle day cream either the Pai Chamomile & Rosehip Day Cream or MV Organics Rose Soothing Protective Moisturiser. If I am staying in for the day I like to apply a few drops of the Sarah Chapman Morning Facial to my day cream or if I’m headed off to work or out and about I always apply a sunscreen. My longtime love is the Shiseido Extra Smooth Face Cream as makeup smoothes on over this beautifully.

Of an evening is where I kind of ramp up the anti-aging products. I always start with removing my eye makeup and I’m currently using Clinique’s Take the Day Off For Lids, Lashes & Lips in a sample size I received. Then its onto the double cleanse. Yep, you gotta remove all that makeup and SPF before you can properly cleanse your skin. For the first cleanse I flit between the La Roche Posay Toleriane Dermo Cleanser or Emma Hardie Amazing Face.and thoroughly remove with a warm wash cloth. Don’t try and just rinse these, you’ll never get all that grub off. After that I property cleanse my skin. Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel is a massive favorite of mine but I mix it up with a few others and the Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser is a nice option also, especially if you find you don’t love manual exfoliators but still sometimes want a tiny bit of polishing action as the particles in this cleanser are super fine. Onto chemical exfoliators. Side-note- chemical exfoliators have changed my life. I used to persist with scrubs and the like and my face would end up red, splotchy and itchy. This is a much more gentle approach and there is such a variety available these days that even people with super sensitive should be able to find an option that works for them. My night-time chemical weapon of choice is the Biologique Recherché P50 which I actually won on Instagram – yes, you can actually win those comps you see in your feed! I use this on a nightly basis but I also love Alpha H Liquid Gold. Though, be sure you do not use this nightly, 2-3 times a week max.

The treatments and serums I use nightly vary quite a bit but I normally go with a retinol product – gotta stop those lines – so either Sunday Riley Luna (It’s a blue oil, so weird) or the Verso Super Facial/Eye Serums. I then like to use a more traditional serum, sometimes its Sunday Riley Good Genes if I have a few spots to clear up or other times it may be Chantecaille Vital Essence which is lovely, soothing and gentle. Two of the night creams I’ve been using a fair bit are two from the Kate Sommerville range one is the Deep Tissue Repair which I haven’t been using long enough to have a firm opinion on and the other is the Goat Milk Cream that has an ahem….interesting smell. Like goat cream, fancy that. Some love it and other hate it, so I would suggest giving it a sniff test before investing. The eye cream I can’t stop using right now is the Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye and I’m in love. My undereyes can get really dry and this does the trick overnight to leave the skin smooth and plump. Clarins Blue Orchid Treatment Oil is an extra step I apply for when my skin is feeling dry and dehydrated. I tend to keep the application of this to just the cheeks as this is my main area of concern when it comes to dehydration.

Whoa, I have seriously waffled on for over 1000 words now. Sorry. I’m a bit of a chatterbox. So if you have got through all this, I thank you for reading it. I love reading others skin routines and hearing about what products do or don’t work them so if you’re interested in more skin (and makeup- I have an obsession problem on both fronts) come by, have a read and leave me comment. Many hugs to Jess for having me xx