Morning All! Our daily skincare routine…

As you know, here at thebeautyobsession, we are skincare ADDICTS. We thought we’d bring you a post on our current regular skincare routine to show you what’s working for us. We’re lucky enough to get to try lots of different brands and products and we change our routine based on how our skin is behaving, the seasons and when new products need trialing, but these are what we’re using in the mornings at the moment!

Our morning routine needs to be quick as we’ll take an extra five minutes in bed over skincare any day. It also needs to prep our skin and give us a good base for makeup. Here’s what’s working for us:

• Temple Spa – Dual Act Wet & Dry Cleansing Lotion This cleanser is a cross between a gel and a lotion and we love to slap in on dry skip as soon as we wake up as it’s really cooling and refreshing. Once we’ve rubbed it in to make sure we’ve got rid of all traces of sleep, we wipe it off with a wet natural sponge and it leaves our skin feeling really clean. You can apply it to wet skin as well and it does foam slightly, but we feel a bit like we’re wasting it if we use it that way. This cleanser is great for our combination skin as it takes away any oily sheen on our T-zone, but doesn’t make our skin feel tight in other areas. We don’t get any irritation or redness, which is always good when you want to apply makeup soon after cleansing. 

• Temple Spa – Toning Essence We love the smell of this toner and use it every morning on a damp cotton pad to make sure we’ve removed all traces of our cleanser. It doesn’t contain any alcohol and doesn’t irritate or tighten our skin. 

• Skinetica – We reviewed this here and we’re still using it morning and night to keep any pimples at bay. It absorbs straight into the skin and just leaves our face feeling nice and soft. Once its been absorbed it doesn’t matter what you apply over it, so we can put moisturiser and makeup on almost straight away.

• Temple Spa – Skin Truffle We’ll be doing a full review on this amazing day cream soon. Needless to say that a cream that contains strawberries, champagne and diamond dust is a winner with us!

• VirginVie Necker Gel – We know it’s quite extravagant to have a cream just for your neck but as it’s one of the first places to show aging and is normally on show every day, we think it’s worth it. Virgin Vie is no longer around, but we were given this gel some time ago and didn’t get around to using it. However when we did, we were hooked from the first use. It’s a really luxurious gel that instantly smooths and tightens. We just need to find a good alternative when this finally runs out! 

• Avon – Anew Eye Lift Pro This eye cream has two separate creams for the under eye to reduce dark circles and a gel formula for the brow bone to tighten and lift. We like how it really smooths the eye area and we think it reduces some of the fine lines we have. We also love what a bargain it is! 

So these are the products that we’re using every morning at the moment. It probably seems like this takes ages to do as there are quite a few products here, however we’ve got it down to a fine art and can get through it in 5 – 10 minutes max! What are your morning must haves?

Check out the site later today for our evening skincare favourites!

Don’t let Winter have its wicked way with your skin!

One of our favourite beauty blogs is We Were Raised By Wolves, so we were delighted to be able to write a guest post whilst Evelyn is away. We hope you like it…..take a look at the blog here.

As most of us have probably noticed, it’s getting a lot darker, wetter and colder outside now we’re getting closer to December. We don’t know about you, but the change in temperature and biting British winds plays havoc with our skin, and we often end up with red and sore faces as this time of year.

We’ve put together our pick of our favourite winter skin wonders that we can’t live without, and thought we’d share them with you!

Preparation is key….

Using the right cleanser is essential in winter. Using an astringent, drying cleanser at this time of year is asking for sore skin. Our favourite product is In the Beginning Deep Cleansing Melt by Temple Spa. This waxy cleanser literally melts on the skin, removing all traces of makeup and grime and gives a super strong injection of moisturiser without being greasy. Lavender and Vitamin E helps to soothe and relieve any tightness.

Go the extra mile….

To give your skin a boost when the usual cleanse, tone and moisturise isn’t enough, we love Natio Ageless Hydrating mask. It is like an intensive conditioner for your face! Containing organic rosehip and sesame oils, as well as papaya and aloe vera, this mask really helps brighten and refresh your skin with intensive moisturisation. When applied it feels like double cream, and gives instant relief to skin battered by the elements!

When the going gets tough….

If you’re really suffering, for example with chapped or cracked skin around the nose, lips and eyelids which often happens to us during winter time, we recommend turning to Nurture’s Nourishing Rescue Balm. This extra softening balm is great on those areas which need some real TLC. It reminds us of Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream but with a much smaller price tag. And we find the lavender scent really soothing and relaxing which is an added bonus.

Primetime for Primer…

We’re always extolling the benefits of primers here at thebeautyobsession, but it’s even more important during the winter months. As well as providing a nice base for makeup, they offer an extra barrier between your skin and the elements. Our favourite primer is Avon’s Magix Skin Perfector.

Cover it up….

Once you’ve full prepped and pampered your skin, if you’re still suffering from redness, don’t panic! The constant changing temperatures brought about by central heating and then stepping outside into the cold, mean that even those of us with usually flawless skin can suffer from some serious flushing! You can disguise the redness by using yellow or green toned concealers and foundations. We like Benefit’s Perk Up Artist for evening out skin tones.

Love your lips…

The most common part of your face to suffer during winter are your poor lips! We can’t stress enough how important it is to protect and moisturise – chapped lips really aren’t a good look! We don’t leave the house without our Balmi lipbalm attached to our keyring, and if we need some colour, we use one of our Clinique Chubby Sticks. They moisturise and have great colour!

What are your winter skin saviours? Have you tried any of our favourites?

 

Vintage makeup trends are everywhere at the moment, and we love this 60’s inspired look created by Laura Hannon, Creative Executive at The London School of Beauty & Makeup.

To recreate this look at home, you’ll need to start by applying a good base like MAC Face & Body. A dewy finish is key to keeping it up-to-date.

Apply a setting powder with pink base tones to give a more vintage look. Shu Uemura and Bare Minerals do great ones. Use a very light hand to apply this, you want to keep the dewy finish and just take the shine off the T-zone.

Laura recommends using a cake liner to get the best liquid liner effect, however if you don’t have that, a gel eyeliner would be a good alternative. We like Maybelline’s Lasting Drama.

Keep the rest of the eye makeup light. Blend a charcoal shade onto the lid and use a small detail brush to apply under the bottom lash line. Use a cotton bud to smudge and create a smokey effect.

Then add lashings of your favourite mascara, we love They’re Real.

Use a light pink lipstick as the final touch. We like Avon Colour Rich in Berry Glitz but if you can’t find the right colour for you, Laura recommends blending two together to create your perfect shade.

To complete the overall look, back comb the hair for Bardot oomph.

Voila, 60’s inspired gorgeousness!

The London School of Beauty & Makeup offer makeup & beauty courses full-time, part-time and at weekends. Take a look at their courses here. Laura Hannon is their Creative Executive and professional makeup artist. You can tweet Laura @makeupLSBM or the school @londest

A is for….Avon!

We thought we should start of the first in our A-Z of Beauty Favourites with an oldie but a goodie. Avon has been around in the UK since 1959, when it was better known for its door-to-door sales and the catchphrase “Avon calling!”

Nowadays Avon is still a household name and according to their website can boast some very impressive stats:

• Avon sells more lipstick, nail enamel, eye-make-up, fragrance and skincare than any other brand in the UK (according to independent market researchers TNS).
• One in three women in the UK is an Avon customer.
• Six million women in the UK see an Avon brochure every three weeks.
• 10,000 Representative orders are processed daily at Avon Cosmetics UK’s distribution centre.

Here at thebeautyobsession, we love searching out new brands and finding innovative products, but we do strongly feel there is also a lot to be said for a proven reputation and that is something that Avon definitely has. We’ve noticed that Avon have been working hard to shake off their more mature image and we were really surprised when we last picked up an Avon book and realised that a; it actually is like a book now – a fully bound mini catalogue no less and b; that they’ve teamed up with stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Alesha Dixon to promote some of their ranges and inject some up-to-date glamour.

We thought you might like to see some of our current Top 5 Avon favourites. They’re a real mix of treats:

 

Planet Spa Indulgence – African Shea Butter & Chocolate Truffle Body Truffle: This is our current favourite body butter, so much so that we ordered three tubs last time just in case they stop doing it! We wish you were able to smell this as we think it is divine. It is a traditional coco butter smell, mixed with a sweet chocolate scent. The butter is thick and creamy but is easily spread onto the skin and soaks in quite quickly. We also like how it leaves a very slight shimmer on the skin.

Anew Treatment Concentrate: The Anew range receives quite a lot of acclaim in the beauty world and we love this product especially. We put it on after cleaning but before moisturising our face and it helps give the skin a lovely smooth feeling without feeling tight. We noticed after one week of using twice a day our skin looked brighter and skin tone more even.  It’s definitely comparable to a much more expensive anti-aging serum.

Magix Face Perfector : We love the feel of this primer on our skin, it gives a satin effect – as long as you don’t get carried away with rubbing it or it will start flaking and peeling and is not a good look! It gives a good base for makeup and does help it last longer than usual, which when considering the price, we think equates to good value. We would say that this does contain quite a lot of silicones, which we know some of our readers don’t get on with, so we wouldn’t recommend it if that’s the case for you.

Glimmerstick’s in Ultra Violet, Midnight Blue & Smokey Diamond: We really like products that do what they say on the tin as it were and we think the diamond sticks do just that. They’re soft, blendable and easy to apply and we love these three colours for something a bit different to the usual black and brown.

SuperCurlacious Mascara: This is one of our favourite “everyday” products. We tend to use the black/brown for a more natural look and the black when we want something a bit more intense. The wand is a good size and the brush a useful curve shape which helps lift and separate lashes and it doesn’t clump even with a few coats on. We’re not talking false lashes amazing, but for the price this is an excellent staple. The only grumble we have is that the tubes do tend to dry out a bit quickly.

Now we’re not suggesting that all Avon products are as great as the above, although a lot are. We didn’t get on with their illuminating under-eye concealer or a couple of their liquid foundations, for shade and texture reasons. However, what we think is hugely underrated about Avon, is their 90-day money-back guarantee! As far as we’re aware, no other cosmetics retailer offers that. If you’re unhappy with a product for whatever reason, even if you have been using it, you can return it up to 90 days after delivery. We think that is pretty amazing and testament to their confidence in their products.

You can buy Avon products online, or find your local representative here and order from the brochure.

 Do you use Avon products? What do you think of them? Any favourites or definitely “no no’s”? Let us know, we’d love to hear from you.

Follow this series on twitter and let us know your A-Z, with #AtoZBeautyFaves

Thanks for reading.

tbo

xxx