The Products I’ve Tried | November 2016

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This November I was all about trying skincare products that contain a lot of natural ingredients. I’ve thrown myself into the world of amazing scents and magical formulas that did wonders to my skin and body.

For 40 years family-owned French skincare brand Sisley has been providing high-end cosmetics to the world, and its latest offering, the gentle cleansing gel, delicately cleans the skin without damaging it. Utilising tropical resins and marshmallow extracts, this formula eliminates impurities and cleanses pores while still being soft and nourishing to the skin.

I started using it in the morning, and I adore the gentle gel formula and almost non-existent tropical smell. It’s not sticky, but the formula is quite thick. However, it is very easy to spread all over your face and wash it off.

When it comes to lip care and cosmetics, I’ll admit, I do the bare minimum. A quick slather of lip salve each morning in my car, and maybe once or twice through the day during winter, and that’s probably about it. At the same time, I wear matte lip pencil & lipstick every day, so you can imagine how painfully dry my lips usually are. I do not have a habit of applying lip balm often enough to help my lips to stay hydrated, so I was looking for some quick solution that can help my lips to get back to their normal condition in the matter of minutes.

So when I spotted the Nugg Lip Mask, I was too intrigued to pass it up.

Promising to hydrate skin and plump up lips with a concoction of nourishing ingredients such as Coconut Oil and Shea Butter (and costing less than most lipsticks), I couldn’t pass it up. The packaging is super pretty – a gleaming golden bauble that looks totally unobtrusive on my dresser, and the mask itself is thick, luxe and deliciously creamy in texture with a cooling mint flavour. I slather it onto my lips and leave it for 20 minutes while I have a quick scroll through my apps. It feels soothing and dries down to an almost paste-like texture.
I use it twice a week, and that helps me to maintain my lips in the healthy condition for longer even when wearing my favourite matte lip pencils.

Malée [pronounced Mah-lay] is a healthy luxury fragrance and body care range created in South Africa in 2010 inspired by the beauty and wealth of breathtaking landscapes, wildlife, culture and history of Africa.

I was lucky to be able to meet the founder of the company and to hear the story of the brand from her. Since that meeting I was excited to try out some of the samples I was given, and out of them, I loved that body scrub the most.

That scrub is a magical combination of a salt & sugar, infused with a sunflower oil, cocoa seed butter, shea butter, avocado oil and grapeseed oil. It will leave your skin feeling nourished and soft to touch.

Suitable for all skin types and can be used around the eyes as well as face. It’s a lovely smelling white cream that contains encapsulated vitamins A and E, Grape Seed Oil and Green Tea Extract. I love to use it for 5 mins at a time for a quick boost. My skin feels so much smoother, softer and firmer afterwards. However, you can use it for longer for a more intensive treatment.

* EISENBERG Paris is now available to buy in Urban Retreat at Harrods. 

Antipodes is an organic skincare brand that is guided by the ideal that we should ‘Love Nature’. The entire product range, which hails from New Zealand uses sustainably sourced, fresh ingredients and combines these with extensive scientific research to create effective, results orientated skincare.

The Avocado Pear Nourishing Night Cream is a natural anti-ageing treatment which resurrects the skin whilst you sleep. This facial night cream also features calendula oil from marigold petals, highly regarded throughout history for its healing and repairing properties. Active manuka honey soothes and moistens your skin, while potent antioxidant Vinanza Grape helps neutralise free radical damage.

Colleen Rothschild Radiant Cleansing Balm is a luxurious cleanser which melts away daily impurities, waterproof makeup and decongests pores.

Sure to become the holy grail of your skincare regime, Radiant Cleansing Balm utilises an Aromatic Complex to calm and decongest all skin types whilst soothing and rejuvenating the senses with therapeutic benefits.

Lipexel combats dehydration whilst the high-performance formula is designed to be adaptable and interchangeable based on your skin’s ever-changing needs. Black Seed Oil delivers essential Antioxidant protection and works in harmony with Moringa Oil to restore luminosity.

Paraben and Sulphate free, Radiant Cleansing Balm has a rich balm consistency which melts onto the skin and effectively removes all traces of dirt, pore clogging impurities and dissolves even the most stubborn waterproof face and eye makeup. A Beauty Bay favourite, Radiant Cleansing Balm leaves the skin looking and feeling balanced, soft and radiant.

At the cutting edge of high-performance, anti-ageing skin care, Zelens products combine breakthrough active biotechnology ingredients with a unique blend of plant-derived molecules, to deliver proven, visible results. The brainchild of expert Dr. Marko Lens – a leading plastic surgeon and internationally renowned authority in the field of skin ageing and skin cancer – each and every Zelens product is rigorously trialled and tested, until the exact balance and synergistic action of ingredients is established to trigger the cellular processes responsible for regeneration and repair.

Both exfoliating and hydrating, Zelens’ Micro-Refiner Bi-Active Exfoliator (say that five times, fast) is an ultra-gentle skin renewal formula, which effectively eliminates dulling, dead surface cells by combining enzymatic and physical resurfacing actions. Papain – a natural proteolytic enzyme from papaya – targets the bonds that bind dead or damaged cells to skin’s surface, while hydrated silica beads polish your complexion without aggravating or ‘scrubbing’. Zelens’ ‘Advanced Hydrating Complex’ – a potent cocktail of Amino acids, Lactate, Urea, Citrate and Minerals – then creates a molecular ‘film’, which maintains moisture balance in the skin and preserves its’ barrier function. Jojoba esters mimic the lipid content of the skin to deliver prolonged hydration, so your face looks fresh, feels velvety smooth and glows with an enviable luminosity.

Starring nature-derived glycolic acid (it comes from sugar cane), this overnight treatment harnesses the cell-stimulating and exfoliating properties of alpha hydroxy acids, which melt the ‘glue’ that binds dulling dead cells to skin’s surface, revealing the healthy ‘new’ skin cells beneath. What’s more, by lowering skin’s pH (from 5.5 to around 3), this stimulates cellular activity – accelerating repair and renewal processes, as skin works hard to re-establish equilibrium.

It bolsters synthesis of elastin and collagen (the ‘scaffolding’ that keeps skin firm), while penetrating deep within pores to eradicate spot-causing bacteria – while the resurfacing action also helps to diminish visibility of acne scars, dark spots and brown patches, so your complexion quickly looks more even-toned and luminous. A must-have for anyone concerned with skin ageing, sun damage or problem skin conditions – just build up skin’s tolerance gradually (to minimise redness). Apply with a dampened cotton pad, once a week for 2-3 weeks while skin acclimatises – then build up to 3 ‘neat’ applications a week, for maximum anti-ageing and skin-brightening benefit.

In overall, I was really excited to finally try something from Alpha-H range and I was really lucky to get their best-selling Liquid Gold as an introduction to the brand. The product does wonders to my skin and it visibly reduced the amount of spots and clogged pores.

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