Battle of the cleansers

It's probably about time I did a little 'beauty' thang on here, this is after all a beauty and lifestyle blog!

I've been trying out a few different cleansers over the past few months and thought I'd share my thoughts with you.

 

Monu - Essential Care Facial Wash with Bergamot and Lemon £15.95 per 100ml

I'm a real fan of Monu products and I own several. This is a creamy emulsion which cleanses without soap or foam designed for all skin types. To use: massage into the face and neck with the fingertips. Rinse thoroughly with warm water.

This smells amazeballs. I totally love the combination of bergamot and lemon. Two of my favourite essential oils combined. Sometimes I find citrus based products can be a bit overpowering and bitter but this facial wash smells so fresh and zingy. I found this a great all round product. It totally removed all traces of my make up and I found it a really refreshing product to use for a morning cleanse.

Liz Earle - Hot Cloth Cleanser £13.25 per 100ml or £14.75 per 100ml and 1 x muslin cloth

There's probably no need to introduce this product as it's a fave of beauty bloggers everywhere. But just in case you don't know, this is a cleanser you combine with a hot cloth to give a really 'deep clean' feel to the skin. A rich, concentrated cream enriched with rosemary, chamomile, cocoa butter and eucalyptus essential oils and designed for all skins of all ages. To use: massage gently onto dry skin over your eyes, face and neck to purify, soften and stimulate the circulation. Rinse the pure muslin cloth in hand-hot water and wring out before gently polishing off the cream. Finish by splashing your face with cool water.

This has a spa type scent to it, do you know what I mean? I always think it smells 'expensive'. I love this cleanser for a night time cleanse and to remove all traces of the days face. I think what this cleanser has over many others is the combination of the cream cleaner with the hot cloth element. To me this is what makes your skin feel really clean. Similar to how you used to get your face scrubbed with a flannel as a kid! Squeaky clean!

Neal's Yard Remedies - Rose Facial Wash £15.50 per 100ml

I started trying this out when my skin was going through a bit of a sensitive stage. Rose is one of my favourite essential oils to use in skincare and I use it a lot with clients, so I thought I'd give this one a bash. This is a gentle foaming wash with aloe vera, rose otto and pink rose petals and designed with normal and sensitive skins in mind. To use: massage onto damp skin and rinse with cool water.

This is a lightweight gel type of wash. It lightly foams and the scent of rose is heavenly. I love that NYR's have a lot of pump action bottles which is my preferred choice of dispenser so this gave this product a thumbs up. It did give a good clean but I wouldn't say I would repurchase.

Aromatherapy Associates - Hydrating Renewing Rose Cleanser £24.00 per 200ml

I've not tried many things from Aromatherapy Associates so I am unable to compare this to their other products. This was actually a trial size which came with a magazine. 

This cleanser has jojoba to cleanse with rose damask to keep skin radiant and healthy looking and geranium essential oil to balance the skin. To use: apply all over the face and neck using gentle circular movements. Rinse off with warm water.

I think I was expecting this to be some wonder cleanser. Aromatherapy Associate products, from all I've read in magazines and on blogs is quite a sort-after luxury brand. I did like this and my skin felt lovely and soft after cleansing but I think I preferred the fragrance of the Neal's Yard Remedies rose cleanser over this one. Although you do get a lot of bang for your buck with this one.

Overall which did I prefer? I think if I could only use one of these four cleansers for the rest of my life I would go with Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish, just because it had the edge over the others when it came to how clean my skin felt afterwards. Fragrance and ease of use I would probably opt for the Monu facial wash but that's gonna be difficult because they don't do this particular facial wash anymore which is a real shame. Come on Monu bring it back!

Have you tried any of these cleansers? If so what did you think?

Are there any cleansers which you think I should try on my combination skin? I would love to know!

A gentle and effective cleanser to wipe away impurities and make-up for clean, glowing skin. Jojoba cleanses whilst precious damask rose works to keep skin radiant and healthy-looking, and essential oil of geranium helps balance the skin’s natural oils. Your skin is left fresh, bright and delicately fragrant.

Key Benefits:

• Gently and effectively removes cosmetics and impurities from the skin

• Tones and softens the skin

Directions for use

Apply over face and neck using gentle circular movements, rinse off with warm water. Follow with skin tonic, serum, face oil and moisturiser.

- See more at: http://www.aromatherapyassociates.com/skincare/collections/hydrating/essential-skincare-renewing-rose-cleanser-hydrating.html#sthash.YoPQQzbw.dpuf

A gentle and effective cleanser to wipe away impurities and make-up for clean, glowing skin. Jojoba cleanses whilst precious damask rose works to keep skin radiant and healthy-looking, and essential oil of geranium helps balance the skin’s natural oils. Your skin is left fresh, bright and delicately fragrant.

Key Benefits:

• Gently and effectively removes cosmetics and impurities from the skin

• Tones and softens the skin

Directions for use

Apply over face and neck using gentle circular movements, rinse off with warm water. Follow with skin tonic, serum, face oil and moisturiser.

- See more at: http://www.aromatherapyassociates.com/skincare/collections/hydrating/essential-skincare-renewing-rose-cleanser-hydrating.html#sthash.YoPQQzbw.dpuf

Skincare tag

Beautiful products from Australian brand Myrtle & Moss

I'd seen this tag floating around the blogging world but hadn't got around to doing it yet, but then I saw Poppys post and I decided to join in the fun! So here goes:

Describe your skin care routine in 5 words. 

Cleanse, tone, exfoliate, moisturise, expensive!

What's your skin type?

For years I had very dry skin, but that all changed just over six years ago and I now have combination skin. If I had to choose between the two, as much as it drives me mad that my make up can end up sliding off my face by the end of the day and I have to blot, blot, blot; I would take combination skin over dry any day of the week.

What's your favourite skin care product?

Gosh this changes all the time and I don't know if I can just pick one! I would probably say Liz Earle's cleanse and polish for my face. It really does the job. I would like to try the Australian brand Myrtle & Moss though as the ingredients in their body washes looks appealing and you've got to think about taking care of the skin on your body and not just your face!

Top blemish zapper

I don't really have any tips here. I am lucky that I don't often get spots/blemishes *she says sitting here with a huge zit on her cheek*  I can't swear by any products or home remedies. I would just say, keep the area clean, don't pick/fiddle with it! and (unfortunately) bide your time until it's gone.

Face wipes yay or nay?

No no no no no. A huge nay for me. Yes they do a job of removing gunk from your face, but as for cleaning it, not really. I would steer clear my fellow bloggers.

High-end skin care or high-end make-up?

As much as I LOVE high end make up, I would say high end skin care would be my first choice. I think when you are young and your face is that drum tight canvas and money is even tighter and you have to make a monetary choice on one or the other, you are probably going to go for all the desired high end makeup out there, but believe me when you get older you will be glad you splurged your hard earned on high end skincare, because all the high end make up in the world isn't going to sit pretty on a face which looks like a bit of old shoe leather.

What's the most unusual skin care product you've tried?

I did have a serum which had snake venom in it, something about tightening the pores but can't say it appeared any different from any other serum.

You're in a french pharmacy and can only pick up one item - what is it?

I think it would probably be Bioderma. I've not tried it and I have to say I am intrigued by the hype plus it's a lot cheaper in France right, right?

Tell us your top skin care tip

Find what works for you, hype products are sometimes worth their weight in gold but just because it works for one does not mean it'll work for all. Other than that I would say cleanse cleanse cleanse (oh and moisturise!).

So if you've done this tag, please leave me a link in the comments. I'm a nosey so and so and would love to read your answers! If you haven't done the tag, then I tag YOU!

Loves and loathes - February

OK so I know we are hurtling towards the end of March and here I am only just giving you the gossip on my faves and not so faves of February. But what can I say happened? Life happened is what.

My runaway winner for the month of February has been cake and lots of it (this theme is running into March as well dare I say it!). I do love cake at the best of times buuuuutttt at the moment I have a very moreish spot for anything a little bit spongy and swiss rolls are slipping down a treat, more specifically these Asda smart price (40p) raspberry mini rolls and they are sooooo mini that before you know it you have gotten through 2 or 3 or a packet (no? oh that's just piggy little me then ooops).

Next on my loves list is Rimmel's Stay Matte pressed powder. I won't hark on about it here as I did an in depth review only a couple of days ago which you can read about, well...in depth here.

My last love is this long forgotten but recently resurrected (read that as found languishing at the back of my dressing table drawer) eyeshadow by Natural Collection from Boots in the colour Heather, which looks a lot scarier in the pot that it does on the eye.

It's actually a really pretty purple-grey colour which looks really nice either as a wash of colour over the entire lid or used in a purple smokey eye look. Now as I've had this a while, I'm not sure if this particular colour is still available, but if you haven't tried the Natural Collection from Boots I'd definitely give it a go as I find the pigmentation in these little pots is excellent and at only £1.79 you can't really go wrong.

Finally for the month is this one loath. It's the Skin System eye make up remover from Asda.

I usually use Liz Earle's Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth system and although I do use the Eyebright Soothing Eye Lotion which is designed to remove light eye make-up, I always find it's not really enough to remove fully even the lightest of eye make ups, so I start my face cleansing routine by using a more heavy duty eye make up remover of which I am not faithful to any particular brand. So after coming to the end of my last bottle and seeing this in the supermarket I thought I'd give it a go. I wish I hadn't. I usually use a liquid type product (you can tell I'm not a beauty blogger can't you!) but this one is a cream and it does not matter how carefully I apply it to my eyelids with a cotton pad (and ladies we all know how gently we should clean the delicate eye area don't we now?), I just find all this product does is end up in my eye rather than remove my eye make up. So total fail and will not be repurchasing once this tube comes to an end.

So what things have you been enjoying/disliking recently?