DAILY SKINCARE X ELEMIS

My first beauty post of the year, and I thought i’d start with a little bit of an update on my daily skincare routine. Versus a year ago my daily product picks & routine has changed quite a bit, earlier in the year I had a bout of terrible skin (driven by the pill & stress) and as a result I wanted to make some changes to my routine in an attempt to try and calm my skin down & ease the problem! I’ve talked a lot in the past about Dermalogica as a brand I swore by for my skin, and I still absolutely love their microfoliant, the daily cleanser & their primer which I use daily. But this year I introduced a new brand into my skincare repertoire (after initially being sent some products to trial & getting to experience the Elemis day spa in Mayfair). Needless to say, Elemis products have become a large part of my daily routine in 2014, and I don’t expect this to change in 2015, so I thought i’d share my favourite products & my little routine!

First off let’s start with the Cellular Recovery day & night capsules. These bad boys have changed my moisture routine since I first started using them earlier in the year. They are expensive, but I get why. They work. Each capsule has different things in them (don’t ask me what?), and do different jobs for day and night, with the overall affect of keeping your skin healthy, moisturised & glowing (plus encouraging cellular recover … as it says on the tin). The reason I like these little capsules is threefold, firstly, they are convenient. Each capsule has the perfect amount of product meaning you don’t waste anything or drown your skin in oil. The packaging is neat and the capsules are colour coded making it easy to remember which ones for day and night. Finally of course is the oil itself, it not only smells incredibly good, it absorbs quickly and perfectly into my skin, instantly gives me a little healthy glow, but best of all works some magic in the evening (and sends me to sleep with the yummy lavender scent). I can’t deny it’s an expensive ‘moisturiser’, but it delivers night repair & morning wake up, it’s easy to travel with & I really like what they do to my skin, so in my opinion they’re an investment worth working for!

The next product is another such product which I have spoken about on my blog here, and one that since initially trialling I can’t stop using & will likely never switch from, it’s that fab. The Elemis cleansing balm. First off, pre this I had never tried a balm, I didn’t really get the concept and preffered the vigorous wash my microfoliant gave me. But actually after trying this product for a couple of months back in the summer it completely converted me, it swipes my makeup off in an instant, is easy to apply and most importantly extremely easy to remove & leaves my skin feeling very clean. I use this product every evening before bed, finished off with a little green capsule from my Cellular repair pot and a little extra summin’ summin’ for bad skin days ….

The SOS Emegrency Cream is some kind of miracle formula I think. I use a lot of ‘spot’ products (my current favourite being the Effaclar Duo cream by La Roche Posay – brilliant & effective), but the problem I have is that my skin is often left red and marked by bouts of bad skin, which really gets me down & seems impossible to get rid of. I’ve only been using the SOS cream since before Christmas, but it’s thick gel like consistency really seems to get to work on my skin, helping repair bad patches but also help calm down any spots currently on the rise. The cream itself is very thick & tacky, so I only use it at night as otherwise I find it irritating & difficult to apply makeup to, but at night, it’s the perfect sort of mask to tackle bad skin. Again this isn’t cheap, so I only apply it to the areas of my face where I have problems!

The final little addition to my routine is less of a product and more of a concept. Face Masks. When I visited the day spa back in the summer I was recommended a lavender face mask to really help calm my skin & give it a big bout of moisturisation. After having a facial and leaving the spa feeling like a new woman, I decided to take the advice and every now and then give my skin a little pamper. I can’t say I do this often mind, but I am trying to put more effort into giving my skin a little TLC. These eye masks were a little treat from Elemis this Christmas which i’m really excited to give a go, I often get quite puffy and tired looking eyes juggling work, blog & life etc, so I think these will be a little rescue treatment I might need to schedule in for next week! Have you tried them, or anything similar before?