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L’Oreal Midnight Serum & Creams

On By samanthaIn HEALTHLeave a comment

For Christmas one of my friends sent me, via good old Amazon, a L’Oreal gift set comprising of three products from their “Midnight ” anti-aging range. I can’t remember ever seeing this range in the chemist or supermarket. I do use a couple of L’Oreal products already, their Colour Riche lipstick in the shade Taffeta is one of my favourites and I like their RevitaLift eye cream. I find myself hoping that this isn’t just ancient stock that has been languishing in a warehouse for a decade, the boxes look slightly battered and dog-eared.

The Midnight range comes in distinctive gold and black boxes brandished with the words Age Perfect Cell Renew. Inside the boxes are expensive looking smoky brown glass bottles and jars, very similar to Estee Lauder’s Night Repair range. This L’Oreal set consists of Regenerative Cream, Midnight Serum and Revitalising Care Cream. Although my friend tells me she ordered it as a set which was supposed to be in a gift box I received three separate products with no gift box although, of course, I don’t mention that.

The first product I try is the night cream. Enriched with Neohesperidine and vitamin E, the cream feels luxurious and glides on. I am very prone to migraines and fragrance is a big trigger for me. This product is very highly perfumed and I do not like the scent at all, it reminds me of Youth Dew, a perfume an aunt wore in the 1970s.  I lie in bed unable to escape the smell. Fortunately, by the third night of using it I no longer notice the whiff quite so much.  

According to L’Oreal’s website, the skin begins to repair itself in the hours around midnight. I am going to wake up to millions of new skin cells I am informed. That sounds like an entire new face which is probably exactly what I need. I read that Midnight serum is formulated with a powerful antioxidant recovery complex. The serum is gorgeous to use, comparable to the aforementioned Estee Lauder Night Repair and it feels somehow… velvety. Unfortunately, it is also quite strongly scented. It is applied via a dropper which is a little fiddly to use. It is currently priced at £15.95 on Amazon UK.

The Age Perfect Renew cream isn’t featured on the L’Oreal website at the time of me writing this so perhaps it has been discontinued. It doesn’t actually appear to be part of the Midnight range although the packaging is the same. Like the other products, it is scented with elderly lady perfume but it feels luxurious to use, thick but not greasy. I was concerned that the fragrance would irritate my skin but that hasn’t been the case at all. After about ten days of using these products my skin feels well hydrated and soft. 

Had this range not been so strongly scented I would probably repurchase but the strong smell is a deal-breaker for me. The products are otherwise pleasant to use and seem to be effective so I will definitely finish all the jars and then have shop around for something else.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

A Lifetime of Lipsticks

On By samanthaIn HEALTHLeave a comment

Woolworths, Romford 1984 and teenage me is purchasing the best lipstick I will over own. Woolies own Evette brand in the colour “Mulberry Wine”. The perfect pinky brown which stayed on all day. If only I had known that it would be discontinued I would have bought all their stock with my pocket money. In the forty years since then I have been on the hunt for another colour I have liked so much.

It’s odd that I can remember the name of just about every lipstick I have ever owned. The first was Boots No 17 “Twilight Teaser”, a bluesh, iridescent mauve. I’m sure it looked terrible but it was certainly eye-catching. I wore it to a non-uniform day at school and every girl asked me what colour it was, a new experience for me as I definitely wasn’t known for my style. Another Boots No 17 favourite was the safer and very pretty “Poncho Pink”. I also loved the Miss Selfridge “Kiss and Make Up” range and wonder if Charlotte Tilbury took some of her inspiration from their lip-print embossed branding. I wore their “Iron Maiden” and “Copper Knobs” shades” around 1987. 

When I began to have some disposable income I graduated onto the more expensive brands. Estee Lauder “Spiced Cider”, a rust colour, was one I wore for years along with Lancome’s “Brun Nu” and “Rose Nu”. I went to a wedding around 1991 and actually asked one guest which lipstick she was wearing as I liked it so much and thought it may be “The One”. Clinique “Super Nectar”, I bought it the next day and it looked absolutely hideous on me.

I actually still have the lipstick I wore too my 1994 wedding, a rather daring matt red with incredible staying power, Rochas shade 56, it’s pictured below . I experimented with dark, blackberry colours at this time as well although always had to blot them so there was just the feintest stain left. My favourite which I also still have, although it smells a bit dubious after all these years, was Chanel Shade 36. I now buy Clinique’s Almost lipstick in Black Honey which is a very wearable balm-like tint.

Post Pandemic I seem to wear less make up but I don’t generally leave the house without a quick dusting of face-powder, usually Clinique, and a slick of some lip product or other. Loreal’s “Organza” is usually my go-to everyday lipstick or a tinted lip balm from Dr Paw Paw. I also love Estee Lauder’s “Pinkberry” which is the closest I can come to wearing a nude without looking totally washed out.

I never have been able to find a shade as perfect as my Woolies lipstick but perhaps it was just the thrill of being grown up enough to wear make up for the first time. I also hold fond memories of the little tins of four blushers sold by M & S around the same time but I certainly wouldn’t wear them now. Having said that. my make up choices have barely changed in all these years and perhaps it is time to change things up a little bit.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Serums and Sheet Masks

On By samanthaIn HEALTHLeave a comment

I had a big family lunch here on Sunday and, as I had made an effort with my hair and make up, I thought it would be a good time to take a new photo for my “About-Me” page on this blog. It seemed to me that I looked nice enough when I looked in the mirror but, when I took a selfie, I got quite a shock. I could not press delete fast enough. There was a big, vertical line running next to my left eye from the eyebrow to the bottom of my eye. Yikes! I sleep on my left side on a cotton pillowcase. Yes, I have read all the advice about using silk pillowcases to prevent wrinkles but I have never taken it seriously. I remember watching an episode of “The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills” (don’t judge me) and Lisa Rinna, clearly pumped full of fillers and Botox, said she only slept on her back because “this face can’t be smooshed”. Well I smoosh my face every night.

Sunday night I tried sleeping on my back to avoid unnecessary smooshing but I felt like I was lying in a coffin. I couldn’t figure out what to do with my arms and ended up crossing them over my chest just to enhance the corpse effect. Clearly this isn’t going to be something I can commit to in the long run.

My usual bed-time skin care routine is cleanse, apply serum and moisturise. I use an eye cream during the day because, if I apply one at night time, I always wake up with stinging eyes, no matter how hypoallergenic the brand. For the past year I have been using a pricey Judith Williams serum but have just run out and have been looking for a replacement. December being such an expensive month, I bought myself a budget option from Simple, their 10% Vitamin C + E + F Booster Serum. This product has a plethora of five star reviews on Amazon and costs only £5.33 for 30mls. I buy a lot of Simple products for my teenagers but usually spend a bit more on my own skincare. The product comes in a very basic white plastic bottle with a dropper to suck up the liquid. To be honest, I have seen more glamorous looking bottles of eye drops but of course it is the quality of the product that really matters. The serum is a white liquid with a slightly unpleasant smell which I can’t really describe. The liquid is very watery and ran down my face until I massaged it in. I have to say, once smoothed on, my skin felt soft and velvety. I followed by applying the moisturiser that I’m currently using, CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream. Because the serum is so inexpensive I have also been using it on my hands which take a lot of battering. It’s too early to report back on any real results but at £5.33 it is worth a try.

The other new product that I have tried this week is a sheet mask by Korean beauty brand Seoulista which I bought from Oliver Bonas for £11.99 Quite pricey for a single-use beauty product but the mask is drenched in 30mls of serum, the same amount as in the entire bottle by Simple. The product’s full, rather grandiose, title is Beauty Advanced Clinic Formulation Diamond Radiance Instant Facial. I ran a hot bath and arranged the mask over my face, it felt gorgeously cool and smooth. Twenty minutes later my skin looked plumper, smoother and glowing. Being a bit thrifty, I wrapped the mask in clingfilm and used it on my neck following evening with similar results. I will definitely be buying more from this brand.

Obviously my big, vertical eye wrinkle isn’t going anywhere but I did notice it is less visible as the day progresses. I suppose, as we age, our skin takes longer to spring back into shape. Something to do with collagen no doubt, maybe I will investigate some supplements. I expect the only real solution would be Botox. As having injections next to my eyes isn’t something that appeals to me and is probably very expensive, I will be ordering the aforementioned silk pillowcase to see if this makes any difference.

Thank you for reading,

Samantha

Cover photo by pmv chamara on Unsplash