Good morning, special friends.
It is Saturday and today is the day that I continue my birthday celebrations, despite the fact that my birthday isn’t until Monday (clearly turning 22 is a big deal that warrants 3 weeks of celebrating). I’m going for dinner and drinks in Birmingham tonight, which is all very exciting – apart from the fact that my gentleman friend refuses to accept that the shorts I want to wear are dinner appropriate. He is wrong. When will boys learn that they have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to fash?
I’m talking skincare today, which is something that I am very passionate about. Not because I’m particularly an expert in the world of skincare, but because I like the idea that a cream or cleanser will make me BOOTIFUL. If you follow us on Twitter (hint, hint – follow us on Twitter), you might have seen me bang on to various people about how I have terribly oily skin that is prone to breakouts, which often make me look like I have a boil affliction. I once had a HUGE spot that Claire affectionately referred to as my boil and I get the feeling that she was quite sad when it finally disappeared. Interestingly enough, I have only recently begun to use skincare that is appropriate for my skin type. Don’t ask me why, it is probably because I wanted to pretend that I had lovely normal skin that only needed a spot of tinted moisturiser. Using products specifically for oily skin has made a big difference and I only get the occasional breakout these days (mostly when I’m stressed because I have nothing to wear).
A few months ago, I invested in some fancy skincare from Clarins. I did a blog post about it, which you can read here, and promised a review when I had got a bit more use out of it. Well, I have now just about finished the cleanser and toner and I really did like it. However, I didn’t think that it was anything massively special and certainly not special enough for me to fork out £20+ every few months (I am tight. I am sorry). With this in mind, I decided to go for something a bit more high street this time around and headed to Boots to make my decision last week.
I am a HUGE fan of Nivea products. I think they are fantastic quality for the price and they have a smell that I just love (it reminds me of using Nivea suncream as a child, I am transported to the beach every morning and evening!). I did a review of their In Shower Moisturiser a while back, which is one of my favourite beauty products at the moment, but I also am a big fan of their Irresistibly Smooth body moisturiser. I sort of gravitate to the Nivea skincare range when I go to Boots or Superdrug and while I did try to shop around, there wasn’t really any contest. I picked up a cream cleanser from the Daily Essentials range as well as a Daily Essentials moisturiser. They’re both geared towards combination or oily skin, so I was eager to see what difference they actually made.
Daily Essentials Refreshing Cleansing Lotion:
This promises to cleanse, hydrate, remove makeup and give a fresh skin feeling. I have a bit of a disclaimer to make; I don’t notice a huge difference between cream cleansers. Most of them do what they promise – at the end of the day, how hard is it to take makeup off really?! BUT saying that, I do really like this one. It smells great, it’s sensitive enough to use around the eye area and I would give it top marks for hydration. It hasn’t caused any breakouts and my problem chin area has stayed spot free! It’s really cheap too, so definitely worth picking up if you are looking for a budget friendly face cleanser.
Daily Essentials Oil Free Moisturising Day Cream:
This is definitely my favourite buy of the two. I have found it to be an AMAZING base for makeup especially; it really controls my shiny t-zone. I don’t even bother using primer under my foundation anymore, this stuff does the job of both moisturiser and primer in my eyes! It’s really light and feelings quite cooling when you put it on, which is nice when you have to wake up at 6am every day. I have quite large pores and this moisturiser doesn’t clog them in the slightest. My only beef with it is that it is quite a small tube and I can see myself getting through it very quickly. But saying that, it is also very budget friendly so I will be perfectly happy buying it again in a month or so. I’m finding it the best day cream I have used to date – thoroughly recommend it ladies!
Have any of you tried these before? What do you reckon? I had a chat with a blogger on Twitter this week about the benefits of sticking to a skincare routine and not chopping and changing products too much – I think I’m definitely going to stick with these two for a while!
