La Roche-Posay Serozinc

Every now and again a product with a lot of hype deserves it. Serozinc is one of them.

I've always struggled with sporadic breakouts, La Roche-Posay already have a fantastic spot product, which I have reviewed before, here.

Like the Effaclar Duo, Serozinc is meant for oily, acne-prone skin. And like Effaclar, I think Serozinc is a great product for keeping spots at bay and generally calming the skin down. The spray is a fine mist, which is refreshing and light on the skin. It is gentle, doesn't sting, and is non-drying. Because of these qualities I actually think it would be good for all skin types.

Zinc is great for acne, I remember the addition of a zinc and vitamin C supplement to my diet as a teenager was a complete game changer for my skin. Applied externally, it has soothing qualities and is a good anti-irritant, so that's why it helps tone down any redness and small spots to clear up quickly.

I use it every morning and night, after cleansing and before serums, moisturisers, treatment etc.

Serozinc can be purchased from Boots for £8.50, that gets you 150ml of product and I have been using it for over a month with no sign that it is running out anytime soon.

Spot on: La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo[+]

On the whole my skin is good, but I still suffer from sporadic stubborn breakouts so I need products on hand to deal with that.

I had heard about the wonders of La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo in the past and I largely ignored it as a product because I thought it was more suited to oily skins and because, at 15.50, it's not that cheap.

Somehow I managed to get hold of a sample and one day when a spot decided to literally rear its ugly head I applied the cream and went to sleep. To my surprise in the morning it was gone - without a trace!
Then I purchased the full size as part of a 3 for 2 offer and kept it sealed until my next breakout.

However, when that came it was a bad one red, swollen spots, deep under the skin that eventually took weeks to clear and left behind scars. I applied Effaclar Duo twice a day in the hope that it would work magic and they would disappear overnight like the last time, but they didn't and in the end I just had to leave them to clear on their own.

From this experience I have concluded this: Effaclar Duo is not your typical spot treatment. It actually works much better as a preventative step in your routine. I've now taken to using it every morning, before moisturiser, as I would a serum. You can use it alone but I have found my skin gets a little dry. If I notice any redness or small blemishes I will use it in the evening too and usually find that they have cleared by morning. If anything nasty appears though I need to go for a something salicylic acid based, or my Alpha-H to help it clear up quickly.

You can find Effaclar Duo in Boots stores and it is usually part of a 3 for 2 offer. Unfortunately, for those of us here in Oman even though La Roche Posay products are sold in pharmacies this isn't one of them!

Quick review: FaceB4 After Cleansing Serum

Once in a while you use a product with very little expectation and are pleasantly surprised. FaceB4's After Cleansing Serum is one of those products.

Quick review: Sampar Prodigal Pen (spot treatment)

I had one bridezilla moment just before the wedding. With three days to go and I had two awful, angry looking spots appear on my cheek. I tried a lot of home remedies and nothing was working, at this stage I had completely forgotten about anything I owned that might help and tweeted and text everyone I knew asking if there was a product that could make them disappear overnight.

Favourite Skin Care Products

Looking through my cupboard I realised just how many products I have that I have been using continually for a number of years now.

My all time favourite BioOil, discovered in my teens, even back then I was looking for a way to reduce the looks of my scars. My overnight rescue after a night out, my skin always looks that much clearer in the morning. I don’t know why I didn’t realise that my skin was dry in all the time I used this, considering how good it did look in the mornings. As an intensive moisturiser, I cannot name anything I like more for use on my face (possibly Liz Earle’s Superskin Concentrate). This has never broken me out and if anything I think it helped with my spots/breakouts.

Pore strips, I know these do not clear your pores permanently but they are a nice helping hand alongside other products. After all these years though I think I have only just figured out the best way to use them. Immediately after a shower, without drying your face, apply, leave until dry, peel and look at what’s come out!

Spot dots, again a favourite from my teen years. Once a lot more widely available than they are now. Place on any spot over night and after 2 nights use, the spots usually clear up completely.

Liz Earl Instant Boost Skin Tonic, the only toner I have used for years, very gentle and smells great.

My favourite concealer and the first product I brought from ELF introducing me to the brand. Since I have started using this I haven’t looked at other concealers. The medium colour is a perfect match for my skin tone, and I love the consistency of it. The formula also contains salicylic acid which helps to slowly clear up the marks you are concealing. I am not a fan of the packaging too much, since every time they have fallen apart, however it is very cheap and works for me perfectly.

There are two products I am going to include in this post since I have recently gone back to them having tried them out.

No7 Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum, over 2010 I worked my way through 2 tubes of this product, I loved the consistency and I could see a refining effect on my skin as it cleared up with a combination of other products I was using. For whatever reason I stopped using it but since I can now see a positive effect of using it, I have repurchased and imagine it will become a staple in my skin routine once more. (As a side note I did try the Superdrug Apple Serum but never really got along with it and didn’t notice as beneficial an effect when using it. Since it contains vitamin C, you can only use it at night and I prefer a routine which is the same morning and evening otherwise I find I don’t stick to it).

Finally Garnier Caffeine Anti-Dark circles, I brought this to try when it very first came out and was on promotion. I really liked it since it brightened up my eye area and was a light enough consistency that I didn’t have to worry about pulling on my eye too much in applying and equally that the formulation is not right for use under the eye since it is specifically an eye product. Having used up the bottle I just didn’t repurchase, however with a recent promotion I have gone back to it and loved it all over again. In terms of it’s ability to reduce puffy eyes, I don’t really have that problem so I cannot comment, my eyes don’t look any different after use other than the tint obviously brightening up the area so I would say it doesn’t really perform in that way. There are 3 shades available now, fair, light and medium, with the light shade working best for my skin tone.

Please share with me your favourite skin care products as well as things you have gone back to and why!

Mario Badescu Whitening Mask Review

Having suffered with years of breakouts and consequently a combination of dry skin and touching my face too much has left me with some scarring and an uneven skin tone. I had always used exfoliators and products containing salicylic acid to help reduce this which had worked fine, although of course this is not a quick solution and requires a lot of patients.

Having watched YouTube videos about reducing acne scarring I came across the Mario Badescu whitening mask, and then after a lot of thought I took the plunge and purchased it for around £20 on beautybay.

The product claims;

Benefits;

This hydrating mask will help brighten uneven skin tones and gently minimise the look of old acne scars and discolouration from the sun. Skin lightening, natural ingredients like Kojic Acid, Licorice and Mulberry make this mask gentle for all skin types. Contains no Alpha Hydroxy Acids making it safe and gentle for acne erupted or very sensitive skin.

The Good You are meant to use it 2-3 times a week for around 15 minutes. Having read around on forums though I started leaving the product on for as long as I could even overnight (just applying to the areas with the worst scarring and pigmentation). The mask has a clay like consistency and I actually liked the smell, it does smell more artificial than natural to me though. As you leave it on your face it hardens and of course once you start moving your face, it cracks and you leave residues of white powder falling off everywhere. I would remove with a wet muslin cloth, pressing it down to my face to dampen the mask before gently wiping away. My logic was that this would act as an exfoliation step too. My face always looked so bright after use and I could see that the mask was helping to reduce the pigmentation. My skin also felt smooth and did not feel dry. I would them just place over my usual moisturiser. The Bad When I first brought the mask I used it every day, or every other day, and only later reduced the use to 2-3 times a week. For the size you do get a lot of applications from the 2oz tub. However, my big problem with the mask is that with at least 2-3 applications worth left it has dried up and become useless. I will try to add warm water and see if this will soften it enough for me to use but otherwise I haven’t managed to get full use out of what is an expensive face mask. I think this problem is just an issue of packaging, had it been in a tube this might not be an issue. I had notice the drying of the product around the edges earlier on so I should have had the foresight to know it was going to happen to all of it eventually and made an effort to use it sooner. Aside from that I do like the mask and would potentially repurchase. In the mean time though I am testing some other whiteners and products with claims to reduce the look of scars. Please let me know your experiences and thank you for reading.