Protect your face! Ambre Solaire Sheer Protect

The sun has finally come out to play here in the London! Hooray!

Glee aside, sun protection is something I feel very passionate about and that I have blogged about before. I’ve only ever had sun burn once and whenever I see people with pink or red raw skin I want to go over and plead with them to take more care! Apart from being painful in the short-term, sun burn does damage to your skin and DNA in the long-term.

I picked up Ambre Solaire Face Protect, SPF30 (which is also available in factor 15 and 50), to use on a daily basis. As you can tell from the name, sheer protect is specifically intended for use on the face but it can be used on the body too.

This how much product I use to cover my face and neck, as you can hopefully tell
from the picture the cream has quite a thick consistency

The formula is thicker than I expected for a product called ’sheer’ protect. It is non-sticky but I do find it a little greasy, even though it claims not to be, and it absorbs into the skin well. It does take a little longer than regular moisturiser to absorb so I make sure I cleanse, tone, moisturise etc first thing in the morning so that I can leave the sunscreen to settle before applying makeup.

Of course I can’t comment on how well it actually works as a sunscreen but it is meant to protect against both UVA (ageing) and UVB (burning) rays.

Ideally you should reapply sunscreen every few hours, especially if you are out in the sun but generally my morning application is all I do. At night, because I use a Clarisonic, I don’t double cleanse but it is recommended that you do to make sure you remove all the sunscreen.

Being summer there are lots of special offers on sunscreen at the moment. I picked the Sheer Protect using a half price offer at Boots.

I’d love to find something with a lighter texture, but for now something is definitely better than nothing.

Do you have a favourite SPF?

New hair colour, Fiery Red!

I’m not an impulsive person in nature but this weekend I coloured my hair, and not my usual some  shade of brown that makes me feel like I’m being adventurous with colour colouring, but a proper obvious and very different hair colour.

The shade was Fiery Red by Garnier Nutrisse, maybe it was the curly haired woman on the box that drew me to it, I’m not sure, but knowing full well that it wouldn’t actually look that shade I decided to try it anyway.

So how did it turn out………

The application was easy, mix the two tubes together, apply all over and rinse. I left the colour to develop for about 25 minutes, with the maximum recommended time 35 minutes. It then took about twice that time to wash the colour out. The instructions state to rinse until the water comes away clear but this never seemed to happen. 

I absolutely love the shade, in the past, colour has really scared me and had this been a negative experience I would have immediately coloured my hair brown again! But for now I am happy to stay a red head. It is one of those shades that looks different depending on the lighting, and is very difficult to photograph because of that reason!

As much as I love the shade I can’t decide what it has done to the appearance of my skin tone, do I look more red generally to you? Or do I look fairer than I actually am? My eyebrows seem to look naturally darker now, which is a good thing.

One thing I have noticed though is that I do feel much more confident as a red head and I want to try being a bit more adventurous with my makeup looks to compliment the new hair shade, maybe it is time to channel my inner Jessica Rabbit or master the pin-up look?

Garnier BB cream review

With all the blog posts in anticipation of the first UK BB cream I was excited to try it out. I have never used a BB cream before, as much as I wanted to order some from Asia I was paranoid about colour matching correctly. The idea of a product that can give a 'my skin but better’ appearance and be good for it appeals to me very much.

What the Garnier version does claim is that it will blur imperfections, even skin-tone, boost glow, smooth lines and provide 24-hour hydration. The cream spreads and blends well on the skin and the tube container means you can control exactly the amount of product you use.

Garnier offers only two shades currently, light and medium. I chose light. Nothing on the box says that the formulation adapts to your skin tone, but having used this tanned and untanned, I have not had a problem and this always looks really natural.

For use on holiday this was perfect, providing a light coverage and evening out skin tone without being too heavy. The formulation is extremely moisturising which was perfect in the heat and it does give your skin a dewy look which I like. Mostly importantly combined with getting overheated and sweaty this didn’t break me out. I can see how someone with oily skin might not like the formulation but you can easily apply powder on top to set it and get rid of some of the shine. 

On a side note, even though this does contain SPF15 I would still apply my SPF25 sunscreen underneath since the you would need to apply at least a tea spoon amount of BB cream to your face to actually get the full sun protection.

Before (no make up)

After

My understanding is that original BB creams are a thicker consistency and more full coverage. The Garnier cream is not full coverage but covered most imperfections and I used my Witch concealer stick for anything remaining. I don’t think the picture show well the coverage that you do get, it is not as full as a foundation but greater than a tinted moisturiser.

Having used the BB cream back in the UK the first thing I noticed was that the longevity isn’t great, but by using a small amount of powder on top this sets it for the whole day.

If anyone read my latest skin care post I mentioned that my skin is in great condition at the moment. The packaging doesn’t claim that this will do wonders for your overall skin condition but considering I have been wearing it daily for just under a month I can’t help but think there may be a connection.

At £9.99 from Boots and Superdrug I initially thought this was a bit on the pricy side, but having used it, I love it and think it is worth the price. I am about a third of the way through so I hope that this will see me through to October. I don’t know if this will replace my love for mineral foundation but it is certainly a contender, which is surprising considering that I would never have thought to compare the two. So well done Garnier! I think it will be really interesting now to see what other companies come up to extend the BB cream selection.

If you have tried this let me know if it was love or hate relationship for you. Also if you have been sitting on the fence deciding whether or not to pick this up have I swayed you either way?

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!