Figs & Rouge Hydra-Activ Vital Moisture Day Cream

Gina is my go-to if I have a question for oily skin, need something testing or in fact just need an honest opinion. You can find her here on Instagram.

Being an oily skin type is exhausting. Forever searching for products that don’t intensify the slick is a never ending process.
For years I believed moisturising would make my excessive oils worse and completely skipped using moisturisers, little did I know, not moisturising was making me oilier than ever and with age it was getting increasingly worse.

Recently I came across Figs & Rouge Vital Moisture Day Cream in a subscription box. I of course tried it straight away. As someone that is constantly looking for products that work for me I immediately LOVED IT because it soaked straight into the skin, leaving no residue or stickiness/oiliness - another issue I find with having oily skin is I don’t want to feel tacky or a slip after applying moisturiser as I battle with textured skin too, I can’t have my foundation sliding around on top of a moisturiser. This one doesn’t leave any residue and leaves the perfect surface to then apply your primer, foundation etc. Another thing it does not do is ball up, you know when you layer products sometimes a moisturiser can kind of pill ? Well it absolutely does not. The skin thoroughly absorbs it. Yay!

Clinique Pretty Easy Liquid Eyelining Pen

It's been ages since I've had a guest spot and so I asked my lovely friend Lucy to oblige. Lucy and I were at school together and had the same surname and love of the Beatles and when you are 14 that is enough to forge a lifelong love. Lucy has the kind of face that doesn't need any make-up but as a make-up artist you can do loads of exciting things with. So she hoards me magazine tear outs that she things I'll like and sends lovely postcards from where she lives in Provence and when I see something make-up that I think she'll like I get it for her - very hard when someone is a make-up minimalist. 

In May she dog-sat for us and mentioned that she longed for a good eyeliner to get a real 60s flick going on and so I dashed to buy her the Clinique Pretty Easy Liquid Eye Lining Pen - I've heard nothing but good things about it and was told that it was super-easy to use. I know that Lucy wants no-faff when it comes to liner so who better to review it for me?

Benefit The Porefessional - The Civilian Report

I am in constant battle with my nose pores. I’m sure no one else thinks they’re that massive but I feel like my face is a supermassiveblackhole of nose pores, just waiting to suck in all environmental foulness, getting ever bigger, till my face is nothing but one giant nose pore, scaring people and making them cry. 

This product is very smooth and light and, unlike some other pore minimisers and mattifiers I’ve tried doesn’t feel like it adds another layer of product to your face – my pet hate – and rather just kinds of disappears into the skin ether, taking a good percentage of nose pores with it. It improves the appearance of my pores without erasing them so entirely that I looked like a plastic-faced Hollywood wannabe, but with a slap of of tinted moisturiser on top even by the end of the day I’m not delivering any significant shine, and nor are my pores snapping hungrily at any passing person.  

Recommend. 

What You Need to Know - Benefit The Porefessional

• £24.50 
• 22ml
• Can be used under or over make-up to reduce the appearance of pores
• Oil-free
• Colourless
• Other products from Benefit: Bad Gal Lash, Hello Flawless Foundation, Benefit Speed Brow, 
• Available in the UK from Feel Unique, Benefit, Boots, Asos 

Philosophy Hope in a Jar - The Civilian Report

Another one from Bree...

This is my daytime moisturiser, discovered after a chance encounter with the Philosophy concession at Westfield Boots. I’m in constant battle with forehead shine throughout the course of any given day, and the idea of a moisturiser that moisturised without oiling, and is not so light as to dry me out like an aged husk, was a beguiling one. I bit. I bought a jar.

I’m now onto my third jar. The formulation seems to have changed somewhat between jar 2 and 3, maybe there was a recipe change or maybe it’s just a weird batch, but either way it does the job.

The texture takes a little getting used to – it’s definitely not the same as the creams you might otherwise be used to, and it goes on and in almost too easily. And for about 5 minutes after you’ve applied it you might find yourself thinking, as I do almost every day, ‘dammit I should’ve put more on’,  but give it time and your skin feels lovely and cool and nourished and smooth and not at all heavy. I shove on my standard issue tinted moisturiser straight on top on work days – no problems with drying out, no problems with shine. It’s an odd little thing, but a good one.

Philosophy Hope in a Jar - What You Need to Know

• £34.50 or US$44
• 60ml/2oz
• Lactic Acid to help exfoliate
• Can be used twice a day
• Available in the UK from Boots,
• Available in the US from Sephora, Ulta

Malin + Goetz Vitamin E Face Moisturiser - The Civilian Report

Another review courtesy of the lovely Bree. I've wanted to try this for ages, I've heard great things about it...

This was another score from the Liberty Advent Calendar. I like to use something a little heavier at night, though nothing too cray-cray (my forehead being very efficient at oil-production), and my day moisturiser isn’t hearty enough to suffice.

M&G packaging looks cool. It looks very Williamsburgh, NYC. For all I know it’s from there. Whatever, this moisturiser has the lovely vitamin E as well as some hyularonic acid so whilst you dream dreams of youth and uncracked foreheads the acid and vitamins can get working to make those dreams come true.

As a result of the aforementioned efficiently oily forehead I sometimes wake up in the morning with a light sheen rather reminiscent of that found on a girl of 16 rather than the oil-caked powdered wrinkles of a Notting Hill dame. 

Definitely less blotchy on waking up and, for me, very importantly less puffy. And not dry. 

What You Need to Know - Malin + Goetz Vitamin E Face Moisturiser

•  £37
• 118ml
• Suitable for all skin types and a good choice for men.
• Nourishes and reduces irritation
• Available from Space NK,  Liberty, 

Elemis Anti-ageing Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm – The Civilian Report

If there's anyone who's going to give an honest opinion about a product its Bree. I'm constantly asking her what she's using and what she thinks of it. This honesty makes her my go to guinea pig when I get sent something that I just can't try myself. That being said she's always banging on about the Elemis Cleansing balm so I asked her for a review. Here it is...

I must confess right up that I love Elemis stuff, without exception. It's just so damn pricey. Their Papaya Enzyme Peel is dreamy. Recommend. Anyway, when I made the move from my long-standing Deralogica habit to something else, Elemis was where I went. This Pro-Collagen stuff had lovely things said about it all over the Internet, like some hit HBO series, and so I took the plunge and bought a small jar. I now use it once daily before bed (in the interests of economy, using the very reliable Philosophy 3-in-1 cleanser in the mornings).

Benefit's The POREfessional Instant Wipeout Masks - The Civilian Report

If something doesn't work on my skin or I get sent a sample that's wrong for my skintone I'll get someone else to test drive it for me. These posts will be posted as 'The Civilian Report', unless otherwise stated these are non-make-up artist friends of mine so their reviews are completely honest and without and background in the business. 

These masks are going to be way too much for my sensitive skin (which is on the mend) so I gave them to a couple of people to try and review for me. Thanks to Fifi for this one.

Whilst my pores have never been my biggest beauty hang-up, there are definitely days where they feel very prominent so I was interested to try these masks.  Now I love a bit of theatre with products, and this does not disappoint. Popping the plastic bubble and squishing the serum around the mask gave a real sense of that my pores were in for a treat. The mask itself isn’t flimsy, and sits nicely on the nose/cheeks. The serum has a light, cooling feeling and after 10 mins I gave the chin a quick swipe as well as smoothing over my nose and cheeks. 

My pores definitely looked smaller without my skin feeling tighter, and I noticed that my tinted moisturiser didn’t settle in the pores the way it sometimes does (although this may say more about my moisturiser than the pore mask). I would definitely use this again when I thought my pores were becoming a little too apparent.

What You Need to Know - The POREfessional Instant Wipeout Masks

• £20.50 or US$32
• Press the plastic button to make the serum go into the cotton mask. Remove the mask and put on the problem area. 
• Exfoliates and removes pore impurities
• Available in the UK from Feel Unique, John Lewis, Look Fantastic
• Available in the US from Benefit, Sephora, Ulta