Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Save my Skin! Ft. Una Brennan Superfacialist,Soap& Glory and Superdrug Hot Cloth Cleanser

Recently my skin has not been behaving itself. As someone who has had pretty ok skin for the majority of their teenhood, to suddenly reach mid-20s and have skin issues seems a cruel twist of fate. The problem is mainly focused around the chin and lower half of my face, where there are lots and lots of tiny under the skin bumps that sometimes mutate into larger painful blemishes. The blackheads on my nose have also been getting worse, and my pores seem to be growing larger by the day, with some of them becoming blocked. Sorry if that was too much info!

I've read that imperfections around chin are to do with hormones, but nothing in that department has really changed; I'm on the same pill I've been on for years. I think the excesses of Christmas and all the alcohol and naughty food has really had an affect

So all in all I've not been too happy, and have been trying a number of things to clear my complexion. I think my efforts have in some part actually contributed to my problems, as I started buying products targeted for blemish prone, oily skin, which is not really my skin type. So as well as having blemishes, I started to get random dry patches too. Nightmare!

After doing a bit of reading around, I kept hearing really good things about Una Brennan's Superfacialist range and chose two products.




After reading on Crunchy Betty's blog all about the oil cleansing method, I knew I wanted to incorporate oil into my routine, but wasn't really up for the faff of sourcing organic oils and making my own blend. Lazy.

The bottle is a tiny 30ml and as you can see I'm starting to get through it (I've had it around 4 weeks). At £14.99, it's neither cheap nor completely unreasonable, though I do wonder why its more expensive than some of the other oils in Una's range; the Vitamin c facial oil is £10.99 for a generous 200ml. Luckily I purchased when it was on offer for about a third off.

I have to say, though I usually enjoy rose scents in bath and beauty products, I'm not overly keen on the scent; though not overpowering, it does have a more medicinal/ herbal edge to it than the typical rose scented product. After 4 weeks of use the dry patches that had developed from over stripping my skin with harsher cleansers have been soothed and my skin is feeling comfortable and hydrated despite the colder weather and central heating.






I'm still undecided on this face mask. I try to use it at least once a week and its ok... it's a typical clay type mask that dries after 5-10 minutes and leaves skin feeling thoroughly cleansed and soft. My chin area has cleared up slightly, but my pores and blackheads are still getting me down and I was hoping for a more drastic improvement to my blemishes. I will make a concerted effort to stop being slack with my regime and try to use it 2-3 times a week to get a better idea of it.

Superdrug 'Naturally Radiant' Hot Cloth Cleanser


img from Superdrug.com

After reading some reviews, I've also purchased Superdrug's version of a hot cloth cleanser. They do 2- a 'Naturally Radiant' and a 'Vitamin E' version, but I went for the Naturally Radiant as it was on offer for only £2.98. The bottle is 150ml but it seems a lot more, as the cleanser is quite thick and luxurious you only need a very small amount so I can see this lasting a long time. It takes off makeup with ease and leaves skin smooth and soft. I've never used the Liz Earle cleanser, so can't make a comparison, but for the price I purchased Superdrug's for, I'm pretty happy


Soap & Glory 'Clear Here' Moisturiser


To finish up my regime I purchased this moisturiser, mainly being drawn in by the blue box at the top- "Tired of clogged pores, shine, spots and blotches?". These were all the problems I am having so I thought this would be perfect. However, I've now used up the entire tube and have to say I've seen no improvement whatsoever. It also felt slightly sticky on the skin and not moisturising enough for my personal preference, maybe because it is aimed at oily skin, which mine isn't really. I also saw no improvement to my pores or spots, so all in all this has been the least successful product out of the bunch. I'm wondering if it is now discontinued, as I couldn't find it on the Boots website.

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