My nightime Skincare routine...

As a beautician i have a very thorough skincare routine. Yes i split my week into different skincare options to make sure i get everything in. So here is my Sunday, Wednesday and Friday routine. 

I want to keep this blog real, and although i love seeing peoples make up and photos taken once we have spent a good amount of time getting ready, i also want people to know that we're all human, we do have skin without make up and that it's ok to post on here without it being 'perfect' so.....Here's me at the end of the day. I'd not slept very well, Shiny skin, in my pjs and hair scraped back.

I am currently using up the last of my Clarins, One step facial cleanser. This is a bi-phase product meaning its part water part oil. I am currently out of my eye make-up remover so using this gets all my eye make up off whilst acting as an all over skin cleanser. It's a nice product if you have normal-dry skin but as i have an oily skin i wouldn't purchase it. I use it on a night so that i could finish the bottle. This removes make-up really well. Just shake it to wake it and apply to a cotton pad and sweep all over the face. Perfect for people who don't have alot of time or people who struggle to remember have a skincare routine as it's quick and does both eyes and skin. 

Next i sweep Clarins Gentle Exfoliator on a cotton pad around my face. This acts like a second cleanse too. This is a chemical exfoliator which means there are no grainy bits in it but simply either certain acids or fruit enzymes that munch away at dead skin (imagine pac man on your skin) This is perfect for people with sensitive skins, rosacea or broken capillaries as you're not scrubbing away at the skins surface. I use it as i get dull skin very easily. Simply leave on and continue with your routine. 

I then tone with my Decleor Essential Tonifying Lotion. This product is beautiful. It smells amazing and really makes my skin feel lovely and soft. You can either apply by using your hands or a cotton pad then simply blot dry with a tissue. 

I use this eye gel morning and night. It is Clarins Eye Contour Gel. The gel is the lightest formula as they also do it in a balm. My biggest problem is bags and dark circles under my eyes as i don't sleep very well. This is really soothing and dries really quickly which is perfect in a morning when im wanting to apply make up straight after. 

If you can see the tiny amount i have on my ring finger. You only need a grain of rice size per eye. Too much eye cream can cause bags. Apply to the bones, so below your eye on the orbital bone, and on your eyebrow. Gently pat the product in. Dont rub onto your eyelids or close to the eye underneath, eye products migrate to where it's needed. 

I finish off by using my Decleor Balm Esential neroli. This product is AMAZING! i used to hate the night balms as i have such an oily skin and the texture felt too heavy for me, but i used it for a week religiously and i am now hooked. There are balms for all skin types including oily. They work by drip feeding the skin all night with the ingredients within them. Decleor is aromatherapy so the skin really sucks them in. You wake up and your skin feels amazing. The balm essential is also fab for when i have break outs as it really heals them, if you have ingrowing hairs it helps to bring them out and when i have an allergic reaction to my threading it takes it away in two days. Everyone needs a balm essential in their bathroom cabinet!

The balm is solid in the jar so use your spatula (it comes in the packaging) to scoop out the amount you need. I used my fingers. The amount on my hand did my whole face and neck. Once you have the amount in your hand rub your hands together and it melts the waxes within the balm, it goes into a beautiful silky texture that i then apply everywhere but my eye area. It does leave a residue on the skins surface so make sure you're not sleeping on silk sheets on anything that oil may transfer onto. It's pure luxury for the skin and you notice a difference in your skin just after one application.



So there's my nightime routine for those three days. I don't change my routine massively on the other days but i do things differently. I shall do a post on those soon. I hope you found this interesting.

Number of products: 5
Time to do: 5 minutes
Times a week: 3

Clarins One Step Cleanser: http://www.clarins.co.uk/one-step-facial-cleanser-with-orange-extract/0005510.html

Clarins Gentle Exfoliating Toner: http://www.clarins.co.uk/gentle-exfoliator-brightening-toner/C010201008.html?start=1

Decleor Essential Tonifying Lotion: http://www.decleor.co.uk/products/aroma-cleanse-essential-tonifying-lotion

Clarins Eye Contour Gel: http://www.clarins.co.uk/eye-contour-gel/C010301011.html?start=1

Decleor Neroli Balm Essential: http://www.decleor.co.uk/products/aromessence-neroli-night-balm


***Nothing in this post in sponsored. All the products i have featured in this blog have either been purchased by myself or i received them on training with the company or through commission schemes. All opinions are my own too. 

SkinCare Mythbusters - True or False

Hey Lovelies, I got chatting to a client about advanced skin care today at work and it dawned on me that actually magazines, TV programmes and other marketing all print stuff about beauty and skincare that we instantly take for gospel, even GPs don't know true skin care - so here are my top myth busters of skin care, some or all of them you may already know but if not here are some real truths about skin and how to look after it.

You don't need to wear an SPF in the winter?

FALSE: No matter where you live in the world you should wear a minimum of Sun Protection Factor (spf) 30 in the summer months and a minimum of 15 in the winter months. Even if its bouncing down with rain or dull and cloudy UV rays still penetrate the atmosphere and still cause skin damage. The worst time to not wear an SPF is when it snows as the white snow reflects sunlight even more, causing the rays to bounce from the floor up to your skin back up to the sky causing even more damaging effects on the skin. Whether it's in your make up, moisturiser or a topical spf put it on EVERY DAY! You'll be thankful for that extra time in the morning when your a pensioner and have the skin of a 40 year old. Sun damage is the biggest cause of premature aging within the skin. So what's the best anti aging cream you can buy? An SPF!!

I have oily skin I can't moisturise?

FALSE: I made this mistake for many years. I have such oily skin, and I'm not talking I have to blot once a day oily, I'm talking within an hour/two hours I have to practically re-apply my whole make up. That is until I changed my skin care. The worst thing to do is deprive your oily skin of moisture you just have to make sure it's the right kind. Your skin is lacking water not oil. If you put water and oil into a bowl they separate and the oil floats on top. Same for your skin if you have excess oil it pushes the natural water away. Look for HYDRATING moisturisers and go for lotions rather than creams or an oily formula as these are light weight. Hydrating means water based rather than oil based. Give it time....I'd say anything from 2 weeks to a month. Use the product sparingly and I guarantee you'll see a difference. Don't get me wrong I'm still oily but it takes a lot longer for it to show through make up, my skin is in better condition and my make up goes on better.

There's a reason to have a separate day and night cream?

TRUE: No this isn't a marketing ploy from skin care companies to get you to buy more, there is a genuine reason for separate day and night creams. In the day we need a product that is going to protect us from pollution and the elements, provide spf, maybe be an antioxidant and provide moisture. In simple terms you need a product that is going to be active and fighting, but when we sleep our skin heals itself, provides new cells, new collagen and works within calm waves. You need a night cream that is going to aid healing and work gently within the skins natural rhythm at night.

If my skins dehydrated I need to drink more water?

TRUE AND FALSE: So this phrase gets said to me every single day and I repeat myself every single day. So yes if you drink water your skin will become more hydrated BUT what people don't understand is exactly how much water you have to drink for this to happen. When you drink water all your vital organs take it first, yes it will reach the skin but by the time it reaches the surface of the skin there's not much water left, therefore you wont notice a massive difference on the surface of your skin. To combat dehydration you need good hydrating products such as moisturisers or masks and a combination of drinking water too. To see a difference in skin you need a consistent 2-3 litres a day of the clear stuff.

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise are the most importantly things in skincare?

FALSE: It has been drilled into us for years to cleanse, tone, moisturise and so people do this religiously without thinking about what they are doing. Yes cleanse to get rid of any make up, pollution and oil from the skin to create a clean surface. Yes tone as this gets rid of any trace of cleanser and allows better penetration of products. Yes moisturise as this keeps the skin feeling soft......What are you missing??? TWO key steps to a routine, which without these there's almost no point in toning and moisturising. They are Exfoliating and Serums.
Once you have cleansed your skin use an exfoliator to gently buff away dead skin cells and excess product revealing healthy skin underneath. Dry skins with no exfoliation have a build up of dead skin meaning when you moisturise you're actually moisturising dead old skin instead of the healthy skin underneath. A bit of a waste of product. When a client with dry skin asks me to change their moisturiser as its not working I always ask them to either start or up their exfoliation first, 9 times out of 10 that's the solution. Oily skins create a glue on the surface of the skin trapping dead skin, old oil and make up onto the skins surface this makes the skin look dull along with the risk of creating blemishes and blackheads. No matter what your skin type exfoliate once to twice a week NO MORE! Any more and you sensitize the skin. Do it at opposite ends of the week like Thursday and Sunday for perfectly fresh, clean and healthy skin.
Next use a Serum. Moisturisers only target the top layers of skin while serums work on the lower layers of the skin. They do this by being a smaller molecular size (the size of the ingredients are smaller so they can penetrate through the skin layers better) Our skin renews every 4 weeks (28 days), so what's at the top of your skin was at the bottom 4 weeks earlier. If we target the bottom layers we treat how it rises, so we want anti aging, healthier collagen, more elasticity, more hydration. Treat the skin before it comes to the surface.


I hope you learnt a little something or you finally understand why you are told to do certain things. I have much more information like this if you want to know more. Or if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments below and I shall answer them in my next Mythbusters blog.

Enjoy having amazing, healthy skin

Night night

Lizzie =)