Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer

Effective concealer in a range of shades that evens out complexion and camouflages imperfections...

There are so many concealers floating around that promise the world [and perfect skin] but I'm sure I don't need to tell you how many of them leave lots to be desired. Thankfully, this isn't one of them! 

Designed with yellow base tones, so you can mask even the most stubborn of dark circles, Bobbi Brown's creamy concealer corrects just about any discolouration. It's creamy enough to blend with ease and works well in conjunction with other brands.

As with all concealer, you should ideally pick the colour that is a step lighter than your foundation; Brown provides this product in 15 different shades, both warm and cool tones, so you're bound to find a match.

Whilst this product is great for fixing panda eyes and blotchiness, it's not so good on spots. From experience, I've found that whilst it will cover them, it tends to wear off during the day. That's not to say this product isn't durable, more that it works best on low level blemishes rather than full on breakouts. If you have skin prone to spots, I'd recommend looking elsewhere for a lighter alternative, as the concealer is quite a rich texture in itself and does start to get 'heavy' if you're slapping a lot on.

As with all Bobbi Brown products, the packaging is sleek and simple in pure black and white. This product is small enough to sit in the palm of your hand and ideal for slipping into small clutch purses or pockets.

You can pick up Bobbi's creamy concealer for around £20 in House of Fraser, John Lewis or on the Bobbi Brown website.

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Oil-Free Mattifying Lotion

Shine Reducing Lotion from Boots' Skin Clear range

There's having a healthy glow...and then there's just being downright shiny. This problem sound familiar? Thought it might...

 

As someone who has to adhere to a pretty strict diet in order to keep oily skin under control, I can tell you that I've tried just about every product on the high street that promises to banish shine. Sadly, most don't seem to understand that while you do want to keep your skin hydrated, you don't want all the extra oiliness.

 

Oil-Free Mattifying Lotion from Boots has been my go-to product to solve this dilemma for the last couple of years. It's effective, gentle enough to use every day and most importantly of all, it's cheap! There comes a point where products you're going to use day-in-day-out need to have a reasonable price tag; this stuff has just that!

 

Apply to cleansed skin and you'll immediately notice a difference. It absorbs excess oil and gives your skin a smooth, dry feel, without leave you feeling like you've stripped your skin of all moisture. It's light enough to work straight on top of when applying your makeup and leaves you with a fresh, natural complexion.

 

The Skin Clear range at Boots also features cleansers, face washes, blotting papers, scrubs and rapid spot treatments; having tried a couple of these, I feel confident in saying that the whole collection seems to be effective in providing great skin care, minus the greasiness you can find with so many of these products. Well worth giving it a try!

 

This product can be found in all Boots stores for just around £2 [so you're hardly going to break the bank!]

 

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L'oreal Paris Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Micellar Solution

Gentle 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution

As I tend to wear makeup that I find quite difficult to remove, I am always on the hunt for an effective but gentle makeup remover. I tend to take my makeup off late at night when I am tired (not a good idea) and so I want my makeup to come off as quickly and as smoothly as possible, and this is the perfect product for just that.

I first tried Micellar solutions a couple of months ago, when I purchased the Bioderma Sensibo and Sebium micelle solutions… these moderately impressed me but not enough for a repurchase. After using them though, I knew that I wanted to find a makeup remover that felt ‘as gentle as water’ on my skin like they did. So, whilst looking for another Micellar solution, I found this L’oreal Skin Perfection one, and I will repurchase this again and again as it really works for on my skin, as it is so and is just the perfect product for my sensitive combination skin type.

The packaging of this product is quite pretty, with its long white lid and shiny pink label - fitting the general colour scheme of the new Skin Perfect range, (which I really want to try some more of the products from; namely the Magic Touch Instant Blur). I personally find the bottle is not great as it just has a hole in the lid to pour the liquid out of and I find that a lot of excess liquid comes out when I pour it onto a cotton bud. I am down to less than half a bottle within 2 and a half weeks of buying it because twice the amount I want to use comes out every time I use it. Though this could probably be solved quite easily and next time I buy it I will just pour it into a different bottle before I start using it.

I find this product is great at getting rid of my makeup, it feels soft and gentle on my skin and ‘feels as gentle as water’ and I use this every night. However, its claim of unclogging your pores hasn’t happened for me, not noticeably anyway, but it does ‘soothe and tone’ my skin as it also claims as it is such a gentle product.

Overall, I love this product, just not the packaging… it just needs a nozzle that doesn’t let the product spill out double as much as I want to use. For my skin type (sensitive and combination) it works perfectly, but as everyone has different skin types and different reactions to products I couldn’t say whether it would work as well on anybody else’s. I tend to try samples of skin related products to see how they feel and work on my skin rather than basing my purchases on reviews of how products have worked for other people. I will repurchase this as at £3.33 to £5 (there have recently been offers on the Skin Perfection range in Boots and Superdrug) I think it is well worth buying, though I will be pouring mine into another bottle next time so that I don’t lose half of it unnecessarily.

This product can be found in Superdrug and Boots for between £3.33 to £4.99.

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Freederm Fast Track

Very good; but not quite THAT good

Freederm Fast Track 

Great if you have the occasional breakout; not so great if you deal with bad skin on a regular basis. Freederm Fast Track works wonders on one off bouts of spots but used regularly, it's almost like your skin builds up a resistance to it. And as for working in 3 hours...well...

The product firmly states that it is to be applied after thoroughly cleansing the affected area; fair enough...but still something of an indicator that Fast Track needs all the help it can get to work. Whilst Freederm is one of the best, widely available brands for spot prone skin, from personal experience I've found it can leave you wondering what all the fuss is about.

Naturally, any product of this nature is going to have varied results from person to person. Thankfully, I have pretty decent skin about 80% of the time, but like any other 18 year old, some days that really isn't the case. If you're lucky enough to have a clear complexion then using Freederm every now and then is great because largely, it takes care of things. However for the times when you have a week long breakout etc, very little progress seems to be made. Personally, I don't think it's asking too much for a bit of consistency from a skin care product, particularly one that claims to be a fast fix for spots. 

My best advice with this stuff would be to make sure you have a good skincare regime. The more action you take to prevent breakouts, the happier you'll be in the long run, and the less you'll find yourself relying on Fast Track. That's not to say it's a bad product - compared to most others, it does work the best - but it shouldn't be mistaken for a daily staple in your routine. Drinking plenty of water, always taking makeup off at night and a good oil free moisturiser; they should be 3 steps you take every day. Freederm Fast Track? That should only come into the equation if the aforementioned slip up and you find yourself facing a bad skin day. It works well in conjunction with other products so there's no need to throw out your cleansers and scrubs  nor is it too harsh. But seriously, don't put all your hopes in it leaving you flawless in 24 hours, let alone the 3 it states you'll see results in.

This product retails at around £6 and can be found in Boots, Tesco and on Amazon.

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