London Beauty Haul!

This video is long overdue but I finally posted my first ever YouTube video! It's a makeup and skincare haul of all the stuff I bought during my London trip back in October. Hope you guys enjoy the video and if you liked it, please give it thumbs up and subscribe for more videos!

First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser with Red Clay

I've had oily combination skin and clogged pores since forever. Even with a good daily skincare routine and clay masks, I still shine like a light bulb by noon and still get blackheads and whiteheads - a constant bane of my life. Luckily, I haven't been prone to major breakouts since high school, even with oily combination skin and clogged pores, phew! Those high school years were rough though...

I'm currently using the First Aid Beauty Skin Rescue Deep Cleanser with Red Clay - a gel cleanser containing red clay, rosemary leaf oil and botanical antioxidants that helps to remove excess oils, unclog pores and purify the skin.

Clarins Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil

Several weeks ago my face became really really dry and the skin around my cheeks was especially dry and became really scaly and itchy (apologies if that grosses you out slightly). I had been on the beach and under the sun over the weekend and didn't moisturize enough afterwards...which is terrible of me! I tried everything to re-hydrate my skin which included using the Laneige Sleeping mask, Origins Drink Up Intensive mask, hyaluronic sheet masks, Embryolisse Lait Creme Concentre every night...anything and everything I thought was intensely hydrating! Sadly, nothing was really working, at least not at the pace I wanted it to work. During the day, I would wear a hydrating BB cream for work but my skin got so bad that people at work started asking me what was up with my skin because the scaly dry skin was quite noticeable underneath the BB cream. So I started looking through my stash of samples and came across a tiny vial of Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil and I thought why the hell not and used up the whole vial to drench my skin...and BOOM. My skin was saved overnight! The extremely dry and scaly parts of my skin felt smoother, plumper and re-hydrated after using the oil. I was so impressed, I bought a full-size bottle the very next day since my skin was definitely still in need of this miracle worker.

Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre

I've had a bit of a blogger's block recently, my bad! Hopefully, I get back on track with this post. It's only a short post but definitely a product worth writing about! With all this cold windy weather happening right now, my skin's been more on the dry combination side (I've been noticing dry patches on my nose, forehead and cheeks...uh oh!). My tube of Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre has been sitting on the shelf for a while now since I find that it is a bit too rich on my skin during the warmer months, making my skin feel too oily for my liking, but this has been such a life-saver for my dry skin lately! My dry skin drinks it up immediately and feels more hydrated .... dry patches be gone! Not only is this cream a good moisturiser, it can also be used as a primer, make-up remover and also helps to reduce irritation on the skin caused by shaving. It is an emollient oil and contains a combination of natural active ingredients such as good ol' shea butter, beeswax, aloe vera and soy proteins. It is also paraben-free. There is a slight scent to it (nothing over-powering, quite pleasant actually)...umm... an unscented kinda scent if that makes any sense?? All I have to say is it's definitely a beauty must-have for a good reason!

What's your favourite moisturiser?

Steamcream

Steamcream is an all-in-one natural moisturiser that can be used on the face, body, and hands. Made fresh from high quality, natural ingredients that are fused together by a shot of steam which makes the cream lightweight and highly hydrating on the skin. You can view the list of ingredients here. It smells strongly of lavender to me which isn't my favourite scent in the world but I can get over it. I love the consistency of the cream, it's lightweight and absorbs very quickly. I prefer to use this on my hands and occasionally on my face (generally during night time because I find that it can be too oily for me during the day time). A little goes a long way with this cream! They come in a variety of limited edition tins that you can reuse to store other things. I first got introduced to Steamcream by my best friend who bought one for me as a Christmas present a few years ago (she got me a blue rose tin edition) and I loved it, especially with all the different collectable tins (I'm a bit of a collector/hoarder if you haven't realised already...ahem!). With the Jubilee Weekend just gone by, Steamcream released a few London-themed tins in celebration of that weekend - I decided to go for the Big Ben one because I just thought it was so pretty! You can check out the other London-themed designs on their website, most of them are still available so if you want to get your hands on one then do! Or there's a choice of lots of other designs as well :)

Steamcream is available on their official website, ASOS, and many other stockists, for more or less £13. A bit pricey but it does last a long time if you use it for your face and hands, obviously if you use it on your whole body then it won't last that long! Steamcream is probably one of my favourite moisturisers that I've ever used and would definitely recommend it to others.

LUSH Tea Tree Water Toner Water

Toner is probably one of the things I tend to neglect the most in my skincare routine, I can never really notice much of a difference from using it but I know that it helps to rebalance the skin after using cleanser. I recently decided to reintroduce toner back into my skincare routine and I opted for Lush's Tea Tree Water Toner Water, as I have oily/combination skin and the sales assistant suggested this...plus I used to use a few tea tree oil products during my acne prone years and it really helped a lot! Anything containing tea tree is great for oily/acne prone skin because tea tree has antiseptic properties so it really helps to prevent excess sebum turning into spots or helps to reduce existing spots.