In this final installment of my current skincare routine I'll be giving you a peek at the eye creams I currently like and my all time favourite face masks.
Eyes first, and I always apply my eye cream immediately after toner so it has a chance to sink in before other products get in the way as they can effectively seal the delicate skin making the eye cream less effective. Oil fans take note!
I have to say I've yet to be really impressed with an eye cream. Perhaps I'm expecting too much? However, I'm currently tapping on Soap & Glory Make Yourself Youthful Rejuvenating Eye Cream which contains all sorts of clever sounding ingredients to hydrate, smooth, firm and de-puff as well as Lightscramble Luminosperes (!) to illuminate and brighten. The hydrating and illuminating effects are the reason I bought this (that and the shiny shiny pot - yes, I am a magpie) and it does both reasonably well, sitting nicely under foundation and concealer, although I can't say it's done a lot for those expression lines.
For days when I want a lighter formula, or when the S&G cream isn't enough on its own, I also use The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cream. This is a light, very easily absorbed cream which is lovely for de-puffing and refreshing, especially when popped in the fridge for half an hour before applying. Again it's not "OMG this is amazing" but I like it because it's so simple. Also because it's light I can carefully tap a tiny amount under my eyes during the day and it won't particularly disturb my makeup.
Now, onto masks and by now you should be able to guess which brand I'm about to sing the praises of. Yep, it's REN to the rescue again! I make absolutely no apologies for being so obsessed with REN at the moment as their products have worked wonders on my skin in the last 3 months - better results than I've seen with any other brand.
My absolute all time no.1 favourite is the marmalade scented Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Mask which contains a cocktail of natural fruit acids and extracts to seriously exfoliate and smooth the skin. This it does extremely well. REN recommend you leave this on for just 10mins but I've had it on for up to almost 2hrs and the results were just amazing, although I wouldn't recommend this if you have sensitive or irritated skin. It leaves my skin soft, considerably clearer and brighter looking and with greatly improved texture. The only down side is that the dog rather likes the smell too and tries to lick it off my face. Yuk!
The other mask with a weekly slot in my routine at the moment is REN's Clarimatte Invisible Pores Detox, a clay based dries-on-your-face offering which drags icky gunk out of my pores kicking and screaming (not literally because that would just be weird). I actually hate the feeling of clay drying on my face but I can overlook that in light of how clean this leaves my skin feeling. It is a bit of a pain to wash off though, requiring buckets of warm water and a good dose of toner afterwards.
An honorary mention should also go to REN's ClearCalm 3 Clarity Restoring Mask which I'm not using at the moment because my skin is behaving but which is a complete saviour when it flares up. This is a non-drying clay mask which does the usual pore clean but also has a calming effect on angry spots and antibacterial qualities to stop them spreading. Perfect for badly behaving skin!
So that's the end of my skincare tour. Have you used any of the products I've talked about? Do you have any recommendations for super duper eye creams with that elusive wow factor?
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