I’m putting ‘beauty’ in inverted commas because I’m pretty sure nobody uses these things to be beautiful. I don’t get up every morning and spend twenty minutes painting my face with oh-so-subtle cosmetics because I think I’m some sort of stunner.

Women wear makeup to try and look normal, because even if we know that women don’t look like the faces in magazines, we know the rest of the world still expects us to.
We’re just trying not to alarm or incite insults with the state of our appearance. So here are my latest favourite products for that. 
Regardless of how much I hate myself for buying into it.

my recent “beauty” favourite discoveries

1. Hourglass ambient light blush,  in ethereal glow, £28. This super pretty blush sort of matches the colour of my natural flush, and has a lovely lit-from-within sort of look. Or maybe I just like the packaging. It’s so hard to tell sometimes!

2. La Roche Posay BB Blur, £16.49 (but currently £12.35 at the link). WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS BB CREAM. This discovery is basically my whole reason for writing this post. It does some sort of witchcraft that means it blurs imperfections, covers blemishes and basically gives the illusion of the glowy skin that I woke up with in my 20s, in 10 seconds flat. I smear it on with my fingertips, or if I’m feeling fancy with a beauty blender and immediately feel about 60% better about life. Added bonus: it’s oil absorbing and stays put for actually ages.

3. Lift & Glow serum, Soley Organics,€ 54. I discovered this range at a small boutique in Manchester, and they had me at ‘wild icelandic herbs’. While I’m not sure there’s much lifting or glowing going on with my skin  so far, this smells divine and soaks in like a dream at night.

4. Klorane seboregulating dry shampoo, £8. Increasingly I was finding  that budget Batiste just wasn’t cutting it any more. This alternative by Klorane is non-powdery, leaves no white residue and doesn’t feel gross and claggy when I run my fingers through. It’s £8 at Boots – don’t pay more elsewhere!

5. Living proof Style Extender hair primer, £21. This brilliant product coat and primes your hair, helping it to repel dirt and oil and therefore need washing less frequently! I have fine hair, so the spray version is my preference – spritzed in my fringe it helps stop that dreaded stringy look that I’ve battled for years!

6. Elemis Pro Radiance Cream Cleanser, £30 I first tried this in a Boden press day goody bag, and was hooked. The full size lasts for months, and leave my skin feeling both deeply cleansed and super soft and moisturised. 

7. Travel set, Meraki, £3.10. Because I go to London a lot these days, and I’m too small and feeble to carry all this stuff in my handbag. 

8. Kerastase balancing shampoo, £18. I recently stopped taking the contraceptive pill and my hair has become Verucca-Salt levels of demanding. Even washing it daily wasn’t enough to keep the oiliness at bay until I tried this shampoo from Kerastase. It leaves my hair with a literally squeaky clean finish, and buys me a ticket to every-other-day washes again. 

Tried anything you would recommend lately?

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7 Comments

  • Lindsay Eryn

  • March 28, 2017

#1 – Gosh I wish I could buy a sampler kit of all these things! I haven’t used a BB cream since living in Korea in 2012, and

my usual foundation is telling me it’s time to try something new.

#2 – Hold up, you’ve stopped using the pill? I’m about to go off it in a few weeks in favor of the Creighton Method (a fertility awareness method), and while I’m hopeful that cutting out the extra hormones will be good for my body in the long run, I’m terrified of what it may do to my skin and, if I’m honest, I’m also afraid of messing up and getting pregnant when I don’t want to. =/

Thanks for sharing these recommendations! That blush sounds lovely. Now I just gotta see if I can get any of these in the States before I swallow the UK-to-USA shipping rates. XP

  • Nadeena

  • March 15, 2017

Oh man, I totally want to try that BB Blur situation going on. I hope they come out with darker shades soon.

  • Lucy Sheref

  • March 08, 2017

Hourglass…..oh that ambient light blush is the DREAM. I have the palette and I honestly can’t live without it.

  • Shauna

  • March 07, 2017

I am so with you on the Living Proof and the Klorane… gold!

  • Corina Nika

  • March 06, 2017

So many pretty things! I’ve bumped into the meraki brand a couple of times now, i think it’s time for me to try it out!

  • Paula Solar

  • March 05, 2017

I need to try that BB cream by La Roche Posay, I already use the fluid for facial problems (acne and so on) and it works. Also the eyeliner by stila you recommended me recently.

I don’t usually wear make up but I try to keep a cleanse and hydration routine because my face changed, it was greasy and now it’s mix but so pale that I need to be careful. I have some products that work more or less ok, but my essential, the one I can’t live without is a cleanser by Lush named Let the Good Times Roll, it not only cleans my skin but also it exfoliates gently, I’ve tried many cleansers but this one is the one. And it smells like sweet popcorn 😀 I’ve started trying a moisturiser also by Lush (they don’t pay me, I swear) named Celestial, I’ve been using it for a week and it’s ok, nothing amazing but it works. And the other one product I can’t live without is Very High Protection Cream SPF50+ for sensitive skin by Avène. It’s so good because it’s not very thick and when you put it on your face absorbs it quickly and when you touch your face it’s not sticky.

And I guess that’s it, those are my essentials. I also have a fluid for the occasional rashes but that’s a medicine.

xxx

  • Sarah

  • March 05, 2017

I swear by pretty much anything in the Superfacialist range from Boots. I’ve started using the vitamin c facial oil again recently and I don’t know why I ever stopped in the first place. I really hate myself for buying into products just to look ‘acceptable’ too though.

– Sarah
http://www.moonandforest.co.uk

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