This week I came up with one of my all time favorite skincare routines, was reunited with an old love, discovered a few new things and of course wore a sea inspired scent all week. Sea inspired scents are my favorite type of fragrance. I stopped counting how many I owned after I hit a dozen. Tom Ford Oud Minerale is sea air with an earthy, deep, green and slightly spicy feel. Key Notes: Salty Seaweed, Pink Peppercorn, Oud Blend, Styrax, Ambergris Accord, Fir Balsam. Love it, plus look at that sexy bottle. Review HERE.
For the last few months I've been spritzing my face with an earthy, essential oil scented mist as I find it relaxing before bed. OSKIA CityLife Facial Mist fits the bill. The neroli and basil oil are so relaxing. It does have a pretty strong, herbal, green, earthy essential oil scent. This is more than just a relaxing mist. It's very high tech. This mist has niacinamide, vitamin B3 & C to brighten and hyaluronic acid to hydrate & plump. It also contains a micro-encapsulated blend of astaxanthin & malachite, EUK 134, Co-Enzyme Q10, O3 Yeast Lysate, smithsonite & camellia japonica to protect against indoor/outdoor pollution and free-radical damage. It actually is one of the few mists I find truly hydrating and it's alcohol free. This did just recently get repackaged into a hard plastic pump spray which I think is an improvement. More to come on this line (my review of the whole line is well overdue).
I grabbed a few new things from Earthwise Beauty after their recent packaging makeover. They have a new Thelma Lip Treatment and it's quite good. I normally don't like pot lip balms but I overlook that for this one. This has a face balm kind of texture. It's not waxy and hard nor is it too soft. The buttery balm sinks into the lips and really hydrates, soothes and heals any dryness in the lips. They actually formulated it with natural butters that have caramel and cocoa notes. Plus they infused it with a Brazil nut oil with some kind of rare vanilla bean. It has exactly that scent-warm, cocoa, vanilla, caramel and it's delicious. In fact talking about it makes me want to go slather it on again. It won't last all night for me, but it's more hydrating than a good portion of lip balms out there who claim they're hydrating but they just dry my lips out. More to come.
Omorovicza is one of my all time favorite brands as you know by now. Years ago I used up a whole pot of their Hydra Melting Cleanser but wished it came in a pump so I never bought another one even though I absolutely loved it. My wish was finally answered and Omorovicza released this in a pump form. And I must say the pump is a stunning teal. It's a thing of beauty. The cleanser inside is a tri-phase as it goes from balm to oil to milk once you add water. The cleanser is a pale teal shade as well from the copper gluconate. This gel oil balm is the perfect morning cleanse and you can use it at night to remove your makeup as well. It does a fabulous job at both. This rinses clean and my skin is soft, hydrated and never stripped. I'm so happy to have this back in my life (Thank you Omorovicza). I talked about it some when it launched HERE.
Cleansing balms are my all time favorite way to clean my face. There's something magical about them and how they hydrate and soften the skin while cleaning perfectly. La Bella Figura just launched a new detoxifying one perfect for summer. This Summer Edition The Clean Slate is limited edition. I love the traditional The Clean Slate (review HERE) and the addition of activated charcoal is perfect for all that heat and sweating in the summer. I always need extra pore cleaning help in the summer. This balm will remove all your makeup, rinse clean and detox your skin all without stripping or drying it out. Sounds great yes? More to come.
I finally caved and grabbed a few items from Lilah B. I've been eyeing the brand for a year or two as the pebble compacts are stunningly gorgeous. Glisten & Glow is a pale shimmering champagne highlighter housed in a metallic bronze stone. It gives the skin a nice natural glow that makes you look lit from within. I love the cream formulation as it's not too emollient and greasy nor too hard and dry. It's almost a cream to powder style formula but more like a semi-matte finish. The Divine Duo Lip & Cheek is a multi-purpose creamy product for the lips and cheeks. Pretty easy to guess from the name. This comes in a smaller white pebble compact. I grabbed shade B. Lovely a nude pink. The texture is not quite cream to powder but again has that semi-matte cream finish. It's very pigmented yet easy to blend. I didn't find it hard or streaky at all. It's rare for me to find a lip and cheek product that can actually work on both areas. As I find if it's emollient and comfortable on the lips then it's too creamy for the cheeks, and vice versa if it's a drier cream that actually lasts on the cheeks then it's usually too drying for my lips. I prefer this on my cheeks because it is a semi-matte finish and on the drier 'better as a cheek formula' kind of product, however it can work on the lips as a semi-matte tint.
This week I paired African Botanics Cloudburst Micro-Emulsion with Skinbetter Science InterFuse Treatment Cream and Twelve Beauty Intelligent Frontier Facial Oil. It was the most magical perfect combination. My skin was hydrated and so soft I literally wanted to keep touching my face all day long as it was like silk and velvet. The African Botanics Cloudburst Micro-Emulsion is a water in oil emulsion that has a runny gel cream texture. It's fabulous for layering as it plays well with everything. It's also African Botanics so you know it's amazing. I'll go more into the full ingredients in a full future post. It involves marine glycobiology, algae, oligosacharides, minerals & plant extracts like African Immortelle, resurrection plant (love), green rooibos tea, yarrow & chamomile. This isn't hydrating enough on it's own for me, but it's a great layer under some kind of lotion or cream.
Skinbetter Science is a medical grade skincare brand. You have to get it from a dermatologist who sells it or order from a medical grade skincare supplier. I get mine from Harben House. It's a small but effective line and everything I've tried has been phenomenal and this InterFuse Treatment Cream is no different. This is a morning moisturizer mainly designed to increase collagen production. It's peptide rich and stimulates your body's own collagen production in addition to a neuro-calming peptide that helps relax facial muscles and thus reduces wrinkles and fine lines. It's impressively lightweight yet nourishing and left my skin so smooth. I want to touch my face for hours after using this. It's that good. I know the price tag is a bit high, but compared to lots of high end luxury brand this one actually delivers. Skinbetter is actually becoming one of my favorite brands because it delivers results well.
I already talked about Twelve Beauty Intelligent Frontier Facial Oil a few times, but it deserves multiple mentions. So lightweight yet nourishing. I can't say it any better than Twelve does-Unsaponifiables are the most precious part of the natural plant oil – they’re the layer where all the active ingredients lie, making them among the most incredibly efficacious and high performance natural ingredients available to us. This has the effect of a highly nourishing facial oil with the lightweight texture that can be used in the day, even in the summer. Brilliant. More to come on all three.
Top to Bottom-Omorovicza, La Bella Figura, Lilah B. B. Lovely, Glisten & Glow, Skinbetter, African Botanics:
