Greetings from Manchester wooohooooo~
I almost forgot how dry the weather in UK can be, it is like drawing all the moisture out of my skin and lips. I have to re-apply lip balm all the time so that my lips do not crack. It is not like I have dry skin but trust me it is crazily dry.
Because of that I have to change up my skincare routine quite a bit (the main reason is actually I am buying almost all my new skincare and body care products because I did not bring a lot with me from Malaysia teehee~). I do repurchase some of my all time faves, they are just too good to not go back to.
BODYCARE
I am sucker for body lotion to a point that I actually feel guilty if I do not apply it before I go to bed. I do missed the application sometimes but that is when I don't sleep at home, except for that I will make sure I slap on lotion before bed.
Vaseline Intensive Care Essential Lotion £5.49
The Body Shop Shea Butter Nourishing Body Butter £15
I did mention about this Vaseline body lotion previously, I fell for it when I was still in Malaysia and I still think it is so dang good for the UK weather. It smells super awesome, it is affordable, I can put it all over my body and not feel bad for using too much because it is cheap and good obviously.
But I think body lotion alone is not enough for the UK weather, I will use body butter on top of lotion on some specific areas like my feet, knees, elbows and my bums hahaha.
I have not tried a lot of body butters. They can be quite pricey because only big brands do body butters. Some body butters claimed to be 'butter' but they are just a thicker version of lotion, which is still a lotion you know. Those body butters from The Body Shop are really B.U.T.T.E.R.
The Body Shop came out with body butters of different scent, the texture can vary depending which scent you go after. I have not tried all of them but I have tried enough to tell you their body butters have 2 kinds of consistency.
One is really solid and balm-y kind in the above picture, that does not move at all in the container. It is so so thick that you have to slightly apply some pressure against the product to kind of scoop it out. Another kind of butter is very thick but still runny, not very runny though. It will give you a soft peek if you dip your finger into the butter.
From my experiences and the amount of The Body Shop body butters that I have used up, those nice scented body butter are not the very thick and solid kind. I do not know whether it is because the scent that makes it impossible to create a very thick and balmy consistency, but unfortunately that is always the case.
My favourite is Shea Butter Body Butter. It seems to be quite thick but if you have it in your palms and rub your hands together, your hand temperature will melt the butter to make it smooth and easier to apply. It has a very nice nutty flavour which is not sweet and it absorbs pretty quick considering it's extremely thick consistency.
What I do is I will apply body lotion all over my body and then top some of the body butter up on those areas that I mentioned. As for a feet, after the application of body butter, I put on socks to bed. Try this! You will wake up with extremely soft feet the next day, like super duper soft.
SKINCARE
L'oreal Hydra Genius Liquid Care £9.99
Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream 50ml £24.50
Origins GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream £20.50
1. Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream
I have tried Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream before in UK and I love love love it. I thought it would be too thick at first and I only used it in my evening routine. However after a few uses, I found that it actually is not as thick as I thought and it can be used during the day, so I started incorporating it in my daytime routine.
And now that I came back to UK I definitely want to use it again. It is unscented and a little goes a long way. It has a very interesting consistency. It is definitely thicker than all the gel moisturisers but it feels lighter than all the moisturising creams that I have tried, sort of like in between the two. I use it day and night for a month now and I have gone through almost half of it.
Why did I not use it in Malaysia is because there were many affordable yet good Korean brands skincare products available so I did not see why I need to purchase those expensive ones. Another reason is I thought I should try as many different products as possible instead of just sticking to what I like. I did actually discover some good ones. The one from Nature Republic - Super Aqua Max Combination is so so good!
I have tried the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Toner before but I am not a fan of its scent. I thought it would be unscented like the Ultra Facial Cream but it comes with a very weird scent, smells like something fermented. It is thicker than most of the toners out there, it leaves a sticky feeling after application even though it has dried down completely. Other than the scent, it works alright, not very impressive so I didn't repurchase it this time.
Another thing that I have tried from Kielh's is their avocado eye cream. I am a big fan of avocado and the cream is literally the colour of an avocado. It was my first eye cream, very rich and thick. I love it during night time and I think it would be a bit too rich for day time. You know how small is an eye cream right? I somehow lost it after only a few weeks I have used it for.
2. L'oreal Hydra Genius Liquid Care
I have heard about this for quite sometime. They didn't have it in Malaysia (or they do just in different packaging I don't know) so I have it in my to-buy list all this while.
It is kind of disappointing to be honest, the hydration it gives is very very minimum which is definitely not enough in the UK weather. I can imagine you using this as your base for you moisturiser but I don't think that you can use it as moisturiser hoping it will keep your skin hydrated throughout the day.
I use it as an additional skincare to my Hada Labo Lotion at night, after a toner and right before moisturiser. The thing I do is I will usually wash my face again before going to bed with just water because it always has been hours since shower. I will then put on very thick facial cream or facial oil. I don't tend to slap on a lot of products after shower but still I will need something to keep my face hydrated for just a few hours, so this L'oreal Gel Moisturiser is ok to me for this purpose.
I must say this gel smell so dang good. It is light and refreshing and the scent doesn't linger very long. I thought it would be very watery from its bottle, but it turns out to be thicker. It doesn't leave a film-like feeling on your face that makes you feel like you have a layer of something masking your face. It is absorbed very quickly and easily.
But will I repurchase it? PROBABLY NOT because it doesn't impress me enough. My advice is do not get it at it's full price because it is definitely not worth it. But if it's at a discounted price then maybe (I got mine at a discounted price too) just to give it a try.
3. Origins Eye Cream
I have always always wanted to try this eye cream because the Origins GinZing collection has been so highly raved all over the YouTube beauty community (probably because Origins sponsored a lot of the videos), especially the Ginzing Energy Boosting Tinted Moisturiser with SPF 40.
Why I wanted to try this eye cream is because it uses caffein as an active ingredient. We all know that caffein is very good at brighten up the skin and reduce water retention, so when this eye cream claims to depuff the eye area I believed it.
It does not have any significant smell. I have used the Kielh's Avocado eye cream before which was super thick, I expected this GinZing eye cream to have a similar consistency. I was wrong, it is so much lighter and it can be spread out very easily. You really don't need a lot of this because a little really goes a very long way.
My main concern about this is I do not know whether it really works. I have not encounter very major changes in my under eye area and that is because first, I have only used it for 2 weeks; second I do not have very serious dark eye circles or massive eye bags to begin with. They only get pretty dark if I don't get enough sleep for days.
When it comes to depuffing your eyes in the morning, I think a lot of products will work, no matter it is high end or drug store because what you do is tapping those products on your eyes gently and kind of massaging your eye area. When you do that you are helping the blood circulation at your eye area which obviously is going to depuff your eyes. To me, it is not about the product at all.
Of course it is definitely an another story if the eye cream targets to reduce wrinkles around your eyes and what not you know. I was hoping that this GinZing eye cream would reduce my dark eye circles but I have not seen very prominent changes yet. I will continue to use it for a longer period of time so we shall see.
4. Eau Thermale Avène Sooting Moisture Mask
One of the Youtuber that I am watching at a regular basis recommend this mask saying she has been using and repurchasing it for a very long time so I decided to give it a go.
Eau Thermal Avène Soothing Moisture Mask £11.49
This is a quite popular brand originate from France, its biggest selling point is the spring water they incorporated in their products. I think one of their most popular products is the Thermal Water which is basically facial mist. I love love love the facial mist. The mist came out so fine, it is unscented and it really help to reduce the redness on my face. I tried using the mist on some sunburnt areas, it did not sting at all in fact it helps my skin to heal very quickly, I was very surprised.
This brand targets dry and sensitive skin which I think its products really work. They have many body care products too but I have never tried before.
This mask is really THE BOMB! I would usually go for sheet masks and I have not tried a lot of masks other than sheet masks (expect for clay masks because they serve absolutely different purposes). However I have tried the Origins Drink-Up Intensive Mask so I can compare between the two.
I was not very impressed with the Origins' one actually because I did not think that it gives my skin enough hydration that I expected despite it being an 'intensive' product. I followed the instruction and left it for 15 minutes it didn't give me the effect that I was looking for. So I extended the time and left it for 30 minutes sometimes (with thicker application of course) but still my skin was not soft or super duper hydrated. I do not find this mask helpful at all to be honest, it basically does nothing to my skin.
However I saw a drastic change after applying this Avène mask, my skin is so so soft and it feels like I have injected in a lot of water molecules to plump my skin up. I only applied a very thin layer, barely covering my skin and left it for 15 minutes. IT IS SO SO GOOD! Definitely much much much better than the Origins mask in my opinion.
One thing to note is I tried the Origins mask when I was in Malaysia but I am using this Avène mask in UK, my skin conditions would definitely be different at these 2 countries. You know some products, you do not usually see their effects until you have a very bad skin condition? that is my concern here because the Origins mask might work for me when my skin is a little bit drier under a different weather of different humidity, who knows right.
5. Lush Lip Scrub
Lush Chocolate Lip Scrub £5.49
I have not tried a lot of Lush products actually but I know all of their products are made of natural ingredients which is suppose to be very good to your skin. Lush comes out with a wide variety of products. I have to say Lush products are very creative. They have solid lotions which literally look like soap bars that you should rub it all over your body. They even have solid toothpaste! Can you imagine that? Lush is not an affordable brand I would say which you can definitely tell when they say they hand made everything.
Because it is a lips scrub which I probably would consume it so I want to go for a product that is made up of natural ingredients. This lip scrub from Lush is basically made up of sugar and jojoba oil. I have tasted it actually, it is no doubt sugar. I have had this before, absolutely loving it so I repurchase it again this time.
My lips crack very easily even though I don't usually have chapped lips. I would apply an extremely thick layer of lip balm to bed everyday to prevent it from cracking. Because of that I have some dead skin accumulating on my lips over a few days and I have to rub the dead skin off every 3 to 4 days with bare hand. By doing so will clean up all the dead skin no doubt but at the same time would remove the protecting layer of my lips which leaves my lips super duper dry.
This lip scrub is not too rough, it does its job and it leaves my lips very moisturising because of the jojoba oil ingredient. I would usually do the scrubbing after I brushed my teeth when there are still water around my lips and I will just gently rinse the sugar residue off after I am done scrubbing.
That is all of my update skincare products. I have something exciting coming on my next post.
Till next time~ xx
