Review: Lush Skincare

Last night, John ordered a bunch of Mario Badescu products from beautybay.com for me so I'll be finishing off my Lush skincare soon. I've been using these products for about a year and a half now and I've been really pleased with how well they've worked for me, but think it's time for a change! My skin seems to have gotten used to the products so fingers crossed, Mario will pull through.





First up is my cleanser. I use Fresh Farmacy both morning and night and find it does an excellent job of calming any redness in my skin and drying up breakouts. If you have mild to moderate acne or rosacea, I'd say give this product a try and see how it goes. It's inexpensive and Lush are excellent for giving samples. It doesn't smell amazing, but isn't unpleasant. It can leave the skin feeling tight but a dab of moisturizer fixes that problem easily. If you like a squeaky clean feel when you wash your face, Fresh Farmacy will do that. Another Lush cleanser I can recommend for oily skin is CoalFace. My boyfriend uses it daily and it has helped his skin immensely. Another inexpensive item we both use is the Body Shop's Facial Buffer to gently exfoliate each day which means I don't need to use a separate exfoliator!



Tea Tree Water is essentially a toner. It's very gentle, it doesn't sting when you apply it like many alcohol based toners can be and it cleans any cleanser or makeup residue from your face. Again, I use this morning and night and it's great for picking up any makeup your makeup remover and/or cleanser may have missed. You'd be surprised!



Grease Lightning is a blemish treatment but I use it as if it were a serum - especially when I'm breaking out. It does a wonderful job of gently calming and healing any spots you might have. I had a monster coming up just under my nose (ouch) on Tuesday. Today, it's gone. There's the slightest bump when I run my finger over it but it's no longer painful or red.

I use my Shu Uemura Cleansing Beauty Oil Premium A/o to remove my makeup and Cetaphil moisturizer and find they work well in harmony with each of the Lush products. It's a great routine and it has worked for me but like I said; time for a change! I've tried other products in between and found some winners (Shu oil!) but I've never changed my entire routine like this.

I'll be keeping a diary and photographing my progress with the Mario Badescu products. To some, they're quite an investment (myself included) so it's always nice to see how well they work (or not) before purchasing.

Are there any products you use that you wouldn't change for the world? I thought Fresh Farmacy was mine, but it turns out...it's my Shu oil!

Photo credits: Lush.co.uk

Review: Shu Uemura Skin Purifier

Shu Uemura Skin Purifier Cleansing Beauty Oil Premium A/O Advanced Formula

What it claims to be/do:

"A potent antioxidant cleanser infused with green tea extract that provides strong antioxidant protection against the environmental stresses associated with ageing while leaving the skin thoroughly clean.

Suitable for all skin types.
Two-in-one cleanser and makeup remover.
Removes waterproof makeup."

It's all true.

I could end this review here, but this blog would then lack any credibility whatsoever, so I'll give you lot a few reasons why I love this product and why you should go and buy it.

I bought this at Duty Free on my way back from Hong Kong. I decided to get the smaller bottle for two reasons. 1) I was literally HKD$4 (about 30p) short of getting the huge bottle and b) I have very picky skin and didn't want to shell out for something that was only going to break me out. Now I don't tend to spend a lot of money on skincare, but this is so, so worth it!

I've been using it for the past 3 weeks which has given me enough time to figure out how it has affected my skin and how effective it is in fulfilling its claims.

This is how it works:



Remove from box. Yes, I said it.



The box says 3-4 pumps, I use one if I'm just wearing day makeup, 2 if I'm in full slap. It's more than enough.



Work it into the skin, massaging over eyes (as if you were gently shampooing your lashes) and down the neck. I'm wearing a tinted moisturiser, concealer and waterproof mascara - see how it melts it away?



Emulsify the oil with damp hands, continue to work the product into the skin.



Rinse well with warm water, pat dry with a clean towel.

You're left with soft (NOT greasy), smooth and clean skin. Excuse the red eyes (and stupid facial expressions). It's not easy to wash your face and operate a camera at the same time. Lesson learned.

Occasionally, I'll wash my face afterwards with my Fresh Farmacy, but that's if I have a particularly bad breakout - which seem to be coming less often since I've been using this stuff! I do still have a lot of acne scarring, and a few spots still healing but none on the go at the moment. My skin texture has improved dramatically and I'm finding myself using tinted moisturisers in place of my heavy Colorstay foundation! It has also calmed down my rosacea and any other bumps my face previously had all over it.

It was only in the last couple of years that I was told, and believed that oily skin needed moisture too. If you do everything you can to strip the oils from your skin, it'll go into overdrive and produce even more oil, so feed it moisture and stay matte or even better; dewy! I'm so happy I decided to try this after months of hesitation because let's face it - why would you put oil on you face when it produces enough of it to supply Britain's greasy spoons? But it works. Very, very well.

Oh yeah, it smells gorgeous too.