The midwinter cold and especially the wind play merry freaking havoc with the face and hair I find.
At the risk of making my skin requirements sound like local council tarmac repairs, this time of year some extra maintainance is required.
Face:
Eve Lom cleanser. I can only afford this once a year (thank you santa!), and every year it is a renewed joy to clean my face at the end of the day. It is strange smelling - not unpleasant at all, just slightly straw-like, and has a paste-ish consistency. But once you have rubbed it on your face and washed it off with a hot cloth, the softening, silkening, super-clean effects are just blissful! At night I put on a bit of rose oil afterwards, and my face loves me.
Garnier Miracle Skin Protector . The wonders of this £10ish tinted-serum-come-foundation has been hyped up all over the web, and I was so very sceptical. Probably because my fair skin gets a bit pasty looking in winter I have wasted more money on gruesome, drying, orangey, are-you-trying-to-highlight-my-crowsfeet foundations than I care to remember. This stuff though - honestly, crossmyheart - it really is light and smoothing and flattering. It doesn't offer much in terms of coverage, but it really does seem to have a soft-focus effect on the less desirable aspects of my skin. Or maybe my hyperventilating at finally finding a brilliant foundation fogged the mirror, it is possible.
Lips:
Lipstick is all very well, and does look astoundingly glamourous on some women. But, I am very fair skinned and quite generously mouthed and frankly bright lipstick just wears me, I feel like my lips arrive in a room a few seconds before the rest of me! My teeth often suddenly look a horrible colour and my other facial features, particularly my eyes, seem to fade into the shadows of my cartoon mouth. Eeek! Plus it lands on any cheeks I kiss (and my husband avoids a random smooch when I wear it which is a downer!), cups I drink out of, clothes I take off over my head and worst of all my own teeth and that really is a grim look! It is just mucky stuff to me. So if I go out I wear lipgloss instead, I think it is subtle and sexy, and when I see other people wearing it, I usually think how great it looks. Loads of brands do fab ones, Juicy Tubes by Lancome are the benchmark for lovely hues but there are plenty of cheaper ones that have a nice creamy texture, not all that wet gloss look of yore. Maybelline cream gloss is a good example. And it doesn't mark your teeth, or your wine glass so horribly. And your partner will risk kissing you.
But for really totally kissable lips, lipbalm is the thing. I have a kind of nostalgic affection for the old chapstix (that smell reminds me of my young teen years), and vaseline, but there are so many lovely lipbalms out there, that properly nourish and smooth. My favourites are tubes of Clarins lipbalm, Kiehls and also Smith's rosebud salve - they just make lips so soft and unchappy, and have a faintest hue that adds that little bit more natural looking colour to the face. I also avoid the tins, they look so sweet and retro but they get so pesky to open, and constantly sticking your fingers in can't be hygienic can it?
The Clarins tube is a bit more expensive, but it stays on really well I find, and is a wonderful texture. For really sore lips Elizabeth Arden's 8 hour cream is miraculous but it is a bit super shiny/vaseline-y for me to choose for glamming up reasons alone. Clarins, Kiehl's or Smith's I wear pretty permanently throughout the winter, especially walking the dog (much better than lipgloss which does tend to weld wisps of hair to the lips in a wind!), and whenever I am popping out into the cold. Even indoors, when the central heating is pumping, a little regular application never goes amiss, and no-one shrinks from my kisses as they would in lippy. Result. So, wear and be proud. and kissable at all times.
small stone 6
Unsettled suddenly by that gormless, vacant stare of tv watching spreading miasma-like across my young child's face.
At the risk of making my skin requirements sound like local council tarmac repairs, this time of year some extra maintainance is required.
Face:
Eve Lom cleanser. I can only afford this once a year (thank you santa!), and every year it is a renewed joy to clean my face at the end of the day. It is strange smelling - not unpleasant at all, just slightly straw-like, and has a paste-ish consistency. But once you have rubbed it on your face and washed it off with a hot cloth, the softening, silkening, super-clean effects are just blissful! At night I put on a bit of rose oil afterwards, and my face loves me.
Garnier Miracle Skin Protector . The wonders of this £10ish tinted-serum-come-foundation has been hyped up all over the web, and I was so very sceptical. Probably because my fair skin gets a bit pasty looking in winter I have wasted more money on gruesome, drying, orangey, are-you-trying-to-highlight-my-crowsfeet foundations than I care to remember. This stuff though - honestly, crossmyheart - it really is light and smoothing and flattering. It doesn't offer much in terms of coverage, but it really does seem to have a soft-focus effect on the less desirable aspects of my skin. Or maybe my hyperventilating at finally finding a brilliant foundation fogged the mirror, it is possible.
Lips:
Lipstick is all very well, and does look astoundingly glamourous on some women. But, I am very fair skinned and quite generously mouthed and frankly bright lipstick just wears me, I feel like my lips arrive in a room a few seconds before the rest of me! My teeth often suddenly look a horrible colour and my other facial features, particularly my eyes, seem to fade into the shadows of my cartoon mouth. Eeek! Plus it lands on any cheeks I kiss (and my husband avoids a random smooch when I wear it which is a downer!), cups I drink out of, clothes I take off over my head and worst of all my own teeth and that really is a grim look! It is just mucky stuff to me. So if I go out I wear lipgloss instead, I think it is subtle and sexy, and when I see other people wearing it, I usually think how great it looks. Loads of brands do fab ones, Juicy Tubes by Lancome are the benchmark for lovely hues but there are plenty of cheaper ones that have a nice creamy texture, not all that wet gloss look of yore. Maybelline cream gloss is a good example. And it doesn't mark your teeth, or your wine glass so horribly. And your partner will risk kissing you.
But for really totally kissable lips, lipbalm is the thing. I have a kind of nostalgic affection for the old chapstix (that smell reminds me of my young teen years), and vaseline, but there are so many lovely lipbalms out there, that properly nourish and smooth. My favourites are tubes of Clarins lipbalm, Kiehls and also Smith's rosebud salve - they just make lips so soft and unchappy, and have a faintest hue that adds that little bit more natural looking colour to the face. I also avoid the tins, they look so sweet and retro but they get so pesky to open, and constantly sticking your fingers in can't be hygienic can it?
The Clarins tube is a bit more expensive, but it stays on really well I find, and is a wonderful texture. For really sore lips Elizabeth Arden's 8 hour cream is miraculous but it is a bit super shiny/vaseline-y for me to choose for glamming up reasons alone. Clarins, Kiehl's or Smith's I wear pretty permanently throughout the winter, especially walking the dog (much better than lipgloss which does tend to weld wisps of hair to the lips in a wind!), and whenever I am popping out into the cold. Even indoors, when the central heating is pumping, a little regular application never goes amiss, and no-one shrinks from my kisses as they would in lippy. Result. So, wear and be proud. and kissable at all times.
*********
small stone 6
Unsettled suddenly by that gormless, vacant stare of tv watching spreading miasma-like across my young child's face.
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