ultra Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Night Time Skin Care Routine Currently

I already spoke about my current day time routine here. It’s only fair that I throw my night time skin care routine into the mix too 🙂

I am very proud of being someone who removes their makeup every night before sleep. No matter how tired (or typsy) I might be. For me, it’s like brushing your teeth, it just has to be done! I am not really one for makeup wipes. If I am feeling really lazy, I’ll use eye makeup remover and micellar water and call it a day. But for the most part, I like to actually wash my face.

This for me, is my current night time skin care routine. I do change up products every now and then. It’s of course part of what I do. I don’t have majorly sensitive skin either so it usually doesn’t affect my skin too radically.

I do like to extra exfoliate a couple of times each week. I’ll usually use the Waxperts Wonder Pads (which I reviewed ages ago here), or the Dermalogica Daily Resurfacer Pads. These contain AHA’s so I stick to using them at night.

If I have a breakout I use the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion, which I have a review of here. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it seems to do the job. And it dries down on the skin, so you don’t get it all over your pillow which is a bonus in my book 🙂

I wear waterproof mascara on the daily, so before I wash my face I usually remove my eye makeup with an oil based cleanser.

I have been using the Botanics All Bright one for literally years. It does a great job at getting even gel liner off without too much rubbing. It doesn’t irritate my eyes and it’s as cheap as chips. You can buy it from Boots here.

For cleansing, at the moment. I have two in my bathroom. The Garnier Pure Active 3 in 1.

This can be used as a face wash, to exfoliate or a mask. I usually use this in the shower. I can wash my face with it and then pop some on as a mask while I go about my business. It is kaolin based so it dries on the skin like a clay mask. It’s been working really well for my oily skin.

If I am just washing my face and not showering I have been using the Yonka Cleansing Gel. This feels really gentle on my skin.

It is also like a spa in a plastic bottle, it smells bloody amazing.

For toner, it’s generally just the La Roche Posay Serozinc which I speak more about here. I always have a bottle of it in my skincare stash.

I use the same eye cream both day and night. My go to one over the past year or so is the La Roche Posay Ultra Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour.

I really like this stuff and it’s not super expensive either. I have a full review of it here.

Because I cannot get too heavy with moisturiser during the day because I am so oily. I usually make up for it in my night time skincare routine.

At the moment I am using (and really enjoying) the Hylamide Low Molecular HA Booster.

It’s basically a serum that contains hyaluronic acid. It helps hydrate without weighing down the skin. It’s an extra step in my routine but my skin is reacting well from it. My skin is feeling a little plumper and more hydrated without my pores being clogged up. You can buy it directly from the Deciem website here.

After that settles in, I apply a light layer of the Image Vital C Hydrating Facial Oil.

It just feels so nice. I pat a dropper amount into my face and neck. Although I am oily, I do have areas of dehydration so I use the serum and the oil in the evening to help with that. The Vital C is formulated for dull, tired skin but also suitable for acne prone skin that is healing. Image skincare is stocked in salons throughout the country including Millie’s here.

The final step in my night time skin care routine then is just lip balm. I usually just use some Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream.

I have a full review of this here.

And then my night time skin care routine is completed and I am ready for bed 🙂

xxx

March 27, 2017/by Gem

Skincare

Current Day Time Skin Care Routine

When is comes to my day time skin care routine. I keep things fairly simple.

I am not a morning person at all, so I usually do my showering and deep clean my face the night before, if I am up and out early in the day. I have oily skin, with places of dehydration. I am prone to breakouts and blessed with lovely (not so lovely) large pores, that like to get blocked. As a result, I don’t like to layer too many products onto my skin. Because of this, my day time skin care routine is pretty simple.

I start out with cleansing my skin. For me, micellar water works well. I know not everyone gets along with them. Right now, I am using the Garnier Pure Active that is for oily skin prone to imperfections.

I just apply some to a cotton pad and swipe all over my skin to refresh everything and get rid of any oil build up. It is available on the Boots website here.

These large oval cotton pads from Penneys are my favourite. They are quite thin, so the product soaks both sides, but they don’t break up or become ‘fluffy’ :). I always just pick these up when I’m on the queue in Penneys. I love that they leave them beside the till 🙂

For eye cream, I have been using the La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra for probably more than a year now.

Although I have oily skin, I tend to get some dryness under my eyes. This does a brilliant job of keeping the under eye nourished without being to heavy. I have a full review of it here, if you want to know more about it.

I don’t tend to use a toner generally during the day, but if I do it’s usually either the La Roche Posay Serozinc which I have a full review of here.

Or I do love the Pixi Glow Tonic, which again I have spoken about in more detail here. I think I need this is my life again very soon.

For moisturiser, I tend to go with something light weight that won’t disrupt my makeup. I have a couple of holy grail moisturisers that I always recommend to people with more oilier skin. The La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo, I have a full review of it here. Or the Vichy Normaderm Anti Blemish Care which I’ve reviewed in the past here. At the moment I am switching between the Dermalogica Active Moist.

And the Garnier Pure Active Sensitive Anti Blemish Soothing Moisturiser.

I have to say both of them are working really nicely for my skin. They do a good job of hydrating, but sinking in quickly with no residue.

I always use some sort of lip balm in the morning too and let it do it’s thing while I do my makeup. At the minute I have three in my everyday skincare drawer.

Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. I always have a tube of this on the go. I have a full blogpost on it here.

Then I have a Nivea Lip Butter.

I use this going to bed too. I love the scent 🙂

And then if I want to use a lip balm that doubles up as a lip product to leave the house in, I will reach for the Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector.

I just have a mini of 01 here, which has a peachy tint to it. I love how this feels and looks on the lips.

And there you have my current day time skin care routine. I like to think it’s pretty simple, but effective. At the moment, there is no SPF included. I haven’t found one that doesn’t interfere with my makeup as of yet. I usually use a foundation with SPF in it or mix one in with the foundation I’m using.

Have you any skin care products you couldn’t live without?

xxx

March 15, 2017/1 Comment/by Gem

Skincare

La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour

I am on my second bottle of the La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour.

I picked this up after seeing Sinèad from The Beautiful Truth talking about it. And, I am so glad I did!

As you probably know because I always go on about it. My skin is predominately oily. However, I do suffer with dryness under my eyes. So, I was on the hunt for an eye cream that cleared it up as it can not only be uncomfortable. It can make applying makeup a pain in the bum too. I also didn’t want to spend a tonne of money on something, in case it didn’t do the job. I can say hand on heart the La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour has ticked all of the eye cream boxes for me 🙂

It is specifically designed for sensitive eyes. And according to La Roche Posay here, it is ‘preservative-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, alcohol-free, colorant-free, lanolin-free.’

It comes within a pump dispenser which I always find handy.

And the formula itself is in a separate airtight bag within the bottle.

This is supposed to keep the formula fresh. On a side note, the pump doesn’t dispense too much product. You can somewhat control the amount of cream you want. The pump has a spring mechanism. I don’t find myself rubbing excess cream into my hands after applying it 🙂

The formula is what I would describe as a creamy gel.

Even though it feels hydrating on the skin, it absorbs really quickly and doesn’t feel tacky or leave a film behind. I have been using it both morning and evening for the past few months and have found a significant reduction in the dryness under my eyes as a result. I use a probably a pea sized amount tapped out around each eye.

Overall, I am a big fan of the La Roche Posay Toleriane Ultra Eye Contour. To be fair I would have to be to repurchase it. I can be a bit flaky when it comes to my beauty products (no pun intended 🙂 ) I think it is a really good price too. I got mine in a local pharmacy for €14. You can pick it up from Boots in store or online here too.

xxx

November 6, 2016/by Gem

Haul, Makeup

Colourpop Haul!

I had to do it at least once! When Colourpop announced they are now shipping internationally, my heart skipped,skipped a beat 🙂

My heart then proceeded to drop when I saw what they were charging to ship internationally. $25! And that doesn’t include custom clearance! But like the good little makeup fiend that I am, I couldn’t stop thinking about ordering. They give you $5 off if you sign up to their newsletter so I thought, feck it! I’ll even just do it the once and take the hit. Then, I proceeded to go over the Irish customs limit too (I think anything over $25 puts you in the danger zone of having to pay tax. I just couldn’t justify all of that money to ship it over and only getting a couple of things. I wanted to get my monies worth. I risked it and it paid off. I did not have to pay customs on the package. But that doesn’t happen all the time, I think it really is just the luck of the draw. If you fancy fancy seeing what I got. Here’s my first ever Colourpop haul.

Colourpop really know how to package a…package! The box is so pretty.

The packaging on the products themselves is really nice too.

I picked up two of their Super Shock eyeshadows.

‘Game Face’ which is a penny bronzed metallic colour.

And ‘LALA’, which is a rose gold metallic shadow.

They both cost $5 each.

I picked up one of the Supershock Cheek Highlighters.

This is in the shade ‘Lunchmoney’.

Colourpop describe it as a soft light gold with a reflective duo chrome finish.

These cost $8 each.

The powder products feel like nothing I have ever used before. They’re nearly wet to the touch and have a gel like consistency when you apply them to the skin. Colourpop tell you that the formula is best applied with the fingertips.

I chose one of their Crème Gel Colour Liners to try.

This is in the colour ‘Show Me’.

I thought it would be complimentary to the shadows. These are $6 each.

And one of their Crème Gel Liner Pencils too that will hopefully go with the other eye products.

This is in the shade ‘Stomper’. These are $5 each.

Onto to lip products. I ended up getting three.

One of their sheer Lippie Stix.

This is in the shade ‘Tiger’.

It’s $5 each for these.

And then, two Ultra Matte Lips.

‘Beeper’.

‘Bumble’.

The Ultra Matte Lips are $6.

Colourpop haul dunzo 🙂

I placed my order with Colourpop on the 12th of July. They did give me a USPS tracking number and I could track my package up until it went on to the international flight. Then, I couldn’t get an update on it. I received my order from my regular postman, on the 26th of July. My total bill was $66 with the $5 discount. That worked out at €61.31 and I paid with Paypal. As I mentioned already though, I was lucky customs let the package through and I didn’t have to pay an extra penalty.

What do you think? Are you tempted? The products themselves are really reasonable priced, I think. If they brought down the shipping, I think I would be more than happy to shop with Colourpop again. First impressions are really good, I like the products I got, alot 🙂

xxx

July 27, 2016/7 Comments/by Gem

Bargain Buying, Makeup

Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette

I seem to be talking about Makeup Revolution alot lately. Not intentionally, I assure you, I just happened to pick up some bits from them and have been using them over the last while 🙂

This is the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette.

Budget brands are finally warming up to the idea of giving up all our contour and highlight needs under one lid. My first experience of powder contour palettes was a few years back when I picked up the Anastasia Beverley Hills Contour Kit from Cult Beauty. I reviewed this so long ago here (the pictures are brutal, I apologise), but it’s still one of my most viewed posts to this day.

Makeup Revolution as a brand, for me can be hit or miss, but I think overall their Ultra Contour Palette, in my humble opinion is a hit! I have been reaching for it pretty much daily over the past couple of months.

In the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette, you get eight shades, and a large mirror which is always handy.

On top:

You have a beige toned matte.

A yellow toned matte.

A sheeny beige highlight shade.

And then a full on icy shimmery white baked highlight which didn’t take too kindly to me taking pictures of it some reason :p

On the bottom:

A matte mid toned brown.

A cool toned contour shade.

A more warm matte brown.

And finally a champagne shimmery baked highlight shade.

Here they all are together too.

All of the powders are pigmented and soft to the touch.

They blend onto the skin easily and I have had no problem with lasting power either. I use the yellow tone under my eyes to help counteract darkness, and the beige toned matte powder over the top to neutralise the colour. This is a great shade for cleaning up your contour too, or just as a general all over setting powder. I use the cool toned brown shade in the middle to contour and then for me, the others brown colours are more for warming up my skin, although I actually tend to use these more on my eyes as eyeshadows. I love using the highlights in the palette as eyeshadows as well as using them for highlighting the face.

Overall, the Makeup Revolution Ultra Contour Palette gets a big thumbs up from me. I get so much use from it.

I got mine from Superdrug here in Dublin and it cost me €9.99, but you can also buy it online from the Makeup Revolution website here or from the Superdrug website here.

Now I just need to pick up the Nyx version to compare them 😛

xxx

April 8, 2016/2 Comments/by Gem

Youtube Video

Revlon Ultra Volume Waterproof Mascara

Check out my first impressions of the Revlon Ultra Volume Waterproof mascara. I only bought this mascara in Boots the other day. This was my first time to use the mascara, so I documented it in video form 🙂

As the formula is waterproof I also left it on all day and reported back to see how well it wore. Just click on the video for all the deets. Let me know if you like these sorts of videos and please please subscribe to my Youtube channel here, if you like it!

Thanks as always for stopping by.

xxx

February 26, 2016/by Gem

Posts