By: admin

Youthbomb: A Threesome I Can Get On Board With | AD

Ad: this post is sponsored by Beauty Pie as part of my ongoing partnership.

There was a blog post due to come out this week; the title of the draft post was Did A Sexier Power Couple Ever Exist? and it was a six hundred word near-delirious rave about the wonders of Beauty Pie’s Youthbomb Concentrate and Youthbomb Collagen Peptide Cream, specifically when used together. A more face-plumptioning, skin-elasticating combo has not yet crossed my path – it’s a revelation and I have been zipping through bottles and pots of it like a woman possessed.

But I had been sitting on this draft post for five weeks or so, wondering whether this week was the right time to publish it or perhaps that week would be better, and the reason for my deliberating was because Beauty Pie had sent me a sample of a product that had thrown a right old spanner in the works. A new addition to the Youthbomb line-up that took the range from Power Couple to what can only be described as… Expert Threesome.

Now look, there’s no judgement here, but I’ve never been convinced by the idea of threesomes. Zero temptation. It’s enough mental and physical load trying to partner up with one person, let alone two. Surely one is always left out in the cold – and if not, then the people shacking up must have a hell of a lot more coordination than I do. I can’t even reverse a car if the stereo is playing because my ears take up too much brain-space.

So human threesomes: it’s a no for me. But when it comes to Beauty Pie and their new Youthbomb product? Yes, yes, yes. Ohhhh yes. (They’re going to be absolutely thrilled to bits at this off-piste intro, I just know it.) They’ve formulated what I think is their most potent, results-driven product yet, the Double Retinol-Action Skin Overhaul Serum*, and it joins the high performance 360 Radiance Concentrate and the Biologic Collagen Peptide Cream to form a trio of absolute show-stoppers.

If you’re sick of wondering what will actually work on your tired, slightly slack, dullish skin and you just want straight-shooting results then this is your range. It was amazing before, but the new serum just takes things to a whole new level of good.

Whereas the excellent Radiance Concentrate (find it here online*) focused on the use of peptides and a cocktail of other powerful actives to firm, brighten, give glow and aid hydration, and the Biologic Cream added to all of this with eighteen actives in a massively rich, skin-plumping base, the brand new serum slides on in to the Youthbomb line-up with a double-dose of the industry’s gold-standard ingredient: retinol.

The Double Retinol-Action Skin Overhaul Serum uses two types of retinol – microencapsulated retinol and granactive retinoid – to tackle just about every skin-ageing concern you can come up with. If you haven’t read the dossier on why retinol is so loved in the skincare world then let me precis it for you: it works on wrinkles, fine lines, uneven skin tone, dullness, lack of firmness, crepey-ness and other things I haven’t remembered and the results are both profound and visible. I say this as someone who has been testing out various brands and various strengths of retinoid for quite some time.

The difference with Beauty Pie’s new Skin Overhaul Serum? Not only does it contain the retinoids for all of the above benefits, it has a dose of lactic acid in the formula along with niacinamide. Lactic acid to gently exfoliate the skin surface (which helps the other actives to penetrate more easily) and niacinamide to strengthen the skin barrier, which in turn leaves skin healthier and less prone to sensitivity and flare-ups.

Buy Double Retinol-Action Skin Overhaul Serum*

I feel like the new serum is a more rounded approach to high intensity retinoid usage, with some exfoliation for efficacy and then ingredients to strengthen and hydrate to keep the condition of the skin tip-top and minimise any risk of aggravation.

Saying that, this is one serious product and it’s not the sort of thing you’ll just want to barge in and apply if you have no prior experience with using retinoids. It’s Beauty Pie’s most powerful retinoid product yet and it’s perfect for those who have been using the Super Retinol range (which is absolutely brilliant) and want to step it up to the max. Even then, start off twice-weekly at first and then build up to more regular usage. As with my other strong retinoids, I’m happy using this every other night, using my “off” days to pack in my hydrating and calming products.

And so, back to the Expert Threesome. It calms my mind-eye-coordination anxieties to know that the three products never actually have to work together; it’s an either-or situation with the concentrate and the serum, one or the other, always followed by the glorious Collagen Peptide Cream.

(Which has become one of my most-used moisturisers, by the way. The Japanfusion Power Elixir (here*) was always my favourite, for its ability to turn my face into a sort of turgid, wobbling waterbed, but the Youthbomb cream takes this benefit and supercharges it with an additional eighteen actives. So if it’s just the insane levels of hydration you want, then go for the Japanfusion Power Elixir* which, with membership is a very pleasing £16. But if you want more in the way of firming, brightening, skin-evening-out prowess then absolutely look to the Youthbomb one which is a superpowered cream, an ultimate moisturiser. It’s £44 with membership, here*.)

Some rules I have when using the Double Retinol-Action Skin Overhaul Serum: I apply at night to cleansed, dried skin and then leave about half an hour before using my Youthbomb Cream. It’s just a routine I’ve always followed with my retinoids, to allow them to get to work a bit before applying another product. In all honesty, I often forget to apply the moisturiser and I haven’t had dry-feeling skin in the morning, ever, but I also do love the instantly cushiony, elastic results that I get with the cream so it’s nice to remember to use it. Another rule: SPF the next day. Absolutely non-negotiable. The Beauty Pie Featherlight SPF50 is excellent, leaves no residue and has high protection against both UVA and UBV rays. It’s £13.50 with membership here*.

(Just a reminder on how membership works: Beauty Pie produce luxury products at some of the world’s best beauty labs but then they sell direct to you. So there’s no inflated cost for selling through a middleman. No overly-fancy packaging (though I think they’re packaging is just lovely, very high quality and chic), no shop overheads, just luxury products without the luxury price tags. You can see when you browse the site that they have the membership price and then the equivalent retail price, calibrated against similar products available from the luxury beauty brands. For example, the Youthbomb Double Retinol-Action Serum* has an equivalent luxury retail price of £170 (if you’re a skincare aficionado then you’ll be able to think of a couple of examples straight off the bat!) but with membership it’s £44. Which is amazing for a serum of this potency and calibre. It’s easy to sign up, and if you do then make sure you use the code RUTHSENTME to get money off the annual membership! You can find more membership info here*.)

So in short: Beauty Pie have launched what could be their most complete, all-dancing powerhouse product yet. It’s the hero, the big gun, the show-off and my skin has welcomed it with open arms. I love that it gives an instant glow, thanks to the lactic acid and I really appreciate the added hydration in the formula as I can tend to feel slightly dry after a high-strength retinoid.

You can find more info and a full ingredients list for the Youthbomb Double Retinol-Action Skin Overhaul Serum here*. If you’re already on the retinol train and looking to upgrade your ticket (oh my God, sorry) then this one is most definitely – wait for it! – First Class.

I’ll leave you now, my work is done. I’ve managed to shoehorn references to threesomes and train tickets into a skincare post. It’s a skill.

Many thanks to the Beauty Team for having the best sense of humour, I absolutely love working with them.

The post Youthbomb: A Threesome I Can Get On Board With | AD appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

By: admin

I Updated My Makeup Routine: 5 Favourite Changes

I’ve made some little tweaks to my makeup routine and committed them to video: one of the changes involves my eyebrows, and you might already know about that one, but the other four are relatively new and snazzy. I know that the suspense will be killing you, so let’s get cracking.

Ad info: no paid or sponsored content. Refers to press samples sent with no obligation to review and affiliate links are marked *.

Tweak One

My first makeup tweak is so puny and weird that I’m almost embarrassed to be writing about it, but seeing as though social media’s USP is people sharing things so mundane it makes you want to lobotomise yourself with a corkscrew, I’m going to go right ahead. The makeup update, if you could even call it that, is that I’ve only been putting foundation or tinted moisturiser on the centre of my face rather than all over it.

See, I told you it was fascinating.

It’s more of a convenience than a tweak and it has evolved from my habitual wearing of roll-neck or high-necked jumpers. For who wants foundation all the way down their neck when their neck is going to be smothered in wool? Equally, who even wants foundation on their chin, when their chin is permanently rubbing on the woollen roll-neck? Not I.

So I use the face base sparingly and lightly and only in the central part of the face rather than right up to the edges which, in truth, is the only place that tends to need foundation anyway. Facial perimeters rarely have a lot of bothersome bits going on.

This approach to skin-perfecting is best done with a sheerer foundation or tinted moisturiser, something forgiving and ultra-blendable. If you try to do it with a longwear opaque base then you’ll probably run into trouble. My tint of current choice? Still ILIA Skin Tint (I use shade ST7) with it’s mega-glow. You can find it here online*.

Tweak Two

My next little fancy twist to the makeup tale is using blusher on my eyes. I know! What’s come over me? I saw Katie-Jane Hughes (amazing makeup artist) do it on Instagram to tie her eyes in with the blush and it was just so easy and fun and fresh, and the pink isn’t actually directly around the eyes so you don’t look like a rabbit from Watership Down… It’s just a quick bosh with the brush at the outer edges and then blend – watch the video below to see this in action.

You can use whatever’s left on the brush from doing cheeks. Doesn’t matter particularly whether it’s a cream or powder blush but I used the amazing Freshfaced Cream Blush from Beauty Pie here*. (Remember to use RUTHSENTME if you’re a new customer signing up and you’ll get a bit off the membership.)

Tweak Three

Not even a tweak, so I’m starting to feel as though this entire exercise is a lie, but I’ll plough on. It’s just a clumsy, crayon-y splodge of dark eye colour at the outer corners in an upwards-facing wedge, blended in, to lift the eyes and make them look less tired. All this does (and again, you need to watch the video for the how-to) is bend the lashline upwards so that the outer corners look as though they sit a few mm higher than they did before. Tiny, subtle change but it’s vastly effective. If you want a stronger optical illusion then do it with a solid line of eyeliner but it’s trickier to get right than the splodge-of-wedge-and-blend-it method. I used the excellent suit-all Vieve Eye Wand in Coffee, here*.

Tweak Four

I genuinely can’t even remember what this was and have to go back and watch the video. Please hold. I only had five bloody things to remember! I’d be rubbish at Kim’s Game now. Used to be almost champion-level.

OK the fourth tweak is the gluing of the eyebrows using Brow Freeze. You know about this already, if you’ve read the previous makeup post but you must watch them being laminated and waxed and glued into place in the video. This Brow Freeze stuff is amazing – my eyebrows end up about half an inch further up my face! Some might think this is a bad thing, I quite like it for a change. It’s a bit like when you move your bed to a different wall and it’s as though you don’t even know who you are anymore. But reordering your facial features instead. Facial Feng Shui.

You can find Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze here* – I would, and I surprise myself here, recommend getting the dedicated applicator that you have to purchase separately. Because my way of dunking the brow brush at an awkward angle is not massively convenient.

Tweak Five

The gloss in a stick. Apparently these Revlon Super Lustrous Glass Shine lipsticks have gone viral on Tiktok. If I could use Tiktok without crashing Tiktok, having to log out of Tiktok and having to then reset my Tiktok password each and every time, then I’d spend a lot more time on Tiktok, but as it stands I just don’t have the energy for it. I’m constantly told I need to use it and upload videos there but it’s just so…chaotic. And noisy. Everyone is pointing at things on the screen, or talking loudly, or dancing. It feels like being stuck in an arcade game.

So I’ll take everyone’s word for it that these lipsticks are the new craze – it also makes sense, because they really are excellent. As glossy as a gloss but without the stickiness, they actually do properly plump and shine the lips without any effort whatsoever. And they’re moisturising. Genuinely. I felt the effects long after the colour had slinked away.

My favourite shade is the Strawberry one – find it at LookFantastic here* and just about nowhere else because everywhere seems to be out of stock!

Marvellous, we raced through those tweaks didn’t we? Now you just have the video to watch. Get to it…

I have my hair cut and coloured at The Suite in Bath (not an ad, I have always paid, just like to give them a shout-out and I always get asked!).

My pink jumper was a kind present from my friends at Scamp & Dude

The post I Updated My Makeup Routine: 5 Favourite Changes appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

By: admin

Christmas Gifting SOS with Beauty Pie | AD

Yes, it has reached that point again: the time when we wonder where the hell December has disappeared to and why we can’t be like those other people who plan their Christmas gift list in August and have it all bought and wrapped by mid-October. But if you’re like me (or like Mr AMR, who doesn’t even think about presents until the 22nd) then fear not: I have you covered with some easily-ordered beauty gifts for every budget.

AD info: this post contains an ad for Beauty Pie

I have been working with Beauty Pie for years yet still feel the same buzz of excitement when I see that one of their special pink boxes has arrived. Beauty Pie constantly launch new and innovative products – from super-serums to beautifully-perfumed candles – and unwrapping items from the pale pink tissue paper is always a joy.

It goes without saying that any beauty lover would be over the moon to receive a little something from Beauty Pie in their Christmas stocking and so I’ve picked out a few absolute crackers. Remember that Beauty Pie is a beauty members club so if you sign up you get all products at a massively lower price – Beauty Pie make their products at the world’s leading labs but because they sell direct to you, they cut out all of the middleman retailer costs. So you get more luxury beauty for your money.

Use the code RUTHSENTME if you’re signing up and you’ll get £10 off annual membership. If you’re not ready to sign up then know this rather splendid fact: at the moment you can get 50% off ALL NON-MEMBER prices (so that’s the full, equivalent retail price) by using the code BEAUTY50.

So to recap, you get members’ prices by signing up (use code RUTHSENTME)

you can get 50% off the website prices with no need to join, use BEAUTY50

This isn’t the usual deal and it means you can try products with no need to commit to memberships so if there was ever a time to take the plunge then this is it! You can sign up or shop with the code at Beauty Pie here.

OK, now that you’ve listened to my mini Ted talk on Beauty Pie shopping rules, here are my gift ideas:

The first is small and sweet and perfect: the Unlipstick trio in Nothing On. This little set contains the recycled aluminium “Keep This” lipstick case which can be used again and again with whichever Unlipstick shade you prefer; then the Unlipstick itself and a matching Wondergel lip liner. The Unlipstick gets its name because it feels like you’re not wearing anything at all – it’s so light and sheer – but it gives a chic, natural-looking stain to the lips. Like a blotted down lip colour. It’s gorgeous and this shade, Nothing On, is perhaps my favourite. Just infinitely wearable.

Shop Unlipstick in Nothing On – £27 with code BEAUTY50 or £22 with membership here.

If you want to really give someone an amazing intro to the Beauty Pie makeup offering then the new Patti Dubrof kits are great. A full “look in a (velvety) box” they have loads of different makeup items included and some of them you might not think to try or use otherwise, so it does mean that you discover new products and techniques. I like the Perfect Red Lip kit.

For the sister who’s already a red lip addict or the best friend who’s stuck in a makeup rut it’s an absolute delight. The eye palette included is also pleasingly neutral and not too shimmery so you can use it all year round and there’s a brightening eyeliner, a fantastic highlighter, a brown volumising mascara and a double-ended eye brush as well as the all-important red lip crayon.

That’s a lot of product for £150 but, of course, this is Beauty Pie so it doesn’t actually cost £150:

Shop the Patti Dubrof Perfect Red Lip Kit – £75 with code BEAUTY50 or £69 with membership here.

If makeup seems too personal and you’re nervous about choosing shades then there couldn’t be a better gift than a set of premium quality makeup brushes. So many people have no idea about makeup brushes and how they can transform the way you do your face. Does your Mum still apply eyeshadow with those little foam applicators? Does your cousin complain that her foundation is blotchy yet applies it using an old bit of sponge? Does your aunt (running out of relatives here) make her eyes look like the proverbial p*ssholes in the snow because she rings liner around and around her eyes without ever blending?

This is (admittedly) an investment. They’d need to be a very good aunt/cousin/Mum. But the Luxury Makeup Brush set is something of a problem-solver and I don’t think that anyone would be disappointed with ten finely-made brushes that blend, buff and finish to perfection. I particularly love the good selection of skin-finishing brushes – sometimes you just get a token flat-topped foundation brush and the rest are eye brushes – and the light, fan brush for applying whispers of setting powder. Glorious.

Buy Luxury Makeup Brush Set – £125 down from £250 with code BEAUTY50 or £90 with membership here.

Let’s move on to fragrance and the safest option for gifting, which is always home scent. Beauty Pie candles are great – long burn times, modern styling and fragrances that are sometimes quite quirky and unusual. Not your “Basic Fig” and “Ordinary Orange” here!

My favourite is Tobacco, Cedarwood and Vanilla. It smells like an old library or a reading room in one of those London clubs that have the wood-panelled walls and leather armchairs. Some Tobacco candles are heavy on things like Oud and I find them a bit overwhelming and aftershavey for the house, but this one: BINGO! It’s just very smokey and sexy and the vanilla gives it a sweet edge that stops it from smelling like an expensive man. Not that there’s anything wrong with “expensive man”, I just don’t want him silently loitering around the house when I can’t see him.

Buy Tobacco, Cedarwood & Vanilla Candle – £30 with code BEAUTY50 or £20 with membership here.

Scent for the skin now and there are so many beautiful options. Beauty Pie don’t do totally straightforward perfumes; there’s always a surprise kick of something here and a twist of something else there. The Orange Absolute, for example, has the light and fresh zest of a summer cologne but with a warm, woody base that keeps it sexy and earthy. Une Balade en Foret is a cashmere blanket of a scent with a powdery amber note set against the quite unusual backdrop of a wintery forest. Nothing straightforward about these fragrances!

Buy Fragrance – £50 with code BEAUTY50

There are plenty of other gift ideas over on the Beauty Pie site so do have a good browse – I also have blog posts with my favourite skincare picks if you need further inspiration – click here to read.

Watch the video below to hear me chat through my gift selection:

The post Christmas Gifting SOS with Beauty Pie | AD appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

By: admin

SPF Problem: Sunscreen Breaks Me Out

Problems with SPF. We’re wading through a few common issues with sunscreen, while the sun is out and people feel its relevant and topical. The thing is, sunscreen should be topical all year round, if you’re at all worried about the effects of the sun on your skin, but I still think that the majority of people only apply SPF when it’s hot outside. Maybe it needs a rebrand. Lightscreen, instead of sunscreen?

For me, this is where “moisturisers with SPF” play their hand so well; you don’t think twice about putting them on, they’re pitched as more of a daily staple than a fair-weather friend and, if you apply as liberally as you would your dedicated sunscreen you’re getting the same protection. Anyway, maybe that’s a whole other post…

Back to problems, and the previous one with sunscreen was SPF stinging eyes – you can find that post here with a few recommendations on how to avoid irritation. Here’s the next skin issue in the line-up:

Problem: Sunscreen Breaks Me Out

Sunscreen causing spots, another annoying quirk. Many sunscreens break my skin out, too, and it feels like a sod’s law sort of punishment. You try to do the best thing for the health and look of your skin and it goes and kicks you in the teeth with a load of pustulating under-surface bumps or white-headed pimples. If you find that your SPF is breaking you out because it’s making you oily and clogging your pores then take a look at some of the oil-free options that work really well for me – they’re also worth a look if you’re after sunscreen for acne-prone skin.

Paula’s Choice Resist SPF50* is actually hurtling its way to my number one favourite sunscreen spot. It’s high protection but feels just like water going on and leaves absolutely no residue on the skin. It just ticks absolutely every box and also happens to be oil-free so it’s excellent for all skin types. It’s a joy to apply. Find it online here* – it’s £35 and can easily be used as your daily moisturiser unless you have very dry skin.

Read: My Five Favourite Sunscreens For The Face

If you’re after light and fresh then take a look at my five favourite sunscreens on the link above. It wasn’t a post on SPF for spot-prone skin, specifically, but there are some nice oil-free products. Another I find myself using quite a lot is the Kiehl’s Aqua Gel (online here*) with a lightweight feel that doesn’t melt or slide even when it’s very humid. A good one if you need a facial SPF for working out or going running. Chance would be a fine thing.

Both of those suggestions are for chemical sunscreens but if you struggle to find a chemical SPF that you get on with then it’s well worth giving mineral sunscreen a go. Some people are sensitive to specific chemical filters. (Equally, some people get on horribly with mineral sunscreens, finding them very chalky and thick, the residue too white, but there are some beautiful, lightweight, silky mineral products these days.)

Here are some mineral recommendations, I love all of the below:

Ultra Violette’s Lean Screen SPF50 at Space NK here*

Hawaiian Tropic’s SPF30 Skin Milk mineral sunscreen here*

Skingredients Skin Shield SPF50 here*

Coola Mineral Matte Cucumber SPF30 here*

If you have oily skin, you may also really like the matte finish that many mineral sunscreens have – it makes a good priming makeup base with that little bit of grip to hold foundation in place. And I find that I need less foundation on top, for some reason – the mineral sunscreen seems to create a lovely canvas.

As important as finding the right sunscreen formula to help reduce spot breakouts? Making sure you clean it off again effectively at the end of the day. SPF products are designed to stick around for as long as possible, for obvious reasons, so you really need to get in there with a cleanser that will break it down along with the grime of the day and any makeup you have on over the top.

I like to use a balm cleanser first (Beauty Pie’s Hot Oil Double Cleansing Balm* is one of my favourite balms, regardless of brand or price) and really massage it in for a minute or so. I use a flannel to remove – it works on eye makeup too, so you can work it in all over your face. Then if I’m feeling any sort of threat of a breakout (that lumpiness below the skin, or tenderness) then I go in with an exfoliating wash afterwards. I really like CeraVe SA Smoothing Cleanser* because it can be used on face and body so it’s great for keeping in the shower.

CeraVe’s cleanser contains salicylic acid to help keep pores clear but if you’d rather swipe something over your skin and leave then I think that Paula’s Choice BHA Liquid Exfoliant (buy online here*) is unbeatable. I use it every PMT week, too, just to keep any hormonal spots at bay. Just pour a little onto cotton wool and wipe all over your face – I concentrate on the t-zone and around my nose – and then follow with your usual skincare routine, though I’d keep textures nice and light if I was on breakout watch!

Buy Paula’s Choice BHA Liquid*

The post SPF Problem: Sunscreen Breaks Me Out appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

By: admin

Beauty Pie and the Cocktail of Youth | AD

Long-term readers could, I am sure, rattle off a list of my favourite Beauty Pie skincare products by heart. Over the years they’ve become staples in my beauty routines – the brilliant balm cleansers, the potent retinol range, the moisturisers that seem to inject near-impossible amounts of hydration into your skin so that it feels swelled with it, almost wobbly, like one of those waterbeds from the eighties. (Here’s looking at you, Japanfusion Power Elixir Moisturiser.)

And I’m never sure which I’m more a fan of: Beauty Pie’s perfectly-pitched formulas, with their potent active ingredients and crowd-pleasing textures, or Beauty Pie’s unique business model, which sees luxury beauty products made at the world’s most premium beauty labs sold direct to the customer, without the usual gigantic mark-up.

The lab-direct pricing alone would be enough of a pull for most (it’s usually up to 75% off a typical retail price) but when the products are so good they instantly become repeat purchases it’s kind of an unbeatable combination. And Beauty Pie are ever-expanding, with haircare and bodycare and home fragrance and now supplements, too.

For me, Beauty Pie as a brand have become synonymous with quality, high-performance and amazing value for money. It’s luxury beauty, made in the “luxury” labs, but because you’re cutting out the retail middleman you’re not paying for insanely expensive packaging and store fit-outs and all the other markups that creep in. You’re getting the contents of the luxury bottle, pot or tube but in a very simple (but I must say incredibly classy!) bottle, pot or tube.

To give you an example (I like doing these – I can’t mention specific brands when I do comparisons so you can just shout them out silently inside your head):

Plantastic Apricot Butter Cleansing Balm, which is genuinely one of the most gorgeous balms on the planet, has a retail price of £50. This sits it alongside a number of cleansing balms from very well-known premium brands. The Beauty Pie price to members is £19.18, online here.

The aforementioned Japanfusion M3 Power Elixir Moisturiser, which seems to do just miraculous things on dehydrated skin, glossing it and sealing in moisture without any greasiness whatsoever, has a retail value (equivalent luxury face creams) of £70. I would very truly pay full price for this moisturiser if I had to – but Beauty Pie thankfully sell it to members for £15.70, online here. One of the very best moisturisers you can buy, hands down, and it’s just over fifteen quid.

So: the members part, before I get onto a very exciting new launch! You sign up here (use the code RUTHSENTME for £10 off the £59 membership) and this gives you access to the huge range of Beauty Pie products at Beauty Pie prices. If you want to try before you commit, there’s also a 60 day free trial running – here – that can be cancelled at any time before the trial ends.

That’s it.

Potent, effective products without the markups.

Now talking of potent and effective products (behold my smooth segue into the new launch): Beauty Pie have just released their most advanced skincare formula to date – fifteen active ingredients at very concentrated levels, each selected to help tighten and brighten and firm the skin to make it appear more youthful. It’s a veritable cocktail of potency and it’s called:

Youthbomb 360 Radiance Concentrate.

Not The Cocktail of Youth, which I also quite like as a product name, mainly for its Death Becomes Her vibes!

Designed to firm and tighten and to visibly soften lines it’s formulated for all skin types and is simple to slip into any skincare routine. Beauty Pie say that every ingredient in Youthbomb has been selected for its ability to support the skin in how it reflects light – so we’re talking about ingredients that smooth, brighten and hydrate.

It features the exclusive Biolog-Elastic (TM) Complex, which is one of my favourite beauty industry trade marked formula names to date, it’s like a double-barrelled Klingon surname! There’s also a powerful blend of proteins and peptides, all in a serum that has a weightless, non-sticky feel.

Buy Youthbomb 360 Radiance Concentrate

I have to say that the first time I used it I actually felt the tightening effect. Then because I thought I might be imagining things (or perhaps willing them to happen) I decided to test it around the eye area and can absolutely confirm that there’s an immediate sense of de-slackening. It’s a nice touch, because although it’s the long-term effects you want from the ingredients, the instant tightening feel is very optimistic and energising.

It’s easy to fit Youthbomb into a routine, too. It’s not going to react with any of your other actives, so you don’t have to worry that if you apply it before X or after Y you’re going to self-combust as you’re walking to the bus stop. Apply it after cleansing and before your moisturiser – here’s a good morning routine:

Japanfusion Pure Transforming Cleanser (£8.58 here, retail £25)

Super Retinol Eye Cream (£12 here, retail £60)

Youthbomb 360 Radiance Concentrate (£44 here, retail £185)

Super Healthy Skin Ultimate Anti-Aging Cream (£15.90 here – equivalent retail price £100)

Featherlight SPF50 (£12.34 here, retail £35)

The Featherlight SPF50 is excellent, by the way – non-drying, non-greasy, just barely-there sunscreen that sits well beneath makeup. It’s here online. And the Super Healthy Skin Cream is a new discovery for me and might be one to rival the Japanfusion – I’m currently doing a week-long test using Super Healthy on one half of my face and the Japanfusion Power Elixir on the other. I’ll update you.

In summary, I think that the Youthbomb Serum is a very exciting new product. It’s an all-in-one powerhouse that helps to boost everything from radiance to firmness yet it’s foolproof and suits pretty much everyone.

You can slide it into any existing routine and it’s not going to pick fights with your other products – you can even use it alongside retinol (I’d use it afterwards, waiting a bit before applying).

Find more info on the new launch here – the sign-up page for Beauty Pie membership is here and there’s the option of the free 60 day trial or, for the keen, jumping straight in with both feet and becoming an instant bona fide member. (Use RUTHSENTME for the tenner off!)

Are you already a Beauty Pie member? What’s on your repeat buy list?

beautypie.com

The post Beauty Pie and the Cocktail of Youth | AD appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

By: admin

Christmas Gift Ideas for Her | 2021

Christmas Gift Ideas For Her is here. Wow, that’s a mouthful of a sentence! I hope that the following bits and pieces spark your imagination

Featured above:

Top left GUCCI Bloom Nettare Di Fiori For Her – Eau de Parfum 100ml. Is this not just the coolest bottle? Instagram heaven. Buy for £114.00 from Feel Unique*.

Top middle PRINTWORKS ‘Snoozing’ Eye Mask. I feel as though this has popped up in a Movie recently, this sleep mask – if it hasn’t then it should. It’s very stylish and a change from the usual silky ones with your star sign on or ones monogrammed in a curly font. Buy for £32 from Amara*.

Top right PEARL LOWE – The Ava Gown. Well this is all sorts of glamorous and sexy – it’s almost too good to keep it for indoors. And a nice, substantial fabric that will actually keep you warm. No flimsy silk robes on this page! It’s winter for crying out loud! Buy for £395 from Pearl Lowe.

Bottom right CANOPY PLANTS – Cherry Aglaonema plant with ceramic pot. Chosen, admittedly, because it looks good with the other products in the guide, but canopy plants have loads of options and they are all potted and ready to go. Waiting for people like me to kill them. Buy for £38.00 from Selfridges & Co*.

Bottom middle ANGLEPOISE 90 Mini, Anodised brushed Aluminium finish, Berry Red. The classic – you can’t beat an anglepoise for timeless style. You can spend upwards of £500 for a desk lamp that’s a true design classic but this one is a small slice of cool for a palatable price. Buy for £87.20 from Amazon.

Bottom left BEAUTY PIE – Luxury Silk Hair Scrunchie, pack of six. I can’t be without my silk scrunchies now; yes they send me back to the nineties a little, but they are smooth and snag-free and the easiest way of securing my default twist-into-a-bun hairstyle. Buy for £35 (BECOME A MEMBER AND PAY £16.76) from Beauty Pie.

CHARBONNEL Et WALKER – Pink Champagne Truffles. I know that these divide people; Mr AMR thinks that they taste of soap. Other versions are available but I’m always drawn to the pretty box, year after year. Buy for £15 from Amazon.

SIMPLEHUMAN – Sensor Mirror Compact, Rose Gold Stainless Steel. The best makeup mirrors come from Simple Human – their wall- and desk-mounted ones are pricier but once you have one you’ll never look back. Because you’ll always be looking in the mirror, ha! This is a portable compact and no less handy – brilliant for hotel stays where the lighting is dire and for doing your makeup in the back of a cab. Buy for £89.95 from Amazon.

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Top left LIBERTY Bubble Candle. So many candles, most of them in glass containers: I love this sculptural bubble candle for its simplicity and sense of fun. Buy for £13.60 from Liberty.

Top middle ASSOULINE Ibiza Bohemia Book. The coolest coffee table books in town – warning: flick through this and you will have the uncontrollable urge to travel. Buy for £70 from Amara*.

Top right JUICY COUTURE Gillian scoop-neck stretch-velour bralette. We did the tracksuits (come on, we all did, didn’t we?) and now there’s the bralette. Nostalgic, yes – but more importantly, comfy. Buy for £30.00 from Selfridges & Co.

Bottom right OH FLUFFITA SLIDE UGGs in pink. Another nostalgia-propelled choice: we did the boots (oh, how we did the boots) and now we will do the slides. If we want to look like something that’s crawled in from an all-night bender down Sesame Street. Buy for £100 from UGG*.

Bottom middle NATIVE UNION Drop Wireless Charger Pad – Rose. The practical present, but infinitely useful for bedside charging and it’s the best-looking charger pad around. No more searching for the cable that’s dropped down the back of the drawers. Buy for £40 from Amara.

Bottom left LIGNE BLANCHE Andy Warhol Scented Candle – Campbell’s Soup. Candles don’t get cooler than this. It’s a mini work of art and once you’ve finished burning the candle you can store your makeup brushes in the pot. Buy for £45 from Amara.

LIBERTY Capel Printed Stretch Leggings. You know I’m not a fan of leggings worn as outerwear (see post here) but I’ll make an exception for these. Or anything Liberty print, really… Buy for £76.

MULBERRY – Small Darley in Quilted Light Salmon. The classic shoulder bag with gold hardware and enough room for wallet, phone and keys. Oh so luxurious and beautifully made, it’s utterly timeless and the perfect special gift. Buy for £695.

ADIDAS – PRIMEBLUE TRACK TOP. I’m really into my Adidas again, perhaps inspired by Squid Game but maybe because I have been trying to up my leisurewear game and stop looking like someone who has been living in the woods with only cats for company. I like this soft pink version for lazy days and for when I start running, which will be never. Buy for £35.

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Top left LIBERTY Twist and Twine Tana Lawn Cotton Short Pyjama Set. Liberty print again, I’m not going to apologise. It just makes excellent giftlist fodder because it feels inordinately special and looks the absolute business. I can’t get enough! Buy for £225.00.

Top middle SWAN Retro Pump Espresso Coffee Machine, Green. I don’t drink coffee but have been researching coffee machines for my holiday cottage business venture. (Don’t even ask how that’s going.) I thought that this one was very pleasing and not outrageously expensive if you didn’t want to go OTT. Buy for £79 from Amazon.

Top right NEWGATE – Charlie Bell Echo Alarm. You have to be a certain type of person to want to be awakened by two clanging metal cymbals going off right next to your head, but if you’re that person then this is your clock. Buy for £25 from Amazon.

Bottom right SELETTI Toiletpaper Mirror – Sea Girl. I love these Seletti mirrors – they do a few different versions and they are all like small pieces of art. Brilliant for spicing up the downstairs loo. Buy for £260 from Amara*.

Bottom middle DORA LARSEN – Dolly stretch-tulle underwired bra. When sexy lingerie gets colourful. I’ve never seen such a fun lingerie brand and there are plenty of different cuts and versions depending on whether you prefer soft bras or more structured items. Buy for £52 from Net-a-porter.

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THE BRITISH LIBRARY: A Book of Nonsense Journal. If ever a book was up my street. Buy for £10.95 from Liberty*.

ELIZABETH SCARLETT – Jungle Leaf Travel Pouch. I’ve bought loads of Elizabeth Scarlett toiletries bags as gifts, they are so pretty. Just add a small bag of bath salts* inside if you want to give the gift some literal weight. Buy for £20 from Amara*.

BERGS POTTER – Copenhagen Glazed Plant Pot and Saucer. When plant pots go posh. I have two of these in different colours and they are supremely photogenic. Not that that’s the main requirement for a plant pot, but it helps… Buy for £65 from Amara.

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Top left BODEN Cashmere Chunky Bed Socks. Always a treat and the Boden socks are amazing quality. I still have some from five years ago (the only ones the dog hasn’t chewed) and they’re surviving admirably. Think of them as slippers rather than socks, otherwise the cost is almost too hard to swallow. Buy for £50*.

Top middle LIBERTY Elderberry Large Weekly Diary 2022. Nothing can replace the feeling of writing actual lists with an actual pen – the annual diary-purchasing event is not dead, I tell you. Buy for £30*.

Right BURLEIGH Blue Calico Medium Tankard Jug 1pt. For those with a penchant for cottagecore, I give you Burleigh pottery. Their calico tankards are up there with my favourite household items. Buy for £37.00 .

Bottom middle APPLE AirPods Pro with MagSafe charging case (2021). It took me a while to get on board with these, as I like silence and don’t really listen to music when I’m on my own, but man are they helpful for blocking out unwanted noise! I use mine to edit video when I’m on the train to London and I now take most of my calls through them rather than holding the phone to my ear, which now seems so 1998. Buy for £189 from Amazon.

Bottom left DEXAM Wooden Magnetic Toast Tongs, Beech Wood. I know; what a weird thing to include in a gift guide. But if you haven’t yet experienced the joy of the toaster tong then you will thank me: it took me thirty-eight years not to burn my fingers every morning and for the past three I’ve been living in a state of domestic bliss. Buy for £5.97 from Amazon.

VIVARAISE – Fara Cushion – 45x45cm – Amber. Cushions with frills, tassels and trims are all the rage (and I’m on board with this trend – never dismiss the power of added interest and texture!) but many of the high-end versions are over a hundred pounds. This is a cheaper route to interiors nirvana and the quality is great. Buy for £31 from Amara*.

DERWENT II Muck Boots. I know they don’t look showstoppingly gorgeous but believe me when I tell you that Muck Boots are unrivalled in terms of comfort, durability and general practicality. They’re like the Nike Airs of the welly world – and come up true to size, in my experience. Buy for £68 from Amazon*.

SOHO HOUSE – Eat, Drink, Nap: Bringing the House Home – hardcover. Buy for 20.99 from Amazon. I’m going to be back shortly with my “books and chocolate” post so if you’re after easy, relatively cheap presents that will look stunning and seem incredibly thoughtful then hold your horses!

I hope that these Christmas Gift Ideas for Her has given you some useful ideas – let me know in the comments if you’ve had any good gifting brainwaves this year!

The post Christmas Gift Ideas for Her | 2021 appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

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My Current Skincare Routine: Autumn 2021

My “current skincare routine” feature is back! In typical Crilly fashion, I stopped doing my seasonal skincare videos and posts because I had bored myself with the same format. My skincare routine, four times a year, documenting any notable product discoveries or weird quirks with my skin – I felt as though I could still be turning out the same quarterly update in twenty years’ time. But it turns out that people like a familiar, regular video format and who am I to argue?

So after a brief hiatus (I missed out spring and summer this year) here’s the autumn skincare routine for 2021, focussing on the fact that my face had a brief meltdown and needed some gentle care and attention. This is why the theme of this feature is really; skincare SOS and creams that aid repair and recovery. I go into this more in my previous post – 3 Best Beauty Buys: SOS Skin Creams – so do take glance at that here for more details, but to summarise: I had a weird stomach bug, woke up afterwards and my skin had gone all strange and bumpy underneath. It was then dry and itchy. It felt rather like I’d overdone it with my retinol but I hadn’t done anything new or extreme.

As I mention in the post SOS Skin Cream post, the best thing to do whenever the proverbial shit hits the fan, face-wise, is to just pare everything right back. Gently cleanse and then moisturise with something that will help strengthen the skin barrier as well as deeply hydrate. Let’s do a deeper dive into the complete routine – it’s quite different to my default one:

My normal default skincare routine –

Morning: cleanse quickly + antioxidant serum + moisturiser and/or SPF
Afternoon: cleanse deeply + a) retinoid (once every 2/3 nights) or b) hydrating serum + moisturiser (other nights)

My SOS skincare routine –

Morning: swipe over cleanse + rescue cream
Afternoon: gentle cream cleanse + hydrating serum + rescue cream

My skin sorted itself out over the course of about a week and a half and now I’m pretty much back to the default routine, having cautiously reintroduced the retinoids every few days. Here are the products I pared back to – all of them great at any time, but especially if you’ve overdone it with your peels or intensive masks or retinol product or all of them at the same time (yikes):

Cleansers

I’ve been using a lot of the Kate Somerville DeliK8 Cleanser, £34 here*. It’s a beautifully soothing cream cleanser that’s great for angsty skin. The whole range is gorgeous but this is a particular treat.

You know that I love Emma Hardie’s Moringa Gel – I did a whole raving love post about it here. It gets my vote as best luxury cleanser because it’s so suited to both dry and oilier skin. Those who don’t get on with essential oils, avoid, but for anyone who wants a sense-tickling cleanse with something light then this is it!

Beauty Pie Hot Oil Cleanser – here* – is sumptuous and luxurious but (if you’re a Beauty Pie member) doesn’t come with the steep price tag. This is an unscented balm that removes every trace of makeup and dirt and I have nothing bad to say about it! You can find out more on Beauty Pie in this video I made recently.

SOS Repair Creams

Please refer back to this post for more details on these, but as a quick reference list:

Medik8 Ultimate Recovery Cream*

Dr Jart Cicapair cream*

Murad Recovery Intense*

Eucerin Aquaphor*

Serum

No7 Hydrating Skin Paste (at Boots here*)

I love this “paste” – it’s actually a creamy, lightweight serum. More towards a light moisturiser than a runny, watery kind of serum but great to layer up under other creams and/or your sunscreen for an extra boost of hydration. If you don’t get on with sticky, tacky hyaluronic products then this is a nice change. Comfortable texture, housed in a metal tube like an oil paint (annoying lid), is fresh and cool on application.

Face Masks

Skinceuticals B5 Mask, online here*

I don’t tend to go in for a lot of moisturising masks – most of them just feel like a good, rich night cream except you then inexplicably flannel them off and rinse them down the sink. This one from SkinCeuticals, however, is one of the weirdest (yet effective) I’ve ever tried. It’s feels like what I can only imagine having a melted jellyfish stuck to your face would be like. It’s melted jellyfish in a tube. (It’s not made from jellyfish, calm down.) It almost seems to repel water so when you try to rinse it off it doesn’t just rinse away, you really have to use a washcloth or flannel. Marvellous stuff and the effects are noticeable.

SPFs

SkinGenerics SPF30 – at Superdrug here

This sunscreen requires its very own post because it’s so groundbreakingly lightweight, but I want to do some comparison tests first with other weightless SPFs. Quite honestly, though, I doubt any will come out topping the Niacinamide + Osmo’city Moisturising Cream SPF30*. It feels like a water gel (nothing like a cream) on application and then simply disappears. No residue, no tackiness, and – equally as important – no feeling of tightness or dryness. It’s as if you haven’t applied anything at all, yet you have. Admittedly if it was SPF50 then it would be absolute perfection, but for those who want something for incidental exposure or who just hate the feel of other sunscreens so much they are willing to drop down to a 30, I can’t imagine you can beat this for invisible look and undetectable feel.

Retinoids

Just as a by-the-by, the retinol products I’ve been using since returning to the default routine are the Skin + Me (ultra powerful!) daily dose Tretinoin (find Skin + Me here) and the Murad Retinol Youth Renewal Night Cream (find the range here*). Not together, I hasten to add!

Skin + Me Tretinoin

This one is specifically for me – Skin + Me make creams specifically for you once they know your skin type and skin goal. Which is ascertained via online questionnaire, filterless photos and any additional questions from the team. I’ve been doing some AD work with Skin + Me and so have tried them quite extensively – it’s a great idea and they make it very easy to form a simple, massively effective skincare routine. (Use code RUTH2 to get your first month for £3.50 instead of £19.99.)

Murad Retinol Youth Renewal Night Cream

An old favourite, this is pokey as you like in terms of effectiveness and is hydrating enough that you don’t need to use any separate moisturiser over the top. There’s also a serum and eye cream in this range but I like the cream for its all-in-oneness for lazy nights! Find the whole range here* – at time of writing there are some good discounts going on!

I’ll be back in a couple of months with my winter skincare routine – until then, if you’d like to browse the historic back-catalogue of skincare routines then they are all here.

The post My Current Skincare Routine: Autumn 2021 appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

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5 Favourites: July 2021

Please excuse the filming conditions in this month’s favourites video: firstly a wasp came in to the bedroom (probably trying to escape the building dust in the rest of the house) and then I didn’t have anywhere to put all the crap that was on the bed, because there was so much other crap all over the floor. So I look as though I’m filming mid-house-move, or after I’ve just unpacked from a very long holiday.

I’m neither mid-house-move or recently back from a long holiday. To be quite honest I’d take either of those options over the reality because it would mean that respite was on its way or that I had just missed eight weeks of drilling and sawing. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel and it’s all completely self-inflicted so I’m not complaining – just accounting for the low-budget filming location!

This month’s favourites include sporty trousers, a toilet wipe that’s not an actual wipe and a really, really brilliant idea for a wedding gift list. Or birthday gift list. Or any sort of gift list. Keep on reading – or watch the video further on down the page if you’d prefer to hear my dulcet tones punctuated by loud hammering.

The Mascara

Honest Beauty Extreme Length Mascara + Lash Primer £19.00 at Cult Beauty here*. This has become my most-used mascara and I will be purchasing another when it runs out, which can’t be too long now because I use it all the time. It has a little primer on one end and that fills out the lashes and makes them look longer and then a black mascara to go over the top. It just works so well on my fine, straight lashes and I can forgive the extra bit of faff for such a polished final look. I actually enjoy the extra faff, weirdly…

The Trousers

I’m very pleased with my new side-strip joggers from Me+Em (online here*). They’re flattering and go with pretty much anything, from a casual t-shirt to a smart silk shirt. The mantra always used to be, with sport-luxe, “dress them up with heels”, but sod that. I’m trainers all the way. My ankle bones seem to be made of chalk, now, and cannot cope with the stress of very high heels. It’s something I need to work on. Because I do love the lift of a good, sexy heel…but at the same time quite like not having to worry about breaking my neck getting out of a taxi.

Anyway: the trousers. The side-stripe is elongating, the fabric is just on the smart side of “smart casual” and the tailoring is clever, making the joggers look cool and sporty but pulled-together all at the same time.

The Wipe-Free Wipe

This is clever: a toilet wipe alternative that involves no actual wipe. Wype is a gel that you apply to your normal toilet paper for a freshen-up, rather than using those wet wipe toilet tissues that come in the little sealed packets. (With the seals that only actually seal for about a week and then the wipes all dry up.)

We’ve never really been a wipe-using household, apart from when the kids were babies, but I have always wanted a bidet and so this is the next best thing! Ha. A hell of a lot cheaper and easier than having a bidet installed. (I did want one of those shower toilets but got bored of researching them and also worried that the kids would have far too much fun with it.)

You can find Wype on Amazon here* – it’s £9.99 for a bottle, which equates to about 200 wipes. Non-scented, nothing extra to dispose of and the aluminium bottle is infinitely recyclable.

The Hot Oil Cleanser

Beauty Pie Double Hot Oil Cleansing Balm (Beauty Pie here* – £12.10 with membership, £50 without. You can get an extra £50 spending allowance with the code RUTHSENTME)

Oh this is just glorious. A really luxurious, slippery oil-balm that you can massage over the skin for minutes and minutes with it getting warmer and oilier every second… I love it. It reminds me a lot of Darphin’s Aromatic Cleansing Balm (see review here) except that it isn’t fragranced with essential oils or otherwise. Same dry-skin-pleasing slip, without the fragrant frills. So often these unctuous balm cleansers come heavily fragranced (which personally I love, because I’m a sucker for anything that makes me feel as though I’m in an exotic hotel spa, somewhere hot) and this is a great option for those who want the function but not the smell.

The Gift List Tip

I read a brilliant thing in an interview recently – it’s actually quite an old interview, with Laura Jackson for House & Garden magazine here. In it, Laura talks about how she got her wedding guests to each bring a copy of their favourite book. So they now have a bookshelf filled with the favourite books of their closest friends and family. Brilliant for the recipients and relatively straightforward and inexpensive for the guests. I love this idea.

The post 5 Favourites: July 2021 appeared first on Ruth Crilly.

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Beauty Pie: My Top 5 Favourites | AD

I have been raving about Beauty Pie products since they launched onto the beauty scene. Hi-tech, luxury formulas developed at some of the world’s best labs, but sold direct to the consumer so that the middleman (the retailer) is completely removed from the equation.

I have to say that it took me a while to get my head around the membership concept (more on that in a second, stay with me!) but the more skincare and makeup products I tried and loved the more this particular way of shopping for beauty began to make sense.

I’m going to tell you about my top five favourite Beauty Pie products, the ones I would buy time and time again without a moment’s hesitation, and demonstrate how the membership works along the way. I’d insert a joke here about listening carefully for the science bit and the need for a flip chart, etc etc, but it really isn’t that complicated!

I’m going to use my first (and absolute all-time favourite) Beauty Pie product as a sort of glamorous assistant.

Step forward the Plantastic Apricot Butter Cleansing Balm (online here). If there was ever a contest or tournament for luxury cleansers (I would genuinely watch that on the telly) then this balm would very easily hold its own. With its silky texture and glorious scent, it’s perfect for massaging over the face to break up makeup and sunscreen and removes everything from mascara to long-wear lip-stain. For a balm so rich and sumptuous, it rinses off beautifully clean and doesn’t leave even a trace of residue.

The Apricot Butter Cleansing Balm won me over from very first use and I always expected it to have a suitably high price tag. The reality? With Beauty Pie membership it’s £13.93. There are different types of memberships – for more information in the UK click here and US click here – and you choose the one that gives you the spending allowance you think you’ll need. (You can always upgrade if you need more, or roll the allowance over to the next month if it’s more than you need.)

Now: here’s the maths bit. Beauty Pie show you two prices – the equivalent retail price for the product and the members’ price. For the cleansing balm, the retail price would be around £50 for an equivalent product. (I’d say this is about right – it’s absolutely on a level playing field with another of my favourite balms and that one is £50 for the same amount of product. I like to cross-check all of my favourites like this and the “typical” values they cite are always very considered and fair.)

So the idea is that as a member you’re getting loads more for your money – you’re getting the luxury product minus the retail markup, which can be up to 80% when it comes to luxury makeup, for example. The only consideration on top is the cost of the membership and also the postage, which tends to be a few pounds for standard royal mail delivery.

How much is the membership? You can opt for £5, £10 or £20 per month. £5 membership gives you a spending allowance of £50, £10 lets you spend up to £100 and £20 per month gives you the biggest allowance at £200. (You can use the code RUTHSENTME to get an extra £50 spending allowance!)

It’s worth noting that the spend is for the typical value, not the members’ price, so if you had the £5 monthly membership then this month that would allow you to buy the cleansing balm. I suppose you could say, in simplistic terms, that the balm is costing you £13.93 + £5 membership fee + postage. A huge saving – well over 50% – if you adore your luxury skincare but tend to balk at the prices.

Browse Beauty Pie

Let’s do another example with another favourite, and we’ll stick to the £5 per month membership to keep things easy. (I do have a tendency to overcomplicate things, so I hope I’m deconstructing this in a helpful way and not making you want to slowly eat your own fists.) The Futurelipstick Luxe Shine in Master Suite and Nude Blush. Two lipsticks. Why not?

I actually contest Beauty Pie’s valuation of this lipstick, which they say is £25. I’d say it was upwards of this, because it is incredibly similar to the ones that a certain star brought out recently and they are a hell of a lot more expensive. The Futurelipstick is sort of like a gloss in a stick. It has the most voluptuous, heavy sheen that feels as though it is plumping your lips from their very core. It feels decadent and glamorous yet it’s easy to apply and wear and is comfortable and hydrating.

The members’ price? £6.52 for one and £7.54 for the other. (Find them here. I have no idea why they are different prices – intriguing! Something to do with the cost of different pigments? I shall endeavour to find out!) Both lipsticks, bought together, would take you up to your spending limit for the month, but you would have had well over fifty quids’ worth of luxury lipstick for a grand total of £19.06 plus postage.

Things obviously get more exciting (and amounts saved more momentous) as you move up the tiers. For example, if you were in the £20 a month tier because there were loads of things you bought from Beauty Pie regularly (which is not hard to do!) then you could buy something from the Super Retinol range (here – it’s brilliantly formulated) as well as your cleanser and a moisturiser, maybe a little lipstick treat…

Talking of moisturisers: let’s discuss the Japanfusion Power Elixir Moisturiser – typical price £70, members’ price £12.65. This buoyant, bouncy face gel-cream wowed me a couple of years ago and I’ve still not found something to rival it in terms of texture (fresh yet somehow supremely rich) and effect (it makes your face feel as squidgy as a waterbed). It used to be called the Supreme Cream and now it’s the Power Elixir, but it’s the same antioxidant-rich deeply-moisturising formula. It’s just outstanding.

And actually this is one of my favourite pricing examples, for showing how great the Beauty Pie pricing structure can be. If you had a £10 membership, you could pick up this moisturiser, a glossy spring-hued lipstick and still have a bit of allowance to rollover. Your basket would be worth £95 yet you would have spent just £19.17 plus your membership fee. (There are also “piedays” that let you buy certain products without using any of your allowance, so set notifications for those!)

I’m really shooting off all over the place here, rather than listing my top five favourite products, which was the aim of the post. I expect that reading this post is a bit like being in a pinball machine. I suppose if my enthusiasm shines through then that can only be a good thing!

Let’s recap. So far we’ve had:

Beauty Pie Plantastic Apricot Cleansing Balm – typical price £50, members’ price £13.93 here

Beauty Pie Japanfusion Power Elixir Moisturiser – typical price £70, members’ price £12.65 here

Beauty Pie Futurelipstick Luxe Shine in Master Sweet – typical price £25, members’ price £6.52 here

Anything from the Super Retinol range, which is just…super, various prices but all huge savings, here

Oh! My Beauty Pie favourites wouldn’t be complete without the Fruitizyme Five Minute Facial mask, which has a value of £60 but to members is £10.80 here. This AHA mask works quickly and non-aggressively to slough of dead skin cells and give an instant glow. It’s a great fast-acting pick-me-up if you ever want a powerful pre-makeup mask, just five minutes leaves your skin feeling softer and looking fresher. You can leave it on for up to ten but I find that five does the trick and I like that it’s very easy to rinse off – a light gel texture, not a heavy clay or cream, so good for those in a hurry.

Pinballing session over. (Just read in Urban Dictionary that pinballing is when you hit lots of walls on the way to your destination, usually because you’re inebriated and just about to “call dinosaurs”, which is apparently the act of vomiting when you’ve drunk too much. You learn a new thing every day kids!) You’ll see many more brilliant things from Beauty Pie in posts and videos coming up but leave me a comment if you’d like me to review anything in particular that’s caught your eye!

You can browse the entire Beauty Pie website here and read up on how membership works here – remember to use the code RUTHSENTME for that extra £50 spending allowance!

The post Beauty Pie: My Top 5 Favourites | AD appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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My Current Skincare Routine: Spring 2020

Here’s the skincare routine I’ve been following for most of the season and I have to say that it has kept my face looking quite spectacularly fresh and bouncy, considering the stress levels and overarching sense of fatigue that has dominated the past few months. (And the fact that I’ve been gorging on Mint Magnums with ever-increasing frequency.)

So the tweaks I’ve made seem to have seen me through spring without any significant dramas – though I think it’s also pertinent to note that I’ve been taking my Vitamin D every day, which always makes a huge difference to my skin, hair and nails. (To be more accurate, I took Vitamin D tablets for the first few weeks of lockdown, but when the weather turned glorious and stayed that way, I ended up spending most of my time outdoors and so I haven’t been quite so diligent at taking the supplement. Regardless, I always find the difference remarkable. My default state, in terms of vitamin D levels, seems to be “chronically deficient”.)

Anyway, no more blathering on: here’s my current routine. There’s a product list as long as my arm for this particular update (below the video pane), but not because it’s complex; I just wanted to give a few options for each step – something spendy, something sensible. Favourites old and favourites new.

My Current Skincare Routine: Spring 2020

In a nutshell:

Morning: Cleanse + Antioxidant + Moisturiser/SPF

Evening Night 1: Cleanse + Retinol

Evening Night 2: Cleanse + Hydrating Serum + Rich Moisturiser

My morning routine remains relatively unchanged. In fact I never really do anything funky or different in the morning, mainly because I don’t have the time to spare. Or even the time to think things through properly. As such, it’s usually a cleanser-serum-moisturise situation, although I’ve been outdoors a lot and so you can tag “sunscreen” onto the end of that list.

The cleanser tends to be light and splash-off and I love the Curel Foaming Wash* at the moment. The antioxidant du jour is Paula’s Choice Triple Algae Pollution Shield* and you can find out about my current most-used sunscreens here.

My evening routine alternates between two versions, neither of them very difficult or lengthy. After a thorough cleanse with a balm, usually twice, I’ll either apply my retinol product (see list beneath the video pane) or I’ll go in for the hydration marathon. Well, not really a marathon – just two steps. More of a hydration sprint. In the Dads’ race at school sports day.

The sprint consists of a hydrating serum and then a rich moisturiser, just to get things juicy and plumptious.

That’s it. The odd glycolic peel pad, but not so much at the moment because I’m outside for most of the day, and now and then a face mask, mainly because I’ve started drinking a herbal sleepy tea in the bath before bed and a face mask just feels right.

There’s a lot more in the way of explanation for everything in the video, so you should absolutely watch that. I don’t even waffle, which is nothing short of a miracle, especially as being locked in with two small children has completely melted my mind. Locked in? Locked down!

You can find all my cleanser reviews here

Sunscreen reviews are here

Curel Foaming Facial Wash*

Paulas Choice Triple Algae Pollution Shield*

La Roche Posay Pure Vitamin C10 Serum*

The Inkey List Vitamin C Serum*

Link to Vitamin C Products featured here

Lumene Arctic Hydra Care Moisture & Relief Rich Day Cream*

Lumene Arctic Hydra Care Moisture & Relief Rich Oleo Serum*

La Roche-Posay Anthelios- Shaka Fluid sunscreen*

The Body Shop Skin Defence Multi Protection Lotion*

Elizabeth Arden 8 hour Great 8 Daily Defence Moisturiser*