This trend for the dribbling of skincare products directly onto the face really bemuses me. Ditto foundation dribbling. Pipettes are enough of a faff to use when you drop the product into the palm of your hand, why on earth would you ever attempt to pipe the product straight onto your face? Nobody does this in real life.
Nobody sits at their dressing table and says to their partner,
“Hang on a second, Brian. Here I am holding this little glass tube filled with foundation, a product that needs only one dropeth spilt to ruin an entire cream carpet, and yet here I am carefully squeezing it onto the back of my hand before applying with a brush.”
‘Well yes, Deirdre, that makes sense to me. You have to be careful when you’re brandishing a pipette loaded with what is, to all intents and purposes, paint.”
“No, Brian! You’ve got it all wrong! What I should be doing is tilting my face at an absurd angle, holding the pipette precariously above my cheekbone and then squeezing it directly onto my skin!”
“But….Deirdre…what about the cream carpet?”
“Oh Brian, to hell with the carpet. The thrill I’ll get from not knowing whether any product will actually land on my face will more than make up for any large insurance claims we have to make.”
“As you wish Deirdre. But it does make you look rather foolish, I’m at pains to say.”
“Brian don’t you see? I like looking more foolish than I need to when I’m applying my makeup. I’m not content with the fact that mascara application makes me look like a demented puffer fish, I want to drop my foundation onto my cheeks and force my eyes to focus on something unnaturally close so that they completely cross over.”
“Fine Deirdre. But look. I don’t want to be crass, and forgive me if this is overstepping the mark…does it not look a bit sexual?”
“Does what not look a bit sexual, Brian?”
“The dribbling liquid, Deirdre. It’s as though a very small glass-penised gnome is lazily ejaculating onto your face.”
Anyway, this was supposed to be a skincare post. For crying out loud – stay on task, Crilly! For this morning’s skincare routine I used:
Rose Inc Micellar Cleanser (Space NK here*)
The packaging instantly appealed to me when I was first testing this cleanser. The bottle is short and stout, like a little teapot but with no handle and no spout. It’s cute. The mechanism inside is one of those push-down-and-product-spurts-out ones, which are useful when you’re doing things one-handed.
(This could be an episode of innuendo bingo, it really could.)
The micellar cleanser itself isn’t your usual clear liquid, it’s a sort of cream-gel. Really soothing, very fresh in feel and does a grand job of makeup removal. Or in my case, a grand job of a quick morning cleanse. I rarely do a balm or cream cleanser at the sink if it’s morning – I do all the heavyweight stuff in the evening and so the micellar is to rid any residue from the products the night before and just have a clean canvas to work on.
Sali Hughes Must-C Daily Serum (currently £10 at Boots here*)
I use a vitamin c serum pretty much every morning. Dose of antioxidant protection and a bit of brightening, can’t go wrong. It really works for me – I realise there are a plethora or different ingredients you could be opting for in your staple morning serum, whether it’s peptides or niacinamide or something for clearing your blackheads, but my focus is on protecting and brightness. It’ll no doubt change, but for the past few years I’ve been unwavering in my vitamin c dedication!
The Sali Hughes Must-C is potent, non-irritating and is currently a tenner at Boots. You can’t go far wrong.
My all-time favourite, however – if you’re asking – is the Kiehl’s Powerful Line Reducing Concentrate. It’s £55 so way more spendy, but it has this lovely dry texture. Not oily, not watery, just…like velvet but spreadable. I have used it for years and come back to it again and again. You can find it online here*.
Dove Derma Series SPF30 (Superdrug here)
Straight in with SPF on top of the serum because I had no need for extra moisturiser this morning. Dove’s new launch is pleasing: a silky, sophisticated texture with a skin-calming formulation. If you have sensitive skin and struggle with finding the right non-aggravating sunscreen, this could well be worth a try.
Here’s a video that takes less than a minute and a half to watch so it’s the least you can do for me:
PPhoto by Jen Theodore on Unsplash
The post The Glass-Penised Gnome: How (Not) To Use A Pipette appeared first on Ruth Crilly.
In an attempt to give all of my Instagram videos a safe and permanent home (ie, at a place I actually own, not a platform I have no control over) I’m slowly getting into the habit of uploading them onto Youtube before embedding them into blog posts here on the website. It’s complex and time-consuming and I think I must have finally lost the plot because the last thing I need is more admin, but it satisfies my need for neatness and order.
God knows I don’t have neatness and order in any other aspect of my life!
Anyway, I’m aware of the fact that some of you only like to come here to read, so I’ll always try and do a little blurb with the videos to soften the blow – I’m doing a bit of website restructuring soon, too, so that should help you recognise video posts and skip them should you want to.
5 New Beauty Launches: April 2022.
Liberty Candle in Faraway Palm, £48 here*. This is a beauty of a candle; it smells like ancient wood and old perfume bottles, a bit like the actual inside of the Liberty store. Gorgeous. There are a few in the range and they would all make excellent presents, if you needed to buy something spendy for someone special.
This is Silk Silk Cream Cleanser, £39.99 here. The absolute surprise find of the month; I had no expectations at all, had never heard of the brand and it’s not even wholly a beauty brand, but the smell and texture of this cleanser is just utterly sublime. I gasped. Gasped I did. It’s like a concentrated version of the Queen of Hungary mist from Omorovicza, scent-wise, and the texture is creamy and nourishing but melts into this silky, slidey sumptuousness that does a great job of makeup removal. Just lovely.
Rare Beauty Positive Light Tinted Moisturiser in 26N, £26 at SpaceNK here*. If you’re after a tinted moisturiser to take you into summer then make sure you watch the video to see this going on. It’s pretty sheer but the finish is robust and non-slippy so it’s great for oilier skin and it has a lovely sheeny luminescence to it without being overtly glowy. If you were very dry I’d moisturise well first, but I think many will welcome a sheer base that doesn’t have the typically dewy finish. It’s in lightweight packaging too, so great for throwing in your makeup bag when you’re on the go.
Elizabeth Arden Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Day Cream, £66 here*. Elizabeth Arden have launched – and relaunched – quite a few products this spring and the Advanced Ceramide moisturisers are just lovely. The day cream without SPF added is my pick of the bunch; it has that nice, springy, gelatinous sort of feel that is fresh-feeling on the skin but really nourishing and satisfyingly hydrating. The Ceramide element here is the important bit to note, because a) they are good for helping to keep the skin barrier functioning in a healthy way and b) Elizabeth Arden have always done Stuff with Ceramides (trademarked) really well.
Elemis Morning Matrix Moisturiser. Oh my giddy aunt I read the price of this incorrectly when I first tried it and completely missed the fact that it costs £125. Wowzer. It’s a beautiful cream with a herbal, invigorating scent and that springy, gelatinous texture again but it’s twice the price of the Elizabeth Arden offering. The selling point with Morning Matrix is that it’s supposed to help protect the skin against the effects of exposure to blue light – laptop screens and phone screens – but I have to admit I’m still a bit cynical about that one on the whole! Nevertheless, if you were after a luxury cream then this is gorgeous.
I’ve just been looking at the original Pro Collagen Marine Cream, the one with the iconic scent that I associated with the word “luxury” all the way through my twenties. That one seems almost a bargain compared with the new Matrix versions – and it’s £89 for 50ml!
Can I just say: I love the way that Elemis do their product shots. With the creams or balms or what have you poking up in a whipped swirl above the edge of the pot. It makes me want to buy everything and it’s as though you can almost feel the product just by looking at it in the photo. It makes them look edible. Very clever. You can find Morning Matrix here*.
Sali Hughes’ Skincare range with Revolution launched this week and it’s a brilliant capsule collection containing everything you really need, nothing you don’t. Two cleansers (one lightweight and splashy, the other sumptuous and massage-y), a serum and a moisturiser, everything packed with hyaluronic acid so that it’s deeply hydrating but not greasy. Making it suitable for everyone. There’s also an exfoliating liquid with a clever blend of six different acids that can be used daily, if you like (it’s gentle enough) and that’s also an essential, because as we know, sloughing off dead skin cells helps all the other bits of the routine work that much more efficiently.
Sali didn’t include a sunscreen as everyone’s needs and preferences are so different and the range was designed to be straightforward and concise and retinol is omitted from the line-up, wisely, because if you want customers to be able to pick up a range and use it with no fuss or skincare knowledge then retinol adds a complication into the mix.
Everything in the range is under £15, vegan and easy to get hold of – Superdrug has it instore and you can get it online at LookFantastic here*.
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