Same same but different: face oil

In this series I am going to look at two products with the same function and decide which one of them wins it for me. I am only going to review the products that I’ve used for a while (at least for two or three weeks, usually much longer).

I loooooove everything oil, not just face oils, but hair oils, cuticle oils, body oils etc etc For me the main thing with them is they make me feel I am using something much more natural than the lotion or other products. OK, back to face oils:

In the red corner today is L’Oreal Paris: Age Perfect Extraordinary Oil. It gets its first point from me for the price which is $41.99 for 30ml. Oil ingredients: Lavender, Marjoram, Rosemary, Geranium, Rose, Roman Chamomille, Orange Peel, Lavandin (8 altogether). Another point for the smell, to me it is a very natural, nice, slightly bitter smell but in a very pleasant way. The main trick (learnt by repeating the same mistake again and again) in using this face oil is that you need a TINY amount (honestly A DROP). If you use the right amount it does absorb really quickly and leaves a nice soft feeling on your face straight after and in the morning but if you use a little two much it will take a very long time to absorb (A VERY LONG TIME). The way I use any face oil is to put a drop onto my palm and then I warm it up in my palms by rubbing them together and only then put on my face – works really nice for me. With this oil I haven’t noticed any real change to the complexion (it doesn’t make the skin more radiant or anything like that) though I have been using it for while.

In the blue corner is Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate. Price wise: $98 from Smith+Caugheys for 30ml (no points from me here). Oil ingredients: Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Jojoba Seed Oil, Coriander Seed Oil, Lavender Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens Flower Oil, Rosemary Leaf Oil, Lavandula Hybrida Oil, Rose Flower Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil (10 altogether). The smell is similar to L’Oreal’s: slightly bitter, nice, natural herbal oil smell – pleasure to put it on your face. Drier that L’Oreal – you will definitely need a few drops not just one to cover the face. Absorbs with the same speed as L’Oreal and leaves a nice soft feeling on your face – in fact, a very soft feeling. No special effects in the morning after – just again a nice soft feeling on your skin which is great. But no wow-my-skin-has-never-been-so -glowy-before effect.

L’Oreal                                        Kiehl’s

1                       price                      0

0                 ingredients                  1

1               how long will it last        0

1                        smell                    1

1                 absorbing ability          1

1             the morning-after feel      1

0               special effects                0

5                         total                      4

And the winner is: L’Oreal Age Perfect Extraordinary Oil. Great face oil for a good price leaving your skin soft (if you use the right amount!). No need to pay double to buy Kiehl’s, in my opinion.

Soft skin everyone

xx

Anastasia

Pregnancy changes my beauty routine

Luckily I would not say that pregnancy has changed a lot of my routines ( wait till you get the baby, I hear you saying) but I was still quite surprised to learn that it did bring around a few to my beauty routine (have somehow never thought about it before – well, actually I never ever thought about being pregnant at all, I always sort of knew I will have children one day but never really put it into pictures in my mind). So, here is to what I now do differently because I am pregnant.

1. Swapped my regular self tan to the organic one.

I always use self tan, no I ALWAYS use self tan as there is no other time that I feel less sexy as when I am white. I don’t like pale skin, I think I look fatter in pale skin, less beautiful, more tired the list can go on and on. And also as pregnancy generally speaking does make you fatter and more tired there was no way that falling pregnant was going to stop me from using self tans but I did swap for the organic Eco tan winter skin from Natural things New Zealand. I am not an organic freak or all-things-eco fan and if the product does work I don’t really care how many silicons there are but in this case I did make a choice in favour of the more natural one.

2) OK, this is a funny one. STRETCH MARKS (this is the place where every pregnant woman needs to run away screaming). Yes, I am as any normal pregnant woman worried I will get them. I even made my husband swear he will tell me if he can see a millimeter of a stretch mark anywhere on my body ( I am not entirely sure why I need to know but). The only thing I don’t believe in is a promise made by numerous anti-stretch mark lotions makers that only the drop of this particular precious oil derived from the skins of this tropical fruit cut at midnight of the ninth month of the year will help me fight them. Good genetics will help me fight them, I believe but I still lotion my belly twice a day – once every morning at the gym (and I don’t care for the looks others give me – come on I am fighting in a deadly war with stretch marks here) and once at bedtime. Use my  normal moisturizing body lotion I always use.

3) OK, bending is a struggle. And as I hate doing pedicure for myself I pretend it’s even more of a struggle and claim I need to have it done. Professionally. Now, forget all your supermarket have-it-done-in-5-minutes-and-have-it-chipped-in-1 -week I am about to tell you the biggest secret there is in the beauty world. Russian manicure/pedicure specialists are the secret holders of the sacred knowledge of how to do the best pedi/mani ever that will last (prepare) 6 week (Shellac kind of course). If you source one of these masters, consider yourself lucky, doesn’t matter if they speak no English or have an office in a dungeon, grab them and never let go. I am Russian, right, and I only was able to find one 6 weeks ago (this is how I know about the six weeks last, of course). This is the lady I used and can bet my little finger you won’t be disappointed.

4) Last but not least – I’ve already told you I struggle to bend, right? So instead of lotioning my feet I started using this peppermint cooling spray that is much more pregnant-women-friendly when it comes to moisturizing your feet. It is thearomatherapycompany and it looks like it’s been discontinued (ahhh that’s why I am able to get it for $5 from their outlet store – and there are many left) but I am sure there are hundreds of others on the market.

OK, that’s it for the changes in my beauty routine, spray your feet and stay positive!

xx

Anastasia