If My Skincare Stash Disappeared...

When it comes to skincare, I think we can all agree, I'm somewhat obsessed. I have a bathroom cabinet that's practically overflowing with cleansers, a whole drawer dedicated to masks and enough serums, oils and moisturisers to last me a few years at least. I'm starting to cut back a bit on my obssesive collecting and it got me thinking - if I got rid of everything and had to start again, what would be on my shopping list?

Cleansers

In my cutting down I managed to get this down to three. As much as I absolutely love a lot of cleansers - seriously, I may have t dedicate a whole post to my favourites. The absolute have-to-have-it list is just these: the Una Brennan Vitamin C Brighten Cleansing Oil (shock horror), the Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel (surprise surprise) and a more recent love in the Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser.

I wanted each of the products in this list to serve a specific purpose and I feel like these 3 work different enough to earn a spot in my hall of fame. The Una Brennan is a liquid consistency and is the product I reach for to remove makeup more often than not. I love the Oskia gel for a morning cleanse or a second cleanse post-makeup-removal in the PM. While the Tata Harper is a more recent purchase, I've nearly used up my travel mini and have a backup ready for when it's finished (and when you have as many cleansers as I do, that's a big deal). I'd been shying away from manual exfoliators for such a long time but this is nice and gentle but leaves the skin so soft and smooth, and the scent is so lovely.

Toners

I've pin-pointed two toner-step products that are must haves for me and, again, I don't think they'll be much of a surprise: For an exfoliating toner my pick is the Pixi Glow Tonic, it's effective and affordable. Enough said. I also love the La Roche Posay Serozinc since it's got anti-bacterial properties but also doubles up as a refreshing spritz since the mist is so fine. I think that both of these work equally well in the AM or the PM and they can be used together or separately. I have used lots of more expensive toners but I genuinely think these two are the ones I reach for the most and that they're the ones I'd be repurchasing once I've worked my way through my current beauty stock room.

Serums/Moisturisers/Oils

I've let myself have a few options here since I like to switch things up a bit. For AM, I love the Indeed Labs Hydralyron serum, the Clarins Lotus Facial Oil and the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream. I've spoken about Hydralyron on this blog so many times now but it's still a firm favourite for an affordable hydrating serum. My Clarin's Oil has been another one I've been quite consistent with, it's a good quality oil and it doesn't break the bank as hard as others that I enjoy and the scent is so refreshing in the morning. Then the Charlotte Tilbury cream is just lovely under makeup, I couldn't use it everyday since it's quite a rich cream and my skin isn't dry enough to warrant using this constantly but it's great when I do reach for it.

In the evening, I just love using the Esteé Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum, another product that I've chirped on about before. It's a thin jelly-ish texture and it just fixes your skin, that's all I can say about it. Although the Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil is a very recent addition to my skincare stash, it's such an SOS saviour of a product that I know I'll be going back for more once I'm out. Finally, while the Indeed Labs Fillume moisturiser isn't something I talk about much on the blog, I've been using it for a while now and it's such a good night cream, it's really plumping on the skin and makes you wakeup looking fresh.

My Must-Have Masks

Face masks have always been a really popular product type in the world of skincare and with good reason. They tend to be my go-to product for a quick fix when my skin's misbehaving and I've tried an awful lot of them but here's a run down of my favourites from the ones I've tried:

For the dry or dehydrated out there, there's a lot of moisturising masks on the market and, while some budget options are quite good, my absolute favourite one is the Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask (£23 for 100ml). It's essentially a super heavy duty night cream and you apply a thin layer before bed for a boost of hydration. The scent is nice and fruity and it leaves the skin feeling soft and supple. If the Origins is out of your price range my affordable alternative would be the Super Facialist by Una Brennan Rose Hydrate Intense Moisture Mask at £9.99 for 125ml. This is more of a quick fix type mask than an overnight treatment but it works well and the rose scent is lovely.

Clay masks are something you really don't need to spend a lot of money on if you don't want to. My absolute favourite clay mask is the Aroma Actives Deep Cleansing & Purifying Clay Mask. It's around the £10 mark for 100ml and I pick this up from Sainsbury's (although this product isn't available on the Sainsbury's website), I like this one because it's an effective clay mask but it doesn't strip all of the moisture out of the skin like some clay masks do. If Aroma Actives isn't available near you or if you just fancy splurging on a more luxe clay mask, the Charlotte Tilbury Goddess Skin Clay Mask is a nice one. My only problem with it is that, at £45 for 75ml, I think it's quite steeply priced for something that works very similarly to the Aroma Actives one.

The final mask type I'll be talking about today is the exfoliating mask. I have two that work very similarly and they are the Oskia Renaissance Mask and the Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask. They're both an orange-y pink gel texture with a soft rose-y scent. They both go onto the skin with a jelly-ish texture and neither of them will dry or "set' on the face. I personally wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them in a blind trial and they're quite similarly priced with the Oskia being £48.50 for 50ml and the Tata Harper being £45 for 30ml. I'll leave either of these on for 3-10 minutes, rinse off and my skin feels so smooth after use.

A good exfoliating mask for me has some slightly pricier ingredients in the formula and, because of that, I haven't been able to find a more budget friendly option. However if you're strapped for cash and need some exfoliation in your life I'd recommend a more affordable exfoliating toner which you can use 2-3 times a week like the Pixi Glow Tonic (£18 for 250ml) or the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads (£22 for 60 pads).

The Friday Review: A TMI Post - My Thoughts On The Braun Epil Silk 9

So in this review post, we're going to get maybe a little bit more personal than normal, we're talking hair removal, my experience with hair removal and one hair removal device in particular: the Braun Epil Silk 9. This device is the first time I've tried epilating but previously I've used electric razors and waxing for my legs and manual razors for everywhere else. So with that introduction out of the way: here we go.

So I heard Lily Pebbles talk about this razor in one of her videos a while back and I picked it up for £120 from Boots on sale, the RRP of this product is around £170 depending on the retailer. I'd been waxing my legs and shaving my under arms for years and I was having problems with both of these methods, For waxing, I hated having to wait for the hair to grow back and to get an appointment when I was only getting 1 week out of 4 where my legs were actually smooth. With my underarms, because I was shaving they grew back quickly and I was finding myself having to do them every day because of regrowth and it was becoming a bit of a chore. (For review purposes, these are the areas I've been trialling the Epil Silk 9 and I still use other methods in other areas).

My experience with the Epil Silk 9 has been great. On my legs it's no more painful that waxing and I can maintain it myself on a weekly basis. While it is quite painful on the underarms, it's dealt with my regrowth issues and I can now epilate them once every 2-3 weeks and shave between and I'm finding it much more manageable and the hair has become much thinner over just a couple of months use. I wouldn't use this on my bikini line just because of the pain issue but if your pain tolerance is higher than mine that might be an option for you.

The Epil Silk 9 comes with 2 other attachments as well, an electric razor head and an exfoliating body brush. The electric razor head is great, works just as well as any other electric razor and this might be a better thing to use if you're finding the epilating too painful in some areas. However I found the exfoliating body brush to be a bit of a let down. The motor doesn't do much to power the brush and it just vibrates slightly on the skin and for me personally, I find a standard body scrub to be much more effective.