Avene Ysthéal+ Emulsion & eye contour cream

If you have trawled through this blog you may have noticed posts on the Avene anti-redness range, I used to suffer from mild roseacea and very flushed, red, sensitive skin.  I had spent fortunes on all sorts of products and never really saw any genuine improvement in  my skin, until I spotted the Avene range in Boots and decided to give that a whirl.  It is no lie to say that the relief was instant and the results long lasting.  My skin has now really calmed down, due I think in part to changes in my diet - I each much less bread and sugar than I used to! - but I keep some Avene products handy just in case I get a flare up. 

I was really pleased to be sent some of the Avene anti-ageing skin care for review.  Now that my redness issues have settled the fine lines and incipient wrinkles are a much bigger concern!

The  Ysthéal+ Emulsion comes in a pump dispenser and is a nice rich, peach coloured cream that I have been applying in the evenings after cleansing.  It is aimed at normal to combination skin and so I have been applying it and letting it soak in well before applying a little of my night cream as I just need a tad more moisture over night.  The Emulsion is designed to both prevent, yay!, and correct the signs of skin ageing - whilst I like something that makes my skin look better I LOVE anything that is working to prevent it from looking worse!  It contains Retinaldehyde and Pretocopheryl, I am not going to pretend I know what they are!  According to the Avene website Retinaldehyde is the most effective form of Vitamin A and Preotcopheryl is a powerful anti-oxidant, which is as science'y as I need to get! Full list of ingredients is here:

WATER (AQUA). CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE. AVENE THERMAL SPRING WATER (AVENE AQUA). MINERAL OIL (PARAFFINIUM LIQUIDUM). PROPYLENE GLYCOL. GLYCERYL STEARATE. PEG-100 STEARATE. SQUALANE. BHT. BUTYLPARABEN. C13-14 ISOPARAFFIN. CARBOMER. DISODIUM EDTA. LAURETH-7. PHENOXYETHANOL. POLYCARYLAMIDE. PROPYLPARABEN. RED 33 (CI 17200). RETINAL. TOCOPHERYL GLUCOSIDE. TRIETHANOLAMINE

Emulsion at the top, eye cream at the bottom

Well done Avene for having ingredients listed on their website.  I was a tiny bit concerned when I read the leaflet enclosed with the Emulsion that sensitive skin might sting a little initially when using the product, so I was very tentative at first and would have stopped using it had I experienced any stinging, I haven't experienced any stinging or discomfort at all when I have used the Emulsion, my skin seems to love it!  I think with all anti-ageing products it's a case of looking back in years to come with much less lined and wrinkled skin than you might have had and knowing that applying products with key ingredients have worked, nothing actually, visibly diminishes the appearance of fine lines over the course of a fortnight!  It's unrealistic to think "cure" I have to be thinking "prevention"!

I was also sent the Ysthéal+ Eye Contour Cream to try, this is again a rich, peach cream in a pump dispenser - I found a full pump of this was more than I needed and Em benefited from some proactive eye wrinkle prevention - fortunately you can squeeze out less than a full pump which prevents waste.  I have been using this cream at night, along with the Emulsion and whilst it's rich it's not greasy so I am not waking up with puffy, over-fed eyes.  You may have seen my post about the No 7 roll-on eye cream, this has a brightening effect so I am using that one under make-up in the day and the Avene one at night, the combination of the two is perfect for me and I am seeing a visible improvement in my under eye area.  I think that I had overlooked it horribly in the past and the skin was very dry and papery, constant application of eye cream morning and night has really helped plump up this area and as a result the fine lines are much less visible. The key ingredients in the eye cream are again Retinaldehyde and Preotcopheryl. The full ingredients of the eye cream are here:

WATER (AQUA). MINERAL OIL (PARAFFINIUM LIQUIDUM). AVENE THERMAL SPRING WATER (AVENE AQUA). BUTYLENE GLYCOL. POLYSORBATE 40. SQUALANE. CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE. SORBITAN PALMITATE. BHT. BUTYLPARABEN. CARBOMER. DISODIUM EDTA. METHYLPARABEN. PHENOXYETHANOL. RED 33 (CI 17200). RETINAL. SODIUM HYDROXIDE. TOCOPHERYL GLUCOSIDE. XANTHAN GUM.

The Emulsion costs £22, in Boots and the eye cream is £17, both are at the higher end of the price range for Avene products but still not expensive when compared to other anti-ageing products. That said I would certainly purchase the Emulsion again, I would probably also purchase the eye cream for use at night, although I am drawn towards eye creams which offer brightening for use during the day.  Has anyone tried any of the Avene range?


These products were sent to me for consideration for review.

Huds Haul

Great afternoon in Huddersfield with Em. Boots didn't know what had hit them!

It doesn't look like this anymore. Just dropped it and smashed it to fck. Gutted - down to pan in middle.

Picked up Revlon matte shadow in Riviera blue (front) and a satin shadow in Peacock Lustre (back).  No sign of the ColorBurst lipstick in Soft Nude and Rosy Nude looked too pink toned for my licking. Settled on Matte lipstick in Mink.  Revlon was 3 for 2 which was fab.

Revlon Matte Mink.  GOSH Cappuccino

Re-stocked with my fave Avene products; Extremely Gentle Cleanser and Rich Anti-Redness cream and added a Soothing Hydrating Serum which I had really been wanting to try, again 3 for 2 on skin care, result.

I also had to pick up a Botanics cleansing Balm as raved by Welsh Beauty Blogger.  We seem to have pretty similar skin so I am hoping that I can use this without freaking out my skin, even if its just a once a week treat and I use the Avene on a day to day basis.  This smells lovely and I cant wait to try it with my Botanics facial cleansing brush. 

And of course the compulsory purchase of a Clinique Super Fine liner in soft brown seeing as those brows keeping on pulling in the compliments, the lady on the check out in Boots asked what I used.

This lot got me a Boots £5 voucher that went straight back into their tills with my purchase of the Ltd edition gel eyeliner in Blue, am dying to have a play with this.

Em hauled too so we decided to use her £5 voucher to buy Aunty Ness the No 7 Skin Illuminator she had been fancying.

From there we hurtled like a herd of turtles round to Superdrug where I picked up a GOSH lipstick in Cappuccino, which basically looks like it might be my perfect nude or the "fresh from the grave" lippy I have been dying for!

Arty pic of No 7 Ltd edition blue eye liner!

Swatches, reviews and eotd's etc to follow!

Botanics Facial Cleansing brush

Was intrigued by this when it appeared in Makeup Savvys Best of Jan post and decided to give it a whirl. At just over£6 it wasn't going to be breaking the bank if my skin wasn't loving it.

I have been using it for a month now with my Avene cleanser and my skin has never looked better.  I get the brush wet in warm water, apply a squirt of the Avene and swoosh it around, its a really really soft brush, so much so that any pressure compresses the bristles so its much better to apply no pressure and just swoosh a bit more often.  It feels lovely, like a million tiny fingers massaging your skin and it cleans and lifts away make up and grime and leaves my skin feeling really soft and totally unstressed.  Which is great, as my skin is really re-active.  Have had no issues with this at all and am thrilled by how much better my skin is looking. Redness is at an all time low, although think thats more to do with retiring the Elemis pro-collagen products and using only Avene than the brush, but I do have large pores in my chin that get very congested and they are visibly shrinking and my nose, which was often bumpy, red and prone to spots is really smooth and blemish free.  Overall my skin tone is really improved and I think cleansing with the brush which is mildly exfoliant is also helping my moisturisers (Avene rich compensating cream, Avene Rich anti redness cream and Avene Rich skin recovery cream) to work their magic. The only downside is a slightly funky smell, only apparent when swooshing it round my nose but it was a tad off putting at first, although I do have a very sensitive sense of smell so it might just be me, not enough to put me off using my brush though.

If you dont have redness issues and are looking for a lovely balm cleanser Welsh Beauty Blog has posted about the Botanics cleansing balm today, which sounds lush.  As Botanics are currently doing 3 for 2 on Botanics you could get the brush and the balm and pick up something else for free - result! 

January Faves

Just managed to get this in in the first week of Feb, phew!  Wet Saturday and because we had guest house viewing this morning the whole place is scarily clean so with nothing else to do I had some fun with the photos for this post.

First up Bobbi Brown Luminous moisturising foundation, am very pleased with this.  Have discovered it is best applied with a foundation brush to get good coverage.

UDPP my new wonder product for keeping eye every thing in place, love it.

Bobbi Brown creamy lipstick in heather buff have worn this every day since I got it.

Avene.  All of it.  Has been an absolute godsend this month and my skin is in a really good place, at the mo as a result of using it.

When my skin was being really uppity I dug out the Organic Surge night cream again.  Every one that uses this raves about it and for under a tenner you cant go wrong with this.

If the texture and the effect weren't sufficient the wonderful rose geranium perfume is beautiful and perfect for a night cream.

Nailactan and the NAKED palette also both feeling the love this month.  Didn't actually think I could get away with yet another photo of NAKED!!  EOTM (month!) has been udpp all over, UNE shadow in matt cream over entire lid, Buff into crease and Buck on lash line, quick, polished and removes 10 yrs in a flick of an eye brush.  Well nearly!
Hope you are all having a splendid weekend, off to make a nice cup of tea.

Skin care quicky

You may have read about my "travelling nose boil" every bit as attractive as it sounds!  For over a week have had an incredibly sore nose, a lump appears that is hot, hard and red and agony.  Then it moves to a different part of my nose, sometimes there was more than one, nose has been swollen and bruised looking - apparently I looked like a whisky drinker according to Steve, charming!  It does now finally seem to have subsided and I think it may be hormonal as I am at that age. oh. the. joy.  

Anyway whilst all this has been going on the roseacea has been having a bit of a field day too so I decided mid last week to kick everything into touch and only use my Avene products; Gentle cleaners, Thermal water spray, Rich recovery cream and rich anti-redness cream with a dash of Organic Surge night cream (completely love this stuff and recommend without reservation) and have not gone near my Elemis stuff.  Today as well as nose having deflated the roseacea is at the best level mine gets, I have some pink tint to my skin but no obvious red, pimply, sore skin.

   

I suspect the Elemis Pro-Collagen isn't doing me any favours, I know Welsh Beauty had a really bad reaction to it and I did wonder if I would get away with it, seems not.  But think I might conduct a scientific test, if I can be brave enough and just try the pro-collagen day and night cream on one specific area just to see what happens. 

Through all this my other wonder product has been the Clarins Gentle Peeling cream, as the skin on my nose has been stretched and swollen it has dried and peeled, this has been gentle enough to use daily just to take off the flakes so my foundation can actually help rather than draw attention to the problem, so this is something else I can recommend if you have dry, sensitive, skin and don't like a gritty facial scrub.
Right, on with the dross!

Skin care heroes.

If you have read any of my blog you will know that I have issues with red skin on my face, I have mild roseacea that flares up once a month or when I get stressed and general diffiuse redness that is more or less pronounced depending on all sorts of factors.  The one range that I have found that has had any noticeable impact on my redness is the Avene range.  I had used the products in the past but whilst I was happy with the results had overlooked them mainly because I like to treat myself to expensive skin care and at around £9 a product they didn't really fit the bill.  Shallow doesn't really come close does it!

When this winter my roseacea was particularly bad I decided to give them another whirl and I am seriously pleased I did.



The gentle cleanser is heaven to use, its a very light, non scented gel that you can massage in well and rinse with tepid water and a soft cloth or for mornings when you just refreshing your skin rather than removing make up it can be tissued off, which is lovely for me as my skin is not a fan of water.  No tightness or dryness with this at all.

The Rich skin recovery cream is fantastic, it is thick the sort of texture normally associated with a body butter, but on my skin it soaks in well.  I use it as part of my night regime but also add a dab in the morning to any particularly angry looking patches.


The redness solution moisturiser has a light green tint and whilst not sufficient to make any major difference it does seem to tone down the worst of the redness without any shrek effect.


It's a lovely cooling moisturiser and if my skin is being grumpy its all I use.

The eye cream is not too heavy so I don't end up puffy eye'd.  I don't think that is having a huge effect on wrinkles but my eye area and the skin underneath is very crepey and on my mum it was the first area to really show signs of ageing so I am keen to keep it nourished.

When my skin is playing nice I also dip into my lovely Elemis products.
 
Oh how I love them!  Both the pro-collagen day and night are bliss to use.  They are perfumed, not massively in my opinion but enough that they are pleasant.  I love how both of these make my skin feel and whilst they are stupidly expensive if you were ever to buy at full whack you do only need a smidge.  I had a 15ml sample of the day cream on 3rd December and this morning had to cut the tube to get the last of it out, having used it sparingly but pretty much daily since.

I really like the Pro-radiance cream cleanser.  Its a lovely cream cleanser that doesn't lather or bubble, more of a balm effect.  You apply a thin layer to dry skin and massage it in, after a minute it starts to suck up all your make up and gunge off  your face and turn it into a paste, if you have ever used Clarins facial peel its a little like that but with slip so its not dragging on your skin.  My face  always feels super clean but never tight after using this.  I don't use it daily but tend to do every other day, just in case my skin freaks out.

The papaya enzyme peel and the pro-collagen quartz lift mask were also in the gift set I had for xmas.  The papaya peel is a peachy coloured cream with a fruity smell.  I was warned only to use this when my skin was on its best behaviour, which I have stuck to and have had no problems.  The quartz lift mask is heavenly, its a thinner white cream with a lovely warming fragrance it contains Argan Tree Oil and feels intensely moisturising without being clogging.  

I had a full size bottle of the Exotic Cream moisturising mask for Christmas too.

This is lovely, one of the biggest benefits is that you can apply a thin layer at night and leave it on overnight for intensive moisturisation, which my skin LOVES.  It is another peachy cream and if I am being honest I don't completely love the smell, its a bit fruit yoghurt to me but the very visible benefits more than make up for this.  It leaves my skin plumped and glowing even if just leave it on for ten mins and not overnight. 

I also use the Clarins gentle facial peeling, once a week generally sometimes a couple of times and its a great prep before one of the masks.

So thats me, skin care for a 44 year old with red, stressy skin! 

Oh and one other thing I have been meaning to say.  As you know I take photos, some of them of people and I always feel a duty of care for those people so apply a little skin softening or maybe get rid of a blemish, in the way I would want someone to do for me!  One of things I have really noticed when taking photos of older ladies is that irrespective of how good the skin on their face may, or may not be, generally their necks are in less good nick.  Having noticed this I resolved to make sure I ALWAYS make sure my neck gets a good slather of moisturiser too - in the past I have been guilty of overlooking this but with the photographic proof that in your mid sixties this oversight will come back to haunt you I am being extra careful and wanted to share! (Relevent only if your mid sixties are only 20 years away, any more than that and I guess you can forget about this advice for a while, but be warned!!)

Anti redness skincare

Have decided I need to be a bit more proactive in my skincare to try and mitigate the redness that I have on my cheeks, nose and chin. As usual I have spent 40 hours googling what would work best. I am interested in the clinique stuff and the plan today was to buy an eyebrow pencil that I need and request a sample of the moisturiser just to check it would be rich enough for my very parched skin. That all went tits up as I had to take husband shopping. Need an outfit for a wedding on 29th December and every thing I showed him was either "too old" "too short" or just "too ugly". What he seems to have missed is that his old, short, ugly wife is also rather fat and so if you are having to buy a size 20 choice is limited and sometimes you have to go with if it fits buy the bloody thing and get the hell home. You have seen married couples shopping like we were today, hands in pockets, heads down, not speaking. He suggested I look in Evans. I just could not be arsed to explain that A) all Evans clothes are tat and B) for some inexplicable reason Evans make dresses up to a size 60 without freaking sleeves. Nearly everyone that I know that is either past 42 or over a size 16, or god forbid both, seriously needs to cover their arms up so why in gods name Evans make sleevless dresses is quite beyond me and it never fails to pee me off. So in complete bitch fit mode I walked into Evans with him trailing in my wake, stomped up the left side of the shop, crossed over at the top, stomped down the right side and straight back out the door without picking up or looking at a single thing. And do you know what? I think he got the message! So by the time I got to Boots I was so underwhelmed I forgot all about the eye brow pencil and the clinique sponger tactic. I grabbed a facial wax, so that even if I am fat, old and short with a red face it wont have hair on it. I also nabbed an Avene Rich anti-redness moisturiser and a small can of the Avene thermal spa water spray in lieu of toner.

I am going to Halifax for a facial with a friend on Friday and intend to do the brow pencil/sample scam and maybe pick up the Avene extra gentle cleanser too. Cant wait for Friday, Saks in Halifax is 6 years old and they are doing a terrific offer to celebrate, hot stones back of body massage, which I have been dying to try since forever - I have rheumatoid arthritis and warmth on my aged aching bones is just bliss! And then after your hot stones massage you get a mini Elemis facial, had an Elemis facial a couple of years ago with my sister and it was heavenly so this will be a real treat. £55 the lot and you get a gift bag with £40 of Elemis products to take away, far too good an offer to not indulge. So lunch in Halifax, a spot of light retail therapy, massage, facial and home for the Festival of Light in Huddersfield that evening with husband and the kids, the perfect antidote to all the stress of selling the business and moving into our new home and our new life and trying to organise Christmas when you have no idea where you are going to be living!