SKINCARE OVERHAUL!

Hello everyone! It's 2014 (a month late but still better than nothing!) And today is the 12th of February which means it's my birthday! I am now one year older and in the words of T-Swift - I'm feeling twenty-twooooooo! 

As I'm another year older, I thought hey, why not change up my skin routine? Followers will know I'm a severely oily skinned girl, but yes, in that photo above there is even an oil! The horror! I'm on a new skin journey for radiant, glowy skin, because even though I am oily, I've also got quite the problem with dullness. This post isn't going to be a review but a little sneak peak at my new routine, full reviews will come later.

That oil you see is the Una Brennan Vitamin C+ Brighten Skin Renew Cleansing Oil, £10.99 (x) first of all, what a name! Second of all the smell of this is completely amazing. Being an oil I was first pretty scared to try it and had visions of me wiping this off my face and breakouts emerging! But seeing as I'm on a mission for radiant skin, I took the plunge, and boy I'm glad I did.

Next up is the Sanctuary Radiance Exfoliator, £2.99 (x) As I'm quite new to this whole radiance thing I thought I'd buy a little tube to test this guy out. I've been using the Purifying range from Sanctuary for a while now and it's been doing me good so I thought it would be a good choice, and I've been surprised by the results after just a few uses. 

Nip+Fab No Needle Fix, £13.33 (x) was a bit of an accident, I was looking for the Glycolic Serum (x) and picked this one up inside by accident, but never the less it has been a pleasure to use! It promises to plump and volumise the skin and contains good old hyaluronic acid to provide moisture (The glycolic version is winging its way to me in the post as we speak)

Lush Dark Angels Cleanser, £6.35 (x) , Mask of Magnaminty, £5.25 (x) & Tea Tree Toner Water, £3.95 (x) These are all one of those products where you wish you took before and after photos! These used together are perfect to keep myself from becoming an oily mess whilst using all these other moisture inducing products. It was my first experience using skincare from Lush and I really am pleasantly surprised by the results I've had, and the mask is quickly becoming one of my favourites!

If you read back through my blog you'll know I'm constantly on the look out for something to banish the eye darkness! I'm starting to think my eye problems are all hereditary and it that case nothing I use will really diminish them to the point of no return, but Indeed Labs Eysilix, £24.99 (x) has come to my rescue! I've been using this twice a day for the past four days and I already see such a difference, and it's making me more confident to go outside without any concealer on! Containing lots of lovely peptides to help the skin, this is also becoming a quick favourite in my new skincare routine!

And then there's one thing that I double will ever change, La Roche Posay Effaclar Mat, £10.12 (x) a good old favourite that I don't think can do any wrong!

So, that is my new skincare routine that is actually doing something I can see to my skin, as I said reviews of everything will be coming at a later date after I've been using them for a little longer, but it all seems good from here. Also I'm sorry for being a terrible blogger, I am back now with a new found motivation and I will be posting regularly, promise!

SKINCARE | UNA BRENNAN

UNA BRENNAN TEA FLOWER RANGE (x)

PURIFYING CLEANSING WASH, £7.99 | PURIFYING CLAY MASK, £8.99 | PURIFY & REFRESH SCRUB, £8.99

Through my teens I suffered with terrible acne and relied on the likes of Freederm and Clean & Clear to help my hormonal skin, but as I've got older I can happily say my skin isn't that much of a worry. Despite it now being a whole lot calmer than it was when I was younger, acne in my past and the curse of having an oily skin type has left me a little bit paranoid about it reverting to it's old terrible ways, and so this range came in handy just in time and my skin is brighter, clearer and feels softer than it ever has before!

I had been relying on my mothers Simple skincare for months and then me working the night shift most nights led me to start using the dreaded facewipe at the end of a night to wipe off all my makeup. No cleansing, no moisurising, no nothing. Until that fateful day I woke up with - you guessed it - a break out!

My finally clear skin had rebelled! Simple wasn't cutting it anymore, and the facewipes definitely were doing more harm than good. I went to Boots in search of a new skincare range, and whilst traipsing around looking at Neutrogena (another teen favourite) I took a turn down the what I guess you could call the 'high end' skincare and spotted these babies hidden amongst La Roche-Posay and Vichy. 

The whole range contains Salicylic Acid, which we all know is good for banishing acne-prone skin, as well as some other ingredients such as Menthol and Elderflower which helps calm irritation, and I can safely say after a fair few months of use and various repurchases, it does just that! My skin is clear and calm and if I ever feel that it's becoming slightly aggravated I pop on the clay mask for a few minutes, paint my nails and when I take it off my skin is smooth and soft again!

The exfoliator is very fine and I think is gentle enough to be used a couple of times a week if it's needed, although I try to limit myself to once, and the cleansing wash foams up lovely to remove all traces of makeup. I have used this on a full face of makeup to remove water-proof mascara as well and it does the job!

I think this range is absolutely brilliant, and if you have slightly acne-prone skin is definitely a good investment. 

Have you tried the range, or any other Una Brennan ranges? If so what did you think?