Traveling, stress, and caffeine are well-known enemies of the perfect complexion and over the last month or so I've been doing battle with all three. While I was home in Seattle last week I stopped in to H-Mart, an Asian megastore, to see what kinds of therapies our lovely Asian friends could recommend. While I was there I stocked up on all my favourite Asian foods, candies, and teas to bring back to Dublin and then popped into Amore, a sort of Korean version of Sephora. I've heard of their luxury line Amore Pacific (available at Sephora and here) but never actually played with any of their products before. The shop was an adorable little place with about a million different girly and colorful products just waiting for me to play with.
I've been wanting to play around with Asian skincare products for awhile, at least since my first order with Kollection K, but didn't know where to start and I wasn't willing to risk ordering something online that could potentially be irritating or just not the best choice for me. Luckily, a lovely skincare consultant in Amore (who, incidentally, had fabulous skin herself) had useful advice. She examined my skin using a strange bit of paper and some blue lights and then fed the results into a computer which spit out my skin analysis. It was bizarre and kind of gimmicky but surprisingly more accurate than the Dermalogica skin mapping analysis that I had last fall. As I suspected my skin is actually very dehydrated, causing it to overproduce sebum in the T-zone. This explains why my skin has always been the obnoxious combination of dry and oily at the same time and why I've had difficulties finding the right balance of products in the past.
The new regimen. Thanks, Laneige! |
and yet I'm still a sucker enough to buy into the marketing. The products from Laneige didn't come cheap (each product was around $30) but the packages are a good size and I expect I won't run out for at least 6 months, maybe even a year for the Yogurt Peeling Mask!
So far I've used the Water Sleeping Pack twice and the Gel Cream almost every day. I haven't had a chance to try the Yogurt Peeling Mask but when I do I'll be sure to report back. The Water Sleeping Pack is a very cool overnight mask that I use on nights when I skip my retinol product. It leaves a weird sticky feeling behind (it is quite a bit heavier than your standard night cream) but I always wake up the next morning with plump, moisturized skin. The Gel Cream is also fabulous and is quite like my old favourite, Chanel Hydramax Gel Creme, but at a fraction of the cost. The only downside is that it lacks SPF. Otherwise it keeps my skin feeling hydrated but never oily and makeup glides on like a dream.
Water Sleeping Pack - ultra fancy night cream, basically |
I look forward to scaring neighborhood children with these |
Problem 1: Congestion. I have a few closed comedones on my forehead that bug me. The skin there isn't covered with red cystic acne but it's not exactly smooth. Hours spent on r/skincareaddiction lead me to believe I most likely need an AHA or BHA exfoliating product. I'm a little reluctant to dive in with a chemical exfoliant when I'm using a retinol, though. I've had no adverse effects from my current anti-aging product (La Roche Posay Redermic R) and I don't want to tempt fate by irritating the crap out of my skin. Thoughts? Recommendations? American ladies are partial to Stridex pads in the red box but we can't get those in this part of the world.
Problem 2: Makeup Removal. Ugh. I love Benefit's They're Real mascara (it is my one true ride-or-die eye makeup I think) but it is such a bitch to take off at night. It's not waterproof but seems to be highly resistant to all my efforts to gently remove it. Almost every night I'm convinced I'm pulling out several eyelashes at once plus likely damaging my delicate skin around the eyes. I tried coconut oil but kept getting that in my eyes. I'm tempted to try a micellar water. Bioderma is the makeup industry gold standard but difficult to access in Dublin. I saw several good options at Boots though, including this Garnier one which was on offer and a few by La Roche Posay, Avene, Vichy, and L'Oreal. The number of options is slightly overwhelming and they all seem pretty much the same. Probably by this time tomorrow I'll have purchased the Garnier one.
(Update: I did! It was 6 euros and they had 3 for 2 on skincare. I do what I want. Also I got Avene Cleanance K, an AHA/BHA product, and La Roche Posay's Physiologic Toner)
Can't wait to try these out. Updates to follow |
xo Caitlin
No comments:
Post a Comment