Dealing With Acne

It's day 12 of blogmas and this is a rather personal topic for me. I have to deal with a lot of break-outs - nearly one a week. They also nearly last around a week too. Therefore, I constantly have spots; I don't just mean blackheads.

I do drink between 2-3 litres of water a day and then additional drinks such as: Vimto, sparkling lemon & lime and soya milk. I also have what I'd call, a balanced diet. I normally just listen to what my belly is telling me - if I feel hungry, I eat and if I do not want something too big, I get a snack.

There are two products that I use to try to control my acne and those are: a prescription from the doctors called Zineryt and the Super Spot Remover by Origins.

Zineryt is erythromycin mixed with zinc acetate to produce a solution that can be used on any part of acne. I must admit, it has a very strong, potent smell that is not pleasant, but it does the job. I also stings like hell if you've squeezed the spot beforehand.

Origin's spot remover is a must have! You might think that £15 for a 10ml solution is expensive, however, the product lasts for such a long time. I am on my second one and the first one lasted me for just over a year! With the amount of spots I get, it sure is a great product getting rid of them.

Makeup and Skincare Haul

I feel like my last few posts have all been about hauls and yet again, I have another for you. Recently, I've just been obsessed with trying new products and re-purchasing others. Last week I did two orderers online - Debenhams and Beauty Bay.

Debenhams order -
With the Debenhams order, if you ordered two Lancôme products, you got a load of free goodies and everyone loves free goodies, right? Also, if you bought the La vie est belle perfume, you got a free body lotion (which I love!). I'll link everything below and I'll state with were the products that I got for free; there's a lot that were free! To top that off too, there was 10% off on all beauty and fragrance.

Beauty Bay order -
I've never tried anything from the Anastasia Beverly Hills range and I've see that their products are very highly rated. I thought I'd give an eyebrow products for a go as I feel like that's the thing I lack the most in my collection. I've also never tried anything from Shavata before. I normally get the Brow Enhancing Serum from Boots but paying £38 to see a slight improvement is a little bit disheartening - especially when you've bought 3! So I thought I'd give this ago; so far, so good. I do realise that this order was slightly risky in the sense that I'd never tried any of these things, but you never know unless you try.

Debenhams order -
Lancôme - La vie est belle - 100ml perfume x2
Lancôme - La vie est belle - body lotion (free)
Lancôme - Brush (free)
Lancôme - Lip gloss - Glow in Love (free)
Lancôme - Hypnôse Mascara - Black (free)
Lancôme - Eyeliner - Black (free)
Lancôme - Moisturiser - Hydra Zen (free)
Lancôme - Blusher (free)
Lancôme - Makeup bag (free)
MAC - Cremesheen Glass - Double Dare
Clinique - Bottom Lash Mascara - Black

Beauty Bay order -
Anastasia Brow Wiz - Auborn
Shavata - Brow Strengthener

You can see this post on my Instagram page - jodiemoon__

Trying Lancôme products

Disclaimer: This post is out of my own discretion and I'm not being payed to advertise these products. They are all my own opinion.

Recently, Debenhams have been having all different types of sales and offers and the one that grabbed my attention the most was the Lancôme offer - Buy two products and get a free goody bag. Perfect, right? I've never actually purchased anything from Lancôme before but quite a few people that I know rave about it.

I bought the two perfumes La vie est belle and Hypnôse. My favourite one out of the two is La vie set belle and I think that it's my new favourite of all time! Closely followed by Elie Saab - La Parum of course...

Now, the goody bag...
Due to me never trying any Lancôme products at all, I was a bit hesitant when it came to the makeup but I have had no problems whatsoever and love all of the products. The goody bag included: A mini nail varnish, a mini mascara, a mini eye serum, a mini sample of La vie set belle, a mini lipstick, two eye creams and an eye makeup remover.

I have contact dermatitis and I struggle to find products that don't irritate my eyes when I remove eye makeup but Lancôme's Bi - Facil eye make up remover is perfect and it really does sooth my skin. There were also two eye creams in there. One being Hydra Zen Neurocalm and the other being the Hydra Zen Neurocalm Night Cream. Both are very easy to apply and not too creamy.

I'm very happy with the other products too and I will be purchasing the full sized versions when I have run out. The nail varnish that I got was a really nice rich pink colour and I think it will match anything that you wear; the lipstick corresponds too!

Skincare Routine

This post is just going to go through the steps you should think about when doing your morning and evening routine. Depending on your age, not every step is recommended. For instance, there's a 'serum' step in both routines. I would only really recommend using a serum if you're over the age of 25. I hope this post helps and gives you a clearer understanding of how to take care of you skin.

Skincare Routine:

- Cleanser

- Exfoliate

- Serum

- Day cream / Night cream

* Extras

- Makeup remover

- A face mask (recommended 1-2 times a week)

- Creams for sensitive or dry skin

- Spot treatment

A recommended Morning + Evening routine:

                       Morning:                                                            Evening:

                             - Cleanser                                                              - Eye makeup remover

                             - Toner                                                                   - Cleanser

                             - Moisturiser                                                          - Exfoliant 3 times a week

                             - Serum                                                                  - Serum

                             - Eye cream                                                           - Eye cream

                             - Day cream                                                           - A face mask (optional)

                             - Primer                                                                  - Spot treatment

                             - Make up 

Disclaimer: All products bought by myself.

I have already done a post on the 3 products that I use to Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise so make sure to check that out. Also, I've been using the Liz Earle muslin cloths for removing my cleanser and cash wash and they're really great!

 If you have any questions, just leave a comment below. I'm going to be doing a Q&A post soon so I need as many questions as possible please! 

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise 
For my CTM routine, I use products from the Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare range. Previously, I have used more affordable products from Simple and Olay but since Christmas, I've fallen in love with these.

If you seriously want to enhance your skin and make it feel replenished then using a cleanser, toner and moisturiser, twice a day, will improve your skin short term and long term. I've done some research and they say you should start as young as possible; this can apparently reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

These Liz Earle products are pricy but you're paying for good quality - not just the brand. I have found that in the past month, my skin has started to feel great. I use these twice a day and you only need a small amount of both. There are definitely more affordable drugstore products in Boots etc, but sometimes, you just have to treat your skin. I do think that they are reasonably priced for the quality and I've already repurchased the toner.

Products mentioned:
Liz Earle Cleanser
Liz Earle Toner
Liz Earle Moisturiser