Happy New Year!!!!! Hope everyone has had a fantastic time with family and friends, and I also hope you've had lots of yummy things to eat and some time to relax!! :-)
I'm kicking off the New Year by sharing my 2014 Skincare Favorites! I'm still trying to decide on makeup favorites...so that will come later. And I've had quite a few 'other' favorites (still beauty related), so I'm still not sure what the final list will be. Stay tuned... But for now, let's talk skincare!
***All items purchased by me. Links are to previous blog posts or are non-affiliate links.
2014 Skincare Favorites - www.gummyvision.com - Alpha H Liquid Gold, Glycolix Elite 15% Treatment Pads 15%, Professional Solutions Vitamin C,B,E & Ferulic Serum, African Botanics Pure Marula Oil, Lotrimin Antifungal, Renee Rouleau Triple Berry Smoothing Peel
I do apologize...I'm behind & some items on this list I've not yet reviewed. But these are the skincare products I feel have made the most difference! All but 1 item I started using in 2014...
Glycolic Acid: Glycolix Elite Treatment Pads 15% & Alpha H Liquid Gold - Reviews HERE. As you can see, I'm close to finishing the pads...I already have the 20% on hand to try next! I'm still using and rotating both of these products - how often I use each depends on how my skin is feeling and looking. With consistent use, I've found the Glycolix Elite Treatment Pads are a little better than the Alpha H Liquid Gold at keeping breakouts to a minimum and keeping my skin feeling bouncy. The Liquid Gold is better at making my skin super soft. Both have helped with pigmentation issues, exfoliation and keeping things looking fresh!
Professional Solutions Vitamin B,C,E & Ferulic Serum - You can find this HERE. This is a similar product to the SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic, and even starts out with a very similar ingredient list. See below:
Professional Solutions Vitamin B,C,E & Ferulic Serum: Purified Water (Aqua), Ethoxydiglycol, L-Ascorbic Acid, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Laureth-23, Tocopherol, Ferulic Acid, Panthenol, TEA, Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium PCA, Niacinamide, Phenoxyethanol
Skinceuticals CE Ferulic: Water, Ethoxydiglycol, L-Ascorbic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Laureth-23, Alpha Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol, Triethanolamine, Ferulic Acid, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate
The Skinceuticals CE Ferulic is meant to do a host of things, among them promote collagen, fight free radicals, help protect from and fight sun damage and also help with pigmentation. Buuuuut, at $150+ I still haven't tried it. When I ordered a 2nd tub of the Professional Solutions Corrective Clearing Mask (still a favorite, HERE!), I was poking around the site to see what other products they had. The Vitamin B,C,E & Ferulic Serum definitely caught my eye, as it seemed to be an amped up version of the Skinceuticals. Oh, and it's only $40 :-)
Flat out, I love this stuff. It seriously has helped with sun damage, and even after a couple of weeks I noticed fading of damage at the top of my cheeks. At this point, I every time I look in the mirror I can't believe how noticeably more even my skin looks! I just feel more radiant!! And though I've only been using this during the day (glycolic at night), it still has made a big difference...at some point I may try using this both day and night to see if the results are any better. I'm about 1/2 way through this bottle, and already have a second bottle on order.
Glycolix Elite Fortified Cream - I can't believe I'm saying this, but I've found a moisturizer I prefer over my previous favorite, the LUSH Celestial Facial Moisturizer. I've gone through many tubs of the LUSH, and it's been my go to moisturizer for over a year now! But the Glycolix sinks in better and is more moisturizing, yet doesn't feel heavy at all. I also feel like the Glycolix has more skin benefits...the LUSH I felt like was just a moisturizer. Plus the Glycolix is a few $ cheaper. I'm on my second container now! I love it so much that I haven't even touched my last backup of the LUSH, and quite frankly am not sure what I'm going to do with it ha ha!
African Botanics Pure Marula Oil - Review HERE. Still love this oil, and am so happy to have found it!! I'm on my second bottle. It repairs, moisturizes without feeling heavy, absorbs really well and layers nicely with my other skincare.
Sisley Eye and Lip Contour Cream - Mini reviewed HERE. Absolutely stand behind everything I said previously, and can firmly say this has taken top spot as my Holy Grail eye cream. And despite the price, I'm now on my second jar! I have about 3/4 left of my previous favorite, Shiseido Benefiance, but I'm really struggling to get through it because I love the Sisley so much. I'm not gonna sit here and say anyone needs a $210 eye cream...BUT...if you are looking for a splurge and are in the market for a decadent and very effective eye cream, I'd absolutely recommend this!! I mean, Barneys Love Yourself event will be here before you know it :-) *wink wink*
Renee Rouleau Triple Berry Smoothing Peel - Mini reviewed HERE. I actually bought this last year, and used it pretty regularly the first part of the year. Then somewhere along the way I stopped using it and decided to just add it to my Skincare Clean Out (felt I didn't need it with all the good results I was seeing from glycolic acid). But, as I said in my Update post...OMG I had forgotten how fantastic this was!!! Promptly repurchased and am loving again!! As I said in the post, "It's like a mini facial in a pot...just makes me look and feel refreshed and brighter"!
Weird remedies: Antifungal Cream - Ok, so this might be TMI and gross, but I'm putting it out there in case anyone suffers from the same type of acne I do. A lot of the acne I've experienced in the past year has these weird plugs in them. Not plugs as in sebum plugs, where when you squeeze and the hardened sebum comes out. These are hard, usually long and thin but I have had them form little balls.. When I am finally able to extract the plugs/balls - ok, first of all they are crazy hard to extract because it's almost like they are stuck to the base of the pore and they are kinda slippery - they bleed a lot. Oh, and the spot won't heal or go away until that hard plug is completely extracted. Which, again is very difficult to do.
During the Summer I had a few particularly bad spots, and that's what led me to start using glycolic acid and also to do a ton of googling. I found THIS specific thread extremely helpful and was like, AH HA!!! The original post, along with so many other comments described exactly what I had been going through. The original poster suggested that some acne is fungal - she tried an antifungal and saw hers pretty much dissolve. I bought a tube of Lotrimin, and sure enough, it worked...dissolved just like she said! It's like the antifungal targets the plug and just eats it away - again, sorry gross, but that's what it seems like.
I can use the Lotrimin for many days in a row, day and night, without it feeling drying. Once it does feel drying, I stop using it for a couple of days and I'm good. But I also use it around my mouth and chin, where I'm more oily so if you are normal to dry you might need to layer it with a moisturizer. And around my mouth and chin are where I'm prone to this type of acne, though I have had it on my cheeks. But as a preventative, I try to apply the Lotrimin at least once a week for a couple days in a row. If I forget for too long, I can start to see things build up and then I just use it until I can see the skin return to normal - usually takes only a few days. So, yeah...strange, but hopefully it'll help someone!!!
Stay tuned for 2014 makeup (and other) favorites!!