Skincare secrets with Farfetch Beauty

Gone are the days when I could sleep with the remnants of the day's makeup on and not suffer the consequences. As a teacher with busy school days, and even busier weekends, I find my morning and evening skincare routine to be a bit of light relief.

I'm just about to reach the end of one of the busiest terms - we waved off year 11 four days ago,  only now seeing them when they come in for their GCSE exams. The last month has consisted of early mornings and late nights, when marking 180 mock exams has had to be a priority and deadlines for grades and reports have been looming, taking up the work day and the evenings.
Due to this I've been trying to schedule in time to keep myself sane; in the mornings it's with my makeup and in the evenings it's been with my skincare regime.

My mornings usually consist of a quick rendezvous with my Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, a hearty swipe of my Pixi Glow Tonic which is chased by Lush's Enzymion moisturiser. Somewhere in there I make a cup of tea (usually managing to drink half before forgetting about it...) and maybe have a little dance around to my morning playlist.

After a day of teaching, talking, laughing (or maybe crying, depending on the day...) and marking I'll be ready to wash off the day. If it's been busy I'll hop in the shower and grab my Clarisonic face brush with my Bioderma cleansing gel. Together, these remove makeup and thoroughly cleanse the skin leaving my face feeling smooth.

Once I'm out, there's an opportunity for hair oil or leave-in conditioner which at the moment is either Aussie's 3 Minute Miracle or Phillip Kingsley's Damage Defence spray. I brush these through with my Wet Brush and then move back on to my skincare products.

Then, I go back over my whole face with my Pixi Glow Tonic and Enzymion. To avoid puffiness and keep the delicate under eye skin hydrated I rely on my Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment and pat that gently underneath my eye and a little round the sides to the edge of my brow bone.

After that there's just enough time for a swipe of my Nivea lip butter and that's when I'm done!

It does seem like a lot of products just for one person, but they all work together to keep my skin in good condition. I find having some confidence in the way my skin looks helps my body confidence remain at a relatively good level, even if I'm completely wiped out after a day at work!

Do you have any skin secrets to share that might help me remain sane in these last few weeks? If you need inspiration too have a browse of the Farfetch Beauty section.

Comment or tweet me!

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This post was published as a promotional piece with Farfetch.com 

Clarisonic Aria Review // Week 1

So, a week ago I blogged about my purchase of the Clarisonic Aria. This week is a bit more about how we're getting on together. Firstly though, this is just my experience with the Clarisonic and if you have one yours may differ!

Products...?

I have been using a mix of these three products with my Clarisonic; the Dermalogica Clean Start (now Clear Start I believe) face wash, the Bioderma cleansing foaming gel and a Clarins Energizer gel.

(1) similar here, (2) £9.00/200ml Click here & (3) £12.00 / 75ml Click here

I only use the Clarisonic once a day, usually in the evenings. I'll take most of my make-up off with a sweep of Bioderma's cleansing water on a cotton pad but focus on removing all my eye make-up first. Once that's done I splash my face with warm water and use one of the three gels on my skin. I lather it up and then use the Clarisonic to deep cleanse my face. 

The T-Timer allows me to know when to move to a different part of my face - 20 seconds on my chin, 20 seconds on my forehead and 10 seconds on each cheek. I've used it like this every evening and afterwards my skin feels so soft. 

What's different since using the Clarisonic?

In the last week I have noticed: my skin is much softer after every use; my moisturiser sinks in quickly and my skin still feels smooth in the morning; the blackheads and clogged pores on my chin have reduced dramatically; a small number of not-quite-spots have developed on my forehead. They're not in any way bad but there are significantly more than I tend to have. I haven't noticed them anywhere else on my face so it seems pretty isolated to my forehead. I haven't yet noticed an improvement in the milia on the tops of my cheeks but I haven't noticed any negative change either so I can't complain there!

Overall, I am enjoying using the Clarisonic so far; it feels like a proper deep clean daily and is a welcome addition to my skincare routine.

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First Impression : Clarisonic Aria

Okay, so I caved... I've been considering getting a Clarisonic for a while but haven't felt I could justify it. I've read loads of reviews and tried to figure out which model to go for and finally settled on the newest release, the Aria.

The handheld device is a sonic facial cleansing system. From what I understand it doesn't spin but it vibrates and pulses to deliver a deep cleanse to the face. With an easy to use brush head and timer this product does actually look like it could do the job of fully cleansing my skin and ridding my life of blackheads without over complicating my cleansing routine.

It comes with a drying stand and a magnetic charger that can be slipped into the stand to make it a charging stand. The cable is a USB so it can be plugged into any USB friendly device to charge. This makes travelling with it much easier as there's no fussy plugs to worry about! 

My first impressions have been something like this : "Ooh, okay. That's weird and kind of new to my face." After the initial getting-used-to-it period it's actually quite therapeutic to have this little thing buzzing away at your blocked pores! I've tried two liquid cleansers and ultimately have been left with smooth skin so far... What I'm really interested in is if it clears blackheads and milia (tiny little calcium bumps) as well as encouraging all the gunk to get out of my pores so spots don't form.

I'll be updating you on here under the tag "Clarisonic Aria" with my opinion on the Clarisonic every week so check back next Monday for how I'm getting on!

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