Skincare - My current top 3

So writing up my blog post last night about my favourite lips at the moment - read here - got me really thinking about what my favourite products were. It seems I'm in love with so many right now as it was really hard to bring the list down! And that's why I have decided to split them down in to manageable pieces, so that I can give better reviews about my favourite things rather than write a list the length of my arm! So here they are, the items that made it in to my Top 3 for Skincare!

Urban Veda Radiance Exfoliating Facial Polish - This is a sample that I got in one of my monthly subscription boxes and instantly fell in love with it. From the lovely design of the packaging, to its delicious scent, it's lush! The trouble I have with a lot of facial exfoliators is that the exfoliant beads are either so big and scratchy that they're verging on painful or so fine that you can't feel them working at all, and I just like to be able to feel something working. No such trouble's with this, the beads are the perfect size to both buff my skin effectively AND not leave me feeling slightly tortured in the process. And Urban Veda is a company that works with natural skincare, so you know that there are no harsh artificial chemicals in there.

T-Zone Clear Out Nose Pore Strips - I don't actually know of many people using pore strips. I know none of my friends do and I'm yet to come across a blog where they are spoken about. Maybe I'm just the only person that thinks these are magical! At first I found them a mixture of slightly intriguing and slightly horrifying (seeing those pore strips after they have been used can be a bit of a shock) but now I've grown really fond of them. No matter how good your skin is, these pore strips will pick up the slightest trace of a blackhead. But that's what I like, they make your skin feel intensely clean, whilst the after effects of the tea-tree oil leave your skin feeling cool and tingly. I usually use these after cleansing in the evening and then moisturise and my pores always look much more refined the next day.

The Body Shop Almond Hand and Nail Cream - Suffering from eczema on my hands and forearms, they have a tendency to get really dry and senstitive from time-to-time. This then comes as an absolute godsend to my hands as it deeply nourishes and treats my dry, cracked skin but doesn't irritate my skin further like I find a lot of other hand creams tend to. I try not to let my hands get to the point of being bad but I always know I can rely on this to make them lovely and soft again. And, like all The Body Shop's products, it smells really good and not at all artificial.

So there you go, they are my top 3 skincare products. I could have chosen a lot more, like Benefit It's Potent Eye Cream which you can just feel working, or nSpa Revitalising Toning Mist which is sooo refreshing, but I managed to whittle it down to those three heavyweights!!

What products do you have in your top 3, any of mine?


Urban Veda Radiance Exfoliating Facial Polish can be found on Urban Veda for £8.99 for 125ml
T-Zone Pore Strips can be found on Fragrance Direct for £2.50 for 6 strips
The Body Shop Almond Hand Cream can be found on The Body Shop for £5 for 30ml

My Mum's New Facial Skincare Routine!

My mum is the biggest product-phobe you will ever meet. She has never used proper skincare products, apart from the odd Body Shop face mask here and there. Her usual routine is to wash her face in the shower with soap (!!!) and that's pretty much it! She actually does have very good skin considering, but doing her make-up the other day (another first for her, not a drop of make-up has touched that face ever, not even on her wedding day) I mentioned her skin was slightly on the dry side and she agreed to at least try a skin care routine. This decision was helped by the fact that she does actually have a few decent products that she has been bought by family members etc and so she didn't even have to go and purchase any. These are the products I advised her to start using regularly:

From top left clockwise - nSPa Brightening Detox Scrub, nSpa Replenishing Moisture Mask, Olay Anti-Wrinkle Firm and Lift Day Cream (SPF 15) and nSpa Youthful Eye Cream. Before going any further I thought I better mention as well that another reason my mum has agreed to start a routine (and let me try different make up looks for her) is because my brother's wedding is very quickly approaching and being the mother of the groom she wants to look her very best!

So, I had advised her to use the Detox Scrub once every few days, roughly twice a week. This is just to help buff away any dry skin and leave her face looking radiant, but not to overly use as that can lead to your skin overcompensating and producing a lot of oil. Her skin is also quite sensitive really and so would probably react if she used it more often than this. This product smells lovely and not at all harsh on the skin. It is actually perfect for her skin type, and she has already commented that she really likes this, well done nSpa, you may have my mum converted!

I have told her to only use this Moisturising Mask once a week, after exfoliating preferably. Again this smells LOVELY, but then I really think all nSpa products do, I really am a fan. I was once told not to use a face mask the day before a big event as they can cause break outs as they draw the impurities out of the skin and so your skin is always better a couple of days after using. Almost as in a 'it has to get worse to get better' sense. I strongly believe this and always make sure I use a mask at least 2 days before so that my skin looks great for that special occassion. Therefore, I have advised my mum not to use this within 2 days of the Wedding!!

I remember reading another blogger saying (sorry it slips my mind where I read it but it was quite recent!) that you should always apply your eye cream BEFORE your moisturiser so that all that lovely cream can sink in to your eye area without being interrupted by the moisturiser, and then once it's all absorbed apply your moisturiser. In theory this sounds a good idea and so I have been following this advice since. And so obviously I passed that advice on to mum. So now after washing her face (which she is still using soap for, not quite fully converted yet!) she applies a very small dab of her Eye Cream around her under-eye area and then continues getting ready. Then when she's all ready to go she just needs to rub in a little of her Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream before heading out for the day, simple!!

I tried to keep her routine simple as I knew that if I tried getting her to do a lot straight off she would have been put off completely. But as they say, every little helps. And I'm sure she will look positively radiant in all the upcoming wedding pictures!!

Can you recommend any good, simple skincare products for older women that can be easily done on the go?