Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm Review

Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm: its a product that's pretty well heard of within the beauty world  but today I'm going to be giving my two pennies worth on it. There are plenty of rave reviews on this skincare classic from Clinique, but I started using this towards the end of last year so this isn't like a first impressions type of review. I made my mind up about this months ago yet I still wanted to give it a fair trial as I know our opinions can change. Its not very often that I have had to repurchase skincare but six months and a brand new jar later I think you can already tell how this review is going to go. 

Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm Link

Taking Care In The Sun - Clinique SPF 30 Body Cream

I am guilty to admit that in the past I have neglected taking proper care of myself in the sun. I'm sure we've all been there at some point, whether you caught the sun by accident or deliberately to catch some rays in the hope of getting your pins looking a bit more bronzed. However there is more and more evidence out there to suggest the effects of sun damage and I for one have vowed to avoid another summer of sore lobster coloured flesh.

Clinique SPF 30 Body Cream  - Link

Clinique Dramatically Different Review

Today I thought it was time to finally review my holy grail daily moisturizer on the old blog! I tend to always take skincare related posts or Youtube videos with a pinch of salt because at the end of the day everyone's skin is so different and what works for one person may not for another. However despite that fact everyone just seems to love a bit of a skincare post don't they? And so here I am telling you about my favourite daily moisturizer the famous yellow cream from Clinique: their Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+. This seems to be a bit of a Marmite product in the beauty world - but I belong to the team that sings its praises!

Its taken me a long while to find a skincare product that actually works for me, I've tried my fair share of facial moisturizers that just haven't worked for me. Origins GinZing - loved everything about it apart from the small fact that it broke me out in hot unpleasant spots, similarly I had the same sort of results with the Clarins Daily Energizer  to name just a few of the top of my head. Looking back I think either my skin doesn't like those more gel like formulas or it was the fact that a lot of what I'd tried were quite highly scented? Fragranced skincare is supposedly a huge factor in contributing to these breakouts.

As I've mentioned many times now I've had a lot of issues with hormonal breakouts anyway in the last few months so I really wanted to find a facial moisturizer that would just agree with me and do its job at giving my skin some much needed hydration. I don't have oily skin, and its not dry either but in areas it just needs a bit more moisture especially around my nose.

And so onto how I find this moisturizer from Clinique - keep in mind I never tried the 'original formula' either because apparently this had a revolutionary change in the last few years and a lot of people who used to enjoy it didn't like those changes. But as I say I don't have any comparison to the original.

This yellow looking cream isn't particularly fancy by any means. When you pump out the cream it does in fact turn out to be the same yellow looking colour it is in the bottle, however as soon as it is massaged into the skin it becomes transparent. Another thing that you notice straight away is that it is unfragranced, for me this is not an issue but I know for some it would be as many tend to enjoy a moisturizer that comes with a scent.

Dramatically Different + is very light in texture and sinks in to your skin easily meaning its perfect for every day use, it absorbs very quickly and is a great base ahead of makeup. I don't ever find this sticky or greasy feeling. For me one pump is enough to cover my entire face but I usually use another small pump as well to allow for my neck area. I use this day and night because as I've mentioned this is the only moisturizer that I've tried that does not give me nasty breakouts.

Supposedly this cream is meant to strengthen your skins moisture barrier meaning that overtime the lotion becomes more effective and I would say that since using this my skin seems to accept the hydration of a moisturizer better. Obviously aside from the odd hormonal breakout my skin is generally very smooth feeling and it is definitely a result of using this.

I've been using this now since December when I first picked up my first Clinique skincare bits - I got a small 50ml bottle to start with to check my skin agreed with it and have since gone on to purchase the full size 125ml. I'm really happy with the results its never broken me out and my skin is smooth and hydrated. I think that this will definitely always be a moisturizer that I can safely rely on to give me exactly what I need without any fuss. As you can see I've used a fair amount up but I literally use it religiously twice a day and I think that this should easily see me straight through to the summer months, although I will have to remember that this doesn't contain SPF...

QOTD: Have you ever used Clinique Dramatically Different Lotion?

Clinique Even Better Foundation

Clinique Even Better Makeup | Boots | £24.50 | Link

If you caught my recent haul you will have seen that I picked up this absolute gem of a foundation from Clinique with promises that I would write a full review on it so sit tight as I have a lot of things to say about this product!

So I guess I should briefly point out in case you didn't catch my haul post where I already explained this, that I've been having problem skin and Clinique Even Better Makeup with SPF 15 was the foundation that was recommended to me by the sales assistant. According to Clinique this is made with an oil free formula that helps your skin tone appear more even both short term and in the long term - the website also calls this a moderate to full coverage foundation. I had this applied to me at the counter in Boots, and my first impressions of it were pretty decent to be honest. The lady had put this foundation on so flawlessly but without making my skin look like it was caked in makeup. It corrected the redness around my nose, covered blemishes with ease and just generally made my skin look naturally glowy and beautiful - something it hasn't done for a long while now.

My slight concern was that I would buy the foundation and struggle to replicate the awesome results that the Clinique MUA did for me. One thing that I am glad I paid good attention to was the type of brush she applied it with, now she used a flat foundation brush - a type of brush that I have never braved to use before. But while I was in Boots I decided to pick one up to use with the makeup as what she had done was a good job, so I got one from EcoTools. The next morning when it came to reapplying my makeup I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to recreate a good a job. I used the EcoTools flat foundation brush and it didn't really take too much getting used to, using more of swipe/pat motion. 

The foundation feels very light when you apply it, and its consistency is pretty liquid based - when you shake it it sounds quite watery in the bottle, I love how this feels on the skin it is almost like a moisturizer - it feels so breathable and almost as if you don't really have any makeup on your face which I think is lovely particularly as this will probably be more of a daytime option for me. Another perk of the foundation is naturally the SPF as I will be wearing this during the daytime so it never hurts to get some added protection in there does it?

The wear time of this foundation is the only real let down for me, I think that because of its watery consistency it seems to wipe away from the face within a few hours. I don't apply powder to set it so I'm not sure if adding some powder would help the duration of this foundation last a bit longer but without powder it does slip away from your face by the middle of the day which is unfortunate.  

You could definitely go medium to full coverage with this depending on how you prefer it - I really like how this can achieve quite a high coverage while still looking very dewy and skin-like.You also don't need to pile loads on to achieve a nice finish, although one thing that I would say about this foundation is that I definitely prefer it with a flat foundation brush as it gives such a better coverage and looks really beautiful. I tried this with my RT Expert Face brush for experiments sake and the coverage just wasn't there and it didn't have that lovely finish to it that you can achieve with a foundation brush.

I'm really surprised that this foundation doesn't pop up a bit more often on the beauty blogging scene because it really is a nice foundation for day time wear that gives a beautiful dewy finish with moderate coverage. However I wouldn't recommend this foundation for someone looking for a long lasting foundation as sadly I don't think that this would cut it. You wouldn't get a days wear out of this without needing to reapply or touch up, and so in terms of price I think that isn't the best value for money as I can imagine a bottle will run out fairly quickly. This isn't exactly a drugstore price foundation at nearing the £25 mark but in comparison to some high end foundations that isn't too alarmingly priced. Thankfully the bottle isn't glass so its super travel friendly meaning you can chuck it in your makeup bag on the go no problem for those necessary touch ups.

Wearing Clinique Even Better Makeup

QOTD: Have you tried Clinique Even Better Foundation?

Clinique Haul

Hello 2015! I'm starting my year of blogging with surprise, surprise a haul post. But I'm being a tad cheeky with this one as I actually picked these bits up a few weeks ago - technically last year - while I was on my recent winter break, when we went for a little visit into Norwich for a spot of shopping. While we were there I made a quick stop at the Clinique counter in Boots.

I'm pretty sure that I've mentioned that my skin has been really playing me up in the last few months, and my mum suggested that I go and try out some of Clinique's products as it might be a bit kinder to my skin. She also said that over the years Clinique have been some of her favourite foundations, so the first thing I was in search of was a foundation. As much as I love my Nars face products I do think that they have a tendency to make me break out a bit so I think that a new foundation could help in my skincare troubles.

It took a matter of seconds stood at the Clinique counter for me to feel utterly overwhelmed by all that they had to offer in the name of foundation. Thankfully I was quickly approached by a very helpful shop assistant and I told her all of my concerns, and the sort of foundation I was looking for - medium coverage nothing too cakey and she offered to try some on me so I could get a correct colour match. The foundation she recommended was the Clinique Even Better makeup, and she did an amazing job at applying the foundation and I loved how it looked - I won't say too much more as I plan on doing a full review shortly in the new year.

The next product I decided I would try was the Dramatically Different Moisturizer which was another family recommendation as quite a few of the women in my family use/have used it. I tried a little sample version of this moisturizer a while back and my skin got on with it so I hope that this will be a good safe option for me as a moisturizer. Lastly, I decided to try Take The Day Off balm to remove my makeup with. I've heard balms are meant to be one of the best types of cleansers to get every last scrap of makeup off your face and the shop assistant also said it was really good as a makeup remover.

Having been using these products for the last few weeks I'm already impressed with each one of them, as I mentioned I have a full review on the foundation on the way but if anyone would like a review of the other two products leave me a comment below :)