Caudalie favourites and staples

Caudalie gentle cleanser, lip balm, beauty elixir

Caudalie is one of those luxurious but natural feeling brands. It feels like products from a spa. I first found out about this brand when a lot of bloggers were raving about the Caudalie Beauty Elixir. Being curious, I tried out some of their products and ended up really liking a few.

First up is the Caudalie gentle cleanser. The one pictured is the old formula. I heard they reformulated the cleanser and now people don't like it as much as the old. I actually have a 100ml bottle of the new formula which I forgot to include in the photo above. It seems quite a bit thicker and does not have the soothing scent of the old one. This is my second bottle of this cleanser and I absolutely adore it. I cleanse my face with this cleanser after I have removed my makeup. The scent really helps me to relax. It also makes my skin feel really cleansed but soothed afterwards. I also use the Caudalie Beauty Elixir (which I find quite expensive). I mainly use this at my desk when I study and need something to help me keep awake. I know this sounds like the biggest waste of money but this really works to keep be refreshed and ready to continue studying. Lastly I have both the old and new formula of the Caudalie lip conditioner. Again like the gentle cleanser, I have read a lot of reviews saying that the old formula of the lip conditioner is much better than the new. I find that the old lip conditioner (green wording) is creamier and seems to sink into the lips more. It also has a vanilla-ish scent. The new lip conditioner (purple wording) has a more distinct and artificial scent which reminds me of gummy lollies. The balm is also flat where as the old tube had a lip stick bullet. I do find that the old formula is more nourishing and has a subtler scent. The new just seems like a regular lipbalm and does not help chapped lips.

Have you tried any Caudalie products?

Pampering time

I usually try to set aside an hour or so each week to pamper myself :P

I always have a large amount of face masks on hand and like to do the whole exfoliate, cleanse, toner, serum then face masks routine. Usually if i miss a couple of weeks I find that my skin tends to look a bit dull. After a good pampering session my skin is restored to being fresh and bright :)

Products pictured:
Ishizawa white wash foaming cleanser/mask
Jurlique herbal recovery gel
Biotherm Aquasource skin perfector exfoliating cleanser
Sukin hydrating mist toner
My Scheming Deep Cleansing mask

Neal's Yard Haul

I don't remember how I found out about this brand but I did and saw it was available on asos.com so I decided to purchase some stuff :D

I was looking for a new body lotion because my current Vichy rose one smells a bit strange.. It's not the typical sweet smelling rose scent, it is more like grass mixed with rose so I'm not too fond of it. I read some reviews online and heard that the Neal's Yard Bee Happy body lotion smelled really natural and pleasant so I decided to try it out.

It comes in a pretty blue plastic bottle with a pump which is very convenient. It is very natural smelling and reminds me of honey mixed with orange zest. It applies quite thickly and left a slightly sticky feeling for a few minutes before it was absorbed by my skin. When I woke up today my skin felt really smooth and hydrated. Overall quite a nice purchase.

I ran out of my Caudalie gentle cleansing milk a few days ago so I got the Calendula cleanser to try out.  It is for dry and sensitive skin which is perfect for me. I opened it and it doesn't seem to have much of a scent to it but I haven't tried it out properly. Will post an update when I do :)

French Pharmacy Skincare Haul

Recently my skin was acting up and very sensitive. I started getting really itchy and flaky skin around my eyebrows and on either side of my nose. I tried putting on masks and slapping on more moisturiser but it would still get flaky by the end of the day. So I looked for some moisturising skincare which was aimed at sensitive skin. The first sensitive skincare I tried was the skin recovery cream by Avene. After around 2 months of using it religiously day and night it fixed all my flakiness and itchiness!!!

Then....I started researching into more of the French Pharmacy skincare products and made a few orders from escentual.com =__=

They have a huge range of french skincare and at quite low prices too (compared to Australia).

Products shown:

Nuxe reve de miel hand cream- quite a good hand cream and isn't sticky.

Caudalie beauty elixir - refreshing spray... but not really seeing any results yet

La Roche Posay tinted moisturiser - this is an ok product but I found that it only works if I apply one thin layer. If I try to apply a second layer it tends to rub off the first layer and I'm left with nothing.

La Roche Posay Hydreane Legere - haven't tried this yet

La Roche Posay ceralip - I read from amodelrecommends that this lip balm was really good.. but on me it actually made my lips flakier :S

La Roche Posay nutrilip- this is very thin but is much better than the ceralip for me. After it dries up my lips actually feel moisturised and repaired.

La Roche Posay physiological soothing toner - haven't tried

Avene skin recovery cream - repurchase since I finished the first tube. Really really good moisturiser for my sensitive and dry skin in winter. But since the weather is getting warmer I find that this is a bit too much and leaves my dry skin feeling slightly oily and heavy.

Avene gentle milk cleanser- haven't tried

Avene extremely gentle cleanser - haven't tried

Overall I'm quite happy with my french skincare finds but some of them are a bit disappointing especially the ceralip and tinted moisturiser.