Skincare Not Worth The Hype…

Todays post is a big step away from my usual over excitable outpour of praise towards beauty buys and instead I am going to be naming and shaming products that I have purchased over the last few months and have been actually pretty disappointed with. I must add I am not saying these products are necessarily bad, some are OK while others were a definite flop, but all of which I would not rush to purchase again, if at all- hopefully saving you all some pennies (for once!). 

First up is the Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant, £33.  I gave this product a really good go, I wanted to like it so much and at first was convinced I must have been doing something wrong. I had read so many good things, it is a total cult product and a bestseller in its own right, even winning the Instyle Best Beauty Buys ‘Best Exfoliant’ in 2010- which to me surely made it’s praise gospel truth!? It claims to be gentle enough to use on a daily basis to leave skin brighter and noticeably smoother. It contains a rice-based enzyme powder of which you shake a generous amount into the palm of your hand and activates into a cream upon adding water. The problem I found was that in adding water, the once abrasive rice powder which looked to promise a good scrubbing action turned to a completely smooth cream that quite frankly didn't feel like it did anything to exfoliate my skin. I tried using less water, keeping some grains completely dry but always it melted down to a thick super smooth paste. This lead me to believe it was more of a chemical exfoliant which I was not adverse to at all. I love and intend to repurchase the Algenist Triple Action Micro Polish and Peel, £58.50 which is a chemical based exfoliant with similar fruit and salicylic acids. My only concern with this was that it is only meant to be left on for a minute which just doesn't seem long enough for these acids to get to work and encourage any dead skin cells to lift away. I found after the minute my skin felt and looked no different if anything it looked dryer. The next time I experimented and left the product on for 3 minutes, after which my skin felt tight, dry and sore especially on areas prone to dehydration such as the forehead and my jawline. I was very disappointed by this purchase, I have a friend who has used this product for a long time and more recently found her skin to be increasingly irritated after using and so maybe I just missed the boat on when this product was actually worth having. If so Dermalogica, why fix something if it isn't broken? tssk. 

Next is another skincare fail, the La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo Anti-Blemish Cream, £15.50. This is one that I bought into late last year, I have used La Roche Posay products in my kit for a while now and have been really impressed and repurchased items such as the Rosaliac Anti Redness Moisturiser, £16 amongst others and so after being totally brainwashed by every youtuber going this didn't seem like a risky purchase at all. I don't suffer from huge or regular breakouts but do seem to always have underlying pimples on my chin that aren't offensive and are easily concealed but I am aware that they are there and of course would prefer it if they weren’t. I applied this gel-cream to the area every morning and evening, before applying my regular moisturiser all over my face. I gave it a good six weeks before noticing that very little had cleared up and my skin became so dry it looked almost flaky. I was so disappointed and I have to say despite there still being adverts on Youtube laying on thick how amazing this product is, pretty much everyone I have spoken to personally about this product found it a massive waste of time. It still sits in my drawer never to be used again, now THAT was a waste of my hard earned boots points! 

This is a product that has been lurking about in my (overspilling) skincare drawer for over a year now, I do occasionally go back to it and currently nearing the end of the bottle I am determined to use it up but will definitely not be repurchasing and its the Alpha H Liquid Gold, £31.50. This again was one that totally invaded beauty blogs and glossy mags about a year ago described as an overnight facial in a bottle. It is a liquid that is applied soaked to a cotton bud and swept onto the skin, again I feel slightly misleading that this is described as a serum, a much better description in my opinion would be an exfoliating tonic or fluid. Its key ingredient is Glycolic Acid, a natural acid derived from sugar cane that is brilliant for blemish prone skins to cleanse deep into the pore, lift away dead skin cells thus encouraging smooth and radiant skin. I guess this product worked a little more at what it promised to do than the above items mentioned which is probably why it didn't get thrown into the depts of my skincare drawer quite so hastily however it isn't brilliant, I don't wake up feeling a new woman as was suggested and honestly it has the most pungent smell it feels a bit like using nail varnish remover on the skin followed by a strong stinging sensation. All in all it is ok, not the most enjoyable product to fall asleep with on your face and I could definitely think of plenty other Glycolic based products I would much sooner use than this. humpf. 

I hope that helps, do bear in mind these are my personal experiences with these products. I would of course love to hear if you got on differently. Lots of negativity in todays post but it is important to touch on the things that don't work also, it is a risky business being a beauty junkie and unfortunately not everything is as it seems. 

Enjoy x