In February, it’ll be fourteen years since I posted my first blog on this website. When then, in 2010, the website was tabbed A Model Recommends and each post was a couple of hundred words long, if that. I just wrote exactly what I thought of a product in the shortest, snappiest way and the images that accompanied those reviews were the brand’s own still-life product images, dragged and dropped from their online shop or from Google. The phrase “social media” didn’t really exist yet and the word “influencer” was still a glorious decade or increasingly away.
Sometimes I re-read these reviews and wonder at how simple online life was, then. I was writing well-nigh products that I’d discovered during my twelve years as a model, when I’d been sitting in the chairs of famous makeup artists and having my hair chopped well-nigh and backcombed into oblivion by the coolest stylists. It had been an immensely sunny way to find out well-nigh the most constructive cleansers, the gentlest skin-soothing tinctures and the balmiest hair-smoothing creams considering these mega-professionals, these industry kingpins, they were sent everything on the market to try out on their models.
(Makeup recommendations weren’t unchangingly quite as fascinating, considering 90% of the time everyone just used MAC and it often got very wearisome for me as a nosy product sleuth, but that’s a story for flipside day!)
So yes; I travelled well-nigh the world as a model and then I wrote well-nigh the things I loved. But then things began to change; my blog scrutinizingly immediately snowballed into something quite big and I unexplored a whole new role: all of the skincare and haircare and makeup samples were coming straight to me and so rather than passing on other people’s recommendations, I became the product tester!
It was, I felt, an scrutinizingly overwhelmingly weighty responsibility. With something like 450,000 pageviews a month on this website at the height of the blogging boom, I knew that what I wrote would influence how people spent their money and considering of this I felt that I had to be extra-diligent well-nigh how I went well-nigh testing and rating the products that were sent in. I read extensively well-nigh how unrepealable ingredients worked and whether they would be beneficial, I spent half my life on a website tabbed Cosmetic Cop that cut through a lot of the marketing bullshit, trying to strop my hair-trigger eye and whilom all I tried to test the products fairly and practically, giving them unbearable time to do what they should do and limiting the number of new products I introduced at once.
(Reviewing skincare, 2015)
To cut a long story short (maybe all of this history deserves its own post!) I treated my eyeful product-testing as a proper job. And it quickly became a proper job. And I am still very much as diligent in my testing and reviewing as I was all of those years ago, when I was still working from my self-ruling Blogspot website and using copy-and-paste stock images. If I say I love something then you can guarantee that I really do and that I’ll have tried unbearable stuff from the same category to have a pretty good idea as to how it ranks versus its competitors. But I unchangingly think that the true proof of an outstanding product is the one that I will personally use then and again. And plane increasingly than this, it’s the one that I would buy again and again. Considering it makes veritably no sense to buy something when you have twenty similar versions of it waiting on a shelf to be tried – why spend thirty quid on a mascara when there are five new ones that have just landed on your sedentary to be tested? If I’d go and buy it, despite the pile of stuff I still need to wade through, then I’d say that’s a fairly solid recommendation for something.
(Reviewing skincare, 2023)
So I’ve started a new habit. I’ve started making notes on all of the products I use then and then and saving the packaging when I finish them so that I can alimony track of personal favourites. Which skin recovery surf I reach for whilom all others; which retinoids I would recommend to my friends without hesitation – which facial mists I can’t live without. (Answer: none of them, I find them mostly quite pointless and I hate the feeling of spraying my own face.) I have some plastic boxes in my office into which I chuck these pots and bottles and tubes – the foundations I can unchangingly rely on, the mascaras I’d pack in a hurry, the cleansers that are a cut whilom the rest – and every now and then I either take a photo of the contents of the boxes or I sit lanugo and make a list of them with a few widow notes.
This post (got to the point in the end!) is basically the contents of one of those boxes. The skincare products I’ve used repeatedly, increasingly than any others, throughout 2023. That’s not to say there aren’t two dozen or increasingly other skincare gems that I’d love to rave well-nigh – there most definitely are – but the hallowed Boxes of Regular Use only hold so much. So these are the true staples. Enjoy. In this era of serious skincare overload (there are so many brands and so many people selling them) I hope that this provides a genuine little glimpse into my routine.
OK here we go then: my most-used skincare products of 2023. Maybe next year I’ll manage to get myself into some sort of order for a makeup version and a hair one as well, but I’m only just managing to publish this in 2023 by the skin of my teeth so I don’t think it’s wise to get too ambitious…
My Most-Used Skincare Products: 2023
I’m arranging these products into a vague resemblance of my daily skincare routine.
Daytime Products:
In the morning I rarely do a proper cleanse (I do a deep cleanse every night) and so increasingly often than not it’s a quick swipe-over with:
Sali Hughes Placid Daily Exfoliant*.
This is a summery wounding exfoliant in liquid form that you simply pour onto cotton wool, wipe over and leave. I love it considering it’s genuinely gentle unbearable to use every day – and in the morning, at that. It keeps my skin well-spoken and unexceptionable and it leaves my evenings self-ruling for my retinol application. (I wouldn’t have any problem using this surpassing my retinoid it’s just flipside step to remember and I like to alimony things simple!)
Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid*.
This is my PMT week volitional to the Placid – it’s salicylic wounding and so specifically whiz at keeping pores well-spoken and tackling any nasty hormonal spot outbreaks. Pricier than the Sali Hughes exfoliant but hugely constructive and this has been a staple in my skincare routine for longer than I superintendency to remember.
I then go in with an antioxidant serum every morning, surpassing my moisturiser or SPF. I see a profound difference to unstipulated splendor of the skin and evenness of tone when I use a vitamin c serum, in particular and I like to tick the box for “extra protection” – it’s sort of like the underwear to my sunscreen, which is obviously the ultimate protection! This year, as in 2022, the serum has nearly unchangingly been:
Kiehls Line-Reducing Concentrate*
I love the unusual, dry texture of this serum. It doesn’t glide on or finger slimy, it’s increasingly like smoothing on…velvet. Which is going to be the most utopian statement on this page but it will make sense if you’ve overly used this. Then we have, in next most-used place:
Paula’s Choice C15 Super Booster*
This can be unromantic directly to the skin as a serum or mixed into moisturiser or SPF as a booster. I wield directly, just a couple of drops. It’s not unseemly but works out considerably increasingly affordable than the Kiehl’s or the Lancome below.
Lancome Triple Serum*.
This contains Ferulic Wounding (as in the famous Skinceuticals CE Ferulic) but – at least to me – is infinitely preferable, texture-wise, to the Skinceuticals product. That one feels very perfunctory and science-y (to requite it its due, it probably is one of the weightier in its category) and it has a dropper and doesn’t spread so nicely on the skin. The Lancome Triple Serum combines the ferulic, once pumped out, with hyaluronic wounding and niacinamide and it slips smoothly onto your skin whilst ticking a few other “desirable ingredient” boxes. I’ve used this a lot this year and I’m not totally red-faced to say it’s partly considering it comes in a pump, my preferred serum dispensing method!
I follow the serum with either a moisturiser or sunscreen. Rarely both as I tend to pick sunscreens that are very moisturising. Take the Murad Essential C as an example:
Murad Essential C SPF30*.
It feels just like a high-end moisturiser and is a upper end moisturiser. It just happens to have the sun protection built in. I realise it’s not the highest factor misogynist but for incidental, non-summery sun exposure in the UK (which is my primary usage) I do tend to go for an SPF30 or plane 25 considering I tend to prefer the texture and so it ways that I’ll wield it increasingly consistently.
You can find loads of other sunscreen recommendations here. They are surpassingly woolgathering from this round-up mainly considering I test so many of them that I don’t use one version often unbearable for it to make it into the special box of repeated use. I will do an update post soon, with regards to sunscreen as I know that it’s one of my most worldwide requests. (Make sure you’re subscribed to posts by email (it’s free) so that you get the post sent straight to your inbox when it publishes. You can sign up here.)
If I’m not going outside at all, or I want something soothing and plumptious to layer underneath my sunscreen then I have a little stable of simple moisturisers next to my sedentary that I grab a tube from. One of the most-used this year? A very old favourite:
Dr Hauschka Rose Day Cream*
I must have been using this for over twenty years by now. It was one of my first skincare loves when I became a model – the rose smell was the start of a lasting topic with perfumes that had rose scents and I loved the richness of the surf that seemed so light and unassuming when it was squeezed from the tube. It’s still a favourite without all of this time.
Nighttime Products:
My most-used evening skincare products for 2023 are possibly scrutinizingly identical to my most-used evening skincare products of 2022. I’m a creature of habit. In fact I don’t think that there are really any new launches here at all, untied from the spanking-new Elizabeth Arden Retinol HPR cream.
I start my evening routine with a deep, thorough cleanse and this is non-negotiable. I don’t have much of a cleanse in the morning and so this session needs to do the heavy lifting. My most used type of cleanser? A balm. I like the solid form using and then the way it melts lanugo as you massage it in.
Beauty Pie Hot Oil Cleanser*.
I’m not sure that you can go far wrong with the Hot Oil Cleanser from Eyeful Pie. It behaves in exactly the same refined, ultra-effective way as the luxury unruffle cleansers that are five times the price. Gets off all makeup, sunscreen, dirt and then removes with a warm flannel to leave soft skin. No tightness and veritably no greasy residue. (The price you see when you click through is the membership price; it’s kind of a unique set up so read well-nigh it here but if you do sign up, use the lawmaking RUTHSENTME to get some money off.)
Read More: Top 5 Eyeful Pie Picks
Neal’s Yard Frankincense Cleanser
Frankincense just does something good to my state of mind. I know that essential oils aren’t everyone’s cup of tea (and I’m unquestionably surprised, in many ways, that they are mine!) but there are a few blends out there that just work for me and have a profound effect on how I feel. Deep Relax from Aromatherapy Associates, for example, sends me into the deepest sleep if I use it in my suffuse surpassing bed. It’s so constructive for me that I’d hesitate to use it and then drive, or plane operate a hand mixer!
Anyway, Neal’s Yard have a Frankincense range and I have unchangingly been a fan. This cleanser has double whammy greatness considering I love the smell of it as I massage in, but I moreover really rate the texture and whoopee of the product itself. It feels very clarifying in my PMT week when my squatter just feels a bit gungey and gross. It’s a rich surf but removes to leave no residue, just very deep-cleansed skin.
My routine in the evening is cleanse-and-then-just-retinol on one day and cleanse-and-then-hydrate-and-repair the next. I use a retinol eye surf every night regardless of which night it is (this one*, usually) considering it’s my crinkly vision that are waffly texture surpassing the rest of my squatter but for all other squatter parts I unorganized nights. My most used retinoids?
Skin Me Daily Booster
For well-nigh the umpteenth year running, I have been cracking on with my own personal daily booster from Skin Me. Mine contains tretinoin, which is the most powerful form of retinoid and (I think in most countries?) requires a prescription. With Skin Me you have an online consultation and then some follow up questions with the team surpassing your particular product is prescribed to you and sent out. I’ve had unconfined results with my booster and no side-effects, probably considering the percentage of actives is gradually increased month on month.
I have to say though, it felt counterintuitive to only be testing one thing then and then when such a large part of my job is…testing things. And so I did some switching up this year. First to:
Elizabeth Arden Retinol HPR*
This is Arden’s latest big skincare launch and I think it’s great. It’s retinol, but presented in a way that can be increasingly hands tolerated by skin that usually says a nonflexible no to retinoids. It’s so hands tolerated, the trademark say, that you can use it morning and night. I tested for a couple of months and yes, it’s a unconfined luxury option for those who want to add retinoids into their routine but want zero problems with dryness, flaking or itching.
On the other end of the line you have the powerhouse that is
Medik8 Crystal Retinal 6*.
I am when on this in a big old way. One of the things I found with my Skin Me booster is that my squatter was getting a bit dry and I was having to really pack in the moisture on the nights in between. Scrutinizingly do a kind of repair job on my face. The Crystal Retinal formula seems to be a little increasingly hydrating and so I’ve appreciated the reduction in dryness. This is moreover misogynist without any online consultations and so on – you just buy it* – and it comes in varying strengths. I should probably be on increasingly than the “6” but that’s what I had two of and so that’s what I’ve been using. It’s unconfined stuff!
If you’re at a loss, by the way, as to what the hell retinoids are (you’ll most likely have heard the word “retinol” instead) then it’s a skincare ingredient that’s sunny at tackling nearly every sign of ageing and moreover helps with spot-prone skin at the same time. It works on fine lines, wrinkles, unevenness, firmness and at the same time it tends to alimony skin very clear.
Side-effects tend to be itchiness, flakiness and dryness which is why I don’t overdo it with my retinoids – every other night maximum. On the nights in between I use quite simple, soothing, hydrating products. My most-used serum to layer under just well-nigh anything for instant relief is
Aveeno Calm Restore Triple Oat Serum*
I go through snifter without snifter of this and plane use it on my dodgy shin. (I have one shin with an lattermost dryness problem that’s been there since my teens. It’s very odd, flares up every now and then but is vastly helped if I regularly use this Aveeno serum!) If I just want to make sure I’ve taken superintendency of my skin windbreak and calmed everything lanugo a bit then I reach for this scrutinizingly without thinking.
My most-used moisturiser over the top?
Beauty Pie Youthbomb Peptide Cream*.
This is one of the most massively hydrating squatter creams I’ve overly used. It’s almost too much, in a way, despite leaving no greasiness or overwhelming slick. It seems to just fill the skin with water from the inside (I know this isn’t true but stay with me) so that my squatter is sort of turgid with it, like a wobbling eighties waterbed. As well as the supreme moisturising effects it happens to be a powerful source of peptides. I won’t go into peptides now considering quite honestly we’ve washed-up vitamin c and retinoids and that’s unbearable bad science subtitle for me for one day but it’s unscratched to say that peptides are a good idea. And this surf ticks that box so that I don’t have to think well-nigh inserting them into any other part of my skincare routine. This is a high-end investment surf but – as usual with Eyeful Pie – it’s far less than it should be if you have membership.
Blimey. That turned into a post and a half, didn’t it? What a way to finish the year. See you on the other side! Remember that you can subscribe to these posts by email so that you never miss one – just click here. It’s self-ruling and takes no time at all and there will be little bonuses coming up in 2024 as I return to posting increasingly of this long-form content.
Here’s the video version of this post, just in specimen you fancy spending plane longer hearing well-nigh my 2023 favourites: