Clarisonic Mia 2

I realise that the Clarisonic is quite an extensively reviewed product around the blogosphere, but as this blog is fairly new, I thought I should talk about the staple products I use every day, just so that you get to know what I think are the best products out there. So this blog is going to be about the cleansing part of my regime.

Just to give you a bit of information about my skin, I have combination/oily skin but it also tends to get very dry in some places (around my nose and eyes in particular) and I have a little bit of scarring from acne. My acne has cleared up now, thank goodness (although I should probably thank my dermatologist who gave me every treatment on this earth until she found the right one to help me), so I have just been left with a little bit of scarring on my chin and lower cheeks. It's mostly just discolouring, so I can cover it up with foundation. Also, I do naturally have quite visible pores, which really doesn't help with spots etc. So as my skin has been quite problematic over the years, my cleansing regime is really important to help keep the spots at bay. It definitely isn't the be-all-and-end-all (eating healthily, drinking lots of water, getting lots of sleep all help too) but it is really important if you want your skin to stand a chance against acne and oily skin.

SO now I've got all of the gory details out of the way, I can get on with telling you about my Clarisonic. I have the Mia 2 in pink, which just means that it has two speed settings instead of one (like the original Mia). I think they're around the same price, so I thought I might as well go for this one. That said, I only use slower setting, so don't worry if you can only get hold of the Mia! I did think about going for the Clarisonic Classic, but my dermatologist has one and she says it is a waste of money because it has the same size brush head but is just much bigger in the body, so it isn't easy for travelling etc. I don't use mine for my body, but if you wanted to, you can buy different heads for the Mia 2 that suit various different functions.

Incase you haven't heard of a Clarisonic, it is a 'sonic skin-cleansing system'. It is basically like an electric toothbrush for your face. I know this sounds a little bit scary, and I have very sensitive skin so I was a bit worried that it would make my face sore, but it honestly isn't at all uncomfortable. In fact, my skin doesn't feel clean without it now! It claims to clean skin six times better than a regular cleanser used with water.

The Clarisonic does come with a little tester of their own brand cleanser, but I don't like it at all. I found the consistency really oily but the effect really drying, and it just didn't suit my skin. So I use my Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pore and Shine Daily Wash with it. (On a side note, if you have oily/combination skin or visible pores, I highly recommend this facewash. It is only £2.99 in boots and it has worked absolute miracles on my skin. It is really soft and gentle, but somehow really manages to reduce the shine on my face. It is definitely on a par with my more high-end favourite facewash which is the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish.) Anyway, I find that this cleanser is really good with the Clarisonic because it foams nicely, so it's easy to spread all over the face.

So I just squirt some of that onto the Clarisonic brush, wet my face and the brush with a little water, and off I go. The Mia 2 vibrates three times to tell you to move onto a different section of your face. The whole thing takes one minute. Then after it's done, you just rinse the wash of your face with some water, and hey presto your face is clean! It depends on the state of my skin as to how often I use my Clarisonic, but it's either once or twice per day. Some people find that they need to use it much less than this though, so I think it depends on your skin.

The Clarisonic retails at £125, so it is definitely an investment purchase. If you are someone who has good skin without needing to spend a lot on it, then this product probably isn't for you. But if you are like me, and have always spent a lot on skincare, or if you just haven't found a skin routine that really suits your skin, then I would definitely recommend giving the Clarisonic a go. It will come with one brush, but the brush has to be rinsed in soapy water every week and changed every 3 months. The replacement brush heads are around £20, but they do pop up on offer every now and again so I tend to stock up then.

All in all, I am really really happy with my Clarisonic Mia 2. For me, it has totally been worth the money I spent on it because it has completely transformed my skin. My pores appear less noticeable, I haven't had a single spot since using it, and my skin just looks brighter and healthier in general. Some people mention in their reviews that they went through a flush-out period in the first few weeks of using their Clarisonic where it drew out all the nasties from their skin and they got a few spots because of that. I have to say, I didn't experience that at all, but again, I guess it just depends on your skin. But if you have any of the problems I had with my skin - acne, scarring, oilyness, shinyness - or you just feel like your skin needs a bit of a boost, then try the Clarisonic out.

Have any of you tried the Clarisonic? Do you have any particular facewashes for normal or dry skin that you would recommend people to use with it? Leave a comment below if so!

K
xx

la-tweez Professional Illuminating Tweezers

I was given my pink la-tweez tweezers in my stocking last Christmas, and to be honest, I thought they were just going to be another fad stocking-filler. Boy, was I wrong.

Tweezing your eyebrows is one of the most painful/boring/annoying parts of the beauty regime, right? I hate it. I always end up snagging little bits of skin, or pulling the wrong hairs out, or just getting really really annoyed and storming off. Yes, I hate it that much. Do you have these issues? If so, I've got just the thing for you...

This little pair of tweezers will solve all of your problems. Their main feature is an LED light which is situated in the handle of the tweezers. When turned on, it illuminates the whole brow area, and - TA DA, you can see all of the little blonde hairs that aren't visible in some lights. The tweezers are also really sharp and the wide, flexible arms give a lot of precision - no more catching bits of skin instead of hairs, or pulling out hairs which are in the middle of your eyebrows!

And if functionality just isn't enough for you, then have a look at the beauty of these things. They are designed to look like a lipstick, I think, so you can just chuck them in your handbag and still have some hope of finding them when you need them. Mine are bright pink, but I think they also come in black, white and silver if you want something a little less girly. The LED light is turned on when you press the diamante switch on the side - which I actually find really cute, given that diamante isn't usually my thing. Also, there is a mirror on the inside of the case, so this is definitely a good on-the-go product.

I know you all probably think I'm being a bit dramatic over what is essentially a pair of tweezers, but I honestly cannot recommend them enough. I can't believe how under-hyped they have been or that I hadn't heard of them before I was given them at Christmas. At £15.99 they are definitely a pricey pair of tweezers, but I really think they are worth it. If I didn't already have a pair, I would definitely go and get some. They make a thoroughly unenjoyable part of my routine so much more bearable! So if you hate tweezing as much as I do, go and grab a pair of these - you won't regret it!

Have you tried these tweezers? Do you love them as much as I do? Leave a little comment below - I'd love to hear from you.

K xx

Bloglovin'

I'm sure most of you are aware of this, but just incase you haven't come across it yet, Bloglovin' is a website where you can follow all of your favourite blogs in one place. It means that you don't have to keep checking individual blogs for new posts - all you have to do is check Bloglovin' where all of the most recent posts from the blogs you follow will be listed for you to read. You can even arrange for Bloglovin' to send you an email notification when you favourite bloggers post new blogs. It's really easy to join, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading multiple blogs like I do!

Here is the link to my blog via Bloglovin' - just click on it and press follow, and you're away! I know my blog is fairly new, but it's something I've been wanting to do for a while and I hope to be posting very frequently.

http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6915245/?claim=kbnqffec24c

Love,
K x

Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter

Morning!

As it's supposed to be Spring, and I think little pops of colour make everyone feel a bit better, I'm going to do a blog post of another lip product I've purchased recently: the Revlon Colourburst Lip Butter.






















These lip butters are, as you would expect, so lovely to wear. They glide on like a lip balm and they feel like a lip balm on the lips. My lips have a tendency to get quite dry, so any sort of drying or cakey lipstick really doesn't look good me - which I why I picked up a couple of these Revlon lip butters. I definitely haven't regretted it!

When I got mine from Boots, I swatched quite a few on my hand when I was deciding which colours to get, and I found the finishes of the products really varied between colours. Some of them are definitely on the balm end of the spectrum, in that they leave a balmy sheen with a hint of colour, while others are probably closer to being a lipstick.

The two colours I picked are definitely two of the more pigmented colours. I kind of felt like if I wanted a balm I could pick one up much cheaper in a different aisle, so I went for colours that would hopefully feel like a balm on my lips but would look as pigmented a gloss/lipstick on.

So the two colours that you can see in the picture below are '015 Tutti Frutti' (the coral-y one) and '050 Berry Smoothie'. I really love both of these. The coral colour is really on-trend for S/S13 and I thought that the pink was a really easy everyday lip colour. They are so easy to apply - definitely the sort of thing you can whip out on the tube and put on without a mirror, which is a huge plus for me!

The only negative thing that I can think of is that the consistency of the product on the stick reminds me just a little bit of the MAC Cremesheen lipsticks, which I absolutely love, but which do tend to melt quite badly when the weather warms up. So we will have to wait and see whether this happens to these Revlon butters - fingers crossed!

Overall, I think these lip butters are a really great product. I've been so impressed with the Revlon lip products recently, and these are just another addition to their wonderful collection. The packaging is beautiful, and the covers are the same colour as each of the butter colours, so you won't have to spend ages rummaging around in your makeup bag for the right colour! They are a really easy on-the-go product, and retail at only £7.99 (or just over £5 each if you hurry up and get the Boots '3for2' offer). Every girl should have one (or five?) of these in her Spring handbag!

L'Oreal Paris Glamshine Stain Splash

Another product that I have recently discovered - and which has now become a staple in my makeup regime - is the L'Oreal Paris GlamShine Stain Splash. This product seems to me to be a really good dupe of the dreamy YSL Rouge Pur Couture Vernis a Levres Glossy Stain. The main difference that I can see is the price tag, with the YSL version retailing at a very steep £22, while the L'Oreal version is £7.99.

As for the product, I absolutely love it. The flat heart-shaped applicator makes for really quick and easy application, and the colour pay-off is fantastic. They claim to be a sort of lip stain wrapped up as a lip gloss, and this is exactly what they are. When I was swatching them on my hand for this blog, I tried to rub it off, and the gloss did come off as you'd expect, but the colour had stained my hand. L'Oreal says that these last for 6 hours on the lisp. I personally think this is a little bit ambitious, but I can certainly vouch for the fact that they last much longer than my beloved NARS glosses.

The feel of the product is also really nice. I have only really started wearing lipgloss as part of my daily routine fairly recently as I don't like the sticky feeling on my lips that a lot of lip glosses seem to give. (It also really annoys me when my hair keeps getting stuck to my lips!) But because these glosses are 30% water, they really don't feel sticky at all - in fact, they feel soft, moisturising and really comfortable.

One thing I would say is that the colour range is a bit disappointing. I really like both of these colours -  '200 Princess' (the orangey one) is really good for spring and very buildable and the '101 Lolita' is a kind of 'your-lips-but-better' look - but the other 4 colours are quite boring, nothing-y colours. Who knows, maybe they will bring out some new shades for summer.

All in all, I think this is another really great product by L'Oreal, and well worth the small price tag - great value for money. The packaging, as with most L'Oreal products, is beautiful, and it really is a great dupe for the YSL Glossy Stain. It's highly pigmented and long-lasting on the lips, so is perfect as a daytime gloss that doesn't need too much attention throughout the day. AND if you're quick, boots have a '3for2' on all makeup at the moment, so you could snatch up three of these beauties at just over £5 each. Go, go, go!

lllamasqua 'Fragile' nail varnish

So I'm dedicating my first proper post to this little gem by Illamasqua. I have to admit, I am a bit of a nail varnish fiend - I always have my nails painted, and I absolutely hate chipped nail varnish. It makes me feel yucky. So in my eyes, the key to a good nail varnish is durability (well, that and colour, of course!)

I first saw one of these speckled nail varnishes on a blogpost and thought they were a bit of an Easter fad. I'm not really one for 'textured' nails, so it didn't really appeal to me. It's also fairly expensive for a nail varnish (around £15) and when I can get a Chanel polish for the same price, that's the option I usually go for.

However, this product seemed to spread like wildfire round the blogosphere, and I'm not one to enjoy being left out, so I put my worries aside and purchased the speckled-look varnish in 'Fragile'. As you can see, it is a really pretty baby blue colour on the base with navy-ish flecks, which are designed to make your nails looks like little duck eggs. Personally, I think they look more like mini eggs, but I'm not complaining.

Having said I don't like textured nail varnish, I was pleased to find that after I'd put my Seche Vite topcoat (definitely the best in the market!) on top of two coats of the Illamasqua beauty, the texture is pretty smooth. You know how some glittery nail varnishes tend to catch on everything you touch? Well this one doesn't, thank goodness! It really is just a textured appearance, which is a big tick in my book.

I can't really comment too much on durability just yet, because I've only had it on two and a half days, but I can report that so far, so good! I haven't needed to touch it up at all, and there is no sign of any chips occurring in the near future. I'll keep you posted...

If you're one for packaging, I think this packaging looks elegant and as high-end as the pricetag. You get 15ml of product, which is fairly good for a nail varnish, and the brush makes it very easy to apply. The consistency is fairly thin, so you won't get those horrible bumps that gloopy nail varnishes tend to give.

All in all, I absolutely love the look of this nail varnish. It's cute, it comes in about six pastel colours for Spring, and it's something a little bit different! You're sure to get lots of nice comments on your nails. As for the price, it is certainly is at the top end as fair as nail varnishes go, but so far I think it is worth spending the money on. Perfect as a little Easter treat for yourself, and a way to get into the Spring spirit without having to freeze.

Introducing the blog

Hello everyone!

This will be my first blog post on perfectionisbest. I'm 20 years old, I live in London, and am so excited to be starting a new blog about my favourite things.

I'm hoping to include posts about lots of different things of beauty on this blog. I will probably mostly be writing about beauty products and makeup, but I hope to be able to share anything else I find that is beautiful - photography, fashion, places, etc.

Please do let me know if anyone has any requests or ideas - I'd love to hear from you.

Lots of love,
K x