Throughout my teens I was a big makeup girlie. Well, I really liked it and liked experimenting with new products, even though I didn’t really know how to use them. But here’s the catch, even though I loved makeup, I never took too much interest in skincare. As I’ve grown up and matured, I’ve realised that while I still absolutely love makeup, skincare has become something I’m really interested in. I’ve learnt so much more than I ever thought I could, and as a result my love for makeup has only gotten stronger.
I’m gonna make a little list of the products I’ve loved, and chit chat a bit about different skin types. For context, I have combination to dry skin. Like a lot of people, I get an oily T zone, but for years I’ve struggled with dry skin.
Dry skin
I have the most experience with dry skin. My skin has always been dry, with a bit of flaky skin around my nose and cheek area. As a result, I’ve always leaned more towards the moisturizing side of things when I’m looking for new products. Cerave has always been a go to brand, they really know how to do a moisturizing product. The facial moisturizing lotion is my favorite, its lightweight and has a built-in spf, for those days I forget to wear an additional one. A good place to start is also hyaluronic acid serums for dry skin, once again with Cerave producing one of the best on the market.
Combination
Combination skin is when you have an oily T zone but some dry patches around your cheeks. A lot of people suffer from this, myself included. A commonly believed myth is that moisturizing products will only make the oily part of your skin worse, but they won’t, they will only help your skin. Some fan favourites for combination skin are from La Roche Posay and Clinique. While they are slightly more expensive brands, spending a little bit more sometimes can be a smart investment. I personally love La Roche Posay products and I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen someone use the Take the Day Off balm from Clinique as a pre-cleanser cleanse.
Oily skin
Oily skin is the area I have the least expertise in. Where I love love love a moisturizing product, oily skin girlies don’t necessarily want a bunch of moisturizer sitting on already oily skin. For an oily skin girl, you want to look for a salicylic acid product, like the serum from Neutrogena. A sunscreen many oily skinned people love is SuperGoop! Zinscreen, which is formulated specifically for oily skin, and hopes to reduce the level of oil on the face.
Now that we’ve talked about some skincare products for different skin types, I’m going to discuss some of my holy grail products. These are the products that work for me and that I find myself purchasing again and again.
Alumier
This is a slightly expensive brand, but completely worth it in my opinion. I used to attend a dermatologist, and she highly recommended this brand to me. There was a wee trio set of cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen that I used to buy. To be fair, if you’re on a budget you don’t really need to bother with this – other moisturizers will do the job perfectly. However this set has a lovely lavender scent and was quite frankly a dream to apply.
Cerave
Look, you all know we love a good Cerave product. Their Facial Moisturizing Lotion (WITH SPF!!) is a holy grail product for a reason. It’s lightweight, doesn’t smell too strongly, and has spf included. The best part? It’s only about eleven euro, so a total steal.
La Roche-Posay
I think at this stage of the article we should start taking a shot everytime I mention La Roche Posay. It’s loved for a reason. Personally I’m a huge fan of their Cicaplast Baume. Now, this doesn’t have spf in so you do have to be proactive about adding that extra step but this is a newly reformulated product. The old formula was one of a slightly thicker cream, but the new formula is a more lightweight consistency, which makes application a dream. I use it as an everyday lotion, but especially at night as an overnight mask type thing. Another product that comes highly rated is their Anthelios sunscreen. I have not tried this yet, however when my next suncream runs out I plan on testing it.
Glossier
I know Glossier’s skincare range isn’t really all that amazing, but I really rate their sunscreen. I promise you, at some stage there will be an end to my babbling on about sunscreen. But not yet. It’s too important. Now, hear me out when I say I have a summer and winter sunscreen. I find in summer you just need a really high spf, scented lotion that goes on white and sticky cause you reapply every 2 hours. Where in winter, I don’t apply quite so much, so I have been using the Glossier Invisible Shield suncream. It is spf 30, and is a daily suncream. It is a lightly scented gel sunscreen that goes on clear, and sits really well under makeup. I’ve had mine for about a year and it’s still going strong, but I fancy trying out the La Roche Posay Anthelios sunscreen after.
And there you have it, some of my holy grail products that I love and cannot live without. As I’ve grown up, I’ve realised it’s so much more important to look after your skin properly. I hope you enjoyed this, and maybe even found a new product to try out!