# 126 Brushing Up

I had a fab sonic toothbrush, a really expensive one, and it needed a head change. Sadly, said head refused to be removed, even with huffing and puffing red-cheeked levels of exertion. So I handed over to Mr M and asked him to do the honours. At which point he snapped the head clean off, exposing all the scary wiring inside and consigning it to the dustbin forever after. And I've yet to replace it (I bought a cheaper sonicare equivalent from Makro instead)... but I still have fond memories of my smart sonic brush with its varying speeds & flashy lights & clever 'press too hard & I'll stop working' in-built monitor. Sigh.

Now, with my latest sonic gadget - the Clarisonic Face & Body Brush - it goes without saying that Mr M will be allowed nowhere near (despite picking up the package when it arrived & mocking the pseudo-science all over the box). I've wanted one for ages actually & shall be guarding it well and popping it back in its custom cradle every night to ensure it stays in tip-top condition. Well, it does cost a whopping £175.

So, I've been using it for the week. It's taken me a while to get the hang of it because I'm using it with my customary ESPA and Emma Hardie balm-style cleansers (applied to skin, emulsified with warm water, brushhead wet with warm water, brush applied to skin) and not the cleansers it comes with. The first night I did a single cleanse - removed eye make-up first and then buffed away with the brush until it timed out (it only lasts 60 seconds each time). I spent too long on cheeks, not long enough on chin & failed to heed the beeping signals (it's a bit like the GPS of cleansing). The second night I had another read of the manual and had more luck - and I also cleansed first with my balm, patted skin dry, and then massaged another layer of my cleansing balm into my skin, emulsifying it with hot water, and letting the damp brush come into contact with the complexion. The amount of colour that came away within the brushes bristles was sobering - despite that first cleanse I'd already carried out.

What was most noticeable was the heightened rosiness of my skin after I'd finished - and not an irritated flush, but a circulation-boosted glow. Skin also felt very very soft (and I've been using exfoliating muslin cloths with my cleansing balms for almost a decade), and product absorbed marginally better afterwards. The next morning a couple of little spots had come up on the chin - not troublesome ones, just pores which could be easily evacuated - as though deeper impurities were being drawn out by the Clarisonic. I'm now a full week in and it's all going smoothly. As with everything I trial I'll be giving this the full month & suspect it will become a regular part of my nighttime routine. Given that I normally spend 10 minutes cleansing (I don't feel like 'me' unless I've done the 'massage, steam & buff'), this is actually far speedier, so that's a nice perk to get in exchange for a more thorough cleanse. Thumbs up.

Also going through the MM motions this week are:

Dior's new Hydralife Pro Youth Sorbet Eye Cream. It is too heavily fragranced (I'm used to things that smell like god intended) and contains too many preservatives for comfort. Also, and this is probably not a surprise, while suffering my eczema flare-up a week ago, this stung on contact with the sore patches. On the plus side (and there is a plus side), it sinks into skin very very well & plumps out those fine lines in seconds; it's a good make-up base because it's utterly ungreasy, and because I had no choice but to use it for a full 3 weeks because I packed no other eye cream while away in Paris, I did notice that it helped with my customary dark circles too... not 'WOW' worthy, but worthy enough, or wary-with-benefits...

E45 Cream. Never let it be said that I won't swallow my wise-cracking words. Off to see doctor with the ol' eczema story. She takes a peek and prescribes a very mild steroid cream and a topical emollient. When she says E45 I roll my eyes and nod, politely, knowing it won't do any good at all. Then, whadya know. I used the steroid cream on day one only (I hate them, spent 10 years as a kid being covered in them, and now that I'm 7 months pregnant - and despite their 'absolute safety' - I just want to steer clear if I can possibly bear it), and then switch to lashings of E45 for the body patches - and can't believe it, but eczema has all but disappeared. This comes after 6 months of natural shea, vitamin E, coconut oil, chamomile cream... I cannot even list the number of homeopathic & natural remedies I've tried for fear that this blog will go into meltdown over excessive word-count. And in 3 days, the bog standard, cheap as chips E45 has all but banished the itchy patches. [Weleda Skin Food I learned, to my immense disappointment, was good at calming, but did not manage to clear entirely]. I'm in denial [surely it's the steroid cream more than the E45? Right?] - but my body's there to taunt me. But given that I'm entirely comfortably-skinned for the first time since getting preggers, I'll let it have its moment. Long may it continue.

#125 Forget Paris

When travelling I like to pack a bag of untried goodies which get a trial in the hotel bathroom. I always seem to have more time to test, and also the inclination, thanks to more nights out and days spent meeting-and-greeting as opposed to working from home (which is what I do 80% of the time in Londres). On holiday I'll always try at least one new lip colour and something tinted, ordinarily with SPF, to see how coverage fares in other climes.

In the bag that spent 2 weeks with me in Paris were the following:

Dior Hydra Life Pro Youth Skin Tint - my companion tested this on my behalf & used it everyday for 2 weeks. It was imperceptible, feather-light and felt very comfortable on her sensitive skin. It did a great job of covering imperfections & I noticed a real difference in her skin pre- and post-application. I'd try it myself but she went home with it. Cheeky. But surely the surest sign of a top skin treat?

Ellis Faas Creamy Lips - wow. I love lippy - YSL, Chanel, NARS, MAC, Revlon - but this stuff felt too good to be true. I twisted up the pen to get a teeny blob of colour through the firm sponge applicator and it went on like poster paint - utterly faithful to the colour in the tube, incredibly smooth, deeply pigmented but entirely comfortable and light feeling. Heck, it even felt hydrating. And it stayed put. Just not possible to fault this one! I used shade L103 - and loved it - a geranium red that really perked up my face.

And to add to the eternal lip balm quest - I snapped up Caudalie in Paris - just 3euros at the local pharmacy - and it's doing a lovely job too. Wish I'd bought a couple more.

Venus Embrace Razor - okay, so has anyone ever seen that hilarious comedy sketch about the marketing team behind a fictional toothbrush company who are brainstorming the various ways they can get people to buy a new model? They're talking about adding MORE BRISTLES, SQUIDGIER HANDLE, DIFFERENT COLOURS - and then one of them says, 'I know! A tongue cleaner! I bet you we can get people to brush their tongues!' - and you suddenly realise how ridiculous it is that existing companies have in fact made toothbrushes with tongue scrapers attached [ick]. Well, sometimes the razor market seems the most bonkers of all - driven by tireless 'bigger betterdom' - and MOISTURISING STRIPS, SPRUNG HANDLES, AERODYNAMIC DESIGN, RUBBER FINS... and the continual boost in blades seems increasingly comical. I mean - where will the line be drawn? 8? 10? Wasn't 1 enough? Really? Well, I'm biting my sarcastic tongue, because I used the Embrace while away [yep, the new Gilette offering which serves up 5 blades], and it gave me the closest, smoothest shave of my life. It was also remarkably speedy - a single swipe caught every single hair, so both legs & underarms were dealt with in about 2 minutes flat. This one's definitely earned its non-ironic place in my arsenal.

Unfortunately I also had a close shave of a less pleasant kind. Namely after a facial which left me red & blotchy - my eczema being the current bane of my life since becoming pregnant [oh to be one of those pregnant women whose eczema disappears entirely!]. I woke up the next day with the sort of painfully tight skin that has never been my lot in life (grainy and with the fine-lined texture of tissue paper across the cheeks and under the eyes), and completely freaked out. How had my skin gone from perfect to patchy in just 24 hours! I knew I had to bring the allergic reaction back down - felt like my face was on fire, and the redness around my brows, eyes and cheeks was glaring. The first thing I tried was Weleda Skin Food, but discovered it's rather better in smaller doses and not as grand spread all over the face when said face is burning up - that bit too thick & sticky. Inspecting my face again I noticed just how dehydrated the skin seemed, so I layered on ESPA's Floral Water with the Cellular Hydrating Complex. This made a marked improvement - skin drinking it up and cooling down. I also purchased Bioderma Make-Up Remover which worked a treat around my sore eyes [it's a backstage favourite], and tapped some of The Organic Pharmacy Ultra Hydrating Cream onto the driest sorest patches throughout the day. Thankfully [and after a few days of anti-histamine help too], things are almost back to normal. I've also traded out Emma Hardie's Cleansing Balm for the time-being [I have an inkling that the mandarin & orange essential oils have been causing a sting upon my sensitized skin], and returned to ESPA once more for what my skin seems to tolerate as a gentler, less irritating cleanse. Although, I must note that prior to the flare-up Emma H was doing a divine job of making my complexion bright, soft and very very comfy, so this one will be back on the shelf as soon as skin's back up to scratch.

# 124 Eye No

Hanne from Commecoco.blogspot.com asked when the right time was to start using eye creams & what might work for someone like her, in her early 20s...

Perfect timing given that I'm in the midst of an eye-cream quest myself - I had the dreaded WOODS LAMP treatment again last week which showed that the most dehydrated part of my face was the skin around my eyes; a bit of a shocker given that I do a twice-weekly eye mask (Sisley) & have been using Estee Lauder's new Time Zone Anti-Line/Wrinkle Eye Cream for the past 10 weeks which has [in their own words]:

'TriHyaluronic Complex, which plumps away the look of fine, dry lines and gives skin the hydration it needs to stay looking smooth, supple and revitalised. It infuses the eye area with 5 times the concentration of TriHyaluronic Complex found in the face formula.'

And though I'm not afflicted with lines or wrinkles just yet (well, I am only 29) - I'm well aware that dehydrated skin is far more inclined to age speedily, so I'm now on a mission to find a cream that will plump, illuminate, hydrate & moisturise.

Chatting to PR Clare Forde last week, it occurred to me that perhaps I've been looking in the wrong place. If it's hydration that I'm after, a deeply penetrating & easily absorbed serum could be the way to go - chased with something containing SPF for day perhaps, and reparative antioxidants & smoothing actives at night.

I'm old & just about wise enough to know that an eye cream is never ever going to cancel out dark shadows, permanently erase wrinkles or conduct a mini eye-lift. So, what do I want? I want the skin beneath my eyes to feel plump, but not tightened; soft, but not silicone-y; bright, but naturally so - not because of light reflective particles.

I'd been sent ESPA's Firming Eye Contour Concentrate a while ago - and hadn't realised that the

serum was actually meant to be used as a self-contained treatment regime (it comes in two mini bottles with pipettes). A few weeks in I desisted - I wasn't hugely fond of the smell (a bit fishy at times which is a side-effect of the marine algae), and because, I suspect, I am not yet suffering from saggy skin in said area, the tightening effect was not really to my taste. However, I have to say that after a perfectly-pitched facial at The Europe in Ireland (following a fair bit of eye work, massage & the application of latter concentrate), things did look a lot brighter. So perhaps I need to stick to the proposed course - give it the full 8 weeks, and then judge things anew.

For the moment, however, I'm trying Emma Hardie's Amazing Face Firming Eye Serum - it's a light, slightly creamy coloured gel and contains aloe, arnica, orange water & marine active. A little goes a very long way and I'm pleased with how the skin seems to sup it up - nicely hydrating, but accommodates a cream on top too if needed. I'll give this one until the end of May & we'll see where we stand.

And back to Hanne's question about a good eye cream... well, it's back to the old issue of what works for one, may not work for another.

In my entirely subjective experience:

I've tried and liked formulas by Sarah Chapman & Shiseido.

I've also tried eye creams by La Prairie (often thought to be the very best), but I've not been hugely impressed thus far. Anyone else had more luck?

As for staples, Dermalogica Total Eye Care SPF15 has been in my bag for years. I like the fact that it's just a simple to use formula - with built in protection & hydration. It's not particularly advanced, but then, throughout my early 20s I wasn't really looking for miracles. Now, however, I think I need something stronger. This will be the basis of much of my testing for the next two months... we'll see what the beauty bag throws up!

For night, Creme de la Mer Eye Balm is one of those formulas that really does seem to do the trick whenever I try it. And Mama Malcontent (who - if it's possible - has used even more eye creams over the years than I have), really believes it's the daddy. So, it gets a thumbs up - but budget-wise, not so great, sorry about that.

My earlier MISS MALCONTENT'S BEST OF BEAUTY posts (see labels, to the right), also cover what I deem to be the best products across 100 different categories. I intended it to be a good reference point for those new to my blog - so do dip in if you're after the perfect cream blush, a great mascara, or the ideal foot cream...

And in the meantime, I'd love to know what everyone else is using & loving...