I’ve saved up a bunch of my empty products (and chucked in some nearly-empties as well) to do this post. It’s all skin care, I’m afraid, because has anyone ever actually finished make-up? Except for foundation, I don’t think I’ve ever used up any single make-up item before…

Empties

1. Hadalabo Tamagohada Face Wash Foam :  Repurchase

• This is a pretty standard face wash. Although it contains AHAs and BHA, the face wash remains relatively mild.

2. Sun Bears Super Suscreen SPF 50+ PA +++: Repurchase

• I can’t really get away from this sunscreen. I’ve dabbled in a few others since this post, but I always come back to my trusty Sun Bears. While it’s not perfect, it’s the best I’ve found so far because it’s the only alcohol free sunscreen I’ve used that strikes a good balance between high protection and cosmetic elegance. I have a feeling its UVA protection isn’t as high as I’d like (the PA measuring system is very limited, as explained in this post), but it’ll have to do for now. Anyway, I’ve been through countless bottles of this, and, thanks to my dad, have about 8 new ones to get started on.

3. Mandom Barrier Repair Concentrate: Repurchase

• I actually finished this about a month ago, and I’ve been trying to see if I could do without it. Turns out, I can’t. I’m pretty sure my skin hates me: it’s dry, it’s itchy, and it’s red. I wanted to cut this out because it has so so many ingredients in it. While that hasn’t bothered me before, a few months ago I stopped using some products that were ineffective; they didn’t do anything good to my skin, but nothing bad either – or so I thought. After discontinuing use, skin problems that I had accepted as facts of life (tiny bumps, red patches – mostly inconsequential, but slightly annoying issues) disappeared. While my skin hadn’t been full-on allergic to the products, it evidently had some sensitivities to the ingredients. Since that revelation I’ve been trying to stick to simpler products, hence the cutting out of Mandom Barrier Repair. As you can tell, that was a huge mistake; any tiny improvements in my skin (I haven’t noticed any) will have been completely obliterated by the general crappiness that my skin has sunk into. (Ending a sentence on a preposition – classy.)
• To sum up: My skin – Mandom Barrier Repair = Frowny face

4. Coconut Oil: Repurchase

• My hair is so damn shiny. Also it’s fun to bake with.

5. Garden of Wisdom Clearly Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum: Repurchase

• This is a really simple hyaluronic acid serum; it has very few ingredients, but it works well to hydrate my skin. It’s also much more affordable than number 6.

6. Juju Aquamoist Hyaluronic Acid Essence: Won’t repurchase

• Like the GoW serum in number 5, the Juju Aquamoist has very few ingredients, so my skin likes it. However, having used 3 full bottles of the stuff, I find that in each one I ‘hit air’ on the pump after only about 2 weeks, and I’m scraping out the bottle with a spatula after 4. I don’t use it excessively – one pump, once a day – so I’m not going to repurchase, because it would just cost too much in the long run. The GoW serum is much more reasonable alternative.

7. La Roche Posay Physiological Micellar Solution: Repurchase

• An oldie, but a goodie. I’ve got through so many bottles of this make-up remover: it’s simple but effective.

Fulls

1. Sun Bears Super Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA+++

• Man it’s lucky Sun Bears is cheap, I’m lousy with the stuff.

2. Garden of Wisdom Light n’ Bright Serum

• I thought it was about time to start doing something with my, somewhat mottled, skin. This has really good reviews so I’m going to start applying it to one side of my face to see what happens. I’ll report back.

3. Garden of Wisdom Chock Full of Vitamins Serum

• I’ve been on the hunt for what is, in effect, a multi-vitamin for my skin. I’ve tried a few antioxidant serums so far but haven’t noticed a lot of difference in my skin, so here’s hoping the Chock Full of Vitamins one will do it.

Re-Visits

1. Neal’s Yard Palmarosa Facial Wash

• I used to use this as my regular face wash, and went back to it recently because I forgot to bring my wash bag with me when travelling. I LOVE the smell, but the face wash itself isn’t exactly ground-breaking. It’s resoundingly fine so I’ll probably throw it out or use it as a body wash because I like the smell so much.

2. Avene Skin Recovery Cream

• I mentioned this in my Skin Rescue post and it’s really been put through its paces recently. Since trying to wean myself off Mandom Barrier Repair, my skin has gone crazy – dry patches all over the place, red irritated patches caused by dehydration, basically painful and sad. I started to the Skin Recovery Cream at night, and in a few days my skin was so much better. A week later, my skin is almost back to normal – it’s still a little angry after the shower, but this cream calms it right down.

3. Shiseido D Program Repair Mist

• D Program is a Shiseido line that caters to reactive skin, and I used to use this mist a lot when I was in Japan. I’ve recently started using it again because of the hot weather and because of my dry skin. I find that these moisturising mists are never hugely hydrating, but they do some good in that area. Their real strength is in skin refreshing and make-up fixing. Because my skin has been pretty dry recently, most foundations look pretty terrible on top of it. A spray of this mist fixes that and makes foundation look much more natural.
• This is nice to have, but not exactly a skin care necessity. I’ll most likely keep using this until it runs out, and then maybe buy a cheaper alternative.
  

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  Which products have impressed you recently? And which have been…not so impressive? Have you conducted any skin experiments like I did with the Mandom Barrier Repair? Did they also go disastrously wrong?