Moisturiser/Foundation Combos that Work

Or perhaps, more importantly - some that don't.

I struggle with remembering the combinations of moisturiser/foundation that work for me. Sometimes, I'll wash my face, moisturise, leave it a few minutes to sink in and then apply foundation and discover the foundation goes all dotty (that's the only way I can think to describe it!) on my face, of the moisturiser and foundation start balling up together and looking like they're peeling away. Other times (and this is how I know it's not all me!) everything just looks good.

Where I've reviewed a product, the product is linked to the review. Updated as I go, most recent first.

Also - please note that this is not about individual products being good or bad - it's about how they work together on MY skin. Some products I LOVE (for example, Clarins Beauty Flash) but if they don't work together they'll still get filed under 'bad'!

Jan 2018

BAD

L'Oreal Revitalift (day) + Revlon ColorStay
L'Oreal Revitalift (day) + Nivea Express Hydration Primer + Revlon ColorStay
Clarins Beauty Flash + Revlon ColorStay

GOOD

Olive Skincare Day + Revlon ColorStay
BontanicES Face Crème + Revlon ColorStay
Kosmea Replenishing Moisure Cream + Revlon ColorStay
Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery + Revlon ColorStay

Natralus Paw Paw Skin Therapy

Last year I was lucky enough to win a stack of Natralus Paw Paw products from Leah at Temporary Princess. I received three sizes of the Natralus daily skin therapy product. I immediately gave (the smallest) one to a friend of mine who was about to head off on holiday. She loved it so much that it was all used up by the time she got back. So as I hadn't touched the product yet, I gave her the large tube, leaving me with the medium size (75g).

We've been using this for a while on various bits of dry skin on Master 6 but I haven't had any occasion to use it on myself. Until last week when I came down with a cold. After 2 days in bed, one of which was spent blowing my nose non-stop, I needed some serious moisture and hydration to clear up the very flaky red nose I'd acquired!

A great opportunity to give this paw paw cream a try! It's very subtly scented (shea butter) - I love this because it means it doesn't smell horrible (my usual complaint about 'unscented' products) but it doesn't cause you to sneeze when you slather it all over your nose (or make you smell like cake batter - my complaint about products with shea butter).

My nose was rather red and sore and the first application really really really stung. Ouch! But I toughened up and made it through the stinging. The second application a few hours later stung a lot less and by day 2 it didn't sting at all. More importantly, it worked really quickly.

The redness subsided after the first application and subsequent applications worked quickly to soften up all the dry skin that was furiously shedding off my nose.

I was really lucky because the ferocious nose-blowing part of my cold only lasted a couple of days. I started with the Natralus after the blowing had stopped, so it had to repair, rather than repair and protect. If you are still blowing your nose - expect it to sting!

What's in it? The first two ingredients are aloe vera and paw paw, followed by glycerin and soybean oil. The first ingredient I didn't readily recognise was octyl palmitate, which is a derivative of palm oil and is used to adjust products' consistency (it's organic, so it's used instead of various silicones).

The product is free-from petroleum-derived ingredients, parabens, silicons, mineral oil-derived products and artificial fragrance and colour.

Better yet - the product is Australian owned and made! In fact, Natralus is based in Mt Barker in beautiful South Australia!

Packaging has changed since my product - you can see the new look here.

The products are widely available - a list of stockists is on the site and South Australians are (unsurprisingly) well served. You can expect to pay around $10 for the 75g tube.

Would I buy this product again? You bet!

And, of course I am joining Ingrid's Monday Madness Makeup link on Fabulous and Fun Life!

Skin Physics Pore Away Overnight Perfecting Cream

I picked this cream up from Priceline at 50% off. It was marked down to just $30 from its original $60 and I snaffled (I guess) the last tub.

I've not used Skin Physics products before and, in my mind, the brand has a pretty good reputation. The Dragon Blood line seems to rate quite a few mentions. So I had high hopes for this cream. Skin Physics products are made in Australia and that's something I'm always on the look out for.

Sadly, that's mostly where the love affair started and ended. The cream itself actually did a good job of night time moisturising and hydrating - so it definitely gets a big tick on that point. Whether or not it minimised pores - I can't say (which suggests that if it did any pore minimising it was only a little bit!).

However, there were a couple of real downers with this cream. Firstly, while I generally love creams that come in pots, as this did, the Pore Away was so loose it was almost a liquid or lotion rather than a cream. When the pot was full, this meant I had to be careful opening it, because it was too likely to spill out otherwise!

The other thing I really disliked was that this appears to be 'fragrance free' which is fine in and of itself but not great when it actually translates into 'smells decidedly average, verging on off'.

In terms of functionality, I loved that it was so light. It meant it went a long way, it was easy to put on and my skin absorbed it quickly. As I've mentioned, it also did a great job of moisturising.

I suspect that this product has actually been discontinued as it's no longer listed on the Skin Physics website. I'm not surprised - for me at least if I'd paid $60 for it I would have been disappointed. If only because when full so much of it ended up on the bathroom bench!