Review: L'Oreal SkinPerfection Range

Believe it or not, but it's actually pretty difficult to find skincare for skin which just like mine is sort of "meh, alright, I suppose". At 24, I still believe that I'm too young to delve into anti-ageing skincare, but I also don't have any major concerns like acne or hypersensitivity. My skin isn't bad, but I wouldn't mind my complexion being a bit more even, my pores a bit smaller and my T-Zone a bit less oily.

With their SkinPerfection range, L'Oreal as a big brand have now finally, finally recognised that there's probably quite a lot of women just like me: 20-somethings who don't expect their beauty products to perform any miracles, just give us a bit of a boost. And we're not prepared to pay a fortune for it either.

I have two products from this range to talk about today, the Correcting Day Moisturiser and the Serum.

Admittedly, they had me a little bit with the packaging. It's pink, bright pink (-and that's why they call me Captain Obvious). And I don't know why, but there's something about beauty products packaged in cardboard boxes that makes me very happy.

The daily moisturiser is housed in a glass container with a metallic lid. Though it's quite heavy, so not ideal for transportation, it looks quite pretty on my desk. My one gripe is the clear sticker with the "SkinPerfection" writing on it, as it looks quite tacky and it would be much better to have the writing on the actual glass itself. But I suppose I'm nitpicking here.

Some time ago I would have been complaining about the pot being a little unhygienic, but to be honest that doesn't bother me anymore. Just make sure you've got clean hands before you rub them all over your face and you should be fine! To my utter delight it turns out that the cream inside is also pink!

The texture of this is absolutely spot-on for my skin. It glides on easily and absorbs quickly leaving my skin nice and moisturised all over, with absolutely no stickiness. I can apply make-up on top pretty much straight away and it won't slip about or leave any of those weird rolly bits.
The one downside of this one is that it doesn't have any SPF, so you'd have to apply that separately.

On to the serum: Have you noticed that it's also pink? It comes in a snazzy little pump, once again in a glass container, so not the most travel-friendly, but it looks nice on the bathroom shelf. And it's pink.

I found this serum to be surprisingly thick - it actually feels a lot more like a light moisturiser than a serum. It's got quite a silicone-y feel on the skin, so that might not be for everyone, but it sinks in nice and quick, so that you can apply moisturiser straight on top without having to faff about waiting for it to dry. It's actually got lots of little bits of shimmer when it comes out of the pump, but once you rub it into your skin the shimmer completely disappears.

I always find it a bit tricky to review skin care items, especially if I'm trying lots of new products at the same time, as I am now. It's just difficult to pinpoint what exactly is causing my skin to behave in a certain way. What I can tell you, however, is that while using this combo my skin is in utterly amazing condition. For some reason it just seems a lot smoother and more even than normal, like permanently wearing foundation - and that's despite the stresses of bringing up two little puppies! I actually went out for lunch without any make-up on today, would you believe it??

Once again I can't say for sure what's causing my skin to be the way it is right now - it could be one of these products, it could be both, it could be a combination of everything, or maybe something I wouldn't have expected at all. Nevertheless, these two just feel completely right for my skin and are an absolute pleasure to use.

Lacura Q10 - or the not so miraculous £1-miracle-cream

I've been mixing up my skincare routine quite a bit lately, so there will be quite a few reviews coming on how I got along with all of my new products. Some of them worked really well, some not so much.

I first heard about these when I first started trying to save some money back in June. I only started using them recently, however, as the Clinique moisturiser I'd been using before that didn't want to end and I also received some samples after that which I wanted to use up first.
These cost £1 each and are from Aldi - not a shop I'd usually consider for my beauty needs, but I'd heard so many rave reviews about them I just had to give it a go. After all, the worst-case scenario would be that £2 went down the drain - so what?

Among the amazing things that I read about this cream was how well it fared in blind tests among much more high-end products and that it was the only anti-ageing cream that is scientifically proven to work. I'd like to point out that I don't know how accurate those reports are, but they sure sparked my interest.

The packaging is nice enough - they both come in glass pots which look pretty on my dressing table and also give it a more expensive appearance. I like that the lids are different colours, so I could see from the top which one to use for day and which one to use for night.

Lacura Q10 Day Cream

The textures of the two creams vary heavily. The day cream has a nice light, but still creamy texture. It feels moisturising, but not greasy and sinks quickly into the skin.

Lacura Q10 Night Cream

As you can see from the picture the night cream was a little bit... different. The texture reminded me of butter, but not in a good way. I had to really dig into the pot to get any product on my finger as opposed to a greasy film. It left my skin really sticky and horrible, but then night creams are supposed to be a bit richer, so if your skin is dry to very dry you might be alright.

I am aware that this cream is not really meant for my skin type. Though it doesn't really say what skin this IS meant for, I wasn't expecting any wrinkle reduction at the age of 22. I usually have normal to combination skin with the odd dry or oily day thrown in for good measure if my skin's feeling rebellious. Nevertheless, I've used anti-ageing products before and they usually did a nice job of keeping my skin hydrated and soft.
These, however, broke me out severely. My skin became quite odd - it was not oily, but it just felt kind of sticky, like the surface of a rubber ball. I really, really wanted to like this because of the amazing price tag, so I kept on using it in the hope that my skin would get used to it, or that it would work better in the winter. But no, the spots kept coming and the plasticky feeling on my face stayed.
After a while I stopped using the night cream and the spots improved a little bit, but still wouldn't go away completely. When I finally chucked the day cream as well, I had clear skin within three days.

It might work on more mature or very dry skin types - some people do love this after all. I wouldn't recommend it for normal, oily, or even slightly dry skin, as it is just way too rich and greasy. For £1 each, however, it's still worth trying - at worst you can do what I did and chuck it in the bin after a few uses without any hard feelings.