Are You Getting the Most Out Of All Your Skincare?

Quality skincare doesn't have to be but sometimes is expensive and time consuming. Not to mention it can become a game of trial and error in order to find the products that work with your particular skin chemistry. I am not even taking into account brand research, ingredient deciphering and the sometimes perilous process of acquiring the item of choice. The beauty industry can be a confusing place even for the best of us. 

For argument sake lets say that you discovered a product, visited the official website, consulted beauty pushers like me and finally made your purchase. The investment was made, the skincare did not make your face off and you are actually seeing the fruits of all that labor (aka results)! If it all lines up like that, pat yourself on the back and enjoy your complexion improvements! 

The story really should end there but of course it doesn't and it really shouldn't! The goal now is to maximize the results you are seeing in the mirror and make sure to utilize the active ingredients to their I full potential! Take it's for what it's worth completely. Think about it, you spent the money, you took your time so naturally you want to make sure you get the best out of it all!

Why settle for a $100 when you can work it to a $1000! 

Believe it or not making a few small changes in your beauty routine along with a few simple guidelines can make a world of difference! 

Here are a few skin loving rules to elevate your regiment from GOOD to AWESOME!

This may sound rudimentary but we all know that with skincare the main purpose is to get the ingredients into the skin so they can preform their primary function. Knowing what order your products should be applied can make sure to speed up absorption and maximize the penetration effect of the good stuff. The general rule is to go with light to heavy when it comes to texture and consistency. This means serums before moisturizers, and creams before balms or ointments. If a product has more active ingredient compared to the other then it needs to be applied first in order to maximize its power. Your aim is to get the best and most potent stuff in first! 

Applying an eye serum and/or eye cream is suggested as the first step after washing your face to make sure the delicate eye area is not compromised by products meant for the face only. The under-eye area especially is quite a bit more delicate than the rest of your face and therefore might be prone to irritation from actives it has no business with. To avoid this, just apply your eye treatment first so its somewhat coated when your face products come in to play. The Peter Thomas Roth Laser-Free Resurfacing Eye Serum ($67.00 for 0.5 oz) has been making quite a splash in my routine and I can't wait to review it and give it some well deserved praise.

To amplify hydration and skin recovery due to season changes on my face I have been using the Biotherm Aquasource Deep Serum ($55.00 for 50 ml) lately with some pretty impressive results (review to follow). My day moisturizers can change pretty often around here but as you know I have been loving the MuLondon White Chocolate Truffle Moisturizer ($25.00 for 60 ml) , alternating between that and the lovely classic Clarins HydraQuench Cream  ($49.00 for 50 ml). I have used the Clarins HydraQuench blue tubs for so long that the familiarity alone is comforting.

If you remember your Science class then you might recall the oil and water don't mix concept and that holds true when it comes skincare as well. Water-based products need to be applied first and then sealed with an oil treatment. However if you are using a dermatologist prescribed medication then that's the one that always should be used before anything else. Generally speaking the closer to the surface a product is, its effectiveness increases. To improve absorption try misting your face with some of the many facial mist sprays available (see here!) or simply dampen the skin surface prior product application. 

The oil of the moment in my bathroom cabinet is the Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil ($30.00 for 1 oz), which is quickly rising to the top of my facial oil stash! It's definitively giving my beloved REN Rose O12 Ultra-Moisture Defense Serum ($80.00 for 1 oz) a run for its money :-)

The beauty sleep dilemma has been debunked by some skincare experts and I am not sure if I personally buy that skin cells renew themselves more during the night but there are definite benefits in using certain products while you dream. Retinol based formulas such as the Vichy LiftActiv Retinol HA Night ($47.50 for 1 oz) along with some antioxidants make the skin very sensitive to UV rays and their efficiency is significantly lowered due to sun exposure, which means those products are best to be used indoors (or at night!). Cosmetic companies have a tendency in making night-time formulas more concentrated and spiked with higher levels of active ingredients so applying them when you are not wearing makeup (at night!) provides more time for them to work their magic. Another instance when a treatment is more effective when there is no sun exposure is in the case of resurfacing serums such as the StriVectin Advanced Overnight Resurfacing Serum ($69.00 for 1 oz) or the Roc Max Wrinkle Resurfacing System ($29.99 for the set). Come to think of it if you are using aggressive treatments like that sun exposure should be limited in the first place! 

A lot of beauty products and especially skincare have silicone's or dimethicones as part of their formulation. Many of us have a love-hate relationship with these smoothing agents and I personally consider them as "cheat ingredients" that only fool you into feeling the smoothing sensation of your skin. I understand that's the appeal in the first place but my preference would be to treat texture issues not just mask them. Since silicone's coat the surface of both hair and skin, a barrier is formed so products put on top may not be able to penetrate or work properly. If products like that are part of your routine to minimize the problem just make sure that anything like that is applied as one of the last steps (ex: primer). 

Silicone based primers that I have gotten along with in the past are: Too Faced Primed & Poreless Skin Smoothing Primer ($38.00), Tarte Clean Slate Poreless 12-Hr Perfecting Primer ($39.00 for 1 oz) and The Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser ($18.00 for 1 oz).

I am not even going to bother lecturing anyone about sunscreen use since we all know how essential SPF is for the health of your skin.  Melanoma, premature wrinkles and leathery skin is not a good look for anyone so it's most important to get this step right. 

As there are two different types of sunscreen it's no surprise that there are two application methods to consider. 

Chemical Sunscreen like La Roche Posay Anthelios XL SPF 50+ for  Face and Body require absorption in order to preform so therefore should be applied as one of the first products in your routine. Physical Sunscreen like the SkinCeuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense SPF 50 ($34.00 for 1.7 oz) use Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide to form a barrier between the fragile skin and the damaging UV rays. Since that barrier needs to remain strong these sunscreens are applied on top of your skincare but is also sustainable under light makeup. You can avoid that hassle by choosing a tinted moisturizer or foundation with high SPF protection already built in. 

As you know I have a tendency to go overboard when it comes to skincare and complicated regiments so it wont surprise you that even this post has its own little brownie point section. 

If you are indeed using targeted essentials like heavy duty lip treatments and lash conditioners you know that using such extra-credit products can sometimes interfere with your daytime beauty rituals. 

Ultra-nourishing lip treatments are perfect for overnight healing and repair but can become quite the hassle if you try using them when lipsticks and glosses are trying to be the stars of your fabulousness. Layering balms can just end up smearing and diluting your desired lip color so treatments like Hourglass N28 Lip Treatment Oil ($49.00 for 0.25 oz) and  Bite Beauty Superfruit Butter ($21.00 for 0.23 oz) are better left for indoor times. 

Lash treatments are not everyone's cup of tea but the beauty obsessed like myself find such products totally helpful and the results these days can be rather impressive. My picks are the old standby Mavala Switzerland Double Lash (15.70) and my new discovery Talika Eyelash Growth Lpocils ($28.00) However as awesome and gratifying these are I have never found one that is mascara-friendly so I have to reserve them for night use. Luckily beauty companies have recently come out with mascara's laced with lash treatments and the Revlon Lash Potion formula has been on the forefront for some time now but the jury is still out! 

The main point I wanted to make with this blog post is that we are putting our faith in these cosmetic companies, spending our hard earned money and putting in precious time researching product specifics - that kind of effort deserves the very best these products can offer. With just a few tweaks and some tidbits of information you might not have thought of utilizing, the products you already have can go from PRETTY GOOD  to FREAKING AMAZING! 

As a girl who has a very difficult time remembering to read the directions on anything I wanted to find a way to pass on real world beauty experience points to girls like me and avoid sounding like a product pusher for once... I hope this helps!

Thank you for reading

Do you have some secret skincare tips? 

XOXO

ANJA

Honest Review - Lancôme Visionnaire LR 2412 4% Advanced Skin Corrector

I am going to start off this post by saying that my skin has never gotten along with any Lancôme skincare products. In fact I had an extremely bad experience and allergy reaction to one of their cleansers a few years ago, which caused me to purposely avoid the Lancôme counter at Sears no matter how good their gwp promotions turned out to be. 

As a skincare enthusiast it was hard for me to deny my own curiosity when the Visionnaire serum first launched. The Lancôme marketing team created such hype and excitement in the beauty industry over this miraculous LR 2412 molecule that I started considering lifting the Lancôme ban of my own. 

What can I say - my impulse control was seriously lacking!

The blogosphere exploded with Visionnaire reviews and for a while it looked like this serum really was the game-changer in the anti-aging industry. After reading what seemed like a 1000 positive reviews I finally decided to give Lancôme one more chance at redemption and purchased the elegant blue bottle. 

Did it live up to my expectation and more importantly, did it deliver the results it promised? 

We shall see...

Official description; 

More than a wrinkle-corrector, this product is capable of fundamentally re-creating more beautiful skin. The first skincare product with LR 2412, a molecule designed to propel through skin layers, it triggers a cascading series of micro-transformations along its path. On the surface, wrinkles and pores are visibly corrected. Imperfections like signs of UV damage and acne marks appear diminished. 

Ingredients;

Aqua / Water / Eau, Cyclohexasiloxane, Glycerin, Alcohol Denat., Sodium Tetrahydrojasmonate, Dipropylene Glycol, Pentaerythrityl Tetraethylhexanoate, Polysilicone-11, Dimethicone, Bis-Peg/Ppg-16/16 Peg/Ppg-16/16 Dimethicone, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Ammonium Polyacryldimethyltauramide / Ammonium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Ci 77891 / Titanium Dioxide, Mica, Sodium Hyaluronate, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Phenoxyethanol, Adenosine, Argilla / Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Dimethiconol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Disodium Edta, Tetrahydrojasmonic Acid, Citronellol, Inulin Lauryl Carbamate, Parfum / Fragrance.

The biggest selling point Lancôme used in the Visionnaire promotion was their claim that "one out of two women tempted by a cosmetic procedure decided to postpone it" after using this advanced skin corrector for only four weeks. 

First off I want to make it clear that I have never been tempted to undergo any kind of cosmetic surgery and knowing my own prejudice to needles and scalpels chances are I never will be either. Personally I am a big believer in good skincare, problem prevention and suitable maintenance of your own skin type, regardless of age. I am also afraid of needles, which disqualifies me from most cosmetic procedures or surgeries and forces me to be almost exclusively product driven when it comes to anti-aging and caring for the skin,

I may be able to resist plastic surgery promises but I was indeed tempted by a certain skin correcting serum Visionnaire that promised to improve the condition of my complexion, blurr fine lines and pores, fade hyper-pigmentation areas, refine skin texture and plump up facial tone. 

The glowing reviews, so-called "scientific research", the internationally patented  miracle molecule inclusion (LR 2412), the perfect complexion of the Lancôme models and the price tag alone ($132 for 1.7 fl.oz) made me expect significant changes or at least some visible results in the mirror. 

Honestly I would have been happy with at least one of the "skin corrections" this thing claimed to provide. 

Now i really don't want this post to be viewed as a negative, bitter review for Lancôme but I made a commitment prior to starting this beauty blog that I will always be honest about any product experiences.
Seeing how the decision for me to invest in this Advanced Skin Corrector was majorly influenced by all the positive reviews on many of the "big beauty blogs" I strongly believe that posting honest positive and negative opinions about all products is extremely important in helping others who are looking for balanced information, especially if the item requires a significant monetary investment. 

In my opinion the Lancôme Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector fits that category perfectly. 

Unfortunately the performance of this beautiful, fancy Visionnaire serum was very underwhelming for me. I didn't see any positive changes on my skin and although I enjoyed using it I cannot justify repurchasing something so expensive that didnt have any effect. I liked the light-reflecting particles suspended in the Visionnaire liquid since the effect was similar to a sheer highlighting primer but I have many other products that can imitate the same thing. Not to mention that shine and mica sparkles are not real skincare ingredients, especially when we are talking about such expensive skincare. 

As I mentioned the Lancôme Visionnaire did not really live up to my expectations since I didn't see any noticeable change in my skin but it also didnt cause any negative reactions either.  I was slightly concerned about that outcome because of my previous negative experience but Lancôme has obviously upped its game when it comes to avoiding irritants or allergens in their formulations. 
Despite all that I would not recommend this serum to the members of the Sensitive Skin Care Club because the Visionnaire formula has a significantly high alcohol content, which can dry out and irritate delicate skin. 

Lancôme is one of the leading beauty giants when it comes to the world of cosmetics and they certainly didn't skimp on research when it came to formulating their latest anti-aging treatment serum. 

There are many positive, glowing reviews all over the blogosphere about the Lancôme Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector so just because it didnt work out for me, it doesn't mean that it's not a good product. Obviously some people are experiencing great results with this addition to their skincare routines because the Visionnaire continues to be one of the brands leading sellers. Conclusions and findings like this only further reinforce the fact that skincare is extremely subjective from one individual to the next and what works for one person may or may not work for you. Coming up with an ideal combination of skincare products and brands, which "perfect" your complexion and meet all the requirements for healthy skin inside and out; is probably one of the trickiest but also the most rewarding paths a beauty enthusiast can take. The Lancome Visionnire was a little detour on my path!

It feels strange to say that even though Visionnaire wasn't right for me, it did renew my interest in Lancôme again and I know that I will be visiting their counter pretty soon. Go figure!

In fact I have my eye on the new Génifique Yeux Light-Pearl(TM) Eye-Illuminating Youth Activating Concentrate!

For more information regarding Lancome Visionnaire and other Lancome products, including purchasing please visit their website. Lancome products are available for purchase directly there, Sephora, various Shopper's Drug Mart Locations (Canada) and various department store counters (Macy's, Sears, The Bay etc.) 

Have you lovely readers tried the Visionnaire or the Génifique Yeux Light-Pearl? 

What is your favorite Lancôme product? 

XOXO 

ANJA

P.S. If you enjoyed this post and want some more Princeza Beauty Musings, please consider following me through GFC, Bloglovin, Pinterest or Twitter! Insert "happy dance" here :-)