Escentual Wish List

Throughout March Escentual have upto a third off French Pharmacy brands - La Roche Posay, Vichy, Avene, A-Derma, Klorane, Caudalie, Rene Furterer and Pierre Fabre. I've heard of some of these, mainly due to the cult status some hold on blogs. I am already a huge La Roche Posay fan as I posted about the other day but there are some other favourites on my wishlist as well as some products I would love to try.

La Roche Posay Cicaplast Skin Recovery Accelerator & Cicaplast Lips - My love of the Cicaplast Baume has meant these are top of my list, the lip cream promises to reduce irritation and prevent new cracked lips appearing. Perfect. The Skin Recovery Accelerator was created with the after care of cosmetic procedures in mind, it boosts the skins recovery time. Perfect for the many acne scars I have as well as surgical scars and grazes.

Caudalie Beauty Elixir - Remember when this was THE blogger product? In every must have and every what's in my handbag post. Of course I bought into the hype.. and unfortunately actually really loved it. Jenny has a lovely post on it which I completely agree with, it basically just soothes my skin and smells divine. 

Nuxe Rêve de Miel Honey Lip Balm - A few months ago I asked twitter the best lip balm as I had tried everything and nothing was working to stop the recurrence of my dry lips. I spotted this in Marks and Spencer a few weeks later after hearing lots of positive things about it. I am now on my second pot, that's how good it is. Who ever finishes lip balm! I don't know if it is the repairing honey or the soothing grapefruit but this pot of wonder is amazing, tempted to buy a back up while it is 1/3 off!

Avene Cleanance Purifying Mattifying Lotion / Toner - I love a good toner, especially one for blemish prone skin. This promises to soothe and irritation and leave skin matte. Perfect when my skin goes through it's oily stage in Summer.

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Purpose Dry Oil Spray - This is something else that has seen a lot of love on beauty blogs. I used to be petrified of oils, even to use them on my dry hair because of the fear of it getting greasy. I am now a convert to The Body Shop's Vitamin E Serum in Oil (post here) and often use oils in my hair. This sounds like the perfect all rounder with the added spray applicator an added bonus.

Vichy Dermablend Fluid Corrective Foundation - I have blogged about my love of this foundation before, it is serious coverage and in the end I stopped using it as a foundation and moved onto using it as a concealer mainly as the shade wasn't perfect. However looking back on photos from when I used this foundation I can't believe how flawless it made my skin look, full coverage without the cakey finish some foundation causes. I am curious to try it again due to discovering buffering brushes which has completely changed the way I apply foundation (don't I sound dramatic). 

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation

Still on the hunt for the perfect foundation I stumbled accross Vichy Dermablend when watching Lisa Eldridge's youtube video on covering acne.You may have heard of Dermablend after watching the fabulous "Go Beyond the Cover" with the gorgeous Zombie Boy. The Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation promises to give "total coverage" with twice as much coverage as a traditional foundtion. So off I went to Boots and found the foundation amonst the skin care, the lightest shade is "Opal 15" which is a little darker than I usually go for but the model in Lisa Eldridge's video seemed to be of similar shade to my skin so bought it anyway!

 

I have been using Double Wear religiously, it's staying power is unbeatable. It can look a little cakey and of course causes serious Ghost Face. So how does it compare? Well the coverage is the same, you can either apply it as a concealer as in the youtube tutorial, or buff into the skin as with a normal foundation. It blends beautifully into the skin, you don't have to work as fast as you do with Double Wear. You can also build on the coverage easily without it going to cakey. Now the shade is a little darker than I am used to, however I have had more compliments on my skin looking healthier instead of being the same me colour as paper.

It is currently my go to foundation, my skin is worse than in the Blemish Balms post to give you some idea of what it is covering beneath! 

Without flash / With Flash

The flash photograph has no blush on for some reason, I took these photos as I was curling my hair so did my make-up in-between letting the curls set! I am pretty impressed with the foundation, it is aimed at people who feel the need to cover up blemishes / scars and does the job perfectly for me. At £15.50 it is more than your average high street foundation but still cheaper than a high end one. It works with my skin, which is oily in places and dry in others. However the limited choice of shades will put many people off. I do have to be extra careful to blend it into my neck so no clear foundation line, but with my normal pale powder on top it is fine.

Zoey xox