Tag Archives: beauty

No7 Future Renew SPF50 Review

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hello hello, I hope you are doing good! We have another SPF review today and its my latest favorite, the No7 Future Renew SPF50

This is described as

No7 Future Renew™ Defence Shield UV SPF 50 is expertly developed to help protect against visible signs of sun damage. DAMAGE PROTECTION: Formulated with SPF 50 to help protect skin from visible damage caused by UV: uneven skin tone, fine lines & wrinkles, and dryness LIGHTWEIGHT MOISTURISATION: This lightweight No7 day cream leaves skin looking and feeling hydrated. NO WHITE CAST: The invisible, fast-absorbing texture is suitable for all skin tones and creates the perfect base for makeup

UV sunlight is the No1 cause of visible skin damage. A lack of sun protection can lead to visible signs of skin damage. With 80% of premature skin ageing caused by the sun, don’t let the clouds fool you, daily incidental sun damage can accumulate over time, causing the appearance of fine lines, uneven skin tone and dryness. This lightweight, invisible No7 finish formula leaves skin looking and feeling hydrated, while helping to provide a defence shield against UV in sunlight. Formulated with our highest & and lightest SPF 50 sun protection, age-defying peptide technology, and hydrating Sodium Hyaluronate.

Experience

I have experienced no irritation and it did not sting my eyes. The scent isn’t a strong SPF scent, its very mild

I bought this after speaking with the sales advisor and testing a bit of it on my hands. I had actually picked up a different SPF however she mentioned that the No7 one was better so of course I asked her if it left a white cast on dark skin. She said no and pointed that she actually had it on( under her makeup) she was a black woman so if she said it was invisible I was intrigued and the deal at the time also sealed it for came up to £14 lol

This SPF is super watery and lightweight and it sinks very nicely into the skin. It feels like I have nothing on and it works really well under makeup too. It leaves a glowing hydrated finish but its not greasy or look oily. I really really like this SPF! My friend with oily skin really loves this too. I have normal to combo skin and it works so well for it.

I LOVE this SPF. It layers so well on top of each other like there is 0 pilling! I tested this to the max whilst I was on holiday. I must have layered it at least 4 times and had 0 pill and 0 white cast. Of course after that many layers it starts to feel slightly heavy but I find this with all SPFs. Its very hydrating too . Is it invisible on dark skin?: judge for yourselves below

Verdict

In addition to high protection broad-spectrum protection, this SPF also has peptides and sodium hyaluronate for extra benefits. I have to admit this SPF pleasantly surprised me. I have a love hate relationship with No7 skincare so in all honestly I don’t even know why I agreed to get this lool but I’m so glad I did because it worked so well when I took it on holiday. I even used it on my body and it worked really well.

100% recommend this sunscreen

This is £24.95 in Boots

Dr V Inzincable SPF50 Review

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hihi everyone, I hope all is well. Today I have another sunscreen try on and review for you. This time I am talking about mineral sunscreen and the Inzincable SPF50 from Dr V which claims to be 100% invisible on dark skin

The Inzincable SPF is described as The world’s first no ‘white cast’ mineral sunscreen for skin of colour. With anti-pigmentation, anti-inflammatory ingredients. No fragrance, essential oils or drying alcohols. Broad Spectrum SPF50 ‘Invisible’ Mineral Suncream. For the face & body, men & women, all ages (2+). Normal/dry/combi/sensitive skin.

Experience

I have been using this sunscreen for a while now and I have had no irritation with it. I use the standard 2 fingers rule when applying all sunscreens

The SPF has a lotion texture and doesn’t feel too heavy on the skin. It applies easy and doesn’t pile which I love. It wears well under makeup and doesn’t sting the eyes.

Is this invisible on dark skin? NO! this SPF makes some huge claims but it is simply not 100% cast free on my skin. Its not the WORST cast I have experienced and it looks VERY deceiving in some photos and lighting lol but I can tell there is a visible cast on my skin. I wont be able to leave the house with this, I would definitely have to cover with powder foundation. I also find it difficult to blend around the hairline because it sticks to the hairs on the hairline.

In the photo below, I have tried to point out where you can see the cast where it may not be so obvious because honestly in some lights it looks blended into my skin

Verdict

It is not the worst cast I have experienced from a sunscreen. For a mineral SPF I think its pretty good. The issue is the massive claim of been the world’s first cast free mineral SPF for dark skin which is simply untrue. What I also found was using a small amount of the SPF leaves no cast however that is not a true indication of the product because who uses a very small amount of SPF? not me anyways, I always use the recommended amount to get the full sun protection stated on the product. For most people this is two fingers full and using this amount results in the cast above

Will I repurchase? No and it simply comes down to ease of use. I want a sunscreen I can use and go out the door without having to camouflage it with makeup and I simply cant do that with this product. To be totally honest, I don’t know if I will ever get that from mineral sunscreens which is why I tend to stick to chemical sunscreens.

This product is available on Dr V’s website along with her other offerings for hyperpigmentation. I haven’t used any other product from her range but I have met her once at an event a while back.

Im still very interested in looking for mineral sunscreens this year so my search continues!

catch you later

Garnier Vitamin C Daily UV SPF50 Review

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hihi all, I hope all is well and good with you! Summer is right on the way so I thought I will bring you a series of reviews for sunscreens! For some people summer is the season they wear SPF so I’m hoping these reviews come in handy.

Today Im talking about the Garnier Vitamin C Daily UV SPF50. This is a gifted product. This product is described as This Daily UV Fluid combines a very high protection SPF50+ (UVA, UVB & long UVA) to help prevent dark spots, with Vitamin C* known for its efficacy on boosting brightness and improving complexion. It also contains Peptides known to smooth skin and Hyaluronic Acid to hydrate with an invisible lightweight formula.

Experience

I experienced no irritation with it and it did not sting my eyes.

The texture is lightweight and watery and it sinks into the skin with ease. It does have a alcohol scent but it doesn’t linger. This is a chemical SPF

Is it invisible on dark skin? YES. this SPF is 100% on the skin as shown in my pics below

Feel on skin– upon initial application, the SPF feels hydrating and lightweight and even leaves a semi dewy finish however once fully dry its matte and I feel leaves my skin dry. What I do not like about this product is the fact that it pills when dry. Once fully dry if you touch your face it starts to pill. I don’t like it under makeup because of this. It doesn’t pair well with some primers and because it leaves my skin dry & a bit tight, I can feel that underneath my makeup

Verdict

On paper this SPF sounds so good. It has peptides, Vit c and hyaluronic acid in addition to high factor broad spectrum protection however the matte finish and pilling for me makes this unenjoyable

I wont recommend this particular SPF because Garnier have a lot of amazing SPFs that are also invisible but no pilling!

Make sure you visit my insta to see a video demo!

This SPF is £12.99 in Boots

April & May Empties

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hihi, Is it summer yet? Is summer in the room with us because these last few days have been horrible! sigh

Im sharing my empties for the last 2 months today and I have a lot to say! Lets begin. As you know Im doing an empties challenge this year which is 500 empties by 31st Dec 2024! its a lot I know lol but I have broken this down into tiers:
Target- 500 empties ( approx 41.6 products a month)
Tier 1- 400 ( approx 33.3 products a month)
Tier 2- 366 ( approx 1 empty a day for the year)
Tier 3- 213 ( this was my final empties I got last year)

Empties this month– 42. Cumulative total- 92

Any reviews I have written up will be linked

Hair &Body

  • Cantu sulfate free cleansing cream shampoo- this was good for my hair but towards the end, I started using it to cleanse my brushes and it works so great for that!
  • Tresemme keratin smooth heat protection- the only brand i trust for heat protection this one is really nice and added keratin helps to strengthen the hair
  • Cantu Guava Ginger & rice protein- I think this has been discontinued and rightly so because it did nada to the hair.
  • Briogeo Dont Despair repair shampoo- this was a good trial size which lasted 2 washes. I really like the shampoo, suds well and doesnt strip the hair. Mine came in a gift set like this one
  • Olapex No5- this is one of my fav products from Olapex! all my thoughts on the brand and how it performs on natural hair can be found here. if you haven’t tried it and you are a regular heat user, this will be very beneficial. Its pricey but a good investment and you can get a trial kit first like i did.
  • Mitchum mens roll on
  • Garnier and Vaseline body lotions
  • Naturium glow getter body wash- this was a bit disappointing to use. I thought it would like my skin hydrated and glowing but it just didnt wow me and leave it any different
  • Marc Jacobs Decadence

Makeup

  • Samples of Milk hydrogrip- so happy I finally tried this primer and 100% can understand the hype. ITS GOOD! I’m buying this later this year when I finish a few more primers! Mac Prep & prime natural radiance- a nice glowy base for makeup which I love travelling with
  • Kiss Falscara- this new and improved version is PANTS! I used to love these lashes and regular did them at home until the new & improved versions. They don’t come off easily and they almost always split, I think they changed the glue they use. I’ve switched to something else but I still have half a pack of the Kiss ones to finish. I don’t recommend them anymore because I wasted a few lashes trying to take them out
  • Nyx dewy setting spray– yes and yes. at £6 its one of the best setting sprays in boots that sets makeup and gives a nice finish to makeup
  • Primark makeup cleansing cloths- the only ones I use and I think primark have stopped doing these too!
  • superdrug baby wipes

Creams & Serums

  • Farmacy Honey drop *- this was such a disappointment! Its a lovely thick cream but for me( and coming off the Skin Fix peptide moisturiser) I didn’t find this moisturizing enough. I didn’t think it made any difference to my skin either. It layers well and doesn’t pill
  • Sephora brightening eye cream *- this was ok. its nice and hydrating but it didnt make a difference to dark circles
  • Ole Henriksen peptide trainer- I wanted to try this moisturiser as I’m looking for other peptide moisturisers to add to my arsenal. This is a lovely one, suitable for warmer weather but not quite enough for me. Happy to repurchase this travel size if a good offer is on but i wont buy the full size
  • Tatcha Dewy cream– urgh this cream is everything! its part of the mini fav gift set i got last christmas, you can find my full review on this and other Tatcha products here
  • Sample sizes- elemis pro collagen marine cream, Kiehls ultra facial cream, Zelens 3t complex
  • Ramsou bifida x4- this is a lovely serum i got initially as a dupe for ANR but its not. find out why in my full review here
  • Minimalist Vit C,E & ferulic- full review here
  • The ordinary multi peptide- this is my 2nd bottle and my go to peptide serum.
  • sample sizes- Lancone, Bodyshop

Toners, Cleansers, Masks

  • Pyunkang Yul essence toner- this is such a popular k beauty toner but I really dont get the hype. I didnt find it hydrating nor it did make any lasting difference to my skin. happy i got the mini size as a trial
  • Artistry Hydrating toner- this was a lovely toner packed with amamzing ingredients to hydrate & soothe the skin.
  • Cosrx Propolis Synergy Toner- a lovely toner from Cosrx. This is another popular toner and i can see why. its soothing and hydrating and pairs well with all actives
  • Fenty fat water– Ive used a few bottles of this. heavily scented but if you dont mind that, it is nice and hydrating
  • Tatcha essence- full review here
  • Tatcha cleansing oil- full review here
  • Elemis dynamic resurfacing cleanser- Ive used this cleanser before and i really loved it. it came in a gift set with the other Elemis cleanser ( Pro collagen energing cleanser) and 2 cleansing balms
  • Elemis pro collagen cleansing balms *- a cult fav and i really see why. Its very nice at removing all traces of makeup without drying out the skin
  • Bodyshop camomile cleanser- a nice makeup removing balm but struggles a bit with masacara
  • I’m From Honey mask- another popular k beauty item but so disappinting to me. my full review is here

With 6 months to go, I really need to step up my game with these empties lool. Im not even half way of my tier 3 goal sigh

share your fav products with me. Catch you later

gifted products are marked with *

Some affiliate links used, these will earn me a small commission that goes towards the maintenance of the blog if you buy via them but the price of products remain unchanged.

RAMOSU – Bifida Ferment Lysate 100 Review

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hihi everyone, today’s post will be a full review on the Ramosu 100 Bifida ampoules I got from Stylevana. If you want to see the other items I picked up, read that post here

I wanted to experiment with k beauty dupes for the Estee Lauder ANR serum. I absolutely LOVE the ANR serum, its pricey but its so worth it! I usually bulk buy it when they do their buy 1 get 1 free promotion but the problem is they haven’t done this in 2 years and my stash is down to the last 1, sigh. I worked it out that they run this promotion when they update the ingredient list so that they can quickly get rid of the old stock. the last update I feel was 2022 when they did the promotion.

Anyways the promotion hasn’t be run in the last 2 years so I decided to find some k beauty dupes I can use whilst waiting for the promotion to come back or a really good offer on. Estee Lauder do have some great offers from time to time so really its only a matter of time LOOL.

Criteria for Estee Lauder ANR dupes

This is the current full ingredient list for the ANR, what I am looking for in a dupe is something as close to this OR has the key ingredients I have put in bold, but the main ingredient I look for in dupes is the Bifida Ferment Lysate since its the 2nd ingredient in ANR therefore in high conc

Ingredients: WaterAquaEau, Bifida Ferment Lysate, Peg-8, Propanediol, Bis-Peg-18 Methyl Ether Dimethyl Silane, Methyl Gluceth-20, Glycereth-26, Peg-75, Butylene Glycol, Adansonia Digitata Seed Extract, Tripeptide-32, Sodium Hyaluronate, Yeast ExtractFaexExtrait De Levure, Lactobacillus Ferment, Cola Acuminata (Kola) Seed Extract, Anthemis Nobilis (Chamomile) Flower Extract, Hydrolyzed Algin, Pantethine, Caffeine, Lecithin, Sodium Rna, Bisabolol, Squalane, Glycerin, Oleth-3 Phosphate, Caprylyl Glycol, Oleth-3, Oleth-5, Choleth-24, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Jojoba Wax Peg-120 Esters, Ceteth-24, Tocopheryl Acetate, Carbomer, Triethanolamine, Tetrasodium Edta, Bht, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Disodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Red 4 (Ci 14700), Yellow 5 (Ci 19140) 

It is well known that k beauty have a lot of products with Bifida Ferment Lysate in them so I turned to the k beauty world for dupes. I picked up 3 for my 1st round of testing and I started with the RAMOSU – Bifida Ferment Lysate 100.

RAMOSU – Bifida Ferment Lysate 100 – this is a 100% pure bifida ferment ampoule with nothing else added to it. I had never heard of the brand Ramosu until browsing on Stylevana and I got it because it was on clearance. You get 5x10ml bottles, I have finished 3 so far out of 5. This ampoule promises a special skin feeling in 28 days

Experience

This was an easy addition to my skincare routine, it layers well with other products and pairs well with other actives. I have used it with high strength retinol, acids, peptides with no irritation. I started using this on the 20th of March after I had just finished a bottle of ANR. I finished a 3rd bottle of the Ramosu on the 2nd of May before taking a 1 week break to use ANR then back to Ramosu.

Is it similar to ANR? In terms of ingredients, this product only has the bifida ferment so its lacking the benefits of other ingredients in a well rounded serum. To combat this I just layered other products with some of the ingredients in ANR e.g peptides, glycerin etc. The serum itself is not hydrating.

Results: I think that the ampoule has helped maintain a healthy glowing complexion like ANR but I can see a difference. ANR makes my skin feel smooth, soft and radiant and the results are literally overnight. I just didn’t get that from this. In the pictures and ignore my spot treatments, I feel like there is a slight difference in terms radiance and feeling of my skin. My skin looks great but I can feel the difference

Verdict

Is it a dupe for ANR? Well it has the main ingredient which is the bifida however the lack of other ingredients means you are not getting full benefits so I would say its not a dupe.

Is it a great product? absolutely, if you are the type to layer on skincare then the lack of other ingredients wont bother you so much because you will be getting them elsewhere. The only time this was annoying was when I wanted a lazy pm routine, the lack of hydration from ramosu meant I couldn’t just use this plus a cream because it wont be enough

Do I recommend it: yes and no- yes because for the price you pay for 100% bifida its amazing, its well packaged and it actually leaves the skin great but no because there are no many other dupes that are well rounded in ingredients and may work better.

Bottomline: it doesnt hurt to try this, its £10 for 50ml but it is not a dupe for ANR. Get it to try as a product because you want to experiment with bifida but not as a dupe for ANR

I have 20ml left of this to use up then its onto the next dupe!

I hope this review is helpful! Catch you later