Essence Perfectrice Skin Perfector by L’Occitane

The battle with the bags (eye bags that is, not the fish wives who live on my block) continues and while my eyes have never looked better there are still days when they can look a little puffy, be a touch blemished and the lines more pronounced.

I’ve tried a couple of things with success and when the opportunity to try L’Occitane Essence Perfectrice Skin Perfector I could resist the temptation. If I’m going to be honest, when approached by the PR company it was basically the least feminine thing in the new range. As an aside by taking the plunge my eyes have since been opened to the Cade male grooming range also from L’Occitane (a couple of posts to watch out for there).

A 30ml bottle of the Skin Perfector will set you back £38 and can be bought here, and while £38 may seem like a lot, when you compare it to other eye creams. 

Personally I only have two issues, my eyes and the deep ridges and frown lines on my forehead. Some serious plastic surgery is required for the forehead so I didn’t expect much from the product there, but around my eyes the lines are more shallow and I started using this in the hope that it could help me out.

This is what they say about Essence Perfectrice Skin Perfector over on the L’Occitane website:

‘Ideal for all skin types, this fresh and ultra-light serum, with an expert second-skin-like texture helps to visibly improve skin quality. Skin texture looks smoothed and refined, pores seem tightened, fine lines and imperfections seem reduced. The skin reflects light better, looks more even and its radiance is boosted. 

Each day, your skin reveals its natural beauty, it feels ultra-smooth and velvety, and your complexion looks more even, fresh and glowing

L'OCCITANE has extracted from peonies growing in the Drôme Region of France, a perfecting concentrate. Rich in natural plant sugars, this patented extract acts on skin cells to help visibly correct complexion and texture irregularities.’

First of all this does scream feminine from the bottle to the fragrance. That said, I don’t tend to mess around applying this stuff in public (although by publishing this here, in theory I actually am - one to think about) so even I could throw aside any potential jibes and gave this a try.

The creamy textured Skin Perfector has a fairly subtle floral fragrance, in fact I was surprised by how faint it was. It got additional points in my book for not interfering with my aftershaves after I had used it, and in fact, within a couple of minutes you could be forgiven for forgetting that you had this on your face, that is until you start to feel your pores tighten.

I applied this after showering so the pores on my face were open when I rubbed it gently around my eye area and forehead. After around fifteen minutes I could feel a rather strange sensation as though the skin was tightening. It actually made me feel more awake as my eyes tightened and opened a little bit more than usual. Impressed is a slight understatement at this point.

After an hour I went back to take a look - the skin tone was far clearer, and looked smoother to me. The fine lines around my eyes (read crows feet) were substantially reduced and in parts no visible without a good hard look. The ridges in my forehead as I said earlier would take some serious work but even they seemed more reduced in depth, and just by removing the blemishes just above my eyebrow looked so much better.

The acid test for me when using these products is whether I feel more confident about how I look after using them. In this case, yes, yes I did, and in fact I could see a noticeable difference in my skin texture after a few days of using this. Over a week later my eyes just weren’t are dark in the morning which helps to avoid that moment of shock when I clap eyes on myself after getting up!

The purchase price may put some people off, the packaging will probably put a lot of blokes off this but if you want my advice, take the plunge and invest in some. I love using it and it boosts my confidence knowing that make face looks even better.

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Truffle Noir by Temple Spa

Well, I did say in a recent post that my blog would be entering Temple Spa season and I have no intention on deviating from this until my mind is distracted by something that shines or some brightly coloured flashing lights. Today, and after a using it over twenty days I will be giving my thoughts on Truffle Noir, billed as a nocturne facial rejuvenator by Temple Spa. 

Will I wake up looking like I did in 2004 (yes, I know, a shameless and random excuse to insert a picture of me looking much younger)? Read on….. 

Truffle Noir is the second Temple Spa product sent to me to sample. I have already written about their Way To Go Cleansing Wash Gel here and considering how much I liked that, this one had a lot to live up to. While different products, I was blown away by the quality and high hopes.

This is what Temple Spa say about Truffle Noir:

'Truffle Noir, particularly designed to do night duty on your skin while you sleep. We combined brilliant science with turbo charged ingredients to create a luxury formula that repairs, restores and renews. The texture is amazing and with the addition of Happybelle-PE (happiness in a jar) you really will look great in bed!

For men, Truffle Noir has a handsome satin-matte finish on the skin being ideal for their daytime regime; it has all the rejuvenating benefits of Skin Truffle, yet without the diamond lustre.

KEY BENEFITS:

• Anti-ageing, long term benefits
• Instant aesthetic benefits – gives a clear, radiant, ‘happy’ and toned complexion
• Slows down the development of fine lines and wrinkles
• Repairs cell and tissue damage
• Strengthens thin or fragile skin
• Restores elasticity, boosts collagen
• Renews firmness, suppleness and smoothness
• Supports the fundamental changes in our skins behaviour at night, working with the body’s natural rhythm
• Helps the skin ‘help itself’ by promoting its natural ability to replenish
• Easily absorbed, non-greasy formula
• Leaves skin feeling soft and plump, with a satin-matte finish
• Calms razor burn or skin irritations'

Any regular reader will know that I don’t like the area around my eyes. I have used a range of things to try and eliminate the bags, change the colour to look as though I’m actually alive etc. I’ve been using Clarins Eye Revitaliser for the bags, but Truffle Noir was going to be handy in trying to reduce the lines (read crows feet) around my eye and eyebrow (it’s a proper Mancunian mono-brow)

I have been using a 5ml sample on and off when my eyes have needed a boost over the last couple of weeks and the difference in and around my eyes is incredible. The tube is now coming to the end of its life, but when you consider that a 50ml jar of this costs £85 here, what do you get for the money and would I go out and buy it myself?

Well rather than blast you with lots of cunning facts, the simple truth is that this works as the pictures below show. The left was taken after a bad night of sleep, the picture on the right fifteen minutes after applying Truffle Noir. The images speak for themselves.

Yes, this is expensive, but you only need a tiny amount of it to smooth over those fine lines around your eyes and they stay gone all day. The colouring around the eye improves, and instead of looking like an extra from The Walking Dead, my eyes genuinely feel more awake, and wider (it’s a weird sensation at first).

So what worked for me? 

Anti-ageing, long term benefits - over a few weeks the darkness has reduced 
Instant aesthetic benefits – yes, eyes do look and feel much better
Renews firmness, suppleness and smoothness - the skin does look smoother
Easily absorbed, non-greasy formula - yes, it is absorbed quickly
It does leave skin feeling soft and plump, with a satin-matte finish

This is one I would recommend, I use it during the day to pep up my eyes, but the results are equally as impressive in the morning when applied just before bed. Great stuff, and worth the money for the results.

Bye bye tired eyes....

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Men-ü Matt 'Skin Refresh' Gel

The last thing anyone wants is a face that shines either due to far too much moisture on the face, an overdose of moisturisers or the dreaded greasy skin - eurgh. It’s not a good look. In a hands up confession I have to say I suffer from none of these things (it’s a blessing and a curse to have this skin) but when the chance comes to give a new product a try  I’m not one to say no, so when the chance presented itself to try out Men-ü Matt Skin Refresh Gel on my face, and more pressingly on my crows feet I jumped at the chance. 

Winding its way through the snail mail a 100ml tube of the gel arrived and was put to one side to give it a good couple of weeks as part of my daily cleansing and moisturising routine.

A 100ml tube of the gel will set you back £14.45 (a weird price for anything) from Mankind here.

This is what Men-u say about the gel as part of their sales pitch:

‘An anti-shine, fragrance free gel with natural salicylic acid & witch hazel that leaves your visual frontline looking better for longer! For normal, combination and oily skin. Removes & controls excess oil that contributes to blocked pores & breakouts. Cleans pores from impurities, toning & tightening the skin. Soothes & calms – great after shaving & helps overcome ingrown hairs. 

Use on towel dried skin after shaving or washing and as required. Contains willow bark extract that has been used for centuries as a mild analgesic, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. If using a moisturiser, men-ü matt moisturiser recommended.’

Now I think I have normal skin, well as normal as the skin of a 36 year old smoker can be. Anything that can freshen my face up is welcome and as a long time user, and possibly abuser of the L’Oreal Men Expert range I couldn't wait to see what this could do for me.

A quick shake of the tube and I was surprised that the contents sounded like shaking fluid in a flask, if anything I was going to have to be careful, I didn’t want to dispense too much, particularly if it was going to be uber runny. With two pumps of the dispenser I had enough of the gel in my palm to cover my huge face and really work the gel into problem areas (at my hair and jaw lines in addition to around my eyes).

Yes, it isn’t strictly a gel, it has a consistency of a watered down hair product and without being careful if is likely to run off your hand. Be careful. 

In terms of fragrance this screams “I’m a product for blokes” with a very basic, yet masculine fragrance. Thankfully, the fragrance isn’t that synthetic, I like the subtle notes of bark that make this stand out as a little bit rugged, a little bit earthy. Spot on people, spot on.

The fragrance aside, after all, if it’s pants the fragrance is irrelevant, it’s the results that matter. The gel is absorbed really quickly and at the first time of using I actually re-applied and again, that was absorbed really quickly which suggested to me that my skin needed a bit of love. After about a minute on the skin I could feel a change in my face, not numb, but that sensation you get when extreme cold touches your skin and is then immediately removed. Weird, but actually a little bit enjoyable. If anything, it means that something is happening.

Once absorbed there is no shine on the skin, and the matt finish gives that natural look. There is no danger of looking like you have just stepped out of a make up artists chair.

On day one, I noticed that my skin felt tighter on my face, particularly around my forehead, eyes and cheeks. Nice one.

By day three the tingling sensation had stopped and only one application a day was needed first thing in the morning. Each time of using the results were the same, a lovely tightening sensation and visibly clearer skin. 

When making a comparison on day seven I was astounded by the results. The Gordon Ramsey trenches (also known as the stress lines on my forehead) and crows feet were less pronounced. They weren’t gone, but boy, they definitely were not as deep and noticeable as before and that readers is something on a par with a miracle considering the depth of them before using. 

I’m really glad I had the chance to try this out and will be looking to add more of their products to my daily cleansing and moisturising routine in the mornings. At the moment I am complementing this with The Bluebeards moisturiser but will be taking up the Men-u recommendation and trying their own matt moisturiser.  

The tingling, the fragrance and the results are to be blunt bloody brilliant and well worth the initial purchase price. At just shy of £15 for a tube this represents good value for money and will last for ages. After ten days of using I’m delighted with the results and have used around a tenth of the tube.

Banish impurities, unblock pores and let your face breath, Men-ü Matt Skin Refresh Gel is for the gent where performance matters.

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