The lovely Grace from London Makeup Girl is one of my real blogging inspirations. The champion of niche brands and ethical blogging - I trust everything this woman says no questions asked. She's also a rocking mum to a daughter a similar age to mine and thus feels my pain (and joy obvs).
As an aside, but unsurprisingly, it's also the first time I have ever had to ask a brand in Australia for visuals for the blog...! I've also left the original email from Grace almost untouched - easy when she writes like she's speaking to you - not at you...!
Cleanser - Stem Organics Gentle Cleansing Milk.
Yes, I know this is one of my hippy skincare brands, but Stem has some properly good skincare ingredients too. This is a light milk that dissolves makeup gently but effectively (including eye makeup) and rinses away cleanly with water. I like my muslin cleansers (Emma Hardie is a favourite) but sometimes I don't want the extra bother. Stem is perfect. Smells lovely too - from the mandarin and tangerine essential oils.
Toner - if I don't have a toner, can I have a serum instead? If I can, I want:
Skinceuticals Serum 10 AOX+ - Vitamin C and Ferulic Acid serum. I swear by this stuff for both brightening the skin and helping to prevent photodamage. I love the Perricone Face Firming Activator I'm using right now, but for a 'thing I'd recommend to everyone' I'm going with the Skinceuticals.
If you make me choose a toner, I'll go with the Pai Bioaffinity in Lotus & Orange Blossom. The only toner that I've found that actually does something for my skin, helping it to hold on to moisture. Alcohol free too.
Moisturiser.
Oh, this is hard. Chantecaille Firming Sun Cream SPF 30 if I really have to just chose one.
This is an SPF 30 that doesn't feel like a sunscreen, and applies like a normal moisturiser. The Chantecaille is perfect for my normal-in-the-summer skin. I occasionally have wobbles that Chantecaille are going to discontinue this because it isn't always in stock at SpaceNK. I think I would cry.
For a non-spf cream, it's another Stem Organics choice - the Exquisite Facial Fluid. This has rosehip, vitamin B3, beta glucan (good for calming sensitive and reactive skin) and seabuckthorn berry oil in it. Sinks in quickly, never feels heavy on the skin, but moisturises my skin in its normal to dry mode perfectly.
A brilliant array of choices I'm sure you'll agree. Thank you for sharing Grace!!!
Next week: Luke Stephens