Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Oil Review

I've gotten a little bit obsessed with skincare recently so it's only natural that there should be some kind of review of a product that I'm using up on the blog, right?

Clinque "Take The Day Off" Cleansing Oil; £22; 200ml has been my cleanser of choice these past few weeks. It's simple to use, with just one or two pumps you can take all of your make up off (including eye make up!). All that you need to do is to massage it into your face and then remove it - and your make up - with a flannel/cotton pad.

Initially, I hated this cleanser - it actually dried out my skin and made putting make up on the next day hurt! But I persevered and now my skin has no complaints with it. I'm still slightly wary of the effects of this on my skin because of that incident however nothing more seems to have happened so I'm hoping that nothing more will.

My make up seems to be 100% removed after using this which is obviously one of the most important things for a cleanser. My skin looks slightly clearer as well which is also nice. I don't think any of my skin issues (spot scarring + redness are my main troubles) can really be solved with a good cleanser and I'm not exceptionally spotty so I can't comment on whether it would help in that respect.

For reference, I have Combination-Oily skin. As it initially dried my skin out I don't know whether it would be any good for skin that is already dry in the first place however it's always worth getting a sample if you can as in my opinion it is a pretty great cleanser.

Thanks for reading,
Eleanor xx

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Skincare

I'm incredibly ashamed to admit this to you but if I'm being completely honest I've only actually set up a skincare routine this year. I know, I know. I'm awful. (Please don't throw rocks at me).

Within the six weeks that I have been using my products, however, I have noticed an enormous difference in my skin. My skin was OK, not great. I don't tend to get spots (touch wood) but when I do they scar for AGES which has left my skintone fairly uneven. After 6 weeks (?) my skin is far more even and I definitely would feel more confident going out without make up on. AFTER SIX WEEKS. Amazing.

I will say that the scars have not disappeared (recommendations welcome) and I still have horrific dark circles (not sure there's much I can do about that, sadly) but the change is truly amazing. So in this post I'm going to:

1. Remind you to get on top of your skincare if you aren't already
2. Share with you a couple of products that I think have made the difference

As we all know, exfoliating  is very important. Sadly for my skin, I was very lazy with it until recently. Mostly because I hate doing it - it always gets in my hair. But the St. Ives Fresh Skin Apricot Scrub (£4.29) has changed my mind. Yes, I still hate doing it. With a passion. But I can now see the benefit. St. Ives have a range of scrubs including one for blemishes and one for sensitive skin so you're sure to find something you like. And on top of that it smells great. What's not to like?

I've also been using The Body Shop Tea Tree Face Mask (£10) once a week. While the tea tree implies that it fights blemishes I have read that tea tree only works at 5% tea tree oil or more so the fact that Tea Tree Oil is quite far down the list of ingredients suggests that it is not ideal for this. What it does do, however, is make my skin SUPER SOFT and help it clear a little bit. My theory is that if it tingles, it works. And this tingles, so I'm going to go ahead and assume that it does something.

Do you have any skincare recommendations? Please let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Eleanor xx