Skin update and Avène skincare review.

Following up on my post about my annoying sensitive and allergic skin I thought I would update y’all about how I've been getting on.

I have now switched all of my skincare to Eau Thermale Avène. I had previously used products from the range in the past and although my skin tolerated them the most out of all the skincare I've tried, I was still having issues. But I have now decided to try their rage for sensitive and intolerant skin and seem to be doing well so far.

Eau Thermale Avène base their skincare around thermal spring water. It is found to hold naturally soothing and anti irritating properties making it suitable for sensitive skin. What I find most intriguing about Avène are that they are the first company to develop a sterile packaging, eliminating the need for preservatives to be added to the product, which can often be a problem for sensitive skin. The packaging, invented and patented by Avène, prevents air, microbes and other contaminants from entering the tube eliminating the need to add harsh preservatives and meaning their products stay pure and gentle for people, like me, who have super sensitive skin.

If you want to find out more about the Avène and their skincare you can find their website here.

So, I begin morning routine by cleansing my skin with the extremely gentle cleanser lotion for hypersensitive and irritable skin. You don't need to wash this off with water which is a bonus as water really dries my skin out, just sweep away any excess with a cotton pad. It is quite cold and gloopy when you apply it but it is so calming and feels really luxurious. Almost soft and silky on my skin. Following this Avène recommend a spritz with their thermal spring water which has soothing and anti irritating properties, I must admit I sometimes miss this step! But I always use the spray after I've shaven and for anything like sunburn or prickly heat or anything that can irritate the skin, it seems hard to believe just a spray of water can help but it really does feel soothing on my skin.

Then I follow with the tolerance extreme emulsion light texture. This comes in the sterile packaging I mentioned above and only contains 8 ingredients in total, two of which are the thermal spring water all Avène products are based on, and water! This says it if for sensitive and hypersensitive skin. Again this feels really soothing on my skin, it has a really silky feeling to it and is extremely light. The redness and burning I felt before has gone, but I am still suffering with small dry patches of flaky skin in a couple of areas I've struggled with for a while. I also find that by mid evening my skin feels tight and irritable again, but I fully believe that this will calm down soon.

At night I use a different cleanser, the micellar lotion for sensitive skin. I feel this gives my skin more of a cleanse than the extremely gentle cleanser lotion which is a good thing to clear away any harshness my skin has picked up during the day. My skin feels completely refreshed after using this. When I do wear make up, which is never at the moment till i get my skin under control, it removes it really easily. I have used the micellar water on and off for quite a while now and it is always something I fall back on when another product lets me down so I thought why the heck don't I just use it?! I dunno what goes on in my head sometimes! 

I then moisturise with the skin recovery cream for hypersensitive and irritable skin to give my skin what it needs to replenish and refresh after facing the day! Again this is in the sterile packaging and  has minimal ingredients. 

So far my skin does seem to be doing better. It looks healthier and even though I still have some areas of concern I know that sorting my silly face isn't going to be a quick or easy task. I think I'm going to try a very mild steroid cream on the couple of patches of flaky skin for a few days to see if that will kick start them to get off my face! I must stress that it is advised not to use steroid cream on the face and there are associated risks of doing so. Only do so following the advice from your GP, which is exactly what I have done. 

I really am hoping I may have finally found some products I can use now that will settle my skin and mean I can soon start exploring make up! I’ve never been able to comfortably wear make up in the past and now I’m getting older it is really starting to bother me that I kind of am clueless about make up, and its not something I can play with like everyone else. Maybe soon I’ll be posting about new make up I’ve been trying?! Fingers Crossed!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky 

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Strictly Come Dancing 10th Anniversary Live Tour!

Last night I went to see the Strictly Come Dancing 10th Anniversary Live Tour! I was bursting with excitement and I was not disappointed! The whole production was stunning and left me with goosebumps all over! 

P.s I may have gone a bit picture crazy in this post!

It was set up like a Saturday night show. Each couple danced their 2 favourite dances, were then scored by the Judges and the audience had the chance to vote by texting who they wanted to win the glitter ball. 

The show began with a group number to nicest kids in town from the musical Hairspray, with the roll call introducing the Strictly celebs! Ore, Louise, Danny, Ed, Leslie and Daisy! This was one of my favourite group dances from the series, and I still go back to youtube to watch it again so by the time this dance was 10 seconds in I was already having the time of my life! The stage was full of talented dancers, tonnes of colour and the music and singers were top notch.

Anita rani hosted the show and did a brilliant job, she had just the right about of humour which suited all ages of people and she looked absolutely stunning!

Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Karen Hardy judged each dance, offering their comments and criticisms and and their usual charm and whit! Len on occasion went off on one, pickling his walnuts! Craig was his usual grumpy self, although after slating Ed Balls with his gangnam salsa, he was coherced into doing it himself and he did! The audience loved it! 

Firstly I'm still getting goosebumps at seeing Danny and Oti’s samba in the flesh! If you think it looks amazing on tv in real life it blows you away! Everything works. The music is perfect, Oti’s choreography is perfect, the backing dancers are perfect and Danny just lets go and becomes the dance! For the two or so minutes they were dancing I was transported somewhere else! Awe inspiring!

My girl Louise and Kevin did their paso!!! I needed to see either their paso or argentine tango, which I would have loved to see because I think it would have gone down amazingly well but at least they did their paso! It was powerful and stunningly beautiful at the same time. I believe the paso is Kevin's favourite dance and he really put together a gripping dance and brought the best out of Louise. Again I was transported to another place watching this!

Obviously Ed and Katya’s gangnam salsa had to be in my top 5 dances of the night! I can truly see how why people have fallen in love with Ed, that stage was full slim, incredibly fit and glamorous celebs and pro dancers, and Ed stood out. I'm not insulting him one bit here, I'm commending him because he represents the normal person. You and me. And he went out there and he danced his heart out and he held his own. He may not have nailed the technique as well as the other celebs but he, along with Danny’s samba, got the best reactions from the crowd. Standing ovations, clapping that wouldn't stop, people stomping their feet, I actually got scared at one point the building might collapse! And Ed deserved it.

Now the last two dances I want to talk about are both from Ore, for the tour his partner was Karen Clifton. In seeing him perform live I can see why he won. His charm and charisma draws you in and he looks like a complete natural out there. He first danced that jive, the jive is one of my favourites and I had a blast watching it! It was so fun and energetic and now I wanna learn to jive!

His second dance was his show dance, and I could see why he won the show while I was watching it. It was oozing pure glamour. He was effortlessly cool and he took over that stage. The section on the raised drums was genius and when they took off quickstepping round the floor the audience went crazy! Ore had no dance background coming into Strictly and now he looks like a professional. I really do hope he keeps dancing when the tour is finished.

Throughout the individual and group performances there was a troupe of backing dancers who helped to bring the dance alive. They added to each dance without overpowering it and every single performance looked incredibly well put together and was a feast for the eyes! The group dances were a sea of beautiful dancing and when everyone was on the stage together dancing away and the music was going it was so exciting to see!

As for music, the band were incredible, as were the singers. During some of the performances the singers would come forward and were almost part of the dances themselves. They performed little steps while singing their hearts out and I really do believe the entire crew on this show deserve so much credit for pulling off such a classy and glamorous production. I don't have one negative thing or criticism to say about any of it.

I’m sad to see Len Goodman go as head judge, now who’s going to pickle their walnuts! All I wanted to see on this tour was Len in one of his enthusiastic moments after a dance, and I saw it! It was hilarious and made my day!

I had brought tickets for me, my Mum and Nana for christmas. But my nana got rushed into hospital just before christmas and passed away 8 days later. This was supposed to be her christmas present, and she was so looking forward to going, but she passed faster than anyone, including the doctors expected. But I fully believe she was there in spirit. I didn't feel like she was missing, I really did feel like she was sat next to me and I could have turned to her and see her sat there. I don't know if I believe in ghosts or spirits or whatever you want to call it but she was definitely there. I just wish I could have shared that moment with her before she passed away, but at least now I know that she would have loved every minute of the show.

Now though, after being so obsessed with Strictly, and now seeing the live tour, I have urges. Urges that wont go away! I want to learn to dance! But I can’t even dance on a night out, I have zero rhythm and no coordination, not to mention the sheer terror I feel when I think about finding a class to join! But I think I might try and learn a few beginner steps of my favourite dances at home and see how I go! What I really need is to meet a nice man, a nice man who just happens to be a dancer! Pigs might fly eh?!

So with the end of my Strictly obsession till the next season I bid my Strictly series farewell.

Until next time,

Keeeeeeep dancing!

x

My allergic and sensitive skin.

I’ve been having all sorts of problems with my skin! Recently its been worse than usual. I’ve been having allergic reactions to a load of new products and as a consequence my daily skincare routine suffers, and I am unable to wear make up. I got chatting today in Boots while returning my second product of the week that I’d reacted to and had a brainwave! Why don’t I write about my quest for skincare and make up that doesn’t burn and mess my face up, and take you guys on the journey with me!  

So heres a bit of background about my allergies and why I react to so many products.

When I was 22, I landed in hospital after a serious allergic reaction to what I suspect was some form of nut! I’d had no previous reactions and no known allergies before this. I had the swollen face, the closing throat and my blood pressure dropped so much my veins had collapsed! Fun! So here begins my allergy journey! Since then I’ve been through tests and have around 60 confirmed allergies to various things, including peanuts and tree nuts. Being allergic to nuts means I have to be careful choosing skincare, toiletries and make up, because a lot of things have some form of nut oil in them, most commonly sweet almond and shea. I've also had to learn latin! Some companies will put the latin name for ingredients then the english name in brackets, but some don’t, so I’ve had to learn the latin names of different nuts! I obviously avoid products with nuts in them as an ingredient, but the last year or so my skin has been getting more and more reactive to safe products. I even had a reaction to an Eau Thermale Avène Hydrance Optimal UV daily moisturiser, and this brand is well known for being super sensitive. I use other products from the range fine, but bam! I had a reaction!

When I react to a product on my face usually I can tell right away, because it will burn and my skin will instantly turn red and my eyes go puffy and itchy, then over the next few days I will develop a patch of allergic dermatitis! Eew! Currently I’m sporting 4 small patches, one by the corner of my eye, one under my eye, above my top lip which I believe is called the philtrum?! And a patch on my neck. But sometimes I wont instantly react to a product, think I’ve finally found something I can use but then after a few days I get a flare up of dermatitis! Its very frustrating! Especially since I've started blogging as I’d love to try different make up and things that I see in other peoples blogs but I just cant take the risk! Having skin like this is really starting to get to me, and I’m staring to become anxious and scared to try new products. Not to mention it gets quite expensive buying a lot of products and then not being able to use them! I’m so lucky that Boots have been really good at understanding why I’ve been returning a lot of products lately, and really helpful in giving me skincare advice and samples to take home and try.

So my new moisturiser I’m trying is…….drum roll!!!! Eau Thermale Avène tolérance Extreme Emulsion for sensitive and hypersensitive skin. It has only 7 ingredients in it and no nuts! Yay! First impressions, it hasn't burnt my skin, nor made it go red! Its quite a light cream and is easy to apply, but I squeezed way too much out of it first time because it has the same what they call sterile packaging as the Xera Calm range which I use on my body and you really have to squeeze that to get the cream out so its my fault for being too forceful with it! I just hope that I don't develop something to it a few days down the line now and it suits my skin type but on first impressions I like it. 

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Estée Lauder Beauty Event, Debenhams Leicester.

My lovely friend Ellis was invited to attend a beauty event for Estée Lauder in Debenhams Leicester, and managed to get my bootie an invite too to my first ever blogger event! 

In a nutshell, Estée Lauder were running the event to be able to collect data from a wide variety of women in an effort to better understand the skin and its undertones, to be able to match more skin tones to foundations and under eye products.

In effect it was a study. They aimed to collect data from 1000 women to take back to their offices in New York to process the data collected. They wanted to better understand the pigments and undertones in the skin and how and why dark circles form. Are they something to do with melanin? Blood flow? In trying to find this out they are more able to match a product to get to work on those pesky dark circles!

Everyone we met from R&D to Make-up artists were absolutely lovely. Very friendly and made you feel at ease. 

I of course, being the one with no make up on ended up the guinea pig and went through a series of photos and analysis. While I was being analysed the scientists were explaining what the purpose was, and talked through what they were looking for. Firstly I had to have some photos of my skin taken, and then a couple under uv light. He explained that any oil in the skin would show up orange and I had none! Which has now caused me to re think my skin care routine as Ive been using products for oily skin after a skin analysis at Boots but thats for another post! 

They also used a handheld device I believe measured the undertones in the skin, and also took a measurement of my ginormous dark circles! I may be wrong but by this time I’d taken in so much information my brain started to fry! 

There was also another analysis done but the outcome needed some assessment so we weren't able to hear about that.

Afterwards, the make-up artist matched me to a foundation shade but unfortunately because I’ve had an allergic reaction to an Estée Lauder product in the past, and I’m also allergic to nuts, who’s oils can be found in many cosmetics they didn’t want to risk applying it, and I was given a sample to take home and try.

At the end we were given a money off voucher, and a goodie bag full of beautiful Estée Lauder samples in a cute little bag. I need to sit down and have a bit of a study to see if any of them contain nut oils but I’m looking forward to trying them!

I’m not by any means a beauty blogger, most things I put on my face I have an allergic reaction too, hell I had a reaction to an eye cream just yesterday! So I don’t see much point trying to include a lot of beauty in my blog but I had an amazing time today with Ellis and you never know, by attending more events in the future and becoming more aware about ingredients and persevering in my quest for make up I don’t react to, I might one day find that one brand! Maybe its Estée Lauder?!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky 

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The Fitness Diaries!

I’ve decided to start a regular series on my blog about my quest to get fit! I’m not going crazy with expensive gym memberships and hours of exercise every day, but I needed to make a change from the stodgy, unfit and unflexible bum I am to a more toned, fitter self with a strong core. My motivation is to tone up and strengthen my core to support my back and try to prevent further injury to it, you can read about my spine surgery story here for a bit of background around my dodgy spine!

I did a little pilates along with physiotherapy after the surgery, and felt that it made such a difference to my recovery and my pain levels. But I seriously lack motivation, and when I was discharged from physiotherapy I carried on a bit of pilates with no structure or schedule and gradually it fizzed out. I really could feel a difference. My back pain returned and I lost flexibility and began to feel tired a lot of the time. 

So this leads me to today. I have been searching for a pilates class to join for a while and recently found one in my village, so I called up, and went to my first session today and boy o boy! It was tough! But I loved it, and feel instantly lighter, more flexible and energised, I was actually amazed at how much I was able to do and none of the exercises caused me any pain with my back. I’m now waiting for the inevitable full body muscle aches to set in! 

I’m hoping that starting a series in my blog will help to keep me motivated with exercise, like I said I don’t plan on going exercise crazy, but I intend to keep at the pilates class, and do some cardio once a week at home. Maybe if I enjoy it to the point I want to, and can afford to join a gym I will but for now I feel a small change will be easier for me to stick with than a big commitment like an expensive gym membership.

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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