Copper Amino Isolate Serum 2:1 Review & Comparison

(This post is not an ad, sponsored or paid for. The product was sent for review purposes. No affiliate links.)
Ingredients: (COPPER CONCENTRATE) Aqua (Water), Copper Gluconate, Isoceteth-20, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin. (ACTIVATOR) Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Tripeptide-29, Tripeptide-1, Myristoyl Nonapeptide-3, Trifluoroacetyl Tripeptide-2, Acetyl Tetrapeptide-2, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Glycogen, Propanediol, Pentylene Glycol, Dextran, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Ethoxydiglycol, Isoceteth-20, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin. 

After being insanely excited about this NIOD launch for months, of course it would finally happen during my unplanned and longer than expected Insta-break in November. I had initially planned to write about it in time for launch, but that sadly didn’t happen and I am very sorry because I know how many of you were waiting to hear more about it. I got a lot of DMs and emails about CAIS2 while I was away, so in this post I want to address the questions that were asked, share my experience with the new formula and give a comparison to the 1% and 5%. Continue reading

The Debate: What Does “Self-Care” Mean To You?

As we swiftly approach the penultimate month of the year, I think it is safe to say that 2017 has been tough on all of us in some way or another. For me it has primarily been the global events that have taken a toll. Between successive record breaking, once in a lifetime natural disaster events, the rise in white supremacy and police brutality, multiple mass shootings, frequent terror attacks, a legitimate threat of nuclear war and now the Harvey Weinstein scandal to name just a few of them, I just feel like the world is descending into actual and total madness. Continue reading

The Ordinary – How To Create A Skincare Routine

After writing my article The Ordinary – The Definitive Review, I knew there were going to be lots of questions asking for recommendations due to the sheer number of products. With so many options available I realized many of you would (and did) find it confusing and overwhelming when it came to picking the ingredients that would suit your needs. This is why I also wrote The Ordinary – A Recommended Routine For Every Skin Type as I wanted that article to serve as a general guide to help you find the best products for each skin type and while that helped, a new question started being asked, which lead to me writing this one. Continue reading

The Ordinary – A Recommended Routine For Every Skin Type

(This post is not an ad, sponsored or paid for and does not contain any affiliate links. All products sent for review unless otherwise stated.)

Ever since The Ordinary launched my number one question is now “what should I buy?”. People are excited and somewhat confused, which I can completely understand. Choosing the right products for your skin type and needs can be a daunting task, especially when there are so many options. In the beginning it was pretty easy since there were only ten products, but now there are over fifty (with more on the way), so it has become even harder to not only know which ones to buy, but how to use them. I wanted to create this guide of recommended regimens and example routines in the hopes that in addition to my review, it will make it as easy as possible to use these products and get the most out of them.

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The Ordinary – The Complete 27 Product Review

(Disclaimer: This review is not an ad or sponsored and does not contain any affiliate links.)

We have come a long way since the original 10 launches from The Ordinary back in September and what a whirlwind these past few months have been. There seems to be no stopping this industry revolutionizing right now and they just won ‘Best Anti-Ageing Brand’ at this year’s The Sunday Times Style Beauty Awards to top it all off. This is an incredible achievement for such a new brand, but completely speaks to the powerful impact it has made on the industry and on consumers like me and you.

I have tested every single product for months now and want to not only share my experiences and results with you, but also give you an in-depth look into how each ingredient should work for you and what each product could do for your skin. This is an exceptionally long review, but it includes all 27 products currently available in the lineup. I wanted to have all the information in one place so you can keep it as a reference to learn more about an ingredient, specific product or decide which products to include in your own skincare routine. I hope this article will help you find the right products for your skin and make it easier to understand what you might need to be using and why. Continue reading

NIOD Copper Amino Isolate Serum 5% Review (Discontinued)

(Disclaimer – this review is not an ad, sponsored or paid for and does not contain any affiliate links. All products PR/Brand/Retailer sent unless otherwise stated.)
Ingredients: COPPER CONCENTRATE – Glycerin, Copper Tripeptide-1, Aqua (Water), Methylglucoside Phosphate, Copper Lysinate/Prolinate, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol. ACTIVATOR – Aqua (Water), Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, Glycerin, Dimethyl Isosorbide, Ethoxydiglycol, Decapeptide-22, Ogliopeptide-78, Palmitoyl Decapeptide-21, Zinc Palmitoyl Nonapeptide-14, Myristoyl Nonapeptide-3, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Pentylene Glycol, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Xanthan Gum, Caprylyl Glycol, Glyceryl Caprylate, Phenylpropanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol.

I love how some things come full circle. Two years ago Victoria Health debuted the Copper Amino Isolate Serum 1% from NIOD, Deciem’s (at the time) newest skincare venture in the 2015 May Newsletter and on Tuesday I was featured in this year’s May Newsletter talking about my love for the 5% version. The honour of being featured on The Podium (alongside the Wayne Goss no less) was exciting and humbling, and led to lots of messages in my inbox asking all about CAIS 5%, so I thought it was time to get my thoughts and experiences out there because I could not love this wonder product more and you need to know why. When CAIS 1% first launched (review here) I immediately bought it, fell in love and pretty much started this blog a few months later so I could write a post about it because I was that impressed, and now almost two years later I have been blown away all over again. Continue reading

My Top Blemish/Congestion/Inflammation Fighting Nighttime Routine

(Disclaimer – this post is not an ad, sponsored or paid for and does not contain any affiliate links. All products PR/Brand/Retailer sent unless otherwise stated.)

When I posted this routine on Instagram a few weeks ago it got a lot of questions, so I thought I would break down the entire lineup on the blog and explain how and why I used each product. One of the reasons I wanted to do it is because it worked so well for me. Even though skincare can only do so much, I am still very grateful for what it can do because in this case, it saved my skin from a full on meltdown. The other reason is that a lot of the questions were about some of the newer products in my stash like CAIS 5%, the Mahalo and Siam Seas balms and then others simply wanted to know about the “FM 5-day cycle”. I know I have mentioned my own personal 4-day routine cycle (that post is coming soon) but this is completely different to what I did here because it was based around using NIOD’s brilliant Flavanone Mud for five nights in a row. Continue reading

Best of British: Top 10 Niche Retailers

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(Disclaimer – this post is not an ad, paid for or sponsored and there are no affiliate links.)

This post has been long, long, long overdue on the blog. As you will have read from my 2017 #SkinGoals, a family emergency lead to an unexpectedly long hiatus from blogging and this write-up (which I had been working on for months) never got finished. It was originally scheduled to go up over the summer, then on Small Business Saturday (both US and UK dates), then before Christmas (then after) and now here we are. I have been so excited to talk about this for such a long time now and I can’t wait to finally share all my favourite places to shop with you. Continue reading

The Debate: 2017 #SkinGoals

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One of my favourite things to do in the new year is make lots of fun lists with my goals/plans/resolutions/intentions (whatever you want to call it). I find it so helpful and exciting to look back on the previous 12 months and see what I want to change, achieve and work on. I find having that sort of guidance and direction gives me something tangible to focus on and I do it for everything from places I want to travel to and books I want to read. I’m a secret list lover at heart, so here is one of the 5 #skingoals that are my primary focus for 2017. Continue reading

The All Day 5 Mask Ultimate #SundaySpaDay Routine

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#SundaySpaDay has been a long tradition on Instagram and it’s one I used to look forward to a lot before I got to too busy to really enjoy them properly. I didn’t really do them at all over the summer, but these past few weeks I have made an effort to bring back the facial fun and this is my current favourite routine. I have done this three times now and the results have been so great that I thought it was time I shared it with you. Enjoy! Continue reading