Good morning my darlings and welcome to the first skincare line up of 2023. The Toner (Elemis) and the Eye cream (Byroe) were in use prior to this week and as other products emptied I rolled in the new ones for a nice fresh line up for the start of the year. It did end up a little Elemis heavy as my order arrived as i was thinking about products to roll in. Some of these products have only been open a could of days so I am still getting the feel for them, but thus far it is a pretty good line up. Let’s dive in.
Cleanser: Medic8 Micellar Mousse
Exfoliator: Elemis Blackcurrant Jelly Exfoliator
Toner: Elemis Superfood Fruit Vinegar Toner
Essence: Missha Time Revolution The First essence (currently 30% off on the brand site)
Serum: Elemis Pro Collagen Renewal Serum
Retinol: Kate Somerville Retinol Vitamin C
Moisturizer: ESPA Optimal Skin Pro Moisturizer
Eye cream: Byroe Tea Time Eye gel
For the first week of the new year I decided to go with an almost completely new line up. The Elemis Toner remained because I liked it and had barely made a dent in the product. I felt bad opening a new one when so much of this one remained. Plus I really like it. The scent is like a slightly fermented apple cider and it really gets the last little bits of makeup and dirt off my face. This is a heavily Elemis line up because a couple of products that I ordered came in and I really wanted to use them right away.
The Black Currant exfoliator is a daily exfoliator and I am finding it is not too harsh to be used every day. I have had many ‘daily’ exfoliators that I tried and then decided they were really more of a once or twice a week exfoliator. This one said daily and it meant daily. It leaves my sking feeling soft and for a first week of use it has performed fabulously well.
The other Elemis product is the serum. I love the little button on the top for the dropper. I don’t know why but I really just like that. Which of course has nothing to do with the actual product. The recommended does is 5-6 drops per use and use is both morning and night. It is a serum with no scent and it absorbs rather quickly. I have only used it a week and while I do like the feel of it on my skin, I can’t honestly claim I have seen any results. My skin seems to like it and I am hoping that as I continue to use it I will see more results. Mostly because I really like the way it absorbs in and works with my other products.
I sort of skipped over the Medic8 Cleanser. I am not entirely certain how I feel about it at the moment. It is a deluxe sample size so I will get a few weeks of use out of it, so I’m sure I will come to a conclusion at some point. It is a foaming cleanser and it does clean well, there is very little of anything left for my toner pads to clear out. The scent is somewhat industrial though and I am not too fond of that. And while I can use really good products with not so great smells I have tried plenty of fabulous cleansers where the smell wasn’t an issue for me. This has a scent I don’t care for and while it is a good cleanser it might not be spectacular enough to get over the scent.
I am very happy to rotate an essence back into my line up. For a while I was including an essence and then I stopped, mostly because i didn’t have one on hand. I saw this one and remembered how much I liked it so I picked it up again. And I have to say I am very glad that I did. There is no scent to it but when I apply it to the skin I can practically feel my pores opening up and my skin getting ready to receive the upcoming skincare. Which is sort of the point of an essence. I can use my skin care without one but I find my skincare just works better when I do use the essence.
I am really enjoying the ESPA moisturizer. I had several potential night creams lined up to use in case this proved to be a day cream only but thus far they are not really needed. This ESPA moisturizer feels really thick on the fingertip but once on the skin absorbs quickly so there is no delay time and it provides a good amount of moisture for both day and night time use. Quite Honestly I am just really enjoying this moisturizer.
And the final product I have in my line up is the Kate Somerville retinol and vitamin C moisturizer. It is designed to be used no more than once every other night. I went for Tuesday and Thursday this week and so far it is doing well. (I did test it out on my inner arm, especially after I had a reaction to another product. I also tried layering it on my arm with the other products in my line up to see if it reacted when it came in contact with any of the other products I am using. I’m fairly certain that was the problem last time. There was no reaction and there has been no adverse reaction on my skin either. I haven’t used it enough to see any results yet. At the moment all that has happened is that I need to use slightly less of the ESPA moisturizer on the nights when I use the Kate Somerville Retinal cream. I thought since it said moisturizer on it that I would be able to skip the moisturizer layer all together. I don’t know if it is because it is winter and I am drier than usual but my skin needs just a small dose of moisturizer after the retinol.
And that is my first week of 2023 skin care. I know my line up got a little twisted in the replay here but I think I covered all of the elements. I am still topping off my skincare with the Tatcha Kissu lip mask. Especially at this time of year,. The cold and cutting winds have arrived and they pull moisture form my lips like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. I will try other lip masks, because I can never resist trying out a lip mask, but for now this is the top favorite and the lip mask I will use consistently.
I hope you enjoyed this list. As most of the products are new I find this an exciting time. For now it is just appearance scent and how they feel. But there is also hope. Hope that these products will perform as advertised. As most of them feel quite nice, my hopes are high.
Ms. Mimsy Reviews 