Review | Garnier Dark Spot Corrector

Skin History
 Although I don't have overly problematic skin, like everyone else I get spots, and when I do get a bad spot it tends to leave a dark mark that often take several months to begin to fade, leaving my skin tone sometimes looking uneven. I've constantly been on the look out for something to clear them up, but had given up hope and accepted it. So when I saw the Dark Spot Corrector in boots it felt like a perfect fit for me. Over the years I have tried a wide range of Garnier products, and I especially love their skin care range so I had high hopes for the Corrector, and at £9.99 from Boots you cant go wrong in my book!

What Causes Dark Spots 
Melanin is the brown pigment responsible for skin colour. However excessive amounts of stress, UV rays, ageing and changing hormones levels can lead to to much melanin being produced, leading to a small patch of colour that we know as dark spots.

'a daily skincare product that evens skin tone, reduces the appearance of dark spots and illuminates whilst giving intense 24hr moisture. The light non greasy texture is suitable for all skin tones.'

Initial Thoughts

 The first thing that hit me when I tried the Corrector was the smell, its amazing. Its lovely and citrusy, but not over powering, just fresh. The smell alone is refreshing enough to wake me up. I love how natural it smells, It doesn't feel like I'm plastering my skin in anything un natural, which when it comes to skin is a good thing.

 Like Garnier claims its very lightweight and not greasy at all, it lovely to apply and is a great base first thing in the morning. I have quite oily skin at times and this complements my skin type well and doesn't make my skin more oily. 

2 Months On 

 After using the corrector for quite some time I can honestly say i've noticed a serious change in my skin tone. Some of the dark spots that I've had for what feels like years have now faded a huge amount and I don't feel like I always have to wearing concealer in order to feel confident. 

 When I came home from university I typically left it at home when I went back for 2 weeks, and I realised then how much this had been doing for my skin, It felt duller without it. Since then I'm using this religiously twice a day and I can't rate it highly enough.

Skin Care Routine!

Hey Lovelies! 

 Skin care has recently become very important to me, I used to be one of those girls who smeared a face wipe across my skin every now and then (awful I know!) and it wasn't until about 2 years or so ago my skin decided it had finally had enough and wanted some TLC. Ive always had very obedient skin, I never suffered from anything more than the odd spot and I never really felt the need to cover my skin in products to keep it that way. But the stress of exams and college soon changed this and I started to have to work for the skin I used to just have. I have quite oily skin around my nose especially which is renowned for being shiny, however my forehead can get very dry. The products I use at the moment haven't completely fixed my skin problems but they work well for me and keep my skin in a great condition, and they don't have to all be high end brands in my eyes, if it does the job I don't care how the bottle looks! 

(a quick heads up, this could be a long one so you might wanna grab a cuppa and get comfy!)

Morning

 In the morning I have a habit of waking up at the last possible second and leaving myself next to no time to get ready, so I like to keep my morning routine quick and simple. I use the Clean&Clear Morning Energy Shine Control Facial Wash while I'm in the shower. This smells brilliant and really does wake me and my skin up, I'm a sucker for floral smells and I love the lemongrass and fruit extracts in this product.

 After this I use The Body Shop Mattifying Day Cream. I haven't been using this product too long but I already love it, a little goes a long way and I feel its helped wonders in keeping shine at a minimum while still moisturising the dry areas of my face. 

Evening

 When it comes to taking make-up off I only ever reach for my Bioderma. I try to not use to many harsh products on my skin and this is about as far from harsh as you can get. I recently had laser eye surgery and once I was allowed to wear eye makeup had to be very careful about what I used to remove it, this was a life saver in a bottle and didn't irritate my eyes at all! 

 After I'm make up free I reach for my Liz Earle Cleanse&Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser which thanks to my lovely friend Brogan has become the only cleanser I will ever use. I never realised how amazing it smelled, its so gentle on my skin and leaves it feeling so soft. A product definitely worth the hype!

 I follow cleansing with toning and I'm using a sample size of the Liz Earle Instant Boost Skin Tonic, which came with the cleanser. Im loving this at the moment, I feel it does a brilliant job of calming my skin and returning it back to neutral  after a day of being hidden under make-up. Plus smells amazing at night, really calming.

 Another new addition to my routine is The Body Shop Seaweed Clarifying Night Treatment. This is a product i haven't fully made up my mind about yet, I'm not to sure if its meant to be used along side or as a moisturiser, I've tried it both ways and haven't quite decided which I prefer. Im also not sure if I've noticed any difference with oiliness on my skin because of this but the product hasn't broken me out and does leave my skin smooth and supple so I'm happy to keep at it.

 And the last step is eye cream! At the moment I'm using The Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cream. This has also been brilliant in the time after I had laser eye surgery, I felt some days my eyes could be slightly puffy (which was part of the healing process) and I feel this calmed the puffiness and soothed the skin.

Weekly

Once a week, normally when I've got a hair mask on and find myself with a spare 20 minutes in the shower I reach for my St. Ives Naturally Clear Blemish Fighting Apricot Scrub. Ive been loving this scrub, it does what it says on the tin, gets read of everything left lying around on the surface of my skin. Its not to harsh of a scrub but does the job well. Although I love the scrub alone it works brilliantly with the N07 Beautiful Skin Purifying Mask for Normal/Oily skin. I use the mask after I've exfoliated and I feel this works well and I'm pampering all the lovely new skin rather then dead skin cells. The thing I love most about this mask is that its thermal and heats on contact with water, it really opens your pores and draws out anything I could possibly have left on my skin. After I've used these two product my skin feel amaaaaazing! And I will 100% be repurchasing these two! 

My skin care is constantly changing as I use up products and new things come on the market, but right now this routine is working well for me! 

Hope you enjoyed my epic longer ramble! Thank you for all your amazing support and I'm at 79 followers which is just amazing so thank you all sooo much!

Megan

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The Body Shop Haul!

Hey Lovelies!

 Hope you guys are all aright! Just a quick thank you before we delve in for all your lovely comments and support, keep them coming, they make my day! Anyway onto the post! The Body Shop are doing a brilliant 3 for 2 offer on all skincare at the moment (they've also got some awesome online offers too!) and even though I only went in there for 1 thing, I came home with 3... oops! 

During my daily blog read I stumbled across a post on Stacey's blog about The Body Shops Vitamin E Eye Cream. Ive never used an eye cream as part of my skincare routine before, but my routine is going through a bit of a re-vamp and now is a great time to be in some new products! I've only used this product a few times and  I'm planning on doing a more in depth review in my upcoming skin care routine post. But my initial response is good, It smells great and a little goes a long way so I know its going to keep me going awhile! I feel its to soon to see any results in terms of dark circles, but my eyes definitely feel less puffy! The eye cream cost me £9.50

The next product I picked up was The Body Shop Seaweed Day Cream. I've been specifically looking for a day cream for awhile now, and this one claimed to be Mattifying. I suffer from quite oily skin around my T-zone, so a moisturiser claiming to give a matte, shine-free complexion is something I couldn't ignore. The moisturiser is of a gel-like consistency and reminds me of blancmange! If anyone remembers that! But it feels great on the skin, lovely and light weight and I feel it creates a great base for my make-up. As for keeping me shine-free I have to say my skin feels much less oily, especially on my nose! I've only used the product a few times but so far so good! The day cream cost me  £9.00 but because of the 3 for 2 offer I got it for free!

The last product I picked up is the Seaweed Night Treatment. I've never used a night treatment before and its not something i've heard a lot about, so I thought i'd give it a try! (I also needed a third product for the offer) You smooth the treatment gel onto your face after cleansing and toning and leave it on over night. Like the day cream this product claims to leave skin hydrated, clear and shine-free. I did notice that my skin was less oily this morning. I also had a spot on my cheek and this morning it was noticeably less red and angry, whether that was just timing or the product, I don't know but I'm more than happy to use this as part of my routine! The treatment gel cost me £10.00.

Thank you again for all your support! Leave any questions or requests below! 

Megan

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Summer Skin care Update!

Hey lovelies! 

 So being English I'm going to stereotypically talk about the beautiful English summer that has finally  began to show its face, and typically the second the sun creeps out is the same second my skin decides to go into meltdown, meaning more shopping! (shame!)

A few days before I went shopping I was looking around online and stumbled apon the Witch anti-blemish skin clearing primer, I haven't found my perfect primer yet and I'm always on the hunt for one, and this baby claims to fight and prevent spots and keep your make up on too, I couldn't turn down this challenge! I found this in Superdrug and at half price too (£3.49). I also spotted it in Tesco too. This is probably the best £3.49 I've spent in months! To begin with I was very impressed with the texture, its creamy and soaks in well. It created a great base for my make up, and counteracted some of the redness I have on my cheeks. During the day I was also noticing my make up was staying on longer, and still looked nice and refreshed. And ontop of all that I've noticed a significant reduction in breakouts! I know right?! Stop traffic! I think I may have found my perfect primer.

Also in Superdrug, I picked up was the Garnier Pure Active 2in1 Anti-spots roll on. I'd been umm-ing and ahh-ing about picking this up in Boots, but the product only comes in two shades and I didn't want to fork out £7 in boots on a product that wasn't the right shade. When I saw it at half price (£3.82) in Superdrug, I was slightly keener to try it out and the lady actually let me try it out right there and then! You apply this over spots and it claims to fight the spot and also lightly conceal it at the same time. I haven't been able to full try this out yet, as touch wood i haven't had many breakouts recently, but the few times I did I was impressed, and felt it did reduce the redness and inflammation of the spot, so a thumbs up! 

Next I went into Boots, and of course there was a 3 for 2 offer running, and of course the one item I wanted was in the offer, and of course I had to find two other products! The actual product I wanted was the Neutrogena Wave duo cleansing pads, Ive had the actually Wave Duo for a few months and I swear by it! Its palm sized power cleanser, you put these pads on top of it, soak it underwater and wash your face with (I will do a review soon, otherwise this will be one loooong post!) 

So to go with the offer, and keeping with the theme of skin care I picked up the Witch Blemish Stick, I wanted this because before this I didn't own anything to put directly on spots, and was forced to using watered down TCB (shame on me I know!) So far this is great, its doing the job and isn't burning half my skin off with it!

The last thing I picked up in boots was the St. Ives Blemish Fighting Scrub. Ive seen this on a few peoples blogs and was eager to give it a try, So far I'm liking it. I can't say I've seen any dramatic changes to my skin from this, but I feel like its not hurting my skin either, and that it is exfoliating it well, which is what I want from a scrub. Also it smells edible! Apricot is a particular favourite of mine!

Last issue was my legs! During they winter they tend to get slightly neglected (Seeing as nobody see's them) I've always quite dry skin on my legs and they definitely needed a quick pick me up. I grabbed the Garnier Intensive 7 Days Nourishing Lotion  while I was in Sainsbury's about a week ago and I laaaaav it! For as long as I can remember I've been using Palmers Cocoa Butter but I thought I would try something new! Although this is Cocoa Butter, it smells completely different, in a good new refreshing way, and its done wonders to my skin! 

Sorry for the long rambly post! 

Thank you for reading and all the lovely comments! 

Megan 

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