Liz Earle Skincare

Something that I will no doubt continue to bang on about is my new-found-love for beauty blogs. I literally cannot get enough of them! Unfortunately this addiction has led to a few rather expensive purchases as the beauty blogging world is full of reviews about the next-best-thing in the beauty industry. I have extremely sensitive and dry skin (a blog post on this will probably pop up soon!) and so I am always on the look-out for products that will make my life that little bit easier. Like many bloggers, I imagine, my first major purchase, and the topic of this blog post, was what is probably the most well-known beauty product in the blogging world – Liz Earle’s Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I had read so many reviews about the product (all singing its praises!), but I was disappointed that very few of them were any help to me, in that none of the reviews I read were carried out by people who had very dry/sensitive sensitive skin. As with all high-end beauty products, I prefer to know roughly how a product will react on my skin before I shell out a large portion of my student loan for it, which is why I am writing this review, even though many people may not be interested in it, and despite the fact that I am by no-means a beauty expert. Then again, being a ‘normal’ person, who has never received anything from PR companies to review, may just work in my favour and add credibility to my review.

 When I went in search of this product, I had originally only intended to buy just this, but I fell into the all-too-familiar trap of buying a bundle of goods on offer. This bundle included the cleanser, as well as the Instant Boost Skin Tonic and the Skin Repair moisturiser (for dry/sensitive skin). All I can say is that I am SO pleased that I did fall into the trap. I have the most horrifically sensitive skin (E45 cream made my skin sting!) and it also has the tendency to dry up, especially during the winter months. This product has made my skin look and feel a whole lot better and I literally couldn’t live without it. It doesn’t come without a hefty price tag unfortunately (the whole set cost me £41, not including p&p), but I did get a little freebie with it, in the form of the Superskin Concentrate (which would’ve set me back approximately £12/13) and they kindle popped in an extra Muslin cloth for me. Don’t even get me started on the packaging; I know it sounds silly but when something is nicely packaged, instead of coming in a black plastic kinda bag (looking at you, online clothing stores!) then it makes me feel a bit special, so as soon as I opened the box, I knew I was on to a winner.

 Let’s start with the Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. For a beauty novice like me, cleansing has always been done using some form of lotion and a bit of cotton wool, but I’m happy to say that this will never again be the case for me! I found this new idea of cleansing a bit daunting at first but it’s really very simple; you start by filling a basin with hand-warm water and then begin applying the creamy cleansing lotion onto your dry face. Next, soak the muslin cloth in the water, rinse the water out thoroughly and begin removing the cleanser from your face with the cloth. I don’t know if you’re meant to apply a little pressure when doing this, as it is effectively exfoliating your face, but I tend to do it very lightly due to the sensitive nature of my skin. Although my skin does go a little red as I first start using the cloth, the redness disappears within a matter of seconds – something which was unheard of when I used to use normal face washes. Pat your face dry with a towel and you’re ready for the next step...

...The Instant Boost Skin Tonic (which I assume is just a posh name for ‘toner’), just needs to be applied to a cotton wool bud or pad and then gently swept over the face. I was a little worried that this would cause some discomfort with my skin at first, due to the slight exfoliation that the cleanser had provided, but I needn’t have worried as it only made my skin feel extremely clean and fresh. It also helps that I love the smell of it as well!

Now, the Skin Repair Moisturiser (Dry/Sensitive skin) is the product which I was most concerned about. My skin does not react well to 99% of moisturisers on the market, and once I even tried E45 as a bit of last resort, and it made my skin sting and I looked like a blotchy red thing for a good hour – not a good look, despite the fact that E45 is meant to be one of the most gentle moisturisers on the market! I am by no means saying that E45 is not a good moisturiser – everyone’s skin will react differently – but it just left me in a lot of discomfort. The moisturiser smells delicious too but I was worried that something even the slightest bit fragranced would bring out the worst in my skin. Thankfully, it didn’t! I cannot describe how much of a relief it was to finally find a moisturiser that made my skin feel gorgeous but didn’t cause discomfort or redness; it really was a miracle moisturiser!

I now use these products every day without fail, and sometimes twice a day if I can be bothered (although Liz & her team recommend following this routine in the morning AND evening). I do use the Superskin Concentrate at night time every now and then, but I don’t care for it too much. It’s quite heavily fragranced and, although that doesn’t bother my skin (another miracle!), I don’t particularly like my face to smell too much, especially not at night. I’ve never quite been able to describe the smell, but the first time I used it I did ask my boyfriend what my face smelt like, and he said “You smell like one of those healthy tea bags!” which I’m not sure is a good thing or not.

But basically, what I wanted to say is that these three products have practically saved my skin’s life. I’ve always struggled with finding the right skin care for my face, usually carrying on with a product even if it made my face turn bright red, but now I’ve found such a great product and I’ll definitely be repurchasing once this collection has run dry. Not that that will be any time soon – the bottles are rather large, and despite getting the products just after Christmas, I’ve barely made a mark in the moisturiser! Hurrah! To put it simply, these are three of the best products I’ve ever used, and believe me, I’ve used a lot. Thanks Liz Earle!

If you're interested in giving these products a go yourself, you can find them all on the Liz Earle website here.

[Images taken from the Liz Earle website]