Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Beauty Products 2010!

As this month is breast cancer awareness month, I thought it only right that I should do a post in recognition of this, especially since I’ve noticed a lot of beauty brands putting their best feet forward to help raise money and awareness for this fantastic and important cause. Below are just a few of the many items available.

First up we have Elemis who have brought out the ‘The Sparkling Beauty Collection’ which frankly looks gorgeous. It’s priced at £50 and is an ideal present to buy for Christmas.

“Elemis are proud to support Breast Cancer Care with this limited edition skincare collection for face, neck and bust, containing all you need to indulge and pamper.

Includes:
• Cellular Recovery Skin Bliss Capsules 14 caps
• Pro-Collagen Marine Cream 30ml in a limited edition pink bar
• Pro-Collagen Lifting Treatment Neck and Bust 15ml in a limited edition pink 'boob tube'
• New Visible Brilliance 10ml
• New Elemis Eau de Parfum 5ml
• A stunning fuchsia pink cosmetic bag

With this collection, Elemis has pledged a donation of £10,000 to Breast Cancer Care.”

Bobbi Brown is offering a Limited Edition Pink Ribbon Shimmer Brick, priced at £29.50.

‘In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bobbi created this limited-edition Pink Shimmer Brick Compact. This shimmering, brush-on powder creates a soft, light pink glow.’

It looks beautiful and what is even more impressive is that ALL money from the purchase price is being donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation at the Royal Marsden. This has got to be one of the most generous donations of all; I am really impressed with this.

Clinique have a couple of special edition items available for purchase. The first is their Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion (£35), there's no change to the formulation or colour but it does come with a very cute pink ribbon keyring, each bottle sold in Selfridges during October will raise £2 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The next item from Clinique is a limited edition Pink Ribbon Long Last Glosswear Key Chain that holds three of their best selling gloss shades. For each key chain sold in Boots during October, Clinique will donate £2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Darphin and their retailers are donating £5 from every sale of their best selling ‘Darphin Intral Soothing Cream’ to Breast Cancer Research UK Foundation during October. The product, priced at just £36.00 is said to have been designed to soothe and strengthen intolerant and sensitive skin that is reactive and intolerant to external aggressions.

RevitaLash donate an ongoing portion of their profits to benefit breast cancer research projects after the developer, Michael Brinkerhoff’s wife lost most of her eyelashes whilst undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Their eyelash enhancer product is said to condition and nourish lashes to stimulate thicker growth, priced from £50 upwards.

Jo Malone is donating £5 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for every 100ml bottle of their lovely Red Roses Cologne sold throughout October.

Creme de la Mer will donate £2 from each UK purchase of their ‘Illuminating Powder’ (£58.50 from John Lewis) in October to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Both the product and packaging look stunning, and it comes with the silver brush as seen in the picture too.

Versace have their Bright Crystal Limited Edition Box available at House of Fraser for £42 and are donating a percentage of their profits to Breast Health International. The box contains 50ml perfume and perfumed body lotion in a pink cosmetics bag.

Tweezerman have brought out a special edition Pink Ribbon Slant Tweezer and are donating £2 from every sale to the Breast Cancer Campaign. These are available for between £18 and £20.

Smashbox are donating net profits from October sales of their Smile Brightening Lipgloss to Breast Cancer Care, buy the duo from QVCUK.

Aveda have made a special edition of their Hand Relief cream, each sale will donate £2 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and if every pink-capped special edition tube is sold, Aveda will reach their fund-raising goal of £200,000!

Estee Lauder, like Clinique have 2 sets available to purchase. They are just £25 each, of which £7.50 will go to charity.

Evelyn Lauder Lip Collection: 

Evelyn H. Lauder hand-selected the full-size lipsticks for this exclusive set, all in chic pink cases:
• Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Candy
• Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Rubellite
• Pure Color Crystal Lipstick in Tiramisu
• Pink Croc-Print Clutch

Elizabeth Hurley Lip Collection

Enjoy New Pure Color Gloss in 2 dual-ended glosses for 4 shades in all, plus a Pink Croc-Print Clutch.

The shades for this exclusive set were hand-selected by Elizabeth Hurley:
• Nude Rose
• Rock Candy
• Brazen Berry
• Extravagant Pink

Last but by no means least, is a sparkly, girly pink jewelled ribbon brooch by Estee Lauder. Priced at just £10, this will not break the bank and can be kept forever. Net profits from sales of this goes to Breast Cancer Research Foundation, what more could you want?

I'll be honest, I’d be over the moon if I received any of these as a gift and even more so because of the charity element involved. At the risk of sounding a bit soppy, it really makes me quite proud to see so many companies stepping up and doing their bit. There are tons more products available throughout the next month, so be sure to have a look around and see if you can’t bag yourself a fantastic product for a terrific cause.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/breastcancer/

http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/

Darphin Age Defying Dermabrasion!

Advantages: Exfoliates brilliantly whilst still gentle on skin, smooths skin, basically it does what it says it will.

Disadvantages: Price.

Darphin is a French company that was established in 1958 by Pierre Darphin. He is said to have revolutionized professional beauty care with unique, luxurious aromatic-plant based formulas and his personal belief was that pleasure is a critical catalyst to enhancing personal beauty.

These days Darphin say that they integrate breakthrough cosmetic and dermatological technology with extracts and essences of aromatic plants by using exacting combinations of these finest aromatic essences. They also still maintain the belief that pleasure plays a bit part in beauty; that feeling beautiful and looking beautiful are inextricably bound which is why they design every product to be delightful to use both in the feel of the product but also the scent – which is where the extract and essences come into force. Aromatherapy seems to play a big part in this company’s ethos.

 

I decided to try this product because on paper it ticked a few of the requirement boxes: exfoliating – check, anti ageing – check, still gentle on the skin – check! As you may have noticed with some of my reviews I am on a bit of an anti-ageing mission, trying to find good products to help my skin fight off those nasty horrible lines and wrinkles as I get older so that I can try to prevent rather than cure them further down the line; so this really appealed to me as my skin can be quite dry and needs a lot of exfoliating usually. A lot of exfoliation products can be quite harsh on the skin so I was very interested to see how this fared, whether it would still be quite harsh but exfoliate well, whether it would be gentle on the skin but not exfoliate well or whether it would just do as it claims it would.

From the box: 

‘Institute-inspired, anti-aging dermabrasion rejuvenates as it polishes skin to perfection. Natural exfoliants (Silica, Pearl, and Lava) make this delectable, creamy complexion-slougher gentle enough for sensitive skin; powerful enough to help reduce the look of pores, age spots, discolorations and to visibly smooth lines and wrinkles. Scoop a small amount on fingertips and massage in circular motions over damp skin (or dry skin for greater exfoliation). Avoid eye area. Rinse off with luke warm water. For optimal results: follow with application of the Youthful Radiance Camellia Mask. Dermatologist tested.’

Inside the box there is the jar of product itself, a little spatula to ensure the product stays as sterile as possible, a consumer card that you can send to Darphin to receive beauty advice (if you want it) and a leaflet stating other Darphin products (peels and masks) and short snippets of information about each of them.

  
The texture of the product feels very gritty (like a very fine grit though) when you rub it between your fingers (and on your face) but not so gritty that it hurts to use it. It’s also quite creamy though, which I think is partly what stops it being too rough for your skin.

I tend to apply it to my dry skin with slightly damp hands so that the product gives maximum exfoliation but is also able to be spread across my face easily; thus using a little less product but also so that the products goes on easier. I spend about 5 minutes massaging it into each bit of my face in an upwards circular motion, getting into all areas including around the nose especially to make sure that all parts of my face get the benefit of using this product.

 

Rinsing this product off is easy but you need to make sure all remaining product is removed and no gritty residue is left on there.  

 
After using this product for the first time my skin was a little bit red for about 10 minutes after but it felt so smooth, and so healthy. I used my Eve Lom day cream to moisturise after and then applied my makeup as usual. I noticed that my makeup went on a lot easier, probably because there was no longer any dead skin loitering around ready to ruin any foundation and powder I applied.

 

After using this product continuously (twice per week) for about 4 weeks I noticed my skin felt in much better condition overall, it seemed plumper and more refreshed too. The difference in using this compared to a normal exfoliating face washes was huge, as normal ones to me always seemed to leave my skin feeling like it could still take a bit more exfoliation but not anymore use of the face wash as they always felt quite harsh and made my skin quite sore.

I found some of the claims on the website and have decided to respond to each one individually in order to show how the product lives up to each of them.

 

Refines skin texture: I think the texture of my skin has improved dramatically since using the product. I don’t think it has felt so smooth since before I was in my teens.

Visibly reduces the appearance of wrinkles: I didn’t really have any wrinkles to start with, I do have a few fine lines threatening to appear though and whilst it hasn’t made them disappear, I do feel that my skin condition has improved enough overall to make them a little less noticeable. 

Diminishes the appearance of dark spots: I didn’t have any dark spots (that I could see anyway), but my skin can be quite blotchy at times and this seems to have diminished somewhat since using this product.

Promotes a luminous complexion: My skin is much more luminous these days; it no longer looks dull because of dead skin cells that are still there that regular exfoliating face washes have left behind. 

The product does cost a lot more than I would usually pay for this kind of product at £48, but I really think that sometimes you do need to spend a little bit more to get the kind of effect that you are aiming for; especially when it comes to skincare as you only get one chance to keep your skin naturally in good condition. It is currently being sold on jasonshankey.co.uk for £43.20 for a small saving.